Okay...so I know that I'm a little behind but with a new baby, working and TRYING (I say trying because I'm not doing that great of a job) to take care of a family I'm a little behind on our blog. So I've decided to use this first day of the new year to get caught up.
Life is pretty hectic for us but nothing extraordinary has happened. Austin is now smiling and here are a few pictures (amateur ones of course) of some of his first smiles. When he smiles it makes my heart smile and I just melt. He makes me want to just squeeze him so hard because I love him so much and can't imagine our family without him. He definitely has completed our family in such a great way.



Christmas was wonderful this year. I love the Christmas season and for the first time ever I think was sad to not listen to Christmas music once it was over. Usually I've heard it all so much that I can't wait for normal music. I love the feeling it inspires and the thoughts of our Savior it provokes. I also love listening to Carson as he tries to learn the Christmas carols...but he gets some of the words wrong. My favorite this year is instead of singing, "Oh-ho the mistletoe" he sings, "Oh-ho the mystery dough." It's a classic!
For gifts our family tried to scale back this year and focus more on emergency preparedness. Of course the kids got toys too but Curt and I got stuff to add to our storage. In this day and time you never know what's going to happen and we want our family prepared for those situations, whatever they may be. Santa brought Shelby a couple of DS games, Kaylee some Barbie Peek-A-Boos (like a tiny barbie doll), Carson a Hot Wheels trick track and since this was Austin's first Christmas and being the fourth child and the second boy he really didn't need anything so Santa brought him formula which he can ALWAYS use! :o) Then as a family we all got Mario Kart for the Wii. We've had a TON of fun playing that!
As many of you know the Nye Family has a LOT of birthdays in December but the end of December is crazy. We have Carson's and two nephews' birthdays all within a week, the 23rd, the 29th and the 31st. So instead of having three birthday parties we all get together and do one big one to make things easier. So on Saturday the 27th we all went to Chuck E. Cheese (or Chuck E. Cheese He** as one distinguished family member puts it...you know who you are!) and celebrated the boys' birthdays. On Monday, the 29th Carson turned five years old. He had been waiting for his birthday since Kaylee's in September. He would always ask me, "Is my birthday tomorrow?" I would always tell him that it was after Christmas. Then when it was time to put up the Christmas tree he kept saying, "My birthday's tomorrow?" He is a crack up! We think he's on present overload since we had Christmas, the joint party and then his real birthday. The poor kid gets all of his presents in one week and then has the wait the entire year before he gets more! He got some more Hot Wheels tracks (his new favorites), some cars, a book, of course clothes and a brand new big bike (for the big kid that he is!) He has so much fun playing with his new things. No wonder he couldn't wait!
As for the New Year we had a couple of friends over for a small get together. Curt invited a friend from work and her husband. They are both from Romania and are very nice. They were teaching us how to speak some Romanian words! Now I'm semi multilingual (yeah right!) We also had some of our neighbors come over. We played card games and the Wii and the kids played and watched movies until the magic hour hit. We all kissed in the New Year and then went outside to light fireworks. They sky was alight with fireworks ringing in the new year with all the glorious hopes for it to be a good one.
Well although it is brief and short I am now caught up with all major highlights of these past couple of months. I'm not going to promise to keep it up to date but I can promise that I will try. Happy New Year everybody. We hope that it is a great one for all.