Happy Birthday Jack!

We love our Daddy so much! I am so blessed to be surrounded by these three guys! Jack is such an amazing dad to our boys. Colton and Caden love to wrestle with him, ride the horsey, greet him when he comes home, share his food and coffee and just love being with him! Thank you God for Jack and bless him this year and always!

Family Pics

{December 2009}

Early in December, we had a friend of a friend (Hilary Arthur ~I can't locate her information to put a link, but will as soon as I can) take some family pictures. It was a beautiful day and I think she did a great job. She was endlessly patient with Colton's 2 year old antics.  He did NOT want to pose or smile that day, but we managed to get a few good shots.

Colton cheesing it up! One of the rare smiles we got that day...

Bunny came with us, but as you can tell Colton was "over" his photo shoot by this time... Sorry Bunny, we'll have to do it again (in a couple years)! Doesn't she look beautiful?! 

Colton 2 1/2 years

Caden ~ almost 6 months and so happy all the time!

Colton's First Day of Preschool

So I have mixed feelings about calling this the first day of school...Apparently, from this photo, Caden did too. I want to save all the hoopla for his real first day of Kindergarten...but I couldn't resist showing how excited he was on Tuesday. He's going two days a week to a church Mother's Day Out just 4 minutes from our house. Yippee for short commutes! We just found out a few weeks ago that we actually made it in to a program. We were on the waiting list at some other Mother's Day Outs and I was pretty convinced we were just going to miss out. Thankfully, a new friend at church mentioned this program and they just happened to have 2 spaces open up the week I called! I think it will be good for him and he's already learned this memory verse: In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. Genesis 1:1 Sometimes, instead of Genesis, he says Jesus 1:1 :)  He also has learned the 3 rules of How to Avoid Being Naughty:
* Don't hit your brother.
* Don't yell at your brother.
* Listen to your parents.

I think I'm going to like this school just fine. It will also be good for me to spend some quality time with Caden, run a few errands with just 1 kiddo and enjoy Caden's nap time :) since his big brother decided to give up his nap this summer. He does occasionally nap - like once a week. My parents both say I am "paying for my raising" because I gave up my naps at 2 years old and gave them quite a bit of trouble at bedtime.

Colton's First Day!

We would have stood outside by the front door but it was pouring that morning!

Caden is ready to go too.

This was from Monday. Colton made a tower and was pretty proud of it. He also picked out his outfit that day, too!

First Week of School Artwork

 It really is fun watching Colton's personality develop. He is very verbal so we talk or he talks almost nonstop all day. Somtimes, my thoughts wander to my to-do list and he will tell me, "Mommy, you are supposed to be talking right now. That's what mommies do." He asks us about 50 times a day, "HOW"... He never really went through a "WHY" stage. I don't know if that's coming or if he's just more interested in the How instead of Why?? I love that he is so cuddly right now. I remember as a baby, he wasn't very cuddly and just wanted to be off exploring. Now, he will actually ask to cuddle on the couch. He likes to pretend he's a puppy and has a very cute "baby puppy" voice. He likes to think of good ideas and then will anounce, "Hey guys, I have a good idea! Let's do....."

First time helping put away the silverware. He thought it was fun at first,  but it's already lost it's magic :) 

We're tightening up on discipline around here as I've been re-reminded that NOW is the time to "Train him up in the way he should go..." Our goal for right now is listening and obeying the first time. We've gotten a little too lenient on letting him negotiate things with us and it's taking a lot of time to get simple things done. Things like "just 2 more minutes" when we ask him to do something or just having to count to three or give warnings. We want him to obey the first time he hears us without negotiation. This has resulted in several spankings over the last few days, but I think he's beginning to get it. He is coming up to me hours later and apologizing again for his discretion. That means he's thinking about it. What cracks me up, but I cannot laugh at the time, is that he totally reminds me to spank him. Today he actually thanked me after it was over even through tears :)

Still loves to read!

Ok, I've gone on and on - but I love this stage. Here are just a few more sayings I don't want to forget.

• Calls the granola bar wrapper and book jackets a suitcase. "Just leave the suitcase on, Mom" (when I hand him a granola bar) It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about :)
• "Are you not mad or fruster-ated at me, Mom?" He says this a lot which gives me a complex but I think he likes my response because I scoop him up and say, of course not, I love you!
• "Make sure my toast is squishy, Mom." In other words, he doesn't like burnt toast :)
• Call's m and m's "Lemon - m's"
• As soon as Jack gets home, he will say, "Let's go get your playclothes on, Daddy!" Then he proceeds to tell him exactly what to wear :)
• When he has a sucker, he takes the wrapper off and calls it a "sucker-mat". He's pretty neat.
• It's so cute when I do something and he says, "That's okay, Mom, it was just an accident."
• And my most favorite thing he's said lately.... is when I had to run and get something from the car and he was right on my heels, saying I'll come with you.. I told him it's ok, I'm coming right back. He looked me right in the eye and said, "I know, I just like to be with you!" Ahh- right back at you kiddo!
  

Rainy Day Part 2

We had a brief break in the rain on Wednesday and I mean brief. Everytime we went outside because we thought the rain had stopped, within 15 minutes it started again... We had a neigbor friend over for part of the afternoon and he noticed this speedracer car that Colton got for his 2nd birthday. I have been so sad because I lost the power cord and he hasn't been able to use it for about a year. Well, lo and behold we found the cord and we were able to zoom all over the driveway for about 15 minutes. They had a blast and I think Colton is just the right age now to enjoy it!

We spent a little time crawling through box tunnels.

And even though it was raining, Caden needed his shades! He loves wearing these sunglasses and smiles everytime you put him on his sweet little face.

Love this little profile! This past week also marked a special event for Colton - he started his first week of Mother's Day Out/preschool. Stay tuned...

Rainy Day Fun

Isn't God good? Rainbows always catch me by surprise and remind me of God's promise. I just think it's cool that the a rainbow was mentioned in the Old Testament and here we are thousands of years later - same God, same promise, same symbol. I'm thankful some things are unchanging!

We had two very rainy days this past week...Wednesday ended with a tornado warning so we spent a little while in our closet. The boys weren't scared at all. Colton did have a lot of questions so I just told him we were being careful just in case the winds broke a window in our house. Of course, a few minutes later, Jack piped in with a reference to the "Big Bad Wolf" blowing our house down, which thankfully Colton somehow didn't hear because that could have really caused some questions!

On Tuesday, Jack taught Caden how to use this toy, which I thought was too advanced for him and he has played with it every day since. He loves ANYTHING to do with balls and his daddy is a pretty good teacher! There were supposed to be two more pictures of rainy day fun... so stay tuned for Rainy Day part 2...