Christmas!

Our Christmas this year was busy!  Thinking back on Christmas past, I don't remember having so much to do in one day!  We woke up around 9 (Collin had a late night because of a cold and slept in.) The night before I was wrapping presents in our room, and Collin caught me.  So he'd already seen the presents he was getting.  When I got him out of his crib Christmas morning, he said "Buzz? Buzz?"  He remembered that he got to play with Buzz today, because that's what I told him.

We first made a big breakfast.  And then finally got around to opening gifts.  Collin was SO fun this year.  He was excited about tearing paper off of gifts.  When we'd ask him what it was, most times he'd say "Box".  Too funny!  We would have Collin open one or two, but then he'd get distracted and want to play with those, so then Greg and I would open a couple.  It went really well.  I think Greg won the "gift-off" this year.  He did WAY better for me, than I felt I did for him.  Some of the highlights:  I got a frame to help us remember our anniversary this year, a deep fryer and a cricut.  Greg got outfitted for work: shoes, socks, shirt, tie & cufflinks.  Collin got a talking Buzz Lightyear, some cars, books, and pjs.  We had church at 1, but Collin's nose was really starting to run, and he was getting cranky, so we put him down for a nap instead.

He was really excited to see Buzz Lightyear.

I made the pillow Greg is laying on.  He was always stacking whatever soft things he could find to play his game, so I came up with this idea.

Collin getting into the unwrapping.

A popcorn popper!  Just what I wanted!

Greg's parents sent us a Sega Genesis.  We were shocked...and excited!

 After Collin's nap (which we had to wake him up from...) we headed down to my parents house to open gifts with them.  My mom's family still all gets together, and that was supposed to start at 5:30.  But with Collin's nap, we didn't get down to my parents til 5:30.  We opened our gifts there, and then headed over to my Aunt Michelle's house for the extended family gathering.  It was crazy!  Then we got back home kinda late, and so Collin went down late again.

Collin LOVES the Mickey phone and Toy Story sticker book he got from Grandma and Grandpa

Collin helping Greg open a gift while Cassie and Grandpa watch.

Grandma & Grandpa got Collin a talking Woody, so now Collin has the set.  He LOVES them both.

My mom's extended family listening to my Grandpa tell us why he loves Christmas, and how blessed he is with all of his wonderful kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.

Collin and Kimball watching Winnie the Pooh.  Kimball is only 3 months younger than Collin.  They're buddies.

The next morning we ALL woke up sick.  Collin and I had full-blown colds, and Greg had a stomach bug.  Greg recovered within 24 hours, but I got worse.  Collin is doing better, but has a cough and runny nose.  Lets just say sleeping hasn't gone that great around here.  Also, Collin just loves all the new toys.  He fights going to sleep because he just wants to play with all his fun new things!

It was a good Christmas; a busy, but good Christmas.  When we were talking about how fun it was to have Collin so excited, Greg mentioned that from now on we will always get to have that excitement around Christmas time; the excitement and innocence that comes with little children.

I love this time of year for all the joy it brings.  I love remembering my Savior and his humble mother.  I love seeing and sharing that love that our Savior has for us.  It is so abundant this time of year, and it warms my heart to see it and hear of it.   

Merry Christmas!

Some things in Decemeber

December is always a whirlwind.  There is so much going on with parties, and birthdays, and shopping.  This is the worst I've done for Christmas shopping.  I'm usually done around the 15th, but I still have some things that I need to get!

So before Christmas and New Years I just wanted to post a couple other things we've been up to.  My brother's birthday is the 13th, and the family came to our apt for pizza.  Collin was being a ham, and trying to entertain everyone.  It was too funny!

Collin fell down, and said "boom!" to get a laugh.

Then Greg was in charge of the company Christmas/holiday party.  It was luau themed, and he had tons of good helpers.  The food was delicious!  We got to build a beach themed gingerbread house, and watch some pacific island dancers, and there was a hypnotist.  The dancers were by far my favorite part.  They were a group of students from UVU, and they were awesome!  The dancing was fun, but mostly their attitude and presence really made it great.

Our tables gingerbread house.

And finally Collin's stats:  He's average height, just below average weight (like barely), and then above average for head size.  He's not fully talking yet, but we've seen tons of progress in the last six months.  I asked the doctor about it, and he said its not something to worry too much about.  Collin loves doing puzzles, and playing with trucks and cars.  He LOVES popsicles and cookies.  He enjoys watching "shows", especially Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and any of the Toy Stories.  He is entertained for hours with stickers.  He will stick them to the couch, then move them to the floor, then to his shirt, and so on.  He likes playing outside and being independent.  He likes going to nursery while they play with toys, but when they put them away he's not as thrilled.  (Also, nursery is during nap time, so I think the toys distract him, and then when they put them away he realizes how sleepy he is.  Only one more week of one o'clock church...)  He loves to dump out containers and then put the objects back in so that he can dump them back out again!  He is also an expert climber.  And gives pretty great kisses, complete with the "mwah" sound at the end.  He's really into how things work and go together.  He just tried to replug the camera into the computer after he saw me unplug it.  And he probably would have gotten it figured out if I hadn't stopped him.  That's our quirky little guy.  Boy oh boy do we love him!

Nanny & Papa sent Collin some bath-water-color-changing-tablets and the foam shapes that stick on the wall.  He loves both of them!

My little 2 year-old!

Party, party PARTY!

For Collin's birthday this year we decided to stay at a hotel.  We wanted to invite quite a few people to his party, but our apartment isn't big enough to house all of those people.  Plus, this hotel has an indoor water park!  And as we all know, Collin LOVES to swim.  I made his invite at picnik.com and we emailed it out 2 weeks early.

Come the day of the party, and we're running late.  Greg's been SUPER busy these past few weeks, and he thought he'd be fine taking a half day, but too many things piled up and he got home just before 4:30.  The party was supposed to start at 5, and I still was trying to get some last minute things done.  Collin knew something was up, and was more needy of my time and attention, therefore I didn't get enough done.

We arrived at the hotel just after 5.  We'd told everyone to text/call us when they got there so we could let them in, and we hadn't gotten any calls yet, so I figured we were fine.  We finally got settled in our room at about 5:15 and still hadn't heard from anyone.  We debated whether we could fit everyone into our hotel room, or if we should stake out the breakfast room.  We decided that probably not everyone would show up, so we'd be fine in our room.  I started setting up and Greg took Collin down to swim.

At 5:50 pm I was starting to wonder if I'd put the wrong time on the invitation, as we still hadn't heard from anyone except my family, which we knew were going to be late.  I went down to the pool and took pictures of my two boys swimming so we'd at least have something to remember the swimming from.  Finally, at about 6:10 I got a call from my friend.  She apologized and said she had read the invitation wrong and thought the whole party started at 6:30.  They were on their way, though.  I then wondered if that's what everyone had done. 

They were the first ones to show up and decided to eat before swimming.  My brother, Lewis showed up shortly thereafter.  The problem was, my family still wasn't there and they had half of the dinner.  Finally they showed up around 6:50 along with Greg's sister's family.  I guess there was a Grizzlies game that night at the E-center, and that made traffic getting to the hotel horrible.

The party was in full swing!  We ate and chatted in our hotel room.  Then my friend and her girls went swimming.  Our other friends showed up, and we opened presents.  Then Greg, Collin, and the nephews went swimming as well.  I stayed with my family in our hotel room to chat, but not for long.

When Greg brought Collin back to the room just before 9, I could tell Collin was getting sleepy.  We changed him, and then chatted with Greg's sister's family for a while.  After they left, Greg got Collin's bed ready.  He took the mattress out of the sofa bed, and pinned it between the wall and the sofa.  Collin and I crawled in to read stories.  Then I soft-tickled (scratched) his arms and legs until he fell asleep, which was surprisingly quick.  Maybe he's getting used to sleeping in hotels!  He was out, and only woke once during the night, but he put himself right back to sleep.

We had plans to swim again in the morning, but we were both exhausted from the day before, so opted not to.  Breakfast was provided by the hotel, and I wouldn't even mention it, except it was AMAZING for a free breakfast.  There was biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, waffles, fresh pancakes, and then the usual stuff.  I have to say, with this breakfast and a mini-waterpark for a pool, I bet we'll be staying there again.

Here's the pictures:

Greg and Collin swimming before everyone showed up.

 

Going down the slide (with an impatient wait-er in the background, hehehe!)

Collin was kicking his legs and paddling his arms.

Part of the group hanging out in our hotel room!

Uncle Eric and Uncle Chris won Collin over with this noise-making truck.

Aunt Cassie helping Collin figure out his two puzzles.

Uncle Dave explaining how to open a present.  Collin just liked pulling a piece off and then playing with that piece.

Collin munching on cheetoes and chips.

 

Buzz!!  He was excited!

Chris, Greg and Eric

My dad went down to check out the pool and snapped this photo of Collin and his cousin Chase playing.

I think Collin had a blast, and he was definitely spoiled!  Gosh I love that little guy!  Dr. appointment next week, so then I'll post his stats.

November?

Wow!  I just let November get away from me!  My good friend has a  birthday near the beginning of the month, so I spent that time trying to decide what to get her, and then making it.  I made her an apron.  I'm pretty proud of it, so here it is:

Collin is getting more...adventurous?  mischievous?  experimental?  I was checking something online, and I couldn't hear Collin playing anymore.  I found him behind a pile of blankets on the futon with a blue pen.  His legs were covered in blue marks and so was the futon.  I scrubbed him in the tub, but he still had faint blue lines on his legs.  The ink came out of the futon with our stain remover.  Oh, toddler boys :)

Collin's hair was getting long.  It was time for hair cut.  We put a show on and strapped him into his chair.  He would try to dodge away from the clippers.  And with him being in his chair, it was hard to get the back.  But we finally got it done.  He looks so much more like a little boy with short hair! 

Pre-hair cut.  This picture is actually pretty awesome.  Collin RARELY looks at the camera when a picture is being taken.

Check out that mullet!

All done (and finishing the show he was watching.)  Boy this kid can focus, when he wants to!

That's it for November.  We went out shopping for Black Friday, and got a few deals.  Then I was planning and working on Collin's birthday party.  That's our November!

Halloween!!

The week before Halloween we went to a local pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins for us to carve.  It was getting late and it took Collin a while to go to bed that night, so we didn't end up carving them.  And then we either forgot, or something came up the rest of the nights.  Our beautiful pumpkins are STILL sitting on our porch, uncarved.  Here's the pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch:

Collin and Greg with our wheelbarrow and Collin's pumpkin.

Collin, his pumpkin, and Greg's pumpkin.  

Greg and Collin found Becca's pumpkin.

I'd been hunting for really good deals on costumes since July, but I didn't find "THE" deal.  In late August, the company Greg works for had a party.  It was a 70's/disco theme, and we wanted to dress up.  The day before the party we went to Saver's (a thrift store) to see if we could find anything that looked 70's.  We found some stuff that would work, but spent $50 on both of our costumes.  So after that, we decided that we'd reuse the costumes for Halloween.  I decided to make Collin's costume, and a few things to complete Greg's costume.  I couldn't find any patterns for a 70's costume, so I made my own.  It was tricky, but I really had fun with it.  Collin's pants were purple flare cords, and his shirt is fully lined (for warmth) and has the 70's winged collar.  It turned out great!  I made both of the boy's vests, and a headband for Greg and me.

We didn't do anything special for Halloween besides dress up.  Earlier in the day, Greg took Collin to work for their Trick-or-Treating.  Collin had a blast!  He could run around and the people gave him candy!  We went outside to take some pictures when they got back, but that's all.  And we only got 2 trick-or-treaters so we have a whole (well now it's more like 1/2 full) bucket of candy.  Here's the pictures:

It took a few tries to get a good picture.  Collin just wanted to run around.

Hee Haw Farms

 Greg's car died.  It's been out of use for over a month so Greg's been driving my car to work.  This leaves me and Collin at home without a car.  Honestly, I thought it would be worse.  It really hasn't been too bad.  Yes there are days when I've needed/wanted to run to the store or do some other errands, but those don't happen too often.  I have, however, been starting to feel "stuck" (one of Collin's favorite words).  So when my brother went out of town and offered his car to me for the weekend, I was stoked!  

Since we had wheels, we decided to use them and Collin and I went down to Pleasant Grove to Hee Haw Farms.  We met my mom, sister and brother there.  There was TONS to do and we all enjoyed it.  We played in the corn pit, and took pictures of Collin on the tire swings.  Collin's favorite game was throwing a corn stub (you know, the cob without corn on it...) through boards with holes in them.  There were probably seven or eight boards and he tried all of them.  We went on a hay ride and navigated our way through the corn maze.  We got some popcorn, cotton candy and caramel apple chips.  Oooh, let me tell you about those.  We devoured them, so no pictures.  They cored and thinly sliced an apple.  Then topped it with caramel, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles.  It was delicious!  Then we went down the slide...where I bruised my tailbone.  There was a large bump at the bottom, and I had Collin on my lap.  You can't really control your speed, unless you were to drag your hands (which mine were holding Collin).  So we hit that bump, and I felt it immediately.  My brother, David, took Collin down again but they did fine.  OH, and I forgot my camera!  I guess I was too excited about the car.   So all we had were phones.  I guess at least we had those.  Here's some pictures: 

My brother, David, me and Collin on the hay ride.

Collin didn't really like the corn pit.

Collin peeking through one of the boards where he through his corn stub.

Swinging on a tire swing.  They were made into fun shapes.  I think this one was a horse.

Collin riding on David's shoulders through the corn maze.

Traverse City & Sleeping Bear Dunes

For our 4th Anniversary we decided to take a trip up north.  While Greg was growing up, one of his favorite places to be was Sleeping Bear Dunes.  We booked two nights at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City and went to check it out.  If you haven't been, or don't know what a Great Wolf Lodge is, check out that link.  Lets just say, we probably could have taken a vacation just to that hotel.  It's amazing!  Collin LOVED it!

Traverse City was gorgeous itself, but then 30 minutes away (with a gorgey drive between) was the Sleeping Bear Dunes.  We took the long way from Midland to Traverse City by cutting across the state to the west coast at Ludington.  Then we drove up the coast to Empire, and then across to Traverse City.  Tuesday we checked in around 6, and then suited up to check out the water park.  That's right, I said water park not pool.  It was awesome, and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Wednesday we went to the water park in the morning, and then after Collin's nap we headed over to the Sleeping Bear Dunes.  We went to the visitors center, but it closed at 4 (we were there at 4:30).  So I took a mental picture of the map posted outside, and we decided to see what we could find.  We first found the Dune Climb.  A older gentleman was sitting at the bottom brushing sand off his feet.  He said to us and we stood there looking at the dune, "It's steeper than it looks!"  We grinned, said "I bet!" and headed up.  At first we let Collin walk, but that only lasted maybe 2 minutes.  He just wanted to go to the bottom and play.  So Greg carried him on his shoulders, and we climbed to the top.  We were hoping to see out to Lake Michigan, but all we saw was more dunes.  Greg wanted to keep going, but Collin and I were done.  We turned around and headed back to the car.  And by headed, I mean we ran.  Yep, we all ran down the dune!  It was so fun!  Collin even loved that part.

Then we got back in the car and headed to the scenic drive.  Again, the entrance booth was closed, so we didn't get a map to tell us what all the pull outs were.  It was still fun and beautiful.  We were trying to hurry cause we were all getting hungry, and we knew that there probably weren't any places to eat until we were back in Traverse City.  We were right.  Then, because it was our anniversary, we wanted something different, something nice.  But most of what was open was either chain restaurants or bars.  We stumbled upon Paesaro's Pizza and each got our own 10" pizza.  We also got some Frost Top Rootbeers to go with it.  Yummy!

Thursday we had to check out.  But with booking a room, we got a water park pass for the day of check out (as well as the other days) so we wanted to take advantage of that.  However, Collin had a rough night.  Or I should say WE had a rough night.  Collin woke up at 6 am (Eastern time) and was wide awake.  It wouldn't have been terrible, except that he'd gone to sleep just before midnight.  He was up for and hour and a half, and because of that we all slept in, til 10:45.  Check out was at 11.  Whoops!  Greg went to talk to the front desk about late check out.  They gave us an hour for $15.  I stayed in the room to get things put away, and Greg took Collin to the water park.

After getting us all packed up and checked out, I took the camera back to the water park to snap some pictures of it before we left.  Collin ran up to me when he saw me and tried to give me a big, wet hug.  I just let him hug my arm so I wouldn't get all wet, and the Greg told me that it hadn't been very fun because Collin kept looking for me and asking him "mama?"  Sad! (and cute!)  With me there he played a little more, but was still scared to go down any slides.  Then Greg and Collin showered in the locker room, got ready, and we headed back to the dunes.

On our way there we passed a barn selling cider and doughnuts.  We stopped to check it out.  This is another of Greg's childhood memories: getting cider and cinnamon doughnuts in the fall.  We checked out the barn, sheep, pigs and toys before heading into the market.  There were regular cinnamon doughnuts, and then PUMPKIN cinnamon doughnuts.  We bought a dozen mixed doughnuts and a 1/2 gallon of cider among other things.  I was in love.  I even said to Greg in my state of jubilation, "We could move here."

We then headed to the dunes visitors center and got a map.  We went to the northern most part of the dunes to see Glen Haven, and town "frozen in time".  It's made to look like an olden day city with a blacksmith and everything!  We played on the beach here, and then headed down to the south part of the dunes.  Collin fell asleep while driving, so Greg and I took turns getting out.  Then we stopped in Frankfort for gas and to sample the Mineral Water well.  It smelled gross, and tasted funny.  Then we drove back to Midland.

Our last day and a half there we just hung out, packed, saw some old friends of Greg's, and relaxed before our trip back.  The flights back didn't go as well as the flights there.   Collin only got maybe 45 minutes of a nap and was pretty cranky when my brother picked us up from the airport.  But I'll take that because we had an amazing trip!  And I'll admit, I think we were all a little cranky that we had to go back to the real world.

Here's the pictures (in a completely random order.  Blogger.  grrr..):

The beach in Glen Haven.

Part of our room at the Great Wolf Lodge.  It's a "room" for the kids.

Collin slept here, on a bunk bed mattress, behind the couch.

Starting the dune climb.

Part of the way up.  Hiking in sand is hard!

Collin and I heading back down.

Collin running down the dune!

Family picture at the top of the first dune.

A view of Lake Michigan from a spot on the scenic drive.

The sunset.  It was gorgeous!

Us on a boardwalk on the dunes with the sunset in the background.

Our anniversary dinner.  Mine's a BBQ Chicken pizza, Greg's a meats.

The kiddie part of the water park.

Collin scared of the slide :)

The 1000 gallon bucket dumping water on Greg & Collin!

The barn (such a pretty picture!)

Collin playing with the toys at the farm.

The sheep.  Collin was scared of them.

At the visitor's center for the dunes.  It was recently voted the Most Beautiful Place in America by GMA

Glen Haven

Family picture by Lake Michigan.

The dunes that lead down to the beach.

The Mineral Well where we took a drink. (yuck!)