Santa baby

Last weekend, for our ward Christmas party, we put Collin in this little Santa outfit. Granted, it was a little small, and it only lasted on him for an hour... But everyone was calling him Santa Baby at the party. He's a toddler, but still a cute Santa baby :)

Collin's latest pastime with books

Collin has ALWAYS loved to read books. Lately he is obsessed with holding a book out to you that he wants you to read. And if you don't read the right book, he knows it. He knows which book he is pointing too. It's too funny. He has also discovered his bookshelf. I'm not sure what he enjoys more, reading books or pulling them all off the shelf.

Mom, I LOVE this! Note, that book What are you so Grumpy About? Best little kids book that I love to read. It is funny, and we read it MANY times a day.

We love hats

Recently, Collin and I got to wear hats on the same day. He REALLY likes his Cougar hat. Now he finally doesn't pull it off quite as much.

I love my bowtie!

Thanks to his Auntie Shanna, Collin got to wear his first tie to church today. Talk about HANDSOME! I was SO in love with this little guy this morning.

Smile Collin! He already has the squinty eye grin down.

Montana Thanksgiving

We made a trip to Montana for Thanksgiving to visit Ryan's sister.
Collin LOVED playing with his cousins. He got to be a cowboy with Audrey.
A family photo the day after Thanksgiving.

While we were there, Grace got baptized. She asked me to give the baptism talk, which was my first ever. Congrats Grace!

Spikes and cookies

I love little boys with spikes. Collin's hair is a little too long for that, but here is an attempt. Mom, don't take a picture of my haid, I'll just squint my eyes instead.

And here is a cookie that Auntie Kari gave Collin without his mommy knowing.

Man, he POUNDED that cookie. Bring on the chocolate!

Hanging out

A recent hang out session, once Collin learned to climb up on the chair.

Collin as a grandpa

So, a month or so ago, we pulled some of Collin's pants up so they fit him... And how hilarious is this? Hello Grandpa Collin!

Thomas Nelson review-Obstacles Welcome

I enjoyed this book. I was very impressed with how the author had come from such an interesting background, but had not let his “obstacles” stop him on the pathway to success.
While reading this book, I automatically thought about my boss ironically, and any of the leaders in my life and what it takes to be a great leader. I especially enjoyed the chapter of on spotting opportunities. I feel like each of us can spot obstacles and turn them into opportunities with a little hard work and new attitude.

A few other things I really enjoyed about the book were was how the author said that “if you want to become a leader, the worst path to try is the quick one”. The author explained how the years of experience and our loyalty can be lost in an instance with short cuts. I also liked how he quoted Bernard Shaw in saying “Some men see things as they are and ask why? I dream of things that never were and ask why not?”

This book made me think of different experiences or situations in life where I am a leader, or even a follower and how each of us can prevent obstacles from our path to success. Good book.

Halloween 2009

Collin's daddy REALLY gets creative in carving pumpkins and Collin loved to watch. Saturday morning I finally got to clean the bathroom, because we had the Halloween music playing and Collin "trapped" to watch pumpkin carving. This was Collin's pumpkin. He loved to take the top of him off and roll him around and look through the eyes and nose and figure out what was going on in there.

Sometimes the pumpkin got the best of him and rolled away.

We took Collin trick-or-treating to a few houses of our neighbors before anyone else started showing up. Lucky for me, Ryan went and got me a witch's hat so I put together a quick witch costume and he was Captain Kirk.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

Halloween---3 days early

Even though this was Collin's second Halloween, we did more things this year. Our ward 3 days before Halloween, the youth put on a "Halloween party" for the kids. Okay, so Collin isn't even really a "kid" technically, but we brought him anyways. He LOVES being around other little kids, and we had a REALLY cute Dalmation costume, lent to me by my loving sister. This was Collin when we first got there starting at everyone's costumes.

This was his favorite thing to do, and ironically, his costume fit perfectly with him just wanting to crawl away everywhere.

Collin's friend Tessa, she is 3 weeks older than he is, but much taller, so I thought it fitting she was a lion :)

Hey, finally someone smaller than me mom!

Collin sure had fun at the party and so did we!
On a side note, here is our pumpkins from Ryan's pumpkin patch this year, minus one that we gave early to Sadee. And this is the first year I finally got around to roasting pumpkin seeds. YUM!

A hunting we will go

We have had fun around the Halloween season this year. Collin has ESPECIALLY liked all of the pumpkins we grew in our backhard. He has also REALLY liked discovering cupboards... and we most recently had to put the "protection" gear on the under the kitchen sink cupboard. He was none too happy about it.

Mom, how many times can I unload a drawer for fun?

He also LOVES looking at all of the leaves coming down outside his window.

Reading away

I have always wanted my children to love to read as much as I do. So, even when Collin was itty bitty, we still took the time to read books to him a LOT...people kind of made light of how he reacted, but I really think he was into it. Now, even more he LOVES books. Even first thing in the morning he grunts at his bookshelf, until I choose the right book and twists around and sits in my lap to be read to.

Sometimes, like today, he just wants to read the books himself. It is seriously so cute.

He studies and STUDIES the pages.... and I think he could read for hours if we let him/read to him that much. I just hope it sticks with him. Here's to reading fun books!

Gardner Village witches

Recently, we took Collin to one of Ryan and I's favorite places, Gardner Village. He enjoyed the witches.

Plus it was nice enough weather, that we didn't have to wear jackets! YEAH WARM fall days!

Another first

This picture totally doesn't do it justice, but this week Collin got his first black eye....from trying to lift weights apparently, or passing by the weight machine. I prefer to say he is trying to imitate David Bowie in one of my favorite movies, Labyrinth! DANCE MAGIC DANCE! Luckily, we are in the purple/yellow stage now, so it is almost gone.

Watching BYU football

Like my parents, I love BYU football. I already went to one game this year, but I had the opportunity to stay up past my bedtime, and go to a night game. I was in such good spirits the whole ride down (which took 2 hours instead of 30 minutes due to traffic) and mommy and grandma had to go and buy me a warm hat, but I LOVED it. It didn't start until 7pm, but I made it through almost the whole game before I had to go....I stayed at the game until 930! YEAH! This was mommy and daddy and me at the night BYU game. I definitely was the warmest :)

This is my staring down the enemy.

Sometimes, I just watch football on TV, but only at Uncle Jeff's, since we don't get the games at my house.

I ESPECIALLY like grandpa explaining all the rules to me. I love him!

Watching the cougars win with grandpa. Thanks grandpa for always teaching me the game!

Collin's slide

Recently, Collin got to go to "Collin's slide"--thus named by Sadee and Ava. It's a slide at this elementary school, that despite being "pink" (a GIRL color) Sadee and Ava have been saying it's Collin's slide for so long now....finally we got to go. Collin liked going down the slide...

But he liked the bark at the end of the slide even more. Boys will be boys I guess.

Sadee and Ava SURE LOVE Collin, especially Sadee. You can tell he worships her :)

Mom, when can we go and see Sadee and Ava?

Sadee showed us how she can totally do the monkey bars. I told her I used to do those too, back when I was six.

Sadee loved the BIG slide... I even went down it a couple of times.

Ava also went down the slide, but liked swinging better.

Thanks Sadee and Ava for always being fun to be around. Collin and I LOVE YOU!