Thank you Jen!

Once again my friend, Jen, has helped me out! She is so creative so I've enlisted her to help me decorate my house on a budget. I gave her my favorite infant picture of Austin and The Special Child poem and told her to run with it and here's what she created! Feel free to click on the pictures to view them up close. Aren't they beautiful?!?!







Here's another glance since this one has the flash right in it-


We got the big frame at the thrift store for only $2 and Jen took the picture out and spray painted it! Incredible difference...next time I'll have to take before and after pictures!

Here is the Special Child poem for those who haven't read it before:

The Special Child

The child, yet unknown, spoke with the Father
"Lord, how will I survive in the world?
I will not be like other children, my walk
may be slower, my speech hard to understand, I
may look different. What is to become of me?"
The Lord replied to the child, "My precious one,
have no fear, I will give you exceptional parents.
They will love you because you are special, not in spite
of it. Though your path throughout life will be
difficult, your reward will be greater. You have
been blessed with a special ability to love,
and those whose lives you touch will be
blessed because you are special."

Author/Source Unknown

What has gotten into my son?

I don't know what is going on with Austin but someone has flipped the silly switch. For the last 2 weeks Austin has been unusually silly. He laughs at the slightest request for no apparent reason! Of course, I welcome it with open arms! Usually he's very moody and easily cries so this attitude is much nicer.

I've attached a picture of Austin doing "Austin therapy". He did this all on his own. He'll lay in the goofiest positions known to man. We've been told by several doctors and friends that he has exceptionally strong ab muscles!


The other picture is the reaction I got from Austin when I asked him to say "mama". Hysterical giggles. Glad he thinks I'm just too funny for words ( no pun intended!). I started signing "mom" to him instead since he was in no mood to be verbal ( mama is his only word) but that just brought more laughter. I give up. LOL

Surprise!

Over the summer, Ben and I tried to sell our home to move onto something more spacious and accomodating for Austin. In preparation for moving, I sold a lot of my wall hangings in a moving sale. Hey, if you don't have to move it, right? I didn't care for the way I had decorated anyway. Nothing flowed or felt like "home" to me. Well, God had others plans for us and our house didn't sell. When God says to stay put, we'll listen! So where does that leave me? Blank walls. Umm, yeah. I didn't sell everything but I did get rid of quite a bit. After hearing me comment (or better yet,complain), my friends, Jen and Kristen, decided to create wall hangings for me for my birthday.

Well, surprise!!! While I was at my birthday dinner with Ben, Jen and Kristen, sneaked into my house (with help from my husband) and decorated my walls and made a centerpiece for my table!!! I just love it! I can't help but smile when I walk through my dining room. Thank you sooo much you guys!

Today I'm 27 years old....AHHHHHHHHHH!

So today is my birthday. I'm no fan of getting older! Can't I just stay 23 forever?!? Anyway, here's a funny picture I took of Austin last Saturday at our church's Thanksgiving dinner. Eating is a full contact sport for him and if the fork isn't working fast enough for him, he uses his hands!

My baby loves me!

I know the video is really shaky. My digital camera is one of the older ones so the videos aren't that great. Not to mention, they don't record sound. =( This video is of Andrew around 17 months old. He was just learning to walk!

Anyhow, Tuesday I was feeling really sick. I had a hard time getting off the couch to do anything. Nothing major, just a really bad head cold. As I was laying there, Andrew walked over to me, layed his head on my shoulder and said "I love you mommy". Awwwwww! Melted my heart, for many reasons. Andrew is a motor mouth. He talks all day long and has a huge vocabulary for his age yet would never repeat us when we asked him to say "I love you". So this occasion, these words were all on his own without any prompting. And he said it 6 more times. =) I've been a mom for 6 1/2 years and I have finally heard my child say he loves me. Bliss.

Ben, the Woopie Cushion

Here it is for all who asked...LOL! If you look closely, you can see Austin in the background spinning a rock paperweight.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures I've finally uploaded from our church's Harvest festival. Austin was a doctor, Andrew was a wolf, and Ben was a whoopie cushion. I've also added Austin's school picture to the side bar! It came out so good! I had to take a picture of it so sorry about the bright spot from the flash.

State motto or just Northern NY motto?

Well, last week we got a good amount of snow as you see in the pictures. Today, it's 70 degrees and sunny. Go figure. The famous saying here is "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it'll change."