Life lately

Wow, when the last post on the blog was about Christmas and it is already February, you know you are WAY behind.  A lot has happened and Austin is changing so much.  This is going to be primarily pictures with captions, which are more fun anyways.  We are settling into our house - we just had some new furniture delivered on Friday and there is only 1 box left (crystal that I am not sure where to put yet since we had a built-in in Denver that housed this).  Austin is loving toddling around our house like he owns it.  He will toddle from his room to his new play kitchen, yelling the entire way.  He is proving to be ALL boy!  I will do a post next week hopefully that is dedicated to 18 months after we go to the pediatrician and get the stats and check-up results.  But just a few things - he is really understanding what we are saying.  He says some form of "what's that?" all the time.  His usually response to almost everything is "uh huh", even to "Austin, do you want to jump off a cliff?".  Maybe we do need to teach him "no"?  He is obsessed with trucks right now.  OBSESSED!  He repeats the word over and over and over.  Annabelle gave him "Little Blue Truck" book for Christmas and he asks to read it over and over.  He gets very upset if you don't read it immediately when he requests.  There is a white ugly truck parked in a driveway a block down from our house.  Every time he is outside in the driveway playing, he takes off across our neighbors grass, pointing and yelling "truck".  We follow him because he would walk all the way down the block alone, just to see the truck.  It is hard to entice him back to the house.  Silly boy!  

We started going to Bayou City Fellowship back in November.  We are really enjoying it and feel at home there even though we haven't met many people yet.  Austin likes his Sunday School room (it took him about 4-5 times before he didn't cry when we dropped him off).  We will start a community group next Sunday evening.  It will be a great way to meet other people in a more intimate setting.  They even provide childcare and it is on Sundays at 5, which is a great time for us (weeknights are tough).  A sorority sister of mine (1 year older) and her family are in the group.  I am excited to begin making a group of friends through the church and I think most of them will have young kids.  

In other news, I just resigned from my current job (only lasted since October 1, oops).  The drive was so tough and the busy times were just too many hours.  I was really struggling being away from home that much. They were generous and let me work from home in the evenings but it just wasn't good for the long-term, especially since the company was going to be re-locating to the Woodlands in 2014.  That would be 1 hour + each way, which is unrealistic.  So, I will be going to work for Greystar, an apartment management, developer and owner.  It is about 15 minutes from our house!  I will be an accounting manager in the property group.  It is where Stacy works and he was able to get me an interview.  They were actually needing a new manager because they just took over management of a new portfolio of apartments.  I will be back in the real-estate industry like I was in at Archstone in Denver.  I liked that industry and am looking forward to that side of it.  My hours should be more normal and might even be able to work from home on Fridays 2x a month.  I start on 2/25 and my last day at Southwestern Energy will probably be 2/20.  I am thankful for Stacy helping me find this job! 

The rest will be an update through pictures... 

Playing with cousins Lisa and Mary in town from Austin

Lisa is 10 and Mary is 8, my first cousins

Wagon ride with Daddy

Still in Santa pjs, loving his chair.  He realized that Santa was on these PJs about a week ago so we will keep wearing them until he outgrows them :)

Showing Savanna (Sara's 2-year old) his tupperware cabinet

More wagon time, although the past few times we have gone out he has wanted to walk all by himself, to the Truck, of course

Great grandmother BB came to see our new house!

Savanna came to see our house!  (Oops, out of order)

Loving sitting in BB's lap

Mowing the yard...in shorts in January, that's Houston

Gas refill

Happy boy!

New play kitchen.  Hand-me down toys are great...thanks Barrett family!

His own pots and pans (maybe he will find these more interesting than messing with Mommy's?)

Cousin Annabelle came by to see our house for a play date

Cute cousins!

DiDi's grandkids!

Chillin in the thick Houston grass...much different than Denver grass

Legos at Ben and Summi's house

On a mission...to see the white truck....see it? - way across the street!

Ha!  Catch me if you can!

Trying Mommy's spaghetti!  And loving it!

Downward dog 

Playing at cousin Rhett's 3rd birthday party

Daddy is in the maze with me!

He will now not allow us to feed him with a spoon or fork.  He wants to do it himself - so we practice with yogurt and applesauce.

Add caption

Self-sufficient boy

Sunday snuggles and books - while Mommy gets ready for church,  Daddy and Savannah read books to Austin

Did I mention he is obsessed with the green John Deere tractor too?