Today is the big day

We're leaving tonight to begin our trip to Michigan! We should hopefully be leaving around midnight or shortly after! We're all packed and ready to head out, now we just have to wait until midnight!

Happy moving day Libby! How exciting for you! I can't wait to see you and Jackson and your new place!

Happy Anniversary! Today is our one year anniversary! I can't believe it's been a year already!

We'll see everyone soon!
Love to all

Here's Austin helping me pack things up! He's such a great helper!

Eating Cheerios! He has to dump them out of the bowl and then eat them off the floor! He can't just take them out of the bowl and eat them! 

Not ready to leave the weather

I'm excited about going to Michigan, but I'm not excited to leave the weather down here. It's still in the 70's nearly everyday! There was a guy outside yesterday with no shirt, shorts and flip flops on! Can you believe that, in December! Is it snowing in Michigan yet? We're not even wearing coats down here all the time! It's going to be a big shock when we get there! We'll see everyone soon! We're leaving in a week!!!!!!!!!!!

Austin is such a big boy he can eat his own popsicle now! He is even good about sharing it! 

It's been awhile

I thought I might write an update...it's been awhile!

Austin's other front tooth finally broke through the skin this week! So now he has all four front teeth! He doesn't look like a jack-o-lantern anymore! He has also started walking on his own. He starts out by holding onto something then lets go and takes anywhere from 3-6 steps! He does so good! He doesn't do it all the time because he still knows that he can get somewhere faster if he crawls!

We've also been dealing with a semi-sick child for almost a week now. We took Austin to the ER last Thursday night because he woke up in the middle of the night vomiting and had a very high temperature. When we got him to the ER his temperature was 101.9! After that he never vomited again and his fever went down Saturday morning but he has had the runs ever since! His regular doctor said that it was a touch of the flu and he should get better by the end of the week! In the meantime he has been extremely crabby and has not had his usual appetite. He's on a liquid diet until it clears up and he gets his appetite back! I will be extremely happy when he feels better!

The countdown has begun for our vacation! We leave in 9 days to begin our long drive! We'll be leaving at midnight on Friday the 17th and we're looking forward to seeing everyone during the holidays! We'll see everyone soon!

Andi

Austin thought he'd help himself to taking his leftover cereal off the table and playing with it! By the time it was all said and done he had cereal all over his highchair, all over himself and all in his hair! Oh well, he cleaned up just fine with a bath! 

Austin & Daddy on Thanksgiving! Don't they both look happy! 

Doing what he does best, eating Daddy's popsicle! 

Playing in the fridge! 

Here's the one under his eye! You can barely see it because his cheek is scruched up! 

Here is the black eye where he ran eye first into the coffee table! 

We've got snow...

Just Kidding! There is frost on the ground this morning! It kind-of reminds me of snow!

Austin has started doing lots of new things since my last update! He now dances when he hears music, claps his hands and is starting to take some steps! I stand him up in the middle of the living room then go in front of him and he takes steps towards me! Usually he ends up lunging himself at me after a couple of steps but this morning he got really brave and let go of the table to take a step before loosing his balance and falling on his bottom! But it's a start!

He has also achieved two black eyes this week! The first one he opened the entertainment door into himself and got a bruise under his eye. Then last night he dove eye first into the coffee table with the other eye! So now his has one above his left eye and one below his right eye! Check out the pictures!

Only two and a half weeks before we head up to Michigan. We're getting excited and I know everyone else is! We're looking forward to seeing everyone! Hope everyone has a good week!

Andi

Isn't Austin the cutest Santa's Little Helper you've ever seen!!! 

Remember how I was saying that Austin is becoming quite the climber...he wanted to help me unload the dishwasher! This time he wanted to help unload the top shelf! He's so funny! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We wish we were with everyone to celebrate! We're making a big dinner today and just hanging out!

And...Happy 10 month birthday Austin! I can't believe it's been 10 months already! Where does the time go?

Now a message from Austin: nk ml, nh nhbvgbbg ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,mn

Talk to everyone soon!

Night Out

We just returned from a night out as adults! Michael and I went out to eat with two other couples and really enjoyed ourselves! When we got home Austin was asleep! Yup, you read it right, he was asleep! Kudos to the girls who watched him! We just might have to go out again!

Austin saw me open the windows so he thought that he needed to climb on his toys to take a look out the window! He has really sarted climbing lately! 

Eating real pears just like a big boy! Another typical characteristic of a boy, he has to have something to play with while he eats! 

Being a monkey! He's having as much fun with the box as he is his new walker! At one point in time I walked around the corner and he was sitting on top of the box just hanging out! He is so silly! 

Doesn't he look like he's drunk! The flash makes him squint his eyes everytime I take his picture...at least he's smiling! 

Finally...

It finally stopped raining! On the new last night they said that some places around the area had gotten anywhere from 5-8 inches of rain yesterday! Talk about raining nonstop!

I'm having some trouble putting a picture on the website this morning! I'm not sure why, I'll try and get one up a little later!

Austin and I just slept in until 9 am! Austin wanted to get up with Daddy at 5 am but I told him that we needed to go back to sleep for just a little while! I put him in bed with me because rocking wasn't doing anything and he finally went back to sleep! Of course he hogged the bed the entire time but that's ok, we got some more sleep! Now he's ready to get up and get going for the day! I better get him his breakfast before he starts getting crabby...

It has been raining here for 5 days straight! I just thought I might share what the backyard looks like afterwards! Oh yeah, and it's still raining! 

The backyard after 5 days of rain! 

Here's Austin with his new walking toy! He loves to push it around and practically runs behind it! Now if he can just learn how to turn it he will have even more fun with it! He is getting braver everyday with standing alone. It should be no time before he takes some steps! 

Playing with Daddy before he goes to bed! 

New food

Austin tried a new food this morning and he loves it...real bananas! I cut it up into little pieces for him and he ate the whole banana! What a little chow hound! He's doing so good at picking things up and eating them! It won't be long before he eats with the rest of us!

It's yucky and raining here again today! It's only supposed to get up to 64 degrees today and rain most of the day again! Austin and I are staying in and getting the laundry and cleaning done today! It was a lazy weekend and we didn't feel like doing anything other than laying around!

Sorry to everyone who tried to call us yesterday. Our phones were not working well because of the rain, thunder and lightning, I think! It was really weird that we could call out but nobody could call us! It seems like everything is back to normal with them today!

Hope everyone has a good week!
Andi

Pushing around his laundry basket, waving "hi" to everyone! He loves to push the baskets around but he gets so mad when he gets stuck! He hasn't quite figured out how to back himself up yet! 

Helicopter Spotter

Austin has turned into quite the helicopter spotter! Every time he hears one (a daily occurrence, anywhere from 2-10 times a day) he looks out the window to look at it! It's so funny!

He is into everything still! He loves to open and close the kitchen cupboards! Not successfully getting his fingers out everytime but it doesn't seem to bother him! He likes to open and close anything he can. When we get his clothes for the day he opens and closes his dresser drawer, he takes his books off the bookshelf and opens them up and he loves to push things around! He is definitely all boy, except for the moment, he is screaming then laughing at himself! He loves to push his truck around and he loves to stand up and push the laundry basket around! He's getting ready to really be on the move! A very scary thought!

He now has 5 teeth! One of his front teeth finally cut all the way through the skin yesterday! He seems to think that since he has some teeth that he needs to eat everything that Mommy and Daddy are eating! He reminds me of a little puppy dog! If we have food he's right there at our feet begging for us to give him some! He is starting to eat more "people food" though! He eats a whole piece of toast for breakfast along with a full breastfeeding, then for lunch he eats a gigantic bowl of cereal with a whole jar of baby food, then at dinner he has another huge bowl of cereal with one to two jars of baby food! And throughout the day he has "snackies" which are the Gerber fruit puffs and he still has some milk throughout the day too. He doesn't seem to be very interested in breastfeeding anymore, he wants the real food. Which gives me good hope that it's not going to be very hard to wean him when the time comes!

Other than that, not much else is going on! Michael has a four day weekend so we're looking forward to just hanging out! I'm taking the car in this morning to have the oil changed and have some other things looked at! Austin and Daddy are going to stay at home and play while I go and do that!

We hope that everyone has a good Veteran's Day! Especially Austin's favorite Veteran's: Great Grandpa Mills and Uncle Ben! Talk to everyone soon!
Andi

Just got a bath! He turned 9 months old on this day! 

Nice hair-do! Eating snacks! 

Down by the bay... 

Brrrrrrrrr...

Wow, it's really cold down here! It went from being in the 70's and 80's to 50's and 60's in a matter of a day! I had to turn the heat on this morning because we were freezing to death!

I saw the funniest thing last night! I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, now I'll remind you that it was like 58 degrees out and yes, I had my winter coat on, but people were wearing hats and mittens!!!! It's not that cold! I was silently laughing to myself when I walked past them in their winters warmest!

Well, Austin's cranky this morning. He's eating his toast for breakfast then he's going to go take a nap! He got up at 6 am this morning and is ready for one already! I was actually really surprised that he slept that long, considering he went to sleep at 6:30 pm last night! He got up for about 45 minutes, just long enough to get his jammies on and eat something then he was right back to sleep!

Did anyone watch the Bachelor last night? It's getting down to the final two, who do you think it will be? My guess at the moment is Mary and Cindy, although Cindy seems kind of creepy to me! Oh well, let me know what you think!

Hope everyone is having a good week! Tomorrow is Friday!
Andi

Yummmm...Dirt

God made dirt and dirt don't hurt...we hope! Austin got his first taste of dirt today! He picked up a piece of mud that must have fallen off of Michael's boots yesterday and ate it! One second he was playing with his books at the bookshelf the next he's muching on some dirt! It absolutely disgusted me! I tried to wipe it out of his mouth but by then it had already turned into mud and it wasn't going anywhere but down in his belly! I gave him some juice to wash it down but he didn't like the taste of apple juice and mud I guess! He didn't really seem bothered by the texture either! Gross! I'm sure it's not the last time he'll eat mud though!

Thought I might share that bit of our day! We had an exciting one! We didn't leave the house all day! Talk to everyone soon!

Andi

The Fangs

As I was just brushing Austin's teeth I noticed that his two fang teeth are through the skin! Yay! He now has four teeth and his two front teeth should be through by the end of the week! Hooray! He's going to have a mouthful of teeth by the end of the week! Maybe he'll be in a better mood next week once they all come through! It's so exciting...

Playing with Daddy's pumpkin! He was so fascinated with the pumpkins, next year he'll really have fun carving them! 

Eating some lunch with Grandma Richards!