Merry Christmas!

Just Some Pics

New game: Pull everything out and climb in...and make mama and dada clean it up!

Oh wait...there's more?!

Matching slippers:

Nerdy Christmas Stuff

I've been wanting to do something in the window above our front door, so this year I tried it out. This is from outside. :) You can't see it very well, but I think it turned out cute!

Picture Update

Part of Kaitlyn's Canucks sweatsuit we got in Canada:

Watching the Grinch while Mama started Christmas decorations. This is my all-time favorite Christmas memory. It brings back a lot of memories from my childhood. :)

Getting our Christmas tree. Kaitlyn is wearing her reindeer hat from Grammy Debbie. So funny looking that it's cute. ;)

Family shot at the tree lot. Notice Jeff's shiner from basketball:

I don't think she got cold...

We brought out this birthday gift from our friends Trevor and Holly. I can't wait for Kaitlyn to get the hang of it!

Until then, Dada will get some use out of it (sorry Jeff!):

Canada, New Babies, Black Friday, and Randoms...

I haven't unpdated in a bit, so here are some recent happenings from the Collins family.

Jeff and I took a weekend trip to Vancouver, B.C. We took Amtrak on Friday morning and returned on Sunday. We had a blast just "getting away" for a couple of days of walking (a lot), eating (of course), shopping (just a little), and just wandering around. We also went to a Canucks hockey game and a movie (A Christmas Carol in 3D). Vancouver is a really interesting place! It was raining almost the entire time, but we had our raincoats and it really wasn't that bad. This is what we looked like most of the trip:
And our 3D glasses from the movie:

This is how soaked we got the last night from walking around. It was raining the hardest that night. Jeff striking a pose to capture the moment:

I got it in my head that I needed to try out some early-morning Black Friday shopping to see what all the fuss is about, and knew that I would need a couple of good spirited friends to keep me company. Kara and my cousin Caiti were troopers and met at my house at exactly 3:30a.m. We actually ended up having a great time! The 6a.m. Starbucks break saved us, and we made it until 9:00. We each walked away with a few good deals, and I think we can all say that we would brave the early morning madness again...

Here we are with our loot; the white bread being the most important, as it was for Kara's Thanksgiving leftovers:

Our friends, the Appersons (Ryan and Michelle) welcomed their little girl, Kendall, a couple of weeks ago. We went to visit and bring them dinner, and Kaitlyn got a hold of the bag of chips before we could react. Note to self: teach her to pick up the bag from the top, not the bottom...

Me and cute little Baby Kendall at about 10 days old:

And here are a few randoms. Kaitlyn splashing in the bath:

Bundled up for a walk. We keep getting great hand-me-downs from a student's parent from my class last year. They gave us this nice, warm coat:

Our Little Monkey

The past few weeks have been crazy, as usual. So much going on! The biggest event was Kaitlyn's first birthday, of course.
Everyone is doing well. We had an interesting weekend last weekend after Kaitlyn ate her birthday cupcake. Something didn't agree with her, and let's just say that it wasn't very pretty. She's finally back to her old self, so we are very happy about that.
We could not be enjoying our little girl any more. She is so much fun, and is constantly keeping us laughing and amazed at how much she soaks in so quickly. Her current list of words is: fish, baby, doggy, uh-oh, hi, bye-bye, ba-ba (bottle), mama/dada/papa, some form of Riley that I can make out :), bunny, bird, and a few others. She loves to give her stuffed animals "loves," and thinks it's pretty funny. She's not walking yet, but continues to enjoy walking with help. :) She is such a happy girl, and we are so proud of her.
Here are a ton of pictures...

All bundled up for a walk:

Walking with the recycle bin:

Happy girl :)

She is climbing onto and into everything...

And she's just learned how to feed Riley her snack. He doesn't always get it out of her hand, but licks it before she puts it in her mouth. Lovely.

She loves cupboards!

Making Mama's heart rate go up:

Yes, I took her down and was right there...

We took her to the aquarium on her birthday. She loved it!

Her first Ivar's :) We didn't give her any ish; we didn't want to traumatize her.

One of her new babies from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Roger:

Reading her card from Nana Debbie and Papa Dave:

Just some of the craziness at her partyThe evil cupcake - no more sugar for her for a while:

Helping Dada sort his mail:

B-day party at my parents' for the extended family (it was Uncle Mike's birthday, too):

Happy Monday!