The Graffs

Kensley Dawn Graff

2012-01-29T23:54:00.002-07:00

Kensley Dawn was born at 10 pm today Jan 29, 2012. 7lbs 9oz's, 19inches long, blondish hair. Here are a couple pics until Shanna can post the whole story.

Pinterest and Projects

2012-01-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

So yes, I have been sucked into pinterest and sometimes spend too much time there but I love having a place to keep all my ideas and projects together online. I say "my" ideas but lets be honest, I get most of my ideas from other people's projects, pictures and creativity. I especially love getting ideas for recipes, preschool things to do at home, and home decor projects.
During the Christmas break we didn't travel at all and I was in nesting mode. It was perfect since Matthew could be home to help with projects. It ended up being a fabulous and very productive holiday break. We got so much done in preparation for little baby girl to come. I really kept Matthew busy with moving furniture, redoing all our bedroom furniture hardware, moving and putting up pictures and things on walls and helping me find and dig out all our newborn stuff. So I just wanted to post a few of the projects we were able to get done.

Table and Chairs
I have been wanted to get Austin his own table and chair set for a long time. He finally got a set for Christmas from Matthew's parents. It's perfect except it didn't really match our house so we stained the wood and covered the chairs with fabric. I love how it turned out!

before

After

Growth Chart

I "pinned" this project awhile ago and loved the idea. It's looks like a giant ruler on a piece of wood that you can use at a growth chart but then as we are still moving around and not settled, we can take it with us. I got the idea here. This is their picture:

Recipes
These are all the recipes I have recently pinned, made and loved!
-Cheesy Veggie Chowder
-Healthy Breakfast Smoothie
-Shrimp with Avocado-Mango Salsa
-Poppy Seed Chicken
- Pizza Balls
-Creamy Parmesan Orzo
-BLT Pasta Salad

Outside Porch
We have a back porch that up until now has mostly been used for storage, garbage and collecting dust. But with this great weather we have been having I really wanted the space to be useful. Matthew cleaned up and dusted the whole porch, turned a spare piece of wood into a table, and got a play rug for the ground and now we have a whole new play area for Austin. He loves being outside and loves to drive his cars on something other than the ground so this was so perfect!

Matthew also sanded these blocks we got from Austin's great grandpa. We have a ton of them and Austin loves building with them. In the picture he is making houses for his cars.

Little Girl Things
And of course I have been working on some things for our little girl coming soon! I pinned and followed this tutorial to make some felt flowers for headbands. I also made some girly burp cloths for those not so girly spit up messes.

Two And a Half

2012-01-11T22:24:00.001-07:00

Austin is now almost closer to three than two! Whoa! He is in such a fun phase right now. However, I feel like I say that through all the different phases he has gone through. But at this point he is really growing up into this little boy that we just love so much. Here are some updates for him:
-He communicates and talks so much now. I can understand pretty much anything he says and his little sentence combinations are just so cute.
-He favorite thing right now are cars, trucks and trains. He loves to drive them on tracks, the couch or on the bed. He also loves to play with matching sets or pairs of cars. (His mama is a little into matching sets so maybe that's where he gets it from!)
-He is just over 3 feet tall (60th percentile) and weighs 33 pounds (80th percentile)
-One of the biggest changes is that he is now in a toddler bed and has been for about 2 weeks. The transition have been great! He loves his bed and will stay in bed when he goes down for naps and bedtime. The only down side is that my wake-up call is now quite early. But it was time and it's been a very smooth transition. I know this picture is extremely dark but we snuck in the first night he slept in it to get a picture.

-I have been surprised at how much he can do by himself now. Things that I would always do for him and now I forget that he really can do them himself. Like drinking out of a cup with no lid (only water and only at the table though!), opening the fridge to get his own milk cup, using a glue stick for art projects, obeying little instructions like cleaning up toys or going to get something out of his room and peeling and eating a whole clementine. I know those are just little things but developmentally they are a big deal!

-He has absolutely no interest in potty training. Anytime I bring up the idea of going to sit on the potty he says "No! No!" So I have not pushed the issue because I don't want it to be a negative thing. However he is getting older and should be showing interest so I'm kind of unsure of what to do and if I should push the issue. Lots of his friends are potty trained but that doesn't seem to motivate him to want to jump on the bandwagon. I am thinking that this is going to be a hard transition.

- We have definitely entered the terrible twos and have had meltdowns and tantrums over the smallest of events but I guess that is to be expected.

-He loves to spend time with Matthew and tries to imitate things he does like shave, put on deodorant or fix things. It's pretty cute to watch. He also loves wrestling with Matthew and gets so intense!

- Austin loves to help in the kitchen. It seems like he has always loved this and I have so many pictures of him helping me stir, mix and pour things. In this picture I think he was helping me mix up a salad. His face is distraught because the camera is out and he hates the camera. However he is wearing his cute little apron that my sister Jenna made him for Christmas!

- Austin is very creative and whenever he eats things like toast or sandwiches. They always become things like trucks or airplanes or even sometimes animals based on what it looks like as he takes bites. And when he tells me what they are I can totally see exactly what he means. This also leads to very long lunches as he plays with his food.

These are just some of the things I want to remember about Austin at this age!

36 weeks

2012-01-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

I have just under 4 weeks left to go! We have definitely been getting ready for baby girl to come. We have the bassinet set up, newborn clothes are washed and folded in her newly cleaned out drawer, car seat cover is washed, but no, she still doesn't have a name yet. We are working on that!
I am definitely in the very uncomfortable stage and don't sleep very well. It gets really hard to play trains with Austin on the floor and that is all he seems to want to do these days. However besides that I have been feeling great and feeling very excited for her arrival. Austin loves to touch my belly and to give baby girl hugs. I keep hoping that this will be a smooth transition for him. Obviously there will be an adjustment period and I know there will be some issues with giving attention so we will see how this goes.
Matthew has been so great during this last phase in pregnancy including doing things for me that are getting hard like giving Austin baths, doing house chores and telling me I look pretty. That's like the best thing to hear when you feel huge and anything but pretty. So time is winding down and we are getting ready!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T14:43:00.001-07:00

We have had a great Christmas break. A few days before Christmas we decided to make roll-out sugar cookies. My mom has the best recipe but I haven't made them in forever since they are a little messy and time consuming. But seriously the best sugar cookies with homemade frosting ever! So with Matthew available, this was the perfect time. Austin loved helping and really got the hang of it! I think this should be a new Christmas tradition.

Not that any of our frosted cookies look fabulous, but I wanted to show how Austin loved to put his "done" cookies on the wax paper too. Can you tell which ones are his?

On Christmas Eve evening, we had dinner and then went to the park. It was like 67 degrees outside and felt wonderful. Austin loved being outside and kicking the soccer ball around with Daddy. Then we went home, got in pajamas and watch one of the classic Christmas movies, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Austin loved it so much we have actually watched it a couple of times since. Then we put him to bed and got Christmas things all ready. It was so fun!

Christmas morning we didn't get a lot of pictures but we did get a lot of video of Austin coming into the room and finding his stocking and his new wooden train set all set up. He was so excited and immediately starting playing trains. I think he would have been content all day with just that. Matthew and I looked at our stockings, said Merry Christmas and then had to get ready for 9am church! But when we got home we changed back into pajamas to finish our Christmas morning.

I show this picture only because it is the only one showing some of the train track in the background that was set up for Austin. I guess it also shows my prego tummy at 35 weeks.

Christmas morning picture

This is Austin helping Matthew set up the table and chair set he got from his grandparents.

Later on Christmas day we went to Matthew's cousin's house for dinner. Their kids all still call Austin "Baby Austin!" It's pretty cute. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and fabulous company for the evening. Overall, we had a fantastic AZ Christmas this year.

Matthew's Birthday

2011-12-20T15:34:00.004-07:00

Yesterday my husband turned 29! It's tough enough having a birthday so close to Christmas but on top of that he has had a final exam on his birthday every year for the past 6 or 7 years. This year was no different. So after his 7am test we celebrated with a pancake breakfast with candles, singing Happy Birthday, and opening gifts.

During the day we were able to go on an afternoon date to see a movie. We love dates and it was really nice to just get away together for the afternoon. When we got home we had birthday cake. Matthew isn't really a cake fan so I got him an ice-cream cake which was so yummy!

Later that evening we went to the Scottsdale Train Park. We had some friends invite us and it was such a fun family event. We rode the train and it had tons of different Christmas light scenes during the ride and Austin just loved it. What could be better for a toddler than Christmas lights and a train ride at the same time? He was just giggling the whole time. Then we went on the carousel, got hot chocolate and walked around some of the train sights. I feel bad that I didn't really get any pictures of Matthew during the day on his birthday, but that is kind of how he would rather keep it. But we did get some at the train park!

This is us waiting in line to get on the train.

We are all aboard waiting to take off.

Going through the tunnel of lights. Doesn't look like Austin is enjoying himself but trust me there were giggles. They just happen to all disappear when the camera comes out.

And the carousel ride

But back to Matthew's birthday, he really is so wonderful. He has stuck through these long weeks of med school and can now enjoy a break for the holidays. Austin and I love having him around!

Festivities

2011-12-09T13:45:00.001-07:00

Since we are staying here this year for Christmas we might as well be festive. We decorated the tree and this was a new thing for Austin. Last year we didn't even bother since he was at the age where he would have pulled everything off anyway and we were going out of town too. But this year we involved Austin in the decorating and he loved holding and looking at the ornaments and then helping put them on the tree. He has also been really good at leaving it alone and loves when we turn the lights on. I have also been doing a advent calendar with him and he looks forward to moving the little snowflake everyday. It's so cute to see him get excited about Christmas this year!

We also made a trip to see Santa. We walked over to a nearby shopping center and met some friends there to take pictures with Santa, get some free samples and enjoy cookies and hot chocolate. It was a fun little outing except for the part of actually sitting with Santa and getting his picture taken. I knew exactly how he was going to react but I wanted a picture anyway! Austin was so upset he even distracted Santa from looking at me during the picture.

It doesn't quite feel like Christmas outside yet but it has gotten quite chilly a couple of days. Now when we go on walks we have to bundle up a little. Austin loves that he and Daddy have matching hats.

This is such a fun and busy time of year!

Thanksgiving Break

2011-12-01T14:51:00.005-07:00

Whoa! Long post full of pictures.

We are back into the swing of school but we did have a fabulous break. At Midwestern the quarter ends in the middle of November so we get two weeks off for Thanksgiving. To celebrate the end of classes a few of us got together for a pot luck dinner the last day of finals. Here are a bunch of the wives so happy to have our husbands back for a couple of weeks!

Then we headed off to Utah to be with family for the rest of the break. We drove and stayed in St. George the first day. It was the perfect amount of driving for my pregnant self and a little toddler who doesn't enjoy car rides. We were able to hang out with my good friend Emily who lives there. She was so nice to make dinner for us and to let us hang out for a while. Austin loved playing with her little girls! We were able to catch up and bring back memories of our BYU days.

Then we made it to Orem and stayed with my grandparents for a night while we hung out in Provo for a day. First we were able to make it to a cousins party! Ever since I was a freshman at BYU my grandparents have had a monthly cousins party for all the cousins either living in the area or attending college in the area. They are so fun and we happen to be in town to make it this month!
While in Provo we were also able to see our good friends Steve and Andelyn. We had babies around the same time so it was so cute to watch them play together now that they are a little older.
We also made time to go up to campus! I love walking around BYU campus. It brings back so many good memories and it's where Matthew and I met! We first went to breakfast with my sisters who are currently students there. Ciera is a senior and Kayla is a freshman. We went to Kayla's dorm room and then to the bookstore.

This is Kayla and Austin walking to the dorms.

Funny picture! In the dorm hallway Austin saw this sign and said, "A tent, a tent!" and had to go inside. Haha! Cute boy.

Then we drove out to Salt Lake for the rest of the break to stay with Matthew's parents. As always, Austin takes some time to warm up to family that he hasn't seen in a while. However, he loved all the new toys available. He spent countless hours playing with the cars and trucks available. This is what he looked like for the majority of the time there:

We taught Austin about snow while we were there and he was fascinated with it. He loves seeing it on the tops of the mountains and especially when it did actually snow one night. He stood there by the door telling Aubrey and Nonna all about it.

Austin also loved playing with his cousin Aaron. They are about 10 months apart. We took them to open gym one day where they got to play on all the gymnastics equipment. Mostly they both loved playing cars and trains together. It was so cute to hear them laughing together. We took them to build-a-bear at the Gateway Mall one night to get an accessory for the puppy dogs that Nonna gave them. Both boys I think were more into the strollers there than anything! Then we stopped by the huge Christmas tree to take a picture.

Spending time with Nonna and Pa.

One night we got a baby sitter and all the adults went to down town Salt Lake for a nice dinner and walk around Temple Square. That is actually the first time I have ever left Austin with a teenage babysitter! I usually just baby swap with someone, but everything went great and it was so nice to have a group date night.

Here I am about 30 weeks along and Aubrey is 18 weeks.

We met up with my sisters one afternoon for lunch at my favorite soup and salad place, Zupas. I just had to make sure we made a stop there! And I found out they are building one here in AZ, woohoo! Lunch was fantastic and I loved being able to spend time with my sisters.

On Thanksgiving day we were able to spend time with both of our families. Around noon, we went to my Grandma Black's house and had a fabulous dinner with my sisters and the aunts, uncles and cousins on my dad's side. Austin kind of freaked out when we walked into a house full of people he doesn't really know but Grandma came to the rescue in bringing out toy trucks and blocks. We tried to get a family pictures but Austin didn't really cooperate. Grandma Black put on a wonderful dinner and I was able to catch up with a lot of family that I haven't seen in a while.

Sisters at Thanksgiving

Next, we stopped by the Mt. Timp temple just for a few minutes since it is near my Grandma's house. Austin is really into temples right now and loves to see temple pictures and sing the temple song. The AZ temple is a little far away so I wanted him to be able to see and walk around a real temple.

Then we drove down to Provo for Matthew's family's Thanksgiving in the evening. It was the perfect way to end our Thanksgiving. Everything was set up so nicely and there were a lot of people we hadn't seen for a while. There were actually so many people we didn't even get a chance to talk to everyone! Again, Austin didn't like the crowd but he warmed up a little, especially when Dallin pulled up Elmo on his phone. We didn't get a group shot of everyone but we loved spending time with family. My sisters even stopped by at the end to say hi and that sure did change the evening...

...Ciera and Kayla were planning on spending the night at Ciera's apartment since all of their roommates were out of town for Thanksgiving so they asked me if I wanted to have a slumber party with them. At first I said no since I needed to get back to my in-laws house to put Austin to bed and to pack up all our stuff for our drive home the next day. But Matthew reminded me that he did have a boys night earlier in the week (consisting of him and his brothers playing video games all hours of the night with pizza, soda, candy, etc) so he encouraged me to have a girls night and that he would get everything packed up and come pick me up on our way out of town. So I totally went on a whim and had so much fun!

We went to a late night movie at the Provo dollar theater and stayed up late at night talking. I slept on Ciera's roommate's bed and Kayla brought in the couch cushions and crashed on the floor. I think this was the first time ever that I have been able to wake up without having Austin there. I even slept until 8:00am. I'm not sure the last time that happened! I made french toast for them in the morning and we decided to hit the mall! None of us have ever done the shopping thing on black Friday but the Black Sisters cannot seem to get together without having shopping involved! We all got an amazing deal on matching jeans at the Gap. Not that I can wear mine currently but that's ok. Then we met up with Matthew and Austin for lunch on BYU campus (Thank you Kayla for your dining plus card!) and I was welcomed to a fully packed car and two cute boys who missed me!

It was a fabulous trip crammed full of good times and now we are back and starting another tough quarter of classes. This will probably be our hardest round of classes yet so... let's have a baby during this quarter! Yeah, not sure what we were thinking. But we have lots of support around us and we are getting so close (8 weeks!) to met this little girl.

30 down and 10 to go

2011-11-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

I am now 30 weeks along and thought I should give a pregnancy update. Check out the beautiful fall colors at my grandparents house in Utah! Here's how things are going:
-I have been feeling great so far. I haven't had any more complications or pain since my little hospital episode and have been able to work on lots of projects. Yay!
-I went shopping for little girl things for the first time and had oh so much fun.
-We don't have a name picked out and are still adding names we like to a list. But honestly I am having a really hard time picking!
-Baby girl is measuring about a week small.
-She loves to kick and roll around all day long.
-I have started to get miagranes with this pregnancy. I have only had two so far so let's hope I don't get many more.
-Austin loves to remind me how big my tummy is getting and knows that there is a baby girl inside.
-I failed my glucose test recently and now have to go back and do the 3 hour test. Oh goody.
-I am still able to sleep ok but recently I wake up really early in the morning and can't ever go back to sleep so therefore naps have been more frequent for me.
-My heartburn has come back just like it did with Austin but nothing too bad.
-I am just now starting to feel big and awkward and doing things like carrying Austin or putting socks on are becoming hard.
-Overall, it's been a great journey so far and we can't wait to add this little girl to our family.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T15:36:00.004-07:00

We had such a fun Halloween this year! We kind of went all out and I had so much fun doing it. This year we went with a Greek theme. Austin was Hercules and Matthew and I were Zeus and Hera. We watched the Hercules movie a few times leading up to Halloween so that Austin would know his character. I decided to make our costumes this year and during the whole process Austin would not try on anything. I was so worried he really would not wear it come time, but he ended up being a great sport (Matthew too!) I actually had a lot of fun working on this project as Matthew has spend most evenings away studying leaving my evenings very open.

This one you can actually see Matthew's lighting bolt and my pregnant tummy (since I have very much been lacking in taking belly pictures this time)

Austin complete with a cape and a sword

Over the weekend we went to our church Trunk or Treat party. Austin loved playing all the games and seeing his friends dressed up, but once he saw the cupcakes everything had to pause and he HAD to have a cupcake break.

He understood much better this year how to go trick or treating and thoroughly loved picking out candy to put in his bag.

He liked picking out candy based on the color of the wrapper. He loves yellow therefore we have lots of peanut M&M's and milk duds which I am perfectly ok with!

Then on Halloween, Matthew's school put on a carnival for the kids. We first went trick or treating to the different offices on campus. Austin really understood this time and was off down the hallway from door to door.

He especially loved going with his good friend Peter who went as such a cute Robin Hood. I think Austin's favorite prize of the day was the toothbrush he got from the dental office. He wanted to hold it the whole time.

Once again, when Austin won a cupcake on the cupcake walk we immediately had to have a snack break. This kid is obsessed with cupcakes. Midwestern put on such a good carnival as you can see in the background. There was lots of candy, games, and crafts for the kids.

We all had such a good time and Austin was pretty worn out by the end of it. Overall, we had a blast celebrating Halloween this year!

Lately

2011-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Not too much has been going on but I thought I would just give a general update. This quarter of classes for Matthew has been really tough for all of us. His classes this time are just more intense and time consuming. He is definitely feeling more stress and pressure and Austin and I have definitely felt his absence a lot more. We will all be glad when this quarter ends in about 2 weeks.
Austin and I have been trying to keep busy. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to:

Austin is really into legos lately and this time he wanted to be all covered in them.

Austin loves to put on my necklaces when he sees me do it and really wanted a picture of both of us wearing them.

Austin starting sorting out his alphabet puzzle like this all by himself. I was quite impressed!

And we are always finding new things to play with.

Now that it is a little cooler, Austin loves to have a snack while sitting on our stairs and watch cars and trucks drive by. I think his mouth was full while he was trying to smile.

To go along with the season I have really been into baking with pumpkin and this blog has lots of yummy pumpkin recipes. I have tried the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (twice!) and the pumpkin french toast and loved both of them!
I have also made pumpkin bread using my roommate Laura's recipe and it is the best:
-3 c sugar
-1 c vegetable oil
-4 eggs
-1 1/2 t salt
-1t cinnamon
-2/3 c water
-2 c pumpkin
-3 1/2 c flour
-1 t baking soda
-1 t nutmeg
-1/4 t ground cloves
-1 c nuts
Combine and bake:
375 for 2 large loaves for 1 hr.
350 for 4 small loaves for 40-45 minutes

Partying....I mean Babysitting

2011-10-16T21:45:00.001-07:00

Ok I totally stole that title from my sister Jenna but it was the perfect description! My parents had the awesome opportunity to go to Moscow, Russia for a week and my youngest sister is 13 and living at home. So Jenna and I were both able to go home and be with Alyssa while my parents were away. It was so fabulous to spend time with Alyssa and Jenna while Austin got in some good cousin time with Cade and Rylee. I did get to see my parent for a day after they got back and got to hear all the cool things they did.

How awesome is that!

Here is my picture overload of what we did during the week together:

Alyssa is an 8th grade cheerleader at her school so we were able to go to one of her games and watch her cheer.

Rylee watching the game in all her cuteness

Ahh sorry its blurry! Alyssa is the cute little one in front :)

Our neighbor has chickens and let us come over one night to see the baby chick and to pick some eggs. Cade and Austin loved it.

(blogger would not let me turn this picture the right way)

Proof that Jenna and I were together! Sometimes we get so focused on the kids we forget to document ourselves. Try not to notice how Jenna's hair curls up so much better than mine!

Me getting in some girl time with Rylee!

Meeting up at the park with a couple of friends from home. We have 8 1/2 kids between all of us now! So fun to catch up with these girls.

Austin and Cade enjoying their gifts from Russia.

Making cookies with Alyssa! Austin is clothes-less because we had just come back from picking eggs at the neighbors and Austin fell in a mud hole. It was really sad and really funny all at the same time. He hates being dirty and he kept slipping and couldn't get out. Whereas Cade was just itching to jump in and was sad he couldn't play in it too.

This is what the boys did most of the time. They would fill up their carts and chase each other around the house.

What is with blogger suddenly not letting me put in vertical pictures? Anyone else have issues with that? I love this picture of Austin, Rylee and I jumping on the trampoline.

Austin and Cade loved sitting together when we went places and Jenna and I loved driving around Dad's car!

Jenna and I were also able to get some crafting nights in as well as go shopping together. We also stayed up way to late every night. It was a fun-filled week and I'm so glad my parents were safe and enjoyed Russia as well as letting me come home for a little trip too!

The Story

2011-10-14T13:55:00.003-07:00

So I am a little behind in blogging but I have had an intense couple of weeks. One week I was in Texas which was awesome but I will get to that in another post. This past week I spent some time in the hospital which was not so awesome. (You know how I was joking a few posts ago that both Matthew and Austin have had surgery this fall and that I guess I would be next?) Here is the story.

On Monday and Tuesday I was feeling really sick and nauseous and so didn't really eat or drink much. Wednesday I was feeling worse plus had a really bad back/side pain on my right side. Thankfully Matthew didn't have class on Wednesday morning so he hung out with Austin while I tried to sleep but this nagging pain was getting worse and I just couldn't ignore it anymore. I called my doctor and was told to come to the hospital so they could check it out and make sure baby girl was still doing ok. By this point my pain and nausea was so intense. They did a ultrasound where my pain was and found that my kidney was pretty swollen and inflamed which was causing the pain. They said this is somewhat common in pregnancy but not this bad and this early on (I was 23 weeks). They also found I was really dehydrated and that was causing contractions. I was admitted into the hospital and was given and IV of fluids and pain medication. But my pain was getting out of control. Seriously the worst pain I have ever felt. They were giving me narcotics but they would dull the pain for about an hour and then I was asking for more. They couldn't really do much for me since I'm pregnant and told me that I might have this pain for the rest of my pregnancy. REALLY? 4 months of this?? At this point Matthew had called his mom and she was on the next scheduled flight. She was a life saver! I stayed in the hospital for 2 two days and then was sent home with Tylenol and some Vicodin if I really needed it.

I lasted one day and one sleepless night at home in agony. The pain was so bad that I was also so nauseous and would literally force myself to eat or drink anything since I didn't want to get dehydrated again. The only sleep I got was for two hours right after I had taken a Vicodin and then was just up all night in severe pain. I waited until Matthew woke up and then we headed right back to the hospital again Saturday morning. I was just in tears my pain was so bad. But I was also concerned about heavy medication while pregnant. I was basically a mess. They admitted me again and took another ultrasound and kidney went from "moderately bad" to "severe". They thought there might be a kidney stone but they couldn't find one. Well at this point the only option was surgery but then again being pregnant they really didn't want to go that route. The surgery would put a stint in my kidney and that would help it drain better but not necessarily take away the pain. This surgery also has lots of side effects and the stint has to be changed every month. By this point I am literally begging the nurses for medication by the hour and was left with no other options so we decided to go the surgery route scheduled Sunday morning at 8am.

Early Sunday morning around 4am I woke up comfortable for the first time in 4 days with a nurse in my room. I asked her if she had already given me my pain medication, she said no she didn't. I was like "Are you sure? Because I feel no pain." She assured me I had no pain meds in me so I just decided to jump on the chance to sleep comfortably again. At around 7am I woke up again with zero pain. After talking to the doctor we decided to cancel the surgery one hour before it was scheduled. I don't know what happened but my pain was literally gone. It was purely just a miracle.

My doctor thinks it was a kidney stone although there is no proof. They couldn't ever find one in an ultrasound and I didn't ever feel like I "passed" one. But who knows. All I know is my pain is gone and I am just so thankful. My doctor said my kidney is still swollen and inflamed so chances are it will probably give me some more trouble the further along I become but for now I am good.

I am just so thankful for all the love and support I had throughout that horrible week from family and friends. Especially to my mother-in-law who flew down at a moment's notice and basically took over with Austin while I was in the hospital and Matthew was in class and studying. After I came home Sunday afternoon, Matthew pulled an all nighter up on campus studying for a test and didn't come home until after his test Monday morning. Poor guy.
Anyway, long story but I really am doing good now. However after almost a week of little sleep I feel a little zombie-ish (I guess this in in preparation for a few months from now) and am trying to sleep and take naps as much as possible. Little baby girl seems to be happy and loves kicking all the time!

Playdough

2011-09-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

I have given Austin playdough before to play with and he hated the texture and wouldn't touch it. I haven't really tried since then. So randomly he found a little tub of it and wanted to play with it. So I sat him at the table and tried it.
He was completely thrilled and silent while playing with it for almost a half an hour! Matthew and I were able to enjoy talking and making dinner together while he played.
His is so full of expressions it's hard not to include all the pictures I took of him!

Cutest dude ever!

Tongue Tied

2011-09-13T13:50:00.003-07:00

Matthew had surgery last month and this month it was Austin's turn. Let's hope the trend does not continue. We have known for a while he was going to need it and today was the day. Austin was born tongue tied. Actually that's the first thing the nurse said when he was born. I tried to find a current picture of him sticking out his tongue.

You can see that his tongue doesn't have a point to it and we lovingly refer to it as "butt tongue" Here is another picture I found online.

Here is some info about it from here.
The medical term for the condition known as tongue-tie is "ankyloglossia". It results when the frenulum (the band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is too short and tight, causing the movement of the tongue to be restricted.
Tongue-tie is congenital (present at birth) and hereditary (often more that one family member has the condition). It occurs relatively often: between 0.2% and 2% of babies are born with tight frenulums.

So Austin had a frenetomy to get it clipped. It's a pretty minor surgery. Interesting that it is hereditary because my twin sister and I were both born tongue tied! It usually causes problems with breast feeding and eventually speech problems. Austin didn't really have any problems with nursing so we let it go for awhile but when I took him to the ENT he said it was a pretty significant case and we should get it clipped. However we couldn't find a doctor who would take our insurance so we had to wait until I could switch plans so now we finally got it done. I'm curious to see if our baby girl is tongue tied since neither of my sister's kids are.

Here is Austin all ready to go.

He got really excited when I told him he gets to have medicine.

I tried to prepare Austin for what was coming. I told him they were going to make him fall asleep and when he wakes up his tongue is going to hurt just like Daddy's leg hurts. He really did seem to understand. The hardest part was having the nurse tell me after all the paperwork was done and he was changed into his hospital gown, "Ok, hand him over to me and you can leave through that door." Excuse me, what? It was so sad handing the nurse by little baby while he is screaming and then having to hear him scream all down the hallway. I wished they had told me about that part a little sooner so I could have prepared Austin (and myself). But the anesthesia quickly put him under and the procedure took maybe 15 minutes and then when he woke up they came and got me. They told me to be prepared if he woke up screaming and thrashing like some kids do but Austin was really calm and just told me his mouth hurt.

As soon as we got home we did his two favorite things, drank juice and watched Cars. He just cuddled with me and told me every once in a while his mouth hurt. But overall he is recovering great and this is what most of our day today looks like.

Bring It On!

2011-09-01T14:32:00.002-07:00

Exciting news!
Bring on the ribbons and curls because we are having a GIRL!! Woo Hoo! We are so excited (Matthew too!) I can't wait for Austin to have a little sister and to play dress up with her!
Now we start the process of thinking of names.
And making headbands.

The other exciting thing that happened this week is Matthew starting his second year of Podiatry School. This was the first week of classes. Matthew actually skipped the first class on the first day so he could come find out the gender with me. We are back to the daily grind of busy med school life as this will be his last year of lecture classes before he starts clinical rotations. Bring it on.

Austin was nice enough to help Matthew look over some material after class. You can also see the after effects of Matthew's latest surgery on his knee.

First day of school picture! He sure does hate it when I take these pictures but he's a good sport!

Aubrey and Aaron

2011-08-28T21:28:00.005-07:00

Last week Matthew's sister Aubrey and her 15 month old son Aaron were able to come down from Utah to visit. We had been talking about doing this for awhile and we finally made it happen. Austin and Aaron were so cute together and spend the whole ride home from the airport just staring and laughing at each other. We loved having them here and did some fun things while they were in town but mostly we loved watching the cousins interact and play with each other.
While they were here, Matthew's brother Brian and his wife Michelle were driving back to Utah from a summer job and we happen to be the perfect halfway point for them to stop and visit. It was definitely a full house over the weekend! But I'm so glad we were able to spend time with them. Here are some of the things we did:

These little boys loved playing with these firetrucks. It's a good thing we had two!

We enjoyed some yumminess at Jamba Juice and Fuddruckers.

I think we went swimming about 3 times during the week!

Aubrey, Michelle and I were able to sneak away for a little bit while the boys were sleeping. We went out to lunch and then to go see The Help. So good! It's was so nice to have a little girl time. Thanks to Brian for letting us go!

One afternoon we took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. It took some warming up to the rides but they ended up loving it. They went on rides, watch other kids go on rides, went up and down the slide and enjoyed some bread sticks. It was the perfect thing to do on a really really hot afternoon.

We also went to the Children's Museum. Austin just loves it there. I didn't get any pictures of them together but they both had fun!

This was Aaron's favorite room. It had all different tunnels and chutes you could put balls into. It was so cute to watch him do it.

We also took advantage of Sonic happy hour drinks a couple of different times. This Sonic is an inside one. I have never seen one like it before and it's really close by. Perfect for the summer heat! Austin decided to order for us :)

Last, we tried to get a picture of us all together but Austin just flipped out once I brought the camera out so he hung out in the background.

So where was Matthew during this whole week?? Remember when he broke his leg last fall and had to have major surgery including getting a metal plate and screws in his leg? Well it wasn't healing right so he was able to hang out with us for the first couple days but then he had surgery again on his knee to take out the hardware and to scope it out to make sure everything looked ok. It went well and his is recovering. So he mostly hung out on the couch all week playing video games.

Thanks to Aubrey for making the trip out here!

Here We Go Again!

2011-08-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce that we are expecting baby number 2!!
We are thrilled and can't wait to see Austin as an other brother!
I am due February 4th. (So happy we missed the Christmas season!)
Thoughts on pregnancy-wow, I had forgotten how tired I always am and how I don't enjoy growing out of my clothes. It's currently quite hard to fit comfortably in most of my pants.
Thoughts on the gender- You know, I really would be happy with either! I think a boy would be easy and it would be great for Austin to have a little buddy not to mention I have boy things but a girl would be oh so fun!
Thoughts on having two kids- A little bit overwhelming to say the least, but I have so many great examples of family and friends who can give advice! Austin and new baby will be 2 1/2 years apart which is perfect I think.
Thoughts on names-none so far. We actually haven't even discussed it at all! We are waiting until we find out the gender to figure that out. (Which is coming up in 3 weeks!)
We are very excited and can't wait for this new addition to our family.

HP and BYU

2011-07-31T20:25:00.005-07:00

Anyone else sad that there are no more Harry Potter movies to look forward to? Matthew and I have loved the series both reading and watching and enjoyed a date night going to see the last movie recently. We thought it ended very well.

Another thing we both love is BYU and their comedy group Divine Comedy. They are funny but sometime only in a dorky BYU kind of way.

So, If you appreciate and BYU and Harry Potter than this is worth watching. Click here.

And if that video didn't do it for you here are a couple others of my little dude that I think are way worth watching!

Austin's Birthday Party

2011-07-24T19:41:00.001-07:00

On Friday we had a little birthday party with some of Austin's friends. He is really into saying his friends' names and loves playing with them. We had a very low-key party as it was a bunch of 2 year olds. We did a train theme.

Austin helped me with the cupcakes by putting in a train flag when I was done frosting each one. He loved helping.

Here are the kids all decorating cupcakes.

Austin opening presents from his awesome and generous friends

We played Pin the Train onto the track. Each child got to put up one train and this is what we got!

So very simple but so very fun. I think we all had a great time.

Austin Turns 2

2011-07-21T14:54:00.002-07:00

This week my little boy turned 2! He has changed so much over the past few months and is really a full out toddler boy. He has really picked up talking. He can put two and three words together. Some of his most often phrases are "big truck" "cold water" "Austin's car" "snack!" "red truck" and many others. He will sometimes just babble a whole story to me like its the most important thing for me to hear. He will sometimes repeat back new words he hears or just make up his own version. The worst one is milk. Austin saying milk sounds very clearly like the F word. It's horrible! I don't know how that transferred but I try to avoid that word in public as much as I can! He knows most of his alphabet but I think his favorite letters are B and W. He always points them out when we see them.

Austin's favorite things right now are cars and trucks. He would play with them all day! He is also very into fire trucks, ambulances, trains and buses. He loves to line up all his cars and trucks to make trains. (I think he got that from his cousin Cade!) He also love Mommy to play cars with him and wants us to crash and drive all over. His favorite spot to play cars is on our couch. He will sit on it or kneel next to it and drive cars all around the cushions and pillows.

He is also really into his teddy bear, puppy dog and baby doing things with him like sitting at the table to eat, reading books and things like that. He loves to give hugs and kisses other babies and likes to identify when people are happy and sad or when different things are big or small. Reading books is another of his favorite things and can he say some of the words to books we read often.

Austin is still very much a picky eater and is also very sensitive when it comes to textures. He just recently started to eat cut up strawberries and peaches but won't touch them with his hand, he has to use a fork. He still hates most vegetables and it's a struggle to get any veggies into him. On the flip side though Austin is a fantastic sleeper. He still takes one long nap in the middle of the day and then sleeps 10-11 hours at night. He has to have binkie and blanket while going to sleep but is the easiest toddler to put to bed. At two Austin is 30 lbs and 35 inches tall.

Here are a few pictures and things we have done lately.

Playing at the children's museum on Austin's birthday. His favorite things to do are to play with the kitchen and in the marketplace.

Austin and I enjoying some free bagel poppers at Einstein Bagels. He loved sitting in a big boy chair and sharing a snack with mommy.

Austin LOVES chocolate. But he usually eats it instead of playing with it.

His favorite spot to play with cars.

One time we were running an errand close to nap time and I have given him some yogurt pretzels while driving home and when I turned around this is what I saw.

Just yesterday I went to get Austin after his nap and he told me that he was reading a book to his teddy bear, baby and puppy dog. So cute!

We love our little dude so much and love to see him grow and develop. We had a great birthday and look forward to his party with his friends.

How Fun!

2011-07-11T12:46:00.003-07:00

Too bad there isn't one close to me. I would have been all over that! I guess I will settle for a free slurpie today at 7-11. (Since today is 7/11).

4th of July

2011-07-09T16:14:00.001-07:00

We had Matthew's parents in town over the holiday weekend. Austin loves his Nonna and Pa and really warmed up to them quickly. We mostly had a low key weekend and just talked and enjoyed each other's company all the while taking turns playing cars with Austin :)

On the 4th, Matthew and his dad went golfing in the morning while Matthew's mom, Austin and I went shopping at the outlets. Then we all came back and napped :) In the afternoon we went swimming and grilled up some hamburgers. We actually didn't see any fireworks since it was still over 100 degrees at 9pm and Austin isn't that fun when he misses his bedtime but we enjoys milkshakes at home and it still ended our day great!

We sure had a great time with the Graffs. Thanks for coming!

Cars 2

2011-06-30T22:48:00.001-07:00

We took Austin to the movie theater for the first time ever. He loves the first Cars movie. Sometimes he will wake up and bring me the remote while saying "Cars, Cars." It's very cute but more often than not I have to turn down that cute little request. But his attention span doesn't last an entire movie so we were worried that he wouldn't stick through it. But we wanted to give it a try. We explained to him where we were going and he was so excited.

He loved sitting in his own big chair and I think he was mesmerized by the huge screen. He got so excited when it started and kept shouting "Cars, Cars!" With snacks and drinks, he lasted through it but towards the end it was nearing nap time so I did sneak in binkie and blanket to help him finish the movie.

Overall I did like the movie but I didn't appreciate the guns, shooting, violence, and characters shouting "Kill him, kill him." I think I rated it with a little paranoia since this is my child watching it and so I want it to be clean. Also the story line was way complex and complicated. However, it was a very pretty movie, meaning all the graphics were done really well and I liked all the cultural things they put in since the characters are traveling around the world. But I love the first movie (and can almost quote it by heart) and I think we will stick with that one.

It was a great experience and we wanted to take advantage of the under-two-years-old are free deal. (However, the ticket lady didn't believe he was under two!) It's so fun to have Austin be really into something and then to take him to this and to see how excited he got. I think he felt like such a big kid and it made for a fun Saturday morning.

26 on the 26th

2011-06-26T22:02:00.001-07:00

Today I turned 26!

Check out the awesome cake Matthew made me! I can assure you that I did not turn 92 like the cake implies. I promise it really says 26.

I had such a great day. Matthew made me breakfast and dinner and changed all the diapers today :) What more could you ask for!

Also a big happy happy birthday to my twin sister Jenna. Her blog is private but she did a really cute post about how we have shared all of our birthdays so if you are invited to read hers go do it!

California Part 2

2011-06-25T17:38:00.003-07:00

After our time with the Graff Family we headed down to San Diego with our good friends from AZ the Gunnells. We shared a condo and mostly just enjoyed time away from home. The husbands enjoyed golfing one day, each of us took a date night, and the kids played great together. The Gunnells have twins that are a couple months younger than Austin. The first day we went to Seaport Village and walked around and did some window shopping in their cute shops.

Sitting on the Ben and Jerry's cow.

Austin kept pointing out to us the boats and the bridge

Austin was mesmerized by a kite shop that we walked past that had tons of spinning kites out front. Of course the truck and the airplane were his favorites.

Another day we went to the beach! It was a little chilly and windy but totally worth it. This was Austin's first reaction to the beach:

Austin was intrigued by the water at first but then once it hit his feet he wanted nothing to do with it.

But I was definitely ok with that. The kids had so much playing in the endless amount of sand.

Austin didn't mind being buried until he realized he couldn't get out by himself!

Austin really wanted to help Daddy play Frisbee.

Needless to say, there was sand everywhere! And it was completely impossible to change a diaper on the beach and not have sand involved. It took lots of scrubbing at bathtime to finally get all the sand out of Austin's hair.

So much fun. Gotta love the beach.

The last day in San Diego we went to Sea World. We had a blast. We spent the morning in the kiddie area riding rides, and letting Austin run and play.

Then we went back to the condo and took naps! In the afternoon we tried to hit as many shows as we could. I think Austin liked the sea lion show the best. He sat there the whole time, staring at the sea lions, eating popcorn, and laughing when everyone else around him laughed.

This is Austin at the dolphin show.

Overall, San Diego was a fabulous and much needed trip and we were so glad the Gunnells could join us.

California Part 1

2011-06-10T12:44:00.006-07:00

So I am way behind in updates! Matthew has finished his first year of Podiatry School! Woo Hoo! I am very proud of the hard work he has done and it is so great to have a year under our belts now. We have lived here in AZ now for over a year and we really love it here. We have met some awesome friends and love all the support we have out here. We had a two week break, which was so fabulous, and then he started summer term this week. No summer break for us so we really crammed so much into the 2 weeks that we had. It will take a few posts to get everything in.

First off, the Graff family gathered in California to spend some good quality time together. We stayed in a really fun resort and Austin loved seeing everyone. We spent most of our time at the pool, and playing together.

Floating down the lazy river

Playing in the kiddie pool with cousin Aaron

Enjoying time together!

I think this picture is funny because it looks like Austin in naked! But he is really is wearing his speedo!

Austin couldn't get enough of being thrown back and forth between daddy and Pa. He was laughing so hard!

Aubrey and Aaron! Austin loved time with his cousin.

Austin has really been talking a lot lately and is learning new words every day. We taught him all the Graff family names and he did so good trying to say everyone's names. It was really cute!

Phoenix Zoo

2011-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we went to the Phoenix Zoo with some friends. It was nice to go when it wasn't so miserably hot yet. It was our first time there and we had such a good time. I think Austin's favorite animals were the flamingos, pelicans and snakes.This was Austin's reaction to the elephants:

I think they were a lot bigger than pictures of elephants he has seen in books!

While we were there, I ran into my friend Megan! We were in the same major at BYU and had several classes together. We live just far enough away that we hadn't gotten together since I moved to AZ so it was so fun to see her. We both have boys named Austin!

The two other boys that came with us also had blond hair making them look like triplets! These little boys were so cute together. They would hold hands, copy each other and laugh together.

So yes, I realize I actually have no pictures of the animals we saw, but we really did go to the Zoo!

Easter Pictures

2011-05-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

My very talented friend took some Easter pictures of Austin in all his Sunday cuteness. I wanted Austin to have something new to wear on Easter so I made him a little bow tie with matching suspenders.

Of course Dad had to have a matching bow tie!

I love how they turned out! Thanks Jessy!

Suture-Off

2011-05-11T13:50:00.002-07:00

In Matthew's podiatry program they have had an ongoing competition on who can do the most and best looking sutures (stitches). This has been great practice for when he will have to stitch up patients after surgery. The 8 remaining competitors went into the finale where they were suited up, gloved and looked really like doctors! They even put vasaline all over their gloves to simulate real surgery. Here is Matthew all ready to go.

They stitched on pieces of felt and were judged on technique, spacing, and how many suters they could do in a 3 minute time period. They competed two at a time and soon went down to 4 people remaining, 2 people remaining and guess who won the whole competition? Yes, Matthew won 1st place! Woo hoo! I was a very proud wife. This is while he was stitching for the win.

Austin was a champ the whole time but he didn't recognize Daddy with all his gear on.

Here is Matthew with his stitches on the clipboard and his prize, an Ipod touch!

My husband is a suture champ!

Easter

2011-04-29T16:25:00.003-07:00

We had a fun Easter this year. We went to a few easter egg hunts in the community and Austin got the hang of it pretty fast. (We had practiced a few times at home first.) His favorite thing to do was to open the eggs, dump the contents in the basket, and then throw the now useless egg back in the grass.

Austin loved to jump in the bounce house but he clung to the wall the whole time to prevent getting trampled by other kids.

Easter morning we made Resurrection Rolls. When you open them they are empty just like how the tomb of Christ was found on the morning of the third day. I think this is a cute way of teaching the reason why we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of our Savior.

(Picture and recipe taken from The Sisters' Cafe)

I plan on making this a tradition every year for Easter morning!

Austin wore a very cute Easter outfit to church but pictures are still coming.

When Daddy's in Charge...

2011-04-17T15:01:00.002-07:00

...you get to

wrestle,

sit on the counter while making pancakes,

stay in pajamas all day long,

play video games,

and wear cool sunglasses.

No wonder Austin loves his Daddy so much.

Train Park

2011-04-14T13:59:00.001-07:00

A few days ago, we got together with some families from Matthew's school and went to the Scottsdale Train Park. We planned a picnic dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Austin is really into trains right now and loved to see and point to all the "choo choos." It was such a cool park with a huge playground,a carousel and train to ride, and lots of grassy areas to run and play. We all had a blast.

Riding the Carousel. No need to tell you if he liked it!

Riding the Train

The best attempt at a family picture. It was taken after our train ride. Austin wasn't too thrilled about having to get off the train.

And the park.

We will for sure be coming back!

What a Sport

2011-04-06T20:56:00.002-07:00

We are teaching self confidence at a very young age:

Poor little guy has to put up with whatever Mommy dresses him up in. There is only so much you can do with boys! We have been loving the pool lately and spent this afternoon with some friends. Even though there were lots of kids and toys to play with, Austin chose to spend most of the time away from everyone on a beach chair:

He did finally warm up to getting in the water:

Just look at that cute smile! He's a keeper, speedo and all.

Videos

2011-03-20T21:46:00.002-07:00

Here is what Austin gets to do when he is sick:

We just can't seem to kick the sicknesses going around. Mostly he has this horrendous cough. Hopefully this sickness will pass quicker than the last time.

I wanted to post some videos of some non-sick times we have had. Austin is really starting to talk and it's so cute. He also just loves to babble too. These videos are kinda long and not super exciting but of course I think they are adorable!

First Swim of the Year

2011-03-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday

2011-03-11T13:55:00.001-07:00

It's pretty much summer time already. It reached 87 degrees yesterday. Time to break these out:

Austin helped me make another treat yesterday. This one was quite a bit more healthy than the last treat we made together. He helped me make peanut butter balls. I got the recipe from one of my favorite kid-friendly cooking websites here. Again, he loved to help and concentrated really hard while stirring and dipping the balls in coconut.

Yes, we sat on the kitchen floor while we made these and please excuse Austin's post-nap hair! The last picture is Austin eating a peanut butter ball. He popped the whole thing in his mouth and then kept asking for more. I'm so glad he likes them as they are a great, healthy snack.

A little later we went out on our porch to blow bubbles and Austin really wanted to do it himself. He didn't really get any bubbles to form but he sure played with the bottle for a long time. He just sat outside and kept pulling the bubble stick in and out of the bottle. It was one of those spill proof bottles. It was really cute to watch.

I sure love this little boy!

Spring Break

2011-03-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

Having a break is so nice! We didn't go anywhere but just enjoyed the time together and relaxed. Matthew got to spend the whole week with Austin and I. Here are a few of the things we did last week during the break:
- Got free pancakes on National Pancake Day (Thanks for the tip Jenna!)

-Went to the Children's Museum. Austin loved it so much! It was so fun to watch him play. The Market and the Noodle Forest were his favorites.

-Checked out the local farmers' market and got the best best tasting oranges I have ever had
-Took advantage of out 70 degree weather to spend some time outside
-Austin went on some errands with Matthew and came home with this:

Of course Austin loved his first ice-cream cone and of course a huge mess was to follow and we didn't even get into the whole edible cone thing.

Overall, great week and now back to real life starting today.

Cinnamon Rolls

2011-02-28T14:18:00.001-07:00

Last week was not so fun. It was finals week for Matthew and so that made him pretty non-existent for the week and Austin was sick so I couldn't get out and do much. There was lots of Mommy-Austin time at home. So I decided to try something different.
One thing Austin loves more than anything is to help in the kitchen. Whenever I start to cook something he immediately goes to get one of his play spoons and just begs me to pick him up so he can help. So I decided to make a treat and to let me "help" me. I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls so thats what we made (don't worry, it was my day off of the wellness challenge!)
To say that he loved it was an understatement. He concentrated so hard and did surprisingly well when I told him to do certain things. But could I have picked a messier treat? It took a lot of patience to not be bothered at all the sugar and cinnamon being sprinkled, um more like dumped onto the kitchen floor. It took everything I had not to clean up messes and Austin was making them.
I couldn't get very good pictures as I had messy hands, trying to hold Austin on the stool so he wouldn't fall and trying to control how much cinnamon and sugar went flying everywhere all at the same time.

I think Austin's favorite part was putting the cinnamon rolls into the pan as I cut them. It was really funny to watch though because he would just plop them anywhere, even right on top of another one. They turned out so yummy! I got the recipe here at one of my new favorite recipe sites.
This week is starting out so much better. Since Matthew has finished finals, this week is our spring break. So I see a lot more Daddy-Austin time in the very near future. :)

Valentines Date

2011-02-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Since I was out of town for Valentine's Day, we celebrated this weekend. Matthew planned a surprise date for us and wouldn't tell me where we were going until we pulled up to it. He took me to the Arizona Broadway Theatre. It's a theatre that serves dinner and a show all in the same place. Such a great idea since we both love musicals. I didn't even know this theatre existed and it was 10 minutes from where we live. We has such a good time and we saw My Fair Lady.

I love going on dates and this was perfect. Matthew is the best at thinking up creative ideas like that. I love my Valentine!

Texas Visit

2011-02-17T22:15:00.002-07:00

I love a chance to go home and see my family and last weekend Austin and I did just that. One of the best things about it was my sister Jenna was able to come from Kansas to be there too! The reason for us going is that my high school was hosting a craft fair and we had a booth there.

Don't mind the panther eating Jenna's head in the picture. It was so fun to be there and to promote Redd Threadds. It was a great day and I loved seeing old friends from high school. A big thanks to my dad for watching all 3 kiddos while we were gone all day.

While we were there, my littlest sister had her 13th birthday. I can't believe she is a teenager now. She has never liked cake so she always has a donut tower instead. She had her party at a laser tag/bumper car place.

Austin loves his cousins so much and had so much fun playing with them.

This was our best attempt at a group shot:

So glad we were able to go! However my wellness challenge took a hit on this trip ie: no sleep, no exercise, and I couldn't resist Kayla homemade cookies. :) Ah well, I think it was worth it.

The Challenge

2011-02-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

The wellness challenge that I am doing now is 3 weeks in and I am glad to say that I am doing better than I expected overall. Things I have learned about myself so far:
-I CAN get up everyday at 6:30 to go workout if I really put my mind to it. But there have been those mornings where losing a point sounds a lot more appealing then getting up.
- I am a sucker for desserts. I had book club tonight and totally gave in to the wonderful strawberry shortcake.
-I have realized that I really don't eat enough vegetables every day. I have to eat 2 veggies every day to get a point for it and sometimes I really struggle to do it. I have to constantly think about it when I cook.
-Overall I am really glad I am doing this. Even if I retain only one of these good habits, I feel that the challenge was worth it. (And a little prize money wouldn't hurt either!)

On a unrelated note, I have totally gotten into decorating for Valentine's Day. Kind of a random holiday to decorate for but I have seen so many cute projects floating around in blog land that I had to try some of them out. Here is what I have made.

Cupcake liner wreath from here

Subway art from here with the roses made from here

18 months

2011-01-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

Austin just turned 18 months this past week. We just love this little boy so much and can't believe we have a toddler now instead of a little baby! He got to go to nursery this week at church for the first time. He loved it! He just went right in and started playing. Once he saw us leave he was a little sad but was distracted easily. I spied on him a couple of times and he was reading books with everyone and having a great time. I have to say that I also had a great Sunday being able to sit through all the meetings and actually hear the lessons.

Here are the other things we are loving about Austin:
-He is very expressive and has a very outgoing personality
-Still loves to cuddle with me and give hugs and kisses
-Loves to run in big open places
-Is becoming less picky with foods and is really good at feeding himself
-Sleeps through the night with one nap during the day
-Is in the 80 percentile for height and weight
-He babbles and talks all day long but can only say a handful of words
-Loves to help me with everything especially if its anything to do with cooking
-Copies things I do such as putting on makeup, putting on shoes, or cleaning things.
-Very social with other kids and loves to give hugs to babies
-Loves to read books and sing songs
-Bubbles are his favorite thing in the world
-Could spend all day outside if I would let him.

Helping

2011-01-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Austin loves to help with whatever I am doing especially if it involves anything in the kitchen. This is how Austin "helped" me cook the other day.

I lost half my basil seasoning in the process but look how happy he was!

Lemons into Lemonade

2011-01-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

Usually this saying implies something negative somehow being turned around into something positive. But for us today it is quite literal. We went and picked lemons today and there were so many we could have lemonade for months! It was such a beautiful day, about 68 degrees and sunny. There is an orchard right on campus where Matthew goes to school and so we went as a play date to pick oranges and lemons. Austin loved running around, picking fruit, finding sticks, and playing in the dirt.

There was also a huge tractor just sitting there which Austin absolutely loved exploring. I have a feeling our winter, if you can even call it that, has ended and that it just is going to heat up from here on. I would love this weather all year round. My kitchen now smells very citrus-y!

Wellness Challenge 2011

2011-01-09T21:25:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what I have gotten myself into! As kind of an impulse decision, I signed up for a wellness challenge to start the new year off right. It is kind of intense and I am afraid it's going to kick my butt. But I am also excited to try it and see how it goes. There is money prizes at stake as well so that helps with motivation I suckered Matthew into doing it with me and at least we can struggle together! In the challenge you can earn up to 10 points every day for the following things:
1 point each for:
-7 hours of sleep (naps count too)
- 48 oz of water
- 45 minutes of exercise
- 2 servings of fruits, 2 servings of veggies
- No soda, beer, wine, or unhealthy snacks
- No sweets. (Desserts, pastries, sugary snacks and cereals)
-No eating after dinner or 8pm
- 15 minutes of scripture reading
- One journal entry (any length)
- One act of kindness

Some of these things won't be a problem for me like soda and sleep. I think my challenges will be exercising every day (mostly because I will have to do it early in the morning or late at night), 48 oz of water--that's a lot of water!, and lets be honest, the no sweets things is going to be the hardest! I love a little treat after dinner--or in the afternoon. Oh and the journal entry every day will be tough. There will probably be a lot more small postings on the blog as I count this as somewhat journaling :)
Wish me luck! This is what I will be doing for the next 12 weeks!

Christmas Time

2011-01-03T23:08:00.001-07:00

We were in Salt Lake for Christmas this year with Matthew's family. Austin met so many new family members and did surprisingly well at recognizing everyone. We had a great time and loved the time to spend with family that we don't see as often as we would like. Despite the flu bug getting to just about everyone we had an overall great trip.
Austin loves opening presents. I think it was mostly the ripping paper part that appealed to him but he also loves his new toys. Here is Austin Christmas morning:

We got to spend lots of time with cousins while in Utah. We got to meet Aaron for the first time. We moved away just days before he was born and finally we are able to meet! Austin and Aaron were so handsome in matching church outfits.

Jenna and Cole were also in Utah during Christmas. So we were able to get some quality cousin time.

Austin with all his cousins

It snowed! Austin was a little confused about what all the snow was about but he loved sledding and playing in it.

Sledding with Matthew's little sisters and cousin Aaron

Last of all here are a random assortment of pictures from Christmas of us having fun and hanging out.

Playing Just Dance 2. LOVE this game!

bowling with the sisters-in-law

Matthew is still on crutches and couldn't bowl so he hung out with Aaron instead

taking a bath in the sink

Dancing with Grandpa. Austin calls him "pa"

donuts on New Year's Eve

Riding with "Nona"

A Little Bit of Everything

2010-12-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We have been super busy around here so the holiday season has snuck up on us and therefore the blogging lacking. Sadly, one of the project I did not complete was Christmas cards. I love sending them out every year but and it has always been on my list of things to do but I guess it was always near the bottom and then I ran out of time. But Merry Christmas to everyone anyway!

Matthew's leg is healing but quite slowly. It still has lots of fluid and is swollen and can't do much with his leg except to bend his knee. He has spent countless hours studying lately due to three tests right before the Christmas break. Austin sometimes likes to help him study:

Austin lately has been so cute and fun to play with. He loves making towers. He will make a tower with pretty much anything he can find that will stack. For example:

He is also really trying to say words. He can say dada, mama, bubbles, cheese, moon. I know, random assortment! He also does lots of signing which helps him ask for things he wants. I feel like recently he really is understanding everything I say and it's fun to see him respond!

Drinking Contest

2010-12-05T20:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, we were able to go to Texas to see my family for Thanksgiving despite Matthew's broken leg and surgery. He was in a lot of pain while traveling but was a trooper and was glad to be with family for Thanksgiving. His pain has decreased tremendously but still is usually confined to the couch with his leg elevated and iced. He just has his post op appointment and was told he can start bending his knee slightly but still cannot put any pressure on it and will be on crutches for 12 weeks. He has started a new semester of classes this week which has added a little more difficulty to his schedule but we are making it work. Austin constantly lets us know that Matthew's leg is hurt and often times gives his leg hugs.

I will have to do a separate post for Thanksgiving as I don't have all the pictures from family yet, but I did have some really cute pictures of Austin and his cousin Cade. They were playing outside together and then decided it was time to take a break and get some water. They kept taking turns watching each other drink and it seemed like they were trying to out drink each other!

These boys had so much fun together! Yay for cousins!

Matthew's Break

2010-11-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, Matthew is done with final exams for this quarter and he has a break from school for the next couple of weeks. However, he also got another break. He broke his leg this weekend playing basketball! We took him to the ER and found out that he fractured his tibia. It's so sad. This happened on his first day of freedom from class and he is now confined to the couch or to crutches and is in a lot of pain. We were also scheduled to leave town and fly to Texas this morning but that obviously didn't happen. Tomorrow morning Matthew is going in for surgery. They have to put in a metal plate and screw in his leg to reattach the bone together. Let's hope everything goes well. This is how Matthew can be found lately:

Poor guy. He will be on crutches for about 6-8 weeks.

Halloween

2010-11-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

This year for Halloween we went with a sports theme. Austin was a football player, I was a cheerleader and Matthew was a referee. We had so much fun dressing up and Austin was such a good sport about wearing his helmet. Friday afternoon we went to a carnival that Matthew's school put on for the kids. Then on Saturday night we went to our Trunk-or-Treat. Austin loved picking out candy from people's bowls and putting it into his bag.

Austin loved fishing at the carnival

Taking a water break

So people went all out in decorating their trunks so we decided to decorate as well.

This is the only picture I could get of Austin actually trick-or-treating

And is is on the run. This was Austin's favorite part. He loved running all around amongst all the other kids.

Fall Festivities

2010-11-01T16:31:00.002-07:00

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends to pick out a pumpkin and enjoy the activities they had for kids. We found out something about Austin while we were there. First is that he really doesn't like animals, especially petting them. This is the face we got from him anytime we brought him over to pet an animal:

He hasn't really been around pets all that much so I guess he is just scared of animals. Here are a couple more from the corn maze we walked through and picking out a pumpkin.

Then we were able to carve our pumpkin with some friends. Matthew did an awesome job with the ghost he made. Austin wasn't much help but he was really good at eating pumpkin cookies.

This fall Matthew has been playing on some intermural sports at his school. Austin and I love to go watch him play. The teams he has been playing on are a bunch of other first year podiatry students. In volleyball, his team won the championship! Yay! We are hoping for a cool T-shirt or something like they do at BYU! In softball, his team made it to the first playoff game. In the last game they played, Matthew was pitching and was picking up a grounder but it popped up and got him in the face. He got a pretty good black eye from it. You can see it in the picture of Austin and Matthew below.

Austin is clapping for Matthew after he made a hit.

Dude Face

2010-10-21T13:57:00.003-07:00

Yes, that is Austin's nickname. I'm not sure how it came about, but it is the one that has stuck. Our little dude is now 15 months old. He has changed so much over the last few weeks and is more of a toddler now than my little baby boy. Here are his new developments:
-He has 8 teeth now. (4 of them came in at the same time last week)
-weighs 25 lbs (70 percentile)
-Is 32 inches tall (80 percentile)
-He is a walking machine. He started walking at 14 months and now just wants to walk everywhere. However, he is a little too confident in his new ability and therefore always has bumps and bruises from falling down.
-Austin loves spoons of any kind. Whenever we go anywhere Austin has a spoon in hand. It's even kind of a joke now whenever we go to the pool, playgroup, store, etc. He just loves to stir things and scoop things.
-He is also really into pots and pans lately. In the picture below you can see he set out all the pans and gave them all lids! He would play with them all day long. So I got him his own mini set which he loves! (Notice all the spoons in the background. The bigger the spoon, the more he wants it)
-Austin has become such a picky eater. I can count about 8 things that I know he will eat and none of those are veggies! He has really started to want to feed himself so maybe that will help but we are really trying hard to expand his menu.
-He has finally learned to drink from a sippy cup. Yes, it really has taken him this long! He nursed just fine but it took him awhile to figure out how to use the sippy cup.
-Austin loves to do things he sees Matthew and I do. His favorite things to imitate are brushing teeth, putting on makeup, stirring cooking food (of course), talking on the cell phone and putting on shoes.
-Austin has been learning baby sign. He can sign milk, water, eat, more, all done, cookie, bird, bath, hat, book and ball.
-He is learning body parts and can point to his head, ears, eyes, nose, and belly button.
-I love my little dude face!

Playing at the Park

2010-10-10T10:56:00.005-07:00

This week has been the first time since we moved here that the temperatures have been under 90 degrees during the day. It has felt wonderful. So we made a trip to the park for a playdate. Austin loved going down the slide...

...swinging...

...but most of all he loved scooping up dirt into his cup.

White Coat Ceremony

2010-10-04T13:58:00.008-07:00

Over the weekend Matthew received his white coat. This is a ceremony in many medical schools to symbolize the start of their professional career and the students all recite an oath to uphold medical morals and ethics.
I'm so proud of Matthew and excited for this experience.
This is my friend Heather's picture. She does amazing photography and it was such a good shot of all the students in their white coats reading the oath.
Matthew's mom was able to come in town for the ceremony and it was so nice to be able to spend the weekend with her. Austin loved having someone else to play with.
Doesn't Matthew look so official!

Austin's 12 month Pictures

2010-09-29T21:43:00.004-07:00

Our good friends the Dicksons took these adorable 12 month pictures of Austin. I love how they turned out. They totally show off Austin's personality. These are my favorites:

And of course that tongue of his...

$25 and Under Boutique

2010-09-19T20:25:00.002-07:00

Come say hi to me if you come! :)

Random Happenings

2010-09-08T20:27:00.002-07:00

Not a whole lot has been happening around here lately but Austin sure is growing up more and more these days. These are some of his new things:
-He is starting to walk with support.
-His third tooth has come in. It's one of the top front teeth.
-He has suddenly become a very picky eater. I can count the things he likes on one hand.
-He has a weird obsession with playing with kitchen utensils. Wooden spoons, ladles, slotted spoons, anything like that he loves to play with.
-He is learning baby sign and now can do signs for milk, hat, and bath.

In other news, Matthew is doing very well in Med school so far. He has aced his first two tests. He spends lots of time studying but is really enjoying school and all he is learning. Austin and I went to a cool Children's museum the other day and brought my camera only to find out there was no memory card in it. So here are some recent videos of Austin instead.

Unloading...

2010-08-23T14:18:00.005-07:00

..is what Austin does best lately! He really loves to unload anything. He will unload the dryer while I am loading, destroy the toilet paper I have stacked in the cabinet, take out all the clothes in our dresser drawers, pull out all the DVDs from the basket we keep them in. You name it, he has unloaded it. His new favorite thing is to take down our shoes from the shoe rack in the closet. Pretty sure I cleaned it up 3 times yesterday.
But it's so cute watching him. I got a couple of pictures of Austin unloading things.

And this kind of reminds me of a picture my mom got of Jenna and I when we were little doing the same thing! Don't you just love the complete guilt on our faces!

(yes, I am the one with the alien head)

First Day of School

2010-08-09T10:23:00.003-07:00

Today is Matthew's first day of Podiatry school! He is pretty pumped about it. It took a little bit of coaxing to let me get a picture but doesn't he look so ready to start hitting the books! It is the first day of the next four years of our lives. This semester he is taking anatomy, histology, podiatry, biochemistry and healthcare. Good luck Matthew!

Projects

2010-07-30T19:50:00.008-07:00

I seem to always have a few projects going on at once so it's exciting when one gets done! Here are a couple of things I have completed recently. First is a bean bag chair for Austin. I had a crafty friend help me with it. It was a very fun project and I picked out the fabric to match Austin's room. One thing I found is that bean bag stuffing is very pricey. So I improvised and stuffed it with some packing peanuts from the post office! It actually works quite well as long as Matthew or I don't try to cannon ball onto it. Austin loves his new chair!

Second I made a quilt! As Matthew and I were cleaning things out while getting ready to move we found we had a lot of BYU shirts. However, I couldn't bear to just get rid of them since they all have memories attached to them. So I decided to save them by making a T-shirt quilt. I have never quilted before and the task seemed very daunting at first. But from carefully studying some tutorials online and getting advice from the ladies at the fabric store I was able to put it together! It's not going on my bed or anything, it's more for going on a picnic or spreading out on the grass, but its so fun to look at all the shirts and remember our BYU days.

Family Visit

2010-07-28T10:59:00.005-07:00

My family came to visit a couple weeks ago! It was nice to show them where we live now. We went swimming, shopping, went to an art museum and mostly just hung out and played with Austin. He loved all the extra attention. But it was great to see the fam again. All my little sisters are growing up! I'm so glad they made the trip out to AZ.

Birthday Boy

2010-07-19T20:21:00.007-07:00

Austin turned one on Sunday! My baby boy is growing up! We celebrated his birthday by opening presents and then going to our cousin's house for cupcakes. Austin loves all his new toys. I couldn't even get a picture of his face because he was so into all his new stuff. At age one, here are the things we love about Austin:
-sleeps through the night
-weighs 24 pounds and is 30 inches tall
-has two teeth
-favorite foods are bananas and yogurt
-crawls all over the place
-loves to babble and talk
-stands up next to furniture
-loves bath time every night
-has long blonde curls on the back of his head
-loves songs, reading books, and peek-a-boo
-can dance, blink, snap(well tries to),wave and give hugs on command
-loves to play with rocks and sand
-says Mama
-just started to figure out how to feed himself

He wasn't so sure about the cupcake at first but he warmed up pretty fast. He like eating it but also loved crumbling it between his fingers!

Austin's New Favorite Thing

2010-07-04T14:44:00.005-07:00

Standing! He loves to pull himself up to stand. He pulls himself up on everything. This is how I find him every morning and after naptime.
He especially loves to pull himself up next to the bathtub. He is also starting to get into everything that is within his reach. Sometimes when he is standing he will let go and be balancing all by himself before falling down! There's no walking yet but I bet it will come soon enough.

Quarter of a Century

2010-06-29T14:59:00.002-07:00

That's how old I am now! My birthday was over the weekend and it was a great day! Matthew and I were able to go out on a real date to dinner and a movie. It was fabulous! And check out the adorable cake my visiting teacher made me!

Yesterday=Not so Great, Today= Much Better!

2010-06-24T17:06:00.005-07:00

Yesterday:
-Austin wakes up before 6:00am
-Our AC in our apartment goes out
-Austin gets a sunburn and stung by a bee
-Oh yeah, we got a $200 utility bill

Today:
-AC is fixed
-Austin took 2 2-hour naps
-very productive day
-Went to the grocery store by myself
-However, it did reach 112 degrees today. (Thank goodness we had AC!)

Alyssa's Visit

2010-06-22T09:32:00.003-07:00

My little sister came to visit! With Alyssa being the youngest in the family and me being the oldest I didn't get to grow up with her a lot before leaving for college. We are 12 years apart and I left home when she was 6! So I am so glad she was able to visit us here in Arizona. We had a great time and Austin loved having someone else to play with. She stayed for almost a week but the time flew by! We were able to do some shopping, went to the Science Museum, went swimming and to the Wildlife Zoo. It was so funny to see people trying to figure out our relationship. I got asked a couple times if I was her mom or her Aunt! Here are some pictures from the week.

Summer

2010-06-13T21:11:00.006-07:00

Arizona sure knows how to heat up the summer. It has been in the 100's. The highest being 110 last week. I know I have a lot of catch up to do so I will start with Memorial Day. Matthew has cousins that live in the area so Jordan and Natalie and their three cute kids came over to swim and have a BBQ. It's so nice to have family in the area and they are really fun to get together with. Austin loves playing with other kids in the water.

Last weekend we took a road trip to Vegas. Kind of a funny story, we were suppose to meet up with Matthew's good friend and his family. They haven't seen each other in years and Vegas was a good half way point. When we got there, Matthew called his friend to see where they were and it turned out that we had actually planned this trip for the following week. Thats right, we came on the wrong weekend! Fortunately we had some good friends from Utah who were willing to take a spontaneous trip to Vegas. They have a little girl Austin's age and they love to play together. They were our neighbors in Utah and we would get together a lot. So it was still a fun trip but kinda too bad that we messed up the date and didn't get to see Matthew's friend. We didn't get any pictures of the adults but of course we did of the kids!

On the way home we drove past the Hoover Dam and saw the new bridge they are building. It was really impressive and quite the site! They have really built up the area and are making it really touristy. Last time I visited there was nothing but the Dam. We had to wait in construction traffic for an hour or so but I am really glad we were able to see it.

Oh the Cuteness

2010-05-29T21:31:00.006-07:00

These are just some cute videos we have taken recently of Austin. I just can't help but think that he is the most adorable little boy and couldn't decide which video to post so I just posted them all. He really has been doing a lot of new things lately and we have caught some of them on tape. Make sure you pay attention to the second video around 40 seconds in, you will be glad you did!

Poor Austin

2010-05-25T19:50:00.002-07:00

This is how Austin has been lately...

Poor guy, he has been so sick lately. He has been miserable and just screams if I put him down. He is getting better but it's so sad to see him so sick. (But I have to admit that I laughed a lot when I saw this picture!)

Today...

2010-05-20T09:01:00.002-07:00

is our wedding anniversary! We have been married for 4 wonderful years!

Baby Aaron

2010-05-19T13:02:00.002-07:00

We have a new nephew!! Matthew's sister, Aubrey, had a baby boy a week ago today! He is so cute! He was 8 lbs 13 oz when he was born. I am so sad that we left Utah just a couple weeks too early to have been able to meet him. Aubrey and Aaron are doing great and we hope to see them soon.

My Little Indian Boy

2010-05-14T08:17:00.003-07:00

Kansas Visit

2010-05-08T10:02:00.004-07:00

Austin and I went to go visit Jenna, Cole and Cade a few weeks ago. It's taken me awhile to post about it with the move and everything but I unpacked my last two boxes yesterday so now I feel like I can move on to other things like blog posting! It was so fun going out to Kansas. Cade is getting so big! (and so is Jenna's tummy!) We did a lot of hanging out, playing with little boys and getting ready for our booth. We had a vendor spot at a local event where we sold our aprons. It went very well and we had so much fun doing it. Highlights of the trip:
-Making homemade cinnamon rolls
-Watching Cade and Austin "play" together. (This means watching Cade trying to teach Ausin something like throw a ball, drive a toy car, or walk and then watching Austin stare and laugh at Cade!)
-Saying every night that we were going to go to bed early and then staying up really late talking every night.
-Having root beer floats every night while talking
-Austin pooping in the bathtub and Cade freaking out
-going to the Zoo
-Playing vendor and having our booth be a success!
-Jenna ordering a shrimp salad and then asking for the chicken to be fried. (It was so funny, you had to be there! I am literally laughing as I write this)

It's not fun living so far apart, so I am so glad we were able to get together. Here are some pictures of our stay.

We Made It

2010-05-03T20:07:00.004-07:00

We now live in Arizona. That will still take some getting used to! But so far we are loving it. Matthew's brother Ben drove down with us and helped do a lot of unloading. It helped out so much. Austin didn't do very well with the drive. I went through a lot of banana peels! Now, I am still just unpacking, and unpacking and I have found Walmart and Costco. Our place is a little smaller than we thought but we love the apartment complex and the area. Matthew's cousin lives really close to us and have already helped us out so much as well. Throughout the move Austin has developed some new talents. He can point now (it's soo cute!), he has cut through his first tooth, he understands and loves peek-a-boo and is so close to crawling. He will get up on all fours and rock but hasn't figured out how to go forward but is quite good at going backwards. These are some recent pictures of Austin.

Warm and Sunny

2010-04-25T21:05:00.003-07:00

That's what the weather has been lately and it feels great! A couple weekends ago we went to the park for the first time this season with Aubrey & Jon and Jeannie & Jared. It was so nice to be outside. I caught a video of Austin going down a slide for the first time!

A Happy Omen

2010-04-11T14:06:00.002-07:00

We bought some ice-cream last night and this is what we found on the top of the lid when we opened it.

Matthew did make some really good milkshakes with that ice-cream.

Some of his Favorite Things

2010-03-31T20:47:00.004-07:00

Austin loves the most random things to play with. His favorite at the moment: a banana peel. Whenever I eat a banana he just reaches out and wants it so bad. I finally let him play with it once and he was in heaven for like 10 minutes. I let him play with it every once in awhile but it gets to messy and nasty that I don't let him that often. I now have to eat bananas in secret. A close second would anything that has a tag. Give him a cool toy or stuffed animal and he will find and play with the tag. Next is my keys. I have a little purse on my key chain and apparently its the best chew toy he has found. He also loves the remote control to the TV, paper, and bottles. Again, random things have become his favorites.

In other news, April is a very busy month for us, or at least for the Graff Family. Within a couple of weeks, Matthew will be graduating with his Masters, his brother Brian will be getting married to Michelle, his other brother Ben will be leaving on his mission to Brazil, his sister Aubrey will have a baby, and then we will be moving! Crazy month huh! So many good things happening at once. Actually I am hoping Aubrey's baby comes early because there is a good chance that we will have to move before the baby is born! That would be so sad! I have already started packing boxes. I am trying to start early and keep things organized so that it's not a mad rush at the very end. So there is a little update of what we are doing.

Some Fun and Embarrassing Moments

2010-03-18T10:37:00.003-07:00

As Shanna's kind and loving husband, I thought I would share some of her life experiences that she probably wouldn't share on her own. You better not remove these Shan or I will never change another poopy diaper again! I love you!

Shake that thing!

Those poor girls that really have no arms. How cruel.

Have a nice trip? See you next fall!

Laughs and Grooves

2010-03-15T21:51:00.003-07:00

Austin loves music! Matthew decided to help him dance. It's so funny, Austin has discovered he has a tongue and loves to stick it out! You will see it in one of the videos. Austin also loves to laugh. It's so cute! One day he was laughing so hard while I was feeding him so I caught some of it on tape. I was trying to keep him laughing so I was a little shaky with the camera.

Bath Time

2010-03-04T21:55:00.005-07:00

Austin is beginning to enjoy bath time now! He still is terrified of the tub but he loves the faucet in the sink! Bath time used to be like this:

It's much better now!

Valentines Day by Matthew

2010-02-14T12:44:00.002-07:00

I have never written a post on our family blog and feel that now would be a great time. The reason I wanted to write a message today is so the world might know that Shanna is the most amazing wife and mother ever. There is rarely ever a time when you will find Shanna angry or upset and in the few moments where she does feel those emotions, they quickly pass and all is forgotten. It is so wonderful to come home to a wife who is excited to see me and wants nothing more than my comfort and happiness. Even after a long day with a crying baby, and not being able to accomplish all the things she had planned, she still greets me with a smile and a kiss and is just genuinely happy to be alive.
Shanna is so optimistic about everything and helps cynical me see the best side of every situation and person. I love the way she can make me smile even when I feel like I will never be able to beat the challenges I might be facing at the time. I know that she loves me, my son and the Lord and I will eternally be grateful for that fact.
The pure heart and sweet naivety allow me to trust her completely. I know that she is mine forever and that she would never leave me. The fact that I have someone so perfect in so many ways is a blessing I know I don't deserve, but give thanks for every day.
It amazes me to no end to watch how patient and sweet Shanna is with our little Austin. I love him but, I hate him compared to how much Shanna loves him. (Madagascar) She will spend hours with him reading books and playing with annoying toys that play the same stupid song over and over again. The way she holds him and protects him allow me to leave home and go to work knowing that my children are in the best possible hands that exist. I thank her with all of my heart for the sacrifice she has made to be a mother and give up some of her personal ambition to be home with our children and teach them how to become strong men and women of faith. She is the right person for the job and I know now that I could never do what mothers do every day.
This ode to Shanna would be incomplete if I didn't mention how incredibly gorgeous my wife is. Every so often we will be watching a show and I will notice an attractive woman on the screen, but when I look back at my wife every woman pales in comparison to her beauty. It would be inappropriate for me to elaborate more but I know that I am the luckiest man alive.
Thank you Shanna for the life you have lived and for deciding to be my wife and the mother of my children. You are the love of my life and I am forever yours.

With all the love I have,
Your husband

We have News!

2010-02-03T21:36:00.002-07:00

No, I'm not pregnant. I guess this is more Matthew's news that I get to share. He will be finishing his Masters program this year and for these past two years Matthew has had a tough time deciding what to do once he graduates. He has gone through many options like medical school, getting a doctorate in Neuroscience, dental school, and others. He really didn't feel quite right about any of them but knew he needed to make a decision. He sent out several dental school applications recently, however in the meantime found another option that he is really excited about. He found podiatry school. He sent out applications and within a week got 4 interviews. I really feel that this is the route we are suppose to take. I have never seen Matthew more excited about a career choice. He loves that he will be going to Medical School but will come out specialized in the foot and ankle instead of graduating from med school and then having to specialize after that. He also loves that he will be doing office visits and surgeries. Matthew has been interviewing and has been accepted to several places and we have made our decision....We will be moving to Arizona!! Matthew will be attending Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. We will be moving this summer. I am so proud of Matthew and all that he has done and we are both excited to start this new phase of our life.

We Match

2010-01-25T21:02:00.002-07:00

I didn't plan this and didn't even notice until we were already at church, but Austin and I completely match! We are just sporting our BYU colors!

Road Trip

2010-01-23T20:25:00.004-07:00

Matthew and I just got back from driving to LA. The reason for the trip will be for my next post but we sure did pick the wrong weekend to go to California. If you have seen or heard on the news about the weather there, apparently it has been record setting. They have been getting tons of heavy winds and rains and we were right in the middle of it. When we planned on driving out there we were expecting sunny days with temperatures in the 70's. Well maybe on any other week except this one. On one of the days I was alone with Austin in our hotel with a tornado warning! There have been mud slides, flooding and lots of issues not conducive to trying to drive cross-country. But we were safe! While out there I was able to see my friend Taryn who lives in the area. It was so fun to see her and her two cute kids. We went to Downtown Disney, right by Disney Land, to hang out and have lunch until we got rained out! We got soaked trying to walk back to our car both pushing strollers with umbrellas! But I am so glad we got to spend some time together. We also got to visit Matthew's grandparents who also live in the area. We hadn't seen them in a long time and it was nice to catch up and introduce Austin to them. It was a quick but productive trip.

Visiting with Taryn!

Swimming in the heated pool at the hotel

Austin really wanted to help drive.

Austin Update

2010-01-10T14:17:00.007-07:00

Austin is 6 months already! I can't believe how quickly he is growing up! Now I can't imagine life without him. He is such a blessing to us and we just love him so much. Here are some of the things Austin has been doing lately:
-On our last day in Texas over the holidays, Austin rolled over! Now he is a rolling machine. Only he won't do it on command.
-He loves to laugh and coo all the time.
-He is going through a rough phase with sleeping during the night but hopefully it will pass soon.
-Austin loves books and he tries to read them to me now whenever I pull them out. It's so cute!
-He weighs about 18 pounds.
-Does not enjoy bath time.
-His new trick is spitting and he thinks it's really funny.
-He is getting so good at grabbing and playing with toys.
-We have started him on eating cereal. He hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.
-He has been teething but no teeth have come through yet.
-He loves being out and about and seeing new things.
-He loves music and songs especially if they have actions to go along with them.

The Holdiays

2010-01-07T18:44:00.004-07:00

We have just come home from being away for almost 3 weeks. We are happy to be back but we sure had a great time with family and friends. We first went to Alabama to be with Matthew's family for Christmas. The whole family was together for the first time in years and it will probably be the last time for a few more years. We really loved being there and I love watching Matthew interact with his brothers. They are so competitive with each other and its pretty funny to watch. While we were there we played lots of games, had a girls day and just had fun with the whole family. Christmas morning we had homemade cinnamon rolls and Austin loved watching everyone get excited about opening presents. He is a little young to get excited about opening his own presents but he sure got some great toys that I am pretty excited about. Then we were able to go to Texas to spend New Years with my family. I can't believe how fast my little sisters are growing up! We watched movies, played the Wii, went shopping and hung out with Alexi and Tim. Austin was a big hit with everyone. He loves being with other people. On our last day with my family Austin rolled over for the first time! We loved being able to spend so much time with so much family.

Need a gift idea?

2009-12-10T16:37:00.004-07:00

Jenna and I love being crafty. We finally put our projects on Etsy and it has been very fulfilling.

Check out our Etsy store for a fun Christmas gift idea!

www.etsy.com/shop/reddthreadds

Thanksgiving Break

2009-12-03T12:31:00.004-07:00

Last week for Thanksgiving we drove to Colorado to meet up with Jenna and Cole. We did this last year and has so much fun we decided to do it again! We stayed in a cute little town up in the mountains called Estes Park. Ciera came along with us and we had such a great time! Mostly the boys played video games, Jenna and I did crafty things and Ciera did a little of both! We also made our own Thanksgiving dinner. We had the tiniest kitchen but we were still able to make pies, a turkey, mashed potatoes, yams and lots of other yummies. Cade and Austin were friendly for about 2 minutes until they each wanted the full attention of all the adults. Also, Austin started teething that week which led to a few sleepless nights. But overall I am so thankful we were able to meet up with family for the break!

Meteor

2009-11-18T11:09:00.003-07:00

Last night around midnight, both Matthew and I were awake after putting Austin back to sleep when he woke up crying. Anyway, all of a sudden we see this bright light outside. It lasted for about 3 seconds but it was so bright! It was like a bright white spotlight shining in our window. We were a little freaked out about it but in the morning we found out on the news that there was a little meteor shower over Utah during the night. I wish I would have been outside to see it but I still think it's pretty cool to have seen the flash from it. Apparently the flash lit up the whole sky as if it were daytime for a few seconds. Pretty cool!

We Have Laughter

2009-11-10T12:29:00.002-07:00

Austin gives us so many smiles now! We love them. We also love his little laughs which we don't get as often. But we caught him on tape giving us some laughs!

Halloween!

2009-11-02T10:29:00.008-07:00

We had a great Halloween weekend! On Friday we went to a ward Halloween Party. It was so fun to see all the great costumes. My favorite are the themed costumes! It was Austin's first Halloween. He went as a dragon, I was a princess and Matthew was a knight. Austin was the cutest dragon I have ever seen! My friend Betsy rents costumes out of her basement so we were able to find everything in one place! Thanks Betsy!
On Saturday we went to my grandparents in the afternoon for our annual Halloween party. The Allens always put on superb Halloween parties. My cousin Paul arranged for us to do a Murder Mystery. We all had a different character to dress up as and to act as. We had to try to find out who was the murderer. Ciera ended up guessing correctly which was ironic because her character was a fortune teller! The murderer was Austin (my cousin Daniel's friend) not to be confused with my Austin! Then we decorated cookies which is always a big hit! Later that night we went over to Aubrey and Jon's house to make haunted houses and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters!
Austin and our neighbor's cute baby girl dressed up as Tinkerbell

Our Medieval Family

Austin giving his best Dragon roar!

Ciera dressed at a "Mystic Advisor" and Jenne as a NY Times Reporter at the Murdery Mystery

Matthew was dressed at a rich, mean business man and I was his wife. Notice Genevieve in the background!

My cookie!

Ciera's amazing cookie!

Matthew's very unique cookie!

I really liked Gen's cookie!

Grandpa's awesome witch hat cookies!

Matthew's haunted coffin

Aubrey's haunted spider house! The Graff's are so much more creative than me! My haunted house looked more like a Christmas gingerbread house!

BYU Homecoming

2009-10-27T14:16:00.004-07:00

Last weekend Matthew took me to Homecoming! It was such a great excuse to get all dressed up and go on a date. We went with Matthew's sister, Aubrey and her husband Jon. It was at BYU and we enjoyed amazing food catered by Tucanos and fun entertainment by a BYU comedy group. My cousin was able to babysit Austin for us. Thanks Gen! And thanks Matthew for the wonderful date!

Girls Weekend

2009-10-19T15:25:00.003-07:00

Last weekend my sister-in-law Aubrey and I drove to Malad Idado to meet up with some of Aubrey's friends. There were 5 of us with 3 pregnant and 4 little boys running around. This was my first little trip with Austin and without Matthew. But it was so fun. I had never been to Idaho and it was just so peaceful and quiet. The mountains were also very pretty with the sun setting behind them. We all just hung out and talked about girl stuff. We were all moms and it was fun swapping stories and advice. We also had yummy food on the taco bus and shakes at the drive-in. Austin was great! He slept a lot and smiled at everyone! We had a great time and a nice get away for the weekend!

Pictures with Dad

2009-10-08T13:03:00.002-07:00

Matthew is such a great father. He is always so excited to see Austin when he gets home from school. Here are some moments I caught of my boys together.

Shade Coupon

2009-09-25T15:18:00.003-07:00

Shade Clothing is having a friends/family event this weekend. You can get 30% off this weekend. Here is the link to print out the coupon!

Dancing

2009-09-25T15:03:00.004-07:00

My sister-in-law Aubrey showed this to me! I think it's so cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPRxWsX50kI

Fun in the Sun

2009-09-22T12:09:00.001-07:00

Austin's Blessing

2009-09-14T12:21:00.005-07:00

We had Austin's blessing on Labor Day weekend. Thanks to all the family that came! Matthew gave a sweet blessing and then Grandma Black hosted a wonderful lunch for everyone. It was such a perfect day!

I know I am so behind in posting lately! Having a baby at home I thought I would have lots of time to blog but I have quickly learned that is not the case! Austin is two months now and here are the new things we have seen from him:
-lots of smiles!
-a few giggles
-lots and lots of spit-up
-sleeping 3-4 hours during the night
-loves looking out the windows
-grown out of newborn diapers and most of his newborn clothes
-12 lbs 5 oz
-23 inches long
-doesn't like baths but loves showers
-looking more and more like his daddy. (He really doesn't look like either one of us very much)
-holds his head up when laying on his tummy
-likes to look all around when outside

I just love this little guy so much and now can't imagine life without him! Here are some picture from Labor Day weekend.
The Blacks

Austin's Blessing Outfit

The Graffs

The twins and their boys

Proud Grandparents

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Tummy time

2009-09-01T20:40:00.003-07:00