Imagination...What a Great Thing

As you know we are still in the process of adopting. We have two babies waiting for us in Liberia. Since we have gotten their room all set up and ready for them to come home and Colten just can't wait! He so badly wants a brother or sister to play with! One day his blanket was in the wash and not dry by the time his nap came. I told him he could choose another blanket to sleep with and he wanted to pick one out of Marie's bed. So I covered him up with her blanket and he took a good nap. When he woke up he came down the stairs and told me, "mommy I slept with Marie! I snuggled her the whole time and she didn't even cry!" It was so cute. Later that night he asked if he could snuggle Marie again. I remembered that we had gotten a baby doll from Sam and asked him if he wanted to sleep with it and pretend it was Marie. Of course he was all giggly and excited about it. So we put her in bed with him and covered them both up with her blanket...since then he has informed me that now he sleeps with Marie, Onah, and God! That's quite the crowded bed! I had to snap a pic of him snuggling his sister...

Monkey!!!!!

Colten has figured out how to climb to the top of our cabinets in the bathroom. He knew he was big enough to fit in them cause he would hide from daddy in the bottom one. But he learned that if you open all the cabinets you can use them as a jungle gym and climb from one to another all the way to the top. Then he's stuck up there cause he is too scared to get down :) Here's the little monkey making faces at me showing off his new trick. He was pretty proud of himself. Which is what we have found with him. Even if it's something we want to scream at him for like throwing water all over the bathroom floor, he's so proud of what he has done that he just wants you to acknowledge his accomplishments. That's a boy for you I guess!

Christmas '08

I've finally got all my pics organized and put on the computer to be able to update my blog! We had a great Christmas! We did alot of driving but it was nice to get to see family and spend some time with everyone...esp. those who have lived on an island for the past 2 years and are back now!!! :) After the Christmas program Santa came to Harvest and Colten got to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted..."Fire Cars!!! (cause they go faster!)" He was so excited he was literally jumping up and down screaming..."IT'S SANTA! IT'S SANTA!" I knew this year was going to be fun! Our little elf! Just like his daddy! I couldn't get him to take off the costume to take a "serious" photo! We had some nice cold weather that froze our pool over. Colten and Matt love to ice skate together on the ice. Here's Colten going on a little "date" with Violet on the ice! What a smooth talker! Christmas morning Colten woke up and checked out his goods and we were oblivious! We were passed out in the other room. He didn't even bother coming and waking us up! He ran in the room with his stocking and said, "look what Santa got me!" Santa had brought him a colts uniform with a helmet, but he forgot all the pads to go with it and Colten noticed!!! He searched the house from top to bottom for the first 20 minutes saying, "maybe he left them upstairs in my room?" We had to break it to him that Santa knew he was too little for shoulder pads. Then off he was to opening presents. Here he is with his 'fire cars'. He loves hotwheels cars! He has a collection going. He got a big rig truck that holds them all from his grandma but they don't all fit (and it holds 60 some)! Matt made Colten a marble track for Christmas out of PVC pipe. That has been great entertainment for the two of them. They have taken that thing apart and recreated so many different designs. I woke up one morning to some clanking noise and walked out of my bedroom to find it winding from the bottom of the steps to the upstairs railing straight up to the ceiling! It's a good bonding time for them :) At grandma Lee's Colten dressed up with his daddy to play Santa and his little helper for his little cousin Landon. Colten thought he was pretty special to be able to dress up and help his daddy pretend to be Santa! Uncle Bill and Aunt Christie had planned a fun treasure hunt for the boys to get their Christmas presents! It was really cute! They made a treasure map of the farm and had clues to find the next spot that had the next clue. Here is Uncle Bill sitting in the outhouse where the boys found the last clue. Funny though I think the boys were so consumed with finding their treasure and the clue that they didn't find the humor in Uncle Bill sitting on a toilet outside in freezing weather! The boys found their treasure buried in the hole of this tree! Colten had a blast and loved the hunt. He loves his box, it sits on his dresser and he loves it when I put stuff in there that he doesn't know about. It's like a treasure every time he opens it. Here are the three boys with their treasure. Tivon, Colten, and Landon. From there we headed to my family's for Christmas evening. Unfortunately I forgot our camera and couldn't take any pics. :( Colten got a cool race car...imagine that??? Colten liking race cars. This one was remote controlled which he thought was cool. We soon found out that all the remotes for all the boys cars work for each other so you never knew who was controlling who's car! :) It was like they were all possessed :) Matt and I got the dvd game Deal or No Deal. The first time we played it wouldn't you know Matt won the million!!!! I think I got a good deal, but compared to the million it wasn't. Wish it was real! Mom and dad got all the kids games this year which was a lot of fun cause we all got to try out each other's games and had some fun as a family playing together. It was a great Christmas. I love the time seeing family and celebrating the birth of a Savior!