Flashback Friday- Water Fun

Abby got out of school a week before all the neighbor kids and was so excited when they were finally done too. The very first Monday she and her friend, Bridgette, spent the entire day together going back and forth between houses and playing all sorts of fun stuff together. During one stop out our house they pulled out the water toys and got busy. It was so fun to watch them and such a beautiful afternoon so I got my camera out to play with the settings. They obliged me by posing, doing cartwheels, handstands, leaps and just being generally silly. They kept saying "take a picture of this" over and over! It reminded me of the carefree days of summer when I was a kid and things were less structured than they are today... when you just roamed and did whatever you felt like whenever you felt like it. Looks like it is going to be  a great summer!Oh, and guess who is NOT afraid of water? Cole crawled right into the middle of the action. He was fascinated by the squirty things and didn't even flinch when they squirted him in the face. He sat and explored and watched them and laughed until he was literally soaking wet and shivering! 

One.

I just finished tucking Cole into bed. Last year at this time I was sitting in a hospital bed in American Fork wondering at the beauty of this sweet little boy straight from God. It was joyful. I felt just as much joy tonight as I sat nursing him and rocking him and thinking about the last year with him in my life. I know it's what every mother says, but I seriously can not believe a whole year has passed since that night. On one hand it seems like it was just yesterday and on the other hand I can barely remember my life before he was in it. I guess the lesson here is to really live each minute of life because it goes fast!So, in honor of Cole's special day I am going to tell you a little bit about Cole right now. I usually try to do one for each year of life, but that won't really work for this one so I am going to do 1 for each month instead.

*Cole is my most consistent baby. He has always napped and gone to bed at pretty much the same time every day and with the same routine. 

*Words he says: mama, dada, Afton, Roxy, thank you, hi, bye bye... i think that's it. words he signs: milk, more, eat, and all done.

*Cole is a climber. He literally attempts to climb the walls! He also likes to climb on boxes, toys, tables, you name it... he tries to get on top of it. Instead of playing nicely with toys, he prefers to dump everything out and play in or on the basket the toys were in. This also applies to laundry baskets, kitchen drawers, etc., He does everything BIG and LOUD!

*Cole is a great eater! Always has been. His favorite foods are watermelon, corn, veggie bites, and whatever ever you are eating.

*He is a great mimicker and can usually be found following one of his older siblings around trying to copy whatever they are doing. He really loves them all so much!

*Coleman loves everyone. He truly lights up when he recognizes people... which makes everyone very happy to see him.

*Favorite nicknames include Colie, Cole-man, and monkey.

*Another favorite nickname is Houdini because the kid can get out of anything. And I do mean anything: stroller (either one), grocery cart, car seat (yeah, that's fun). The only thing that can still hold him is the high chair... and I'm not sure how long that wil last.

*Cole started rolling, crawling, and walking early but he has gotten his teeth late (he still only has 2).

*It is very hard to change his diaper, get him dressed or put him in the stroller, high chair or car seat when he doesn't want to be put in them. He has perfected the art of flailing, arching his back and twisting faster and better than any baby I have EVER seen.

*Cole never stops moving (unless he is asleep). He is constantly on the go, even while trying to nurse. It is very exhausting.

*Coleman has the cutest giggle you have ever heard. It comes quickly and is truly contagious.

Happy Birthday!! We love you so much!

Our Labor Day Weekend "Stay"-cation

I hope you all enjoyed a break from your labors this holiday weekend. I know we did. We  had plans to leave town but we decided to cancel it last minute. We still didn't feel quite recovered from our vacation in August and the start of school, Chris actually had some work to do in preparation for a business trip and we thought we'd rather use the money on something else. So, we decided on a "stay"-cation and tried to do something fun everyday. I took very few pictures so here is the run-down:

Friday night we went to dinner at one of our favorites, "Rubio's" and then, after a stop at the video game store, went home and played on the wii for the rest of the night. Saturday morning was a day of work and we got a lot done. We thoroughly enjoyed the BYU game that evening!! Sunday morning we went to church and enjoyed a Sunday evening drive and walk through the river bottoms. It was such a beautiful evening. On Monday we went up to Park City to do a little shopping at the outlet mall and then enjoy the resort. We topped the day off with caramel apples at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and the only pictures I took of our Labor Day adventures!

Happy Labor Day!

Locks of Love

It was all Abby's idea. At the beginning of summer she decided she wanted to cut her hair really short. I told her she had to at least wait until after we did her baptism portraits in June. She agreed, and then we sort of forgot about it in the busy-ness of summer. After watching the movie 'The Ultimate Gift' while on vacation in August, she remembered that she wanted to cut it and decided she wanted to donate her hair to the organization Locks of Love, which takes hair and makes wigs for children who have lost their hair for medical reasons (cancer, burns, etc). I was so proud of her decision and the appointment was made.

Look at that gorgeous hair! 

Someone is going to be very lucky!

We divided her hair into pig tails and carefully measured it to exactly 10 inches... 

we didn't have much to spare.

Pig Tail #1... she was a little nervous now and looked a bit shocked when she realized how much was really gone. Too late now!

Pig Tail #2... gone!

Ta Da!!

I think she looks absolutely adorable and get tears in my eyes when I think about her generosity and willingness to sacrifice for someone else. She has gotten a lot of compliments and loves to tell people why she did it. What an example to us all. She is already looking forward to growing it back out and donating again in a couple years. 

Flashback Friday- The best reward ever!

Back in May, Afton became obsessed with the idea of getting a slide. I decided to take advantage of this obsession by promising her that if she learned how to go potty in the toilet and wear big girl panties we would get her a slide... one of those little plastic ones you can put anywhere. It worked like a charm. We had a chart and she got a sticker every time she went potty and when it was full we went to Toys R Us to pick out a slide. While there I noticed that for just a few more dollars we could get one with a playhouse type thing attached to the slide. Way more fun, but I know Chris doesn't like them and it would take a lot more space than just a little slide so I figured I'd call him and get his opinion. He shocked me my saying "Why don't we just get a swing set?" Um. Okay. So he got on the computer and I was in the store and he looked at other stores as well as what I could see in front of me and we settled on one from Toys R Us and went for it. The boxes were too big to fit in my car with all the kids so we decided I would go back the next day with all the seats down and pick it up and then we would build it Saturday evening and then BBQ while the kids played on their new treasure. 

We were obviously very naive. 

So, the plan is to build at 5:00 and then do dinner and play, right? Wrong. So very wrong. 

Here is the before shot:

And this is what it looked like after we unpacked the boxes. 

That's right... tons of wood and more screws than I've ever seen or care to see. 

Chris was ready to dive right in, but being slightly OCD and noticing how similar all the pieces were, I insisted that we go through and find and label everything BEFORE we started. That turned out to be a great plan in the long run, but it took as over an hour just to sort it!

We were finally ready to start.

Open the directions. 

It says: "10-12 hours assembly"

Hmm... maybe they should put that on the outside of the box.

So much for dinner and playing. We threw together a super fast easy dinner and decided to start building and go until it got too dark to work.

Abby liked that this was an 'A'

Chris trying to sort through the hardware. 

Seriously... SO frustrating.

They weren't divided or organized in any way.

Blurry photo courtesy of Abby... 

and, no this wasn't staged.

And also, no, I am not pregnant!

At the end of the night this was all we had accomplished. 

We definitely had our work cut out for us.

Sunday after church we changed our clothes and had lunch as fast as we could.

We don't usually do this kind of thing on Sunday, but we were all out there together and it was actually a lot of fun to build and be together enjoying the cool, early summer afternoon.

A few hours into our work we noticed the dark clouds gathering and knew a Utah summer storm was rolling in fast. We started working as fast as we could to get as much done as we could before it hit. We did get rained on, but it only got bad enough to make us stop a little bit.

Starting to take shape. 

Afton was so patient. 

She just kept saying that she wanted to slide.

Getting there.

Almost done. 

We worked for a full 7 hours on Sunday and still weren't finished. 

On Monday when Chris was finished with work we put on the finishing touches (about 3 more hours of work) and finally, around 9:00, we were done. The kids went down the slide and played on the swings for a few minutes and then we ran and got dinner to celebrate.

The finished product!!

A swingset where there was no swingset before.

It was totally worth it!

We actually had a lot of fun building it as a family.

They haves spent HOURS out there this summer. 

It's been a castle, a water park, a cafe, a school, a broadway stage and even a Cirque de Solel show with synchronized acrobatics (we have very creative children).

Definitely quite a reward for learning to go potty in the toilet. 

We were joking that we'll never be able to offer Afton a reward again!