Haley can swim, Colby can crawl!

Well summer is officially here. It's HOT! But that means pool time for Haley and she is having a blast swimming this year. Just this past weekend she started swimming without any vest or floaties. She puts her head underwater as well and of course jumping in the pool is now a favorite thing to do. Click the picture below to see more pictures of her swimming.



Haley isn't the only one that enjoys the water. Colby loves it too! His baths at night are filled with joyful screams and splashing. But he also likes hanging out in the pool, where he splashes some more!



When Colby isn't in the water he is now crawling all over the place. He hasn't mastered crawling on all fours yet, but he gets around pretty quick.

Pre-School ends, more soccer, Colby's ready to move

I guess it is time for my monthly post!

Since the last post Haley turned 4. She had a fun day. Started out playing soccer, then had her My Little Pony party with lots of friends and family over to share in the fun. It is hard to believe she is already 4! Time flies. Here birthday pictures are here.

Pre-school has also come to an end for the year (and forever at this particular school). On the last day of class the kids put on a program for the parents. They were so cute. Haley did a terrific job! They shared their daily prayer and sang "We Are the Dinosaurs". I got a few pictures, but my camera was acting up so not as many as I would have liked. Click the picture below for more.



Speaking of soccer she only has one more game left in the season. She has done OK. She has her moments. The past few weeks have been better. She has been more active in the drills. Still has lots to learn. She likes to go about half speed all the time. Click the photo for more.





Colby is now 7 months old, weighs over 20 pounds, and is ready to start crawling all over the place. He spins around like crazy and can move forward a little right now. He rocks really well on his hands and knees, but doesn't quite have it down that he has to move his hands forward before his knees. He has two teeth, both on the bottom. The doctor told us he could start eating table food. He has tried refried beans, some potatoes and recently we gave him some pears. We put the pears in this holder that allows him to chew on the food and get the juice, but no large pieces as it acts like a strainer. He was soaked, but he liked it.



See you next time!

Teeth, swing sets, and Easter Bunnies!

Well Easter has come and gone. But spring is definitely here! Haley had a blast on Easter. Her and Drew played all day in our backyard. They played with bubbles, animals and especially the new swing set! Both sides of the family came over to enjoy the day and it was beautiful! Great weather, not too hot, not too cold. Good food, ribs were the order of the day. And of course great people! The little ones enjoyed a couple of Easter egg hunts and eating the candy.

Speaking if swing sets, Haley is playing on her's just about daily. She loves to go between the glider and the "big girl swing", then play in the little house area and of course go UP the slide! That's right, UP the slide. Colby enjoys the swing set too though. We got him his own swing and he just sits there quietly as he glides back and forth. We know he likes it because he isn't screaming! He is just content and happy.

On Saturday Aleisha discovered that Colby cut his first tooth! His front lower tooth on his right side has broke through. He hadn't really shown any signs that he was about to cut one either. But since the tooth broke he has been drooling and chewing like mad.

Haley's birthday is this weekend, hope to see you there!

Soccer, rolling over, a swingset, and a new mower.

Well it is official, Haley started playing sports! She has started with soccer, playing in a small instructional league. There are 5 other players on her team 2 other girls and 3 boys. She had fun the first day despite it being cold. I took some pictures but wasn't happy with them so I didn't post them. Now thinking that was a bad idea! so I will try to get a couple up soon. Her first "game" was rained out this past Saturday, but hopefully she will get to play this weekend.

Colby has been rolling over like a pro. First he just did it in his crib from his stomach to his back. But now he rolls from his back to his stomach and only does it when he is playing on the floor. He practically spends all his time on the floor on his stomach now. He pushes himself up really high, almost like a full pushup. He also spins around to find his toys or see what sissy is doing.

We bought a new swingset for Haley. It is similar to her other one, just a few changes. I am still going through all the parts and hope to start building this weekend. All the rain we have been getting should have the ground nice and moist for easy digging (yeah right!).

I also just bought a new lawn mower. The push mower has been struggling lately to cut the grass. I have cut it 3 times this year and it has taken me between 2.5-3 hours each time! Way too long. It won't bag the grass, it just gets clogged up. So I searched around for a commercial walk-behind that should last us a long time. I found a company in Winston Salem that sells their mowers directly to the customer so they are less expensive but deliver the same quality. I picked out a 36" model that should cut my yard in about 20 minutes. I am picking it up from their factory on Thursday to save on shipping charges.

Hope everyone is doing well and we will talk to you soon.

Spring is here.

This past weekend was wonderful. We had great weather; temps in the 70s, sunshine, and slight breeze. We were glad to get out of the house and spent most of the time outside. Haley and I played all sorts of games, including soccer, catch, and of course, chase. Colby spent some time is his bouncy seat and his exersaucer. Rowdy chased the neighbor's dog through the fence and Gizmo just liked to hang out in the cool grass. I put up a few of the pictures from the weekend here.

The new computer is amazing. It is fast and quiet! My photography software runs so much better. I am looking forward to finally getting back into the swing of things.

Haley will be starting soccer soon. She is going to be playing in an instructional league through a local church program. I am familiar with the program and the league director as I take the pictures for the league. Haley showed a lot of interest last fall when she went with me to hand out pictures so I think she will have lots of fun.

Colby has been trying out lots of baby food. He didn't care for squash, bananas seem to give him an upset stomach, he LOVES pears and last night he gobbled up some sweet potatoes. He is pretty funny when he eats. He makes a lot of faces and noise. There are some pictures of the faces he makes here. He has also started rolling over. Right now he can only seem to do it while in his crib, which, of course, means that we have to roll him back over to go back to sleep. This is lots of fun at 3 a.m.!

Aleisha has a few tests this week to make sure that her fainting episodes are not something serious. She has an EEG on Tuesday and a tilt table test of Friday. I have to go with her on Friday since she can't drive afterwards.

Colby starts eating food.

So last week was Colby's 4 month checkup. He weighed in at 17 pounds, 9 ounces. We checked Haley's 4 month checkup and she was only 2 ounces lighter! So Colby is not growing quite as fast. He is also a little shorter than she was and his head measures larger.

His Doctor told us to start feeding him food, starting with fruit and yellow vegetables. Aleisha had already picked up some vegetables and squash was the first one he tried. He didn't like it very much. He takes a few bites, but that is all. After a couple of days (to make sure he isn't allergic to anything) we switched to bananas. He likes those much better.

I uploaded a few pictures from the last month or so. You can see them here.

I also bought the parts for a new computer and it is now up and running. Our other computer was too slow for editing pictures and I hated using it. So maybe I can get back on track with photography.

OK, new pics are up!

I finally got to get some pictures loaded. There are not a ton of pics, but lets face it, Colby pretty much does the same thing everyday!

So here are some pictures of the boy from January and February.

And here are some pictures of the kitchen.

Other than that, not much going on. Hoping to have a nice Valentines day with Aleisha, but we'll see how that goes. Haley is going to pass out valentines on Friday in preschool. I think she is excited.

WOW! I have been slack!

OK, so it has been almost 6 months since the last post. SORRY! But I do have a good excuse! Or is it excuses?

So here is what has been going on since August.

- We finished Colby's room.
- Colby was born, October 24, 2008. He was 9 pounds 15.5 ounces and 21" long.
- We put up some shelving in the garage to get everything off of the floor and we now park two cars in it (the S-10 and the van).
- We had Thanksgiving at our new house. Everyone had a good time.
- Christmas came and went. Santa visited our house and read Haley and Colby a story. Haley got tons of toys, some clothes, books, and a new big girl bike!
- We have remodeled the kitchen; new paint, crown molding, under cabinet lights, tile back splash, and some decor. Pictures to follow once we do a few touch ups.
- Colby is getting big! He smiles a lot, gets quite vocal too. He grabs a few of his toys as well. He got to use his new exersaucer that Santa brought last night. We used a blanket to help support him a little. He seemed to enjoy it. Oh yeah, the best part, he sleeps through the night (and has for a few weeks) going down around 8 at night and getting up around 7 in the morning.
- Aleisha's dad passed away a few weeks ago. He was ill from cancer and spent his last few weeks in the hospital on life support. She spent as much time with him there as she could.

So that is what has been going on here. A little nuts to say the least, but we are getting through it. I will try to get some new pics up of Colby, Haley and the kitchen some time this weekend.