Merry Christmas Friends

What a whirlwind two weeks it's been. Colton has been out of school since last Monday. His Nana and Papa came to take care of him this past week and we celebrated Christmas with the Highlander family. We had a wonderful time and Colton loves staying with Nana and Papa. I always come home from work and he's worn out from all the playing and always in such a great mood.

We packed up our things last Wednesday and left for West Palm Beach to spend Christmas with my family. This will be the last Christmas we travel and spend away from home. It's very important to me that our children grow up experiencing lots of wonderful traditions in our home so we'll do Christmas here and then Thanksgiving will be our traveling holiday to share between families.

Last Thursday we traveled down south to Ft. Lauderdale for the annual baking event with my mom and her sisters and my two cousins (Lexi and Katie). This time the boys tagged along but they headed off to Bass Pro shops while we got down to business. Mom and I were a team and we made red velvet brownies from Southern Living. Delicious!! I had made them earlier in the month for a holiday party so a repeat was definitely in order.

On Christmas Eve we woke up and went to Red's for breakfast. It's an annual tradition in the Wills home to go out to eat for breakfast on Christmas Eve. Colton enjoyed his bacon, eggs and hash browns!! During the day we just relaxed and got ready for Christmas. I did lots of wrapping and Dad and Josh took Colton on lots of golf cart rides and played quite a bit outside. Colton loves being outside. It's amazing the change in attitude when he goes from being pinned up indoors to being out in the yard. He's just so amazed by all the noises and sights and sounds. He loves the feel of the grass and picking up anything and everything he can get his hands on - sticks, pine needles, pine cones, dirt.

For dinner on Christmas Eve Josh cooked an amazing standing rib roast. This is the third one he's done and each keeps getting better! We also got to be Santa's elves for the first time and I have to say that I absolutely love being on "this side" of Christmas (which is a big deal for an only child!!). We put together Colton's toys and set up all the presents so Colton would be surprised in the morning. We quarantined off a small area so we could keep him contained and set out the stockings. Sadly we had a middle of the night tummy ache so after about an hour and some tummy medicine Colton was able to return to sleep and he slept in until about 7 a.m. Christmas morning. He was staying in my parents bedroom so my dad kept him pinned up while mom and I turned on all the lights and Christmas music and made the coffee. Santa's elves also had a few things to set up for Dad and Josh ;) It's always been a tradition in our house to stay in the bedroom with dad and wait for mom to give the all clear. I remember standing there at the door trying not to peek and yelling to my mom asking if we could come out yet. It's so fun to be able to carry on the tradition with Colton.

I've included a video below of the little man as he came out. He does most things at full speed and this morning was no different. Full speed ahead, right past the Christmas surprise!! It was amazing to see his excitement and watch him light up with every new discovery. First we opened our stockings and then we let him explore all of his gifts and fun new toys before we even attempted the process of opening our own gifts. Colton got a new ball pit from mama and daddy and a Kawasaki quad from Grammy and Grampy. I included video of his riding skills below.

I must say, Santa was certainly good to us this year! Josh's big surprise was his Dewalt drill that he's wanted for quite some time. A huge thanks to our friends the Doehne's for helping us out - Jeff works for Stanley who makes Dewalt and it wouldn't have been possible without them!

Christmas day the entire family came over and it was so wonderful to spend time with them. We had cousins and aunts and uncles and two special people who have been gone for the last 15 or so Christmas' - my grandma and grandpa. It makes my heart smile to have them back in Florida again and to be able to share this Christmas with them.

On Sunday mom and I woke up early to do some after Christmas shopping. I may have flaked on black Friday shopping this year but after Christmas shopping is one of my favorites! I love scoring great deals on Christmas decorations and wrapping paper! This year's favorite item was a new nativity set. It was time to retire the $10 Cost Plus nativity from St. Thomas...although she certainly served us well for several years.

Sunday afternoon Josh and I loaded up and headed back to Gainesville. We made a stop in Orlando so I could see a few of my favorite people - Stephanie, Harmony, Alison, Jill and Alani. My wonderful Tridelt sisters who I miss more than they will ever know!!

You'll notice that I mentioned only Josh and I left for Gainesville. We left the most important family member back at home with Grammy and Grampy. My next post will highlight Colton's first overnight adventure!!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. We love you all and God bless!

Jenny

Christmas 2010

These are the Days!

It’s so hard to believe that my sweet baby boy is one year old! On Sunday, December 6, 2009 he entered this world and changed our lives forever. If ever a saying were true it’s this: Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you.

It really has been the most amazing experience to have a child and to watch him grow and learn and start to become his own little person. The first few weeks and months are just difficult as you settle in to new routines and try and figure out how everything should go. I remember feeling so insecure in my parenting abilities. I read tons and tons of books and articles online and still I felt lost and constantly worried about if what we were doing was right. Whether it was nursing, starting solids, sleep, schedules, it all was just so overwhelming for me. Josh was definitely the biggest help during that time. Many, many times he reminded me to put down the book and turn off the computer and just do what felt right. It’s scary to trust your gut, especially when it’s your first baby, but ultimately it always produced the best possible outcome.

At one Colton is running and playing and pretty much unstoppable around the house. I knew he would be an early walker because even at a few weeks old he loved to stand and put weight on his itty bitty baby legs. He has always liked pushing and standing up and at 9 months he was cruising around on furniture. At 10 months he took his first steps alone and at 11 months he was walking. Now at a year he’s pretty much unstoppable. He still stumbles and falls quite a bit but he’s learned how to do it in a way that he doesn’t get hurt (most of the time) so I’m a little less panicked and I don’t chase him around the house quite as closely as I used to.

He takes one two-three hour nap a day from 11:15 – 1:30ish and he sleeps on the floor on his mat or mattress. He drinks from a sippy or regular cup if we offer it and he loves his whole milk!! We have been so fortunate that he transitioned well from his soy formula to the whole milk. So far we haven't had any major allergy issues. He stopped using a paci around 5 months on his own and he only takes a bottle at bedtime. I think that will be the hardest for me to break because that’s such a special time. We go through his bedtime routine and then after jammies and a book we sit in the rocking chair and talk about our day, say our goodnight prayers and he holds on to our fingers or arm as we drift off to sleep. He typically goes down into his crib with his sleepy eyes open and then rolls over onto his belly, sticks his tush in the air and falls asleep. He pretty consistently gives us 12 hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

We’re learning lots of words and signs. He signs: more, all done, please, food and milk. The funniest thing is that he is definitely picking up the Spanish that he hears from his two Spanish speaking teachers in class. He responds to aqui (here) and says the Spanish word for baby (nene). He doesn’t speak very many words yet other than the typical dada and sometimes mama. He’ll say done on occasion and he tries to say Darby but all he gets out is da. Despite his lack of vocabulary this boy LOVES to talk. He has whole conversations with Josh where they speak lots of different sounds to each other.

As for his stats – 24.4 lbs and he was 31 inches at his first birthday appointment but he has definitely since grown. His pants that he was rolling up at the time now fit perfectly. He was 85^th percentile for height and somewhere in the 65^th for weight. He has really thinned out compared to his early days.

I would say our biggest struggle is probably food but it’s not something I really worry about. He is really hit or miss with eating. He will go a few days in a row of not really being interested and only picking here and there (although he will ALWAYS eat cheese). Then other days he’ll eat everything in sight. We stick to healthy foods – mostly organic and mostly vegetarian. Like any little toddler, he manages to know what foods we don’t want him to love (french fries!!) and eat them up. One day I offered him a chick pea and small mashed french fry, without tasting or touching either he immediately went for the fry. How do they know??? Ultimately we’ll make the best choices we can by providing healthy foods at home and at school, healthy snacks during the day, avoiding sugary juices and sweets and do organic when we can. Let’s be realistic though, life happens and a few french fries won’t kill him. I’m still here!!

Alright, this is quite a long post! I don’t expect every body to be interested in every little detail of my one year old’s life but one of the main reasons I write this blog is to document his life so he can look back one day and know just what life was like for our little family. If I had to describe it for him with one word, it would be blessed. It’s not perfect, it’s not without troubles and worries, but it’s so much more than I ever imagined it would be thanks to one sweet, amazing little boy! These are the days I hope to soak up and remember forever.

Love,

Jenny and Josh

Seriously, how can you not love that face! "Cheesy grin" makes another appearance.















Peas!! My favorite.















Colton loves to read but we have to work on getting the books right side up.















Cheering on our Gator Basketball team!

It's My Party!

So I’m finally getting around to posting about the birthday party. I’ve been slacking at our blog lately! The party was held on Saturday, two days before Colton’s birthday. We started at 2 p.m. just after he took a nap. I think our grand total was 43 adults and 12 children, phew! I was worried about where everyone would go because we certainly don’t have seating for that many but it actually worked out well. Josh ran to our local farm and lumber store and stocked up on tons of hay bales and created a nice seating set up in the backyard for people who wanted to hang out back.

I made most of the decorations myself. I’ve been collecting and saving ideas since Colton was very little so it was fun to see it all finally come together. I read somewhere that bold colors are a good theme idea for a first birthday because kids this age don’t really have a “favorite” just yet like trains or characters. After much discussion and debate we settled on two of our family favorite colors….ORANGE and BLUE! It ended up working out perfectly and many of our guests joined in the fun and donned their orange and blue as well.

Colton did so well during the party. He loved playing with the kids and visiting with all the wonderful friends and family that came to visit. He actually enjoyed the big birthday serenade and did a little taste testing of his cupcake. He loves to feed food to other people so of course he enjoyed giving mama and daddy some samples. The bounce house was a hit with the older kids and Colton even liked it too but I think he may have been somewhat intimidated. We decided to get it because he had really enjoyed the bounce house at school over the summer (he was the only baby that laughed and played in it!). I think that one was much smaller though because this one took some getting used to. The adults sure enjoyed it at the end of the day though. I believe we only had one pulled back muscle (me) and one jammed finger (my cousin Kelly). Not bad!!

BBQ was catered by an awesome local guy, Ralph McKnight. It was ah-maze-ing. We had yummy roast pork bbq sandwiches, mac and cheese and green beans. Of all the birthday party tips I could give people I think having it catered is the number one tip for a big group like this. I would have been worried sick about cooking for everyone so it really took off all that pressure and let me just enjoy the party. Of course I had to do some sort of cooking so the cupcakes were baked fresh by yours truly. Grammy made the frosting!

It really was a perfect day and I’m so glad we had Wendy (www.anwenelizabethphotography.com) to help us document it with her great photography. I plan to put a small photo book together for Colton along with all the cards and special items from his party. As much fun as his first birthday was I think we’ll definitely be doing something much more subdued and simpler for #2 :) Party planning is hard work!

More to come on all of our one year old firsts!!

ONE

My baby boy is one year old! I can't believe how fast this first year has flown by. I will have a better update sometime next week with stats from his one year check-up and what we've been up to lately (lots and lots of walking and running!!).

Until then, here are some photos from his first birthday party. It was awesome. 50 friends and family all gathered together to celebrate one awesome little boy. We feel so blessed to have shared it with so many wonderful people. I can't thank everyone enough for all the well wishes and love they've given our baby boy this past year.

http://anwenelizabethphotography.com/2010/12/colton-turns-one/

The boy can dance!!

We recently noticed that Colton likes to dance (or bob his head back and forth to the music). He's always liked making noise and I swear now that he's dancing he has more rhythm than either of us. It's got to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen...

Can you hear me?

On November 22nd Colton had surgery to put tubes in his ears. We knew this was inevitable because he started getting ear infections at 6 months and from the very first infection his ears would rupture. While it sounds worse than it is (they typically heal after rupturing), repeated ruptures are not a good thing. After infection number 7 we went in to the doctors office ready to demand tubes but before we could even bring it up our pediatrician told us it was time.

On one hand as a parent you panic thinking about the sedation and your baby going through surgery. On the other you want to start yelling at the doctors for allowing your baby to hurt so bad as they suffer through these infections. We love our pediatrician and we really liked the ENT doctor so we understood that they wanted to hold off as long as possible but we were so thankful when they decided it was time.



We had to arrive at the surgery center at 7 a.m. We scooped Colton out of bed and he stayed in his pjs for the trip. The worst part was that we weren't able to give him anything to eat or drink after midnight and Colton always gets an 8 oz bottle of milk first thing (literally, first thing) when he wakes. Amazingly he wasn't fussy for some reason this day. I think all the new places and people distracted him from his grumbling belly.

After getting all checked in and meeting with the doctor, nurse and anesthesiologist they had to take him away from us. Colton willingly went to the nurse and seemed oblivious to all that was going on which really did make it so much easier. It was hard enough not to chase him back into the operating room, thank goodness he wasn't screaming and crying for us!!

Everyone said the surgery would be quick but it was literally over in minutes. When they came out to the waiting room to bring us back they warned us that he was "combative" as he was waking up. Poor little guy, it wasn't the sedation that made him grumpy, it was his hunger! As soon as we got him some milk he was fine. We left the surgery center after only a few hours and then he spent the day with Grammy at home. I can honestly say that other than a little tiredness there were NO side effects. I was so grateful that it all went so smoothly.

One of my biggest fears is that I will make a decision about my child's health that could hurt him and the decision to put your baby under is not easy. We are incredibly grateful for the caring nurses and doctors at the North Florida Surgery Center and we are incredibly grateful that God protected him and brought him through safe and sound.

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We decided that for the holidays we would travel back to see our families (Crestview for Josh, West Palm Beach for me) for this year and then starting next year we would celebrate in our own home. We left for Crestview on Wednesday and the drive went fairly well. It's the first time we've driven with Colton since he's been on a one nap a day schedule. There was definitely some fussiness and finally some napping but overall it went ok. On Thanksgiving day Josh and his dad got up early to go hunting. Josh saw 7 does but no bucks worthy of being his first :) We had a great meal with the family including Great Nana and Great Mamaw who both joined us as well as Uncle Terry and Sandra. Josh's sister Caitlin and her husband Mike did Thanksgiving with his family this year.

Colton enjoyed all the Thanksgiving dishes but his favorites were turkey, rolls, sweet potato casserole and the dumplings. He ate a few peas also and even some cranberry. We were all stuffed by the time the meal was over...After dinner Josh's cousin Eron and his wife Lacey and their two kids stopped by as well as family friends the Haydens. Colton tried his best to run and play with the big kids. He thinks his walking skills are better than they really are.

Friday was a relaxing day at home. Josh went hunting again and this time he only saw one doe. No deer meat for the freezer, sadly. I baked several dozen cupcakes in an attempt to find the perfect recipe for Colton's birthday cupcakes. We ended up taking them all to the nursing facility where Great Nana stays so it worked out perfectly.

Saturday was great. We went down to the Destin Commons to see Santa Claus. Colton was just in awe of all the colors and sights and sounds in Bass Pro (where Santa was). He sat on his lap and just looked up at him like "who the heck is this guy?" He smiled and laughed although they didn't catch that in the photo. I was so proud of him!

We also went to Build a Bear where Nana and Papa let him pick out something to build. He made a Rudolph and he loves it! He knows to squeeze the ear and the foot to hear the music and he loves when his nose lights up. Again, he was just in awe of all the sights and sounds here too.

Sunday we made the trek home. It actually went pretty well with two naps spaced out just enough so that I didn't have to entertain him the entire time. All in all it was a wonderful trip and just a reminder of all that we have to be thankful for - our family, friends and health.

I hope that all of our friends and family had a great holiday.

Love,
Jenny, Josh and Colton

Love my Rudolph!

Santa!

Visiting with Great Nana

Four wheelin' with Papa

Love these two men!

He loves pushing things around with wheels!

Colton has a new cheese grin where he scrunches up his nose and shows off his teeth



I won't complain about not being in any pictures anymore because this is what I end up with!! Thanks Josh :)

Happy Halloween! (Better late than never)

I've been meaning to get on here and post our Halloween pictures for a while now but the time keeps passing and I keep putting it off. I've been so busy at work that the little time during the week I have at home I want to spend with my boys and weekends just fly by and are gone before I know it!

Colton's first Halloween was awesome. In some ways it seems like his second because we did our maternity shoot a year ago and technically...he was already there. This year the festivities began early in the week. My company does a great event called Trail of Treats where lots of departments set up fun booths outside of our building and employees bring their kids to trick or treat. We dressed up our little cowboy in his costume and took him for his first of three go-rounds.

We decided to make him a cowboy because we wanted a costume we could easily pair with our furry child - so of course Cowboys and Indians! We found the shirt a few months back and then slowly collected the pieces. A star belt buckle and a real Stetson baby cowboy hat. He actually outgrew his boots before Halloween so we opted to use his regular shoes but the chaps and vest were handmade by his Grammy. Thankfully it was simple enough that he didn't really even notice we had put him in some crazy outfit. We also took his walker and wrapped it in a brown pillowcase and Josh drew a horse on it...that was a make-shift partner for him since Darby wasn't allowed at my office :)

The Friday before Halloween was adult fun time. Josh and I went to a Halloween party with some of his engineering colleagues. I'll just leave it at this...adults can get a little crazy when you dress them up and give them babysitters. Thank goodness Grammy and Grampy were kind enough to watch Colton for us and handle the 7 a.m. wake-up!

Saturday was the perfect day for the corn maize! We went out to Roger's Farm about 10 minutes from where we live and we enjoyed a petting zoo, hay ride, potato gun shooting, corn maize, cow train ride, duck races and more! Colton absolutely loved it. His favorite animal was the pig. In fact he liked them so much he tried to get inside the pen!

After a fun day we had our friends Brad, Katie and James over for the Florida Georgia game. We also had a visit from Sherri and Justin and their twins Addison and Grayson. Addy and Gray are just adorable. She has brown hair and he has red hair and they couldn't be more different :) It's such an amazing story how they ended up as a family. Sherri and Justin went through a lot in the process of adoption and God blessed them with two perfect little babies. They are a beautiful family! After they visited we dressed up and loaded up and headed to Trick or Treat on Main Street in our downtown. James and Colton really enjoyed cruising around in the wagon. They spent the majority of the time wacking each other in the head with the skeleton wand and stealing it back from each other...boys will be boys! The best part of the night was watching the game on the side of the wall (projected by one of the local restaurants). When the boys finally started to let us know they were tired we headed home and listened to the last few seconds of the game in the truck. I was on the edge of my seat and with seconds left our kicker pulled it off and scored giving us the win! Florida Georgia is such a rivalry game so it's always good to get the W!!

Finally on Sunday we had our friends the Cornell's over (and Kerrie!) and we had a great spaghetti dinner and ended the night with trick or treating. Kerrie and I stayed to hand out candy and after it turned dark (and I started to worry!) we spotted a light coming down the road. Josh was walking back, flashlight in hand, with a sleeping cowboy on his shoulder. Although he may not remember his first Halloween, we made sure it was everything a boy could ask for!

Love,
Jenny, Josh and Colton
(and Darby too!)

Halloween

Happy Birthday Darby O'Gill Highlander

Today is bittersweet. Two years ago Darby was born. He was a gift from God. Yes, I know what you're thinking. He's a dog!! But really, he was. He was born the day I knew I had lost our first baby to miscarriage. We got an email from the breeder as we left the hospital parking lot after receiving the confirmation that we had lost the baby.

We waited a long time until everything was right before jumping into dog ownership. We looked for the perfect breeder and waited until we had a house with a yard big enough for a lab to run and play. We got pregnant by surprise. We didn't think we were ready but when it happened we knew immediately that we were. We celebrated with our family but thankfully we kept the news quiet because I was scared to tell people until it seemed more real.

At 9 weeks I lost the baby. No reason, just happens sometimes. God has bigger plans. To put it in words makes it sound easy. It wasn't. Darby definitely went a very long way to soften the devastating news. We prepared our home for a puppy (or so we thought) and when he finally did arrive I knew he was a special gift from up above. It sounds cliche but he helped us at a time when we desperately needed it.

Darby will always be more to us than just a dog. He's certainly not perfect and at times I think I'm going to go insane because of the dog hair that consumes our house, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

So back to the fun stuff.... happy birthday to Mr. Darby O'Gill Highlander. The best dog in the whole wide world.

xxxooo

Run Jenny Run!

One more quick post. I have to tell the world something before I back out...and once I've told you my pride won't allow me to do that :) I signed up for a 1/2 marathon and will be running in February 2011. Last year I was 9 months pregnant and waddling around with nearly 50 extra pounds on my body. I made a promise to myself that 1) I would lose the weight and 2) I would accomplish some sort of athletic goal to ensure that I did indeed have my body back. Number one can be checked off the list (on most days, when I haven't eaten too big of a meal) and number two will soon be checked off.

I'll be running in the 5 Points of Life race here in Gainesville. Not only will I be supporting donation (the five points are organ, tissue, blood, bone marrow and apheresis) but I'll be doing something I NEVER thought I could do. Sure, I've run a few 5ks and even two 10ks in St. Thomas but this is something I was pretty sure I couldn't achieve...and that's why I'm doing it! Now I'd like to make one thing clear - I'm NOT athletic. I've managed to get by through life with just enough athletic ability to be successful when I really wanted it. I was a cheerleader in high school and while I looked the part and could definitely memorize those cheers, I was certainly not the one out there doing back flips and crazy good jumps. I was forced to sit the bench in powder puff football in high school (apparently you can't use bad words when speaking to the other team) and I was kicked out of a dodgeball game in college (don't throw the ball above the waist no matter how much you dislike the person!!!). Needless to say, I'm just good enough to play most sports but I can be pretty crappy at the sportsmanship part (just sometimes, not all the time, swear) - why am I admitting this to my family and friends?? Well, most of you already know this about me.

Anyway, wish me luck and please don't expect too much come February. My goal is simple. I want to cross the finish line on two feet and hopefully alive. If it takes me five hours, so be it.

Oh, and how much does my sister-in-law rock? I asked her if she would do it with me and without hesitation she agreed. I anticipate that she'll be at the finish line with my water by the time I get there. She's been running since the day she signed up...me, not so much.

Love you all!!
Jen

Anything Like Me

What a great weekend! On Friday night Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Mike came over and watched Colton for us. Josh and I went out with some friends to celebrate Wendy's birthday (she's the wonderful photographer who has taken many of Colton's photos). We don't often go out before Colton has gone to bed because we like to do his bedtime routine just right to ensure a full night of sleep but Aunt Caitlin is an old pro and she put Colton down without any problems and he slept until 7:45 a.m. the next morning (12 1/2 hours)!!! She can babysit anytime she wants :)

Sunday was church and the Alachua Harvest Festival. I can't say it enough...we love our small town! They do so many great things around here for the holidays and it's so nice to actually run into people you know and be around so many other families our age. We wanted to swing a trip to the pumpkin patch but we're going to save it for another night.

I added the new photos to the album from my last post -

Fall

On another note I just had to share this song -- I heard this back when I was just pregnant but knew I was having a boy. Now that I know Colton and see him with his daddy it means even more. I hope Colton turns out to be just like his daddy... I would be one proud mama (although I'll probably have a few gray hairs)!

Brad Paisley - Anything Like Me

I remember saying I don't care either way
Just as long as he or she is healthy I'm ok
Then the doctor pointed to the corner of the screen
And said "You see that thing right there well you know what that means"

And I started wondering who he was going to be
And I thought heaven help us if he's anything like me
He'll probably climb a tree too tall and ride his bike too fast
End up every summer wearing something in a cast
He's gonna throw a ball and break some glass in a window down the street
He's gonna get in trouble oh he's gonna get in fights
I'm gonna lose my temper and some sleep
It's safe to say that I'm gonna get my payback if he's anything like me

I can see him right now knees all skinned up
With a magnifying glass trying to melt a Tonka truck
Won't he be a sight with his football helmet on
That'll be his first love til his first love comes along
He'll get his heart broke by the time he's in his teens
And heaven help him if he's anything like me

He'll probably stay out too late and drive his car too fast
Get a speeding ticket he'll pay for mowing grass
He's gonna get caught skipping class and be grounded for a week
He's gonna get in trouble we're gonna get in fights
I'm gonna lose my temper and some sleep
It's safe to say that I'm gonna get my payback if he's anything like me

He's gonna love me and hate me along the way
Years are gonna fly by I already dread the day
He's gonna hug his momma, he's gonna shake my hand
He's gonna act like he cant wait to leave
But as he drives out he'll cry his eyes out
If he's anything like me there's worse folks to be like
Aw he'll be alright if he's anything like me

Fall Update

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted! We haven't had any recent travels which has actually been wonderful. We've spent our weekends at home with friends, catching up on projects and cheering on the Gators. Colton is 10 months now and we're starting to see so many big changes. He has taken his first few steps. He loves to run down the side of the couch and when he gets to the end he's got momentum so he'll keep going for a few steps, right into your arms. His balance is also getting better so he can stand for longer periods of time on his own. He is always smiling and laughing and he loves to talk - to other people but mostly to himself. The only issue we've had recently is hair pulling which we take full responsibility for. He has always loved to grab onto Darby and love on him and often times he'll end up with handfuls of hair. Well I hadn't realized that it might translate into loving on other babies and also ending up with handfuls of hair :) We're working on correcting that now and teaching him new ways to express his love!!

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to Halloween coming up and then we move right into the holiday season and birthday season!! I've been in planning mode for Colton's birthday for a while and I finally decided on colors and activities so I have to get busy!! You never get to have another first birthday :)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,
Jenny

Fall

9 Months Old!

Colton turned 9 months last week! I can hardly believe in only 3 short months he'll be celebrating his big birthday. Here are a few pictures from our trip to the retired horse farm. I can't believe we've never been here before. It's about 3 minutes away from our house and they have 164 horses, 12 dogs and 1 cat. It's an older, retired couple and it was always their dream to provide a place for horses to live out the end of their lives without having to work or be road (is that the right verb?) by people. Many of them are blind or have other ailments. Most are retired from police work or horse racing. Some are from the circus or other shows and then some are just horses that were abandoned. They get to enjoy their last years in green pastures while lots of folks come to admire them and feed them carrots. In fact, the admission is 2 carrots per person :)

At Colton's 9 month check-up he weighed 21 lbs and was 29 1/4 inches long. He's at a plateau right now and hasn't had another big growth spurt recently. It's funny, he has a very distinct growth pattern which includes plateaus followed by big spurts. It's really neat, the doctor charts all of that info out so we can visually see his growth.

Colton has 8 teeth (4 top and 4 bottom), says mama and dada and baba. He loves to hug and give open mouth kisses. He pretty much tries to eat your nose! He plays independently very well at school but sometimes at home he gets fussy because he wants mama or dada to sit with him. He doesn't want us to play, just to be near. He doesn't really have stranger anxiety but he definitely realizes when one of us has left the room.

He eats well for breakfast and lunch and snack but we've been struggling with dinner. He just isn't crazy about food that time of day. Unfortunately that's when we're normally trying to experiment with new finger foods. Speaking of which, the only foods he'll eat with his hands are the organic happy baby puffs and peas. So far he has managed to avoid every single piece of chicken on his plate and he could care less about green beans and grapes. We just keep trying and hopefully soon he'll start have a taste for those things. As for holding his bottle...forget about it! He'll drink from a cup if we hold it and on occasion he'll use a sippy but he prefers someone holding his bottle for him!

For the past two weeks Colton has been sleeping so well. He started sleeping a full night (about 11 hours) when he was six months old but then around 7 months he started waking at 10:30 p.m. and then again at 4 a.m. We would get up and comfort him and give him some water but he would just cry as if he were in pain and pull his legs up. After multiple trips to the doctor to check for ear infections and allergies we ultimately realized that he was having trouble going to the bathroom. He always went regularly so I assumed it wasn't constipation but they were much harder than they should have been. The doctor put us on a daily dose of miralax and it has worked wonders. The second night he was on it he started sleeping through the night again and he's gone 12 hours a night ever since. He's such a good baby, he'll go down around 7:30 and just lay awake in his crib for a minute or two and then fall asleep and wake around 7 a.m. It makes our lives so much easier to know we'll have a predictable nights sleep. I'm sure we have some late nights in our future but for now I will enjoy every minute of sleep I get!!

Hope this finds everyone doing well!

Love,
Jenny and Josh

Horse Farm

The Big 3-0

Yikes, I've been a little absent lately. I guess that happens when your old and you can't seem to find the time to download all your pictures :) Or...maybe I've just been avoiding writing a blog about turning 30. Nah, it's definitely not that. I actually had a wonderful 30th birthday celebration weekend/week and I am MORE than excited to enter into my thirties. As my friend Emily reminded me, a few years ago when I was the naive young age of 25 I erroneously called someone out as being old when I learned that she was 34 - not to her face, thankfully. Back then Emily told me that I would be there soon enough and boy was she right, it creeped up on me fast!

I actually took the time to do a little reflecting on my twenties. At first I did it because I wanted to recap my pretty amazing 20s. Looking back, I really am so blessed to have had the opportunity to have experienced so many great adventures, met so many people and traveled to such amazing places.

Quick 20s recap: College (4 years of awesomeness), summer abroad backpacking in Europe, Mardi Gras (several times), President of my sorority (an honor to lead such a wonderful group of women), Skydiving, roadtrip across the Western US, worked at Daytona Beach Bike Week (now that's a story!), Alaska and salmon fishing, graduate school at UF, St. Thomas, and many many more amazing experiences in the last decade.

But when I looked at all the photos and I thought about all the wonderful experiences I have been so blessed to have had I realized that by far the best years have been those leading up to 30. I met Josh at 24, we married at 27 and Colton was born when I was 29. Wow, I can only imagine where I'll be at 35 and even 40!!

So I'll leave you with some photos from my birthday weekend/week of festivities and fun and I can honestly say, as a thirty-something, that I've never been happier or more fulfilled than I am today (living in little old Alachua with our family, home and an acre of land)! God has truly blessed me and I am so grateful for the last 30 years because they brought me to where I am today.

Love,
Jenny

Jenny's 30th Celebration

Best Friends

Colton and Darby have really started to notice each other and become little buddies. When Darby was a tiny puppy I would hug him and love on him and pester the heck out of him knowing that one day he'd have little kids doing the same. I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to be the kind of dog that would get annoyed with it, and it worked! I'm sure being a lab has a lot to do with it though. In general, they are really great with children. As you can see by the photos, a friendship has been born.

xxxooo

Darby and Colton

Family Fun

We had another great weekend with family. My mom came up last Thursday to finish out Colton's week off from daycare (the school closes to prepare for the new school year) and then on Friday my cousin Alexa came for a visit. Saturday my Dad drove up with my Grandma and Grandpa and then we also had a visit from my one of my best friends, Heather. Phew, lots of people in and out!

We had a pre-birthday celebration with Josh's family (celebrating Caitlin's 25th and my 30th) and then we celebrated my birthday with my parents. I love birthdays but for some reason this one is bugging me more than normal. Not sure why. It could be that I just discovered my first gray hair. Not sweating that one though, watching my amazing husband embrace his gray hair (he thinks the older ladies think he's more distinguished, ha ha) has helped me to see it differently. I have a little over two weeks to prepare for it and move on so be patient with me!

Some photos below from the last week and here is the link to Jamie's photos from our Georgia Seaquarium trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.doehne/GeorgiaAquarium?feat=content_notification#

Thankfully we have a quiet weekend at home coming up. Josh is going fishing and we're also making a quick trip to Jacksonville but we'll spend the rest of the time working on babyproofing. Little man is seriously on the move!

xxxooo

This was such a perfect moment but then I realized Josh was showing a little too much thigh so I covered him up and retook it and he woke up in the process. Oh well, I still love to look at my two sleeping beauties.

My first real injury from being mobile - a bruised left eye. The next day I followed with a bruised lump on my forehead.

I love this little boy!

First taste of cake icing and he wasn't impressed.

Celebrating dinner with the family. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Wills were with us!

I want to go see Grampy now!

Oldest and dearest friend Heather and my handsome hubby.

My daddy and my baby.

And now I want to see Grammy!

Let me put this plate on my face...

And now let me put this bucket on my face too...

I'm afraid he's going to start pulling the "i'm crying, pay attention to me" trick now. This face looks so sneaky :)

Doesn't anybody love ME anymore?

Playing with cousin Lexi.

The birthday girls enjoying our yummy cake.

Caitlin and Mike enjoying the wonderful meal that Josh's mom cooked for us.