Audrey do it!

Hi Everybody!
It's me, your favorite Audrey! I am growing leaps and bounds lately and I want to tell you all about it. My mom thinks I have hit the terrible two's, here's the deal I am not even two until August. And there is nothing terrible about me, I am adorable through and through. My smile literally melts people. Just ask my dad, he is seriously putty in my hands! I love to dress up in high heels, dresses, hats, necklaces, I love it all! I love to play in our play kitchen especially the cups and eggs (I'm going to be really good at dyeing Easter eggs next spring!) I LOVE my baby doll and carry her around everywhere. Babies are my favorite. If you want to keep me interested talk about how to take care of a baby, it's super fascinating. The other night my mom was taking care of a newborn baby and I ran and got my baby doll's blanket and gave it to my mom for the baby, I told you I was good at taking care of babies! I do get pretty jealous of my mom taking care of other babies though. I kept asking my mom to put the baby she was holding back (into the car seat). I like my mom all to myself. My favorite movie to watch is the Babies, you know the documentary. I just love watching those cute babies. It is the only movie I have sat all the way through.
I love to eat, I will try anything once. And don't think you are going to eat around me without sharing, so don't even try. I usually take one 3 hour nap a day. But I have to have my coco and purple blanket to fall asleep. I like sharing a room with Kirsten but she likes to sleep with the light on and I am not such a fan.  It's hard for me to say good night to my parents at night and I usually have to follow them out of my room after they leave and stand at the top of the stairs and cry for 15 minutes before going to bed and falling asleep. Kirsten takes good care of me and we have good conversations before bed. We talk about books, blankets, and how unfair it is that our parents don't stay in our room until we fall asleep (sophisticated things of course).
My parents potty trained me a couple weeks ago. It's pretty cool to use the toilet, especially the toilet paper, how cool is that stuff?! I'm not 100% yet but still maintain a 75% average. I like to be very independent about it all though. I do not like any help and even can climb up on the toilet myself, I am very impressive like that.
I am learning my colors and know pink, orange, green, and blue. I can count to five and am learning my letters. BYU called and said they are already holding a spot for me, can't say I'm surprised.
My ultimate favorite saying is "Audrey do it". I can do anything on my own. I get in my car seat by myself every. time., I am awesome and do my mom the huge favor of refusing her help. Come to think of it the only thing I like help with is getting coco (although I can get the milk out of the fridge by myself and my cups out of the dishwasher, super good helper) and occasionally I let my parents carry me up the stairs if they think I am tired. I insist on picking out what I wear (and try to help my dad by picking out what he wears when I have the time) so my mom has learned to limit my options. I'm not a huge fan of listening to her or doing what she asks. For example if I start to run towards the road and she asks me to stop I wait for our eyes to meet then I flash her my cutest smile and start running towards the road, you know just the regular stuff. I think she enjoys it though because we get to play the funnest chase game. She has gotten pretty good at distracting me though. I am on to her tricks and saying "nu uh" when she asks where my baby or belly is. Kirsten is a really cool big sister. I like her lots. We love to chase each other around the house, sometimes she takes my toys but I can scream really loud so I usually get it back.
Anyway I am pretty fantastic, thought you should know.
Love,
Audrey

Watch our garden grow!

Our tomatoes are large and in charge!

We have two tomatoes growing, I can't wait to eat this huge, sweet, yummy, home grown tomato!

Zucchini is definitely growing and producing the most, go figure it's the one I wouldn't have minded dying :)

It was touch and go there for a while for our cucumbers, but I think they are going to pull through.

Our lettuce is WAY out of control. Obviously we don't know how to care for lettuce!

And the raspberry, onions, and peppers, just because they don't want to be left out. 

We are very proud of our first garden (minus the lettuce, ha ha)!

Father's Day 2011

I was one lucky girl to have my Dad and Garrett in town to celebrate fathers day. We decided to celebrate on Saturday since there was a lot of traveling going on Sunday. We had a delicious breakfast (same recipe as last year), so good! At breakfast the women went around and said our favorite thing about each man being a father.
Then headed to the pool and swam our little hearts out.

We came home and made Kirk's favorite (chicken caesar salad), then sat the boys down to relax. We gave them massages, back, neck, feet. Audrey got into it too!

We then had the men play one of their favorite games (The Construction Game) kid and interruption free with rootbeer floats. (Do you think they were spoiled yet?)
We headed upstairs and made little cards for the Dad's with the girls hand prints. We got the girls ready, put some lip stick on then went down and did a little song for our men. It was fun and the men were all smiles so I think it was considered a success! They opened a few presents (shirts, socks, a pie).

We finished the day off with a steak dinner that was beyond delicious. We sure love these men and are so grateful for them in our lives.

Brinkerhoff's are in town!

Riley and Crystal came down to Vegas for Thursday night. They are incredibly busy with Riley working full time and getting his MBA. So it really meant a lot that they would drive two extra hours to just spend the night at our house. Crystal was awesome to oohh and ahh over every decoration in my home, I might like flattery too much. :) With their four kids plus Garrett, Emily, and Rebekah and my parents we had one full house (just the way I like it!). Friday morning we headed out to Hoover Dam (we really like that place). It was fun to explore the bridge and dam with them. Afterwards we hit up McDonalds for lunch before Riley and Crystal had to head home. We hated to see them go but were super happy to have Garrett and my parents stay for the rest of the weekend.

Two places at once, man she is cool and she knows it!

She is seriously so cute, seriously!

This is the outfit I gave Rebekah for her shower, so so so cute!

Rebekah June with those pretty baby blues

We taught my parents the card game hand and foot, to say they loved it is an understatement. Do you see my dad playing with face cards? That's right he was playing with the devils game and had a good hearty laugh when my mom pointed it out, ha ha.

Cousins in St George

Jack, Kirsten, Audrey, Liana, William, Isaac

Last Thursday the girls and I drove up to St George for my cousins wedding. We met up with lots of family including my parents and brothers Garrett and Riley and families. Riley's boys have grown like crazy and are the cutest little men. Liana is a doll, she is so much like her mom and if you catch her eye she rewards you with a huge grin. Garrett's new baby Rebekah has grown so much and was the perfect sweet baby. She let me cuddle her and even let Audrey poke and kiss at her. We enjoyed being together at the St George temple, luncheon, river swim area for the kiddos, and reception. The girls were exhausted. It's been about a year since Audrey fell asleep in my arms, but there at the water park she crawled onto my lap and dozed off, she was that tired. She still managed to scream the entire way to and from St George, the little stinker! I was a fast talker and convinced my parents, Garrett, and Riley to drive down to Vegas to spend the weekend with us, woot woot!

My girls melt my heart!

Crystal, my Mom, Emily, Garrett

Sweet Rebekah

If you think this is sad you should see the carpet

Once upon a time there was a beautiful dress. Not only was it the dress worn to uncle Brett's wedding but it was the envy of all other dresses. It twirled beautifully making it the perfect dancing dress. The dress was a very happy dress in the Howcroft home and spent more time in the laundry pile than the closet because it was worn so much. One Sunday morning Audrey fatefully picked the beautiful dress to wear to church. In a moment of pure insanity on her parents part, Audrey was the first one dressed and ready for church. While her parents and sister were busy getting ready Audrey sealed the dresses fate when she stumbled upon a bottle of pink nail polish. Unfortunately for the beautiful summer dress her charmed life did not end in a happily ever after. 

But on the upside we now have the perfect outfit for the girls to wear when they paint. :)