The Cummings

2012-01-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

It seems like about 90% of my pictures are taken on my phone nowadays. Oh well it's either that or nothing.

Here are a few random pictures.

Kirsten says Max's hair looks like Justin Bieber's. Don't ask me how she knows who he even is.

Waiting for sister during gymnastics. Probably not my favorite thing now that Max is all over the place. I'm looking forward to a time when I can actually watch her practice. In other news she still loves it.

One of my favorite things is when our great friends Seth and Rachel come over with their kids. Last time they came over I decided to give a few Pinterest recipes a try. Can I just say the cupcakes I made were DE-licious! Seriously peanut butter frosting and brownies?? So good.

Max is loving slides these days. Thank goodness for a nice sister who takes him to the top of the toy at Chik-fil-a so mommy doesn't have to.

Last Monday Jonathan taught a lesson on when Nephi built the boat. So we built our own boats. The kids loved floating them in our little ocean.

One of Kirsten's latest pieces of art work.

2012-01-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas break. I need to do a lot of work on this post, but I wanted to get the pictures up for now. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

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Random

2011-12-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

These last few weeks have been filled with all the usual fun Christmasy things.
Here are a few pictures or some other randomness.

Colton loving on Max. He absolutely adores his brother, sometimes to Max's detriment. And anyone who messes with Max better watch out. If one of us makes Max mad in anyway Colton is not happy about it.

Max has now entered the climbing on the table phase. Does every kid do this or just all of mine? It seems to be his very favorite thing in the whole world. Having marshmallows on the table for a few days definitely didn't help.

They Called Her on a Mission!

2011-12-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

After much anticipation Grammy finally got her mission call! She was called to serve in Cape Verde which are a group of islands off the West coast of Africa! We are very excited for her, and we know she is going to make a great missionary!

Even though we love her and will miss her lots!

2011-12-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

Kirsten talked about Indians in school a couple weeks ago. She had to make a model of an Indian home. She chose a tee-pee. She did this mostly by herself (which was really hard for me to not take over I think I may have some control issues I don't know...) and she did a great job!

Here is her family totem pole.

Kirsten took pieces of one of daddy's old shirts that he was sick of and ripped to shreds and had everyone wear them as scarves.

Watching a movie.

Thanksgiving Break

2011-11-28T18:00:00.001-08:00

We had such a nice Thanksgiving break. It was so relaxing and fun I did not want it to end.

Wednesday: We decorated and Jonathan put up our Christmas lights. Kirsten has really been loving pretending like she's cleaning the pool. We had really nice weather so we hung out outside picking the last of our vegetables, riding bikes, and watching daddy put up the lights. Then we relaxed by watching some Elf and I baked. Perfect day.

Thursday- Jonathan played football and I did a 5k with some girls from the ward. We met Grammy for Lunch and then went over to some friends house for dinner. Kirsten loves playing with their little girl, Rhyan. They were born in the same hospital 2 days apart so there's a chance they've known each other since birth. The kids played so well together and it was great to hang out with friends.

Friday- We bought a tree and decorated it. Kirsten had been dying to decorate our gingerbread house so her and Jonathan did that too. Seth and Rachel came over that night. We played Ticket to Ride and hung out. Which is always great!

Kirsten's side with "magical snow"

Colton could not resist.

Max has started walking. He's still super unsteady so it's so cute.

Saturday we relaxed. Grammy came over to watch the OU game and took Kirsten to see Happy Feet 2. Max got a hold of some banana and threw up all afternoon. Kirsten started to get sick. So we just relaxed the rest of the day.

Such a good weekend. I hate when weekends like that end!

She Made the Paper

2011-11-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

Every month Kirsten's school emphasizes a certain character trait and the students who exemplify that trait are given an award and their picture is in the local paper. This month the character trait was kindness and Kirsten was chosen from her class to get the award!

When I told Kirsten that she was chosen she was pretty nervous because she knew that meant she had to get up in front of all the 1st graders and talk, she did great though!

When it was her turn she said what the trait for the month was and said the quote of the month which is, "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice." She did great and didn't seem nervous at all. We were definitely proud of our sweet little girl.

Halloween

2011-11-14T14:45:00.001-08:00

So we're a little late on these. Our computer has not been working. Anyway, here are the Halloween costume pictures.

As you can see they all wore different costumes on Halloween.

Kirsten was a ballerina.

Max was a little gentleman.

Colton was a football player.

Halloween has gotten so lame. There are way to many trunk or treats on Halloween! When we went outside no one was out there are no lights were on. So we had to drive to another neighborhood. It was really fun once we got there. When we got back home lots of kids were out so we trick or treated this neighborhood. So it ended up being a really fun night!

2011-10-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

The kids got to wear their costumes last night because we had a trunk or treat for church.
Ever since I saw the pacifier mustache on Pinterest I had to use it for Max's costume. So we went with Hulk Hogan. He looked hilarious until he pulled off one side of it.

It was really hard to keep Colton to put his costume on unless he had some candy in his hand. So this is the only picture I got of him.

Kirsten originally wanted to be a bride. She told me she decided she wanted to be the bride of Frankenstein. After spending about an hour getting her ready she told me that she was "just kidding" when she said she wanted to be the bride of Frankenstein.

She did look pretty awesome though.

By the end of the trunk or treat she looked like this.

Some other random pictures from the week.

Kirsten was having a blast jumping off the couch.

Colton kept saying "yuck", "disgusting", and "ooh gross" when we were cleaning out the pumpkins.

Kirsten liked doing it all by herself though.

Fall Break

2011-10-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today is the end of Fall Break. We had such a great weekend.
We made some witch's hats.

The weather has been so nice here for a few weeks. So after a too too hot summer the kids have loved playing outside on the swing set. Max loves to watch them out the window.

Kirsten pushing Colton on the swing. I had to take the picture through the window so I didn't knock Max over.

Kirsten loved "making cakes" with Max's present.

Kirsten has been wanting to go see the Buffalo at Wooleroc. So we met daddy for lunch in B-ville and headed down to see the Buffalo.

The kids actually loved walking through the museum. I thought they would think it was boring. But they loved looking at all the skins and stuff.

Their favorite part was the little playground. They could've stayed there all day. After we had been there for about an hour I told Kirsten it was time to go and she said she didn't want to because she was "having a blast".

The kids had so much fun playing together. Colton was being really sweet and holding Kirsten's hand when we crossed the street (which he won't normally do) When we got to the car Kirsten said "I like Colton". Phew, I'm so glad!

We said goodbye to the buffalo and headed home.

Thursday we met up with some old friends, Rachel and Darin. I didn't bring my camera. We have 9 kids between the 3 of us and it's kind of weird. I haven't seen Darin since she had her first so it was great to catch up with them. It's fun that we all live here at the same time. The kids all had a blast playing together.

Friday we went shopping and hung out at "daddy's office".

Saturday we played outside most of the day. Kristen went to a movie with Gramie, and then we watched that horrible game last night. Other than that it was a really great weekend!

2011-10-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

What the?!? Where did the last year go? I am SO not okay with Max growing up. He needs to stop it!

He was really excited about what was about to happen.

Oooh fire.

He took that cupcake and shoved it right in his mouth and didn't stop until it was all gone. He was our first kid to actually eat his cake on his first birthday. Maybe it's because we've gotten lazy with our 3rd child have let him eat sugar during his first year of life...I don't know.

He was just so adorable eating that cupcake!

Here's a video in case the pictures aren't enough.

Poor third child. I now understand why my little brother, Geoff, was always so mad at us on his birthdays and didn't want us to even touch his toys. It's because he had to go through birthday after birthday of us opening his presents and taking them away from him. What I'm trying to say is that Kirsten and Colton opened Max's presents for him and then played with those toys all night.

He got lots of fun toys from Gramie and Grandma and Papa...mostly he liked the box.

Now it's time to brag about him a bit.
He is seriously so adorable. I cannot get enough of those fat cheeks. He has the most kissable cheeks, and it's not just me who thinks so.
He started saying "uh-oh" the other day.
He signed "more" today.
He doesn't say much that we can understand but he chatters quite a bit.
He is most definitely a pacifier baby.
He is still not snugly at all.
He's all over the place. He can climb on top of the picnic table, he loves to climb on anything he can.
He still doesn't walk.
He loves to get into all the drawers and cupboards.
He has become such a happy easy going baby.
He is in the 75% for length and 50% for height.
I love his little curls.
He is so so sweet and we absolutely love him to pieces!

The Last Two Weeks

2011-10-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we took our tickets Gramie got Jonathan for his birthday and headed to the fair.

We decided to hit the rides first.
Colton looked really excited at first.

But then he wasn't so sure. Kirsten loved it though and did not want me to hold her hand.

Colton cracked up through this entire ride. It was so funny to watch him on it.

Kirsten had a pretty expressionless look on her face except for when she went on this blowup slide. She was in heaven on that. I was too busy watching her to take a picture.

The whole reason I wanted to go to the fair on this particular day was because there was a cake show going on. As I've said before, Kirsten and I love watching cake shows. So I thought she would love seeing Carrie Vincent and all the beautiful cakes. We saw Carrie walk right in front of us...Kirsten was less than excited. We also saw one of my favorite contestants on Challenge. So at least one of us enjoyed this part...

Then we walked around the petting zoo. We tried feeding the animals but after being fed all day, constantly, they didn't really care that we had paid a dollar for food for them.

We've had lots of fun at the fair the last couple weeks. Kirsten got to go with Gramie to Disney on Ice and loved it. I also got to go with Kirsten's class to the fair. I was in charge of Kirsten and two other girls. We had tons of fun running around singing Disney Channel songs, petting the animals, making some crafts, playing in a jungle gym...it was so fun. I had such a fun little group of girls. So it was great.

Max loves playing in this truck. I'll find him just sitting in it sometimes. And yes he does have carrots all over his face.

In case you were wondering.

The kid's favorite thing to do.

Her skirt is blocking the look of terror on her face.

Kirsten started working on this during conference. She calls it her scrapbook.

It's now probably twice the size.

The kids looked so cute the other day before bed. This is my attempt at getting a picture of it.

I caught Max just chillin' on the stairs the other day.

Colton's Big Day

2011-09-30T20:10:00.001-07:00

After months of waiting, and probably 6 evaluations, Colton finally started school today! He was actually diagnosed with Highly Functioning Autism a few weeks ago. It didn't come as a huge surprise, but it has been overwhelming to try to figure out what to do to help him. He is such a sweet, loving little guy most of the time, and a challenge at times for sure. We are so relieved that we will be getting some help at school.
His teacher is so great. He's in class with 2 other three year old girls and some special ed Kindergarteners. We have lots of goals for him and can't wait to see his progress over the next few months!
He did not want to look at the camera today. But he sure looked sweet in his new little backpack.

After school.

Within 5 minutes of getting home. His new thing...removing shoes and pants as soon as he walks in the door.

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

2011-09-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

Spencer, Alyson, and Grace came out for the weekend. It's always great to hang out with them!

We had tons of fun with some of our old friends celebrating Jonathan's birthday yesterday.

The babies

These kids (mostly) had a great time.

2011-09-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here are few random pictures from the last few weeks. Jonathan was gone this week so it was pretty boring. He got to go to the BYU game last night. Too bad they lost.

Kirsten loves her brother. Although she came home from church with a picture that said she prays for a "baby sister".

Colton loves his trains still. He can lay there all night, usually crashing his trains.

My parents gave us this chair. The kids have had tons of fun spinning each other on it. Colton loves spinning people. He'll come up to me and say "mommy's turn" and pull me over to the chair.

2011-09-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

So our computer has not been working exceptionally well and I just haven't had the patience for it these last few weeks. So now that it's working better here's some of what we've been up to the last few weeks.

We had a really great windy day. Colton had his first experience flying a kite.

Colton is really loving Max. Well, mostly he's ignoring Max. Unless Max is messing with his stuff. In which case, Colton will put Max on his bed and say "go to bed, Max", "nigh-night, Max", and then pretend snore to show Max what he should be doing.

We've missed having this funny girl around all day. She started school on Aug. 11th! Which seemed super early. I didn't take any pictures of her first day. It was just too crazy. She's really enjoyed her teacher and the new friends she's made. It's been a much easier adjustment than kindergarten was!

Max has been into everything! Driving me a little crazy, but how can you get mad at that chubby face?!

In case you haven't heard or experienced...this Summer has been really hot. We heard some rain might be coming our way so we headed outside to check it out.

First we checked out a snake.

We had Emily over a few times this Summer which is always SUPER fun! And we really miss her now that she's moved to the other side of the country!!

After Kirsten did her rain dance, we finally got some rain! Actually she's really gotten into trying to break dance. It's pretty funny.

So other than that. I've mostly been chasing

And cleaning up after these two boys.

And laughing at this silly girl.

And one last cute picture.

Family Reunion

2011-07-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

We got back from our Townsend family reunion a week ago. I feel like I'm starting to recover from it. The house seems so quiet compared with the chaos of having (almost) my whole family under the same roof for a few days. Oh, and I forgot my camera so here are all of my high quality phone pictures.

We drove alongside my Dad and Emily for most of the way. Which made the drive much more entertaining!

We stopped in North Platte, NE. Home of of the Wolrd's largest Railroad Classification Yard (whatever that means). All I know is that it had lots and lots of trains and Colton loved it. Colton and I went to the yard. You take an Elevator up 7 stories to get a great view of all the trains.

He loved looking at all the miniature trains, but his favorite part was the gift shop with all the toy trains he could touch and play with.

The next night we stayed at Little America in Wyoming. After passing all the signs for it many times our interest was piqued. We met my Dad and Emily there. After playing in the playground, we had a very crazy dinner (kids + driving all day = crazy, out of control kids at dinner). They were happy to have lots of 25 cent cones afterwards. Actually Colton doesn't like Ice Cream for some reason, but Kirsten loved it. We woke up in the morning, swam, and then headed to Bear Lake.

The rest of the family got there that day as well. We spent most of the week at the beach. Uncle Karl and Uncle Scott brought their boats. So we got to do lots of wake boarding and tubing. Jonathan is perfecting his skills on the board. Colton and Kirsten loved riding in the boat. Colton took lots of rides with Great Grandma. Kirsten still wouldn't ride the tube...maybe next time. I had some crazy tube rides with Emily and Michael. I still can't do anything cool on the board, but it's tons of fun.

All the kids loved playing in the sand...even Geoff. He couldn't pass up an opportunity to bury Kirsten.

Kirsten spent lots of time playing with Ashley. Ashley, Kate, Kirsten and sometimes some of the other little boys chased Michael around after he would steal a ball of something from them. They always called him "red boy" or "white boy" based on what color shirt he was wearing.

Michael and Nathan liked to play with baby Max.

Jana and Karl planned lots of fun activities, like kids Olympics and sing-a-longs. Karen and her family planned a really fun Minute to Win It game. Nancy helped us do a really cute craft. We had volleyball tournaments, got Milkshakes, played games at night, ate lots of good food...We had so much fun. I love being together with family!

We also did lots of driving. Good thing Max likes the pacifier.

Good thing these two like each other...for the most part.

On the way home we stopped at a hotel in Kansas that had a water slide. At first Kirsten would go on it. After seeing how much fun Colton was having she decided to join in. Then she was hooked. We had so much fun going on it over and over again.

As soon as we hit Kansas I thought I was going to die! It is so stinkin' hot here. What is going on this Summer? It was a very nice break up in chilly Utah.

Bye-Bye Helmet!

2011-07-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

So after about 18 trips to Dallas since February... we are finally done! We have seen some amazing improvement and are really glad we did it, but man was it a pain to make that trip so often. It is a little bitter-sweet though. The helmet was actually really nice when he would fall down, and we absolutely loved Julie, the physical therapist we saw each visit. We found out she was a BYU fan too! We're going to miss everyone there but we are glad we're done!

Tough Mudder

2011-07-10T17:23:00.001-07:00

2 Weeks ago we met some friends in Colorado for a Tough Mudder. It's a 10 mile run up and down a mountain with obstacles in the middle. It was awesome!

Me, Jonathan, Spencer, and Rachel, before the race. Look how clean we were.

The Start

We climbed through mud.

Swam through some of the coldest water I've ever been in.

After swimming through the water we had to get back in the water and swim under barrels. I absolutely could not make myself do it. So I had to go around. Everyone was brave and finished it. I can say that I stuck my head in the water though. Later in the race we had to jump in some freezing slime. We had to swim under a plank, and I did make myself do that. I'm so proud of Rachel for finishing this one though, she did not want to but she did it.

We had to carry logs, climb up really steep hills, climb up snow mounds under nets, crawl through tunnels in the mud.

Slide down snow mounds and seriously hurt our hands in the process. Slip and Slide! Jonathan totally knocked this girl out when he did this.

We had to climb over 12 feet high walls. Luckily for Rachel and I, we had some strong guys to push us over. The bad part was figuring out how to get back down on the other side of a wobbly narrow wall.
This was my favorite obstacle. I have been nervous for this one from the day we signed up. We had to cross monkey bars that went up and back down. We all made it across! It was either do everything in your power to stay on or fall into freezing cold water. The choice was pretty simple.

We were constantly sprayed with freezing cold water.

And the finale...running through electrical wires. We all got shocked a couple times. It was weird.

And then we were finally finished! Here's us with our free beers, I promise we didn't drink them though.

This was such a cool event. It wasn't a race so everyone was helping everyone else. It was awesome for us to do it together and something I will never forget.

Summer Fun

2011-07-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

I unloaded my phone pictures and thought I'd record some of the fun things we've done this Summer.

Blue Bell Factory

Emily went with us on a tour of the Blue Bell factory. It was fun to watch how they make ice cream, and it was really fun to eat the free ice cream at the end.

Lots of trips to Dallas for Max's appointments. Almost done though!

This house came with a pool in the backyard. Which we weren't too excited about. It's been a pain and is still not working. But the kids have had lots of fun playing in it, in it's various stages of fixing it. It was especially fun when it was almost empty and we "slip and slided".

We even got ourselves a cute new pool boy.

Last week Kirsten and I went to Discovery Land, with Grandma, Papa, and Emily, to watch the outdoor performance of Oklahoma.

Before the show starts you can ride a pony and practice roping. Then there's a little pre- performance where the performers come out and dance with the audience. This cute guy asked Kirsten to dance and she gave him a definitive "no". Emily danced with him instead. Turns out he played the scary guy, "Judd".

Our stake along with 5 other Oklahoma stakes have been practicing for months for a huge youth conference performance that took place on Friday night. Emily was in some of the 50's dances. It was awesome. The kids did so well. They acted out all the different parts of Oklahoma history with music and singing. This is the best my phone would do at capturing the moment.

Why is my 8 month old doing this?

2011-07-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

4th of July

2011-07-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July. We went to a church breakfast, saw Cars 2, went to my parents, swam, ate good food, and watched the fireworks.

These are the only pictures I have. I wish I had one of Colton, in his pink life jacket with princesses on it, swimming around the pool...

2011-06-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

I took this little "chubbers" in for a check up this week. Since a couple weeks after birth he has definitely seemed like my chubbiest baby. So I was surprised to find out that he was only in the 32% for his weight and 63rd for his height! Which makes him my smallest baby. He's got he biggest chubbiest cheeks and thighs...just a big old marshmallow.
He got his first tooth today. He crawls all over and just started pulling himself up this last week. Which, in my opnion, he is way to young for. It's very frustrating because he's into everything! And has no interest in baby toys only in the rocks from the fireplace, paper, dog food and water...
He's a happy, sweet boy, and we sure adore him!

360 Wraps

2011-06-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

The one thing that got me excited about Max needing a second helmet was that he got to get it wrapped! Another mom at Craniel Technologies told me about an amazing company, 360 Wraps, that will wrap (like a big sticker) your helmet for free. So I contacted them when Max had his first helmet and they told me that they have a big group potluck once every few weeks. But, that they want the babies to wear the helmet for at least a month after they get it wrapped. Since Max wasn't going to have that long on his last helmet I didn't think we were going to be able to do it. So, when we found out he'd have to have another one, I signed him right up.
We went in a couple weeks before to have the helmet measured and to pick out the design. Last week after max's appointment we headed over for the party. It was so fun to meet other people who's babies wear these things and to meet the amazing people who spend their time and money to wrap these little helmets. I can't say enough about their generosity.

The process is pretty cool.

This is the guy who makes it all possible.

It turned out so cute!

I haven't taken a picture of the back yet. But it's a dump truck and it says "Under Construction"

The other kids had fun too.

2011-06-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Being husbandless for 3 weeks...not fun. Getting to meet him for a few days at the end of that...very fun! I said goodbye to the kids at Grandma and Papa's and headed up to Calgary, Alberta to spend a few days with Jonathan while he was up there for work.
As soon as I got there we headed to Banff, an amazingly beautiful ski town in the mountains near Calgary. We walked around the river, saw waterfalls, ate really amazing food and chocolate, rode horses through the river, went hot tubbing in a huge underground hot tub, and just enjoyed relaxing without kids for a few days...It was amazing.

Lake Louise

Banff

There were elk and deer everywhere on the streets. We went on a walk through the woods and didn't see a single animal, but they were walking all over the streets.

Jonathan really wanted to go on the Gondola. The views were absolutely amazing. I have to admit I think it's a little freaky way up there dangling from a wire. There was a lot of snow at the top of the mountain. So, of course, Jonathan was seeing how far he could throw the snowballs down the side of the mountain. As I was rolling my eyes I saw every man up there doing the same thing! Whether they be, Asian, Hispanic, European...they were all throwing snowballs. I guess it's a guy thing.

Then we headed back to Calgary. After spending a few cold days in Banff we had some amazing weather in Calgary. That's all anyone would talk about was the weather. Jonathan had to work a couple of days up there, so I got up and got to run around the beautiful river, take my time getting ready, reading, meeting Jonathan for lunch, shopping.

The train Jonathan and I would meet for lunch. Colton loved this picture.

We went to the zoo, which was great. I especially love the Gorillas.

I already feel nostalgic about this trip. It was so fun and so nice to spend time with just Jonathan and I. It's good to remind ourselves every once in a while that we really like each other!

But we did miss these little crazy heads

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-05-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well, she did it, she graduated from Kindergarten! And I cannot believe it's over already!
All the names were called as they walked through the balloon arch.

They sang some songs like Lean on Me, What A Wonderful World, and, my personal favorite, I wish I had a little red box to put my mommy in I'd take her out go "kiss" "kiss" "kiss" and put her back again. She's in the front middle right in this picture.

When it was over the kids walked by all the parents while they had bubbles blown on them.

All I have to say is she is growing up WAY too fast!

Muffins with Mom

2011-05-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Kirsten had a little Mother's Day program at her school that was absolutely adorable! The kids sang some really sweet songs that made me cry. Then their teacher had asked the kids some questions about their moms and video taped their answers. Kirsten was asked what I like to do in my spare time she said, "the laundry". She also filled out a paper for me. She said I want to be a house cleaner when I grow up. She knows me so well ;) She did also say I weigh 108 pounds...yeah maybe in the 5th grade.

She had Donuts with Dad last week. Since daddy was gone her Papa went with her. She had been so excited about it and had a great time with him!

2011-05-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months Jonathan and I have worried a lot about our sweet little Colton. Some days I feel like he's going to be perfectly fine, and others I worry that all of our hopes and dreams for him may not happen. I was reading a talk today by Elder Faust that talks about how parents who have "special children" worry about their future; but, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, those children can be made perfect. Because Christ suffered in Gethsemane and died on the Cross for us, for my Colton, no matter what happens he will be made perfect after this life. What an incredible blessing that is.

Kirsten

2011-04-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Kirsten had a birthday two weeks ago too. She turned 6! I feel like she is growing up way too fast. When I was first pregnant with Max and she was really hoping for a sister I told her that if I had a boy I would let her decorate her very own girl's room. So when we were in Dallas we went to Ikea and she picked out a duvet cover and some accessories. She was so excited because it was all "teenager" stuff. What has happened to my little girl? She wanted to paint her room black! We compromised on a Grayish Purple.
Kirsten is my lifesaver. There are many times I don't know what I'd do without her. She helps me so much with the boys and she keeps me company. I drove back from Dallas to Midland once without her and I almost lost it! Not having her to talk to was really hard!
She is a very sweet and loving girl. I asked her what her favorite animal is and she said she didn't want to choose one because she would feel bad for all the animals she didn't choose. She loves animals. We went to the rodeo a couple months ago and she cheered for the bulls whenever the rider would fall off.
She is really good at math. She really likes it and definitely got her skills from her dad. She doesn't like reading and writing as much, hopefully that will come with time.
She's always got a story going on in her mind. She loves to pretend she's her teacher, an animal, the random lady who did an evaluation on Colton...anybody she sees during the day.
For her birthday she has been wanting to go to the American Girl store in Dallas for months. So we got to have breakfast there on her birthday just her and me. She had so much fun walking around the store and Daddy even surprised her with a new doll.
She is such a sweetheart and we absolutely adore her.
My parents came up to celebrate with a cake. It's been so nice having them here to celebrate with us. Kirsten loves having them around too!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T20:08:00.001-07:00

We started out with an Easter Egg hunt in our backyard on Saturday.

Kirsten pretty much found all of the eggs.

All Colton wanted was the candy. He'd find an egg open it and eat the candy and then he'd find another one.

Dyeing eggs.

Kirsten is loving dinosaurs right now. So she had a lot of fun playing with the eggs after we put them together.

Easter morning.

.
We had to wake Colton up and he wasn't sure what to think.

All ready for church.

After church we went to my family's house for dinner and another Easter egg hunt. It was raining all day so we did it inside.

Colton actually got the hang of it this time.

Colton's Three!

2011-04-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Two of our kids had birthdays last week. I like to do a brag post about each of them on their birthdays so I'll start with Colton since his birthday is first.

Colton turned 3 on April 12th. He is my absolute sunshine. He still doesn't say much and doesn't understand much. In fact he just started calling me mommy a couple weeks ago. He says it all the time and it's my favorite thing in the world.

He is such a sweet boy. When I put him to bed at night he always puts his arms around my neck and holds on until I finally have to leave. He gives us a kiss whenever he wants something or we tell him to say sorry. He'll come up to us with his little lips puckered saying "mmmm".

He still loves trucks and trains and will watch videos of real trains on YouTube all day if I'd let him.

He loves to be chased. He'll take things away from Kirsten just so she'll chase him around to get it. He thinks it's absolutely hilarious.

He has a really funny high pitched voice.

He loves to play outside and will play out there for hours.

If he gets mad at anything or anyone he will head but them or it. If he trips over something or runs into something he'll head butt it. Luckily he has learned to restrain himself and doesn't do it very hard.

He is a very picky eater. If something looks like he wouldn't like it he will not even touch it. Even if it's candy that just looks odd to him.

He's started putting more 2 word phrases together like "car keys", "fire truck".

He's repeated phrases for a while like "what are you doing", "what are we going to do now (actually that one's really cute because he says "oh man, what we gon do now" and he pats his sides in dispair), "cookie in the world" (that one's from a book and he thinks it's hilarious if I scream after he says it, it took me a long time to figure out what he was actually saying. His words are usually all jumbled so it's hard to understand him).

His laugh is super cute and it's really easy to get him to laugh.

Whenever he gets evaluated they always ask me at the end to brag about Colton and the thing I always say is that he's so sweet tempered, he never throws fits or yells. The only time he ever gets upset is if he's frustrated about something.

Grandma and Papa came up bearing gifts and cake. Daddy wasn't able to be there 'cause he was in Canada for work.

Birthdays, Tornadoes, and Toads

2011-04-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

Part 1 Tornadoes

For months we have been planning to go to Dallas for Kirsten's birthday and to go to the American Girl store. She didn't want a party or anything other than this. Since Max had an appointment in Dallas last Friday morning we decided to head down there Thursday night. We had heard a storm was headed toward Tulsa so we thought it would be nice to get out of here and evade the hail and tornadoes. Not that I'm scared in fact I actually like storms, especially when I'm in the comfort of my own home. Anyway, Kirsten got off the bus and we get in the car to go. We had to drop Marpie off at the Kennel first and then we headed down through Tulsa. Traffic in Tulsa was actually really bad. I guess people were trying to get home before the storm hit. The whole way we kept hearing that a really bad storm was almost to Sapulpa and South Tulsa. As we drove past Sapulpa we thought we were in the free and clear and were feeling pretty good. Keep in mind that when I say we, I mean me and the kids. Jonathan was in Canada for work and was going to fly down on Friday to meet us there.

So as we continue to head south; and the weather continues to get worse and worse. The people on the radio were only talking about the weather advisories for Tulsa and so I had no idea what was going on except for that it was raining really hard and it was hailing. I pulled over twice to try to get out of the hail. I see storm chasers on the side of the road all excited with their cameras. I do not like to drive in heavy rain so I'm freaking out a little. Especially because it's dark at this point. Kirsten was very nervous, Colton didn't know what was going on, and luckily Max was asleep (he has a really disturbing high pitched scream that probably would've put me over the edge). I guess my mom and Jonathan had been trying to call and warn me but my phone wasn't working.

The second time we stopped I was looking at my phone to find a hotel. I was not going to drive in that weather for another 2 hours. For some reason my phone still wasn't working. Which actually ended up being a miracle because I sat in that gas station trying to get it to work for a good 10 minutes. I decided to get back on the road. a few minutes later I went through a town called Tushka. If you've seen the news lately you've probably seen pictures of this little town. Just about 10 minutes before I got there a tornado had made it's way up the road I was driving on. There were overturned semis, trees down everywhere, houses destroyed...I have never seen anything like it. Even though I probably could have gotten all three of my kids out and in a ditch and that we would've been fine, I cannot even say how grateful I am that I didn't have to do that. I seriously feel so blessed.

On our way back home we went through this town again and it was amazing to see so many people working on getting people's roofs fixed and houses back together. I'm so amazed at the kindness people show during crazy scary events like this.

Goodbye Midland

2011-04-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

So now that we have officially moved from Midland I thought I'd make a list of what I will miss the most and what I will not miss about our 2 years in Midland.

Starting with what...

I Will Miss
Proximity. everything in town is so close. 7 minutes to Jonathan's work, 5 minutes to ballet and gymnastics, 8 minutes to Kirsten's school, 2 minutes to the grocery store...

The airport. This probably seems weird, but it is so close and so convenient. You can literally stand in one place and see the entire airport.

Kirsten's School. I love her teacher, I love the class size (10 kids in her class), I love having her home twice a week.

The Sky

The Weather. I love the warm weather throughout the year and I even love the Summer weather. Little humidity, nice cool nights...love it.

Rosas. Best Mexican food ever!

Friends. We've made some really great friends in our ward. I've especially realized this the last few months. I've been so busy traveling to Dallas every week and I've had people who just had babies, have 3 kids at home, have 5 busy kids insisting on helping me. This last week we've had so many people help us with our move. We really have been so blessed

Danie. Ok I have to do a special category for the person who made Midland bearable for me the last year and a half. Before she moved in I didn't think I was going to make it. But after I actually really started to love living in Midland. We have had so much fun running together (well mostly fun except for that 16 miler that almost killed us;), having play dates, and mostly just talking. I've really needed her these last few months. I had a particularly bad day last month and she dropped everything to come make sure I was ok, and I really needed that! It hasn't sunken in yet that I'm not going to see her everyday, when it does...well, let's just say that's going to be a bad day for me! And I know Kirsten is going to miss her little girl, Brighton, her BFF for the last almost 2 years.

I Won't Miss
Nothing to do.

The Water. I can't wait to be able to drink water out of the tap without risking disease.

No Water or rain. I love lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, and rain.M y parents have more of that in their neighborhood than in the whole city of Midland.

The Ugly. Even people who love West Texas will admit that it's one of the ugliest places on Earth.

"Don't Mess With Texas" Litter commercials. "Cause God blessed Texas With His own hand. Brought down a piece of the promised land. He gave them a place like they've never seen, said all got to do ya'll is keep it clean..." See previous "won't miss" for why this song drove me nutty; and I heard it at least once a week for the last 2 years.

Dust. When we first moved to Midland a lady in our ward could sense that I didn't love it there. Her response was just wait until April when the dust storms come and you'll be cursing your husband for moving you here. What she didn't know is that I already was. There's nothing like seeing the dust blow in.

Isolation. It's not that Midland is too small it's just that it's so far away from everything. 5 hours to a major city is too far.

Colton

2011-03-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

We have seen so much progress in Colton over the last few weeks. When his speech therapist was here last time I was changing Colton's diaper and he counted to 9! Before that he would say 1-2 or 5-6, but he counted all the way to 9 perfectly! It was so exciting. He repeated all the shapes she told him, and he's started putting 2 word phrases together too like, "shut door", "push button", "lay down"...mostly he copies phrases but he has been doing it more often. He repeats words and phrases a lot more now too. And I'll catch him playing pretend every once in a while. He had Jonathan's shoes and he was moving them like they were walking towards some trucks while saying "watch out!". He says everything in a really high pitch, so it's kinda cute.

The most wonderful improvement though has been socially. It used to be if any child (other than family) came near him he would hit them or put on his "mad face" and fight back the urge to hit them. Last time our friend Porter came over, Colton tortured him. This time...he played WITH him! It was so exciting! He followed Porter around with his truck, he even stood right in front of him and tried talking to him. I know Porter was a little put off by Colton standing so close and being a little rough with the trucks, but he even said "Colton's being nice". I can't tell you how happy this makes me to see all these improvements/miracles!

Blessing Day

2011-03-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

We finally blessed Max today. It was our last day of church here so it was a bit of an emotional day, to say the least.

A really awful picture of us before church today.

Since we didn't decide to bless Max today until this last week Grammie was the only family member there, and we are very grateful she made the trip down.

Just a little note about Max. He's gotten so fun. He started crawling a couple weeks ago (luckily he's still really slow!) . He went to the doctor last week and weighed in at 18 pounds.
My friend and I were just talking about how silly it is to put up 4 of basically the same picture of your kid; and that only a mommy can see the difference. Well, here are 4 very different pictures of Max, see he's sticking his tongue out in one and smiling in another...I know they're the same 4 pictures, but I, mommy, could not choose just one.

Oh and did you notice Max's awesome helmet?

And another picture of our little chubbers.

Kirsten's Disney Cruise

2011-03-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Kirsten got to go with Grandma, Papa, and Emily on a Disney cruise last week! She had so much fun, she stayed up until midnight the night she got home telling us all about it. She told us her favorite thing was going on the water slide on the boat. I guess she didn't want to go on it, but after she was convinced she didn't want to stop. She got to eat mac and cheese for every meal.
Her favorite character was Snow White, because she was so sweet. She was so excited to show us her autograph book and show us all her "treasures". She even made a sand castle with Mickey Mouse! On the night she got home she asked when she was going to see Emily again. I told her in just a couple weeks. She said "that's not as long as we usually do, but I'm so used to seeing her." I think she really loved hanging out with her aunt.
She had a great time and I'm so glad my parents and Emily took her, but man did we miss her! This house was pretty quiet without her.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Crazy!

2011-03-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

I don't think it's been a secret that I don't exactly love it here in West Texas. It's not that I hate it, we have made great friends and have found happiness here. But, I have never really felt settled here. Something about not being able to see water and trees that I just can't handle. So at the beginning of this year we realized that we had lived here for 2 years now and were kind of looking for a way out I guess. Jonathan has been planning on getting his MBA since he went to business school. The timing just has never been right. So we thought now would be a great time. He applied to Rice and got in and we thought we could easily get transferred to Houston. We were wrong. The week after getting accepted to Rice and finding out that we may not be able to move their until the end of the year Jonathan was offered a job in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I must say I never thought we would go back there, but we felt good about it and he accepted it. So we are heading back to Oklahoma, but this time we are moving to Collinsville (closer to Tulsa). We are actually really excited! We went last week and found a house and we are moving in 2-3 weeks! It's crazy and fast, but we are really excited.

Max's New Look

2011-02-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

We went to Dallas to get Max's helmet this week. He has taken to it pretty well. He clawed at it a little the first day but he's gotten used to it. I've got to admit I think he looks pretty adorable in it. 2 months of weekly trips to Dallas is not going to be fun, but at least he'll have a "beautiful round head" (as the physical therapist always says).

Firsts

2011-02-20T15:00:00.001-08:00

Kirsten lost her first tooth this week. Her tooth was practically falling out of her mouth Monday night but she would not pull it out. So Tuesday I was in the shower (as I am when all crazy things happen) and Kirsten came in the bathroom crying and said "Colton punched my tooth out".

And Max rolled over this week. He has to spend most of his time on his belly so his head shape doesn't get any more messed up than it already is. I guess he got sick of it and rolled right over. He goes in this week to get a helmet to fix this.

Sibling Love

2011-02-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

Isn't it just the best when your kids are just happily playing on the floor together, or laughing, or sharing with each other? It is my absolute favorite thing!

Kirsten is so patient with Colton. She's a very protective older sister.

Of the course the kids love to play with Max.

It wasn't a big surprise that Kirsten would "mother" Max and adore him.

But I can't believe how much Colton loves his little brother. I thought for sure Colton would torture Max. I constantly try to catch these sweet little moments on camera but Colton is just way to quick. He will be running all over the place like a wild man and then notice Max on the floor, come over, and lay his head on his belly and say "hmmm, hmmm". In December Max had to get his blood drawn to see if he had an infection in his blood (because he had an ear infection and the doctor thought that was weird for such a little baby...he didn't) The nurse had a hard time getting the needle in and, of course, Max was screaming. Colton was so mad that that nurse was hurting his brother that he started hitting the nurse and tried to pull the syringe out of her hands. I was both mortified and a little proud that he's already so protective.

The other day Jonathan went to check on Colton and Kirsten. He came out and said that he just saw the cutest thing ever.

Kirsten constantly reminds me that she actually has 3 brothers, including the dog. She adores him and loves to play that she's "a brown Boston Terrier and Marpie's wife."

Snow Day

2011-02-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

Like the rest of the country, we had snow this week. We started the week with a beautiful 75 degree day on Monday. Jonathan got the day off so we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and spent the afternoon at the park. We knew it was supposed to snow that night and snow it did. But not very much, at least not compared to the Eastern side of Texas and Oklahoma.
Kirsten got up first thing on Tuesday and wanted to go outside and play. Colton decided it looked pretty fun and wanted to join her. Since it really doesn't get that cold here that often he doesn't even have a big coat. So he had to wear a hand me down that is WAY too small, Kirsten's pink gloves and cowboy boots. Oh and he saw Max's little Santa hat and wanted to wear it too. When he got outside he decided the gloves and hat had to go. About two seconds after that he decided it was way too cold to be outside without a hat and gloves and came back inside.

The roads really weren't that bad but we were stuck home anyway because Colton was sick and Kirsten didn't have school. We had to find some way to occupy ourselves so Kirsten and I had a little Cupcake War.

Kirsten set up a "display" for her cupcakes.

And then stood before the judges. We ended up winning, so that was pretty exciting!

Colton enjoyed eating the cupcakes.

Little Max was sick this week too.

Our hot water heater froze so we had no hot water for a good part of the week. Boiling water on the sink to do dishes and take a bath is a not fun. I don't know how people did it back in the day. Before the nice warm water went away Max had his first bath in the big boy tub.

Trying to enjoy a Sunday afternoon nap.

2011-01-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

The other day Kirsten put on her ballet clothes and asked us to turn on some "tough" music. Then she started dancing like this...

I really don't know where she got those moves from.

2011-01-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a great day

2011-01-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful 78 degree day. Colton said two new words today, he handed me a piece of bread and said "Jelly" then he got in Kirsten's booster seat and, while cracking up, said "buckle, buckle". I helped Kirsten get out of the car this morning at school and she gave me a big kiss. I told her I love her and she turned around, blew me a kiss and flashed me the sweetest smile ever. So as the cutest old man ever (who goes to our church) says..."It's been a beautiful day in West Texas."

The Rodeo

2011-01-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

The Rodeo came to town this weekend. So we went and checked it out last night. My mom got the kids these really cute cowboy outfits for Christmas and they were perfect for the Rodeo.
Kirsten had to come straight from gymnastics and we thought she would be super tired but she absolutely loved it. She kept asking if it was almost over. I thought that meant she was ready to go home but she finally told me that she wanted to stay all night.

Colton kept waving his little finger and saying "no, no, no" while watching the cowboys ride the bulls. I don't know what he was thinking but it was pretty funny.

Kirsten enjoying her cotton candy.

Colton wasn't so sure.

Proof that mom and dad went too.

Bake Sale

2011-01-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

We found out a few weeks before Christmas that a really sweet family in our old ward in Pennsylvania is going through something really hard. The mom, Heather, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. So Kirsten and I decided we'd have a bake sale to help raise money to pay for her treatment. We made fliers, passed them out around the neighborhood, and baked, baked, baked all week.

I couldn't believe the kindness of people who don't even know this family. When we first opened for business a man walked up to me and said he didn't want anything but wanted to help and handed me a 20 dollar bill and then another man came up to me and said he wasn't much for sweets but wanted to help and gave me a 100 dollar bill! I could not hold back the tears. My great friend Danie stayed up late the night before to make cookies for us to sell. This was such a great experience for Kirsten and I and we managed to make a little money for this sweet family. Heather was my visiting teacher and was amazing. Her kids are the sweetest ever. Her son, Max, contributed to my love of that name. These guys will always hold a special place in our hearts for making us feel welcome when first moved to Pennsylvania.

Max's 2 month Check up

2011-01-05T18:50:00.001-08:00

Max had his 2 month check-up today. His stats are:
Weight: 15 lbs 97th%
Length: 24 Inches 87%

He is a big healthy boy, aside from his bad case of eczema and torticollis. He is a very sweet little baby. He's a very squirmy little guy and not very cuddly. He has slept through the night a few times in the last few weeks. He often gets fussy in the evening. He still sleeps a lot and is such a wonderful part of our family. I love that he has started smiling and "talking" to us.

Random Christmas Pictures with No Commentary

2010-12-30T15:58:00.001-08:00

We forgot our camera at home when we went to Oklahoma for Christmas, I know ridiculous. So I got pictures from my mom, Jonathan's mom, and Miranda and here they are in no particular order. We had such a great Christmas.

2010-12-12T19:21:00.001-08:00

I looked at the calendar since the beginning of October and between Colton's speech therapy, Max's physical therapy and doctor appointments, Colton's teeth issues, and my never ending dental problems, we've had 29 appointments. I am really hoping that now that Christmas is over and my teeth are fixed that that will end. Anyway, that's why I have been really bad at blogging lately so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Before Max was born we knew we'd need to buy a new car. We had a little Toyota Matrix, which is less than desirable for a family of 5. So we put it up for sale and finally sold it. Jonathan spent hours looking for a new car. He had many deals fall through, and since there was not a single used Toyota Highlander within 300 miles of our house we had to widen our search. We were hoping to find something in Dallas, but that didn't happen. After weeks of sharing one car, which is really not fun when you have to wake up to take your husband to work after staying up all night with a newborn. Jonathan got so sick of it that he up and flew to Baltimore and drove all the way back barely missing a snowstorm. He has an adventurous streak that scares me to death but in some cases it pays off.

While he was gone Kirsten and I had to have a girls night! So we got cupcakes from Gigi's, painted our nails, and stayed up until midnight watching a movie and talking in bed.

Kirsten also made this picture for Daddy while he was gone.

The Nutcracker

2010-12-12T19:18:00.001-08:00

We finally reaped the rewards of Kirsten being gone every Saturday morning for the last few months and every night for the last week. She had a dress rehearsal on Friday night and Saturday morning and finally did her actual performance last night. She was so nervous that she wasn't going to be able to remember everything, but she did so great! It was so much fun to watch her we could not wipe the smiles off of our faces.

I have had to do Kirsten's makeup, for what seems like, a thousand times this week! I am so not good at doing eyeliner. The first time I attempted I had to redo her eyeliner at least 5 times before it looked decent. When I finally got it right Kirsten squeezed her eyes together and smeered it all over her eyelids. I was so frustrated that I snapped at her. My sweet, sensitive little girl tried so hard to hold back the tears but couldn't which sent her makeup running down her face, which completely served me right that I had to do it again. So we fixed it and then Colton hit her in the head and she started crying again. It was an emotional day for both of us.

Jonathan got to take some pictures of dress rehearsal.

Kirsten had a lot of fun playing with the flowers she got from us and from her sweet teacher Mrs. Miller.

Grammie also got to come down and watch the performance (and play with Max).

Kirsten has been a little tired of going to ballet for the last couple of months so I figured by the time the Nutcracker was over she wouldn't want anything to do with ballet for the rest of her life. So when I was driving her home from her performance today I asked if she was done with the Nutcracker forever or just until next year. She started telling me about all the parts she wants to play (after she's a soldier next year).
We are so proud of our adorable little mouse!

Gingerbread Village and Decorating the Tree

2010-12-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Kirsten was so excited to make this little village. She did the 2 in the back and the one in the front right all by herself. We had a lot of fun making these together.

Decorating the tree.

Colton mostly took candy canes off the tree and came over to us saying "opp peas".

Memories

2010-12-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to record some things for my own memory's sake.
This picture is blurry but he's just so cute in it. Colton loves to get his picture taken as soon as he sees the camera he says "Cheese". Colton has been paying much more attention to Max lately. At first he wouldn't even look at him but now he'll snuggle his head up to his, today he tried to pick him up even (which means now I really have to watch him).
Colton doesn't talk very much. This morning we were reading the Polar Express and Colton ran around saying "All Aboard" and then trying to say "the choo, choo, train" after. He's such a sweetie. He's been doing speech therapy so hopefully we'll know what he's actually saying soon.

Jonathan got the fire going the other day, which is one of his favorite past times.

Max is now 6 weeks and has started smiling, cooing, and all kinds of other cute baby things, well really that's it. He pretty much still sleeps and eats. But he's been a great little baby. When we took him to his 1 month check up he was in the 75th percentile for weight and height and 50th percentile for his head size. So he has Kirsten's head and Colton's girth.

Kirsten made this turkey at school and she learned a song to go with it.
"Timothy Turkey why do you cry? Boo, hoo, hoo.
Timothy Turkey why do you cry? Boo, hoo, hoo.
Thanksgiving is coming I'll lose my head, tell all your mom's to buy Chicken instead.
Timothy Turkey I see why you cry. Boo, hoo, hoo."
One day we went to pick Jonathan up from work. We had to wait for a little while so Kirsten wanted to stand by his office door to wait. While she was out there she was singing this song at the top of her lungs while doing the very animated actions like pretending to cut off a turkeys head. It was pretty funny.

Some friends of ours came over the other day. We looked over at the kids while they were watching a movie and noticed Kirsten holding Porter. Porter is 2 so he may be a little old to be held by a 5 year old, he's just so tiny she likes to pretend he's her little baby and I guess he was okay with it.

Kirsten loves science so we did some experiments a couple weeks ago. We learned about absorption.

And did some spice art.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving. My mom came down last Saturday and then my dad and Emily came on Wednesday. We cooked all day Wednesday and Thursday and enjoyed the fruits of our labors.

Kirsten enjoying her "pie". We stole this idea from Family Fun for the kids.

And I was so proud that my pie actually looked like the picture (because usually when I try to copy something I see in a magazine or a blog it looks nothing like it and I get really frustrated and want to cry because I've wasted all my time making something that's supposed to look cute and just looks ridiculous...).

Colton has been waking up lately at like 2 o'clock in the morning and playing in his room for a couple of hours. So he fell asleep during Thanksgiving dinner.

And here's an updated picture of Max. He has gotten so big and chubby.

We loved being able to spend Thanksgiving with family and wished they all could have been there with us.

Catch Up

2010-11-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

Before Max came along we had a really busy week that I didn't have the chance to blog about.
The Saturday before Max was born my friends, Danie and Michelle, threw a baby shower for me. I didn't get any pictures of the actual event, but it was so much fun and so nice of them to do it for me!
Here is a picture of the M for Max Michelle made for me, the baby clothes "bouquet", and the adorable diaper cake Danie made.

We decided we better go to at least one West Texas football game so we went to the Midland Lee vs. Abilene game which was on ESPN2 because Abilene is ranked in the top 10 in the nation. While that was fun, it also meant that by halftime Midland Lee was losing 49 to 7. At least we can say we've been.

The next night we went over to some of Jonathan's coworker's house for dinner. They are Venezuelan so they made us an authentic Venezuelan meal. It was delicious and so fun.

The next night Jonathan's work had an event at the race track in town.
We ate dinner.

And then tried to watch the racing...

but it was so loud we didn't last very long.

until we were sitting in the car watching.

The primary president in our ward (i'm the secretary so we talk often) is from Ohio. She moved here about 30 years ago and has never left. One day when I was complaining about how ugly it is here she told me you learn to find different kinds of beauty here in West Texas. I will say this is one thing I have come to appreciate, the West Texas sky.

That night I went into labor. So I guess it's a good thing we fit that all in before he came.

Halloween

2010-11-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

We carved pumpkins...

Napped

Ate candy

And tried to scare our friends

Some friends came over on Halloween night and so Jonathan was going to run around the house and scare them when they got here. Kirsten's response to that was, "They're already going to be scared because I put boo on the door."

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T11:57:00.001-07:00

The last few days have been filled with Halloween activities, maybe too many activities for a mom with a newborn. But it has been very fun.

Thursday we went up to Jonathan's work to go trick-or-treating to all the different offices. Colton was really good at grabbing huge handfuls of candy whenever he had the chance and ended up with tons of candy.
Kirsten and Colton dressed up like a cowgirl and cowboy.
This was pretty much the only picture I could get of Colton.

Kirsten knew exactly how a cowgirl is supposed to pose, and apparently this is it.

Saturday Morning Daddy helped Kirsten decorate her pumpkin.

That night we went to the ward trunk-or-treat. Max got to wear Colton's old pumpkin costume. Unfortunately, it was about 90 degrees outside so it didn't last long.

Kirsten's favorite part was the cake walk and pretending to shoot people with her cowgirl gun. Jonathan was busy chasing Colton around all night and I was busy trying to keep Max away from all of the excited kids. So we didn't take very many pictures.
Here's our car all decorated.

And one more picture of Max looking cute.

Pumpkin Patch
I realized I never put pictures of our trip that we made to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago up.

Eating worms and dirt...

A Baby Story

2010-10-24T17:39:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a week since little Max entered the world. Here's his story...
I was supposed to be induced last Wednesday. But early Sunday morning, at about 2:30, I woke up for one of my frequent bathroom trips. When I went back to bed...my water broke. At this time it was at 2:45 and I was really hoping I had just wet the bed because my number one nightmare at the end of pregnancy is having to call someone in the middle of the night to watch my kids. But after the contractions started I realized I better just suck it up and call someone. So we called some really great friends at about 3:00 and they came over. As soon as he got here, at about 3:20, we left for the hospital.
My contractions were about 2 minutes apart at this time so Jonathan rushed us to the hospital. Luckily it's only about 5 minutes away, especially when you run all the red lights. I have never been to the birthing center before so I did not know where it was. Of course there were no signs, so after wandering around the hospital for a few minutes we finally found it. The nurse started checking me in, taking her time, getting my weight...She took me in the room and had me change. While I was changing I had a horrible contraction. I went and laid on the bed and had another really bad contraction. Jonathan started a timer on his phone to see how far apart the contractions were. But before that contraction even ended I told Jonathan that I thought the baby was coming. He called the nurse, and I said "I think the baby's coming". She casually said "okay" and walked into the room. I think she thought I may be overreacting a tad. After taking one look she ran out in the hall and grabbed the on call doctor who happened to be just down the hall. He pretty much had time to put his gloves on and catch the baby. When Jonathan looked at his phone it had been 3 minutes 20 seconds. Max was born at 3:38. So we left for the hospital at 3:20 and had the baby 18 minutes later. It was completely insane! And definitely the way to do it. 2 bad contractions and there he was.
I am just so grateful that everything went the way it did, that i was in the hospital and not in the car.
My mom and Emily came on Tuesday and my dad came on Friday. It was so nice to have them here. They all had to leave today, so now we are on our own.
I'm so mad at myself for not taking more pictures of him with my family. But anyway, here are some pictures of Max's first week.

Kirsten has loved baby Max. I've caught her just staring at him. Although when she came to see us in the hospital she wanted to leave after about 5 minutes to go back to her friend's house. She had tons of fun while I was in the hospital.

Colton pretty much ignores Max. He likes to pretend like he doesn't exist. Better than than him hitting Max, which is what I expected.

Baby Max

2010-10-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

Baby Max Davis arrived early in the morning yesterday.
He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches.
We are all home and doing great!

Toothless

2010-10-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been dreading this day but we made it. And now Colton has a cute little toothless smile. Jonathan had to come to help hold Colton down. He held Colton with his legs facing him and the doctor held Colton's head in his lap while he put gel on his gums to numb it and then he gave him the shots. That was the worst part. Colton screamed bloody murder as he was given about 5 shots in his mouth. Colton is definitely a fighter, Jonathan had to use all of his strength just to hold him down. Isn't it the worst to watch your little babies hurt? I had to try really hard to keep it together. Then they pulled out the teeth. Luckily the teeth weren't at all attached to the bone and they weren't broken. They came right out all in one piece. In between all of this he just laid his little head on Jonathan's shoulders. He was sweaty and tired, but he made it and he was so happy to leave.

It's crazy because Colton has not been this happy in weeks. Which makes me think he's been uncomfortable for a long time, so sad. I'm so glad this is over and that Colton is a happy camper again.

Random

2010-10-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

We took Colton to the pediatric dentist last week and learned that his front two teeth are completely separated from the bone, so he has to have them pulled this week. I was attempting to get some pictures of his smile with teeth...but he wouldn't open his mouth. We'll take pictures this week of his new toothless smile.

Last week for family home evening we decorated pumpkin cookies. I had these cookies every fall growing up so of course I have to make them for my kids too.

A couple of weeks ago we had a pretty big rainstorm. This bin was completely full of water and the kids had a blast splashing in it.

Kirsten was playing with chalk one night last week. When I walked outside in the morning this is what I found...totally made my day.

Kirsten's Art Work
I'm a bad mommy and I don't like to save every art project Kirsten does, much to her dismay. So, I take pictures, post them on my blog where they are nice and tidy and not taking up space on my counter, table, drawers...

Kirsten's favorite thing to do is to pretend she is her teacher. here are some of her drawings for her class.

Jonathan had a birthday a couple weeks ago. This is what she drew for him. And she is doing more art.

The hat she made on her meet the teacher day.

They've been studying sea creatures in science.

From the talent lesson in primary.

Nutcracker

2010-10-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since Kirsten saw Emily in the Nutcracker last year she has been so excited to be able to be in it when she turned 5. So, two weeks ago she went to auditions. When we showed up at the ballet studio there were TONS of kids there. They were auditioning 5-7 year olds. The kids were taken into a room with a number pinned on them, the doors were closed and all we could do was wait. They did give us some reading material though..."how to help your child deal with rejection". An hour later she was done. I guess it wasn't at all stressful for the little kids. I think Kirsten thought it was just another day at ballet. The parts were posted the week later and Kirsten is a Mouse! We are super excited. Kirsten was disappointed because for some reason she wanted to be a soldier. We went to her costume fitting yesterday and I think she got excited when she tried on her mouse costume. I can't wait for December 11 to see her scampering across the stage kind of like this...

Planetarium

2010-09-26T19:06:00.001-07:00

Jonathan's work had a special showing at the planetarium for their employees last week. They have one of those theaters where you watch the show on the dome ceiling, it was pretty cool. Except for the fact that Colton was terrified. His little heart was beating out of his chest... at least he was quiet though. Kirsten thought all the displays were pretty awesome, but that the show was pretty scary especially when it looked like you were going inside a black hole.
Some of the pictures I took with my phone.

Belly Shot

2010-09-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now 35 weeks along and getting really sick of being pregnant so I figured it's time to post my belly shot.

I am sick of being pregnant but also not ready to have a baby. Everyone keeps telling me number 3 is the hardest so I'm a little nervous!

Poor little Bubbs

2010-09-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

I've always known this day would arrive...with Colton being as crazy as he is he was bound to have an injury or two eventually. So this morning I was taking a shower while the kids played quietly in Kirsten's room (or so I thought). When I started to hear blood curdling screaming coming from the family room. So I jump out throw on a towel and go see what's going on. Kirsten comes running over screaming at the top of her lungs, "mom, get over here right now, Colton is bleeding all over the place." So I run over and Colton's mouth is full of blood. I look inside and his teeth are completely messed up. One looks like it's about to fall out and another looks like it broke in half. I was supposed to have a dentist appointment today but under the circumstances Colton took my place. The dentist took a look in his mouth and said that his teeth are basically bent back and there's not much that can be done.

So the poor kid might look kind of funny until his teeth fall out. Oh well, I still think he's "Handsome like his Daddy", like his shirt says.

And he's enjoying all the popsicles and milkshakes.

On a side note. Kirsten was completely freaked out by this whole thing. She was crying saying "What's happening?!? What's happening?!? Is Colton going to die?" When I said his tooth looked broken she went and hid in a corner and started crying. It was really heartbreaking. She also said, "don't get mad at Marpie, but Colton tripped over him and that's how he fell." Apparantly Kirsten and Colton were running around the house being crazy, and of course the dog always has to join in. So Colton was running over the one step we have going from one room to another when he tripped over Marpie and hit his face right on the wood floors.
As soon as we got home from the dentist she came running yelling, "is Colton okay? Is Colton okay?". I'm happy to report that she has gotten over the trauma of the whole thing and so has Colton.

Random Pics of the Last Week

2010-09-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Kirsten and I found this cute haunted gingerbread house at Sam's Club last week and she couldn't wait more than a day to make it. Which is fine because who knows how much time we'll have in October before little brother makes his appearance. This came with fondant so she loved pretending like she was on a cake show while she made it.

Colton loves t.v.

It's pretty funny watching his expressions while he watches. I would love to know what's going on in his head.

We've made it through another week of school. This week has been so good. I got to come do lunch duty on Wednesday so I got to see her in action. Which was a major relief to me to see that she had some nice friends. The first week was rough because she has this girl in her class who likes to call kids "idiots" and "babies". It's amazing how early it starts! The girl has shaped up and Kirsten's decided to find herself some other friends, much to our relief! Oh and since some of you asked. Kirsten goes to a private school here. That's why she only goes 2 and a half days. The schools here aren't the best. I really like the school she goes to because it's half home school half regular school all the way up through high school. So on the days she doesn't have school we have about 1 1/2 hours of work we do together. It's just nice to have her home.

Here is her first project, "A life sized me."

Back to Ballet

2010-09-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Kirsten started ballet up again last Tuesday. She wanted me to take a picture of some of her "moves".

Kirsten's 1st Day of School

2010-08-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it through her first week of Kindergarten.

Kirsten with daddy before leaving for the big day.

With brother outside of the school. (Colton is a little sick here)

Putting her stuff in her cubby.

At her desk.

She was pretty nervous and anxious. She asked me if I could stay out in the hall until she is happy. She said it was going to take a really long time to get happy. At that point I had to leave because I was about to cry. I must admit I cried the whole way home!
I could not wait until 3:30 to go pick her up and find out about her day. She had so much fun. She loved her teacher Mrs. Miller. She loved P.E. and recess and learning. They had a gingerbread man hunt which she could not stop talking about. I was so happy things went so well for her.
She goes to a school that is half regular school and half home school. So I was very grateful to have her home the next day. She goes to school Monday, Wednesday, and half of Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday we have about 1 1/2 hours of home school. I am so grateful that I didn't have to say goodbye to her everyday all day. She's my little pal and I'm so glad that first day is over with and that it went well!

The last days of Summer

2010-08-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well the end of Summer is approaching. My little girl starts kindergarten tomorrow! So here's what we've been up to the last few weeks.

Lots of this...Swimming that is. Our friends let us use their pool while they were out of town for a couple of weeks so we went almost everyday.

Kirsten also took swimming lessons. It was so fun to see how much she improved in 2 weeks. At the beginning of the class she didn't even want to stick her face in the pool when she swam, by the end she was working on her strokes and starting to swim pretty fast.

We've done lots of baking. Grandma Townsend asked if I had made any cinnomon rolls lately, I told her I had a couple of times and she asked if I had her recipe. When I said "no", she told me they must not be very good then. Which is true. So I wrote down her recipe and have attempted them twice. The first time was not good but the second time they turned out pretty yummy. Not as good as grandma's, of course. I love to make my grandma's recipes to remind me of her and the good old days.

We've been attempting to get Colton used to sleeping in a bed before the baby comes. So far I've woken up to noise in the back yard at 11:30 at night to find Colton playing back there, I've found him playing in Kirsten's room, our room, the family room and one morning I found him under his bed. He's learned that if he goes to the bathroom I'll let him get up and change his diaper. So his new thing is he'll get up and say "I poop, I poop." Whether he has or not he figures it buys him some time.

Kirsten built this block tower and had to have a picture of it to show daddy before Colton destroyed it.

We've spent a lot of time cleaning up after and trying to keep this crazy boy in line.

We've been going to the gym. One day the ladies there decided to let the little kids watch Marley and Me. When I went to pick Kirsten up I could tell she was trying to hold back tears. I asked her what was wrong and she told me the dog had just died in the movie she was watching and the people buried him in their yard. She was near tears the rest of the day and spent most of it snuggling with her dog.

We've watched some cake shows. Kirsten loves to bake with me. Actually I think she'd prefer doing it alone but I'm a mean mommy and I don't let her.

She also loves to pretend like she is making cakes with play dough. I have to admit I've let her watch Cake Boss a couple of times (I know I'm a bad mom). When she was "making cakes" the other day she kept saying "I mean this cake is going to be awesome (awesome said in a very thick New Jersey accent)" It's pretty funny,

We've gone to Kirsten's school to meet her teacher, which was a little nerve racking for Kirsten and me. But she is very excited for school tomorrow. I was feeling nostalgic thinking my kids are growing up so fast so I had to take some pictures of them this morning.

We had a little back to school party tonight. We had some yummy Papa Murphy's pizza, ate some birthday cake ice cream that Kirsten picked out, Kirsten picked out her outfit for tomorrow...we are pretty much all set. We'll just have to try to hold it together tomorrow.

My last vacation post...I promise

2010-08-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

Then my Mom, Dad, Eric and Emily joined us. We climbed rocks at the beach.

And threw rocks.

Played in the cold water.

Tried to keep Colton contained.

We went to a state park

And played on a huge log.

Daddy Jumped

So of course Kirsten had to too (after some coaxing)

Then was Colton's turn.

We went up to Mount Erie again

Kirsten checking out the sights

We went to the town my dad grew up in to watch the 4th of July parade.

The house my grandpa built.

Besides the fact that it was really cold, the 4th of July was amazing. It was so cool to sit on my parents back porch and watch the fireworks over the water.

The kids did not think it was so great. They were both terrified and lasted about 5 minutes.

Colton just relaxing reading some books.

On the way to take Jonathan to the airport, we went to REI so Kirsten could climb the rock wall. She was really excited until she saw the wall again. We told her she didn't have to climb all the way to the top and she said, "but Eric told me too."

It was so fun to watch her climb the wall.

She just kept climbing higher and higher without saying a word.

Then she looked down and she did not want to go up to the top anymore no matter what Eric said. So she came back down. She did so good and it was so fun to watch her. We were pretty proud parents.

The day after Jonathan left we took a ferry over to Port Townsend.

We walked around the town, had ice cream and pizza, looked out over the dock.

Played with the little boat.

We went to Bowman's bay a couple of times to have a picnic and roast marshmallows.

We were pretty disappointed in our eagle scout when he couldn't get a decent fire going. But we did manage to get enough heat to roast some marshmallows.

The kids had races down the slide. Eric and Emily pretended to put Kirsten in jail and then she would escape. They had so much fun together.

Ever since Colton was little he hasn't been very nice to Emily. Biting her face, head butting her...I caught him during one of his sweet moments. He really does love her.

Playing at the park

When we left we were really sad to have to say goodbye to Uncle Eric for 2 whole years! He left to go on his mission a week later. Kirsten and Colton had so much fun being crazy with Eric. Colton would throw himself on the floor because he thought it was funny so Eric would do it with him. He chased them around the house and played with the kids at the park. We're going to miss him so much but are so happy for him!

Then we finally headed home. We didn't make as many stops on the way home because we were very anxious to get home. We stopped at my grandparents for a couple of days. We just played and hung out and had a great time.
Then we stopped at my best friend, Rachel's house in Idaho. It was so great to see her and her kids. It's always so fun to get together and reminisce about the old days. We even made some marshmallow brownies for old times sake. The kids had lots of fun in their huge backyard.

Maggie and Colton could not stay awake after swimming and playing all day.

We found all the kids on the top bunk watching a movie.

The next stop was Provo to stay with Geoff and Alayna again. We also got to see my other grandparents which was so great. Kirsten did a puzzle with my grandpa and Colton ran around the house like a crazy person. It was so fun to see them.

Next stop, Moab.
Playing in the hot hot sun in Moab.

Our very last stop was with my friend Lauri again. We decided on the way home to stay longer. I'm so glad we did. Kirsten and Jocelyn had so much fun together. We went to a really fun place with a big jungle gym and lots of bounce houses.

Last time Jocelyn was here she broke her elbow jumping off the bottom of this slide so the girls were convinced that she was going to do it again. Luckily everyone ended up just fine.

Colton climbed this thing and went down the slide over and over again. It was really funny when he and Kirsten would go down together.

Then we finally got home and we were so happy to see Daddy again. It was such a wonderful vacation. We got to see so many people we love and we are so happy we did it. And we were so happy to be home.

Epic Vacation part 3

2010-08-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

After the Comin's left we had a few days in the house by ourselves. We did a lot of relaxing.

Kirsten found her new favorite movie, Spirit. She cried through the whole thing the first time she watched it.

Kirsten did some sight seeing.

Colton got caught up on some sleep.

We did a puzzle.

And then Colton destroyed it.

We saw a rainbow and Kirsten wanted her picture taken with it.

"Cheese"

We walked around town and Kirsten painted this little cat.

The kids and I went on a walk on the beach. Colton found a friend and followed him the whole time.

Epic Vacation part 2

2010-08-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

Our great friends from Midland met us in Washington for a few days.

And they brought Jonathan back to us too.

We walked around Washington park

We went and threw rocks at deception pass.

And crossed the bridge.

The bridge is really high and scary. Here's everyone laughing at a scared Danie. I have to admit I really don't like going on it either especially with kids.

Danie and I started planning this trip back in January when we decided we would do a marathon together. The training was super hard and the race even harder but I'm so glad we did it.

It was such a beautiful race. Running around Lake Washington, over the floating bridge, through the city, hearing everyone scream "Go Marathon Mamas!"...but this was by far the best part. And not just because we were almost done. See our girls jumping for us? They were so cute in their little matching "Team C" shirts and headbands. They were so happy for us and the best cheerleaders.

I could not have done it without this girl, Danie. She is the only reason I finished the training and the only reason I finished the race. She has saved me in more ways than one in the last year and I am so grateful for her!

Can you tell how happy I am to be done? What an amazing feeling!

I have to say one of the best parts of the race was the night before. We left the kids with the boys and headed into Seattle to the Expo, which was awesome! Free food, free stuff and being kid free for a night? What more could a person ask for?

A few nights later Danie and I went to the midnight showing of Eclipse. Even though the movies are kind of crazy, although this one was definitely the best, we love the excuse to have a girl's night.

We spent some time in Downtown Seattle.

Pikes Place. The girls were not fond of this big disgusting fish.

Then we took the monorail back to our cars.

Epic Vacation part one

2010-08-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

We finally returned last week from a really wonderful and really long vacation.
The kids and I headed out on the open road on Friday June 18th.
Our first stop...Roswell, NM. It's only a few hours from here and we've driven through many times. This time we decided to hit some of the crazy tourist spots. So we went to the Alien museum and you can see how excited Colton is about that.

It was pretty cheesy but Kirsten actually really liked it.

I let her use our old camera and she took tons of pictures. Unfortunately, the camera stopped working by about Day 3 so I don't have any of her pictures.

I'm not sure what this horse has to do with Aliens but thought it was a good picture spot.

Oooh scary...

Our next stop was one of my best friend's from high school, Lauri's house. I didn't take any pictures the first time we were there but we came back on the way home. Kirsten absolutely loved playing with Lauri's 5 year old daughter, Jocelyn and I loved staying up until midnight talking just like old times.

The next morning we were back on the road heading for Moab. On the way we stopped at some Aztec Ruins.

Kirsten had to be my eyes on this stop since I wasn't going to risk Colton tearing down thousands of years worth of history by letting him loose. So she took her camera all over, taking pictures and then bringing it back to show me. Let me just say I could not have done this trip without Kirsten. She was such a big help and made the trip so much more fun just to have her there to talk to.

The GPS took me a different way this time to Utah and it was so much more beautiful than it normally is, which I was very grateful for.

Next stop...Moab.

We had so much fun there. We just walked all over town, ate pizza and muffins and swam at the hotel. Well, actually Kirsten swam and only for about 10 minutes because the water was cold.

The next day we went to Arches.
This was as close as we got to the famous arch.

I have a lot of pictures of the kids in the stroller, this is why. I let them out for one second and I had to chase Colton down past all of the Europeans looking at me like I was crazy.

After Moab we headed up to Provo to stay with Geoff and Alayna. I don't know why I don't take any pictures of the people we stayed with. I guess I was either too busy making sure Colton didn't destroy anything or I was having too much fun chit chatting, either way I don't have a picture of them. Kirsten was so excited to see Uncle Geoff and Aunt Alayna. It was great to hang out with them for a couple of days. While I was there my Nauvoo friends put on a little reunion. It was so fun to see these people I hadn't seen in years. We went out to eat and did some traditional crazy random things. I wish I could've spent more time with them. I don't have any pictures of that either but I'm expecting to get some from those who actually brought there cameras. hint hint.

The next morning we went up to Boise. On the way I saw a sign for a waterfall in Twin Falls. So we decided to follow it to see what it was about. Who knew Twin Falls had a waterfall? Now the name makes sense. We were just driving along through neighborhoods and then there it was. I could not believe how beautiful it was.

Kirsten getting a closer look.

We drove by the brand new Twin Falls Temple on the way out of town.

That night we had so much fun swimming in the pool at the hotel and watching cake shows. Up until this point Jonathan was at scout camp. We weren't able to talk to him for a few days, because he was out in the middle of nowhere, which is longer than I've gone without talking to him in 9 years. It was really awful and we missed him like crazy. So we were so happy to be able to talk to him again on our way to Boise. The next morning we got up and set out to Great Grandma and Grandpa Townsend's house.

Grandma and Nathan were so nice to swim with Kirsten in the freezing water.

Everyone tried to get Colton to go in but it was just too cold.

This was as close as he would get. It's ok mommy was a chicken too.

I always loved going to Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was a kid (actually I still really love it) and my kids loved it so much too. They swang on the swings, played with gus, watched Toy Story, and ate Grandma's delicious pancakes. We also got to see Uncle Karl and Aunt Jana and Uncle Scot and Aunt Nancy. We love seeing them all so much.
We got to talk to Grandpa too. Kirsten told him that she is named after his mom, Grandma Rose, because we love him so much.

It makes me sad that Kirsten won't remember Grandpa Townsend the way I remember his mom. But She loves him anyway and I love him too even if he can't talk to us.

I love this picture of my grandma and grandpa.

To be continued...

Colton Loves Trucks

2010-06-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Colton is obsessed with trucks. We have this Disney book that Colton has been flipping through the last couple of days. When he found the Cars story he stared at it for a good 10 minutes. If you can't find Colton he is probably somewhere pushing a truck around.

And when we got these trucks sheets in the mail he could not take his eyes off of the trucks. Oh and notice the 2 sets of sheets...Baby brother will be making his appearance sometime in October.

(by the way, Colton really does normally wear clothes, for some reason he's clothesless in both of these pictures)

And one more thing just for my memory's sake. Last Sunday Kirsten was coloring this picture with Jonathan. He asked her why she painted the faces of the kids green. She said, "because they're from South Dakota".