Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! This Christmas was the best for several reasons:

1. Jaycie made the best gift ever!
2. Devin is now old enough to get excited about gifts and that totally makes Christmas.
3. Jamin's sisters Janae and Jenna came to visit.
4. We got to spend lots of quality time with family and friends.

Enjoy a few pictures and a special Christmas video from the Austins!

Home Sweet Home

For those of you who don't already know, Jaycie is here! She blessed us with her presence on Tuesday December 9th at 2:19pm. She shocked us all by only weighing 6 lbs 15oz. That might be a Needs record. She's nice and long at 20 1/4 inches and is nothing but skin and bones.

Delivery went really well. They broke my water at 10:30 am, I got an epidural at 1:00pm when I was dialated to about 3 and a half centimeters, and the next time they checked me at 2:00, I was fully dialated and she was literally falling out. So they had me close my legs (no joke) until the doctor got there and four minutes and one contraction later, she was here. Here are some pictures of her first few days.

4 Days Left

While I am fully aware of the deadline hovering over my head, it's amazing how I can't quite wrap my mind around what's going to happen when the clock stops ticking in four days. I'm incredibly excited to meet Jaycie and to see what she's going to look like. I know I should be feeling other emotions too...I should feel anxious, or nervous, or scared...but I don't. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, all I know is I'm going to be starting a new phase of my life and while I have no idea what to expect, I'm sure it will be just as cool as the "Devin Phase" (only hopefully less time spent riding the emotional rollercoaster).

I still have quite a few things to finish before I go in Tuesday morning (like packing a bag, putting a 2nd carseat in my car, and beginning and completing Christmas shopping), but I did manage to get Jaycie's bedroom all ready for her. After all, that is the fun part.

The colors don't really show up well...but the walls are green with a chocolate stripe and accent wall and red, blue, green, and yellow circles. It's adorable in person and I have to thank Kristi profusely for helping me get it done. It was a pain to hand paint all those circles but it was totally worth it!

Shower Time

Yesterday my oh so fabulous friend Amanda threw me and little Jaycie a baby shower. There was wonderful food {thanks Amanda and Terin}, great company, and a to-die-for cake from Candy Haven {thanks Kris!!!}. I just wanted to thank everyone who was involved and took the time out of their busy Saturday to come and shower me with love and congratulations {and presents too!} It was a blast.

I got lots of gorgeous girly clothes and blankets...and I gotta say, so much more fun than a boy shower!

This was my my most anticipated gift {sorry everyone else}. My grandma makes blankets for every great grandchild. Devin has one that he cannot live without. They are so soft and cozy and special to me that I couldn't wait to get Jaycie's. It also came with an adorable matching hooded sweater and one of those little blanket bunny things. SO CUTE!

These HOMEMADE burp clothes were the most popular gift. My cousin Jenna made three of these for me and they are stunning. THANKS JENNA!

The beautiful cake from Kristi and hand-crafted flower arrangement by Mom.

The five pregnant women there...here we are in order by due date. Me {due in 2 weeks}, Becca {due mid-january}, Amanda {due Valentine's Day}, Tina {due end of May}, and Terin {10 weeks along}.

Happy {Belated} Birthday Devin!

Devin had his 2nd Birthday on the 9th of November. I can't believe he's two already. Here are a few pictures from his birthday party:

The birthday boy got to eat TWO cupcakes.
(Or I should say got to lick the frosting off of two cupcakes)

There were plenty of children there who were willing to open Devin's presents for him.
Devin was moving WAY too slowly for them.

Almost everything was either Cars or Trains. If it has wheels, Devin's all for it.

Devin's most favorite thing on the planet...GeoTrax Trains. He was in train heaven.

A few fun facts about Devin at TWO years old:

• He loves to lay in his big boy bed and stare at the stars on his ceiling. He sings {and yes he actually sings} twinkle twinkle little star with us every night.
• He's not always a morning person and has been known to shriek at the first person to look at him.
• He simply cannot live without the two loves of his life, Cole and Bryce. Cole is his best friend who he gets to run around with and fight over toys with. Bryce is his sweet baby cousin bryce who he can't stop kissing and who Devin will cry over if it's been too long since he's seen him.
• Devin has established a "potty room"...a place he will sneak off to once a day to go "poopoo". He will come back and tell me when the deed is done by smacking his diaper only to say NO when I ask him if he went poopoo. {He has also been known to stick his hand down his diaper afterwards... disgusting, I know.}
• He loves to sing and dance around and is actually getting good at singing on tune.
• He learns new words every day. Some of my favorites are "cool", "awesome", and "let go" which is always an angry command when I'm trying to get him to cooperate.
• When he's feeling extra full of love he will grab your face with both hands, pull you in whatever direction necessary, and plant one on you. It almost makes me cry every time.
• He loves his daddy more than anything on this planet. He copies him whenever possible by laying down next to him or sitting just like him. He dislocates dad's finger every night by dragging him around to show him different things. He spontaneously climbs into his lap when convenient and laughs the hardest when dad tickles him.

Devin really has turned out to be a sweet funny boy. He certainly knows how to throw a fit and can be downright mean when he wants to be. But the next minute he can be so sweet or completely hilarious. I think some people call that Bi-Polar...but I'm not gonna stress about it. :)

Happy Birthday Devin! We LOVE you!

Winter Clothes

There are two things at the top of my gratitude list: "Texas" Winter Weather and baby clothes. I love when the weather first starts to change and you bust out all your children's winter clothes only for the high to climb to 75 and your son to be drenched in sweat. Well, I think the colder weather is finally here to stay and I'm loving it. So I made a trip out to Old Navy this evening with my 30% of coupon and couldn't help myself when I saw these adorable clothes.

Would you be able to resist?

Big Boy Bed Update

So I thought I would post the latest news on our first big obstacle of childhood. After a rather frustrating and incredibly time consuming six days, he is now sleeping in his bed with no problems. I thought it would never happen, but it has miraculously righted itself in just a few days. Thank you for the advice. I used several of your suggestions.

After he snuck downstairs at 6:00 am one morning to do who knows what, I put a gate up in his doorway so he can open the door but can't walk through. That worked for like two seconds before he realized he could push really hard and knock it down. So then I added a heavy chair to support it and he stopped trying.

But what really did the trick was the threats. My son doesn't listen to me whatsoever. I would get angry and try and put on my wicked witch of the west face and matching voice, but nothing seemed to scare him back to bed. So I read somewhere that taking away priveleges can work. As someone recently put it, I went straight for the jugular. I told him if he got down I would take his blanket away. The one object he loves above everything else, even food. He can't simply function without it and he definitely can't even think about sleeping without it. He got down from his bed during naptime, and I spoke those evil words without any hesitation. The next time he got down, I took his blanket and left the room. He cried sooooo hard. I let him go at it for a few minutes then went back in and told him if he got back in bed and stayed there I would give it back. (I'm not so evil as to make him go to sleep without it). He climbed right up and didn't move another muscle. I had to repeat the process that night and by the next day he was broken. He's stopped climbing down (or if he does he climbs back up) and he definitely doesn't even think about opening the door. Life is back to normal and mom is a much happier camper.

Big Boy Bed

With the arrival of Jaycie just weeks away, we decided we better get a head start on the oh so terrifying transition to a big boy bed. So Halloween night we went for it. I bought him rails, a new Cars blanket and pillow and talked all day about how he was so lucky because he gets to sleep in a big bed like mommy and daddy. We took down his crib and gave it to the baby (we moved it to her room) and said goodbye. He was actually really excited.

The first night wasn't so bad. He cried pretty hard and came out of the room once. But then I laid down with him till he was sleepy and he slept the night with no problems. Next day, the same thing happened during nap time. He cried, got down once, then fell asleep when I laid down with him. Last night he didn't cry, didn't get down, and I didn't have to lay with him. But naptime is a different story. He's not so sleepy, it's not pitch dark, and he will get down a million times unless I pin him down and lay there until he falls asleep. It was a huge battle today and takes me and him about an hour before he will finally sleep. So...I need advice. Plenty of you have been through this before so load me up with good tips and tricks. I refuse to give up and just let him skip naptime...but I don't want to lay with him until he falls asleep either. HELP!!!!

Trick or...RUN AWAY!

I have been really excited since last halloween that Devin would be 2 and able to go trick or treating this year. I just new it would be such a fun experience for him. So I hunted and hunted for the PERFECT halloween costume and I found...nothing. So he ended up being the only thing they had left at Party City that didn't have anything on the head or hands. I wasn't too disappointed though, he looked pretty cute.

So we set off to go trick or treating with the cousins and this is what happened:

In case you didn't catch it, that his him shrieking, "wanna go" as he runs away. He did eventually warm up right before we called it quits, but it wasn't quite the experience I had anticipated. Oh well, I guess there's always next year.

Pumpkin Patch

I've been holding off posting these (3 weeks) because I was hoping to go back and get some better photos. But that hasn't happened and I'm in the mood for fall festivities so here are some pictures of my not so cooperative son.

New Tricks

Most of you know about the physical struggles Devin has gone through over the past year. So I thought I'd give a little update. He walked around 14 months, but couldn't sit up on his own or stand up. He picked that up shortly after he started working with a therapist. He finally started crawling at 18 months! Talk about backwards. Over the past three months he's learned how to run, climb up and down stairs, and he's working on jumping. His little legs still aren't strong enough to walk up normal sized steps without support but he's getting there. He hasn't had to see a therapist for several months now so we are very proud of all the hard work he's put in. He's been working on this latest trick for a few weeks now and he's getting pretty good. I think it's because he used to use his head to help him stand up so he was already halfway there...here's a video:

Summer Vacations

In August we were fortunate enough to go to St. Martin in the Caribbean with the family: My parents, Cory, Brandon & Jess, and Jamin, Me, and Devin. Kristi and her family weren't able to go so it fell short of a family reunion...we missed them. But we had some really fun moments with Devin.

This is the view from the balcony of our room. You could hop over this wall and be on the beach. Gorgeous.

Me (without makeup) and Jamin on the other side of our balcony. Just look at the crystal clear blue water!

Lounging around

There was this little lighted pier right off our balcony that Devin loved to hang out on. A little nerve wracking with all the large and jagged rocks waiting to catch him if he fell over the side.

It took us a full 24 hours but he eventually grew to love the sand and water.

The kids just before sunset.

Scooter patrol. Ever since Jamin and I went to St. Martin on our honeymoon we have rented scooters. It's the only (and of course the coolest) way to get around the island. Of course now with a kid in tow and one on the way, I stuck to the car with the old people. :)

Devin about to be bowled over by a wave.

This was fun. He let loose at this beach and just kept running into the water, getting knocked down, then running back up to the dry sand. After about 5 times of this you would be walking a little crooked too.

I also have to mention the airplane rides. I was amazed. We were on 5 different airplanes and sat in the airport for an entire day on our way home. He was an angel. He slept on every plane ride on my chest (a first) or played quietly with his new toys. And he even took a nap on the seats at the gate while we were stuck in the airport terminal for 8 hours. It was a huge success!

Updates

Ok, I know (once again) that I haven't posted in FOREVER. I just wanted to inform everyone that I'm going to play catch-up. So expect several updates over the next few days...lots to come!!!

Disappointed

Ok...so I gotta say I'm disappointed with Breaking Dawn. I know a lot of you haven't read it yet so I won't give anything away. I just wanted to express my lack of enthusiasm. I was incredibly excited for this release. I did nothing but read all day Saturday so I was able to finish early Sunday morning. I was entertained enough that I wanted to keep reading and finish the book. But when it was all over, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Not because it was over and there would never be another book, but because it just didn't do it for me. There were several times in the book where I was like, WHAT?!? Why did she do that?!?! It just seems like she lost a lot of steam with each new book. The first one was INCREDIBLE, but each one after that lost a little something. I don't know. What did you guys think???

Who's Excited...

For Breaking Dawn!!!!!


I know I'm peeing my pants with the anticipation of reading the book. And only a few hours to go!!! WOOHOO! I have already cleared my schedule and assigned baby-watching duties to Jamin for Saturday and Sunday. I can't wait! I'm just about as excited as I was for Harry Potter...almost.

It's A...

GIRL!!!

Rumor has it...

That I'm pregnant...and that would surprisingly be a rumor that's true. I'm not sure why I've waited so long. Maybe because this one was a complete shock and I still haven't got used to the idea...or maybe because I wanted to wait until I had some concrete evidence (whether to convince me or you, not so sure). Either way, I decided it's time to make the announcement. So... We're having a baby!!! Yay!!! I'm about 17 weeks along and here is a sonogram picture I got a week ago. We still don't know what it is (it was too fuzzy to tell) but we will find out for sure on the 29th. I'll try and inform everyone before the baby actually gets here. :)

I Love Summer!

Ok, so I know I have been absent from the blogging world for a while now. I don't have a good excuse either, I just didn't want to blog! Not a whole lot has changed, so you won't be getting an update...sad, I know. I will post a few pictures of what we have been doing lately. It's not much, just enjoying this hot Texas weather and that big blue cloudless sky!

Rats or Squirrels?

As it turns out, our attic (the one with the rattling tin door) has become home to a family of squirrels. I guess it's comforting to know our upstairs neighbors aren't rats, but seeing as how they both belong to the family of rodents, I don't know how relieved I am. What it comes down to is they both have claws and they both scratch against the walls. Cute or not, the squirrels have to go.


This is the light right outside our bedroom window. As we discovered yesterday, the silver mounting piece has become separated from the brick wall and the squirrels go in and out via the hobit-hole opening behind. And yes, there are squirrels plural. This is the mom and she has at least two little babies that I've seen. Precious, I know, but annoying none the less.

Tag...I'm It!

Oh boy oh boy! I love being tagged (minimal amounts of sarcasm). I get to discuss all the interesting things about me...who knows, maybe I'll even discover what those are. Here we go:

MY FAVORITE THINGS around the house

My favorite thing in the kitchen is... My ultra vintage florescent light fixture. It finally died out on us a few weeks ago so when the maintenance man announced he would have to replace it, I actually got my hopes up...no more flickering eyesore! But in he walked with A BRAND NEW florescent light fixture...I didn't even know they sold those anymore!?!?!

My favorite thing in the bathroom is... uhhh...running water...a toilet that flushes. That is a comprehensive list of the perks of my beautiful bathroom.

My favorite thing in the bedroom is... most definitely our tempurpedic matress topper. Ahh...who sleeps on a regular old mattress anymore. It's like falling asleep on a cloud of marshmallows!

My favorite thing in the living room is... my one of a kind, completely original, painting that hangs just above our couch. My incredibly talented husband Jamin painted this for me and I absolutely love it!

My favorite thing in the bedroom closet is... oooh oooh...it's gotta be the tin trap door to the attic that rattles every time the wind howls. Or wait...maybe it's the rats, or possibly even squirrels, that scratch and scratch just when you're falling asleep. It's just your everyday closet. :)

My favorite thing in the pantry is... definitely our pantry door. It's the 8th World Wonder. At only 11 and 3/4 inches wide and 80 inches high, it's the perfect hiding place for children seeing as how most adults coudn't even fit through the opening!

My favorite thing in the "office" is... Office??? If the nook in my bedroom's bay window where my desk and computer resides counts as an office, I would have to say the fan sitting on top of my printer. You see, at only a foot away, it not only helps cool me as I sleep in my cozy bed at night, but it also provides the white noise that I have come to depend upon for a good night's sleep.

My favorite thing in the baby's room is... my baby, of course! He is fast asleep in his crib right now giving his mom the necessary time required to complete this fascinating survey!

Now let's spread the joy: I tag KRISTI, JESS, MOLLY, JACKIE, and HEATHER.

A Trip to the Dallas Arboretum

We had such a great time today! Wait...this sounds vaguely familiar. Oh Yeah!!! That's cuz it's exactly how Amanda titled and started her post today. Aghhh...of course Amanda beat me to the post about the Arboretum...but it's all good. Now I don't have to explain what it was and who went. If you want details, read Amanda's blog. :) Here are some GORGEOUS pictures for everyone's enjoyment.

This is the entrance to the Arboretum. Isn't it beautiful?

Devin was so excited to be outside surrounded by flowers within his finger-plucking reach that he even posed for a few pictures for me!

Just my son being cute. :)

Not so cute. He was insanely angry because Cole was ganking his strawberries. Geez Cole...it's not like Devin had an entire bowl full or anything.

The amazingly bright azaleas...or so my mother informed me. I don't know what they are, nor do I have a square inch of soil that belongs to me, but I want some.

This is for you Amanda...what were you doing? (JK...this was my fault)