Meet Cameron!

(Jared here - filling in for Marcie for this post... Hi everyone!)

Cameron Neil Austin has arrived! He was born on Thursday, May 27th at 7:30 am. He weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Marcie did an outstanding job and delivered (once again) without ANY anesthetics!

We were a little nervous about the long drive to the hospital this time since we now live way out in Queen Creek (or San Tan Valley), but we made it. We arrived at the hospital around 11:00 pm and Marcie was in labor with regular contractions all night. At 6:00am, the decision was made to go ahead and break her water, which sped things up quite a bit.

Cameron couldn't have picked a more convenient time to send Marcie into labor - I am out of school for the summer, Marcie's mom and sister are in town, and we got to watch the suns game on Thursday night! (We don't have cable at home)

Jokes aside, we are VERY happy and feel VERY blessed to have a new little member added to our family. Ethan has been a little confused by the tiny wrinkled wiggling baby that's been hanging around. Ethan doesn't know how to react when Cameron cries, and so Ethan starts crying too! Ethan has given Cameron several sweet kisses, but has also requested several times for us to put Cameron "away!" (He repeatedly says "away" meaning he wants mommy to put Cameron back in his little bouncer).

Marcie is recovering quickly and Cameron is turing out to be a very good baby. He hardly ever cries, and he is a good eater.

Welcome home Cameron! We love you!

World Tour

To celebrate our 4th Anniversary I took Jared on a date this weekend where we visited a few different "countries". We did so by going around to different restaurants and locations that somehow related to counties throughout the world. At each location Jared would get to put a stamp on his passport that I made him.

Some of the places we visited were: Mexico...a free appetizer at good Mexican food restaurant, USA... miniature golfing, Switzerland...IKEA, Hawaii...our backyard set up luau style, China...we raced to see who could pick up the most skittles with chop sticks... and a couple more locations. Here are pictures from "Hawaii" and "China". We had picked Ethan up from the babysitter and then visited these last two locations so he got to join in on the fun.

By the way, we did not pose Ethan for this picture. He was watching us with chop sticks and once we were done he picked them up put them in one hand and tried to pick up a skittle with them...not bad! I think he holds chop sticks better than I do!

The Best Four Years

Today Jared and I have been married for four years!!! Marriage has been one of the gratest blessing in my life. I found this quote today and I just love it.

"A happy marriage perhaps represents the ideal of human relationship- a setting in which each partner, while acknowledging the needs of the other, feels free to be what he or she by nature is; a relationship in which instict as well as intellect can find expression; in which giving and taking are equal; in which each accepts the other, and I confronts Thou."

-Anthony Storr

Jared, I just wanted you to know that I am am so thankful for you! Marrying you has been the best decision I have ever made. These last four years truly have been the most wonderful of my life thanks to you. They have not been perfect but they have been the best. I LOVE YOU!!! Happy Anniversary!

Ethan's New Room

This room is a work in progress but here is what I have gotten done so far. I was going for a tropical surfboard theme. The challenge was that I need to decorate an entire room without spending hardly any money. I think I decorated this whole room paint, wall hangings, frames, curtains, curtain rod, baskets etc. for around $50. We got the bed, mattress and large shelving unit for free so that helped out the budget a lot! Goodwill was also a great resource in staying on a tight budget. What would I do without Goodwill?! And of course we used things that we already had laying around the house.

I found some cool surf board art work online but I am too cheap to buy two posters for $20 each. So I whipped out the pastels and roughly copied some art work I liked. They turned out okay but nothing like Jared could do. I told him he will have to replace these with some of his own original art work but for now they will have to work.

That is the room! There are a couple of things that still need done. The most important, Ethan needs a bed spread! Right now he sleeps on a brown sheet and his own little baby blankets. Poor kid.

I am going to try and make a quilt with a cool surf board on it for his bed. We'll see how that goes and if I can get it done before the new baby. I must say having his room pretty much done is a relief. One less thing to do on a very long to-do list!!!!