Haircuts All Around

Austin had his first "official" hair cut today! I held him the whole time, but he did rather well. I forgot about getting any before pics of him :( and he was so ready for a nap by the end I could only snap one okay pic of him. Next time buddy!  But he looks rather dashing!

This was Hailey's first REAL haircut. The only previous ones she's had is when Aunt Jenny trimmed off her mullet :) I can't believe how long her hair was! But it was really thin at the ends, so it needed a good cut so it can grow in thick! But I love her short hair, it fits her :) She did so great while getting her haircut done!

Before

look how long!!

After :)

Big Boy Austy Boy

I can't BELIEVE that our little Austin boy just turned one year old!! This little guy has been on quite the adventure and he doesn't even know it! So far he as already flown on a plane twice, has visited six different states (Minnesota, Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, California, and Nevada), road tripped to Disneyland, shopped his heart out at the Mall of America, moved cross country....sounds like this kid is living the dream! Good thing he is such a trooper, I have loved packing him around all these fun places.

Accomplishments: 

Austin does great at standing at and walking along furniture. Though he hasn't quite gotten up the courage to try it on his own yet. I think he is doing SO great, especially considering the fact that he has the task of learning how to balance with his right foot. He has just began to walk with a push walking toy!! But what this kid really loves most is crawling up the stairs, and man is he fast!! We try to keep the gate up the majority of the time considering he hasn't quite learned how to come down the stairs yet, but wowzers you turn around for one second and he is at the top of the stairs. Austin loves to eat "real" food- no more of this baby food stuff, he likes the real deal! Once he had more teeth come in and he could chew solid food, he has been in love....with food that is! He does great at finger feeding himself, some of his favorites include; cheetos, noodles, soups, crackers, cereal, oranges, bread w/ butter and jelly, bananas, pancakes, and his absolute favorite...yogurt. We started him on whole milk at 11 months, because he just wouldn't take much of his formula anymore, and he LOVES it. He went from hardly drinking any, to downing it! And his first and only word so far.... "ma-ma" Yay!!!! What can I say he is quite the mama's boy, and I love it :) He also waves bye bye when mom/dad are leaving (that or he cries)

Likes: 

Chasing Hailey around
Water-bath, showers, swimming, his water table
Swinging at the park
Being tickled
Playing with mommy, daddy, Hailey
Songs-Wheels on the bus, Popcorn Popping
Looking at books
Climbing up the stairs
The bathroom (for some reason he is OBSESSED with this room...more reason for me to keep it clean!)
Having his ears rubbed
Watching Hailey be crazy (she can really get him laughing)

Dislikes:

being tortured by Hailey
getting his face wiped
being babysat

 
For his birthday we had an early little birthday party when my family was visiting and he got some fun birthday presents! Then  on his real birthday we just kept it a small family party. Hailey loved blowing up balloons, decorating, and making cupcakes. Austin had fun digging into his smash cake, and  we had fun watching!

 

We are so lucky to have Austin part of our family. He is such a sweet, good natured little boy. Although he is quite attached to his parents, so it makes leaving him a bit tough, but once he warms up to someone he is all smiles. It's fun starting to see his personality come out. I can tell he is definitely going to give Hailey a run for the money. She use to be the one picking on him, but now the table to starting to turn some. I always tell her she better be nice to her brother because he is going to be bigger than her soon :) Although they do pick on each other, they also adore each other! For now at least! We just love this little man so much and can't get enough of him!!! Love you Austy Boy, Happy Birthday!!!

Exploring

Yesterday we went "exploring" and found a pretty fun park in Omaha. Since we moved here the very end of August last year, we didn't really get to experience summer here. We've been keeping our ears open for new places to see and things to do around here, and we had heard there were some pretty cool parks-so we looked one up and went to check it out! Sure enough it was pretty neat! It had a Grotto area (where I guess a lot of people go to get pictures taken), that had a ton of trees, some cool stair cases, fountains, trails, a riverbed, all that fun jazz. Of course it had a playground as well! Hailey loved that the playground had sand instead of the rocky stuff that is usually in it. It was nice, although made more of a mess for us! All in all it was fun going out playing and exploring Omaha! So far we have really enjoyed it here :)

 

 

 

 

Summertime if FINALLY here!!!

Yay for S*U*M*M*E*R!!! This has been looooong anticipated by both me and Wes!! Wes finally has a break from school, and it actually turns out he has a few weeks off before he starts his new job. So we got to play for a little bit!!! The last couple weeks have been awesome!! We got to play alot! And I actually got to see Wes- it was great! We went to the zoo, the bounce house, Chuck E. Cheese, Lauritzen Gardens to name a few. I'm so glad that Wes had this little time off because he definitely needed it. He had been working his patootie of studying for his finals. And I was glad that I was able to sleep in after my graveyards, can you say AWESOME? Let's just say I'm a lot happier when I'm not sleep deprived :) Here are a few pics from all the fun times so far, let's keep the good times rolling!

 

The Aquarium 

 

Exploring Lauritzen Gardens 

 

Hailey had to smell Every. Single. Flower.

 

 Jumping at the Bounce House

We sure love playing with these kiddos! And it sure makes it much easier when their dad is with me!!!

One down...

One year down, two more to go...Congrats Wes on finishing your first year of law school!!! He actually finished classes two weeks ago, but he just finished finals, and according to him, the year isn't over until finals are through!! So happy for this summer! But let's not forget what it took to get us here. I think we would both agree that this year has been trying, emotional, and  hard, sometimes leaving us to question if this was the right decision for us, but at the end of the day, the answer was always "yes."  (Though I'm not sure if that was always the answer Wes wanted to hear:) )  One thing we have learned this year, if we love each other, work together, and turn to the lord, we can do it, we can do anything. I'm grateful for the hard/trying year, because Wes and I have become closer/stronger than ever...and I like it this way! The fact that we have zero family out here, and at the beginning no friends, we were on our own. It somewhat forced us to lean upon each more and more. So I would never change anything about this year, just for that fact. I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that Wes has put into his eduction. Not only that, but finding small breaks in between classes/studying, to be a dad and play with Hailey and Austin, give me the attention that I need, and help with keeping our house a tidy home. That's alot huh? I know!

We had another change happen the end of March. I got a job out of the home. I started working part-time graveyard as a unit secretary at Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha on the labor and delivery floor. I enjoy it, it's definitely a pretty chill job, and an exciting environment. Though sometimes the hours are little tough, and leave me a bit tired, it has definitely been a blessing for us!

Well, this entry has been a bit of me just rambling! The main thing here is..... ONLY TWO MORE YEARS OF LAW SCHOOL TO GO!!! LETS DO THIS THING!!

don't judge me, this pic was was a month post Austy Boy....and Wes just looks like a hottie.

Easter Weekend

We had lots of fun this past Easter weekend. We started it off by going to the Lauritzen Gardens that is just down the street from our town home. On Friday they had a time that was specifically for Village Green residents and we were able to do a couple of small crafts, hunt for some Easter eggs in the gardens, get pictures with the Easter Bunny, and ate treats and goodies afterwards! Hailey's favorite part by far was meeting the Easter Bunny :)

Then on Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at the park that was put on by Village Green . Hailey could hardly stand waiting to run and fill her basket with eggs! It only lasted about thirty seconds, but man it was a rush! :)

Later that day we were invited to one of Hailey's friends birthday party. It was really cute and Hailey had a blast playing with all her friends! It was a fire engine theme and they had a big bounce house and the local fire fighters even came down and the kids got to climb in and check it out! Hailey loved it, I had to fight with her to get her to come out!

Painting Easter Eggs

 

Austin enjoyed chowing on Cheetos while Hailey painted eggs :)

Sunday morning we had our own little egg hunt and the kids got to look through their baskets. We kept with tradition and had sticky buns (my FAVORITE!!!) for breakfast. Of course, then we enjoyed going to church :) It was fun having Wes home for the weekend, especially before he has to hit it hard for finals!