I saw Santa!!

Today we took Colton to visit Santa Clause!  We went to his house and to our surprise Mrs. Clause was home too!!  We got to visit with Santa and Mrs. Clause just the three of us alone while others waited for their turn to see Santa.  It was raining so it was quite the adventure waiting for our turn to go in Santas house and say hi.  Lucky for us we got there just before Santa had to break for milk and cookies!  We got to take a few pictures and Colton did great dispite being very overdue for a nap!  He almost cried but we distracted him and it passed.  Santa and Mrs. Clause were great with Colton!  Although I'm sure Santa's beard and glasses lucked out since Colton was so tired, or he might have had a few grabs from the little guy! Here is a picture I found of Santa's house and our cute pictures with him and Mrs. Clause!  Merry Christmas everyone!!  

7 months

Colton is 7 months old!  He is weighing in at 16 lbs. 11 oz. and a whopping 27 inches long!  I can hardly believe my little 5 pound baby has gotten so darn big so fast!  He got his first tooth November 23rd the bottom front left!  It was a miserable few days until it finally cut through.  Then he was happy and now the one next to it is on its way through so we are back to lots of cuddles from momma.  I love the cuddles but I feel so bad when he doesn't feel good and he is so fussy.  He is just becoming such a goofy entertaining baby.  Colton just thinks his daddy is the coolest guy around!  He laughs sooo hard at all his daddy's goofiness!  He mostly loves to stand and shake his little bum it's hilarious!  He is so close to crawling which is super exciting and makes me a little nervous to have him so active!  He can skoot himself backwards and in cirlces and is now getting himself up to his hands and knees!  It's only a matter of time!  Funny thing about his solids, he loves to eat and mostly likes the vegetables more than the fruits and he hates peaches, even a peach cobbler, he just hates peaches its so wierd.  We love you our little angel!  Happy 7 months!   

Gobble Gobble

We hosted Thanksgiving this year and it was great! The food was delicious! Tiffany took care of the turkey before anyone else was even awake! Nathan had a great morning playing football with friends. Amanda, well she had a little cold, but she enjoyed the turkey leg! Nathan's parents made it down after their electricity came back on and they could finish those delicious homemade rolls and pies! What a day for the electricity to go out! It was fun for them to be able to enjoy thanksgiving with us. Colton napped through most of dinner but woke up just in time for a pureed thanksgiving dinner (I know sounds yummy right?!) We also had a dry run for his first birthday to see how he would do given free reign of his food, with what else? Green Jello!! He loved it and made quite the mess! We are so thankful to have had such a great year and to have added Colton to our family. It was nice to have family to spend thanksgiving with!

My Little Pumpkin

My baby is 6 months old!  He weighs 15lbs 3oz and is 25 & 3/4 inches long!  He is still in the 10-25% but he is healthy and happy! He is finally sleeping unswaddled and ironically on his tummy.  Just a few weeks ago he would get so mad if he rolled onto his tummy, and now he rolls to his tummy to fall asleep.  He is such a flirt, he has the little half grin thing goin on and he will raise his eyebrows at you and gets this little twinkle in his eye.  Strangers always want to come say hi to him because he is always flirting with people.  It's so funny, but we don't mind!  It is so fun to play with him, he finds everything so interesting, especially balloons!  You can make him laugh at the littlest things, it's so fun to play with him and see what will make him laugh.  Colton loves it when daddy comes home, he will stare at him with such intent and smile until daddy takes him to play!  He has so much energy, he loves to jump, read books, take baths and splash all over, go for walks outside, and exploring the world.  The best thing about him right now, is that he gives little squeezes and kisses!  We love him!

Solids...

Colton has finally decided he likes solids, however he generally prefers to do it himself!  He eats much better if you let him grab the spoon and put it in himself!  He is growing up way too fast! 

Also sorry for taking so long to get some new posts, Nathan had today off so I have been busy trying to catch up on things!

Colton's mini session-5months!

http://lifebymandy.smugmug.com/Forever-Print-Gallery/Meagan-Richards-Tiny-Times/11998980_ob3rx#1027580768_nHEmx

Visalia

Nathan has been super busy this month with his rotation in Orthopedic Trauma!  He has been on call and seeing lots of crazy things.  So he so kindly let Colton and I take off to enjoy the sunny California weather and visit Grandma and Grandpa Pace, Aunt Tiff and kids, and Aunt Mandy in Huntington Beach.  Nathan is loving this rotation although it's been hard not to have him around much, we miss him!  However the next two months will be in family practice so pretty set schedules.  I for one enjoy all the stories he comes home with about how people have gotten hurt.  My favorite so far is the guy who decided to kayak down Red Rock Mountain....sober!  There have been some car accidents, boating accidents as well which are sad.  Another guy who decided to cliff jump into the lake, and missed the water, the girl whose parents locked her upstairs in her room while they fought with her boyfriend so she decided to jump out the window and broke her ankle...and many more!  I didn't like all the terminal stories associated with general surgery and lots of cancer.  So although we have seen less than him, it's also been a bit more entertaining and he has gotten to do a lot more this month! 

I'm ready to swim mom!

Splash Grandma and Grandpa!!

So off to California we went!  We went once last minute one weekend while Nathan was on call and at the hospital a lot and surprised Grandma and Grandpa which was a blast!!  Stayed for a few days and then went back again for my originally planned trip a week later!   

Colton's first Miracle League Game.  With Grandma and the infamous, very loud cow bell!  He didn't mind all the noise! What a good sport!

Nathan LOVES to hold Colton!

Jonathan goofin around with the pitcher!  His shirt looks tasty!

David running home with Grandpa! Way to go buddy!

Snoozing away at the soccer game.

He likes to play goalie and is pretty good at it!

Nice...

Jonathan after running around in the heat during Nathan's soccer game.

Sweet loves for Grandma

Mom and I did lots of planning for their addition and it was so fun to help her pick tthings out and get to see some of the construction going on. We went swimming, went to Colton's first Miracle League game in which both David and Jonathan were having a blast! Then on to Nathan's soccer game, also Colton's first soccer game, he slept through it. Mom reminded me that I went to many of Jason and Mike's soccer games as a baby and did the same thing. Mom and I took off to Huntington Beach to visit Mandy. She is doing so well and loving life! She got Colton to "spontaneously" laugh without tickling him, it was hilarious! Although we have a video of it, we can't figure out how to get it off mom's phone! While we were there we were lucky enough to have a short visit with Mike and Melissa and kids who were enjoying sunny California as well. Colton, is just like his mommy, he LOVES the beach, even if we took him down when he was fussy, he would just smile, and enjoy the ocean. He even ate a little sand during our tiny beach photo shoot. We miss you California! Thanks for all the fun everyone!!

 (Colton's photo shoot.  I want to print one to put on the wall, any suggestions?)

Sitting in our sand Bumbo...

He grabbed handfuls of sand and loved dropping it through his fingers all over himself....and of course eating a little too.

Kissy Kissy!!

St. George

Nathan's parents have moved to St. George and we LOVE having them so close! It's so nice to be able to see them and in only a couple of hours. We have made a few weekend trips up to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Richards. Ron and Annette took us to see some petrogliphs about 5 minutes from their house. We put Colton in the bjorn and took him on his first little hike! Ron tried to trick me that we were going to hike waaaay down into this valley to get to them and I was about to give in, luckily he was only kidding. It was maybe a 5-10 minute hike to these huge boulders scattered with tons of petrogliphs. They were hidden all over the place. It was fun to climb all over and in and around the boulders to find new ones. I had never seen these before and so I wasn't sure what to think but once I saw them I was amazed! It was so much fun! We also took a drive up to Pine Valley, where they got the wood to make the organ in the tabernacle.

 

On another trip we went to celebrate birthdays!!  It was Micah, Mia and Gavin's birthday's all in the same weekend!! That's a lot of birthdays!  Jared and Jamie and their three kids and Micah all came to St. George.  It was fun to hang out and get to see them all again.  Micah repeated a birthday this year and Mia and Gavin are getting soo big.  We got to meet Tessa for the first time and Colton loved her!  I didn't forget my camera, just the memory card so if you're a Richards well sorry you have already seen these pictures.  Thanks Jamie! We have enjoyed visiting St. George, hey they have In-N-Out so I like it!  But mostly we love getting to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Richards, it's nice to know that Colton will be able to be close to all 4 of his grandparents.