Monday Night by the Numbers

29 - Number of Seth's Birthdays celebrated (picture from Oregano's)

1 hour - Amount of time Colton cried for when we dropped him off at Aunt Claire's and Uncle Cody's

10pm - Time Colton first woke up throwing up

6 - Amount of times Colton threw up

4 - Amount of times Colton threw up ON ME!

4 - Baths Colton took

3 - Loads of Laundry for all of the puke

1 hour - Amount of sleep both Colton and I got that night

1 Final - at 8am for Seth

How come kids only get sick at night?

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today my daddy turns 29 years old! Just want him to know how much I love him. He is the best dad ever... He is always playing and wrestling with me and teaching me cool things. Yesterday he even taught me how to cook! (Don't worry the oven really wasn't on)

Today my mommy took me to school so that I could surprise him with a balloon and card, but once I got there I forgot what I was supposed to do (the computers were so cool to look at) so mommy did it for me! But I sure do love my daddy - he's a great example to me of what to do and be when I grow up! Here are some more fun Pictures of me and my daddy:

Third Time's the Charm!

So, we've been trying to take some family photots for awhile now... wanted something new for Christmas cards. Anyways, we finally set up a session with a friend from school and church for Saturday, December 1 and wouldn't you know it rained 2 inches that day! So, we rescheduled for the next Monday and then I got sick... so we rescheduled for yesterday and FINALLY we were able to do them! It was supposed to rain all day but luckily it cleared up! Jen did such a great job - she had to chase (literally) Colton around to try and take pictures of him! He is such a "busy" kid - seriously I can't remember the last time he sat still for anything. Here's a link to her website so you can see our cutie pics! http://www.pettyphotography.blogspot.com/ Oh, and just know that our Christmas cards will be coming soon. Hopefully before Christmas, but don't hold your breath - ha ha!

GO ASU!

Where's the Ark?

Wow! We've gotten a lot of rain these past couple of days! It has rained more in the last 2 days than the previous 11 months put together.

Quick update on Emily. She's doing great - She's home recuperating now and making daily trips to see Kinsley in the NICU. Kinsley is doing good too. She's back up to her birth weight and continuing to gain. They're hoping she'll be coming home for Christmas.

Colton and I have been fighting a cold all week and we officially lost last night! When Colton can't breathe through his nose, he thinks he's dying - ha ha. So, we both had rough nights and days today. Between the colds and the rain Colton is feeling a little couped up!

One more piece of news - Colton has a new trick... When we have our family prayer we always ask him to fold his arms, then we try to fold them for him and whoever's turn it is to pray starts before Colton realizes whats happening. The other day we knelt down to pray and as usual asked Colton to fold his arms and then HE DID! We were so surprised! Yeah, something is sinking in!!

She's HERE!

Emily and baby girl (still no name) are doing excellent considering the circumstances. She weighed 3lbs 11oz and came out screaming (good sign). She's in the NICU but they didn't have to intibate (sp?) her. More details to come.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month

Well, it's been a crazy five days. My sister, Emily, is 31 weeks pregnant and has Pre-eclampsia. I don't want to share too much since I don't know how much she would want other people to know, but she's in the hospital now and the doctors are doing their best to keep her and the baby safe... The hope is that she can make it to 32 weeks which is next Sunday. We had a family fast for her yesterday, and we're already starting to see the blessings from it. She's much more comfortable now so hopefully she'll be able to make it as long as possible. I just found out that the March of Dimes has designated November as prematurity awareness month. It's funny how you don't realize these things until it hits close to home. I love my little sister so much! I'm so glad that we are here in AZ and can help her and her family! Please keep her and the baby (they haven't picked out a name yet - she just found out she's having a girl!) in your prayers.

I Love Lucy! - Colton's favorite tv show

Anytime Colton hears the theme music to "I Love Lucy," he goes nuts! This is one of my all time favorite shows (I dressed up as her for Halloween one year) so I love that he gets so excited. It's funny, though, because he could care less about the show, it's just the beginning that he likes. Here's two reactions we were able to catch on camera... Usually he's doing both the dance and the clapping and screaming together, but whenever I got the camera out he wouldn't "cooperate" - what kid does?

Happy Birthday Oma!

Today is Oma's Birthday and we just wanted her to know how much we love and appreciate her! Yesterday we surprised her at work - Colton walked into her office carrying a flower and a balloon (it was the greatest picture I never took - ha ha - I brought the camera and went to snap a picture but when I turned it on I found out that I had left the memory card in the computer the night before - AGH!) Then we took her to lunch at Oregano's! It was great because we were actually able to surprise her! We love you Oma - Hope you have a great and restful day!

Thanksgiving is WHEN?

Seriously, Thanksgiving is only 11 days away! Where has the time gone? Maybe the weather and all has thrown me off. It has been in the 80's and 90's (29 -35 degrees celsius for my Canadian Friends!)

Well, regardless, we've been keeping ourselves busy. Seth is really busy with school! A few times this week he's left before we got up and wasn't able to come home until after Colton was asleep! Colton loves his daddy too... every morning and afternoon (if Seth comes home) he cries when Seth has to go to school. It makes me happy that he loves him so much. Colton loves it when Seth lays on the floor and he can "sit" on him.

On Wednesday we went to the zoo with the "Thunderkids" group. All the mom's whose husbands are at Thunderbird get together at least once a week for an activity. Usually Colton is sleeping so we don't get to go, but since they were going to the Zoo I thought we could try and push his nap back... lets just say that he didn't like not having his nap at the usual time... here's one good picture I got with him.

The rest of the time he looked like this:

Isn't he so cute? Really though we did have fun and it was so nice to socialize with all of the other moms. Maybe one of these days he'll decide to change his nap time and then we can hang out more with them.

Today was our primary program in church. A little over a month ago Seth and I were called to be in the primary as teachers for the 5 and 6 yr olds. They are so cute and fun and there are 8 - 10 of them on any given Sunday! They all did a good job in the program - it's hard enough for me to sit still and I'm 30... For the closing song, the primary sang "I Wonder When He Comes Again" and then on the second verse the congregation joined in. This is my favorite song and by the time the second verse started I was of course crying... It really felt like we were singing to Christ personally:

"...Then, when that blessed day is here,

He’ll love me and he’ll say,

“You’ve served me well, my little child;

Come unto my arms to stay.”

Happy Halloween!

Whew! What a day! I don't know how all of you mom's out there with more than one kid do this?!? I guess since they're not all the same age, huh?
Here's all of our pics - Enjoy!

The Fireman and his Daddy

Doing the Pumpkin Walk - Doesn't he look happy?

How do I get this off?

This is supposed to scare me?

I could not get Colton to stay in one place long enough to get a good picture... here he is after finding a good mud puddle to play in.

Here's the picture I used to make the pumpkin pattern

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! (I'm off to the store to buy some Pepto after all of the candy I ate - HA HA)

Almost Halloween

I love Halloween! Which is a funny statement coming from me since I don't really like dressing up. Maybe its just that this is the time of year when it finally starts to cool down at night in Arizona... or because carving pumpkins is so fun... or because now I have a kid to dress up! Colton is going as a firefighter this year. BIG thanks to Aunt Holly and Cousin Zane (he doesn't know yet) for letting us borrow the costume. And a BIG thanks Nanny-G who made the costume last year for Zane - it is an exact replica of Uncle Matt's real "uniform." Pretty cool, eh? Tonight is our Ward's halloween party so we'll take lots of pics to post.

Here are some pumpkins I carved of my niece and nephews:

Parker (I think this one turned out the best!)

Madison

Austin

Reminder to go to the Temple

I couldn't resist...

Isn't this a great picture?

Our Week(s) in Pictures

It's been pretty quiet around here the last couple of weeks (well as quiet as can be expected with a 15 month old). We spent Conference weekend with our families (Seth was in Houston for a job fair). Colton got to hang out with all of his aunts/uncles/cousins and all of the family pets (5 dogs in total!)

I read all three of the Twilight series books... Ok I know a ton of people have already blogged about them so I won't bore you with how much I loved them - but suffice it to say I'm having withdrawals! I must thank Tricia for this. I read on her blog (back in August) that she had to go to a few different book stores before she finally found Eclipse in stock - Thanks Trish! (I've now got my mom and sister reading them too)

OH, one more thing about the books - for all of my Canadian friends, yes that means you, Wendy, Nikki and Barbara-Ann and anyone else who might be reading this, the author, Stephanie Meyer is going to be at the Indigo Books and Music (on Bloor) on November 2nd. You guys should go!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Colton fell asleep trying to take off his shoes.

Colton was playing on the porch with some water and I caught him on all fours 'slurping' the water off of the cement! Notice the mud around his face? YUCK! (He's all BOY!)

Colton was Madison's "living doll" - she loved playing dress up with him!

On Friday, we met my sister, Emily and her three kids at the Phoenix Zoo. We're waiting in line for the train in this picture.

Maddie and Parker on the train.

I've stopped trying to keep this sliding glass door clean - ha ha!

Last but not least... Colton would "catch" me reading when he thought I should be playing with him and he'd try and take the book away from me. One time he went and got one of his books and threw it at me. Message recieved loud and clear - I now read when he's in bed!

Colton's First "Real" Haircut

Colton's hair was starting to bug me so I took him down for his first "real" haircut (I'd given him a few trims before). He was so good! I couldn't believe how long he sat there without moving. Well, it could've been the sucker they gave him - but whatever it was I was grateful!

When I look at these pictures I wonder how I could ever get mad at him.

Time Flies...

I had a dream the other night that I went to a class on how to write better blogs! ha ha - I knew I needed to post something...

Nothing too exciting has really happened. We're just adjusting to our new place and our new schedule. Colton has decided to go to one nap a day and the transition hasn't been very fun, but we're starting to get it figured out.

I thought since my last post was so "depressing" I should write some good stuff about Arizona. So, here it goes:

1. 2300 miles closer to family

2. 2 bedrooms!

3. Washer & Dryer in apt

4. Dishwasher

5. Still swimming and it's almost Oct!

6. I get the car everyday!

7. Seth usually gets up with Colton in the morning

8. Sunday dinners with Family (probably relates to #1)

9. Good Sales

10. We know that this is where we are supposed to be!

Here's some random pictures from the last few weeks:

Saying goodbye to Erin - she's in Macedonia for a year on a Fulbright (sp?) scholarship - we're so proud of her!

Check out the AZ sunset in the back window

Ode to Toronto

So, I'm sitting here missing our "toronto family"...

We were so blessed to have been there for 2 1/2 years! I don't think that Seth and I could have ever imagined how many friends we would make when we first loaded up our belongings and treked up to Canada. Or how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to all of them. These pictures only show about half of the people we would have liked, but since our last Sunday was over a Holiday weekend a lot of people were on 'holidays.' I'm really not good at putting these kinds of feelings into words, suffice it to say that we LOVED our ward family and will always cherish the memories we made there!

Farewell to Toronto

Grampa Mac's Cabin

Every year for Labor Day, since 2000, my Dad has rented a cabin at Hawley Lake. And for the past 4 or 5 years he's rented the same one every time so my niece and nephews think that it's "our" cabin, hence the name "Grampa Mac's Cabin." We just got back today.

We had a lot of fun! Colton got to go fishing for the first time... he could have cared less - all he wanted to do was play in the mud! It was so fun to see his cute expression as he got dirtier and dirtier.

I even got to fish for a little bit, but unfortunately I didn't catch anything (OH - except for a big crawdad!)

Right after this picture was taken, Colton broke the camera! I'm not even sure what he did, but now it doesn't work at all - luckily the SD card was not damaged...

We got some good pictures this morning on my dad's camera so I'll post those as soon as I get them.

It was so much fun to just hang out with the family. We ate A LOT of junk food - my sister and I decided that camping is just an excuse to eat a lot of good food. We also played a lot of "Settlers of Cataan" (or Settlers of Contention when Seth and I play together)- I think Seth won almost every game! And I got to read a book - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (it was pretty good). Colton LOVED playing with his cousins too! He just followed around after them, doing whatever they were doing. I think he's going to be sad when he wakes up tomorrow and they aren't here to play with.

Now that we're home it's time to do the laundry and adjust back to "normal" life once again. Seth's first day of school is tomorrow. I think I'm going to lay out his clothes for his first day - HA HA.

The Traeger's Have Arrived

Hello Everyone!



Yes, we finally have created a blog... I know, I know, we're behind the curve a little when it comes to these sorts of things. Hopefully we'll keep everyone up to date with our happenings a little bit better this way.

I've enjoyed reading everyone else's blogs for so long now, I guess it's time for us to get writing too!

I promise to include fun pictures of us - that is, as soon as I find out where we packed our camera!