Easter

I can not believe that Easter has come and gone already this year! We had a nice, relaxed day. I was supposed to work, but surprisingly ended up being able to spend the entire day with my boys!

Since Austin is still pretty young, I hadn't even thought about getting him an Easter basket or anything. Then Saturday night we drove around frantically looking for Easter candy and basket stuffers (seriously...Wal-Mart, Target and Macey's were completely sold out!)...for the Easter bunny to use, of course! Anyway, this is what Austin's basket ended up looking like:

The Easter bunny figured since Austin is so little still, he wouldn't hide any eggs and just put them in his basket.

This kid loves the camera!

Cruisin' over to check out his loot!

Playing with the grass!

His eggs were filled with goldfish and cheerios (his two favorite things!) He thought it was GREAT!!

It was so great to be able to attend church on Easter Sunday...especially since I was expecting to be working. We then went over to Jason and Jenn's for a wonderful dinner! It was nice to be able to spend the day together! It is so much fun to have such a cute little boy to enjoy the holidays with.

Cute pics of Austin

I can't believe how big my boy is getting. At his doctor's appointment last week he was 28.5 inches long and 18.5 pounds. He is moving everywhere. He crawls really fast and loves to chase the cat. He pulls himself up and walks along all the furniture, pushes his toys across the living room, and will now even stand by himself for a few seconds. It's just a matter of time before he takes off on his own. If the TV is on, he thinks he needs to be right in front of it like this. Have you ever seen a cuter little body?



The weather has been nice enough lately that we have been able to go for a few walks. This is a picture of our first walk for the year. It was still a little cold, so Austin was bundled up. Notice Tigger...he goes pretty much everywhere with us. I love this little coat with teddy bear ears on it.

We have started feeding Austin more table food. He seems to like most anything we give him. He's not a real big fan of broccoli though! He loves Cheerios and Goldfish. In this picture he was eating a blueberry pancake...that is a blueberry on his face.

Trying to out do him mom for the world's messiest eater contest.

Here are just a few cute pictures of him sleeping. Wouldn't you love to just kick back and sleep like this?

Did you know...

Okay, I am trying to post more things about me, and not always just about Austin. (Although when you have such a cute kid, it's hard not to post only about him! Plus, that is probably why most of you even look at my blog anyway.)



I have been busy trying to clean my house this week because we had our carpets cleaned this morning. I love having a clean house. Seriously...can't stand it to be a mess. I can't seem to get anything else done until the house is clean. (Side note: how on earth do you mothers with more than one child do it? I can't even seem to keep my house clean the way I want to now that I have ONE! It took me almost a full week to do what used to take me a couple hours!)

So, I have a huge pet peeve. I can't stand foot prints on freshly vacuumed carpet. I thought that getting the carpets (and couches that SO desperately needed it!) cleaned would make me so happy (and really it has), but I don't want to walk on them. The footprints I am leaving on the carpets now are 500 times worse than after I vacuum. You can even see everywhere the cat goes! I took a picture to try to show what I mean. It is kinda hard to see, but you get he idea.


Another confession: I am a germaphobe. Maybe it comes from working in the medical field, where you have to obsess over having clean hands and not spreading germs, or maybe I would be this way anyway! I have a seat cover for Austin that goes everywhere with us. I use it in the cart in every store and every restaurant high chair. That used to be enough to make me feel better about having my child sit in someone else's filth, until Austin leaned over and started sucking on the exposed part of the cart at Wal-Mart...of all places! So, I have now advanced to keeping a pack of Clorox wipes in the diaper bag. Seriously...I wipe down the exposed parts of the cart before I will put him in it. You can probably only imagine the looks I get from people as I stand in the entrance of the store wiping the cart down with a Clorox wipe and then pulling out my trusty ole seat cover. Oh, you ought to see it. I should get a picture of it!

I need a NAP!

Okay...so I say that I need a nap, and what do I do while Austin is asleep? I get on the computer, oh well! Austin's two top teeth are coming in, and he is miserable! Not only is he fussy, but he is not sleeping very well. I have gotten very accustomed to him sleeping until 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning. Last night he woke up at 1:00, 2:00, 2:40 and finally at 5:30. This is out of control!! Hopefully they will come through soon, and we can get back to our normal routines around here! Now I better at least go shower for the day before he wakes up!!

Welcome to Motherhood

So, Austin is almost 9 months old, and I think I have finally had my first "life as a Mom" moment. I'm sure there have been others, but this is a good one!

It started when I went to get something out of the fridge, and an unopened bottle of balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing fell on the floor...breaking the bottle. I look up from the mess on my kitchen floor to see my sweet little boy high-tailing it into the kitchen to check out the mess. I quickly navigate my way around the spill, grab Austin, and put him in his saucer while I clean up the kitchen floor.

Once I finished with that mess, I go get Austin out of the saucer and notice the all to familiar stench of a dirty diaper. I go get a diaper and wipes and put him down on the living room floor to change him. I quickly pull off his pants, hoping to get him changed before he tries to crawl away. As I went to lift his leg up, I realize that my hand is in something warm and slimy. Then I look down and realize that when I took his pants off, I had also flung poo onto my sock and jeans. So, here we are, in the middle of the living room floor, both of us covered in poo. Anyway, after I finally get him cleaned and am putting his new diaper on, I realize that he stuck his foot in the old diaper and wiped his foot down my arm.

Anyway, we are both cleaned up now At least I was doing laundry anyway, right? And the bonus of it all: the overwhelming smell of vinegar in my house is masking the poo smell! Yeah! It sure is a good thing he is so cute!

For Sanity's Sake

I am becoming more and more ready for spring to arrive. I am tired of looking outside and seeing this:

So, the snow and the inversion had finally taken a toll on me. Salt Lake City was ranked in the top 5 cities with the worst air quality for several days last week. To escape the filthy air, we decided to go to St. George for the weekend. It ended being a very short trip (because I had to speak in church on Sunday).

It was so nice to see the blue sky and that the sun still does shine in some places. We even got to wear short sleeved shirts for the few days we were there.

Austin did really well. It was his first time being in his car seat for that length of time. He hardly fussed at all! He sure did like being able to get down on the grass and ground to play. He would immediately find any stick he could. Such a boy!

So, I think I finally found some Mexican food in Utah worth talking about. I know...Cafe Rio is good, but I mean real sit down, order from a menu, free chips and salsa kind of Mexican. We just happened to try this restaurant called the Panama Grill. It was SOOO good. Excellent salsa...which is what really counts, right? I ordered a burrito....and I think it was better than Cafe Rio's. Anyway, we will for sure be going back there next time we are in St. George.

It was so much fun to get away for a little while. Now, we are back to real life, but at least the sun is shinning in Salt Lake this week. I can actually see some grass in back yard! Wahoo!!

Growing So Fast

So, the last month and a half have been very busy for Austin. He is learning so much so fast. He got his first two teeth within about a week in January. He did really well with it....was a little fussy, but not too bad.
He has also advanced from his army crawling to the real thing. He is pretty fast, and loves to chase Cotton around. The poor cat doesn't know what has happened to her sweet, quiet little life.



He has started pulling himself up on the furniture, and walks along the edge of things. He will also walk if we hold his hands. Just today he has started standing on his own for a few seconds at a time. I don't think it will be too much longer before he has the whole walking thing figured out. Yikes!!! I guess I really need to get the house fully baby-proofed now! We have had a few bumps and bruises all ready, and I know that there are just more to come!







We are so in love with this little guy, and having so much fun watching him grow and learn.