Austin may be getting coal for Christmas

Last year we got the most perfect picture of Austin sitting on Santa's lap. Perfect smile, a very real looking Santa, it was awesome! This year, our luck wasn't so good. Santa lured Austin in with a candy cane but as soon as he put him on his lap, the struggle to get away started. As you can see, there was a lot of screaming and squirming in a desperate attempt to get as far away from the bearded man as possible. Poor Santa! The poor guy was probably thinking "they don't pay me enought to do this". I just hope Austin doesn't get a lump of coal this year in his stocking.

A Very Bad Day for Austin

Well, Austin has had a very bad/scary day today. It started out this morning when I found him with an open bottle of allergy medicine. I couldn't tell how many pills he actually swallowed but I think it was 5-10. I immediately called poison control and they said that the allergy medicine that he swallowed was very mild and will probably just make him really drowsy and maybe give him a headache. What a relief!!!! I don't think I have ever been that panicked before in my life. So I let the poor little guy sleep all afternoon but I was getting concerned because he had a fever. I called poison control again and they said that a fever is not a side effect of swallowing the pills. They told me to keep an eye on him and if the fever didn't go down, then I should take him to see his pediatrician. Well, the fever persisted so Vance took him to the doctor and it turns out that he has Swine Flu. Oh, great!!! Oh, boy did I feel like the world's worst mom. The doctor said that he is in the very early stages of it but it is definitely H1N1. They gave us some medicine and he seems to be doing okay but the doctor said to keep a very close eye on him and quarantine him for the next week. What a day! I am just glad we got him into the doctor early.

Trick or Treat

So I feel I need to explain why Austin is wearing the same costume that he wore last Halloween. Last year he screamed every time we put the costume on him, so he ended up wearing it for about 2 minutes, just long enough for us to take some pictures. Well, I tried the costume on him again this year and it still fit pretty well, so I decided not to spend money on another costume.

For Halloween this year we took Austin trick or treating at the ward trunk or treat. Everyone in the ward/neighborhood lined up their cars down the street and the kids walked up and down the sidewalk loading up on sweets. They do it fairly early so it is still light out. When everyone ran out of candy we traveled over to the church for the ward Halloween party. At the ward party we ate chili and sipped hot cider while trying to manage our hyperactive child. All the kids ran around and played games; including a fishing pond, cake walk, and cookie decorating.

A family in our ward has peonies. Brother Latimer strolled around in his peony drawn wagon and handed out candy.

This is a picture of Austin and me with Katie and Mason. Mason is Austin's friend that lives with us at Alpine Storage. Those two boys have so much fun together. We are so happy to have the Davis's at Alpine Storage with us!

Playing in the Leaves

Here are a few pictures of Austin having a blast playing in the leaves.

This boy loves to be outside!!!

Scarecrow Festival

We didn't get a chance to take Austin to the pumpkin patch this year but his Grandma Gardner took him to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I had to work so I didn't get to go but I heard that Austin had a lot of fun. My mom said that he just ran and ran and ran as fast as his little legs could take him. He couldn't see all the fun things fast enough. I wish I could have been there.

Fall is in the Air

Fall is in the air and I am so excited. I love fall!!! I think it is my favorite season. I love when the nights start to get a little brisk and the days warm up to a comfortable 60-70 degrees. Fall clothing is definitely my favorite with sweaters, jackets, long sleeved shirts, and snugly warm pajamas. I love the feeling of coming in from the cold into a toasty warm house. Back to school time is also a major bonus. Not too many things beat the feeling of transitioning from the long lazy days of summer into the routine of going back to school.

Vance has started his final year of his masters degree. He will graduate in April and we are anxious to see what life has in store for us after student life. He is continuing to internship part time at UVU in the athletics department, and will be there until he graduates. This internship has been such a blessing to us. Vance was more than a little happy to be able to quit his job at the Brick Oven restaurant and get some real experience.

Austin is growing so fast. He has started to talk a lot more now. His first word was mama, and his second word was "panda." He loves the movie Kung Fu Panda and runs to the DVD shelf chanting "danda, danda, danda" until we turn it on for him. It was really cute at first, but then we started to become a little concerned that at 15 months he was capable of sitting through nearly the entire movie without moving a muscle. We have really tried to limit his movie watching time, but it is so tempting to let him watch movies all day. He is so still and quite and that doesn't happen otherwise! Austin will be 18 months this week and we are so excited for him to be going in to nursery during church. He is a very active boy and Vance and I find ourselves spending more time chasing him through the halls than actually listening at church. We have been going with him to nursery for the past few weeks to try and get him used to the surroundings and last week he stay for almost the whole time by himself. We were so proud and relieved.

I have been busy working for Alpine Storage and have also picked up a few little side jobs as well. I work for two different companies that sell merchandise at Costco. Costco has what they call "road shows" where they will feature local companies for ten days at a time in their stores. Each company is required to have a representative there to help customers and answer questions. I work for one company called The Mod Bod. They sell modest layering tees and Cami's. The other company is called Cultural Hall and they sell beautiful pictures of the Savior and Temples. It has been such a great opportunity because I get to pick when and how long I want to work. I have also really enjoyed being able getting out of the house for a few hours and have some toddler free time.

So that is basically our update. All is well with the Kings in American Fork. Just plugging away and loving life. Here are some recent pictures of our "Mr. Mischief."

Summer Vacations

We have had such a fun summer this year. Vance and I have been working hard but we also found time for lots of other activities. We just got back from our trip to Steamboat Springs Colorado. It is a little ski town about five hours from where we live. We stayed in the Gardner family's timeshare and had so much fun being lazy and enjoying the beautiful outdoors.

One of our favorite things to do every summer is go to the cabin in Island Park, Idaho. We joined the Gardner family up there and had so much fun. We love to play in the river, ride 4-wheelers, and eat Grandma Harrel's famous dutch over potatoes. Austin had lots of fun running around and getting really dirty. Here are some pictures of our vacations this summer.

Brittney and Austin at the bottom of the waterfall in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Austin hiking in style (aka Vance's bad back).

Family picture at the waterfall in Steamboat Springs

Austin at the cabin in Island Park, Idaho. He loved all the space to run around.

Austin with his Great Grandma Harrel. It looks like he isn't enjoying his s'mores in this picture, but that's because he had already eaten half a bag of marshmallows and probably had a little tummy ache.

We found this Jeep at the cabin. It didn't run but Austin had fun playing in it.

We also enjoyed our trip to the cabin because it coincided with Greg and Jen's wedding! It was great to be a part of such a wonderful temple sealing for two very good friends. Welcome to the family Jen!

Another summer highlight was participating in the King reunion. We enjoyed the outdoor fun, games, and even the skits/talent show. Immediately after the Brent King family's musical tribute to Lawrence of Arabia, Vance has been aching to watch the movie again. Hut! Hut! Hut!

Austin and Gabe loved playing in the pool.

Austin enjoyed spending time with all his cousins on the King side! There were plenty of little kids to keep him company. We thought Austin was the cutest thing around but cousin Gabe is giving him a run for his money. Gabriel is such a good-looking boy!

We feel blessed to have so much time to spend with the King and Gardner family clans. Thanks for making this summer so memorable for us!

Going for a ride in my box car!!!

I thought these pics and video of Austin were so cute. His Uncle Tyler and Uncle Andrew made him a car out of a cardboard box and spent hours driving him around in it. They drew wheels on the sides and even put a steering wheel inside the box. Austin thought it was the greatest thing. He squealed with sheer joy when his Uncles took him for a ride, pushing him all over the living room floor. He tried getting in the car when the Uncles were gone one afternoon and couldn't figure out why it wasn't going anywhere. He didn't understand that it was an "uncle powered" car. Look closely at this first picture. You can see Andrew's face in the background. I don't know who was having more fun, Austin or his Uncles.

These are some pictures of Vance on his birthday. Doesn't the cake look divine? It was a Cindy Gardner masterpiece.

I think Austin looks just like his daddy in this picture. A couple of good looking boys, in my entirely non-biased opinion.

An Update on the Kings

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything new and a lot has happened in the past two months. The biggest thing is that Vance got a really great internship for the summer. He is doing Compliance work for the athletics department at Utah Valley University. His main responsibilities are making sure that the athletes are eligible to play for the University and that the University is abiding by the NCAA regulations. The best thing is that it is a year-long internship so he will stay on part time when school starts up again this fall. He is really enjoying it and is hoping that this opportunity will open some doors.

I was recently called to serve in the Young Women's program in our ward, and we all know what that means...girls camp!!! It was a really fun experience but I found myself wondering, "When did I get old enough to be a leader". I loved girls camp when I was in Young Women's so I felt extra pressure to make it as memorable for these girls as it was for me. As you can imagine, girls camp is a whole different experience when you are a leader. Teenage girls have a lot of drama that comes with them. The girls in our ward are really great. They are grounded young women and I was very impressed with their spiritual sensitivity and maturity. All in all, it was a great experience. The hardest thing was that I was away from Vance and Austin for five days. I have never left Austin for that long before but he adjusted well to a week of being spoiled by his Grandma Gardner. Austin hasn't been sleeping well at night so I was a little worried for Vance, but Austin was on his best behavior and slept through the night every night I was gone. I wish I could say he kept that up when I got back...the little stinker.

June has been officially designated in our family as "the month of Vance." Vance turned 26 on June 19, then fathers day was two days later, and our third wedding anniversary is on the 29th. Needless to say, it is a little stressful for me. Due to our current limited income, there was no room in our budget for any extravagant surprises, but we tried to make "the month of Vance" memorable regardless.

Finally, here is a quick explanation of the pictures above. Austin loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but he also loves juice. I thought this was so funny. He wouldn't put his sandwiches down long enough to drink his juice so he just holds on to them and makes a big peanut butter mess. Silly boy...

St. George Vacation

Here are some fun pictures of our trip to St. George. Austin had so much fun playing with his cousins. We spent the afternoon at the pool and Austin absolutely loved it. He splashed around in his little floater toy until he was so exhausted that he just laid his head down on the toy. He looked like he was going to fall asleep right there in the pool.

Triathlon

So I have never been much of an athlete, but living so close to my brothers and my Aunt Beth and Uncle Gheen has helped me catch the fever of biking, running, and swimming. We all decided we wanted to try doing a triathlon. We signed up about two months ago to compete in a sprint triathlon down in St. George. In the race we swim 400 yards, bike 10 miles, and run 5K. As we started training for the big event I found myself really loving swimming and biking (I'm still not fully converted to the running). It was so exciting to see my strength and endurance gradually improve. It was also exciting to see the extra baby weight that I have been carrying around disappear.

Last week was the big race. We traveled down to St. George and stayed with Vance's brother and his family. The race was so much fun, but a little more challenging than we had anticipated. I finished the race in 1 hour and 28 minutes. Our goal was to finish close to an hour. My brother Tyler finished in 1 hour and 6 minutes. He did amazingly well, finishing 24th out of 300+ racers. I learned a lot about competing and transitioning between sports. I am really excited to do another race and improve my time. Vance saw how much fun we had and wants to join us next time. This time he was our designated photographer. He kept joking that didn't want us to finish too quickly because he wouldn't be able to finish his doughnuts before we were done--no, he didn't really have any doughnuts (sad day!).

A Fistful of Cake (AKA Austin's Birthday!)

Well, it's official. Austin is one year old. My baby is growing up so fast, I can't believe it. We had a fun little birthday party for him with the Gardner family and friends. My mom helped decorate a very cute train cake for Austin, but he didn't get to eat it. I made him a not so fancy cake that he could have all to himself. Not that any of us would have wanted any by the time he was done with it. He was very reluctant at first to dive into the cake. He kept looking at Vance and me as if to say, "are you really going to let me do this?" Once he took a few bites and realized what a yummy treat it was, he was eating it by the fists full. He got some pretty fun gifts. I think he has caught on to the toy idea a little more since Christmas. He ripped his packages open with no problem. He got a fun walker toy from his Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. We got a really cute video of him pushing it around the apartment. He also got his first swim suit and pool toy and a whole bunch of other great gifts! Thanks everyone!

Austin's Favorite Toy

Austin's favorite toy in the whole world is the dishwasher. No matter what he is doing or destroying, opening the dishwasher always brings him scrambling over. Even the temptation of food is no match for the dishwasher's allure....and the boy really loves his food.

Austin's First Steps!!!

We are so excited, Austin officially took his first steps today. He has been standing on his own for about a week, but he usually gets down to crawl if he wants to get somewhere. Tonight, before I put him down for bed, I jokingly said, "Austin you can't have your bottle until you take a few steps". So I stood him up and he stood for a long time and then took two steps toward me and stayed standing. It just goes to show how much that little boy loves food. It was exciting that Vance and I both got to see his first steps. Austin's uncle's on the Gardner side have been giving him a hard time because the neighbor boy that is a few days older than Austin is walking and Austin isn't. Well, he took those comments to heart and apparently wants to show his uncle's that he can keep up with the best of them. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera on hand, but we will get some pictures soon and post them for all to see.

Fun With the Kings

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip up to Rexburg because we really needed to get out of town. A little sad that Rexburg, in the middle of winter, was our vacation spot. We had a few things we needed to take care of, but mostly we missed the King family. Austin was so excited to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa. I am always so amazed at how quickly he warms up to them after not seeing them for a while. One of our fun activities involved dressing up in these exotic Mardi Gras costumes. Vance's sister, Sarah, got a murder mystery game for Christmas so we tried it out while we were there. It was a fun night with the King family. My favorite part was watching Elaine act out the part of a superficial gold digger. I love the mischievous look on Vance's face in this picture. It was a fun weekend, but we were glad to come home to warmer weather here in Utah.