A visit to see Santa and Marissa's special day!

Today we went to go and visit Santa... It was a lot of fun! Colton's face was priceless!  He did not want to sit on Santa's lap and he was very upset when we tried to make him sit there. Marissa was a trooper... she had a death grip on him to keep him sitting on her lap while we took a picture.  And of course Aubrey was a little angel and smiled very cute for the picture.

Marissa has been so excited this year. She has been checking off our calendar every day, so anxious for Christmas to come. She also has been changing the numbers on our advent calendar that countdown to Christmas as well as flipping over pictures that have to do with the story of Jesus's birth.

Marissa had a very special day today! We decided to let her get her ears pierced. She was all smiles! We let her pick out some earrings and she was in heaven!

Colton gave me the scare of my life...

Thursday morning while I was cleaning the bathroom, I all of the sudden heard a cry from Colton. Aubrey started screaming, "Mom, Colton is choking, Colton is choking..." Luckily I was close by and went in the family room where Colton and Aubrey were. Colton had been playing with the blinds and got the cord wrapped around his neck. I ran quickly over to him and luckily was able to get it off real fast.

Colton was okay, but he sure gave me a scare. I was so terrified! I started bawling and Colton and I cuddled for a long time. The rest of the day I had the mental picture of Colton stuck in my mind and that's all I could think about. I probably cried at least 3 or 4 times.

I am so grateful that Aubrey recognized that he needed help and that I was there to get him out of trouble quickly. I can't imagine losing that sweet little guy. He is so precious and we are so very lucky and so very blessed to have him.

I got thinking about how important it is to be there for my kids and family and spend as much time as I can with them. Life is full of unexpected situations that can change your whole world in the blink of an eye. I want to make sure I enjoy every moment I can with those I love. Time is precious and should be cherished.

We are Moving!

So we are officially getting ready to put our house up for sale... We will be moving into Jeffs parents house while they are working on a project in Idaho for the next two years...

We've tried looking into houses in the past and could never come to terms with the thought of moving for one reason or another, but at this time we know it is time for us to go and move on to a new adventure! It's crazy how you know it's the right thing to do, because everything falls into place.

It will be hard to leave our dear friends and such a good neighborhood, but I know that we will be quick to build up new friendships and never forget the ones we've made!

Fitness and health

So yesterday I took Aubrey in for her 4 year old doctor checkup with the pediatrician. She's doing awesome! Right on track for preschool, and she knows what she needs to know for kindergarten already!

He asked me questions about how much physical activity she gets each day and how much time she spends watching TV? I realized that we have hibernated quite a bit this winter and we need to get moving again.

I decided that we need to try and find fun things that keep us active during the winter. So this past week I've been trying to find ways to change our habits and have been trying to find ways to make our day funner.

We now watch an hour and a half of TV at the most during the day, and we try to spend half an hour doing learning and craft time, another half hour playing a game, another half hour to an hour cleaning or organizing, and another half hour exercising.

Hopefully by breaking up our day a little bit, I can get Aubrey a little more excited to do things besides sitting in front of the TV or iPad, while I am getting lost in how much time I have been spending getting our house in order when I could be teaching her better habits and she could be helping me.

Jeff and I have also decided to start tracking what we eat and exercising more frequently. Jeff surprised me with a cruise for my 30th birthday in May and so we have 3 months to get ourselves in shape and we need to make it count! It always helps having a date to shoot for in accomplishing our goals, and the cruise was a great motivator!

Hopefully we can start changing habits and getting healthy again!

Skiing...

Jeff and I went skiing up at Sundance today!  I think this is one of my favorite activities to do together. There's nothing better than enjoying a fun workout in the fresh mountain air and beautiful scenic nature.

We always do something together to celebrate valentine's day before or after Valentine's day to miss all the crowds.

Colton is 1 year old today!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone by... my little Colton guy is 1 year old today!  He's sure a sweet boy! We absolutely love him!! He's getting two new teeth and yet he tries to smile and be happy through it all! Grandma and Grandpa Spjut and Kelsey stopped by to wish him a Happy Birthday and brought him cupcakes. We stripped him down to his birthday suit, lit a candle on the cupcake and took his picture. Of coarse the girls helped him blow it out and then he dove right in. He sure enjoyed his cupcake!

Colton's birthday invitation

Today I spent some time working on Colton's birthday invitation that I will be sending out tomorrow! I'm so excited about it! With every birthday that comes around I get to have fun making invitations and planning out all the party details! I really enjoy doing this... I don't have much experience with Adobe photoshop but every time a birthday comes around I learn a few new things and get a little more comfortable with the program.

I can't believe Colton will be one year old in less than 2 weeks!  He's sure a sweet and handsome little guy! He's now holding onto furniture and walking around it. He's still to chickened to walk by himself, but he sure loves using his walker and pulling  himself up to get around! He's becoming quite the explorer... he gets into everything! Drawers, cupboards, garbage cans, anything he can reach, and he puts everything in his mouth so we have really had to keep yucky and small things out of his reach.  I sure love him though, even if he leaves me a messy trail everywhere he goes! He truly brings so much joy to our family! Love you Colton!! You are such a joy!