The day after fireworks

Brian and I live in a neighborhood that definitely likes to demonstrate their pride for the USA. There were tons of fireworks shows going on ALL NIGHT LONG! Literally, right across the street from us. They were pretty to watch, but not so great when you have a baby trying to sleep. All I have to say is...thank goodness for sound machines! We had that guy cranked up on full blast and were just praying he would sleep through all the commotion outside. Luckily, that is exactly what happened and we have a fun, cutie baby waiting for us the next day. Here are a few pics from when we woke Colin up from his morning nap.
Daddy was tickling Colin in the first picture.

What a doll!! We are so blessed to have a happy, healthy baby boy. Can't believe he will be turning 1 in just two weeks. God is great!

4th of July Fun!

We had such a busy weekend planned for the 4th of July holiday. On Saturday, we got up and went to the Parkville Parade (minus Brian since he had to work, boo!) and got to support Brian's uncle John DeStefano in his campaign for State Rep. Colin had a lot of fun riding in the wagon with his cousin Olivia. They were such troopers during the mile-plus long parade. Of course they had a blast throwing everything (sippy cups, shoes, sunglasses, bottles of water, puffs, etc) out of the wagon along the way, but there were plenty of people around to help pick up the stuff.
At the end of the parade there were some fun rides you could do. Colin's aunt Katie bought some tickets so the kids could ride on the carousel. They had so much fun! Thanks Aunt Katie!!

Colin with his cousin Olivia, before the parade started. They were riding in style!!
*
*
*
After the parade was over, we headed off to Belton to see Tiffany and Chad. Tiffany has been so patient, waiting to take Colin swimming at the Community Center where she works. We just love the fact that Colin LOVES the water and he had a blast on Saturday. The boys (Brian and Chad) went golfing and so it left plenty of time for the 3 of us to head to the pool. We had such a great time, and Colin was so tired when we got home.

The 3 of us at the pool. Unfortunately this isn't the best picture, but it was so hard getting Colin to hold still long enough for a good shot. He was a busy baby and didn't want to quit playing!



After the pool we headed back home for some dinner. We wanted to make sure Tiff & Chad felt comfortable with Colin since they will be watching him for a week at Thanksgiving time. Colin just loves his Aunt Tiffey and I know he will do just fine for them in a few months.



Now if it would only quit raining long enough for us to finish staining our deck....

Visiting Great Granddad

Monday was a fun day because we were able to go visit Brian's Granddad and spend some time with him. We don't get out to see him as often as we should, but we feel it's really important to bring Colin and get some fun pictures. We stayed for about an hour, and Grammie and Granddad were there too. There was freshly popped popcorn for us to eat, and Great Granddad had a balloon in his room from Father's Day, so Colin thought that was the coolest thing ever. He really is just in awe of balloons. We left when it was time for Great Granddad to go eat dinner, but we had a nice visit and hopefully we can come down more often to see him.

Colin with Granddad just having some fun

Colin playing with Great Granddad's balloon

*

*

*

Brian and I also started staining our deck (which was much needed because we added onto our existing deck about a year ago and so we have a mismatched bunch of old and new wood). This project is turning out to be more of a pain than we originally thought, but we are getting through it a little at a time at the end of our work day. Colin goes to bed pretty early still, so we get a couple hours of work in every night. Slowly but surely, we'll get it done...

Colin modeling our deck addition...can't believe this was being built and added on as I was going into labor with him almost one year ago. Time flies!

Colin eating the wood slats, yummy!

Just being a happy baby boy!

A good family photo from our visit with Great Granddad.

Weddings & Pool time

Brian and I went to a high school friend of mine's wedding this past weekend and had a great time seeing old friends and family. Since Colin goes to bed so early, we wanted to make sure we could actually enjoy the evening, so we had Memaw watch Colin overnight in Topeka. They had a great time and Colin was very well-behaved for Memaw. He did throw his food all over the floor though, but she didn't seem to mind the extra cleanup duty.
After we got back to Topeka on Sunday, we took advantage of some pool time. Colin just loves the water, and wore himself out playing so hard. We hoped that would translate into a better nap on the carride home, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Here is Colin with Mommy, he loved banging his hands on the raft!

Colin was attempting to crawl on water

I just love hanging out at Memaw's house!!

Colin with Daddy, going down the slide. More like inching down the slide, but whatever. Everyone had a great time splish splashing around.

Here's a pic of Brian and I before we left for the wedding. The ceremony was held in a cute little church, but unfortunately the air conditioning wasn't working and we all were miserable. Good thing they had some hand-held fans for us to use. Poor Brian was in long sleeves and black pants. Sometimes girls are so lucky to be able to wear sundresses!

Corporate Challenge week

This has been a busy week for our family. Mainly because I signed up to swim at the KC Corporate Challenge, which meant I had to be at the pool every night Monday-Thursday at 5 pm and would get home WAY past my bedtime around 10 or so. Although I had a great time competing, it was really hard being away from the family and our usual routine. I swam for my company Children's Mercy Hospital and we had a fun team of people representing the hospital. I met a lot of co-workers and it brought back lots of emotions I haven't felt since competing in college.
The last night of the meet Brian decided to bring Colin to watch me swim. Grammie & Granddad also showed up to cheer me on (and to see Colin, I'm sure). It all went great until I jammed my thumb finishing into the wall on my backstroke event. It's still pretty swollen and tender, but I'm sure I'll recover soon. It's just really difficult to pick up a baby and change diapers without being able to move your thumb!


Here is Brian and Colin - with Colin sporting my swim cap. He thought it was so funny when I had it on, actually, it took him a few seconds to figure out who I was with my funny pink hat on! He kept trying to take bites of it when it was on my head.
A good family photo - the medals I won were great teething toys! He did a super job being good at the meet, even if it was past his bedtime, too!

Happy Fathers Day

I know Fathers day was last weekend, but I hadn't started this blog yet, so I didn't get anything posted. We had a great day, got a few things done around the house (powerwashed the deck, mowed the yard), then just enjoyed our day with Colin. Sundays are the only days where both of us are home, so we just love Sundays. Colin and I got Daddy a book that we made full of lots of pictures of Dad & Colin. It is fun to see how much he has changed and grown in the past year.

Here are some of my favorite pics of Colin & Daddy:

If you couldn't tell, Colin just LOVES his daddy and we are so lucky to have such a thoughtful, caring and attentive guy around the house. I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without his help.

Happy Fathers day to all you dads out there.

Oh, and a special Happy Fathers day to Colin's Godfather, Scott (Brian's oldest brother) and to my Godfather, Uncle Len.

Love you all!!!

Giving this blogging thing a try...

Here is a picture of Colin a few weeks ago, he has changed so much since then. He just loves his bathtime and playing with his squirty toys in the water. However, one of his new favorite things is to see how far he can launch his toys in the bathroom. I guess it keeps bathtime interesting at least!
Now, he has a couple of teeth up top, as well as his ones on the bottom. I can't ever seem to keep his shirts dry since he is a drooling machine.
Colin is also developing quite a personality. He seems to get offended whenever you tell him "no" and his lip immediately begins to quiver. Hopefully this will be something he grows out of quickly, we are not a big fan of whining around our house.