A beautiful sight....

I was tagged

I was tagged by Heather, a friend of ours and thus you will find out some fun information about me that you may or may not have known :) I decided to have Brent answer half the questions too so you can glimpse into his life and also see how we're similar (or different) So here it goes...

8 TV Shows I Watch (I answered the first 4 and Brent the last 4)
1. Jon and Kate plus 8 - especially loved the episode about potty training boys. It made me not feel so bad that Colin isn't totally trained yet since their kids were 3.5
2. HGTV - I consider it all the same. Whatever is on when I get a chance to watch it. I know its not a show but a channel. Its still the same to me!
3. The Office
4. 17 kids and counting - I'm still amazed one woman can birth all those kids, and still want more.
5. LOST (my other favorites have already been mentioned; The Office, and Jon & Kate)
6. Top Chef
7. Crusoe
8. ESPN (just generic for sports!)


8 Favorite Restaurants - (Brent's are the last 4)
1. Luigi's - if you're ever in Newport News you have to eat there
2. Olive Garden
3. Jason's Deli - this is Colin's favorite too
4. Ruby Tuesdays
5. Macaroni Grill (my other favorites are Jason's Deli and Olive Garden)
6. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
7. Panera
8. Arby's

8 Things that happened to me
1. Colin woke up at 5:45 am but I scooped him up and brought him in bed with me and he slept until 8:30. YES!
2. Made beef stew for dinner in the crockpot.
3. Waited 2 hours to get my car inspected. Colin was so patient and my car passed. And yes I was one of those who waited until the next to the last day. But the drivers side window doesn't work and the man told me if he couldn't get it up once he put it down that it wouldn't pass. Don't know if he just didn't try it or what but God answered my prayers. And we are getting it fixed. One of Brent's guys at the dealerships is fixing it for free for us we just have to find time to take it in when he's working. One of the perks of Brent's job.
4. Gave Colin an ice cream sandwich for lunch - well it ended up being his lunch but he waited so well and never complained that when it looked like it might take longer we went next door for ice cream.
5. Was rescued by my little fireman from my burning bed several times. He's so proud and so brave!
6.Put Colin down for a 'rest'. If you call it rest he goes down but fights naps. So then I got to take a rest too
7. Brent got home early today so he took Colin to the playground so I could drink tea and watch a little oprah (never get to watch that show ever)
8. Went with Colin and Brent to the lake near our house to feed the ducks

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To (Brent's are the last 4)
1. Black eyed peas on New Years day
2. Spring time and warmer weather
3. End of June/ Beginning of July so we can meet our baby
4. A fully Potty trained boy
5. getting done with the last of these questions
6. building a fence in the backyard
7. buiding a patio in the backyard
8. creating my garden

8 Things I Wish For (Brent's are the last 4)
1. One snow storm - but if its not going to snow at least get a little warmer. Not that I can complain since we've been having nice warm weather here. But our little boy wants to make a snowman
2. Bigger kitchen cabinets - but we'd have to knock out a wall to do that. Other things to do first
3. A heathly baby and that Colin will love the baby and not drop kick it like he does the baby doll
4. That my house will clean itself
5. That the car market (and economy) would get better so I can make money
6. A great spring and summer of rain so my garden is amazing
7. Colin to get a scholarship in some sport so I can go watch him play
8. A healthy second baby and younger brother for Colin!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas Eve I spent the whole afternoon making a super hero cape for Colin. I had meant to get it done earlier but ran out of time. It reminded me of one Christmas eve my mom locked herself in her room making my little sisters doll house. Colin loves his cape though and it was worth it. We went to a candle light service at our church which just amazed Colin. He loved all the singing and even sang along to "Oh come all ye faithful" as for some reason thats the song I sing to him before his naps lately. He sat so quietly and at one point during the pastors talk he goes "oh no - GOD!" He was really worried and it took me a minute but I realized that the pastor had mentioned how God came down from heaven to earth for us on Christmas or he said something like that so I had to reassure Colin that God was fine. I was amazed he was listening to intently - especially when the candle was so facinating to him. We drove around looking at lights afterwards which amazed Colin. It was such a nice night that we put the windows down for him to see better and he kept going "WOW" and got excited when he saw a baby Jesus. Unfortunately he was so excited he didn't go to sleep until really late and then kept waking up all night and was up bright and early. So we started our day early too and opened presents at our house, let Colin play with them for a little bit and then went to my parents for more Christmas. Colin was so excited every time he opened a gift. "Wow" "YEA" to everything. Play-doh was a big hit this year and entertained him for hours. My grandparents came over in the afternoon and we opened more presents and then had Christmas dinner. Colin ate roast beef too! Amazing from our only eat pasta boy. Colin was so tired as he hadn't slept much or gotten a nap but he did pretty good. We stayed at my parents house that night and put Colin down early and all watched a movie. After trying to play Apples to Apples with Colin hording all the green cards. Green is his favorite color so he thought those were his and sat on them so we couldn't use them. Colin loved waking up at ma-maa and ba-pa's house and the first thing he said was "ba-pa has TWO trees" He thinks having two christmas trees is amazing. He played with everyone all morning and then we came back to our house that afternoon where he crashed and took a long nap. He and Brent are outside right now digging in the mud. Brents dad is coming this afternoon so we'll have more Christmas tonight. We were very blessed at Christmas by everyone and Colin remembers exactly who got him each gift and last night thanked Jesus for all his gifts while reciting who gave them to him. So sweet. Oh and he also got a firemans outfit and keeps rescuing me from my burning bed while i have to scream and cough. OVER AND OVER. And the more I get into it the prouder he is of him fire rescuing abilities. So cute and fun. We didnt take many pictures - which is surprising for us but Brent had the camera and after he got a gardening book he was lost in that for the rest of the morning so most of these were taken from my sister sarah. I'll try to put more christmas pictures up later. We missed James, Angela and AJ this year but hope they had a great time in CA.

christmas in the eyes of a 2 year old

Yesterday at the store I asked Colin to look at a particular item and pick which one he thinks Daddy would want. So he thought and thought and then finally picked one. As I'm putting it in the cart I tell him how excited Daddy will be to open it on Christmas to which Colin got very serious and goes "no MINE" and proceeds to do a death grip on the item all the way to the check out.

Then he's helping me wrap presents last night and he likes to cut the paper with his scissors and then add the tape - good luck to the rest of the family opening them on Christmas. But I had him bring me a pen so I could write the gift tags on them. The whole time I'm telling him who things are for and how much fun it will be to give it to them and how much they will like it. And for a while he gets excited about "ba-pa's" gift or "nana's gift" until all of a sudden he gets a twinkle in his eye, gets the pen, and starts coloring on the gift tags. He then takes one of them and tapes it to a present and goes "MINE." He wrote his own gift tags to make sure they said "to Colin." haha!

But he is a kind hearted kid. At the Christmas parade they gave out little matchbox cars and Colin actually got a truck with a forklift. Which he's obsessed about right now. In Home Depot the other day we had to go find a forklift in use. But instead of keeping it he gave it to his friend Noah. Which was very sweet. Noah gave him a lollipop so Colin thought that was a good trade.

So we'll see how giving presents go on Christmas. He is so excited about Christmas and goes around saying "ho ho ho Merry Missmess" to everyone. He was even singing Deck the Halls the other day in the store to anyone who passed by. You can only make out the fa-la-la-la part but thats pretty clear. And he does have certain ideas for what to get people. Ant-ant needs a green dinosaur or a pet. Either one. And dada needs more redskins stuff. And he'll tell Santa (any non real ones - the Santa figurines) that he wants a toot-toot-toot for Christmas. A trumpet. (which i might regret but i bought him a real kids sized one that really plays) He's been saying that since August when we read The Night Before Christmas to him and there was Santa with a trumpet in his sack. We took him to see the real Santa but he was too scared to talk. He did manage to whisper toot-toot-toot before we left though. He tries to hurry up the days by trying to add more things to the nativity advent calendar each day. But now we count which ones are left and he knows when Baby Jesus goes up that its Christmas and he can open presents. But that doesn't stop him from trying to sneak in a few more. Wish life worked like that sometimes.

"me hair"

As most of you know I LOVE Colin's curls. I can't tell you how many times I've been stopped in the store by strangers telling me never cut his hair. (which I agree as well) And when its humid outside it curls up so nice. However, lately the curls are getting out of control. And even I can admit they needed a little trimming. It does make me sad though because each time I trim his hair I'm always afraid the curls wont come back. The other day I was trying to comb his hair and he had a clump that was so matted in the back that I decided to trim it a little. He was brushing his teeth - which is now his new obsession. He'll go in the bathroom and brush for hours if we'd let him. I think he just likes to eat the toothpaste. But he was so busy brushing that I thought I could get a few snips in without him noticing. I took the scissors and cut off some hair in his back. "ME HAIR" "ME HAIR" is what he started screaming and got down and grabbed the clump I put in the trashcan and asked me to glue it back. So I pretended to and he was satisfied....Until the other day. I was combing his hair. And he grabbed the comb, gave me a look and took a strand of his hair that was on the comb and tried to put it back on his head. I don't think the rest of his hair will get trimmed for a long time.Colin watching the Christmas parade. He loved it. There were 5 bands in the paradeWhat do you do when its in the 60s in December? make mud pies... in my good pot. Not sure how that happened but he had a great time doing it.

becoming mr. mom

I couldn't think of another title but Brent has been amazing these past few weeks helping me out. Since i haven't felt so good (and by the way today has been good so far!YEA!) but Brent has helped so much and made it so that I can just play with Colin and rest for the most part. He has done the laundry, washed dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen each night, cleaned the bathrooms, helped me each night with my bead kits, not complained when I wont let him make toast because the smell makes me sick, entertained Colin when I couldn't get off the couch, and more. He even put Colin down for a nap yesterday DURING the redskins game and missed a good quarter of it so that I could go down earlier for a nap and sleep all afternoon. This pregnancy is definitely a lot harder but I know its worth it in the end. I can't wait to see our new baby and wish July wasn't so far away. I had a doctors apt Friday and its different now going since Brent was able to go to all but one appointment before (the joys of having the doctors 5 minutes from work then) but I was able to hear the baby's heart beat again and the doctor said it was really strong. So I'm hoping I'll start feeling better soon. I'm sure Brent is feeling the same way :)

sweet moment

It has become part of our bedtime routine lately for me to snuggle with Colin in bed with him for a while after we read, pray and sing songs. He will put his arm around me and snuggle in close. Its my favorite part of the day since he will talk about things and tell me stories about anything and everything. You never know whats going to come out of his mouth. Last night we started bedtime late since we went to watch a Christmas parade (which was really fun and Colin loved it) So I was mainly trying to hurry up and get him to fall asleep since I was tired and half asleep at that point. He got really quiet and I was getting ready to get up and leave when he rolled over, looked at me and said "momma?" "Yes, Colin" "LOVE YOU" (said with the biggest smile on his face) He rolled back over and went to sleep. And I laid there a few minutes more snuggling next to him as he scooted closer to me. What a sweet boy. Not so sweet when he was up at 2:30am am and also 3:00.... but still a sweet moment none the less.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Colin has loved helping put our Christmas decorations up. We have been reading books about Christmas for a while now and he was so excited when we put up our tree. I really wanted a real tree this year but with this pregnancy I couldn't stomach the smell so we put up our trusty fake one that still works. Next year we'll get a real one. I don't want Colin to grow up thinking you move the branches into place :) But it looks real nice and Colin goes in and just stands by it. His ornaments are on the bottom and he likes to rearrange the tree each day. He also loves playing with my nativity set. We've already lost one shepherd as I heard an "uh - oh" and somehow baby Jesus was involved in it according to Colin. But I'm sure after I super glue it he'll be ok. He also loved putting his ornaments on the felt tree James and Angela got him when he was a baby. Its really cute and comes with little books about baby Jesus and the Christmas story. He likes reading them each night. This morning we went to our friends house and made christmas cookies. Colin loved it and I think ate more than he made. I love this picture of him stuffing dough in his mouth. He and Noah play really well together. No-no is what Colin calls his friend. Noah has a little sister but I didnt get a good picture of all of three of them looking at the camera. She is so cute and follows after the boys a lot. They have become great friends, unfortunately they are moving the beginning of January and we will miss them a lot. I'm really going to miss them a lot too. Laura has become such a great friend. Just another reason to road trip one weekend and go visiting! In baby news, I'm starting to feel a little better. I don't feel as sick for a few hours in the morning so thats good. The afternoons and evenings are still really bad but hopefully it'll be over after Christmas. Thats how long it lasted for Colin. Brent's somehow convinced this baby is a girl since I'm so sick - not sure how he gets that but we'll find out in a few weeks I guess. When you tell Colin he's going to be a big brother he smiles and goes "no - momma's the brother." The other night we were at my grandparents and Colin and I were snuggling in his bed (he's such a cuddler - i hope this next one is too) But he was kicking his legs and I said don't' kick momma's tummy and he looked at me and said "baby - momma's tummy" So I said yes, you're right. And he got silly and went "baby pink, blue, green, brown, purple" He thought he made a funny joke but I guess telling him theres a baby in my tummy is as much a joke to him right now.

Thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving day we went to my parents house and had pork roast (Brent married into a family that only likes turkey once during the holidays. I like pork roast much better than turkey so I was happy!) My grandparents were there and Brents dad came down too. For Colin the day looked like this:And ended like this:He played hours and hours of football outside. It was mainly my sisters and I playing and having Colin blow his whistle and tell the rest of us where to go. He was a little biased as he kept giving the ball to Ant Ant (sarah). But it was fun and we enjoyed our second thanksgiving dinner. Can't have too much pumpkin pie :)

Early Thanksgiving

Since my brother and sister-in-law were in town the week before Thanksgiving we decided to have an early thanksgiving dinner at our house with my family and her family. So this was the Gouger/Burley/Howland/Goedecke early thanksgiving I guess you could call it. Sarah came Saturday afternoon and helped entertain Colin and helped clean. And then everyone came over Sunday afternoon. I think there might have been 20 people there? I'm not sure. But they all fit in our tiny house and I hope everyone had a great time. I made the turkey and everyone else brought side dishes or dessert. And it was all so good. Mary can't stop talking about Debbie's chocolate peacan pie. There wasn't any leftovers of that! We certainly enjoyed it and were glad we could have everyone over. Colin had a blast. He loved going outside and playing football with the boys. He was the referee and kept pretending to blow the whistle and just ran after everyone. Perfect for him. He also made a friend in my cousin Sam as he convinced Sam to keep playing outside long after everyone had come in from the dark and cold. And I guess they had a big conversation about Colin being grumpy so he needed to go in jail. haha - Sam understood Colin's language perfectly. It was a long day as Brent's company had a year end review where they invited the wives to come and hear how the company is doing/future of the company. So right after our dinner Brent and I left to go to that. So mary stayed and babysat Colin while we went and everything was put away and cleaned when we got home! My kind of party :) thank you everyone for coming and making it a fun thanksgiving! Here are some pictures. They are Sarah's pictures. My camera batteries are dead and I know I just bought new ones so I'll upload mine once I can find them. Colin loves AJ (and also Aunt Angela)

Hokie Dads

Jamie and Benjamin. We LOVE them! And Benjamin is just so cute

Grandma, Cyndi, me, Mom and Mary

Feeding Benjamin. I think he stole the show that night!

AJ's favorite friend.

James, Angela and Tony

Sisters

we have a date!

What Colin thinks about us bringing another baby into the family

(just kidding - Brent ate one of his M&M's that I had given him as a treat)

We might not get snow in Virginia Beach but the snow shovel works great for scooping up leaves.

We have a date now. July 8th! Or hopefully earlier. Colin came early so I'm hoping this one does too. But since we have a cinco de mayo baby we're hoping for a 4th of july one too :) that would be great. We saw our little baby on an ultrasound this week and it was still as amazing as seeing Colin for the first time. Maybe even more so since we know what to expect and what a JOY Colin has been. Colin wasn't sure what was going on and keeps going "mama tummy hurt" and kissing my tummy. But then Brent keeps telling him there is a baby in my tummy so the poor thing thinks the baby is making my tummy hurt. I have to get Brent to stop saying that. Pregnancy this time is really rough. I was sick with Colin and spent the first few months on the couch when I came home at night but at least during the day it wasn't so bad. I did have to eat a lot with Colin. For example - before I met a girl for breakfast I would have to eat a bowl of cereal, drive 5 minutes to meet her for breakfast, eat breakfast, then go to staff meeting, which was only a 10 minute walk and have to eat something once I sat down otherwise I would be so nauseated. But at least it made me feel better. This time its awful. It comes in waves and nothing can be done about it. Poor Colin. He hasn't had mommy to play with much and does watch more tv now than he did. There are a few times where I feel fine but then all of a sudden it hits me and I just have to lie down. And the extra saliva. I don't know if other people have it but with Colin at any given minute I could spit a cup full and this time its even worse. And eating doesn't seem to help make any of it go away. But I'm hoping its only another few weeks of all this. James and Angela have been in town visiting from San Diego so thats helped a lot and it helps to get out of the house. But it is all worth it in the end and we can't wait to see our little baby. Colin has been sleeping with my old baby doll (for you family members - Pam is alive and well again) and is so sweet to tuck in the baby at night, feed her the bottle, and snuggle with her. Its really sweet and makes me think he'll be a great big brother... until the other day when I saw him trying to drop kick the baby.... we may have to work on that.

Where I spend a lot time lately - especially in the afternoons and night. Colin likes to snuggle too and bring his blankets.

Plus one more...

another finished room

We've almost finished another room in our house. Things keep getting rearranged but here's our back room that is off of the kitchen. Still need to work on the curtains.... any ideas?

where does the time go?

Our little man is now 2 and a half. Its so crazy how fast they grow. For Colin's first year, I would write down different things he had learned, and fun things he did (i.e. favorite foods, different sounds he made, etc) just to remember him at each stage in his life. So here are some fun things about Colin at age 2 and a half

He LOVES to say "hip hip hurray"
He'll go around saying "right.... alright"
He likes to say "wow - cool"
"ME" is a fav word. For everything. Me room, ME Bed, Me cup, etc a typical 2 year old

He learned to say "colin" and will repeat it all the time. Poor guy would try to tell his name to kids on the playground and they always asked him what his name was and his mumble jumble of a name wouldn't make sense to them and some of them would walk away. He would get so hurt so he is extremely proud to say his name now. He will introduce himself to all his lego men :) over and over.

If you will explain something or explain something for him to do he'll usually follow it. Usually.

He likes to play on his own now and will tell me to "watch". It has opened up a new world for me but also a little sad as he's growing up. But still great none the less

He runs. FAST. I mean REALLY FAST. I took him running with me the other day around the block. I had a hard time keeping up with him. Brent got a really cute video of it. Colin was so proud and excited to be asked to go run with me. I need to do it more often.

He is learning to count and if he sees the numbers he can count to ten. but mostly its "one, two, tee, five, eight, ten, four..." But the concept is still hard for him because anything more than one he will call two.

He likes to stick rocks in his pockets and I need to do better about checking his pockets as the last few washes I've found rocks in the bottom of the washer. He calls pockets his "pa-pack" and gets really disappointed if he wears pants without pockets

When he flushes after going potty he always waves and tells the toilet "bye bye pee-pee" Makes me laugh everytime.

He will ask to "nuggle" or snuggle with me at night.

Green is his favorite color.

And he says "duvvv ewwww" which means Love you! My favorite.

Pumpkin patch and pumpkin carving

Last week Jamie and I took Colin and Benjamin to the Hunt Club Farm's pumpkin patch. We went in the middle of the week and thought it wouldn't be crowded, but apparently it was field trip day and there were TONS of kids. We could walk around the petting zoo but since there were field trips they wouldn't let us actually pet the animals. I guess that was because there was not as much supervision but Colin enjoyed it anyways. He especially loved the hay stack since the kids were throwing hay on each other. Colin was sneaky. He would pick out an unsuspecting kid and sneak up behind them and then douse them with hay. Good thing they all laughed!(here he is about to unleash hay on that poor girl's head. She didn't seem to mind)

We carved the pumpkins that night. I don't really enjoy carving pumpkins but instead wanted them on my front porch until thanksgiving. Brent won out and we carved them :) He really wanted to roast the pumpkin seeds and they are good. Colin took one look at the pumpkin guts and said "yuck" and went and watched Sesame Street while Brent and I did the dirty work. He liked them once we were done and we put candles in. He thought it was a game to blow out the candles. We didn't dress him up for Halloween. I know - we're awful parents but he wasn't interested and we didn't want to give out candy since a lot of the kids in our neighborhood are older and he has a hard time with fantasy vs. reality. We were afraid of the scary costumes the older kids wore. But he didn't notice a difference. (until he's 13 and then complains that we didn't take him trick or treating when he was 2) And I still think going up to strange houses and letting your kids get candy from people you don't know is a little weird. Maybe in the future...

Regis comes to town

Regis and the "fish" he caught (Colin loved it)

This past weekend, Re-Re came to visit. He and Brent have been friends for I think 25/26 years. Our prayer is that Colin can find a friend like Regis. As Brent likes to say, Regis was the brother he never had and they have been really close I think most of their lives. So I'm glad they could get away together. Brent had been looking forward to it for a long time. They had planned on going camping but instead with the rain went down to Kitty Hawk and stayed in a nice warm/dry hotel. Roughing I'm sure! Colin ADORES Re-Re and in fact keeps waking up in the mornings asking if Re-Re was coming to play. It was really fun having him here and we hope he can come again soon. Regis is a professional photographer now and took some pictures of our little boy and also some great family pictures. (I was secretly hoping he would take some of Colin) Some of you will be getting some for Christmas presents but here is a sneak peak of his talents and our handsome Colin. I tried to figure out how to do a slide show on this thing but my computer skills are limited so here are some of our favorites. I love them all. Regis was able to capture Colin's personality in every picture. Makes me tear up looking at each of them. I would love to frame every one. If you would like to check out some of his other pictures - here is his website, Regis Vogt Photography.

My handsome boys The man in action (as you can tell from the quality of the other pictures - I took this one)

It was tempting to put up more but I'm going to leave the rest for the family to see at Christmas when Colin gives his annual picture to everyone. But here are two more great ones... like father, like son! Notice how they both walk.....Colin has a grumpy look on his face since we had to leave the playground and go home and watch the redskins win. Priorities you know!

Christmas came early

Christmas came early this year for Colin as my uncle brought down this kitchen set and cash register and also all the toys in the shelves that you see. The kitchen set used to be my little sister's. Colin loves it all and has had so much fun playing all morning. His favorite thing is to run the cash register - beep-beep-beep-beep is all I hear. He also likes to make coffee and put water in the coffee maker and then drinking it. Last night when we got home he was enjoying playing with it when I told him "Colin its time for bed. Lets clean up your toys." He said "Oh... wait" and runs into the kitchen, points at the clock and says "time for play" Sorry kid - if only the clocks worked that way.

the magic word

I have been trying to teach Colin to say please and thank you and sometimes you're welcome but that ones a little hard for him right now. But he asked for something and I instinctively said "whats the magic word?" He thought for a moment, and in those few seconds I realized it was the first time I had asked him that question and was actually curious to see what he would say. So after I could see the wheels turning in his head he proudly said "GOD!"

About a month ago - or maybe even less, my grandpa was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer. Surprisingly the neighbor across the street has this same type. But he went into the hospital last weekend when he got so weak he couldn't walk. So Colin and I came to help my grandma this week and be her personal drivers as she can't drive since her stroke. He was in icu for a few days and then was moved to his own room. And after they gave him his first dose of chemo he was feeling so much better and can now walk around and looks much better. He will be coming home tomorrow - and he is so ready to be home. We can't wait for him to come home either. What we understand from the doctor is that this cancer has a great response rate with the chemo and from what I saw yesterday they were right. Which is very encouraging to us all.
Colin and I were glad to come help and Colin has LOVED being here. The first thing he went for was the candy dish. Before I could stop him fist fulls of m&m's were being shoved into his mouth. So we put the m&m's up but he still charmed me and with his sweet "peas" (for please) he gets a few every time he walks by. He was very interested in the hospital bed and kept whispering to me "buttons mama, buttons - me push" which we didn't let him but he is really wanting to. He loved the little pond outside the icu wing of the hospital and would pretend his stick was his fishing pole (pole pole is what he calls it) and would fish for hours out there if we let him. Colin also found my uncle's old football helmet and he loves to go outside and play football. My uncle Jeff is coming tonight and bringing Colin a kitchen set and some other toys. It's going to be like Christmas for Colin when he wakes up from his nap. Colin and I will head back to va beach tonight but will be back next Friday if not sooner. Can't stay away from ooo-eee and howard too long!