Let's Pway (Play)!

On Sunday, Jack's parents (Grandma and Granddad) dropped by for a quick visit and brought dinner on their way home from their Spring Break trip! It was such a nice treat! Colton had so much fun playing horsey with Granddad. Here's a short video.

After a rousing game of "Ride the Horsey," we decided to play "Ring Around the Rosy". Colton went around and insisted that everyone participate. It was quite hysterical. Jack made me promise not to post this video on the blog, but I had my fingers crossed :) I heard on the radio that adults who make time for play are less stressed and happier. Colton is doing wonders for our blood pressure!

Spring Break (March...part 3)

I am so sad that Spring Break is over. We had a great week of staying at home and enjoying friends, family and the sunshine! I wish I had gotten more pictures of the rest of the week, but here are some pictures from our fun day at the zoo.

We decided to stay away from the huge crowds at the Dallas and Ft. Worth zoos and headed to the Gainesville Zoo (Frank Buck Zoo). I remember visiting there when I was young (we lived in Gainesville when I was in the 1st or 2nd grade). I had a beloved t-shirt about an elephant that survived a huge flood by hanging onto tree limbs with her trunk. I looked her up on wikipedia and found her story. I copied it here because it was so bizarre:

Another flood brought Gainesville into the national spotlight when, on September 21, 1981, the Trinity River flooded much of the town, including the local zoo. The Frank Buck Zoo, named for famed zookeeper Frank Buck, lost more than forty animals that day. The one that garnered the attention and love of the world was Gerry the elephant. Named Gerry II after the zoo's original elephant, Gerry managed to survive the flood, after being swept down river, by hanging on to tree limbs with her trunk for 36 hours. At the worst of the flood, the only part of her body that was not submerged was her trunk. Since the flood Gerry (now known as Sissy) has remained in the spotlight off and on. Completely afraid of water (and who wouldn't be after that) there was an attempt to breed her at the Fort Worth Zoo in the 1980s, but that didn't work out. In 1997, she crushed a zookeeper against the doorway of her barn enclosure at the Frank Buck zoo. While details around the death are still shrouded in mystery, zoo officials labeled her as a problem animal and shipped her off in the middle of the night to avoid protests from the community that had come to love her over the years. After leaving Gainesville, she was sent to Houston Zoo and then El Paso. She made headlines again when video footage of her arrival at El Paso was leaked to media outlets. The footage showed zookeepers beating Gerry with clubs for over an hour. The zookeepers never really explained why they did what they did to her. Thankfully, Gerry/Sissy was sent to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, where she resides at the present time. Gerry turned 40 on Dec. 1, 2008

Anyways, I digress. The Frank Buck Zoo was really good. It's just the right size to see in about an hour and has a great park next door with a train ride. We spent Wednesday night with Bunny (it was her spring break, too) and then headed to Gainesville on Thursday after lunch at Chic-fil-a. I thought C-man would nap on the way there, but of course he didn't. I was worried this would make for a grumpy trip, but he did great!


Colton looking at the goats and ducks in the petting area. We "unleashed" him here since it was contained, but the monkey backpack turned out to be a great thing as he enjoyed walking most of the way! I think he would have stayed in his stroller, but all the exhibits were hard for him to see way down there, so we kept having to get him out anyways to see the animals.

Mommy and her monkey-boy! I don't love this picture of me - but I do want to have a few pictures of me prego with number 2. This is me at nearly 27 weeks.

These giraffes were so funny. They kept wrapping their necks around each other like they were hugging.

Bunny and Colton!

Can you tell that Colton is running in this picture? He really has one speed... and that's fast! We had to speed walk to keep up with the leash 0r we were afraid we would drag him down. The zoo had this great wooden bridge overlooking the giraffes, camels, ostriches and zebras.

He really enjoyed the goats.

Looking at the bear.

Playing at the park after the zoo. Bunny got Colton an elephant shirt to wear to the zoo. He loved it and kept looking down at it and saying "el-phant"? I've got to get him on video making his elephant sound. It is really cute!

Having a snack and a rest after walking over the huge bridge.

It was a great outing and Colton was a trooper! He did finally fall asleep on the way home and had a 30 minute nap. I'm glad to know he can survive missing naptime. We just don't plan to make that a habit. Thanks Bunny for such a fun day!

Colton and Daddy

I know - 3 posts in one night! I'm about to go to bed but I wanted to post this cute video of Jack and Colton wrestling. Colton LOVES when Daddy comes home and can hardly wait to play or rather attack him. I love watching Jack with Colton! He is the greatest dad to Colton and most wonderful husband to me!

This video is really from February.

March....part 2

Colton got to stay at Bunny's house overnight last Friday. Bunny cooked a delicious roast and had Zach and April over too. Once we put Colton to bed, we all stayed up and played "Apples to Apples" and "Imagineiff"...It's funny because we played the exact same games with Jack's fmaily last weekend to celebrate Brittany's 18th birthday. After the games, Jack and I headed home and left Colton with Bunny. It was so nice to sleep in on a Saturday! Thanks Bunny!

Laying on Lovey!

Two weekends ago, Papaw surprised us by coming over to work in our yard. He was just going to mow and add some mulch, but ended up replacing an entire section of rotted fence. We were out of town visiting Jack's family so he really surprised us! We came home Sunday afternoon to find him at our house and Colton was so excited to see Papaw and his truck! It was really hot and I couldn't find any shorts for Colton so I just left him in his shirt and diaper. Here he is "helping" Papaw! He loved spreading the mulch everywhere!

Playing at his water table.

This is a song by Carolyn Arends. I posted it back when I was pregnant with Colton and wanted to share it again for our 2nd little miracle. Life truly is sacred and we are so excited to meet this little boy that God is forming.

Psalm 139

I run to the cleaners

Stop by the bank

Pick up some groceries

Gas up the car

Same old routine

EXCEPT Now all of it's sacred

Charged with wonder

Every breath is for two

YOUAre being knit together

Here in my womb.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me...Too lofty to obtain.

So I run to the cleaners

And I stop by the bank

Afraid and in awe...

Everything's different

Because even this moment

You are being fearfully, wonderfully made.

March...part 1

Our little man turned 20 months old on March 12. We love him more and more with each passing day and are so thankful for his little spirit! He keeps us very entertained and very busy! It's amazing what he retains from day to day. He's like a sponge. He's starting to wake up asking for the toy we played with the night before and falls asleep talking about his day.

Our sweet brown-eyed angel boy!

All dressed up and no place to go... The boy knows how to accessorize. I know I need to get out Jack's ties too, but he seems to find my stuff first.

A serious moment in the tub at Bunny's house. Love that little face!

More Randomness

Colton's first of many stream wading experiences.

I love watching his face when he's reading a book. He gets really excited about his books especially if they are about animals.

Could I be any cooler?

Randomness

I just figured out how to download pics from my iphone to the blog...So here are a few of my favorites.

Brad & Kate (our good friends and awesome real estate agents) & Jack enjoying a little Starbucks back in January. We had a fun night on the town sans kiddo. We went to see an early movie, (Valkyrie - I give it 8/10 stars), ate dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse at Firewheel (9/10 stars - their pineapple is my favorite!) and then topped off the night with some coffee. It was fun to stay out late for a change! Thanks Bunny for keeping Colton that evening.

More Mohawk Cuteness!

Colton and I took a walk a few Saturdays ago and turned down a street we usually don't take. Lo and behold there was a PINK pony waiting for us. Colton was way excited! We watched the pony for a while and then out walked a baby cow and donkey. Pretty exciting stuff for our neighborhood.

All boy! We went to Breckenridge Park last week to meet Bunny and Colton immediately found the water! At first I wasn't thrilled that he was soaking his shoes and pants but then I couldn't resist his joy in that moment! He loved getting his feet wet and we even saw some baby fish along the way.

18 and 19 months - "Faces of February"

The "I just woke up/bed head" face.

The "Look of Concentration" face

The "It's Hard Being a Rockstar" face.

The "Too Cool for School" Face

The "I love Elmo on TV, but up close he's a little scary" face

The, "angelic, did I just make a mess" face. We received this wonderful stool from Aunt Paige and Uncle Doug for Christmas. It's called a Kitchen Helper and Colton has really enjoyed being able to "help" Mommy cook.

Can't see his sweet face here, but I thought this was a cute pic. Colton LOVES his Little People and Animals. We play with them almost everyday.

Colton also loves our shoes and pretty much everyone's shoes. Dad's shoes are a little too hard to walk in right now, so Mommy's will have to do. Pretty cute!

This age is so much fun. Here are some of the things I want to remember about 19 months:

• Repeats everything we say!
• Starting to understand joking.
• Loves to wrestle with Daddy. And I mean this kid can wrestle. Please do not show him any type of professional wrestling on tv. We don't know where he learned his moves, but it's a little scary.
• Such a big helper. Knows how to pick up his toys and can throw his diapers away in the trash. He also can water the flowers all by himself. One evening his daddy and him were playing toys. I called them in for dinner and Jack came right away. However; Colton stayed behind and picked up all his toys before coming to dinner! I hope this trait sticks around forever!
• Adds an e to some of his words: "sun-e" instead of sun.
• Reminds us to pray before dinner. Sometimes we pray twice because he will stop us in the middle of dinner and say "Pway?" How can we resist? Starting to put his hands together and bow his head.
• LOVES his little "an-mals". He can identify a giraffe, lion, zebra, gorilla, hippo, snake, puppy, cat, bear, fish, horse, penguin, frog, cow and a few others. He can say most of them but we're still working on the sounds. Most everything says "roar" or "moo".
• Becoming a very good eater. However; I'm afraid we've created a monster with ranch dip. Our dr. told us to add butter or dip with everything since he needed to gain a little more weight. Now, Colton can barely have a meal without "dup" as he calls it.
• Oh, and the reason his shirt is off in several of these pictures is that he insists on not wearing a bib at meals lately. Thus, we end up shirtless!

We love you little man!

My Little Valentine

Happy Valentine's Everyone!

I've been informed that the grandparents are getting a bit anxious for more pictures on the blog so here are a few recent ones! Also, here's just a little bit of what we've been up to lately and why I haven't been a better blogger:

• Our house is officially on the market. We are hoping to move a little closer in to the city and our church, jobs and friends. We haven't started looking for a house yet since we want to see if we can actually sell our house. Prayers are welcome!
• My 1 year old camera will only take video not pictures :( I finally dug out my old digital camera and have been making do with that.
• Facebook (enough said)...
• Showers, showers and more showers to plan and host for sweet friends.

This is the only pic I got of Colton in his Valentine's shirt. This is at his school with one of his sweet afternoon teachers, Jessica. They got to meet "Charlie" the duck after their Valentine's party. Colton was very excited to see a real duck! I mean really excited. I thought he was going to hyperventilate. Of course I didn't have my camera when they first brought out the duck so I missed that precious moment - but it was so cute!

Colton - 1 year ago today...

Mommy and her lil' Valentine at the park! And yes, that's a lollipop in his hands. He stole it from me and I never got it back.

I don't know what this expression means - but I love it!

Colton loves to play peek-a-boo and cracks up because he thinks we can't see him when he covers his eyes.

The park pictures were taken by our friend and now realtor, Kate. She's done a great job helping us get our house ready!

IT'S A....

Boy! Colton is going to have a little brother! We are thrilled and so thankful for another healthy little boy. Everything looks good so far. He is 12 oz and about 8.5 inches. They are sticking with June 21st as a due date so I am about 20 weeks this week. He has been kicking up a storm so I know he's anxious to get out and play with Colton! I've been telling Colton about the baby in my tummy but he just kind of looks at me funny right now. He'll figure it out soon enough! In the meantime I bought him a little baby doll for him to practice being gentle with. He's been very loving and likes to share his pacifiers with it.

I tried to get Colton saying "Brother" on video, but he only says it off-camera! Colton is also saying "Hallelujah", "Mess" and "Sorry" these days. Usually the sorry follows the mess!

I'll try to get a few sonogram pictures and belly pictures posted soon. For now, enjoy a few pictures of the big brother!

A rare look at the parents of Colton.

Colton sitting at his "big boy" table.

He has a special affinity for our vacuum cleaner (only when its off, though).

Today is also special because it's Grandma and Grandad's anniversary. Here's Colton a year ago and...

here he is today! It took a while because I had to chase him around and get the camera back but once I offered him the baby for the camera he was ready to cooperate! Hope your day was really special Grandma and Grandad! We love you!