This Is A Hard Post To Write

I thought I was going to have an exciting announcement today, but life has handed us something different.
So instead we have a sad announcement.
We lost our baby.
During our second ultrasound it was discovered that there was no longer a heartbeat.

We were so excited and prematurely telling people we were pregnant.
In some ways I regret that decision, but in some ways I don't.
We have gotten so much love and support from our family and friends that I think it outweighs the difficulty of having to tell everyone about our loss.

We are heartbroken to say the least, but we also know that this happened for the best.
We still have some hard days ahead, but I know we will come out of this stronger and more ready for whatever the future holds.

Enjoying The Day Off

A Few Of Austen's Favorite Things

Talking: He woke up really early the other morning and I was telling him to be quiet and go back to sleep when he said "I love talking." Yes Austen we know you love talking! He will talk to anyone and everyone. The ladies at Costco and Harmon's practically know him by name!

Anything outside: He would be outside all day everyday if he could. Rain or shine he doesn't care one bit. He loves to play in the backyard, at the park, and at the lake.

Reading books: He loves to hear stories. He gets super excited for our weekly visits to the library and he memorizes every single book we read. It freaks Brian out that he can recite books from memory with no picture cues.

Spaghetti: He loves my homemade spaghetti sauce! When we have it for dinner, he amazes me at how much he eats. He especially loves the sauted mushrooms I put on top. Hands down his favorite dinner at the moment.

His Lightning McQueen big wheel: He drives this thing all over the house, fast too. He loves to pretend it's his car or that he is the UPS man and he fills the back up with all his treasures.

Climbing: He loves to climb anything. He scares me!

Grandpa: Anyone wondering about Austen's obsession with Grandpa??? Well, the truth is, he bribes him. He ALWAYS has M&M's on hand and that is usually the first thing Austen asks for when we go over to visit. M&M's work! That and letting Austen use all his tools, and letting him use the dust buster.

So excited for the three day weekend (if I can manage to keep Brian away from the golf course for just one of those days I'll be happy.) Check back on Tues for an exciting post!! Happy Friday!!!

Austen Makes Up His Own Words

And I absolutely LOVE it.
He calls bath time "taking a bathtubby".
And when his fingers get all wrinkly from the water he calls that "prunies".

He just makes me laugh constantly!

Here he is showing you his prunies.

And here he is making another one of his hilarious faces.

The Bike Saga

I have a very generous older sister that gives us really neat stuff like an electric motorcycle, a wagon, and a bike. The bike came a while ago, but Austen was too little to ride it until now. We put on the training wheels to let him try it out and the back tire wouldn't touch the ground. It was pretty funny actually. I guess the wrong training wheels came to us with the bike. So I took it to my Dad because he can fix anything according to Austen. (Austen has never uttered a more true statement.)

He tried his best and actually did a good job of making the training wheels fit. The back tire touches the ground and everything, but they move around and aren't too stable. We'll just have to go buy him his own bike I guess, but here are some pics of Grandpa and Austen fixing the bike.

It was wobbly and Austen had a little spill.
He scraped his elbow pretty bad and really wanted Grandpa to see this:

He's so proud of the scab!

Neat Freak

Austen loves cheetos , but he hates it when his hands get dirty.

So he came up with a solution.
Now if he's having cheetos, he'll ask for a wet cloth too.

Such a little neat freak!
Anyone who knows me knows he definitely got this from his dad!

An Evening At The Park

Well, I may be losing my mind, but other people remember the Sophie post too and today it just magically reappeared on my list of posts. I guess blogger was having some issues. At least I know I didn't just imagine the whole thing.

Anyway, we actually had a nice day last week, so after Brian got home from work we went over to the park to try out Austen's bike that Grandpa had fixed. (Another post is needed for the whole bike saga.) He hasn't learned to pedal quite yet, so you have to push him, but he loves it, so at least it's fun for him. He had a bad crash and scraped his elbow all up. He was so proud of the scab that he wanted me to take pictures of it to show Grandpa. I'll post that pic later, but for now here's some really cute ones of Austen and his Daddy at the park.

Looking at geese and ducks on the river.

Daddy teaching Austen about dandelions.

Throwing rocks and probably the cutest picture ever!

Either I'm Losing My Mind Or......

So, I swear I did a post yesterday about our crazy dog. The only thing is that now it's missing. I've looked back at all my May posts and it's just not there. So then I started wondering if I actually DID post it or if I just THOUGHT I posted it. Anyone else remember what I'm talking about??? I'm really hoping that blogger is just being weird and erased it or something and that I'm not actually losing my mind.

Our Dog Is Weird

Or as Brian has so aptly named her.....neurotic dog.

She has a ton of little quirks that were fine before baby and not really a big deal, but since Austen joined the family she really drives us insane.
She has a VERY sensitive stomach so if she eats any human food it's pretty much guaranteed she'll be up all night sick.
We can't just leave her outside though to take care of business because she is a barker, so we have to get up, let her out, wait for her to finish, and then we can go back to bed.
Brian really loves this!
Sometimes she gets bored at night and doesn't want to sleep, so she'll start licking her feet or the blankets and she won't stop for hours.
(She sleeps in our bed, so this is super annoying!)
She's also very particular about her water. For the longest time she would only drink water that was fresh from the bath tub. As in coming out of the facet. I finally broke her of that habit thank goodness, but she's still a little weird about her water dish.

I used to think she was my child.
I don't want to admit this, but when I was pregnant with the little man, I even asked my mom if I would love my baby as much as I loved Sophie.
I look back at that now and think it's the most ridiculous thing ever.
I don't even really like Sophie compared to what I feel for Austen!

The poor dog is totally attention deprived.
She's actually quite obedient and she's pretty good with Austen, so I can't complain too much.
We love her despite all her little isms.

We even stopped neglecting her long enough to get her groomed finally.

Before

After

Austen really loves her!
He cried when we had to leave her at the groomer and was very concerned about where she was for the entire 4 hours she was gone.
He told her she looked so pretty when she got home
and
he said "we missed you while you were gone".
I could have died it was so cute!

I Think He's Bored Again

I think Austen's bored again. We can't really go outside because it's still freezing, so we are stuck indoors trying to entertain each other. Luckily Austen is creative and comes up with stuff like this to keep us laughing.

He put the blanket on his head with the fringe lined up perfectly and said "look mom, I have long hair like Rapunzel".

He's only seen the movie tangled once, but he still remembers all that hair.

Farm Country

We went to one of Austen's very favorite places for family day this week....Farm Country. He loves that you get to feed all the animals and pet them, and of course he loves riding the pony. It was perfect weather and we had a blast. I couldn't narrow down the pictures so there are a lot!

Feeding the goat.

Climbing into the cow cage.
This was a little too high for my comfort.

Mom approved climbing height.

There was a brand new baby pony that was so cute!
It was rolling around in the wood chips, so of course Austen had to also.

Watching a baby cow get licked to death by its mom.

This donkey was so cute.
There is a sign on its cage saying he bites, but he was really liking Brian rubbing him down..... a lot.
In fact he even got a little "excited"......wink wink
The donkey, not Brian......

Watching the turkey.
Brian can make such a good turkey noise that he made the male feel threatened. He puffed up his feathers and corralled all the females away from Brian.

No hands!

Petting the baby goat.

Time To Work

Austen loves to mow the lawn! He tells me all the time "mom, the workers need me to help them finish edging". The other day I snapped a few pictures of him outside doing his work without him knowing and I think they are the cutest things ever. Maybe it's just cause I'm his mom or maybe it's cause he didn't know I was there, but I love these pictures.

This one is my absolute fav.

He even pretends to empty the bag,

This pic loaded again and I have no idea why. I can't get it to delete, and I don't want to start the post over.
You just get to see it twice because I am not good with computer stuff.

Tulip Festival

We managed to have a day nice enough that we could go to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. We went last year and loved it, so I guess we're kind of making it a tradition.

The tulips were amazing and most were in full bloom, so I think we went at the perfect time. Austen was most interested in a snake we saw and a huge moose statue. He was also pretty into finding pine cones. It was really fun and we got some cute pics, so enjoy.

They even had a guy playing the bagpipes.

He was so sick of getting his picture taken that there was literally nothing I could do to get him to look at the camera.
Good thing he has a cute profile!

What In The World Do You Do With Cube Steak???

I was feeling very ambitious a while back and got all the stuff to make chicken fried steak including cube steak. I read the recipe again after my grocery store run and realized I was kidding myself to think I would ever actually take the time to make that, so then I was stuck with a bunch of cube steaks. Luckily Pioneer Woman came to the rescue and had a recipe that I could actually make that used cube steak. I made this on Friday and I seriously can't say enough good things about it.

The MM sandwich, PW style.

It was the best thing I've ever cooked for sure. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. You should make this right now so you know what I'm talking about, but add less garlic than she tells you to. I like garlic, but it was a little much. Also, you can't be afraid of a little butter (or a lot) and cube steak.

Thanks Taunya for the introduction to her awesome blog! Now I'm not just stealing your recipes, I'm also stealing hers.

Mother'sDay

I definitely know some amazing mothers who have taught me everything I know, especially my own mother. So thank you for teaching me what it means to be a mother by your example. I would be lost without you!

Most importantly I get to be a mother to the most amazing little boy on the planet.
I am truly blessed! This little guy has come into my life and made me better in every way.
Austen, you have stolen my heart!
I'll love you forever.