The Beard Family

For Christmas, Ricky got me a Nikon D80 camera. I was so excited and BEGGED him to let me use it before Christmas. Being the sweet, loving husband he is, he agreed.

It has been ages since we've had a proper family picture taken so we went out with the Soben's to take pictures with my NEW camera. It was so much fun! (Well, it was fun for Holly and me. . .the boys would probably disagree!)

Our good friends Wes and Holly with Davis and London.

The boys had so much fun riding down the street.

Even Ricky joined in!

Davis and London got to come over and play tonight! Davis and Austin had so much fun playing with Lincoln Logs and putting the train tracks together while London had fun trying to knock everything down!

Austin, Davis and Ricky are in serious concentration. This is hard work!

The trains wore them out, so they decided they wanted to watch a movie and have a snack.

London is as cute as always. . . I love this little girl!

The bunco group that I am a sub for had a Christmas party at the Leavenworth's home. This is such a crazy, fun group of ladies and we had a gift exchange where we got to steal gifts. Courtney. . . I am really sorry for stealing your tree, but I blame it on Karri for stealing my candles first. :) But I know you really wanted the gift that Mandi stole from you. . . Christmas gift exchanges are so much fun!

Our good friends Adam and Mandi (Carter and Averi's parents) invited us to go to Lubbock for the weekend to go Christmas shopping. . . .and we left the kids with the grandparents! It was a great time to get away and have fun with friends. We even finished all our Christmas shopping early. YEAH!!

The back of the Wood's surburban. . .and I think we went a couple of more places after this!

We had our Sunday School Christmas Party this past Friday at the Hildebrand's home. It was really fun. We do a white elephant gift exchange and let me tell you there are some funny gifts that are given. As you can see below, the girls stay in the kitchen, talk and take pictures, while the guys stay out in the garage and play kanip-kanop.

This game is serious!!!

This weekend, we painted pretty much all of our house except the bedrooms. Did I add we did this all in one day?? We were exhausted, but it was worth it. Austin was with us the whole day and boy did we put him to work. He had so much fun! At first, we only gave him a dry paint roller and he kept asking when he was getting the "real paint". So we let him go to town on a few of our walls. He did a pretty good job.

These are just some fun pictures around the house of my two crazy men. I love them!!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day at my parents house in Brownwood. Then on Friday, we spent the day at Ricky's parents house here in Abilene. Here's a list of the things Austin said he was thankful for: my mom, my dad, my dogs, my toys, markers, my tractor, my walker, my backpack, my lunchbox, my bed, my book, my toybox, my home, my jacket and watching TV. That is quite a list!

Here are the guys playing football at my parents house. (Ricky, Kwade, Kyden and Ky)

Austin and his cousin James are having so much fun with the remote control trucks.

Okay. . . my sister, Velre and my niece Kyra (pictured above) did some crazy shopping on Black Friday. We got up at 5 am and shopped with all other crazy people who got up that early. It was so much fun! As you can see, my sister's SUV is pretty packed. And just think. . . we only shopped for a few hours. Just think of the damage we could do in a day!

I love this picture! Austin loves to ride the 4-wheeler out at his Momo and Papa's house and it was warm enough the day after Thanksgiving that he could get out and ride it.

Today was Austin's last day of HERO's until the Spring. Below is a picture of Farren, Emily and Austin. They were so sweet and got him a present for his last day. The stuffed animal looks exactly like Misty and he absolutely loves it. I also got some video of him too which is posted below.

Today we went to Fort Worth for Austin's check up appointment with his neurologist. These are always easy appointments for us. The doc comes in, talks to us for 5 minutes, says he looks great, and then we're on our way. This time was no exception. We had a great day, ate lunch and even went shopping while we were up there.

Here's a funny story. . . Austin has been hooked on riding his Power Wheels truck lately. Every day, he asks us if he can ride it. We were on our way home and it was probably around 4 pm. The conversion goes like this:

Austin: Can I ride my truck when we get home?
Me: If it isn't dark outside when we get home, you can ride it.
Austin: But it's bright outside.
Me: I know its bright now, but it might not be when we get home.

45 minutes later

Austin: Can I ride my truck when we get home?
Daddy: If it isn't dark outside when we get home, you can ride it.

1 hour later

Austin begins to cry for no apparent reason.

Me: Austin, what is wrong?
Austin: (while crying) It's getting dark outside. It's not bright anymore. . .

It was so hilarious! He knew since it was getting dark, he wasn't going to get to ride his truck. Ricky had so much pity for him that he told Austin he could ride his truck when we got home, even if it was dark. Interestingly enough, Austin did not have any more problems with the sun going down.

Below is some video of him riding his truck with Daddy. He is so much fun and I love his laugh. (I apologize, it's kind of hard to see because it's DARK!)

If you'll remember in a previous post, Austin was getting pretty good at writing his name, but not quite there yet. The picture below is the latest attempt. He is so proud of himself!

Austin has been doing HERO's for the past few weeks! He absolutely loves it and looks forward to it every year. Below is a picture of him with the horse he rides, Misty, and his physical therapists and volunteers. The two girls on either side of him are Farren and Emily - they volunteer and are with him each week. He LOVES them. . . Next week is his last week. Hopefully, I can get some video of him and post it on here.

Austin was so excited that one of his favorite people got to come over and stay the night. We had so much fun together! And let me just tell you that I was so impressed that Ricky and I got to church on time while getting TWO children ready. London, you can come stay with us anytime!

Austin and London before church.

How cute am I?

Austin is learning how to write his name! These past couple of weeks, he has been obsessed with letters, drawing, coloring and writing. And he's getting pretty good too! Below are his first attempts at writing. . . can you decipher the code?

What a handsome race car driver! Austin was so excited to get dressed up for Halloween. We went to the Fall Festival at church and Austin had a blast.

Austin feeding the goats with Daddy at the festival.

Austin and his buddy, Davis.

Isn't this the cutest clown you've ever seen?

Austin's friend Carter will be there to put out the flames when he wrecks. . .

I love this little dalmation!

Jason and Joy with Austin at the festival.