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.

These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

Austin got his first pair of Cowboy boots from his great-grandpa Gardner when he was about two months old. He still doesn't quite fit into them, but I had the urge one morning to have Austin try them on. I put the boots on and thought, "What's a pair of boots without a hat to go with it?...and what's a pair of boots and a hat without a good pair of overalls?... and what good is a cowboy outfit without a horse to ride on?" Once I got him all saddled up, I just had to take some pictures.