O Holy Night

I love the Christmas season. And I love Christmas music. I am one of those that has no problem listening to it any time of year. It never fails to put a smile on my face and a feeling of peace in my heart. one of my favorite songs of the seasons is O Holy Night.

And I wanted to share it with you.

two versions to enjoy. The first by Josh Groban, my long time favorite. The second is a new gem I found, sung by David Archuletta.

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Quick Video Update for the Grandparents

Just a few recent videos and pictures before I continue my catching up of the blog...

He was dancing for himself in the mirror for a long time before this. By the time I got the camera he was almost done. But he's still cute to watch.

We went walking the other day and he found sprinklers on in someones yard. So of course he had to play. After I turned the camera off he got soaked. And loved it :)

Austin and Rika chase each other around all day taking balls from the other and running. And then he  usually tackles her. I don't think you get the joy of watching the tackle in this video though. I'll post one of those later. 

Sorry about the mess of toys in this one, but he has a cute laugh anyway.

I'll get some more pictures up soon of our adventures. Enjoy :)

Fun in the Sun...July

For the first week in July we were house sitting for some friends. They just happen to live right on the beach.

 

We spent July 4 at the beach. Went surfing, played in the sand, and just relaxed.

Austin began getting into things more and more. He loves to figure everything out. What things are, what they do, how they work. He can't quite get in as deep as his daddy does, but he checks things out until he understands them. Well, as much as he can at least.

He tries to get himself behind, next to, in between, anything and everything.

He LOVES fruit. He devoured this peach. There was nothing but the pit left when he was done.

Practicing his standing

Austin figured stairs out while we were in New Hampshire, and started going up and down by himself without me helping to turn him around. He would still much rather go down head first though.

He loves bikes. There is one that someone leaves in the park by the playground right near our house, and whenever we go to the playground all he does is wander over to the bike to play with it. No matter how far across the park I take him, he turns around and wanders right back to the bike.

And the dog bowl. Even if I fill up other buckets for him to play with. If there is water in the dog bowl he leaves his buckets and goes to dump Rika's upside down. I'm not sure the pull to that one. But he loves her. He wrestles with her all day.

Sorry this picture is sideways. But I didn't want to reload it. For a while Austin would walk around like this. One hand out in front of him, talking away. I caught him in this picture right after he sat down, but it was always so cute to watch. He doesn't do it as much anymore, so I'm glad I got the picture.

We helped out at an event for a couple of days, and most of the time I was just chasing this little guy around. And sometimes we just let the kids go for it. He found the food.

Austin also began getting more adventurous in the pool. He would just let go of the stairs or the side and just walk right towards us, or walk right off the edge to us.

We went to watch our friends in a dragon boat race one weekend, and when we got there they said that they needed another person to fill the boat. And they asked Brett to do it. No, he hadn't ever done it before. But whatever. They had a good time. It was fun to watch.

Afterwards we found some other friends about to go surfing, and all Austin wanted to do was get their boards. He's almost ready for his own :) Anytime I took him off he would kick his legs trying to get himself back to it.

We got to get all dressed up and attend a ball. And yes, I wore the same dress that I wore many times at BYU.

Austin loves the beach. Good thing. He runs straight down the beach and into the water. Then he'll just go in and out for a while. He's gotten waves to the face a few times. But he does fine :)

I have to keep Rika away from him while he's eating because he started sharing his food with her on purpose. And he just giggles the whole time.

This is also when Austin started letting go of things on his own and walking across the room. He just let go of the couch one day and walked to his toy. I'm glad I was there to see it :)

You make me smile :)

Sometimes he gets in these moods...and I love it :)

A Day in June

Continuing on into June.

After the long flight alone with Austin, the wedding in Tennessee, and a few fun days to play Austin and I flew to New Hampshire and Brett flew to California. We spent a couple of weeks there, then flew to North Carolina to visit dad's side of the family, drove to Nashville to visit Tanner and Katrina, then drove back to Memphis to spend another week with Brett's family before flying back to Hawaii. It was a whirlwind. It was a bit hard on Austin. Before we left in May he had actually started to sleep a little bit better. That all disappeared once we started traveling. He didn't sleep much during the whole month. Butmuch thanks to my wonderful parents who were up with him many nights. He LOVED my dad while we were in New Hampshire. He went to sleep for him when he wouldn't calm down at all for me.

I'm pretty sure he missed his daddy. He would go to any man, anytime, whether he had seen them before or not. In church he would reach out for any man walking by. And those that took him could take him anywhere and he wouldn't even try to get back to me, or look for me. I think he just missed his daddy.

Anyway...here is our month in pictures.

He LOVES faces

Playing in the rain puddles

HAHAHA. Trying to get Austin to smile.

Trying to take steps on his own

Temple trip with mom and dad

At a Romney Convention in Milford

Austin loved Conner

Cute new outfit from Grandma

All the time. Seriously. He has some hard gums

Walking only holding on to one hand. He was getting so close to letting go.

Family picture on the fireplace. Classic.

I made this tie when I was like, 8. He wears it every Father's Day.

Great-Grandpa's toys. He was captivated.

Siblings

With his Great-Grandma

And...we didn't even do it on purpose.

He loves to drive. Every time we open the front door of the car he gets super excited and wants to get in.

Swimming at Tanner and Katrina's place

He liked Tanner so much he was super shy. It was actually pretty cute.

Looking at the airplanes

We thought we were going to miss our anniversary again this year. But Brett ended up getting back earlier than we thought, and Austin and I flew in at 10pm on June 27 and got to spend the last two hours of our fourth anniversary together. Brett even brought me flowers when he picked us up at the airport. Hooray.