"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!