From Then To Now

 Just for the sake of me being caught up, here is another catch-up post! It includes everything from the day after Christmas up until now (minus Daphne's birthday which will be a separate post.)

The morning after Christmas was electronic heaven for the boys.

 That day was also the annual Collette Girl's Shopping trip. So much fun. I am truly blessed with amazing ladies to call my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law.

 We shopped to our heart's content and also had lunch. We tried taking a photo together, but every single one of them ended up as more of an "outtake" photo.... this is probably the best I could get:

 What can I say, we are pretty goofy when we get together.

That night the Laylah and Daphne were able to have a sleepover with their St. George cousins who we don't get to see nearly enough. They had a blast together.

And a little Magna-doodle snuck into my bed yet again.

Baron lost his first tooth! The Tooth Fairy came and he was oh-so-thrilled.

We had a fun night getting together with some of Andy's high school friends (whose wives happen to be some of my best friends now too :). I snagged a photo with our besties Paul and Cheryl before we all took off for the night. Between Andy and his 3 best friends from high school, we have a combined total of 16 kids. Pretty impressive :)

Well, 15 kids.... number 16 is still baking for a few more weeks.

We had a fun New Year's party with some friends from our ward. Between us four couples we have a combined total of 21 kids! Yup, we're Mormon ;)

It was such a fun night of food, fun, games, movies, chatting, and ringing in the New Year with kisses, resolutions, and screaming and yelling.

This boy loves his Christmas gift and rides it around our tiny kitchen. Can't wait for spring!

He also started primary.That's right, my last baby is out of nursery. It's so weird. He isn't a huge fan of sunbeams yet, but we are trying to convince him.

 WARNING: If you are squeamish, do not scroll any further! Or scroll by it fast, but there is a photo of Andy's surgery scar/stitches down below...

Andy had his soft cast and splint taken off. Because of the severity of his injury, instead of switching him over to a walking boot and physical therapy (as is the norm at this point in the healing process) Andy's doctor decided to put a hard cast back on for a couple more weeks to continue to let it heal.

Andy was disappointed, but you know the saying.... Doctors orders. He was told to wait with attempting to walk and put weight on it just yet.

In other news, we decided it was high time for a certain little boy to become potty trained. He had shown absolutely no interest whatsoever at this point, but we explained the process to him and he seemed excited about choosing underwear and becoming a "big boy" and leaving his diapers behind.

 He had several accidents the first day, but by day 2 seemed to be getting the hang of it. He has had accidents here and there, but overall has done fabulously. It is so weird (and wonderful) to not be buying diapers anymore!

He's just too cute this little caboose of mine. He fell asleep one night with his headlamp on.

I did a crazy thing and signed up for a 100 mile bike race. I am super excited. I have been a bit of a yo-yo with my weight over the last couple months and I feel like this will help me have a goal and something to work towards. I never did quite hit my goal weight from last year (I came within 1.5 pounds though!) and I need to lose about 8 to get back to where I was. I know I can do it, I have just been lazy. And I have become re-addicted to sugar. You'd think I would learn...

The awesome Potty Boy in his cool undies.

Andy and I went to a friend's 40th surprise birthday party with a mobster theme. It was so much fun.  I am so thankful for good friends!

 We went on a scavenger hunt.... our car took last place, haha.

I did a crazy thing. You know how I said I would never go dark again because I always hate it? Well, I colored my hair dark again. Plus, I decided that while I was making such a drastic change that I may as well cut it all off too.  

Before:

After:

 It's crazy and different and I am still getting used to it. I have had super short hair before (even shorter than this when i was in hair school) and I have always wanted to do it again. My hair was so unhealthy, so I decided now would be a god time to do it. I like it most of the time. I think I am going to go even darker and see how I like that for a little bit because it has already faded a ton.

Andy and I have been putting our Christmas gift cards to good use:

The Jonah-boy had to get some new glasses. They are super cool.

Baron is my quiet and artistic boy who wants me to take a picture of anything and everything he makes. He also wants to keep any piece of paper he's ever put a crayon to.

After two weeks with the hard cast Andy got it removed. He got his walking boot and has started physical therapy.  His leg is soooo skinny, his muscle has atrophied so much.

Daphne took 3rd place in her class spelling bee!

And Laylah took 2nd! She gets to move on to the school spelling bee which will be in a few weeks. She's busy studying. Jonah's class bee will be next week. He took 2nd last year, so I'm hoping he can do it again so he can be in the school bee as well. We'll see!

And once again, we are putting our giftcards to good use.

I love getting to have time away with my guy. Between kids, work, school, and responsibility I am tapped out at the end of every day. It's so nice to have time alone together. Sure love him.

So that's it. From last year to this year, you are officially caught up on the life of the Collette Crew. Don't you feel lucky?!

Merry Merry Day

 Christmas!!! Christmas day is perhaps my favorite holiday (but I might just say that about every holiday. What can I say, I love to celebrate anything.) It was such a lovely, fun, relaxing, enjoyable day. I'll just let the pictures do the talking because, my my, there are a lot of them (I don't know why I say that, I can't just let the pictures do the talking because I like to talk too much.)

After I heard the kids get up I left poor Magnus downstairs asleep on the couch and went up to join Andy and the kids. Before I let them rip into their stockings I had to take our traditional Christmas morning photo (which is sadly missing M.)

Stockings are my absolute favorite and I am so glad I have Andy who is such a sport and fills mine with such thoughtful things that he knows I want.

Makeup, perfume, candy, mittens, my traditional day planner, leggings, gym socks, pink ipad case.... what more does a gal's stocking need?! He done good.

I truly love watching my kids get so excited about their stocking treasures that Santa has brought for them. It makes my heart so happy.

 Ahhhh, a lovely fire was started for ambiance and warmth (I am a sucker for ambiance, down to Christmas music playing in the background and cinnamon roll smells wafting in from the kitchen as they bake in the oven for breakfast.)

We always go youngest to oldest when it comes to opening Santa gifts, but since our youngest was still sleeping we decided to go oldest to youngest. Bear wasn't a fan of that idea and pouted until it was his turn.

 Andy received a drill with several different attachments.... a dream gift as he loves tools.

I got my new camera

 Laylah didn't ask for much at all this year and what she did ask for came in her stocking. Santa surprised her with a jewelry box containing some new jewelry (since she's always borrowing mine...)

 (Check out Bear as he impatiently waits his turn. The kid has an awesome pout.)

 Jonah's dream gift of a pogo stick was made a reality. He is so awesome on this thing already.

And I didn't realize until now that I never took a picture of Daphne after she opened her gift. She received a pop-up soccer goal. She didn't ask for much either and what she did ask for was also in her stocking. She is so excited to use her new toy as soon as it warms up a bit.

 Finally! Baron's turn! He received his Beyblade arena that he had been wanting.

New clothes, blah blah blah. Laylah is really the only one who gets excited about this. I just always loved wearing new clothes on Christmas, so I always get the kids a new outfit. 

 Can't you just see the excitement?!

Some other fun things they received:

And finally! The sickie awakens! Magnus joined us at about 9 AM and sleepily asked, "What is everybody doing?!"

 He became super excited when we told him it was Christmas and he had a whole load of presents to open. (He had been asking for several weeks when we would get to open the presents under the tree.) We started with his stocking and went from there. He was so cute and fun. I love this age!

Andy got me a new purse that had a prepaid visa inside. Oh boy, that man sure knows the way to my heart!

And Laylah made me this amazing apron. I have been married for 11 1/2 years and have never owned an apron. She must have heard me complaining about that one day and took matters into her own hands. What a sweetheart. (P.S. Laylah did not get glasses. She received these "geek glasses" in her stocking. I was hoping she would let that trend pass by without hopping onto the bandwagon, but alas, that was one of the few things on her short Christmas list so Santa had to come through ;)

After every last gift was opened I finished preparing our Christmas breakfast of cheesy eggs, sausage, bacon, orange juice, hot cocoa, and cinnamon rolls. Divine. The kids had to be dragged away from their fun new things to come and eat and then they were off again while I cleaned up. We all got dressed and were planning on going to a movie but Magnus was still running a fever and neither Andy nor I wanted to stay home with him and miss out. So we promised the kids we would do the movie another day. They happily went back to their toys, movies, and games until it was time to go to Andy's parent's house for Christmas dinner. In fact, I have a photo somewhere (that I'm too lazy to locate and upload) of Daphne playing Magnus' new Memory game with him and while she went to the bathroom for a minute he curled up right there on the floor and fell asleep with Sadie cuddled up next to him. The poor guy was so sick. I was glad we decided to fore-go the movie.

We headed to the Collette household which is always pure chaos. I mean, I don't expect anything less with 2 parents, 7 children (David is on his mission, but he was there on skype!), 5 in-law children, and 19 grandchildren (number 20 is on the way!) We had 4 different kinds of soup, rolls, and salad (I think? My memory is hazy) plus a lot of snacky appetizers. Also, a ton of different desserts to choose from. It was Christmas dinner heaven.

This is the first time we had all been together since before Andy and I moved to VA. It was so much fun to be with everyone. The gift exchange was crazy as seen below.

I was terrible with the camera and after the day was over I realized I had hardly taken any photos. Oh well, there's always next year (that's been my motto lately.)

At least I got the traditional grandkid photo with the jammies grandma makes every year. There are always at least 2 kids crying. What do you know, one of them was my sickie Magnus this year.) I wish I would have taken a photo of the scene behind me (all of the parents trying to get the kids to be happy and smile) (And in case you're wondering, Kathryn is the oldest grandchild and she no longer gets grandma's jammies because grandma only makes them until the kids turn 12 and then they get a different gift. I don't blame her.... can you imagine if she continued to do this until they were married or something?! She's have to start right after the New Year!)

So there's our Christmas Day, it was so amazing and wonderful and I felt so blessed to be with my happy and (mostly) healthy family. I am so thankful for our Savior and the sacrafice he made so we can have such joy on this earth. I feel like my heart might burst sometimes because I just can't believe how good I have it. I am a lucky, lucky girl.

Merry Christmas.