Audrey's professional photos

Since Adam had a bye week in October we took advantage and had our family/holiday pictures done. The main reason was because we wanted to do it on a day that Adam would be available and second, we wanted to do it a little early in case Audrey didn't cooperate and it took a little longer. I am glad we did them when we did! Audrey is so happy and smiles all the time, and was smiling at the photo studio, but that darn baby was stingy with her smiles once they pulled the camera out! We did get a couple of good shots. Most of you have already seen the photos on facebook or I've e-mailed them to you, but for the rest of you, I wanted to share them. So here they are!

Audrey and Mommy. I love her dress! I bought it in February on clearance at Carters for about $2...can't beat that!

One of my favorite ones. Audrey surrounded by poinsettias.

Another favorite one! I love her little chubby arms and dimples!

Daddy's #1 Fan! Adam didn't want to borrow a helmet and pose for this photo, but after seeing them he loves them.

Our little family! Well, minus Daisy. This one is hanging over our fireplace. Adam wanted both of us to wear white so Audrey really popped. He knows she's the star.

Here is the Next Bull In! Again, Adam didn't really want to borrow a helmet, but you can't argue with how cute this photo is! It's hanging in his office to remind him that not matter what Audrey is his #1 fan.

Audrey laughing!

I promise to try and post more about our trip to the pumpkin patch and some of the professional photos that we had taken later, but Audrey isn't napping well and the house is a mess! However, I had to post this video of her just laughing away. She's laughed before, but this was her best. I'm playing with one of the toys on her exersaucer and she is loving it! I can't wait for her to really get into playing with her toys herself.

By the way, ignore the crazy dog in the video who thinks everything involves her. Enjoy and I promise to post more photos and stuff later.

Let her eat grapes!

We haven't started Audrey on solids yet. I plan on having that conversation with the pediatrician at our next appointment in about a week and a half. However, Adam likes to try new things so he let her lick some of the grapes he was eating and she loved them! See what happens when he takes it away from her. I think she is getting tired of only drinking milk!

Little Audrey has grown!

I keep meaning to keep the blog updated every week, but seeing as how my last post was August 9th it looks as though I have failed. I blame Audrey! I blame her for pretty much everything nowadays. Who left their shoes all over the floor? Audrey. Who ate the last of the strawberries? Audrey. Who keeps mommy so busy and tired that she doesn't update the blog? Audrey. See how easy it is to blame her for everything? It works because she's so darn cute nobody can stay made at her.



She is about 3 1/2 months and has changed so much from that little 5lb preemie we brought home from the hospital. She is starting to discover herself and develop a little personality. Unfortunately for Adam, it appears that she is a pain in the butt stubborn chatty little girl just like her mother. I'm not sure if Adam signed up for 2 Michelles! She may look like her daddy but thus far she has mommy's personality (and luckily, her sleeping habits).



Overall she is a good baby. A bit fussy now and then, but what baby isn't? The big thing is that she's been sleeping consistently through the night since she was about 2 months old. She gives out smiles in reaction to us and loves to watch me sing and dance to songs on the radio. I'm pretty sure at 3 months she is already laughing at me.



Right now we are both dealing with football season and that means that I'm a single mom right now. It stinks! I know it's only going to be harder once I go back to work. We're not even half way done and I'm counting down the days! Once a week I take her to practice and we sit with Adam while he eats his dinner so he can spend some time with her while she's awake.



Ok, there are a lot of photos....hey, remember I haven't posted in almost 2 months. You should be thankful that these are the highlights.



Audrey at about 2 months old.





Sleeping Audrey at about 2 months old. I love it when she is sleeping! She looks like a little angel.

A family photo at UB football day at Darien Lake, a local amusement park. It was fun to spend time together. Obviously Audrey was too little to ride anything so we just walked around the park. I did ride a couple of rides with one of the other coach's kids. I have to say that I LOVED roller coasters when I was a kid, but I am too old for them now!

Man it's like looking at Adam! Audrey is about 2 1/2 months here.

Here we are at the pep rally/concert. The football team was there to get everyone pumped up about the upcoming season. Audrey looks about as pumped as they come!

Over the Labor Day holiday I went back to Indianapolis for my friend Malissa's wedding. While I was there Audrey got to visit with her grandparents. Here she is with Granny Shorter. She is wearing the hair bow that Granny made for her. It looks like she's even smiling.

A close up of Audrey and Granny.

A night out for mommy at Malissa's wedding. She's a beautiful bride!

Here is Malissa with Audrey at brunch the day after her wedding.

Here is Jolie and I with Audrey. Jolie must have the magic touch since it appears that Audrey is sleeping.

While we were in Indy I got to spend time with my college roommates! Jessica had just had a little baby boy named Alex. Yes, Jessica and I switched babies to get a closer look at the other one. Little Alex is so cute! A perfect boyfriend for Audrey! I wonder how many goats I'll need to include in her dowry.

Audrey also stopped by to see Grandpa Fred! Since Adam couldn't be there, Audrey is the next best thing since she looks just like her daddy!

A rare smile during tummy time. Audrey hates tummy time and tends to just scream and cry during it.

A big Audrey smile for when Auntie Woody came to visit. This is Audrey at about 3 months. Our little girl is growing fast!

Even Jess Avery came down to visit. I got a sitter for the night so we had a good time at the UB football game. It would have been better if the Bulls had won, but it was great spending time with good friends.

I dropped Audrey off at a friend's house for a couple of hours while Woody and I went to see Niagara Falls at night. The pictures just don't seem to capture how pretty it was but here is a view from the U.S. side.

Here is the view from the Canadian side. Like I said, they were so pretty in person. I'm disappointed that they don't look as nice in the photos.

Just barely still in Canada!

As I mentioned before, once a week Audrey and I sit with Adam while he eats dinner. If I didn't take her then he would go 3 days in a row without seeing her while she's awake! Here is Adam and Audrey during dinner time. Audrey looks relaxed in Daddy's arms.

Audrey also went to her first birthday party in September! Here is Audrey and Adam with birthday girl Kennedy and Kennedy's dad, Juan. Happy 1st birthday Kennedy!

A family photo at Kennedy's party. Audrey is wearing a birthday hat to prepare for her 1st birthday party in about 9 months.

Here s Adam and Audrey again at our weekly dinner visits. Adam and Audrey are hanging out in Adam's office getting ready to watch some film. She's so happy to see her daddy!

So I already know that Audrey is going to kill me someday for all the pictures of her that I've posted so I might as well go all out right? Look at the little heart on the booty of her tights!! So cute! It's a good thing her booty looks so cute because it draws your attention away from Adam's goofy facial expression.

Big smiles for mommy today! I love my little peanut! Although, she's not looking like a little peanut anymore.

Audrey has recently discovered her hands and plays with them all the time. It's so much fun watching her become more self-aware and more aware of everything around her. I can't wait to continue to watch her grow!

Buffalo Football Fun

Whew! Quick update the blog while Audrey is sleeping! She is going through a "I only want to sleep while being held" phase. It wasn't that bad when Adam was home, but now that he's back to work and working his crazy football camp schedule it's wearing me out! I need to train Daisy to hold the baby.

The past couple of weeks have been busy with activities for the Buffalo Football Family. I can't remember if I've already posted this (I'm lucky I remember to shower most days), but Audrey is one of 3 babies on the Buffalo football coaching staff that was born in June. Actually all 3 babies were born the same week! Maybe that is why Audrey came early, she didn't want to be left out of the June baby bonanza.

The first event was the Women's Football 101 to benefit the Breast Cancer Network of Western NY. This is the first year for the event and it was an awesome turnout! There were more than 100 women registered for the event. Better yet, I made it through the whole event! Audrey only woke up to be fed during the on the field drills, which I had planned on skipping anyways.

Audrey with the Buffalo mascot Victor E. Bull. Not a great photo of her face, but I promise it's her and I'll get better ones as the season goes on.


Audrey again with one of boyfriends, Cole. They have very similar interests right now.



Audrey at the stadium, she is pumped for when the stadium is packed for the game. The first game is against Rhode Island on September 2nd. Audrey and I will be missing that game because we are heading back to Indy for Malissa and Wayne's wedding. Since I've known Malissa longer than Adam her wedding trumps Adam's game:)

Adam taught the women at the clinic all about the offense. We're biased but we thought Adam did a great job!

The following weekend we had a pre-football season cookout at home of the Quinns. It was a great day and tons of great food. Did you expect anything less at an event that involved football coaches? Coach Quinn also got to share his "toys" with some of his friends. I'm not sure who enjoyed themselves more, Coach Quinn or the kids. In the next couple of years I'm sure Audrey will want to ride also.

The football team had a recruiting event that the football families got to attend. It was great to meet some of the recruits and their families. It was also great to see the football locker room which I had never seen before for obvious reasons. Here is Audrey and I in the locker room. She's got a couple of years before she'll be able to fit into that helmet!

Some more of the Buffalo football babies. On the far right is Cole, who has been mentioned before and the middle is Bryce. He is lucky enough to share my birthday, June 18th. Funny enough, Cole's mom Beth shares Audrey's birthday of June 16th. June is the month that all the cool people have their birthdays:)

The last event which I didn't get a very good picture at was the Football kickoff luncheon. The keynote speaker was Desmond Howard which I actually recognized from the College football show on ESPN that Adam watches everyday. I guess he just can't get enough of it! Audrey had to hang out in the babysitting room. It was nice to have a nice lunch with Adam and our friends without anybody fussing. Although, I'm still a first-time mom so I had to go to the babysitting room twice just to check on her.

Other than our football activities I haven't done much else. I'll post some more Audrey pictures in the next couple of days. She's slept so far for this post, but I'm not going to try my luck and hope she sleeps for the next one so I'll wait until tomorrow.

A trip to the great white north

So I forgot to post about our trip to Canada. Adam was home for most of July and with football season coming up we decided to take a day trip to one of the destinations on our "Buffalo area to-see list". We had heard that Niagara-on-the-Lake just over the boarder in Canada was a really nice place to walk around and do some wine-tasting at the vineyards. Since Adam and I both have passports and all Audrey needed was a birth certificate across the border we went!


The border guard going into Canada thought we were a little suspicious taking a one month old baby across the border but it was a nice day and we all wanted to get out of the house. We got to Niagara-on-the-Lake and it was really cute. We went during the work day to hopefully avoid a lot of the tourists. There were still busloads of people but it wasn't too bad. I didn't take a lot of photos since I had left my memory card in the computer and my camera's internal memory doesn't hold very many photos. We didn't do anything really exciting but it was nice to walk around the shops and look at the old buildings.


We also walked down to Lake Ontario to enjoy the cool breeze by the water. We were planning on stopping at one of the many beautiful vineyards in the area for wine tasting but our time bomb, Audrey did not hold-up so we headed home. I have no doubt we'll be back since it was only 30-40 minutes from our house.


Audrey and I on Lake Ontario. Such a nice day!




I needed a picture with Audrey and something indicating she was in Canada so I can show her what a worldly traveler she is at such a young age (I hope she gets her mommy's love of traveling). Not the best picture but it does the job.

Jessica and Dan's wedding

So my posts are going to be a little bit out of order since Jess and Dan's wedding was July 3rd, but that's my life right now; a little out of order! Also, I noticed I posted a couple of photos out of order, but since I'm trying to get my update done before Audrey wakes up it's just going to stay out of order.

Most of you know that Jess and I were sorority sisters in college and have traveled the world together. In fact, she was my travel buddy on my most recent trip to Croatia and Germany. At first I didn't think I would be able to attend her wedding since she lives in Toronto and at the time we were in Delaware and I was going to be about 9 months pregnant....not a great time to travel. Then we moved to Delaware and since the wedding was in a vineyard only about 45 minutes from Buffalo I was excited to be able to go. I was planning on being pregnant at the the time but surprise I wasn't so I was able to do some of the wine sampling. Woo hoo! Adam had to stay home with Audrey so I missed having him there.

The wedding was beautiful and the weather held out! Crossing the border took awhile since it was both Canada Day and 4th of July weekend. Our friends Jennifer and Nate came the day before to hang out with us and meet Audrey. Lucky them planned to come anyways and since Audrey came early she got to meet them. I'm beginning to think that Audrey wanted to come early to greet all the visitors we were planning on having!

It was a great little reunion for my college roomies and me! In addition to Jennifer, my other roommate Jessica was a bridesmaid in the wedding. I miss living in Indy close to my girls! Jessica R. (not to be confused with the bride) is expecting her 2nd child in August. It's another boy so he is Audrey's future boyfriend:)

Here are some wedding highlights:


Jennifer (or Woody as I call her) and I with the beautiful bride at the reception. See, I told you the photos were out of order. I was hoping to be able to fit into a pre-pregnancy dress for the wedding but only 2 weeks post-delivery it was not in the cards for me. By the way, if you are one of those women who were back into pre-preggo clothes a week after delivery then I hate you:)


A world famous Woody self-shot. She has perfected it over the years!


Here we are at the ceremony. Here is my other roommate Jessica walking down the isle as a beautiful bridesmaid. I need to inform everyone that Jessica is 8 months pregnant. I know I wanted my pregnancy footnoted in every picture that was taken of me!

The beautiful bride and groom exchange vows. It was such a beautiful ceremony and the couple looked so happy!

The happy couple again, this time with the cute ring bearer in the photo. He is Jessica R.'s (my old roommate) son. I've known him since he was born and he is a cutie! If Jessica R.'s 2nd child turns out as cute Audrey is in luck:)

You may kiss the bride! Woot woot!

Jessica with Josh. Josh was the cutest guy at the wedding. Sorry Dan!! I know you're the groom and everything:(

The first dance. Seriously, don't they look insanely happy?

One of the good things about being 2 years old is when you're tired you can do this and people think it's cute. If you do this and you're 31 people think you're crazy. Poor Josh had a long day!

Jennifer and Nate share a dance. I think the only person who missed Adam being there as much as me was Nate. They got some male-bonding time the previous day while Woody and I played with the baby.

The happy couple....again. Hey, it's their wedding day so they get heavy mention in the blog.

Everyone asked me if it was hard to leave Audrey for the first time. To be honest, it wasn't. I wasn't going that far and I was only gone a few hours. She was also left in the care of her daddy, the person who loves her as much as I do. I love her with all my heart, but I've always been a big believer in time away from your child. Children can wear you out and you need a break every now and then to re-charge. An evening with friends, music, dancing, and wine-tasting was just what this new momma needed!