THE BASTINGS BUZZ

Valentines Fun

The kids always love decorating Valentines sugar cookies.

(And I love eating them)

On Valentine's morning the kids woke up with their own special valentines on the floor.

Funny how kids get so excited about little things.

We had pink milk and heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.

And I hope they smiled when they opened their valentines themed lunch.

We went to their school valentines parties.

And enjoyed some valentines treats.

Our 3 favorite valentines!!!

(After making it a special day for the kids, Craig and I enjoyed dining out for dinner together and he even surprised me with a beautiful necklace.....he will always be my first and favorite valentine!!)

Kids Being Kids

One night, Austin and Kayla decided to create a huge maze on our floor out of strips of paper. When my dad stopped by he was a good sport and went through the maze several times.

Austin and Kayla with our next store neighbor Jackson.

It is always fun when you can walk out your front door and find a friend to play with.

This pile of gravel rock was in empty lot behind our house for a while and one day the kids thought it would be fun to go and play in it.

Love these cute and creative kids of mine!!

6 Months Old

Baby Brooklyn is now 6 months old and it is hard to see her growing up so fast.

I just want her to stay my baby forever!

But Austin and Mikayla are enjoying the fact that Brooklyn is more interactive and aware of what is going on around her. They like to try and make her smile and laugh.

For months, when Brooklyn was tired and trying to go to sleep she would put her hands on her face and move them around her eyes and forehead as if she was trying to put herself asleep (which is what she is doing in this picture). It is the most hilarious thing.

On January 12th, Brooklyn finally did her first roll-over. She was laying on the floor while me and Craig were watching TV and the next I knew, she was on her tummy. Her first roll-over and we didn't even get to witness it. But I snapped a picture afterwards.

She is getting better at eating solid food. She enjoys her oatmeal cereal in the morning and fruit baby food for lunch and dinner. She isn't a big fan of the vegetables.

Brooklyn playing with her new Christmas toy. She is getting good at using her hands and holding stuff. Kayla is always helpful at finding her toys to hold.

Brooklyn is such a sweet baby and we love her to pieces!!

More Snow Days

The day the kids were suppose to go back to school after Christmas Break it ended up being a snow day instead and the next day was a snow day as well. Craig begged me to be patient and not go sledding until after he was done with work so he could go too.

Our neighbor Jackson went with us.

Glen and his kids joined us also.

Connor racing down the hill with his dad.

Austin riding down with his cousin Klayton

Kayla really has enjoyed sledding this year.

Everyone had a fun time sledding down the hill until the sun went down.

Happy Birthday Craig

32 Reasons Why I Love You:

1. You are my Best Friend Forever and Always

2. You genuinely care about people

3. You are a great father and love spending time with our kids

4. You like watching our daily TV soap as much as I do

5. You work hard everyday to provide for our family's needs and wants

6. You are comfortable with being you and don't care about what others think

7. You don't judge me when I eat a big bowl of ice-cream and then go back for seconds

8. You stay in shape no matter how many bowls of ice-cream you eat (jealous!!)

9. You value family and family relationships

10. You aren't afraid to express how you feel & forgive me when I have a hard time doing that

11. You are always willing to lend a helping hand to others

12. You take the dogs out to potty in the middle of the night (most of the time)

13. You let me be in charge of the money and how it is spent

14. You convince me it is okay to splurge and make some big purchases once in a while

15. You clean the house just as much as I do (if only I could get you to take over the laundry too)

16. You make friends easily....so much so that anywhere we go you run into someone you know

17. You will watch "chick flick" movies with me and even enjoy them most of the time

18. You think I am pretty even if I am in my sweatpants with no make-up on

19. You share the same values, beliefs and goals for our family that I do

20. You support me in whatever choices I make or the things I want to do

21. You don't get mad that I left the shower cream in the shower again leaving another rust mark

22. You get excited about Nintendo games just as much as a kid does

23. You still have an endless amount of energy even though you are getting "older"

24. You can talk to anybody so easily and effortlessly

25. You think I am perfect even though we both know I am not

26. You have a positive attitude about life and don't let things bother you too much

27. You are a good friend, good listener, and try to be there for others

28. You are much better at discipline and keeping our kids behavior in check

29. You are frugal like me and perfectly content taking a sandwich lunch sack to work everyday

30. You still tease me with "Braums" ice-cream when you want to get me to smile

31. You sign up for a soccer league saying "this will probably be my last season cause I am getting to old to do this anymore"......which you believe until the next opportunity comes around.

But most important.....

# 32. I love you because you are YOU!!

To celebrate, we went to the OSU vs. Texas Basketball game.

And Austin came with us.
He actually watched and enjoyed the game and we had a fun time together!

Scripture Power Success

In December, we met our goal of 200 days of scripture study and so on New Year's day we decided to celebrate that.

First we went out to eat at Olive Garden

Then we went to the AMC movie theaters and got to watch a movie in these reclining chairs. The movie screen was enormous, it had great sound, and these seats were fantastic!!

We saw the movie Frozen and this movie was one of the best Disney movies we have ever seen. We loved it!! We are already listening to the music on a daily basis and can't wait till it comes to the dollar movies so we can go and see it again!!

New Years Eve

We decided to do it pretty simple for New Years Eve. My family came over and we had ate some yummy food and played games.

The favorite game of the night was "The Peanut Game"

Austin had a lot of fun trying to capture everyone's peanuts.

Craig enjoying his favorite spot in the house

Happy New Year!!!

7 years old

Somewhere in the craziness of the Christmas season, Austin turned 7 years old. Hard to believe this kid of mine is getting so big. There are so many things that we love about Austin.

Austin holds a special spot in our family because he is the oldest child. Most of the time he is a big help to his sisters and sets a good example for them.
Favorite toy: his large Lego blocks that he will use to create whatever thing he is currently interested in....those Legos are the best investment in a toy that we have every made.
Favorite things to do: soccer, computer games and Nintendo games with his dad (they are currently playing Zelda together)
School: favorite thing is recess but he is also very good at math
Achievements: this last year Austin has made the most improvement in his reading skills...it is fun to see the world of words open up to him and watching him read to his sister. He was obsessed with the Magic Tree House Books for a while and wanted to check them all out at the library. He still enjoys them but is content now with having just one at a time.
Austin is very well behaved most of the time.....I always hear praises about him at school and church and know that he is respectful to his teachers and a good listener.
Austin has a kind heart and thinks of others. He wanted to use his birthday money to purchase a gift for each member of the family. We went to the dollar store, he got his own shopping cart, and I stood back and let him do his own gift picking and purchasing. He was super proud of himself.

At the end of the year Austin participated in an indoor soccer team down in Tulsa. It was fun having Braxton back on his team. Almost every team they played was a year older than them but the boys tried hard and still had a good time.

To celebrate his birthday, Austin wanted to go laser tagging (not sure why he didn't make it in this picture). Several of his cousins were in town for Christmas so we had a big group which was lots of fun. Everyone had a good time and the adults had just as much fun as the kids did.

Austin wanted a "Battlefield" birthday cake so I let him pick out the stuff to put on top of the cake.

Happy Birthday Austin!!

Bastings Family Fun

The entire Bastings family came into town for Christmas and were here for an entire week. There was family dinners almost every night, lots of game playing for the adults, lots of cousin bonding time, and lots of hanging out. It was a week straight of family fun.