Suture-Off

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

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...

...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

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

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

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

Yesterday

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

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

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

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

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

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