Brilliant

Every once in a while a BRILLIANT idea rolls around and I, being the complete opposite of innovative, think to myself, "How did they even think of that?" I guess the world is lucky to have people NOT like me and more like my brother-in-law who has found a conduit for his rather remarkable talent of drawing.

How can I explain this....besides just being amazing at drawing, Jordan has this knack for portraying the type of humor that has an explanation or a story behind it. But he can illustrate this humor with one simple cartoon, and very few words. Seriously, I don't know how he does it. It's like he can take an inside joke, turn it into a drawing, and...people just get it. How does one convey the unfortunate, yet "all you can do is laugh because it's so gross"-fact that my son had terrible acid reflux for the first 3 months of his life...in a hilarious, simple drawing?? Or.. how does one illustrate the rivalry between the U vs. TCU.....using irony at it's finest (which, by the way, was printed on t-shirts and sold at the game) ? Seriously, how does one illustrate irony?! Simly stated: One can't. One must be Jordan haha.

His cartoons can tell jokes. They can tell stories. And, now, they will tell memories. YOUR memories. Brilliant, no? Here's the conduit mentioned above: Jordan wants to illustrate family memories for you to keep forever. Think of how many people/families have these stories they tell over and over, or maybe they're lost deep in their head...almost forgotten, but are preciously humorous, "one you'll never forget," or extremely unique. Why wouldn't you want them made into a little book..and how funny to be able to "see" it happening again..through cartoons/illustrations?

His business is called Offcenter Cartoons, and, as his website explains, he'll do any memory, not just funny ones. He even professionally prints and binds them into a neat little book... so it's all legit and stuff :). But the bottom line is he wants to capture your stories and I think that's a nifty idea. He's already done some for people who are taking advantage of this aweseome GIFT IDEA. So thank you Jordan for your talent, and for being so nice to create a way to keep our memories alive and within the turn of a few pages!

N-I-N-E

Yep we have a 9 month old on our hands. And he is so fun! Such a funny personality. Again, I don't know how professional photographers do it, I fail at getting a good picture of him! But here are the attempts..

Austin's Stats:

Weight: 19.12 lbs (48%)

Height: 29" (75%)

Head: on his WCC sheet, the nurse wrote "100+%"...oh dear!

Just being a goofball....

His first time swimming over at Uncle Jordan and Aunt Loraca's! He LOVED playing in the water with his aunts and uncles!
(Tell me you see a resemblence in this picture?!)

Yep the hat barely fits..poor guy!

Multi-tasking haha. He loves to grab things with his feet.

Attempting to crawl, getting closer every week :)


He still loves to jump! He gets going super fast and swings back and forth through the doorway. He also bumps into the door frame and his dresser behind him and doesn't even care!

Puts everything in his mouth!

He makes this hilarious face, where he scrunches it. His eyes get all squinty and he gives a big, toothy smile, it's quite hilarious! The crazy thing is, Jake's brother Jordan did that as a baby. He did it so much his parents called it "choppies" (he shows his teeth)..and had him doing it on command. So I'm trying to get Austin trained to do that too haha. I'm having a hard time capturing it on the camera though..so this is pretty much after the scrunch face!

9 Month Facts:

-Austin loves to play peek-a-boo. He'll go back and forth with you, hiding his face in a blanket.
- He's finally done simply sleeping on his back. He is all over that crib! And he gave up being swaddled on his own..at about 7/8months I think?

- Making progress in the food department, aiming to have him off the bottle a teensy bit early (13 days before his 1yr birthday) to make it easier for whoever watches him while Jake and I head to Sundance over a weekend for our friends' wedding! Yeah we'll see how that goes! His pediatrician approved my selfish plan haha. Hopefully he'll at least be down to just his morning and bedtime bottles.

-Austin loves his books. He likes to flip the pages and he has them "memorized." Like he has favorite parts and gets excited when they're coming, and also knows exactly where the touch and feel parts are. He gets super upset if I don't keep reading his books over and over and over. I can only handle reading them all like 2-3 times then I have to distract him.

-He loved the fireworks, and wasn't afraid at all, phew!

-Jake was gone for a whole week for our ward's High Adventure Camp, so Austin and I had a great time keeping busy with family and friends that week! I took him to Wheeler Farm for the first time with Grandpa Kevin..good time! A goat nibbled on his fingers and he didnt seem to mind.

I'm getting excited about planning his 1st birthday! Seriously I cannot believe he'll be a toddler before we know it. He's not suppose to do that, but he doesn't listen!