{wordless} Wednesday

Austin @ {18} months!!!

So unbelievable! A year and a half… Time flies when you’re having fun!

Austin, you mean so much to all of us. You are a snuggler, an entertainer, a mess maker, a noise maker, and EVERYTHING in between. ;) I cannot imagine our lives without you.

18 months-- I’m not sure on your weight. I’m guessing around 25 pounds. You are getting heavier to hold. Your 18 month appt. is Monday-- I’ll update the weight and height then. You can say: Mama, Dada, Katie, hi, nigh-nigh, cheese, what’s tha?, ewww, ball, nana (banana) and mi (milk). I’m sure there are a few that we just haven’t figured out yet. LOL You play games with Daddy and your bros: basketball, tag and catch. You get so excited.

Some of the things that you love at this age: books (100 words book), cars! (you steal a car from your brothers’ room every single time you go in there), running, Katie, your cell phone, laughing, baths, being outside and bananas! You are a very routine kid. You have to put your ride on car in one spot of the house, if your brothers move it, you move it right back (and then give them a dirty look). It is quite funny to watch. You still don’t really watch tv, but you did watch a scene or two of Cars. You don’t even watch tv in the van-- bummer. You are getting better about longer car trips, but you still aren’t a huge fan.

A few things that you don’t like: socks, long car rides, falling down, showers, walking in the snow, being fed (you are very independent and like to hold the fork or spoon yourself), naps, hats and the tv remote being taken away from you.

You love music- you dance to whatever song comes on. You also play Just Dance with us (Wii). You don’t even have a remote-- you just do the moves that we do. You are pretty good at it, actually. One of the many funny things that you do.

I love you so much, Austin. I am so glad that you are such a happy and healthy baby. I am so lucky to have you as my little bubby!

Love, Mom

**update** Monday's check-up went well, 24 lbs. 32 inches tall. 24th percentile for height and weight. Little man is doing great!

{wordless} Wednesday

happy {valentine's} day!

Our 2011 Valentine's for the fam! I love making these cards every year. It's really hard to keep them "boyish", so I stick with black and red or blue and red. Oh yes, the boys care!

We all had a fun night out; Mexican food! The boys had great Valentine parties @ school and brought home lots of cards and candy from friends.

I have to include Austin's Valentine present from Grandma Sharp-- he loves this little monkey. He carries it around and hugs it...so cute!

{2011} reading list...so far

1) Bourne Identity-- Robert Ludlum (currently reading)
2) Look Again-- Lisa Scottoline
3) The Kitchen House-- Kathleen Grissom (BOOK CLUB SELECTION)
4) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-- Stieg Larrson
5) Sing You Home-- Jodi Picoult
6) Bourne Supremacy-- Robert Ludlum
7) The Secret Life of Bees-- Sue Monk Kidd
8) Firefly Lane-- Kristin Hannah

I will be adding to this list as I finish these and read more book reviews.

ROOM by Emma Donoghue

4 out of 5 stars!

This book was so good-- and very different from any other book I’ve ever read. The story is about a mother and son-- locked up in a shed (“room”) by a man that kidnapped the mother 7 years prior. The son, Jack, is 5 years old and has never been outside Room. Ma is 26 years old- she was kidnapped by “old Nick” at age 19. The story is told by Jack-- through his 5 year old eyes. Although there were things in the story that should have been elaborated on, I had to remind myself that this was Jack’s story-- how he saw things. Very emotional book…

I finished it yesterday and can’t stop thinking about it. It’s not a haunting story, but it will definitely stay with you.

my new {craft} desk!!!

We are down to one closet in our room, but I have a new {craft} desk! Our master bedroom has {HAD} two closets-- a walk-in and a smaller closet with wooden sliding doors. The walk-in is huge-- plenty big enough for us.

Kyle took the doors off, took down the clothes rod and added a desk top that we both built. A few trips to Lowe’s later and **tada** my new {craft} desk!

I am one happy mama!

where's your nose???

We play the "where is your..." game with Austin a lot. Where's your belly, where's your eye, head, etc. He is the funniest when he is showing us his belly-- he lifts his shirt all the way up, and when he points to his nose-- or up it...we crack up. He is so smart! And SO funny! I love teaching him new things. He's a quick learner, too. He is loving peek-a-boo and itsy bitsy spider-- he tries to do the fingers with me. He loves being read to and he watches EVERYTHING we do. If I say something and nod my head, he nods his head. ;) He is 17 months now and changing so much- and discovering new things everyday.

We love you so much, Boo.

trains, trains, trains!!!

We visited the Colorado Train Museum in Golden yesterday. After our hike on Saturday, we drove past it and the boys wanted to stop. The parents were SO tired that we said, “uh, no…maybe next weekend”. Since we had a 3-day weekend and NOTHING planned on Monday, we decided to go back to Golden and see the trains. We hadn’t been to the train museum since 2005 when we went to a Day Out with Thomas-- so the boys didn’t really remember the museum.

We spend almost 2 hrs. touring the inside of the museum and the trains outside- climbing in all the ones that were allowed. This museum has a really neat train set-- HUGE-- and details?? OMG- so cool! That was one of my favorite parts.

Oh-- boys and trains! I’m glad most of the visit was outside-- it was another BEAUTIFUL 50 degree winter day in CO; we are trying to enjoy it while it lasts! The boys loved running around to different trains-- ringing bells and, well, being boys!

North Table Mountain hike

Sunny and in the upper 40’s?!? Let’s go for a hike!

Our friends from Golden invited us out for a hike today, so we packed up the kiddos and headed West. The hike was a blast-- I burned more calories by carrying a 24 lb. toddler on my back. ;) We arrived at 10am and we got back to the van at 12:15. Not a bad morning hike. We got to see a really good view of Denver from the mountain and also a pretty nice view of the Coors plant. The boys had a snack while we rested from the trek up. Austin apparently worked up an appetite, too, by riding on my back all the way up.

After some walking around at the top, we started our descent. Peyton was lagging behind a little, then he started catching up as Brendan started slowing down. Geez boys. Lindsey had the boys race down the trail and the winner got to ride in Ken’s {JEEP} to The Spot for lunch. Peyton couldn’t have ran faster! Brendan started off slow and needed an energy boost from Ken. In the end, Peyton and Brendan formed an alliance and got to the jeep at the same time. :) I guess they both wanted to ride in the cool car instead of the minivan… This is what Austin was doing…

We had burgers and beer (two beers for me, none for Kyle) at The Spot in Golden. Good food and great conversation. Peyton and Brendan had fun eating in their own booth right behind us (ordering root beer in a bottle…TWICE.. and daring each other to eat the pickles that came with their burgers).

After lunch, we went to see Ken and Lindsey’s newly purchased home. Very nice house, great backyard. The boys spent some time playing football and throwing snowballs in the yard.

Since the hike kicked our butt, we have been on the couch this evening watching football. Fun times.

just call him {MJ}

Austin & Kyle had fun playing basketball last night. Every time Austin made a basket, he would clap (this also goes for putting a toy away, eating his last bite of food, or anything else we say "good job" about). Kyle blocked a few shots on the shorty, and Austin just laughed. He loves his basketball hoop. During the day, he'll just walk by- grab the ball- and make a shot. That's it; then he's done. ;) He's so funny.


His brothers like to play basketball with him, too. The hoop adjusts, so the boys always make it taller and it makes Austin very upset. He looks at them like, "hello?!? i'm short here! throw me a bone." It is quite entertaining to watch.
I love that the boys get along so well. Peyton and Brendan don't mind hanging out with Austin; playing in his room with him. His room is pretty cool, though. I mean, he's got a lego table and a train set. What more could a boy want? Austin loves it.

I can't believe he is going to be 17 months soon-- on the 19th, to be exact. He is turning in to quite the little man. He got his first molars on top a few weeks ago and the bottom ones are coming in on both sides this week. He's been pretty good with those. A slight fever, but no extra crabbiness going on lately.
We are going on a hike with some friends tomorrow-- it is supposed to be sunny and in the 50's. {Perfection!}
I'm also going to try and get a few projects done that I am working on. Hopefully that will happen. I love crafting, but I NEVER have the time for it. One of my 2011 goals is to MAKE time-- so here's hoping!

I am looking forward to this 3-day weekend. Work 3 days, then get 3 off?? That's my kind of week!

{wordless} Wednesday

Saturday Snapshot

Austin wearing Daddy's shoe. He couldn't walk with both, so he settled for one. ;)
He's a sick baby right now- he's got a yucky cough, runny nose and fever. Poor lil guy. If he's not better by tomorrow, we are off to the dr. on Monday.
It's quiet and boring in the Sharp house this weekend. Kyle has a little cold and I think I may be coming down with it, too.
Our plan is to lounge around again tomorrow-- we were pretty good at it today.

{wordless} Wednesday

Buggy’s FiRsT haircut!

We finally did it. He was a little shaggy up top, so off to Cool Cuts for Kids we went. Austin was having so much fun playing in the toy area with the trains and the blocks. I thought, okay this isn’t going to be so bad. He’s going to sit in a cool car and watch a movie during the cut. WRONG! The hair stylist called our name and we walked to the cool yellow taxi. I get Austin seated in there, belted in and the hair stylist gets the little blue cape on him and the tears started flowing. I mean, at least he could have waited for the water sprayer or at the very least, the comb to touch his head. Nope, it was the little blue cape. He was terrified of the thing. A sucker wouldn’t even calm the little guy down… It helped a LITTLE when I started making “vroom vroom” noises and honked the pretend horn on the cool yellow taxi, but the crying continued through the whole cut- with just a few intermissions. It’s like he forgot what he was crying about, so he stopped-- then remembered again and cried even harder. ;) I didn’t even get a good after shot at Cool Cuts because he was wailing so bad. This will be a first haircut never to be forgotten.

<--- please note that in this picture, daddy is standing as far away as he could possibly be. lol This was Austin’s worst crying episode EVER! He was so mad! As soon as I got him out of the taxi, he was fine (as long as I was holding him!). I hope the next haircut goes a little better. If not, I fear that daddy will be cutting his hair until he turns 18!

After the haircut, we ran some errands and then had an early dinner at Chipotle. Here are the pictures that I snapped from my iphone to send to the grandparents… He’s so handsome, he looks so different now-- with a little haircut. Wow! Our little man!