Colin's Car party day

Colin was so excited to have everyone over to his "new" house and party!

The morning started off when Colin and Maggie decided to put every single balloon into our bathtub and jump around.  It actually looked pretty cool, and if I would've had more time, it would be neat to get some pics of the kids with the balloons all around then.

Instead, I just got this...

Cheese!

I made it outside to mow while Brian and Chad put up a new ceiling fan in Colin's room.  Tiff took Colin to the pool and Meemaw was chasing after Maggie until her nap.  There was a lot going on, but it all worked out.  

Maggie found her way back to the bathtub, even in her party dress. 

If you look closely you can see the rash on her face and chest.

I think it was a combination of some teething (getting a couple of molars) and maybe a slight virus.  She really turned the corner on Sunday, so hopefully we kicked it!

Tiff and Colin after the pool.

I dropped those two off while I came home and did more party prep.  I thought I would get a call from Tiff around 45 minutes later, but they were having so much fun, I didn't end up getting a call AT ALL!  I had to go get them once lunch time rolled around.

Colin did so great for Tiff in the water.  He did things for her that he would've never attempted with Mom and Dad (what do we know about swimming, right?!)

He was jumping from the side, blowing tons of bubbles, pulling & kicking.  He really enjoyed himself.  And, he wore goggles with her for the first time, so we headed off to Target the next day to get some good ones for him.  He loves them (we wore them in the bathtub that night and had so much fun!)

Meemaw and I working hard on the birthday cake.  It was Lightning McQueen that I free-handed onto the cake.  Not perfect, but Colin loved it!

Colin and Olivia eating at Colin's new table.

Those two are so cute together.  They are best buds!

We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs.  There was chips, baked beans, and huge fruit salad, and of course, cake and cake balls for dessert.  Yummy!

After lunch, we headed outside to race  in the cars that Meemaw made.

Unfortunately, it was literally 102 degrees, so they only lasted a few laps before it was too hot.

But, they got lots of laughs from the kids!

(almost) Aunt Caitlin joined in on the races.

The kids playing outside (plus Chad sticking his head through the hole!)

We came inside and opened some presents.  Colin got some really thoughtful gifts.  

A helmet from Katie & Michael, to wear with his bike and scooter.

Maggie, just being a ham!

Surprise!

She kept walking up to Chad (who was taking the pictures) and saying "Eeeeze" (translation: Cheese)

Now whenever she sees a camera, she says it.

Too cute!

He got a John Deere tractor that dumps out Mega Blocks

A cool Toy Story memory game and Lightning McQueen kickboard

A Lightning McQueen car (the "noisy car") that drives around on its own.

Olivia, also being a ham for the camera.

Colin modeling his Cars glasses.

You can never have too many sunglasses, I've learned.  They never seem to be in the car when you need them :)

Some Cars swim toys.

They will be perfect for hitting our neighborhood pools.

Colin also got a baseball bat and balls and more cars.  He got a pop up tent and a few really awesome outfits.  He also scored a cool little table and a Toy Story scooter.  It was a great birthday!

Then it was cake time.

Singing Happy Birthday.

He actually smiled this time when we sang it.

Such a good boy!

Tricky candles.

Olivia and Colin, along with some of my help, finally got them all blown out.

Daddy with his mini-me

Thumbs up on the cake, mom!

Birthday kisses for the birthday boy!

After all the party guests left, we headed outside for a spin on our new scooter.

Colin looked so cute in his helmet.  He kept ringing his bell all down the street.

And we definitely need some practice...he goes about 1 inch every time he pushes with his foot.

It takes a long time to get to our cul-de-sac...

The next day we went to church in the morning and pretty much just hung around the house and ran a few errands.

Oh, and we played with all of the new toys, of course!

Brian snagged this super cute pic of Maggie and I.

She and I couldn't look more different, huh?!

I got Colin some goggles at Target on Sunday, cause Aunt Piffy had some when they swam the day before and he needed some of his own, blue ones, of course.

He was so proud of them, wearing them around the house, using them in the bathtub, etc.  

He told me he needed them to brush his teeth on Sunday night before bed.

That must be some extreme tooth brushing going on if he needs eye protection! :)

And I got this sweet picture of Maggie on Monday morning.

She is such a doll baby!

So that was our crazy few days surrounding Colin's birthday celebrations.

Hope you enjoyed our pictures!

Colin's Chuck E Cheese birthday

On Thursday, my little man turned 3.

We had so much fun decorating for his day, and it was nice being able to get input from Colin as to what theme he wanted to have for his big day.

He waffled between Toy Story and Cars, but in the end, it was a Cars kinda birthday.

I had the day before, the day of, and the day after Colin's birthday off of work.  

This was mainly because Maggie decided to have another crazy high fever, which then turned into a rash.  I couldn't send her to daycare and so she was home with me, on what was supposed to be "my day" to do what needed to get done.  

Oh well, at least she's really fun to hang out with right now.

Meemaw came into town early to help me with the house and she brought some really cool party decorations that we used

Like this Cars birthday banner we hung in our stairwell...

and right outside of Colin's room we piled a bunch of balloons. 

His room is on the left.

Colin was so confused in the morning when he walked out and had to battle the balloons...

Colin requested blue cupcakes with blue frosting for his daycare friends.

It was pretty fun making them.

  

Colin had birthday donuts for breakfast and was so embarrassed when we sang to him.  

Don't know what he wished for...but I hope it came true!

Later that evening, we headed to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate with a few family members that could make it on a Thursday night.

Colin was so excited to give Chuck E a high-five.

Poor little Maggie got drug along to the party, even with a rash and not feeling the best.

What a trooper!

Colin and Daddy driving at a fun game.

I sat with Olivia and Colin waiting for Chuck E to throw us some tickets.

Johnny was in heaven cause of the balloons that Grandad got everyone.

That boy loves balls and balloons, for sure!

I made "dirt cups" for dessert, and we sang Colin happy birthday again at Chuck E Cheese.

He did much better this time, not nearly as shy about it.

Meemaw snapped a really cute family picture.

We were just getting ready to head out for home, and poor Colin looks worked over.

He has pudding on his nose, red fruit punch all over his shirt, and pizza sauce around his mouth.

Must've been a good party :)

So I had this idea in my mind.  I saw this really cute idea of making a car from old cardboard boxes and I thought Colin would absolutely love it.  It looked pretty simple and I thought my Meemaw could tackle the job.  Well, once she figured out the rather vague template, she had it down pat.

It wasn't as easy as I had thought, but Meemaw persevered and did great.

Here is Colin running around in the freshly painted blue car. 

A quick pic of my big 3 year old and I.

He is such a good kid.

It is amazing how smart Colin really is.

His speech and language is really taking off.  

His sense of humor is awesome (he must get that from me!)

He loves and treats his family so well.

He's everything to Brian and I.

Love you buddy!

Playing Catch-up

So we've been without internet at the house (still haven't called to set it up yet, it's a little ways down on the priority list right now!), so sorry I haven't been posting as regularly as I have in the past.

We've been really busy lately doing lots of house work and social stuff.

Grammie and Grandad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last weekend.  We went to Pizza Shoppe to celebrate.  All of the grandkids were there, as Scott & Suzanne made a last minute trip to KC from Texas to celebrate.

A good time was had by all! 

Our group is getting so big...

 Grammie and Grandad!

They are such a good example of love and patience.

 A silly picture of our group!

The best one I could get of Grammie & Grandad with their 9 grandkids.

Meanwhile, just a few days later, Chris was busy proposing to Caitlin.

Brian and Katie secretly headed to the proposal location and hid in the bushes to get some candid shots.

 Here's Chris proposing.  If you look closely, you can see Katie in the background taking some pictures, too.

Brian loved being there to support Chris.

 She said yes!!

 Phew!  Chris, wiping some sweat off his brow, was obviously relieved!

 Here's Maggie with the newest Teson addition, Peter!

He's such a cutie patootie.  Maggie was playing "mother hen" to him and helping feed him pretzels.  Too funny!

Meanwhile, I have been busy trying to do some inexpensive fixes to our house.

I have started and finished spray painting all of the hardware in our kitchen.

We are using the Metallic Oil-Rubbed Bronze color and I love it.

It photographs black for some reason, but it's really a brownish-black color.

 Here's part of the kitchen done.  It really does make the kitchen a lot more high-end looking.

 One night after dinner, Colin was playing peek-a-boo with Maggie.

This was after she decided to rub butter all in her hair.  Nice mohawk Maggie!

We also switched out the chandelier in the dining room (now the playroom) with a ceiling fan!

It is so great to have the ability to make these small changes that make a world of difference.

Colin was helping Dad every step of the way.

We have a lot of stuff planned the rest of the week.

Colin's birthday is today so we are going to Chuck E Cheese later tonight to celebrate.

Then, some family is coming over to our new house on Saturday to celebrate again.

I will try to post more pictures later!

Swimming in boxes

Sorry for the absence from posting, but we moved on Saturday (almost 1 week ago) and Brian and I have been trying our hardest to get our lives organized in our new house.

WE LOVE IT HERE!

Of course, there's always little quirky things we are going to have to work out, but we can't wait to have stuff unpacked so we can enjoy our new neighborhood.

The neighbors are VERY friendly, which is awesome because that is a major aspect of our old neighborhood that we couldn't stand.  

Brian is being very patient with me as I am ordering him around to do various tasks.  He was pretty preoccupied earlier in the week with the All-Star baseball game festivities going on in KC.  

The kids are finally sleeping in their appropriate rooms and are both on their actual mattresses.  We painted Colin's room blue and have all of his wall decorations up already.  Maggie's room will be next to get painted.

We are just trying to get as much done as possible before I have to head back to school in 5 short weeks.  

I will post lots of pictures shortly, as soon as we get internet in our house.

I have to get organized before Colin's birthday on Thursday.  Yikes! I can't believe he will be 3!!!

July festivities

It seems like it has been July forever here...

Literally the last 3 weeks have been over 100 degrees every day!

This only leads to a problem when my kids insist on being outside all the time.

We do frequent little breaks and lots of fluids, but it's just SO HOT!

Here's Colin and Olivia "painting" Grammie's fence for her.

This kept them both busy for quite some time.

Colin just slapped a little bit of "paint" on each slat, while Olivia made sure the entire slat was painted before she moved on.  Either way, the fence looks great with a new coat of "paint"!

Working hard!

In between running back and forth to the new house, we have been busy trying to get our stuff moved from Grammie & Grandad's basement and pulling a few miscellaneous items from the storage locker.  We officially empty the storage locker this Saturday, but thought we'd get a few items out of there early.

Colin just loves running around the house.  He loves all the room and how the main floor is laid out.  

Brian and I keep going back and forth about being worried that it's too big.  We will literally have enough furniture for 1 room, but I'm sure we'll gather more in the near future. We've got plenty of room to grow, that's for sure!

Brian worked a little bit on the 4th of July in the morning, but met us over at our new house around 10 for some much needed cleaning.  The only problem was our cleaning supplies were somewhere in our storage locker, so we grabbed what we could from Grammie's and did our best.

Colin was a huge help, he sprayed all the windows before I wiped them clean, and even helped direct me on where to vacuum!  He also did a great job of eating donuts while we worked.  Can't beat that!

We headed back to Grammie & Grandad's for naps while Brian and I made a trip to get some fireworks.  We got a whole bag of them for $13!

Colin wasn't so interested in them this year.  He is pretty cautious about things lately.

Maggie, our little daredevil, loved them!

The boys lighting the snakes.  

Colin was worried about the snakes for a while, until we showed him they blew away if you stepped on them.  

Maggie laughing it up with Caitlin

One of our tank fireworks that took an unexpected turn and headed straight for Chris' car.

Don't worry, the tank didn't do any damage! :)

Colin helping Dad light the "hen laying an egg" firework

The "hen laying an egg" aftermath

Later on, Olivia and Johnny came over and we did some more fireworks.

Olivia liked the sparklers, but Colin preferred to just watch from a distance.

Chris and Livy lighting a smoke bomb

Grandad and Maggie, enjoying the show

After a little while, Colin warmed up to the smoke bombs and lit some for himself.

He was such a trooper.

Colin and Olivia being goofy.

Happy 4th of July!

Caitlin, Livy, and Chris with their silly faces!

Maggie just loved throwing the poppers on the ground.
She would laugh and laugh each time she did it.

This is what I get when I ask Colin to smile now.

This cheesy grin.

Awesome.

Just before bed, Colin and Daddy enjoyed a bomb pop.

(except as you can see here, Colin was enjoying Daddy's, too!)

Love these guys!

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you had a great holiday, too!