On Saturday Chris and I spent the WHOLE day in Lake Havasu City attempting to by a new family car. We had gone a few weeks ago to look at the 2013 Toyota Highlander and also wanted to see the 2014 because they were redesigned and supposed to be just a bit bigger but there were none on the lot. They let us know when the 2014 came in and so we went to check it out. I was pretty convinced we'd just get the 2013 because we could get it a lot cheaper but the redesign was significant enough to make a considerable difference in adding interior space. After checking out both models we realized it would be difficult to fit anything (like a stroller, for example) in the cargo space with the third row of seats up. So after lots of haggling and being completely annoyed with the car salesman we got (sufficiently close to) our price. (I'm so glad we have no plans to buy a new car anytime soon. I hate the games) They indicated their complete lack of interest by declining give us any significant for my Isuzu as a trade-in, so Chris drove the Rodeo home and I got to drive the new car home.
Sunday morning we decided to take a drive so the boys could test it out.
Chris was excited and he loves all the little gadgets it comes with.
Liam was pumped and told us more than once that "this is a cool car"
I'm just happy I don't have to bend over and kill my back to put the kids in the car anymore. Here is the only picture I took of our new car. We park it in the garage and I keep forgetting to take a picture when it is not two feet away from me. So here's what I got.
I did find a fancy photo of our car on Toyota's website.
The other good news is we put a price on the Isuzu parked it on an empty lot on Stockton Hill and posted it on Craigslist for about a total of three hours and we had four people call about it and had it sold by 2:30 PM! So Toyota can take that! HA!
On a side note, we had the Jacobs over for dinner. These two little guys were having a staring contest with each other and it was CUTE!
Over the last couple of weeks we have had a few play dates with the Jacobs. The kids seem to do really well together except sometimes Liam gets a little too excited that the kids are all over and he ends up in a timeout at some point during the playtime after getting too rough.
I love how much the kids LOVE sand.
Liam and I made some cookies the other day. He LOVES to make cookies, especially when he gets to get his hands in the dough. While we were mixing the batter Colin decided he needed to help too. He pushed the chair over to the counter and climbed right up. He was mostly excited to have utensils to chew on though ;)
Colin and daddy did a little reading recently
We had another play date. Colin enjoys sitting in people's laps, especially his brother's but Liam is not a fan and can only handle it for a brief moment. Well, Colin decided to test his luck with Cason and he didn't seem to mind.
Last Friday night (Jan 10th) we ate dinner with G&G and when we got in the car Liam expressed his desire to stay the night with his grandparents. We decided to let him so we packed up his overnight bag and he waited at the window for them to pick him up.
He was SO excited! We waited up thinking we might get a phone call but he stuck the whole night through and had a great time.
Colin has been into eating apples. If you open the fridge he will grab one if it is in sight. He sat in his daddy's chair watching a show and eating his apple. He was perfectly content.
The boys had races last weekend too.
They also rode together
I love them
Liam has been into playing catch in the evenings lately. Basically, we get Colin to bed and then play with Liam for another 5-10 minutes. He gets crazy. The other night after we had been playing a while he decided to pretend he was a dog and he grabbed his ball and took a rest. Ha! He's a silly guy.
One night while daddy was at his basketball game, we were playing ball and he came up to me gave me a hug and told me "You're the best girl ever, you win the prize" It melted my heart. I love playing with my little guy.
The boys found out how cool it is to be swung in a blanket by their daddy. They started arguing over who's turn it is, mainly Colin since he doesn't understand yet, and then Liam would get upset that he was hogging his turn. Anyway mom got involved and both boys laid on the blanket while mom and dad swung them. They thought it was the greatest thing on earth!
Colin has really gotten into pretend play. It has happened way earlier than Liam but I think that is because he sees his brother. One of his favorite things is pretending to be a dog. He will have his stuffed Biscuit dog and crawl around barking and it is hilarious. He even put Biscuits mouth to his straw cup as if to pretend Biscuit was drinking from it. He also pretends to eat the play food from the kitchen when his big brother makes him something. And he likes to talk on the phone :)
After nap show together. They really do love each other.
I feel like I have a thousand things to jot down so I can remember all the little things my boys do and say so here it goes.
COLIN
1. Colin is so much fun lately. He can point to his head, nose, ears, toes, etc and finds a lot of joy in doing it.
2. Colin is REALLY into animals lately. He loves the tractor with animals Santa brought him but mainly so he can carry the animals around with him. We have to practically fight him to put them down before he goes to bed so lately I let him fall asleep with them and then remove them from the crib after he falls asleep (they are a hard plastic).
3. Colin loves making animal sounds. He does a lot of them but the best is his impression of the wolf. He closes his eyes and then tilts his head up and make a little howl. It is the cutest!
4. Colin is really making attempts to use his words which is awesome. He says mama, dada, ganpa,(grandpa) gmama, (grandma), Sadie (pronounced "adie"), Yeah, Hi, and "daghn" which is interpreted as "that" and then he points to whatever he is referring too. He can also say Liam and it is the cutest the way he says it. It sounds like "Lum" Here's a little video of it.
5. Colin got his first freckle a while back and it's on his toe.
6. He loves to play trucks and do anything and everything his brother is into. I feel like baby toys/younger toys were pointless for this guy because he basically skipped that stage in order to play more with his big brother.
7. Colin LOVES to be outside but wants to make sure someone is with him
8. He is still a mama's boy and I am perfectly okay with it :)
9. Colin LOOOVES baths and showers. In the evening if we mention to him that it's bath/shower time, he drops whatever he's doing and runs (lumbers) into the bathroom.
LIAM
1. Liam still says some of the funniest things. The other night Chris looked at Liam and said "Could you be in crazier?" Liam thought a second and then looked up and said "I could" in a nonchalant voice.
2. The other day we were hanging at my mom's house and Liam threw something, (I am pretty sure it was a ball) anyway it hit Chris who did not see it coming and Liam said "Oh no, I can't believe I did that" and buried his face in his hands. I found it hysterical.
3. Colin has been into flushing toilets lately and one day after Liam used the restroom Colin came right in to flush the toilet and Liam said "Ah Colin flushed the toilet for me, how cute". Seriously where does he get this?
4. Every night we read to Liam and when we get to the last book we always ask "what book is this" and then he responds "it's last book, and then it's lights out" Well, last week I asked him and his response was "Um I suppose it's the last book and I suppose it's lights out" I started busting up laughing and he has been saying this every night since.
5. A couple weeks ago it was pretty cold and the boys were bored so I decided to back the car out of the garage and let the boys play with their trucks. Basically, it just made a lot of room for them to chase each other. It was still a little messy from all the Christmas decorations and other stuff getting stacked up. Anyway, we had a table and chairs out there and Colin was climbing on the chair when another chair fell over on him. (Nothing crazy he was fine and was not hurt). Liam came running into the house and said "Mama rescue Colin!" I went running out and saved the day. I am just glad Liam came to me first and cares about his baby brother.
6. Liam has always loved having us read to him and has made quite a few attempts of reading himself but the other night was the best yet. He was into the Baby's first Bible book and I had just read it to him and then he wanted to read it back to me. He basically memorizes the story and he's super cute reading it.
7. Liam no longer wears pajamas. Every night he basically strips to his underwear and bundles in his blanket. I guess I no longer need to buy him PJ's.
8. The other evening I was getting Liam ready for bed and Chris was sitting on the couch. Liam went up to Chris and told him "If you want to pick a movie to watch, you could pick a kids movie, or this one, or this one, it's okay" (as he pointed to them). It was like he knew we were planing on watching a movie once he was in bed and wanted to let us know it was okay to do that.
New Year's Day we went over to G&G Snay's for dinner. Colin was being so funny. He kept making silly faces and was just being a goof ball.
Then he gave me this face
And he thought it was pretty funny.
Later he decided to make friends with the cat. Grandma was petting her so she stayed put though usually she runs from Colin.
Last Saturday we took a trip to Havasu so Chris and I could take a look at a more family friendly car. G&G Casson came along and took the boys to the park while we were test driving. We eventually met up with them and the boys were having a blast.
Sweet boy
Liam found a friend and was having fun running around with him
We left the park and went to grab a bite to eat because Colin was starving and the rest of us were about ready, too. When we finished it was time for some ice skating. Lake Havasu has a portable rink out from Nov to Jan. I have never been ice skating in my life and really wanted to try it. We kept talking about going but never seemed to find a good weekend so we finally made some time.
Liam was excited at first and gave it a quick try but then he was done. Colin wanted to try once he saw Liam out on the ice. We got him ready to go and he thought it was pretty cool.
Happy little dude
Colin's adventures in ice skating
Liam decided to give it one more shot after Colin was done.
He enjoyed it a little more but had more fun watching.
Liam's adventures in ice skating
It was definitely harder than I thought it would be and my skating days at Sonic did not prepare me at all. I thought it was night and day compared to regular inline skating. We had fun but only stayed about 30 minutes because the boys were pooped! Liam was so ready for a nap he was asking us to go to the hotel room (which we did not have). They both crashed on the way home and seemed to have an overall great day.
The day after Christmas I got off a little late and picked up food for dinner. This little guy LOVED my milkshake and ran off with it. He was quite the milkshake thief!
I'm pretty sure I already blogged about the musical Disney characters from Christmas, anyway, I got all of them!! I had to go to Bullhead to do it but we have the whole collection. The boys LOVE them and I can't wait to pull them out next Christmas.
On New Year's Eve we were just hanging around the house with no real plans. Then around 2:00pm Jenna called to tell me Shane proposed and they were officially engaged!! I was SO excited. They were in Flagstaff with a few other friends and after I talked with her I brought up the idea of going to Flagstaff for New Years. Chris kind of looked at me like I was crazy but he was on board. I made sure we wouldn't be interfering with the engaged couple's plans, my mom said she would watch the boys, and Sandy and Larry were kind enough to let us crash at their house so we hit the road.
We arrived in Flagstaff around 6:30, ate dinner and then met up with everyone. We went to a bar and played pool basically the whole night which was so nice. It was great seeing everyone and celebrating Shane and Jenna.
Jenna and me
Chris, Shane, and Jenna
The gals. Jenna, me, Johanna, and Becky
The whole gang. It's not the greatest picture but its all I have.
When it got close to midnight we went walked a few blocks to watch the pine cone drop.
The hubby and me
The boys, Joe, Chris, Andrew, and Shane
The gals
We had a great time. Once midnight hit the Marquardts and the Guzmans went home to sleep and tend to the babies. The newly engaged couple and we went back to the bar and played a game of Sorry. Ha! We stayed up until 1:30 am. Chris and I hung pretty well but have not stayed up that late in a VERY long time. Congrats Jenna and Shane! Can't wait for the wedding :)
We started our day by getting ready and heading to G&G Snay's house. Sadie was waiting anxiously for our arrival.
Mama and her boys
Once we arrived we had to wait a few minutes for Uncle Matt and Emily but Liam started in on his stocking from G&G with Aunt Sadie's help
Colin checking out his stocking
The boys each got a construction vehicle from G&G.
Uncle Matt with some new golf stuff. He had to work but could hang out with us until he got a call
Sadie enjoying her volleyball necklace we got her
Liam helped Emily open her presents. He basically tore through his and then went and helped everyone else. He was more about opening than the actual gift.
Sadie has a crush on Captain America so as a joke she got an action figure of him.
Lauren opening up her gifts
Attempt at a family picture
We ate breakfast and then left to go to G&G Casson's
Liam getting started opening his gifts
Grandma and Great Grandma
Colin had dada do the work of opening his presents
Uncle Michael and the boys
Noel and Solara opening up her picture of Michael and Noel.
Sweet boy
Liam really thought his worker glasses were really cool
Grandpa checking out his new mug
Once we finished opening gifts we came home so the boys could get naps. They didn't go to sleep too quickly but they did get their naps in. Once they woke up we went back to G&G Casson's for dinner
One of the kids got a medical kit and Liam went around giving shots to everyone. Here he is with Aunt Sandy
Checking out daddy
Me, my momma, and sister
Kids playing
Matt and Emily
Colin had fun wrestling with Cason and Cason was so sweet to let him.
