Happy Birthday Gary!

We want to wish my brother Gary a very Happy Birthday!!

And what better way than with some fun photos from our childhood :)  

Thanks for being such a wonderful Brother and such a great Uncle to Austin & Hunter!!

My brother Gary showing great enthusiasm while opening Christmas presents with his little sis (me with a giant fro!) circa 1987 maybe?!

My brother Gary holding me as a baby...I have always looked up to you Gare!

Gary has always been such a great older brother!

One of my favorite pictures of me and my brothers as kids :)

That's my brother Tim on the left and Gary (with some sweet socks!) on the right!

P.S. Notice my cool wonder woman underoos!! I loved those!!

Happy Birthday Gary!!

We love you, 

S, B, A and H :)

Halloween Costume Preview!

Say hello to the world's scariest dinosaur!!  

Austin's Halloween costume arrived in the mail today (we cheated and ordered one, there is no way I could make something like this!), and we tried it out so he will be all ready for trick or treating come Oct. 31st!!  Brian and I love it, although, it took a little convincing for both Austin and Hunter!! (Hunter was a just a little hesitant of the mini T-Rex running through the house!!)

Hunter sniffing out the dinosaur that took over his best friend!!  I think Austin's a little unsure at this point too!!

Our little dinosaur!

Love it!!

ROAR!! 

(Austin's actually thinking "Get this thing off of me!")

Isn't this costume just too cute?!

Where the wild things are!

Who knew dinosaurs could text?!

How old are you?

Austin gets all proud now that he finally learned how to hold up his finger and show how old he is!  Sometimes he mutters a ""whun" in the cutest little voice too :)  Love it!!

I'm one!

Little Baller...

We bought Austin a basketball hoop over the weekend and it has been a huge hit!  Do we have a future baller on our hands?!  Austin especially likes to dunk :)  I think Brian likes having the hoop around just as much as Austin...he has been showing off his shooting skills from the sofa all weekend!

He Shoots...He Scores!!

Austin attempting a free throw!

This Little Piggy...

I went to put on Austin's jammies last night and it seems we are in great need for a bigger size! Poor Austin, his big toe just tore through the footsie!!  

Here's Austin politely showing me that it is not normal for his toe to be sticking out! 

Austin's ginormous big toe poking out of his PJ's!  

Date Night!

Grandma and Grandpa came over today and watched Austin and Hunter for us while we went out on a fun date, just the two of us! :)  We caught a movie, (which was the first movie I had seen in a theater since before Austin was born!! Wow!) and then shopped for an end table for our family room, and finally, had a yummy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Ah-So!  It was a wonderful day, and Austin and Hunter had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa!!

Thank you Jane and Tom!!! 

Goodnight Moon Drama

I don't know when this happened, but all of a sudden, Austin gets totally upset when I read him the book "Goodnight Moon."  I think we have the only kid in the world who cries when we read him this book!! We read him this all the time, he loves to point out the balloon and the cow...and then all of a sudden when you get to the part where they actually start saying goodnight room, he starts getting all worked up, and his breathing gets heavier and by the end of the book he is crying!!  What the heck?!  It is sort of funny to Brian and I, because even though it works him up, he insists that we keep reading it to him!!  He will keep bringing the darn book back to us and will get mad if we don't read it!!  Seriously Austin...issues!!! :)

We could get used to this!

It's 9:10am and our wonderful little boy Austin is still asleep from last night...a mom and dad could seriously get used to this!!  Since we have been home and the baseball season/sleep schedule has been over, Austin hasn't slept in past 7am, so this is just heaven!  I feel like I got the best night sleep ever!! Thank you Austin!! :)

P.S. Austin finally woke up at 9:45, I swear, I didn't give him benadryl or anything!!  He slept a full 12 1/2 hours straight!  Watch, tomorrow he is going to wake up at like 5am!

What a weekend!

Gabe, Bauer, JJ, Sparpana, and Brian getting ready to head off on their weekend trip!

Austin taking Lauren and Kaelyn for a spin on the Ranger!

(You should have heard the fit Austin and Kaelyn threw when we took them off of the Ranger!!  They did not want to be taken off of it!!)

The boys are ready to head off with all their toys!

My cleaning "helpers."  Austin and Hunter (who is busy attacking the vacuum!) getting in mommy's way while she is trying to clean!

Hunter hating the vacuum!!  See the story below!

Grandma and Grandpa showing off the new haircut Austin just got!

Austin finally got a much needed haircut this weekend as well!!  Grandma and Grandpa came along to help, it was fun! :)

So, Brian and his buddies headed out to to the wilderness last weekend to have a fun camping trip with the boys.  While they were out sippin on beers and grubbin on chili at the local chili festival up there, Austin and I did some much needed cleaning.  I say Austin too, for he actually was a good little helper, copying my dusting moves with his own little rag, on objects like the weight scale, the remote control and his books ;)  It was quite cute watching him think he was cleaning too :) 

Our house totally smelled like a mixture of paint (from the just finished and beautiful new paint job our house received!) and cleaner, which can't be good for us!!!  But hey, at least we're not also inhaling dust anymore right?!! It's definitely a much harder task now that children are involved though.  Austin is constantly stealing my sponges and rags and I am chasing him through the house trying to get them back as he is trying to feed them to Hunter!  

And then there is the issue with the vacuum cleaner.  This has always been an issue in our household since the day our dog Hunter graced our family.  He absolutely HATES the vacuum and attacks it like it's the devil!!  It used to make me laugh, but now it just irritates me because I can't get one inch of carpet vacuumed without him biting the hose and sides of the vacuum!!  Then there is my slight OCD problem.  It really only exists with things like vacuuming and mowing lawns, or basically the act of creating straight, untouched lines.  I don't know why, but I just hate it when someone walks across a freshly vacuumed section of carpet.  

Brian used to tease me and do snow angels in the carpet whenever I would finish vacuuming a room.  Now I have Hunter chasing me all through the house biting any piece of the vacuum he can get, and Austin chasing us both laughing hysterical at Hunter! Which basically leaves little footprints and paw prints in any path I just vacuumed.  And, having this annoying OCD vacuuming disorder, I can't just leave them there so I re-vacuum the space I just did just so there aren't footprints anymore.  I know, it's silly.  I need to stop doing it, I just can't.  I just ask for like 5 or so minutes to enjoy the room before it's trompled on again :)  

But, the house looks beautiful and clean now, just in time for the boys to be back and mess it all up again :)

Hello Paint!

We are officially saying goodbye to the boring white walls in our home and finally adding some much needed color!!  We have painters here right now and from what we can tell, so far it looks SO much better! What a difference!!  Can't wait to see the finished product, we will post pics when we can :)

It's so nice being back at home after the long baseball season.  The suitcases are finally put away and our clothes are happy to be back on hangers once again :)  Austin and Hunter are having one heck of a time playing with all their toys and running around in their yard again :)  Now that we are back home and settled a bit, I will post some fun pics from the last few weeks of summer!

P.S. Don't you just love that all the fall TV shows are on again?!!  I missed you McDreamy!

San Diego Update

Austin and I ventured out to San Diego to spend the week with Brian and we are having a great time! Austin couldn't be happier going to baseball games every night and seeing Daddy :) Hunter is up in Washington visiting Grandma and Grandpa, having a fabulous time messing up their house I am sure!! I have never been away from our dog Hunter for this long before, I miss him so much!! Austin and I are headed up to Washington on Sunday, we will be up there for almost 2 weeks as Brian and his team finish the baseball season on the road, and it will give us a chance to visit friends and family up there! I can't believe baseball is winding down already! Well, we are off to the park by our hotel, (which is right next to the stadium, it's gorgeous!) to go enjoy the beautiful weather here!! Here's a bunch of pictures of our time here in San Diego so far!!

Got my glove Dad, we are all ready to come see you in San Diego!

On the plane to San Diego!

Our view from our hotel room...we couldn't be any closer to the stadium!

Austin couldn't have been more excited to see the baseball stadium from our window!

Once he saw the stadium...all he wanted to do was go play catch!

Austin at the Padres game!

Hanging out with mom after the game!

Austin struttin' his stuff at our hotel!

This is what we use for Austin's high chair in the hotel room! You gotta use what you've got!

Austin wasn't so sure what to make of the huge sundae being shoved in his face!! We fell in love with this restaurant when Brian played in Vegas, it's called Sammy's Pizza...and they just so happen to be based in San Diego, we couldn't have been more excited to eat there! It's so good!

It didn't take long for him to figure out he LOVED the sundae!

Showing off his cheeks and watching the DNC convention back in the hotel!

Outside at the park by the hotel!

Which just so happens to be connected to the stadium, how cool is that!! Austin was in heaven!

This park is so cool, they even have a little field for the kids to play in while the Padre game is going on in the background!

Enjoying some room service!

Gotta love eating in your hotel room!

Awesome view from the sandbox!

See, I fit!! Now Daddy has to take me with him when he goes on his road trip!

Checking out Mr. Padre.

What up Khalil Greene!

Having fun with Daddy after the game!

At the park again :)

Having fun in the Padre's family room!

Human Kong

Is it normal that I crushed a frozen snickers bar at 11pm last night?!  Or as Brian likes to call them, "human kongs" (after the chew toy for dogs).  The worst part is, I was already in bed, happily reading (book 3 of the Twilight series which I have become completely addicted too!) and just had to climb out and go to the freezer to indulge in a little late night snack! The worst part though, was coming into the kitchen this morning and seeing the wrapper on the counter...

Bad Apple...

It seems my apple laptop is in need of some serious repairs. I am so sad. It has been a very faithful computer, with us since '03 and currently housing some 10,000+ photos, which of course I have yet to scrapbook ;) It all started before I left for San Diego, I was hoping maybe the week off from using it would let it wind down, but no. It is currently at the apple store getting tested to see what is wrong with it, and sadly I just got the call telling me the bad news. It's the hard drive, it needs to be replaced. Bummer. Looks like we might have to put her down. How sad. So, that is why I haven't been posting. But thankfully, I do have a back up...our good old faithful desktop computer, which hasn't seen any action in years it seems, but I guess it's time to dust off the cobwebs and try to remember how to use it again!