Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Family and Fourth of July

Last week Jamie, Jason, Aria, and Kelly came out for a visit! They made the 14 hour drive to Nebraska and arrived at our place later Wednesday night. Hailey was just thrilled to see everyone and especially to play with Aria- she just adores her!

 Thursday morning we went to an inflatable jumping place, I'm not sure if the girls had more fun or Wes and Jason?! Haha.
 Then later that afternoon we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo...

 Friday was the Fourth of July! We went to a fun neighborhood parade near downtown Omaha.We spent the day playing outdoors, swimming, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, then later we had a BBQ that our friends the Olsen's were able to come to as well. Then of course we ended the night watching fireworks from our front yard. It was the perfect spot because we could see about 5 different shows from our yard!
Bubble Time!
Hailey and Aria in the matching dresses I had made.... and of course their awesome fourth gear from Jamie!
Waiting for the parade
Saturday we downtown and played on the big slides, walked around and did some shopping, went to Chuck E. Cheese, went out to Olive Garden for dinner, and managed to squeeze in some time for sparklers!!! Phew!

 
I just couldn't pass putting up this little gem :)




When Sunday rolled around we were sad to seem our friends leave us :( But we had such a BLAST over the Fourth of July Holiday and the rest of their stay! Hopefully we can make that a 4th tradition!! Knowing we are going out to Utah in four weeks, does make the parting a little easier. We are SO glad that they made the drive out to visit us!!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

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 :)

Sunday, June 15, 2014

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!!!




Sunday, June 8, 2014

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 :)
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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!!!