We're off

Well, I finally took the plunge and switched to new blogger...and so far, so good. Things are going well, I'm keeping extremely busy with Bret and Abby, but everyone's doing well. Bret, at 18 months, is already talking quite a bit, and loves giving kisses to his baby sister. Abby, 3 1/2 months, is just starting to roll over and beginning to babble. They are both so much fun, and I love watching them interact together! Pictures to come soon!

Abby's first Christmas

Abby - 2 months

Bret's second Christmas

Bret - 16.5 months

Abby at 6 weeks

Backtracking - Abby at one month

Precious Baby Abigail

It's A Girl!

Abigail Mackenzie Colton "Abby"
was born on October 14, just 4 days after her due date.
She weighed a perfect 7 lbs. 10 oz., and is just beautiful.
So sorry for the delay in announcing her birth...we have been just a little busy!

It has been a long time!

Wow, are we behind on blogging or what?!? Bret is almost 14 months old now (pictures to come soon) and I have less than three weeks to go till baby #2 makes her appearance! We are so excited! I haven't blogged much lately because between chasing an active toddler all over the place (yes, Bret is walking and running everywhere now!) and being 8+ months pregnant, by the end of the day I just don't have very much energy. This afternoon Matt had to run to the hardware store (he's fixing a leak in the faucet) so he took Bret with him, which has at least given me a little break. Bret is just into everything...I try to babyproof things, but then he has figured out how to climb up onto chairs, the sofa, I even found him on the table a couple days ago! So I have to keep a constant eye on him, and he just hates to be confined (in his playpen or crib) or even in his bedroom with the child gate up. He is just such an active, busy little guy. He's started talking a little too. He says "Mama" "Dada" "Hi" "Oh-oh" and "Ball".
I'd better go rest for a little bit as I know "the guys" will be home soon. I'll try to update more often, especially as the baby's due date approaches!

Bret is one!

Bret turned one on Sunday! Happy first birthday, Bret Andrew!

Looks who's almost one!

Bret loves the water

With summer quickly approaching and hot weather upon us, Bret and I have been spending our days outside in the wading pool in our backyard, or at the "big wading pool" down the street (the community pool). Bret absolutely loves the water. I put his little floatie swim suit on him, and his just loves being in the water with mom. I bring his favorite duckies and boat along for him to play with, and he is in heaven. In the wading pool, he sits on his own and crawls all over the place, and I sometimes sit in there with him just trying to beat the heat, and when we go to the big pool we both bounce around in the shallow end and I keep ahold of him since he'd tip over even though he has floaties on. He likes to crawl around on the steps in the shallow end sometimes too. With me getting more and more pregnant as the summer progresses, I'm only going to get hotter and hotter, so I'm sure we're going to log plenty of hours at the pool. We have air conditioning at home, but we don't like to use it unless it gets really hot just to keep costs down. Okay, that's all for now. Everything is going well with our pregnancy and we're thinking about names for our little GIRL! Have a great weekend!

Here's our little 10-month-old!

20 week ultrasound

This morning I went in to have my 20 week ultrasound done. And we have some exciting news to share...
IT'S A GIRL!!!
That's right, come October Bret is going to have a baby sister! Matt was so excited when they told us, he started high-fiving the tech and the assistant. I was so surprised I didn't know what to think at first. It took a couple minutes for the thought that we are going to have a daughter to really settle in. And then I was just as excited as Matt. Thank you Lord for this precious blessing!

Update on Bret

Bret is doing great after our little scare the other night. He gets his stitches out tomorrow! Which is really a good thing because one has come out already on it's own! If they were supposed to stay in much longer, they'd probably all come out by themselves, because when Bret is in his carseat he likes to rub his head back and forth and that's probably how the first one came out!
My first Mother’s Day was lovely yesterday. Bret gave me flowers and a card and this beautiful necklace with this little boy charm on it and you can get more charms to put on it so when the baby’s born we can get another one for him/her. It was very special. Matt made me breakfast in bed and we went out to dinner in the evening. And Bret was very good at the restaurant, he must have known it was Mother’s Day!

What a night!

Last night after his bath Bret was crawling around the living room playing. He was attempting to pull himself up on the couch, and lost his balance, falling backwards. He hit our coffee table, cutting the back of his head. I immediately panicked, because it was bleeding a lot (apparently heads do) and he was really crying, fortunately Matt was much more calm although still obviously quite concerned about his baby boy. We quickly rushed to the ER, where our poor baby needed five stitches! And believe me he let us all know he was not happy about that! We stayed for a little while to make sure he wasn't showing any signs of a concussion, and then had to wake him up every few hours during the night to make sure he was still okay (I think he was a little confused when we did this though, usually it's the other way around with him waking us up!). He's been fine today, although he does sometimes rub the back of his head with his hand so I've been giving him Tylenol. We're so thankful to God that our baby is okay and that nothing worse happened! It was quite the night though!

Bret is 9 months old today!

Bret is 9 months old! My baby is turning into a toddler before my very eyes! He is crawling now, all over the place! I used to be able to set him on the floor on a blanket with some toys, and he would pretty much stay put, or at least not get too far, but now he is all over the place! I've had to baby-proof all my kitchen cupboards, otherwise he crawls into the kitchen and opens them all and starts pulling everything out and making a mess everywhere. He does the same thing in every room actually, he's pretty much into everything! He's at such an inquisitive age, trying to figure everything out. He's constantly moving too, always going from one thing to the next, always exploring and seeing what's new. It's such a fun age!

Easter Blessings

We have so much to be thankful for this year at Easter! God has blessed us abundantly!
~Matt's parents were able to spend Easter with us from Oregon
~Matt's brother and family were here with us for Easter as well
~We have a wonderful marriage
~We have the best baby in the whole world ;)
~We have a strong and healthy new baby on the way :)
~Christ died for us and rose again!!!
And of course so much more!

My big boy loves the outdoors!

Bret and Josh

Here is a picture of Bret and his cousin Joshua (left). Joshua is 3 months older than Bret. Aunt Vivian and Uncle Bill and Josh were here for Easter and Bret and Joshua had lots of fun playing together. Aren't they cute?

Bret is 8 months old!

I can hardly believe my baby is 8 months old already! He is getting to be such a big boy, and his hair is so blond now. The poor little guy was sick with a nasty cold and cough for about a week and a half, fortunately that is finally clearing up. I took him to the doctor a couple days ago and he is now on an antibiotic, which is helping. They weighed him at the doctor's off, and Bret now weighs 20 pounds! He's really been growing a lot this past month. He's also getting close to crawling. He scoots all over the place on his tummy, and gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. I'm sure he'll be crawling in no time! He's been babbling more and more too. Such an expressive little guy!
I'm 12 weeks pregnant now, and fortunately the morning sickness I was experiencing is beginning to lessen some. It was just so hard to get up in the mornings when I would always be feeling that crummy. I'll be having an ultrasound in a week and a half, so maybe we'll be able to tell whether Bret will be having a baby brother or a baby sister. Matt and I are really excited!