Updates

So the summer has gone by so fast, I haven't even updated our blog. We have had a busy but fun summer.

We took Colton up to Mirror Lake for the 4th of July and he had such a blast! He loved being outside and able to play in the dirt. We took a walk around the lake and he even watched daddy and uncle Dallas fish. It was a great day for us to get out and enjoy the fresh air and the beautiful weather.

For the 24th of July(Utah's Pioneer Day) my mom and I took Colton to the zoo for the first time. It was fun to see how curious he was about everything there. He loved the monkey's. He would just point and laugh at them. It was fun to see his face light up with each new animal we would see. We ended our trip to the zoo with a ride on the train or the "choo choo" as Colton would call it. He was a little too tired and almost fell a sleep.

In August we welcomed Zoey to our family. She is Colton's kitten. These two are so fun to watch. They chase each other around the house all day. The dogs were not too happy with the addition at first, but they all get along just fine now.

The annual bowhunt was at the end of August. It is normally a boys only trip that Brandon, his dad and his cousin Dallas go on. This year Colton and I joined them along with Dallas's wife Andrea. We bought a little trailer for the the trip, and all the camping we plan to do next year. Colton had a big time being outside playing in the dirt, riding on the 4-wheeler, and being outside all day. Unfortunately, no one got a deer or an elk, but we all had fun anyway.

Our summer has been busy but very fun. Colton is getting big and finally starting to do more than just point and grunt at everything. He is saying many things and learning new words almost everyday and even chooses to use them every once in a while. His new favorite thing is Thomas the Train(choo choo as he calls it). He also loves to play with his cars and trucks. He loves to show everyone where his eyes, nose and ears are. He even shows me where they are on Zoey. He normally pokes her in the eye when doing this but she doesn't seem to mind.

We are getting ready for Halloween next, then in November Colton and I are going to Tulsa to see the family. We are looking forward to seeing all the family and having a good time. I will try harder to keep the blog updated so everyone can see more of Colton.

GO SISTER!!

So I'm a little behind on my blog postings. At the end of may we went to see my sister graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, the culinary school she attended. We left here on Friday morning and drove the 7 hrs to Vegas. Colton did ok, considering he hates to sit still. While we were down there we got see Lauren, Auntie Pat, my Grandparents, my sister and her boyfriend Steve and of course my parents. It was nice to see everyone since we live all over the place.

Sarah's graduation was on Saturday afternoon I met my family there and Brandon stayed at the hotel with Colton, we didn't think that Colton would want to sit still for very long. After the graduation was over everybody met up at the hotel that my parents and the 3 of us were staying at. My mom had rented out a conference room and had the dinner catered by the hotel. It was nice to sit and visit while Colton ran around and played.

It was a quick trip but we made the most of it. I am so proud of my little sister. She is turning into an amazing women. She has moved to South Dakota and has been promoted to sous-chef at the Fireside Restaurant. It is hard having her so far away. We all miss her very much, but we are so proud of her.

Coltons 1st Black Eye

We went up to my moms for her birthday. I got to use my KitchenAid mixer that I got for my birthday to make my moms cake. Colton finished off the day by falling down the stairs and getting his first black eye. He only cried for a minute and then was back to playing as if nothing had ever happened.

We Have Lift Off

Well, I've actually managed to make a couple of things sprout in my garden. I've noticed the last couple of days that there are some cucumber and corn plants popping out of the ground. Take a look...

Cucumber

Corn (I think. This better not be a weed!)

I've even got a little tomato starting to grow on one of my tomato plants.

This makes me feel a whole lot better about the garden. Now I don't feel like I'm just watering a bunch of dirt. Maybe I can start my own farmer's market, hah!

Today I planted seeds for a watermelon and a cantaloupe plant. I think it's kind of late in the year to plant these, but what the hell. They cost me a dollar.

The Haircut

I have been cutting Colton's hair since he was about 4 months old. I know this seems early for most kids, but he was born with a full head of hair and none of it fell out. So at 4 months, I had daddy bring him in to my work to get his first hair cut. Every time I cut it, Brandon tells me just to shave it. I laugh this off and give him the same cut that he always gets.

On fathers day, Brandon kept saying that he was going to cut his hair. I told him that was fine, just not to go too short. Well this went on for some time until I made the joke that he was too chicken to do it. So while I laid down for a few minutes, Brandon took Colton into the living room. Now, I had told him what to do. A 1 (1/8") on the sides and a 4 (1/2") on top. This would take it shorter than I normally do, but it would still leave him some hair.

Suddenly I hear the clippers running in the living room. I didn't worry too much about it at this point, at least until I here Brandon say "go show mommy what daddy did". I sit up as Colton walks in the room with a big smile on his face to show me what daddy had done. I see that Brandon had shaved his head with a 1 all over!

My son is now bald just like his daddy! Oh well, it is only hair and it will grow back, but I think I will stick to cutting Colton's hair from now on.

I'm a farmer! (wannabe)

I thought I'd try my luck with gardening. I'm not expecting much, though because I can barely keep our aloe vera plant alive.

Right now, I've just got tomatoes, cucumbers and corn planted. Later, I might add a couple of jalepeno plants and see how that goes.

I wasn't even sure how to plant the corn, really. I just ended up digging a couple of little trenches and spreading a bunch of corn seeds in them and burying them. I'm sure I did it wrong, but it'll be interesting to see what happens with them.

I didn't even really know how to plant the tomato starter plants. I had to call my mother-in-law to ask her if I was supposed to break up the root ball or not. So yeah, I'm pretty much a professional gardener.

Jammin' Out

Here's Colton jamming out to some tunes on the Ipod.

His favorite singer is Johnny Cash. I used to sing (as best I could, anyway) Johnny Cash songs to him when he was just a little baby. For some reason, it would calm him down when it was time for him to go to sleep at night.

It must have been that he just liked his Dad's singing. :) For whatever reason though, he still gets all excited when he hears a Johnny Cash song. His favorite songs are I walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues and A Boy Named Sue.

Unfortunately, this is the closest thing to lullabies that he ever heard from me. Come on, a song about a guy shooting a man in Reno and going to prison is the perfect children's song. And what about a guy naming his son Sue, and then his son finding him later on in life and beating the crap out of him. How is that not a children's song?

To me, this is better than rocking a baby to sleep in the tree tops and when the wind blows his cradle falls. Now why you would rock a baby to sleep and put him in the top of a tree is beyond me. Sounds to me like that poor kid is going to need years of therapy after that.

I guess that's why I will never win the father of the year award.

What's the opposite of skinny dipping?

So, I'm sitting in the living room enjoying a relaxing evening watching Paul Sr. yell at Paul Jr. on American Chopper, when all of the sudden I hear Taylor yell from the bathroom "BRANDON, COME HERE!".

From the sound of her voice and the fact that she never calls me by my first name, I thought for sure she must have found the hot blonde that I had stuffed in the closet or something. So I go in there and this is what I see...



...A little boy, covered in the spaghettios that he had for dinner earlier that night, sitting in a bathtub full of water WITH HIS CLOTHES ON!

Taylor had started his bath water and walked in the other room for a second. That's apparently how long it took him to get the idea of crawling in the tub for a quick dip. He has the right idea, it's just that he forgot an important step in taking a bath. Oh well, at least Taylor didn't find that hot blonde.

I wish I could be like Colton and just go about life without worrying about the little things.

Daddy Time

Colton LOVES his daddy and wants to do everything his dad does. All day long all I hear is "dad dad dad". He will bring me the phone and say "dadada". As soon as Brandon gets home he runs to him and says "hi dad". I love to watch them together they are already so much a like.

Nap Time?

I try to make sure that Colton gets a nap or a least some down time everyday. On Monday he looked tired so i got his bed ready with his blanket and bear that he won't sleep without. It was quiet so I thought that he had gone right to sleep. After about five minutes I herd him laughing, I went to back to his room and could hear him jumping on the bed. I grabbed my camera and this is what I got.

After this he went right down and took a good nap. I guess he wasn't quite ready for his nap.

Sand Moving Day

On Saturday, we had to go over and help our friends, the Chatwin's, move a dump truck load of sand. They are building a playground area in their backyard for their daughter, Alyssa. They had the dump truck unload the sand in their driveway and we, meaning Hogge, Brian and I, had to shovel it into wheel barrows and wheel barrow it to the backyard.

While I was busy doing this, Colton was having a blast playing in the sand, riding a four wheeler and riding in a power wheels jeep that Alyssa was driving. I think he was having a little more fun than I was.


Video of Colton Driving Four Wheeler


Picture of Colton and Alyssa riding in jeep















Overall, I guess it
was a pretty fun day.

Hello All

So I thought that i would start a blog. With friends and family all over the world, I thought it would be a good way for everyone to check in with us. I will try and keep up with this and always have new photos of Colton and our family posted.

Our family is doing great. We are very busy with work and Colton. We have finally decided what we are going to do with the backyard so Brandon has started on that. Colton loves the outdoors so we are hoping that it does not take too long, so we can enjoy the summer in the yard together. Colton loves to do whatever his dad is doing, its cute to watch him follow his dad around the house saying "dad dad". So it should be fun to watch my boys working in the yard together.