Austin is 7 months old

7 months ago our sweet baby boy was born. wow. seriously, last month flew by. my sister-in-law is having a baby in a month and a half or so and i messaged her this morning and told her to enjoy every moment because it flies by. and i wasn't joking. i think with the 2nd one it goes by even faster. austin is amazing. we get compliment after compliment on his amazing temperament and "go with the flow" attitude. we adore this little one for sure! his two bottom teeth have come in even more (i'm pretty sure the top two will pop through anytime). he sits unassisted all the time now. he rolls to get what he wants and has begun the scootching (is that a real word?) movement and brings his knees up which means crawling is in the near future. he says dada, mama, baba, and had figured out he has a tongue in his mouth...moms out threw will get that. he loves to suck on his toes and shoes. he is still going strong nursing and eats regular food a couple times a week is all. i'm kind of doing half baby led weaning and half home made baby food. i'm different, i know. he is wearing nine months clothes still - whew! he usually takes two two hour naps and is in bed by 7:30, wakes at 5 to eat and up for the day between 6:30 and 8:30. and he's the cutest little boy IN THE WORLD!

pinterest fail

i made this today (not a picture of mine, stolen picture from site i got the recipe from). i got the wonderful idea off pinterest. if you are not familiar with this website, brace yourself, set aside a few hours, log on and be inspired. I have made many things off pinterest; from food to crafts to sewing items and even decorating ideas. they were very successful and i was so proud and excited. though with the whole pinterest "thing" it is not as eventful to share these neat things as people are pretty sure you just got the idea from pinterest. now even when i don't get the idea from pinterest i'm sure people think i did. oh well. so. i've made things, many successful things but this was a complete and total fail. it was disgusting. gross. nasty. ewe. paul will say "i told you so". and so will ethan. it looked good. it sounded, well, different. and it tasted awful. i do not recommend even trying to make it. sadly enough because i was so ready for it to be good. ready for what it is? it's chocolate avocado pudding. ok ok. i know. but i wanted it to be good so bad. so very badly. have you made it? do you have a recipe that is actually edible? i must say i would be willing to try again. is that bad?

because i blink...i blog

ok. one more time. because i blink...i blog

believe it or not, i struggle with creativity. what? annie? no way! i am creative in every way but a stinking blog name. i have been blogging for years now and i have had two oh so very creative names for these blogs. C.A.P.E - Courtney, Annie, Paul, Ethan and A.C.E - Austin, Courtney, Ethan with the birth of our baby boy. dropping myself and paul for no reason other than i could not come up with an acronym using all of our initials. seriously, how lame is that? i read blogs of people who seem so creative with their names. granted, some have rockin' names to use like "slaughter". but, i do not. i have a last name that i have to spell for everyone. which i love because it is my husband's. but it was not a blogging name that was just awesome by itself. justice. a new friend's last name is justice. that is a good blogging last name. so many options. or what about my sister in law. who today i ask her to come up with a blog name and she calls me a mere, oh, ten minutes later with a super cute idea with an even super cuter "sub-blog page". really? ten minutes? oh well. off that soap box. i love my last name. my husband doesn't want it on our blog anyway for all those people who stalk us. which he doesn't know that i'm usually the only one reading our blog anyway. and i'm ok that it took me only three years and ten minutes to come up with a good blog name. again, oh well.

so i was sitting in my 'pumping chair' - which, mind you i calculated today that i have sat in for way over one hundred hours since my sweet baby boy was born five months ago - thinking. that's what you do when you pump breast milk, right? think. and i thought "the other day someone told me not to blink" i'm sure i was talking about how fat i mean fast austin has grown and it hit me! why do i blog? because i blink! i blink and so do we all. God says this life is just a blink of an eye. blinking and blogging are my things. i blog for my kids. a digital memory book that i print each year (for the day the internet is obsolete too, books will always be around) so. even though i blink and my little girl is 4 and my baby boy is five months old, i blog to keep track of all the things that happen with my eyes wide open. as much as i would like to say i will remember all these things when i'm old and grey. no grey yet. i will not. and i will mix up what really happened. which will be totally fine and even quite comical at times. if you have a grandma over the age of, oh, 75, you know what i'm talking about. but i want to be able to hand this over to my kids one day and them to theirs and so on until the bindings are so worn out that the book is put away by someone who couldn't stand see it get ruined. one of my offspring are bound to inherit this trait from my as i inherited it from my grandmother who keeps everything and i am so thankful she does. 

so that's it. we have a new blog name and that was a very long story to why. though we are done having kids and i would not have the horrible dilemma of once again having to shuffle around our initials for the perfect yet still completely lame acronym, i am happy to announce our new blog name and also know it is here to stay. heck, maybe it will make me write better since i won't stare at A.C.E. or C.A.P.E. for five minutes every time i want to blog and completely lose all creative energy within the frustration of a horrible blog name. maybe.

February at a glance

I love taking pictures. Not a 'breaking news' statement, I know. Since Austin was born I made a commitment to myself probably the hardest commitments to keep; zero accountability to print pictures every month; and blog more often. So far, complete success. I rock, for now. So, as the picture taking has dwindled a little bit, I am still sure to capture what moments are special to me and us as a family. Here are a few from the month of February around here.

Courtney loves to show up in baby items:

One of the intentional traditions I have started is baking with Courtney. We love to bake together. Probably because we love to eat what we bake while we are making it. :-) I love when Paul grabs the camera to capture these memories that I have in my heart.

It snowed for the first time this year.

Our first snow man for the year. Our very small snowman.

Austin's first tooth broke through. 

We took the kids to the park - just a week after the first snow it was 70 degrees. Arkansas.

I continue to be in love with my husband. Who is getting better and better looking. Lucky me!

On my way to bed each night I go in and kiss Courtney, tell her I love her, and tuck her in. This night I walked around the corner to this and it simply melted my heart. I love this girl. I love the innocence of a child sleeping. I love how she cuddles her cow. I love how she uses the nap mat I made her years ago. I love how random she is. I just love her.

Daddy bought Austin his first truck.

Courtney and Austin began taking baths together. He is pretty much too big for the sink but can't sit up yet. This is our solution.

 We went to Crystal Bridges for the first time. Will go back when we have more time. This is the Last Supper. It's amazing. Its upside-down, until you look in this crystal ball. And, best of all. It's all made with spools of thread. Simply amazing!

This sculpture is mostly jack in the boxes. Courtney LOVED it. She is such a goof.

Ok. Seriously. How cute is this?

Our kids love my brother. Honestly, he doesn't come see them too often, not nearly enough. But they love him. Austin does not lay on people like this. He wants his head up, he wants to see what's going on. But he laid on Blah Blah and laid his head down. It was adorable. He loves him.

So that's it. February in a glance. 29 days of us.