Eight Years and Counting, John!

Eight years ago, we welcomed our first into the family!  Happy birthday, John!  He's gone from announcing himself as "John John Man" to "Just John."  Big steps in a short time.  But we've enjoyed watching him grow and develop into a boy with great potential and enormous energy!  Mom made a rocket birthday cake and John was able to blow out the "rocket" candles in one breath!  Way to go!

Here's some highlights from his birthday.  He got to take some Cocoa Puff muffins to school and reported that his teacher loved them...well, not as much as the homemade chocolate cookies she got from him on her birthday, but still a great treat!

He loves the new box of LEGOS!  So do all the rest of his siblings.  We have some great days of building ahead of us.
 

Thanks to Mom and Dad, John now has his own set of scriptures.  He was so excited!  He says he doesn't have to go to the church library to borrow a full set every Sunday!  And the bag they will be stored in fits just perfectly.  Oh, and they are blue too!  Wow!  Such an excited boy!

And I nearly forgot, the last but not least present came from his siblings.  Kelsey made sure the kids colored some pictures for John.  That horse on the left is from Joe.  Crazy!  But they were so excited, and so was he!  I love little things that cause such reasons for gratitude from my kids.

Quick Look Back

Okay, so these are MONTHS older than what I'd thought.  But here goes in my effort to catch up.  So sorry.  I'll try to explain them as I go.

We decided at the end of August to send Kelsey and John to Texas to stay with Shawn until he found a house for us. That way, they'd start school with the rest of their class should we not find a home in time.  Well, we stopped by Billy the Kid's grave in New Mexico.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to see lizards crawling over the gravestones.  And they didn't quite understand why the stone was in bars.  I guess that's fitting for an outlaw.

But during our brief visit, we visited the Alamo.  They don't allow pictures inside the structure so we had to settle for the ones we got of the grounds.  Pretty cool.  Actually, it was SUPER hot and we didn't quite have enough water to keep everyone's mouth wet.  But the kids enjoyed seeing the sights.

Our kids' first experience with a prickly pear cactus.  Macher tried picking a fruit and came to find that the fruit has teeny spikes all over them.  I guess by the time they make it to the grocery store, the distributors have rubbed off all of the spikes.

But John thought it was great fun to walk up and touch the cactus leaves, pointing out that if he went in between the spikes, he was okay.  Yes, that's true, but probably not a good idea since Joe and Jack don't have the greatest sense of balance and they'd inevitably poke themselves.

 Bekah had to try anything that John did.  Me, I was content to wait in the shade.  Like I said, I'm not opposed to heat, but it was oven intense this particular day.  Maybe someday I'll get used to
115 degrees.  Naw.  Redheads don't belong in the sun.
 

 We loved seeing the trees and fountains.  Some of the communities around Austin have small splash parks where the kids enjoyed cooling off.  They have shaded areas for mom and dad too!  The kids had loads of fun playing with our friends' kids.  It was hot and it was only 10:00 am.  Boy!  We have a lot to get used to in Texas summers.

We had only brought with us John and Kelsey's swimming suits, believing that the rest of the kids wouldn't need them during our brief visit.  Well, they didn't.  Clothes work just fine in splash parks.  At least I didn't have to worry so much about getting sunburned in their regular clothes.  They had a great time!

John's New Look

Love the new look, John!  Recently, John's been growing up and starting to get a bit more mature.  He's changed from being "John John Man" to "just John."  And we got a letter from school mentioning he needed an eye exam.   Well, a couple of weeks later and the boy is now exclaiming,

"Trees aren't a blob?  They have branches and more than one huge leaf!"

He's loving being able to see clearly!  We love the new appreciation of sight.

Our Family of Builders

John has been building great little models for a long time with his LEGOS.  Recently, Jack and Joe have tried to get in on the action as well.  Unfortunately, that means after the older kids are off to school, Jack and Joe raid Kelsey or John's supply of blocks.  I found them building these trucks and was quite impressed at Jack's ability.

His little truck had a trailer and a little house for the rabbit.  It was functional and neat in it's appearance.  Way to go, Jack!

Now, if only I could get more LEGOS for the boys to SHARE, there would be less fighting and more building.  Ah well.  We'll see what birthdays bring.  Maybe Goodwill or the other thrift stores will have some cheap bags of blocks laying around.  Hah!

Christmas Past...But Not Forgotten

I do really well at keeping up-to-date with the blog, and then I slack off.  So sorry.  Hope you don't quit reading just 'cause I'm shirking my job.  Anyway, here's some new pics for you and I'll try to keep up.  We've got some major (birthday/baptism) events coming up and I'd hate to get around to posting the news for a couple of months.  Thanks for being patient with me!

Anyway, Christmas with just the Collotons was quiet.  I think the kids actually enjoyed the day with just us.  It was a bit different without cold or snow (yeah, Linda mowed the grass a couple of days before Christmas).  But we still had some of the traditional favorites like oranges in the stockings.  But to prove the love of their gifts, Shawn was able to capture a few moments on "film" before the battery died.

One of the biggest hits of Christmas morning were the hand knitted socks from Grand Grammy!  The kids love them so much it's what they wear to bed to keep their tootsies warm.  Jack will even try to wear them with his shoes, even if they don't fit the same as regular socks.  He loves them!

John got his very own ninja watch! It has little helps to aid in telling time.  He's been so good taking care of it.  He's gotten more interested in accurately telling time now too!  Ah, anything to help in education...but still retain the joy of learning too!  Oh, and John got to open the Kinect for the xBox 360 games.  He was so excited!  We'd already been playing regular games with the system but now our bodies are the controllers.  The girls love their games and even Jack has gotten into playing Fruit Ninja (Apple Juice game to Joe).  It's fun to see them jumping, punching, cutting, and having a great time.

Kelsey loved the coloring books, animals, and new church dresses.  She wanted to get dressed up as soon as she saw them.  We made her wait until washed, but Sunday came around and that was her dress of choice.

Bekah's been coloring, glueing, painting, and decorating her walls with one-of-a-kind art pieces from her art kit.  She was a bit distracted from presents after opening the kit.  She wanted to go color, and so did everyone else.  Well, I guess I can't fault them for wanting to enjoy their gifts.  I can laugh at the goofy smile, right?  But sometimes pure joy doesn't have any other kind of expression.

Jack also became distracted after he opened his bulldozer and excavator.  Both needed initiated into the backyard sandbox.  But he had to settle for clearing a path through the wrapping paper in the living room until we were finished opening gifts.  As soon as we were done, though, he was outside in the dirt having a great time.

And Joe's gifts have been the favorite of bath time since Christmas.  He's a good sport and shares well with the other kids.  It is rather funny to see five kids try to squish into one tub.  There just aren't enough bubbles or space to go around some nights.  One of the great presents (which turned into a lifesaver) was a pillow pet we got for him.  He lost his pacifier Christmas day and the only thing that saved us during the weaning process was Bear Bear.  He slept on that bear, cuddling with it when he felt like he needed his paci.  Whew!  Thank goodness for fuzzy friends!

Shawn and I enjoyed the day.  He put together most of his new computer and I made an awesome dinner.  It was a great day!  Here's hoping you all had an enjoyable holiday season as well!