On our way home from the beach on Sunday we needed to break our long drive up and stopped in at my brother's for a few hours to let Collier stretch his legs.  I am so glad that we did!  Collier had his first experience on a trampoline and although he was jolted around a little by his bouncing cousin he finally figured it out.  Ashlyn is quite fearless and does great on the trampoline and has even masted a 'sommer-flip'.  Collier wasn't quite as interested in the trampoline as he was the tractor but I know this will change in the probably near future!  

Sweet Cousins!!!

 

Uncle Chris was willing to go down the slide with Collier since the slide was so hot.  We didn't want any burned hineys!

We also got to see this precious baby!  She is growing and changing so much!

To bad we don't live closer so that we could see them much more often than we do right now!

Beach Trip

Last weekend we had a fun opportunity to head to Port St. Joe/Mexico Beach for Justin's cousin's wedding.  It was a great and fun weekend and Collier's first beach and wedding experience.  We got to spend the weekend with Popoo, Nunny, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Eve and that time was really fun and special.  The weather couldn't have been better...matter of fact it was warmer than I thought it would be and I even put on my swimsuit once!  Popoo was gracious with his time with Collier on the beach.  Collier really liked the sand especially the soft sand and loved all of the seagulls!  I told him to chase them but he didn't quite understand.  I know that in another year it will be completely different....he wanted to be held and go and get them.  He would point and grunt at them.  I wanted to feed them before we left but we never did, I think he would have loved seeing them all flock around him - in hopes of no accidental droppings from them.  Oh well, next time for sure!    The condo that we stayed in was just perfect, directly across the street from the beach and Mexico beach is such a quiet area with so few people on the beaches.  You almost felt that you had the whole beach to yourself!  It was really awesome.  Plus the seashells that are on the beach is unbelievable, there are millions of them. 

Collier showed his independence through the weekend at all of the wedding events.  He was more social than I had ever seen him, he walked around (at both the rehearsal dinner and wedding) all by himself.  He didn't want us to  hold his hand or hold him.  He would walk up to people and touch their leg or let them hold him for a second - people that he had never met.  Justin and I just stood back and watched I am sure at times people were like 'where is this child's parents'.   He watched other kids and really was funny how he was so independent.  He danced a lot at the wedding and was just mesmerized by the band.  To have both events be a little later than we are used to being out he did awesome!  The weekend was very sweet and fun and I didn't want it to end.  I really wished that we had a few more days to enjoy.  Hopefully this summer we can do it again renting the same condo plus by then Collier will have another girl cousin and that will be loads of fun.

I will not be held or restrained....let me down...I have people to see

Some random table he walked up to and let this guy put him in the chair.  Who knew he didn't know a stranger???

 

 Dancing, Dancing and more Dancing

aren't they cute?



For the Love of Brinkley

 Since before we had Collier, I have thought often about the dynamics of our four legged babies with our human babies.  I guess because we love our dogs so much and they are apart of our family I have always wanted Collier to love her as much as we do!  I have to make a side note: I still to this day wonder about how Doc would have been with Collier, I think that Doc would have taken to Collier must quicker than Brinkley has!  BUT since it is just Brinkley for now, I am happy to report that Collier loves this little girl!  The first 3-4 months Brinkley tried her best to pretend that Collier didn't exist and he was just too young to be aware of her.  Gradually he became more and more aware and interested in Brink.  Now he adores her, he sits on her, he bounces on her, he stands on her, he calls her name, he even opens his mouth wide for her to reciprocate kisses, he looks past me every time I walk in the room to see if she is behind me, he chases her with his car,  (that she doesn't like), he pulls her tail,  he finds sticks for her to chew on, he loves to give her his dinner treats and has even learned to feed her - that is put her food in her bowl!  When I ask Collier, 'do you want to go and feed Brink' he jumps up from whatever he is doing and runs for the backdoor.  I scoop the food, he carries it to her bowl and pours it right in...well sort of, he gets most of it in.  But he will at least pick up the 'missed' pieces and put back in her bowl.  This is a HUGE step toward him sitting at her bowl hand feeding her and himself.  He then takes the scoop back out and puts it in her bin.  It is so sweet and I love it deary.  I am not sure that the feelings are as mutual with Brinkley. She is just a mommas girl.  Don't get me wrong I know that Brinkley loves him.  She appreciate all of the goodies that she gets at his meal times, she licks his entire face (usually with his mouth wide open from excitement) in the morning and anytime we walk back into the house, she doesn't move when he sits and bounces on her or when he stands on her to get onto the couch, she is twice as excited when he feeds her than when I do and she especially likes all of the sticks that he gives her.  She doesn't like the tail pulling and we are working VERY hard on that not being a habit.  I've told  Collier more than once that he will 'get a boo boo' if he continues to do that!  Brinkley is so tolerable and patient with him.  But I can tell that he is way more excited about her than she is about him, but still I know that they will bond more and more.  Sometimes I can just look in her eyes and it is as if she is saying....'seriously you are letting him do this...  The more that she realizes that he will/can play with her the more that she will pull toward him.   

Lindsey and I had a BLAST at the Sugarland concert last week! It was perfect weather and I don't think we hardly sat down...my feet hurt after the concert from wearing boots for the first time this year! So much fun!







they are such great entertainers


not to mention funny and a little crazy!

play date with sweet friends...





this is becoming a trend...jeep rides with pretty girls!





Bath time fun...




This child would eat, sleep and live in this swing if we let him...

Fall excitement

The weather that we're having is just perfect! Highs are in the 70s and the sun is shinning. I love fall time as the weather cools off and gives us a break from the heat stroke of a summer that we've had. It's time for scarfs, boots, pumpkins and soups! It just thrills me. I am sort of unprepared for dressing Collier with this weather as most of his clothes from last year do not fit and most of what I bought at the consignment sale are for COLDer and are little big plus they need to be washed. His only shoes are croc's and I don't even have socks that fit him, he of course doesn't mind and hasn't seem to notice that it is a little cooler in the mornings. I on the other hand am one happy person.

Speaking of excited...tonight Lindsey and I are headed to see Sugarland at Oakmountian and I am beside myself excited. Not only because it is Sugarland and this is supposed to be an AWESOME show but it is going to be cool and perfect for an outside concert!

And now I leave you with Collier's new dance.

Justin and I get so cracked up because he is so serious and waves his arms around. Way too funny.

Can't get them out of my mind...

[sorry for the EXTREMELY long post yesterday...lots to cover]

So, yesterday morning Collier got up around 6:30 and since he didn't get a bath Saturday night I decided to get right up and shower him and me for the day. We got in and out and we were both starving and since Justin was just crawling out of the bed I decided to head down for breakfast with Collier. As we walked out of our room there was a couple in the hall way who instantly took notice of Collier and started talking to him. We had seen them around throughout the weekend. We told them good morning and Collier was being a little shy. So as I walked toward them they asked me where I was from and their faces lit up when I said Birmingham, explaining that it was where they were from although they lived in Franklin now. The man proceeded to share that earlier last week one of his son's took his own life. He said that his son (along with their other children) was adopted and that some friends had put them up in the hotel for the weekend. They were looking for their daughter (There were several rooms on our floor that their family occupied and they weren't sure which room she ended up in last night) before they left to get ready for the memorial service to be sure everyone awake. He proceeded to share with me that Collier had been a glimpse of joy in his day the day before. He went on and on about how much it meant for him to see Collier smile in the midst of what they were going through. He told me that I really couldn't understand how much it really did mean to him. My eyes teared up at the thought and realization of what this family was going through. I was filled with joy that Collier was used as a source of hope and joy for this man. I was filled with sadness for the brokenness that they must have felt. I was thankful to have Collier safe in my arms. He told me to be sure to share this with my husband as well, when he said this I instantly assumed that Justin and Collier must have bumped into him at some point on Saturday morning, while I was running, because I hadn't remembered interaction with him before. As I walked away - trying to keep myself together before I walked down to the breakfast area - I rounded the corner to the elevator and it suddenly hit me that on Saturday afternoon as we were leaving to go to watch the Bama game Collier had run ahead of Justin and I toward the elevator and this man was coming off the elevator and was shocked to see a little boy without parents with him (no worries we were only 3 steps behind him) and so we sort of laughed about Collier running so fast and then jumped on the elevator and went about our day. Not even considering or knowing how that man was feeling. As I wiped the tears from my eyes on the elevator ride down I just thanked God for Collier. I thanked God for His grace, His Love, His peace and especially asked Him to wrap His Loving arms around that family. I have no idea how many children they have, how old the son was or how he took his life...but honestly all of that doesn't matter. What does is that we had a positive impact on someone who was at a place in their life who needed it. This was nothing that I did, nothing that Justin did and nothing that Collier did but ALL that Christ did to allow each circumstance to unfold and allow us to cross each others paths at just the right time.

I can not get this family out of my mind. Before I walked away he asked what Collier's name was and just smiled and said 'thank you'. I asked for their last name so that I could pray for them! This ignited the thoughts in my mind about the impact that we have on the people around us. Every person, stranger, friend, family, co-worker, etc that we come into contact with is someone that God placed us in contact with for some reason. something as simple as a smile can change someones day. We never know what others are going through or may need but it certainly has brought that realization to mind for me. It also has me thinking that I probably need to slow down and appreciate my time with Collier. To be sure that I am teaching him about Jesus and His love and that nothing is to big or small for Jesus..he is with us always!

To apply our lesson from CBS out of 1 Peter...we are to be imitators of God, which should result in us being strangers in the world. If we are truly obeying and following Christ in ALL that we do then we will have the right and direct impact of those that surround us and will bring honor and glory to God!


And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
-Romans 8:28

Nashville Weekend

This weekend I ran in the Nashville Women's Half Marathon. It was a fun weekend and the race was a total success!


Two of the five girls that ran had husbands there to cheer us on...All of the guys were meeting to bring all of the children (seven kids between three men) to cheer us on around mile 8. The two other guys were on one side and Justin and Collier were on the other. So when we saw the guys, I was wondering in my head where is Justin and Collier as we were passing by Justin yelled my name..

and I was sooo HAPPY to see them and had to turn around to give high-fives to my cheering section!

I ran with almost the same group as the full that I ran in June, minus our coach who got married this past weekend. I'll post more pictures once I get them from the other girls! We finished in 2Hours 28Minutes and our goal was to finish under 2.5 hours...we were very pleased.


While we were in Nashville we took the opportunity to visit with Brett and Ashley. Collier had a blast with Ella and Mia. He wanted to rock Baby Shae in the bouncy so bad, but we did our best to keep Shae from having whip-lash! We watched the Alabama game with them and stayed through dinner and most of the Auburn game. It was very fun to visit with them and enjoy the company of such sweet friends (Justin and Brett went to preschool through most of Alabama together). These girls are not only beautiful but very sweet, thanks Brett and Ash for having us over for the day.


Aren't they so sweet? and we think that Collier and Mia (on the right) could be brother and sister

The guys were a little nervous about the game, but thankfully Bama got their act together and pulled it off!




Cinderella took her prince charming for a ride in the jeep...I think that they road around for about 20 minutes and loved every minute of it, they were so cute.



Sweet Baby Shae


We stayed in a hotel and this was our first experience in a hotel with Toddler Collier and he did really good, especially since I got up at 5:00 on Saturday morning and did my best not to wake up my guys...Collier did wake up but thankfully he went right back down. He loved running up and down the long halls and flushing the toilet, he played in and out of the shower, and loved the mirrored closet doors. He also turned the air conditioner (which was a floor unit) on and off 100 times and was absolutely hilarious in the elevator - squatting up and down the whole time we were in it. He did do good for Daddy while we ran. The guys just couldn't get 7 children to the finish line to see us finish...can you believe that...ha, it was so crowded and I knew it would be hard with parking and that many kiddo's! Which turned out to be a good thing because Collier ended up taking a 2 hour nap after they left from seeing us! He played with Crystal and Denise's children until we were done with the race. I asked Justin last night how we got such a sweet little boy? He did so good and was easy going for the most part with all of the going and doing that we did this weekend.

This morning he figured out how to play peek-a-boo behind the curtain. Way to cute and way to fun. He has cracked Justin and I up several times today: first dancing, he has a new dance and then trying to cram himself and his lamb (which is about his size) into his new red car and they were like a car packed with clowns. Although he is quite challenging right now he is so much a bundle of joy. This Mommy couldn't be any happier!

has anyone seen Collier?

Peek-A-Boo


I had a unique conversation this morning, but I'm afraid no one is still reading and will be back to post later...

Visitors

Yesterday evening we had some very fun visitors stop by for a short visit. Although short it was still tons of fun. One of my best friends and college roommates made a trip to Birmingham for the day and needed a quick dinner stop before headed back to Montgomery...Kay and her 3 boys - Braxton, Brewer and Hampton...aren't those just the greatest names - swooped in for a pizza dinner a little playing and change into PJ's before getting back on the road! Hampton and Collier are a mere day apart and we have been dieing to get them together and I am so glad that we finally did. Collier not only loved Hampton but was thrilled to have 'big boys' in his house to follow. Kay, thank you for stopping by but now we need to plan some time where they can really plan and enjoy each other. I am so glad that they are now closer to us!! Love yall.





these kids aren't just beautiful handsome but they are so well behaved!


How Stink'n Cute?


Hampton managed to teach Collier a new trick.....

oh boy!!!


Plus the added bonus of getting to visit with Kay was awesome. Again, I wish that we had more time and hope that we can do it again VERY soon. I love my friends and I personally think that I have some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for. I love that Hampton and Collier are so close in age and hope that they'll grow up big buddies. When they were leaving Collier gave them all MULTIPLE hugs, it was so sweet.