Zions National Park

On our way to Utah County for Thanksgiving, we spent a couple of days in St. George. On one of the days we went hiking up in Zions Canyon. We had such a nice day and couldn't have asked for better weather. It is unbelievable how beautiful that national park is, and I don't think our kids appreciated the beauty that surrounded us like Steve and I did but they will someday. Our Thanksgiving week was great and I'm so thanksful that Steve talked us into spending the first day of our vacation at Zions National Park.

Tagged.....Cute Husband Information

1. What is your husband's name? Most of you know him as Steve, but his real name is Robert Steven Austin

2. How long have you been together as a couple? Since 1998

3. How long did you date? 9 months--although I knew very quickly after meeting Steve, that I would marry him.

4. How old is he? To his disappointment---he is 30!!

5. Who eats more? Steve, unless he is on his crazy eating diet.

6. Who said I love you first? I honestly cannot remember. HE says I did, but I can't imagine that I would have been so bold. I'm going to have to break out the old journal.

7. Who is taller? Steve---by 2 inches

8. Who sings better? Steve for sure. I keep telling him he need to join the ward choir.

9. Who is smarter? It depends on the subject, but mostly Steve.

10. Who does the laundry? I can't even count on 1 finger the times that Steve has done the laundry, although he helps me fold the laundry all the time.

11. Who does the dishes. Both, plus Taylor and Parker

12. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Steve

13. Who pays the bills? Me

14. Who mows the lawn? Steve, although I did it twice

15. Who cooks dinner? Mostly me, but Steve certainly jumps in and helps if he's home.

16. Who drives when you are together? Steve

17. Who is more stubborn? We are both equally stubborn

18. Who is first to admit when they are wrong? Since I've never been wrong, I'd have to say Steve

19. Whose parents do you see more? Mine

20. Who proposed? Steve

21. Who is more sensitive? No question---ME

22. Who has more friends? We have the same friends--but everyone loves Steve---he is a friend to all

23. Who has more siblings? Steve-4 Annalee-7

24. Where did you meet? At his parents home in New York. They set us up

25. Where was your first kiss? In the Tucci's driveway. I was a nanny for this family in New York

26. What was the first thing you said to him? I can't remember, but I was late in arriving at his house, so I probably said, "Sorry I'm late"

27. Where was your first date? The Army/Navy football game in Pennsylvania

28. Where did you get engaged? By a creek up American Fork canyon

29. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Up to a cabin in Ophir Utah

30. If you could change anything about it what would it have been? It was perfect

31. Who wears the pants in your marriage? We both have one leg in.


Tagged: Nicole Ault, Tiffany Austin and Rachel Trotter

I've been taggggggged

Four jobs I've had:
1. Domestic Engineer (I have to make myself sound interesting)
2. Sundance Resort Summit Club
3. MTC (as a Janitor 5am-9am)
4. Nanny in New York

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Count of Monte Cristo
2. Anne of Green Gables
3. Top Gun
4. Any movie with Reese Witherspoon

Four places I have lived:
1. Laguna Niguel, CA
2. Provo, UT
3. Ridgefield & New Canaan CT & North Salem NY (Nanny Jobs)
4. American Fork, UT

Four favorite TV shows:
1. Biggest Loser
2. Mystery Diagnosis
3. Oprah
4. Little House on the Prairie

Four places I've been:
1. Mexico
2. Bahamas
3. Belize
4. New Orleans has recently been added to my list

Four favorite foods:
1. Pasta
2. Fruit
3. Bread
4. Candy like Mambas and licorice


Four websites I visit daily:
1. Gmail
2. KSL.com
3. Blogspot
4. Yahoo Home

Four places I'd rather be:
1. On a fun family trip
2. Hawaii
3. shopping
4. On another Cruise with my family


Four blog buddies I want to tag:
1. Lori
2. Angela
3. Emily
4. Cindy

Halloween Night

Tanaka Farm

Parker had his first field trip to Tanaka Farm in Irvine. He was so excited to ride the school bus. Lexi and I met the class there. It was a perfect way to spend Halloween day. It was fun to watch Parker interact with his classmates---he's not as reserved with them as I imagined he would be. I love his teacher and classmates and so does Parker---it makes those early mornings managable because he can't wait to get to school.

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin carving with the Thurmans has become a tradition for our families. The kids had such a good time and as you can see so did Steve and Alex. We enjoyed pizookies while we worked. It was a perfect night!!

Pumpkin Patch

Taylor was chosen as an outstanding student in her second grade class. The school awarded her with a gift certificate to the pumpkin patch for free ride tickets, so for Family Night we went to the Pumpkin Patch in Laguna Hills with Steve's Uncle and Aunt (Mark and Lori) and their two children (Reid and Mary), from Colorado. The kids were having so much fun until the neverending teacup ride just never ended!!! Taylor had to run for the bathroom and was green the rest of the night. I felt so bad for her---she didn't even get to use the rest of her tickets. While we were there we ran into the Zimmerman's and the Brian's. It was a fun night (for the most part---bless Taylor's heart).

Funny Bedtime Song

This video will make any parent laugh. We've all been there and I'm sure we'll look back at these times and WISH we could all tuck our kids into bed one more time instead of them going up to their rooms by themselves because they don't want to be with us.

Steve has a new friend!!!

We had a new family move in next door and they are the nicest family. Jennifer, (age 13), shown in the pictures above is at our house a lot. We all love her. As you can see though, she thinks Steve is pretty cool. She is into boarding (of any kind) and so she likes to talk boards with Steve, or anything for that matter---she loves to talk to whoever will listen and Steve, bless his heart, will genuinely engage in conversations with her. If she is at my house when Steve comes home, she beats Taylor and Parker to the door to greet him, although most of the times she is already outside waiting for him to pull up. I have to say, it is pretty funny. Steve thinks I'm mean to post this, but honestly, I am not doing it to be mean---I think it is so adorable. She follows Steve around like a shadow.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I guess I won't be winning the "Mother of the Year" Award any time soon!!! This post it note was on the back of my chair. One of my sweet children was mad at me--- why? I honestly cannot remember, but when I saw the note I laughed and grabbed my camera. How sad is it that I actually thought it was cute?? She was horrified when she realized that I might actually see the note so she casually walked past my chair and grabbed it and threw it out. She didn't know that I already took a picture---I told her that moms have eyes on the back of their head. (In case you can't read what the note says, it says I do not like you).

Celebrating Steve's 30th Birthday!!

According to Steve, his 30th birthday was the Best!! He was really dreading this day, but to his surprise it ended up being a great day. It started bright and early at 4:45 am. He and his friends met at Paul Myer's home for a mountain bike ride-his current, favorite activity. At 10:00 we met friends at the beach for an end of summer rendezvous. The beach was super fun and very relaxing. Too bad summer is over. We ended the day at Claim Jumper with friends for Steve's birthday celebration. Thank you everyone who helped to make this day so special for Steve. He was very touched by all the letters that were in his book---and a big shout out to Marc Hemeon for pulling the book off. It turned out awesome---thank you Marc.

First Day of School for Taylor and Parker

Taylor and Parker on the morning of their first day of school

Parker and his Kindergarten teacher---Maestra Tawil.

Taylor and her 2nd grade teacher---Senior Cantoran.

Taylor loved her first day of 2nd grade. She told me that she thinks 2nd grade will be her favorite grade. I am very happy about the teachers that both her and Parker got.

Parker was pooped by the time he got home from school---poor guy!!

He loved school and told me that Kindergarten was better than Pre-school. For those of you that don't know, Parker and Taylor go to a Spanish immersion elementary school so the majority of their learning is in Spanish. Well, when Parker came home I asked him if he understood anything that his teacher said, and he replied, yes. Simple as that. When I asked him what she said, he said that he forgot. Either the poor kid is in denial, or he wasn't paying a bit of attention.

A look back on Steve's first 30 years! Happy Birthday Baby.

Steve's B-day Pictures (continued)

JOSH GROBAN

For Mothers Day Steve and the kids got me tickets to see Josh Groban. Steve knows how much I absolutely love Josh, as well as his music. The concert was Saturday the 25th in Anaheim We had the best time, and I have to say I was sad when the concert was over. Josh (I consider us close enough to be on a first name basis) put on an amazing concert. I will forever be in love with Josh Groban, and my husband for taking me. Thank you Steve...it was a night I will always remember.

Family Reunion in Picayune Mississippi

We recently returned from a family reunion on Steve's mother's side. It was her mom's 80th birthday so the whole reunion was planned around that. Thank you Grandma Floretta for having a birthday and giving us a reason to get together. The birthday party was really fun. Steve's mom and her two brothers wrote a song for their mom and sang it---they are an extremely musically talented family. It made me wonder what happened to Steve and his siblings (his brothers told me that they chose to accelerate in sports instead of songs). However I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday when the family, including Steve got up in Grandmas church (she belongs to a non-denomination Christian church)and sang a worship song. I teased Steve and told him that he's been holding out on the ward choir, so anyone reading this---get Tricia on him---I think he needs to join the choir! ( I video taped the whole thing---maybe I'll make a you-tube video and post it on my blog).

Steve's mom is from Mississippi so Steve grew up spending a lot of his summers in Mississippi until his family moved from Colorado to New York (at age 10). Anyway, to spare you a lot of boring details---he was able to meet FIRST cousins for the first time on this trip. Isn't that crazy? The rest of his family still made a trip once a year to visit Grandma and attend family get togethers, but this was Steve's first trip back to Mississippi in 19 years. I tried to post pictures of everyone in Steve's immediate family---We had a great time with them.

New Orleans

We just returned from a family vacation to New Orleans and Mississippi. We were out there for a family reunion and to celebrate Steve's Grandmothers 80th Birthday. I will post pictures form the B-day Party and Reunion later (they are on Steve's computer). These pictures are from the Swamp Tour we took in Slidell, LA and from the time we spent in New Orleans. We had such a good time on this trip. The swamp tour was really neat. We kept our eyes open to see Shrek.=) The kids as well as the adults loved seeing the alligators in the wild. After the swamp we went to New Orleans. It was so much fun. We just walked around, went to tourist trap shops, ate at a nice restaurant, went to a 3D ocean movie, drove around Hurricane Katrina sights, and went sight seeing. All in all it was a very relaxing vacation.

How many kids can we cram into the car??

Last week we were swimming at our old pool. Lori left early to take Chase home to take a nap, so I offered to bring Megan and Zach home after we were done swimming. Christy was without a car that day so she rode over with Jessica. Jessica left to take Owen and Brock home for naps---I told Christy that I would drive her home if she wanted to stay longer and then I told Jessica to let Paige stay and swim and I would bring her home as well. When it came time to leave, Christy and I had to laugh because we only had 7 seat belts, but 10 people that needed buckled. On top of 10 people, we had 2 huge inflatable pool toys to shove in. It was quite comical. Taylor would not be in the pictures because her hair was not combed, so just picture one more face shoved in the chaos.

Tagged!

Jobs I've had:
1-a Nanny
2-Roberts Crafts
3-Golf Driving Range
4-Sundance Summit Club
5-Janitor at the MTC (5AM-9Am)

Movies I'd watch over and over:
1-Top Gun
2-The Count of Monte Cristo
3-Anne of Green Gables
4-Adam Sandler movies
5-Phantom of the opera
6-Pride and Predjudice
7-movies with Reese Witherspoon

Places I've lived:
1-Am. Fork, UT
2-Greenwich, CT
3-New Canaan, CT
4-North Salem, NY
5-Provo, UT
6-Laguna Niguel, CA

Favorite TV shows:
1-American Idol
2-The Biggest Loser
3-48 hours mystery
4-Dateline
5-Oprah (which I haven't seen in years, but I love late night re-runs)

Favorite Foods:
1-Italian food
2-sweets of all kinds
3-fruit
4-bread
5-sorbet

5 places I'd rather be:
1-Hawaii
2-on a Mediterranean Cruise
3-Lake Powell with my family
4-Greece
5-out of my nursery calling (did I say that out loud)?

Tagged:
1-Andrea
2-Cindy
3-Angela

Parker turns 5!

Earlier this month, Parker celebrated his 5th birthday. We were in Utah, so we had a family birthday party with cousins and grandparents and then when we came home he had a pirate birthday party with his best buddy, Zach. The party was a lot of fun for all in attendance. The kids had a cannon ball (waterballon) toss, made their very own parrot (feathers and all) for their shoulder, walked the plank, ran around looking for where the tic-tock sound was coming from and went on a treaure hunt to find treasures. We also had a suprise visitor come. Our local pirate---Jenny Tucker. The kids loved her. She painted their faces and Taylor and Megan helped her give them all tatoos. All in all the party was a success. Thank you Lori for sharing in another great party---a party for 2 is a lot easier than a party for 1.

Parker's 5th Birthday

Most of you know that Steve started this blog for me---I guess he thinks that I have free time. Actually I have free time this week. Lexi is in Utah with my family-I have no excuse not to update our family blog. By the end of this week (with Jessica's help), I should be up and running!!

Day 1

Today is my first attempt at creating our family website...Let me know what you think