Kaylie's Birthday Party

We had a great time at our dear little friend Kaylie's birthday party last weekend. She had a wonderful cowgirl party complete with pony rides for the little ones.

Maddie and Collin loved riding together.

Maddie got her face painted.

Collin was just being a handsome devil.

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's

These are old pictures...they were taken sometime back in December when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to decorate the Christmas tree. I found them on the camera when I decided to finally upload some pictures to the blog. I've been such a slacker lately, but I'm really making an effort to blog more this year. We have tons of awesome stuff going on all the time, I just never seem to find the time to blog about it. I really need to make more time. I love looking back at all of our posts when Maddie was little. I want to be able to do the same with Collin. So expect more blogging from me this year (hopefully)! Enjoy...

The kids love their Uncle Chris...such a big kid at heart <3

Collin was busy playing with a piece of drift wood...

...and Parker was obviously off eating something! :-)

Phone Photo Recap

I love going back and looking at the pictures taken on my iPhone every once in a while. There are always cute pictures of the kids that I had completely forgotten about and random pictures taken by Madeline that make me laugh. It’s a nice pick me up when I’m having a stressful day. The quality is never very good and the circumstances are usually nothing I would have busted out the good camera for, but they are special little moments in and of themselves that deserve not to be forgotten. I have hundreds of photos on my phone…hundreds…but I picked a few taken over the last couple of months that really made me smile. Enjoy :-)

Here's Maddie and Izzy at the Thanksgiving Feast at school. They were dressed as pilgrims :-)


Here's Collin the day after we took our family photos. About halfway through our photo session, Collin tripped and fell into the adorable little bench the kids were seated on in a few of the pictures. He scraped up the whole side of his face and was left with a horrible scab that lasted through much of the holidays. Our boy was tough though...we had to cut the photo session a little short, but still ended up with some beautiful pictures!


Speaking of beautiful, here's a copy of one of the photos I took of Maddie in my wedding dress. This wasn't actually taken on the iPhone, but I have it saved on here so I had to share. Isn't she just stunning??!?! We will hold onto this for her wedding day.


Here's our dear friend from the North Pole, Chippy! The kids looooove Chippy. "Chippy" was one of Collin's first words. Although he returned to the North Pole on Christmas, he still makes an occasional visit to congratulate the kids on major accomplishments. He stopped by the other day to let Maddie know how proud he is that she has slept in her bed for 15 days straight!


Maddie was awarded Student of the Month for November 2011. We are so very proud of her. Unfortunately, Maddie's teacher failed to inform us that she was being presented with the award on the day of the assembly, so we missed the whole thing :-/ We were devastated and I still haven't forgiven her teacher.


Ahhhhhh...soooo relaxing! Mads and I stopped off on our way home from her last day of school before Christmas break to get a pedicure. We love mommy-daughter dates!


This is us at the Redlands Christmas Parade. Horrible picture...I guess the flash decided not to go off and it was far too cold and windy to attempt another photo. We had a blast at the parade. It was a special treat when daddy was able to walk down and meet us on duty. The kids loved it. We’ve gone to this parade every year since Madeline was born. It’s kind of like a Christmas tradition for us now.


Here is Mackena...the Cabbage Patch Doll Maddie got for Christmas from Grandma & Grandpa. She takes this doll EVERYWHERE...sleeps with her every night, eats with her, etc.



I have about 50 pictures like this on my phone every month. Maddie is a very artistic photographer :-/



I also have lots of these...she takes snapshots while she's playing her kids games. Always makes me smile :-)




My kids miss the beach...I caught them sitting in the sand on their sand and water table a couple weeks ago.


Here's Chris and I enjoying yesterday's 49ers game. So bummed they lost...next year, I guess!


Cheers to the lost iPhone photos!!! You will not be forgotten :-)

December ALREADY?!?!?!?!

Wow! So it has been three months since my last post!!! - __- What a slacker! Lots has happened over the past three months so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures to sum it all up!

Collin turned ONE! He is such a handful...such a BOY! He's got the sweetest little personalty. He's mischeivious but sweet, naughty but cute...it's a dangerous combination! He is still our best eater. The plate of food he devoured on Thanksgiving was incredible. He talks a lot...can say/sign several things now. His favorite movie is Rio and he sings "Riiiiooooo Riiiiooooo"...it's incredibly cute! He also sings the grumpy old troll song from Dora. He makes a lot of goofy sounds...I guess it's a boy thing. He loves dogs and birds. Here are a few pictures of our big ONE year old BOY:







Madeline is just such a BIG girl! She is loving her preschool program at St. Adelaide and is just adorable in her little uniform. We've been super busy with Halloween parties, Thanksgiving Feasts and now getting ready to celebrate Christmas! Maddie is still our little entertainer and I just love listening to her sing. She's got so much passion and emotion :-) Our big girl also learned to ride her bike without training wheels this month! She picked it up so quickly...we were amazed! Looks like someone may be getting a big girl bike from Santa this year ;-) Here are a few pictures and videos of our Mads:

10 months and counting...

We are smack dab in the middle of Collin's 10th month of life and are amazed at the fact that he will be ONE in six short weeks. I'm already brainstorming ideas for his big Halloween Birthday Bash and can't wait! I love the fact that I have a Halloween baby. Collin has really started communicating with us over the past 2-3 weeks. He now says Mama, Dada, Baba, Sissy, bye-bye, more, and ball. He waves hello and goodbye, signs "all done" when he is finished eating and shakes his head no when he disapproves of something. He still eats like a little piggy and I have yet to find a food he does not like...he eats EVERYTHING...even spinach! Maddie could take a few pointers from her baby brother as far as veggies are concerned :-/ He has started taking a few steps here and there, but crawling is still his prefered method of getting from point A to point B...I am absolutely FINE with this. His favorite thing to do is climb. A couple weeks ago, he climbed out of his crib in the middle of the night.... He loves stairs, steps, boxes, chairs...pretty much anything he can get on top of. He loves being outside...LOVES it. I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can let him play outside more frequently. He is limited to mornings and evenings with our current 100 degree weather. Sissy started school last week, so Collin has been geeting a lot more one-on-one time with mommy. I think he misses his sister, but I know he likes the extra attention he gets when she is not here. He also likes having free reign over all the toys in the playroom.

Happy 10 months buddy! We love you to pieces....

Mommy, Daddy & Mads :-)

Recap!

Wow, I’ve really slacked off lately! I’d like to say that it is just because we have been so overwhelmingly busy and not because I’ve been lazy, but it’s sort of a combination of both. I’ve actually been really sick for about a week so that’s where the lazy comes in. However, the past month or so has been really crazy too. We’ve had injuries, vacations, softball tournaments, out of town visitors, and a certain someone turned 9 MONTHS OLD…how the heck did that happen so quickly? It’s been a wild ride and we’ve enjoyed every second of it, but I’ve just had no time to sit and blog about it. I’m seizing an opportunity right now…while the kids are with Nanna and Poppy and I should be resting...

I’ll start with the injury…I was sure that Collin would be the first child in our family to have a bloody injury, but Maddie beat him to the punch! While dancing around on the couch to some catchy Fresh Beat Band tune, our little Mads lost her footing and fell smack dab into the edge of our end table. Her mouth caught her fall…in fact there are teeth marks on the table to prove it! The poor girl bit all the way through her bottom lip and pushed her upper front teeth up into her gums. Mommy was almost home from work when I got the call that she had fell…and let me tell you, that is a phone call no mom ever wants to receive. I couldn’t tell who was crying (actually I think both kids were hysterical) but it was one of those cries where you know something is seriously wrong. Daddy took her in for an emergency dental visit. She healed up fairly quickly and we are hoping she won’t lose any of her teeth, although there is a good possibility that at least one will have to be pulled at some point. Within a week, she was pretty much good as new and now (a month later) you can hardly tell anything ever happened. Kids heal so darn quickly…thank GOD!



Just three days after Maddie’s fall, we made a trip down to Orange County for the 2011 Firefighter Olympics hosted by Newport Beach Fire. We stayed at Gramma and Grampa’s house…the kids love it there, although they were a little bummed Gramma and Grampa weren’t around :-( We had a wonderful time (as always) hanging out with all the fire families. The kids had a blast. Maddie played with all the big kids and Collin sat in the dirt. Pure bliss! We made a couple trips to the beach while we were there and even made a stop at the Irvine Spectrum to ride the Ferris Wheel and Carousel (Maddie’s fave). We had a wonderful time at hospitality night at Newport Dunes. Mommy and Collin danced the night away in the sand to the awesome 80s rock band. Mads made a trip to Disneyland with Uncle Andrew and Auntie Katie. The guys won the gold medal this year and daddy played great. It was a wonderful little getaway!




The following week, we had a visit from Chris’ sisters, Carsyn and Sheridyn, from Colorado. We went back down to OC while they were here to hit the beach and go to the OC Fair. Madeline was in heaven with her aunties here to play with her. She sure is crazy about those girls! The weather could not have been more perfect for their visit and everyone got a nice tan. What a wonderful visit with two wonderful girls :-)





In the middle of all of this craziness, our little guy turned 9 months old! I still can’t believe it…he’s growing up way too fast! He still only has two teeth, but doesn’t want to eat any baby food so we feed him whatever we are eating, just cut into tiny pieces. It sure makes outings a little easier now that I can make both the kids turkey sandwiches for lunch and don’t have to worry about baby food. He is standing on his own for longer periods of time now and I’m sure he’ll be taking his first steps soon. He still drives us crazy with his obsession over the stairs. We can gate off the staircase, but the entryway of our house is marble and Collin’s favorite place to hang out is on the steps in the marble entryway. He’s taken some pretty good falls on the steps and has the bruised forehead to show for it, although he still insists on playing there. Yesterday, I bought a plastic play yard to keep in the living room so I can lock him up when I am cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. I’m going to say it is probably the best thing I have ever purchased because I can completely fence off a portion of our living room so that Collin can’t get to the entryway. I’m sure Collin would freak if I actually used it like a playpen, but it’s serving it’s purpose they way I have it set up now, so we’ll keep it! At 9 months, Collin can say “Mama” and “Dada” and he knows who is who…I actually think he tries to say “Madeline” on occasion…it sounds kind of like “Maadaaa” and he usually yells this to his sister. He is really starting to aggravate her and wants to be right in the middle of everything she is doing all the time. Since we went to the fair, Madeline’s dolls frequently play fair and she takes the time to line them all up precisely in little dollhouse chairs and whatnot which are the rides (super cute)…anyway, Collin always manages to sneak over to where she is playing and destroy her little fair setup and she gets sooooo upset. Anyone who has been to our house knows that their playroom is humongous…Collin has plenty of space to play with his own toys, but he only wants to be where Maddie is and he wants to play with whatever she has…I honestly didn’t think this would be a problem so early on.




Despite all the craziness, I really think we are the happiest we have ever been. I feel like our family is complete. The kids sure keep us busy…and frequently they drive me crazy (especially when daddy is working long stretches), but that is life and the challenging times really make you appreciate the fun times. Kids are only little for such a short period of time and you really need to enjoy these precious moments because time flies by and before you know it, they’re all grown up. I kind of just want my kids to stay like this forever…although if we could cut out the tantrums, that would be nice :-)

8 Months

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Wow! 8 MONTHS!!! I can hardly believe it. Collin sure has grown up a lot over the past 4 weeks. He is now sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG EVERY NIGHT from about 7:00 pm until 5:30 am…if he’d sleep until 6:30 I’d be the happiest mommy in the world, but beggars can’t be choosers so we’ll take it! He eats like a horse…which I’m guessing contributes to his ability to sleep all night without waking…coupled with his constant go-go-go-all-day-long nature. This kid is NON-STOP! If you looked up trouble in the dictionary, his picture would be located there. He is into EVERYTHING and is such a daredevil! Madeline doesn’t make matters any easier as she is CONSTANTLY trying to carry him around. She’s also gotten to be quite possessive with her things now that he can so easily snatch them from her. We’ve had a few altercations… As I predicted, Collin did have his first major injury injuries this past month and has the bruise bruises to show for it. He’s a tough cookie though and has yet to establish any sense of fear of anything! He is an expert crawler and cruiser and can even stand unassisted for a short time. He’s probably going to be walking soon…gasp! I’m in no hurry to meet that milestone. A month of skillful crawling and cruising has just about driven me to drink. I can only imagine the trouble he will get into when he starts walking. He really is such a joy though…he has the sweetest little personality and we just love him to the moon and back. He has a smile that will melt your heart…honest to goodness. What a joyful 8 months we have had!