Memorial Day Memories

Home of the free, because of the brave. Happy Memorial Day.

One year ago today I found out I was pregnant. It was a very memorable Memorial Day. What a difference a year makes.
Pictures of my growing belly...

Memorial Day 2010. Bike ride, swimming, positive pregnancy test, bbq at Chris & Megans...great day!

August 27th. Mexico with my family. 17 weeks

Sept 25th. Date night. 21 weeks

Sept 28th. Ultrasound day. So proud of us for not finding out the gender!

Oct 23. Photographer Audrey took my picture. 23 weeks

Oct 25. Cabin in OK with friends. 25 weeks

Nov 28. Taking Christmas card picture. 30 weeks

Dec 5. Trip to UT for Arianne's wedding (still need to blog about that!) Here with Jayme, former room mate, also pregnant! 31 weeks

Dec 13. Celebrating Mandy's birthday. 32 weeks

Jan 14. Joshua snuggling his baby brother to be. 37 weeks

Feb 3. Being induced, on my due date! 40 weeks

Memorial Day this year was really fun. It was a fun weekend. Saturday we went to the gym, and then to see Kung Foo Panda 2 with the kids and some friends. Saturday night was date night, wahoooo! Sunday we relaxed and Dave bbqed some salmon for dinner. Monday Dave studied (boards this week), and then we went to the pool with some friends and ordered pizza. Monday night I went to see "Something Borrowed" with some friends while Dave studied. Fun weekend. Too bad I didn't take one picture!
Austin is now almost 4 months old. It's crazy to think that just a year ago we learned he was coming to join our family. Here is a little video of him giggling today.
click here to watch it
(Audrey has been asking when Austin's hair was going to be long enough to "make it all spikey". This was my first attempt at making it spikey. It's hard to tell, not quite long enough yet.)

Tornado Warning

On Tuesday night, we experienced our first, and hopefully last, tornado warning. I'm a California girl, and I'm not gonna lie... tornados never really scared me, until now. I was never really worried for my little family, but my heart goes out to all those who have been effected by all these crazy tornadoes happening lately. We were put under warning, and told to get to our "safe place". Our safe place was the kids bathroom. The kids were already asleep, so we just carried them to the tub and let them continue sleeping. We had our first aid kits, water, food, flashlights, candles, matches, blankets, crib mattress (to cover ourselves with...it's what the website said), Dave brought a hammer (he was really proud of that idea), I wore a watch (I don't like not knowing what time it is in case the power went out), and I put lots of toilet paper in the bathroom.
Luckily, our kids slept through the whole thing. Nothing happened to us here, but better safe than sorry.
In the morning Audrey said, "Hey, did I really sleep in the bathtub last night?" I guess she remembered a little bit of it after all.

 

The sky was incredible. So much lighting. Excuse my annoying voice. I was on the phone with Mandy, who was husbandless, and her TV went out. She also thought Dave's hammer idea was a good one and included it to her emergency stash. It was a mix of rain and hail, but nothing too serious. Our street looked like a river at one point, but we didn't get the baseball sized hail like some parts around here did. The eerie sound is the tornado warning sirens going off. They go off every month just to practice, but it's during the day and there aren't any tornados near. I will never listen to it the same way again.

Click here to watch the video.

Just kidding.  Click here instead. Same video, just now it is working.

Found

Joshua hiding behind the table. Wearing Dave's glasses. Sucking on Austin's binki. Sigh.

Soccer

Joshua played soccer this spring. Kinda. He loved running off the field, taking breaks, and getting drinks ("me firsty!") more than actually chasing the ball. Oh well.  At least he had fun.

This was while we were waiting to get his picture taken for team picture day.  He had much more energy  waiting for his picture to be taken than he did during the games.

 

Joshua and Seth

 

The three stooges. Jason, Joshua and Seth

 

 

 

Team picture

 

Dave was even able to come to a game.  He helped Audrey get her socks and shoes back on, her least favorite thing to do.

 

And make her laugh.  Her favorite thing to do.

 

Jason was a soccer star!

 

Joshua and Seth had fun tucking their knees into their shirts.

 

 

Pretty sure they are making a bee line off the field, but it looks pretty ferocious!

 

Steps

On Wednesday, I was scrubbing the tub so I could give Austin a bath. Joshua wanted to help, and being the super fun mom I am trying to be, I let him. He had a great time getting in and out of the tub and using the rag to wipe it down. It was all rinsed so I didn't worry about the cleaning chemicals. I moved on to the shower, while Joshua finished the tub. A few minutes later, Joshua said, "Look Mom! Me help you!" I looked and he had found lotion and had squirted it all over his hands and then had wiped it all.over.the.tub. He also had one of my nice makeup brushes and was using it to scrub the lotion into the tub. Back to square one. Rescrub the tub. With a rag, not my makeup brush.

After the tub was cleaned, I bathed Austin. Bathed him, lotioned him, baby powdered him, dressed him in a clean onesie, and then even before I could pick him up to enjoy his fresh clean smell, he spits up. Everywhere. Back to square one.

It felt like I had taken two steps forward, and then ten steps backward all day. It was hard to feel like I was accomplishing anything. How was I going to get everything done?! It was at that moment when I realized something. Two steps forward, and ten steps backward, but they were all in the same direction ... creating a home of learning, of love, of patience, and hopefully creating a very happy childhood for my little ones. So all these steps I take every day, either forward or backward, can either lead me to frustration, or lead me to a recognition that this is a very short, very special time that I have with my kids before they grow and don't want to be next to me all day anymore.

My laundry will never all be done, there will always be some sort of chore to do, my kids will want to help and it will inevitably take longer when they do, but it's not all about getting things done, it's about the steps we get to take, together.

Girly Weekend

Audrey had her first dance recital Mothers Day weekend. She loved every second of it. Her dress rehearsal was in the morning with the actual recital that afternoon. After the dress rehearsal she said, "I can not wait to get back on stage!" Quite the little performer.

Tatum. Abby. Audrey.

 

 

 

Abby. Audrey. Tatum. Kaitlyn. Cassia.

 

We went down to the front row to take pictures. The black thing is the stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We surprised her and brought her flowers.  That night when I asked what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "When I got my roses, and when I went on the ballet stage."

 

 

Tatum. Hallie. Audrey.

 

In between the dress rehearsal and the recital, Audrey and I went to get pedicures for Mothers Day.

 

 

Sweet Austin loved coming on our girls date.  Such a trooper.

 

Mothers Day was awesome. Breakfast in bed (cereal with fresh berries. Church is early.) After church we had Texas toast french toast (while we are still Texans, Dave said. Sad.). Then I had the best nap I've had in a long time. For dinner Dave made steak, a fruit salad, and then a green spinach drink. He doesn't like green salad at all, so for our "something green" he made a spinach drink. A for effort!

 

It was a fun weekend of doing lots of girly things...dance recital, pedicures, and Mothers Day!

Bumbo-licious

Austin's first time in the Bumbo. He wasn't sure what he thought of it at first, but now he loves it. 5.13.11

 

When I was pregnant with Joshua, my sweet friends threw me a shower and made me onesies. My friend Jamie, made this onesie. It says, "Audrey's brother" on it. It applies to Austin too. It's her favorite outfit he owns.

Saturday Morning Snuggles

Lazy Saturday morning with my sweet babes. We missed you Dave.

And then Austin had enough.