Laura Jean 2

austin is reading

2009-05-13T22:34:00.001-05:00

Fluffy Goes to School. Austin read this to me last night. it was very funny. We were both laughing at the part where the girl dresses him in the doll dress and he pretends he is a spy.

And, he read it very fluently with inflection in just the right parts. It is amazing how much he has learned in first grade!

the mother's day

2009-05-11T11:52:00.012-05:00

The mother's day was wonderful. We had brunch, and the kids behaved better than should be expected.

We took time to smell the flowers (that I bought myself for being an outstanding mother again this year) . . .

And we jumped around in the yard (why did I cut her feet off in this picture? I need help!) . . .

And my very favorite part of the day . . .

princess caitlin's prom

2009-05-08T19:23:00.000-05:00

Agh, to be in high school again . . .

the peyton

2009-04-28T18:33:00.000-05:00

need to get blogging again

2009-04-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

the surprise

2008-07-30T11:08:00.006-05:00

Our families through us a surprise 30th birthday party on july 26th. so fun.

Austin saw this picture of my from first grade and asked if I was from England . . . think it was the ruffled shirt? ha. ha.

the night peyton was lost

2008-07-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

So, last night I was exhausted. Exhausted. And home alone again with the kids, at 8pm I found myself checking the clock every 3 minutes waiting for the minute Damian would pull into the driveway and relieve me – even if only for a moment – from my children. He finally rolled in at 8:30 and I was FREE. I sent Peyton downstairs to play with Autin for a few more minutes before bedtime. Damian and I caught up on our days while he ate dinner. Then the phone rang. It was my Dad asking if Austin could go fishing with him in the morning. Yes, but he would need a backpack filled with necessities and a lunch. I scurried around getting the things together and hollered down to Austin that it was time for him to get to bed. Continuing my conversation with Damian I asked him to check on Peyton in the basement. “You left her in the dark?”, he asked as he peered down the basement steps. We realized Austin must have turned off the lights when he came upstairs. Peyton must have went into her bedroom to finish watching Barney that was playing on her tv. But, she wasn’t there. O.k., she must have fallen asleep downstairs. But, she was no where to be found there either. At this point it was still somewhat light out so I freaked out and assumed she had walked past Damian in the kitchen, and outside through the front door that maybe he had accidentally left open. Damian and I hurried outside, and searched our yard. In shock, and terrified, I sent him up the street to look for her. One time she had ran out the driveway and down the cul-de-sac as Damian watched her from the driveway. She was gone. We called Damian’s mom who helped us search, then the police department, who searched our house, and then they called the fire department, who setup lights in our front yard and started searching. . . Damian said he searched EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood and realized she must be in our house somewhere. He came back to the house, and moved the kids playhut out of the way of the door under the basement steps. Upon opening the door, he found Peyton, curled up at the end of the closet, sleeping. Agh . . . Thank God. A night that made me feel like a terrible mother, and made me realize just how quickly out lives could change.

swimming lessons

2008-06-26T20:32:00.000-05:00

a post from mother-in-law sharon after seeing Austin at swimming lessons:

Austin was sooo cute at swimming this morning. He had a big grin on his face when he saw his two grandma's sitting there. That was worth going for right there. Every time it was his turn to go into the water he looked over at us first to make sure we were watching. One time when it was his turn to jump off the diving board, we were busy talking and he wouldn't jump until we looked over. Then he did a quick wave before hitting the water. He is quite the little swimmer!

The best part was when it was over. We said goodbye and then he went into the locker room. A couple seconds later he came running back out shouting, "Bye Grandma, I love you!" He's the best.

the 30th birthdays

2008-06-26T19:29:00.001-05:00

I rocked the birthday tiara again this year. Damian got me a DSLR camera for my B-Day. He actually gave it to me a few months ago, as an incentive to make it through the big 30 without completely flipping out. It’s been sitting on the nightstand next to my birthday tiara so now I can use it without feeling guilty. I think it was worth turning 30 for the camera. I think I need to take a class to learn how to use it.

We survived dinner with Princess Peyton. My mom walked her took her for a long walk outside as a pre-dinner warm up, but that didn’t keep her from throwing all of her food and silverware throughout dinner, including a knife at my Dad mid-way through dinner. But, we had a nice time, and at the end of the night my parents got to spend their 31st anniversary with Austin sleeping at the foot of their bed. Awwwww.

Damian and I both agree the “birthday week” is too long. We are exhausted.

the father's day

2008-06-18T12:44:00.003-05:00

the start of summer

2008-06-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

Summer has started. Austin is doing summer school which is basically four fun classes including Swim II. He’s in “Kinder Crunchies” which is a cooking class. Yesterday they made Blue Lagoon drinks. He tried it and didn’t like it. Sort of the story of his relationship with food . . .Tries it, and doesn’t like it.

Peyton’s not saying too much, but is into everything. One of her favorite new “words” is “whatdidyoudo?”. Yep, she thinks that is one word and she says it evertime she drops something, spills something, breaks something, etc.

mother's day

2008-05-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

For mother's day we took the kids to the Blue Harbor Resort. We had a fabulous time. Peyton loves the water just as much as Austin does. In fact, she had a habit of running right into the water even in areas where it was well over her head.

the gunner

2008-05-08T17:57:00.001-05:00

This week we're doggysitting for this rascal. "Gunner", my Dad's dog and everyone's favorite pet. I think we've managed to keep him content and last night we may have worn him out a bit.

the bucket

2008-04-22T07:29:00.005-05:00

Each week, a bucket is passed to a different child in Austin's kindergarten class. This week Austin gets the bucket and it's his job to fill the bucket with items or pictures that start with the letter of the week. This week the letter is "Uu". Lucky us. So, last night Austin put the only thing he could think of that fits in the bucket and begins with the letter "U". His underwear.

The bucket needs to be returned Friday. I am printing off pictures of unicorns, uniforms, and umbrellas tonight.

peyton's world

2008-04-21T20:03:00.001-05:00

Peyton is loving the spring weather and prefers to be outside whenever possible. She puts on her shoes and waits for one of us to take her outside.

2008-04-17T20:18:00.001-05:00

Austin turned six on April 10th. Austin turned six years old on April 10, 2008. I always find his birthday to be one of the most exciting days of MY year. It’s a milestone. And I love to celebrate that! I slaved preparing food for 30 of our closest friends and family. And, when the day finally arrived, I was exhausted. Completely. Exhausted. Since I had so much to do to prepare food for the party, and he is so picky about what he eats I wanted to make sure he loved the treat, I decided we would purchase his FAVORITE cupcakes from the local bakery for his school treat. As he was handing the treats out to his class he explained that his mom doesn’t know how to bake cupcakes so we had to buy them. Ugh.

My name is: Austin John
Nicknames: Aus the Boss, Aust, Snickly froogly froo
I'm: 6-years-old
I can usually be found: in the basement
Beloved toy: rollerblades
Favorite book: Green Eggs and Ham
Pastimes: racing cars on Playstation, watching Scooby Doo or SpongeBob Squarepants, playing Chess with Dad
Pet Peeve: trying new foods
Catch Phrase: “no, no, Peyton, no, NO”

the fire. men.

2008-04-14T23:01:00.007-05:00

It’s taken me a while to be able to post about this. It was so unbelievable. A few weeks ago, Damian decided he was going to burn the brush pile. Basically, the brush pile was a large pile of our Christmas tree, grass clippings, and other trimmings from the trees in our yard. It was a rather windy Saturday afternoon and I asked him if it was very smart to light the fire on such a windy day. To this, he replied this windy day was the perfect day to burn the pile because the wind would blow the smoke out quickly and the yard was still very wet from all of the snow we’d gotten over the winter - he wouldn’t have to worry about controlling the fire. He lit it and within seconds the pile ignited into a huge, crackling flame.

And this is what happened . . . It got OUT OF CONTROL!

And, we didn’t even have a hose hooked up yet, so we tried putting it out with buckets full of water. I wish I had pictures of that, but I was too panicked. The fire burned the fence line, hopped the fence and started the neighbor’s field on fire. The neighbor’s field is planted with trees he’s planted from Arbor Day Foundation over the years. Worst part – the neighbor wasn’t even home.

After calling 911 and having the fire department extinguish the fire, this is what my backyard looks like.

All of the black areas are charred grass. Lovely, eh?

Not exactly the "burnin'" fun as described by Pioneer Woman. Her burning pictures were posted two days before our fire, and it gave me the brilliant idea to try stomping out the flames.

easter

2008-03-30T11:30:00.000-05:00

words

2008-02-27T23:19:00.000-06:00

In addition to signing "more", "book", and "baby", Peyton can now say the following important words: "dada", "moo", "up", "down", and "circle". Can I get her to say "mama" just once? Ugh.

presidents' day

2008-02-20T09:41:00.000-06:00

Presidents' Day was much more important to Austin than “Valentime’s” Day this year. Much. More. Important. Must be the 5K curriculum combined with his fascination with money. He comes home every night with a different factoid about a former president. Since he’s become captivated by everything Patriotic, I thought it would be fun to take him with us to vote in the presidential primary last night. Whooo, was it FUN. Austin couldn’t seem to grasp the meaning of VOTE. How do you define vote to a 5 year old? I tried all sorts of different explanations, and even the demonstration of me voting didn’t do the trick – as he was afraid of the machine and the man next to it.

So, on the short trip home I devised a plan – a family election. Held last night. In our kitchen. Up for grabs? – President of the household – for the night. On the ballot? Dad, Mom, Austin, and Peyton. Austin won, even though he voted for all four candidates; he thought we would “all make good presidents”.

valentine's day

2008-02-15T09:18:00.000-06:00

I love Valentine’s Day! Love it. I know, it is a commercialized holiday for the flower/card industry, blah blah bah humbug I say. It is a day celebrating love, what can be better than that? Lately, hubbie and I have been a little lax in the romance department. We have been very busy and stressed at work and since we work together we often take this stress home with us. And, in general, we’ve just been tired! So, I planned something fun for the day after V day – today – he gets a massage – a professional massage at MODA and then we’re heading to Village Hearthstone for dinner. Ahhhh . . . looking forward to a date night. Oh yeah, and the kids are staying with his parents wooooh hooo!

And, Damian made it so special for me. Yesterday, he surprised me with strawberry pancakes and scrambled egg breakfast in bed. It shocked me and I loved it! And, I love him. So. Much.

more on valentime's day and the reason I love saying valentime - Austin.

want a free ipod? yes, I said free!

2008-02-14T21:49:00.000-06:00

I never win anything. And, a few months ago, I won a pair of awesome running shoes from this company. I randomly received the pair in the mail, and it made my day, week, and month! I mean, there is nothing quite as exciting as getting a package in the mail you didn’t pay for. And, more importantly, the shoes are awesome and every night I put them on after work, I think about that exciting day I opened the package!

Now, what would go better with running shoes than an iPod nano and Baggage just happens to be giving one away over here.

money, money, money, money . . . money

2008-02-13T01:06:00.000-06:00

Austin has lost his first two teeth in the past month. The tooth fairy made a trip to our house and gave Austin a most prized present each time – MONEY. The boy is obsessed with money . . . and presidents. U.S. presidents and money. It’s all he talks about. Tonight he taught his banker parents something about money we didn’t know . . . on the back of a Penny is the image of Lincoln sitting at his chair. Maybe I knew this and forgot? Anywho, it’s pretty interesting getting an educational lesson from a 5-year old.

big girl

2008-02-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

I marvel at the personality differences between Austin and Peyton. For example, Austin knew 180+ words at 15 months. He knew about 15 nursery rhymes. Peyton knows . . . “uh oh” . . . and “da da”, but “da da”, is everyone and everything so I’m not even sure that counts. Peyton loves to be cuddled and Austin avoided it at all costs. Austin also avoided having his diaper changed and Peyton will go in her bedroom and bring me a diaper when she needs to be changed!

Austin was perfectly content being a baby. I am a little embarrassed to admit he wore diapers until he was 4 and happily sat in his booster chair until he was five. Not only does Peyton not want to sit in her booster chair for meals, she insists on a fork/spoon and a plate. When she has it her way she steals Austin’s seat before he arrives at the table. She pulls herself to the edge of the seat and twirls her feet while she waits to be served. If she didn’t insist on throwing her drinks when finished with them she would be using a cup all the time. I am pretty sure Austin would still take a bottle if I let him.

Peyton took a shower this morning . . . by herself. It’s a pretty odd site to see a 15 month old standing in a shower. She saw me take a shower, and then when she saw Damian in the shower she decided it was her turn.

She’s my baby; she’s not supposed to be growing up this fast! Next week she’ll be driving to school!

wordless wednesday

2008-01-30T08:55:00.000-06:00