Happy Holidays

Well, we have a few months to catch up on so I’ll be fairly brief and try to include several pictures of our wonderful boys as they continue to grow so fast!  We’ve had a great fall and our enjoying the holiday season.

In August we were able to see several relatives which was fun – here Austin is enjoying a ‘tractor’ ride from Papa.

 

I had to work some of the time so Melissa took the boys up to Idaho and they all had a blast.  It was fun for Austin to have time with some of his cousins!

 

I’m including this picture just so you can see how long Cody’s hair was – it only grew in on top but it was very long!!

 

We celebrated Austin’s 2nd birthday and I tried to make an airplane cake – it turned out okay as Austin seemed to like it!  I can’t believe he’s already two – time has gone by so fast and he is the life of our family – we love you Austin!

 

Austin is a great brother and he can make Cody smile more than anybody – they have their moments but overall they get along wonderfully and we hope that never changes!

 

Here is Cody’s hair when it started to get in his eyes and we had to cut it……

 

And here it is after we cut it (we only cut the top but we took off at least a couple inches!) – we miss the hair but we still love his hairdo.

 

We had a few good monsoons this fall and so we had to play in the puddles – it doesn’t rain much but when it does, we enjoy it!

Another one of the boys have a fun time in the bathtub together – they keep us busy but make life SO much fun!

 

We bought a couple pumpkins for Halloween so Austin could help make a jack-o-lantern.  He wasn’t too sure about using his hands (sometimes he doesn’t like to be messy!) but he was still a great helper.

 

In November we went to Utah for an Accounting conference and the family tagged along.  My parents’ neighbors have a little pony and so I was very excited for Austin to ride – I thought he might be nervous but he did great – he smiled most of the time and he still talks about it – I’m hoping he develops a love for horses and riding.

 

First Thanksgiving on our own.  We decided to stay in AZ this year and so we made our first turkey with all the works – it actually turned out really well and was a lot of fun.

 

We tried to talk about the story of Thanksgiving and we even made indian headbands – we taught Austin how to say ‘How’ – fun times!

 

Cody is growing up so fast and is so cute – he’s starting to eat really well, starting to sleep better, and just in the last couple weeks has gotten very good at crawling and standing up on his own.  He really seems more and more like a kid rather than a baby – we love our little man!

 

I love this picture – I think he looks like such a stud – we’ll see if he turns out to be an athlete!

Life is going great for our family – we are so blessed!  We’re excited for Christmas and all that 2011 will bring!

 

Cody in Review…

Yes, Cody was born in March, and yes, I fail to update this as much as I would like. So here’s a review of Cody over the past few months!

Cody with Uncle Landon in the hospital

With Grandpa D

Cody with his mom and dad

little Super hero

A few days after being home

Right after bath and before bed

Right after waking up (styled on its own!)

After Cody was born we were blessed to have our parents come out to help us out for the first few weeks. I don’t know what I would have done without them! THANK YOU to them for all their help. My dad, mom, and brother Landon all came out the day after Cody was born. My mom stayed for about a week and then Landon’s parents came for a few days. It was so fun be with all of them. 

 

“Nana” (Dyer) with Cody and Austin

Playing ring-around-the-rosies with Dad, Papa and Gramie Mauler

 

A few weeks old

 

 

 

   

Landon let Cody suck his nose and I think Cody was stronger than he expected  :)

1 MONTH (4 weeks- 11 lbs. 14 oz.)

2 MONTHS – 14 lbs. 4 oz.

 

3 MONTHS – 15 lbs. 8 oz.

4 MONTHS – 17lbs.8 oz.

   People think I actually use a curling iron to make that long tube-like row of curls in the bottom left picture. NO, no, no—Cody’s hair pretty much does what it wants unless we really try to gel it, like this mohawk below… 

      I thought it would be fun to compare our boys since it’s hard for me to tell how much they look alike or not. Here is Austin (when he  was 4     months old and 19 lbs. 6 oz.) next to Cody at 4 months old (and 17lbs. 8 oz.)

                         We love our boys!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poke your Potatoes

This is why you shouldn't forget  :)

Word

There are a few words that I love hearing Austin say just because of how he says them:

   Soccer ball- “shock-a-bow”

   Cody- “Dee-ko” although he has recently started calling him Cody now

Open it- “ope-ih-tin”

Ice cream used to be “hammock,” but he now says it very clearly. I like how he will try to repeat anything you say, even difficult words. Like helicopter… “ock-ih-ten”.

I also love the little strut Austin has when he walks. He’s got this little swing he does with his arms that makes him look ever so happy and confident.  And Cody, well, his arms are about as thick around as Austin’s and his giggle is SO cute. He’s working on rolling to one side right now.

5-in-1 and Livin’ Large

Landon and I were sitting up in bed talking the other night and as his eyes scanned the room he pointed out that we really have a pretty amazing set up. When we moved here we thought this was really just a "2 bedroom" apartment. But we've gradually turned our bedroom into a 5-in-1 multi-functional room. It is not only is a bedroom, but includes a nursery, an office, an entertainment center, and a kitchen pantry/food storage. All in our very own room!  (Our most recent addition, the desk, used to be in the front room, but we’ve turned that area into a play space.) Check it… (the pictures are going clockwise and you may think that you see the bed in every picture as if everything was really that close to it….well, you’re right.)

   

 

New Family Photos

          

I can’t say I love getting pictures taken, but I love having our family pictures up-to-date. These pictures were taken in mid-May, so Cody’s hair is now even longer, but they are the most recent family pictures we have. Our good friend and photographer took them for us and did a WONDERFUL job!! She’s good at taking posed ones and also great at catching fun moments. If you are in CA and want a great photographer, look her up-- angiewhitakerphotography.blogspot.com. I had a really hard time trying to narrow down which pictures to put in here so there may be a lot…