My C monkey is 7!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy! Today, March 1st, Colton turns seven. As I reflect back through the years I am overjoyed with the happiness that he has brought into my life. From the beginning, he is the one who first allowed me to feel what motherhood was all about. Just how truly amazing that feeling is. He is the one who let me first experience the miracle of pregnancy. I remember how consumed I was with every little detail of it. I read every pregnancy book I could get my hands on and spent so much time sorting through all those tiny little baby boy clothes dreaming of the day I could dress him and hold him in my arms. From the start he fulfilled every dream that I ever had of being a parent and so much more. Becoming a mommy was truly more than I ever imagined it could be. I had so much love for this baby and from the start I knew I would do every thing in my power to protect this child and give him the best life I possibly could. Now that he's seven, he has definitely grown from my little baby boy, but the one thing that hasn't changed, he is still my extra special little boy who I love more than words can say.



I am so in love with my sweet baby boy.





Colton 18 months
It's fun to compare Fletch with Colton's baby pictures. They truly do look a lot alike.


My beautiful mom and Colton. He is so blessed that he was able to be a special part of her life for his first 3 1/2 years. He still talks about his Nana all the time and misses her as badly as we do. My mom would be turning 55 on March 3rd. Happy birthday mom! We love you!!!


Happy 7th Birthday Colton!

Homemade cards. They're the best!!!


Fun in the woods!





We love you so much!!!

Camping with Daddy

Josh and Colton went on their annual father / son camp out at Jonathan Dickinson State Park back in January. They went with a group of fathers and sons from Sonshine Christian Academy (our local Homeschool group). They had a really good time!



Packed up and ready to camp!

The boys sharing a beautiful sunset moment.

Colton and two of his buddies mesmerized by the flames.

Colton and Daniel Boone aka: Lucas

No girls allowed!!!

Some of the campers ready to hike the trails.

Then in February it was time for the annual father / daughter camp out. This was Gracie's second year camping with Daddy. It makes her feels so special to spend one on one time just her and her Daddy. She's definitely a daddy's girl all the way!

She helped Daddy set up the tent, fill the air mattresses, and make the bed. That's my girl! Of course she couldn't go camping without her unicorn and pink blankie!

Gracie and just a hand full of the campers. They had a huge turnout this year!

Gracie saw many raccoons again this year. She wasn't as afraid of them as she was last year. She's getting a little braver now that she's 4 1/2 ; )

Daddy and Gracie enjoying a sunrise moment together.

Fair and Fire station

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the fair on Valentine's Day evening. We had such a blast! My Aunt Joyce came with us and we met Josh's parents and sister and brother in law there. The place was practically deserted! At least compared to how busy the fair usually is. It was such a beautiful evening. Fletcher wanted to ride everything Colton and Gracie did so we kept having to beg them to ride the "baby rides". Next year he'll be able to keep up perfectly!




Happy Fletch w/ Aunt Katie and Uncle Austin



Thursday we went on a field trip to the brand new fire station in Stuart. It's a fire/police station in one so we got to tour the whole place! Colton's favorite parts were going into the garage where the police motorcycles are kept and also peeking in to the police armory where they kept all the guns and ammo. I must admit this was pretty neat! We even got to (very quietly) go to the dispatch room where the dispatchers were busy answering the 911 calls. After touring the police station side, we went to the fire station where we learned all about fire safety and got to sit in their brand new fire truck. While Fletch was sitting in the back seat of the truck, he had a major melt down when I wouldn't let him climb up front to "drive". This was a little embarrassing to say the least as I had to drag my screaming child out of the fire truck. Life with a toddler!

Fletcher's officially 17 months!

Stickers are fun!!!

Fletch has a new blankie!

I just made this for him and he loves it! It's so soft, silky and snuggly. He just recently gave up the binky on his own which I honestly was dreading weaning him from since he was so attached to it. In some ways though it was nice because he used it as his comfort object. Now, I find him wanting to nurse more often and I thought we were nearing the end of it. So I thought maybe a handmade blanky from mama may help to become an additional source of comfort for him. We'll see : )

Cousins are those childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends.

Colton loves his little cousin Kaya!


5 little monkey's in the bathtub!
We were so lucky to spend the day with Ava and Kaya while Brian and Kelly worked the Stuart Arts Fest. We had such a fun day together!


This dress was my latest sewing project. I love... the fabric of this one!

Free Rice

There is a website that I love to go on when I have free time (Ha!). You may already know of it but it's http://www.freerice.com/ You play a word definition game and for each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to feed the needy. It's totally addicting! Have fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!! The kids woke us up bright and early to begin a day celebrating our love for one another. We had a nice breakfast with Daddy before he headed off for work then we got ready for one of our Valentine's Day parties. Today we attended a party at a local park with some of our friends from Olivet Christian Academy. Olivet is a private school for homeschoolers that we enrolled Colton in this year. They keep track of attendance and grades which us parents submit to them, and they do the testing and evaluations to give us "teachers" a piece of mind knowing that our precious kids are learning exactly as they should be and are right on track. They also offer a whole array of classes, activities and events for the kids. We go to "Olivet Day" once a month and the kids participate in classes with other students in Olivet. They also offer all the extra activities that you may think homeschoolers miss out on, like Field Day, Spelling Bee, talent shows, dances for the older students, yearbook, end of the year graduation (complete with cap and gowns for the graduates) and of course parties. We feel really blessed to be a part of Olivet and are looking forward to the end of the year graduation. At the graduation Gracie will be having a ballet recital with the girls in her Olivet ballet class and Colton will be saying his part of a poem that his acting class have been memorizing. He doesn't totally love acting class (at least not the part of having to speak in front of the class) but I have seen a huge improvement in his ability to comfortably speak in front of large crowds. He's had to give a book review, recite a poem and a bible verse that he'd memorized, among many other things in front of a large group of children and parents and I am so proud of him! I do sometimes get nervous for him just knowing how nervous he is and knowing he's so worried that he'll forget what to say. It's such a rewarding thing though as a mom for me to be there for him to not only witness this but to be able to give him a big hug and tell him how proud I am of him when he finishes. I just love that feeling that it gives me. It makes me feel so close and connected to my son which is priceless to me. Back to Valentine's Day... the kids had a blast playing with about 40 or so of their Olivet friends, decorating bags to hold their cards, passing out their cards and of course decorating and eating cupcakes! Fletch devoured his cupcake in record time. I think it took me longer to clean him up than it did for him to eat it! Oh well, it's Valentine's Day and it's all about fun! Tomorrow morning we are off to another park to have a party with our friends from Sonshine Christian Academy, a support group for homeschool families in the Stuart area. We do a lot of field trips and park days with them and have developed some great friendships. Fun, fun, fun! Tonight we are off to the fair! Wow, it really is non stop! And they say homeschoolers are unsocialized! Ha! Who are they kidding!





Colton and Gracie in line passing out their cards






Gracie and some of the Olivet "sweeties"


What do I do now Mom?

Picaso in training

He takes his painting very seriously...

until....

he gets a great idea...

Fletch cracking up after he threw his "masterpiece" and paint brush on the floor leaving traces of paint all over the wall and floor. Thank goodness for washable paint!

"Mommy, could you ever get angry at this sweet face?"

Look out for trees!

A dream of Colton's has always been to be able to fly. The other day I overheard Colton giving flying instructions to his action figures. Here are bits and pieces of what I could hear... "Do you know how difficult flying is?"... "Look out for trees!!!"... and this was the best one, "Put all distractions away and trust in God to give you the strength to fly." He amazes me every day! I just love him and his imagination!

*** Does anyone notice how double jointed he his? He can do the most unbelievable things with his body! We tell him that this is one of his many gifts from God. He doesn't exactly know how he's supposed to use this gift yet but we tell him, "You never know, maybe someday a job position will open up at the circus!" After all, he would love to fly! Maybe he can be a trapeze artist or even shoot out of a cannon! Wouldn't that be fun!

Our little Fletcher is growing up so fast. More and more each day we find him being able to keep up with the big kids. He follows them around and wants to do anything and everything that they are doing. He's such a busy body. He is not the toddler who will sit and play with toys or watch tv for any period of time. He wants to go, go, go! He certainly keeps us on our toes! Our dog Lucy is his absolute best friend. We got her when I was pregnant with Fletch and Lucy was just a tiny puppy so really, they've been growing up together. Lucy goes to work with Josh every day so when the two of them walk in the house after a day of work, Fletch screams with excitement to see her. He immediately goes up to her and hugs her like you see in the picture. She is so very tolerant of him. It amazes me! He's getting gentler with her as he gets older, but he used to stick his fingers in her eyes, pull on her big lips, her tail, her ears or really anything he could get a hold of. He still tries to ride her and rough houses with her but she usually doesn't mind. I think she truly loves him as much as he loves her especially since he'll stop whatever he's doing to give her love and attention.

Dump truck or Disney

Last Wednesday we decided if we're ever going to use up our last Disney tickets, today had to be the day since they expired that Friday and there was no way we could go on Thursday or Friday due to our schedule. So... we woke the kids up in the morning and Josh asked them if they'd like to come with him to go look at a dump truck (he's a diesel mechanic). Even though they were told it would be a 2 hour drive, an excuse to sneak away from school made them say SURE!!! Little did they know that we'd be doing a mini school lesson on the drive up to Orlando. I sneak in school any way I can : ) So as we drove into the Walt Disney World entrance the look on their faces was priceless! They were so very excited to be going to DISNEY WORLD they couldn't believe it!!! We were just there last August for Gracie's 4th birthday and then we went to MGM Studios in September for Fletch's 1st birthday (and mine too :) but regardless, they were so overjoyed to be going again. The day was perfect! The longest we waited for a ride was 5 maybe 10 minutes tops! It was great! The weather was perfectly beautiful and the best part... the kids behaved awesome! We never once had to get on them for anything and Fletch happily sat in the stroller taking it all in. Lately we can hardly get him to sit for 5 minutes so this was a big surprise that throughout the day he never even attempted to escape from the stroller. I was so proud and relieved since I truly was expecting it to be difficult with him. He's just in that stage where he doesn't want to be restrained for anything. He wants to be independent to explore as he pleases and if he's asked to sit still for any length of time, it's not a pretty situation. But he did perfect! I'm sure it made all the difference that we were in Disney World and come on, how can a child not be perfectly happy at Disney. It's the happiest place ever!!! On the ride home, Colton said "Dad, I was pretty excited to see a dump truck. That wasn't really nice of you to tease me like that." We then felt a little bad about our dishonestly but explained to him that it was our attempt at creating a fun surprise for them. We promised that we would soon take him to see a dump truck and that made him feel much better : )




Gracie and I on Tom Sawyer's Island


Gracie's $17 "Happy 4 1/2 birthday" gift


3 happy kids after a long day of fun