Trip Home!

Tons and tons of pictures to post. Hope you don't get bored! Tyler was nice enough to let Austin and I fly home this past week to visit my family in Walla Walla, WA. It was spring break for my mom and Kara and time was running out for flying home with just one kid. We had tons of fun and was even able to enjoy some sunshine...since I heard it pretty much rained or snowed every day in March and was carrying over into April.

Here is Benson and Austin. Benson is 3 months younger than Austin. He also has another cousin that is Benson's age. Hopefully they will be best buds as they grow up

Playing in the back of the truck. Lily is in the background

Austin and Lily got along great! They had fun playing in the tub. Austin would sit and laugh at her while she sprayed him with water

Austin and Kayla playing with bubbles. Lily, Kayla, and Benson are my oldest sister's kids. She left her oldest son Nathan at home with dad since he had school

My mom, Kara, and Jamie. My mom sewed us all skirts while we were there. 3 for me, 2 for Jamie, and tons for the little girls. I think the total was up to about 10 by the time we left.

Austin playing in the toy corner.

This was my dad's rocking chair when he was little. Austin would sneak off and sit in it every now and then. When I didn't hear him babbling I would set off to find him and a few times he was just sitting in the chair

He got pretty good tootin' this horn. I'm sure it had 4 other little kids slobber on it by the end...but oh well!

Here I am at 27 weeks, standing in front of my house

Austin loved riding the lawn mower! Don't we have a great view? and beautiful grass!

Benson and Austin. Austin LOVED being pulled around in the wagon. I would love to get one

This is my beloved car I used to drive. 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix. My dad bought it brand new before he married my mom. It has lasted through all 5 of his daughters!

"Wow mom! You used to drive this?"

Of course, if you go home to the Goodwin House you better believe there will be car washing, lawn mowing, and spraying weeds that will get done. So here I am washing the car my dad drives. 1978 Bonneville.

Here is my treasured rocking horse I played on till probably middle school. haha. I always dreamed of having my own horse so this was the closest I got. Austin loved it and rocked pretty good on it. You can see he is standing up here trying to make it go faster.

Austin reading a book to grandpa

I met up with one of my elementary school buddies while I was home. We used to ride the school bus together and just recently reconnected, and now she's my email buddy! It's been so fun to catch up with her and meet her cute little family.

We had an inside easter egg hunt since it was cold that day. Austin is actually dumping the eggs out of the basket that we put in

Me, Jamie, and Lily in our new skirts. My mom had some material she got from her older sister that screamed 80's all over! You can tell by the skirt I'm wearing that this is no longer found in stores.

Grandma ended up pulling out her scissors and cutting everyone's hair. Now Austin, hopefully, won't get comments from strangers asking if he's a boy or a girl! We skyped with Tyler that night so he could witness the first haircut as well.

It was such a fun trip home! I stayed up too late, woke up too early, and played a lot! It was definitely well worth it.

A Special Visit

Lyette has been my REALLY REALLY good friend since elementary school. She is now teaching 5th grade in Denver. This past week was her spring break, so I convinced her to come visit me! :) She flew in Tuesday afternoon and flew out Saturday afternoon. Lyette and Austin really hit it off and it was great to have someone helping me with him and keeping him entertained all day. He loved it when she read books to him.

A random picture one morning. He LOVES this Teddy Bear that his Aunt Amanda gave him. He will hold it and hug it all morning long!

Yes, we know how much you love your bear Austin. He will just babble and babble the whole time too, telling us all sorts of stories.

Until he sets his eyes on a ball. Then the bear is forgotten and he runs around the house throwing the ball and chasing it. This was the best $0.99 I ever spent!

On Wednesday, Lyette, Austin, and I hung out and did some random shopping, involving Diaper deals for me, Tangled for Lyette and ingredients for her DELICIOUS key lime pie(That I will be making every week from now on), and using my $10 free coupon to a new Kohl's that just opened up here. Lyette and I ended up buying the same shirt! Funny how that always seems to happen when you go shopping with your girlfriend!

On Thursday we ventured out early and went to the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth

Lyette and I standing awkwardly for the picture! haha

It was hard to get Austin to smile since he just wanted to run off on his own all the time. Lyette is a natural! I think she should have one of these soon

He decided he had enough of the stroller and wanted to push it himself

Here we are trying to make sure we fit in the picture that was timed, and getting Austin to hold still

I got lucky and snapped this shot! Love his expression!

Lyette and I on top of "The Mountain". It is sooo nice and green in Texas right now! Gotta love Springtime in March!

Tyler jumping off the ledge with Austin. He loved it!

After the Water Gardens we went to the Stockyards to experience more of the Texas Cowboy feel. Here we are going crazy on the spur...well, I am. It's harder than you think holding your legs up like that with a pregnant belly.

In front of the statue of the guy(forgot his name) who started the sport of steer wrestling

Watching the Longhorns being herded down the street at the Stockyards

Here they come! They do this twice a day, EVERYDAY, at the stockyards

That same day I taught Lyette how to make flower clips, which we are wearing, and made Calzones(Fancy style) for dinner. It really looks like we're wrapping a mummy or a cacoon don't you think?

On Friday we drove to Sam Moon and shopped around for a bit. Then hit up the stand alone JC Penney's store right by Sam Moon that was awesome! Lyette got a really cute summer shirt. So jealous! :) Then we tried to find a new way back to avoid traffic that didn't work, so we followed a long stream of cars slowly home. Then we took a stroll through the Botanical Gardens in 85 degree weather at 3:00 that afternoon. Not the smartest thing, but we had fun! We summed up the day making whole wheat bagels....however, I did not add enough flour to the dough so they ended up being too sticky and did not form right! AGH! But they still tasted good! :)

Saturday morning we went on a nice, relaxing walk through our neighborhood and watched the first session of General Conference. Then we drove Lyette to the airport and said goodbye. The week really went by WAY too fast. We really loved having her here. It was a FANTASTIC week and I am going to need a few days to recoop! I leave for Washington on TUESDAY though, so I better recoop fast. I'll be going home with Austin for a full week! I can't wait! April is going to fly by fast

AND! Forgot to mention we played Ticket to Ride twice, Burn, 13, The Farming Game, and Quiddler late into the night every night. Not every single one every night, but I don't think I will be staying up past 11 again anytime soon. Oh the joys of married life with children!

Tumble

Today, Austin took his first tumble down the stairs at church. He was at the very top of about about 12 or 15 stairs and just stepped right off without holding onto anything. Up to this point he had been holding on to the railing as he went down and up, so it was unexpected and did a full out flip. Thankfully, I was able to get my big belly up and moving and caught him before he went head over heels again in the same fall. He screamed of course but calmed down and went away with a face that looked sunburned and a small rug burn on his nostril. We'll see if he learned his lesson...

Mealtime...to crazy Hairdo

Oh Yes, just look how good he is about eating his food and staying clean!

Look at those teeth! Yay!

And by the end of the meal...after he's rubbed his nasty banana hands ALL over his head...

He ends up looking like this the rest of the day. And he thinks it's hilarious!

Play Play Play

All we've been doing lately is playin' round here. We've gone to the park a lot with friends lately because of the nice weather.

Here is Austin minding his own business. I just thought this shot was adorable.

There are a lot of Air Force Jets that fly over our apartment every day and this park we are at is about a 3 minute walk from our apt(PERFECT) and whenever Austin hears a jet he stops whatever he is doing and listens. Here he is pointing up at the sky as he's listening to one fly by.

Looks like a disaster waiting to happen right? All these little kids standing as the merry-go-round spins. But we did not have a single one!

Here is Austin learning how to color. He gets really into it!

Look at that concentration. He really hardly makes a mark on the paper, but he feels like a big boy when he does it. I can tell.

Along with walking comes bruises. Particularly on the head. He's been trying to run lately and walk faster than his little legs can hold him and he's been falling a lot. There are two big red welts on his head. One from a mix of hitting his head on the tile floor, bark, gravel road, and kitchen floor(This mark is off to the left...and the one in the center is a smack on the leg of our kitchen table!

YOUCH!

My 2nd sewing lesson

I've been meaning to take a picture of these place mats since Christmas and now I finally did. Tyler's mom made me some table runners for our small little table and she had some extra fabric left over of this particular one(Which is great because it is my favorite!) so she taught me how to make the place mats to match! They were super easy, even for me. It was a fun project. The table runner she made is at the very bottom. Our table is VERY short so that is why the runner is so short, in case you were wondering. :)

The picture would only post sideways or upside down, so I chose the upside down one. Sorry it's at a weird angle.

The weather has been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice lately! In the 70's and today I'm sure it reached the 80's. We've been having fun going on runs, the park, the zoo, and hanging out with friends. I love winters in Texas! I need to enjoy this weather as long as I can before it turns really hot and humid. Then I'll be complaining about it I'm sure!

I've been running 3-4 times a week while pushing Austin in the stroller in the neighborhood where we live. There are a couple ginormous hills that get me a great leg and calf workout, and plenty of small hills that are more enjoyable. So I run on the flats, downhills, and some of the smaller uphills, and walk up the big uphills. I'm so happy I've been able to make it this far into the pregnancy and still be running. I feel like I could still run for a long time. AND I've only gained 8-10 pounds so far, which I think is good for me comparing to last time.