15 months and counting...

Colt turned 15 months about a month ago...but here are some pictures of him kind of close to that age.

He is quite the little character. It is a little hard to explain his personality...but it's so fun to watch it emerge as he is learning new things every day.

(He doesn't sit very still for pictures)

It's just like Christmas

We took out our Christmas decorations to decorate our house and the Christmas tree. The boys were so excited! I'm sure if we had told them it was Christmas they would have never noticed the difference. Brody found a little nutcracker toy and a toy train.

"Dad, did you borrow these?"
"No, Brody. Someone gave them to us. We get to keep them."
"oh...COOL! I like this toy."

Brody with the nutcracker and train.



Colt excited about the gold ribbon around his head.



Brad was a little annoyed with the bushiness of the tree so he did some of his own pruning. Now it's perfect for hanging lots of ornaments.

O' Christmas Tree

A few weekends ago we went to North Bend to a U-cut place to find our perfect Christmas tree. We got on our cold weather gear and dressed up the boys to brave the cold temperatures. (It snowed while we were looking for our tree). We walked around for at least an hour looking and looking and looking. We saw lots of trees but none that were yelling our name. Brad was mostly annoyed with the 5 foot trees that had another 1 to 2 foot spire at the top which made the cost of the tree at least $20.00 more.



We left the first place and decided to try another place. As we pulled in and saw the cost of their trees we thought that maybe Costco would be our best option. So we left.


On our way to Costco we heard Home Depot had a good selection. Brad went in and I stayed inside the car with the boys. Within 10 minutes we had a tree loaded on top of our car.

Our tree without the decorations. (except for our paper Christmas chain)

Painting

If you have been to our house in the last year you have seen one of 2 phases of our painting. The first phase was paint samples hanging on the wall. People would come in and give their opinion on what they thought looked good. After about 3 months on the wall we took them down and consulted some interior designers (it was actually a service we bid on and won at the Interlake Auction). Once we got their input we picked some paint and Brad painted some samples on the walls. We loved the color in our living room but weren't so fond of the color picked for our kitchen.

This was the first color we picked. It looked good at night but when the morning sun came in it would turn pink. I'm not a big fan of pink.



So for the past 6 months we have had our walls semi painted. Brad finally had some time and energy to work on our kitchen. Part of the process was picking a new color and going with it (instead of trying to find the perfect color). Brad has worked really hard to finish our kitchen and we are excited that it is done.




The best part was having Brody as our little helper and encourager. He would say things like "Good job painting, Dad!" "Wow, I like your drawing." How can you stop painting when you have someone encouraging you like that?



Now we can check this task of our "to do" list.

Lil' Kickers

Last Spring Brad and I attended the Interlake Booster Club Auction. It's a pretty good deal to go to a high school auction because nobody bids on stuff for little kids. We were fortunate to get one session to Lil' Kickers. And we got a great deal on it. We knew we had to use it soon, mostly because we will have another baby to make things a little more complicated.

I called a few months ago and the person I spoke to gave me the impression that it was a drop-in class (meaning you can go anytime you want and you are not commited to going every week...exactly what I wanted). So 3 weekends ago we made a family trip to Arena Sports. As soon as we got there we saw the chaos that surrounds this Saturday morning event...kids and parents were everywhere and we couldn't find a parking spot. I dropped Brad and Brody off and searched for a place to park.

Once we were all inside I saw Brad standing in line with a look of annoyance on his face. To make a long story short, we would have quickly left if we didn't have this session we already paid for. We had to sign up and commit to the same time every week for the next 12 weeks. (I guess this is the beginning of Saturday commitments for our kids)

Last weekend was the first session. There wasn't a whole lot of soccer but there was a lot of running around. It was so cute watching Brody and Brad having fun together. Colt was on the sideline with me and so badly wanted to get out and run. I snuck onto the field the last few minutes of class so he could get out some of his energy.

It was hard to get some good pictures with Brody in the middle of running. Here he is getting ready to kick a squishy ball.



After our first session we were wondering why all the other kids had uniforms. We finally asked only to discover that the uniforms were part of the whole program so we were able to get Brody his own uniform. He is so excited about it.



Brad and I are hoping we can get another lucky find at the auction next year.

Messy Face

We know and we have heard it many times that you are not supposed to compare your children, because they have all been uniquely created. But sometimes it's difficult to not compare them because the differences are obvious.

Babies are messy but we certainly don't remember Brody ever being this messy. In fact when Brody made a mess we quickly got the camera to capture the moment. Colt is messy with every meal so we haven't taken any pictures...until now...just to capture what his everyday meal looks like. If it isn't a "messy" meal he finds a way to rub it in his hair or squish it between his hands. At least he is happy when he is eating.

Snuggle time

The other day we came downstairs and Brody just wanted to snuggle with his friends. So I helped him pile his "friends" next to him on the couch. Naturally Colt wanted to join in on the action. We added all of the stuffed animals to the couch and I helped Brody and Colt snuggle. Brody probably could have stayed there all day and Colt was ready to play again after a minute or two.