Happy Birthday Collin!

Our little Collin Steven is 1!!!!!

I cannot believe that this little boy is already a year old!  Time just went by too quickly! 

He was born our Teeny Little Super Guy at 6 lbs 4 oz and he still is!  He is still only in the 10th percentile in height and weight at 18 1/2 lbs and 28 inches long but the Dr. was not too concerned this morning at his appointment.

We just love him and have so much fun with him.  He is learning so many things and it just amazes me the things he is able to figure out and remember.  He only has 2 teeth but that does not slow him down one bit!

Here are some things I want to remember about him at this age:

LOVES:
-His pacifier
-His bottle (and his sippy cup too for that matter)
-Blueberries
-Bananas
-Little puffs, cheerios or any little snack
-OK, pretty much any food he will eat as quickly as possible!
-His big brother
-Climbing the stairs and pretty much anything else too
-Getting into any cabinet he can get open and dragging every last thing out
-Bath time
-Playing on the couch cushions on the floor with his brother
-Scooting around pushing cars on the floor-especially this red one that makes a noise when he pushes it.  Do little boys automatically know how to do this and make the vroom noise to go with it?  I think so!

THINGS HE IS DOING:
-Saying bye bye, Mama, Dada, hi, M sound for more food, B sound for bananas and blueberries
-Waving hi and bye
-Clapping his hands
-Learning to hold silverware and attempting to stab/scoop food to eat it
-Standing by himself without holding on or pulling up
-Walking with help (not taking steps by himself yet but soon)
-He loves cleaning things-give him a rag or paper towel and he goes to town wiping anything and everything (I hope he keeps this enthusiasm forever and will be a big helper!)

I am so blessed to have such a sweet little boy-actually 2 sweet little boys!

Here's a couple pictures of Collin's recent adventures:

Climbing on the kid's table while we were
cleaning the basement the other day



Climbing on my sewing machine cover while
I was sitting at the table sewing.  And he's waving at me
saying "hi" when I asked him what he was doing :)



Teeny Little Super Guy
Watching his big brother playing outside with
the big kids and wanting so bad to join them.
(Bobo is also wanting to be outside too!)



We will be doing his birthday party next week when we have our families come to visit us.  I'm excited.....I already have all my plans and decorations in the works!  I know he is only one and won't remember it but I love doing these things so I am going to have fun with it!!  I'm doing a "Little Man" party.  It's gonna be cute! :)

Wild and Crazy night!!!

I don't have any pictures of this post because we were too busy working our tails off!!

We had some big time storms come through here yesterday afternoon and last night.  Omaha and parts of Iowa got some crazy hail.  We escaped that part of it in the afternoon and only had some wind.  Then the 2nd storm came through.....

Luckily, I had gotten the kids into the bath about an hour earlier than I normally do so I had them out and Collin in bed before the power went out at around 7:30.  We didn't have a tornado warning or anything but I still spent the entire night in the basement.....Ugh!!

When the power went out, the sump pump stopped working.  And it was dumping rain-a ton of rain!  I would empty out a 5 gallon bucket of water and by the time I would go outside (in the rain) to dump it out, it was already filled back up to the top again.  For about an hour, this went on.  (I think I did about 10 buckets full which is 50 gallons of water!)  Aaron wasn't home at the time so I was working it alone!  As fast as I could dump it, it would fill up.  It was like one of those bad dreams where you keep doing the same thing over and over and nothing changes!

When Aaron got home he and I worked it together.  Brady was still up (mostly because we had to use flashlights and he was having fun) as we continued to do this until after 10:00 when we could finally stop for a little bit to relax because we had emptied it out and it wasn't filling up as fast again.  So we let it go until the alarm sounded and it took all of 15 minutes!!  We went back to work again to empty it, Brady finally fell asleep and it was after 11 that we tried to lay down and rest.  We decided to let the alarm sound when the water got to the top and then we would take turns getting up to go empty it out.  At least the rain had stopped by then so it was just all the water that had soaked in the ground we were dealing with so we had a little more time in between fillings.

It was like we were up all night with a newborn again-just waiting for it to "cry" for us to come and empty it!  I took the first shift when the alarm went off after midnight and emptied 10 more buckets full and laid back down to try and go back to sleep at 12:30.  Then at 1 am, Collin woke up scared because his room was pitch black (no night light) so I went to put him back to sleep and laid back down.

Luckily, the alarm did not sound back again and the power came back on at 4 am.  We went to look at the sump pump again and it was pretty close to being full but the pump kicked in and sucked it all out.  When we finally went to bed then, I couldn't go back to sleep-I kept seeing a hole with water in it and me filling buckets and dumping them.  Even then I couldn't get any sleep because I was half awake dreaming of emptying it!

This morning my shoulders, arms and legs are sore and I am tired!  Of course we had to get up and be out of the house at 8 to take Collin to his Dr appt for his one year check-up so I only got a couple good hours of sleep.  Poor Aaron had a check ride today too so I hope he does well.  It's hard with no sleep!  I think we'll be taking it easy today!

Finished!!

So I am totally caught up on all my blogging for the last 2 months!!  Yay!  I wanted to have it all done before Collin's birthday on Friday and I did it with 2 days to spare!

But that is not the only accomplishment I am proud of this week!  You know how I love my projects....  And the table has been in the works for a long time and it's finally done!

I didn't really take a good before picture but here's one of Brady eating french toast on the table one morning so you can see the color it used to be.  It was also really scratched and the chairs pretty much had no finish left on them.  We received them as a hand me down from my in-laws when we got married.  She had painted the backs and legs green to go with her stuff so I repainted them black gloss when we got married.  But the black gloss paint was majorly chipped from being moved and stored (in our shed in AZ for 5 years!).  So it was definitely time for these to get a little face lift!

BEFORE



Here's the underside of the chair you can also see the color of the
finish and where some of the old green was sprayed on

I stripped off and sanded what was left of the finish and stain on the seats.  I painted the backs and legs a satin finish black before I put the new stain and finish on.



Did I mention how annoying it is to sand completely and
tape around round spindles??  Not my favorite part!



AFTER!

It looks so much better!  The table looks a little lighter than the chairs because the wood on there soaked in the stain a little different than the seats but oh well!  Plus, in this picture the flash is reflecting off the table even more so it makes it look more obvious.  But I am done and it is back in our kitchen!  I started about a month ago and got the table done right away but then I had to stop because of the heat.   I couldn't work out in the garage again until last week.  So we used folding chairs around the table until the chairs were done.

This is the more fun project that I also completed this month. 

Angry birds!!!  Who else is addicted to this game??? 

Anyway, when it got so hot out, I needed an "inside" project.  I found free patterns and a tutorial online, went and got the fleece and got started.

The idea started to formulate in my head that I wanted to make these a while back.  When we first moved here, Brady invented this game he called "Pluckers".  I have no idea where he pulled the name out of but that's what it is.  It consisted of throwing around these soft plush baby blocks with Aaron in the living room.

Then the game Angry Birds became an obsession on my phone-for me and Brady! :)  He he...  He was asking to play it all the time on my phone and I only let him play it for a little while at a time.  Erica gave him a plush red angry bird and he loved it and slept with it at night.  When I saw the tutorial I thought that I could make these and we could play a real-life version of the game Angry Birds and it would be even better than Pluckers and he wouldn't be asking to play it on my phone as much anymore!  Score!  He loves them!

Here he is in the basement playing.  We set up the green pigs all over and throw the birds at them to knock them out-just like the game!

If you look closely enough you can see one baby pig on the top of the TV, one on the chair blocked partially by Brady and the one he is trying to hit on the corner of the white kids table.  You can also see the black bomb bird up in the air right over the shelves. 

Here's a link to where I found the tutorials in case anyone else has some Angry Bird fans in your house!

Angry Birds Link

I loved this tutorial and it was pretty easy to follow, especially for a novice sewer like myself.  I cheated a little-I did not do all the appliques on the face.  After the 2nd one I did, it was taking forever because I wasn't very good at it.  So instead of appliqueing with the fleece, I used felt and hot glued!  Much easier and quicker for me and it looks pretty good. :)  It feels pretty good to get my projects all done.  Now it's on to birthday party planning.  I have already completed a couple things for that but I'll post those pictures when we do Collin's birthday party next week with our families.

Ooey Gooey Collie Cooey

Collin almost always has something all over him. Whether he is eating or not!  He is always into something!  So Aunt E-ta gave him the nickname Ooey Gooey Collie Cooey and I don't even know if that's how you spell it but that's what it's gonna be!

This kid can eat some food!  He almost eats as much as Brady some nights.  If his tray is empty he is screeching like a little hawk or something for us to throw some more food on there!  And he puts it away as fast as his chubby little fingers can do it!  The funny thing is he still only has 2 teeth on the bottom and that doesn't even slow him down!

Eating his "tacos".  I put all the insides of a taco in
his bowl and on his tray and he ate them right up!

Only things left after his ravioli were
gone-a big smile and a saucy tray!

But at least he helps clean up afterward right?
Why do kids love the dishwasher so much?

After dinner these days, he goes directly to the tub.  And even then, I have to clean him up a bit before I do that so there's not floaties in there!