What to do When You Need a Little Study Break...

...update the blog!!

Finals week is upon us and because of that I should be studying my little head off, but I need a break! I had my first final today, I think it went really well. It was one of my PTA classes and probably the most important final so I'm glad that's over and done with! I've got Human Bio tomorrow, PTA 100 and Med Term (loathe) on Wed, and Psychology on Thursday..then I'm FREE!!! Due to the end of semester business I haven't been on here in awhile (okay, who am I kidding, I get on every day to look at other peoples blogs, but I haven't had time to update my own)!

Things are going really well! Colin FINALLY started walking (after hurting his foot in Utah) last Wednesday. We had taken him in for Xrays twice, both of which came back normal and the doctors wanted to refer him to an orthopedic specialist since he still wasn't putting any weight on his foot. The day I talked to them he had actually stood on it but hadn't taken any steps and we decided to hold off for a few more days to see if he made any more progress..thank goodness-- he did! On Wed. morning I was doing the dishes and Colin was in watching tv. I heard him giggle and looked over, he was standing next to the love seat holding onto it and said "walk, hurt". I asked him if he could show mommy how he walked and he did!! I started jumping up and down, clapping my hands, and screaming "go Colin!!" (I think I might have been more excited than when he actually learned how to walk)! He kept practicing that day. At one point he said it hurt and I asked him if he wanted me to pick him up and he said no. He's still got a little bit of a limp but he's back to running everywhere and we're so happy!

Ryan painted our master bathroom last weekend and yesterday Colin and I were in the guest bedroom playing on the bed. He saw the paint pan and paint brushes (don't quite know why they're in there) and said: "paint walls, daddy. blue" He's so smart and he's picking up on sooooo many words and learning new things every day. It is so amazing and fun to watch him learn and grow! We are incredibly blessed to have him as part of our family!!

We are all ready for Christmas! We decorated last weekend too but I haven't taken any pictures because my house isn't clean and cleaning just isn't on my "approved list of things to do instead of studying"-- at least that's my excuse- so until I'm all done with classes Thursday I don't think I'll be getting to all the chores around the house!

Colin and I also went to the Santa Clause Breakfast with my Grandma again this year. It was a lot of fun and he seemed to enjoy himself; he still isn't a huge fan of Santa though...maybe next year!

With Aunt Kim at the Santa breakfast


Barney might just have been a bigger hit than Santa--not for Colin though, he doesn't know who Barney is!

I'm pretty sure I have a picture exactly like this from last year



I guess I've procrastinated long enough! Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!!

They're Only Young Once

The other day Colin and I had to run to Wal-Mart after his nap. He had on jeans and a long sleeved tools onsie. When he woke up, he saw his dinosaur PJ's sitting on his bed and wanted to put the pants on. I let him put them on after changing his diaper and then tried to convince him to let me put his jeans back on. He started crying and insisted on wearing his dino pj's. I figured, what the heck, he's a little kid and if that's what makes him happy I should let him do it! So there we were, me and Colin in Wal-Mart with a tools onesie and dino pj pants!!

-sorry, no pictures!

Thanksgiving Week

Everyone except for Ryan and Colin, who were taking a nap!

We just got home from a wonderful trip out west for Thanksgiving!! On Monday night we flew into Las Vegas and stayed at my aunt and uncles. Our plane didn't arrive until after midnight our time..you would think that Colin would have slept on the plane, wouldn't you?! Well, he didn't!! He was jumping around like a crazed maniac! He was yelling and screaming, waving to the people behind him, doing somersaults on his chair-- I kid you not! We were very fortunate because it wasn't a full flight and they allowed us to have a whole row, so at least he wasn't bugging people sitting with us! They also upgraded our tickets and gave us free live TV on the airplane which was awesome!! Needless to say we got there in one piece!!

Tuesday we were able to go visit some people we used to work with and check out our old house. A lot has changed out there and it was a ton of fun to be back. We really miss it. Ryan misses the mountains and I miss the palm trees! After hanging out in Vegas until early afternoon, my cousin drove us up to my grandma's house in Utah. We stopped in St. George on the way to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins (and mom, dad, Rach, and Ryan, who had spent the day down there).

Wednesday we hung out at Grandma's. The guys went to play basketball with a bunch of extended family while the girls (and Colin) hung around the house. We went to the playground for a little bit and just relaxed. That night everyone else got to my grandma's house.

All bundled up!


Going down the slide with Uncle Ryan


With Grandma!!


On Thursday grandma prepared a huge feast (with some other helpers)!

Andy, Mike, Josh, and Mitch digging into one of the turkeys!


My mom, dad, Colin, and I went to another park that morning. Colin hurt his ankle going down a slide--at the bottom his foot hit the slide and bent backwards...he hasn't walked on it since. We were able to move it in every direction and it didn't really get bruised or too swollen so we decided to just watch it for a couple days to see what happened.

Icing his foot and playing with grandma's moneys!


Sticking money in between his toes


That aside, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see everyone and spend time with our family. It was actually kind of nice having Colin immobile because I got a ton of cuddle time with him-- the slight downside to that was that he didn't want anybody else so if I needed a little break he wasn't too happy. That night we played a great game of Phase 10-- a staple at grandma's house-- it was hilarious. Definitely some good times. Especially when my cousin, Mitch, had issues counting his cards and asked "how much is a red one worth?"

Cuddling with Aunt Kelly while mommy played Phase 10


Friday afternoon we went back down to Vegas with Kelly and Mitch. We just hung out that morning and enjoyed visiting with people. Before we left we went to check out the "Memory Lane" of Christmas trees they have-- people who live there decorate Christmas trees for family members who have passed away. They had done a tree for both sets of great grandparents on my dad's side. My grandma had us print out pictures of our families to put on the trees- it was really neat.

Dad, Grandma, Jim, Aunt Lucille, and Kelly at the trees


Our fam! (minus Jason who's still in San Jose on his mish!)

Once we were back in Vegas we met my friend, Nicole, and her husband and baby for dinner at our favorite restaurant, BJ's. It was lots of fun and the food was great. Melodie (Nicole's baby) will turn one this week and Colin was so cute with her! When they were sitting next to eachother he wanted to give her a kiss!! Unfortunately we weren't able to get a picture of it but that's okay!!

Horrible picture of me, but cute of the babies!


When we got back to Kelly and Andy's we watched the new Star Trek movie which was really good (except I haven't seen it all because Colin was getting tired so I went to bed with him before the movie ended..oh well!)

We got home last night and decided that since Colin still wasn't walking, we should call his doctor's exchange. They told us to go ahead and take him into the Emergency Room to get X-rays, just to make sure everything was okay. Everything looks good, nothing looks broken so it's just a sprain. They advised us to give him medicine and just keep monitoring him. Hopefully he'll be up running around soon! Until that time, he has reverted back to being an excellent crawler!

Well, that was pretty jam-packed! We had an awesome trip and are so greatful for all the many blessings we have been given; especially our wonderful family. We are so glad we were able to go spend time with everyone and for the bonds that we share! We're very excited about the Christmas season that is upon us!!

Crafty Me

I'm really not crafty at all but sometimes I get these ideas in my head that I just have to do!! Granted, this is definitely probably one of the most simple "crafts" someone can do but I think it's fun anyway!! I decided that it would be really cute to make Colin a turkey shirt for Thanksgiving. Of course I had to make it out of his own hand! I got a shirt at Wal-Mart the other day and we used my mom's paints. Colin was so good! I think he liked it when I was painting his hand all the different colors! He was really good about keeping his fingers straight and not making a fist! After we were done and I was trying to touch up on his turkey, Colin started painting his other hand with the paint brush--he's too cute!!

Hammin' it Up

Here's some pics from the last couple of days:

We went over to my aunt and uncles on Sunday to celebrate November birthday's. The weather was beautiful and they had their golf cart out. Uncle Brent took Colin for a little ride. He loves golf carts!!


When I was changing Colin's diaper after he woke up yesterday morning he took his pants off and was pointing to his swim shirt saying "pants". I told him it was a shirt and that he couldn't wear it on his legs. We went back upstairs later and he wanted to wear it again so I decided he could put it on over his long sleeved shirt. The swim shirt's a little too small--it's size 12 months-- but he didn't seem to mind! He wore it to Walgreens and over to my parents house until I finally made him take it off because I was afraid he was getting too hot!


Playing around at dinner tonight, Colin was wearing some of my sunglasses! Isn't he so handsome?!


Daddy put noodles on Colin's face!! (It all started after Colin tried to stick one up his nose...)

Our Little Fiasco

Colin and I were getting ready to go over to my parents today because Colin wanted to see Ryan. (When he woke up this morning I asked him if he wanted to go downstairs to see Belle and he said "Ryan". Then, throughout the morning he kept saying "Ryan. Car.") Anyway, he was sitting at the table eating some peaches so I thought I'd take all our bags out to the car. I was seriously in the garage for about 2 seconds. When I walked back to go into the house, the door was locked!! He's NEVER locked a door before, I didn't even think he knew how. I could hear him on the other side "mom" and I kept telling him to unlock the door because mommy couldn't get inside. I didn't have my keys in the garage with me. All I could think was that I could use a credit card from my wallet to try to break in and call my mom with my cell phone. The credit card thing didn't work out for me. I then realized that I thought there was a key to the house in the diaper bag--luckily there was!! I'm not that great with keys though! I was able to get the doorknob unlocked but couldn't get the dead bolt too--the key kept turning but the dead bolt didn't budge. I ran around to the back of the house to see if I had left the back door unlocked when I'd let Belle out earlier--I hadn't. By this time Colin was crying and trying to open the front door. My mom told me to calm down and that I'd be able to get it opened since I had the key. It finally ended up working and I was able to get inside! I guess I learned my lesson--no putting bags in the car before Colin is safely buckled into his seat!

Who'da Thunk It?

It was EIGHTY degrees today!!! Eighty degrees on November 7th! I thought we left this kind of weather in Las Vegas but apparently it followed us here! It was absolutely gorgeous! We wanted to go apple picking but as it turns out, they're out of season now. We decided to go to the park instead and take a picnic (Wendy's). It was so much fun. We ate our lunch at the picnic tables, walked down to the lake and looked at all the geese. (Geese, by the way, scare me a little. These ones seemed to be pretty nice but I have heard horror stories about geese attacks. Walking past them didn't bother me so much as when Colin was sitting at the picnic table eating a chicken nugget and 3 geese were gathered around him SALIVATING...can geese even eat chicken?!?!) Anyway, after we safely got away from the geese we went and played on the awesome playground. It was so much fun!!

Oh the Joys of Motherhood!

We're keeping my mom and dad's dog right now and I have her food and water upstairs. I was putting some dishes in the dishwasher this morning and I heard Colin go upstairs. By the time I got up there he had poored all of Lexi's food in her water and had some on the floor. We went into the bathroom to clean everything up and he dropped a bar of soap into the TOILET, which I had to retrieve with my bare hands because I don't have rubber gloves. Once that was all taken care of we went back downstairs and he dumped the whole box of goldfish onto a pizza plate. He then proceeded to somehow pull some piece of metal off of the fireplace...by that time I was at my wits end! He's lucky he's so stinkin' cute!!

The End of Our Halloween Festivities:

We went to my parents neighborhood to Trick or Treat on Saturday. It was so much fun! Colin was actually excited to put his costume on and go out! He was so stinkin' cute! He spent most of the "walking" time on my dad's shoulders. We'd get him down and give him his pumpkin when we got to someone's door.




Knocking on a door:

Elephant walking

Jack (or Mater) in action! [We brought him over to my parents house since it would be silly to light him when we weren't home to give out candy!]



On Sunday we went over to my aunt and uncles house to see my cousin's costumes and the extended family. Colin dressed up in his elephant one more time to show everyone! We didn't leave it on for too long though because he was burning up!

On the way over: Rock Chalk Jayhawk! (Ryan is trying to teach Colin how to say Jayhawk--he usually just says "hawk")

He likes wearing the bead necklaces!

Tow-Mater Pumpkin

We carved our pumpkin this morning. We decided to carve it like Mater from Cars. Colin loves any cars right now and I thought it would be way cute! I drew the picture on the pumpkin and Ryan carved it. When he was finished Colin pointed at it and said "Car". He has a Cars placemat so I showed it to him and asked if he knew which one his pumpkin was. He pointed to Mater!! We're going Trick-or-Treating in my parents neighborhood tonight so we'll take our Mater pumkin over there.

Halloween's so much fun this year since Colin can walk! Last year he didn't even go Trick-or-Treating because he fell asleep at 6:30. He LOVES candy, especially lollipops (he calls them 'pops'). Stay tuned for more Halloween photos!

We tried to get a good picture of Colin holding his Cars placemat next to his Mater pumpkin...That didn't work out! Mostly because our camera has the worst delay ever and every time I try to take the picture it takes about 30 seconds. If you know Colin, you know he won't stay still that long! Here's a preview of our pumpkin though! We'll take some more tonight when he's all lit up!

Trunk Or Treat

We had our ward Trunk or Treat last night. It was a ton of fun. We were a little worried Colin wouldn't wear his costume because every time we show it to him he cries! We were able to get it on him before we had dinner but he took it right off. My parents came up to the church to see him and wanted to see his costume. We put it back on and he actually left it! I think he had a lot of fun trunk or treating! He looked so cute all dressed up, holding his little pumpkin! I would tell him to hand his pumpkin to people so they could put candy in it! We're way to excited to Trick or Treat tonight!

Our first attempt at putting the elephant on:



With Grandma and Grandpa (Ma and Pa)


Don't you love his elephant butt? He looks so big walking around Trick or Treating!

Dear Daddy:

Happy Birthday. I hope you had a good day. I love you very much. Thank you for always playing with me! You are fun. I am sorry I kicked you where it counts today- I did not mean to! I love you!

Love,
Colin

P.S. Here is my funny face for you!

The Phantom of the Opera!!

Yesterday we took my parents to see The Phantom of the Opera!! I was so excited and have been counting down the days until we went! I'd never seen it before but it's my grandma's favorite and my family has the CD so I know all the songs (and love them)!

Originally we were going to surprise my parents but I was too excited and couldn't hold it in that long. I figured I could tell my mom since we'd have to discuss dates anyway! We decided to go ahead and surprise my dad. For the past few weeks he's been trying to get it out of us but we never told him. When we showed up to their house yesterday to pick them up I was looking for the CD and my dad goes "What are you looking for?" I said "nothing" and he said "it's already in there," meaning it was already in the CD player..apparently he had figured it out! *We gave him a hint that it was something inside and my mom told him he couldn't wear jeans so apparently he figured it out yesterday morning and put the CD in trying to get a reaction from my mom.

We had so much fun..Ryan kind of thinks it might not be his cup of tea but he did enjoy himself. I loved it. There were a couple parts where it was hard to understand what they were saying but I think the music is absolutely beautiful!!

Fun in the Sun!

It's not that sunny but we deal with what we've got! For a few weeks it didn't even feel like we'd experienced fall. It was either in the 80's or down in the 60's. I wanted 70's! Oh well! A couple weeks ago it was pretty nice and not too cool so Colin and I decided to play outside. He loves playing with his lawn mower and he also loves playing with his car. Playing with his car usually consists of him getting in and sitting there, then getting out of it and pushing it from behind.




Last week was pretty cold so I decided to let him bring his car inside to play rather than going outside. He was so excited! Ryan took the car back to the garage during Colin's nap, thinking he would forget about it by the time he woke up. That definitely did not happen! As soon as we came downstairs Colin scanned the house, looking for his car, and immediately started crying. He ran to the garage door and said "Har, Har"!

Everything else is going well here. Ryan just went on his first business trip. He had to go to Baltimore for a conference. He left Sunday morning and got back this afternoon. I think he enjoyed it, although he says he couldn't do it all the time because he missed us and was pretty bored. While he was gone Colin and I (and Belle) went to my parents. It made more sense to just stay there rather than have to take him over in the morning or have my mom come to our house in the morning. It was fun!

School's going really well. I still love it (minus 1 class- Medical Terminology, but I'm not getting into that)! I don't know how but somehow I've been able to balance everything and get all the things that I need to done! I'm very excited for mid-December though because I can't wait to have 1 month off!!

Happy Birthday, Belle

Belle's birthday was Oct. 11th. We continued our tradition of giving her ice cream on her birthday. This year she got Edy's drumstick ice cream--delicious!! We even put a milk bone in there for her "candle". She enjoyed it!

Pumpkin Pickin'

A couple weekends ago we went and got our Halloween pumpkin for this year! We haven't carved it yet because I don't want it to get all shriveled so we'll probably wait until the week of Halloween to do it. Here's some pics from the Pumkin Patch!





Colin's Jack-O-Lantern binky is a HUGE hit everywhere we go! My aunt gave it to him last year and we pulled it out on October 1st. He LOVES it!! If he sees it and already has another binky in his mouth, he'll spit it out so he can have his Jack-O-Lantern!