Um Hello! It's been a while...

Well well well...Blog? What blog haha.  Life has been busy (who's isn't) and between Austin, pregnancy, my church calling, and Jake working a ton I have been a horrible blogger! So let's get started:

Austin:

My oh my. Our little baby boy is a talking, extremely active, hilarious, has-his-own-agenda, big boy now.  He will be 3 in a couple short months and the only glimpses of our baby we get are: his love of snuggling, rocking, watching him play with his blanky as he's falling asleep, and when he's sad, hurt, sick or tired, he LOVES to be carried.  He actually likes to be carried still at other random times.  And I absolutely love it.  I wish I could hold him longer but my achin' back (from the baby) gets me!!

A while back, I was a little concerned about Austin's speech.  I knew deep down inside he was fine, and probably just deciding to take his time talking, but I felt as his mama (and as a former kindergarten teacher haha) it was my job to cover all the bases and catch anything early if there was any problem at all. There wasn't, and his doctor even said "watch, he'll be one of those kids that just all the sudden starts speaking full sentences." Well...that's pretty much what happened.  He went from saying words to speaking sentences haha.  I think it helped when we got rid of the binki too! A few of our favorite Austin phrases:
- Whatcha do-nin? (whatcha doin'?)
- No, I'm just Austin (like if we say he's a bear)
- When he's making a decision, he says things like "hmm," "maaaybeee..," "I think" while he taps his finger to his chin
- See ya sucka!
- I'm so happy to see you!
- I luff you mama
- He loves to sing  "I Am a Dyld dof dod" (I Am A Child of God). He asks me to sing it to him every night as he's laying in bed. "Just one, two, three, two times mama."
- He has memorized little facts about animals and pretends they are talking to us, telling us about themselves "Hi, I am a zebra, and I like to eat grass. What do you like to eat?"
- Asks "What is that?" when he means "Who is that?"
- Every morning he wakes up and asks "Where did daddy doh?" He loves Jake and wishes he could be home every morning to play and build a "fook" (fort).
- He asks questions ALL DAY LONG. ;-) But I try to accurately answer every single one because he remembers everything we tell him!
-Tells jokes like "Guess what....that's what!" (except he says "That is what") and then he laughs haha.  Also he'll say something then say "Just diddin' (kiddin')."

Austin has entered that fun stage where he soaks everything up.  He knows the letters S and O, the colors green, blue, red, and yellow, purple, and counts to 3.  He knows he will be 3 and can usually hold up 3 fingers to prove it. If he is choosing something of color for me, he usually chooses pink. He loves to do his puzzles, including Elmo, Winnie the Pooh, numbers, and letters.

We told Austin very early on that mommy had a baby in her belly. He knows it will come out; and when that happens, and he actually has to share his attention, it will be very interesting! I feel bad for Austin in a sense...he has had us all to himself and then all the sudden someone else will be getting a lot of attention!  His aunt 'Lolo' just had a baby and Austin has been pretty good with him. He's very gentle and sweet, until he's bored and then is rambunctious again...I will have a lot of protecting to do! I know Austin will be a great helper, and the best big brother. He knows that when a baby cries, it either needs milk, a blanky or a binki. When we ask if he will have a brother or sister, he changes it alot but mostly says sister.  So, we'll see!

Pregnancy:

I am currently a little past 33 weeks and *almost* READY to be DONE.  People everywhere comment on how low I carry and ask if I am having twins haha.  If I were to guess this baby's birth weight, I would say close to or a tiny bit lighter than Austin's birth weight (8lb 4oz).  I think I just make big babies!

We decided not to find out the gender of this baby, and it only drives me crazy sometimes. For the most part, it doesn't bother me.  I am so excited for delivery day!!!! And the rest of our family as well LOL. It's been fun keeping everyone in suspense, as well as ourselves. There are a few differences between this pregnancy and Austin, but I know that really doesn't mean anything.  I know in the future I will want to know what they are, so:
- Cravings: I crave fruit (never did with Austin), Sprite and Rootbeer, vanilla things (always wanted chocolate with Austin).  With Austin I craved salty, fatty foods and lots of treats. This time around, not so much but still a little bit haha.

- Weight gain: 10lbs behind compared to Austin, that's not sayin' much though.

- Dreams: not as vivid and definitely not as WEIRD (with Austin I swear my dreams were authored by Tim Burton and Dr. Suess)

- I swear I am way more exhausted this third trimester.  Most days, I just DRAG.  I can't get the energy to do much at all.

- This baby is still very active, but less violent haha

Be prepared for a picture overload! It's been a while.  

 In February, Austin slipped going up some stairs at the indoor splash area at the rec center.  He slammed his teeth, pushing his front, right tooth back.  He was such a champ at the dentist the next day (my birthday haha).  The dentist found no damage to the route and was able to push the tooth as far as it would go back into place. You can see in the picture above his tooth was bruised, and was that way for a couple months!

A few #2 Pregnancy pics: 

 Haha Austin cracks me up:

I love this picture. He was waiting for Grandma Tammy and Papa Joe to pick him up.  He reminds me of Forrest Gump for some reason.

He loves nursery! This was Easter. They told me he was the first to volunteer to be the "flower" lol.

Out to lunch with mom and dad! He apparently likes cinnamon sugar bagels

Dancing with his cute cousin at a wedding!

About one minute into realizing his binkis were "broken": 

Here's how I did it:

I snipped the ends off (he only had 2) so that morning when he asked for it, I non-chalantly gave it to him. He went to put it in his mouth and stopped, looked at it, and said "it's broken. I want the other one." Same thing with the second one.  Realized it was broken too.  Days prior, I had prepped him by showing him pictures of infants with binkis on google and we talked about how they were babies and needed binkis; but he was a big boy (because he can run and jump and walk, and the babies couldn't) and he didn't need one anymore.  I also said that when some things are broken we throw them away in the garbage. So anyway, we tossed them and he cried for like 20 seconds.  Then was excited to watch the garbage truck come and take his binkis to the dump.  To this day, if he sees another kid with a binki, he talks about how he doesn't need one because he is a big boy, and the garbage truck took his to the dump.

Waiting for the garbage truck:

A bit out of order, but pics of our baby #2!

He's old enough now to get his "owns" when we get a treat!

 At Papa's house, he pulled out the train tracks AND put them together all by himself 

Sorry so blurry! One of his last nights in his crib :-(

Jake did a century ride in May. It was so fun to be at the finish line!

If Jake isn't at home, Austin knows he's either "on his bike" or "at work"

Jake's passion is biking. He can't get enough. He reads about it, studies it, and can spend hours cleaning/maintaining his bike. I love that he has found something he loves to do. It's his time, his thing. Much like running is for me!

Austin said he had a "baby in his belly" haha

Helping dad cook salmon!

Having fun with the tablets that turn your bath water colors!

 Eating one of his favorites! mmm Pizza

 Helping mom make cookies :)

He loves making "fwends" and here is one of his favorites. He loves visiting Marin while we're sitting in sacrament. He tries to get her to dance with him in the aisle but she's a bit more obedient haha!

First time sleeping in his big boy bed! The transition was so easy for him. It was like nothing changed. He was pretty proud of his new bed, it was pretty cute. He just picked out some bedding..of course he chose Disney's Cars!

This never happens! We were out running errands and he had fallen asleep in the car. And stayed asleep in the cart! Don't ask me how that is comfortable! Maybe it's the spread eagle..

Jake and Austin had a "campout" in the back yard. Austin had so much fun with his daddy! He slept great. It was weird being alone in the house while they were both outside!
This picture is so cute because he's got his Elmo, and his flashlight...he's all set!

He admires Jake so much:

Jake snuck a picture while Austin was still sleeping in the morning:

San Diego! We decided we needed a family trip, before the baby comes. We were going to go to Sunvally, ID but decided what the heck let's do Sea World and the beach! We wanted this trip to be all for Austin, to let him get some quality time with mom and dad before his new brother or sister arrives.

Prior to our trip, I printed off this Sea World map for Austin. He carried it around, showing people all the things were going to see: "Oh-kas (orcas), shaks (sharks), sing rays (sting rays), dolphins, seals, Elmo, and pay pays (polar bears)."

At The Dolphin Encounter, at Sea World! If you look closely you can see one of the dolphins swimming by us

Visiting the San Diego temple

The beach! Austin's favorite was playing in the sand and running from the waves with dad.  He was so brave, and went into the water...But then all the sudden a wave (we were paying attention to Austin, not the waves) crashed on him and that was the end of wanting to play in the water!

Getting buried!

The wave is coming daddy!

Run!!

Being goofy with dad and mom in Old Town, San Diego

A few more Sea World pics: The polar bear

The "told told" ice!

Shark Tunnel!

Sea World had a section for toddler..Sesame Street's Bay of Play. Splash pad, kiddie rides, and this bouncy play area!

One last trip to the beach:

Austin had his own bed in our hotel room...

Enjoying some ice cream on our 12 hour drive home! (We stopped in Mesquite on the way there). Austin did amazing on the drives!

And last but definitely not least! Our new nephew! Jake and I cannot believe we are and aunt and uncle..how crazy.  We LOVE baby Jack!! He's the cutest!