Outside...

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Spring!  I love that it has been in the 70's outside!!  Colin, Suzi and I have been taking advantage and going out to play!  We got Suzi a new ball (her old purple one had a nice long life....) and she LOVED playing with it!  Here Colin spies the ball...

...and he drops his stick and makes a run for it!  Suzi sees him...

....and Suzi gets there first, grabs the ball and runs!

Colin loves to be outside!  He picks up pine cones, those sticky ball things (ya know what I'm talking about), sticks, dirt, rocks, leaves....

He really likes when Suzi comes running past with her toys!  Even inside, he gets a kick out of Suzi =)  This next picture is so awesome - though blurry - it is sooo Suzi!  Ears and all!

I obviously had my camera while we were out there, but I mostly got shots from the back.  The boy is just so busy!  There's no time to smile for Mom!

These next few, I was so busy snapping away on my camera I didn't realize how dirty Colin was getting!  He was playing in some dirt.  Oh well, it was fun =)  And, by the way, Colin really likes to wash his hands!  So, there's that.

We had a blast!  And then came inside and at least 2 of the 3 of us took nice long naps!  (one of the three had coffee.... wonder which one...)

Weekend and hair...

On Friday I made a very last minute decision to drive to Charlotte with Colin and Suzi (G was out of town).  I have wanted to make my hair dark for awhile now.  My sister in law does hair.... so we made a date =)  Here is the before and after (on a side note - the before picture was how my hair is when I wake up, wavy.  The after picture it had been straightened.)

I love it!  I am still getting used to it though.  I do a double take when I walk by a mirror!  And it didn't faze Colin at all

Since Kailey was occupied with doing my hair... my dad took on the job of watching the kids!  And he did a great job =)

We had a great weekend.  I can't say enough how nice it is to just be able to jump in the car and go for a weekend trip to my parents house!  And Colin picked up a new skill.... he can now peel an orange:

So, where was Garet this weekend?  Hanging out with all his sisters!

They had a great time!  I think it is awesome that they were all able to get together!

Pinterest DIY...

I have talked about Pinterest before, but I wanted to do a post about the do it yourself things I have done/tried from there.
- For Colin's 1st birthday I found this:

Source: cfabbridesigns.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here is mine:

- I also found this:

Source: alittleloveliness.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here is mine:

- Then for Christmas I wanted to do a canvas for my parents of their grandchildren (Kailey and I actually got together to do this one).  I found this:

Source: mommymodelsblog.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here is mine:

- I wanted to try this next one because I wanted Colin to be able to play with something that was non-toxic.  But to be totally honest I didn't like this one.  I thought it was too watery, and it didn't last long (I felt like it started to smell...)

Source: easiepeasie.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here is mine:

- I saw this and thought it was really neat, but my schedule with a 15 month old isn't really that crazy where I need a whole dry erase board... so I made mine a dinner menu.  And I LOVE it!  It keeps me more organized!

Source: fey-next2heaven.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

And here is mine:

That is about it that I've tried so far.  I really love this idea of "pinning" things!  I will have to a post of the food I've tried from there!

A short get-away...

I totally forgot to post about this!

Garet and I were able to have some time - just the two of us right before Christmas!! 

I left Colin and Suzi in Charlotte with my parents and drove home to Whiteville where Garet had just got back from an out of town conference.  It was a little weird to be home with out the baby or the dog... quiet.  Real quiet.  But we had a good time.

Saturday night we drove to my cousins house to surprise her with a 30th birthday/tacky Christmas party!  Her birthday is on Christmas, so her husband Chris planned this a week early...

It was a lot of fun, and she was definitely surprised! 

The next day we drove to Lake Waccamaw to ride our bikes around the lake!  It was beautiful! 

We packed a lunch and had a picnic by the water

It was nice to have that time just Garet and me!  But we were both really excited to see Colin (and Suzi)!

Bye Marshall...

Mathers that is (a.k.a. Eminem a.k.a. the REAL Slim Shady)

I am definitely an Eminem fan.  Yes, he can be inappropriate sometimes a lot of the time, but he is a genius.  Have you listened to the lyrics?!  Wow.  He is amazing.  But, I am a mother now.  And I have Colin with me most of the time.  So... that means no more inappropriate music.  (at least not while he's around.) (Don't worry I don't listen to the bad words.)  I haven't listened to any music like this around Colin since he was born - but now he really gets things!  Like I can say "Hey Colin, go get your water and let's go upstairs" and he does!  So, good bye for now Slim...

And speaking of inappropriate.  I got this book for Christmas.  H I L A R I O U S!  I mean, yes there are bad words on.every.single.page. but it seriously cracks me up!  You can't take life too seriously.  I just need to make sure to put that one well out of Colin's reach =)

Toy storage...

After Christmas, we had tons of toys that were scattered around everywhere.  I am the kind of person who has to have everything in it's place... so this toy situation didn't work for me.  I decided that I was going to separate toys into bins, and then I would be able to pull out one bin every day for Colin to play with.  That way he doesn't get bored with the toys... and he doesn't get overwhelmed with so having so many toys out at once!

In Colin's room, we have an awesome toy box (that Garet's dad made him!)  So when we play upstairs in his room it is easy to throw everything in the toy box!  But downstairs the amount of toys grew out of the small box I had to hid them!  Plus it seems like we play more downstairs than upstairs (I get more done when we are downstairs while Colin is playing!) 
Here is a couple bins and what I have in them:

Every bin has at least one: toy that makes noise, learning toy, puzzle, car, and then some randoms.  Of course as he gets more toys I will add to each.  But we'll see how this goes for now!  I also have a bin that is out all the time that has some of his books and his bouncing ball.  And then of course the toys that don't fit in bins like his little bike and tunnel are out all the time.  But I'm excited that everything is put away, and it is nice and neat!

Hiking...

Yesterday (Sunday) morning while Colin was eating breakfast, I noticed that his eye was a little red.  So, I thought that he may be getting pink eye.  I got all nervous about him being around other kids in nursery at church... so we didn't go.  Oh - and he didn't have pink eye.  Better safe than sorry I guess!
Instead, we packed lunches and went on a hike!

Here was my view =)

It was beautiful outside!  We had such a nice time!  We had a nice picnic - where Colin just sat on top of the table, and he did a great job!

My favorite was when he got a sip of his drink!  What a cute kid!!

Suzi was just happy to be out running around!  I love getting out as a whole family!

After lunch, Colin got to get rid of some energy!  He quickly found a stick and got to work "sweeping" the pine needles away!

We had a great time! 

Pictures...

So... I didn't realize that I had made a resolution last year.... I said I was going to take a photo a day for the whole year.  And I did it!  And I LOVE that I have the pictures I do now!  It is really amazing at how fast children grow, and the only thing that I have to give my memory a visual are the pictures I take.  So... after much debate.... I decided to do it again this year.  I really have no clue at how many people look at that site, but the ones that give me feedback were very encouraging!

If you don't know what I'm talking about go to my other blog: A Beane A Day

(by the way - I tend to do a better job at keeping that one up to date.  I slack on this one.  oops.)

Cold or Hot...

On Wednesday of this week, I woke up and realized our heat wasn't working.  Now, if you know me then you know that I am ALWAYS cold.  And I hate to be cold.  I am not a fan of the winter - the fall is fine, but I am definitely a warm/hot weather girl!  So to have a cold house, was just not okay with me!  Long story short... it took them until yesterday afternoon to get our heat working again!  Luckily we have two seperate heat/air condition units - one upstairs and one downstairs.  So Colin was fine and dandy upstairs! 

When I got him up on Thursday morning... it was 57* downstairs!  So I bundled him up in his robe (which he LOVED) and we went downstairs to get breakfast

We played most of the day up in his room, but when it was time for lunch and dinner... we got dressed like we were going outside!

Of course the weather was COLD while we didn't have heat.  But then once it was fixed (yesterday afternoon) the weather warmed up!  Funny how that happened...

I have no clue what the temp was... but we were out playing most of the day!  Colin loves to get dirty and play with sticks, leaves, pine needles, pine cones...

really just anything he can get his hands on.  At my parents house he liked the rocks and the mulch! 

I just can't get over how beautiful and NICE it is outside and it is January!  We even have one of the trees beside our house in full bloom!

And we weren't the only ones that enjoyed being outside!  Suzi had a blast!

Sometimes when she is sleeping inside I get so sad just thinking about how she is getting older (she turned 6 in September), but then we get out her "purple" and she turns into a puppy again!

I just love my dog!!!  She is so good!  Hope the weather stays this way =)