Another Exciting Week

I have some super cute pics from the fourth, but they are on my mom's camera. You'll have to wait until I can get them for my Fourth of July post.....stay tuned.

We had a pretty busy week last week, but I didn't get pictures of most of it. Tuesday we went down to my Grandma's for dinner with the whole fam. It was really fun until the drive home, yes Austen still hates the car. He screamed the whole way home; it was the worst 30 min ever! I didn't even get to enjoy driving Brian's new car.

On Sunday I suggested Brian wash the windows. It was really hot and he had just finished golfing so I wasn't sure he would go for it, but if you know Brian, you know he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to clean something. He agreed to do it so Austen and I sat in the shade and watched him wash the windows. It was actually pretty fun.

Here's some pics of Brian hard at work.

Notice the neatly trimmed bushes.....that's my handywork.



Of course I can't have a new post with out pictures of Austen, so below are some of my recent favs. Here is Austen relaxing in Daddy's new chair.


I love the face he's making in this pic!




This is one of my favorite pics of him ever! He is looking so old.

5 Months Old

I can't believe it, but Austen is now 5 months old. The time has gone by so fast, I guess that means we've been having fun. It's true.....these last five months have been some of the most amazing of my whole life. Even though I feel like the time is passing too fast. I have enjoyed every minute of his life so far and I can't wait for what's next. Austen is such a good baby. He sleeps great, he obviously has no problems eating, and he is always happy. I am so blessed to have such am amazing little guy.

Austen has come a long way in five months. He's really into rolling over and does it the second I put him down. While on his tummy he is starting to get up on his knees which makes me think he'll be scooting around before I know it. (I should probably think about child-proofing.) He will grab anything that comes within reach including Sophie's hair. Also, he does this hilarious thing when he's trying to go to sleep, he will pull out his pacifier and make a long, low noise and then smile. Even he thinks it's funny! Oh, and I can't forget to tell you that he is now laughing. It's still very elusive, but I can usually get it out by tickling or just by acting silly. It is the best sound I think I've ever heard.

Lately he has been really into blowing spit bubbles and seeing how loud he can yell. Sometimes when he yells loud he scares himself which always makes me laugh. If he gets a real good loud one you can tell he's proud of it by this little face he makes. I've tried to get pics of that and the spitting, but so far it's been really hard.

Here's some pictures we took today during playtime. The one in the bottom left is my favorite.

One of my very favorite times of the day is when I go get Austen from his crib after he has woken up from a nap. He is always so excited to see me and it just makes my whole day! The other day I was thinking how much I love it when I realized that I didn't have any pictures of the look he gives me. I always want to remeber that moment so I have been taking my camera in there with me. I got a couple pictures that capture the look pretty well, so here ya go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

A little side note: he dosn't usually cry when he wakes up. I'll just hear him in there talking away and when I go in he's playing with his blankie like this.

Father's Day

I wasn't going to post anything today because the house needs my undivided attention during naptime, but I couldn't resist some Father's Day pics.

Here's Austen helping Brian read his card.

Brian opening his gift. Funny how interested both the dog and the baby look. I gave Brian a framed picture with Austen's footprints below it.

My cute boys!!



Thanks Brian for being such an amazing daddy! We love you!

The Many Faces of Austen Dean

Austen was born with a very expressive face. He has a face for everything and I'm sure I haven't even seen all of them yet! I think he gets this talent from his daddy considering I can't even make some of the faces he does. There's the famous sad face with the pouty lip, the scared face with the huge eyes, the half smile, the big smile with the crinkled nose, the frowny face, the furrowed brow, the one raised eyebrow, and my all time favorite the happy to see you huge gummy smile. Below is just a small sample of his many faces. Maybe one day I'll be quick enough to catch them all on camera, but for now we only have a few.

It's these faces that make everyday meaningful and memorable!
(and no he doesn't wear the same outfit everyday, these pictures were all from the same playtime)

Nothing To Do With Little Man

Yep, you read right. This post has absolutely no pictures or funny stories about Austen. It does however have pictures of the cause for my neglected laundry. First of all you should know it has been raining like crazy here for days and days, so yard work has been difficult.

This is a picture from our porch of one of the afforementioned rainstorms.Anyway, we have had a plantless mound of dirt in the backyard for almost four years now. I really didn't know what to plant there, but it annoyed me everytime I looked back there. My mom was getting rid of a bunch of plants from her backyard, so I decided to take some and fill up the empty mound. It was hard work, but I LOVE it!!! It made such a big difference back there and now everytime I walk by it I smile. I'll take this oppurtunity to show off my work.

It looks better in person, but unless you're coming over, a picture will have to do!! Oh and don't let Brian take any credit because I did it ALL! (Thanks for the plants mom!)

Why stop there???? I planted some annuals in the front too!

I can't wait until they all fill in.

AND I did all this under threat of attack from the robin who made a nest in our backyard. Her eggs finally hatched and now we have three cute little babies in the nest. I took this picture of them but they are camouflaged very well, so look hard and you might be able to see the three little heads.

Going To The Temple

The new Mormon temple was built not very far from our house and I have been wanting to see the inside, so my mom and I went on the first day of the temple open house. We also went to the Draper temple open house with the WHOLE family, and I mean everyone. The Draper temple was my favorite, but this one was pretty amazing too. After traipsing through a dusty, rocky, dirt filled parking lot in sandals we had a lot of fun.

For all of you that have seen Austen this story is going to be a lot funnier. For all of you that haven't yet seen him, let me preface this by saying that Austen is incredibly cute, but abnormally large. He is 4 months old and already weighs 17 pounds and is wearing clothes designated for 12 month olds. So, before they let you inside the temple, they have you watch a movie about the history of the site and the meaning of temples. While we were sitting there watching the movie I noticed another new mom with a cute little boy. He was a little shorter than Austen, but in every other way he was half Austen's size. I thought he was probably a month or so younger than Austen, but I'm not very good at that yet so I asked my mom and she agreed that the baby was about 3 months old. Well, as we sat there I kept watching that little baby and I noticed he could do things that Austen could not. He was a lot better with his coordination, playing with his feet and pacifier in ways that Austen hasn't even thought of. Upon seeing this I became very worried!!! I thought maybe Austen was develping slower than normal and even after the movie was over and we had moved on into the temple I still couldn't quit thinking about it. Soon we ended up in the elevator along with the mom and the very advanced baby so I asked the other mom how old her baby was. Her reply...."seven months". I couldn't believe it!!! A seven month old baby that was half the size of Austen. Needless to say I wasn't so worried about Austen's development after that. The temple was so nice and quiet. Austen thought it was a perfect place for a nap!
Thanks mom for a fun day out!

A walk in the park

I have been trying to think of fun things we can do on Saturdays since Brian has now labeled that "family day". (I thought this would mean no work or golf, turns out it really just means he will do stuff with the family after work and golf. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!) Well, after my brilliant wheeler farm idea I thought it would be fun to go to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens for our next family day and Brian agreed. ( I think he thought it would be fun considering he likes golfing there so much.)

We went and had a lot of fun. They have the grounds broken up into several different types of gardens such as the fragrance garden, the rose garden, and even a butterfly garden. So here we are in the secret garden. I love this picture because Brian is smiling and Austen is doing his famous pouty lip.

Here's Brian pretending to be miserable. Isn't he such a good actor??