Holiday Spectacular

Holiday Spectacular is in the middle of nowhere in Wicksburg, AL. A few of Josh's crossfit friends invited us to go this year. When you drive up it truly looks spectacular, becuase in the middle of nowhere you drive up to 14 million holiday lights...but when you actually get in you can see that there are a lot of light out. It was pretty neat though, Santa and Rudolph were there. They had little fire pits everywhere, a hay ride, a couple of food vendors and other childhood figurines.

As soon as we walked up, Colt had to "wide" on this bull:

This is after we saw Rudolph, he was saying "all gone." Somebody else got a picture of Colt with Rudolph but I also had to talk to Rudolph.

Talking to Santa...found out Josh was scared of Santa too, because he wouldn't put Colt in his lap.

Here he keeps on saying "shoes" to the elves. He's obsessed with shoes...mostly mine:)

A picture of all the crossfit kids. As you see there is not one single girl...I really think it's a crossfit thing to have boys, because it's becoming a trend.

Oh Christmas Tree

I was going to wait until Colt was asleep to decorate, but that just would have been mean:) He was fully awake, but luckily I had my sister's, Rebecca, help me decorate and watch him. I didn't get a lot of pictures because it was just too much to do, but I got a couple. He was so amazed at all the 'balls' on the tree, and the 'shoes' on the little people, and he found a little truck that a squirrel sits on. So what you would here as we decorated for the season (yelling I might add) was "BALL!!", "SHOES", "TRUCK", and of course "NO COLT"! It really was fun believe it or not:)

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent our Thanksgiving in Hope Hull this year on the Farm at Grandma's. Dad, Helen, Ken, Heath, Elizabeth and Mercer were there. We truly has SO much to be thankful for this year. Our little family is healthy, happy and so very blessed:) The weather was wonderful, besides a little wind, we spent a lot of time outside. Here we are in another family photo:



Colt with my Grandmother (his Great-Grandmother) picking flowers.


Hopefully an annual photo of Colt and Dad.


Colt and I hanging out for a short moment on the bench.

Colt riding the horses. He loved them!! He would go up to one all by himself, where you would normally mount a horse, hold up his arms and say "wide." It was great...no fear at all:)

Then we got to ride the tractor...I'm on here for precautionary reasons. We actually grated the dirt road a little. Colt found the throttle lever and put the tractor in full blast mode a few more times than I was comfortable with!! We made it out ok though.

Afterwards for all of Colt's hard work, Dad gave him his first keep...$5! That was easy.

National Peanut Festival

It was a chilly night when we went to the National Peanut Festival, but we couldn't miss out. Nana, Pops, Rebecca, Jessica, Joel, Josh, Colt and I all packed in one car...wow, how did we do that, and off we went to see the lights, animals, rides, games and tractors!

First off, we headed to The Corn Dog man, who is VERY famous around here...the line is usually ridiculous...and he just happens to be our neighbor. Everywhere you go, if The Corn Dog man is there, you better be getting a corn dog and your going to wait for it...it's insane. So...we waited and got one and Colt tore it up! These days, Colt's appetite really doesn't exist and when it does we are all so proud he's finally eating a good dinner. Tonight he ate great and loved the corn dog...definitely born in Dothan, AL where it's a requirement:)

Chowing down on the corn dog and very serious about it.

It's soooo good!

Next we were going to pass by all the carney's and just look, but I saw this little game that was meant to be played by little kids, so I payed the $3 (which is very unusual for me) and let Colt play. To win, all you have to do it take the fishing poll and catch one fish. As soon as I picked up the poll, I knew this was an impossible task for Colt because it was kind of heavy. He took the poll like a champ, took one dip in the pool, lifted his poll and there it was...a BIG fish! So, he got a prize...I was so proud:)

The prize...a ball.

Next, the pony ride. Thanks to Pops this was just as much fun for me as it was for Colt.

Then we went through the petting zoo. I really thought Colt would be scared of all the animals, but as you can see he wasn't at all. We bought carrot chips to feed the animals and Colt went through two bags all by himself. It was so much fun to watch him...

This is one of the maybe 3 pictures we have taken as a family. It's kind of funny:)

We didn't stay long, but had a great time. A special thanks to Pops, Colt absolutely loves him. He put him in several tractors (because this is Colt's favorite thing to do) and watched him most of the time:) THANK YOU!!

18 months

Colt just recently turned 18 months old. How the time passes...crazy. He has been so much fun lately, I realize I say this at every little milestone, but it's so true now:) Communication has been a struggle during his first year and a half of life, but it's really starting to come together now! Everytime he says something that makes sense, I get so excited and say "yes!, that is a ___!!" It's amazing what he learns at daycare, probably mostly from other children his age...because I don't think I'm teaching him anything.

He did great at his 18 month check-up. He actually let the doctor do his thing without any crying/whining/hesitations. He weighed 27 lbs 10 oz and was 32 1/2 inches long, which is somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile. He has consistently stayed there.

His favorite words these days are "ride," "truck," "no," and "mommay." Everytime he sees any type of vehicle he says "truck" and never fails he says "ride." He LOVES to get in any car/truck/tractor/riding toy and play in it forever and will say "ride" over and over, which actually sounds like "wide." Also LOVES the word "no," says it to me, Josh, my sister, the dogs. He also says it to himself in the mirror while he's making faces (sticking out his lips) at himself. And of course loves to call me...it's music to my ears. It sounds a little french when he says it..."mommay." It melts me and hasn't gotten old (yet).

He still is the sweetest thing ever, loves to love on me and sometime Josh:) We couldn't have asked for anything better than him!

From enemies to friends!

Since Canon and Colt spent their first year together 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, they were more like brothers than friends. And brothers fight and really don't like each other (well, not in all cases, but it was in this case). Colt being the little baby was more on the sensitive side and Canon...well lets just say he's wild! So, Colt was a little scared of Canon and Canon knew it:)

A little over six months ago they went their separate ways...Colt to one daycare and Canon to another (not on purpose). Since then, they have seen each other and still for a while Colt was a little weary of Canon. Well, I think things have changed. See this sweet video of the two...love it!

Happy Halloween 2010!!

We took our annual trip to the Moss's for a little Trick-or-Treating (just handing out candy) with friends. The only kiddos there were Canon, Ava and Colt. Colt as you see was a scary skeleton, Canon was a hick biker and Ava was a strawberry fair. We had lots of fun but we were very exhausted by the end of the day. I wasn't planning on going up to any houses to trick-or-treat with Colt, but next thing I knew he was grabbing my hand and heading down the road to see what this madness was all about. He acted like he'd been doing this for years, going right up to the houses and taking candy. We only made it to 3 houses, b/c those little legs take a long time to get places, but still funny!


Very scary skeleton!


But Oh so sweet at the same time:)


Mr. Skeleton, Miss. Strawberry Fairy and Mr. Tough Guy all enjoying a lolly pop.

Ava giving Colt a taste of her lolly pop.

Going on a wagon ride...I'm so surprised this worked out!

Mr. Skeleton found a little Miss. Skeleton later than night:)

Fun night!

Aplin Farms Pumkin Patch

The crew gathered at Aplin Farms Pumpkin Patch this year to see what it was all about. They had a little train ride, hay bale ride where you could pick sunflowers and pumpkins, a corn maze, petting zoo (included donkeys, rabbits, chickens, pigs and cows), food and produce to buy. It was a lot of fun for the kids. The only thing we did was chase our kids around, ride the train and pet the animals (or really just look at them).

Here is a picture of the Yates family with Colt on the Train ride. Cold said "rie" a lot (meaning ride). As Ava sat still between her mom and dad, Colt was all over the place in the cart.

On top of a bery bery scary spider.

Playing with Canon at the bin of pumpkins.

Official photo shoot:

Colt, Julia, Alex and Canon

Pumpkin Patch

This year Rebecca, Colt and I went to the First UMC Great Pumpkin Patch. It's amazing how many pumpkins they have out there and I truly feel sorry for the people that bring them out there...whew! Colt loved all the pumpkins and of course he either wanted to sit on them or pick them up. Luckily there were some small pumpkins that he could pick up.

Riding the pumpkins


Gathering the little pumpkins


Resting after some hard labor


Me and Colt


It's really hard to get a picture of him looking at the camera..this is pretty close.


And my favorite of the day!

Beach trip with the girls...

Okay and two little boys:) A few weeks ago, we took time out of our busy schedules to have some good quality girl family time! Mom, Elyse, Rebecca and I (and two little youngster's - Colt and Troy) were off to the beach. We stayed at my in-laws place at Blue Mountain and it was the perfect weekend to go to the beach...the water was beautiful, weather was great and company not so bad! Here are some pics from the weekend (mostly taken by Elyse):

Colt and Troy...I can't believe how close they are in size!



This picture was taken by Elyse, she does such a great job! Colt loved to play in the sand...Troy on the other hand loved to eat it:)


Colt does not like me holding other kids, so he had to climb in my lap too:)


Troy and Colt taking a bath together. Colt was a little crazy and Troy didn't know what to think of him.


All in all it was a great weekend...maybe next time we need to go without the kids:)

Moving Up...

Soooo sad, Colt has move up a class at daycare. No more Miss. Jessie and Miss. Morgan! Off to Mrs. Sam and Miss. Kaylee. We will miss this class...his first class at daycare:( I got Jessie to take some pictures with my camera on his last day:

Lunch time! Colt is definitely the messiest! He is sitting with Ethan and William.


Kissing William-he will be mad at me for this one one day! But it's too sweet!

Playing with his best friend Preston...Preston also moved up with Colt so they're still two peas in a pod and 2 days apart:)

Pictures from Northview HS games

I knew going to the Northview games this year was going to be a lot harder than last year with handling Colt. It's been tough, but not as hard as I thought. Here's why:

Without me asking, Colt finds his own babysitters. Here he is with a lovely couple, who might I add that I don't know.... Anyway, Colt is sitting in the man's nice stadium seat, while he took the "not as nice" seat, while he and his wife are feeding him boiled peanuts the entire time. The man, kept up with his sippy cup and would give it to him everytime Colt would reach for it. I definitely have to find these people again!

Here we have Nana and Ed playing with the dog puppet:) Kept him entertained for a little while.

Now there's Claire...she LOVES babies, so she was especially interested in Colt and by the looks of it he didn't mind her either! She's going to be a great babysitter!

He was so comfortable with her, he got really sleepy!

Thought I would get Josh in action too:)

He's such a big boy! This didn't last long though:)

Colt after the game...looking at the wide open field.