Nintendo!!!!

Austin's new favorite thing is Nintendo!!! After getting the Wii and SuperMario Brothers for Christmas, Austin loved watching his daddy and mommy play. He would sit captivated as we conquered the levels. His favorite parts were the "fire" parts. And he was in heaven when we got to the end and fought Big Bowser who was sitting in the fire and shooting fire balls out of his mouth.
Then Craig bought Mario Galaxy which Austin loved even more.....the graphics on that game are awesome and there are many Bowsers to fight. Soon after that Austin decided it was fun to play make believe Nintendo. He is "Doser" (his name for Bowser) and we frequently chase each other around the house growling and "shooting" fireballs. And for some odd reason he grew an attachment to the Mariocart Wii box. He calls the box "Nintendo" and plays around the house with it. He even takes it to bed with him at night. Odd I know but so typical of Austin. So we had to get him Nintendo jammies which he loves!!! He wouldn't take the shirt off for 2 days. He has even thanked Heavenly Father in his prayers for "Nintendo." I must admit that I am thankful for Nintendo too sometimes---especially when I am tired of running around the house chasing kids. Now Austin is watching me beat Mario Galaxy and it is kind of nice to sit back and enjoy something together.

Marvel Card Maniac

One of the things I love about Craig is that he is still such a kid at heart. Growing up he would save his newspaper route money to purchase marvel cards hoping that he would score big and open a package with a hollogram inside. Craig and his friend Mook spent countless hours as kids doing this.
And even since we have been married Craig will occassionally purchase boxes of Marvel cards, open them up, and arrange them in order in protector sheets/binders. Just like in the good old days. He tried to do this with me once but I just didn't have the same enthusiasm about it. So now he waits and opens them with his friends. It is actually kind of amusing to watch them get excited over these things and talk about "oh! this battle..." or "oh! look at this card..." as they open them up and arrange them in numerical order. This process takes several hours but it is time well spent......just a simple reminder that there is a little kid in all of us.

ShamRockTheVille 5K Run

So I ran my first 5K run this year. Signing up for a race really helped me get motivated to run so I would be ready although I could have been a little more prepared. The first half of the run was great but then we went up a couple hills and on the last half of the run we were running against the wind which was a little brutle.....but my goal was to keep running the entire time which I managed to do!!! I came across the finish line with a time of 33:05 minutes. Not too shabby.....gives me a time to beat since I have 2 more runs to do this year to meet my 2010 resolutions.

I was really glad when it was over but it felt really good to be running again and to have accomplished something for myself!! Thanks Kels (my sister-in-law) for running with me!!

The Things Kids Do

Mikayla loves cabinet doors!!! She finds them fun to open and close. And she will not leave the entertainment center doors alone!!!

Normally it wouldn't be that big of a deal except that Craig built it and remembers very well the many hours he spent doing so and the many nights of sanding that were involved. So we have removed the bottom doors for fear of her breaking them. But she still has fun putting things in and out of the other doors.....all sorts of things: any kind of toy, her shoes, her sippy-cup, her teddy bears, and Craig even found a half eaten Nutra-grain bar one day.

I was putting things away one afternoon while the kids were napping and discovered more things placed in the cabinet doors.

Who knows how long those have been there.

She is such a silly silly girl!!!

The Things Kids Say

I find myself laughing daily at the funny things that Austin says. I need to be better at writing them down......but here are a few phrases that made me smile:

"Mommy, you make me laugh" and "I'm a smart boy"

(both phrases that I frequently say to him)

"Thank you making lunch for me"

(ahh, it's nice to be appreciated once in a while)

And just the other day he laid down next to this pillow and said:

"Mommy Look! I'm A Star!!"

No more peg puzzles for this guy

We got Austin a Mickey Mouse puzzle for Christmas and it has become one of his favorite things to do. He has become quite the little pro and now he good enough that he can do them all by himself. Something that he is sure to mention after doing so....."I do it all myself!!!"

Valentines Day Bust

Here are Austin's Valentines Day crafts from school. He enjoyed taking Mickey Mouse valentines to school along with a smarty for the kids in his class. Glad he was able to celebrate some because Valentines weekend was a bust. Valentines day came and went and we didn't do anything to celebrate it......we were too busy taking care of sick kids. Earlier in the week Austin came down with a pretty nasty cold. The kind with an endless runny nose and a cough that keeps all of us awake at night. And he so lovingly gave that cold to Mikayla. By Friday Austin started running high temps and he is the most stubborn kid about taking medicine. He would not take the Tylenol chewables and we attempted to force the liquid down a number of times but he has become quite the pro at spitting it back out.

For about two days he ate nothing, drank very little, and ran temps up to 102.9 degrees at which point we woke him up (11pm) to take a cool bath with daddy because I was worried about it getting even higher without some kind of intervention. We took him to the doctor Saturday and found out he had step throat. And since he won't take medicine orally he got an antibiotic shot. The nurse went for the left leg first but Austin got his hand close enough that she scatched his leg with the needle. So she then gave him the shot in the right leg. After we were back in the car Austin said "Doctor hurt me. Doctor tried to kill me."I quickly corrected him that Doctor gave him a shot so that he would get better. And after several more days he finally did. But there was a lot of couch laying and TV watching. Plus, he wouldn't walk for 2 days because his leg got very sore and stiff since he tensed his muscle up when receiving the shot. When he did walk it was slow and he held his leg out slightly to the side so that he could keep it straight. Basically he was walking like he had a broken leg in a cast. Needless to say he didn't pick on Mikayla much and she thought it was quite funny to take things away from him because he wouldn't get up and chase after her.

School crafts

Austin has been going to Mother's Day Out now for a month and it has been so great!!! He gets to do so many fun things and I know he is learning a lot. Everytime I pick him up there are multiple papers that he has colored and worked on (they do a new color, number, and letter every week). Plus he always has multiple crafts that he has made. It's nice to know that his mind is being challenged while having fun all at the same time.

Plus as his teacher says "he's learning the rules." I don't expect teachers to take the place of teaching kids what's right/wrong but it sure is nice to have someone else besides mom and dad teaching Austin how to share and take turns, etc......But everytime I pick him up he gets a big smile on his face, and says "MOMMY!!" which is then followed by a big hug and "I MISSED YOU!!" And hearing that just makes my day!! Here are all his January crafts

And his marshmellow igloo before it was eaten---yum!!

Enjoying The Weather

After so much cold and snow around Christmas and the first of the year we finally started to thaw out and had a week of warmer weather. We hit about 60 degrees a couple of days so we tried to take advantage and spend some time outside. We spent Monday afternoon at the park for about 2 hours, we spent Wednesday afternoon building sand castles at the Sonic playground, and on Friday we took a trip over to the Duck Pond.

And those ducks were HUNGRY !!!!

But the warmer weather didn't last long....the next week we were back to cold, and ice, and more snow.

We went sledding again with the usual crowd except this time Austin's friends Audra and Marion joined us!!

We have had more snow and sledding opportunities this year than usual. It is alot of fun, but I'm ready for Spring to hurry and get here.

Play Time

Mikayla and her necklaces

Austin and his clay "cookies"

And his birthday cake.....since I didn't have candles he improvised (the clay on the top of the toothpick was the fire.....he always suprises me with his creativity)