Ice Skating

We headed down to Madison for the day to Ellie's kindergarten class. She has been teaching about penguins, so of course, Matt had to come see her class dressed as JP the Penguin! Ellie had a 1/2 day so she got to come home early and hang out with Colten. The lake was frozen and Matt was excited about skating on it and getting Colten out there, I on the other hand was not. I was worried to say the least and asked Matt to promise me he wouldn't let him out there. You know how hard that was? Sometimes I might be a worry wart...okay alot of the time...but I was serious this time. I had heard horror stories and just saw the worst was going to happen. I hadn't seen the lake for myself (Despite what you are thinking right now, he DID listen and didn't take him out on the lake...but he went out there. I still don't know how he kept Colten from not throwing a serious fit when he couldn't go out there.) As I'm sitting here typing I'm wondering..."how stupid I must look right now if he really did let him out get out there and just didn't tell me. He's thinking, 'I got her!'"----Anyway--- I walked down to the lake and Matt put on a good show for me to ease my worries and showed me how frozen it was...So,...I caved! He even talked me into going out on the lake! It was pretty fun! I have never skated on a lake before. So we had a little photo session to remember our firsts! We played with Royal, the dog, and his football and we used the rope to have a sliding contest! Matt won that one! Not to mention we froze. The pictures of us laying on the ice are really cute but it was a scarifice because of the wet pants we all had afterwards! But...what a picture huh? Oh and JP joined us. Colten thought that was hillarious!!!

Per Your Request!

Only because you made the request...here you go. These are old pics but who doesn't like looking at pics of Colten? (That was a retorical question)

When Colten was a little over a year old we went out to visit "PoPo". For those of you who don't know, Ted and Regina Laird are two amazing people who loved me through highschool and were awesome role models for me growing up. They were a few of the many people who shaped and molded me into the person I am today. I remember seeing how in love they were and thinking I wanted a marriage like that some day, and I wanted to raise my kids with the same excitement and love that they did. (I'm not just sucking up!!!) They are truely amazing people! I watched their kids all through highschool and they became my second family. I love them dearly! The Lairds raise pigs and pigs are a huge part of their families lives. I remember Morgan, Nolan, and Jacob making me chase those little baby piglets and trying to make me catch one of them! Playing with the pigs and playing whiffle ball was always a must when I watched the kids. So when we went to visit...OF COURSE...Colten had to check out the pigs. He loved it! Since then he always asks about the pigs at Jacob's house! I remembers Jacob real well for some reason and always asks about him. (Sorry Ted but that's the truth) We miss you guys and need to come visit soon!

These are just for fun!! I couldn't resist...

Like father....like son!

My Comments

Okay,...so my settings were all messed up and I kept getting on people about leaving me comments but little did I know that you couldn't leave me comments. I have fixed that. So now you have no excuses! So feel free to communicate with me. Oh, and thanks to my loyal friend Stacey who has always left me great messages! Love ya Stace!

Doggy In The Window

Okay, this is merely to settle a bet that started with Tom and Stacey and has entered our home as we sing this song differently than our spouses. So....we found it online and here is how it is sung. I refuse to post on my blog who was right. We all know in our hearts!

Mixed Up

Okay, not that it really matters, it just drives me crazy, but maybe not you....I just created two posts about our trip to the Children's museum. They are out of order. So if you struggle with things having to be perfect, like myself, you will want to read the second post first and the first post second...make any sense? So the title, "More fun at the children's museum", should be read second, unless you absolutely don't care...then do whatever you want! Enjoy!

More Fun at the Museum

Did I just ask who would drive? Look out! Colten has found his second favorite thing...race cars! Papa Huff, look out! I'm ready to go the races again! He couldn't reach the pedals but he didn't care! He was ready to tear it up!

After racing in the car we went to the play place. Colten played in the water for a bit and decided to do some more racing of his own. He took off, and I saw him, so I started running after him. I knew he couldn't go far, but for a few seconds I couldn't see him and I frieked out! That is my worst night mare! After running into a poor little girl, he came into my sight again and I grabbed him! Okay, so I might have over reacted a little bit, but there were alot of people there! He and Landon wanted to play in the sand. Here are the cousins at play. Colten had fun showing Landon how to work the gadgets!

Colten's mind didn't stay occupied for very long! There was so much to do and see he couldn't stay in one place for very long. He has always tried to climb the climbing walls and has needed help doing that, but here he found a climbing wall he could do all on his own! He was so proud of himself! He told me, "mommy, say 'I'm so proud of you Colten'."

Landon was close behind. If he could say full sentences I'm sure it would be, "Wait up cuz!"

....Okay....so this next one I couldn't resist! I mean, where do we say our husbands spend most of their time? That's right!

And what usually occurs next, at least in our house, Colten can't stand to see his daddy all alone in the dog house, so he joins him! Like father like son I guess. I felt like breaking out a little jingle..."Who let the dogs out?...who...who,who,who?"

At least they are the good looking dogs? Right?

No trip to the museum is complete without a ride on the carousel! Colten had to pick a horse,...go figure! Aunt Tamme rode with him. He was so excited that he squealed every time he came around the corner and saw us! He would shout, "HEY MOMMY! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! followed by loud laughter all the way around the corner! It was so funny to watch him!

Landon chose a giraffe with grandma Lee! We had a hard time getting a picture of him actually looking at the camera! It seemed like he never looked at us until he was already around the corner. He was so adorable. Those island kids are the cutest!

After the carousel it was off to a race down the slide with Matt and Colten. I love this picture cause it shows how hard Matt tried to beat Colten, yet he couldn't. Colten, notice, is relaxed and enjoying the ride. Matt is workin' it, but getting no where! Isn't that how it always ends up? We try so hard to get ahead and it's always the people who don't work as hard as you who end up ahead? Ironic????

What a hopeless romantic! Colten is atop the ice castle desperately searching for his Juliet!

We had a great time at the museum and hope to go back soon. Colten didn't get to see everything there. He was upset that we didn't have time to go into the Science Works place. We walked right by it on the way to the parade...(That's where they line you up with this cute little flags...otherwise known to Colten as a fun poking stick and hitting stick...)and escort you down the ramps to the front doors and say, come back! I guess it is clever, they came up with a nice way to say, "Get out we are closing!" So thanks Tamme, Landon, Grandma Lee, and Papa Lee for spending the day with us at the museum! We had a blast!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Children's Museum

Last weekend we went to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. Colten had a blast! We met up with his cousin Landon. Tamme, Grandma Lee, and Papa Lee showed up too. All the way up to the building he was checking EVERYTHING out! He saw a statue of a king tut thing and said, "Hey there's Jesus!" We had to correct him on that one! I don't know what made him think that was Jesus. So when we finally got inside he went NUTS! He looked up and me and said, "mommy I'm so gegsited!"...translated: "excited". He was all giddy cause there is so much to see and do as soon as you walk in the door!

So, here are a ton of pics of all the fun we had together!

Our first stop was of course none other than...the trains! There were trains going around up above us and Colten found this display full of choo choos!!! He was in heaven!

Around the corner was a cute little spot that had the train enclosed in some glass. There was a little tunnel underneath where Colten could crawl under the glass and peek up on the other side. Here he is on the other side of the glass looking for the train to come chugging by!

We found a REAL CHOO CHOO! Colten wasn't that impressed with it, but we couldn't pass on the opportunity to get a picture with it!...I'm sure he'll thank me later!

He did get excited when he found that we could get on the real train. Inside you could sit and watch the "town" go by out the windows. I don't know if he really ever understood that was what he saw out the window, but when we were leaving the train he decided to stand at the rail of the caboose and yell, "All Aboard!" I snapped a picture just in time. Then he said, "All aboard the Polar Express!"...he loves that movie.

...."My, what big hands you have!".....

...."And what BIG feet you have!"

It's a BEAR!...(These bears don't look too scary to me!)

Speaking of BIG...Colten couldn't believe how big an elephant really is up close. The elephants at the zoo didn't look this big from far away!

Landon, Tamme, Grandma Lee, and Papa Lee finally arrived at the museum to play with us! It took them so long we thought this might have been their transportation!
Tamme has quite the job here! "Faster Aunt Tamme!"

Maybe they came by boat! Colten and Landon are ready to board the ship! Wonder who will drive?

Colten's "New Stage"

Okay, so I have had little sleep the past 3 weeks due to the fact that my son has decided that he doesn't need to sleep at night. I often wonder, "Where did my little boy go? You know the one that thought he couldn't get out of bed for the longest time and wouldn't? The one who would go right to sleep, as long as we said our prayers, sang our songs, and told a story to. You know...the one who was a peice of cake to put to bed! Well, Colten has entered into a new stage of life I guess. He considers every time we lay him down as an opportunity to play and "test" his parents. It's kinda funny, not really cause it gets annoying, but at first it was funny cause he would just walk down the stairs and come stand right in front of us while we are watching t.v. after he had gone to bed and he will close his eyes. He thinks if he closes his eyes you can't see him. So he will stand there for the longest time giggling with his eyes closed thinking he is getting away with something! It amazes me that he still thinks he is invisible even though he has been caught in the action several times!

You know you learn alot about yourself when you have kids because they immitate you perfectly! The other day Colten was playing with this toy manger scene that he has. He put all the figures at the back of the table and baby Jesus in the manger at the front. He whispers to himself, "There now baby Jesus can sleep." Then he pulls baby Jesus out of the manger and giggles. He grabs Mary and Joseph, brings them to the front of the table, and yells, "Jesus, get back in your bed!" Like I said, you learn a lot about yourself when you have kids!

So, Matt and I decided, "Hey, he has a gate at the top of the stairs. Why don't we just close it at night so he can't come down the stairs when we put him to bed." It was like one of those "DUH!" moments! So the next night we shut the gate. It was awful! He cried and cried and yelled, "help me!" cause he didn't want the gate to be shut. (Maybe he gets that from his dad? Doubt that!) I told Matt he had to go up there cause I would cave. About 5 minutes later we found it was very quiet up the stairs. So we went up to take a peek and check on him. This is what we found....of course we had to take pictures it was so cute.

He had taken his bear and laid down by the stairs and the gate and fallen asleep. I picked him up and put him back in his bed and he never woke up. I hope we can get over this stage soon. It is cute to see some of the things he does but after awhile and throughout the night it does get to be tiresome! We have been telling him that God will snuggle him all night long. And I've been promising him that I will come up and give him one last kiss when he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. That has seemed to help a little bit. He did sleep through the night last nigh! He didn't wake up until 5:30 am. That is a huge improvement. Even though am not a morning person, his daddy is. So he enjoys that,....I think.

Snow Snow Snow

It has snowed a lot so far this winter. People always ask me if I enjoy staying at home this year. I do but one thing I miss is that feeling of having a snow day! Used to be, snow days were a vacation for me. I got to stay home from work and sleep in on snow days. But now it's the opposite. When it snows I'm stuck inside with no where to go and nothing to do. So, needless to say when it snowed and we got stuck in we had to get out in it and have some fun.

The first time it really snowed Colten was so excited!!! He wanted to be out in it. So I got him all bundles up and took him out to play. He had so much fun. He was excited to be in the real thing. You know all summer he had "snow ball fights". He would throw pretend snow balls at Matt and I all the time. He even threw snow balls at God when we prayed at night. One night he was throwing snowballs at God and he looked at me and said,

"Mommy, that man in the boat threw a snowball at me."

I said, "What man are you talking about?"

He pointed to the corner in his room and said, "The man in the boat."

After a few minutes of prodding we had came to the conclusion it was either Jesus or Peter in the boat.

So needless to say he was very excited to be in that cold fluffy stuff.

After "pretending" to fall face first in the snow several times just to get the full effect, Colten decided to make a snow angel.

That didn't work out to well. He ended up smearing the angel's wings, head, or legs trying to get up. After I had bundled him up like the kid on "Christmas Story" it pretty hard to move around.

Colten wanted to have a REAL snow ball fight after that. He decided that I didn't throw enough snow balls at him and started throwing them at himself! It was quite the sight.

We tried to sled down the hill but it wasn't very slick. He ended up ditching the sled and enjoyed diving down face first. He didn't make it very far.

After we had enough of the cold we went inside. Colten posed infront of the Christmas tree and did a little "SNOW DANCE"

Then of course....what is a snow day without hot chocolate. Colten had to have his in a special cup...with a straw of course! I think this was the first time he had "his own" cup of hot chocolate. I love to drink hot chocolate so he has stolen lots of sips from time to time, but this is his first cup.

My first "Resolution"

Today I was reading in 2 Peter 1:5-8 and decided to make a New Year's Resolution. I have never in my lifetime actually made a New Year's Resolution. I guess I knew I would never keep them so what was the point. But this resolution is one worth keeping, I think. Cause there is a cool reward if I do. (You know things always seem better and more appealing if there is a reward...something that works out for your benefit in the end.) This is what I read: "Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness add love. If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be USEFUL and PRODUCTIVE in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." It was like God said, focus on adding these things to your life this year. I know it isn't easy, but my goal is not to just add those things to my life but as it says, make sure it continues to GROW in my life. So your probably wondering...what do I benefit from this (I said I would be rewarded for this) A few verses later Peter says: "If you do all these things YOU WILL NEVER FALL" I'm all in for that!