Thanksgiving with the Parks!

Here are the pictures finally from Thanksgiving holiday. Tiff narrated the pictures for me to let me know the stories behind them. She was laughing so hard telling me all about the pictures. Glad to hear that everyone had such a great time.

Looking at these pictures makes me think that Colin is turning into such a little man right before my eyes. It's sad to think about that...but awesome to see what a good kid he is turning into. He's so fun to play with and he's getting such a great sense of humor.

Tiff and Chad dug out those piano from the basement...however, his favorite button to push appeared to be the power button. Go figure! Chad and Colin had fun dancing to one of the pre-programed songs on there. Nice dance moves guys!

After a fun time playing in the volleyball pit, Colin takes a break and relaxes some, appearing to be "swimming" in the sand.

The first morning at the Parks house, hugging his buddy Scooter!

Colin dragging around his favorite toy at Tiff and Chad's place...this dog went everywhere with him. To Thanksgiving dinner...to the park...to the store...

Playing catch with Tiff and Chad, his favorite place to sit was on the stoop. Couldn't get him to relocate...had to be on that stoop!

Curious Colin! He crawled into the dogs crate and shut the door. He would sit in there and bang on the walls of the cage, even though it was really gross in there!

Playing with the big beach ball! He loved pushing the ball underwater and having it pop up high!

Cleaning with Uncle Chad...he just loves to clean up kitchens. What a good houseguest!

The 3 of them at Thanksgiving dinner at a family members house.

Such a busy baby...he just has to push around the laundry basket and give the ball a ride.

Playing at the community center pool. Such a water baby!

Playing the drums with Uncle Chad. He wasn't scared at all about the loud noises. Too bad we need to work on his rhythm still...

Colin's blue balloon

This is just a quick update to what seems to be a busy time of year for us.

We just returned from Las Vegas, where Brian, myself, and all of the Teson family took a trip to "celebrate" David's 21st birthday. I really think it was just an excuse to have some fun, but it's been so hard to get caught up since we returned.

Colin stayed with Aunt Tiff and Uncle Chad for 5 days while we were partying in Vegas. They did a GREAT job and Colin just had a blast! Tiff sent me a bunch of pictures from his visit, and I will post them when I get a chance to catch my breath!

Brian took Colin to the grocery store last week and came home with a blue balloon. You'd think this kid won the lottery, he was so happy. He played with that balloon for about 4 days before it had seen it's better days and we had to dispose of it during nap time one day. RIP blue balloon...

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

More pictures later...

We went to the zoo!

The Kansas City Zoo offered free admission to residents of Kansas City, MO during the month of October and November. Somehow, October got away from us and we knew we had to get to the zoo pronto or we would miss the great offer.

Last weekend we headed to the zoo on Sunday morning. It opened at 9:30 am and the temp was around 36 degrees (very chilly). But, we all know how much Colin loves to be outdoors, no matter what the temperature was, so we all bundled up and packed some snacks and had a great time. Plus, there were hardly any other zoo-goers there, which made for no lines and lots of up front viewing of the animals. It was great. Colin had an awesome time.

Well, this is Colin before heading into the zoo. He was really mad at us cause we made him put on a coat and hat/mittens. He just wanted to get out of the car and run around.

At the entrance

Come on Mom, let's get inside!

The KC Zoo just got some polar bears for one of their exhibits. I can't believe how big they were, and that they were expected to about double in size when they are full grown.

We got great pictures of the polar bear swimming around under water. He looked like he was having so much fun showing off for the crowd.

The polar bear came and said Hello to Colin!

Riding an elephant

Colin just loved watching the snakes (ick!). They looked especially excited to see Colin, too.

Colin wanting to get as close as possible to the deer. Yuck, I don't even want to know what is all over that fence...

Brian and Colin headed down the slide in one of the exhibits. I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended for an adult sized person, becuase it shook and rocked the entire time they were in there. Thankfully, it all ended well and they came out the end in one piece...

That slide was fun!

Riding in the jeep with some zoo friends - Monkey, Elephant and Giraffe!

We really had a great time and by the end of the morning, we were running around with our coats off. So thankful we were able to have good weather and a fun place for Colin to explore.

Another day, another dollar

Colin (and our entire family) is feeling much better now that we're done with our meds for strep throat. We've still been playing outside quite a bit - Colin is such an outside kid. He will stand at the back door and bang on it until someone puts a coat on him and brings a ball outside. His poor little fingers will be frozen and he will still want to be out there. He just stumbles more often since his little legs are probably frozen :)

Here is a hodge-podge of pictures I had piling up in my camera.

Colin displaying his skills of eating double-fisted, one fork stabbing a peach, the other a piece of brocolli. What a talent!

Playing in Grammie and Granddad's backyard with Cousin Olivia. They have so much fun together!

Eating a snack while chauffeuring the ball around in the car with him...

Playing in the Teson wagon

Outside in our backyard - Colin ate dirt!! Had to get a picture before we cleaned him up. Yummy!!

Hard at work, checking phone messages and emails...

Oh good, all finished. Now I have some time this evening to enjoy my parents! It's so hard being a 15-month old!

Gotta love this kid!

Strep throat family

Last week, every single one of us, got strep throat. Don't know where it came from, but it hit us hard. We all got put on 10 days of antiobiotics and seem to be doing much better now. Tuesday I was home sick, myself, and had Colin with me. Not a very relaxing, restful situation, but it turned out okay. Brian was home on Wednesday sick.

It has been very pleasant and warm outside lately, so on Tuesday when Colin and I were home, we got a bit stir-crazy and ended up playing outside for a while. Here's a pic of Colin lounging on our deck...

Winter already?!

As you all know, we go out for nightly walks after dinner. Last week we had to get all bundled up because, somehow, winter is approaching. Here's Colin looking quite distraught at having to put his coat and hat on. Oh, and we had to bring the umbrella, cause Colin got very upset whenever it was put down. He loves dragging stuff around the house and that night, it was the umbrella he was attached to.

A fun video of Colin and Mommy "dancing" together. Basically, we do whatever we can to make him laugh, we think he has the best laugh EVER!

Colin showing off his squeaky shoes he got as a present from Auntie Dus and Uncle Lenard. He LOVES these things. They are a little too big for him still, so quite often he will stumble and fall, but that doesn't stop him at all! Plus, it's nice for Brian and I, because we always know where he is around the house. Too funny!

Halloween weekend

What a fun weekend for the Teson family. We had Memaw come to visit us in KC on Friday and stay thru Sunday so that way we could go to Brian's cousins' wedding on Saturday afternoon/night. I think she had a great time bonding with Colin. They seemed to have a lot of fun, playing outside and kicking around the ball.
It was a beautiful weekend and the wedding was nice for the two of us to get out and enjoy some adult conversation together. We danced the night away, staying up much later than our usual bedtime.
Colin was very excited for Halloween, however we do think he is getting a touch of a cold or something. We tried to get him trained to say "trick or treat" , but he just stood there staring at us. Maybe next year.

Brian and I at the wedding (don't we clean up nicely?!)

Colin checking himself out in the mirror. Such a cute little monkey!

Not so thrilled....

A pic with Grammie and Granddad. Unfortunately, Memaw spent all weekend with Colin and we didn't get a single picture of the two of them. Colin had an unexpected early start to his nap on Halloween Sunday, so there were no opportunities for pictures with his costume on before Memaw had to head back to Topeka. Darn it!

Family pic

Eating some tootsie roll

Colin got pretty excited once he realized there was candy involved. Not much candy he can eat right now, but we're getting there.

We took Colin out to a few of the houses on our block. He had a fun time walking all over in his costume. He didn't quite get the concept of standing at the door for candy. Whenever the people would open the door to give us candy, he would try to go inside their house. No Colin, we aren't allowed to go inside, just stand there and look cute, please!

Daddy with his monkey

Walking to the next house, holding on tightly to his Dad's hand and a sucker

Running up to our house, squealing with joy, flapping his arms around!

Hi Mom! Happy Halloween!!