The snow Saga!!

So this is the first year that Austin really realized what playing out in the snow was all about. So when we went to bed Friday night we told him that when he woke up there was going to be snow on the ground and his obvious response was "And I can go out and play in it". The loving parents that we are we said sure tomorrow we can go play in the snow! Of course I rolled over in my nice warm bed Saturday morning to see the clock glowing 7:02 and to no suprise my darling almost 3 year old was standing there like clock work.( He knows not to leave his room until his clock says 7, I think I should have tried for 8!!) So every morning at 7:02 or 7:03 austin is there with a good moring mommy it's 7!! Well this morning the first words out of his mouth were, lets go play in the snow right now!! After convincing him that it was way to early to go outside and that daddy would take him out later I began thinking that this child had nothing appropriate to wear to play in the snow! So after we got up I had to run up to wal-mart in the snow and buy something necessities for playing in the snow! I found everything I needed, A longer coat, snow pants, long Johns, mittens and boots! Of course the only thing in the toddler size was pink so I had to jump to the boys section. I bought the smallest size which is a 4/5 and once Austin was all dressed he looked like the little brother from the Christmas story, all bundled up and barely able to move!! He will still be wearing these clothes when he is in the third grade!! Here are some pictures from that moring! When I finally went outside to see the snowman that Austin and Jason had built, Austin said, "It's time to go in for some hot chocolate because I am freezing out here"!

Santa

Good News!

Every year the day after Thanksgiving we go to old town St. Charles to walk around and eat dinner. This year the Taylors went with us and while they were taking our family picture they told us the good news that they are having another baby!! So congratulations to Kevin, Michelle and Carter! The second picture is of their family! I think it is such a cute way of telling people. This is the way jon and Doty also told us they were having Lydia!! (Who is coming Soon!!!!)

Hello! Sorry I have not been posting very much lately but our computer has been down and needs to be fixed, but other things have been going good! We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents and then went over to my aunts for some great dessert! The kids are doing great and Austin is getting very excited for Christmas! Every new store or house that we go to that is decorated for Christmas he lets me know that "it is Christmas here too Mommy"! Campbell is doing great too. She is trying her hardest to become mobile and I'm trying my hardest to stop it!! Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks!

Austin's First Kiss!

We got together with our good friends, Jake and Paige Patton the other night for dinner and with a little coaching from his momma Austin got his frist kiss from Lacy! I think they make an adorable couple!! Here it is!!

She's a Sitter!!

Campbell has had a few milestones these past couple of weeks. She is now sitting up really well all by herself! She is also saying mama and dada, it is so fun to listen to her talk up a storm! She is also quite the little roller, she will be across the room in like 2 seconds it is so funny! She gets herself into the funniest places. This is all new to me because Austin was perfectly happy staying in one place and not rolling anywhere! Here are a few pics of her accomplishments!

Fun at Church

One Octopus and One Fire Fighter!

We had a great Halloween last night! Austin was a fire fighter and Campbell was the cutest little Octopus I've ever seen! We wanted to do everything last night so after a quick dinner we put the costumes on and headed outside to do a little trick or treating. It was Austin's first time and obviously he loved it! Any time he gets candy it is a great day for him! He was so funny he would knock on the door and say trick or treat and then wait for them to answer and then just stand there until they gave him his candy! Campbell just went along for the ride probably wondering what the heck she was wearing! After trick or treating we went to our church and they have a great Fall Party. Lots of games and yes even more candy! The night was great and we got away with only eating 1 sucker when we got home and amazingly he has not said a word about his candy bag today!!

Halloween

Stingray City!

So probably the highlight of our trip was on Wednesday! We rented a boat all day which was wonderful so we could go where ever we wanted! We got the boat and right away we headed to Stingray City. Stingray city while it sounds like an amusement park is probably one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. It is just a sandbar way out off the shore, So you are out in the ocean and it is only about 4 to 5 feet deep, but what has happened there over the years is that just beyond this place there is a rock barrier that then drops off to much deeper waters, So the fishermen use to get inside that rock barrier to where it is very shallow and calm and they would clean their catch of the day. Well the stingrays figured out that they could get food there everyday so they began to hang around. Over the years the fishermen stopped cleaning their fish there and people began to go there and feed the stingrays. Now on any given day there can be 10 to 15 boats out there with tourists and you can swim around with and feed the rays.
Our adventure started with Jon driving the boat and as we got closer and closer to stingray city Jon got more nervous and for good reason because non of us knew what we were doing on the boat and as we approached Stingray City it was filled with professional tour boats who had formed this circle of boats and we had no idea how to "join the circle". Well Jon did a great job and we edged our way into the circle and we dropped our anchor and jumped overboard to go feed these amazing animals! Before we knew it we had about 12 rays swimming all around us just waiting for us to feed them. Austin was so excited and he got in the water and even fed them! We had so much fun that we went and had lunch, got more squid and went back.

Grand Cayman

Well, we made it and we had a wonderful time on our vacation! Getting home with two exhausted kids was a little nerve racking, but we did it and we all survived! Cayman was beautiful and we did so many fun things! We had relaxing days at the beach, an all day boating adventure, exciting times feeding the stingrays, experienced Cayman's sea turtle farm, Ate and Ate and Ate, the boys went scuba diving, All in all it was a great vacation! My wonderful kids were so great through the whole trip. Campbell was a trooper and slept in a pack'n play in the bathroom and Austin got use to sleeping on his pull out bed in our room! Campbell probably only got 3 or 4 real naps in her bed the whole week, but did so great and would fall asleep practically anywhere that we were! So the Shaw's send a big thank you to my parents for once again inviting us to go on another wonderful adventure, although I suspect if we have to many more kids the vacations will get closer and closer to home!!!!

Being a Big Brother!

Tonight as I gave Campbell her bath, Austin decided that he needed to fulfill his big brother duties by helping me give her her bath! She took it like a champ not even crying when he squeezed all the water out over her head to wash her hair. I had to step back in though when he wanted to get her out of the tub himself! He is such a great big brother and loves his little sister! Here are some pics and a short video of his helpfulness!!

Pumpkin Patch

We Planted Flowers!!

So for the last 4 years every spring I see all these beautiful tulips and I tell Jason that in the fall I am going to plant tulips in the yard. Well the fall always comes and goes and in the spring I say once again I wish I had planted my tulips. So today on a rainy dreary day we went to Lowes or as Austin calls it the fan store and we bought our tulip bulbs. It finally stopped raining in the afternoon and I got my bulbs planted. But you know I always invisioned (because we all know that I don't do yard work!!) that the soil would be all nice and easy to dig my little 8 inch holes and just drop my bulb in! NOT SO MUCH! Lots of rocks!! who knew!! So I used my muscle and finally got them all planted.

Austin was so excited to help. He had his own little shovel and used it for about 5 minutes! After the digging proved to be not all that exciting he decided to make friends with all the rolly pollies! There are alot and I think Austin tried to touch them all! So I guess we will wait until the Spring to see if we get any flowers!!

Austin messing around!

So when Jason's parents come to visit his poor dad has to sleep on an air mattress in our basement, but for Austin this is the greatest thing ever. So after the last time they visited we just left it up and now it is austin's personal playground! He loves doing his flips and having Jason bodyslam him to the ground!! One of these days we are going to have an injury I just feel it!!!

Parties for Baby Lydia!

This weekend was a fun and crazy one! Jon and Doty came in town for 2 baby showers for Lydia. Her due date is January 7th which I'm sure will be here before we know it!! I helped host both showers so last week was full of cake baking and grocery shopping! We had one on Saturday for friends and the one on Sunday was for our relatives! Needless to say I think Lydia is well on her way to having everything she needs to make her grand apperance! Here are some pictures of the events and Campbell was very excited to get to wear her purple tutu!!

We love Grammy's!!

So thanks to my wonderful parents who offer to watch the kids on Monday nights so that we can go to care group! Austin loves Monday nights because that means a night full of playing with paw paw and going to the park and usually ending up with ice cream at one of his many favorite places!! This Monday I took the kids over to my moms in the afternoon and they took their naps. I was still there when Austin got up andI told him that mommy was going home and before I could get out the rest of the sentence, which was I will see you tomorrow, He looked at me very seriously and said "I'm not going with you!" To know ones doubt the kids had another wonderful Monday night at my parents. They went to play at the park and then to Ben and Jerrys for ice cream! What a life!!

And it Begins.....

Well I'm very happy to announce that my darling baby boy ( obviously not so little anymore) decided tonight was the night he was going to potty in the big potty. We have been talking about it to him for what seems like months now and tonight at my mom's after a bath he looked at me and said, "don't pee"! and just as a side thought I asked him if he would like to pee in the potty and he said yes like he usually does except for this time he marched over to the potty and put the seat up and stood their and peed like he had been doing it forever. So when we got home of course I had to go and I announced it like I always do and he said "Yeah I think I need to go too" and once again he went!!!!! So I guess we have started to potty train although I'm thinking there is not much to train. My excitement made him so excited that he did not want to put on his diaper for bedtime, but I convinced him that he at least needed a pull up on! I think I have to go shopping for some big boy underwear!!!

6 Months old!!!

Today is Campbell's 6 month birthday!! I can hardly believe how fast the time is flying by, it seems like she was just born! She has been such a complete joy these past 6 months and I can not even imagine our lives without her now.

We made our 6 month journey to the doctor's office this morning for her check up and she is doing just great. In the last 2 months the girl has packed on 5 pounds!! At 4 months she was 12lbs and now 2 months later she is up to 17lbs!! CHUNKY MONKEY!! She also grew 2 inches. She took her shots like a champ and showed her brother that the doctor is not so scary after all!!

Little Lion!!

Campbell is trying on her halloween costum, but I think it is going to have to wait until next year. Last year after halloween I was a pottery barn kids with my parents and they had all their costumes majorly on sale, so we bought this lion costume. I had totally forgotten about it until my dad said something about it. I have been searching for it for a couple of days and I just found it!!! We tried it on but it is a bit big so I think she will have to be a lion next year! She was very confused as to what was on her head! So if you want cute costumes for next year, go to pottery barn a few days after Halloween!

balloon race

We took the kids on Saturday to the Forest Park Balloon Race and it was a perfect day to be outside. Austin loves hot air balloons and I think he was a little shocked to see so many in one place. It was a bit of a challenge getting down there and finding a place to park but we finally did and got there just in time for all the balloons to blow up and take off. Austin is so proud of his own blow up balloon he even asked me if he could take it to church with us this morning. It eats with him and watches little Einsteins with him and anything else he does he tries to do it with his balloon. Campbell enjoyed just being outside and watching all the people walk by. If you live here you should try and go next year, it's great!

San Francisco!!

Well Jason and I just got back from our trip to San Francisco. We went for our 5th year wedding anniversay!! We dropped the kids off at my parents last Monday and we took off!!(Fabulous having parents in town and are willing to keep your kids!! Thanks mom and dad!!) We took off at 6:45 in the morning on Tuesday and headed west! As soon as we hit SF we didn't stop for 4 days! our first day we did a driving tour of SF, they have a 49 mile drive all around the city. (Thank goodness for the GPS). That night we explored China town and walked all over the city and ended up at Coit Tower which gave us a beautiful view of the city at sunset.
The next day after I had to drag my body out of bed, we headed north and did the Muir woods and Salsaulito and ended up it Sonoma. On day 3 we stayed in SF and did all the touristy things like Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf, and riding the Trolleys. On our final day we drove south and stopped at Santa Cruz for lunch and then did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach and ended up in Carmel for dinner and the sunset. We headed back to Oakland that night and flew out early Saturday morning. It was a packed trip but we had so much fun and would go back in a second. I also discovered that my husband is a photo taking mad man! I put some pictures up so enjoy!

San Francisco

Go Dawgs!!!!

Well yes it is time again from my husband to take his place on the couch and watch some football! It was a sad night though because for Jason and his friend Chuck the start of Georgia ball means the start of their fall to winter Saturday night date night and Jason had to go it alone (except for the company of the next generation Georgia fan)tonight. Yes if Amy and I want to see our husbands on a Saturday then we know where to find them, together sitting on the couch watching the game!! Today was a good day though because Georgia Won!!