June in Review (part one)

So it's been a little while since our last update, I realize. We've had a great summer so far. No big trips, just enjoying the beauty of Colorado and getting a little wet (you'll see in the pictures). Nate couldn't stand all of Colton's curls anymore so he diceided to give him a haircut (although you wouldn't be able to tell because his hair is as crazy as ever). Here's Nate deep in concentration as he attempts to give Colton his first haircut. The pictures got all out of order again, but here's Colton after discovering what happens when you crawl in the sprinkler...

We went to this great spray park to stay cool. Here's Lexi enjoying it.

Sweet Colton with his feet up by his face, he loves that position. He's very bendy, that kid.

Our precious mess-maker!!! This is a daily scene at our house.

Out of order, of course, but this is Colton quite curious as to what the thing spewing water is.

Who needs a pool ,when you got sprinklers? Colton with his "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" look on his face.

Tyler with his best-bud Elijah at the spray park.

Colton wanting desperatley to join in on the spray park festivities, but his mom didn't want to get wet :)

Lexi and Tyler took swimming classes everyday for 2 weeks. They loved it and I think they improved greatly. Tyler's teacher kept using him as the example for the rest of the kids, which of course he loved! Grandma and Grandad even got to watch a couple classes. I didn't really get great pictures, unfortunately.

Lexi taking the big leap without any hesitation! (that's her way in the background)

Part two of our June will be soon to follow....

Mr. 'T' is in the house!

So, the night before Mother's Day I was out at the grocery store and I came back to find this.... Apparently Nate got a little creative with the clippers. I was not so happy at first, especially since we were going to church in the morning.

This picture of Lexi is out of order, but cute just the same.

Anyway, so Nate finally convinced me Tyler can only get away with this for a couple more months, we should let him live it up. But I couldn't stand the mohawk all the way in the back, so I made him even it up so you can't really tell he has a mohawk from the back.

Tyler has such curly hair that it naturally sticks up, so no product needed. Except it's so curly it's really more a "mo-fro" rather than a mohawk. Tyler's still really proud of it though (maybe as much as Nate is)!

Our cuties enjoying some beautiful May weather.

Gotta love the tulips, just wish they'd last longer...

My MEN!!



Here's Colton sporting his "Bozo the clown" hair-do. It's still a mystery where his red hair came from.

This is a picture of Lexi and Tyler's soccer team after their last game.

They had so much fun playing soccer, especially being on the same team (I know I loved that!). They both improved greatly since the start of it. Lexi did especially great! She was one of two scorers on the team. That dog in the middle is Rufus, he sat behind the goal so our team knew where to kick the ball. Let me tell you, it didn't seem to help much, but it was sure cute!

Here we are at our friends' Lance and Chandler's b-day party. I wish I had a bucket for balance! I'll just use Lexi and Tyler as a crutch :)

Colton's ONE!!!

So our little baby(well not so little, never really was) is now one. How fun! Here's how we celebrated. For starters Nate's parents were in town so we had a little celebration for him a few days early so they could be a part of it. The kids LOVED having grandma and grandpa here and so did we. It was relaxing for the most part (except when Nate put his dad to work for a couple days straight - so if you ask him he'd probably not agree with the "relaxing" comment) and a lot of fun.
The not so fun part of the whole week (right after grandparents left) was that Colton developed this unexplainable high fever that ended up lasting the whole week without breaking. The doctor said he did have a cold, but everything else seemed fine. He was concerned about the height and length of his fever, though. He told me if it hadn't broken by the next day (which was Saturday) to call him and they'd do bloodwork....so long story short Colton's birthday week consisted of going to the hospital, being poked and stabbed multiple times from shots and tests etc., being strapped down to a table for a chest x-ray and having his temperature taken what seemed to be fifty times a day. It all was probably a bit overboard in my opinion, but better safe than sorry I guess. Our heart broke for him though, poor thing. Needless to say he wasn't in the best of spirits throughout the week. He seems much better now, still not sure what all was going on with him, but here's what we do know...
He LOVES food and lets you know it, he enjoys playing hide 'n' seek around the chair, he's got quite a sense of humor (when he's not sick) and totally tries to be a clown b/c he knows it will get a laugh. He says mama and dada quite often and absolutely loves his brother and sister. He can also be a real snuggle bunny still (especially when sporting fevers of 104 degress). He loves to crawl super speed to us and then lay his head in our lap etc. He's really liking spending time outside now and wants desperatley to run around with Lexi and Ty. Colton's standing up longer and longer now on his own, but I think we still got a while on the whole walking thing (I'm not crying).
I love his little "I am one, hear me roar!" pose in this picture, with his lil' claws.
Colton and his friend Laraleigh playing at his birthday celebration, a few days early. I love Colton's crazy red hair (still a mystery where it came from). There's Grandpa in the background, unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of grandpa or grandma with the kiddos this trip, sorry!

Here's Colton living up to his "quarterback" name (the reason Nate wanted to name him Colton). "Hut, hut, hike!"

Can you tell how old he's turning? :) The kids helped decorate the cupcakes and Nate's mom helped me with the cake. Hey if you look really closely the cupcakes at the top spell out Colton

This is when above cake meets Colton's face.....First taste of cake + chocolate icing = complete and utter GLEE!! Priceless!

He didn't make as much mess as his brother or sister with their first cake, but he made a pretty good attempt.

Laraleigh on the other hand created an awesome chocolate goatee for herself :)

Here's Colton with a present from Grandma Lincoln (that's her in the background - again, sorry I don't have better pictures but atleast there's proof she was there). He's feeling like a big boy with his own special camping chair.

Some more present action

Colton opening a present from Gramma and Grandad Butler a few days later due to him being so sick and grumpy on his actual birthday.

Here's a little "taste" of Colton being introduced to his cake... Happy Birthday big boy!

Happy Easter (ok I'm a month late, sorry)!

Well I finally got around to posting some of these pictures. Here's my two little bunnies complete with bunny teeeth (crack me up). Notice the abundance of snow in the background...Merry Christmas, wait, er, I mean Happy Easter! Here's our third bunny, he wasn't left out of the fun (although we didn't give him any bunny teeth). Also if you look closely you'll see Lexi's doll has a matching dress on, too cute, thanks Gramma!

Colton's first easter, just wait 'til he realizes how much candy he's missing out on.

Ok, so we ditched the teeth and ears for atleast one picture. Looks like Lexi could use a few extra teeth though :)

Here are our scavengers looking at their loot after an successful easter egg hunt with our friends the Bass family. It ended up being a nice, relaxing easter, where it was easy to focus on the true meaning of the holiday (although you can't tell that from the pictures).

Out trip to AZ (a little late) & RATS!

Here are some pictures from our quick trip to AZ in March. We drove there with our nieces who had stayed with us previous to the trip, so we had a full car, but everyone was a good sport (except maybe Colton - who screamed bloody murder for about an hour and half straight soon after leaving at 4 in the morning! - sorry Daryn & Alyxe). Anyway we drove down so that the boys (Nate, my brothers and my dad) could go on a golf excursion for a few days to Sedona, which had been given as a gift at Christmas. We were able to spend a day or so all together though before they left.
Here is a picture of Lexi & Tyler having gramma & grandad wrapped around their little fingers :) They're both having their arm/ back tickled...a favorite pastime inherited from their mom!

Colton enjoying some time with Gramma Suzie and a whole load of beanie babies. I just love his cheesy grin in this pic!

Colton with his "betrothed", once again, Maddy. I think it's so cute she's so enthusiastic in this picture and Colton's giving her this look as if to say "Take a chill pill, lady!"

This is Colton with his new best friend the Bingo dog (that you saw in the video from a previous post).

Mother and daughter racing around the pool on those super cool "wiggle cars" (I don't really know what they're called, but they're fun!)

On our last night there, my parents took us to Amazing Jakes (which for those of you who are from the Springs is a mix between Mr. Biggs and IT'Z). The kids had a blast - most especially with the bumper cars!! Tyler was like this driving maniac with a wicked laugh, it was so funny to watch.

Gotta love the tea cups!! You won't be finding me on that ride any time soon (I'm feeling woozy just thinking about the flashbacks).

Colton and Grandad having a ball!

OK, so from the title you might have wondered where the RATS fit in....well on our first day there my brother Ben and his family brought over 2 of their pet rats because they were sick (one had heart issues) and didn't want to leave them alone. Well I don't know about most of you, but I get a little squeamish around rats mostly due to their creepy tails. I was sooon educated on them and realized these pet rats weren't anything like the stereotype I had in mind. So here's my brother with their rat Eileen (named after my late grandmother - who is about the sweetest lady you could ever meet, farthest from a "rat" you could get) grooming him.

After seeing this and hearing it was a somewhat typical routine for the rat, I was totally grossed out! But again, I began to understand that this rat is like the "alpha female", very motherly and considers my brother Ben one of her own, I guess, and so out of an act of love she likes to groom the inside of my brother's mouth. I asked how he could stand it, and he said if you try to yank her out her claws will do some major damage as you can imagine. Anyway they are actually very clean animals and very loving. So after "warming up" to the rats a bit, we all took turns petting them (some still rather timidly - like myself) etc.

Here's Aunt Jamie introducing the rat to the kids.

Even Colton got in on the action, although I don't think he was overly excited!



Here's Eileen (atleast I think that's the one) exploring my mom.

And finally, here's me, trying to be a good sport with the rat. It was hilarious because the rat quickly crawled inside my shirt and almost instantly fell asleep! It actually took a nap in my shirt, snoozing away for like 10 minutes. It was quite warm and cuddly, yet still I was a little worried about how well "potty-trained" it was, so-to-speak. If you can look closely at the tag of my shirt, you'll see it says "ANXIETY".... fitting I thought for this particular situation!! Anyway, I now have been enlightened to the sweeter side of rats and no longer find them quite as creepy, although I don't think you'll be finding one in my mouth anytime soon!

Overall, it was short trip, but we had a great time seeing our family and good friends. Hopefully next time Colton will be able to handle the trip a little better.

Soccer mom, sneaky baby & Gleamin' Booty!

All I heard about for about a week from Lexi was "Gleamin' Booty"! At first, it was rather alarming coming out of her mouth, but then I soon realized her class was studying pirates all week. It made a little more sense then, although I'm still a little confused WHY they were studying pirates to begin with. Anyway here's our little pirate with all the accessories, we're so proud! AARRRGH!!!

Now that Colton is quite mobile he quickly gets himself into all these random lil' cubbies all over the house. Here's a just a couple I found him in.

Here's Colton at his 11-month mark, standing for a few seconds longer now and gradually sitting down by himself.

Colton practicing his stair-climbing skills at 11 months. He's no master yet (as my friend Rochelle found out), but he's getting there.

I caught him in mid-blink and I just thought he looked funny, like he's about to pass out.

OK, so like I mentioned before I've graduated into "Soccer Mom" status now with both Tyler and Lexi playing. It's really fun because they're on the same team which won't happen again I'm sure. This is them warming up before their first game. They missed all 6 practices before this due to weather or us being out of town, so I was quite anxious to see how they'd do being thrown into a game right away and never having played. They had lots of fun!

That's Tyler in front of the coach, you can often find him following her like a lost puppy. It's interesting, we thought Tyler would be rather aggressive with playing and a bit of a natural because he's always been pretty physically coordinated, and we thought Lexi might be a little more hesitant and maybe struggle a bit. We now see it's totally the opposite, Lexi is one of the stars of the team and is quite aggressive, always getting in there with the other team and trying to steal the ball. Tyler tries to listen really well to the coah, but is a little confused and a bit hesitant. They're both having a blast though.
I'll have to get some more video of their games because they are truly out of America's funniest videos. There are a few kids on their team that have a whole LOTTA energy and a have a hard time focusing, let's say..... They'll kick the ball out of bounds and just keep going like Forrest Gump. The coach tries to run them down and the kid is 3 fields over at this point, ziggin' and zaggin' all over the place. The coach is sooo much fun and great with kids, so the kid keeps running, thinking the coah is playing tag with them. Anyway, it's more for the experience obviously and not too high-pressure. Nate used to be a soccer star when he was a kid, so he truly enjoys watching them play and seeing their potential. He does have a hard time keeping silent on the sidelines though, as do I. We'll get used to it!