Funny Boy!

Austin has had us cracking up laughing lately. He knows he is funny which is the best! Here are a few recent examples:

- Today on the way home he was taking a long drink of water. After the drink was over he kept saying "num, nummmm, nnnuuuummm, num," all the way until he had his next drink. He continued this for about 7 minutes, and it only ended when he had no water yet.

- Once he wakes up he will just play in his crib. If you come in before he is done playing and ready to get out, he plays a game where he tries to stay away from your reach for as long as possible while he is in the crib. He is just laughing so hard while he does this that he keeps on falling over.

- When you play peek-a-boo he will hide his face, but that means that he is squishing his face. Once he uncovers his face he just starts cracking up.

- He will try to ride on Gus' back. It never ends well but his efforts are fantastic!

- Him dancing! I will try to get a good video of this but it is so funny. He will turn in circles with one arm out in front of him.

He is a very fun, loving kid, and we are so lucky to have him.

Chicken Pox!

That's right, he caught the chicken pox! I have no idea where he got them, but he did. I took him to the doctor on Monday after I picked him up from the babysitter to have the rash looked at. My pediatrician had no openings so I took him to InstaCare. I was told that he just had a rash and that it would be gone after a few days.

Two days later I pick him up from the same babysitter and she is telling me how you can tell he isn't feeling good. He was just sitting around, when he did walk he was very wobbly, grumpy, not eating much, and so on. Also, the rash was looking worse. As I drove home I decided to call the pediatrician and ask to talk to a nurse. I did and she told me to bring him in. They had me wait in the car just in case he was contagious.

After the doctor took one look at him it was decided that he has chicken pox. The funny thing is that it really isn't slowing him down. He has a mild case which helps. Brandon has started to refer to him as Mr. CRAZY pox because after dinner last night Austin was so silly.

I am home from work today and tomorrow at least, maybe more days then that. We will see.

Hard to see, but if you look closely at his hand you will notice them. Poor guy!

14 Months

Not too shabby! He loves to feed himself.

 Well, Austin is all over the place. On Feb 11th he started taking steps with us noticing. Before, if we ever saw him standing he would sit right down like you can't see what I am doing, not yet. Then, on Feb 28th he started full on walking. He at first looked like Frankenstein monster, his arms up in the air, bending his knees only enough to walk forward. It was so funny to watch him! Then, by the weekend he was confident and walking normal. He is getting faster and faster each day.

Shape Sorter

His cute PJ's that Auntie Lissa got him. Love the robe with it!

Here are some things that he loves:
*Read! He will say ba and point at a book, then turn around and sit down on our lap for us to read to him
*Eat - he loves to eat, especially yogurt and banana's. All you have to say is "would you like a na-na?" and he starts loudly saying "nana, nana, NANA!" and walks over to his chair. As soon as we get to one of his wonderful babysitters, he grabs the bananas out of the bag and goes straight to his chair.
*Outside - if this kid could be outside all day, he would be. He even knows how to get out the door by turning around and going out the door and down the step backwards.
*Walk - he will grab his diaper bag and just walk around the house like he is doing laps. This will go on for 20 minutes at a time.
*He loves using his color sorter that I made for him. He uses pipe cleaners and puts them in the holes that I made on a Crystal Light container. This is great for church.
*Blankets - when he sees one of his blankets he gets really excited, grabs it, and snuggles down into it.
*Baths - he would be happy to play in the bath for 30 minutes, pruny fingers and all.
*His push cart - He loves to stand and sit in it.

Other fun things:
*He can say Jesus, banana, mom, dad, bye, this, that, gus, car, yum, uh-oh, book, cheese, moo,
*He has started laughing when we are laughing which is funny because he doesn't know what we are laughing at.
*He can fake laugh
*Loves to snort!
*Gets really excited when he sees a stuffed animal
*Has learned to climb the couch

Here are some stats on the boy:
*12 teeth - all 1 year molars are in
*32 in. tall - he grew 11 inches in his first year! WOW!
*24 lbs. 5 oz.

Loves to slide!

New Car

Well, Brandon has bought a new car. It is a 1971 Datsun 240Z. Brandon loves working on cars, and he has always wanted to restore a car. Therefore, he bought this. It is in need of many repairs to get it back to looking good, but it is running and he can use it to get to work.

Here it is:

Acrostic Poem

About 5 months ago Brandon came up with this acrostic poem about Austin:

A - Active
U - Unruly
S - Slobbery
T - Teeth
I - Inquisitive
N - Nibbly

I have changed it slightly now to fit Austin now:

A - Active
U - Undeterred
S - Starving always!
T - Ticklish
I - Inquisitive
N - Noisy

First Birthday!

So I know that this is a little late; it has been a very busy month.

Austin had a birthday on the 9th! I can't believe that he is already one. For his birthday we decided that since he would remember this birthday at all why go all out on a party. We kept it smaller and just had the Taylor's over.

We decided that we would do pizza on the grill. My brother Scott and his wife Ashley always cook pizza on the grill when we visit. Brandon had me put the whole pizza together on the stone and he took it out. I wasn't sure how he was going to get it off but that is what he wanted so that is what we did. Chris and Christina walked the kiddies while Brandon and I went outside to the grill. We tried everything but couldn't get it off. Therefore, Brandon put the pizza stone on the grill for about 3 minutes and then slid the pizza off onto the grill. Both of the pizzas were so good! Both babies loved them, as well as all the parents.

Pizza face! Must have been yummy!

He also had sauce in his hair, he is not a neat eater when he really likes the food.

In our house, Austin eats naked most night depending on the meal. After we had eaten we had cake. Instead of making a whole cake to put in front of Austin I made cupcakes. Then we sang happy birthday to him. At first, Austin wanted to just take the frosting off, but then when I shoved his hands in Austin just went for it.

Mariel got naked too! She was much neater than Austin.

After the cupcakes, the kids went upstairs and took a bath. The water was very nasty within the first few seconds. All in all, it was a wonderful day. Brandon and I talk all the time about how lucky we are to have such a sweet boy. We love you little man!

We are so grateful to have wonderful friends like the Taylor's. Thanks for coming to celebrate Austin's first birthday with us. We wish that you lived closer!

The Holiday Adventures

Well, this year we went to Brandon's parent's house in Colorado for Christmas. To prepare ourselves for the trip Brandon was going to work on the breaks, replacing the pads because they were squeaking. When he was going to take off the rotor on one of the back wheels he ended up stripping a screw. No big deal with the stripped screw removal kit. If you know anything about cars, these are super hard metal and shouldn't break. Shouldn't is the key word, because it broke off in the stripped screw, flush with the rotor. GREAT!

Brandon was able to buy a Dremel and take care of that issue. However, we were still unable to get the rotor off. Brandon and I were pounding at it for hours and hours. Finally, he cut the lugs and it popped right off. When it came off we were able to tell that it has the parking break shoes on the back wheels, which prevents the rotor from coming off when the parking break is on. Man, all the hammering for nothing! After we found that out Brandon felt like an idiot but was able to laugh about it.

Once the van was back up and running, we headed out to Colorado: Brandon, Me, Austin, and Gus (our dog). We stopped halfway in Grand Junction to sleep (we left home at 5 pm). Then we got up early and drove the rest of the way. It was snowing that morning and the roads hadn't been plowed yet so it was a slow start. It was also snowing so hard at his parents house that we couldn't see very far in front of us. Luckily, we were about to turn onto their road.

It was so nice to be able to spend a few days together during my break. His family is very sweet and there is never a lack of food. Austin was a big hit, he is just so darn cute that everyone just loved him. He got overheated Christmas Eve and was running a high fever; he could have also had a bug on top of it. He wasn't very happy that night or the next day, which is odd for him. He is usually so happy. Christmas wasn't that fun for him, he was wanting a nap and wasn't feeling good. He couldn't have cared less about opening presents. He would watch us open all of his gifts but he wanted no part of it.

We left on Monday morning and drove the whole way. Austin seemed to be feeling much better. He did such a good job for such a long drive. Halfway through the canyon coming back from Price he started screaming. This canyon is 60 miles long! Needless to say, he screamed for 30 miles. Nothing we did would sooth him. Brandon went back and tried to calm him down but it only made him scream harder. He had been in his car seat for about 7 hours at that point and was done. He ended up falling asleep until we got home. As soon as he was out of the car he was so happy, crawling around like crazy and playing with all of his new toys.