Christmas Card 2013

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was a little different for us but still full of family and fun.  The Friday that Christmas break began, Colby woke up from his nap and was inconsolable.  We ended up at urgent care and eventually figured out he had hand, foot, and mouth.  Since he had it once last year, I unfortunately knew what we were in for.  We had a long 4-5 days of him basically barely eating and being really sad.  But on Christmas Eve morning he woke up almost back to himself.  And I woke up with pink eye.  Awesome.  We were still able to enjoy Christmas Eve with family even if we couldn't go to church.  Missy had us over to her house for a yummy mexican dinner and opening presents.

Playing with his new cars stacking toy

Lexy's always a helper

He was better but not 100%... so lots of snuggles for mama.

Christmas morning we enjoyed opening gifts and seeing what Santa brought Colby.  Then Gran, Pop, Aunt Missy and Lexy came over for brunch and presents.

After they left when I was going to get Colby some lunch, I realized he had a fever!  Ugh!  So that effectively ended his Christmas celebration.  I did go over to my parents later to see my Grandmother, Uncle Roy and Aunt Shirley... swollen eye and all :)

Colby continued to have a fever off and on so we had to cancel our trip to Victoria to celebrate Christmas with them until January.

The good thing about being sick on Christmas is it forces you to simplify.  And we absolutely still celebrated Jesus and are thankful for his birth.  Merry Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We did so many fun things to celebrate and prepare for Christmas this year.  We took our first trip to Santa's Wonderland which will definitely become a tradition for us!

Colby had a Christmas party at school that I was lucky enough to attend.  Here he is with his friends Walter and Avery celebrating.

Even the zoo had Christmas lights which we saw with the Maas family.

One thing we have zero evidence of was our attempt to visit Santa.  The short of the story is Mom and Dad played it all wrong and by the time Colby got up to Santa he was done.  He pitched a huge fit and couldn't even sit near Santa.  So... yeah.  We didn't even try a second time because Santa isn't really so important to us.  That and we didn't want to relive it.  Maybe next year!

A Meaningful Christmas

One of our new traditions we started this year was A Meaningful Christmas.  I joined with a group of 24 women to make a set of advent ornaments.  So I made 24 shepherds and then we all met and exchanged them.  I can't get over how precious they all are!

The idea comes from a book written by some girls that went to Baylor with me.  There is a devotional for each day and an ornament to hang.  Colby is obviously too young to understand but that didn't stop us from talking about it.  I might have done it over a meal because I had a captive audience.  I look forward to having it for years to come!

BU/TCU Rivalry Weekend

This year's BU/TCU game fell on the weekend of Thanksgiving, so we left Round Rock Friday morning to head to Ft. Worth.  We made a stop to Rick's alma mater, UMHB, since we are hardly ever that way.  It was so nice to walk around and see everything!  Colby was pretty tired and crabby but we enjoyed it anyway.

 This documents this sweet boy's only nap in three days.  He was on the go :)

Got checked into our hotel and made some important phone calls.  The best part of this weekend is obviously time with family.  My cousin Mark lives in Ft. Worth and is a doctor for the TCU football team.  So we enjoy being in their home and visiting with them.  And Caroline is so good with Colby.  She taught him to play ring around the rosie and took him to see her fish and hamster a billion times.

We had a great time at the game!  You know my family were all wearing purple and talking trash... which I let them do because honestly... we all knew what was about to go down.  It wasn't as pretty as I would have liked, but a little adversity made the victory even sweeter.  

Riding the shuttle with Pop

Love how my dad tries to play both sides with his attire :)

 It got pretty chilly so Colby and I took a break.  Not so much green and gold in the club, but we did ok.  This kid loves some nachos :)  After the game Mark was able to get us on the field.  So very cool for Colby to get to run on the field.  One of the members of the TCU band even let him play the huge drum she was carrying.  So so fun!

 And finally some post-game family pics (Rick and Colby had already gone back to the hotel).

 Love that this is an annual game now that TCU is in the Big 12.  Nothing like family no matter where you went to school :)

Thanksgiving

Since we would be with the Turners on Thanksgiving, we got to have an early Thanksgiving celebration with the Wolfinger side.  I only have two pictures of that event but they are pretty typical of these days.

"When are we going to eat??"

"Was it something I said??"

 On Thanksgiving morning we headed to Round Rock to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  This was Colby's first time to ride in the car with his seat facing forward... he loves it and so do we!

 We had a great time with these sweet girls, Mimi, PawPaw, and Colby's great-grandmother.  I will always love getting to watch these girls and Colby grow up together.  And just so I remember... Addysen asked me to make up a secret handshake that used the word besties.  So when she is 13 and will have nothing to do with me, I can remind her that once her Aunt Jen was her bestie!

At 2 years old...

...Colby is growing up so much!  I am still amazed at how much these babies can grow and learn so quickly!  I look back at that whispy hair one year old baby and wonder how he grew to a spiky hair two year old. 

Colby eats and sleeps well.  And I am seriously so grateful for that!  Favorite foods include rice/beans, quesadillas, strawberries, yogurt, applesauce, and goldfish.  He can't get enough of a certain vegetable one week and the next week he hates it.  It is so nice though to be at the place where you can find him something to eat wherever you go.  He goes to sleep at 8 and wakes up between 7 and 7:30 (although over Christmas break we have stayed up later and slept later and I LOVE it!).  He naps at 1:00 for about 2-3 hours.  Every now and then he just plays and talks and never naps.

I try really hard not to think/use the phrase terrible twos.  I am really loving this age so much because everything is so new/exciting/funny in his eyes.  There are fits though.  Yes there are.  For NO reason.  Or because I say no or stop.  But they last like a minute and then it's like nothing happened. 

Colby has been super fast on the physical development and slower on the verbal.  He can climb playground rock walls meant for 5 year olds on his own in 2 seconds.  He runs everywhere.  If he could express it I think his lifetime dream at 2 would be to ride a mechanical bull.  Daddy and Gran do the best versions of "ride 'em horsey".  On the verbal front Colby really only has about 20-30 words.  One of those words is not mama.  Favorite words are outside, da-eeh (daddy), see (macy), no, yeah, whoa, wee, show, ball, ish (fish), bye, hi, bee (colby), pat and shoe.

As for size he is 34" tall and weighs 29 lbs.  He wears size 2T but really all of the pants are too big for him.  I am sure one day he will be really tall... but not yet!

Colby has such a sweet heart and affectionate personality. He loves to play with cars and buckets.  At night he still lets me read him a book or two and rock him (most nights).  He has the best laugh I've ever heard and thinks he is hilarious.  Most days he can be seen wearing some version of a hat, whether it be construction, bucket, or baseball.  He is happy to go to school and church and runs right into his class.  He's also super happy when you pick him up.  I couldn't love anything more than staying at home with him each day.  These are certainly the best and sweetest days of my life.  Can't wait to see what his third year brings!

2 years old

Colby had a great birthday party the weekend before his birthday.  His actual birthday fell on a Friday which is the day he goes to school each week.  So here he is with Ms. Nancy ready to celebrate at school:

After school we met up with daddy for some time to jump at Monkey Joe's.  This kids loves to jump and climb so this is the perfect place for him!

We finished off the celebration with a mexican food dinner (C's favorite) and a cookie cake!

Later on Colby helped Daddy put together his birthday present... a trampoline!  This was the first time that Colby has actually helped when he was "helping".  He hand-delivered every spring for that project.  LOVE these 2!

Colby's 2nd Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating Colby's birthday with family and friends!

Colby does like to watch Sesame Street, but we really chose this theme because he loves cookies!

The hi-light of the party was a toddler version of a bounce house which was a hit with the birthday boy, his friends, and even a few adults :) We have photo evidence that it was Nana approved!

Sweet Amanda (in picture above with Lexy) made the most adorable cookie monster cupcakes for the party!  They were as yummy as they were cute, and it was sweet that Amanda would take the time and effort to do that for us.  Colby has always loved her!

I wish I had a picture of every family that was there!

This sweet boy definitely loved everyone singing to him and his yummy cupcake.  We did attempt to open presents but Colby really has zero interest in them.  Luckily he has 4 cousins that were all over it for him.  These cones that came with a soccer ball were his favorite for a hat!  Happy 2nd birthday Colby!

Fred and Wilma

Happy Halloween from Fred and Wilma!  Holidays just get more and more fun.  We enjoyed dinner, trick or treating, and then handing out candy.  Colby understood about knocking on the doors, but he didn't understand why you didn't just walk right in when they opened the door.  Every.  Time. 

Getting ready to head out

Every house.

Enjoying a lollipop!