Practice Makes Perfect

Collin practicing his big brother skills.  Sharing and being gentle with this tiny baby...

One for you...

One for me...

One for you...

 Sharing string cheese with his owl...

The moment you have all been waiting for...

I know I'm a little lot behind on posting Halloween pictures.  The main reason being we had to do a little picture retake since I did not get too many good ones the day of.  With 5 different stops to make it was a chore just to keep his hat on.  Cameron had a great idea to dress Collin as a leprechaun.  I got right to work with my crafty skills.  It started out as a white tux.  With a little paint, we think he turned out just adorable.  Collin referred to himself as "LepreCollin" which was hilarious.  He started calling himself that the week before Halloween and we just about died laughing. 

Trick or Treat!

Collin with his candy corn cane from GG (my Grammy)

 We went to Zooboo, a fundraiser for the Chaffee Zoo the week before Halloween.  Collin and his cousin Kade had a great time looking at all the animals and checking out the costumes.  It was very crowded!


Checking out the new exhibits in the reptile house

 

All sugared up and ready to go home!

Pumpkin Patch

Collin and his little buddies Clay and Brady had a great time at the pumpkin patch. There was a train and bumble bee ride that the boys loved! Here are some pictures of our day. My cousin Lisa watches Clay and Brady is her neighbor.  The decorations were great and the boys ran around checking everything out. 





All Aboard!



Cheese!



Let's take these ones...



Arms up!

Ladies first, what a gentleman!





Seriously?!?

Talk about being into Halloween...  This has to be good for a few laughs!

Halloween Time!

I'm a total bargain shopper. So there was no way I was going to pass on this $3 special from TJ Maxx that I found after Halloween last year. I seriously would have purchased it just for the black and white pants and shirt it came with underneath. Not to mention the jack-o-lantern smock to go over. The original face was kinda girly...o.k. 100% girly. I wanted to make it more "boyish" for Collin to wear so I gave him a new face. The jack-o-lantern, not Collin. Ha!  Here is the girly not so scary before jack-o-lantern:

And here is my master felt creation after:

Marths Stewart may not think much of this little project of mine but I am totally proud of the spookyness here!

And obviously Collin loves it because look how cute he is.

Don't you just want to kiss this face?!?

Boo to you on the butt is my favorite part...  But I can't take credit for that since it was already there.

Including the yellow felt for the new face, this whole outfit was $4. Seriously, such a great deal!  My wallet and husband are happy.

Story Time

Tuesday mornings Collin and I go to the library in Fowler for story, song and play time. Collin likes the reading time, loves the song time and can't wait for the play time. They have these boxes full of cars, balls, stacker cups and sheer peek a boo things. This week we did a fun crafts project making halloween bracelets, which Collin kept on for a whole 2 minutes.

The whole thing lasts all of 45 minutes. All the kids help with clean up and then it's home for nap time.  It helps that he is usually asleep before the 5 minute drive home and I just have to move him over to his bed.

Bounce U

Remember a few weeks ago when it actually felt like fall?  It was wet and rainy and the sun was nowhere to be found.  Well I bought a http://www.groupon.com/ coupon for Bounce U a while back and it was the perfect weather to burn some energy indoors.  I have to wear Collin out somehow and this place was great!  Check out their schedule or to see if there is a Bounce U near you.  It would be a great place for a kids birthday party.  It is very clean!  We wore white socks and they were still white when we left 2 hours later.  That says a lot in my opinion.
http://www.bounceu.com/party-places-for-kids/california/fresno/
Collin was the youngest child there during open bounce time, which is Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-11:30. The oldest child was around 6. There is a few different areas for the kids to bounce and play. Here are some pictures of Collin having a blast.

Collin had so much fun and we will definitely be back. And if bounce U wants to give me a few free passes for my stellar review, I will gladly accept them! :)

Pregnant Ramblings

This post is mainly for documentation purposes only.  If you aren't interested in reading about all things pregnant (me), I'm warning you to stop here.

For the 2 people still reading this, here you go...

So far this pregnancy has not been anything like my pregnancy with Collin.  I felt like a million bucks the first go round and almost didn't know I was pregnant minus my clothes not fitting the last 4 months.  I worked til my due date and never had any issues.  With this little fetus though, I have been sick.  Like really sick.  Like throwing up 4-6 times a week from weeks 4-10.  Then it slowed down for weeks 11-12 and I sang happy songs of joy for no more puking.  Then the pregnancy meanness reared it's ugly head again and I am back to hovering over the porcelain god.  Which by the way, is nothing like throwing up when you drink too much, not that I would know anything about that.  The only up side to all this is the weight loss.  Which gives me hope that the longer I can hold off putting on the pounds the less huge I will get.  I was prescribed zofran which helps with the all day nauseous feeling but not the puking.  There really is no way to say barf nicely.  There should be a better word for it, really. 

Enough of the gross stuff, let's move on to the exciting part of pregnancy.  The CRAVINGS. 

One thing did stay the same as my pregnancy with Collin and that is my love for cereal!  I heart cereal!  Every. Single. Day.  Cinnamon life, froot loops, raisin bran, golden grahams, multi grain cheerios.  Any kind of cereal will do.  I have a bowl first thing in the morning at 5am when Cameron and I wake up.  I look forward to when the time changes and he starts work later so we can sleep in til 6. 

Edamame.  I buy it at Costco.  There is about 8 servings per box which is actually 3 servings for a pregnant person.  A dash of salt kicks the sodium craving and I don't feel so bad since I'm eating a vegetable.

Crystal Light Peach Tea.  This is my main source of hydration.  I drink about 2 quarts every 2 days.  So delicious!

Popsicles.  100% fruit bars to be exact.  They only have 25 calories so I figure I can eat like 3 in a sitting totally guilt free.

Sugar Free Jolly Ranchers and Life Savers.  This helps with the nausea and they are so yummy tasty.

Pickles.  Not just any pickles.  They must be zesty dill pickles.  I have consumed 3 jars since I found out I was pregnant and have stock piled 2 more jars in the pantry.

Taco Bell.  A bean burrito and a soft taco supreme makes a perfect lunch.  To be honest, I crave this when I'm not pregnant so maybe I just like Taco Bell.  I try to not let myself go more than 2x a month.  Sounds reasonable, no?

Fruit.  I heart fruit almost as much as I heart cereal.  Lately it has been strawberries and tangerines.

We have a 4D ultrasound tomorrow and I am very excited.  It is always fun to take a peek at something growing inside of you.  They will be checking for spinal bifida and doing some other routine measurements.  It is still too early to find out the sex of the baby.  I always wanted my 2nd baby to be a surprise.  Cameron wants to know the sex.  My thought on this is since I am the one carrying the baby for 10 months, I should get my way with the surprise.  What do you think? 

And because we all know blog posts are totally boring without pictures, I leave you with this little guy.  Who by the way, he could not be happier to be a Big Brother.  He knows the baby is growing inside of mommy.  If we ask him where his baby is (we call it his baby) he lifts up my shirt, kisses my stomach and says "hi baby."  This is just enough to melt your heart into a bazillion pieces.

Labor Day weekend in Santa Cruz

My family and Collin and I spent a week at my Uncle KO and Aunt Elisa's vacation home in Santa Cruz over Labor Day weekend. They are so generous to let us stay there. Cameron wasn't able to come because he had a wedding to attend in Lake Tahoe. We also had a wedding to attend for my cousin Andrew in Monterey. I didn't bring my camera to the wedding but trust me, it was beautiful! I did get some pictures from our 6 days spent in Santa Cruz. The weather was beautiful, the Boardwalk was as fun as I remember. Minus the rides I couldn't go on being pregnant. Collin loved the rides and he is a daredevil like his Mama!  He was 1 inch too short to go on the dragon roller coaster.  I was bummed but we'll get to do it next year.

My parents and I headed up Wednesday.  We beat the holiday traffic and the crowds at the beach, which was so nice!

Yaya and Collin splashing in the waves.

Call me crazy, but I think Collin almost has ankles now.  Can you see them?

When you get this wet, it only means one thing...

Time to strip down to the diaper for a little more fun!
Collin and Maddi riding the boats.

Papa and Collin on the train. Collin still talks about this ride!

Free Willy!

S.S. Corndog.  Hilarious!

Collin was ready to hand over his tickets for the rides.

The train ride, just how I remember it 20 years ago.

I took this right before they told me no flash photography on the ride.

Little Toot.  Who thinks of these names?!?

More beach fun.

He still hasn't learned that sand isn't a very good snack.

Maddi went right into the water fully clothed.  So cute.

Megan and Jeremiah had a great time playing with the kids in the water.

It was a great week filled with yummy boardwalk food, nice long walks and time with family.  Can't wait to go back!