Birthday Party!

     We planned Colt's party to be on his exact birthday.  It was going to be a crazy day, so we decided to go out to breakfast, just the three of us, to have some time together before it got hectic.  We are so excited to make this a tradition for our family.  So... off to Cracker Barrel we went.  Colt enjoyed a birthday pancake and we loved soaking up all the time we could with him.

     We had the party at our house and asked our family to come to the party early so they could have some alone time with him before everyone got here.  We had just a few minutes to watch him open a some presents.  Everyone started showing up right on time and before you know it, the house was packed.  We invited 79 people!  Thank goodness only 40 showed up.  I don't think our house could hold much more!  We prayed and thanked God for blessing all of us with Colt and thanked Him for giving us so man people who genuinely care about Colt.  What a blessing!

     We had special ham sandwiches, white cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole and taco salad.  We had an apple cake made for Colt and I made apple dumplings instead of having cake for everyone else.  We also had a make-your-own carmel apple bar.  I went to make an example, and dropped boiling carmel on my hand.  So I spent the rest of the night with an ice pack on my hand!

     After dinner and cake, Colt opened all of his presents.  He was pretty excited to see all of them.  At the end, Justin brought in our present for him- a Little Tikes pick-up truck.  He absolutely LOVED it.  For the rest of the night, he would open the door, get in and honk the horn. 

      We sat around and talked, thanks to my mom, dad and Josh and Beth, who cleaned up so we could socialize.  It was an amazing party and we are so appreciative of all the people who love and care about Colt.  Justin and I feel so blessed to have such an awesome family and to have so many of our grandparents left.  My Grandma Wooden and Grandma and Grandpa Wagner were able to come to the party and Justin's Grandpa Charlie and his wife Lou were able to come too! 

     Colt woke up this morning and went straight to his truck and honked the horn.  Then he went to the pile of presents and got out the farmer from his Little People and laid in his presents for several minutes.  What a great birthday!

The birthday cake

A birthday kiss from Leah

Cookie Monster

My new truck!

Chuck, Sue, Josh, Justin, Colt, Beth and me

Grandpa and Grandma Wagner, Mom, Colt and me

Grandma Wooden, Dad, Colt and me

My best friends!

Laying in his presents this morning

Our Big 1 Year-Old

      Justin and I have been talking about this day for the last 6 months.  I can't believe it has come and gone.  One year ago, we had no idea what to expect.  We were nervous and excited.  Colt came in to the world 2 weeks early, and challenged us in ways we never could have imagined.    
      Today, we have the most amazing son.  We are enjoying watching him develop.  He still looks like me, but now has Justin's eyes- shape and color.  His body proportions are exactly like Justin- short legs and a long torso, but Justin says he has my "five head" and long neck.  He has big feet- size 5.5 right now and growing by the minute. 
     His personality is a lot like Justin.  He likes to take it all in.  He is observant like me, but constantly moving- like both of us.  Fortunately, and unfortunately, he is very independent and has a mind of his own- which he gets from both of us too.  He is very rotten- like Justin!  When you tell him no- he looks at you and tries to do it again.  And he loves to throw his food off the table and feed Winston.  When he smiles... he SMILES!  And he laughs with the biggest belly laugh for someone so small.  He is content to just walk around the house and look at everything.  But he LOVES being outside. 

     Here are some of his new favorites....

• everything with buttons and music
• animals
• sticking his finger up his nose
• crinkling his nose at people
• dancing
• the lent roller
• food- chicken fingers, cheese, yogurt, animal crackers, potatoes, bread
• basketball- his little fisher price one.  He is good!
• any ball- which was his first word after dada and mama
• tickles- he loves to be tickled!
• stairs
• peek-a-boo- he likes to pull a blanket over his head and play with us
• Little People

Developmentally

• he is great with his pincer grip
• he pushes any button, even really small ones
• he gives high fives
• he waves- but only if he wants too- he has a mind of his own
• He sleeps 12 hours a night (it has been 10.5 hours since he was 12 weeks old, but started doing 12 hours this week!)  He usually goes to bed between 9-10 and wakes up about 9!!!!  And he still does a great job going to sleep on his own.  We usually sing and pray while he drinks his milk and then he goes down.  (Hopefully we can transition to the sippy cup soon) 
• He usually takes a short nap in the morning and a long nap in the afternoon- usually 1-3 pm.

Justin and I truly feel like we are the luckiest parents in the world.  We must turn to each other at least once a day and say- "we have the best kid ever!"

What a difference a year makes!

He LOVES the lent roller!

Always wants to do what Daddy is doing

tickles and belly laughs

Happy Birthday Colt

Happy Birthday to the most amazing son anyone could ask for.  We love you Colt!!

Brown County

     Justin's family has been going to Brown County with the Berninger's for the last 26 years!  We go every fall and rent family cabins and stay for the weekend.  We decided this would be our last year going since the families are changing so much and grandkids may want to go other places.  It was a bittersweet trip full of laughter and tears.  We all got there Friday afternoon and hung out before going out to dinner at Harvest Moon Pizzeria (the usual Friday night dinner). 
     Saturday morning we had a big breakfast cooked by Chuck.  We decided to go for the annual hike after breakfast but wanted to find a place we had read about in Indianapolis Monthly.  We found the cool little general store in Pike's Peak and stopped to talk to the locals and get directions to the new trail.  We drove, and drove, and drove until it seemed like we were completely lost.  The area was a little sketchy and the trail seemed impossible to find.  After an hour of driving, we decided to go back and visit the town of Story, IN.
    It was a little town with old stores and restaurants.  They were setting up for a wedding behind an old barn.  We walked around behind Story Inn in the coolest garden area and got lots of cool pictures.   After lunch Josh, Beth, Justin and I went in to Nashville to walk around and get some hot chocolate.  By the time we got back, it was time for the annual hay ride.  Colt had a great time and even fell asleep in Justin's arms. 
     Sunday morning, we cleaned the cabins and had breakfast together at the Abe Martin Lodge.  We went back to the cabins and got family pictures and said tearful goodbyes.  There have been a lot of great memories made at Brown County!

Justin's find of the weekend... a piece of wood

The General Store

Colt's Halloween basket

Hay Ride

Playing games with Aunt Beth

Family Picture

Texas

    After our day in Dallas, we got up the next morning to drive to Wichita Falls to meet up with the rest of Justin's family.  The ride was miserable and Colt and Justin were both sick and tired.  We got there just in time to unpack and grab dinner before heading to Chance's football game.  Football is very different in Texas!
     We drove 1.5 hours and they said that is pretty typical.  The field was AstroTurf ($750,000) and they had a jumbo tron with a live video feed of the game.  The players came out of blow-up tunnels that had smoke coming out of them.  Oh- and did I mention, the schools only had 400 and 800 students!  So they weren't very big and football was still that big of a deal.  The team they played is where Colt McCoy's little brother played and where his dad coached.  It was just an unbelievable experience.  Chance was so surprised to see us which made the trip totally worth it. 
     The next day Justin was still sick and rested at the hotel while the rest of us spent time with Chance, Sammy and Teresa.  We had a Texas breakfast with biscuits and gravy and pork chops.  We played euchre and sat in the backyard all afternoon.  It was such a beautiful weekend.  The guys went to the casino before dinner and Sue, Teresa, Beth and I chatted away the afternoon.
   Sammy and Teresa took us to a local steakhouse for dinner.  It was a really cool small place with great food and great service.  It was fun to get to see the guys at the end of the table laughing and catching up.  You could tell they were so glad to have the time together.  We sat in the backyard talking after dinner and delaying our trip back to the hotel.  It was so good to get to go see them and what Texas is all about!
    Teresa came  home with us to be able to see Grandma Baker and spend some time with her.  It was a long drive home but totally worth it. 

Waiting for the game to start

National Anthem

Playing on the field after the game. Uncle Josh caught Colt a football!

Touchdown!!!!

Hanging out in the backyard

nap time

Dallas

    Justin and I have been talking about visiting his Aunt, Uncle and cousin in Texas ever since they came to visit this summer.  I had never been to Texas and Justin and I really wanted to see his cousin Chance play football before he graduated high school.  It worked out that Justin's parents, Uncle Greg, Uncle Jim and Josh and Beth could go too! 
    Justin and I decided to make a mini vacation out of it and go a day early and visit Dallas.  Well, Justin was starting to feel sick on Wednesday, so we drove through the MedCheck on the way out of town.  Turns out he had strep.  So he slept most of the way and I drove through the night.  Somehow... I got a speeding ticket along the way!  UGH. 
   We got there at lunch time and walked through the city.  We went to the Dallas World Aquarium which was Awesome!  Colt loved it.  He had so much fun looking at all the animals.  Justin tried to tough it out, but was miserable.  We walked to the 6th Floor Museum- the place where JFK was assassinated.  It was unreal to see where it all happened.  Unfortunately, we didn't stay long because Colt and Justin were too tired and sick. 
    We all took naps and then went to dinner at a local steakhouse- Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse.  What made it so special was that Y.O. is a ranch is south Texas.  There have all kinds of crazy animals and they butcher them there and then send the meat up by train to the steakhouse.  It was the most expensive meal I think I have ever had, but also the most AMAZING steak either one of us had ever had. 
    

The entrance to the Aquarium

He loved it!

Just a Dad and his boy...

Watching the otters

This place is gigantic and in the middle of a huge city.  It was a mix between a zoo and an aquarium.

Nemo hat

6th Floor Museum.  The shooter stood in the top right window

  

Picky Eater

    I promised myself that I would not have a kid that was a picky eater.  I thought I did everything I could to keep it from happening, but here we are.  I should have known better since Justin is so picky!  Colt loves bananas, applesauce, yogurt, cheese, bread and grapes.  But that is it!  If I even try to give him something different, he puts his hands over his mouth and refuses.  I have to shove macaroni and cheese in his mouth while he is screaming to get him to even try it.  He likes it once he gets started, but he refuses to eat everything at first. 
    I also lost all my milk when I came down with HFM.  I had attempted to transition him to whole milk with the milk I had saved by mixing them, but my milk ran out before I expected.  So, now he is refusing to drink any milk.  And he never drank juice or water, so he is really dehydrated right now.   UGH!  I think meal time is the most frustrating thing as a parent.  I really want him to be a good eater when he grows up.

Wedding Bells

    A few weeks ago, my good friend Keather got married.  We worked together at ABC after college and stayed friends even after I left to go work at Riley.  Keather is incredibly gifted working with kids with autism and is a complete natural.  I knew the wedding would be great because she is so detail oriented, but it was better than I expected.  She did such a great job paying attention to every detail. 
     The wedding was at the Capitol Building (where Justin and I got married) and the reception was at the Skyline Club.  It brought back some memories for Justin and I and we really enjoyed going to another wedding there.  The Skyline Club was beautiful and overlooked the whole city.  We could even see a game going on at Lucas Oil.  It was a great night with great friends.  We had fun dancing the night away and being ridiculous.  Once it was over, Justin and I walked Buffalo Wild Wings and had fourth meal and then walked to our hotel.  We really enjoyed our night away and getting to hang out with each other.

Ryan, Lainey, Me and Justin

Preggers is not afraid to have fun!

Ryan and Justin spent most of the night at a private table, overlooking the city.  How romantic!