Happy Birthday Austin

It has taken me all day to do this post. I decided to steal Jessica and Stacey's idea of putting up old pictures for his birthday, which led to me crying alot as I looked through so many pictures I haven't looked at in quite awhile.
It's hard to explain how fast time flies when you're a mom. It's weird how even though some days seem to last forever (and not always in a good way) the months and years seem to be on fast forward. I remember every snap of the shutter I took with my camera, but it sure doesn't seem like they were taken so long ago.
Five years... seems like my baby was just born yesterday....

Austin Patrick, born December 21, 2003, 6lbs 14 oz
Full of energy, determined, thoughtful and sweet
I can't imagine my life without you!

Our first family picture, Andrew meeting his brother for the first time...

Austin at about a month....I love this expression on his face

These last two were from today.... his funny looking cake is actually a lump of cookie dough.

School stuff

Last Sunday Andrew had his christmas concert and then Friday had their christmas part.... here's some pictures of both. I didn't get very good pictures at the concert because I had to sit so far away....

Here's Austin on Friday

Andrew was concentrating hard on painting his ornament...

The boys after the concert...

Here's Drew walking into the concert-it was the best picture I had...

Santa

I had to put this sad post up showing how fast these boys are growing...
Here's the boys with Santa when Austin was 2 and Drew was 4...


And now Austin is 4 (well, 5 next week) and Drew is 7....

Austin was very cute seeing Santa....when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas, Austin sat there the longest time before shrugging his shoulders and saying "I dont' know"...

Catching up....

So these pictures are from the past weekish....
These are Andrew at his boy scout's raingutter regalla....they made these little boats and raced them in a gutter. Sounds simple, but we managed to make it hard. Drew lost some part that Randy had to fanagle to make new parts, and I didn't read about the waterproof paint and glue, (duh, it's in water) but Drew still had fun and actually managed to win a few heats.... that's the important part!

Anyone who knew me as a 5 year old knows this used to be my favorite shirt...okay, so maybe I still fit into it at 10.... but Austin found it and had to wear it the other day...

Last Saturday night/sunday morning we had snow! Only for a few hours until it melted, but enough to get the boys excited for snowmen and sledding! Austin had to go out and jump in it....

Rock Star Austin

Hopefully this works...I recorded this on my phone...it's Austin's version on Rudolph.... Drew got hurt and interupted, so it's on 2 seperate videos (hence part one and two)

Raeghan Nicole

My sister in law, Amber had her baby last week, and we got to go see her on Saturday...
I had to post some pictures...
(I'm still working on them, Amber!)

Born Nov. 25th 3:09pm
8lbs. 4 oz. 21 & a half inches long

The boys took to her right away, (I know, there's a shocker)

old pics...

Things have started getting crazy here, with going out of town and these to get done here...I feel so bad i haven't posted! But I didn't forget....

Here's some from this fall I took with my film camera and finally got developed...


Here's the Mizzou game we went to in October....

This is the Mizzou homeocming parade...I wish I had gotten a picture of the back of the Oscar meyer weiner mobile...it had a tiger tail on it!

Free photo book

Anyone that didn't see Oprah yesterday, check out this link to a free photobook from snapfish...
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

On this link you'll have to click the link, but this is seriously a $30 value- these books are great, you can put alot of pictures in them....I made one this spring of Drew's kindergarden artwork.

This is only good through Sunday night (November 16th)!

The whole segment Peter Walsh did was good too- if you want help organizing your house check it out (he's going to be a regular segment).

Happy Veterans Day

Today's veteran's day, a day we honor those whose have served this country. So today I just wanted to speak proudly of my two grandfathers, and my uncle Ricky who all served this country. I mentioned my grandpa Kamler a few months back when he was taken on an Honor Flight to see the WWII Memorial. He was a mechanic that served in Guam during WWII. I wish I knew more details to share aobut what years and such, but I haven't been a good student of my own family history.
My grandpa Wright flew in the B-17 Flying Fortress. I think the name of his plane was the Berlin Sleeper II, and he was stationed in parts of Europe and northern Africa. I know his crew flew in raids over Germany and France, and I know he recieved several medals, (and maybe if my dad sees this he will email me more specifics so I can put them here).









This is grandpa Kamler in his uniform...

This is the only picture I can find of grandpa Wright, he's the second from the left, standing in back. This picture appeared in Life magazine on Sept. 14,1942. The caption below it reads:

"Abbeville raiders included crew of the US Flying Fortress shown above after their return to England. Their attack on an important airfield helped immobilaize German planes over France during the Aug 19 Commando foray against Dieppe. These young men are good representatives of American flying personnel in England. They are well trained, daring and eager for a fight. Pictured below shows th accuracy of their high-level attack. "

Don't forget to keep those still serving in harms way in your prayers today...

More Halloween

I forgot to post more Halloween pics... the first one here is the boys making "mummy dogs" for dinner...they were hotdogs wrapped in cresent rolls, but they had fun making them....












Austin got these vapire teeth, so for awhile we had a Vampire corn on the cob- he said "mom, if anyone says, Oh what cute corn on the cob, I will just scare them like this...."



Here's a dramatic picture of King Tut's mummy...

and cute corn on the cob....

Here's the boys at Andrew's class Fall party, decorating cookies...

The day before Halloween, Drew's class had a field trip to Dr Shauf's farm. This is a vet in town who is the first graders' "partner in education" .

They do different things throughout the year, and he invited them out to his 150 acres or so and they got to paint pumkins and go on a hay ride, and just run on a beautiful fall day.

The man in the hat and overalls is Dr Shauf...Drew's teacher is in the striped shirt, and the first graders are the ones in yellow :)

The boys on the hay ride

and painting pumpkins

Congratulations!

I wanted to say congratulations to my friends Tracy and Matt who had their first baby yesterday. Little Andy is so lucky to have such a nice mom and dad!

Matt sent this today...
Anderson Matthew Lauer was born at 1:01 AM on Wednesday, November 5. He came into the world after an emergency C-section. When Tracy pushed his heartbeat dropped rapidly so they decided to do the section. He came out of it OK. Andy also had a Duodenal Atresia or a blockage in his duodenum. We know about this before he was born and knew that he would need surgery a day or two after he was born. Being that he was stable and the surgeon and OR were available they actually did it yesterday around noon. He did very well and came through it just fine. The attached pictures are not long after his surgery, so he does have his nose tube in which is emptying his stomach, and a breathing tube. He is progressing well and they are hoping that his breathing tube will come out soon.

Tracy is doing well, still a little groggy from a pill they gave her this morning but she actually got some very good sleep yesterday and is feeling much better today and we hope to have a bit of a longer visit with Andy sometime this morning or in the early afternoon.

Thank you all of your thoughts and prayers and enjoy the pictures.

Fall stuff

we finally got our pumpkins carved, guess who has the mummy pumpkin....

This is our maple tree, which the last 2 falls we've been here has turned brown and shrivelled in august....

and look how pretty it is this year! It's so red!