Catching up

We have had a crazy couple of weeks around the Auernig house and I've haven't blogged about a couple of milestones. Brace yourselves, this will probably prove to be a long post!

First of all, Sam had is first hair cut. He has been sporting a semi-curly mullet the past few months and we decided it was time to take care of it.

Business up front, party in the back!!
Before
After

I'm happy to report that not a tear was shed in the whole process. We love Leah! She cuts Brad's, Owen's and now Sam's hair. He looks so big with his wispy baby hair gone!

Also, Owen graduated his first year of preschool this past Thursday. He has had such a fun year and is very excited to go back for his second year of preschool in the fall. During his program, they called each child up to receive their certificate and a little book. His teachers had asked the kids a few questions about their favorite things and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Here's the video:

That's right folks! Our son wants to be a bat when he grows up! Not Batman, just a bat. We aren't sure what that is about but whatever floats your boat right?!?

In preschool programs past, Owen doesn't want much to do with the singing and has preferred doing tricks in front of the row of kids. (He is the second to youngest child in his class.)The Christmas program was held in the Primary Room of his teachers' ward building. There was a picture of Christ on the back wall and Owen made the decision to turn around and "sing to Jesus." The majority of the pictures and video we have from that production are of the back of Owen's head. Needless to say he did so much better for graduation. He actually participated and stayed in his chair for most of the hour long program. Here's his favorite song, in which he is appropriately holding up a picture of a monkey:

Owen with Mrs. Jenn & Mrs. Louise. They have been such great teachers!

Over Memorial Day, we were able to relax at the Farm. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire, took naps, and watched movies while it rained.

Pop-pop and the boys at cemetery. Owen was on a mission to leave a pine cone on every head stone.

Sam loved the horse in my parents' backyard.

Grandma Cindy Price and Owen planting giant sunflowers.

While at the farm, Owen decided to open his own store selling miscellaneous stuff from around the house. Sam couldn't resist Owen's little display and had to touch everything. Owen was getting so frustrated with him and yelled for me to "Come get Sam. He's not buying anything. He's just stealing." I love the funny things those two come up with!

Happy Birthday Owen!!

It's official. Our Owen is no longer a toddler. On the 15th, Owen turned 4 years old. I can not even describe how fast the past few years have gone. I feel like I blinked and now our baby boy is in preschool. (I'm sure all of the mom's out there reading this are hearing me on this one.) I will always remember holding him on the wee hours of the morning the day he was born and feeling so overwhelmed that I could love something so much so quickly. Owen has been a joy from the minute he came into this world. In one second, he helped me become who I have always wanted to be. A mommy. Owen's mommy. Sam's mommy. I am forever changed by our sweet little boys.

Owen has a great sense of humor & keeps us laughing every day. He has always been content to do things on his own time frame. He gave up his binky on his own one day out of the blue. He decided that one day he would start walking and he did just that. He decided it was time to sleep in a big boy bed and he did without getting out of bed one time for months. When asked if he wanted to sing and dance with the other kids in nursery, he sat on his chair and said "I don't do that." He has always just done his thing. Owen has always been a talker. He said his first word at 5 months old, which of course was "da da." :) Since then, he has never stopped! He loves to tell jokes and will talk to anyone who will listen. He gives the best hugs and always tells me I look like a princess (even when I'm sitting around in my sweats!) Owen is the kindest, most loving little guy. We're so grateful to be his family.

Here are some pictures of the big 4 year old day:
Owen's first real bike!

Sam gave Owen the Diego Safari Rescue game for the Wii. Do you think he liked it?

Some good ol' silliness from the Auernigs!

The fam with the Lightning McQueen cake.

Owen & Sam finished out the day laughing and wrestling!It it so much fun to have little boys!

Happy Birthday O-Daddy! We love you bunches!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Baseball has always been a Price Family tradition. From my Great Grandpa who played for the Red Soxs to pretty much every aunt, uncle and cousin, we all played baseball. Now that we are older, we still enjoy a good baseball game. For my dad's birthday this year, we gave him tickets for the whole family to go to the last nights' Bees Game. It was so cold!!! We bundled up the babies and we had a great time. We can't wait to go again, hopefully when it's warmer!

Owen, Aunt Shannon, and Aunt Laurie heckling the players. He loves his big foam finger. He took it for show-and-tell today!Ge-Ge, Pop-pop and Sam
Sam trying to stay warm with his bottle. Cute Hadlee having a little cotton candy.
Ryan, Malerie & Hadlee
Matt & Heather
Me & Brad

Brad & Sam

Thanks for the great hoodies Grandma Cindy Price & Pop-pop! The boys love them!

Owen & Grandma Cindy Price

The Fort

Brad & I decided that for Owen & Sam's birthdays this year, rather than giving them a bunch of toys, we'd get them a play fort for the backyard. We bought it this past week (Thanks for your help getting it home Uncle Matt! :) and built it this weekend with the help of Uncle Matt and Grandpa Kurt. It took most of the day Saturday but in the end was definitely worth it.

A Day at the Park

Today was a beautiful day! A perfect day for a play date at the park. We went to the Fire Truck Park with the Butler and the Elliott boys. It is Owen's very favorite park. We can't drive anywhere near it without him asking if we can stop and play. He has been waiting to go all winter and he was so excited that today was the first day of many for the summer.

Parker, Mason, Owen & Trevor

It was so fun to see the five little boys running around playing together. I couldn't manage to get them all in one picture! So here is cute little Ian!

Staci & McKenzie

Today was Staci's birthday! We love ya Stac!
Parker & Trevor

Owen & Mason

Ashleigh was a great sport to attempt the slide with that many little boys climbing on it! What a cute mom!

Sam is a little small for the big toy except for the slide. He loves to watch the bigger kids & I think he still has fun just being outside. He truly is a big guy stuck in a little body.

Today it feels like summer is finally here. I just hope it sticks around for longer than a day!

Oh Happy Day!

Friday was a huge day for our family. After years of hard work Brad graduated from Weber State with his BA in History and a minor in European Studies. Words cannot express how excited we are and what relief Brad felt to no longer be under a looming deadline with the next project or paper. We feel like we are starting a totally diferent life and can hardly wait to spend some long awaited time as a family during the week!

This is how our kids spent most of the ceremony. A few months ago, we took Owen to my cousin Suzie's wedding dinner and found that a gameboy really helps a three-year-old pass the time more quickly! My mom just kept sending the games his way! He yelled, "YEAH DADDY!!" loud enough for Brad to hear when they called his name, which they almost got right. Brad J. Auering. Close enough!

Grandpa Kurt & Grandma Carlyn wrestled Sam for me which was a huge help!

This picture of Owen & Brad pretty much sums it up! So I have to take this chance to tell Brad how proud I am of him. He is such an incredible husband & daddy. He has worked so hard to support our family while finishing school and it has given me the chance to me a mom. For that I am eternally grateful. I can't begin to count the nights he stayed up to the wee hours finishing homework because he always made time for our family in the middle of whatever else he had to do. Our boys think that their daddy is a super-hero and I'd have to agree! I love you more than you could ever know Bradler and I look forward to what the future brings!

So Sweet

Last week Owen's preschool class went to the Sweet's Candy Factory for a field trip. We saw how all of their candy was made and had an orange stick and a piece of taffy right off the assembly line. YUMMY!! The room they apply the chocolate covering smelled heavenly and was definitely my favorite part! I want my house to smell like that! They gave each of the kids their own bag of taffy at the end of the tour, including Sam who exclaimed "WOW!" (A little word he picked up in Disneyland.) What a fun day!

We all had to wear hair nets!

Owen & his best buddy Mason

Even Sam had to wear the hair net! In his effort to take it off, he saw the majority of the candy factory like this!

Take Your Family On An Adventure

Several months ago we planned a ten day trip to California with our friends the Elliotts. A few days before we left, Owen & Brad were watching TV and saw a commercial for a cruise line that said "Don't take your family on a vacation, take them on an adventure!" Owen adopted this slogan and told everyone he encountered about our upcoming adventure. Little did we know what adventures lie ahead of us! We started our 12 hour car trip on the afternoon of the 10th and headed for St. George to spend the night before continuing on to Palm Springs. Everything went great the entire way down. The kids watched movies and slept and we thought to ourselves, "Hey that was easy! We'll have to do this more often!" Famous last words! Anyway, we stayed in Staci Elliott's parents condo which was awesome and the first few days were so much fun. We went to the Palm Springs Air Museum. Brad was like a kid in the candy store! He has incredible love of WWII history and especially of WWII aircraft. The majority of the men working at the museum were veterans and actually flew many of the planes in the war that were on display. All of the planes, with one exception, are still in working, flying condition. There were signs everywhere asking patrons to not touch the planes. This was almost more than our Owen could bear. After hearing us get after him several times in the first few minutes, a nice old man came up to Owen and asked if he would like to touch one of the planes. He took him to the plane he actually flew and showed him where he could touch the propeller with just one finger. Owen was so proud of himself and told me it was because he is "three years old and so big." It really was an awe inspiring afternoon. The planes were made of thin metal and plywood. The crew sat on small stool with just a simple lap belt to hold them in. The co-pilot of a B25 told us that they would have to take a thermos of coffee on their missions because it was the best way to keep their bodies from going into shock from the cold at such high elevations. It made me again so grateful for the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought and continue to fight for the freedoms we so readily enjoy.

The next day we spent relaxing at the pool. It was so much fun to watch the boys. Owen is such a little fish! He would jump off the side and kept asking to be pushed to the bottom to retrieve the dive toys. We could barely steal him away from the water slide when it was time to go. He kept running up the stairs calling back to us, "Just one more time!" And off he would go to stand in line with kids more than twice his age! Sam loves the water also and had fun just splashing and playing with Daddy. He wore himself out and took a great poolside nap!

Tuesday we drove an hour and a half to the "happiest place on earth." For weeks Owen has woken up the morning and asked "Is it Disneyland Day?" It was so much fun to see his excitement when we were finally able to tell him the day had come and to see their faces when we went through the gates. Soon we began to see that our little Owen had grown up more than we had realized. The first ride he wanted to go on was the Pirates of the Caribbean. (He had specifically picked out his pirate underpants for the occasion!) Sam danced to the music the whole way through and Owen kept saying things like, "Look at all those scurvy pirates!" Next we headed for Splash Mountain, thinking it would be a ride just for the Daddies. When we got there, Owen discovered that he was "so big to ride this one." And ride he did, not once, but twice! It was his favorite and after that he rode everything he could from Star Tours to the Haunted Mansion to the Matterhorn. He was fearless! Brad and I took turns taking him on the big rides and not once did say he was afraid! We always knew he was a little daredevil but this was more than we expected. Both he and Sam loved the kiddie rides. Sam loved Winnie the Pooh and Peterpan. Brad's sister AnneMichelle and her three boys met us for the day and we were able see them for awhile. We ended the day in Toon Town where we met Mickey. It was a perfect end to a great day. Owen fell asleep on the train back to the car with mouse ears on and Buzz Laser in hand. We stopped at the gift shop on our way out where the Elliotts' boys fell asleep stacked in the same stroller. A strange man with a strong southern accent approached us saying "I don't mean to be rude, but is that one child or two?" I thought I would die laughing! We made it back to Palm Springs at about one in the morning. This is where the real adventure starts! Owen woke up at 2:30 a.m. throwing up everywhere. At first I thought it was just a little too much Disneyland or a few too many treats. Then the other end started working overtime. Neither end seemed willing to ease up over the course of the next eighteen hours and we started to get really worried. He wasn't keeping even the smallest sips of pedialite down and was throwing up at least every fifteen minutes. He was pretty lethargic and dehydrated. Heaven bless our pediatrician who called in some medicine for us at a local pharmacy which helped but didn't resolve the problem. By Friday, he was doing a little better and as planned, we drove to San Diego to spend more time with Brad's sister AnneMichelle and her family. We miss them so much and it was so good to see them. Her boys are such good boys and Owen loves to play with his cousins. Emma had Baby Ty last summer, just a few months after Sam was born. Ty and Sam were so cute together! Saturday morning we went to our nephew Jack's baseball game (he played awesome!) and Owen was better but still not himself. When we got back to AnneMichelle's, the Owen's poor little system started up all over again. We took him to a doctor who thought he had an intestinal virus or giardia and had lost at least 7 pounds. We got the output under control and decided to make a break for St. George that night. Emma & Jer were so great to us and we wished we could have spent more time with them. The trip home was a trip indeed. From giving Owen medicine in a parking lot in Bartsow and panhandlers knocking on our windows asking for money to me giving Sam bottle after bottle to keep him quiet from Vegas to St. George at midnight and him throwing up all over the parking lot of the hotel to the dust storm we drove through to three hours, it was definitely an adventure! I'm happy to say that Owen almost completely better now. I took him to our pediatrician and he has an intestinal virus most likely contracted from the swimming pool. (Much like the virus that went around Utah last summer.) It's run its' course and all involved are much happier! Despite all the craziness, we still had a great trip. We've never spent ten uninterrupted days as a family with the exceptions of the birth of our children and I can't wait to do it again. Only next time, maybe we'll stay a little closer to home! Ten days was along time for two little boys to be a way from their beds!

The saying goes what doesn't kill you makes you stronger but COME ON! Do they really have to try that hard! I'm sure I'll feel stronger when my laundry's done.....