The Latest On Our . . . .

At 16 Months . . .

The second he stacks those blocks . . . well . . .they never saw it coming to 'em!

EaTiNg . . .

It all starts out so nice, using a fork correctly and all!

And then . . .
The hands go in!

Hey, at least he ate it all. And he did it all by himself!

He thought it was hillarious that I stuck him in the middle of all his stuffed animals. He likes to gather up a few in the middle of his grib & then fling them everywhere ( He doens't actually sleep with all those in his crib - waaay too many!).

But none comes even close to "Bunny"!

Gotta have Bunny! The poor ratty thing! I've tried to introduce a new "favorite", but to no avail. I'd be in deep you know what if I lost that thing!

Just his size!

The coolest kid on the block!


So happy in his element . . .Water, squeeling, & teething!

He wanted to take his sippy in the tub with him. ok.

A new fave! Flushing the toilet, lifting the lid, & sticking his hand in the twirling water. I wonder what little toys or puzzle pieces we have missing already? Hmmmm . . . whadda ya think?

And yes, he has figured out how to escape out the front door. He also thinks that his lil set of old keys we gave him, will help him unlock the door and get out. Hey, he's seen us use the keys, so why wouldnt it work for him? It's the cutest thing to see him stand on his tippy toes and try to reach for a part of the door handle that has a screw or hole in it and him try with all his might to get it unlocked.

Another new Fave! CoLoRiNg!

I saw him trying to scribble on a folder of mine a couple weeks ago, so on a Sunday afternoon, I got out a box of crayons I had hid away and let him have at it.

And he really loved it! So now he loves to color, and try to eat the crayons too, of course. I can't believe we are already putting "drawings" up on our fridge. No way! He's still my baby!

Coles getting his "groove on" with his singing "baby Tad" frog. I absolutely LoVe seeing him start to dance to music now whenever he hears music and take his little hands in a fist, and move his arms up and down and bounce up and down. Such a cutie pie!

Such a cute innocent face! - Ha!

The Mud Monster! (Thank heavens that's not the other brown stuff)

I brought him outside with me to "help" feed the chickens one of these mornings after those huge monsoon storms and he just happily enjoyed playing in the mud.

I wasn't planning on giving him a bath that morning, but . . .

And here he is trying to bring it in the house with him. Uh, not quite kiddo!

Well, all in all, we still love our "lil Monster" so very, very much! He's alot of work & alot of fun!

We love you CoCo!!

I Am A Mother

First let me say, for those of you who have not heard of or read this book, I highly recommend it!! These days it's very hard for me to find time to sit down & read a book, so my new favorite way of getting my "reading" in is to get books on CD. I love it! When Cole is sleeping & I'm running around the house cleaning, I just blare it on the stereo in the family room & voila - multitasking!

All mothers from novas to pro ought to consider getting a hold of this book, because it is such a great reminder of the incredible calling it is to be a mother & the importance there of. And how much influence we truly do have for good!

In a world where being a stay at home mom has become almost looked down upon, Jane Clayson Johnson does an amazing job of reminding us of how our Heavenly Father really truly sees and feels about motherhood.

It's an easy read, with plenty of her personal life experiences & stories in it to keep it all real. Your heart will go out to her & all the other moms who go through the ups & downs of motherhood.

Oh! And for those of you who may not have babies yet, this is still a great one! Because someday, either sooner or later, you'll have the opportunity & privilege to become and mother to the sweetest spirits this world has yet seen. It may def. change the way you look upon motherhood.

All in all, it's fantastic! Just read it! I've listened to it about 3x's over already. Let me know what you think about it when you do read or listen to it! You can find it at Desert Book & I'm sure at any other major book store.

Projects and . . . More Projects For Our Weekend

So this is the beginnings of our back porch being enclosed!! We are soo excited! Well, Jace will probably be much more excited when its totally done. Jace is def. a project kind of man, which I've loved and appreciated about him. He's always good at finding ways to improve things around the house. Sometimes he says to his detriment! - Thinking - "what did I get myself into!?" Especially since he's doing it all himself with a little help from his dad.

Jace was able to get a jump start on it on Labor Day. I'm trying to do a good job at being the photo documentor since in the past when we've made changes to our house we've always wished we'd have done at least a before & after. So I've got a few stages of this project so far.

By the end of the afternoon, most of the framing was up & the sliding glass door in place. Every time I walk by our back door & look at it, I start to get excited because I can almost see it being totally done.

Right now its gonna be used for a fitness room / Cole's play room. It'll be so nice to have that extra room so I don't have toys constantly strewn all over the front room! And a place to use our exercise equipment now that I've take over the garage for the dance studio again.

Jace found a huge roll of brand new carpet on Craig's list that someone had pulled out of their house for a really good price. And right now it's rolled up along one wall in our kitchen and goes into the family room its so long. Cole has thoroughly enjoyed sitting, sliding, walking, & running along the rolled carpet.

And I just realized that our child is almost naked in alot of my pics lately. But these days being so hot, he gets to run around the house sometimes in just the diaper.People must think . .. oh, that poor homely looken child! Well, at least I dress him to go out in public! :)

And Now for the SPLASH PAD!

Jace's other Big Project!

It's not completed yet, but almost there! We still have to cement it all in and add small decorative stones around it & leave a space for our hand prints & the date.

These have become popular in peoples backyards for their kids as opposed to a pool. A few months ago I took Cole to a members house in our ward who has a splash pad & Cole loved it! So I told Jace about it & he checked it out & custom designed his own style & materials. In the far left corner are two valves that can be turned on higher, lower, or off, depending on if you want the lower water spouts to come on, the top, or both.

Jace had sand brought in to level out the stones & Cole couldn't help himself with it. He enjoyed that almost as much as the water. Such a boy!

So on Monday's Labor Day was the first time we let Cole try it out. And man oh man was he intrigued! He is def. our little water bug!

He got mom a few times while checking out how those little hoses squirt.

Jace also added a fun little tree frog & lizard that shoot out water from their mouths.
Anyone for a shower outside?! There are 3 different spots that water rains down from the tree where the pressure can be controlled to a lot or a little.

The water runs off into the lawn instead of through a pump system, so this way its good for Cole enjoying the water & watering the lawn!

He was so cute checken out the whole thing.

And of course by the end of it . . . his diaper was sagging like a sack of potato's, so we let him run wild. Aren't baby buns so cute?

Then later that evening we all cleaned up & headed to DQ for a quick family treat on a gift card. Gift cards are so nice & handy.
So this is Cole waiting for mom & Dad while he watches his Veggie Tales movie in his TeePee.
I got that thing out for him that morning along with the pop out tunnels that come with it & he loved it. I'd used the tunnels for my tumblers the last 2 years, but never pulled out the tunnels & tents that come with it for Cole. So now their being put to good use by our little munchin.

Suffice to say we had quite the busy weekend with much more ahead of us! A lot of work & a lot of fun involved!