18 Months Ago...

This little one came into our lives and we instantly fell in love:

For reals!  Colton turned 18 months old today--can you believe it?  Neither can we.

This kiddo has a great personality!  He cracks us up with his silly faces, funny noises, and contagious giggles.  He was born with ginormous fat rolls and he's still got them.  If you think his cheeks are chunky, you've gotta see his thighs.  W-O-W.

Colton today:

Weight: 35 pounds.  Yeah.  I'm super buff, thanks for asking :)

Clothing size: 2T

Diaper size: 5

Favorite activities: signing, imitating animal noises (some obscure ones, too... like turkeys, dinosaurs, and monsters), pretending to read books to himself, EATING, playing with light switches, playing peekaboo, tickling our feet under the bathroom door when we're... ehem... busy.

Favorite toy: basketball hoop

Favorite food: goldfish crackers

Favorite TV show: Little Einsteins

Favorite book: Very Hungry Caterpillar

Favorite animal noise: frog.  If he doesn't know what sound a certain animal makes, it automatically becomes a frog.

Favorite stalling tactic: throwing his animals/blankets out of his crib and shouting "Uh oh... help!" until we pick them up for him

Favorite word: "Hi!"

Favorite parent: mom! *snicker*

WE LOVE HIM!  And now... the obligatory photo explosion:

This one was during nursery today... check out this little stud in his purple shirt and blue sweater.  Kid didn't even know I was there the two times I went in to peek at him (P.S... sorry I yoinked this picture from your facebook page, Jessica!)

Being a mommy is awesome :)

Are you there, friends? It's me, Amy.

Long time. No really... it's been a LONG time.

This is what happened after my last post: I defended my thesis (and passed, by the way), graduated, and then... RELAXED.  Apparently I relaxed for 8 months, but that's a minor detail.

Here are the last 8 months in a nutshell:

June: Defended thesis

July: Read books, cleaned my house, cooked real food, finally had time to spend with my family and do fun things for the first time in 2 years

August: Colton turned 1 (yay!), officially graduated, began working as an SLP for Nebo School District

September: Ran the Color Run - killed it. Blew colored chalk out of my nose for a week

October: Ran a 10K... while wearing pink polyester pants... and pushing a 14-month old in a stroller.  We dressed up as Winnie-the-Pooh characters because we're that cool.

November: Was called to be in the Primary presidency. First Thanksgiving away from family; cooked WAY too much food and played with the Aviles crew.

December: Crazy Christmas in Sammamish = 9 adults, 4 dogs, 3 babies, 2 bedroom house, 1 nasty virus, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Oh, and I lost 15 pounds (over four months... not just in December).

January: Spencer started his last undergrad semester (whoopwhoop!), I tried out CrossFit and fell in love.  Too bad I'm poor and can't keep going.

February: Colton started nursery!  Now I'm actually useful during the last 2 hours of church.  Decided to go full-time next Fall so I can finish my CFY faster.  However, I was asked to start full time as soon as possible... SO... as soon as Spencer graduates in April, I'm switching.  I'll be done in NOVEMBER!

February's always been an introspective month for me.  As I sat down making goals for the big 2-7, I decided that I really need to update the blog more often--if for no other reason, because I'm kind of disgusted by how difficult it was to remember just one thing I did every month since June.  Sad, right?  So here's to allowing my close friends and family to have a better idea of how we're doing than everyone else who can read our facebook status updates! :)

We've missed you all :)