Belated December

We started off our holiday season with a trip to visit Santa at the ward Christmas party. I was shocked that Austin was not even scared of him...he was more fascinated with his beard! He also absolutely loved the candy cane Santa gave him. We didn't think anything of letting him hold the candy cane, until we looked at it after he pulled it out of his mouth, and he had slobbered through the wrapper! Oops!! He loved it though!

This is just one more of the many hats I have for this kid. Justin thinks it is goofy looking...I think it is cute. Besides, I will only be able to get away with putting things like this on him for so long, right? (PS-It has matching booties!)

CHRISTMAS DAY

Austin seemed to enjoy his first Christmas! Well, we probably enjoyed it more than he did. I admit, I did go a little overboard, but how can I resist a cute face like this? He liked the paper and boxes while we were unwrapping. Once all his toys were out of their boxes, he really enjoyed them..

Here he is playing with some of his new toys.

This was probably his favorite part of the holidays. He loved to roll under the tree and play with the branches he could reach.

Here he is sitting in front of the tree with all of his loot. Oh yeah, and another hat...his reindeer hat and slippers!

Another picture posing with his new toys!

One more hat for ya. He didn't really like how it surrounded his face!

Hello Again!

Sorry it has been SOOO long since I last posted. I have lots of pictures to put up from the last 6 weeks...but this will just be a short post. We are still here and doing just fine. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. More will be coming SOON...I promise!

6 months old!

Austin turned 6 months old on Sunday! We can't believe how fast he is growing, and how quickly the last six months have gone by! We are so happy to have him in our family, and so grateful for the love and joy that he brings into our home!

He had his 6 month check up yesterday. The official stats are: 16.5 pounds (only 25-30th percentile) and 27 inches (75th percentile). He is our adorable tall, thin little guy.

So, in honor of his six month birthday, I thought that I would post a slide show of pictures of him over the last six months. Hope you enjoy!

We love company!!

I love having people come visit me! I was beyond excited to have my sister, Sarah, come stay with us for a few days last week.

She came out to visit the BYU campus. She wouldn't let me wear my Utah sweatshirt when I took her down there though! Probably a good thing, seeing as it was the week of the Utah-BYU football game. Sarah's 18th birthday was November 2nd, so we decided that we would celebrate with her when she was here. I made her a Funfetti cake (man, she has good taste!), got a bunch of balloons for here, and some Dr. Pepper....all waiting for her when she arrived Monday night! We also took her out for a good steak dinner while she was here. So, we spent some time visiting schools, and had a nice Thanksgiving together. Then, Friday, we went to see August Rush. It is a new movie that just came out last week. It was a pretty good show! And then she had to go home!

Sarah with some of her balloons, her cake and her Dr. Pepper! She is a funny girl!

Enjoying her birthday dessert at Ruby River!

I think the highlight of Sarah's trip was the snow we got while she was here. Now, for those of us that live where it snows, it really was not enough snow to get excited about. But, for a girl from Texas who never gets snow, it was thrilling! She even built herself a snowman!

I am so glad that Sarah got to come visit us. I just wish she could have stayed longer!!

Hats and shoes

I love to put hats on my baby. I think he looks so darn cute in them...especially his little baseball cap! I have about a zillion pictures of him in his hat, so I thought I would post a couple...you know, just so all you other moms can be jealous of how cute my kid is! :0) I have quite the collection of winter hats for him, so keep an eye out for more adorable hat pictures!

He obviously wasn't enjoying this as much as I was! I just couldn't resist though!

I also love it when he has his shoes on. We usually reserve these for church, but boy does he look cute in them!

Cereal

Okay...I am way behind with this blogging stuff. We tried feeding Austin cereal the beginning of October, but he wasn't really interested and then he and I both got sick. So, we gave it up for a while. He has now been eating it for a couple of weeks (since October 24th...I put the dates in here to help me have a better record of this kind of stuff!). I am just finally getting around to putting pictures up, but he is so cute, I thought it would be worth it anyway.

Both of these videos are from when we first tried giving him the cereal in early October. He has gotten a lot better with it since then. I guess I'll have to take more videos now!

My Lifesaver

My mom got us our stroller/car seat combo for a baby shower gift, and I can not say thank you enough. Of course, we have used the car seat since he was born. But, I never knew how grateful I would be for the stroller. Austin seems to be having a little bit of separation anxiety already. So, the only way I have been able to get things done around the house is to put him in his stroller, and "wheel" him around with me. He watches me make dinner, do dishes, etc. If he starts to get fussy, I push the stroller around for a second and we are good for a little while longer. Funny kid!

Hanging out in the kitchen

But wait...it gets better!!!

So , he hasn't been sleeping well for the last month or so. I started to realize that he sleeps fine if he is held with his head up slightly, or in his car seat. So, we decided to try letting him sleep in his car seat one night to see if it would hep. Guess what...it did. He slept through the night again (he would fuss a little when he needed his pacy back in his mouth, but I can handle that!!) Wahoo! And even better, we are back to 2 hour naps! So, we talked to the pediatrician, and they are thinking that he may have reflux....which would explain the spitting up, and the not sleeping well! We are going to get a crib wedge, and hopefully that will help him sleep in his crib (without the car seat). Of course the stores are sold out of them right now though! So, for now this is my sweet little guy snoozing away in the car seat!

Thank goodness for strollers, car seats, and Grandmas!!!!