Halloween 2010

 The boys were their very own superheros this year for Halloween. Aunt Dee Dee made them personalized capes last year for Christmas and Colt wears his all the time so it seemed fitting (and much cheaper) to have those be part of their Halloween costume. My mom had spent an entire day sewing the boys outfit that they could wear with the capes, she brought it over and had Colt try it on and he started crying saying he wanted it off and didn't like it. I guess the fabric was a little stiff and uncomfortable and instead of just making them wear it (which is what I was going to do) my mom felt so bad that she went out and bought them pajamas that matched their capes so they could be comfortable.

 I tried so hard to get a picture of the boys but their was always one of them that was not cooperating (well rather Jax was not cooperating). Colt was being so sweet trying to hold his hand or put his arm around him but Jax wanted nothing to do with it (I think he is tired of Colt always wanting to squeeze him or get in his face).

 Superhero Colt. 

He loved the costume and loves being a superhero!

 Last attempt at a picture together.

 We celebrated Halloween on Saturday, Wa-Hi had a trunk or treat and haunted house in the school parking lot so we decided that would be the easiest way to take a 1 and 3 year old trick-or-treating. Dave parents, Kenzie, Camryn and Calvin all came over for dinner (Dave made salmon chowder) and then we headed out to collect some candy. It was raining which was a bummer but the kids still had fun.

I had to include this cute picture of Camryn and Calvin.

Jax : 17 months

It has been too long since I have written about my sweet baby boy Jax. He is one easy going little guy (much like I remember his older brother being at this age). He approaches all milestones in his life with a very laid back attitude, case in point he didn't take his first steps until he was 15 months and he has just in the past couple weeks become a real full time walker. I love to watch Colt and him run around the house together, chasing each other and playing hide and seek. He loves for us to read him books, loves to throw things, wrestle with daddy and snuggle with mommy. His vocabulary is increasing every day, I forget how much they take in at this age. He understands directions and will bring me what I ask for or throw things away when I ask him. He has been sleeping like a champ lately (lucky for Dave he has been sleeping in till past 7 during the weekdays) and takes one 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. He is not picky and will eat pretty much whatever I put on his plate, though he usually prefers my plate. He is in that stage where he cries whenever we leave him with someone he doesn't know. Church is a nightmare most Sundays and Dave and I always ask ourselves why we even bother both going because one of us ends up hanging out with Jax in the nursery. He is constantly doing and saying the funniest things and I just love to sit on the floor with him and play because he is the cutest thing ever right now! I love this age because they are discovering new things and starting to communicate with you, but they are not at the stage where they are really naughty. He makes me smile and laugh daily and there is no better medicine in life than that!

Life

I realize it has been much too long since I last posted (especially for me). I have thought often about sitting down and getting back to blogging, after all this is my scrapbook of our life and since I hardly have the time to finish the boys' baby books this has been a great way to write down all the milestones, memories and adventures of our family. We have had a lot of that occur in the last month, I have lots of stuff to share and lots of pictures to post. Since this is my journal I will back date them so you will have to scroll down past this post as they appear (whenever that may happen). Here is a quick summary of the last month and I promise with the holidays coming I will be posting a lot more.

• Jax is a full time walker! It is so fun to see him and Colt chase each other around the house, now I just want Jax to get stronger so he can push Colt back! He is also learning new words everyday.
• Colt finished up swimming lessons last week, he had fun and is pretty close to swimming on his own. Maybe next summer?
• Dave has been hunting (duh) every type of animal imaginable, this month it has been chuckar, pheasant duck and deer.
• Marni and I ran the Walla Walla half marathon on 10/10/10. Very fun race and a great course. I will have a full race recap on that in another post.
• We took a 4 day trip to Lynden (well it really only ends up being 2 days after all the driving) and spent some time with all of our great college friends. It was so much fun and the kids all had a blast.
• Our church had a very cool harvest party that both the boys loved. Lots of fun games, prizes and the best part was the hay ride!
• Our growth group started back up this last month, we meet Sunday afternoons. My parents watch the kids for us but so far I have had to go solo, all those hunting trips keep Dave pretty busy. Maybe November will be a better month!
• Overall we are doing well. I am loving the extra time with the kids this year and we are having fun doing activities, play dates with friends, MOPS and much more!

 Lots of new posts coming soon!

Walla Walla Half Marathon

 Marni and I ready to go before the race.

The race started at 8:15, I didn't even worry about setting an alarm the night before because I was sleeping with Colt and knew that he would be up by 6 at the latest (I was really hoping he would sleep in until at least 6!). I had a rough night, woke up a couple times feeling like I was going to throw up and just really nauseated but when Colt woke me up at 6 that morning I felt pretty good and was excited to race. Marni and I were out the door by about 7:40. My mom and the kids were coming later to cheer us on.

We did not plan our outfits, in fact black was probably a bad choice as it ended up being 75 degrees and sunny when we were running. The weather report said 65 and rainy! My face even got a little burnt.

Since this was the first marathon/half marathon Walla Walla had ever put on it was not a huge race, there were 162 runners in the half marathon and 101 of them were female!

You can tell this is early in the race because I am still smiling.

First time we saw mom and the boys.

Off we go....

Colt spent most the morning decorating these signs for Marni and I.
My mom followed us in the car and would stop at different points along the race course and get out with the boys. Colt would stand there waving the signs and yelling "Go mommy, Go Marni". It was so great to have that encouragement every couple miles and Colt and Jax were great about sitting in a car following us around for almost 2 hours. When my mom would drive past us, Colt would yell out with window "Good job mommy". He's such a sweetie!

My good friend from high school Rachel came from Spokane and ran the race too. It was fun to catch up with her and Sean and see their two kiddos (Mae and Owen).
My mom has the rest of the pictures on her camera so I don't have any from the end. Somewhere around mile 8 I started getting really bad stomach cramps, we kept running and kept a decent pace until about mile 10 when it got so painful I started to get worried (did I mention I ran this half marathon 7 weeks pregnant) so even though my doctor had given me the clear I was still a little concerned and didn't want to push it. We took it easy to the finish after that and finished in a disappointing 1:52 (especially disappointing since exactly 2 weeks before I had run 1:42). This was a tougher course than the previous half I had done in Tri-Cities but I still thought we could run somewhere around 1:45. I kept telling Marni just to go but she wouldn't listen, she stayed right with me the entire time. I guess this means I won't be doing any more races for the rest of this year. I am hoping to run the Walla Walla half again next year, it will give me good motivation to get back in shape after the baby comes in May.

Pumpkin Day

Marni came for the weekend so her and I could run the Walla Walla half marathon on Sunday. We stayed at my mom's place all weekend long. Both Dave and my dad were chuckar hunting so it was a girls weekend plus the little guys. Saturday morning everyone got up early thanks to Colt and Jax so we jumped right in and go the day started. After a yummy breakfast of bran muffins and ham/egg casserole (thanks mom!) we got in the car and went to Klickers pumpkin patch.

Colt and Jax had so much fun with these silly glasses.

Jax had the most fun trying to take them off every time I wanted a picture.

At Klickers, Colt grabbed a wagon to hold all our pumpkins and we went in search of some pumpkins.

 Apparently Colt knew just what he wanted, he ran right over and picked up the biggest pumpkin he could find.

 Then put it in the wagon and tried to pick up as many others as he could get to fit in the wagon. He was so excited.

 Jax just wanted a wagon ride and he didn't mind sharing his wagon with the pumpkin either.

 Jax didn't seem too thrilled by the slide but I think Marni had fun.

 Colt did it all by himself this year, and wanted to do it over and over again.

 We really tried to get some fun pics with the boys but they were not cooperating!

 Once we got home and Jax went down for a nap we got out the carving tools and each of us carved a pumpkin.

I forgot to get a picture of the pumpkins when they were done but they turned out cute. Later that night we lit all the pumpkins and Colt loved it! It was a fun fall day with my sissy, mom and boys.
Next up, running 13.1 miles!

Di Di's Birthday

My mom's birthday was today and we spent the entire day over at their house playing, picking apples and tomatoes, making homemade applesauce and catching up. I feel like I hardly see or talk to my parents now that school is back in session.

 Colt making my mom her birthday card. He loves to do this for birthdays!

 Picking lots of tomatoes. We keep having to remind him to only pick the really red ones, sometimes he still picks the pink ones but he is good about not picking the green ones!

 Running to show Papa his tomatoes.

 Lots of apples and applesauce. My parents have 2 big apple trees and they have a ton of apples. We made 6 big batches of applesauce and there are still way too many apples on those trees.

 Colt loves the picking process, it doesn't matter what it is, rasperries, blackberries, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, apples. He could spend all day picking if there was enough for him to pick.

 I made the cake, 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting. I have never made a cake like this but it was yummy (though very time consuming). Colt picked the candles out, he wanted balloons!

 Singing to Di Di on her birthday.

 Happy Birthday Di Di!

Blowing out the candles.
This is Colt's favorite part, in fact he blew them out before we sang so we had to light them and do it again. We had so much fun celebrating my mom's birthday, my dad made an awesome dinner of steak and salad, Dave made some really good red potatoes and I made the cake. Good team effort and it was fun to just play and relax.