Summer Vacation

A month ago we were in UT for a few weeks. We had so much fun visiting and catching up with our family and friends.
We drove there much to lots of people's dismay. We left about 3:30 in the afternoon and drove through the night hoping that Scott would sleep for most of it, which he did. It took him a little while to finally fall asleep, but then he slept great - 12 of the 18 hrs. That made the drive so much easier.
We got to do and be there for lots of great, fun, and awesome things. First, our niece, Maggie, was born. That was super exciting for the Cragun family. We are so grateful we were able to be there to meet her. Her siblings, Lucy and Buchanan, were staying at Grammy and Grampy's house with us. They were so sweet with Scott. It was fun to watch them play with each other.
We were also there for our nephew, Thomas's, baby blessing. My brother gave a great blessing. He's a cute little boy and are so excited for Scott to have yet another cousin his age. He will have 3 on the Barker side and 1 with the Cragun's that are all within a year of Scott. He will have so much fun when he's older.
We had lots of fun going to parades, fireworks, swimming, shopping (Scott was spoiled by his grandparents), and playing with cousins. We were grateful to have Boone and Mandy and their family in UT while we were there too. We love them and their kids were so fun for Scott.
Collin and I were able to go on a few dates without Scott. Collin's parents watched him for us and it was SO nice. We had forgotten what it was like to go on a date without him. We definitely need to do it more. We went to Cafe Rio several times while we were there and absolutely loved it. I miss it tons! We also got to go to the new Ogden Temple. It is beautiful.

He loved the splash pad

Hanging out with his cousin Kaden. It was so fun watching them. Scott loves him!!!

On our way to a parade

Scott got to meet his Great Grandfather, Poppy.

Loved to gently jump on the tramp with his cousins

The whole Cragun family finally together again

Scott got to meet his Great Grandma Barker too.

Our annual ice cream date with "piano hallway" friends

Catch Up

In April, Scott and I went and toured an old fire station with some friends in our ward. It was so cool. It's super old and is about to have some major renovations done so I'm glad we got to see it before those get started. The firemen there said it was used back when they used horses - so super old! Scott loved looking all around and seeing everything. They had a fireboat there too since we live right along the Mississippi River. There was a fire truck coming in while we there. It was pretty loud and it scared Scott, but other than that he loved it.
The weather has also been super nice here. We've been able to go on lots of walks and take Scott to the park and swing and go down some slides. The beautiful spring blossoms are gone which is a little sad, but that means summer is almost here - my favorite!
The Saturday before Mother's Day we went and watched an Air Show. We were going to pay to go watch, but when the Blue Angels were doing their practices a few days before performing Scott got super scared when they flew right over our house. We decided to just go someplace close to the airport to watch. I'm so glad we didn't pay $16 each to go watch cause it was pretty lame. It was a huge bummer. The Blue Angels didn't do any cool tricks or anything like that. They mostly just flew over in the 2 formations - a diamond shape and a Flying V. That's alright. It was nice to be outside. And Collin loves airplanes so I loved watching his excitement, naming all the planes, and explaining what was going on.
Scott is now 8 months old and into everything. Here's what he's doing these days:
- crawling EVERYWHERE and getting into EVERYTHING!
- climbing up EVERYTHING and bonking his head. He currently has 3 bruises on his forehead because of this
- He "talks" all the time now. He does say "Mamamama", and "Dadadada" in addition to his many vocal sounds.
- Blows bubbles
- Still waking up once or twice at night and doesn't like going back to sleep after eating. We've been pretty exhausted at our house lately.
- Loves to eat anything we're eating. Forget the baby food, he's not a baby apparently so that's not what he wants. He likes whatever we give him. Hopefully it stays that way as he gets bigger.
- Super squirmy. It feels like he's moving all the time.
- Loves to be outside. If we're inside it's almost like he looks longingly out the window and is just waiting for when we go outside.
- Finally okay with being in his carseat awake. He used to only be okay in there if he'd fall asleep. Now he likes to look out the window and watch everything go past. Hopefully that will make our trip to Utah next month easier.
- Loves to grab and eat our hair. I don't love that. Collin would let him eat his, but didn't like him pulling on it so we cut it short.
- Can go up all 16 of our stairs by himself. Don't worry, we're right behind him.
- Got himself a new $90 toy. He loves our electric pressure and just stares at it anytime it's on the counter. Well, one night I was holding him while cleaning off the table. I put something in the garbage which is right by the counter. Scott grabbed the pressure cooker on the counter while I was throwing something away and as I moved away it fell to the ground and broke. He has a new toy and loves it!
- He also loves the vacuum and dishwasher. He tries to climb in the dishwasher anytime it's open and tries to follow the vacuum and get the cord anytime we're vacuuming.
- He's super happy, smiley, loves to play, and hates when we're on the computer or iPad.
We sure love him lots and are sad our baby is not really a baby anymore. But we love watching him grow and learn new things.

One of his favorite places to be is at the piano pedals

He loves to beat up Dad and pull his hair.

Neither of them look too thrilled....

Look at the beautiful trees behind us. Those are the blossoms I'm sad are gone.

He did not like those ear plugs.

Forget putting that in the right way. This is more fun.

Picture Overload

I had over 100 pictures on my phone of Scott. I just got them all on the computer. So here's a bunch from birth til now.

Day 1

One of my very favorite shirts and pictures of him.

Deer in the headlights.

He has always loved his hand. Now he more just puts a finger in it instead of his whole fist.

Another one of my favorite shirts! From our ASU loving family!

First snow storm he went outside for.

If he needs to get somewhere and wants something to come with him, he puts it in his mouth then crawls away. This time it was a Milky Way wrapper. Already wants the chocolate, just like his parents.

His first time sitting like a big boy in the shopping cart. I think he liked it....

He loves his jumperoo.

This was our "Happy Birthday Grandpa" picture. I cannot get over that grin.

Collin says he looks just like his dad in this picture.

This is the kind of trouble we are in. He tries climbing up the gate!!!

This is how I find him after every nap now.

He seriously loves to put his swaddling blankets in his mouth. he is no longer swaddled for sleep, but I still put the blanket in with him since he loves them so much!

Cute moose jacket from Grandpa.

More trouble - climbing up the stairs.

Start 'em young! He loves when I play and loves to "play" himself too.

That's exactly how I sit at the table. One knee up.

Delirious, Funny Collin

So after our accident Collin was very loopy. The first week after the accident while in the ICU and on heavy medications he said a lot of funny things. His brother and sister-in-law Chet and Abby as well as our moms and I wrote down several of his funny sayings. At the time they were funny, but also a little sad that his brain was so far gone. Now it's fun to look back and laugh from them.

- "Where is Justin Timberlake?"

- We mentioned Grandma Donna and Lucy having tubes in their noses like he did and he said "joyful, happy spirits" 

- "If I die when I go pee it's your fault" 

- Collin do you know where you are? "The north pole"

- "Did Stefani get her gift list?" We said yes, he said "it hasn't slipped her mind?"

- "Buy Jeremy an elephant."

- "Chet sing your Christmas jingle to get Jeremy here, I know it works"

- "Call Kristy Kringle and find out where Kris Kringle is" 

- "Get me up!" up where? "up mom's skirt, I don't care!" 

- Collin you are flashing me, Collin-"Count your blessings" 

- Abby asked Collin what did you get me? Collin-"Presents, what more do you want?" 

- "I don't want to die" You are not going to die, Collin-"well we are all going to die."

- We said just go pee, you have a catheter. Collin-"I can't, people are watching me"

- "I just want to get all this stuff off of me and walk around naked, is that too much to ask?"!! 

- Talking to his mom and I while we were both rubbing his arms"Do you both have to be touching me?"

- "Where is Kati Sue? (my sister) at home "Why? Doesn't she like us anymore?"
- Me, what are you doing? Collin "Looking at you cause you're cute."
- To me "I had a dream you were a werewolf dragon and me and my dad were trying to kill you."
- Talking about me "I love her so much. I really miss her."
- "Frankenstein is dead. We solved it."
- "Sorry if I am disparaging anyone." (I just looked up that word - expressing the opinion that something is of little worth)
- "My C-Section went alright."
- "Santa hasn't come yet. It takes forever. No presents allowed in the hospital."
- He asked if I would take him home yet and I said no. "You're making me go insane. You're killing me." He said that while pushing my face away from his.
- "How much time do you think they spent designing this bed? It was not enough cause it is extremely uncomfortable."
- "It hurts so much to be hurt sometimes."

Family Pictures March 2015

We went to Arizona the end of February through the beginning of March. My sister Emilee had a baby and we went for her blessing. My whole family was there so that was a lot of fun to see everyone and for them to all meet Scott. Scott loved them, especially his cousins! It was fun to see his cousins play with him and to see Scott give them kisses over and over. We went out for a lot of yummy food as well. We went to Serrano's (my favorite Mexican food), Cafe Rio, Venezzia's (pizza), and Joe's BBQ! It was all delicious and we loved hanging out with everyone. Well, while we were down there my sister wanted to take some family pictures for us. She'd taken a photography class the semester before that and wanted to have some fun. We love how they turned out and it was fun watching the family there try and make Scott smile.

I love that his eyes smile too!

Scott seriously loves being on Collin's shoulders and tries to eat his hair, EVERY time, 

I could kiss his cheeks all day.