Colby and Ava...

Colby's friend Ava (and my friend Molly) came to stay with us for a few days this week. Besides some sharing issues on both sides, the kids had a great time playing together. Hopefully we can make this an annual event during Jason's (Ava's daddy) busy season.

And yes, it is impossible to get a 1.5 year old and a 2 year old to look at the camera at the same time!

A new career possibility??

Colby went bowling for the first time last weekend and he loved it! Poppy (who has 2 perfect 300 games under his belt) will be proud...he bowled a 113 all by himself in his first game ever!

Okay, the bumpers were up and he used this ramp thing they have for kids now (who knew?)...still 113 is pretty good! Sadly he almost doubled my score...

We adopted a little boy!

Okay, to be technically correct, we sponsored a little boy! (Although we do hope to adopt a baby someday...)

Wilson is 5 years old and lives in a mountainous community of Columbia with his mom and 2 siblings. We chose him because he was born on August 28th, the same date as Colby!

The President/Founder of Compassion International spoke at our church recently. His personal story is just amazing and with God's help he was able to overcome hardship and devoted his life to becoming an advocate for children. There are many sketchy programs out there, but Compassion is not one of them. It has been listed among the top trustworthy not-for-profit companies for many, many years.

Sponsoring a child is just $32/month (or $384/year). With this money the child is able to attend school, get needed health care, assistance from a local church, and grow up knowing they are cared about by you. You can write letters to your child and will receive letters from them as well. You can even visit them if you want! We hope that as Colby gets older, he will be the one writing letters and learning about life in Columbia...and how different it is from our little 'burb.

I'm posting this, not to brag about how charitable we are (I'm sure many have us beat in that department), but in hopes at least one of you will pray about this and decide that you too would like to make a difference in a child's life. Take a look at the website, but be pre-warned...once you see their little faces you won't be able say no...

http://www.compassion.com/

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! After a beautiful week in the 60s, we woke up to a blanket of snow this morning. Although it all melted by late afternoon...the morning egg hunts had to be moved indoors.

Thankfully my mommy group had an egg hunt earlier in the week...both because we were able to do it outdoors at the park and because it gave Colby a chance to practice before he had to compete with his cousins!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought me!

Aunt Karin's house is sooo fun! Look at all my eggs!
Aww, what a cute family!
The cousins...

Jesus I thank you that you died

Your spilled blood was for me

Death could not hold you in the grave

And you rose victoriously.

-M.S.Lowndes

Friends, Careers and Growing Up

Colby officially has his first best friend. Although it's not a conventional friendship and not always reciprocated...Colby is infatuated with Torreys. He gives her hugs and kisses all the time and loves to play fetch with her or just chill on the floor. I admit I'm a smidgen jealous b/c Colby has thus far refused to give Mommy a kiss...but they are pretty cute together.

Looks like we have a future CPA on our hands. He's mastered the 10-key and I've started to teach him a little tax law. ;)

Our "baby" had his 18 month appointment last weekend. He's now 33 inches (70th percentile) and 24 lbs. Despite being on an eating strike for the last couple months, he bumped up from the 20th to the 30th percentile in weight!

He's developing great, and while he doesn't have a whole lot of (understandable) words...he did more than double his vocab b/w 15 and 18 months, which is all the pediatrition wanted. Colby loves to talk and babbles all day long and I have a feeling his words are going to take off during the next couple months.

His newest thing is counting...he walks around saying "one, two, THREE" when he throws Torreys' ball, points to things in his books, jumps off the step, etc. It comes out "do, doo, DA", but we know what he means. ;)

DAM Pictures!

Denver Art Museum pictures, that is! I know you're thinking...what kind of parent in their right mind takes a 17 month old to an art museum??! The DAM actually has tons of fun kid's activities...and it was a free family day so we didn't have to worry about the disapproving glances you know you all gave before having kids of your own!

Playing with the magic light-up balls.

Enjoying the "big" city view.

Stacking blocks with daddy.

Animals!!!

The DAM tourtoise. Exhausted after his first museum experience!

Slacking!

As a few people have pointed out, I've been totally slacking on this whole blog thing since Christmas. (It's nice to know you noticed!) Apparantly not much happens in January/February around here though... In any case, here's some recent pics.

Colby sporting his Hefner look...

My Valentine (well, besides Steve that is...)

Torreys had a ball last weekend as we dogsat for a couple friends. Here's 3 of the 4 dogs we had at the house. #4 is a small dog, so she kind of steers clear of this gang...

Here they are helping Colby eat dinner...

Chillin on the couch.