Backyard Bliss

My parent's have a great backyard. They live on a golf course and they have a swing for Aaron and all kinds of places for him to explore. Since we moved in, we spend a ton of time outside letting Aaron play. So in early April, Jarrett and I bought him a little fort to add to his fun. Jarrett put it together one night and when Aaron woke up the next morning...he discovered it! It was so fun to his reaction! He loves climbing all around and pulling his other toys to the top of the slide.

So here are a few pics from that first morning...

 Our son literally runs everywhere he goes....always on the move!

Sesame Street Live

During the craziness of moving, we decided to take a day off and take Aaron to see Sesame Street Live. Aaron LOVES Elmo and we knew he would have fun seeing all of the Sesame Street fun!

We've never taken him to a big show or movie before, so we weren't sure how it would go. But much to our surprise, he sat through the entire show! He did great and had fun!

Of course Grammy came too! She didn't want to miss out on all of the fun!

Aaron loved this big Elmo that would talk to you when you pushed the button. The only bad thing was that there was just one, and about a million kids. So you had to share and take turns, which can be hard for a 20 monh old!

A rare Mommy and Aaron pic :)

And a quick family pic--not sure what we were laughing about! What a fun day and memory! We hope to take Aaron again when he's a little older! I'm sure he'll love it even more!

The Perks....

So there are a lot of perks when living with your grandparents...these are just a few.

When your Great Uncle Bill comes to visit, you get to spend extra time with him playing in the backyard!

What a handsome pic!



 We love our Uncle Bill!

Another perk of living with your grandparents, is that when you spill cookies on the floor..Grandpa lets you eat as many as you want :) 

 And one of the best perks....you get to have your own recliner! Just like Grammy and Grandpas!

 Yep--I'd say life is pretty good here at the Colburn Casa! I'm pretty sure Aaron would stay forever if we would let him!

The Big Move

We have known pretty much for the past 2 years that we would be moving to Kansas in the summer of 2012. It's crazy to think that after talking about something for so long, it can just suddenly be upon you. We put our house on the market in early December and 2 months later it sold! We knew for sure that this was the Lord's doing and we felt that we were obviously following in His plan. With that being said, we needed a place to live so that Jarrett could finish the school year. So my gracious and wonderful parents allowed us to live with them for our last 3 months in Texas!

Our house closed right before Spring Break, and God's timing could not have been better. We were able to take all of that week and get our stuff moved to Kansas. For the time being, we are renting a house on the farm from Jarrett's cousins. Thus began our week of moving 3 houses! We packed up our house in Texas. We had to pack up the house we will be living in and move everything to the unfinished part of the basement. And then we had to unload our whole life into our new home.

Needless to say..we needed help! And again the Colburns stepped up in a big way. It was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life--but we were so thrilled that we got it all done and could head back to Texas with a peace about where God had placed us.

The beginning....it got so much bigger than this...oh my...

Aaron put on his work over-alls and wanted to get in on the action!

 We LOVED our first home and even though we are excited about our new adventure, we will miss our first home tremendously. This was our last time to be at our house as a family :(

Aaron loves a dolly. He wanted to push it all day long!



Putting him to work!

When we got to Kansas we had a ton of work to do. The home that we are renting had not been touched in about 6 years! There was tons of dust, dirt and dead bugs....GROSS! My Mom and I pride ourselves on being indoor princess type girls...but we got down and dirty and got the job done!

This is the living room of our new temporary home. It took 2 days to clean out the furniture and things that were here. Then we were able to load our things in...and this is what it looked like a couple of days later....

 After all of the hard work we decided to take Aaron for a ride in Daddy's new company car (a big blue pick-up truck)! We decided to visit our new neighbors....

I wish these people would be our new neighbors too!

 Love them SO much! So grateful for all of their help during this crazy time! We are truly blessed by their generous spirit and we don't know what we would do without them!

We love Grammy and Grandpa!

Uncle Zak gets Engaged!

What a special time for our family! Aaron loves his Uncle Zak and soon-to-be Aunt Heather. And in February it all became official. My little brother proposed and now sweet Heather will be a part of our family!

Zak let us in on the plan and we were so thrilled to be a part of it. We surprised Heather by having her wonderful family come down from Oklahoma for the big night. So after Zak proposed, he told her that they should share the news with the Colburns. When they go to my parent's house, her family was there and she could not have been more surprised! It was a wonderful night and we are so thrilled to have her in our family!

Tears all around....

The ring....

They are so sweet together.

My brother was so happy he pulled it off and it was so great to see everyone so joyful!

The newly engaged couple with Heather's family...and...

with our family (minus Aaron..he slept through the whole thing).

February

This was another crazy month for our family! We sold our house and began to prepare for our big move to the Kansas farm! We spent a couple of weeks packing and getting organized for 2 moves. One move to my parents house and another to Kansas. Who knew that toddlers could accumulate so much stuff?? Oh my goodness...

I'll have another post on our actual moving experience. It was a doozy to say the least. But for now, here are some random pics from February.

Aaron LOVES his puppy dog named Dusty! He loves to drag him around and to pounce on top of him! 

 As you can see..Aaron has learned how to ham it up for the camera! Such a cheesy little man!

We've been practicing with crayons and coloring more latley. He loves to play and make a big colorful mess anytime he can!

Of course, we think anytime he isn't EATING the crayons is a successful craft day :) 

18 Months Old

18 Month Stats (January)
Weight: 31lbs, 15 oz (97th percentile)
Height: 36 1/2 inches (off the charts in height)

(I know I'm just a little partial--but I think he is so handsome!)

The best way to describe Aaron at 18 months old is pure JOY. He is such a happy little boy. He loves to run and laugh and play. He is super busy. He eats just about everything and lots of it! His favorite foods right now are avacado (would eat this at every meal if he could), cheese, green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, meatballs, chicken nuggets, peaches, pears, mandaran oranges, and pretty much all Mexican food! He drinks milk at every meal and has 1 afternoon snack. He takes one nap a day from about 1:30-3:30. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night! He is a great sleeper.
He likes to do things by himself and is showing more and more independence. He gets upset when you take things away that he can't play with. But he usually moves on pretty fast. He rarely has meltdowns. He does not like change and if he's tired then we will see some craziness. He is saying a lot of new words and he babbles all of the time. He says: Bye bye, hello (but can't say the "l" sound), Grammy (MeMe), Grandpa, Mama, Daddy, "here we go" and bible.
He loves to carry stuff around. Especially if it's something bigger than him or heavy. We think he might be going for world's strongest baby. He still loves his books and reading together. He loves pots and pans and being in the kitchen when we are cooking. He even has his own set of cooking toys..and it's so cute to see him stir things up! And he is in LOVE with bathtime. It's his favorite time of day and he never wants to get out of the tub. He's not scared of the water at all and he loves to splash!

As you can see, most of the time he is just a big ball of energy and fun!

He is having a little seperation anxiety and doesn't like to be left with anyone new. He prefers my Mom (grammy) to just about anyone else. He loves to be outside and it doesn't matter if it's cold or rainy...he just wants to be outside. He is so fun and he is ALL boy...which we love. He's not really a baby anymore and that sometimes makes us sad. But it is so fun to witness all of the changes that are happening. God has given us an amazing gift and we can't say enough how much we love him.