Christmas 2012

We woke up at 8:00AM all excited for Colton to open his presents.  Since Barry wasn't home, we were able to Skype so daddy could watch little man open his gifts and participate in our Christmas morning.  We miss him so much when he's gone!

After he opened some of his gifts and we visited with daddy some, then it was off to Nana's house for Christmas lunch.  This was my content little man before everyone else arrived at Nana's house.........

I couldn't pass up taking a picture of our table centerpiece that mom had, it was beautiful!

When everyone arrived, we ate lunch and boy was it every yummy!  We were all stuffed, there was so much food.  Finally after lunch Colton and Noah were able to open their gifts and then play, play, play.....................................

Thank goodness Nana bought them the exact same gift this year, that way there was no fussing or fighting over who was playing with what toy.  These two cousins act like brothers more than they do cousins, but with only 10 months apart in age, I guess that's what happens.  The boys both received superheroes for their Christmas presents.............Colton had Hulk and Iron Man and Noah had Spiderman.  Those boys played for hours with their superheroes..............

While the adults were visiting, the boys took a nap.  Once they woke up, we then decided we wanted more food in our bellies, so we ate some more, then once we were stuffed, we were ready to take it easy on the couches.  After we visited a little more, we all decided it was time to go home.  We all needed our rest since we had to go back to work tomorrow.  This was our Christmas Day 2012......................wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Our Fun Day

I wanted to get out of the house and do something fun.  I wanted to try a new restaurant and I wanted to go to Dick's Five and Dime Store in Branson, so we headed out last Friday for a road trip.  We ate at Joe's Crab Shack.

Inside, it was awesome where we sat..................right under the shark...............

We ordered some Great Balls of Fire and let me tell you.......they lived up to their name, they were very spicy hot!  Then Colton and I shared the popcorn shrimp and fries.  Mom ordered some calamari and we all tried that as well.  I know........can you believe we tried fried squid?  Well I'll have to say, I thought it was yummy! 

Next, we headed off to Bass Pro for the kids to play.   They shot guns, bow and arrows, drove remote control trucks, sat on 4-wheelers, road the carousel and tried on hats.

They had a lot of fun.  Our day was awesome spent with family.

The Optimus Prime Visit

The night all the family was over at our house with the kids sword fighting, Gabe decided he'd put on Colton's Transformers Optimus Prime Helmet and suprise the kids.  With this helmet you are able to talk through it in a robotic sounding Transformer voice........which is somewhat scary sounding.  He thought the kids would get a kick out of getting a visit from the well-liked Transformer Optimus Prime.

Turns out...................they didn't find it so funny.  They were scared to death when he began to talk.  I wasn't fast enough to get any other pictures of the kids reactions, because they were running scared, crying and screaming...........he had to take the helmet off fast and show them it was just Uncle Gabe.  Then Colton and Noah wanted to try the helmet on themselves, so here are their pictures with the helmet on.

Noah

Colton

My Sister's Visit

Colton has been awaiting my sister and her family coming to visit us.  He loves his cousins, but they live in Oklahoma and we don't get to visit them very much at all.  However, when we do get together, Colton has a blast playing with them.  He particularly talks about his older cousin Patrick.........ALL THE TIME!  He loves Avery, his smaller cousin and Victoria, his older cousin, but there is just something about "HIS PATRICK" that holds a special place.  I think it is because Patrick takes time to listen to him, play and interact with him.  He just eats that attention up!

Everyone came over ot the house Friday night and the kids were putting on a show with their sword fighting.

Victoria was like the rest of us......she just sit back, took it all in and watched them have at it.

Then later we went back to mom's house where the kids were more calm and actually sit down in the floor and played with their toys and each other.  Avery and Colton even hit it off better this time........

After playing all day, Avery decided he'd lay down, watch Colton play and just chill out to relax for a while............CUTE!

They had a really good time together.  The next day when we had to take them back, Colton cried for the rest of the night and part of the next day for "HIS PATRICK".................and all I've heard for the last three days has been, "I love my Patrick...........when are we gonna see Patrick next?"

Colton And Noah

These two cousins love each other so much.  They act like brothers most of the time they are together.  They fuss, they fight, they argue, they tease, they laugh, they tickle on another, they hug and kiss too.  We went out to Tres Amigos for lunch today after church and the boys made each other laugh and also picked at one another, but it all ended in hugs.  Just take a look!

 

Labor Day 2012

Our Labor Day was spent at mom's house this year.  We went over for lunch, visiting and letting the boys drive.  They both brought their own trucks this year.  See below:

They are so cute anymore.  Not only can they carry on their own conversation with each other, but they can also drive around together.  Funny!  Colton loves being close with Noah, so he kept wanting to ride in Noah's truck.  It's funny to me that he would rather ride with Noah than drive his own Gator.

They had a lot of fun together.  Don't get me wrong, their were moments of crying and fit throwing, but they also had a blast!  Most of the time, Noah would be the lead truck, but he kept checking behind to make sure Colton was coming.

He loves his cousin.  At times, they just acted like little old men, they had to stop and show each other what they had in their trucks.  Noah was smart, he would park in the shade.  It was really hot that day.  Colton found that the key his Gator came with actually came out, so he kept pulling it out when he would get out of it to ride with Noah.

They are just funny.  Finally it got too hot outside, so we decided it was time to come in.  Plus the boys needed a nap!  After nap time, the boys played with my new phone.  It had some funny apps on it, so Colton was showing them to Noah and they were both just cracking up at times.  They were both making me laugh, so I had to snap some pictures of them having such a good time in the chair together.  They were simply hilarious to watch.

 

We finally went home and my two boys got to get in some snuggle time together before daddy had to go back to work.  We already miss daddy!

Our Silver Dollar City Outting

Colton and Noah were such the little troopers on our outing to Silver Dollar City yesterday.  Colton found some new favorite rides and Noah found some new rides altogether.  When we first arrived, Gabe wanted to ride Wildfire.  He convinced Ashley to ride it with him, then he swayed me to ride it with him next.  The boys patiently waited for us to finish the ride.

After that ride, all of our tummies were a little upset, so we took off for something more calm, in which we found the good old standby, a family all time favorite, The American Plunge.  Colton was ready to ride.  So him, Nana and Uncle Gabe all went to get in line while me, Ashley and Noah went to observe in the surveying part where the log they are riding in climbs five stories and the drops them down the big hill of a slide plunging into tons of water where they get drenched.  And did they ever get drenched!  Holy Toledo!

What really impressed me the most was both the boys rode Fire In The Hole and loved it.  Ashley and I were trying to talk the kids out of wanting to ride it because we thought they would be scared to death.  Neither of the boys like the dark and we didn't think they would like the roller coaster drop down parts, so we had their best interest at heart................or so we thought anyways.  Instead, the opposite happened, when the ride ended..............there were NO tears..............there were NO scared little boys.............there were actually two little boys that were ready to ride it again.  Who would've thunk it?

Gabe and Ashley then rode the Powderkeg.  This is another roller coaster that Gabe thought he just had to ride.  It goes from 0 to 53 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds............NO way was I getting on that one, my stomach was still trying to recover from Wildfire.

Finally after the BIG kid Gabe had his fun of riding his roller coasters, we headed off to the little kid rides in Half Dollar Holler.  Colton had to do his infamous run through of the water sprinkling mist under the train tracks while Gabe and Ashley got slushies.

Then we got side-tracked and had to stop and ride the train.

Then we went straight to the Flooded Mine (which used to be Colton's favorite ride).

We finally made it to Half Dollar Holler for the kids.  Noah rode the carousel while Colton climbed and ran around in the treetop fun houses and climbing nets.  Next we were off for more kid rides at the Grand Exposition.  We ran into the Lost River of the Ozarks and I was ready to go.  Colton, me and Ashley decided we'd take our chances at getting soaked.  We had so much fun and Colton got the brunt of the soakedness (don't think that is a real word, but it works).  He was ready to ride it again though, he was such the little trooper.  I was so proud of him, he had a blast.

Next we headed for the Grand Exposition area where Colton and Noah rode the Happy Frogs, Ladybugs and Wings of Wonder.

Then we were off to eat some lunch, we were all starving.  After lunch, we headed to see some shows so our lunch could settle.  We went to the Saloon Show and afterwards Colton wanted some dippin dots and shared with Noah.  How sweet is that, Noah even let Colton feed him his bites.

While they were eating, Gabe somehow convinced Ashley to go back on the Powderkeg........crazy big kids.  While they were riding, we had a little escape artist trying to get out of his stroller.

We then went to the Opera House and listened to the Ball Brothers perform in the indoor air conditioning..........were we ever needing to be cooled off!!!

We then went back to the Grand Exposition area where Colton had to ride the Royal Tea Party (teacup ride) and the Mighty Galleon while Noah had to ride the Racing Regatta and then go back to the Happy Frogs.  Colton threw a crying fit (I know that is so unbelievable) and wanted to ride the teacup ride again, but mama had went over her riding limit, so it was time to stop riding.

We all had a blast though, I'm so glad we went and had our fun-filled day at Silver Dollar City!  We were all able to do something we enjoyed.