Being all crafty

Chase and I were looking at some of the bulletin boards in our apartment and decided to try covering them. So here is the finished project. I think they look great. I have to give Chase all the credit though, he really did most all of it, I just put the glue down :) We made the cream one first, so there are some of the same pictures on both cause we moved some over to the brown. Just so you know.

Tuesday was Collin's 7 month birthday. We did our own weighting of him on Sunday and he was 18 lbs 8 oz. He loves most foods except carrots and oatmeal. As you can see, he's mostly a happy baby :) He started rolling around, so we're thinking he's going to start to be mobile soon. Oh goodie...

Please make it stop!!!!

Ok, so Collin has been making this screeching noise for a few months now, but he usually only does it for a second, and then stops. He has been doing it for 2 days now, and there is nothing we can do to get him to stop. I know that he'll just stop on his own, and that it doesn't seem that bad, but seriously, at 6 in the morning at 10 at night its really loud. I can hear him out by our car when I leave to go to work, so I'm sure all the neighbors can hear...sorry about that...

Patty Cake

Chase was playing patty cake with Collin yesterday. I love it when Collin laughes like he does at the end of the video! I don't know why its so dark, we've got to figure out how to use our camara....

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas. Chase's family always takes a picture on Christmas morning before they go out to the tree, so this is us just before going out to the front room.

Collin got lots of toys- this is him opening a present, and a tigger that jumps when you push a button, he really likes it.

These are a few of our favorite presents- a picture of the Snowflake Temple, a ring that Chase got me of my birth stone, and a dart board with a cabinet. We got lots of other fun things, and enjoyed spending time together and with my family this year. Merry Christmas!

Presents for me??!

He wasn't too sure about the present until I told him it was for him :)

Zoo lights

Last night Chase and I took Stu's kids to the zoo. Its was really cold but very fun. We were going to go on Friday, but heard that a big storm was coming in, so we changed it to yesterday. I'm really glad we did, because its already snowed another probably 3 inches today. And now I remember how I don't like snow.

There was this turkey that
was sleeping on the fence.
That was the closest we got
to any animal...
Aiden's favorite animal was
the monkeys so we had to go
there twice.

They had a carousel that was really fun. I love carousel's. I think my favorite one was in Central Park in New York, you go SO fast and its only a dime to ride it.

Wow, you made that??!!

So tonight Chase and I made our gingerbread houses. Long story short- Chase is amazing at things like this, and I'm happy if my house doesn't implode within 10 minutes of making it. (Two years ago my dad told me my house looked like a bomb shelter...just cause the roof was flat...) I've gotten better since Chase has been around to help me, and this year we made good frosting that really held up against my bad talent. The first house is Chase's. And yes, he even made a cute little car.

And so that must make this house with the weird big circle things on the roof mine. :)

This is my forest area. We bought little marshmallows, and after putting a few up, I decided I really liked them so I made a forest. And with forest's come...

bears....

Can you find the hidden green bears?

Frosting anyone? No, ok, I'll take it all...

True meaning of Christmas

Today was our ward Christmas program (great job Liz with all the choir songs and Camila with leading, it was really great) and it was very spiritual. I always love the ward Christmas programs, but this year was really special, and I think its because of Collin.

This morning was the normal Sunday morning, trying to get Collin to take a nap before church, getting my lesson ready for relief society, getting the diaper bag ready, myself ready, and Collins bottle, plus dinner for tonight in the crock pot. Collin would not take a nap, and so I couldn't get ready until Chase was ready... anyway, it was a little stressful. At 9:30 we turn on Music and the Spoken word and that just changed the spirit in our home from stressful to peaceful. Isn't music amazing?

I was able to get Collin to sleep during Sacrament meeting, and was holding him close during the program. As the choir was singing The First Noel to the music of Cannon in D I looked down at my sweet boy and thought- this is what Christmas is all about. In a very very small way, I felt that I knew how Mary must have felt as she looked at her little boy and that peace that fell over her. I will always remember that moment, and I hope that as the season continues, I will be able to keep that peaceful spirit with me instead of getting caught up with the presents and the silly things that we have brought into the season.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Stars

Here is our Christmas tree and some stars that I made. I learned how to make them from Chase's sister, Carissa. They are really fun to have hanging from our ceiling.
I really like our Christmas tree as well, we decided last year to use silver and blue as our main colors for the tree and I think it looks really nice. We have some other decorations, but these were my favorite this year :)

Collin monster

I always feel like a dork when I talk in videos, so I'm sorry that I talk so much in this one... He makes that growling noise all the time now, especially when I lay him in his bed to go to sleep, he grabs his teddy bears and starts making that noise. Its so funny :)

Christmas

Well, here is Collin's santa outfit. I love it, Chase is not too sure about it. He's pretty sure that Collin will stop talking to me when he's older because of all the things I make him wear :)

I know that this isn't the best picture, but I had to put one on that showed his little tummy, I put a little pillow in his suit :)

Chase likes this picture the best....

Thanksgiving

Collin can't sleep, so I just figured I'd write about Thanksgiving while I was up.

Collin with his baby cousins- Collin , Colter, Graysen, and Aadyn

Collin and his cousin Courtney, Heathers new baby. She is so dang cute :)

Chase and I went out to Arizona this year for Thanksgiving, and it was a lot of fun. We decided to try driving through the night this time and see how that went. I liked it a lot more then driving during the day, but I think thats probably cause I was able to sleep for about half the trip. I don't think Chase was such a fan since he had to be awake for almost the whole time. But we did make much better time then if we drove during the day, mostly because Collin only eats twice at night instead of every 2 hours. Plus there was MUCH less crying.

We left Tuesday night at 6 and got to Snowflake around 3:30 AM. Collin sadly thought this was play time when we woke him up so I stayed up with him until 6:30 when Chase's dad came and got him. Then I slept until 8.

Wednesday we called up my sister who lives out in Roundvalley and their family came out to Snowflake to see us. We spent a few hours talking with them and then they headed back.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and Chase's mom and dad planned a luau, which was really fun. We had a family picture taken Thursday morning, and Chase's mom made Hawaiian shirts for everyone. Then we went back to the house and had a wonderful dinner. After that we all went out to see Madagascar 2, which was pretty funny. It was Collin's first movie, and he did ok. Either Chase or I had to stand with him through most of it, but at least we could stay in the theater. Chase's brother brought his Wii, so everyone was taking a turn playing around with that. Chase and I tried Rock Band, and I wasn't too bad when I kept it on easy :)

Friday Chase and I decided to go shopping in the morning for my first time ever. We were looking into getting a tv, but once we got to the store and talked to one of the workers found out that the tv was on sale Thursday. Dumb. So we just got a few little things and went to breakfast with his family. Friday we were also able to go and do sealings at the Snowflake Temple with the rest of Chase's family, which was really neat. And then we had some amazing spaghetti at his sister Barbara's house

Saturday was Chase's brother (Jareds) birthday, and Monday was his wife Joanna's birthday so we had cake and sang happy birthday at 8 in the morning. Then we just hung out the rest of the day. At 5:30 we had dinner at Kimberly's house (wonderful Chicken noodle soup with mashed potato's) and we took off around 6:30. We got home at 4-ish, at which time Collin slept a little better but not much. At 12:00pm I gave the lesson in Relief Society, which would have been 100% better if I had gotten more sleep and gone over my lesson one more time :)

So there is my Thanksgiving. It was wonderful.

Sometime later when Collin is sleeping I will post pictures of our Christmas tree.

Collin 6 month birthday!

Well, Collin turned 6 months on Sunday. I can't believe I'm still alive :) He is so fun now when he is happy (he just got his shots yesterday and has been running a fever and not been feeling well at all last night and today.)

Collin's weight:
Birth 7lbs 2oz
4 days old 7.58 lbs
16 days old 8.42 lbs
2 months old 12.28
3 months old 14.33
4 months old 15.94
6 months old 17.84


I am so happy that it seems like he's starting to level out. It was really hard carrying around a 15 pound 3 month old. He's still eats great. He's like a clock, within about 2 minutes of his feeding time's at night he wakes up. Its crazy. We've started him on solid foods and he has loved everything we've given him. We bought these little mesh bags teething toys from Target that you can put food in. He can just chew on it without getting any big pieces. He loves them.


I decided it was high time we put a picture of him and a Cabbage Patch Kid on here. I can not tell you how many times people have said that he looks just like one. Chase and I totally agree, we love his cubby little cheeks.















This is one of my favorite pictures because if you look real close, you can see his other cheek poking out beyond his mouth. So dang cute!












My last favorite thing that I wanted to write about was how soft Collin is when he touches things (most of the time). Unless he is super excited or mad about something, he never grabs or pulls. I am usually very happy to let him play with my hair becuase he just strokes it. He loves to play with it, and just feel it. He loves to touch our Christmas tree as well, and the glass balls we have that are covered with glitter. He just runs his hands over them, really soft. Even with other babies. I mean, he's still a baby and can't control his hands very well. But he just leans forward and touches their face, or their hands, and then just kinda drops his head lightly on their lap or knee. Its so funny to watch. Again, he isn't like this all the time, but he does really well.

I think thats about it! Happy 6 months Collin!! Mommy and Daddy love you!