Oh Moses!

We made it to Moses Lake Wa! There is so much snow! When we landed it was snowing in Spokane 2-4 inches an hour. There is tons of snow in Moses Lake as well, it is so pretty! We have had the flu since the day before we got there, and it is no fun, we alsogave it to everyone else and feel really bad about it.
Austin has been walking since the middle of November, and has just said his first word- cat! It sounds more like tat, but we'll take it since he consistently says it when he sees one and will point and say tat. Really fun, he is growing up so fast. We will post pics later!

Merry Christmas!

Hey there

Go Prop 8!

Fire breathing dragon!

Pumpking boy and Momma

This last month has been busy! Austin had his first Halloween. We were both pumpkins! As you can see he had bright green hair, everyone at the trunk-or-treat thought that it was hilarious. He will forever be known as the baby with green hair at our friends ward down in Ventura. Our friends made this dragon from both of our cars that breathed smoke and had a cauldron. We love the Quigley's! Thanks for making Austin's first Halloween really memorable!

The elections were an exciting time at our house. Austin and I went and voted together, and all of us worked on the proposition 8 campaign. It passed! It is sad that there has been so much contention against members and vandalism of church buildings, but it seems to be getting better. We did not have any incidents, but had to see protests outside our beautiful temple on the news. We are happy that it passed and want to thank all of you who supported and prayed for this.

My mom and little brother Trevor came for Thanksgiving. The boys enjoyed staying up all hours of the night playing video games, and my mom and I had fun decorating Austin's and Baby girl's room. Dinner was good, but hard to make in out little kitchen! Okay all you University Courtyard vets remember out kitchens there in the small apartments? Yeah, that is like our kitchen now. So needless to say that having a big belly and my mom in the kitchen with me was crowded. Austin likes turkey and mashed potatoes. Much to my surprise and smug satisfaction of Ben Austin does not like sweet potatoes, not even with marshmallows! I was sad, Ben was ecstatic since he hates them. He was saying things like "Victory for us!!" and "We win!". Ughh.

We are continuing to have a roach problem in our apartment! It is so frustrating and gross!!!! I hope that we can get it fixed soon, please pray for us that we will! Ben is not bothered as much as I am by this whole thing he says "They're only bugs". I am so afraid for our kids to try and pick them and eat them if them see one. Double ughhh.

Oh goodness!

He loves to play with his car. He can push and crawl and goes surprisingly fast. He seems to love all things with wheels (his stroller really fascinates him).
I got junk in the trunk and a belly!


Right after my first hair cut!

Pre-haircut

Austin is growing up so fast. He loves to say momma all the time and I think that he is starting to know what it means. He does know what No means but chooses not to listen. He takes steps but hasn't succeeded without falling. The rate of his growth is challenging me in regards to dressing him. We cut his hair since the whole long thing down the middle that was from the time of birth was making him look rag tag. We took him to the beach and he ate lots of sand and got an upset tummy and a sandy bottom for a few days.

As regards to baby #2 it's a girl!!!! We are very excited. I am trying to get their room organized right now and it is challenging to fit all of their furniture in one room. I am feeling much better, I love to eat! The baby moves a lot more and she likes to kick anything that touches my tummy (even Austin). Ben has been busy keeping up with the elections, and prop 8 here in California.

(Ben) I cant believe how fast Austin is growing, we sure have a lot of fun together. He gives me an extra vote when trying to what to watch (sports), so I really appreciate him for that. I am really enjoying this political season, not sure why as it is looking like a miserable outcome for my side of the debate, but it has been facinating to learn about how other people think and what motivates them to make a decision. This economic time has really turned things upside down in the country, and it will be interesting to see which way we allow things to go. Speaking of the economy, my wife and are very fortunate to be working for a company which while not immune to the effects of a slumping economy is definately insulated against a downturn (having said that look for me to be without work soon).

Sorry we dont do update this very often, but it just takes work and if Cortney doesnt get a chance to do it, it doesnt happen. Also you all would get annoyed listening to my thoughts on sports, politics, and the economy...that is about all I talk about these days. Hope everyone is doin well, and hopefully soon I can rebuild or link list so I dont have to jump around through everyone's blogs to keep up to date on what you all are doing.

So much to say

Surprise! This is Austin in the box that the computer came in.

He loves to stand next to anything and everything, and explore everything that he can.

I love my monkey.

This is the blessing outfit that Ben's Mom made that was too big for him, doesn't he look handsome in it?

The Boys taking a nap.

So many wonderful things have happened that I have been neglectful to post about.

• Austin has 8 teeth now, 4 on top and 4 on bottom
• He has been crawling for 1 and 1/2 months
  
• Now he tries to stand on his own without holding on to anything
• Sleeping through the night for a month now (about time sheesh!)
• Loves to babble, says Dada but doesn't know what it means

• We are his ultimate example, he likes to copy us. Just today I was putting lotion on my face and he did the same hand motions to his face and everything, it was so precious

Ben's shoulder is doing well after his surgery. He can take it out of the brace when he is home and can sleep in a vertical position. Ben's mom came and helped us and it was such a relief, thanks mom! Could not have survived so well with out you! Ben is really hyped about the elections so if any of you want to call and blab at him it would be welcomed.

I am feeling better, not throwing up anymore, which is wonderful. I do feel icky everyday, but that is gradually becoming better, I can at least get the house stuff done and not just lay on the couch like a blob. I think that after this baby comes I would like a full year of not being, or feeling prego. It is a blessing to be expecting, I am grateful everyday, but it will be a welcomed relief to not be for at least a little while.

Thanks for all those who participated in my random comment contest. While I enjoyed all of them I think that Ryan and Melissa's was the funniest, a little gross but funny.
"Never, ever, under any circumstance, take a sleeping pill and a laxative the same night."
That is some pretty sound advice.

Help!

So I changed our background not knowing that it would delete our links to all of you out there. If you woud like to make it easier for me please leave a comment, let's see who can come up with the most randaom one and I will award a prize! That way I do not have to surf through a bunch of posts to find your page. Thank you!!!!

Boise

So I got a call from my Mom the other day wondering why the pictures from my visit were not on our blog. Little did she know that our computer hard drive was totally shot and there was no way to load the pictures unto the site. The only computer that we had access to was Ben's that he would bring home from work, but we could not load up pictures through it. We did get a new computer three days ago though so I thought that I would finish documenting our trip with our Boise pics.

We had a really good time at my Mom's hanging out with Trevor, painting ceramis, meeting Bentley...so much fun! I was sick the whole time, not fun, but Austin had fun with his Nanna, and his Uncle Trev. He got some really cute clothes, and a really cute piggy bank that my Mom painted for him. Enjoy!

Forks and Port Angeles Too!

Lake Crescent. You have to drive around the edge of this to get to Forks, beautiful huh?

Here is Ellie, my BFF from High School. It was so nice seeing her!

This is the Bella Itallia straight out of the book Twilight!

Gorgeous forest on the Olympic Peninsula, sorry we didn't see any vampires running through the forest.

My little sis Julia and I at Lake Crescent.

Grammy and Austin.

Forks High School used to be called Quillayute High School.

Front of Forks High School.

Found this in one of the stores there, hilarious!

Where Bella would of worked.

Whoohoo! Forks!

This is where you go if you want to visit Jacob.

Mike and Margie. Thanks for letting us stay with you!

The view of Port Angeles from the spit (a little piece of land that "spits" out into the water).

This is exactly the dish that Bella ate in the book. Portabella mushroom ravioli with cream sauce. It was so yummy!

Here we are with Steph, it was so much fun to hang out with you!

Here are some of our close friends from PA, it was good to see you. Happy B-day Holli!

For my birthday Mindy took me to visit Port Angeles and Forks. So Mindy, Julia, Austin, and I piled in the van and made the trip. It was so much fun! We got to see a lot of my old haunts from high school, and all the beauty that the Olympic Peninsula offers! Thanks for the trip Min it was awesome! It is funny that I was so excited to go and see Forks since we have spent so much time making fun of it. Forks was the small town that we poked fun at all the time, all the hicks and big hair, now I brag that I went there, how weird!

Family Pics

Here are some family pics that we took with Ben's family. Thanks Bro and Sis King for coming over and taking them for us!

Our 3 1/2 Week Vacation

Grandpa Jones and Austin, in this picture he was being mischievous and trying to run us over in his chair!

The sibs being silly.

The girls table at the family reunion.

G-G Dona and Grammy Mindy at Chico's.

Rachel holding a baby? :) What is going on around here?

Porkchop crawled up the tree, but could not get down, silly kitty!

My goofy, lovable family.

My Handsome husband sporting a goatee.

Serenity and I after our gala fireworks at the Bakers, we love you Serenity, so happy to have you join the family!

The Jones family (first picture with everyone together in 7 years!)

The Page family, we love you!

Goofing off listening to music with my brother.

We had a reunion on the Jones side of the family. Here is Logan, he is a day younger than Austin, it was so good to see you guys!

First time swimming!

I thought that he kind of had the Gerber Baby expression here.

Here is Austin with Ben's brother's Fiance Serenity. We went weddign dress shopping which was so fun, thanks for letting me dress you up!

Austin and I just returned from a 3 1/2 week vacation, I am so exhausted! (We planned this before we were prego, there is no way that I would have planned this knowing that I would have to go through morning sickness the whole time) Ben came with us to Moses Lake for two weeks then had to go home for work. Since we were gone so long I am going to break our trip down into a few post so that I record our trip.

We first went to Moses Lake and visited with Ben and I's family. Ben has not had his whole family together for 7 years, so that was kind of a big deal. He has five siblings, so as you can imagine it was really busy, but really fun. I always had someone to hold Austin which was a welcome relief since where we live we do not have a lot of family. We also met a lot of new people. Ben was the first to get married in his family almost 4 years ago and about a year and a half ago his older sister Stephanie got married to Justin. It was really fun to get to know Justin more and spend time with them. But what was really entertaining and fun to watch was all the other siblings, the three of them were all dating a particular someone while we were there. Cell phones, and dates and hanging out, it was so much fun to watch so much young love blossom. Ben's next oldest sibling Jacob is engaged to Serenity, they will be married next spring some time she is wonderful and we wish them the best. Then the next two sibling Warren and Becky had there special friends come and hang out with us, they also have picked some great people to date, good job guys! You have good taste! It reminded me of everything that Ben and I went through while we were dating, and how lucky I am that we are now sealed in the temple and can concentrate on our family. It was really fun to watch our family go through some of the same experiences we did.
Ben's family also had a reunion on the Jones side all but one of the seven siblings were there! Aunt Martha made it really fun with her superlative awards. We received 'traveling the farthest' and Austin was given 'the happiest family member'. We went bowling, had really yummy food (thanks Aunt Sarah, Aunt Lorraine, and Aunt Rachel), and did a lot of visiting.
We also visited with my family. My parents have two new kittens that Austin adored and a new Corgy puppy that adored Austin. My brother Trevor came up for the fourth and we had fun having the whole family together. My little sister Julia is growing up so fast and it was fun to see how much changing she had done in just a few short months from when we saw her last. My Dad and Step-Mom have been busy finishing the remodel on their house. We had a lot of fun taking Austin swimming for the first time, playing cards, and watching Austin try and crawl. Great Grandma Dona and Great Grandpa Vern were there too, and it was nice to hear stories from long ago. Mindy, Julia, Austin, and I went to Port Angeles. That was so much fun!!!!! I have not really been back and visited in 4 1/2 years so I had a ball looking at all my old haunts from High School. We also visited forks, but that will be on my next post for all of my Twilight friends out there. We BBQed, and hung out on the porch and Mindy made me whatever I wanted, and took me to get my hair cut (I was so spoiled!). Thanks Mindy, love you! Over all it was a really fun trip, but we are glad to be home!