Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year 2009!!

We had a great time celebrating the New Year!!  We got together with some great friends and started the evening with a fabulous dinner at Pappadeux Cajun Restaurant!  We have gone here with a big group of friends 4 out of the last 5 New Year's, and once again, it did not disappoint!  The food was so good, and we had plenty of designated drivers this year (4 of us are pregnant!!) so the boys got to drink plenty of good wine for all of us!!  

After dinner, we went home to pick up Austin (Grandma and Grandpa babysat him for us while we went to dinner, thank you guys!!) and then headed over to the Putz house for their annual New Year's party!!  It was a lot calmer this year with so many of us pregnant, but we had a great time and even Austin managed to stay up to ring in the New Year!!  

Brian and I celebrating the New Year together!

Part of our group at dinner in the "wine room!"  We get to sit in the wine cellar, closed off from the rest of the restaurant, it's the best place for dinner!!

Getting ready to start the countdown to midnight!! Austin was so excited to stay up and had a lot of fun celebrating with us!

The four pregnant troopers!!  

Kelsey, Me, Meghan and Emily, all in order of when we are due!

...and the husbands who got to toast the New Year for all of us!!

Brian, Matt, JJ and Billy!

Austin getting his New Year's kiss sandwich from Dad & Mom!

Happy New Year 2009!!!

We wish you all lots of happiness in the year to come!!

Here's to a wonderful 2009!!

A Christmas Wedding!

This past weekend we headed over to California for Brian's cousin Kristen's wedding!  It was a beautiful wedding and we had a lot of fun visiting with all of his family!  Austin got to meet a lot of his relatives and 2nd cousin for the first time, he sure had a lot of fun with all of them!  The weather was gorgeous and being just a few days after Christmas, the travel was actually very easy, so we were thankful!!  It was a great weekend!  

Congratulations Kristin and Peter!

Outside the church on a beautiful day for a wedding!

All dressed up with Dad, Grandma & Grandpa for the wedding!

It didn't take long for Austin to feel right at home at the reception!!  He got right down on the floor and started playing with his trucks!

Sharing a dance with Grandma and Grandpa!!

Austin and his 2nd cousin Grace, so cute!  

They were playing "cars" together on the window sill ledge!

Brian, Austin and I with Brian's cousin Andrea, her husband Matt and their daughter Grace!

Grandpa, Austin, Grandma, Brian and I at the reception!

Austin and Grace having so much fun playing together!!

Just the three of us!!  

We had a great time at the wedding!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

We had a great time celebrating the holidays this year!  We got to spend Christmas Eve with the Putz family; we all went to Church and then had a delicious dinner over at their house.  The kids exchanged their gifts to each other and couldn't have had more fun opening them!  It has really been a joy watching Austin play with Lauren and Kaeyln lately, they are really starting to have a lot of fun running around (Austin was always too little, following them around instead of actually playing with them!)  But now you should see the three of them, they are so cute together!!  It was a wonderful evening spent with great friends! 

Christmas day was a lot of fun too, we got to spend it over at Brian's parents house!  Austin loved opening all of his presents and playing with his new toys!!  This was the first Christmas he was old enough to enjoy unwrapping gifts, and he sure unwrapped a lot of them!!  It was a lot of fun watching the excitement on his face and the enthusiasm he had opening all his presents!  We had a great day followed by an absolutely superb dinner!!  Thank you Jane and Tom!!

Merry Christmas 2008!!

Austin celebrating Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa!

Woah!! Austin opening one of his awesome Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa!

Austin really getting into unwrapping!!

Austin loves to go into his Grandma's towel drawer in her kitchen and literally throw every towel she has in there all over the kitchen floor!!  It is so funny watching him get so excited doing this!  He sure is lucky to have a Grandma that doesn't mind him messing up her towels!!

Not only does Austin cover the floor in Grandma's towels, but he also gets Grandma and Grandpa's doggy Gus too!!  Thanks for being such a trooper Gus!!

Whew...playing at Grandma and Grandpa's is hard work!!  Austin and Gus taking a cat nap together :)

Again with the towels!!!  Playing peek-a-boo this time!!

Merry Christmas!!

(Austin turned 19 months old today too!!)

A successful Christmas!!

Austin didn't even make it out of Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood before falling asleep!

Austin showing off my Christmas gift from Brian!!  He thought the Crab Claw oven mitt was hysterical!!  (So did I!!!)  Thanks Bri!!

Gettin after another gift!!  

Austin definitely loved this part of Christmas!

Woah Dad!! What did you get?!!

Hunter gettin after his gift too!!

A choo choo!!  Austin loved his choo choo trains!

Austin celebrating the cool new choo choo train he just opened!!

Hunter being a good sport!! We dress him up in these antlers every year and this was the longest he ever kept them on!!! 

Celebrating Christmas with my two boys :)

Austin and the girls having fun at Christmas Eve mass!!  They played and played on the floor of the Church and were so good!!

Austin getting his Christmas kisses from his best friends Lauren and Kaelyn!!

Lauren, Kaeyln & Austin enjoying their new Christmas presents from each other!

Austin so proud of his new football from the girls!!  He couldn't wait to play with Dad!!

Our first attempt at a family Christmas photo didn't turn out so well...Austin wanted nothing to with it and just wanted to get back to playing with Lo-Lo and K-K and the presents!! Who could blame him!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! 

We wish you all the happiness in the new year to come!!

Dad and Me!

I thought this was a cute moment between Brian and Austin! Brian was sitting at the kitchen table and Austin wanted to climb up and hang out with his Dad :) I was lucky enough to catch them in their "dad and me" moment!!

Here's Austin trying with all his might to climb up onto the chair to sit next to Brian!

YES!!! I did it!

Austin celebrating his climbing skills...

(...or just trying to show off his guns like on his popeye shirt, I can't tell!)

And of course he brought a ball with him!

Hugs from Dad are the greatest!

That's so funny Dad!!

(And yes, Austin is trying to text on my phone!)

Austin telling me: "Hey mom, No girls allowed!!"

Austin vs. The Presents

Our Christmas presents haven't had a chance this year!!  

Austin loves to sneak over to the tree when no one is looking and unwrap as many presents as he can before we figure out what he is doing! 

So far: Austin 4, Presents 0!

While I was on the phone, Austin grabbed a present we had received in the mail that was protected by magazine pages.  Not only did he open the present, but as you can see he proceeded to carpet our floor in wrapping material!  That present didn't stand a chance!

Austin and his accomplice Hunter caught in the act!

Here Mom!! I think this one is for you!

Not only does Austin LOVE to unwrap our presents, but he also LOVES to turn on the Christmas tree lights over and over again!!  I don't know what he is going to do when Christmas is over and the tree is put away!!  (Here he is "oohing" and "aahing" as he clicks the lights on and off!)

Looking all innocent...but just wait, you turn your back for one second and all those presents will be unwrapped!!