the Austins

My family has not had pictures taken for several years so we thought we'd have some done while most of us were together.  We missed having Louisa and David with us, but who knows the next time we'll all be in the same place at the same time?  Jacob's younger sister, ShayNiel, took these for us and we were very happy with how they turned out.  Take a look.

Heather, Liam, and Will

Jana and Rob

It was freezing cold and pretty windy that day!!  Not the best circumstances for taking pictures outside, but we did it in about 45 minutes.

Aren't they great?  I love my family. :)  Hopefully it won't be years until our next family photos.

More pictures!

This post is just the last of the pictures I wanted to share from the holidays.  It's important to me to document visitors we have.  

Will, Heather, Liam and us    

my dad (Pap-pa) and Katie

my mom (Grandma), Katie and me

Heather with Liam and Katie

three William Glenn Austins!

just a cute close-up of Katie :)

Katie and Aunt Jana

Jana, Katie, and Rob

sisters

Katie loves her new laptop she received for Christmas.  Now she has her own "computer" to play with (although she still seems to like the real thing better).  She is learning the alphabet, animals and songs.  It's so fun to hear her repeating the letters and words she hears.  It's really a great toy. 

two black eyes

The day my sister and her husband came in December, Katie fell in our bathroom and hit her cheek on the corner of the bathtub.  I was washing my hands when she fell and didn't see exactly what she hit, but that's my best guess because there was nothing else around her.  After only a few minutes her skin started bruising and looked like this:

As if a black eye wasn't bad enough, two days later she woke up with pink eye!  She hasn't had it before, but her friend got it two days earlier, and we later found out it was going around the neighborhood.  Lucky us!  So this is what her eyes looked like that day.  Puffy, red and crusted over with her black eye to top it all off.  Lovely.  She was still happy though and was pretty good at letting us put the drops in her eyes. (Click on these pictures so they're big and you'll see her eyes better.)

This was on the Sunday before Christmas.  Everyone at church wanted to know what happened.  She did not stay for nursery so we wouldn't continue to spread the conjunctivitis around.

That same weekend Jacob played Ultimate Frisbee and came home sporting this.  He'd been elbowed in the eye as he and another player both jumped for the frisbee at the same time.  He said it gushed blood for a while and he had to lie down until it stopped.  It was swollen for a couple of days and then went through a rainbow of colors as it healed.  It took at least three weeks or more for all the bruising to go away.  He said every day at work his patients asked him about it.

I keep hoping my turn for a black eye is not coming. :)

ten

Dec. 28, 2012 we celebrated our 10th anniversary.  I can hardly believe we've been married that long, but in a way it's flown by.  Yes, I know we look like teenagers; we practically were.  I was twenty; Jacob, twenty-two.  We were so young and in love, and I'd like to think we still are.  It's one of the best decisions I've made, and I'm  grateful I was brave enough to give him my phone number when we first met.  Our love has definitely grown over the years.  We've learned a lot about each other and ourselves.  I have become better at communicating my feelings instead of waiting for him to guess them. :)  And Jacob is better at listening to me without always trying to come up with a solution.  We've already seen some of our dreams come true, such as owning a home and most important, becoming parents.  I'm excited to see more of our goals and dreams fulfilled in the coming years.  He really is my best friend.  I'm so happy I get to spend forever with this man!

Dec. 28, 2002, Idaho Falls, Idaho

2012

Jacob gave me these beautiful flowers on our anniversary.  We went out to eat and saw a movie while my mom watched Katie.  (We saw Jack Reacher cause we didn't make it in time for Les Miserables, but we saw that on New Year's Day.)  It was nice to spend time with Jacob and not be distracted by a toddler for a little while.  I gave Jacob a gift card for a massage that we haven't used yet but will this month. :)

Our big celebration for our anniversary will happen in April when we go to France!!!  We have been dreaming of and planning this trip since we were first married.  We bought our tickets in October, reserved a hotel, and found a babysitter for Katie.  We'll be gone for two weeks- the first in Paris, and the second in some small towns in northwestern France.  They are all areas where Jacob served his LDS mission  in 1999-2001.  I'm happy he will be there to translate for me, since I only know a few phrases of French. :)  We are so EXCITED!!