Christmas recap...

We spent Christmas in Charlotte at my parents house.  It was sooo much fun!  Colin and I wrapped a few presents that we had shipped there...

He really liked playing with the tape =)
My mom and I got to go out and about some, which was really nice!  Garet stayed with Colin so we weren't on a time restraint (I always plan around naps).  While we were out we found this cute little chair, and mom said Colin just had to have it!

I had to agree!  He loved sitting back in it!  Actually he wanted to stand in it... but after he was told that was a bad idea, he decided that sitting in it was just as fun.
My brother and his wife and daughter came for Christmas too!  Morgan and Colin quickly caught up on what was going on in the world... 

We brought Suzi with us (of course!) and Eric brought their two dogs.... so we were a FULL house!  In my room was me, Garet, Colin, and Suzi... in Eric's room was Eric, Kailey, Morgan, and two dogs (Macy - a boxer, and Biscuit - a little white dog)... so we were packed!  But everyone did wonderful, and it worked just fine!
One day there, we decided to go into downtown Charlotte to see some singing bears (we had heard about them).  To get there we got on the light rail (a train)...

Colin just thought that was the neatest thing!  He loved to look out the window!  When we got downtown he enjoyed looking around at all the people and big buildings!  When we got to the bears, they had already started singing Christmas songs (they were mechanical bears)

Colin and Garet were so cute watching them.  But... this only lasted a few minutes.  The rest of the time Colin was walking running ALL over the place!  Dancing, singing, waving to everyone... making friends with anyone that made eye contact =)  It was so much fun!

On Christmas Eve we went to a service at church.  It was really good!  And Colin did sooo good!  In my family we always opened one gift the night before Christmas.  And it was always PJs... so we are going to continue that tradition with Colin.  Here he is opening his gift:

I don't have a good shot after this... he really just liked the tissue paper =)

Christmas morning!

We had breakfast then started opening gifts!  Kailey and I had gotten together and taken some pictures of the kids so we could give one to my parents.  I did this with it, except I used real canvas (got the idea from Pinterest), and it turned out perfect!

They LOVED it!

Morgan needed a quick nap while we were opening =)
Colin helped open one of his gifts, then he was ready to play with everything...

He didn't even want them out of their boxes!  This was a little cell phone!

 And he got a big bean bag chair!

Here is Colin and Morgan in their cute Christmas pajamas!

All my family came over to my parents house for Christmas dinner this year - so we got prepared to have everyone over (there were 28 of us!)

 But first I had to try out something I found in my stocking...

=)

I actually didn't take hardly any pictures while my family was over.  I just decided to sit back and enjoy.  But I did get a couple of the whole crew!

We had an awesome Christmas! 
And we are home now... so I am going to try to catch up on this blog!  It may take a week or so though =)

Almost 15 months...

What a fun kid!!!!
We are having a blast with Colin!  I just can't believe he is almost 15 months!  When I was doing a picture a month of him, it was easy to do a post of his milestones... but now it is slipping away!  So I figured I would jot down some of the things he is doing now.

Colin is:
- waving bye bye and good night
- says a few words, although I don't know if anyone else would understand =)
  he says: hey, mama, daddy, Suzi, hot, ball, amen...
- we always say the blessing before he eats and he will be quiet while we are saying it and then say "MA-MEN" (amen)
- has started trying to use a fork (he gets the concept, he just has a hard time getting the food on his fork)
- running around everywhere
- dancing (wow is this cute!)
- sleeps from 7 pm until 7 am
- takes two naps, 1-2 hours each
- weighs about 23 pounds
- wears 18 month clothes
- loves to play with his cars and balls! 
- also loves to play with remotes and cell phones
- is such a BOY!  He loves to play outside and get dirty!
- can throw his ball to me, then catch it (most of the time) when I throw it back
- is shy when he is first introduced to someone, but warms up pretty fast, and then is all over the place!
- sensitive.  He may be all boy, but he is sensitive.  If anyone else tells him NO, you can see him get hurt feelings, which sometimes makes him cry.
  The other day, my parents dog took the stick he was playing with... that made him cry really big
- has no fear.  He likes to climb, and has just started standing on things (stools, his bike... whatever!) and he likes to just walk off things... the the bottom step!
- is so happy!  He does cry, but his is a really happy baby toddler!

I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it now.  I will have to make a point to keep writing what is going on with him so I don't forget as he is getting older!

I have to write his nap and bedtime routine down so I don't forget...
Colin naps at 9 am, 2 pm, and goes to bed at 7.  He still uses his fire (aka pacifier) but he only gets it when he goes to sleep.  I will give him one fire, change his diaper, then pick him up.  At this point he gets his second fire (he likes to hold it)... as soon as he gets it, his head falls on my sholder.  It is the sweetest thing!  I sing a song to him (I sing "I love you, a bushel and a peck..." Garet has another song when he puts C down).  Then I lay Colin down, and Colin will start waving to me.  Oh it melts me!  I say "Good Night Colin.  I love you."  And I will wave back.  Then I close the door, and he goes to sleep. 
It is seriously the most precious thing!

Organized...

Or I am at least trying to be organized!

I am a huge Pinterest fan!  And I found a DIY project on there that used frames to organize your week.  Well, I didn't have a place for a frame collection that big... and it isn't like we have tons going on during the week that I need to write it all down, but what I do need to organize is my thoughts for dinners during the week! 

Here is my solution:

I love it!  I had the 4 small frames, and I bought the 3 bigger frames at Walmart (for like $0.97 each!!)  Then I used some random scrapbook paper I had and wrote Sunday - Saturday on them.  Framed them.  Then hot glued them together.

Now I can write down what we are having for dinners each night.  It is so much easier for me to keep organized when I can see it all written, rather than trying to remember each day what we are doing!

You can use dry erase markers on any frame.  It wipes off simply with a paper towel.
Now if I could just figure out how to do the crazy couponing that I keep hearing about....

Catching up...

It is hard to keep up with this blog! 
So, after Eric's homecoming, Garet and I went straight up to DC to spend Thanksgiving with Garet's family!
We stayed with Garet's dad... and soon after we got there Colin was already up in Pop's lap playing with his ball.

We spent Thanksgiving day at Garet's sister, Adriane's house.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone.  They have a ping pong table downstairs that got a lot of use!  I think Garet was the reigning champ!

The next night everyone came over to Garet's dad's house for dinner.  Here are the Beane guys:

We had fun talking and laughing.  Then we decided to play chicken foot at the adult's table.  And we got some pictures... this one was supposed to be "serious", but as you can tell only half of us participated =)

When we got home I got in the Christmas spirit.  I am still not big on Christmas music, but I did put on a Christmas CD we have.  It was fun to pull out all of our decorations.  It was just Colin and me at home, and I wanted to get some pictures since Colin was so excited about all the Christmas stuff...

I had just hung the stockings... and the boy jumped up on the fireplace right as I snapped this picture.  He is NOT allowed on it, and he knows this!  Crazy boy!

Speaking of the brick fireplace.... Colin had a run in with it.  I have been so nervous about him running around the brick.  He tripped and his chin scrapped the side.  Poor sweet boy.  So I went out that day and got a "cushion" for the edges.

See his poor sweet chin?
Then we all packed up and went back to Blue Skies!  This time Garet's mom and Rod were there with their dog Schmange

Oh I just LOVE it there!  We are making it a habit of going too =) 

The next day (this past Saturday) I left Colin with the crew in the picture above, and went to my brothers house.  I got to babysit his daughter Morgan, while Garet kept Colin.  It was perfect!  I got a whole night (and day) away (for the first time since Colin was born, by the way!)  and Eric and Kailey got to have a date night.  It was a lot of fun! 
The next day Garet and Colin met me at Eric's house. 

 Then we all went to see Santa!  Garet and I predicted that Colin wouldn't cry, but would probably be very nervous about us leaving him on a strangers lap!  And we were right!  See for yourself:

Hahahaha
I LOVE it!  His poor scrapped chin, his pants all hiked up exposing his awesome socks, his look of "what the heck!" OH MY GOSH I LOVE THIS CHILD!!!! 
Seriously, I am so in love!
So that brings us up to date.  I've been running around like crazy to get things ready for Christmas.  We are traveling to Charlotte to celebrate, so there's lots to do! 

Homecoming...

I am finally able to post about Eric's homecoming!  (if you are on my facebook, you've probably already seen most of these pictures... but if not, they're are a lot!)

Garet, Colin and I all headed to Blue Skies in Morehead (if you are keeping track, that would be two weekends in a row!  =)  sweet!)  and waited for my parents to arrive.  Blue Skies is about 45 minutes from Camp Lejeune (where my brother is stationed) in Jacksonville.  Once my parents got there, we ate dinner, put Colin to bed, and started working on our banner to welcome Eric home!

It says "Welcome Home LCPL ERIC DAVIS", we painted it green, then did glow in the dark paint around the letters.  Since Eric was coming in around 6 pm we wanted him to see it!

The next day Garet and Dad worked in the yard.... Mom and I played with Colin and got things together for that night.  At about 2:30 we loaded up and headed to Camp Lejeune!  (Colin went down for his afternoon nap, but decided he was way too excited to do any sleeping)  When we got there, we got checked in at the gate then went to hang our banner.  I got pictures, but you really couldn't see it too well.  A little farther down from ours, I found the one Kailey did...

Then we headed to Kailey and Eric's house. 
Kailey was getting herself and Morgan ready (remember this was the first time Eric got to meet Morgan!)  Everyone else was just hanging out.... the race was on, Colin was having a snack, the dogs were running around, kids were playing with toys...

At 5 we headed to where we were going to see Eric!!
When we got there we all unloaded and started heading to the building... and we noticed that Kailey left her door open....

... and was off to see her husband!

haha
We got a kick out of that!  No time to shut the door... she was ready!
Here is the crew heading towards the building.  (Garet, my mom, Colin, Rachel, my dad, Gary, Dana, their three kids (Jordan, Teagen, and Trenton), Kailey and Morgan)

We decided we didn't want to sit in the room that was provided, so we all hung out outside.  Colin ate his dinner and had fun playing in the yard with sticks...

And wanted to get through the gate where Eric was going to be...

We were all so excited!  My mom and I went to the bathroom to change Colin and when we came out we about ran down the hall, just in case Eric was there!  We didn't want to risk missing anything!  We got word that Eric was right on schedule to arrive at 6. 

So... at 6 we were all gathered in the yard looking and listening for any sign of a bus.  At about 6:15 we heard a bus, and then we saw headlights!!

It was so indescribable the feeling!  A mix of nervousness, excitement, happiness, everything just all rolled into one!  Kailey said she felt like it was her wedding day!  So ready to see her husband and introduce him to their beautiful baby girl!

Once the bus got there, you could see the Marines getting off and walking into the gated yard (that Colin was trying to get into!) so they could get their bags, and check their guns, and get some instructions.

And FINALLY they started heading toward the gate door!  Kailey immediately said, "I see him!"

And at last...

It was, by far, the sweetest sight!  After a few minutes (which at the time seemed like a long time!), Eric looked up at the rest of us and we all got our hugs in!

Then, I think everyone breathed a sign of relief.  Eric's here.  Eric's home.  Eric's safe.  Eric got to meet his daughter and see his wife.  Eric looks so good.  HE'S BACK!  Kailey and Eric walked to get their car so they could load his bags.  That's my dad in the front with Eric's bags, and the reunited couple walking away.

Once everything was loaded, we were able to get a few more pictures before we left this sweet little family alone!

Eric couldn't take his eyes off Morgan.  It was so precious!  And she was so good.  She woke up right before he got here, and was just as interested in him as he was her!

Kailey turned Morgan around to look at her Daddy, and she just smiled!  I could have melted!  Love at first sight!

And this is my favorite!  Love these three!!

I am getting emotional just reliving it as I type!  What a HAPPY Thanksgiving!  We are so blessed to have Eric back home!