Fifteen!

At 15 months, Austin's Stats:

Height: 31 1/2 inches, 70%

Weight: 22lbs, 17%

the doctor even dropped the word "skinny" in converstaion; but he is not worried in the slightest about Austin's weight.

Enjoying some sunshine..

This is the tail end of him "winking" (he just squints his eyes)

He loves to sit in the fridge and tell us about all the cool stuff in there. Or sip on his milk. Are those Post-It Notes? Why yes they are. I wonder if they are still there....

Daddy built a fort for the both of them to play in! We left it up all weekend. And it blocked the way through our living room so picture us crawling through it everytime we needed to go back into our bedrooms. Oh and crawling through in our church clothes on our way out the door haha!

Wearing papa's sandals..

For Christmas, my mom gave me a weather sheild for my jogging stroller. I love it! It's nice to have in the winter since I run outside only. Now I can take him running when it's snowing/raining or super windy/cold. Or, like last week, it was nice to have since he had a cold and I didn't want his nose to run any more than it was already! I definitely have no excuse to miss a run now!!

You're probably wondering why this picture is here, but it just portrays how he is starting to do "big boy" things..like sitting like this while he watches TV. It is so crazy for Jake and I to see little things like this! We miss our baby boy!

Here are a few fun things about Austin at 15months:


-If he hears a song on the radio he loves, then he walks over, turns it up, and jams out. Some of his favorites: Naked and Famous, U2, Katy Perry, Rhianna, Foster the People, Awolnation, Colbie Caillat. He also loves Elmo. His favorite video on You Tube is "elmo's got the moves." He usually invites us to dance with him and gets upset if we don't.

-He is (near) running and climbing and yes I think am burning more calories than ever chasing him all day

-He's social.. and will "wink", waves and smile, and share his blanky with random people at the grocery store. He loves going where there are a lot of people and lots going on because he loves to be apart of the action and explore

-is throwing little tantrums. They last like 10 seconds and are hilarious. Jake and i walk away and ignore them and try not to laugh at him. He will stomp around, yelling, and shaking his head back and forth..once he even stormed around the kitchen, faced Jake, and yelled at him!!

-The other day he got frustrated and bit my leg (!!) so I immediately put him in time out in his room. He came out after about 30 seconds, walked right up to my leg, touched it, said something serious, then kissed it better!

-Calls out "dad" the second he wakes up. When I go in there, he keeps saying "dad! dad! dad!" and motions to our bedroom. So we both go in and lay in bed with dad.

-LOVES his grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles. He knows his family and I love that.

-talks and talks and talks. Can we understand him? No. It's so cute..his gibberish. You can tell he is making sense to himself. The things we CAN understand: pees? (please), dad, mama, I don't know where it is (mostly gibberish but we can tell by his tone and hand gestures), and this.

-sugar affects him in a big way. He gets super hyper. Therefore, no sugar before bed.

-loves his shoes and likes to put them on even when we aren't going anywhere

-tries to dribble and bounce balls.

- has 2 bottom molars now plus 8 front teeth (still waiting on those canines)

-bedtime 9pm, wakes up anytime between 7-8. Naptime 12:30-1, wakes up between 230-4.

- makes the goofiest face when he's trying to take the lid off something..he scrunches his face all crazy, and pulls so hard he starts trembling!

-will fall backwards from sitting or standing for fun. We have to throw a pillow under him if we can't catch him in time.

-loves blueberries. he will seriously eat like 3 cups if you let him. (those diapers are super fun to change!)

-pretends to snore..just breaths really hard

-when it's time to clean up our messes, he likes me to sing the clean up song (from Barney..remember?) and he will help me clean up whatever mess there is

-says "prayers"...will bow his head and mumble something really fast.

Austin pretty much runs the show at our house! He is all over the place and of course loves to play with us forever and ever. He is honestly the goofiest person I know. Everyday I just laugh and laugh at him..he does the weirdest things!! I think it's because he is so curious about his world and loves discovering. I really die laughing almost every night...like who does these things!!? Only a toddler I suppose. If I knew what was going on in his head I would without a doubt pass out from laughing. Funny 2 yrs ago I was entertained by completely different things!  Sometimes he can be a monster (teething/sick) and I even laugh at that; he will just walk around yelling aaaaaahhhhhhh! Of course I don't let him see me laughing. It reminds me of the Hulk. Or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Most times though he just a happy little guy who loves to play and show you around the house to all his fun places. He is thrilled to be in new places and around new people. He LOVES his blanky and binky and to cuddle with us everyday. He will give us hugs and kisses periodically throughout the day. Can't wait to see what the next few months bring!

lol...

This:

gave me a good laugh today

Happy 2012

Watch Out 2012, He Means Business!

New Year's Eve was a blast. We were sad not to ring in the new year with our friends, but it's just hard to get everyone together these days (we are a group of at least 14..makes going out to dinner nearly impossible haha) and then keeping kids awake past midnight on top of that just makes for a crazy night for whoever hosts!!

This year we celebrated with my mom's BF Joe's family. Started off with delicious pulled pork sandwiches, courtesy of Mr Robinson himself. And tons of other yummy sides like my mom's amazing guac, Jacyln's artichoke dip, bruschetta, etc. It was a great "end" to the food madness the holidays always bring. Joe's kids were there with their kids, and one of them is 2. It is so nice to have another toddler boy running around for Austin to watch and play with. Austin was in heaven the whole night. He LOVED his New Years hat, and was walking around the house like he had some serious business to do.

Austin always seems to love going to big gatherings like this. He is so happy and in his own world; exploring, watching, playing, and being a part of the action. He is definitely Jake's kid. Totally outgoing and excited to see new things.

The night was a mixture of Wii games..pretty sure my mom and I kicked butt at the dancing game... Card games, scrumtrulescent food including fondue, magic tricks, and watching the kiddos just have a good time! Jake also played The Man Game (Ashley- Nick needs this game), which was pretty entertaining. We put Austin to bed around 10 and he did AWESOME. I was a little nervous about how he would do, since we've never put him down at someone else's house then taken him home to put him to bed again. But it was easy peasy. He went to sleep, slept through our partying and some serious fireworks. We packed him and his pack n play up at like 12:30am, took him home, laid him in his crib and he slept all night. SO great to know he does well with situations like that.

Very tired after the clock struck 12!!

Oh my can I just say I have never witnessed such awesome fireworks standing 20 feet away!? Thanks to Cole and the rest of the boys for a kick-a show! I think we smoked out the entire street but big deal, it's New Years people!

Joe and my mom..Hey how did she get the blanket?? Not fair ;-)

Fondue! We were arguing how there was something missing..cinnamon bears. Don't knock it till you try it!

Here are some silly pictures of Austin, the outspoken 15mo old that seems to be the man of the house sometimes...

Jake and I got Cafe Rio and Austin loved the black beans. This kid requires a baths more than he gets them!

He recently figured out the concept of "blowing" on his food if it's "hot." What he doesn't grasp, is that there are other things that are hot in which blowing does not help haha.

"Tis the Season!

It's most wonderful time of the year!

haha Austin would strongly disagree! Well December flew by faster than I imagined and here I am January 2nd with Christmas cleaned up at our house... So sad! Jake & I are sad that the little things Austin was amazed at this year (like Christmas lights) won't be so fascinating next year. But maybe he will be more interested in actually opening his presents instead of playing with the first one opened while mom and dad open the rest lol.

Well here's a little recap of December 2011:
Among other silly things Austin does these days, he'll smile on demand. But most times he doesn't find cheesin' it up entertaining so he usually just turns his head to the side and pretends he didn't hear us say "smile!" He is more prone to smile if there's actually a camera.

We went to Color Me Mine to make some Christmas presents. I love this place. Austin has fun painting...and apparently ceramics paint tastes good because he would suck the brushes!! The lady assured me the paint is non-toxic, thank goodness!

Lately Jake and I just cannot make up our minds about what to do with Austin's hair. We like it a bit longer at least while he's still a younger toddler. But it's kind of shabby. And hey don't judge...yes I still bathe him in his bath tub (it does say "infant to toddler" in my defense)..Conserving water right!?

Here's another Santa pic. I took him to visit Santa who was visiting my mom's work party. Even while I was holding him he was clinging to me for dear life. Poor guy!

Christmas Eve we ate our traditional mexican food feast at Jake's parents' house. One of Austin's favorite things to do at Papa and Grandma's is to sit on this little window pane, perfect for his height!

Playing with Aunt Alex!

Austin LOVES to dance. He seriously has so many "moves" I can't keep track. Any music gets him going. Lately his favorite is Katie Perry on Aunt Loraca's phone. Also, even though Austin started walking on Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas he decided to ditch crawling altogether. It is truly strange to a little mini-person toddling around our house!

Our Christmas Eve (bedtime) was a real treat for the three of us. Jake was up half the night throwing up. And I was up from 3am-5am with Austin who was cutting a molar. He would fall back asleep in my arms but didn't want to go back in his crib. I finally got him in there (with a good dose of Tylenol) at 5am. It was nice though..he slept in until 9 Christmas morning which gave me good time to get completely ready for the day. Jake was still sick the rest of Christmas (so sad!) but at least could sit on the couch and rest wherever we were. We missed Sacrament due to sleeping baby and sick husband. We started with breakfast (I contributed my AebleSkivers..just imagine a pancake in the shape of a ball) with my parents and presents. Then moved to Jake's parents' house for presents. Then back to my parents' for dinner and a nice evening just playing and visiting. I wasn't tired all day (weird) and even stayed up another couple hours once we got home. I think I was wired!!

Austin didn't really care for opening presents, but he loved pulling surprises from his stocking!

Having fun with his size 1 soccer ball!

Loving playing with the presents once they were open.

haha The other day I heard him crying in distress. I found him like this, balancing on the laundry basket trying not to set it off balance resulting in falling backwards. Kids get themselves into the most precarious situations!

Christmas was perfect, besides poor Jake being sick. Who wants to be sick on Christmas, seriously?? My dad came in from Cali for the week so I spent a lot of time hanging with him and my sister at my mom's. It was so great to see him and for him to play with and babysit Austin. We also got to spend some nice time with my mom and her boyfriend, aka Grandpa Joe, over Christmas break. Jake, Austin and I truly got spoiled this year, like any other year haha! We LOVE our families so much and it was honestly so nice to have some good times celebrating Christmas 2011! Jake and I feel like we have a whole new family with Joe's kids and their cute kids; it's been so fun getting to know them and celebrating together.

Another exciting thing that happened this month (last week actually) was my brother and sister in law got sealed in the temple! Jake's brother Ryan and his wife Alex celebrated their wedding anniversary this month and also officially "sealed the deal" haha in the Salt Lake Temple. The day before that, Alex recieved her endowment at the Draper temple, so it was a great week in the temple as a family.

Next post..New Year's Eve!

Austin Turns One!

Well I guess Austin is officially not a baby anymore, which is so sad!! He will always be my baby though. His birthday was a month ago today, so now he is even getting closer to 15months! We had a great, laid back birthday party with our families; I couldn't have asked for a better get together for our little one :)

I am no cake decorator but was determined to make his cake myself. I am not on pinterest and now am thinking I should be! But seriously, I had so much fun making his first birthday cake. I cannot take credit for the cupcakes...My sis-in-law Alex did them! I just told her what I wanted and she delivered :) thanks for your labors Alex haha! I should also say Jake cut the legs for the spiders, and we all decided he needed to quit when we did the math and found out we needed 96 legs for a dozen cupcakes. Five was enough at that point!
And a big thanks to my other sis-in-law Loraca for taking all the pictures. I am horrible and taking pics and was so happy to have like a hundred (haha!) pics of this night!

Not sure yet about the cake...

This picture cracks me up. Paparazzi!! The looks on our faces are priceless lol.

He mostly got frosting..which is the best part anyway, right?

The flashing cameras, swooning loved ones, and sugar overdose got to him, and he was done hahaha poor guy!

Uncle Ryan! Austin loves his uncles.

Grandma Tammy and aunt Kristina!

Present time! He was so sick of being cleaned off I didn't dare wipe the last bit of frosting off his face.

My sister put together a video montage of Austin from birth to now, it was so so awesome, I loved it. A tear-jerker for sure!

With aunt Alex and uncle Ryan, in his brand new GLOW IN THE DARK pj's! Pretty sure I want a pair of those myself :)

Papa and Grandma Jaime

The Peterson side

aunt Loraca and uncle Jordan!

With daddy, feeling his beard haha

By the end of the night he was pretty sleepy. He loved it when my mom rubbed his face with this blanket.

My little helper

Our family on Halloween (forgot my whiskers oops)

He fell completely asleep eating lunch the other day...

Austin John at 12 Months:

- 20lbs (20%) 29 1/2"..that is a guess (60%) and head still 100+% The doctor hinted towards fattening him a up a bit since he dropped too much percentage wise. Like putting butter on his toast, things like that. Which made sense to me because it seemed like he was ALWAYS hungry. Now things have evened out. He is getting his 2nd flu shot tomorrow so we'll see how his weight is.

- he jibber jabbers a ton, to me it sounds like "warbling" and also tries words like kitty, toast, banana, night night, to name a few

- He has some toys he can push/walk around the house. He seriously goes crazy with them. He runs, turns, backs-up, crashes into people and things on purpose. I am tempted to hide them for a week and see if he will just try walking without them. He can stand on his own for a short while. But still no attempt at walking alone.

-Working on his 8th tooth

- Loves to rough-house with daddy

-tries to do somersaults on his own

-he was officially off the bottle 4 days after he turned 1. I didn't really expect him to care, and he didn't. It was as if he never even had a bottle. He absolutely loves cow's milk, he gulps it down! He probably drinks about 10-15 ounces a day, plus the other dairy I give him he should be ok in that department. He also loves water. Not a fan of juice, which is fine with me. I have been wanting to try smoothies.. I think he would love them. Plus I can sneak some veggies (his worst enemy unfortunately) into them.

- Favorite foods: oatmeal, pancakes, oranges, goldfish, chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven (that's my boy!), grilled cheese, spaghetti, bananas, pears, blueberries, bread, frozen yogurt... to name a few.

-Takes one nap a day, going down between 12:30 and 1. He usually sleeps 2-3 1/2 hrs. He goes to bed around 9 and wakes up between 6:30-7:30. Yes, 6:30!!!

-He loves to dance, whenever he hears music he will just break out his moves. He dances to anything! Church hymns, rap, kid tunes, rock, daddy singing, you name it! It's hilarious. He bounces his knees, shakes his head, throws his hands around; it is so dang cute.

- Tries to put his own socks and shoes on, also hats.

-Hates getting his teeth brushed!

- Loves to be a part of whatever we are doing. He will "help" and get right in the middle, which actually means he gets in the way, but it's fine! We will miss that one day when he wants nothing to do with us!

- Can unroll an entire roll of TP in 10 seconds. Likes to lift the lid on the toilet (which is a big no no!)

-Has roaring/yelling matches with daddy at any given time

- when he is done eating he either tries to say "all done" or swipes his food on the floor

-loves the radio and asks for it to be turned on whenever he is eating

- for some reason is obsessed with my headbands and puts them on haha

- is perfectly content riding in the stroller for the 50 minutes it takes me to go for a run

- doesnt have the patience at this point for reading an entire book..he will turn the pages until it's over then grabs a new one

- Likes to look at cars driving by and makes a roaring noise

- will dip his face in the water during a bath and is so proud of himself after he does it!

-Has had a balloon pop while biting it, and also while laying on one..and it didn't scare him thank goodness.

-Likes to cuddle in the morning in his rocker when he wakes up

I know I am missing some, but at least I got a good list of the things I don't want to forget! Austin is our world, and we cannot imagine not ever having him. We just can't imagine not having children at all. This past year has seriusly taught me some lessons on unconditional love, patience, and the biggest one of all..selflessness. How incredibly HAPPY I am to focus all my time and energy on someone other than myself. I get a TINY glimpse of how God feels towards us. Jake and I are in awe of how amazing it is to be parents, and to see both of us in our little guy! We would do anything for Austin, and only want him to be happy. We are sad to see him grow up, but excited to see what this next year will bring :)