Lots of love to give!

So along with crawling comes wrestling! Colin loves to crawl all over us (although we probablly enjoy it more) and then give us kisses. It can be mistaken as a "bite" but we like to think of it as a sign of affection. He enjoyes kissing his mom and also likes to grab anything in sight. Often it happens to be our nose or hair or face!

Colin also has begun to pull himself up. We often find him pulled up standing when we go into his room to see why he's awake! Abigail taught him to "climb up" her stomach all the way to her shoulders. Then he gets this big grin on his face as he makes it to the top. Yes, pride starts at a young age! We'll let him enjoy this one!


Another thing he enjoys is watching "Baby Einstein." It's amazing because it doesn't matter how much he's crying, or how happy and entertained he is, once we pop it in, he stops whatever he is doing and just sits there. We love the way he rests his little head on his shoulders and just sits there is awe.

Coming before we know it

In a short 16 years this will come all too soon....

Since Colin has been crawling lately, we figured he has earned the right to start "driving!" So we plopped him in the drivers seat and told him he could drive to the farm for Thanksgiving. He took us up on that offer and grabbed the wheel. We didn't get very far as he couldn't quite figure out that keys were needed to get the engine started. So his dad ending up taking over the rest of the way!

The rest of our holidays was extremely relaxing. Being out at a 300 acre farm for a few days and being able to hike in the woods is what Abigail and I really enjoy. We had relatives come and visit too which is always fun. Here is a pic of everyone getting "creative" with the natural landscape of a farm!

But the highlight of Thanksgiving was meal time. Not only because its the best meal of the year, but also because it brought some great laughs. For one, we introduced Colin to bananas. We just squished one and gave it to him. Oh man, the facial expressions were priceless. It was as if he was sucking on a lemon (which I will have to try one day soon when Abigail is not looking) Also, watching Colin try to steal food from Howard was so funny, as they would both exchange glances.


Finally, a few other benchmarks: His first tooth is almost in now. It has broken through, but is not very big yet. A final thing to mention is that he has started saying, "moma." I still think its because he naturally makes that noise when he strains, but Abigail would like to think otherwise. I'll just let her believe it as it brings her much joy!

all i want for christmas....

Over Thanksgiving break while we were at my grandparents house, we took Colin to see Santa Clause. He was at Southern States in Louisa, VA and had stationed himself among the aisles of farming equipment. Santa was really nice and great with the kids. He kept going down the line greeting all the kids every few minutes saying, "No one should have to wait for Santa!" And the best part was we were able to just go and use our own camera to take pictures. (we could've bought professional portraits but our camera worked just fine!) The funny thing was there were more dogs than children getting their picture taken with Santa.

our beautiful family

The Day Is HERE!!!!!

So Colin is ready to rock and roll. I mean, ready to put a peddle to the metal. I mean, he has begun CRAWLING!!! Well, not a full-fledged super speed crawl, but he has now somewhat mastered moving his legs forward, then moving his hands, and then proceeding to flop on his face. Now although it takes him a while to move from point A to point B, he can move directionally! I was eating my dinner tonight and put a plate of food (a little motivation) about 4 feet in front of him, he stopped doing what he was doing, and then begun to do the "flop-a-move" as I just decided to call it! Once he got to the food however, we didn't know what to do because he isn't old enough to eat it. So his reward was to suck on a noodle for a little bit!

We know the fact that he will be moving at a much faster rate (ok, he had NO RATE a few weeks ago) is both a good and bad thing. In a week or two he'll be moving all over the place in the blink of an eye. We are very excited he is developing so well, but now we have to make sure everything is "baby proofed" and we can't let our eyes off him for a second. He'll either A. have some random thing he just found in his mouth, or B. be crawling towards some dangerous area, or C. be up to no good and outta sight!

We try to cherish every new thing that Colin does, realizing that he is ever changing, and that one day he will no longer be a baby. The one thing we will never cherish is the lack of sleep!!!!! We long for the day to have him sleep through the night again!

look out world, here I come

Our world is about to change....Colin is very close to crawling. He gets up on all fours and has started to rock back and forth but doesnt know what to do after that. We are told that its only a matter of time before he starts moving everywhere.

He is getting so big and makes us laugh every day. Yesterday he discovered he could put both hands over his head and grab them so he entertained us doing that. He also loves to play the hand held "bop-it" game and every once and a while actually gets one right. His favorite food is sweet potatoes and does not like peas. If I give him peas in the morning he'll refuse to eat any solids the rest of the day. I can't even disquise them - he knows they are there...haha he is just like his daddy!

p.s. colin has started to say mama and dadda but we aren't sure he knows what he's saying. We're in a race to see which one can get him to say it first (and know what he's saying)

The great pumpkin

Last week Colin and I went to a pumpkin patch with some other moms and kids from church. I'm not really sure what Colin was thinking the whole day. He would not smile and just had a puzzled look on his face the whole time. He was facinated with the petting zoo and got very excited when he saw the chickens. And those were the ugliest animals there! It was hard trying to restrain him while he tried to reach for the chickens. He wasn't sure about the rest of the animals; and as you can see didnt think much of the pigs when they snorted. Almost as if he was saying What are those things?!?!

He is very proud of his pumpkin and loves to play with it.... or really just tries to eat it.

Bible study fun

This week for bible study I asked the girls to come dressed as their favorite bible verse. Can you guess which ones they were?

Balloon Fest!

So the long awaited Balloon Fest came and went. We were looking forward to it last year, but rain prevented the balloons from leaving the ground. This year we were determined that it wouldn't rain. Okay, we had little say in that, but it turned out great! We made sure Regis and Sarah came into town for it. They told us that if it rained they would never come back to Morgantown! We all enjoyed watching them bring out the balloons and start to inflate them. Even more amazing to see them all take off!




We actually had so much fun on Saturday afternoon, that we went back EARLY Sunday morning to see if we could catch some great photo opps. The balloons were inflated and in the air in less than 20 minutes, so you had to be quick with the camera.





Another highlight from the day was going up in a hot air balloon! Thats right, in two shifts we all went up in a hot air balloon for the first time. And it only cost $5! Of course you get what you pay for.... we jumped in, they shot hot air into the balloon, and then we lifted off! Bummer was, after getting about 40 feet up in the air, we felt a big tug and those darn ropes pulled us back down. Yea, we were in a tethered balloon so thats as high as it went! So we got our taste of riding in a hot air balloon. Everyone but Colin... as he was too little to take a ride and against his will, had to stay on the ground. One day little man!

Princess Snowbird Retreat

A few weekends ago we had mens and womens camping trips. It was a good way for the freshmen to really get connected, meet the upperclassmen and make friends. The girls went to a farm and roughed it out with no bathrooms - AND heard a few coyotes! Whereas the boys went to Sceneca Rocks and stayed at the "Princess Snowbird" campground with an indoor swimming pool nearby, plus hot showers and bathrooms. HAHA - It sounds like the guys were really the "girls" for the weekend!There were over 30 girls who went and about 24 guys. Pretty crazy that more girls wanted to go camping than guys! Dispite the rain, everyone had a great time and plenty of bonding took place.

And the little one said roll over...roll over

Colin is 5 months old today! Its so crazy how fast time flies and even to think about the tiny infant we brought home. Now Colin plays, giggles and talks all the time. Well we both try to get him to giggle - Brent is more successful than I am! He loves chewing on our faces or giving us kisses as I like to think about it but when he does it to Brent, his scruffy face tickles Colin and he laughs and laughs.... its just not the same when he does it to mommy (thank goodness!)



His new thing is rolling over in his crib - when he doesn't want to go to sleep and also when he's waking up from a nap. Lately we have to position him in the crib so he won't be able to roll over or he'll roll over and then whine until we go in and rescue him. I will admit that he's awfully cute with his head poking over the crib bumper with a helpless look on his face like what did I do and help me please. We feel like horrible parents sometimes though because we'll put him down to sleep and he'll babble and start to put himself to sleep - we leave and hear him babbling/whining for a few minutes and then usually he'll be asleep in about 10 minutes. Well a few times we've done that and 10 minutes go by and he's still complaining so we wait longer and then when we finally go in and check on him he's on his stomach (he had flipped over) so we put him back and within seconds he was sound asleep. So when we thought he had been complaining about going to sleep he was really crying out for help.

Little Howard

Colin and his great-grandpa have the same facial expression.

Hokie weekend

Last weekend was a whirlwind weekend as we took Colin to his first football game at Lane Stadium. It was great to get out our orange and maroon and dress Colin up the way a baby should be when watching football (except NFL). We spent the night in Princeton since it was a 12:00pm game and close to Blacksburg. Colin spent the night rolling over every hour in his pack-n-play. He rolled over from his back to his stomach Thursday night and was so proud of himself, every time he woke up he had to make sure he could still remember to do it - and of course he wanted to show his proud parents. Each time we would go check on him, he would have the biggest smile as if to say "see mom and dad I did it again!" (The good thing is that the novelty has worn off and he doesnt do it in his sleep anymore)


Saturday morning we got up early and met our friends Mark and Leah for breakfast before going to meet all the family. My dad had bought us all tickets this summer and I would just like to say that I think its really unfair to make Colin pay for a ticket - especially since he stayed in our laps the whole time. $40 for a ticket is ridiculous for adults - let alone babies. I think Frank Beamer should change all that... especially if he wants to recruit football players of the future. How else would kids be groomed to play for VT? But thanks Dad for the tickets! Colin enjoyed his first game - was high-fived by the man behind us who cheered "hokie baby" when the hokies scored. Colin even managed to stay in our seats for the whole game. At one point his grandma tried to talk him into being a football player. (his mom does not approve) He even jumped up and down with his mom when the team came out. His aunt and uncle would be so proud. Colin loved all the attention and was a perfect angel even after missing all his naps that day. Oh yea, Tech beat Duke 36-0!!

(a funny side note - we took 90 pictures that day and not ONE of them included Brent... and he was decked out in Hokie gear too! I've finally won him over. Good thing my parents got some pictures of Brent wearing orange and maroon)






A generation of Hokies: One day hopefully Colin can become an alum like the rest of us.

MNF is HERE!

We recently found a picture of how Santana Moss prepares for Game Day. He gets some z's in his crib and sleeps like a baby the night before (okay, it was a mid-day nap). Notice the pacifier in his mouth... must give him a sense of comfort dreaming about dominating the Vikings.




We also saw him preparing to make a tackle just in case he gets put on defense for some reason. First he took it out on "lamby," then he took it out on his dad (even though his dad may have slipped and fell beforehand).



But in the end, he's just a football player. Thats what he gets paid (well, maybe not) to do. Here he is practicing his smile for the postgame interviews.

Be on the lookout for #89 tonight BABY!!!!!!

Life Lesson # 567

Life lesson #567

Never play "airplane" with your baby right after he's eaten!

4 months old

4 months old tomorrow!
It is hard to believe Colin is already 4 months old. He's our "little man" and no longer the tiny infant we brought home from the hospital. He is starting to laugh a little more and loves to smile and babble all the time. He is also getting close to rolling over and his favorite thing right now is to chew on his burp cloth or any blanket he can get his hands on. He loves bath time and when he hears the water running he gets very excited.

Game On!

Thats right, the beginning of college football season. For students up here at West Virginia, its everything. Many students come to WVU JUST because of the football team. Which of course is a reality for why many students choose the colleges they do. Academics or sports.... hmmmmm... the world we live in.

WVU trounced Marshall University on Saturday, and we had a huge tailgate party before the game for CRU. We saw many new students come out as well as old ones. It's a great thing for our students to invite their friends to. We had about 50-75 people there at one point which was great. We always grill out hotdogs and have plenty of drinks. Oh, the guy on the far left, his name is Colin too! Great name.

This was also Colin's first GAMEDAY!!! Even though he didn't make it to the game, he enjoyed the festivities with us. If anything, he got to see the same colors over and over again... BLUE AND GOLD! haha

Birthday Boy

Yesterday, Colin turned..... 3 months and some 3 weeks old. BUT, his daddy turned 31 years old. Gulp! It was a great day as we went out to dinner at Olive Garden. Probablly my best birthday present was when Colin was giggling during the day. He is just beginning to giggle, but he let out a few big ones yesterday.

At Olive Garden, we "attempted" to enjoy dinner together while Colin sat in the car seat next to us. As usual, he wasn't very happy watching mommy & daddy but had to be in the middle of the action. So Abigail picked him up and held him while we continued to eat. He was due for a nap, and we were not quite sure how it would all work out. We have been getting him to settle down and fall asleep in about 5-10 minutes now, so we figured, "hey, why not try in the middle of the restaurant!" Abigail got up and stood next to our booth holding him and rocking back and forth. Great news! He fell asleep in about 5 minutes, so we put him back in the car seat and enjoyed another 45 minutes of dinner. Life was good!


Here is a picture of my delicious chocolate/oreo ice "soy" cream cake! I absolutely loved it. Don't worry, us milk allergic people eat good too.

In other news, CRU is going great. We had over 310 at our first weekly meeting last Thursday, and are praying for a lot more this week. Its been so great connecting with freshman and getting a chance to go in the dorms and share our faith with students who are wrestling with what they believe.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special. Many people also gave me "shout-outs' and I appreciate it!