MIlestones

We're full of milestones this week. It is so much fun!!

1st: Hudson has really started walking. I will have to try and get a video of it. He still prefers to crawl because it is much easier and quicker. But, he tries to walk most of the time. He hasn't quite figured out how to stand up on his own, so as long as he has something to pull up on he is off. I love the early walking wobble.

2nd: Reagan has pretty much potty trained herself. Seriously. Last Friday she would let me put a pull-up on on her which was major progress. She hasn't wanted anything to do with potty training yet. So she went the weekend with a pull-up at Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin's house. I decided that Monday was the day. Well, Reagan had other plans. She went most of the day with a pull-up or undies on and even made it on the toilet, but Monday night she wanted her diaper back. I figured we would just lay off for a bit. Tuesday morning she didn't really want much to do with the toilet at. all. I didn't push it and then about mid morning she wanted her undies on and she has been virtually accident free ever since. We may make 30 trips to the potty in an hour but hey, she is making it there without being reminded! She really likes to have silly songs sunt to her as she does her business. That is how I distracted her at first. We are working on making each trip to the potty a little bit shorter. She is so proud of herself and so are we!! Hopefully it sticks.

Oh my Hair!

This is one of those pictures that she will love me for later!!
Saturday night she agreed to let me put some little twisty buns in her hair to see if it would be curly for church. Well, we got curly and then some!! I wasn't sure how we were going to save her from this hair do but we managed to get it pulled into two little piggies and she looked darling. We just laughed and laughed when the little buns came out and her hair stood almost straight up with curls.

11 months

Eleven months! Where has the time gone?! It seems like I was just lamenting that I couldn't shake my post-pregnancy haze. Here I am almost a year later loving our little almost toddler. He is so much fun.

He still naps like a champ. Twice a day like clock work. Well, except for yesterday. I'm hoping that was a fluke. The above picture is what his room looks like after a nap if anything is left within his reach. He was so proud of his mess on this day. I love walking in to get him up. He will be in his own world (usually standing up waiting to be rescued from the crib) and when he sees us his whole face lights up and he starts bouncing. Love it.
He has sworn off baby food. He is on a regular food diet. I am a little worried that he will lose some weight because of the transition. He does really well and will usually eat what we are eating. Now if I could wean him off of his bottle...I'm hoping that in the next month he starts to do that on his own. The transition to water in a sippy cup to go to bed might be a shock!!


A lot of the time he is content with what is going on around him. We found him sitting by the back doors just watching the cars, or birds, or whatever was outside. It was so cute to see him so content. The one thing that he does more than I remember the other kids doing is hanging on to our pant legs. I think that is how he will learn to walk. Seriously. He loves to pull himself up on Brent or my pants. I'm really surprised he hasn't been stepped on more!
Hudson loves to be wherever the kids are and he isn't afraid to get in and wrestle around with them. He puts up with a lot from his big sister. He is quick to smile and loves to clap, especially when someone says YAY!
It is kind of strange to think that in one month we will be past the baby stage in our lives. It was a fast stage lasting only 5.5 years. Bring on the next one. We're ready!!

Wyoming game

Tuesday the 3rd of January Wyoming played UVU (Utah Valley University). That is the closest the Cowboys would be to us all year so we took advantage of the $7 tickets and drove down on a whim. WE were able to sit just 5 rows behind the team with the rest of the Wyoming fans. Brittany met us for dinner and Tiffany and Jessica met us at the game. Thank goodness. They are live savers when it comes to our kids. It was a fun game that came down to the wire.
The best part was at the end when the WY fans were chanting WYO and the team turned around surprised that there were that many people. Following the game the players shook hands and then came back to say thank you for coming and cheering! They may not be the best team in the NCAA but there are some well mannered boys that play for Wyoming!

Christmas day

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Christmas day we woke the kids up, opened presents, got lost in the mess, made scones for breakfast and they were yummy! I just thawed a Rhoads loaf of bread and then rolled it out and cut it into squares. Brent cooked up some sausage and we had a feast!
Grandma and Grandpa headed home to get ready for their Christmas company and we hurried to get ready for church! Oh the fun of taking pictures when everyone is tired and grumpy!!
I love Christmas programs at church. It is my favorite Sunday of the year. This year we were lucky to have it on Christmas day. What a great reminder of the birth of our Savior. Perfect way to spend the day.
After church we went to Susan's to have dinner and open a few presents. The kids had a blast playing and being together.

Our festivities weren't over! Monday the kids and I headed to Mtn. View while Brent took the missionaries ice fishing. It was fun to see the Hamblin cousins. I got a migraine headache that morning and so I was loads of fun. I spent the day sleeping and feeling sick. Thank goodness I have such wonderful parents and siblings. They took care of all four kids all day for me!

That night Steven and Vicki came into town. The rest of the week was filled with cousin time, sleep overs, throwing up, visiting and eating way too much junk!!

It makes me exhausted just writing all of this down. It was such a fun couple of weeks. It is good to be back to a normal routine though.

Yay for Christmas and all the goodness that comes with it!!

Christmas Eve

I think this Christmas Eve goes down as one of the best EVER!!

We started the day out by going to breakfast with Mark and Jocy at Bear Town. It is fun to start the day with something fun...and to get out of the house. The boys averted disaster at Susan's by fixing the leak in the fridge. A couple of really big fans and a de-humidifier were brought in to curb the damage!
Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin came and spent the night with us (after a little convincing).
First item of business was sledding. We have the perfect kid-size hill by the school that provides lots of entertainment for kids and adults a like. Brent was our photographer since I forbid him to even think about sledding!
We came home and had some lunch before getting the gingerbread houses ready to go.
Decorating our houses was so much fun. I bought the village instead of just one house and the kids were so excited to make their own. Grandma and Grandpa helped get them just right.

For dinner we ordered Chinese. We brought out our Christmas plates and enjoyed not making a big meal!!
After dinner we read the Christmas story. Thank you Pinterest for helping me find the cute little story and cut-outs.
Are you tired yet?! We were.

We let the kids open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa after the nativity story.

The final activity of the night was sprinkling the reindeer dust so they would be sure to see our house.

And with that we put the children to bed! I think they were so tired they didn't make a peep all night and we had to wake them up the next morning to make sure we made it to church on time!!

It was such a fun day. There is something magical to me (probably because that is how I grew up) about spending Christmas Eve at home with your family. Thanks to Mom and Dad for sharing the day and night with us! We loved it and can't wait to do it again.

'Tis the season

We had a wonderful Holiday season. It felt complete, not forced. I hope it was magical for the kids as well.
Some of the highlights:

• visiting with Santa at the ward party
• making suckers for Bridger's class (really easy and fun to do)
• Visiting Temple Square...might be a few years before we go back
• North Pole carnival...again, a one time deal
• Caroling with the Welling family
• Sledding
• Shopping
• Forgotten carols...we will make this a tradition
• Checking the mailbox for cards each day

Christmas Jammies

Jammies get delivered early at our house, probably so they can be enjoyed for the entire Christmas season. Usually in a special package from Santa's elves reminding the kids that he is watching. They didn't really need reminding this year because the songs "Santa Clause is coming to town" and "Here comes Santa Clause" Were on repeat in their little brains. It was so fun to hear them singing constantly through the Christmas season.

Putting up the tree

As the kids get older they get more involved with putting up Christmas. This year they decorated the whole tree on their own...and we left it! It could only have ornaments on the top 2/3rds because of little hands. Hudson was not the only curious child this year. The shiny bulbs just called Reagan's name over and over again!

Thanksgiving

A little behind on the ol' bloggeroo? I think so. Oh well...better late than never!!





We had Thanksgiving with the "Lake" side of the family this year. I use quotations because it was really Brent's grandma's family. In my eight years of marriage this was the first time having Thanksgiving with them. It was so much fun. Seriously. Grandma Timperly is all about games.

First we ate a delicious meal. I mean really, I stuffed myself. Aunt Jo's sink was broken so we hauled the dishes to Blain's apartment and back to wash and dry them. It made it an entertaining way to do the dishes. Everyone pitched in and helped get it all done.

After dishes we did the paper sack game. Grandma and Aunt Jo put little trinkets, candy, two dollar bills, quarters, and nickles in brown paper bags. Only one has a five dollar bill in it. That is the prize. Everyone picks a bag and we went in birth order to open them. No one got the five dollars. Oh wait, what could that be? Another round? I think so. I think the adults look forward to that tradition more than the kids. My kids were just happy to have some pocket change!!

We rounded the night out with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Welling's house and some midnight shopping! So fun!

Saying goodbye

I've been writing this post in my mind for the past month.
We took a little trip to Boise for my grandpa's funeral last month. Losing my grandpa was a very bitter sweet time. He hasn't been well for a while and it was so hard to see him struggling. The selfish part of me was sad that he wasn't here with us anymore. It was a wonderful opportunity to get together with family, explain the plan of happiness with my kids, and just reflect on life in general.
I love my grandpa with all my heart. In my mind I can still hear him greet me with his "oh, there is Collettee". It always made my heart happy to hear this and then see his arms outstretched ready for a hug. It didn't change when I was an adult and had kids of my own. I loved to see him greet them the same way and see their eyes light up when he gave them a hug.
We were lucky enough to live close to my grandparents. I have countless memories of trips with them, quick runs to the cabin, Sunday dinners, and just regular days that they were around.
Grandpa was never to busy for us. If he had things to do, we helped him out. He wasn't afraid to make us work. He loved to play too. I remember staying in Thermopolis one summer and waiting for Grandpa and my dad to get home from work. We were going to go swimming at the Star Plunge. I remember Grandpa mentioning that he was going to go down the slide the next time we were there. Us kids went swimming earlier in the day (I think we spent all our time there that summer) and noticed that the sign said people over 60-0r something close to that-couldn't go on the slide. We quickly tried to calculate his age and then I worried all day because he was over the age limit. Well, true to their word, Dad and Grandpa took us swimming that night after a long day at work. Do you think the age limit stopped Grandpa? Not at all. He went down that slide a couple of times.
I could go on for a long time with memories. There are lots of them. My cousins have all written beautiful tributes.
The weekend of the funeral was wonderful. It was great to see so much family. My grandpa's sisters came with some of their families, my grandma's sisters came with their families and of course all of my cousins that came from all over to pay one final tribute to Grandpa.
As we left the church it was snowing. True Wyoming form in Idaho!!

He was buried in the Idaho state veterans cemetery. My grandma didn't know what was going on but it was neat to see the flag presented to her.

Afterwards the ward put together a wonderful luncheon. We had a chance to visit and relax. Here is most of my Hamblin side. We are missing one aunt and uncle and about 8 cousins with their families.
My grandpa was known for his spud-nuts. Running a spud-nut shop is what took him and his sister to Rawlins where he eventually met my grandma. To honor him my uncle invited everyone over and we had spud-nuts. Oh. My. They were divine. We ordered pizza and just enjoyed everyone's company.

Some other highlights from the weekend that weren't funeral/family related:

• Brent forgot to grab his suit so we did a mad dash to the mall with everyone in their church clothes. The lady at Macy's was so nice and helped us get him outfitted in no time.
• We all went swimming a couple of times.
• On the way home we missed our turn off and ended up in Pocatello before we realized we missed it! Brent didn't know how far off our route we were(he had never been to Boise-or Pocatello), but I sure did!! Luckily it only ended up adding about an hour to our trip. Sheesh!!

I know that Grandpa is happy and was happy to see all of us together. I can only think of his reunion with his momma and daddy with a smile. To think of all he can do now makes me happy. I know that we will see him again if we do our part here on earth! 'Till we meet again, Grandpa!

**all photos are courtesy of my dear, sweet, cousin, Abbie of Abbie Rufener photography...I didn't get my camera out once!**

big sister

I think his entire life might go a little like this. Big sister is mostly friend and a little bit boss!

First haircut

Hudson's hair was getting a little out of control in the back. He has some nice curls and we enjoyed them as long as we could! The night before Thanksgiving Brent's cousin, Brittany, cut them all off. Hudson was not a fan of the haircut but he looks like a cute little boy now.

9 1/2 months

Hudson is now almost 10 months old. So hard to believe. He is so much fun. He is mobile and able to mostly entertain himself. He tries so hard to keep up with the other kids. You can usually find him right in the middle of everything. Luckily is really easy going. That could be because he is the last one and has to be patient with everyone and all that goes on around him. He is quick to give a smile. He has six teeth. The poor little guy takes forever to break teeth. That usually means that he is drooling constantly and has a runny nose quite a bit. What can you do? He pulls himself up to everything and everyone. This is usually the view of him that I get while trying to make dinner or lunch or do pretty much anything. I think he may learn to walk this way.

We love our little Hudson boy.

Winter time fun

We've had our share of winter storms lately. These pictures are from the first real snow fall that we had back at the beginning of November. Yup, that's what kind of blogger I've been lately. The kids had so much fun playing together. It was even fun for me. They are getting big enough to put most of their own snow clothes on. Bridger has learned in kindergarten and it is so nice. Its the little things that I really appreciate these days.
We are in the middle of winter now, I'm afraid. Long gone are the snow storms that the sun comes out and melts 75% of the snow. Only the bitter cold follows the snow storms these days! I guess that is what we get for living in Wyoming.

Just as a little side note: we were completely ready for the first snow this year. Everyone had coats, hats, snow pants, and boots. GO US!!

Family pictures 2011

Just a sneak peak at our family pictures. I love them.

Grandpa

We love you, Grandpa, and we will miss you oh so much.