My 18 month old

Time flies when you are having fun. I am loving Austin at 18 months old. He is full of wild and crazy energy and learning so much everyday. I cant say every minute is "fun" as my little wild child can throw some pretty amazing tantrums. For some reason he likes to throw tantrums while I have a cart full of groceries at the store or when I am trying to get ready in the morning. Anyway in the past month he has really started talking. I was getting worried because right at his 18 month checkup he only said cracker, banana, mama and dada. I told myself that when we got home from out trip to Canada I was going to look into "First Steps" which is a government program that evaluates children. Then all of a sudden in Canada he had a language explosion. He really says the cutest things like:

CooCoo- Cookie or muffin (I keep telling him the word muffin but he always says coocoo)

Bup- Up

Baball- basketball (which are everywhere I might add due to March Madness)

Dah- Dog

Cah- Car

Na!- More

ChooChoo- Train

His likes:

Basketballs or any type of ball really

Trains, cars, airplanes, trucks, buses (and he names them constantly while I am driving)

Dogs
Snacks (he could be happy eating snacks all day and no meals)

Babies

Slides

Blowing his nose

Giving hugs and kisses

Going to bed at night- this is a weird one but he really does. When I tell him it is time for "night night" he runs into the bathroom to brush his teeth then kisses Hans and I goodnight. So thankful for that!

His Dislikes:

Waking up from naps (hello grumpy pants)

Getting his diaper changed
Eating in a high chair

When Mommy and Daddy leave (cant blame him because we are pretty awesome :-))

Trip to Calgary

As many of you know, travelling on the airplane with a toddler is really not that fun and this picture really captures it. Here Austin is trying to open and shut the window....like five thousand times! Anyway, we just got back from our trip to Calgary and we really had a great time. The main purpose of the trip was that Hans took his Canadian Boards and so hopefully this will be the last test Hans takes in his life. Horray!!!
For my birthday my brother Justin and his wife Kira took us to the hockey game. I really love going to hockey games. My dad used to have season tickets and we would go on "date nights" together and he would always buy me a malt ice cream. It was funny because after 5 seconds of being at the game, Justin bought me one. Ohhhh memories.

Here we are at the dinosaur park at the Calgary zoo. When I was young, this park was REALLY boring. It was just a bunch of plastic dinosaurs. Anyways, they revamped the park and now all the dinosaurs roar and move their mouths, limbs and tails. At first all the kids were pretty scared and then they thought it was "awesome" (in the words of my nephews).

Here are all the boys at the dinosaur park. I was really happy because I got to bring my nephews who took the day off school. They are such good kids!

I was so excited that my birthday was going to be when I was home. We all went out for sushi and the chef made this for me and said "Happy birthday on your 20th birthday". I guess that is how old I look :-) Too bad I could not eat this because I got sick!

I love my family!

We went to the childrens museum in Calgary and had a great time. Here are all the boys rockin out.

When I was home I was able to go to one of my nephew's gymnastics meets. It was so cute seeing them do all of their moves. It is amazing what little 6 and 7 year olds can do on the rings!

We went hiking with my step-dad Mark in the Kananaskis one day. We were really lucky to get such great weather while we were up there. Hiking is one of my favorite things to do and I just cant get enough. Austin really loved it too and said "wow" and "cool" to pretty much every rock stick and leaf. It took us awhile to get where we were going.

View from the top.

What a cute family :-)

One morning I went out with Mel, Lauren and Jessica from highschool. It was great spending time with some old friends. We had a really great breakfast at Coras. Eggs Benny are yum!

One night the guys made dinner for the girls and served us at mom's restaurant. How great is that? The guys make you dinner and you get to sit and talk and not have to clean up......heaven.