Christmas Eve

Waiting for Santa to arrive
LaRocca Family Christmas Eve

Colten and Carmelo making a break for it!

C'mon Carmelo, let's go!

We have been blessed with some pretty amazing friends. Vincent and Kelli are two people that include our family in pretty much everything they do! We have bonded over kids, football, and life. They have two little boys that are Colten's age and they get along really well! They make us feel welcome and like part of the family. We probably spend every weekend with them and often get together during the week. We really don't know what we would do without this friendship. So, they invited us to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Dinner with them. We were pretty excited! Christmas is a really special time for me and my family. We love it!! It was really hard for me to be away from the family this year and being around friends really helped that.

So, Christmas Eve is when Santa arrives and passes out present at the LaRocca's house. We went outside and sang Christmas carols and waited for Santa to arrive. He comes in thru the front door and all the kids are so excited!! The presents giving commences and it was a mad house for a good couple of hours. It was great!!! We had a blast and Santa even found Colten there! Once again, so blessed to have the whole LaRocca family in our life!!

Kelli's Graduation Party

The Louisiana Group!

One of our best friends, Kelli (middle blond) graduated college this month. Her parents threw her a grad party at this house out on the water. It was a beautiful place and we had a lot of fun. It made a great backdrop for some pictures!

Feeding Rodney

Rodney the Reindeer needed some carrots!

Santa Clause

We tried to visit Santa 3 times!! The line was just way too long or Hunter had to get to work. When Colten finally saw him, he cried, screamed, and tried as hard as he could to get out of his lap!

Oh Christmas Tree!

With Hunter being sick, he just didn't feel well enough to get a tree and if we went and picked one out, I wanted it to be a family trip. My neighbor and I were talking about it and she offered to let us borrow one of theirs that they weren't using! Problem solved! Hunter sat on the couch while Colten and I decorated our tree and had a blast. Colten loved looking at all the different decorations. He also loved to hang them! We made it through with nothing broken and no tree toppling, had a couple of close calls though!

Christmas Lights

Colten loves Christmas lights and gets really excited when he sees them. He always says, "ohhh, pwetty" We usually put lights on both levels of our home and around the door. Well, Hunter was sick for a few weeks this December and we didn't get around to putting the lights on the house, so Colten helped me put some around the door. He was very excited to help adjust, plug in, and decorate with the lights. I can't believe what a little man he is becoming. I look at these pictures and he just looks so big to me!

My Helper

The finished product!

Snow in Louisiana

It snowed for the second year in a row in Louisiana. Colt was sleeping when it started coming down, so I woke him up to see it. He loved it! Good thing I did because it was gone by the morning!

Snow on the ground
Colten and I enjoying the snow

Birthday and Thanksgiving

Helping me to make lemon bars
Olive hand

Exhausted on my birthday!

Feeding the giraffe

I turned the big 26 last month! We decided to spend a family day of going to the zoo and just relaxing with our family. The zoo was one of the best experiences! Colten got to feed a giraffe!! It wrapped it's tongue around his arm and Colten had a blast. I didn't get to see the actual giraffe feeding as I had gone to the restroom, but the pictures are amazing! The look on Colten's face is priceless! It was really nice to just spend the time with the family and thank you to Hunter for always making me feel special, not just on my special day!

Now we have some pretty great friends down here. Vincent and Kelli. They have 2 kids right around Colten's age and the boys all play really well together. We have all become really pretty close and they always invite us to all of their family functions. It's nice to have a surrogate family when you are away from your own. So anyways, Kelli took me to see New Moon as my birthday present on the day before Thanksgiving. We were planning on spending the night and heading to Vincent's parents house for Thanksgiving. It was going to be such a fun day! Well, I ended up with the stomach flu that night and we ended up going home bright and early that morning. Hunter ended up being sick with a sore throat. Poor Colten was so bored that day and didn't even get a turkey dinner! Luckily Hunter decided to make Thanksgiving dinner a week later! Such a sweet guy!

Latest

This was a couple weeks ago, but we took Colt in for his 18 month appointment and the little man is growing like a weed! 30.5 lbs which puts him in the 90th percentile and he is now 33in which is the 75th percentile. He is pretty consisitent and has been growing at the same speed since birth. He is doing everything he is supposed to be doing at his age. The doctor was pretty impressed with the sign language that Colten has really picked up on. He was also pretty impressed with Colten's complex thinking.

Seems like Colten is learning new words everyday and the ones he already knows he is getting much better at saying. Yesterday's big word was football. He says ball all the time, but now he knows which one is the football and points it out. I think he made his daddy's day! Hunter was so proud. Today the new word was blueberry. He loves them and can't get enough of them. Everytime he sees a baby, he points one out. The kid loves to read and just absorbs the stories. He loves his Russell the Sheep book right now. He tries to jump. Count to 3 and Colt will try to get his feet off the floor. Maybe not both at the same time, but they both come up eventually. Grandma and Auntie are two words he's really mastered. He pretends to talk to them on the phone. He loves his stuffed bear, it pretty much comes everywhere with us. He's a happy kid who loves to be outside. He's starting to draw a lot more. He loves his cars. He loves corn and onions. Hunter gave him eggnog and he couldn't get enough of it. Colten is one of the sweetest kids in the world! He loves to cuddle with Mommy. He loves animals and is actually really gentle with them.

Being a mom is my favorite thing ever. Being H's wife ties with that! My little family is really awesome. The only thing I would change would be our location. Would definitely have us living in Seattle, not Baton Rouge! Miss my mom, dad, sister, brothers, and my niece and nephew. (don too). It's been a long 7 months since I have seen them. The longest I have ever gone. Breaks my heart. Lilah won't know me when we finally move back, makes me want to cry. My family has missed out on Colten growing up, makes me want to cry even harder. We thought we would be back by now. Hopefully soon is what we keep telling ourselves.

Halloween 2009

Hunter was working this Halloween, so I was supposed to take Colten trick or treating for his first time all by myself. I was actually really sad about this because Halloween is Hunter's favorite holiday, so I didn't want him to miss it. We even went to Old Navy and bought his costume for $2! He was supposed to be a cute little dragon, instead he went as a bloody ER patient! Poor little guy!! Colten has been going thru this stage where he doesn't want to sit in his high chair and wants to be a big boy and sit at the table. He has done so well at the table! So I am dishing up his dinner and he is munching on his green beans (the ones he asked for :)) and I see the chair start tipping and next thing I know it has fallen over and sliced his toe. He also fell down and bonked his head so I picked him up and next thing I know there is blood all over. His toe was bleeding pretty bad. Thankfully I have an amazing neighbor who I called and she came rushing over. She had us go back to her house so her husband ( a cop) could look at it. He told us to go in and could tell I was freaking out and took Colt from me. Crystal took me to the hospital and we were seen right away. No stiches, just a steri-strip and orders to check with his peditrician in a couple of days. What an adventure and I am sure since Colt takes after his daddy, not our first trip to the ER!

Life as a Mom

So Colten tripped over his own two feet and landed smack dab into the window sill. He cried for just a little bit, had both Hunter and I hug him and he was on his way. This is what it looked like right afterwards, now there is hardly a bump. I have a feeling many more of these are on the way. It's something I just have to get used to as a mom!

18 Months!

Fell Asleep during lunch

2 of my guys!

First time on the potty

Have to have the right material

Wow! Colten is 18 months old today! How time flies! He is going in for his Dr. appt. soon, but I am guessing he's around 30+lbs. The kid loves to eat! He loves raisins, bell peppers, green beans, kiwis, blueberries, corn, and well pretty much any fruit and vegetable! We are really hoping that he continues on the path of healthy eating. He actually chooses fruits or veggies over my healthy brownies (with spinach, blueberries, and applesauce).

Colten is a very sweet boy, but is starting some temper tantrums. We just talk to him quietly while he is in the corner and he calms down pretty quickly. Although if I leave the room, he won't calm down till I come back. He loves to laugh and make you laugh. We just have so much fun with him!

He keeps learning new words. His words are lizard, boat, light, mom, dada, Tank, bye, fish, dog, kitty, ball, gramma, granpa, artie, banana, bread, duck, cheese, woof, meow, Neigh, please, thank you, as well as a couple of others

Colten really is taking everything we do in. Yesterday he picked pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. So we pull out his stool and he is helping me make them. I give him an egg to hold and next thing I know he is softly tapping it on the side of the bowl to crack it. He got it cracked and in the bowl with no spillage, same with the other egg. He will also take the handheld vacuum and move it along the floor making rrr noises imitating the noise of the vacuum. Today he grabs my book and heads to the bathroom. He points to the toilet and asks to be put on. (This has never happened before). He asks for the book, sits there, then asks for toilet paper and pretends to wipe himself. I took him off thinking he was playing around and washed his hands and as soon as I set him down, he's peeing on the floor. I really think he would have gone in the potty if I hadn't moved him when I did!

Playing in the water

Loves to try and get Mommy with the hose

Drinking from the hose

Love this face!!!

I love this little man!! He is just so much fun right now! We go outside and play in the water everyday. He loves it!

Pictures

Mommy is too cheap to buy a real pool :)
Love those lips!

So excited to see the Monkeys!!

Colten's new word is light! He is teething, 3 of his molars are coming in and it has been a very rough week in our house. No news on the house, keep praying someone wants to buy it! We are all ready to be back up in Seattle!!!

Colten update!

I am just amazed at how fast Colten is learning everything! We started sign language about a month or so ago and he has picked it up so quickly. He now signs hot, more, eat, milk, water, cookie, please, and help as well as a couple of others. It has really cut down on temper tantrums since he has been able to communicate with us. He also loves to help me empty the dishwasher, do laundry, and mop up spills. The great thing about the dishwasher is that he actually puts things in the correct spots! He is also learning more and more words every day as well as most of his body parts and animals and what they say. My favorite that he does is an elephant. He'll even lift his arm like the trunk!

As for Hunter and I... we are doing great. Waiting for Hunter to have a closing and for someone to put an offer on the house, but other than that we are great. I am so ready to be back up in Seattle, it's not even funny. Both Hunter and I are just anxious to get up there. I have been baking and cooking a lot. It's relaxing for me and I am really trying to make food healthy by sneaking in fruits and veggies in desserts and everyday foods. Well off to clean the house... pictures to come soon.

Ears, Thank you, and Tanky

Pictures

Trying on Mommy's apron
Cuddling on the couch

Love this face

Stair Surfing with Daddy

Loves popcorn with mustard