Best Friends Forever

We got back from Boise this evening and when I put Colt to bed Byson did not want to leave his side. Usually he will lay in bed with Colt until I finish reading to him and then will follow me to my room to sleep but not tonight. He missed Colt too much and has apparently decided he will sleep with him. I snapped this picture after both of them fell asleep. Since we got home Colt and Byson had been running all over the house playing keep-a-way with a ball, when Colt sat down to watch a short movie in my bed Byson was right next to him. They are so cute together.

Boise Trip

My mom and I along with the little boys took a trip to Boise this weekend. We stayed with my little sister Marni and had the best time! It was such a fun weekend and I love getting to spend time with my little sister and my mom.

Marni and I are running in a half marathon in Richland in 2 weeks so we went on a long run while we were there. You may notice the very red faces in the picture! We then went to my favorite place ever for a cool treat.....TCBY!! We used to have one in Walla Walla but it went out of business a couple years ago and I miss it every day. I love ice cream but my stomach gets upset when I have milk so I can rarely eat very much of it, however frozen yogurt never seems to bother me.

Colt loved his "rainbow cream" yogurt. It is really just vanilla yogurt but they make it pretty and colorful so kids will want it:) He ate the entire cup himself, along with many drinks of Marni's smoothie and a couple bites of both my mom and my yogurt.

My sister Amy and her family were camping for the weekend and did not get back until late Sunday night so we went over there Monday morning for a quick breakfast before we had to come back home. I had high hopes of getting a picture of all the cousins but it just never happened. Hopefully at Thanksgiving when we are all together I can get that photo. Amy and Andy made us egg sandwiches and fresh fruit and we sat around and talked for a couple hours. It was too short so I am excited to see them all in November for Thanksgiving! It was such a fun weekend and I wish I could see Marni more. She loves playing with Colt and Jax and she is like having a nanny around so it is nice for me as well. Colt slept in my mom's room so my mom was the one getting up with him when he would wake up once a night and then waking up with him in the early morning and letting me sleep a bit. Jax slept well one of the nights but the other two nights he was up ALOT! We did some shopping while we were there, cooked a lot at Marni's house, went for a couple runs and a walk, played at the park and sat around and talked. It was the perfect weekend and soooo much fun!

Colt & Jax : 3 month comparison

Colt Mires

Jax David

Bedtime

Colt loves to watch the "Three Little Pigs" before bed now. We had been reading him the book for the longest time and he just loved it so Memah got him the dvd and now he is obsessed with it. There are like 7 short movies in the dvd (3 little pigs, Lambert the sheepish lion, 3 blind mice, etc....) and each time one movie ends he looks at me and says "just one more mommy." We usually let him watch 2 movies and then he has to go to bed. Most of the time bedtime happens with no arguments....most of the time! The tough thing right now is that neither Jax or Colt are on a good sleeping schedule. Some nights Colt will go all night without waking up but most nights he is up once or twice in the middle of the night wanting something and then no matter what time he goes to bed he is up at 6:00 coming into our room and asking for his milk and banana. Jax's schedule is very unreliable as well, some nights he only wakes up once other nights (like last night) he is up 4-5 times. Will I ever sleep again??

Dave's Fishing Trip

My amazing and handsome fisherman!!
We had only been home from Idaho for 3 days when Dave told me the fish counts were up and he needed to go fishing NOW!! Lucky for him he came back with 4 fish (the limit) so I was not upset at all. As long as he is bringing home food I see no problem with him going fishing.

He went with his Dad and his Uncle Tim and it sounded like they had a great time. They fished from sun up to sun down (which sounds just miserable to me) but came home with lots of fish.

Tim, Mike and Dave. The biggest fish is Tim's.

Dave said he had to fillet his dad's fish since his dad is a "nancy boy."
Notice the nice looking boat in the back of Dave's truck. He told me he "had" to have a new boat or he would not be able to fish this year. I think that is toy #3 (4-wheeler, motorcycle, boat) for the summer alone. In fact I believe in the last 3 months Dave has bought a new toy each month. Lucky guy!! He sure has an understanding wife, hopefully he will be as understanding when I tell him next August I am not going back to work.:)
**On a side note when Dave got back we had steelhead for dinner. I put a small piece on Colt's plate because I did not think he would really eat it, the next thing I know he is saying "daddy more fish please" he had eaten the entire piece and we gave him 3 more servings that night all of which he just gobbled up. In addition to the steelhead he also ate red potatoes and tons of peaches! I could not believe how much he ate that day. For breakfast he had : 1 banana, 2 glasses of skim milk, one bowl of oatmeal, one orange. For lunch he had: 2 hotdogs (no bun), 1 pear, bowl of cottage cheese, and a handful of frozen blueberries. Then dessert was 2 frozen go-gurts. This kid can eat, I think my grocery bill is going to be increasing this year and its only going to get worse once I have two boys eating solids!!

Kennewick Fair

I had a baby shower in Yakima (and took Jax with me) and Dave was fishing so Dave's mom offered to take Colt for the day. The fair was going on in Kennewick so Julie took Colt along with Dave's sisters, Andy and Camryn.

Aunt Dee Dee and Colt.
He just loves her and she loves him. I am sure she goes to bed tired at night after playing with Colt all day. She is one of the best aunties and both kids just love her.

Colt and Camryn checking out a bird.
Apparently Colt was a little nervous about the animals, he did not want to touch them at all!

He looks sooo hot and tired!!

Looking at the piggies.

With Memah.

Aunt Dee Dee keeping him safe from all those animals.

CDA, Idaho

The last week of August we took a trip to Couerd'lane, Idaho. The trip was all expenses paid since Dave worked so hard last year. We got to stay at the resort (which is beautiful) on the lake and just relax and spend time as a family.

We did lots of different activities while we were there in between Colt's napping time and Jax's feeding schedule. Dave was always complaining how much our schedule was built around the kids, he misses those days when it was just the two of us doing whatever we wanted.:)

One of the activities was based off the children's book "Milly and Mudgie." It's about a moose named Mudgie who is looking for his friend Milly the mouse. It is a popular kids book and can be bought at just about any store in CDA. They have this little 2.5 mile walk you can take which leads you to 5 different mooses and allows you to read the story at each stop. We spent part of one morning doing that and Colt just loved it!! He would get so excited to go on to find the next moose. He started to get tired at the end and Dave told him that if he had to endure looking for Mudgie on his vacation then he better stop whining and act like he was enjoying it.

Along the walk there was this fountain, Dave got Colt to lean over it and then......

..........picked him up and dumped him head first into the fountain!

Colt just laughed. I don't think there is anything that Dave could do to him that would not make him laugh. Dave plays so rough with him and Colt just laughs and laughs.

We also spent ALOT of time swimming at the pool. Colt was all about the swimming, he asked to go every time we were not in the pool.

He liked going underwater and Dave would go under with him and he would always come up with a big smile on his face.

I think this picture makes them really look alike!

Hanging out in his favorite place: the hot tub. After swimming in the big pool he would say "daddy brrr told" so they would have to go and get warm in the hot tub for a little bit.

Another morning we went on a 3 mile hike. Colt walked for a little bit and then rode on Dave's shoulders for the rest.

Daddy and Colt.

Mommy finally got a picture taken with her little boys.

Colt kept saying "daddy be tareful, daddy be tareful" everytime Dave would get close to the edge. Notice how tight Colt is clinging to Dave's head.

I carried Jax in the baby bjorn, he as usual was a happy camper and fell asleep half way through the hike. It was a bit cold that morning and I forgot his sweatshirt so we put Colt's on him.

I love this picture!

One of our last night's there we got to go to dinner over on the golf course. To get there we had to ride a big boat which Colt just loved. The last time Dave and I were on this boat was when my friend Audra got married.

Colt is always complaining about the sun in his eyes but whenever we would get him sunglasses he would usually end up just breaking them. Dave found these sunglasses in one of the shops around the hotel. They have an elastic band around them so he can not break them and he LOVES wearing them.

Then when it gets too dark he moves them to his forehead.

Once we got to the golf course they had all sorts of fun things set up for everyone. Colt immediately grabbed a croquet mallet and started hitting the balls around. They had a huge dinner, smore's on the beach, a live band and a big fireworks show. We sure hope Daddy has as good as year this year as last.......next year the trip is to Hawaii!!

Jax David : 3 months

Time is flying by and my sweet second son is already 3 months old. I can't believe it has been that long since he was born. I remember thinking how tiny he was and now he is just growing and getting chubbier and sweeter by the day! I am so blessed to be a mommy to two fun loving little boys and am looking forward to raising them together. Jax is a pretty mellow little guy, he does not cry much and when he does it is usually because he is hungry or his tummy hurts. I have not figured it out yet but something that I eat upsets his little tummy. At first I thought it was coffee but I eliminated that and it did not get better. Now I am thinking it might be dairy products. Most the time if I just make sure to keep him upright after he eats for 30 minutes or so then the problem is not so bad but he has the worst gas in the world so I know he can't be feeling that great. He must be a tough guy like his dad and is not letting a little tummyache bother him too much! Jax is also the biggest talker, when you talk to him he just smiles and coos back forever and ever. It is so much fun, I know Colt never talked this much when he was little. Maybe Jax will be an early talker as he gets older (though Colt is a pretty decent talker for his age). The only complaint I have about my sweet boy is his sleeping schedule, he is still waking up at nights. Some nights is just once but other nights it will be 2 or even 3 times. On top of that Colt who has slept 12 hours or more since he was 5 weeks old has now started to wake up during the night too!! Which leaves me feeling completely exhausted all day every day. I can not even think about going back to work right now, I just pray that both boys find a better schedule by the time I go back in November. Jax is already wearing 6 month clothing and he now has 3 chins. At the rate he is growing he may even weigh more than Colt did at his 4 month check-up. He loves to nurse though he is a much quicker eater than his brother was. Usually during the day he eats every 3-4 hours for about 20 minutes, in the evenings he will eat a bit longer than that (so you would think he would sleep longer too). I will probably start to introduce rice cereal to him around 5 months because I have to go back to work when he is 5.5 months old and that will give him something else besides milk to get calories from and hopefully in turn I will not have to pump as much milk for him during the day. Having 2 kids has been a huge adjustment for both Dave and I but we are enjoying every minute of it (even the long sleepless nights are worth it). Jax has been a wonderful addition to our family and I can not imagine my life without him in it!!

Our sons

Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Colt Mires : 2 years and 2 months

Thought I should do a little update on Colt.

• This guy keeps me on my toes, he is constantly moving, running, yelling, throwing things and saying the funniest, cutest things ever! He is definitely a 2 year old in that he has started yelling "NO" and has also done his fair share of hitting lately. We have been explaining to him that saying "no" to people is not nice and its much nicer to say "no thank you." So then the other day he was playing with some of Dave's fly-fishing stuff and Dave told him to put it down and Colt looks over at him and says "no thank you daddy" and walks away with it. Dave and I both had to laugh at that one (but quietly so he would not hear).
• He loves to play with Byson, the two of them play all day with the bats and the balls lying around the house. Usually they spend most the time chasing each other depending on who has the ball at that time. Colt can get a little rough with Byson so we are working on that but it is so funny to watch the two of them play together.

• We took a family trip to Couer'dlane, Idaho and Colt wanted to spend basically the entire time swimming. He loves the water and has no problem going under all by himself, the funny thing is that he doesn't just duck his head under the water he stays under the water for a good 5-8 seconds before coming back up. Then he just laughs and says "adin (again)" and does it all over again. I am going to put him in swimming lessons next summer for sure!
  
• He is the best big brother to Jax, it is so much fun to watch how nice he is to him. He loves to kiss him, hug him and wants to hold him all the time. He has rarely shown many signs of jealousy towards him and generally wants to make sure that his brother is okay. I drove to Kennewick one day with the boys and Colt was giving me a running commentary the entire way. It went something like this: "Mommy, Jaxer (he calls him Jaxer now)awake!", "Mommy, Jaxer spit up.", "Uh-oh Jaxer binkyfell out.", "Jaxer smile mommy." "Oh Jaxer sad now, Jaxer crying, don't be sad Jaxer.", "Jaxer asleep now Mommy, Jaxer tired." That continued on and off for the hour drive to Kennewick.
• Dave bought him his very first football, its a real one too so it is pretty hard but he loves to play catch with it and he has also taken to sleeping with it. That's right it has been his sleeping buddy every night since he got it. We will have to see how long that lasts, everytime we go somewhere he asks me "football tome too?".
• He still has troubles saying the letter "c" everything comes out with a "t" sound so when you ask him what his name his he replies "Tolt".
• He can count to 10 and is starting to pick up some of the letters as well.
• Every night after we tuck him in, read a book and say his prayers we always sing the song "Goodnight sweetheart" to him. For awhile he would put up with me singing it but now before I can even start he always says "Daddy sing it pease" so even if I am the one tucking him in he still expects Dave to come in and sing it. Apparently Dave's version is much cooler than mine!:) When I was walking through the grocery store one day with Colt in the cart he starts singing the song to himself and he is pretty good at it too!
• I am having so much fun being Colt's mommy and I love this little boy sooooo very much. Colt said to me the other day "Mommy I love you mucho" it was the first time he had ever said it with no prompting and of course it made me so very happy.