good sweet mike this is a long post!

But I have a really good reason for writing a novel and a half! That reason is, Nate and I were out of town for a weekend, and then Lenna and Scott were in town for a few days, and then Colin got super sick for a weekend. So there. I guess that's several reasons. Anyway, on to the pictures and stories. 

Here's Colin sitting in his chair. He looks like he has sad eyes, but I'm not sure why. He's holding his washcloth in his hand. He likes to chew on it after I clean his face.

This is Colin's favorite toy. Really. It's a 25 lb. bag of rice.

His hair is long, but cute. We'll probably cut it soon.

On the 14th one of Nate's best friends got married in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Temple to be precise. It was kind of fun to tell people we were going to Vegas to see a friend get married. Nate and I left Colin with his Granny for the weekend. We drove down Saturday morning, went to the sealing at 4:00, hit the reception at 6:30, and got to our room in St George around 10:00 that night. Then we drove home Sunday morning. It was a short trip, but we felt like we spent FOREVER waiting. We wanted to get to the temple early enough to do some sealings or something, but we didn't. Instead we waited in the waiting room for about an hour and a half. An hour and a half you say? That's plenty of time to do some temple work. And it would have been, but the sealing started like 35 minutes late. We were only there about a half an hour before we were supposed to be. Then we drove the 45 minutes to the reception and waited another 45 minutes or so for the bride and groom to show up. Then we waited another 45 minutes or so for Renn's sister and her family to get to the reception so we could visit with them. We never saw them, we got tired of waiting, and we finally left. We were glad Colin wasn't with us, because riding in the car with him for 6 hours probably wouldn't have been fun, but we kind of wished he was with us so he could amuse us while we waited. Anyway, I amused myself by taking pictures while we waited for Keira and Renn to make their grand exit from the temple. Here are some of the winning shots. 

This is the angel Moroni. He's a statue. Obviously.

Here is the happy couple. They look so sweet together. And so happy. Keira's dress was super cute. 

Awww.

I told Keira she had to plaster a smile on her face all day because people would constantly be taking pictures of her. She obviously didn't listen to me. Her expression makes me laugh.

This would be Renn's brother-in-law Chris. This was the first time I had met him, and he was hilarious! Nate got to know Chris and his wife Polly really well while on his mission. (That's also where he met Renn.)

This is just some random baby who is not as cute as mine.

This is me and Nate standing around during the group shot of everyone who was there. I don't think we were in the official picture, so it's a good thing I took this one.

As we were walking back to our car I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the temple, so I hurried and snapped one. I probably could have found a better shot from the other side or something, but I didn't.

The Monday after our little excursion Scott and Lenna and Mason Hiatt arrived in Springville to visit. This would be Colin greeting his aunt and showing her how much he likes her. 

See? He really does love her. It was hilarious watching him paw at her hair and face. He really liked playing with her.

The family all got together Monday night. Here's Li'l Miss Sara Lu fresh upon arrival.

And there's a butt shot of Sara playing with Lenna. 

Oh, and a butt shot of Colin playing with Papa. 

I tried to get a picture of each of Caleb's kids coming in because they all stopped to give Mason a hug. 

Sara didn't get her hug in right at first, but she got one eventually. 

Here's a random picture of Colin playing with the rings. He cracks me up because he's so proud of himself every time he climbs up something.

I surrounded Colin with the farm fence at Granny's house. He liked it. And then he tried to crawl over it and it folded up around and on top of him. It was funny. 

Scott Hiatt and Nate crawling up the stairs at Caleb's house.

Sara was trying to catch a ride on the Colin Crawlin' Express. I was trying to catch both Sara and Colin looking at me for a picture at the same time. It didn't work. 

Kaylee and Rachel had their first soccer practices last week. They were SO excited. Wow. Really. Really excited. Nate teased Caleb about his girls being the only ones to show up to practice in skirts. :) I didn't get any pictures of Rachel, but here is Kaylee showing me what she learned at practice. It's called a drop kick. 

Kaylee and Bry playing in the yard. 

Wednesday night we tried to get a picture of all the cousins that were present. Caleb, Granny, me, and probably Scott were all snapping pictures at the same time. I like this one because of Sara's expression. And Mason's.

That's Mason playing Rockband in the background. And that's Colin being super excited in the foreground. 

Apparently the toys are more fun to play with when you're outside of the exersaucer. 

On Friday Colin got to wear shorts for the first time this year! Huzzah for warm weather! He sure looked handsome. 

On Friday I also took Colin to JC Penny's to get his 9 month pictures taken. He was very well behaved and very cute. Then my mom and I went to Sam's Club for groceries and yummy hot dogs. Then we came home and Colin took a nap and everything was hunky dory. When he woke up he had a really runny nose, was feeling pretty warm, and was getting grumpier by the minute. We went to Caleb's house for Heather's 30th birthday party, but we didn't stay very long because of Colin. He was so irritable and feverish. We borrowed a thermometer from Heather (because ours decided to stop working the minute we needed it!) and when we took his temperature that night it was 103.7! Yikes! We called the doctor who said to keep an eye on his breathing and that we didn't need to take him to the hospital unless he started to have trouble breathing. Sam came over at midnight and helped Nate give Colin a blessing. We spent the night trying to keep him cool and comfortable and to help him sleep. He was not a happy baby. Saturday was crappy because he was still feverish and sick and not sleeping well. We tried to take him to the doctor, but when we got there the office had closed for the day (grrr). Nate, my mom and I all took turns staying up with him that night. On Sunday he was much better, and Sunday night he actually slept through the night. I took him to the doctor on Monday to make sure he was good, and because I wanted to see if he had an ear infection. I figured they could do his 9 month check up too, so it wouldn't be a waste of $30 if he was totally fine. Turns out he has infections in both ears, but Dr. Porter didn't want to give him antibiotics since his fever was already gone. Colin is about 20 lbs. and 29 inches tall. That's 50% for both height and weight. Dr. Porter says he is right on track developmentally. I say he is leaps and bounds ahead of any other child on the planet developmentally, but I might be biased. Colin babbles constantly, crawls on his hands and knees more and more often, picks up Cheerios like a pro, and is starting to cruise around holding on to the furniture or his parents' hands. He's so funny with our hands. If he feels stuck he'll whine until one of us hold's our hand out to him. Then he grins and grabs on. He like to take our hands with both of his because he knows he can walk much faster when we're holding him. He's such a little smarty. Colin is doing even better today. He's more and more like his usual happy self, and his appetite is returning to normal. I was concerned the last few days because he wasn't eating hardly anything at all. He seems to be recovering fine, and the rest of the family is trying to overcome colds now too. 

Here are a few pictures from today. The last one is my favorite.