Easter

We had a wonderful Easter!! Our church offered an 8am service that day so that guests/newcomers/etc. would have room in our normal 2 morning services. Worked out great for us as Coleman was already up at 7. We got him fed, all had breakfast, dressed, and out the door by quarter 'til 8. We put Coleman in nursery (which before Easter Sunday he hasn't made it through an entire service yet...don't get me started on that one...), but on this wonderful, glorious, Sunday - HE MADE IT!!  And just in the nick of time did we make it back to him to catch his fussy stage right before nap time =) We were thrilled to sit through an entire service together. I'm so glad we got to as well because the message was fantastic and just what I needed to hear that day.

Tuckered out from making it through nursery the whole time!

 
We got home and little man got to open up his Easter basket (not sure how all that will work out yet in the future, bunny - no bunny, etc.) Anywho...he was a little fussy before opening it so that is the reason for the red cheeks and watery eyes. He loved the spoons the best as well as the Easter grass!

My parents came down from Holland and we met up with Justin's parents for lunch. This is where we decided we were going to pay for lunch and announce that we were debt free to them! (So Exciting!). However, as Justin was says "So the reason we wanted you all to come to lunch today..." My mom started getting really excited as she thought we were going to tell her we were expecting baby #2 (and we are NOT by the way). So we had to stop our big announcement to let her know that that indeed was NOT happening at this moment.... sigh.

 Coleman LOVES his Grandad

Playing Peek-a-Boo with his Easter Basket from Grandmom and Grandad

Then we just enjoyed the beautiful day as a family, relaxed and spent some much needed time outside (as our weather has been rather gloomy lately). My dad took some great family pics as well!

 Everyone is "SO big" in our family!!

 Coleman is learning to stand on his own!

 

Live Like No One Else

For the past 34 months, Justin and I have been working very hard to get to this point.
And I am SUPER excited to announce that...


WE'RE DEBT FREE!! (except for our home)


We got on to Dave Ramsey's (Debt Snowball) plan in June of 2008 when we first got married. Learning how to live on a budget was interesting at first but now I wouldn't have it any other way. We have had to sacrifice doing fun things with friends, not going to certain places, not eating out because it "wasn't in the envelope"....but 34 months later (almost 3 years) we have finished paying off all of our debt. A total of $36,000. We started with 6 different debts and we now have 0!!


The past 10 weeks Justin and I have had a wonderful opportunity to teach Dave's Financial Peace University class at our church. We have a small group of 9 people and we are really enjoying teaching Dave's principles about money and finances. We began to get more and more motivated from teaching the class to pay off the rest of our debt so we tweaked some things in our budget to make it happen. At the beginning of teaching our class we knew we wanted to try and have our debt paid off during the 13 weeks and with 2 weeks to go...we did it! It felt so good last Friday to make that final payment on my student loan (Good bye Sally-Mae!!) What a great feeling to know that we don't owe money to anyone (except our house of course)....we are excited for the opportunities this is going to give our future and we are especially excited for Coleman because we have changed our family tree! Now on to Baby Step 3, then 4-7!!


Here is a picture of the last 5 links on our "debt" chain. We had different paper chains representing each debt and we'd take off a link (each representing a certain amount) as we paid off our debt. We hung them in our bedroom so we could see the progress and stay motivated. The last few weeks we brought the chain out into our main living area (kitchen/living room) and hung it up so we could really see our progress and stay focused!! Can you see the HAPPINESS??

The Many Faces of Coleman

Snap - Crackle - Pop

(not my own)

I made some rice krispie treats this evening for dessert. I have a problem when it comes to rice krispie treats though....I CAN'T STOP EATING THEM! They were made at 5pm and it's now 6:45 and I've consumed about a quarter of the pan already....I'm sure by this evening they will be at least half gone and for sure all gone by tomorrow. Justin has only had one square and I've taken care of the rest. I justify eating them at a high rate of speed because they don't keep well if you keep them around for a few days.  I think they only have a "counter shelf life" of a day and a half (at least in my head they do!) wouldn't you agree?

Maybe this is why I shouldn't keep marshmallows, butter, and rice krispies in stock at my house...

All Things New...

I feel so blessed to have such a happy baby. So many people tell me "what a happy boy you have"....or "he is a really happy baby"....and you know what? He IS a VERY happy baby! We are so lucky. The only times Coleman really fusses and gets upset is if he gets hurt, is tired, or hungry. I can't complain.  I was watching him play today and was just amazed at how many new things he is able to do lately and how many new things he is discovering. It's so fun to watch him figure things out....like today....we've been working on "SO BIG!" with him since he was a baby (and even read a wonderful book about it too that is one of his favorites). Well, Justin was home for lunch today and we started asking Coleman "How big are you?" and he puts his arms up in the air!!! =) YAY!! It seems like so many new concepts are "clicking" for him....just 2 days ago he caught on with how to wave too!

Here is a precious little video of his new "trick"...ENJOY ('cuz we are!)

Beautiful Weekend

We were super blessed with some beautiful weather this past weekend. Justin and I were also very fortunate to have absolutely NOTHING on the weekend agenda....so we took advantage of it and spent time relaxing, getting some misc. things done around the house, relaxing some more, and spending time as a family. Here are just a few pictures from our beautiful weekend...


Saturday, we took a walk around the farm with Coleman and Harley

Some wonderful friends of ours are going to be gone for a few weeks and lent us this amazing toy their daughter uses (who is Coleman's age)....Coleman LOVES it! Thanks "J" family!

Sunday we took Coleman to the park for the first time to try out the swings...as you can see...he LOVED it!

9 Months

WOW - 9 Month old! I can't believe it. Coleman's been here as long as I was pregnant (oh wait...not quite...we'll have to wait 'til 42 weeks!!). Still, I can't believe how fast the time has gone and he has been up to so much lately!!


He got a wonderful report at his 9 month check up. 45th percentile for height and weight (27.5 inches and 20lbs) and 98th percentile for head circumference! We have one smart boy on our hands. I like to think that his adorable cheeks help to balance out the big head.

The day after I did Coleman's 8 month post where I mentioned how I was hopeful he'd be crawling by this post...he crawled!! And now this little man is On The Move! I'm having a hard time getting anything accomplished around the house (which makes me very thankful for the exersaucer to contain him for short periods of time). Coleman is getting to be quite the speedster. He is in to EVERYTHING he CAN'T have and is only interested in his toys for a short amount of time before going off to find something that he is not supposed to have. His favorites are remotes, cell phones, and Harley's toys. Poor Harley...her toys are put up high on a shelf all day so that Coleman doesn't find them and eat them (eeeww). Harley doesn't have as much access to her water bowl either these days as it has to be put down during nap time and mealtimes since Coleman knows where it is and has been found splashing around in it.

Notice how they are "sharing" the toy....eeww

After Coleman figured out crawling he has also moved on to pulling himself up on everything as well! I'm sure he's going to be climbing soon as well. He loves to pull himself up on the sliding door and look outside.

 He loves to pull himself up on the coffee table (which is now completely bare b/c he's into everything and I've had to replace my decorations with Coleman's toys). Lately he has been pushing a toy and "walking" behind it with very little assistance from us....YIKES! Maybe next time I'll post that he's close to walking!

Coleman has got quite an arm as well. One of his new favorite games is to take a ball and throw it around the kitchen and chase it. It keeps him occupied for quite a while and we are very impressed with how well he has the concept of throwing already...he knows to release the ball at just the right time. Maybe we have a baseball player in the making??


Coleman LOVES to laugh these days and has some very cute ones for different circumstances. We heard him do the silliest laugh we've ever heard when Justin kicked one of his balls against the door.



I think Coleman saves some of his best laughs and smiles for his daddy. He LOVES his daddy so much and it is just precious to watch his face when Justin gets home from work and to see those two interact with each other. Melts this mamas heart!

We haven't heard "mama" as often these days, although he still does say it. He also babbles "dada" a lot and our new favorite is when we say "Uh Oh"...Coleman says "Uh". It's so cute! We're still working on the "oh" part with him.

This month has been a challenge for Justin and I in the diaper changing department. Coleman is quick and doesn't like to lay still for very long....making diaper changing quite the process at our house. I have learned to change him in the crawling position, upside down, you name it, I've attempted to change him that way! It's made it very interesting during those "stinky" diaper changes...we've had some interesting stories on these...but I'll keep those to myself and spare you the details.

Coleman has a giant stuffed dog that he adores. He will look at it from across the room....charge at it...and bury himself with a big sigh into the puppy. When we ask him to give his puppy some love he will take off and give the puppy a "hug" or kiss if we as him. It's cute. He also think that he can do this with Harley...to which she has decided that when Coleman comes crawling at her she gets up and moves. Silly dog. Coleman thinks this is a game and begins to follow her around the house (I kinda feel bad that she can't find a quite spot to lay down).

While we're on the subject of dogs...Coleman still adores his 'puppy' (we think it needs a name...but we'll let Coleman decide that when he's bigger). I like to call it the magic puppy because when he gets it at nap and bedtime, he KNOWS it's time to sleep. This has been a huge help in getting him to sleep for his naps and bedtime. He still loves to sleep on his side...but we think he may have found a new favorite position. Before I head off to bed each night, I go in and peek at him (doesn't every mom do this)...just a make sure he's okay, has a blanket, etc. We've been putting a couple paci's in the crib too so that if he wakes up he can find one and go back to sleep (this lovely idea was passed along by a good friend...thanks Amy V.) So when I've been checking on him, I find him in the far left corner of his crib, on his tummy, with his butt in the air....it's SO adorable!

The little man still LOVES his baths. Now with his new ability to crawl he has been enjoying some "birthday suite" time before bath each night where he gets to crawl around the house and play since he'd rather not be wearing clothes anyway. One night he was in a 'bear crawl' position and I was telling Justin to look at the funny position he was in....turns out he was peeing on our carpet!! YIKES...but it was funny. As soon as Coleman hears the bathwater he takes off down the hallway to the bathroom and pulls himself up on the tub to watch it fill up. I'm glad he loves the water so much...we have even been lucky enough to go swimming with some of the babies from our birth class. It's so cute to watch Coleman "swim"...he likes being dunked too!

Another new trick that we have begun to see is that Coleman is learning how to wave! He will open and close his hand towards himself as a "wave" and he's begun to move his wrist back and forth with a closed fist. We're workin' on it!!

Coleman is very good at helping me in the kitchen. He enjoys playing/pulling things out of the cupboards, using some kitchen utensils to help me cook (by mixing things up on the floor), and he also loves helping me with the dishwasher. I DESPISE unloading the dishwasher so I'm training him early to take over this task for me =)When it comes to eating, our Coleman is a champ! He LOVES food and we have been trying lots of new ones this past month and are beginning to try even more this month as well as letting him "self feed" more often. It makes mealtime a lot messier, but it's nice that he can start doing it on his own. I'm so thankful that Justin and I have worked hard to make sure that we are having dinner together each night as a family around the table. It's been fun to have that time together instead of feeding Coleman, then taking turns eating. Coleman seems to enjoy it too!

This one was taken with my phone so the quality isn't that good...but it's still cute!

So many new things have happened this month and I can't imagine all that is going to happen in the upcoming weeks!

Rain Rain Go Away


It's very gloomy here today....makes me think about the Winnie the Pooh show when Christophor Robin says "tut tut...looks like rain" and then Pooh Bear has the whole Hefalumps and Woozles dream...I think it was the "Blustery Day" video, and then they sing the song about "the rain rain rain came down down down". Oh how I miss that show...they were good (mental not to self to find them on DVD to share with Coleman someday). Speaking of Pooh Bear....I, myself am feeling a bit like Eeyore today. Just kinda gloomy and blah - but I think it mostly has to do with the weather. Instead of being productive around the house....I'm blogging about how it's raining outside and I'm about to work on Coleman's 9 month update since it's a few days overdue! Be on the lookout for that post within the next day or so since I still have to upload pictures as well.

Hopefully the weather will decide to turn sunny and warmer soon (hopefully on Friday for my birthday).... Alright...off to write about how amazing my 9 month old is =)