Christmas

This year for Christmas has been the most fun with Austin. She really started getting the concept of Santa Claus and being naughty or nice. We introduced Austin to the Elf on the Shelf (http://www.elfontheshelf.com) and she named her elf Oswald. At first was she was not too sure of him and actually asked Luke if he was going to leave and go to some other kid's house. But then CBS showed an Elf on the Shelf cartoon and once she watched that I think she understood the elf a little bit more and was excited to "find" him each morning. I am not going to lie there were definitely a couple times this month that I threatened to call Santa and the Elf on the Shelf did not seem to work and it was kind of a pain in the butt to remember to move him each night.

Austin asked Santa for a bike for Christmas, specifically a pink bike. Santa did not disappoint and Austin did get a pink bike for Christmas. She is already pretty good at riding it. I think she was most excited about having Santa fill her stocking. On Christmas morning she ran into our bedroom yelling Santa came and he filled my stocking!

Christmas was pretty low key this year. My parents, Luke's mom and Bridget came for dinner and I made my traditional lasagna. Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year both Luke and I got Monday off from work as the observed holiday. Austin's school is closed this week so I took the remaining days off and actually do not have to go back to work until Jan 3rd. Austin and I have stayed busy with play dates and such. Tuesday we had Jaxson (Ragen) and McKenna (Swender) over for a play date, Wednesday we went to Zoo Lights and today we had a play date again with Jaxson (Ragen) and Cooper (Dena) at an indoor play place called Imagination Avenue. I think tomorrow we are going to go to the train park because it is so nice outside (70's). I am going to need a vacation when I get back to work.

 

 

 

 

 

The lone animal we saw at Zoo Lights

3 Year Pictures

I know I am little late posting these. We had them taken back in mid-October. This year we went to the Desert Botantical Gardens. Here are my favorites.

Polar Express

This year we decided to take Austin on the Polar Express train ride in Williams, AZ. We booked a package that included the train ride, dinner, hotel night and breakfast. Williams is about 30 miles west of Flagstaff and about 2 1/2 hours from our house. A few days before we were set to leave the weather forecast called for a big winter snow storm to come through the area on Friday/Saturday. We decided that we would give ourselves plenty of time to get up to Williams and left the house a little after 1pm. All I can say is I am glad Luke was driving. At one point it was snowing extremely hard and the freeway was at a complete standstill. I was not sure we would make it at all. However, about 3 1/2 hours later we were there.

We checked into our hotel, changed into our matching jammies (big deal to be in your jammies on the Polar Express) and headed to dinner at the Depot Cafe. It was nice because the hotel, train depot and Depot Cafe were all one big campus and once we got there we did not have to drive anywhere.

After dinner we checked out Mrs. Claus and made a couple Christmas Tree decorations and then it was time to board the train.

The fun part of the train is that you actually travel (through a space time continuum) to the North Pole to pick up Santa. On the way you get to enjoy cookies and hot cocoa and a reading of the Polar Express. Once you make it to the North Pole, Santa comes aboard to great each of the children and give them each a silver bell to remember to "believe." On the way back to the train depot everyone joins in to sing Christmas carols.

 

 

Happy Halloween

This year was quite a difference was last Halloween. Austin was very excited to go Trick or Treating and she was definitely excited about the candy. We had gone to the pumpkin patch pretty early in October and we decided to wait to carve the pumpkins we got until the weekend before Halloween. I think Austin's favorite part was scooping out the "guts" of the pumpkin.

Uncle Mark had invited us up to Anthem to go Trick or Treating with Cousin Michael. Do not be fooled by the warm clothing that Luke, Austin or I had on. It was actually pretty mild outside and almost a little warm. Every house we went to Austin was so cute and said "Trick or Treat." She also threw in a couple "Trick or Treat give me something good to eat," and after each house she would ask if we could go to the next house. I would say we definitely hit twice as many houses as we did last year.

Pumpkin Patch

Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch we visited this year. We decided to go up north to Freeman Farms in Chino Valley and escape the heat (yes its still HOT here). Beside pumpkins they had plenty of other activities for Austin to enjoy, such as a carousal, a petting zoo and of course hay rides.

 

 

3rd Birthday Party

So I am a little backed up with my blogging lately...I think I start every blog this year with the same sentence. Well on Austin's actually birthday she went to school. On Thursdays they have soccer and Austin loves soccer and we didn't want her to miss it, plus we decided to surprise her and her class with a pizza party for lunch and after lunch she came home with Luke and I. We brought the camera, but unfortunately below is the lone picture Luke took. Her class was very excited to have pizza and "treats." Later that night we went to dinner at Benihana's with my parents and Luke's Mom. Austin really enjoyed the show that the chef put on while he cooked our dinner. She was also very well behaved all through out dinner.

On Friday the Villa family came out for a visit from San Diego and stayed with us. We have such a good time when we are with them and the kids play really well together. On Saturday was Austin's party. Now last year at her party we rented a ramada at the park up in Anthem and it was 100 plus degrees. Everyone melted, the cupcakes melted, it was pretty miserable. Well we decided that its just too hot still in the beginning of October and from now on we will have to find a indoor activity/location to have Austin's birthday party. We already knew we wanted to hire Jungle Jill (female Jack Hanna) as the entertainment and finally decided on the Nature Center at the Cave Creek Regional Park as a location. Well, the day of Austin's birthday could not have been any more beautiful. The temperature was in the mid 70's and we actually decided to have Jungle Jill do her presentation out on the back patio of the Nature Center. The party was great and Austin had such a wonderful time. I still cannot believe that my baby is 3.

The following week Austin's had her 3 year well visit and she is measuring in at 39 inches tall (89%) and weighing in at 33lbs (72%). We really did not have any questions for the doctor (quite a difference from past visits). He did say Austin's tubes were still in which I was surprised since its been 15+ months. He also said Austin was quite articulate for her age. Enjoy the pictures!