My little lady

This little lady makes me smile and laugh, usually to tears, daily. What a JOY she is! I really wanted to bring her somewhere or have someone take some pictures for her birthday but it's free if I do them so guess what we went with? :) This year has literally flown by! I'm so looking forward to what the next year will hold!

She and I are leaving tomorrow for North Dakota to visit my family. We'll be gone until May 26th. Please pray for safe travels, patience on my part and contentment for Audrey while on the plane and throughout our visit, (She is a squirmy bug :) that the Lord will bless our time, make it purposeful and to bless Steve while we are apart. See you on the flip side!

Progress

Audrey is changing so quickly each day! I am terrible at keeping a journal of when she learns things so I'm going to try to do more posts about her progress as often as I can remember. She went to the Dr. on Monday for her one year check up. These are her stats:

Weight: 19lbs 9 oz (25%)
Height: 29 1/2 in (50-75%)
Head: 18 in 50-75% (50-75%)

She is not yet standing. She can pull up on her knees but that's as far as she'll go without some help. The Dr. gave her a tall order, she needs to be walking by the time she goes in for her 15 month appointment.
She has been babbling for quite a few months now but hasn't said many actual words. A few months ago she said nigh night 3 times but hasn't said it since that night. And she said baby yesterday! She says mama but I'm not sure she knows what she's saying. She does know when I say "Where's Mama?" she'll look right at me. She knows who Daddy is and Stella. She knows what her blanket is, her cup, nummies (food) cracker, ball, baby, etc. We have also been teaching her to sign language the last few months and it has been very successful! She can sign: bye-bye, more, please, baby and we're working on all done. It has been so helpful to communicate with her easier!

One year old

This little girl turned 1 this last Friday! I'm going to keep this post brief, the pictures tell the story. Audrey has and is such an amazing gift from God and we are so thankful He has blessed us with her!

We spent Friday, her actual birthday, picking strawberries at a local strawberry farm with a bunch of friends. We sure had a blast! Audrey was such a sticky mess! We ended our time with a wonderful picnic in the shade. On Saturday, we had some family and friends over for a hot dog cookout. I was prepared for Audrey to be overwhelmed but she did great! She definitely hated her Princess hat (see photos below) and she also did not care for her special cupcake. Oh well, guess we'll stick with green beans :) Happy Birthday Audrey Lane! Can't believe we all made it to a year! I hope we are blessed with many, many more together! We love you Bean!

The birthday sign I made for Audrey

Butterfly cupcakes

The Nilsen Tres

Some of the party people

Sporting a fake smile

What are you looking at?

Get me outta here right now!

I like this gift opening thing!

Flapping her arms in excitement

Trying on her do-rag

She kept pointing at all her gifts, she was very interested in each and every one!

Pointing at the baby in the stroller

Her favorite gift of all, her new baby from her little friend Kate :)

Blowing out the cupcake

Let's give it a try

Both of us trying to get her to eat her cupcake!

I hate this!

I'll give it another try

Remains of a lovely day

Easter weekend

Saturdays are usually reserved as a family day for the Nilsen household. This last Saturday was beautiful so we decided to take a stroll downtown to see what we could find. I know I've mentioned it before, but we love to discover new areas of Charlotte that we've never been before, it's like we're on vacation! We had a coupon for Fuel pizza, we all ate lunch for $7, can't beat that! We had only been to one of the locations so we chose to try the other one, just as good! Then we walked through an historic district with beautiful houses and stumbled upon a cute little park! We all had such a fun time! Audrey's favorite of course were the swings :) She could swing all day if it was up to her! I had such a wonderful time with my 2 favs :) What a blessed girl I am!
On Sunday, I started up working in Children's Ministry again, the Tiny Turtles ages 18-24 months. 5 little girls, all so different but what a joy it was to play with them! Since I am in CM now, Audrey was allowed to start Children's Ministry a couple weeks early. (She would normally have to wait until she's one) And she was able to survive the whole time! Since I was in the next room, I kept going out to peek through the door to see if she was doing ok :) She misses her morning nap on Sunday so I wasn't sure if she'd get crabby and Steve would have to be called down to get her. But she did great! I had a hard time with it, realizing how big she's getting! Her birthday is in 11 days, WOW! That blows me away!
And yesterday was EASTER! I heard the message at church was amazing! After church, we had Steve's mom, her husband, his sister and her boyfriend over for ham lunch. And I made my first ham ever! And it was so easy! And IT WAS SO GOOD! And mashed potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, rolls, awww and I get to have it all again for lunch today! YEEEEESSS! :) Hope you all had a blessed day, thankful for what the day signified, our Lord being raised from the dead!

Philippians 3:10-12
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.