Free Robeez opportunity

So I know a number of you moms who read this blog would enjoy a free pair of Robeez shoes. If you are interested in scoring a free pair, go to http://www.emomrewards.com/Default.aspx and sign up. You have to join their mailing list, but they also say you can get off of it at any time. Also, this offer is good in Austin, but may differ in various cities.

Something to ponder this Christmas season....

At church this morning, they played a video that kind of summarizes some of the things I've been thinking about this Christmas season. What is the real reason for the season and how can I best teach that to Colt and live that out in my life? Anyway, here's the video so you can take a look yourself.

Beware!

Ty and I had a bit of a scare this week, and I just wanted to let yall know so you can be on your guard too! Ty received a call from a detective early in the week asking if one of our cars had been broken into because he had arrested some robbers who had Ty's business card on them. Neither of us knew of anything valuable missing out of our cars, so thought maybe the officer was mistaken (or that we somehow knew the criminals!).

A few days later the detective called back and it went down like this: the robbers had gotten into Ty's car. He accidentally left it unlocked when he went to the gym with his wallet in the console. The robbers scanned all of his credit cards, then replaced them so Ty never knew anything had happened. Fortunately, the police arrested the men later in the day, so they never had a chance to use our cards. However, this is such a sneaky scam - they could have used the credit cards for days before we noticed or were alerted! I know these are hard times for people financially, and some people are able to justify being dishonest to make ends meet. So please be careful as you are out and about this holiday season and beyond!

As an aside, Ty is forgiven for leaving his car unlocked. He goes to the gym at an ungodly hour of the morning to work out. He is religious about this and I'm very proud of his dedication (and a little jealous, because I go days/weeks without working out). Also, we see God's hand protecting us in this situation in a variety of ways. Praise Him for being our Protector and Provider!

A new family member?

Since so many kind people have helped care for Molly when she was missing a few weeks ago, we decided to do our part when a random labradoodle came into our lives last week. The dog showed up in our backyard around 2pm, and played with Colt and Molly for a bit, but then escaped through the holes in our ranch wire fence. He came back around dinner time and since it was forcast to freeze that night, we took him in, fed him, and bathed him (he had a few fleas). Colt and Molly both really liked the dog and we considered keeping him (he had no collar), but since he could so easily escape from our yard, we took him to the animal shelter in the morning. He's so cute and well mannered that we are sure someone will adopt him right away!

Molly is glad all the attention is hers once again. Bundled up!

First Haircut

Colt had his first official haircut today. I took him to Kid Klips, or something like that. He loved sitting in the car while the lady cut his hair and cried when it was time to get out. (Then while grocery shopping later in the day, he started crying when I put him in a normal shopping cart instead of the race car shopping cart. This kid loves to turn the steering wheel!) Anyway, he did great and he looks so much older with his hair short.

Below is a video taken today of Colt dancing to some Reggae Christmas music on tv. He loves music and has recently started dancing all the time. He usually puts his left arm in a chicken wing when he dances, but didn't do it for the video today. Anyway, don't feel like you need to watch the video... it's mostly for the grandparents :)

Bronchial baby

This week began with Colt having a small cold, but by Thursday it had morphed into what we discovered was bronchitis. Now he is on breathing treatments twice a day. He has been acting like himself the entire time, he just wakes up from naps coughing and has trouble going back to sleep. Anyway, here are some pics of my tough little boy from the week!

The Dog-Gone days of fall

She once was lost but now is found. Molly that is. And she was actually lost 3 times. Molly got out on Saturday, Town Lake Animal Shelter called us a few hours later, and she was home. We thought she got out of this hole in our fence, so we patched it up. Well, Sunday she got out again. We were baffled and thought maybe she jumped the fence or that the neighbor kids let her out. We got a call Monday morning that she was safe and sound (good thing cause it almost froze that night!). I brought her home, took her outside to potty, and immediately she got out again! This time I saw her leave through a TINY crack between our adjoining fences! Anyway, she was gone for 3 days and I pretty much thought she was a gonner. I'd even grieved her loss and started planning for a new dog. (As a side note: A dog is a must have with a small child and all the milk/juice/food they spill on the floor. My floors were horribly dirty after 3 days without Molly!) We found a sign someone posted at our local park and discovered someone had found Molly. I guess they couldn't read the number on her tag so never called. I don't think Colt really noticed she was gone, although I did see him crawling around the house acting like a dog a few times. Anyway, Molly is home safe and sound, the fence is patched in multiple places, and we are one happy family again!

Davey Crockett

Here are some pictures I took today of Colt for my portrait photography class I've been taking. I'm learning so much and love that Ty stays home with Colt for male bonding so I can go learn to take better pictures.

For Halloween, Colt was Davey Crockett. He wore the same costume that his Uncle Dusty wore when he was 2 years old. Needless to say, the costume was very big on Colt - but I never found a costume for him, plus it was nice to have a free costume since he only wore it for an hour or so. My dad and Jennifer and Abbey came for Halloween weekend, but somehow I didn't get pictures with everyone. They did help us clean out our garage, so now we can fit our cars in there!

Yes, Ty is wearing a grill in his mouth. He's wanted one since the song "let me see your grill"- and his boss brought one for him to wear for Halloween. Best day of Ty's life.

Colt update

In reviewing this blog, I realized I haven't really posted much about Colt lately. So, here goes. Colt will turn 16 months this week! At his 15 month check up, the Dr. said he is in the 99% for height and 50% for weight (23.8 lbs). Colt is on track to be 6'2"! Lately, he's been picking up new signs, although he still only says a few words (uh oh, no, deer, dog, ma ma - for mom, and Molly our dog, and just started saying thank you "ta tu" and shoes "sss"). He understands alot, which is soo nice. If we say, "you want to get in the shower?", he'll run to it and hop right in. If you say, "let's get in the car.", then he'll run to the front door and start waiving goodbye to Molly. Colt has been a really good eater and loves dairy, fruit, fish (tuna and salmon), carrots, some beans, peas, pickles, macaroni and cheese, and graham crackers among other things. Lately, he's been really into dipping his food into sauces, but then won't eat the actual food, just the sauce :( He continues to have a love for music. The other day at church, he clapped after all the songs. He enjoys pushing toys, chairs, laundry baskets all over the house and has quite an arm on him. He shows no preference for the right or left hand, so he may be ambidextrous. He enjoys reading, playing outside, and has really been into shape sorter toys of late. It's so much fun to watch him grow and learn! Ty and I were just sitting on the couch with Colt tonight, talking about how much fun it is to be parents. What a blessing children are! Anyway, enough with my list of things I need to remember about Colt. On with the pictures....

In the doghouse

Upset to leave the park

Playing the guitar he made at Cooper's b-day party

#1 Ranked Longhorns!!

One thing we really enjoy about living in Austin is attending UT football games. Usually we only get to go to one game a year, but this year, we were generously given tickets to TWO games, one of which was last weeks game vs. Missouri. We went with our fellow Longhorn fan friends, Luke and Sara, and had a blast. Ty's work also sponsored a tailgate party before the game. We tailgated in luxury (an RV) while the fraternity in the spot next to us had to stand up the whole time in the hot sun.

It's a...

BOY!! We had our 20 week ultrasound on Monday and discovered we are having another boy! Ty and I are very excited. We are glad that Colt will have a brother so close in age to grow up with. The baby looked very healthy and was moving all around for us. Our scanner isn't working right now but I'll try to post a sonogram pic when we get it up and running. As for us, we are busy trying to come up with names for this little guy. I'll keep you up to date as we make decisions on that!

Tampa Rays - ALDS champions!

This past weekend, we all flew to Tampa to see friends. We happened to sneak in a Rays playoff game while we were there. Convenient, huh :) We had a great time catching up with everyone! Thanks again to the Pogues and Ernsts for housing us for a few days each - what a blessing to us.

Whiz Kid

He's got some distance on him! :)

Colt the climber

Since several of you are wanting recent pictures of Colt, here are a few:

This is Colt sitting in his favorite chair. My great grandfather actually used this chair as a boy. He used it to sled downhill in the snow, so the chair rails are sanded flat!

Curious George in action. Colt likes to climb into the plant shelf in our kitchen (sans plants at this point).

He also climbs on his toy table and pretty much anything else that is his height. Colt also has been acting like Molly lately. Here he is mimicking her by crawling. He's also started saying "No!" when Molly barks. I guess he picked that one up from me!

Pregnant when we moved TO Tampa,

and pregnant when we left! Yes, you heard right... we are having another baby! Some of you are very perceptive and picked up on my "clue" in the house videos, especially Wendi -you are quick!

Anyway, the new baby is due February 28th or March 1st or sometime around there. We went today for a 13 week ultrasound. At this same appointment with Colt, the doctor was able to tell us we were having a boy. However, today the lady who did the ultrasound was not on the same page. She didn't even look at the genital area! She said there is too great a chance of getting it wrong at this stage of the game. So, while we are grateful everything looked healthy with the baby, we were disappointed that we'll have to wait another 6 weeks to find out the gender. And for those of you that are wondering, the baby and Colt will be 20 months apart. Yea!

A Tribute to Tampa

We've been gone from Tampa for about 6 weeks now and are having withdrawals from all our friends there. Since we've been missing yall so much lately, here's one for you!

Let's begin with our wonderful Tampa neighbors. I miss our Girl's Night Outs and our walks. I know you miss me too, having such great new neighbors :) I appreciate all of your support and advice in my first year of motherhood! I thought this was a fun picture of Colt and his next door girlfriend sharing some popcorn at our going away party. I really miss our good friends the Paparestas and the Ernsts! Your friendship has been invaluable to me as a new mom, and more importantly as sisters in Christ. I know our friendship will withstand the distance, even though it would still be nice to dig that tunnel under the Gulf.

Monday nights are a real drag around our house these days because we wish we could be hanging out with you guys! (This is our Young Marrieds small group at Oakwood Community Church.) It's been fun to watch the dynamic changes in all of our marriages. Thanks guys for your friendship and for helping Tampa become home to us so quickly! We'll really miss you all!

Kelly and Brady have been lots of fun to hang out with in our first year as moms. It was nice to have a like-minded mom around, who was going through the same things at the same times! Good luck to you with the book. We'll have to keep in touch through our blogs!

Oh, Collins family. What will we do at basketball games without you? Who will Ty go to lunch with? Who will Gavin climb all over now that we are gone? We've enjoyed hanging out with your entire family and will miss you guys! Glad we got to see you in Vegas though.

June update

Hey all! Sorry I've been absent from blogging for a while. We've actually been up to a lot recently, so I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed.

First, my laptop is broken and is off being repaired which is one reason for the lack of posts and also why I haven't been keeping up with your blogs.

Second, we've moved! SURPRISE! We have packed up our home in Tampa and have moved back to Austin. We are extremely sad to leave Tampa and the wonderful friends God provided us while we lived there, but know that He is leading us back to Texas, so we must follow. We bought a house in Austin which was built in 1979. The original owners just moved out and didn't update one single thing in the past 30 years, so they left that job to us. We are having the home completely remodeled (wall texture, kitchen cabinets/appliance, bathrooms, lighting, EVERYTHING) and are living in Marble Falls until the work is completed (hopefully by Aug 1st!).

Well, that's about it for now. I will catch up on posts and on your blogs once my laptop is returned. Hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

Granny Rae visits Tampa

This past week, my mom was in town visiting. We took a trip to the beach, ate at some good restaurants, and had a 1st birthday party for Colt. Here is the week in pictures :)

Since Colt loves to hum and sing along with music, we had an American Idol birthday party. We played Rock Band and had a yummy cake.

Some of the girls (before we got booed off stage) ;)
Colt wasn't real sure about the cake at first, but he figured it out pretty quickly...

...but eventually everyone staring at him and laughing at his cuteness, wore him down. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!"

Since we hadn't seen my mom since Christmas, we went to a nice part of our neighborhood and took some family photos:

Here are some pics of us at the beach:

Yes, you see correctly... my little boy is WALKING. And he walks like a champ. I'll try to post video soon.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!