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!

Catch

Yesterday Colin and I were at the store and I let him walk down the toy isles and play with the toys - trying to get an idea of what he might want for Christmas. Usually if he always goes for one toy time after time it usually means he'll play with it a lot when we bring it home. But he found a kids sized catchers mit and wanted it to play "catch - dada - me" was what he said and he had to call dada on the phone to tell him "catch - home - me" These are the sentences he is saying now. Brent and Colin play baseball ALL the time where Brent will hit the baseball with the bat and Colin (and I) will go running after the ball. Its a great game and Colin laughs and absolutely loves it. So a glove made it all the more exciting. Brent and I have agreed that you can't go wrong with sports toys for him. For one he loves it and it tires him out for great naps and bedtimes but it also is shaping him for his future college scholarship - hopefully. At least its worth a try. He's actually pretty good. He is so proud of his "catch" as he calls it and tonight when Brent comes home we'll have to play again.

Destiny comes to visit

This past weekend my friend Destiny came to visit from West Virginia. The last time I had seen her was in WV when we were moving our stuff out. And I think its been a year since Brent had seen her. We love Destiny and she is so much fun to be around. The weather was beautiful so we went down to the beach - of course. Colin is getting to be such a beach bum and loves to go and play in the sand and the water. We tried to go to Cape Henry Lighthouse but once we passed through the first initial inspection they had to search our car at the second inspection - and apparently our car registration ran out. Who knew Fort Story was so monitored by the military. We haven't made it to the DMV here yet and I think Colin and I will be going Monday. We didn't get a ticket thankfully but we couldn't go see the lighthouse. I was sure we had until March to renew but I guess I was wrong. We had a lot of fun anyways. Brent and I watched TWO movies with Destiny this weekend. Its been a long time since we were able to watch a movie from start to finish but our little man is sleeping until 8am now and makes staying up much easier. We loved having her here are sad she had to go back to West Virginia. Come back again "nit ney"

art time

Colin LOVES to paint. He prefers painting people when we paint walls in our house. But he does like to paint on paper. He doesn't really like to color with crayons - paints and watercolors hold his attention better. He was so cute painting with these brushes I got that I had to take some pictures. These brushes are great since its got the paint and the brush all in one. You just have to squeeze the handle and paint goes into the brush. Makes painting SO much easier to clean up now. He brought one of his paintings to my mom this week. One was so good we framed it. He is so proud of his paintings and likes to tell me what each one of them are. For example the other day he painted a rake, horse, and slide. And amid the paint splotches you could really see where he was getting those. Brilliant. What a smart boy!

little cowboy

When were were at the football game, Jeff brought us our cousin's hobby horse. Colin was intrigued and kept wanting us to bring in the horse when we got back to the farm. (He still thinks it should go back to the farm.....appropriate but our farm doesn't have animals) He looks like a natural here. Its hard to get a good pictures because he bounces so fast on it. He did get stuck under the horse as he was trying to make his baby horse come and hug the mommy horse and I think got some hair caught in the springs. "pelp... pelp.. pelp" is what I heard and since then I think he's a little put off by the horse as he doesn't ride it as much. But he's really cute as he likes to come over and talk to the horse. He pets the horse and adjusts her strap. So cute. He might just be the next horse whisperer :) Thank you Jeff and Hannah!

We finally put Brent's firepit together that he got for his birthday. It was so much fun and we stocked up on hotdogs and smores. Colin would do this every night! Especially the chocolate part.

Another HOkie weekend...

Right before the gameRunning with Ba-pa

Colin laughing at something Jeff told him...and given that Jeff taught me the "beans, beans, the musical fruit" song I can only imagine :)

Watching the game. Notice that concentration.

Yes that makes THREE games we've gone to this year. Colin loves them so we are very glad to have had the opportunity to take him to experience hokie football in person. Although the other day I was throwing the football in the back yard to him since Brent was at work and he kept tackling me. Every time. And he hits hard. (Frank Beamer I think we need to talk) He studies the game and when we get home he loves to play football and try to "drop" the rest of us who are playing with him. Colin loved tailgating and loved to have someone throw him the football while he went and caught it. He didnt tackle anyone there though. Just momma at home I guess. He had a great time with Uncle Jeff - who is now deff as colin says. The weather was perfect. Some of the trees were just starting to change. The game got a little boring in the end and Colin did manage to fall asleep during the 4th quarter. But at least we won which is always important. We had a great time and can't think of a better way to spend a weekend in the fall than at a Hokie football game. Thank you grandma and grandpa and uncle jeff for the tickets again. AND thank you mom and dad for taking us :)Here is a short video of him watching the hokies play nebraska a few weeks ago. We put him down for a late nap and then let him stay up to watch the first half. He didnt make it though and went back in his room and told me he wanted to go to sleep (which surprised us) but he cheered for a good quarter.The past few days he wanted Thomas and Percy (his trains from Thomas the train) to go watch the football game and we had to cheer and yell like we did at the game. The trains did. Which is funny to imitate. And then we leave and go back to the farm. If I try to take the trains home he corrects me and says "farm."

our little decorator

The other day I walked into the room and Colin had his tape measure out measuring furniture. I quickly grabbed the camera. He's pretty good at measuring the right parts - now we just have to work on his numbers. Brent just shakes his head when I walk into a room and start measuring. In fact, while Colin was napping today I rearranged the guest bedroom since I thought of a new way to place furniture :)

By the way this couch used to be a light pine color with green cushions. I stained it black and recovered the cushions. Makes a huge difference. Now I just need to find some pillows to go on it.