The cake

We just finished up with the party and it was awesome!  I will make a post all about it, but for now I wanted to show the cake.

What a Day!

We had no plans for today until this morning, but we decided it would be good to get outside since the weather was so beautiful.  We also decided it would be good to make a shopping trip to the big city to get supplies for the birthday bash and we also decided to buy a new bath tub for Dustin's bathroom since the old one got a crack in it. 

We headed out after breakfast and first we went to Lowe's for the bath tub.  I am not full on potty training Austin yet, but we have introduced him to it and he sits on the potty most nights before his bath.  As we walked down the isle in the bathroom fixture section Austin spots the potty display and starts yelling "potty, potty" so we had to go sit on the display model.  Don't worry though, he of course still had on his diaper and pants!

Next we head to our favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, for lunch.  They seat us against a wall that they have a big mural painted on, it's a picture of Lake Powell.  At first Austin sat in the bench with Dustin, but then he crawled over to my side.  Above my seat the mural has a lady in a bikini.  Austin notices it and I'm thinking, I feel like the mom on A Christmas Story when they set up the leg lamp and Ralphie is checking it out.  Next thing I know Austin hones in on her belly button and reaches up and pushes it and says "buzzz".  When he was first learning body parts I taught him belly button and to make the buzzing noise when he pushes his button, so he did it to the mural girl.  We were laughing so hard!

Then we went to Zion National Park where we were thrilled to find out that it is a free park weekend.  We are avid parkers and always have an annual pass, but ours expired a couple months ago and we were going to have to pay the $80, but since it was a free day we were good to go.  It was still pretty snowy so we decided to just do the Temple of Sinewava trail that follows the Virgin River.  First off we found out that Austin no longer fits in our Kelty Kids backpack, it was a squeeze to get him in there and he was miserable.  So we took him out and expected to have to carry him, but sure enough he walked most of the way with us.  Our only problem was 1) he really wanted to go to in the river, and 2) any time he saw something cool he wanted to wander off the trail to it.  It was really cool to see him be so independant, man is he growing fast.  We didn't do the whole length of the trail, but it was nice to be out and get exercise and fresh air anyway. 

Birthday Invite

Here is what I came up with for Austin's birthday party invite.  In the space between Hey There and , I wrote in the kids' names that I know from daycare and sent blank ones for the Nanny's to fill out for the rest of the kids.  I was playing off of how Yogi Bear says "Hey there Boo Boo."  So far we have 3 RSVPed on Facebook and one maybe, it could be a huge turn out.
I need to get working on stuff for the party, but little man has been keeping me up the last couple of nights.  I thought maybe we had strep throat because one of the early morning wake ups my throat was sore, but we both went to the doctor and got clean bills of health.   Now I'm wonding if it is a tooth for him because one of the nights when Austin got up at 3:00am I gave him Motrin and he slept for over 6 hours straight.  I hate that he does not yet have the words to tell me what is going on. 

I have been debating making up a t-shirt for Austin to wear at the party.  Last year I got him a Sesame Street babies "my first birthday" hat to wear and he was less than thrilled with it.  I can't decide on the wording to put on a shirt if I did make one.  I was just thinking of using t-shirt transfers and using one of the Yogi images I found online.  I was think about doing some Yogi catch phrase, but I don't know, now I'm think of just having it say "Birthday Boy."  What do you think?

A unique place

This past weekend my husband took us on an adventure to a truely unique place that is way off the beaten path.  It's called White Pockets and it's on the northern Arizona border.  It's near the famous rock formation called "the wave" (aka Coyotte Buttes) and probably has similar history in its formation.  It is lesser known so not many people venture out to it like the wave.  Austin had a blast, he was so in his element.  We put him in his snow suit to keep him warm, but it ended up being a good layer of protection for his skin since the slick rock sandstone can he hard on a person and he had a blast rolling around and climbing.  He of course was making Mommy nervous though!

Wordless Wednesday

My Christmas cactus is finally blooming!

To participate in the link up go here!

Mrs. January

So who would of thought, but I'm a calendar girl!

I knew my Project Officer selected my Program to be featured in the calendar this year, but I did not know that she took a picture of me during her site visit last winter.  I would have preferred a summer photo because it's really pretty when the green plants contrast against the red soil, but oh well.

I requested that they send me a bunch of calendars so I could pass them out to the people I work with, but they sent me 2.  Gee, thanks EPA! 

Happy 2011!

It's a new year and we are so blessed and looking forward to all the blessings that this year holds for us. 

Austin's new 2011 look!

We celebrated by taking Austin to his first movie in a theater, Yogi Bear.  We purposely found a 2-D version because he would not keep on glasses and we weren't sure how he would react to the big screen anyway, which he was totally fine!  He sat and watched for about 30 minutes and then got a little antsy.  I took him down and let him walk around in the entry way.  After 5 minutes of that he was running around a lot.  Dustin took him out and got some snacks and when they came back in he sat and ate popcorn and gummy lifesavers for a while.  Then he was up and at it again and I was chasing him!  It was a stadium seating theater so he was having fun running around the front 3 rows, where no one was sitting anyway.  The problem was as he was running he was screaming giggles at the top of his lungs.  We finally decided it was time to go, but we only missed maybe the last 15 minutes of the movie.  Dustin said he looked around at the people who were watching the movie and everyone seemed to be amused watching me chasing Austin and not annoyed, so that was good.

While we were in "the big city" we also went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and stopped for a quick Walmart trip.

We got home and gave the little man his bath and put him to bed.  We celebrated just the two of us by playing Monopoly and sipping champagne.  We used to enjoy playing Monopoly often when it was just us, but I honestly can not remember playing it since Austin was born.  The best part was I WON!  We watched the Dick Clark New Years Eve special and of course shared a romantic kiss at midnight.  We were going to go sledding today, but Austin took a pretty long nap so we decided to wait until tomorrow.  We were able to take down all the Christmas decorations while he was napping, and it felt good to get that all done.  I have to admit that I was a little sad thinking that hopefully this will be the last time we decorate this house for Christmas as we really hope that 2011 holds a new job and move closer to family for us. 

May everyone have a blessed and prosperous 2011!

Finally some snow!

We finally got our first snow of the winter, after Christmas of course!  It was so pretty and it was wet snow, so the roads weren't really very icy or problematic.

Christmas at home!

I know I'm behind since I never updated about our Christmas Day, we have been having a fun filled holiday week and I have been putting in a few extra hours at work since Dustin was home. 

Instead of doing our crazy trek to Iowa for Christmas this year we decided to stay home and celebrate.  We kind of figured some family would come to celebrate with us, but nope, everyone did their own thing so we were on our own, but it was fabulous!  We got up Christmas morning and tried to get Austin to open presents, but once again he could care less.  He enjoyed his gifts once they were opened, but never did get into ripping the paper.  We didn't finish opening his gifts until Sunday night when I finally just opened the last three that were from us. 

Austin loves his electronic keyboard from Santa.  He plays it, and sits on it, and stands on it.  He loves the funny sound effects it will make and loves the demo songs.  Lets see if I can remember everything else- the movie Cars, a Chuck and Friends dump truck, a set of Chuck and Friends mini cars, a Mr. Potato Head set that came with two potatoes and about 6 different outfit combinations, LeapFrog Scout Fridge magnet alphabet, a John Deere tool box and tools, the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas with a stuffed Grinch, a drum and musical instrument set, a truck that came with a hammer to hit little pegs that play music, bath markers, and stocking stuffers. 

We got dressed and made it to Christmas Mass at 10:00am.  I figured it would be packed with all the CEOs, but it was actually pretty empty. 

In the afternoon we went to the home of some friends for Christmas dinner.  Dustin works with the husband and I am friends with the wife and their two kids go to Austin's daycare.  It was really fun to see them and the meal was great.  As my friend said that is one great thing about being away from family at the holidays, is that it encourages you to spend time with good friends. 

It was a wonderful weekend!

Merry Christmas!

So far we are having a great Christmas Eve.  We went sledding today at the forest.  Austin is still not too crazy about playing in the snow, but seems to enjoy it more every time we go.  Tonight we had grilled shrimp for dinner, and it was so yummy.  We gave Austin his bath and put him in PJs, then we loaded up in the pickup and drove around looking at Christmas lights.  Austin was wide awake the whole time and really made it fun when he would proclaim "Wow!"  Tomorrow we are openning presents, heading to Church, then having lunch/dinner in the afternoon with friends.  I am so very blessed!

More from the cookie party

I'm sitting here watching a Christmas Story so I thought I would share more photos from the cookie baking party.

Mmm!

 

Who knew, frosting makes great hair gel!

Santa visit

Poor Austin, he has been not feeling well this week and fighting a fever since yesterday so I think that factored into his mood today, but our visit with Santa did not go well.  He cried the whole time I set him on Santa's lap.  From a distance he was good though, he would smile and wave to Santa.  He just wanted no part of being away from me.