Happy Birthday Colby!

My youngest baby turned one today!  Technically, he doesn't actually hit the one year mark until 11:39- at this point last year we were just chilling in the hospital room awaiting his arrival.  He was so timely, waited for me to finish Fall conferences, but didn't make me suffer through yet another day of work in my largely watermelon-shaped pregnant state.

 

Colby's first Cy-Hawk showdown.  Like I said, I'll let my kids dress in Hawkeye gear every year if that means the Cyclones win, which they did this year!

This little boy L-O-V-E-S the bathtub, which is perfect for when I'm getting ready some mornings and he chooses to be an early riser.  He prefers water, but he'll roll around in there without it, too.  :)

Colby saw his first trip to the ER before officially turning the big ONE.  Long story short- random symptoms from his cold and a sprained ankle led the doctors to believe he could possibly have an infection in his joints and therefore they wanted us to come in right away, which happened to be a Friday night.  We had some great bonding time and he was a trooper.  Plus, we learned he doesn't have an infection!

This sight is always terrifying and hilarious at the same time because I swear she's going to body slam him...

...but as long as she gives him a ride in the box he doesn't mind.

By the way, look at these two one year later!

At one year of age Colby is weighing in at 19lb 5oz, and he has 6 and a half teeth (there's a molar growing in on the top left).  He enjoys throwing things in the trash and the toilet, pulling all the toilet paper off the roll, removing every bakeware item I have in the lower kitchen cabinets, and climbing on everything.

His first birthday cupcake was eaten like this: poke, lick the finger, poke, lick the finger, grab, smash it in his mouth.

He's smiling because he's just been told he needs to take a tubby to get the chocolate off of him!

 To close out: monthly pictures, which I realized I somehow missed at 3 months- don't judge me!  Just enjoy how much he's changed, I can't believe how he's grown.  We and his big sister couldn't imagine a day without him here.

 

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10 months, 11 months, almost one year!

**Disclaimer: I totally started this mid-September and then forgot to finish it!  As of last Wednesday my class is finished and now I can focus on sewing a sparkly blue snow princess dress for a certain little three year old I love- what was I thinking?!**

I have neglected to keep our few followers up to date on the kiddos' growth in the last couple months.  I feel like I put out a post like this every month, asking for forgiveness for my lack of energy and attention to the blog!  School is back in session, I'm taking a graduate credit course to renew my teaching license, and life is just overall crazy like any other day.  As I'm looking into beginning studies toward a master's degree in education or literacy, this one class has me a little frightened for the work it will entail and how I will balance family, work, and continuing my education.  But, I guess we'll take it one step at a time, right?

Look at our little Doodle Bug! 

I cannot tell you how much he amazes us everyday.  With Cailyn we were always waiting for the next milestone, we only had one kiddo to pay attention to.  With Colby, I feel like he reaches milestones and it's unreal.  I think to myself, "When did you learn to do that?" 

Like, climbing into the Cozy Coupe and pretending to drive!

And drinking from a cup- which he apparently taught himself to do whilst taking a bath...ew.  (Don't get any crazy ideas- he basically choked himself doing it, still some refining to happen in that process)

Arrrr, babies!

We are definitely in that "NAKED!!" stage.  You know, the one that lasts until like, forever with boys.

I realize this one's a tub picture so she's supposed to be naked, but I often feel like his big sister will fall under the "NAKED!!" category forever as she was just running around in her birthday suit this morning shaking her bare butt in everyone's faces and singing about poop.  She's classy like that.

But look how beautiful she is, too.  It only took seven different walks and about 50 requests for her to smell the flowers before we got this picture, but I'll take it!

Just chillin', watching some Red Zone with Daddy.

I imagine his thoughts went something like, "What the hell, mom?!  Just wait until I throw all your tampons in the toilet, then we'll see how cute you think I am..."

...but seriously, he is so cute!

This would be one of his favorite places to hang out, watching from the full glass storm door- and trying to shut himself between the doors.  (Also, full disclosure, I totally mistyped shut as sh*t at first and I'm still laughing at myself- I mistyped it the second time, too, hee hee!)

Poor kid, he hated those wings- but the picture had to be attempted.  Success!

Favorite place to sit, bonus points if he gets Cailyn to pull him around like it's a wagon.

Stay tuned for another post soon, October 6th is Colby's first birthday!  I will try not to disappoint and have a post up by tomorrow night with all of his monthly photos so far. 

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Three reasons Summer Vacay Dailies can SHOVE IT!

Three great reasons for me to spend less time blogging and more time snuggling, coloring, swimming, building, movie-watching, dancing, singing, and chillin'.  Dailies were stressing me out, always having to remember to take pictures and upload them into collages.  I wasn't all there in the moment because I was preoccupied.  Sorry to disappoint those of you who follow those posts- they're done.  I'm posting the last ones that I've worked on and then I'm signing off.  The kids are in bed, but I have a marriage to upkeep and being on this computer doesn't aide that.  Enjoy these last collages!

 Saturday July 12

Cailyn's first birthday party with friends- a pirate theme.  It was small, but a success!

 Sunday July 13

Quiet.  Headband decorating as promised. :)

Monday July 14

Beautiful weather = outdoor picnics and time to play in the sand.

 Tuesday July 15

West Marshall played East Marshall in the second round of districts.  So the kids and I decided to check out the outlet mall in Story City beforehand- and that's basically what we found, a whole lotta nothin'.  Trojans lost a heart breaker in the final inning, but it was a great season!

Wednesday July 16

Lunch and climbing at Anson Park in Mtown, followed by grocery shopping in a race car cart- one of the best inventions any grocery store has ever come up with!

Thursday July 17

It was an eat-breakfast-in-your-underwear kind of morning, and we repainted the kids' room with paint purchased from Target.  Yeah, that's right, Target!  They have several different paint colors they're selling now, and this one was perfect for a boy/girl combo room.

Friday July 18

Someone's learning to pedal her new bike on walks with mom and dad!  And, I don't want to toot my own horn- but I make some delicious oven nachos!  If I had a restaurant, oven nachos would be on the appetizer menu, served up right on the cookie sheet. :)

 Saturday July 19

Congratulations to Tyler and Amber Rabey- don't they look fantastic!  Cailyn was so enamored with Amber and her "princess dress", she creeped up on her during the dollar dance to touch it.  Haha.

 Sunday July 20

Baseball banquet complete with a dodge ball game and sewing monster bibs for all these babies being born in our friends' and families' lives.  If you want to try it out go HERE.

 Monday July 21

We finally put our basement back together after the basement leak of 2014, and had a couple drinks and watched Frozen downstairs to celebrate!

 Tuesday July 22

Selfies, smiles, and swimming, oh my!

That's all folks!  I'm sure I'll come up with some new summer blogging scheme next year.  Until then, I'm going to enjoy my last 8 days of vacation before going back to work next Thursday!

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9 months! (And 26 days....)

Although this post is a little late- the picture was actually taken when he turned 9 months old, and I was tossing this kid into the corner of the couch just to keep him from falling off!  He was so quick to pop back up and try to nosedive right off the edge!  Welcome to my life people- the boy is into EVERYTHING.

Do you see what I mean??

This is basically what each and every mealtime looks like.  You betta get yo' hands out the way when you put food in front of this kid.  However, he makes for hilarious photos as such.

This little man was a cruising champ at 9 months old- and even stood up on his own a couple times!  But, he would immediately go right back down to the floor, because even he knew that his crawling skillz were just too speedy to mess with trying to walk.  :)

He has learned how to put ball caps on himself.  Too.  Stinkin'.  Cute.

Like father, like son.

We had Cailyn's 3 year check-up and Colby's 9 month check-up on the same day to knock 'em both out at once.  Cailyn was in the 85th-90th percentile for height and weight, she's always been bigger than other kids her age.  Colby was in the 25th-ish percentile for height and weight. (crickets)  I'm sure he'll just hit a growth spurt later on- although neither Jerod nor I are big and tall in any way, shape, or form.  But it's just so crazy that his sister is so big and he's, seemingly, so small.  Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see what the future holds!

Of course, we love him no matter what size he is, and he's his own person in personality, so why shouldn't he be his own person in size?  The following are some snippets of his 9 month photo shoots (yes, plural- because he may be laid back, but he's also crazy active):

I apologize for this picture being sideways.  I am too lazy to switch it around after already uploading it to this post.

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