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...