Austin's 2nd Birthday Party!

Austin's 2nd birthday party was on Saturday August 17th.  Aunt Ricki and Uncle Stephen were very very generous to host 32 family members at their house for their 2 year-old nephew's birthday party.  The kids played in the inflatable pool that Ricki purchased for herself and her girlfriends to use for laying out in the backyard.  We also set up the water table and the squiggly wiggly sprinkler.  It was a "cool" day in Houston (for August that is, a high of only about 92) so people were able to be both outside and inside.  Ricki made pulled pork, broccoli salad (with cheese, bacon, craisins, sugary mayo sauce....not healthy broccoli, but good!) and guacamole as an appetizer.  We also served hot dogs, potato salad, chips, watermelon, and veggies/hummus as an app.  I made a cake the night before with Ricki and Michelle's assistance.  My dad "Pop" and Michelle "Gram" were so sweet to come in from Dallas for the weekend and for the party.  The cake was inspired by Pinterest (my first time ever to consult there) - it was a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting made in a rectangle pan and successfully dumped out onto a platter and decorated (also a first).  It had a large 2 on it, which was made black by filling it with oreo crumbs, which was the asphalt.  I then drew white stripes on it with icing and outlined it in green.  I had found car/truck candles on amazon which served as the vehicles on the road.  We also served ice cream and "stop light" rice krispie treats.  Austin was not so sure about everyone singing to him with the candles but once he was served a piece of cake with ice cream, he was happy.  It was a really fun party and thank you to Aunt Ricki and Uncle Stephen for allowing us to invade your house. 

Chillin in the pool

The cake!

Construction hats for all the kids!

Yummy veggies and guac (Austin thoroughly enjoyed dipping cucumbers in ranch and just licking the ranch off without eating a single cucumber, see picture below)

Swimming with cousin Ann-bale (Annabelle)

Festive desserts

The "little" kids table - Austin, cousin Rhett (3 1/2), cousin Morgan (3 1/2) and Annabelle (almost 2 1/2)

Mom and me

Cousin Summer and cousin Mary

Digging into the cake!

Ranch dressing is delicious

A little nervous about the singing and staring

Just swimming with his truck

Fun cousins Ben and Summer

Swimming with Morgan

LaLa and her baby Tucker

All the kiddos in their hats (missing Annabelle who had to leave early)

The hostess, and Uncle Drew and Caroline

Caroline and Christina were so sweet to come

Uncle Scott and cousin Lisa - they were so sweet to come from Austin and bring BB!

Spraying Morgan with the sprinkler - up to no good!

Pop and Gram (notice the fun Austin had as evidenced by his shirt)

4 Generations - Austin loves his BB!

Fun on Ricki and Stephen's playground that came with their house

Enjoying a beer, except for Daddy who just looks funny

Jumping in the pool with Big Deal

Ben loved playing with Tucker

Mom, there is fire on my cake!

Fun in the sprinkler

Climbing up with Big Deal

Swinging with daddy

Grandad and Annabelle - cute!

Kiddos playing

I love Rhett's smile in this one

In the hats, one last time!

Two Years Old!

 Austin turned two on August 9th.  It was a Friday so David and I had work but August got to spend the day with MiMi and DiDi since they had been tag teaming for the past week.  His school didn't start back up until 8/15 so there was 8 days where we didn't have Sydney (his former teacher who was his "nanny" all summer).  DiDi and MiMi did a great job hanging with our little guy.  I had a "great" idea to put a candle in his muffin (real banana muffin made with sugar and all, not the healthy kind) and sing happy birthday to him.  He just cried and was scared of the "hot" fire on his muffin.  Oh well, I tried.  He was much happier with go-gur (yogurt).  I left for work and missed my birthday boy all day.  That evening, David had his fantasy football draft so he didn't come home after work.  I picked up Austin from DiDi's house and we headed to a fancy birthday dinner at Jason's Deli - just the two of us.  I didn't even buy Austin ice cream on his birthday, but he did thoroughly enjoy the free Jason's soft serve.

Austin, I can't believe you have been with us TWO YEARS!  Here are some things you are up to these days:

• You love books - your favorites are Little Blue Truck, Bedtime prayer book, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Houston, The Jesus Storybook Bible, and any books that have trucks in them
• You can name all of the characters in the Bible (not that I am bragging) - you remember Noah, Moses, Daniel, Leah, Abraham, David, Joseph, Saul, Jesus, and of course, the Wise Men (haha)
• You love looking at pictures on the iphone or computer - you have an incredible memory, especially with names.  You remember all of your family members' and friends names.  You even remember Brody and his mommy Rachel from Colorado!! You know all of your classmates and teachers (last year- Ashley, Tasha, Sydney, Kiara and this year- Ashley, Alexa and Andrea).  You love watching the video that Andrew McAllister sent to mommy's phone, over and over
• Your favorite songs are Wheels on the Bus, If You are Happy and you Know it, Itsy Bitsy spider.  We often hear you singing Wheels on the Bus in your bed at night when you are trying to go to sleep or in the mornings before we come get you.  You are still the BEST sleeper and will just hang out in your crib if you are not ready to fall asleep or you wake up before I am ready to get you.
• You LOVE trucks and all things construction.  You know all the names of the equipment from Tractor to Excavator to Backhoe loader to Dump Truck to Bulldozer to Cement Mixer.  Every time you see an orange cone or sign you immediately scope the area for the equipment and start yelling out the names.  You even say "workmen".  
• You are still a pretty good eater.  Some of you favorites are - avocado, hot dogs (I still get you to eat all natural turkey or chicken dogs), watermelon, mac 'n cheese, pasta, butternut squash, broccoli, zucchini, hummus with carrots, wheat thin crackers, and of course you enjoy pretzels, raisins, and ice cream (on occasion).  
• We are going to your 2 year check-up next week and will posts stats then but I think you are on the tall side.  You are a big, growing boy.  You wear mostly 2T clothes with a few 3T here and there.  
• You love your dog, Savannah, who you affectionately call "Sisa".  You request to tell her goodnight every night after books, so we call her in, and you give her a big hug.  Sometimes you are a little too rough with her (jab your knees into ribs) and we ask you to be gentle, but she never gets mad
• You had you first round of swim lessons this summer - 8, 30-minute sessions with Jennifer at our neighborhood BGP pool.  I have to say you were not the best student because your attention with the lesson only lasted about 1/2 of each lesson.  You did learn some things - how to blow bubbles, kick your legs, and by the end, you were not scared to go under water.  We especially enjoy swimming at the Lakeside pool where there is a slide that you get to ride in Daddy's (or Mommy's sometimes) lap.
• You have a weird obsession with straps and buckles.  You would sit in the car and just play with and try to buckle your carseat straps.  I always make you get out when you don't want to because it is sooooo hot right now and we can't just play in the hot car.  You would do the same with your high chair, stroller, and changing table safety strap
• You want to do everything yourself and will fuss when I try to help.  Something I am not proud of and hope you get over is the ease by which you tell me and daddy "no" or "no, no, no".  Please outgrow this!  You should say "yes, mommy" or "yes, daddy" as this is the respectful thing to do :) 
• Finally, on the day I am writing this, you had another accident.  You tripped on a girl classmate's dress and fell onto an uneven surface outside at school.  You cut your face, above your left eyebrow, pretty bad.  I got the call at 4:15 and had to rush to get you so that I could evaluate and take you to the pediatrician before 5 to try to avoid an urgent care clinic visit.  Luckily, DiDi and LaLa were at mom's house so they got to your school first and met me at Dr Pielop's office at 4:55.  They saw the cut that was still bleeding and let us right in.  Dr Pielop ended up gluing it with the surgeon glue (like super glue) so that it would close up and heal.  You didn't like that process but you were a big, brave boy.  You even had your first (that I know of) lollipop afterwards.  Now you have a patch of purple glue above your eye for a few days.  Even though you are a tough big 2-year old, you are still my baby, Austin.  We love you and are so thank God  for you every day!

  

Not a fan of the fire on his muffin

Good, it's gone

Go-gur is much better

Smiley birthday boy

Digging into his Jason's ice cream

Now that is good!

Coming home from the hospital, 2 years ago

Breckenridge - Part 3

I had to post a couple more pictures from the Roons and Hayslip visit that Rachel emailed to me.  Rachel asked a kind lady to take a picture of all of us at our picnic lunch and it turned out really good considering we had 2 toddlers to capture.  The other two are just Brody and Austin being silly boys. 

Picnic with the whole group

Where does Austin get that mischievous grin? 

Bath buddies

On Friday evening, our friends Ryan and Kelly arrived.  Ryan is a friend from high school and UT and he married Kelly last October in Boulder.  They dated the whole time we lived in Denver so we enjoyed hanging out with them as a couple.  They rode their motorcycle up to Breck from Denver and traffic was so bad on Friday (Denverites escaping to the mountains for the weekend) that it took them 3 1/2 hours when it normally takes 1 1/2 hours.  We ordered pizza, enjoyed some wine, good conversation and a little hot tub after Austin went to sleep.  Austin thought the mo-ser-cy-sol was pretty cool.  On Saturday morning we spent some time packing and emptying out the fridge since we had to b out of the house by 10am. After that, we rode the gondola again with Ryan and Kelly.  Ryan and David splurged ( $18 a person for 1 ride) on an alpine slide ride while Kelly, Austin and I hung out.  We headed back to Main street one last time to grab a quick lunch and then said goodbye to Ryan and Kelly.  

Meanwhile, David had received a text from Southwest Airlines saying that our flight was delayed until 6:10 (supposed to leave at 4:30).  We got on the road to Denver around 12:30 so that we wouldn't get caught in any late afternoon traffic.  By the time we had arrived in Denver, David had received multiple texts that said the flight would leave at 5:30, then 6:30, then 8pm, then 8:30.  At that point, traveling with an almost 2 year old was not looking like fun (as if it is in the first place :)

Now that we weren't in a huge rush to get to the airport, we took the long way into town to extend Austin's nap for a little bit.  We drove by our old house and street (3x I think) while deciding what to do - try to change the flight til tomorrow and spend the night with friends or just gut it up with Austin and get home that night really late).  We headed to the park near our house to let Austin play while we called SWA.  By this time, it had moved back to 10pm due to 1) fog in San Francisco 2) power outage at DIA earlier that day causing delays for many flights 3) later found out a mechanical issue on our plane in San Diego 4) and then the kicker - tornadoes/storms in Denver.... I am getting ahead of myself.    We found out there were not any seats on flights on Sunday until 7:30pm Sunday night and that didn't do us any good.  So we decided to get some ice cream at our favorite place in Denver and give David's cousin's family a call to see if they were around.  They were so after ice cream we headed to their house for a visit.  The flight had now moved up to 8:30 departure so we decided to stay on it and head to the airport at 6pm.  It was great to see Christy (David's first cousin), Corrie, and their daughters Hayden and Maddie.  They took Austin down to the toys in their basement for 20 minutes while the adults caught up.  He was totally comfortable with the girls after 5 minutes of playing Jenga (stacking blocks).  We definitely would have hired them as babysitters if we were still in Denver!  Here are a few pictures from our spontaneous afternoon in Denver.

Digging into his very own Bonnie Brae vanilla

Now that is one determined ice cream-eater

Yummy ice cream mustache

Playing "money" with Hayden and Maddie 

Jumping steps!

Saying Bye-bye to his new friends

We turned in our rent car, drug all of our large luggage, giant car seat, and toddler in a stroller through the airport, checked our bags, got to the terminal, ate some really bad quesadilla (since Austin wanted that), and then found out that our flight had moved back to a 10pm departure.  Great...... we were there and Austin was going to have to either fall asleep in the stroller or stay awake until we got on the plane.  Nice.  He was still going strong though.  Then it moved to 10:30.  At this point things weren't looking good since the sky was black, it was raining and there were tornado warnings in the area.  As we were walking to the gate, David got a text saying it was CANCELLED.  We had to return to the main terminal to talk to the SWA person to get on a flight the next day.  David called immediately as we were heading to the train.  Amazingly there were 2 seats (Austin flew in our lap, free) left on the 9am flight that stopped in Tulsa.  We booked them.  Then we had to figure out a place to stay.  We had to get all our bags (ALL of them) from baggage claim, drag them outside to flag down a vehicle to take us to a "strip" of hotels nearby.  We could have called David's cousin to stay with her but by this point it was 9:30 at night and the airport is 40 minutes from their house plus we had already returned our car.  David found a "driver" in a Tahoe to take us to a hotel....but Austin had to ride in David's lap without a carseat in the pouring rain.  I was in tears by this point.  All (or so we thought) of our stuff barely fit in the Tahoe (there was another poor man with us).  We made it safely to the hotel and were checking in while the driver unloaded our bags, and the green bag was not there.   Oh no!  We had left it at the airport.  David took me, Austin and all our stuff up to the room.  Austin was crying, I was crying, and he left to go find the bag.  I set up the pac n play and Austin just cried (he was scared).  For the first time ever, I laid down in the big bed with him and he fell asleep quickly.  David thankfully found the bag on the curb where we left it.  He made it back, we moved Austin to his pac n play and we fell asleep in our lovely staybridge suites.  (note: 4 days later I realized I had a voicemail on my phone - it was a man at the Denver aiport with a FL area code calling to tell me he was standing next to my suitcase on the curb at island 3...haha, nice man).  The next morning, we rode the hotel shuttle (Austin w/o carseat again, scary) to catch our flight.  It was about 1.5 hours late for some reason but we made it home safely (Austin even slept in David's lap during the Tulsa to Houston leg).  I think this was God's way of telling us we needed to stay longer in Colorado. Speaking of, we taught Austin to say "Bor Ca-yo-ra-do, Li Hus-on" (Born in Colorad, Live in Houston).  It was a wonderful vacation despite the trip home (good story now) in a place that is so special to us and we can't wait to go back!