Busy past few months!!!!

Ok, so the past few months have been sooooooo busy that I haven't updated this blog since Brian's birthday. First off, we sold our house. It went under contract at the end of March and we closed on it today!!!! We are officially renters. We will be renting our home for a month from the buyer and then we will move into John's parent's home for a month all to await our new beautiful home. We won't close on that one until June. I can't wait!!! Easter was a lot of fun. We spent it at John's parents house with wonderful family. Brian was sort of a grumpy butt but that's OK. Big news about Brian!! He's an expert walker now. He took his first steps about mid-way through his 12th month and has been practicing like crazy. Last week he finally started walking full time. Before, he would walk and then crawl and then walk again. Now he doesn't even consider crawling as an option. He's so sweet and he just amazes me more and more everyday. One other pretty cool development. John's sister, Magan, got married! We now have a new member of our family, Coe. Welcome to the family new brother. Here are some pics of the past few months.

Brian walking around with no pants!!

(always carrying blankie though)

He loves his wagon. It was present from Santa and he can finally ride in it.

He loves hats! He will wear them all day and not cry about it at all.

His first black eye! On Easter he fell and hit mommy's head. He whacked his eye good and it got a lot worse than this.

Always getting into mischief! I think every kid finds the toilet paper at least once.

Our new house!!

Here are some pics of our new house!!! It doesn't look like much now but wait till June. If you haven't figured it out, we are having a new house built in South Aurora. It's sort of over by Southlands Mall. We love the area. It's gonna be great. These pics are sort of old now. John went to the electrical walk through on it yesterday and now they will do the insulation by tomorrow and start the drywall on Monday or Tuesday. All of the electrical and plumbing is now in!! This is a very exciting stage because once the drywall goes up, they are able to give us a fairly precise timeline on when we can move in and even schedule closing. We are really obsessed with our new house. We go there to see it almost everyday and usually leave sort of disappointed because nothing much had been completed from the day before. We try to wait at least a couple of days in between going to see it. Hopefully the pics are clear but it's hard to take pictures of a framed out house.

This will be our family room. The pic was taken standing in the kitchen.

This is a pic of the stairs from the entryway of the house. The hallway to the right leads to our family room, kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom.

This is our formal living room and formal dining room.

Another picture of our stairs. We like them a lot!

Here is the outside of the house. This is not the color. It will be colonade (whatever color that is). We actually didn't get to pick the color of the house due to that already being picked when we bought it. Kathie (John's mom) is also in the pic. =)

Brian's 1 year pictures

1 year old

Brian's 1st birthday was more like a 4 day event! It was so much fun! On Saturday, we were at my mom's house and my sister, Bri, and her two boys, Jack and Max, came into town from Grand Junction. Brian always gets such a kick out of playing with other kids.....especially kids that are older than him. On Sunday, we had his 1st birthday party. Between my family and John's, there was over 20 of us so we kept it within the immediate family due to space. Brian seemed to be very overwhelmed with the amount of people and noise in his house. He had fun though. His party theme was cars because he loves them so much right now. We had tons of food and tons of family. John and I had a blast and are so thankful for such a wonderful family. Brian received toys, clothes, and money for his college fund. He didn't seem too interested in the birthday cake. I'm not sure why except that he may have been full from dinner. The next day, Monday, we went to Casa Bonita with two of my sisters and 5 of Brian's cousins. The only cousin missing was little Isaac but he is only 5 months old so I have a feeling he didn't feel left out. Sorry Isaac. We did miss my youngest sister, Sarah, though. It wasn't quite complete without her. Anyway, Brian had a blast watching his older cousins play and going through Old Bart's scary cave. John said his eyes were so wide the whole time. He also rode the train at the end and loved it!! On Tuesday the 23rd, his actual birthday, John and I wanted to spend special alone time with him so I took the day off of work. We had pancakes for breakfast which Brian loves and then we took him to the Denver Aquarium. He had fun just being out and John and I loved it. We had lunch at the restaurant and then went through the exhibit. Last, we went for dinner at the home of our good friends, Jenni and Mark. Needless to say, Brian's 1st birthday was a blast for all three of us. We look forward to many, many more. I can't believe I no longer have a baby. He's a toddler now. Let me tell you, toddlers are so much fun!

The three of us at the Aquarium. We couldn't get Brian to look at the camera.

Brian at his birthday party.

He enjoyed his cake for a minute.

Brian opening up presents with his cousins. The cousins opened more than he did.

Brian preferred to play with his new cars over opening presents.

My boy is 11 1/2 months

Ok, so I've been a slacker and haven't updated this in a while. Brian is actually less than 2 weeks from being 1 year old!!!! OMG!!! He is the absolute light of our lives and we adorc him. He is not walking yet but very close. He is cruising all the furniture and pushing off to stand on his own. He's becoming very brave. Within a month or two he will be walking for sure. He's an olympic crawler, though, and can get where he wants to go very quickly. He has 4 teeth and looks so goofy sometimes. He now makes a face where he scrunches up his nose and eyes when he is smiling. Kind of like the pic below. Lily is finally starting to like him a little bit more because he has discovered how to feed her all of his food. That's a lot of fun, let me tell you!!! Well, the next update will be when I no longer have a baby on my hands but a crazy, energetic, wonderful, perfect toddler. Can you tell I love him more than life itself!!!??? Enjoy the pics.

Bath Time

So sweet in his baseball hat!

Into everything.

Brian gets stuck all the time.

John's 30th!!

We celebrated John's 30th birthday this year! Wow, he's getting old........at least until August when I turn 30! John and I celebrated alone last week by going to The Melting Pot and to a movie. My sweet niece came to babysit. The following day, John and I went to get a massage and then to breakfast. That was John's first massage and he isn't sure what he thinks about them yet. Then, on his actual birthday this past Sunday, we went to a restaraunt called Fox and the Hound and met up with about 30 of John's closest friends. Yah, that's ridiculous, right!?!? He always was a social butterfly! Anyway, it was a blast. Here are some pics from that crazy night.

I ordered John a "beer tower" which basically was several beers in one large glass. All I was trying to do was order him a pitcher of beer to share with his friends and this is what they brought.

John, Ryan, Christopher, and Joe

Our good friends Ryan, Brittani, Jen, and Ken decided to decorate the car for John's 30th. It was my car though!!!! Thanks guys!

John in his 30th B-day crime scene tape!

Me and my 30 year old hubby!

First Christmas and 10 month old baby boy

Brian had his 1st Christmas and he is 10 months old now. Christmas was fun for John and I but Brian pretty much had just a regular day. Well, aside from him getting mad at us because we kept trying to make him open presents and get stuff out of his stocking. We spent the morning at our home with Brian and then went to John's family's home for the rest of the day. Christmas Eve was spent with my family. Brian got a big red flyer wagon from Santa this year and he loves it (although I think John loves it more)! Also, he is 10 months old now and growing like a weed. He is pulling himself up to standing and starting to figure out how to walk around the furniture. He's still new at that though. He was teething all through Christmas Eve and Christmas so he's been very grumpy lately. That tooth on the top looks so cute though. Here are some Christmas pics for you to see.

Brian with his new wagon from Santa.

Of course, he is eating the paper instead of opening his present!

Look at him posing for the camera. This is the new hat Aunt Liz made. So cute!

Again, eating the paper!

He loves his new tonka truck!

Christmas is coming!!!

Christmas is coming in a few weeks and it will be Brian's first. We are excited for it although Brian has no clue what is going on. He does stare at our Christmas tree every now and then and has really been trying to get the ornaments and lights. He has gone to see Santa twice now. The first time was at my work Christmas party and the second time we took him to Bass Pro Shop. John was more excited about that than anyone. Aunt Mag took some great Christmas pics of him also. Merry Christmas everyone!!

OK, so before you see some cute Christmas pics, John wanted everyone to see our little "camo" boy. He's a little hunter like his daddy.

Brian with Santa at Bass Pro Shop. You can't see her but Lily is laying at Santa's feet also.

Mommy and Baby B waiting to see Santa.

We are all visiting Santa at my work Christmas party. Brian wouldn't stop staring at him. So cute!!!

Sleigh ride for Christmas!

9 months old

Baby B is 9 months old now!! Wow, I can't believe in 3 months I will be throwing his 1st birthday party. Brian is doing so good. He got his first tooth this month and is very mobile, although he isn't crawling quite yet. Actually, that's not true. He crawls backward but not forward. For whatever reason he can pick his legs up to move back but not forward. He gets around by rolling and pushing himself everywhere and all the while getting very frustrated because he can't crawl. He can even sit up from his tummy to his bottom like an expert. He also loves to stand and play at the table or couch but again he hasn't figured out how to pull himself up yet. He's trying though. One thing Brian has taught me is he does things at his own pace and not a minute faster. We can't rush him. It doesn't matter how much we work with him to teach him all of these neat things, he will do it when he is ready!! He's definately stubborn like his daddy!! Here are some great pics of him from this past month.

Brian and Lily Bear

All bundled up for a walk in the cold.

Hanging out under the laundry hamper.

HALLOWEEN

Brian had his first Halloween yesterday. He is only 8 months so he has no idea what's going on..... but mommy does. I took him to my work on Friday. Our Chief Judge allowed us to bring our children and have a little Trick or Treat at the office. I just wanted to show off my sweet boy. He didn't fit well in the stroller with his main costume so I found his cute camo vest and made him dress up as a little military guy or maybe he looks more like a little hunter, like his daddy. Then we went to my mom's on Saturday and he went Trick or Treating to 3 houses before he was done with the whole thing. I think he momentarily hated me for putting him in his Pluto costume! Overall, he cooperated very well for having no idea what was going on.

Military boy or little hunter, who knows??

My little Pluto

Pluto with two of his cousins, Cody (a Jabba Walkie) and Miquela (a vampire)