Happy 1st Birthday to Austin!

Austin celebrated his FIRST birthday on Thanksgiving Day! Its hard to believe my little man has been with us ONE whole year! Austin had a personal pumpkin pie that night to celebrate and was one happy kid. In all reality, we had enough pies for a pie per person. Check out that yummy spread! With all those leftovers, I've had pie for breakfast the last 4 days. Yum!

Here's a few pictures of gift opening. Aunt Lacey and Uncle Mark flew in Thanksgiving day to celebrate with us :) so all these great birthday pictures/video (above and below) are courtesy of Lacey photography.

Part of his birthday gift was a few new decorations for his room. The blessing dresses once hung on the walls are moved to the closet, flowers are retired and everything replaced with some boyish Cowboy stuff. Ha! Who are we kidding? That gift is really for me. But either way, I'm pretty happy with the result.


Its wonderful to be born at the time of year when there are continual celebrations, but that also means his mother is a bit slow in posting some of the great things about him. I sure love this handsome guy. He has such an easy going, fun disposition. He is our best eater. Here is one of many pictures of him in his high chair. If you can't tell from the pie-eating video, the kid loves food.
Austin's curiosity level has really jumped a level these past few weeks. He loves to open cupboards and drawers and empty them and is really fast at doing so. My once organized pantry with a section for jello, a section for pudding, etc is no more. I don't even attempt it. Plus, he has a partner in crime so there is no point in trying to keep up. They love to throw things in the recycle bin. Who really knows what we've lost in there?

Austin loves the bath. He splashes all over the place and laughs really hard. Its pretty much impossible not to join in with the giggling.

Austin's first words:

BALL

MA, MA

He can also say "Hi," "Da, da", "ba, ba", "uh, oh" and "peak boo". He also has a sort of "thank you" (of course, not the words, just an intonation, but is kind of cute).

Austin is content to crawl but he'll stand for a few seconds if he's focused on something else. We walk holding his fingers and he plops down after about five steps and takes off crawling. He likes to be outside, to chase a ball around the house and his sisters making funny faces/sounds to make him laugh.

We sure love our AUSTIN!

He has brought so much joy to our family.

THANKFUL for ONE

HAPPY BIRHTDAY SON!!!

We sure love this kid!

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On a side note, Lucy and I have been pretty busy making pies. It was my first (and last) time to make homemade pumpkin puree. Its not hard, but just too much work. Check out the pretty color though.

While we were working on the apple-cranberry pie (this was also a first, but won't be a last), Lucy said, "How do you learn all this stuff?"

Me: "I learned it from my mom. You know, just like you are learning."

After some thought, Lucy: "So, what do you learn from dad's?"

Me: "What do you think?"

Lucy: "How to be a good

SNITCHER! "

Bless the day

Sunday was a great day for everyone. It was Elise's first day in nursery! That means the 2nd two hours of church are much happier for her (and us too since most of it was spent in the hall). What a big girl. Can you believe this little peanut is 18 months? This sweetheart has added so much joy to our lives. She's added a little mischief too. :) One of the ladies I work with in YW (Jamie) was subbing in the nursery and said Elise did great and was happy as could be. George and I both taught lessons so Jamie took Austin to nursery the last hour so we could teach. He loved it too. The bubbles at the end were a big hit for both of them. Another first (well, something that hasn't happened in a long while) was that we made it through sacrament meeting without going into the hall for naughty behavior. (George made one trip with Austin to the hall because he smacked his head on the bench. That doesn't count.) What a wonderful day!

I am thankful for...my mom!

Last year, I helped Lucy and her preschool buddies make a Thanksgiving advent calendar. We made a brown turkey body with lots of feathers and the girls pulled one off each day and said what they were thankful for. I kept the turkey body and decided to use it again this year, only backwards. This time, Lucy added a feather every day. This idea actually came because I didn't put it together in time, but hey... I thought the backwards idea was even better. Then we'd have a fancy feathered turkey when it was time for Thanksgiving rather than the plucked one. Well, apparently, it wasn't so great. The first ten days of November, Lucy would run down the stairs and eagerly write her "grateful item" on a feather. Then she said she started to get a feather and say she needed to "think about it some more" and put it back in the jar. Our little turkey will definitely not have 26 feathers by Thanksgiving day. One day, I sat her on my lap and we started naming all the blessings we could think of. This didn't go as well as I was hoping. I would point to my head and she'd say, "Brain? No. I'm not thankful for that." or "Austin? No. He's too little to be thankful for." Uhhh... now what? Well, about the 17th, she decided it would be funny to write "Mom" on all the feathers until Thanksgiving. Now she runs down the stairs with excitement again. It's cute that she loves me. But the real reason is when her dad comes home from work, he always asks what she wrote on her feather. She giggles her reply and his response is an enthusiastic, "What!?! You wrote her name yesterday!" And Lucy laughs hysterically. When she writes my name on the feather in the mornings, she says, "Dad will think this is so funny." Oh well. If she didn't learn gratitude, she learned a "good joke."

(some of Lucy's art from preschool)

I found a great web page with a few short gratitude video clips and games/coloring pages for kids . Maybe I'll give the gratitude lesson another try this week. The videos are excellent. There is truly a lot to be thankful for...

Quick trip to El Paso

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes!

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At the last minute, we decided to drive to El Paso to visit our friends, the Cain's. Miki is deploying for a year and leaves on Sunday so we decided to make the trip. We've been meaning to go for a while, but there was always "something." And this weekend was no exception. But time was running out, so off we went.

The van ride was a 10hr trip (for us). That is one way. Elise was our A+ traveler. She couldn't have done better. Lucy gets an A- and Austin... a B-, at least from me. I'm not sure what grade his father would give him. D? He definitely got the Cole "no sleeping" gene.

The weekend was mostly filled with great chats, games, and laughter. The girls had a ball playing with each other.

We also went bowling, which was a first for Luce. She thought it was great and her enthusiasm was contagious. But sadly, her skills did not rub off. I finished dead last. It was gutter ball after gutter ball for me.

We made the plan to make the trip back to SA after church on Sunday. Elise and Austin were stuffed up with colds and pretty crabby. It wasn't long until we were out in the hall. I only heard one sentence of the sacrament meeting talks:

"Perspective is the KEY to happiness."

But if you're only going to hear a sentence, isn't that a good one? I've thought about it a lot and really believe it is true. When you have the proper perspective, bubble gum rolling all over the floor is pretty funny and pen on the wall is just pen. You realize that temper tantrums will be over. And sadly, so will the lap sitting and storybook reading and snuggling. Really, its all over so quickly. It was a good reminder to cherish all stages of life.

Thanks for a great weekend, friends!

We wish it would have been more than a weekend trip...
Good Luck Miki!

32

Happy Birthday to me!

At breakfast, Lucy said, "So, is this your real birthday or are we just celebrating it?" Ha! She knows me well. I like to celebrate all month long. There are many purchases justified because "its my birthday" but today was actually the big day.

Lucy fixed my hair with a special birthday clip and made me a new card every hour. That girl knows how to party!

Hangin' with good company

These are the ladies with whom I spend my Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights and a few extra days here and there. Aren't they cute?!? Plus, they're fun too. I feel pretty lucky...

Toothless and Ruthless

Geo's tooth surgery (one of many) is scheduled for this week, but I'm still thinking Austin will win the "new front tooth" race. George's tooth fixing ordeal has lasted for 3 years now...

Halloween fun 09

The Whole Meal

Whew... it has been a week of parties... and this post is longer than the Christmas ones. Grab a treat from your child's trick-or-treat bag to get you through all of this and here we go...

Music Class party

We were glad Grandma Liz got to join in on this one. Every year, I'm amazed at the all new fun Halloween songs people come up with for music class. Who knew there were so many cute ones to choose from?

Dance Class Dress-up

Fries are pretty hard to dance in, so we dug through the dress ups and Lucy was a hairdresser. Of course, we had to try it out first.

Pumpkin Carving/Painting

Lucy's school parade


Here are the faithful supporters...

And lest you think one of them is not happy to be here...
...just wait til she gets to the sandpit.

They also "trick-or-treated" the other classrooms. The whole time Lucy had the craziest look on her face... not sure what to make of it... Embarrased? Grumpy? Confused? Doesn't want a cheering section?





Playgroup Party




Fun at Sea World

Sea World had the cutest little Sesame Street Halloween show. The kids thought it was great and even the adults had a good time and sang along. The rest of the attractions were average. However, Geo was the magician's helper, so I think he picked up a few tricks. Lucy's favorite prize from the "trick-or-treat" street was this fancy green ring.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Face/Arm painting

Halloween yum dinner

(ideas modified from Family Fun)

Trick-or-treating

We had so much fun taking the kids around this year. Lucy really "got it" and had a great time. Elise was so funny. At the first house, the man handed her a candybar. Half way down the driveway, she dropped it and traded it for a rock. Then a crushed can. But when she figured out how to get the sucker wrappers off, she was one happy girl. And Austin was just along for the ride.

Aunt Lacey joined us for most of this craziness. She was a great sport and we were sad to see her go...