i guess i'll blog

I've been putting off blogging because I didn't take very many pictures, and I'm ashamed for being such a neglectful mother.

I made some alfredo sauce (courtesy of my sister-in-law's recipe) a couple of weeks ago and both Colin and Nate loved it. Colin was like Bill Murray in What About Bob? saying "mmmm" after every bite. I felt like I was joyfully eating my way into an early grave because the sauce is so disgustingly fattening and disgustingly delicious. Here's my adorable boy asking for more.

These are the only pictures I took of when my sister-in-law Lenna was visiting with her two kids. We played RockBand at Caleb's house on evening. I believe Nate and Lenna were doing a tribute to Scott Hiatt by singing "Paperback Writer." Their harmonies were outstanding.

The whole band.

Here's the video from "Paperback Writer." Notice how Nate answers the phone and then lets Seth listen to him sing.

It's hard to tell in this still photo, but Colin was really shaking it to the music.

As was his cousin Sara Lu who continues to look like a Dr. Seuss Who.

Lenna brought some hand-me-downs for Colin from Iowa, and these little beauties (the Mickey Mouse pants) were included. Colin was so excited because the fabric matches a blanket he has and he loves Mickey Mouse.

This is what he did when I asked him where his pants were.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but this bear has been ripped open and had its stuffing pulled out. I fell asleep in Colin's room while I was supposed to be watching him (don't judge!) and woke up to him eating the bear fluff. Apparently the fluff tasted just as good as the alfredo sauce because he was making the same "mmmm" sound.

And swatting at flies is still just as funny as it was the first time. Colin tries to swat at them too when he sees them. I was using a bag of lunch meat to try and get the fly, and I tossed it to Colin hoping that he would use it too, but he just wanted to eat the meat.

And then we skip a week or so and come to today. Colin pulled this dragon all around his room today. The dragon even got to sit in his special corner by the door.

He was more interested in the camera than in the dragon at this point.

And this is Colin's attempt at photography. A little overexposed perhaps, but I enjoy the composition.

And out of chronological order here are some pictures from Lenna's visit stolen from family members' blogs.

Colin wanted to play outside at Granny's house but didn't have a jacket of his own. Thankfully one of his cousins left this pretty little number there for him to use. My boy looks good in pink.

This is my adorable newest niece Addilyn sporting a bow handmade by her mother and a dress purchased by me. She's breaking it in before my baby gets here.

Kaylee pushed Colin around in the red car for a while, and then Colin decided to return the favor.

Mason and Colin were holding hands while I was at the gas station.

Mason and Colin also helped Papa dig in the garden. Mason was very good at finding the potatoes and putting them in the bucket.

Colin was very good at eating random produce.

And then the boys were kind enough to sit still for 4 seconds so Lenna could take a picture.

Awww, isn't she precious?

shameless self promotion

Just wanted to let you all know that I've posted new holiday card designs on my card blog. They are super cute, though I say so myself.

Please let me know asap if you're interested as I will be having a baby around the end of November which will drastically limit my time playing on the computer. And if the pricing looks ridiculous high feel free to point that out. I'm willing to negotiate. And I have no idea what the going rate is for Christmas cards.

Also, tell your friends about my wares, won't you?

stanley nickels

The name of the post doesn't have anything to do with the pictures that follow. That's the name of Nate's new WOW character. He's pretty proud of the name, but he thinks the character itself is ugly. He asked me to come and design it for him. (I think that's his way of including me in the game.) I made it as ugly as possible. Nate said he was totally embarrassed by stanleynickel's appearance. How sad.

Anyway, Colin likes shoes.

He gets really excited when he finds mom and dad's shoes. He doesn't try to put them on his own feet yet—he just likes carrying them around and saying "shoes."

I can't remember why I tried to take a picture, but I can tell that he wanted the camera. That's him signing "more" or "again" because he wanted another turn with the camera.

We planted an apple tree last year and were surprised to see actual apples growing on it this summer. We had to thin them out a little because their weight was breaking the poor little branches. We harvested our 5 apples last week. I handed one to Colin on Saturday morning and he went to town on it. He probably ate half of the apple while I was making lunch.

We went to Scott's soccer game on Saturday afternoon. It was a state cup game, and they won. Colin mostly walked around making friends or ate Teddy Grams out of Granny and Papa's hands.

Nate likes to look classy when he goes to soccer games. Just kidding, we were going to a wedding reception right after the game. Nate saw some people from his mission at the reception, which was cool for him. There were several girls there who are currently going to BYU but who were little preteens 7-8 years ago when he served there, so it was interesting to see how well/not well they remembered him and vice versa.

And this picture is because I thought Colin looked adorable in his striped shirt.

Colin got into a bit of trouble at nap time today. I put him in his crib at his normal time and closed the door. About 20 minutes later I heard some strange noises. I checked on Nate to make sure it wasn't him banging things around. It wasn't. I opened Colin's door to discover that he had somehow managed to pull the white shelves that held the tapes, CDs, CD player, diapers, and baby grooming stuff over and knock all the treasures into his crib. He was happily taking apart CD cases and checking out the discs. Nate came in and helped me pull all the crap out of the crib, and Colin got very excited thinking we were going to take him out too. We didn't. His punishment was that he had to stay in his crib and take a nap. I know; I'm hardcore. He cried for about 4 minutes, and then I found him like this. All I could see was the top of his head and one arm.

This evening Nate attached a blue elephant to Colin's leg in an attempt to keep us all entertained. Nate and I thought it was funny because he gave Colin "elephantiasis."

And again with the rushing of the camera. And no, his onesie isn't fastened.

I guess that's it for us. Stay tuned for next week's installment when I will have awesome stories to tell about my adventures hanging out with my beloved sister-in-law Lenna and her adorable children.

fashion show

Colin wore some pretty stylin' outfits this week.

He wore his dinner on his face.

He wore a loincloth to cover his diaper.

He wore a military-themed outfit of camo pants and a helicopter shirt.

And he wore some of the cutest monster pajamas I've ever seen.

That's all I have, picture-wise. In other news I went to the doctor and all seems to be going well. I'm measuring right on track, so my hope of this baby coming early continues to dwindle. My doctor's nurse's daughter is due about the same time I am, so the nurse always tells me about her daughter and compares and contrasts our sizes, weight, etc. It's a little weird. Nate and I went to his friend Tony's birthday party on Friday. It was fun to see some friends and get out of the house for a while. We went out to dinner beforehand, and it sucked. Word to the wise—don't eat at the Pizza Factory in Spanish Fork. Not good.

Colin continues to be a joy and a pain. He is hilarious and exasperating. His current obsessions are dancing to anything that resembles music, repeating most sounds he hears, pointing to objects in picture books, phones, cameras, and diaper boxes. I swear he walks around half the day with his hand pressed to his ear asking for a phone. I think I'll have to cave and buy him one for Christmas. Or maybe I'll buy him one for Columbus Day next week. We'll see how long I can hold out (and how much money I have).