Shots!

So Poor little Colby had to go to the doctor today for is 4 year well-visit. He was so scared because last week when we went with Brody, they mentioned the shots. He just kept saying to me that he didn't want shots and he would cry. It was so sad.  Then today when we got there he hid under the chair when the doctor came in. He tried so hard to be a good and brave little boy, but he had to get 4 immunizations today. It was kind of hard holding him because he was screaming so much, but we have an awesome pediatrician and her nurse Karen is incredible. She was  fast and so good at just talking through the whole thing. It didn't help much, but we tried. Colby was so tense from all the screaming and just from being so fearful he got two pretty nasty bruises.  Poor little guy was so sad, he cried afterward for a while and all the way back to Mimi & Papas (we had to pick up Brody). But we decided to go to a cool place with Aimee and her kids that help heal the wounds. Aimee took us to this club they belong to at ValVista Lakes. It was a beach entry pool with sand and stuff. Taya came which was so nice and really helpful just to have extra hands. It took Colby's mind right off the shots. Colby had so much fun digging in the sand and Brody only ate sand once. So the dreaded day didn't turn out too bad, in fact it turned out pretty good..thanks to Aimee!! 

Tonight Colby totally cracked me up though as usual. We were going to brush teeth and I was telling him to lower his voice b/c Brody was already asleep. He said, "Mama I don't like to talk in a quiet voice it hurts my brain." I just love you Colby!! You'll always be loud. I laugh too because Colby loves to read this book from the library called "The Loudness of Sam" so we tease now that there should be a book "The Extreme Loudness of Colby."

Aside from the shots he did have the well-visit portion. No surprise here, he is off the charts for height and weight. He is 45 3/4 in tall and a little over 50lbs. He wears a size 12-1 shoe and is in Boys size 7 clothes which he is quickly outgrowing. He is a tank! I sometimes forget he is still such a baby, just barely 4!

Memorial Day

We spent most of the day just resting at home and hanging out with the kids, and then we went to Matt's parent's house to swim and eat. We had a great time swimming. It really was Brody's first time in the pool and he loved it. I had tried a few weeks earlier, but started by trying to put him in a floaty thing and he screamed, but he was totally happy in my arms floating around and laughing. Colby had a great time too. We brought the slide over that he got for his birthday last year. For a while he and I played pirate and sailed our blow up pirate ship to the deep end. I made him walk the plank (the diving board), and he survived the shark infested waters before climbing back on the boat.  Anyway it was a great day. We showed Colby a little bit of the news (it was about the Vietnam Memorial) and talked to him about why we celebrate the day. 

Graduation?

Last Monday Colby Graduated from preschool. Awwwhh. It was so cute. He has a really awesome teacher, and we have had so much fun this year. The school is at his teacher, Jennifer Vanderpool's, House. He adores her, and she is so creative. She had them walk down her stairs to her sister playing the Pomp and Circumstance on a horn instrument. I can't tell you which one, but it was so cute and funny too. Then she gave each child a certificate and told what she loved about them. I have to admit there was a little pause with Colby and then she said something like...how much she loved his energy and how excited he always    
gets over the littlest things. She has always said that she would love to have him at her house at Christmas time. She had the cutest little yearbooks that she made for each child, and they finally got to show us their big ABC books they had worked on all year. 

It was really cute. After all of that she had refreshments. It was a great way to end a great year, and Colby will be back next year for one more year before kindergarten. 

Happy Birthday Colby!

Saturday was Colby's 4th Birthday! We had such a great day. We started the day with a special donut breakfast from Duncan Donuts. He got to go to his friend Luke's birthday party in the morning, and then the rest of the day we just played with all his new toys and hung out at home. He also got to open presents from Mama, Dada and Brody. He loved opening his present from Mimi and Papa. He got a Razor Rip Rider 360. It is like a big tricycle with casters on the back so you can go fast, but the minute you turn the handle bars you spin out. Colby really likes it, and got the hang of it very quickly. Colby fell asleep on the way to his birthday dinner at Chili's and sleep in the booth for about 10 minutes. He has asked us about 5 times in the last month if we could eat there. He loves dipping chips in ranch, the kids apples with cinnamon, and  corn dogs. They also have chocolate milk, his favorite treat at restaurants. When they came to sing him Happy Birthday he was very shy, but he was not shy of the big chocolate molten cake they brought him! He at it all very quickly.   After we ate, we got to talk to his Auntie Shell and cousins AJ and Drew. And when we got home we found their cards and presents in the mail. We opened those, and then had the best time in the backyard with all the water balloons we forgot to use at his party. Brody got a kick out of all the water spraying every where, and of course Colby had fun getting mom and dad wet. To top off all of that, we let Colby have a movie night. He absolutely loves movie night. We wait till it is dark outside and then let him watch a movie on the big screen with all the lights off. He gets to eat popcorn and treats and cuddle with mom and dad. He was very sweet saving a spot for me on his favorite chair and shared his popcorn and water with me. It was a great birthday. We got to talk to or had messages from Gram, Auntie Marcie, Auntie Shell and cousins AJ and Drew, Auntie Brandi, and  even Uncle Aaron!! He already has big plans for all the
birthday money that he got from family. The most important two things on his list are a storm trooper gun to go with his costume and a trash truck that dumps trash just like his friend Jacob. We love you so much bud! Happy Birthday!

Colby's 4th Birthday Party!

Friday 5-22-09 Colby had is 4th birthday party at our house. It seems like we spent the whole day getting ready, but it was so much fun. We had the party at our house this year. Our sweet neighbors the Economous let us borrow this gigantic blow up water slide that was probably 10ft tall. It had two slides and a pool at the bottom. The kids had an absolute blast playing on the slide and the splash pad and some even ventured into the sandbox and the play set area. After a good hour of playing we played pass the present, and then Colby opened presents. Colby was so shy when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday" and do the cake. His friend Jacob actually looks like he is going to blow out the candle in the picture! Then with a little prompting he stepped up to the plate and blew out that number 4 candle.  Later that night he told me he was scared of all the birthday singing and kids. Funny. But there were 13 of them screaming "Happy Birthday." After they all had transformer cupcakes we had fun beating up the pinata. Wow you should have seem them scramble for the candy. They were like hungry wolves! It was funny. We had a great time, and we were so grateful that everyone came and had fun. Everyone gave Colby such awesome presents and we have been playing with those since right after the party. Brody has even had a blast helping open boxes. He has found all kinds of dangerous plastic things to chew on.  Colby's favorite gift hands down is the storm trooper costume he got from his friend Jacob, and running in close second or even a tie is the dinosaur imaginext toy that his cousins Madisen, Andrew, and Emalie gave him. They always buy him the coolest stuff, but he has loved every toy he got. Colby had several friends from pre-school there, his cute-as-a-button neighbor Meghan and all his other good buddies from church. What a special party! 

Brody Eats Real Food!

Can I get a hallelujah?! Now I need an Amen!! Praise the Lord!! Brody ate some real food last weekend. Beans and Rice.  He ate like 6 plus spoons of beans and ate a huge pile of rice. Most of that ended up in his lap, but we were so proud!! And no, he didn't end up deciding he would eat just anything..he still will not eat anything else, but it's a start! Wednesday he had his 9 mo well-baby visit with Dr. Laks. Can you believe it? 9 months! It is so weird to me. Anyway. I know family is wondering if he sizes up to Colby. He is taller than Colby was at this age, but lots thinner. He is 31 inches (that is the 105 percentile...off the charts) and he weighs 22.3lbs (that is 75 percentile). Colby on the other hand was slightly shorter at 30.5in and lots chubbier by almost 3.5 lbs! Colby weighed 25.6lbs. Wow he was a chunk! But he ate everything and didn't have all the reflux issues! Anyway...we caught you Brody...we know you can eat from a spoon and like it...so we will keep trying you little stinker!

Morning Runs

My cute boys have been so good to me each morning. Every morning I have been running.  Colby most of the time sits back and just enjoys the ride, as does Brody. Occasionally I will let Colby play a game on my Iphone or watch a movie or something! Don't you love technology? Brody's favorite thing to do is suck on ice in that little mesh thing he is holding. This morning Colby feed Brody cheerios the whole time. It sprinkled on us today for almost the whole run, but it felt great. This little cool snap we are having is a sweet treat! We always try to make a stop at the park or feed the ducks at Power Ranch before we head home. I love running because it is my little time to myself. I am quickly reminded I am not alone, when I start to get tired and have to continue pushing all 90 lbs, but I get to listen to music and enjoy being outside with relatively no fussing! I also am just trying to get in shape. I have always been a string bean, but after having Brody I just felt like I was dragging around two lead legs or something. I never had energy and I still had a little baby weight to lose...so I have been enjoying sleeping better, and having more energy from working out! My sweet mama has been struggling with cardiovascular disease this year too which has helped to motivate me. She has had atrial fibrillation (the 2 small chambers in your heart just quiver instead of pumping at a normal rhythm) so she has been on medication and had a cardioversion procedure.  She also found out that she had two small heart attacks this year too.  So she has been an absolute trooper and has really taken charge to lose over 21 pounds, and has been exercising regularly! I am so proud of her. She still has some recovery ahead of her, but she always manages to find the positive and try to be as happy as she can be! Love you Mama! Hopefully I can keep this up! Keep ya posted. 

Our Semi-finished Backyard

So here is our semi-finished back yard. We love it so far. It has been super duper hot here...in the triple digits for the last two weeks! We are talking like 105 plus. Yowzers! We have a peach tree in the back right of the play set and the little peaches are ripe! Yum! I had to hang CDs in the tree to keep the birds off, but I have eaten two tiny peaches...next year they will be bigger, the poor tree has only been in the ground 2 months. We also have an orange tree that we salvaged and we added a lime tree. The gigantic honeysuckle we saved and we are so sad b/c last week our huge Chinese elm behind the splash bad turned on us in like 2 days it went from a beautiful dark green to yellow. Now it is completely brown and is going to loose all of its leaves. The arborist we had come out said that its roots were likely damaged when we put the splash pad in. He said that it is no longer getting water from the grass where the majority of its roots were (now they are covered in concrete) and that the tree is just in shock, so we are deep watering every 10 days in hopes to save it. Cross your fingers. Our yard just seems gigantic and we love it. We have a huge patio, and my next project is to stain the concrete. When we can save up enough money we are going to put a fence in between the rock garden (the future home of a pool...sigh we miss our pool) and the rest of the yard. Anyway, home improvement...what a headache...it never ends...but sometimes it's fun! 

The "rock garden" beautiful isn't it? We are dreaming of a pool one day.

The Boys With Grandpa

Fishing Round Two

So on Sunday we gave it another try. We just went across the street from our house to the Power Ranch pond and gave it a whirl! We could see the little baby fish in the water by the bridge, oddly enough. Colby and I have been there a lot in the last few weeks on our morning runs, and we have never seen the baby fish. The pond is full of gigantic koi and tons of very large other fish (that dad thinks are talapia). Are talapia even fresh water fish? Anyway, I was really glad to have dad there, it was like taking a walk down memory lane. It seems like I spent a lot of my childhood fishing. I am just thankful I didn't have to put the worm on the hook or take the fish off of it afterward...ewwww. I mean that is way more disgusting than human anatomy lab??! What?? I don't know what is wrong with me...I know I could do it, but I don't want to.  Colby was so excited to reel in all the fish, I was so proud of him for holding them while grandpa got the hook out and throwing them back in the water. We caught several blue gill and I think two little bass. It was really fun. I am so glad that dad can come and visit us and he can teach Colby all these cool things. It's a good thing that we got the cast off a few days later...yucky!  We love you dad and are so glad that you came! 

Fishing With Grandpa

Dad visited the last week in April, mostly on business, but we got to have him stay at our house for 10 days. Toward the end of his trip we took him to Freestone park and to go fishing with Colby.  We tried several spots all over that huge park and there were just no fish. We waited and waited...but never caught anything. Colby ended up fishing more like he did when grandpa bought him the fisihing pole the year before....he just dipped it in the water and poked around. There was this huge and beautiful Jacaranda tree that we sat under for a while. I wish I had one like this in my back yard. It was amazing, so we had to take a picture from underneath! Brody was loving it when Matt lifted him up in the air. It was fun but it was hot! Better luck next time.....

My Bestest Friend

I love, love, love these pictures of my bestest friend Brandi. Brandi and I met my Freshman year of college at Texas Tech. We were both so excited to be at school, both had weirdo roommates that we promptly booted out at the end of the first semester, and we were both such clean freaks that we met in the laundry room while we were both ironing weird things like sheets!  Who does that? (Apparently only the coolest two people on the planet!) So that means I have known Brandi for 13 years! Has it really been that long...yipes!?  Girl we need to celebrate that! What can we do?  I can tell Brandi anything, and sometimes more than she wants to know or hear I am sure :)  She is so amazing because I know that when I am talking to her, she is really listening and really cares about me and and my family. She has always made me a priority, and has the best memory remembering everyone on birthdays and anniversaries. Brandi lives in Wylie, Texas which is just East of the Dallas area, with her hubby Wayne. They are the sweetest couple, and I love Wayne! He is sooo good to my Brandi. I was so excited when they moved to Wylie b/c it is super close to my Mom's house in Parker and that makes it so easy for me to see her when I come home.  Brandi is the best Auntie to my boys, and she is an amazing Auntie to her niece Emma and new nephew Christopher. So in honor of you sweet Brandi...I love ya! I am so glad we got to chat and I miss you like crazy!