2 Months Old!

Colby was two months old on Tuesday, my, my how time flies! He weighed 11 pounds and was 23 inches long and is doing just great!






What Colby has been up to this month: smiling, eyes starting to turn brown(yay! I think I am finally getting a brown eyed child), eye lashes getting longer, hair falling out(bummer! Can you say old man receding hairline?), starting to grow out of 0-3 month size clothing, still hating his baths, skin getting flaky and dry (due to colder ID weather), getting blessed, getting to know his grandparents, and filling our lives with a little more joy!

Tagged!

Oh Tara, thanks alot.

Here's my 2-7 things you may not know about me:

1. I hate to wash pots and pans, I mean really, really hate it. Sometimes they will sit on my counters for days (gasp, I know) until I work up the gumption to wash them (well, the ones that can't go in the dishwasher anyway).

2. And on that note, I am deeply in love with my dishwasher. When we moved here we had to get all new appliances and I picked out a Bosch. We had had a couple of dishwashers in our house in AZ and they were both crappy, you basically had to wash the dishes before you washed the dishes and they left spots so I wanted to get a good one. And I love it, beautiful, shiny, clean dishes- minimal effort. This summer my kids were horsing around in the kitchen while the dishwasher was being unloaded and somebody landed on the door and it wouldn't shut after that. I cried. Alot. And they lost their allowance for a few months. And then we got it fixed. Hallelujah! Second best day of my life.

3. I am a neurotic typo finder. It's bordering on obsessive. I find them in books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues. I'm always telling Kris "don't they pay people to find this stuff?" I am literally amazed at some of the big publications that I can find them in. I guess I shouldn't be such a perfectionist.

4. I have a need for speed. I have a goal one day to drive a race car, a real one. I sometimes miss AZ for the crazy fast freeways, I've had a few speeding tickets. I love roller coasters, really fast ones and to go four-wheelin'. I guess this is why I love road biking, smooth and fast, wind whipping in my face.

5. My favorite chore on earth is laundry. I used to get mad at Kris when he would do the laundry. I'd be like- man, if you are going to help me with chores can you please clean the bathroom? Do something I don't like. I've sort of learned not to complain when he's helping out but I'm still a little possessive about the laundry.

Now I tag Emilie, Kara and April

Halloween Sneak Peek!

The kids had their school Halloween Carnival on Friday night so I thought I would post a few pics of them in their costumes. This year in an effort to save money and be a little more creative I lobbied hard for them to dress up as something that we either already had at home or that we could easily make. This was hard for them to swallow, something about the consumer generation makes it hard to process homemade. They didn't believe me that as a kid in my family we made the most fun costumes ever, I can't really remember EVER buying one at the store and I don't think I ever wanted to. It was probably because of our mom and her love for dressing up and her creativity that gave us so much excitement and anticipation for coming up with our own costumes and dressing up on Halloween. Some of my favorite costumes that I can remember coming up with- a cowboy (ok, so I don't really remember this one because I was like two years old but I have seen pictures and they are great, I wore real cowboy boots and jeans and a cute little red western shirt and of course a cowboy hat, my parents even drew a stubbly beard and mustache on my face), a witch, a mummy, a rock star, an old lady, a gypsy, and a homeless person (OK, admittedly this sounds a little insensitive but at the time I thought it was very funny. Somehow, somewhere my dad found a grocery cart (no he didn't steal it from a store) and brought it home and it was just in our back yard so I filled it with bags and literally pushed this thing around the neighborhood while trick or treating!) I have great memories of Halloween because of the fun we had dressing up, and I love seeing how much fun it is for my kids. What are some of your favorite Halloween costumes and memories?

Kris' mom is gonna kill me if she finds out about this but it's the only picture with Rex in his pumpkin suit, for some reason he did not want to keep it on. And there's our little Indiana Jones (don't call him Owen when he's wearing this) A big shout out to Aunt Michelle for finding the leather belts and side bag (yes, Indiana has one of these in every single picture we could find of him) at the local DI, lately becoming my favorite place to shop.

And here's our creepy zombie (really getting into character, go Matthew), fresh out of the grave (Kris really made him go outside and roll around in the dirt) and right after feasting on some brains (gross, I know, but zombies gotta eat, right?)

Here's our little surgeon, Gracie. Thanks to Aunt Hayley for working at a medical supply shop we were able to get a REAL stethoscope, hat, booties, syringe, gloves, and mask for about eight bucks. And Gracie had the brilliant idea of covering herself with fake blood (surgery gone awry), we didn't do this for the carnival but we will for the BIG night, tune in later for pics.

And our cute little Casper, his is the one costume I splurged on. I couldn't pass up the adorable ghost onesie and then I had to find a white hat and pants to go with it. Total $13.00.

Fall Clean-up

The only problem with having seasons (well, there is probably more than just one problem in my book but that's a whole other post) is that they require lots of hard work, shoveling snow for instance. And in the fall after all the pretty leaves change colors they fall, off the trees, to the ground, and they don't go away by themselves- pesky little things. And while I found raking leaves the first year lots of fun, like a fun fall activity, all picturesque, you know, the charm I once felt has worn off a bit. Like how the beauty of freshly fallen snow turns to yucky, black, slushy mess. So, it's a good thing I have kids now so I can make them do most of the work- ha,ha. Anyway, here's a few pics of them having fun with FALL!

Man, holding this bag is hard work!

Who knew that a snow shovel could be so versatile?

Give Me Some Space!

About a year ago at the dentist they discovered that Matthew had an underbite(?) I'm not sure what they really call it, his bottom teeth stuck out farther than the top teeth except in front so looking at him you couldn't tell but if you pulled his cheeks back you could see it on the sides. This gave him a mildly chipmunky look to his face since the bottom of his cheeks puffed out a tad but you probably wouldn't really notice this unless you looked closely. Anyway, his top teeth were starting to push on those bottom teeth and slant them inward causing lots of space issues for those poor bottom teeth. So they determined he needed a spacer to spread out the roof of his mouth and make it so those top teeth are in the right position and also help those bottom teeth get back to where they need to be. Its been a long process with all the banding and molding and consulting and such but the big day finally arrived and they put the spacer in Matthew's mouth, poor thing. Can you imagine having such a contraption in your mouth? It seems way more worse than braces. After we got into the car he was saying that he couldn't swallow and I hadn't even thought about that, he can't put his tongue on the roof of his mouth to swallow. He was trying so hard and kind of gagging. He's now figuring out how to suck it in really fast. Right after his appointment he had scouts and they got a little snack size hershey bar for their treat and it took him over 30 minutes to eat it, I told him that was the longest it has ever taken him to eat a candy bar! He can hardly eat a thing, he only had two bites of cereal before he decided he couldn't eat that so then he just sucked on a go-gurt. I'm hoping he gets the hang of it soon or he'll be skin and bones. One interesting thing they said is that it might help his nasal problems because spreading that bone will help to open that passage up. I found this fascinating since he has suffered with nasal problems since he was two, we always just thought it was allergies but this gives me new hope that he won't have to deal with that for the rest of his life. Here's to hoping he can survive the next 3 weeks of spreading that bone and then the next year or so that he has to have this thing in his mouth.


Check out how green his eyes are in this picture, I just thought it was cool because I'm always saying how interesting his eyes are and how they seem to change color to what he is wearing and then I saw this picture!

Old Friends

Yesterday, I was feeling ambitious and energetic and so I thought I would work out. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while I just haven't felt like it yet... I was doing pretty good before I got pregnant, working out a few times a week. I have some DVDs that my mother graciously donated (I'm not exactly sure she's aware of this, since my sister Britny brought them when she came to stay and left some for us, Michelle and I, that is.) Mom, just take heart in the fact that your money is going to good use. I haven't worked out (other than riding my bike) for who knows how long, sometime after I got pregnant. So I put on my tennis shoes and pulled out a Turbo Jam DVD. It was like hanging out with old friends I haven't seen in a while. There was Chalene and the gang as perky as ever. I got all excited to have one of their bodies which I know I will have in no time if I do their workouts twice a day! No problem! Hey, I can dream can't I? Miraculously I made it through the whole 50 minute workout! I only took one little two minute break, go me! You should have seen Rex doing Tai Chi at the end with me and telling me "Good Job, Mom!" right after Chalene had said it. Then, later in the day I was feeling so energized I thought I would help the kids rake all the leaves on the lawn. By 6 o'clock I could hardly move and I had headache to go with it, maybe I overdid it just a tad. But I was just so darn proud of myself for exercising. Maybe tomorrow I'll hang out with my friends Teigh and Gillian of Yoga Booty Ballet fame, I've missed those two.

Gran and Pops

We had a great time when Gran and Pops came to visit. The kids were all so excited they could hardly stand it. I was so sad that the time flew by so quickly. We did lots of fun things, I just hope we didn't wear them out too much. We went to two museums, they took the kids to the Nature Park, we rode Dan's parents horses, picnicked at Mesa Falls, did a session at the Rexburg Temple, and went to Yellowstone. We all can't wait for the next time when we will get to see them. We miss them tons already!

Blessing Day

Yesterday we blessed our sweet little Colby (Kris and I also had the added pleasure of speaking in sacrament meeting). It was a beautiful blessing and I was so glad that my parents could be here for the occasion, I would have been really sad if they couldn't have made it. But strangely enough, even though most of our family lives in Arizona we had quite a crowd at the blessing. My parents, Kris' parents and his sister Hayley, Grandpa and Grandma Walz, my cousin Logan and his family, my cousin Lindsay and her husband Ronnie, Dan and Michelle, and Dan's parents were all there. We are so blessed to have Colby in our family, he brings such a sweet spirit into our home. All in all it was a wonderful day (except for the part when my parents had to head back to Arizona).

Two-Wheelin' Owen

One of Owen's training wheels broke off of his bike the other day so Kris just took off the other one and I had been meaning to go out and practice with him so he could learn how to ride but lo and behold he taught himself! He had us come out and watch him and there he was just riding around. I could hardly believe it! (What a blessing after the nightmare that teaching Gracie was!) We are so proud of him. Maybe it wasn't too hard because his bike is so tiny, I have to laugh because I think he looks like one of the bears at the circus riding on those tiny bikes. (We're thinking about getting him a bigger one for his birthday.)

Gracie's Fall Photos

The other day Gracie wanted to take some pictures so I let her take the camera with the warning to be careful and don't take a bunch of pictures of nothing. When she brought the camera back to me and I scrolled through the photos I was well impressed. Here's a few she took including a self portrait:

Our next door neighbors' beautiful maple tree
This tree is in our side yard
She's had fun collecting leaves this fall, she'll bring in a few different colored ones,

but of course they are all brown by the next day.

Good job Gracie, our budding artist!