Sunday, December 30, 2012

Happy Holidays!

I am a bit behind on my blogging.  We've had some great holidays so far this year!!  2012 has been great and we're looking forward to an even better 2013!

Thanksgiving

We got to enjoy two Thanksgivings this year.  Jon's parents were planning to be in Arizona for the actual holiday so they invited all of the close family to an early Thanksgiving the first weekend in November.  It was a fun little holiday and surprisingly felt a lot like the real thing!  It was kinda weird going through the rest of November after having Thanksgiving.  It just felt like it should be over already!
Me & Jenna preparing our early Thanksgiving dinner.


Thanksgiving Day we stayed in Iowa and invited some friends over to share Thanksgiving with us.  Jared & Sarah Haslam with their daughter Camryn and Greg and Stacey Bredthaur joined us for our holiday.  It was a fun and interesting experience.  It was my first time making a turkey and despite the fact that I found the preparation of it absolutely disgusting, I think I did a pretty good job cooking the nasty bird!  It ended up being quite tasty, which is more than I can say for my fancy stuffing...  Jon called it moist croutons, it was that bad. 
My first Turkey!

That night, Sarah, Stacey, and I went Black Friday shopping at Walmart.  It was nuts!!  It was even worse considering Colton had dropped a 12 oz soda on my toe earlier in the die and I could hardly walk- seriously.  We made quite a haul with our adventure and got to observe people acting totally crazy.
Stacey and Sarah with our cart of Black Friday goods!

Stacey, Sarah, and I Black Friday shopping.


Christmas

We spent Christmas this year in MN.  The day before we were planning to leave for our vacation we had our first snow storm here in Iowa and it was a doozy!  It ended up snowing so much that we weren't even able to leave for MN when we planned because the roads were so bad.  We stayed in Iowa an extra day and had a quiet, fun evening just hanging out.  MN was lots of fun!!  Colton loved playing with his cousins and climbing in and on top of everything!  We were able to go see a couple movies over the week we were there, Jack Reacher and Les Miserables.  Both were good but Les Mis was my favorite!  (Jon's would definitely reverse his preferences!)  We also had fun going to dinner a couple of times with family, pre-christmas and after holiday shopping, sledding, and enjoying some delicious cold stone!  Yum!! 
Me and Colton helping Daddy shovel the driveway.

Such a big help!



Colton loved sledding but he didn't quite get the idea of it.  He cried every time he got to the bottom of the hill.  It was pretty pathetic :)  He wanted all the fun without the work of climbing back up the hill.





Christmas Day was great!  We didn't bring all of our presents for each other or Colton to MN but we got lots of great gifts anyway!  We gave Colton a plush rocking horse which took him awhile to get used to.  He was really nervous about it at first but ended up loving it!  Phew!  The drive home from MN was MUCH better than the way there and we were happy to get home and open the rest of our presents!  We had a great Christmas with family and can't wait til next year!
Merry Christmas!



Colton, not sure how he feels about his horse.
Be brave!
Giving the pony the old stare-down.
Finally deciding he likes his horse!  Yay!

Christmas Day in our new Deere gear!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Trunk or Treat!

Last night, 10/26/12, was our Ward Trunk or Treat.  Colton dressed as Tigger and I just threw on a wig, glasses, and Halloween shirt.  I was basically a Halloween Party!  Haha, not really but I was trying to get in the spirit of things.  We combined with the other Davenport ward for this activity so it was a bit crowded and hectic but we had a great time!  Colton did not want to sit still for one second and play any of the children's games.  He just wanted to run around and growl at people.  His new favorite thing is growling like a lion, and since he was dressed as Tigger- that worked too :)  Colton didn't really get the concept of trick or treating too well.  I had to hold his bucket most of the time.  However, he DID love all the kids and seeing all the fun costumes.  He was smiles and giggles all night!  He waved at all the people handing out candy as we left.  I have the cutest little boy ever!

Happy Halloween!
As you can see, he's struggling to get away and run around some more.

Most adorable Tigger ever!

I love my little Tigger!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Pumpkin Patch!

This last Saturday (10/20/12), we took a little family trip to Long Grove, IA to visit the Pride of the Waspi Pumpkin Patch!  (Calling it a trip is a bit of a stretch, it was only about 25 minutes away.)  The weather was beautiful and we had a fun time enjoying the crisp fall day, chasing Colton all over the place, and enjoying the fun fall festivities.  I decided that it will probably be a little more fun when Colton is a bit older and can enjoy the bouncy houses, pony rides, and other "bigger" kid activities, but it was a fun family outing.  I took Colton on the barrel train, which he loved, and we took a big wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Colton LOVES the pumkins.  He could have played in the pumpkin area of the festival all day if we let him!  He also spent some time running around in the straw bales and looking at the animals in the petting zoo.  (No way he'd ever actually touch one!)  He thought the bunnies were pretty great though and got pretty excited any time they moved.  We finished the day off with some delicious cotton candy (my favorite!) and some samples of scrumptious kettle corn. 

Waiting in line for the barrel train.


On the train! We're the 2nd to last car.

All smiles!



Wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Look at all the pumpkins!



Showing Colton the pumkins.

"Oh my goodness mom, LOOK at all the pumkins!"

Trying to hide.


Making friends with the pumpkins.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Fifteen Months, Fall, and Fun Times!

Colton is 15 months old today!  Wow!  It's crazy how fast the time goes!  I thought this would be a great day to update the blog with recent pictures and Colton's fifteen month personality! 

Colton absolutely loves playing outside.  He is a typical little boy and loves playing with sticks and testing out his limits.  He's a little daredevil and likes to run up and down hills, climb around any stairs he can find, and balance on anything he can balance on.  He even tries to come down the stairs face first, which has resulted in a few falls that freaked out his mother.  He knows how to come down the right way and is very good at it, he just likes to test out new boundaries.  He is still a picky eater and it's quite frustrating.  He'll eat anything that's not food (leaves, paper, cardboard, etc.) but when I try to get him to eat some normal healthy food, he hates it.  I guess I shouldn't say he hates EVERYTHING.  He loves fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, graham crackers, cereal, and some pastas.  It's just things like veggies, meat, rice, spaghetti, casseroles, cheese, etc. that he won't eat.  He loves getting into anything and everything.  Jon finally got me some baby proof locks on my cabinets so that has helped a lot but he still loves to pull out the pots and pans, and he especially loves playing in the lid drawer.  He loves baths and going for walks and pretty much anything that takes place outside.  He's not a very patient little boy but he does try to be good....most of the time.  

He sleeps about 11-12 hours each night and takes one 1 1/2 hour-2 1/2 hour nap each morning at about 10:30am.  He loves watching Clifford and Curious George and holding his Clifford and monkey stuffed animals while doing so.  He still loves balls of any shape or size and has a pretty good throwing arm!  His new tricks are spinning in circles, walking backwards, and walking around with blankets over his head.  It's actually pretty funny cause he will walk right into walls because he can't see them but he just thinks it's great.  He loves taking baths and he's learning to feed himself.  He is better than I thought he'd be but still super messy!  I think his absolute favorite thing to do is playing with daddy!  He gets so excited when Jon gets home from work. 

Words Colton says: Ball, shoes, baby, mama, dada, down, up, no, yes, hi, hello

Things he does: Point to his belly and ears when asked where they are, go get his shoes when asked, go get clifford when asked, go to the stairs when we say "upstairs", go to the door when we say "outside", give kisses, talk on the phone

His favorite toy.


Climbing on the porch.

He loves it outside!


Playing in the beautiful fall leaves!



And eating the leaves...


He loves his little leaf rake!
Happy bath face!

Cheese!!

Feeding himself/making a big mess.


He does love the independence of it!

One of the many things he's learned to get into.  When this bin is on it's side he'll climb up onto it and stand on it...

Helping mommy with dishes!

Yes, he put this apron on all by himself!