SANTA!!

My company had a Christmas party for the kids!  It was a lot of fun.  They had a magician, a balloon artist, Santa and a full spread of sweets!  I wish we would've had a video camera to tape Austin watching the magic show.  He absolutely loved it!!!  He was slapping his knee and throwing his head back in laughter!  It was so fun to watch him.  Austin would not go near Santa Clause but Colton sat on his lap.  As you can see from the picture . . . Colton did not ever take his eyes off Santa.  His eyes grew to the size of saucers!!  They both got nice gifts from Santa and of course some treats to take home with them.

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Austin enjoying a snow day with his daddy!!

Last year Colton was too little to really get too excited about the Christmas tree.  This year is a different story.  The top picture is him trying to touch it for the very first time.  The second picture is him trying to eat his very first Christmas ornament!  He did succeed in pulling one decoration off the tree and breaking it.  He also tried to get a piece of the tree is his mouth whenever no one was watching.  Luckily his interest subsided after a couple weeks and he started leaving the tree alone. . . of course, most of the decorations are on the top half of the tree.  Also, wanted to say that Austin helped hang the decorations.  At one point, Austin had put 6 Christmas decorations on one little branch.  It looked great to him but of course the branch couldn't hold all the weight!  Love these little guys. . . keeping me always on my toes!!

Together Again!!

So, last Friday Colton and Mommy went to Iowa while Daddy and Austin stayed in Denver.  It was the first time the boys have been apart from eachother for 3 nights in a row.  The seperate weekends went great.  I think both of the boys loved having the undivided attention of whomever they were with.  Grandma's and Grandpa's also enjoyed spending time with Colton while he was in Iowa!!  Well, Colton and Mommy flew into Denver last night and Austin and Daddy came to pick us up.  We first saw eachother at baggage claim and Austin came running towards us!  I knelt down by the stroller as Austin got closer and Austin ran straight up to Colton and gave him a kiss saying, "Hi Colty, I missed you, how are you Colton?"  Colton gave Austin a huge smile and started swinging his arms all over!  It was adorable to see them so excited to be reunited.  On the way home in the car Austin and Colton held hands across the back seat!  Completely priceless and of course this mommy teared up a bit.  Colton also looked right at Daddy and said "DA"!  So, we were very happy to be all together again!!  No pictures of the hand holding but I will try to be camera ready next time.

Thanksgiving was a nice four day weekend for us here in Denver!  Grandma and Grandpa Lenox were here and we had Thanksgiving dinner at Jon and Clare's house.  Traci was here from Chicago with Alex so we got to spend some time with them as well.  On Sunday, we went to Chuckee Cheese's.  This was the first time Colton got to ride on the rides and play the games.  He had a great time!!  Austin even shared his popsicle with Colton which was very sweet of him.  The weather was beautiful and it was great to have people visiting!! 

Here is Austin enjoying an afternoon outside.  I helped him make a big leaf pile.  It was as big as we could make it without having a rake available!!  Then we threw leaves up in the air and threw leaves at each other and chased eachother around the yard.  Austin also wanted to climb his tree.  He is a great little climber!! 

One year old and 21 pounds!!

Our baby is officially ready for his big boy car seat!!!  I can't believe it!!  You can tell he likes it though.  He climbed right in and then even got comfortable by sitting sidways with his little legs crossed . . . adorable!  So, of course yesterday Brian installed the seat in the car and we did a Sunday afternoon drive so Colton could see what it was going to be like.  It was fun to watch him looking around and smiling at everything he could see.  Austin was confused as to why we were driving around and not really going anywhere.  He tried extremely hard to talk us into going to a park!  It was too windy so he had to settle for driving around the lake and counting all the geese!  Super cute with the boys in the backseat and Austin thinks it is great that Colton's chair matches his! 

Eleven teeth!!

Pictures of Colton just laughing and having a good time.  You can tell from these pictures that he has 7 teeth all the way in and he also now has 4 molars trying to break through;  two on the top and two on the bottom! 

The Kliegl Halloween Celebration!

 This is a picture of Austin getting ready to go to Daddy's Halloween party at his work.  This was the first "official" time Austin would be out and about as a pirate!

 Here Austin is trying his hand at bowling.  He had a really great time.  Knocking over nine pins took about 15 mnutes but eventually he got them all!!  I don't know how well you can see it in the picture but he had his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth while he bowled!  He was concentrating pretty hard and it was adorable!  Bowling skills could have been acquired from myself of Brian!

 Colton was our little dragon for halloween.  He was adorable and got to go in his first Halloween bouncy house.  He loved crawling all over the bouncy house and then would sit and try to jump up and down while sitting.  Mommy got in the bouncy house too so I could hold Colton and give him the full effect of all his efforts.  There was music playing in the background and he would stop every once in a while and dance in place and clap his hands!!!  Super cute!

 The next night we went to mommy's Halloween party where Austin got to roller skate for the very first time.  He made it around the rink once (with a lot of help from mommy and daddy).  Then he tried dancing with his roller skates on which also didn't work.  He finally looked at Brian and said, "I'm ready to play games now daddy!"  So, off came the skates and Austin and daddy played skiball at the roller rink the rest of the party!! 

The next day we went to Jon and Clare's park!  We played at the park for an hour, had a picnic and then went to Jon and Clare's house to "trick or treat".  It was a nice afternoon since the weather was perfect for us to be out and about.  The next day they had a Halloween party at the babysitters and that night we did actual trick or treating; went to Dirk and Sigrid's, Edie's and Tricia's.  The boys loved their costumes and it is a good thing . . . because they wore them four days in a row!  The day after Halloween on the ride home from work, Austin says "Mommy, can we go trick or treating again tonight?"  Love him!

Happy 1st birthday Colton!!!!

Colton turned 1 on Saturday!!!!  We had a great time at his birthday party.  Friends and family came to watch him eat his cake and open his gifts.  He picked at the frosting for a minute and then he dug right in and tried to eat an entire cupcake as fast as his little hands would let him!!  Uncle Jon turned 28 on Saturday so we made him a crown to wear to match Colton.  Austin asked if he could have a crown too!!

  It was a beautiful day on Sunday so we went to the Pumpkin Patch and Austin picked out a pumpkin for himself and a little one for Colton.  "Because he's a baby, Mommy" - Austin told me :)  Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa Kliegl helped them get their pumpkins carved , which they both enjoyed!!

Rise and Shine Daddy

This picture is from Sunday morning.  Colton was laying in our bed clapping his hands and being happy to start his day!!  Here is the latest quote from Brian regarding his week at home with the boys by himself:

Little Coltie decided to get up at 4:30 this morning and Austin came into our room at 6 and asked me if I wanted a grape. They must think since mom is gone it’s crazy party time.

This morning I had to leave early to be in Calgary until Thursday.  So, Brian had to take care of the potty training this morning . . . for the first time.  He put Austin on the potty and Austin peed right on his daddy's foot.  This made me laugh out loud when Brian told me so I hope you enjoy this story too.  Brian at first didn't even realize what was happening!!  Such a fun time around our house! 

Colton is on the move!

Colton is everywhere!!  He is getting around the house crawling but tends to fall back onto his little scoot that he has perfected.  Seems that crawling is ok but scooting seems to get him their faster so that is what he does.  He is pulling himself up and in the last few days has walked across the living room while holding on to a walker so he will soon be running around after Austin!  Austin is very encouraging and will cheer Colton on when he is coming down the hall.  Austin has also started telling Colton, "Come here Colton".  Colton doesn't always listen to him, of course, but we are well on our way to having two little guys running around after eachother!

So to wrap up my birthday month we went to Heritage Square with our friends Jake and Sarah.  They had their two little girls with them; Zoey and Charlee.  Charlee is only two days older than Colton!  So, Austin and Zoey had a fun time running around the carnival and riding all the rides.  Colton and Charlee had a fun time riding in their strollers next to eachother!  Austin went down the alpine slide with his daddy!  He wasn't nervous or scared at all.  It was a little scary watching him on the ski lift but he sat still and Brian held on to him of course!  So, Colton started crawling!  He still does a lot of scooting because I think it is faster for him but he did crawl two nights ago for the first time!  Colton loves clapping his hands and playing hide-n-seek.  We are working on "sooooo big" (which Austin thinks is hilarious because "Colton is just a baby Mommy"!) 

Lake Dillon, CO

We had a fantastic vacation in Dillon, CO.  The boys had such a good time and were excellent little vactioners!  We went to Vail on Thursday and got to ride in a Gondola up the side of the mountian.  At the top we ate lunch and there were a lot of activities for little kiddos, such as the trampoline that Austin tried out!  He loved it and kept asking the guy working if he could please go higher!  Saturday afternoon Annie, Courtney and I took the boys over to Keystone for the jazz festival that was going on.  Again, there were lots of activities for kiddos!  We spent a lot of time hanging out at the house we rented.  We brought Austin's baseball stuff and his soccer ball so he was running around outside a lot of the time too!  Colton started clapping last Wednesday!!  He had a Dr. appointment and he now weights in at 19 lbs 12 oz and he is 29" tall.  So, he is growing and staying steady with the other babies his age!  Today was hard for all of us to get out of bed.  We are definitely all tired after such a fun filled vacation.  Austin wanted to go to Iowa this morning in Nick's truck instead of going to the babysitters!  Hopefully we will be back in Iowa sometime soon!

This afternoon I walked into Ausitn's room where he was playing.  Mommy:  "What are you doing Austin?"  Austin: "Just horsing around mommy.  What are you doing?"  He's so cute!

Annie and Papa got Austin a baseball tee, bat and ball!  He was so excited to get swinging that we were outside in our jammies!!!  We showed him a couple of times how to do it and now he tends to hit the ball every time he swings.  He's a natural little athlete!  Colton loved watching Austin and he loved throwing the ball around. 

Colton's Baptism

Colton was baptised on July 23rd after 5pm mass.  He did such a great job.  He watched the priest very closely the entire time and even reached out to touch the book he was reading from.  He tried to touch the candle Uncle Jon was holding and he didn't make a peep when the water was poured over his head.  It was a very nice ceremony!  At one point the priest had all of us make the sign of the cross with our thumb on Colton's forehead.  Austin also wanted to do this so he leaned over to Colton and accidentally stuck his finger up Colton's nose.  It was quite funny and we were wishing we would've had the video camera to catch it on tape.  Austin was a very supportive big brother.  He prayed right along with all of us and whenever we had to repeat anything Austin repeated it as well.  . . . Oh, and I made my very first ever angel food cake with homemade frosting for the occasion!!  (Everyone said it tasted good!!)