I Ate All Your Candy...

This video is a must see... SO FUNNY!

Jimmy Fallon I Ate Your Candy Challenge

Finished Product

Remember this??

And this is after Spencer had tilled the backyard probably for the 8th time (no joke)... each time finding new treasures including a billion nails, a huge metal plate (probably 1x2 feet), a few super bent rebar, boulders (Spence compared them to dinosaur eggs), broken up pavers, and sooo many rocks that we used to cover up our drain pipe. It looked SO much worse and completely uneven. I'm kind of sad that we don't have a true before picture.

And here is the finished product!:

Way in the back corner are the planter boxes Spencer built which I LOVE. We officially have a sprouting garden now out back with celery, green onions, broccoli, etc. This is a corner shot so if I would have taken the picture straight out from the door you would see two retention walls each with white trellis hanging above it for our star jasmine to grow on.

Here is the other retention wall and the right side of our yard. The two bigger bushes against the wall and the small tree in the middle are all hibiscus plants which are absolutely beautiful. The flowers blossom in all different colors.

In the corner there is our tiny tiny orange tree that will one day grow up. :) This is back by our planter boxes.

I still can't believe that it's actually done! And I am so impressed with Spence and how quickly he was able to do everything. He did EVERYTHING with his own two hands and it turned out exactly how he had visualized it. I'm excited to see what our plants look like after three more years of growing time. We love it and are so thankful for everyone that helped to get us to this point! We love you!

5 months

Colby is just the sweetest little boy and we love him to pieces! He brings an amazing spirit into our home and I couldn't imagine life without him. Here are a few things about Colby as a 5 month old baby that we want to remember:

*He hasn't quite rolled over yet, but we work with him everyday to get it down. He used to hate being on his tummy, but the bigger he gets, the more he doesn't mind it. He still won't lay on his tummy very long, but he doesn't put up such a fight.

*He loves his toes! I've even caught him eating them a few times. Whenever he is on his back, you will find him like this:

*He's learning how to put things in his mouth by himself. Getting the purple top in his mouth only took him two attempts. Silly boy :)

*After we came home from Oregon Colby went straight for Daddy. He was so exhausted that night that after laying on Spencer's chest like this for a few minutes, he fell right to sleep.

*Besides playing with his toes, Colby loves blowing bubbles with his mouth and to tell you the truth he's gotten pretty creative with it. He probably has two or three ways that he can blow bubbles and it totally keeps him occupied while in his carseat or just hanging out around the house.

*He is so so smiley and really just a happy baby.

*Boy does he love that frog! His little friend Jacey picked it out for him and she sure does have good taste because it is most definitely his favorite toy these days.

*He's starting to hold his bottle more and more.

We just love our little Colby man! It is so fun to watch him learn and grow and we feel so blessed to be his parents.

Happy Halloween!

From Fred, Wilma and Dino the Dinosaur!

Every year our ward has an awesome trunk or treat chili cook-off and they always get a huge group off people to show... members and nonmembers alike. They put together tons of carnival activities and even award the best chili of the night. This year they topped it off with the youth pulling off a flash mob to Thriller. All in all, it was a blast, and a perfect missionary opportunity.

Mom got Colby this dinosaur costume before he was even born which ended up being the perfect size for him. Woohoo! So we decided that Fred and Wilma Flinstone would be the best match for our little dinosaur. This actually ended up being my first sewing project ever and it turned out totally awesome. I finished my dress and was going to start Spence's outfit when he decided that he wanted to make his himself. Uh.... AWESOME! He did such a great job and we finished just in time!

Shots Round Two

Or round three I guess if you count the hospital.

Colby did sooo much better with his shots this time! He didn't start crying until the very last shot and we walked out of the office acting like nothing had happened. It was awesome. I had purposely scheduled his appointment so that Spencer would be able to come since I had a hard time at his two month appointment. A few days before his appointment, we found out that Spencer had to be at school for some reason instead and that there was no point in rescheduling because he wasn't going to be getting out early any day before Colby and I had to leave to visit Mom and Dad in Oregon. So I just took him and it gave me hope that his 6 month appointment won't be too rough either.

Cross your fingers!

He ran a small fever the next day, and then again a week after the shots which happened as well for his 2 month immunizations. Oh I just love him! He's so so cute!

4 months

I really need to get better at putting up this post right when Colby is 4 months old so that I can remember what milestones he reaches and when. Unfortunately since I am way late in posting this, I can't remember much. I do know his stats though!

Weight: 15 lbs. 3 oz., 54%

Length: 25.75 in., 77%

Head Circumference: 42 cm. 41%

I also remember that he stopped sleeping through the night like he was doing for about 6 weeks or so. Man, those six weeks were awesome. He started waking up two times each night, once around 1 am and then again 4 am or so then would sleep until 7 am. Still, not too bad, but definitely not 12 straight hour nights!

Watching Colby's buddy Kade while his parents went to the temple... we had a blast!

Just look at those leg rolls... love them! :)

Peoria Shower

Somehow time slipped away from me right before Colby came and I missed posting the shower that some friends did for me here in Peoria. My good friend Lindsey offered to throw the shower for me and she teamed up with a mutual friend in our ward, Toni. Toni happens to work for Kim at The Tomkat Studio which is a well known blog for party inspiration and because of that, she decided to use my shower as a new line of party product for their company! That meant professional pics of my shower :) not to mention super cute decor and delicious food. And I really can't complain because I don't think I even took my camera... I don't know why I always seem to do that.

I had a fabulous time and am so thankful for such good friends who were so willing to do this for me. You all are the best! You know who you are :)

Here are a few pics from the shower that I got from The Tomkat Studio blog. You can see more pics here.