We Took a Vacation!

I'm sure Collin will love me for this picture one day :) This past week we packed up and drove down to Fort Lauderdale for a few days. It was our first family vacation in almost three years and we had a lot of fun. 

At first I wanted to cancel the trip due to all the expenses my root canal and car had cost us. But, Michael had already paid for the hotel and he had gone through priceline so we couldn't get our money back anyways. So we kinda HAD to go, oh darn ;) 

 

So Monday, after shelling out another $900 at my third dentist appointment in two weeks, we were finally able to begin our trip. 

 

Collin did great! It was about a 3 hr. car ride and he never got fussy or anything! Of course we kept him awake for his nap so he would crash in the car, but even when he was awake he was happy. We were very surprised.

 

 And let me tell you, when we got to the hotel this little boy was in Collin heaven!

This is the view we got every time we stepped out of our room. It's all inside! There was a glass roof up above so during the bad storm that came through we could even watch the lightning.

Collin begged and begged his daddy to take him down to the lobby. His favorite place was the pond where they had huge fish and turtles!

 This is the view at night.

   Our hotel was actually two rooms. A little living room at the front and then the bedroom towards the back. One night Collin was begging Michael to take him to the pond but Michael had already taken him twice that day so he told him no. Collin disappeared into the living room and when we called out to him a few min. later there was no reply. Michael got up to check on him and found him out in the hall heading for the elevators! We bolted the door after that.  

Collin's favorite things by far about the trip were getting to stay up late, sleeping with mom and dad, and having his dad around 24/7. He definitely took full advantage of Michael's attention. As soon as Michael was out of his site he would drop his toys and call out Dada? as he went looking for him. It was pretty cute.

 Michael's original purpose for going to Fort Lauderdale was to look at the new Temple site and the area around it to determine whether or not to open another store in the future. So we spent Tuesday checking out the area. It's funny how the Temple hasn't even been dedicated yet, but as soon as I saw it I could feel the spirit. It's going to be one of the smaller temples but it's going to be beautiful.

I started the trip with what I thought was just sinus problems but by the second day both Michael and Collin were having issues. Guess I passed something on to them...oops. Since we were all a little under the weather and kinda tired we spent the rest of the time hanging out and relaxing at the hotel.

Arm floats not only act as a floatation device but can also double as instant muscles :)

 This was Collin's favorite place to play, under the bed. I sure hope it was clean under there......

And this is how we got Collin to take naps. He just went until he passed out. 

 The last night we were there we decided to take Collin to the beach so he could burn off some energy before bedtime. We waited until the sun started to go down because none of us wanted to bother with sunscreen and we really weren't planning on swimming anyways. It was relaxing to just listen to the waves and watch the sun set. Although I almost died walking in the sand. Collin kept looking back at me like "what on earth is taking you so long?" I'm pretty sure this is not what my dr. had in mind when she said partial bedrest, so we just won't mention it :)

It was so nice to be able to get away for a few days and be together. I'm thinking we should do it again soon. How about next month!?

Family Fun and Braxton Hicks

It was a bitter sweet week. My family left us on Friday to head back to South Carolina :( 

We really enjoyed our visit and they were a big help. Especially since I was put on partial bed rest...again. When I went into my dr. appointment Monday I was dilated to a two! Since I'm not due till November and am having Braxton hicks contractions 5 to 10 min. apart all day, I won a trip to the hospital for two hours while they monitored me, ran some tests, and then put me on partial bed rest. Needless to say I was very grateful to have someone there to entertain Collin, cook dinner, and clean for a week. I wish I would have taken more pictures while they were here, but the camera was way over on the counter and I couldn't convince myself to get off the couch :) Guess these will just have to do.  

 My mom bought Collin a pumpkin cup w/straw and he now insists on drinking from it all the time.

Love the crooked pants Collin.

 And what visit from uncle Logan isn't complete without a fort made out of couch cushions. Not really sure why both boys had their shirts off. Must be a boy thing?

 Collin hated and I mean HATED going to bed while my family was here. He was having too much fun to stop for sleep. When we finally got him to go down it wasn't long before he was knocked out though. I couldn't resist taking a picture when I found him cuddled up with his book. He begged me to let him take it to bed that night. We are now up to Gromit (his favorite stuffed animal) a blanket, a sheep beanie baby, a pig beanie baby, a baboon beanie baby, a few matchbox cars, the occasional dinosaur, and now apparently books all in the bed with him! Try removing a hard plastic T-Rex from under your 2 yr. old's face without waking him up!  

 Before my family left I had dad and Logan get up in the attic and get our infant stuff down. Collin thought they were new toys! I can't wait till he's reunited with the paci again :(

 Friday before my family left they treated Collin and I to lunch at Firehouse! Collin stole everyone's pickles.

 The Friday they left was kinda brutal. I had the whiniest 2 yr old who thought it was my job to entertain him 24/7. Thankfully, grandpa Boyd came over right as Michael left for work on Sat. and took Collin out for a few hours. AND, Saturday is Michael's early day so he played and entertained Collin when he got home. Sat. was definitely much easier than Friday.

 

 School

 Tuesday: B is for Bears
Books: The Bear Came Over to My House, Bear Feels Scared, Bear Feels Sick

 

We played a hibernation game where you turn the music on and dance and when you cut it off you say "hibernate" and everyone goes to sleep. I got this idea from the PA website.  It was fun but I'm sure glad Logan was here to do it with him because it took a few tries before Collin understood what he was suppose to do.

 This week's shape was rectangle so we played Jenga! I love his tongue sticking out like he's in deep concentration. 

Wednesday: B is for Birds
Books: Falcon, Birds

We went and visited my grandma for most of the day so we didn't do much school. I basically just read Collin his two books. The book on birds was a kids science type book with lots of bird pictures and facts. We just flipped through all the pictures naming all the birds. Collin really really liked it and I enjoyed the cuddle time.
Thursday: B is for Buttons and Beads
It was just suppose to be buttons but do you know how expensive buttons are!? And I do not sew so I didn't have any just lying around the house. So I improvised and bought cheap plastic fall beads in the shape of leaves, pumpkins and acorns. They worked just as well for the activities.

 We did a bead sort which Collin really enjoyed.

 We tried to work on patterns but that was a little advanced for him as you can see by the acorn he's trying to add.

 I cut rectangles out of colored card stock and we made a train.

Since buttons were not cheap I just found some online and printed them off. Then we glued them to his B page. 

Friday: B is for Bugs

Books: Are You a Ladybug?, World of Insects, Beetle McGrady Eats Bugs!

 We made spiders and ants out of play dough and then I showed Collin what we do if we find them in our house.

We squash them.

I know, I know, I should be kinder to nature but lets face it, this is why I wasn't born as a pioneer. That and we have epidurals and Dr. Pepper :)

 Our color was purple this week. Right now this is Collin's favorite color. I worked for two weeks straight on getting him to recognize green and blue and every time he saw something purple he would shout "purple!" I don't even remember teaching him that color. 

Anyways, I taped two pieces of purple construction paper to the floor and had Collin run back and forth swatting them with a fly swatter. It was nice because he got some energy out and all I had to do was sit there. 

 Saturday: B is for Bubbles

(Please look over the fact that Collin is wearing the same clothes as the previous day.)

 What's better than one bubble wand? Two bubble wands!

 The number was 4 this week so we fed the penguin 4 fish.

 Collin has this thing about holding things right in front of his face. No manner of coaxing could convince him to lower it just a few inches.

To get more letter ideas visit the PA website here.

 Labor Day we.......labored! Well, sorta.

Michael and his dad rented a carpet cleaner and spent the morning at the bookstore cleaning the carpets. Afterwards they brought it over to our house and gave our carpets a much needed cleaning.

 To give the carpets some time to dry we went and spent a few hours at the pool!

 I was really wanting BBQ for dinner so my parents were suppose to drive over to my aunt and uncles and borrow their grill since they were out of town and wouldn't be using it. 

Well they came back with a grill alright but it wasn't my uncle's. They came back with a brand new grill just for Michael! The meat was sooooooo good! Thanks mom and dad!

 Collin became a little too "hands on" with the grill so we made him come back inside so he could pester uncle Logan :)

 Unfortunately, our Monday ended much too soon and it was back to Seminary and work. Usually, Michael gets home from Seminary around 7:15 and starts studying for a Seminary lesson. I'm suppose to get up at 7 so that I can keep Collin entertained and from bugging his dad to play with him. But Tuesday I didn't get up! I jerked awake much later than I should have and came out to find Michael and Collin reading together. Collin loves his daddy time and I'm so thankful they both let me sleep in :)

 Even though our fun Monday was over that didn't end the excitement around here! 

And yes, that is a baby pig on my back porch :)

One of my mom's friends said that a relative of theirs in Florida had a miniature pig they were having to get rid of. My parents live on a little farm in SC where they already have ducks and have been babysitting a goat for several months. My mom had been contemplating adding another animal and since the pig was free and they would be down here in Florida anyways she said she would take it. The pig isn't suppose to get much bigger than it is in the picture and it was supposedly up to date on all it's shots. So the lady dropped it off to us on Tuesday. 

 It really was a good pig. It only squealed when you tried to pick it up and was very friendly. There were a couple drawbacks though. For one thing it was a boy pig and hadn't been fixed so of course it got very friendly with people's legs and Collin's big yard ball. And because he wasn't fixed he constantly had a weird smell. Also, when mom called his old vet to see about his shots and how much it would cost to get him fixed she discovered that his previous owners hadn't returned to get his booster shots so she would basically have to start all over. They gave her a list of 6 or 7 shots he would need to get with each one costing $31. Then he said to get the pig fixed it would cost $700!!! Not only that but he had tusks that would need to be filed and hooves that would need to be trimmed regularly. Once she got the price on everything she realized this pig was going to be way too expensive! So in the end, Piggy Smalls was only with us for 4 days. But we found a really good home for him with a vet tech! She has a nice barn for him to live in and will even be giving him a little girlfriend in a few months. (I feel real sorry for the girl pig)

 We had fun with him for the few days he was with us and Collin really liked him. 

Two little human piggies are enough for me though :)

 Collin has discovered that all he has to do is just say the word "pop" to one of his grandparents and he gets one. I think this was his third one of the day. I love how they both look so innocent in this picture.

And see the McDonalds bag in the corner? Grandpa goes out and brings Collin back a hash brown almost every morning. I hope he doesn't get use to all the pampering because his parents aren't nearly as nice.

 Saturday The Arnsdorff's came over to hang out and my uncle helped my dad install attic stairs! 

Apparently Collin isn't the only one being spoiled ;)

 Doesn't it look good?

 Collin took a break from the hard work to put puzzles together with great grandma Brown.

 And later, he and Logan went out to play with this gigantic ball my Aunt brought over and spent and HOUR blowing up!

 It was a very relaxing and enjoyable Sat. Having family in town certainly makes the week go by faster!

 School! 

We continued school again this week. Logan brought his school down with him too so it worked as a nice distraction for Collin. This week we added the alphabet to our curriculum. Most of the ideas for the alphabet came from this site Preschool Alphabet

She already had the whole year planned out so I totally stole her ideas. I changed a few things that seemed like they would go over Collin's head but this has been such a great resource!

  Tuesday: A is for Ants 

 We started the day reading books about Ants. The Preschool Alphabet (PA) suggested reading "Two Bad Ants", which we did, but the story was a bit too long for Collin to keep his concentration. I had also checked out "Are You and Ant?" and "The Life and Times of the Ant" He seemed to do better with these books. They provided lots of pictures and little facts about ants so we could skip pages if he wasn't interested. I actually learned a lot of things I didn't know about ants. It kinda made me hesitant about squashing them when I saw them in my house.......but just for that day :)

Since Logan was here we tried to do the ant experiment the PA suggested. We put the plate by an ant hill in our neighbors yard since no one lives there and they had a huge ant hill, but Logan stepped on the ant hill and stirred the ants up to where they were too busy repairing their mound to care about the plate of food.  We decided to leave it out overnight, but when we went to check on it the next morning the lawn company had come and run over everything so I guess we"ll never know who won the bet. (Mom and I thought they would go for the syrup while the boys thought they'd go for the lemon cake.) 

  

 Collin outlined the letter A with fingerprint ants. Some look like they've been squashed :)

 Wednesday:A is for Apples
 We read the book "Apple's to Oregon" Collin actually liked it and listened to the whole thing even though it was a little long. then we played the 5 little apples game.

 The shape this week was triangle so we glued triangle roofs onto houses. I had just cut the different shapes out of construction paper and since Collin loves to glue it was a hit.

 This weeks number was 3 so we glued three stripes on our bee. Again, a big hit.

 (And that is the extent of my artistic ability right there)

 Thursday: A is for Alligator
This was a really fun day. We read "Lyle, Lyle Crocodile" which technically is about a crocodile and NOT an alligator, but it was the only cartoon book I could find at the library and I wasn't about to bring a book home with REAL pictures of alligators! Those are banned from our house just like Shark Week.

I did let him make the alligator A though.

Then we played the 5 little monkeys game which I also stole from the site.

 Collin really really liked this! I think we played it about 3 times.

 Friday: A is for Animals
Books: The Biggest Kiss, If You're Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition, Way Far Away on a Wild Safari, and If All the Animals Came Inside.
Collin loves looking at animals so I took full advantage and we read tons of books that day.

And I know I got these next two ideas from the PA website too, but I don't think I put them with the right day. Oh well, they're animals right?

 I had Collin match the baby animals with their momma.

 And then I cut animals in half so he would have to match them up like puzzles. I laminated both these games and he has played with them over and over again.

 I got the idea from the PA Site but I think I used the animals I found from my DJ Inkers Critter Craze program I have. And I have no idea why my child is half naked in almost all these pictures. I think it's because he kept begging my mom to play outside in his water table and after him soaking the third outfit of the day I just gave up :)

 Saturday: A is for Airplane
Book: Pilot Pups (Collin's absolute favorite from all the books this week) it combines puppies and airplanes, what boy wouldn't love it?

We were suppose to make paper airplanes as the activity but we had too much going on that day as you can see in the pictures above. So we ended up just tracing A's and the number 3 and then playing with red balloons to practice the color red.

 

We also colored the airplane alphabet banner and I hung up a few of his A and number 3 activities in his room so we could go over them every night before bed.

To see more alphabet ideas check out the Preschool Alphabet site here. She even has all the lessons on printable and ready to use calendars!