Austen's Four Year Old Favorites

I asked Austen a few questions about some of his favorite things and here are his answers.

Favorite color: Green and White

Favorite Movie: Ice Age Christmas

Favorite Show: Peppa Pig

Favorite thing to play: construction

Favorite fruit: canteloupe

Favorite vegetable: Broccoli, asparagus, and artichoke

Favorite book to read: Go Dinos Go and No Such Things

He also loves doing anything art related and he loves to tease and trick his mommy.

Here we are doing some painting which he loved!

In Honor Of The Month Of Love

I'm doing a cheesy post about my amazing husband!

I woke up to this posted on my Facebook wall for everyone to see:

Dear cari, too often do the most important people in our lives get overlooked. I hope you always know how much you mean to me and how much I appreciate your sacrifices and hard work you put into being the best mom and partner you can be! I am excited for the new addition to our family to get here and I know you are especially excited as well. You are a great mom, an awesome partner, and just an all around wonderful person. You didn't win the spouse lottery sweetie..... I DID!!!! I love you very much and I am always here for you throughout life's little challenges and obstacles. We are the indestructible, battle tested, highly fortified, juggernauts of all married couples and we shall maintain supremacy until our last breath!! ( or something very, very close to that). I SURE LOVE YOU CARI. THANKS FOR BEING YOU!!!

 It made me cry (which isn't hard to do these days with all of my crazy pregnancy hormones).  I just have to say that I am truly blessed to have such an amazing man by my side through this journey.  I would not be the person or mother I am today without his influence, support, and unconditional love!  We have had a difficult couple of years that would have put a strain on most relationships, but I can honestly say that these last two years have made us stronger and more in love.  Brian always steps up to pick up the slack whether I'm having a mental breakdown, dealing with the loss of my beloved Dad, or trying to make it through a difficult pregnancy.  He steps in without complaining and always reassures me that he's happy to do it.  He is hands down the best team mate ever and I know there is no one else that I could do this with.  Brian always puts his family first and dedicates every spare second to Austen and I.  He is present and fun and patient.......and a big kid, which makes the best kind of Dad.  I am so grateful for him and appreciative of the person he is and I love him more today than I did yesterday!

 

Surpirse.....I Can Read And A Snow Day

The other day Austen and I were in his room doing "paperwork" (this is by far Austen's favorite pastime...he basically does coloring and stickers and stamps on a paper and then sticks it in one of his boxes that he loves to collect and says we are going to mail the whole box to Santa) when I mistakenly discovered that Austen can sound out words and read them!  I was shocked and beyond proud of course!  We started with some easy two letter words like NO and GO and ME and then moved up to three letter words like CAT and MAP and JET.  It was one of those moments I hope I never forget.

On another note, it has been snowing here....A.LOT!  We decided to make the best of it and bundle up and head outside.  Austen loves to shovel the driveway which is really cute, but the best part is that he talks to all the neighbors while he's shoveling.  He'll walk out and say "Hey Ron" to our next door neighbor just as if he is one of the grownups.

 Shoveling got old, so he ran and jumped in.

 How cute is that?!?!

Playing Catch Up: Halloween Program

 Austen has the best preschool teacher ever and every year she puts on a super cute Halloween program.  The kids spend the whole month making spooky decorations and learning cute songs and stories.  This year she even taught them the names for parts in the human skeleton hoping to help them out later in life when then have to take biology.  Austen of course still knows all the parts and loves to call his head his cranium and his fingers flanges.  It's very cute!

Austen dressed up as a police man of course since that is what he tells me he wants to be when he grows up.

The program was very cute and Austen did great except for the first part when he wouldn't stand up (see the first pic).

 

 After, Miss Jan had games all set up for the kids to play and she even had a pumpkin decorating station which the kids all loved!

It's Birthday Time

Austen has been very excited to turn 4, so when the big day came he was thrilled.  I woke him up by telling him that it was his birthday.  He immediately jumped up and asked me if he was bigger.  Then he asked if that meant he could drive.  He thought four year olds were old enough to drive a car.  I had to explain to him that driving wouldn't be happening until he was 16 which was very disappointing for him. 

I took him to school with cupcakes for all his friends and Brian and I decorated while he was gone.  His aunt and uncle flew in for a visit, so they went with us to pick him up from school.  He was so excited to see them!  He opened presents and got a garbage truck that really empties the can, so he was busy playing with that for the rest of the day and didn't want to go anywhere.  We finally convinced him to go swimming. 

His cousins were nice enough to come over for a cake and ice cream party which Austen was super excited about.  I even let him pick his own cake.....he picked a dinosaur surprise surprise.

The pictures didn't load in the right order, but you get the idea. 

Also, thank you Grandma Linda for the awesome sticker book.....he loves it!

Happy New Year!!!

I've finally fixed the problem I was having with the blog and loading pictures!!!  So one of my new year's resolutions is to blog regularly.  Get ready for a lot of catch up since I haven't blogged in months.

We had a very fun Christmas break.  I just dropped Austen off at his first day back to school and I was actually sad.  I thought I would be so ready for him to go back, but instead I miss having my little sidekick around.  He is seriously funny and keeps me laughing all day long.  He LOVES to help me do whatever it is I'm doing......cooking, cleaning, laundry, really anything.  He is also currently obsessed with Godzilla and The Transformers.  He pretends to be an Autobot all the time.  Brian has even given him some Autobot nicknames like Austenbot and Austemous Prime.  Brian pretends to be Megatron and they have some awesome battles in the family room.  Sophie runs and hides when they pull out the swords and so do I!

I am just starting my third trimester of pregnancy and other than some hip and back pain, I feel pretty good.  I am huge already and look like I'm carrying twins, but the little peanut is measuring normal (except his head which is measuring a week bigger than his body).  He is getting strong and his kicks prove it!  I love having him in there kicking me all day and night, but I am getting really excited to finally be able to hold him and look at his tiny little face!  April 5th can't get here soon enough!

Moving Blog Hosts

 

I don't know if anyone still checks this, but just in case they do....I thought I'd let you know that I've switched hosts.  I can't figure out what is causing the picture problem and blogger doesn't seem to be able to help, so I've switched to wordpress.  My new blog home is www.raisingtheabarr.wordpress.com

 

so please visit us there.