What We've Been Up To

Brian has been working a lot lately, but we've still been getting in some fun stuff. I talked Brian into going to the zoo again which was not easy, but it was really fun. The weather was perfect (I was wearing a sweatshirt in August!) which made it nice, but it was also fun because there are a ton of baby animals right now. The cutest was a two week old giraffe. He was so small and wobbly and super fun to watch. I'm trying to get Brian to go back because some baby tigers were just born that I want to see. We'll see....I might be going with my mom instead. We also visited the Dinosaur museum. It was a really hot day so it was nice to be somewhere air conditioned! Brian and I had fun and Austen slept the whole time. It was funny because he stayed awake the whole ride in the car to and from the museum, but the second we got inside he was out. Next week I think it's going to be the aquarium....stay tuned for pics.

Austen's still really into his feet as you can see.Proof we visited the dino museum

Here's Austen enjoying the walk around the museum

I had to throw in this pic! I just took it 3 minutes ago, so this is what I'm looking at while blogging. (He was asleep when I started, but he just woke up in a really good mood. That means I get to finish this post!)

Oh and I can't forget to include the biggest adventure of the week, perhaps the biggest adventure since Austen was born.....Brian went skydiving!!! I can not believe he did it, but he was dead set on going, so here's the evidence. (I was wondering if this was maybe a midlife crisis?? After he told me yesterday he wants to cage dive with great white sharks, I'm pretty positive about the midlife crisis thing.)

7 Months Old

Hopefully you're as shocked about this as I am! I know I always say this, but I really can't believe he's that old. Maybe time goes by so fast because my little rascal is keeping me very busy!? Just a theory....Anyway, he's been up to a lot of new stuff this month. He loves rolling around to get into stuff and he still isn't a fan of being restrained. He thinks there is too much to do to be okay with sitting still. He thinks Sophie is the funniest thing on the planet. He works so hard to roll over to wherever she is and as soon as he gets there she'll get up and go somewhere else. He is her number one fan, but unfortunately the feeling's not mutual. She tolerates him, but it only took her losing a few clumps of hair to realize she didn't want him getting too close. Sometimes at night Sophie gets crazy and runs all over the house really fast and Austen thinks that's hilarious!!! He giggles at her for as long as she'll do it. I can't even get him to laugh that hard at me!

Austen's also started eating baby food in addition to his rice cereal. His favorite is the sweet potatoes and the squash, but he absolutely hates peas and peaches. He is up on all fours and rocking, so I'm pretty sure crawling is next. I know I've been saying he's close to crawling for a while, but now he's really close. He really doesn't even need to crawl because he has devised a pretty effective method for getting around. He rolls, pivets, and scoots so he can get pretty much everywhere doing that.

Here's a pic of him on all fours.

In an earlier post I mentioned that Austen hangs himself upside down out of his boucy chair, well I finally got a piture of it...

Yes his head is touching the ground!




Here's a pic of his first taste of baby food. He wasn't quite sure if he should swallow it, but once he did he realized it wasn't too bad.

He's been rolling all over for a while now, but recently he has become more adventurous. The other day I heard a frantic sounding cry and I couldn't see him from where I was (I was in the kitchen which is connected to the fam room) so I got worried. I ran in and found him stuck between the couch and the ottoman. I know I should have helped him, but he was making the funniest faces while he was trying to get out. I grabbed my camera instead. I got about 10 pictures all with a different face.....here's a couple of my favorites.

If you're laughing, that's just a taste of what I get to experience everyday. I feel like I can never get everything done because I just want to sit on the floor and play with him. I am so blessed to have my sweet little entertainer with me all day. I love him so much!!! (And it's ok if I don't get around to cooking or cleaning because I have also been blessed with an amazing partner that cleans and doesn't mind takeout!)

Cute Pics

I don't have any great stories for this post, or even any not so great stories for that matter, but I DO have some recent, cute pictures of the little man.

During playtime I lay him down on a blanket in the family room with toys so he can roll around and play. He has recently devolped a new game that he loves to play......He grabs a side of his blanket and rolls himself up into a little baby burrito. He thinks it's super funny and so do I because all I can see when he's done is his lttle legs kicking out the end of the blanket. Here's some pics of his new favorite game. Here he is with a new toy.

He has learned to sit up by himself in his bouncy chair which is totally cute, but not good for me because he can push himself over the front. I used to lay him in this chair while I showered, but now I can't....time to think of something new to restrain him, which is becoming harder and harder these days!

And finally.....this is just a really cute smile! (Don't mind the blurry hand!)

There's More Where That Came From...

Alright, either I'm really vein, or just proud of my super cute family. I'd like to think it's the latter, but regardless here's some more pictures from family pic day.

This one's Brian's fav

And one of my favorites.....how can I pick just one, really?

How cute...look at those squishy legs!

This is right up there as my favorite too!

Our First Family Pictures

We finally got our family pictures done!!! After weeks of stressing about what outfits all of us should wear and lots of shopping for the perfect looks, we were ready for the big day. We were very lucky that my photographer of choice had an opening during her very busy wedding season and I'm so glad because the pictures turned out fabulous!!! The only problem I have now is deciding which ones to have blown up and framed....decisions, decisions. Here's some of my favs...I love the one on the right of Austen so much!

Isn't he the cutest?!?!

Get Comfortable

This is the longest post ever, but we have a lot of catching up to do! We have been doing a lot of fun stuff around here, but I haven't been faithfully blogging so this is going to be a catch up session. First things first...Brian thought it would be fun to drive up to Park City and go shopping for one of our Family Day Saturdays. I also thought that would be fun.....until I thought about how long the drive would be with a baby that hates the car. We decided that we would just try it and if he was too hysterical by the time we reached the mouth of the canyon then we would turn around and go home. Well, to both of our surprise he was perfect the whole way there (AND the whole way back, but we'll get to that in a minute). I hadn't been up to the outlet mall in Park City for a very long time and was excited about all the baby stores that are up there. We went in just about every store, bought a bunch of fall clothes for Austen, and after about 4 hours we decided to head home. I just have to say that Austen was perfect up there! He's the kind of kid that goes with the flow, I mean whatever we're doing he is happy. I think it helps that he loves to be in his stoller and he also loves to watch people, so for right now I guess shopping is one of his favorite pastimes. (Don't tell him that when he's older!) I was a little worried about the drive home because I knew he was tired and that's usually when he loses it in the car....he isn't one to sleep in his carseat, but he did. He slept the whole way home and never cried once. I think he might be growing out of his car hating because we haven't had any freak outs for a while now. (I hope I'm not jinxing it by saying something about it...we'll see.)
A couple days after we got home from our Park City outing I thought I would try some of the clothes on Austen just to make sure they weren't going to be too big to fit him in a few months. I was shocked when I put them on because most of them fit him already. I bought size 18-24 months. So here's to hoping that he'll be as good in the car this time when I have to drive back up there to return all the clothes. I really don't know what I'm going to do for fall because he is too fat for infant clothes, but not tall enough for toddler clothes. Taunya suggested I buy 2T (that's intended for a two year old for those of you who don't know) and just hem the pants. I don't really know how to sew except for in a straight line and I'll be honest the lines I sew aren't even straight, so anyone that wants to volunteer feel free....anyone?

Another fun thing we did was to take Austen to his first baseball game. It was a perfect summer night and so fun. Austen was perfect as usual and when he got tired he just pulled his blanket over his head (I don't know why he likes that, it makes me crazy) and fell asleep. I thought it was so funny because the announcer was really loud and so was the crowd, but he slept right through it. I got some really cute pictures with my new cell phone, but I ended up having to take that phone back (that's an entirely different story) so all those pictures were lost. :(

Don't worry, I'm almost done! Keep reading because there are cute pictures ahead.

Austen is sooo not a Nelson for at least one reason.....he isn't bald. All my sisters and even my sister-in-law have bald babies and they stay that way for at least their first year. Not Austen! At barely 6 months old he was in desperate need of a haircut. I didn't know what to do or even who to take him to, but my sister-in-law Melissa was nice enough to help us out. I took Austen over to her house for his very first haircut! I thought he would be scared of the clippers, but he really wasn't and he didn't even cry until the very end and that was just because he was done sitting there.

Here's his before pic.

The cutting begins. He kept wanting to turn his head and see what was making that noise.

Look close at his face on this one. I think it's so funny...he's cringing.

And finally... the after pic. (This was taken by my cute 7 year old neice hence the blur) The before and after pics don't really do it justice, but it made a HUGE difference.

Oh and one last pic just because. I walked in to check on Austen the other day during naptime and this is how he was sleeping, Too funny!