Colten is TWO!

Okay, Colten has been 2 since March 14th. Mom is just a little behind as usual with the post. Leading up to his party, Colten had been battling a runny nose and a pretty bad cough so I was a little bummed. I hated to see him sick for his own party... And things seemed to get worse. We had a big snow the Friday before his party so Uncle Mike wasn't able to make it in from Columbus and then his great grandparents canceled too due to the weather - all which was completely understandable but it still added to my disappointment. I so wanted his party to be perfect and it was looking as if it was going to be far from it.
People always tell me that I worry for nothing, and that was surely the case this time because Colten's party was fabulous! He had a blast regardless of his runny nose and cough : > And the day turned out to be gorgeous; in fact, almost all the snow had melted by the mid-afternoon. Here are some pics from the party. Colten was spoiled again : > Thanks everyone!! We can't wait to set-up the swing-set and to see him driving around the yard in his yellow Camaro power wheels!

Cool dude on his new motorcycle! Now he just needs to learn how to pedal : >
Colten had a construction party this year.

Colten was so happy that he blew out his own candle!
Helping mom cut the cake.
I LOVE chocolate cake!!!!!

And then it was time for presents!!!!

I got a light saber just like my cousin Braden!
And a new mower! A boy can never have enough mowers!
Sharing with Kayleigh.

I just loved seeing Colten and Kayleigh together now that they are older. Colten shared his toys so nicely with Kayleigh. I just know that one day Colten will make a great big brother if God blesses us with another child some day. In the meantime, Colten and I are looking forward to many a play days this summer with Kayleigh and Krissy!

Check Colten out in his racing gear!
Believe it or not, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Marc were the only ones lucky enough to get a photo with Colten during his party. Mommy and Daddy even missed out. Note to self: take pictures before the party begins...

This was Colten's real birthday. We had a countdown to his birthday sign so I had him pose with it when the big day finally arrived. Unfortunately, he was not feeling well so I didn't get much of a smile...

...but he is never too sick to work with his tools!

The days following his party and real birthday continued to get worse for Colten in terms of his cold. Luckily we were headed to the doctors for his two year appointment. I had called the doctor the week of his party, but since he didn't have a fever, they didn't want to see him. However, the doctor didn't like the sound of Colten's cough and felt as if he had had it for too long, suggesting that it might have turned into bronchitis or pneumonia. Luckily after an x-ray, Colten had neither. Regardless, the doctor put him on an antibiotic to help him out. While his cough and runny nose improved, we were then faced with a day of Colten vomiting mucus that had been in his chest and then another day of diarrhea as a side effect of the antibiotic. Thank goodness, it seems we are in the clear. Colten is finally doing so much better and is back to his hungry self : >

Even amidst the sickness, we found time to visit Easter Bunny Lane at Kraynak's. One of their exhibits was Sesame Street, and Colten couldn't get enough : >

I'm tired so that is all for now. Thanks to everyone for making Colten's birthday so special! More to come. And I'll catch up on everyone's blogs shortly : >

The Countdown to T-W-O!

I feel like I was just blogging about how quickly Colten's first birthday came and now we are preparing for number 2! Every day brings more firsts and more challenges that sometimes make we wonder if we could handle a second child. On some days I wonder how I can manage with only Colten. But here's a quick post to catch everyone up before Colten turns two!

Colten pooped on the potty for the first time earlier this month! He usually loves to just sit on the toilet so after his bath one night he asked to sit on it. I told him no at first because it was already late, but Colten insisted so Tom and I thought that if we want to teach him to use the potty, we better not refuse his requests. And luckily we let him because he pooped! And we all celebrated! Since then, he has gone one other time. But I'll take every small step that I can : >

Thanks to a snow day at the beginning of February, Colten also got a chance to play in the snow for the first time this season. We've had so much snow but it has always been so cold too. Luckily it was in the upper 20's so we headed out and met up with Kayleigh too! Vic showed Colten how to make and throw snowballs, and he couldn't get enough!

Colten also ate pizza for the first time this month. I know that everyone is probably so surprised by this but Colten never liked red sauce but he does now....along with sausage and peppers and onions too : > He's such a great eater!

Colten still loves his vacuum too. Here he is vacuuming with Daddy and this time he actually took over for Daddy and used the real vacuum for a while. Before he only played with the real vacuum if it wasn't running. I guess he'll be doing chores before we know it ; >

This past weekend, we all headed to Columbus to visit Uncle Mike and to help celebrate Braden's 4th birthday! Thank goodness for videos on my phone; that's the only thing that kept Colten happy for the last leg of the trip.

But once we got there, Colten never slowed down. At first he wasn't too sure about the bounce houses, but Uncle Mike and I took him down the slides anyway and soon enough, Colten was having a blast. He especially loved the basketball one, probably because Uncle Mike made it so much fun to dunk the ball! I can't lie though, Uncle Mike and I had just as much fun playing and bouncing as the kids! Happy Birthday Braden! We had so much fun on Saturday and playing at your house on Sunday!


Have a happy week!

Christmas Photos

I hope that everyone had a magical holiday season and that 2011 is bringing much happiness. I promise to catch up on everyone else's holidays soon but for now, here's our update.

This was Colten's first time making cookies. Grandma and Colten were cutting out a star-shaped sugar cookie, and then Grandpa and Colten were in charge of decorating them. Oops, Colten, maybe that's a bit too many red sprinkles : > Needless to say, Colten had so much fun with the dough, the sprinkles, and the flour!

Here is a photo of Colten playing with his remote control car from the Bleschner's - thanks guys! He loves it; it's just the right size and speed for him.

After our remote control car fun, we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve day. Colten really got into Christmas this year; he wanted to open everything and in typical kid fashion, if it was clothes, he tossed them aside and quickly looked for the next present : > Strangely enough, he was very upset if there was wrapping paper on the floor, so all the paper from unwrapping went directly into a bag. However, once we were done, Colten decided that he wanted to play in the paper - here's a photo of him rolling around and laughing among all the paper. What a silly boy! And check out his new Nike's too (thanks Uncle Mike; that's his first pair!)
One of Colten's favorite gifts was this suitcase from Uncle Mike. Every time we visit Uncle Mike or every time Uncle Mike comes to town, Colten insists on pushing around his suitcase so Uncle Mike got Colten one of his own. And believe me, Colten loves it. We may be the only house where the suitcase is part of the play area : >

After opening lots of gifts and playing like crazy and after a much needed nap, we were off to mass - but not before a few more photos.

When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Colten jumped right back on Lucky, his new pony : >

I can't wait for the day that Colten wakes us up around 4am in hopes that he can go see if Santa came, but for this year, we started our celebration around 6:30am when Colten woke up. Tom and I had already exchanged so we could fully enjoy the magic of the morning with Colten. And it was everything we hoped it would be. Colten was so excited and overwhelmed by all of his new toys. I loved watching him dig in his stocking too.This how we found Colten in his crib when he woke up. He sure loves his pillow pet - thanks Carroll family!


Soon it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch with the family.

Colten and Aunt Joyce

Colten loving one of Liz's famous buckeyes!

Colten and Aunt Carol

And then we make our annual visit to Aunt Tunny's to end the night. Unfortunately I don't have any photos, but we loved visiting with everyone. We had to leave earlier than we would have liked because Colten had had enough excitement and SUGAR, to say the least. I thought we were headed for the 'terrible twos' for sure, but after cutting out all sugar again, I realized that his tantrums seemed to stem mostly from that. So hopefully we can keep those out-bursts at bay for a bit longer : >

And here's a photo of Colten playing with his music station from the Moss family - thanks so much! He loves playing 'songs' for us, and he really loves making noises into the microphone!

After all of the fun, I was feeling the anxiety of a house that looked more like a toy box explosion. So I headed to the store for some much needed organizational gear. Thankfully our living room does not resemble Toys R Us anymore : > I'll show photos of the new toy box that I am in love with soon, or as soon as I upload those pics to the computer (which in reality could be weeks from now.) But you get the idea : >

Lots of love to everyone!

Thanks to a snow day...

Thanks to a snow day...I'm finally updating my blog! Considering my last post covered pumpkin carving and Halloween, we've been busy so once again, I'll just share the highlights (mostly photos too).

We headed off to Kraynak's to see the Christmas display toward the end of November. Last year we missed out because we went too close to Christmas and the line was wrapped around the outside of the building. We learned our lesson and went in November and right when they opened too. Colten loved the displays. He spotted Frosty first thing (and actually pulled him out of the display - luckily it wasn't too busy so no one saw : > ) I wish we had taken the video camera because he couldn't stop pointing and oooing at every display. The photos don't do justice to how much he enjoyed it.




The next weekend, we headed to the mall for our holiday photos, and we decided to visit Santa too since once again it wasn't busy. (Can you tell I'm not one for crowds - unless it's Black Friday of course!) Colten loves all of the Santas around the house but I wondered how he would do with the real Santa. Luckily, he was so excited to sit on his lap :> The Cruz's met us at the mall that day too so Kayleigh visited Santa too and then...Colten and Kayleigh had their first kiss! Too cute!



Even though we had been preparing for Christmas already, we had yet to celebrate Thanksgiving. As usual, my mom did an amazing job in the kitchen. Everything was so delicious! And Colten had a blast playing with Uncle Mike and having a very serious discussion about pies with Aunt Tunny : >

Since Thanksgiving was officially over, we started decorating. Here's Colten helping Daddy with the tree and putting the angel on the manger. (Thanks again Aunt Joyce and Uncle Frank!) I wasn't going to put my nativity scene up this year because I was afraid that the figures might break if Colten accidentally dropped them on the hard wood floors. Luckily the Melniks came to our rescue and found a LittlePeople nativity set for us : > I love it just as much if not more than Colten! I have to say that Colten is so great with the decorations though. He loves to look at the ornaments on the tree, but he knows that he can only take two off - a dog that looks like Lady and a "popcorn" ball.

The following weekend, we had lunch with Santa after church. I can't say how much Tom and I love these family moments. Colten has brightened our world more than I can ever express.

And this past weekend, I had a Christmas lunch for some of Tom's side of the family. It was so great to spend time with everyone; usually our busy lives and different schedules prevent us from all being together. Colten had so much fun playing with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. He loved vacuuming with Great Grandma the most ;> And of course, Colten was so excited for his Toy Story cars and figure (thanks Aunt Amanda and Uncle Marc!) and for his John Deer play set (thanks Papa!) Colten loves his tractors!

I would love to say that I will update my blog again before Christmas, but I know that's impossible for me. So I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011! May the spirit of the season carry us all through the next year! Lots of love!