Sweet Friends

We went to the Townsends last night for James' birthday. Here are a couple cute pictures we got of Colin and his girls. :)

Sharing snacks with Miss Lily:
And all three babies together. This is the only picture any of us got where they are laying still! In the one I snapped a split second later, Colin is nearly gone! LOL!

Video of Silly Boys

Silly Musical Instrument
Such a creative child. I'm not sure what else to say about this one! He kept out of my way while I was making dinner at least. (and yes, I washed it)


Silly Slippery Boy
We were at James and Lauren's last night and Colin was playing with the letters on their fridge. He's not used to hardwood floors.... (sound is loud and unnecessary on this one).


Silly Bath Boys
I heard this from the other room and knew I had to bring the video camera. Apparently at first he was laughing so hard he was actually falling over into the water. Wish I'd gotten that, but this is almost as good!


Silly Rodent Boys
Not sure exactly what kind of rodent Michael is imitating here, but I love that Colin starts trying to do it too.

11 months old!

So we got Colin's 11 month pictures back a couple days ago - hard to imagine that in less than a month he will be a year old. Wow! Here are some of my favorites:

New Computer - and geeky baby...

So we finally upgraded our computer and while we were setting it up Colin had to have his fingers in everything. So we went and got the old laptop we've been letting him have for the past several months and he was happy(er)...he still seemed to know that his didn't have the right lights!

Anyway, now that we have something faster (i.e. doesn't lock up when I try to manipulate images), I'm trying my hand at digital scrapbooking. Here's a page I did this afternoon using some elements and paper I got online. I've also been experimenting with designing some of my own...you'll probably be seeing more of them in the future.

In other news, I got Colin's 11 month pictures back and will get them posted soon (later tonight?).

Paper and elements from Jenny Cereal (lifeisnotacereal.blogspot.com)

Rodeo!

We joined the Townsends and the Hartlages at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo this afternoon and had a great time! Colin's favorite part were the animals in the petting zoo - they just had them all loose, so they would wander up to you, which he found more acceptable than us wandering up to them...go figure. At first he was skeptical, bouncing from giggling to whimpering and back again in split-second intervals, but after a few minutes he warmed up and really started to enjoy petting and watching them grinning and looking up at us with awe-filled eyes. I think next year he'll really go nuts for the whole thing and will even be interested in some of the shows.

Looking at horses in the barns:

The llama was the only animal Colin didn't really like. Fortunately, someone was willing to pose for a picture for me! Thanks, Lauren!
Colin passed out (after his usual fight) for nearly an hour from all the excitement!
Brenna relaxing near the end of the day.

Happy Valentine's Day (really this time)

And the Snoopy Valentine's shirt, as promised. Gonna try my hand at designing some digital scrapbook pages as soon as our new computer arrives. For now, here's what ya get. :)

Guinea Pigs

So last night my super-brave friends came over so I could try out a new recipe and a new appliance on them. :) I made beef roulades in my new pressure cooker. I'm officially hooked on being able to cook food in 1/3 the time! Yep, dork. Anyway, we just made it a German night. The girls brought over salad and German chocolate cake and we also had pierogi, carmelized onions, fried potatoes, schmierkaese, and some German rye (I love living in Mexico where the local grocery store doesn't even carry pumpernickle!). Anyway, that's another story...

Here are some pictures of the kids last night. Colin is just fascinated by the other babies. Unfortunately this means he tries to jump poor Lily and Natalie any chance he gets! I cannot wait until they are big enough to defend themselves!

Such cuties!
And Brenna, being the great big sister to everyone...as usual! I love this kid!
In other news, if there was any doubt left in anyone's mind about whether Colin has a temper and has been throwing tantrums for months, we are officially at the "throwing himself on the floor face-down to kick his legs and flail his arms stage". Here are a couple pictures of Michael holding him still when he had a meltdown (while we were *both* playing with him) about being told he cannot eat the blind pulls. Pathetic, huh?

Happy (early) V-Day!

Probably more pictures to follow - we have another Valentine's Day outfit after all! :)

Family Park and Shopping Day

So last month we paid off the Escape - woohoo! - and needed to go to the Assessor's office to get the title changed. Not a good thing to try to do after Michael gets home in the evenings, so he took the whole day off today so we could go. We did that first thing this morning, then took Colin to the park. It rained a bit last night, so he couldn't play on everything, but did seem to enjoy having his morning snack outside and playing some. (Please disregard the snot bubble in the picture below...it was the only one I actually got him looking at the camera!)

Riding a seal. :)
After that we went to the outdoor mall and shopped and had lunch at PF Chang's. Colin liked about everything there, from the eggdrop and hot and sour soups, to Michael's and my lunch bowls, to the fortune cookie at the end. Great day - we like having daddy home!

Daddy's Helper

Michael met some guys at the gun range this afternoon. Colin was very interested in helping him pack up his stuff and especially liked the caps that go on the end of the scope - two rings connected by elastic!
Colin's hey-come-watch-me gesture.
He looks like he's getting ready to attack to me.

Super Bowl

We Super Bowled this year at the Townsends' house and had a great time! Here's a few pictures from the evening. Brenna and Colin with their favorite toy! Lauren's house has a loop around the stairs, which the kids - including mine - love!
Lauren made a great dinner, but we had a whole table full of desserts too. Mostly pink ones since Courtney hosted a girls' night on Friday! The guys still ate them though! :) Colin was running a huge (104.7 degree, ear thermometer) temp though, so I had to miss out...after several hours, the ER docs couldn't find anything really wrong with him though and he acted fine all weekend and waved at and chatted up everyone else at the hospital. *shrug* Teething? Hopefully! Needless to say, not only were there desserts from everyone else, none of mine were eaten until Sunday....I am working on my fondant technique: bottom white tray.
Ryleigh looking wistfully at the dessert table. No one ever feeds the poor child...

Newest Favorite Snack

Colin's favorite afternoon snack is half a grilled cheese sandwich and some graham crackers. Here he is shovelling it in!

Shopping/Lunch with the girls

I am so far behind posting pics. Here are some from a week ago. We went thrift store shopping with the girls and then took lunch to Lauren's and let the kids play. Here is Colin "sharing" with Ryleigh. He thinks sharing means he lets you see something for a second and then you give it right back!A new pair of jeans that fit. Thank God for adjustable waistbands. Nothing that fits this kid's waist is even remotely long enough to fit his leg length. I am having to do a lot of altering and I don't think it's going to end any time soon, right Laura? Couldn't fit your boys until they were at least in high school?

Streaker

Colin's favorite thing to do after baths lately is to take off out of the bathroom and down the hallway as soon as he is set on the ground. Here he is making his getaway. And then tearing stuff up.