Nursery Graduation

Austin has had some of the best Nursery teachers who have always gone above and beyond when it comes to teaching and playing with these 1-3 year olds for 2 straight hours. Austin has loved his time in Nursery. He enjoys playing with the toys and with his Nursery friends.

Last week was graduation for the Nursery kids that turn 3 this year. And Austin barely makes the cut.....that's right, starting in January he will be a Sunbeam!! (I'm thinking I better apologize and warn the Sunbeam teacher that Austin has plenty of energy and doesn't like to sit in one place for very long). But the Nursery Graduation was so cute!!! All the kids sat in their chairs at the front of the classroom and they did "Going on A Lion Hunt" followed by "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam." Then the graduating kids walked across a Nursery table (aka "the stage") while their teacher read a little about them.

Here is what Austin's certificate said:

Austin is very playful (ahh, such a nice way of saying he is crazy full of energy?!?). He especially enjoys playing with dinosaurs. He is good at sha ring with his nursery friends. He is helpful and caring. Austin is such a special boy who is loved very much!!

Congrats Austin....your first graduation!!

First Words

Mikayla has started to repeat words.....she can say "mama" and "dada" when coached to do so. However, one day she pushed a toy down the stairs and after it had fallen over she said "uh oh." She has done that several times since, using the word "uh oh" when something has fallen down, etc.....yet she only says "mama" and "dada" when coached to do so. And so I guess this means that Mikayla's first official word is "uh oh."

Pictures With Santa

Austin told Santa that he wants "mower, truck, tank, and Minnie."

And the only thing that Santa heard from Mikayla was "waaaaahhhh"

The Christmas Spirit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXXwtFWpAI8

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

From All of Us To All of You:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/DIS9wAQtpMo03hw5

I Love Mormon Messages

These things are the best!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYhDhiojBPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtEQ8Tjr2EI

Enjoy!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I love brining out the Christmas tree!! We decided to add Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ornaments to our tree this year.

There's Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto.

Mikayla got really excited about the lights

And Austin really had a fun time decorating the tree this year

(notice Mikayla's helping hand)She quickly pulled off everything Austin put on

But eventually Austin was able to get them all up on the tree

It's beginning to look like Christmas now

Giving Thanks

I have so many things to be grateful for. Here are just a few:

Husband
Amazing kids
Parents
Prayer
Y ummy food

The gospel
Home
Air conditioning
Nap time
Kindness of others
Savior
Girls night out
Ice cream
Vehicle
Internet
Neighbors
God

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(I was lazy and didn't take any pictures over thanksgiving weekend but we had a great time!!)

The Time Has Come.....

(I'll let the pictures do the talking)

I'm A Big Boy Now!!!

I Can Be Nice

Getting Austin to be nice to Mikayla has been a struggle right from the start. At first it was scratching. Then he moved to hitting and biting, and as she got older it went to pushing, smothering, and not sharing. One day I had the idea of making a sticker chart for Austin---he would get stickers when I caught him being nice to Mikayla and after a certain number of stickers, he would get to pick out a new toy. The idea was to focus on positive reinforcement. Craig thought it was a great idea and encouraged me to do it.

And it was a success!!! Austin was pretty excited about the stickers!! (and the new toys!)

At the beginning I said to Craig "I'm not sure if he is getting better all of the sudden or if I am just more focused on the times that he is nice to her." Everything wasn't perfect overnight but after a few weeks of positive reinforcement things started getting much easier at home and Austin learned how to be a nice big brother.

Lowe's Built It Workshop

As I mentioned in my previous posting, we have recently discovered this great building workshop at Lowe's and it's free!!!

Here is the first wood project Austin and his daddy made. I came home from running errands and found them working on it. Hammer and nails---Austin was in heaven.

In September, Austin and Craig showed up at Lowe's to make firetrucks and were pleasantly suprised.

In the parking lot there was a real firetruck and firemen!!

And an ambulance for them to explore!!

And a police car to ride in!!

They worked real hard building a firetruck!!

And it turned out great!!!

What a super day!!! Time to race!!!

Need A Laugh??

Happy Halloween

We did a lot of trick-or-treating this year....more than I thought we would but Austin was having a great time and the weather was so nice.

We stopped at Grandparents houses--it's so nice to have them in town

We stopped at Kelsey's new house

And we met up with Connor and Klayton and went trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Most of the houses probably heard their doorbells ring a few times in row because they were so excited.

So excited that they were running from house to house which ended up with a little green dinosaur falling a few times. But no tears---there was more candy to get. We never got a posed picture because the boys were too excited running around and wouldn't sit still long enough to say cheese.

Except when they decided to take a break and snack on their "trick-or-treats" (as Austin calls them).

Trick-or-Treating at the Robert's house
We even ran into Jessica at a friends house handing out candy.
It was a great Halloween and we took home a pumpkin full of candy.

Carving Pumpkins

We followed through with our traditional pumpkin carving.

(Thanks to Kelsey to started this tradition with us in Stillwater and is also sure to remind us about it every year)

Austin still wasn't too interested this year but did take out a couple scoops of pumpkin guts with a spoon. After that he was done....but had a great time playing with his cousin Zack while the rest of us finished up the pumpkin carving.

Even though they didn't all show up in my camera, they all looked pretty spooky once they were lit up.

And Austin was pretty happy with his pumpkin once he saw that I carved it into a spider.

It was a fun night.

Trunk or Treat

We had a great time at the Trunk-or-Treat. Austin got to go "fishing" for treats out of his Grandma Reid's trunk and his Papa Choo-Choo and Granny Deb trunk also!!

He gathered plently of candy

And then had lots of fun inside with the games and the blow-up jumpers.

Austin and Klayton sliding

Austin doing Pumpkin Bowling!!

And it is always fun to find your friends dressed up also!!

(Left--Marion and Audra who I would call his best friend)

(Right--Paxton--one of Craig's co-workers son)

We dressed Mikayla up as a lady bug although you can't tell in the picture because she only left her wings on for about 15 minutes.