Haven't updated in a while but here we go!

Our little Santa baby! Baby girl can ALMOST sit up in her little bumbo chair (thanks for letting us borrow Wizawes!!)

This year I let the girls do pretty much all of the decorating. Other than all the ornaments (except a few I moved) being really low (heheheheh), they did a great job!

T has grown a beard and I just LOVE IT!!! My handsome hubby! Here is T and baby girl going to get our Christmas tree....

We took the big girls- M, L and S to the American Girl Store and ate lunch and got some cute things for their "girls"- M has Julie, L has Mia and S has Kit. Poor Julies hair gets Crazy because M loves on her so much- so for $10 Julie got a new hairdo and it was worth every penny- they had to brush that stuff so hard! That just means she is very loved on!

I love this pic. When I was little, mom took a picture just like this of me, s and D and now I took this one of R, B and baby girl.

My friend Brittany met us up at the square and she took some AWESOME pictures of the girls. She is so so talented and super sweet. She got some good ones and here a few of them.... This one we're giving Daddy for Christmas... shhhhh! And T if you are reading this.... act surprised would ya?

This one is actually one of my favorites because it is just reality- us laughing well most of us- not baby girl- she is not so happy here.

Love love love this one of my big girls. Jesus- I pray that all 3 of my girls will grow up to be amazing friends who are an encouragement to one another.

Awwwww- love this one of my baby girl and just a quick update on her. She is ALMOST 4 months and is doing amazing. This baby rocks. She is sleeping 10 hours most nights and is still eating like a champ. She does NOT love a bottle though still so she is still my constant little sidekick which I love!!! The girls just love her so much as do we all. She is everybody's baby and we're all just wanting to hold her all the time. She had her first trip to the ER this past weekend but it was just a bad cold so praise the Lord for that!

My gorgeous big girl. This just captures her sweet self- love the missing teeth.

Ahhhhhh S. Love this girl and her sweet red curls and huge freckles.

This one I loved so much it was our Christmas card.

On our trip to Dollywood- we saw BUDDY THE ELF. Ok so "Elf" is our familys FAVORITE movie and not just at Christmastime either. It is funny! SOme of our favorite lines are: "does someone need a hug???", "you don't smell like Santa Clause- you smell like Beef Cheese!", "Goodbye Buddy- I hope you find your dad.", and "buuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrppppppppppp- did you hear THAT??" Oh the joys of laughter!

S at this AWESOME water park we found in Gatlingburg- Wild Bear Falls. We had a BLAST here. My favorite memory is of me and M flying down the water slide laughing our fannies off.

I know this is NOT a good picture at all but I had to capture this. We took the girls to the Dixie Stampede and they got picked out of the audience to "chase chickens" in the show and it was AWESOME and they won. Such a cool memory.

My big girls in front of Dollywood- so fun!

The view from our little condo at the TOP of the mountain. Since I get car sick every time I get in a car (not really), getting to our condo at the tippy top of the mountain up a VERY CURVY road was a challenge every time. It was a beautiful view once we got there though!

The A's at the top of Kennesaw Mtn. I don't think I have hiked up the mountain since I was a girl scout- it was so fun!

The fam on the hike!

This is little girl visiting daddy at his office. I just love the way she is looking at him. She looks like this at him all the time- all 3 of my girls LOVE their daddy. Well I do too. He is awesome.

Just lots o stuff going on...

This was the girls rockstar pumpkins they did. I was very impressed with their creativity and mostly, we just had a lot of fun although S did NOT like sticking her hand in the pumpkin to get the guts out!

Here is my ladybug, my rocker girl and my tinkerbell. What fun!

Love love love this one. This is one of those times where I am so glad my phone has a camera on it because I don't always carry my "good" camera. Love these moments- my small, medium and large girlie girls!

So I wanted to upload a video of M being the mystery reader for S class but apparently it was too large but man was it awesome seeing S's expression when her AWESOME big sister walked in that classroom to be her mystery reader- you would have thought S had seen DORA live! It was truly precious and M did SUCH a good job reading- so proud of my girls.

My little darling. This was a hat that Ms. Holly made who owns my favorite store in Kennesaw, The Painted Butterfly. If you are ever in the 'saw as we lovingly refer to my town- you must go to The Painted Butterfly- that woman is MEGA talented and so sweet. She paints and crochets like you would never believe. I will post pics of the awesome crazy oil paintings she did of my kids. Lordy Goodness- she is good.

Here is S riding WITHOUT her training wheels and even getting started without them. So proud of my red head girl!

Yum

Well this little girl just melts my heart. She is starting to smile and be awake more but sleeping like a champ at night. That, I believe, is a true gift from the Lord....She is such a sweet baby and feel very thankful and humbled to be her mom.

Punkin' Patch

Searching for our punkins with my punkins'! I am just relishing these ages....yes they fight (well the big girls) but they love eachother and they are loving life and I am just enjoying being their momma. Some days are long and hard and frustrating but I know that these days are a gift from the Lord- even the tough ones. I am truly thankful.

First Goal!

M started playing soccer in the Fall of 2007 when she was 4 years old. She has had many of the same sweet little girls on her team since the beginning and they are all slowly getting better and more aggressive and it is so fun to watch. Well Maggie has NEVER scored a goal- she has come close but this season she is really enjoying it and playing more aggressively and most importantly, having a ball! I honestly thought she was getting frustrated with it and would want to try something else but she wouldn't hear of it--- she said Mom I want to play soccer again- I love it... so we signed her up again. Well, this past Saturday it happened....1st soccer goal. I had the baby in my lap and boy when she did that- I jumped up and I am sure Darcy was like... whoa Mom- sit down! I was so excited and boy was she proud. That might be one of my favorite moments of motherhood so far.... just to see her sweet and proud face... it was classic!

Proud to be an American...

It is Friday night and my sweet husband just got home from Germany. He had to go there for work and man, did I miss him. It was my first time by myself with my 3 girls- I mean all by myself. I did pretty good I must say but right now I am MENTALLY pooped. In fact, right when he got home, he had to take M to her soccer practice and S wanted to go too. So me and D took the opportunity to take a little nap. Well in that 45 minutes, I slept SO hard that when the pizza guy came to deliver our pizza, I didn't hear him knock or hear the doorbell ring. How crazy is that? Luckily I heard something and woke up and was able to get our dinner:0)... I am sitting here watching a documentary on 9/11 and it is just the saddest thing ever. It just makes me so mad that our country was attacked but scary that someone out there HATES us that much that they wanted to kill civilians. They are showing these people and everything was so normal and then, BAM, the entire world changed in an instant. I am so thankful for our troops fighting our freedom that is so precious. I am so very proud to be an American!!

Darcy Jean Austin is here!

What blessings we are feeling right now! D J is here and healthy as a little horse. She came into this world on Wednesday, August 12th at5:27 pm. Mommy had a SUPER easy labor (don't hate me:0) and we came home on Friday, Aug. 14th. She weighed 7 lbs, 11oz. and was 20 inches long. We are just so thankful for this little miracle. Her sisters ADORE her, in fact, Maggie doesn't want anyone else to hold her and S brought her a drinky yogurt with a purple swirly straw to have as her first drink at home. Soph informed me "Mom she doesn't want to drink that (I was nursing) she wants the drinky yogurt"- hilarious. We've been surrounded by awesome friends and family coming over to see our new little gift. Thanks for all the prayers- they were felt. God Bless this Sweet Girl! Thank You Jesus!

Lots of visitors came to see us at the hospital!

First bath at home. She didn't mind it at all...

Rei, Aunt S and EC holding D

R and B with our girl

This was a sweet one. She actually slept 5 hours her first night at home. We all just stayed in our PJ's all day- LOVE THOSE DAYS.

Big Sis Mags

B and L

Gigi kept the big girls while we were at the hospital with D. They had a ball- Camp Gigi is what I like to call it! Look how prissy Ms. S looks...

Daddy, Uncle J and our girl

In the car seat about to leave for home....

Aunt C

More sweet friends!

Aunt J

First official Family Photo

Daddy and his baby girl

This is what I call PURE LOVE!

Me about to go in to be induced... come on D!!



Aunt N with our girl


Gigi Poppy and D girl!