it is so hard to blog these days. why? because technology has taken over our lives! we have photo stream, instagram, a blog, texting, email...are any of these pictures new to people...nope. but all those things will eventually go away i'm sure. all those will become outdated and we will move on. so i must blog and print a book so one day the kids can have some stinkin' pictures to go with their memories! the kids are growing up so fast it seems so we try to enjoy our time the best we can. we have had a crazy mild winter so we hit the park in our one day to be home subdivision up on cave springs the other day. it is awesome, austin can already go all over it and only makes me gasp about ten times each hour as he gets way too close to the edge up high. they have a blast though. we have come to learn that as long as he is outside, he is content. bo passed away last week which was crazy hard on paul, an emotional lesson for courtney and even sad at times for me. i still will look out and look for him when i do dishes. on the positive side of that; the kids (mainly austin) can now go outback freely with the lack of dog poo and food as temptations. he literally began moving to the backyard the day we left the door open for him. he would take a truck out back, play for a minute or two, head back inside, say 'outside' and pick up something else and start all over again. i do believe we have one point two million toys in the backyard at this moment in time. also a positive - we now have one point two million less toys in the house at this point. always thinking positive, right? courtney is doing awesome in kindergarten; we still love the choice we made to do half school half homeschool as we really enjoy our days together and i love helping her learn and watching her grow and improve. it amazes me what she is already learning about and how fast she picks things up. sometimes i feel like i should teach her everything now while she is able to learn so fast! austin is a babbling mess. he is all boy all the time - well, unless he's in a mommy mode which is always nice. he talks up a storm - says soooo many words. we are officially in the "my family understands everything I say and everyone else gives me that "huh" look" phase. he says so many things i don't think i can remember them all...we have started teaching him abc's and 123's. i say a, he says b. i say one, he says two. that is exactly what courtney used to do! i love how he does things she used to that makes me remember her at that age. he has started saying i love you (eh too) and calls us mommy and daddy now which melts out hearts. the first day he called paul daddy we both literally teared up. i think it was the most precious moment with him yet. we sure are blessed and thankful for these little ones!
