Austin's First Birthday

Wow! I think I could win an award for the world's worst blogger! It has been about 6 months since the last time I wrote anything on here.  So, here goes...
Austin's first birthday was so much fun! His Grandpa and Grandma Lankford along with Aunt Lindsay and Matt came for the weekend and a ton of other friends and family were able to make the party!
We had the party at a small park here in Salt Lake and it happened to be one of the very few sunny days we had this spring.  Here are some pictures from right before his birthday, some fun ones from the party followed by some 1 year old shots of him.

 The trials of learning to walk...

Just a week before his birthday, Austin tripped and fell into our footboard.  Of course we were sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office, him dripping blood, me in tears and he's waving at people walking by!  To try and avoid bad scarring, the doctor chose to glue it rather than stitch it closed.

Right before his birthday, we were able to make a quick trip to my Grandma's house in Kansas.  She and Austin hadn't met yet, so it was good to finally get out there! Poor guy was sick all weekend, but he managed to have some fun.

We finally got our 4 generations picture!

 1 Year!!

 

  Okay, so I might have gone a little overboard on decorations.  I couldn't help myself!

 I made Austin a sugar-free banana cake and covered it with cream cheese frosting.  He took his sweet time eating it, he loved it...

It started to get cold, so we opened all his presents at home.  He was so excited and had to take time to play with each one before moving to the next. 

 

This cupcake, on the other hand, was full sugar.  He was in heaven!

11 Months

Well, we're down to one more month until Austin's 1st birthday!  He is officially walking, and my house is officially on high alert since he is into EVERYTHING!  When people would tell me that he would be everywhere as soon as he walked, I thought "well, just by crawling, he pretty much gets into whatever he wants." I was wrong!  The combination of walking along with the curiosity to open cabinets and drawers, climb the stairs and get into everything that isn't a toy and then paired with complete fearlessness is about to drive me over the edge!

Austin is getting to be so much fun, though, as he starts to make more sense of everything around him.  He started holding the phone to his mouth, open books and start babbling, aiming the remote at the TV and all sorts of other little things that make you realize that he has been paying attention to everything.

We've got big plans for his birthday party and are excited to have family coming in town to help celebrate.

Utah basketball with Daddy and Grandpa

This happened literally in about 2 seconds while I reached into the sink to load the dishwasher.  I'm lucky that was just one of his spoons he pulled out to wave at me and not a knife!

My parents gave him this monkey that he just loves!  One night when he was throwing a fit about getting his pajamas on, Chris decided to dress the monkey instead.  Austin thought it was pretty funny.

He still LOVES the bathtub.  Every night Chris gets him undressed while I turn on the water, then Austin comes running in naked and tries to dive in head first.  

We went to St. George for a weekend with Chris' brother and his wife and baby.  Here are the kids ready for the pool.  So cute!

My mom had once told me that I hated crawling on the grass when I was a baby and that the blanket was the best babysitter cause if it were out in the middle of the grass, I wouldn't crawl off it.  Looks like someone inherited the same dislike.

Little leprechaun

11 months!

Florida!

In the end of January, Chris had to go to Florida for work so Austin and I decided to meet up with him at the end of the week so we could all stay through the weekend and enjoy a little impromptu family vacation.  Although the weather wasn't the greatest, it surely beat the snow and freezing temperatures in Utah.  

We were able to take Austin to the beach one of the days for about an hour or so before the clouds rolled in and the pool for another hour the next day.  He loved the beach, especially the sand, but his good mood quickly changed when we tried to show him the water.  It was a little chilly and I think he was frightened by the waves.  He LOVED the pool though!  He loved splashing, kicking his legs and holding onto the sides and trying to climb out.  I think we'll be making the pool one of our go-to places this summer!

 Austin was so good on the plane!  He has become quite the little traveler, this was his 7th round trip!

 This was the only family picture we got on the whole trip :(

 Austin was flirting with the chicks by the pool. He kept talking and waving at them.

9 & 10 Months

I cant believe our little baby boy is going to be a year in only 3 more months! I feel like he is still a little baby, but 1 year sounds SO old!
Austin is at such a fun age right now although it is so much work! I have to keep my eyes on him 100% of the time now because he moves so fast and is into EVERYTHING!
He got his first haircut a few days after he turned 8 months and although I was super hesitant to do it, I was happy afterwards. He looked like such a handsome little guy and he loved it. (and now that I'm finally trying to post pictures of it, I can't find them!)
He is starting to play games and is such a little teaser.
His eating continues to be very successful and he is enjoying moving into chunkier foods and feeding himself finger foods. Favorites right now are smoothies, cheese, bread and bananas
He is pulling up to everything and even experimenting with letting go with one hand. I am foreseeing walking in the near future...

One of the current favorite games is to pull down his bins of toys and then all the books!

My brother and his family gave this truck to Austin for Christmas and it is pretty much the only toy he actually plays with right now.  He fills the back of it with his wooden blocks, then takes them out, then pushes it around for a while, then fills it back up again.

Two little bottom teefers!

9 Months!

Austin and his cousin Ava.  Yes, he is decked out in Jayhawks gear, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Lankford.

He thinks he is so cool when I let him have the reins of his food.

This is how that episode ended though :(

We quickly realized that the side of the crib was no longer a good place for the monitor's camera, ha!

2 haircuts by 10 months!

10 months on Valentines Day!

Austin's First Holiday Season!

Before having a child of my own, I never could have imagined how much better they could make the holidays.  Even though he didn't have a clue what was all going on, it was so much fun to have that innocence and wonder of a child around for the holidays.  We went to Denver for a week during Christmas with my family.  Since I am extremely behind on posting, I'll just get to the pictures...

He mostly just ate the paper and ribbon!

 Austin and his Lankford cousins.

 Austin and Grandpa Don in their Santa hats.