Birthday Week and Swimming Lessons...Day FOUR

Swimming Day FOUR

Today was a "so so" day. Colt didn't have a nap and he was tired and hungry. He didn't so much cry as he did gripe. He still did awesome and went under like a champ. Today, we sat the babies on the side of the pool, counted 1, 2, 3...then pulled them into the water and up they came...then you take them back to the wall. Survival mode type drills. Another successful day of swimming under our belt. Will got to join Erin and Brylee for the day. She enjoyed having her daddy in the water too.

Tonight, we had our family night dinner to celebrate my birthday. We went to one of my all time favorite places, Snuffers! Colt got to try a lemon for the first time. He loved it and wanted to keep sucking on it. Blake showed everybody Colt's new trick. He counts 1, 2,3 as if he's going to dunk him underwater and Colt preps himself by closing his eyes real tight and he even gasped!!! It was hilarious! Repetition has really payed off!!!

Thank you Haley for my armband! I love it

Time for bed Colt T...just wait and let me finish uploading my photos...

Birthday Week and Swimming Lessons...Day THREE

Swimming DAY THREE I just have to be a proud mama for a second...Colt did AMAZING Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We started out swim class as usual and went over the same drills as the past few days. The first two times (of holding breath/dunking) Colt decided to trade his cry for just a gripe! I felt that was an improvement. After that, I guess he decided to change his outlook and just go with it. It was great. No crying!!!!!!!!!!! I was so impressed. Blake would say, "ok Colt we are going under, 1, 2, 3" blow up his nose, dunk him, and pass him to me. He came up like a champ and didn't cry at all!!!!!!! I guess the third day is a charm! I was so proud. I just held him up toward all of the audience and said, "do yall see this?!!! no crying!!!" I'm sure they thought I was crazy, but I was so proud!!!!!! Good job Colt!

Birthday dinner with friends

Tonight, about 15 of us met at Cuba Libre in uptown to celebrate my birthday. It was so fun and so great to see everybody! Thanks for coming, I love yall!!

Birthday week and Swimming Lessons...Day TWO

I got to spend my afternoon at the spa thanks to Colt and Blake. They gave me a "day at the spa" for mother's day complete with message, facial and lunch. IT WAS WONDERFUL and I was there for three hours. Then it was off to swimming lessons with Colt!

Swimming Lessons Day TWO

Class today was similar to yesterday. We still worked on holding our breath as well as kicking. Colt has now started to anticipate the "dunk" by closing his eyes on the count of 3. Its sooooo cute! He still cried after coming up, but the last 2 times he did it with NO crying. YAY Colt!! We did a cute little drill where all the parents got in a circle holding our babies and took turns dunking and "swimming" to the next person. By the end of the drill EVERY baby was crying. It was precious. All of the babies are such troopers and in the end it will all be worth it. The teacher said that this is the age (5-6mos) when you need to start the baby with lessons and parent's that "don't get their child's face wet are doing them a disservice." Blake swam with us today and Colt loved it! Colt loves the water and he even has webbed toes! Who knows, he could be the next Michael Phelps.

Erin, Brylee, Blake, Colt

5 Months!

My beautiful boy is 5 months old! He is changing everyday and is always doing something new everytime I turn around.

So far Colt...

* has mastered all of the stage one veggies. Green beans, peas, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes etc...

*loves his jumperoo!

*still sleeps all night

*talks to his "froggie" saying "oh oh oh"

*Cracks up laughing when you say "wash the spider out" during the itsy bitsy spider song

*is very tickleish

*takes a great 2-3 hour nap in his crib

*has been pacifier-less for over a month!!

*loves his bath time

*loves social interaction. He will look at whomever is speaking and give them his full attention

*focuses when you read him books. Doodad said he read Colt the same book 5 times in a row with Colt's full attention each time.

*anticipates actions

*is starting to recognize my signs (I think) :) Everytime I take him out of his highchair, jumperoo, swing, car seat etc... I sign "out." Colt was crying in his jumperoo and I said Colt do you want "out?"( while signing "out") and he stopped crying and smiled with his arms raised. He has done this a few times. When I sign "jump" he laughs and jumps

*stands proud when you stand him up complete with a big grin and arms spread out wide

*Everytime he gets put on his back he rolls to his belly and stares up at you.

*Puts his feet and knees under his belly and pushes his rear in the air. This accomplishes nothing for him, but its good excercise and looks funny :)

*grabs your face when you get close to his face.

*He is a master hair puller

*He HATES being held like a baby. He likes to be held outward so he can see.

*loves being outside

*LOVES music. Anytime he is fussy, I can put music on and he immediately stops

*He loves Papaw's guitar playing

*does great in church while we sing for the first 30 minutes...after it stops he just starts talking outloud. So he may get to start going to the nursery :)

If any of you can think of something I left out, let me know. I'd like to document it on here

Birthday Week and Swimming Lessons...Day ONE

***sidenote***I was reading over yesterday's post (after it was posted) and I mistakenly implied that Blake doesn't open doors for me or treat me like a lady. Haha! We all know that is NOT true. I MEANT that he doesn't open CAR doors for me. Sorry babe. You know I love you long time :) You're my BFF for life and I couldn't live without you.

Hurricane Harbor

For birthday week day ONE, Lanna and I headed out to Hurricane Harbor for our first annual trip! I used to go there all the time when it was called "wet n wild" and I haven't been since I was 16!!!! It is one of my favorite places and I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we had today! I felt like a little kid again. We got there right when it opened and stayed about 4 hours until it was time to go get Colt for swimming lessons. We rode almost every ride and ate my FAV...Papa Johns pizza!!! Things are a tad different since the last time I was there. They now offer wrist bracelets with bar codes to rent lockers as well as paying for food. We rented a locker and to open it all you do is wave your wrist band in front of a sensor and your locker pops open! No key to carry around! And to pay for food etc...all you do is pre pay and they add the balance to your wrist band. So when we got food, we never had to go to the locker and get our money, they just scanned our wrist band. Coolest thing ever!! I will be back...soon! Who's with me?!

We all know how I collect the hand painted Lolita wine glasses...Lanna gave me the WILD CHILD one for my birthday!! I was so surprised and shocked that she found it! I love it Lanna...Thank you thank you!!! It is now safe and sound in my china cabinet with the rest. I love birthday week :)
Swimming Lessons Day ONE

Today was Colt's first day of his week long swimming lessons. A sweet friend of my family has taught swimming lessons for YEARS. She was the one that taught me how to swim and now she gets to teach Colt. Colt had a good audience today as Blake, Yaya, Doodad, Gertie, and Poppy came to watch. It is a "mommy and me" type class and he is the youngest out of 5 other babies in his class. He did very well. Today we learned the basics...hold breath while going under water. Basically, you blow in there face and it makes them gasp and hold their breath. You then dip them under real quick. Colt let me know very quickly that he didn't think it was awesome. Next, you flip them to their tummy and lay their chest and head on your shoulder, grap their legs and kick them. Lastly, you go to the wall and put their hands on it like they are pulling them self up on the wall. All of these repetitious excercises help them grasp the idea of holding their breath and swimming to the wall like if they were to fall in etc... I can't wait for tomorrow's class :)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world!!! When Colt was about 2 months old, I took this picture of him sitting on dad's shoulders. It turned out to be his favorite picture and keeps it by his side of the bed. My mom had a wonderful idea to have the picture put on canvas. It turned out great and I gave it to him for Father's Day. Thanks dad for being a good example, wonderful father, encourager, friend and the one I always call for advice. You give the best hugs and your sense of humor always cracks me up. You make the best banana pancakes (from scratch) EVER and they wouldn't be complete without your crispy bacon and a glass of milk!!!! Some memories I will always cherish are how we would always say our goodnight prayers together and you would rub my back and my head as we talked about the day. This continued until I graduated from high school and left for college. You always prayed the same prayer over me that I would grow up to be a christian mommy and a christian wife. I say the same prayer over Colt. You always prayed for my future husband and I always thought that was a little strange when I was in elementary school, but I went with it :) and now I get it. I married somebody who is practically your twin. So that should tell you something. You both are crazy-obsessed with hunting and you both are KILLER salesmen and wonderful husbands and dads. We always had date night once a week. You opened the car door for me (and still do) and showed me how a man should treat a lady. Blake doesn't do that so maybe you could take him on a date and show him how :) I kid. I kid!! I could go on and on...Dad, I love you so much. Thank you for being the wonderful christian man that you are. Even though I'm all grown up, married and have my own little family...I still watch you and you still are a good example :)

This was also Blake's first father's day. He got hung up at the lake and didn't make it in for church or lunch (sigh) but once Colt and I got home...They played and enjoyed the rest of the day together.

Blake showing Colt how to throw rocks into the lake...They love eachother

SURPRISE!!!!!!!...

When Colt and I got home, I was unloading my car and saw that Blake had 3 wrapped presents in the living room. He told me that they were my birthday presents and he wanted me to open them now. I hesitated because I like to open my presents on my birthDAY which is not until next Sunday. So I told him I'd wait and he said I needed to open them now. So I did...and boy am I glad I did because low and behold he got me the fabulous CANON REBEL camera!!!!!!!! Complete with a 4 gig SD card, an extra super awesome lense and carrying bag! I am still shocked and charging the battery as we speak. My in laws have this camera and I'm obsessed with it. I walk around the lake with it around my neck like I'm a tourist. I feel like such a big girl with a mommy camera :) Just talking about it makes me excited! It was such a surprise...All I asked for was a new armband for my iPhone because my other one broke and putting it in my sports bra while running is getting old :) Thanks babe for the gift that will keep on giving. Its possible that I will use this camera for a lifetime. Yippee Skips!!

Living the Life

Hello Blog people! I'm sorry I've been so MIA, but last weekend at the lake didn't stop at the weekend! Colt and I didn't feel like coming home...so we didn't! We are still here and enjoying our home away from home.


Joe(Poppy/Blake's dad) caught a HUGE fish last weekend! Tammy and I were taking our daily 40 minute walk with Colt in his stroller when I got a phone call from Blake saying, "Dad caught the mother bear fish, get the camera and come to the boat house." We anxiously arrived at the boat house to see Joe with his EIGHTEEN pound striper!!!!! They had been fishing for a while and Joe was telling Blake that he wanted to come in for coffee and breakfast. It wasn't 15 seconds later that he got a bite from a fish that would be big enough to mount on his wall in a few months! Good job Poppy!

Here is Colt napping with his "softie" in the stroller while we drool over Poppy's fish!This weekend my Mom and Dad joined us for the weekend. Aren't they cute?!!! Like I said before, my goal of this summer is to become a super good skiier. Don't get me wrong, I get up every time! BUT...I want to be able to go outside the wake, come back in, go out of the other side and come back in. Sounds simple? yes I know...Blake makes it seem soooooo easy! Let me show you what it looks like when I'm up....

AND when I fail to cross back over the wake....DANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You'd think since we practically live here I'd be a pro....NOT SO MUCH! You can only take a beating so much before you have to wait a few days to do it again!

My Dad's brother, Paul, and my 2 cousins came up to fish with Blake. They had so much fun and I just love this picture because Brian was scared to touch the fish and Blake pushed him in between all of them!!

Here is my favorite picture of the week!!! Here is my 9 year old cousin Brian tubing... and he still held on after this!!!!
Since Colt and I decided we didn't want to come home at the end of the weekend...We had no choice, but to go wash our clothes at the WASHATERIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was a FIRST for me. It was not as bad of an experience as I had anticipated and I'm actually wearing the clothes washed as we speak! Here is a picture of Mine & Colt's first trip to the laundromat...HAHAHAHA. let's just say we might not be back :) My mom came back up this past Tuesday....I'm loving that she's here. She is a great shopping partner, baby sitter, porch sitter, reader, and friend!

If you are wondering how Blake could survive without Colt and I...Well, he can't. He has been commuting from here to work everyday. Its AWESOME! Its only about 20 minutes further than usual and its worth every minute!!!!! We wonder why we don't move here...I swear we might! Seriously...This is why we almost live here!!!!!!!!!!!
So Next week starts my BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! Every day next week I'm doing something fun and special leading up to my actual birth DAY...as well as Colt having swimming lessons everyday next week!!!!!!!!!!!!! So fun... expect maybe more than one post a day next week!

Until then...I may get tanner and ski better! LOL...LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!