Tuesday, January 31, 2012

One Year Ago Tonight

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Happy 1st Birthday!!

One year ago tonight I was busily wrapping up last minute details for the grandparents staying with the kids as Wes and I were hoping that even with a blizzard headed our way we would still be able to make our 10 mile early morning drive to the hospital. While it was a planned induction the severe weather forecast was hurting my chances as it was causing businesses to shut down, school closings, and hospitals to be minimally staffed. News reporters advised everyone to stay indoors and off the roads except for emergency situations. And well, I considered my situation to be an emergency as I was miserable large and overly ready to bring the new addition to our family in to this world. And so on February 1st through a snow storm, our bundle of joy, Reid entered our lives. I love his deep belly laugh, his perfect for squeezing chubby legs, arms and cheeks, and his contagious toothy grin. He's his own person getting around with a silly looking scoot over the typical crawl and he can throw the most pitiful fits when he doesn't get his way. I enjoy his big bear hugs, open mouth slobbery kisses and the way he lays his sweet head on my shoulder when he's either completely exhausted or just content.

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Happy Birthday Reid! We love you and can't imagine our lives being blessed in a more "unplanned" way than having you in it!

PS Reid, Now that you are one, do you think you could start sleeping through the night? Or how about even just getting your nightly awakenings down to one? :)

Just a few more pictures to add from his birthday morning!
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Sunday, January 29, 2012

~ All Kinds of Ornery ~

During some of these long days inside at home, these two little guys are becoming good little buddies. Some of my favorite sounds are them laughing hysterically at each other.

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If Levi hears Reid wake up from his nap before I do, he climbs in to his crib and waits with Reid until I get there to get him up.

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Playing hide n go seek from Mom! Gee, I wonder where they could be. Just to hear them giggle under the blanket was funny!
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Reid reorganizes my lower kitchen cabinets on a daily basis. And Levi used one of the pots Reid pulled out as a Banjo. I never did understand the words he was singing.
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Monday, January 23, 2012

~ I Am 100 Days Brighter! ~

Today is Addy's 100th day of Kindergarten and she is super excited about the activities planned for the school day. Addy has been counting down the days for over a week. She created a great 100th Day shirt to wear to school today drawing on it flowers, butterflies and a penguin. For her school treat contribution she counted out 100 red, pink and white M&M's by doing ten piles of ten.
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Reid on the other hand maybe needs 100 days of Kindergarten, as his way of becoming "brighter" is by eating a crayon. At least he picked one that matched his outfit...
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It took several brushings of his teeth to get the crayon that was caked in his new little back molars he has recently gotten. Surely everything that Crayola makes is non-toxic???

Thursday, January 12, 2012

~ First Snow of 2012 ~

Along with wind chilling temps, came a beautiful first snow for 2012. The girls had a 2-hour delay start to school and while Addy was sick with some sort of icky bug, Jaidyn and Levi took advantage and bundled up to go outside to what they thought would be a fun time in the snow. WRONG!! With wind gusts of up to 25 miles per hour and temps in the single digits they only lasted about 10 minutes before they were both in tears banging on the basement sliding glass doors to be let in. I knew they wouldn't last long...If only they had listened to me before going out as I had already met my early morning running group and put in 5 miles around a paved trail. I knew that it was brutal cold. The run was honestly very stupid as it was more like ice skating and probably dangerous. Running in the dark around a hilly, icy trail probably isn't one of the best decisions I have ever made. I pay for a gym membership and those are the mornings that I should really think about using it! Life's a dance! While the snow fall only lasted about 2 hours our driveway still looked as if it had snowed consistently all day as each time I would leave the house I would return to fresh white snow as the wind would blow snow back over my tracks.
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Levi in tears peeling off his coat and snow boots.
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Jaidyn quickly wiped her tears away as if she was trying to act tough.
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A pretty sight as long as we were sitting indoors enjoying from the window.

Addy came running from the bus earlier this week to tell me all about her "graduation party" from Speech. The speech teacher let her have kool-aid, chocolate, popcorn and then let her pick the activity game for the rest of the group. She loved the special attention! She had a wonderful experience with the Speech classes the school provided and while I am glad that she no longer needs them, I am glad that it was a positive experience for her and it has seemed to help her become so much more confident with her communication.
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Wes and I are on the countdown as we have 42 days until we run at Little Rock, AR. Both of us have really committed to completing both of our events, the marathon for me and the half marathon for him. Wes is experiencing a runner's high and has had a fantastic week of running and is already beating me in total mileage for the month. Maybe he should be the one running the full! Since it will be the first time that we have raced these distances we really don't have a specific goal time in mind, we just want to finish. And if we can finish, we will both receive a really cool finishers medal. And I can't wait to hang them on Wes's prized deer rack that will one day be mounted on our wall. As everyone knows, I am less that excited about a dead animals face as part of our decor, but I will do my best to learn to live with it and I think that by hanging our race memorabilia from his antlers will be just the thing. :)

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I finally finished my goal setting for 2012 and have them all written nicely in the back of my calendar so that I can access them easily and be reminded of them frequently. I have goals written for each category including fitness, health, financial, kids, marriage, faith, career and education. And not only have I written them down, but I have a good bite size plan going for most of them so that I can hopefully reach them by the end of the year. I still need to share these with Wes so that he can help keep me motivated to achieve them all and several of them include him anyways so he probably needs to know what he is up for. :) And of course, I strive each day to live by the phrase "having more by having less". I continue to try and clear away clutter from our lives with not only stuff, but also activity time wasters so that I can focus more on having quality time to spend with my family and also continue to build great friendships. Happy New Year to all and may 2012 be a year filled with blessings!!

Oh, and yes I realize that my blog header is way outdated. Reid will soon be turning one so I really need to get it done. Poor guy should have a picture placed on my blog header way before now...updating my blog header is a goal for 2012, lets just hope its one that I can cross off way before December rolls around. Ha!

Monday, January 2, 2012

~ Collins Christmas ~

Welcome 2012! To bring in the year 2012 we celebrated Christmas with Wes's side of the family. Earlier in the week we stayed a night at a getaway lodge and then the entire family was able to come and be all together over New Year's.

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A table full of Lincoln Logs in the registration foyer. I am not sure if the kids have ever played with Lincoln Logs, but I remember building housing creations with the set my brother had.

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Pool time! If you mention anything about swimming, you can bet that all my kids are in.
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Reid is trying to eat the green life jacket.
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Steamy outdoor hot tub!

Christmas Cookie Decorating!
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Watch out Aunt Brittney!! You never know what you might get when Bumblebee Transformer crosses with a Star Wars Jedi.

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Over 2 hours of hot tub time = serious hand pruning
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And back home...Reid has discovered the "adult" cabinet.
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We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! I am still trying to get the house organized and the kids ready to go back to school and then I will hopefully have some time to sit down and do a little goal setting for the new year ahead. Looking forward to what 2012 has in store for our family!