Homeade snow globes

I totally copied my talented friend Natalie's blog when she posted about making the easiest snow globe ever. Usually things that come easy to her are still pretty hard for me. But this time, she was right! Just take any clear glass container you have, fill it with baking soda and add figurines, pine cones, ornaments, cars, trucks, toys, etc. The coolest part is once you get tired of staring at these scenes you can change them out with ease. I'm pretty excited about mine. The kids didn't seem too impressed, but whatever! If you make one, send me a pic!

Our advent calendar

I wanted to create an advent calendar this year but I didn't want to spend a ton of money and I'm not that creative, so... this is what I came up with. I cut out squares of dollar store wrapping paper and glued it to card stock. Then I cut out squares of construction paper and glued them to the wrapping paper. I numbered each square from 1-24. Then I wrote each day's activity on the back. The most time consuming part was coming up with the activities each day. First I came up with all of the activities then I looked at the calendar to determine how much time we would have each day. I put the more time consuming activities on the weekends. Our activities are a mixture of family time (movies, games, looking at Christmas lights, indoor snowball fight), reading bible verses, doing things for others (making cookies for the mailman and garbage man), crafts (painting ornaments, making ornaments, making Christmas cards), creative thinking (writing our own Christmas song, coming up with a our own family meal time prayer), adventures (Christmas scavenger hunt), decorating (decorating bedroom doors, decorating the boys beds with lights, decorating the Christmas tree), etc. Once all the cards were labeled I hung a string of garland on the mantle and clipped the cards to it. We'll see if this method works. I don't want the boys to read ahead to the next day's activity. If I see them peaking I am going to pin them to a memo board I have and hang it.

The boys are almost 10 and 7 and I haven't done a very good job over the years making sure they focus on the real reasons of Christmas. My hope is that the advent calendar will give us some family time, allow them the opportunity to give to others, as well as some time to read a bible verse and talk about Jesus. I can't wait to see Austin this Christmas season. We were in the Christmas section at Walmart today and he saw the blow up characters and Christmas lights and was so excited!

Austin is walking

Austin started walking over the Thanksgiving break. Each day he puts more and more miles in! Even today, feeling under the weather, he did some walking. So cute!

Thankful

I feel like I need to do a follow up post from my last rant. In the midst of the illness, unhelpful clinics, sleepless nights, and grouchy mama I have so much to be thankful for. Just last night alone, I am thankful for a friend who is a PA that I could bug many times, up until 10:30 last night, with questions. I am thankful that my sister-in-law was able to watch Alex so I didn't have to bring him into the clinic. I am beyond thankful that my dear friend Missy came walking through those clinic doors with a big smile and a hot cup of coffee for me. Just to sit with me and keep me company. She was so helpful with Austin and really cheered me up. I'm telling you, I have the greatest friends! Kristi, wanted to watch Alex for me but was at home with a sick child of her own! I'm thankful that as we were sitting in the ER room last night, I knew we were going home with a dose of steroids and a baby that would be on the mend pretty soon. Unlike, the kid in the room next to us that was getting transported to Texas Children's. I'm thankful that my mother-in-law sat at my house until after midnight so Andy could go with me to the ER. I'm thankful that my big boys got a good nights sleep and were able to go to school today. My list could go on and on. So thank you God for all of the blessings in my life!

It's my 3rd

We spent the entire Thanksgiving break passing a virus from one brother to the next. It started with Mason the Saturday before Thanksgiving. He had fever for 4 days accompanied by a terrible cough, that still exists. Alex got sick the day before Thanksgiving with the same virus. Austin woke up at 3am Sunday with a terrible barking cough, later it was accompanied by fever. It sounded like croup to me. We haven't ever experienced croup but after looking up the symptoms, Austin was a text book case. I decided to take him to the walk in clinic we have here yesterday afternoon in hopes of getting a steroid prescription. The doctor tested him for RSV and the flu, but I couldn't convince her of the croup, even with his seal barking cough and all the other signs. The doctor wouldn't write me a steroid prescription. About 10:00 last night Andy and I were so worried about his breathing and fever we decided to take him to the ER. Without a doubt, he has croup and they gave him a dose of steroid in the hospital. By 5am this morning I could tell a drastic difference in his breathing. I think in a couple of days he will be back to normal!
My beef is with the walk in clinic doctor. I could tell right from the start she didn't appreciate a mom's opinion of what was wrong with her child. Even after letting her know Austin was our 3rd and this wasn't our first rodeo with labored breathing and bad viruses. She insisted we needed to give breathing treatments, even after determining his lungs were clear. I hated that Austin had to suffer 6 more hours before we got him treatment at the ER. Lesson learned for me, no more St. Joe's walk in clinic. And all you mom's out there, keep listening to your gut!
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Austin- 11 months

I'm just a week late, but hey, at least I'm posting while he is still 11 months! Austin has definitely found his personality. He is sweet, funny, curious, adventurous, hard headed, opinionated, silly and super cute! He is everywhere! I know I've said that the last few months, but he is really everywhere now. He would rather walk holding your hand or furniture then crawl. So I am constantly having to watch him to make sure he doesn't bust his head on the tile, fire place, furniture, etc. This is all new to me because when the big boys were babies we had carpet and no fireplace. There are lots of baby hazards in this house! He can take a few steps on his own and is so proud of himself when he does it! He will stand without holding on to something and clap!

At the beginning of October Austin had a mini photo shoot with Kathlyn. She took our family pictures in April but Austin still wasn't even sitting up on his own. So Kathlyn did a little shoot for Austin so we would have some that really showed his personality. Even though this picture is almost two months old, it shows his latest fascination with using furniture to pull himself up. So cute!

Austin can say Mama, Dada, uh oh, thank you, juice, cheese and deer. The funny thing is he can say juice, but he really isn't a fan of it. But he LOVES cheese! He may have a limited vocabulary right now, but he definitely understands what you are saying. He can wave, clap, and tell Shelby to come to him. He also understands "No". I haven't done much child proofing, other than covering outlets and moving a few breakables up. We still have breakables in his reach and I am just teaching him not to mess with them. He knows the things he shouldn't touch but will try to touch them and look at you with the look you see in the picture below. Sometimes after you tell him no, he will look at the object and then shake his head no.

Then there are other times like yesterday when I told him not to touch my coffee cup, but when I turned my back for a second he was pouring it out all over Alex's cloth bean bag and book shelf. While I was trying to clean that up, he decided it was a good time to play in the toilet. A little while later he decided to throw Shelby's water bowl on the floor spilling water everywhere. He is definitely into the exploring stage! But he is still so darn cute, you can't really get mad at him!

He LOVES his bath and loves to be silly. I started out brushing his teeth with this finger toothbrush, but he was not a fan. He would rather chew on it. So now we use a regular toothbrush and he lets me brush his teeth. He still has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth. He loves to throw his toys out of the bathtub and then look over the edge and say "uh oh".
He will crawl on, in, under, and over anything. It doesn't bother him if he gets stuck. He eventually figures it out!
His hair is finally long enough for a mohawk. We had to send this picture to Aunt Heather the other night. He still has lots of curls in the back of his blond hair. I'm sure once he gets his first haircut they won't come back, but in the meantime I'm loving it.
Tice let us borrow this great activity table (along with everything else of his we borrow- thank you Nat!) He loves it. He will start out at the activity table then walk around the coffee table, holding on to the couch or table. I'm pretty sure he will walk by his 1st birthday. That's different for me because Mason was 14 months and Alex was 17 months. But I think Austin is desperate to catch up with his big brothers!
The other day Mason told me that a classmate dressed up as a "nerd" for Halloween. He described the glasses he wore and decided to make some out of some 3D glasses we had. Austin put them on to model. Too funny!

His favorite food is macaroni and cheese or anything with cheese. He loves yogurt and any bread product. He is definitely our child. His favorite fruits are strawberries and bananas. His favorite veggie is carrots. The only meat I can get him to eat is very tender chicken or turkey.
He loves outside & riding in his stroller. He has enjoyed soccer season! He loves animals! Any type! He loves to go to Grandpa's and pet the deer mounted on the walls in the living room! One day when we get a dog, all of our boys will be in ecstatic!
We decided not to do a birthday party for Austin's 1st birthday. I hope he forgives us later when he looks back on pictures of Mason and Alex's first birthdays! We will still get him a cake to smash in his fingers and sing to him. And I'm sure there will be a present or two! And hopefully some pictures! :)

Halloween

This year Mason wanted to dress up like Al Capone. He toured Alcatraz this summer, hence the fascination! We found this cool gangster costume at Party City a few weeks ago. It seemed like he was very excited about wearing it until yesterday morning. Then all of a sudden maybe it wasn't the "cool" thing to do, you know, dress up in FORTH grade. After a little encouragement..ok maybe I yelled that he WAS wearing it because I PAID for him to wear it this ONE day of the year. He wore it for the parade at school and then for trick or treating last night. I think he looks pretty cool it in myself!
Alex wanted to be a SWAT officer originally, like his buddy, Bodie. But they didn't have a costume in his size. Then we found this cool FBI costume. I thought it worked out perfect that Mason was the gangster and Alex the FBI agent. Alex didn't have his cool shades or badge for the pic below.
The boys had a blast hanging out with friends, and making new friends last night. They got to take a hay ride around the neighborhood trick or treating. Talk about service!


Here are a few friends that were willing to be in the pic!


As the big boys were riding on the trailer Andy, Austin and I were following behind. Little man was a trooper. He slept through most of the trick or treating.


When we got home he was wide awake!


Thanks Fleetwoods for having us over! Fun was had by all! Now if only I can resist all of the candy while everyone else is at work and school!