Category Archives: Austin

Halloween Adventures

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday was Halloween and Abby and Emily were ready to head out the door right when it started getting dark. This year Abby was a princess (which I’m pretty sure she was a princess last year) and Emily was a puppy. Emily likes to imitate a puppy, so we thought it would be cute to have her dress up like one. Well, when it comes to getting candy from neighbors, puppy beats princess 2 : 1. I should have weighed their bags when they got back, but Emily had way more candy than Abby did.

Today Jennifer went out shopping with Abby and left me with Emily and Isabelle for most of the day. Wasn’t too much going on. Emily played in the back yard with Austin while I watched Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (which came out today) and took care of Isabelle. I’m amazed how well Emily will just go in the back yard and play all by herself. Abby will go out and be back within five minutes.

Beagle Bruises

Posted on by

The girls were on the verge of busting down the back door with anticipation this morning, wanting to go out on the play gym. Once I was at work, I called back to Jennifer to see how they were doing. She said that they had been out there for a couple hours just running around and playing. The next problem is containing all of the sand which is starting to get tracked into the house. Also, the girls are complaining that Austin is playing too rough. He will run around and nip at their heals while they run away giggling. Their only escape is to climb up into the play gym. Today’s picture is from last week when Austin was playing too rough with Abby and scratched her neck. Emily is not injured, but because Abby had a band aid, Emily had to have one too.

I read today on my friend, Tom’s, blog that one of his stories was quoted in a news article. He had a rant about how CNN was blowing the hurricane coverage out of proportion and apparently the CJR Daily thought it was good enough to quote and write an article around. That’s pretty cool, but then also a little scary that all of a sudden something that you are writing in your blog is being quoted in a news article.

Beagle Puppy Jail Break

Posted on by
Reply

Rough Isabelle night last night. Jennifer was up with her most of the night and I was even called into duty a couple of times last night.

Good news: Today our fence was completed. Bad News: Austin can slide between the bars and get out of the back yard. Fortunately he’s still a growing puppy so, we just need to feed him more and that should stop his escaping.

Jennifer’s Baby Shower

Posted on by
Reply

Today the neighbors threw Jennifer a baby shower. I came home early from work to watch the kids and she walked next door for dinner and socializing. She had a great time and we received several new outfits for the baby. Jennifer is counting down the minutes until the baby arrives. She’s definitely ready. She said that it was nice to get out of the house, away from the children, and have a chance to talk with the neighbors.

Now that Abby is out of pre-school, Jennifer has been desperate to keep Abby and Emily occupied. Abby and Emily individually are good and play well. When you get them together and then throw Austin into the mix, it’s total chaos around the house.

This past weekend I picked up The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance. I was looking for a game that I could play on my GBA while sitting around the house because I haven’t had much luck making it up to my computer in order to finish Half Life. So far it has many elements which are throw back to the old Nintendo Legend of Zelda, but with better graphics.

Today’s picture is of Austin patiently waiting at the back door to go outside and potty.

Austin & Emily Potty Training

Posted on by

Sorry it’s been a while since my last entry. Long day and long nights in preparation for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the big trade show for the gaming industry. This time and finalling are the two times when I work the most. We are finally starting to see a game come together and it’s pretty exciting. Hopefully we will get a lot of press at E3 that I can share.

At home, we are continuing to potty train Emily and Austin. Both are doing well, but only if you take them to their potty location. Neither one of them are very good at letting you know if they need to go. We had a pretty good milestone today in that Emily pooped on the potty for the very first time. This would have been a great accomplishment if she hadn’t have had a tinkle accident about an hour later.

Today’s picture is from our trip to the beach several weeks ago.

Lazy Dog

Posted on by

It’s been another long week at work and it’s nice to get home and have a quite weekend with Jennifer and the girls (and Austin too). We are getting close to E3, so we are scrambling to get pieces of the game together so that we have something to show off.

Today Jennifer went to get her haircut at the RDV Sportsplex. They have a giant kids area that you can leave your children in while you go to the salon. Normally when we drop Emily off at church she throws a fit for a few seconds, but gets over it once we leave. However, when Jennifer dropped her off today at the RDV, she just took off to go play. It’s amazing how fast she’s growing up.

Austin is still alive in spite the girls’ best efforts. Emily picks up Austin in a bear hug and carries him around while he yelps to get let down. He’s grown quite a bit in the past couple of weeks since we’ve gotten him. He’s definitely our dog. He lounges around the house quite content on doing nothing all day.

Not a Good Day for Emily

Posted on by
1

You could tell it wasn’t going to be a good day for Emily right from the beginning. This morning when she got up she was crying at every little thing that happened. She likes to ride around the house while sitting on her bus and elephant toys. The string for the elephant toy was tangled in the wheel and she would scoot a couple of inches and then just start bawling because it wouldn’t roll correctly. It wasn’t a pretty sight and Jennifer confirmed that it didn’t stop this morning, but it was an all day affair.

I finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King this past weekend. It was good to get a refresher course on the first book of the Dark Tower series. The story was much better than I remember. Last time I read it was in college and I remember it being pretty dull, but the series really picked up in the next book, The Drawing of the Three. Next, I’m going to read The Mythical Man Month, a series of essays on software development. In particular how to tame projects which are out of control. However, first I’ve been given a book by our HR department called The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus. It’s a very short book and it looks pretty stupid, but I’ll have a go. It can’t be any worse than Who Moved My Cheese?

Today’s picture is from our trip to the beach. Austin is lounging in the sun.

Poor Austin

Posted on by

Poor Austin is having to put up with the terrible twosome. Today he followed the girls up the stairs, got half way up and then tumbled all the way down. Fortunately Jennifer was at the bottom to catch him after he tumbled a couple of stairs. Later, they had him wrapped up in blankets and were rocking him in one of their doll’s baby bed. He’s constantly following me and Jennifer around the house so he can get away from Abby and Emily. Poor Austin.

Today’s picture is from yesterday’s trip to the beach. The water is cold, but that didn’t stop Abby from sitting in the waves.

Welcome to Austin

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve been pretty home sick lately. So, we’ve decided to bring Austin to us. Introducing the newest member of the French household: Austin the Beagle puppy! We wanted to bring a little bit of the stuff we missed back from Texas, so we decided to go out and find a new dog. We left our last two beagles at Jennifer’s parents’ house before we left for Orlando two years ago. Since the new baby is looking like a girl, we decided to make the dog a boy so that I wouldn’t be the only male in the house. We drove to Leesburg this morning and picked out Austin out of a group of four puppies. He was the one that came up to us and rolled on the ground right in front of me. Abby and Emily are loving Austin. They always are playing with him. Abby keeps saying, “He likes me!” Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can get him to chase the girls around the house.

Once we picked out Austin, we headed to the beach. First day away from home, and we were taking the dog to the beach. We got there and the beach has been pretty decimated due to the three hurricanes which hit us about six months ago. It was a little too cold to get into the water, so we played in the sand and flew our kite.