Trip to UTAH

Jeff surprised me with an early Christmas gift - a trip to Utah to visit some friends!  He was going to be in Indiana for work that week and decided I might as well go do something fun!  I stayed with Shannon Jenks (my sister-in-law, Jamie's, sister) and her family.  It was so fun to get out and see some of my friends and introduce them to Austin.  Here are a few of the people we were lucky enough to visit:

 Hailey - Freshmen friend extraordinaire!  We met during our first semester at BYU tap dancing. She ended up breaking her foot a few weeks in to the semester and I became her taxi to and from Dr. visits.  After hanging out a few times we realized that we both did the "goat" impression.  It was a true friendship meant to be...  Austin thought she was pretty cool too!

Jamie and Stephanie with August (Stephanie's boy) in the middle.

Both wonderful ladies also met while tap dancing!

Two incredibly handsome, blue-eyed boys!  Austin is only about 6 weeks older than August.

 Though it was only a short lunch-date, we had a great time laughing and catching up!

 Austin and Roslyn

We stopped by the Wilcox's to catch up with their family.  Roslyn was not quite 2 months old when we moved from Provo - she'll be 2 in March!

A necessary visit was made to see Ellen, Jeff's boss for 3 years at the Daily Universe on BYU campus.  She didn't know we were coming so we decided to stop in and surprise her!  We had a great long chat.  Being in that office brought back so many fun memories!

Kimee and I - roomies for 2 years!  I had the pleasure of spending an entire day with Kimee and her 3-month-old boy, Thomas.  We shopped, ate, chatted, reminised and played with our little boys all day long! 

The Moulton Family

I got to see a few other people but unfortunately forgot my camera during those visits... 

Thank you Jeff for the wonderful trip! 

Dancin' to Christmas Radio

Christmas Light Excitement

HalloWall-Een

For Halloween this year we wanted to have themed costumes for our family.  We had a huge box from Austin's new carseat and Jeff figured he could make it into something to wear.  After looking through our movies for ideas we decided to be Wall-E characters.  Jeff worked long and hard to transform his box into the animated trash compactor, Wall-E, while I created a headpiece and 'directive' symbol for Wall-E's girlfriend, Eve.  Austin was the little plant that causes all the commotion that the entire story is about. 

 (Everything except the picture of trash was handpainted on Jeff's costume)

Who readily eats pumpkin goo and won't touch a birthday cake?

I know this is quite belated, but I've got to hurry and catch up on these posts before Christmas!

We carved our pumpkins the day after Austin's birthday, and unlike the anti-birthday cake scene, Austin was all about getting his hands on those pumpkins!

We pulled off the tops and showed him how the insides were full of seeds and stringy goo.

  To our shock he put his hands right in the bowl of pumpkin pulp and started inhaling it!

He ate the pumpkin goo so fast I had a hard time making sure there were no seeds before he took another handful.

What kid would rather eat the insides of a pumpkin than a yummy birthday cake?

Apparently this one!

The FINISHED products:

Austin's REAL 1st Birthday: Part II



Austin's #1 Lion cake! 

The cake didn't rise, and I couldn't get it out of the pan... Didn't look as good as I'd hoped, but still tasted pretty good!

Mesmerized by the candle

Barely touched the cake - there is the tiniest bit of chocolate on his finger.

Our friend, Kim, helping Austin get into the spirit of digging into your birthday cake... or not.

Stay away from me, lady!

I asked nicely.  Please keep that stuff away from me!

I thought Mom liked me. Why is she trying to feed it to me too?

Watch it, he's gonna blow!

Needless to say, Austin did not care for his birthday cake.  We tried putting his favorite snacks in the cake so he'd get a taste, but he wouldn't even touch the tainted treats.  We also tried putting frosting on his sippy cup - he gagged.  Oh well.  Our child prefers vegetables over cake.  Maybe next year we'll try carrot cake?

 Playing with his new drum after the cake drama

He really did have a good birthday, at least for part of it!

Happy 1st Birthday Little Buddy!

Austin's First Birthday: Part I

Lucky Austin had two birthday celebrations in October.  Over Conference weekend we had a big birthday party for my brother, Cameron, Jeff, myself and Austin.  I made two milk-free turtle cakes made of cupcakes for Austin to dig into and to share with the rest of the family.

It took some coaxing to get Austin to try the cake, but after wiping most of the frosting on his leg he decided to try a couple bites on his own. (This turned out to be a huge accomplishment as you will see during Part II)

Austin got to open several gifts during this first phase of his birthday from both sets of grandparents

He got a beautiful Alphabet quilt from Grandma Mitchell

A new carseat (also from the Mitchell's)

 (Enjoying his new seat a couple of weeks later)

and some fun puzzles, a super cool Fisherprice barn, some Lego Duplos and cute clothes from the CO grandparents.  What a spoiled kiddo!