Off the Charts!

Austin went in for his two month check-up on Tuesday. He is in the 85th-90th percentile for his head and length, and off the charts for his weight! He is now just over 24" tall and weighed in at 16 pounds 7 ounces!! Oh how we love our big bundle of joy!

Hot Tubs and Family Time

Most of Landon's family came down to meet Austin the first weekend in November. It was SOOOOO wonderful to have them here!

Here's David and Nellie...

and Kassie...

Austin put on his best face


We had a fun time Saturday-- the boys went golfing in the morning, we all played at the park, and most of them even tried out the nice hot tub and not-so-heated-yet pool here at our complex. (My legs were numb just from hanging them in there- I don't know how they stayed in so long!)










Landon convinced everyone that it felt SO nice to just float face-down in the hot tub, so the other guys had to try it out.

Landon gave Austin a very nice blessing on Sunday. We dressed him up in white, thanks to Angela's thoughtfulness in lending and sending down an awesome suit. Austin was very reverent the entire time, as you can see.

The priesthood holders (except Austin of course) -

Bubba Tracy, Austin Dennis Mauler, Dennis Mauler, Landon Mauler, and David Mauler

(yes, we matched our outfits on purpose) :)

Grease and Our Lil' Pumpkin

A week or two before Halloween Austin and I went with our good friends Becky (the mom), Zoey and Isaac, to a giant pumpkin patch! Her kids are so cute and fun. They loved the mini petting zoo and the hay ride pulled by horses. We got to pick our own pumpkin right off the vine. Austin was so good the entire time (he was asleep for most of it).

We went to an awesome Halloween party thrown by our friends Becky and Matt.

We were rockin' with our costumes as Sandy, Danny, and Austin the "punk"in'. Landon loved being able to wear my jeans!

There was great food.....

Great games......

And best of all, great friends, with some pretty fun costumes too...
(I haven't read "Twilight" but that was the inspiration for this one!)

We were also graced with the presence of most of Landon's family who came into town on Halloween afternoon. His nieces, Savannah and Paris, always have to have what each other has, so they were both Tinkerbell for Halloween...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

So around Austin's one month mark, we decided to attempt family pictures at the playground. There's Landon doing "The Heisman"!

The other weekend our wonderful friends, Kade and Carlie, invited us to go camping with them up at Mount Lemmon. We went up in the afternoon and were the first ones there so we had a little family hike. It was so much fun to be up in the beautiful outdoors!! We stayed long enough to enjoy chatting around the bonfire for a while and then headed back home to hit the sack at our baby-friendly apartment.

I decided to weigh Austin at his 6-week mark. On the scale at the hospital, naked mind you, he was 14 pounds, 13 ounces! That's 5 pounds in 6 weeks! A solid, healthy boy for ya. We have so much fun with him. This past week or so, he has started recognizing objects and movement more, he has smiled at us, and even giggled, and is starting to get a bit more bubbly/drooly at the mouth. SO much fun! By the way, I just remembered that people can make comments at the bottom of our postings (you can tell how often I blog) and I have just discovered all these nice notes from my wonderful friends, so thank you and sorry if I haven't responded!

AUSTIN DENNIS MAULER!!!

Introducing our new son, Austin Dennis Mauler!!

Sorry we haven't updated our blog sooner but life has been pretty busy!! On September 1oth, just after our last posting, Melissa was out running errands and her water broke. We went to the hospital about 9 p.m. and after 13 1/2 hours of championship quality labor, on September 11th, Melissa gave birth to our beautiful son at 10:30 AM. He was 22" long and weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 13 ounces (putting him above the 95th percentile in both categories).

Austin Dennis is healthy and happy and at his 2-week checkup was already weighing in at 10 pounds, 13 ounces so he is getting plenty to eat! Mommylissa has acted like a trooper and now is slowly recovering.

Melissa's mom, Diana, came out for a week and was a wonderful help allowing us to get a little more rest and helping around the house.

Since then, we have slowly been adapting to this new exciting phase. Austin isn't very fussy and is a very calm baby. He does have one bad habit -- his favorite activity (since day 1) is to wait until we open his diaper to change it and right when we do, he showers us with surprises! He thinks it is so funny but we have held some family councils to correct his behavior and he is slowly developing more acceptable habits. We also love having family activities such as 'bath time' -- Austin seems to really like the water (which is good since he'll have a lot of time in the swimming pool here in Tucson over the next few years).

He is such a blessing and we are so excited to have this wonderful addition to our family. Melissa is a wonderful mother and is doing so well -- I just try to stay out of trouble. Life is so good -- we'll try to keep you updated as our little giant continues to grow.

Still waiting......

Hey everyone,

We thought we should post an update in case anyone was curious about our new baby. He/she is still comfortably tucked away and is delaying his/her grand entrance a little longer. We're excited for the big arrival and will let you know when it takes place. Melissa is really being a trooper and she has a great attitude. She's been taking several walks everyday and is doing all she can to help the baby get here; however, I guess the baby will wait until he/she is good and ready. Here's a picture of Melissa and the baby yesterday (on the due date). Again, we'll keep you all posted!

LIFE IS WONDERFUL!!!

Well, the past few weeks have been very busy, but fun. I have wrapped up my summer assignments and begin classes on Tuesday. Melissa finished her summer job(s) and so now she is able to focus entirely on preparing for our new baby! On August 17th, we celebrated our 1-year anniversary (THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE) and so we went to Phoenix for the weekend. We went to the Mesa Temple, went boating on Saguaro Lake, and ate out--it wasn't long but was a very fun trip (see pictures above). Melissa had her first P.F. Chang's experience and it was good and she is amazing at boating--she's quite the natural sea-captain! Melissa is now well over 37 weeks and so is considered 'full term.' We are rooting for the baby to come early because we have received news our baby could be abnormally large. The ultrasound last week showed the baby weighing 9 lbs. (with almost 3 weeks until the official due date). I think childbirth always sounds painful but the thought of Melissa having a 10-lb. baby makes me think "Jr." should come early, for her sake. "He-r-she" is in charge though, so we are simply waiting and trying to get even more prepared for the big day. Attached is a picture of Melissa at 37+ weeks -- she's sure going to miss her moving, built-in shelf! Anyway, life is great here in Oro Valley and we will hope our next entry shows our new arrival.

Take care,

The Tucson Maulers

I love the sunsets here and being able to look and see palm trees and mountains at the same time. It's nice to have them so close. The main difference is that they have cacti scattered on them, rather than pine trees.

The other day Landon and I took a morning hike in Catalina State Park to see more of the Tucson terrain. We started the trail, which curved to the right to find a wide shallow river only 30 yards into our hike that we got to cross to stay on the trail. That was more water than I expected. I went barefoot and Landon didn't mind having wet feet for our short trip. We found some "pools" that didn't have the nice fresh mountain water I'm used to. Both the running water and pools were an interesting yellow-brown color. Hmmm.

Landon had fun climbing a giant cactus. Apparently, it can take 75 years for a cactus to grow an 'arm' and if you buy a permit to move it from where it originally stands, you have to face it the right direction or it will die.

Welcome Home Trent and Baby Progress

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have Trent, Melissa's brother, come down and visit. He's been serving in Germany since before we met so I was excited to meet him and it was fun to have a few days together. Below is a picture of the three of us at our apartment.

In addition, we have more baby updates. We had an appointment yesterday and found out our baby weighs around 4 lbs and is in the 85th percentile meaning it is ahead of schedule. The doctor said it looked more like August 20th than September 9th but we'll see how things progress. Below is a picture of Melissa this week--she sure is a trooper!!!

I Don't Know If I Can Handle This Travesty!!!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am very fond of ice cream. It isn't the most healthy item in the world but it tastes great, is refreshing, and makes any bad day better. I try not to get riled up easily, I really do. Gas prices go up, oh well--deal with it. Milk gets more expensive, I can get over it. Energy prices go through the roof, bummer but life goes on. Even ice cream getting more expensive, I can handle that. But since arriving in Tucson, I have discovered that not only has ice cream gotten more expensive, but they are shrinking the size of the ice cream containers and this crosses the line. Almost every ice cream here is either 1.5 or 1.75 quarts, with only a very rare couple brands that still are true 1/2 gallon (2 quart) containers. I'm not sure if this is just a Tucson thing (as people here are very health-conscious) but the idea of getting less ice cream is hard for me to handle--you can't get too much of a good thing (and ice cream is a GREAT thing!!!). Anyways, Melissa thought I should share my feelings with the world so I did and I'm sorry you had to read this. :) I will get over this (hopefully), but am still astounded by this latest crisis.

Our new home in Arizona!!!

We are starting to get settled here in our new home and thought we'd throw up a few pictures of our new home.

First we'll show our kitchen (with the washer and dryer at the end). We love it (our first kitchen with countertop!).

Next is our bedroom....

And the closet and bathroom off our bedroom.... (similar to the closet and bathroom off the 2nd bedroom).
Part of the living room is being used as a study...

And from the study you can see the living room (with the dining area/kitchen at the end)...
Next, we have our most exciting room, the BABY room!!!! We are so excited for our baby to come in the next few months and are trying to prepare as much as possible!

The other side of the baby's room is currently used as Melissa's music/sewing/scrapbooking area...

And that is our new home (we haven't taken a picture of the outside---sorry!). You walk in and the study area is immediately to your left. You see the main room with the kitchen area beyond. Our bedroom, closet, and bathroom are to the right of the main room and the baby's room, closet, and bathroom are off to the left of the main room. If my description of the floor plan is unclear, I apologize! Again, we love our new place and really enjoy Arizona!!