Tuesday, December 22, 2015

14 Years




At 19 and 22 years old, how could we have known what we were getting into? We've basically grown up together. Our last 14 years have been stuffed with so much laughter and they drip with so many tears (mostly from me and the kids.) This life has been more fun, more intense, more crazy, more difficult, and more joyful than I ever could have imagined. And that's all I want of you, Dan Colton--more. 

Happy Anniversary to us!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Old Pictures


One of my favorite things about staying at my parents was pouring through boxes and albums of old pictures. Here are a few of my favs.


Aaron.



Me at some school concert.  I loved my perm.




Me in the outfit my parents brought me from Hawaii.  I remember feeling absolutely beautiful.




Me, school picture, 1988  I think.




Me, again.



And again.



And again.


I'm not posting all of these of myself because their my favorite.  Mostly because I want them for my kids to see.



Here's baby Ava.



My great grandmother. The mother of my dad's mother. I can see myself in her face.



My grandfather and his sister, middle and left.



Me and my sisters.




All of us minus Aaron.



My mom and her grandfather, Ellis




My mom and her parents, Anne and Jewel.



My mom and her brother, sister, and Dad.



Me.




Aaron holding me.




All of us minus Bret.



Sideways with Mimi.




In Hawaii.



Me and my cousin Austin




Me.



My mom and her sister, Ashley


Mommy Vacation 2015




Dan is the sweetest little pumpkin around.  He sent me off to my parent's for some R&R.  It was blissful.


I got to see my Dad's new pride and joy.




I enjoyed my room with a view. And slept in as long as I wanted.




We walked around the farm and it had been quite a few years since I'd been there.














 After quite a bit of searching through the overgrowth, we finally found the initial tree.












I love my parents so, so much.



There are just a handful of people on this earth that know the good me and the bad me and fun me and the sad me and the nice me and the mean me.  And these are two of them.  And they love me for it. And I love them for it.

















Wintertime still boasts beautilul sunsets on the lake.




Mom and I worked on this family tree she wanted for her upstairs room.



I think it turned out pretty great.



The other wonderful thing about my trip was that I got to spend a lot of time with my Mimi.  Dementia is stealing her from us one day at a time.  And I am ever so grateful for each of those days I get to have with her before she goes.


A Picture Tour

Let me take you on a little tour...

Here you will see one of the cutest 50's boys around.



And over here is one of the cutest two year old weirdo boys around.  Complete with crazy glasses and a toothbrush.



Next, is my sleeping baby.




And my baby in a drawer.




Waiting for the kindergarten bus is like a super big deal around here.






And this is the day Max looked me straight in the face and said, "I don't need the hearts on my hands anymore, Mom."  And a piece of me died.






Here we have a ninja.




One day this ninja decided to sit on the potty.  And then he brought it to me with a gigantic present inside.  I thought this might be the end of double diaper duty. 




 He promised to wear underwear as long as it had garbage trucks on it.  Do you know that there is no such thing as garbage truck underwear? I looked.  A lot. I finally got him to believe that the trucks on there were garbage trucks.  But he hasn't gone on the potty since.




Here's another view of my sleeping baby.





Luke loves to make designs with tan-grams. And I love to take pictures of them.









We decided to speak in British accents as a family as we played a game on enight. This is the face of a husband who thinks his wife's accent is too dowdy sounding and is majorly turned off.  Seriously, he told me to stop.




Next you will see Finn practiced his cutting skills with my To-do list.




This is the day I walked in to find Jack in the living room all alone, sitting on the couch like this.




I finally got around to trimming his hair.  This was the best setup I could come up with.



And then he had major Jim Carey, Dumb and Dumber hair.






But if I brushed it to the side it wasn't as noticeable.



Here you will see that playing the wii as a family is very exciting.




This is Jack's first freestyle ride in a shopping cart.




Mostly Finn just cries when Jack touches him in the car so this was definitely photo worthy.



Here is immortalized a wonderful and embarrassing occasion. My friend Belle got baptized and a lot of people came to support her.  That was the wonderful part.  I had the opportunity to speak at the baptism in front of her and all of those people.  And when I got home I noticed the bra I thought I was wearing was lying on the floor of my bedroom.  That is the embarrassing part.   So here is Belle and me, sans bra.






Sometimes, Jack likes to peek out the window.




Next is a white elephant gift I made. A bra purse (not the one I forgot previously) that I  stuffed with a pack of gum and $5. It was a hit.




 Over here you will see that Finn loves nursery and his nursery leaders love him as evidenced by the fact that after he was sick last week, a few days later he received a coloring sheet, some stickers, and a note from his leaders in the mail.  He was thrilled.





It's been really cold here lately, so Finn has requested a blanket in the car.  This is how he prefers to ride around town.




The last but not least stop on our tour is the headband Ava made me after figuring out finger knitting from a youtube tutorial. I love it!