Monday, January 28, 2008
Allergy Lesson
I thought I would share this funny little conversation I had with Kelci. She is my little "matter of fact" girl, but the truth of the matter is she gets some of her facts mixed up. She was telling me about a little boy in her class that is allergic to chocolate, so she told me he can only eat chocolate one a day. That's odd I'm thinking to myself, but I just kept listening. She told me one day in the cafeteria they had brownies for dessert and her and a couple of her friends tried to get this little guy to eat the brownie. "Oh" I said to her. Kelci do you know what it means to be allergic to something. "No", she says. It means your body will have a reaction if it doesn't like it. People can get very sick. For example if you are allergic to bees and one stings you, you have to go to the hospital for help. I'm not even sure at this point if Kelci is even listening...but I'm going for it. She surprises me though because she said one day while playing at her friends house there was another little girl there. They were all eating oranges, but not her (she's making sure I know this for some reason), and the little girl was stung by a bee. I asked her if the little girl was allergic and she said no, but we had to put a papertowel on it and a bandaid. I love her perspectives, they are great.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Brody Turns One Year Old!
Today we celebrated Brody turning one. We invited mostly family and our good friends, the Warrens. We decided to have a tractor theme...well John Deere. Mostly because Chrystina graciously gave us some decorations that she didn't need. I decided to try and make him a little cake of his own. It turned out ok, he liked the donuts the best.
He started smiling through the song, and even tried to investigate the cake. Than Grandma thought she would help him take a little tasted and he got upset and really started to cry. So we were done with that. I wasn't surprised at all, he is so picky with food....especially sweet stuff...he didn't get that trait from his mommy that's for sure. 
After the cake, we opened presents, of course he was more concerned about the pen I was using to take note of who brought what presents. Brody is one lucky kid though because he received a lot of nice things. One of his favorites was this ball toy that Auntie Stacey and the girls gave him. He even broke into his first fight with Cambree because he didn't want her to touch the balls.
Mema, also made the cake for everyone else, and I need to post it because it was very cute.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Brody is Walking...watch out world!
I can't believe my little baby is walking all over. For about a week right before Christmas, he kept trying over and over again. I don't know how many times he fell, but in true Brody fashion he didn't give up. Christmas rolled around and he was walking everywhere, even trying to carry things while he was walking. Infact just the other day he was holding two little plastic balls, one in each hand. He fell down and went to catch himself with his hands, but instead of dropping the balls, they acted like wheels and caused his hands to seperate away from his body and he crashed right onto his face....ouch....oh and it was on the tile.
Christmas Letter 2007
If I have one regret about last year, it was not making the time to send out a little Christmas letter with our card. I don’t know why it has been bothering me, but I promised myself I would not let that happen again. It has been a good year for our family and I hope I can share a little piece of that with you. When we found out we were pregnant in May of 2006 my little Kelci insisted it would be a boy. She would share this news with everyone, even draw a little picture at school, illustrating how thankful she was for a little brother. January 18th 2007 came and Brody Louis Collins was born, she was right all along. Oh and she made sure we knew she was right. We feel so blessed to have him in our family, We never imagined a few years ago that we would have four healthy children, so this really is a dream come true for us.
It’s wonderful to have a little boy in the family. He is just slightly spoiled, but who can blame us. He is learning to talk, his first word was “no” or “na”. Can’t imagine why that would be his first word, but it might have something to do with his 2 year old sister Cambree. He has moved on to “Ah oh” now, which is helpful for me to know when he starts to throw his food on the floor while sitting in his highchair. He has endless energy and a great little personality.
Emery is going to be turning 8 this month, where has the time gone. She is such a great big sister. She is always willing to help her siblings out whenever it is needed. She has a great sense of humor and it really is fun to watch her grow up and develop talents. Speaking of talents, she made a 3rd attempt at soccer this year, and we think it finally clicked for her. There was less dancing and scooting around the field, and more focus and drive. She is looking forward to being baptized in January. She loves our Heavenly Father and has figured out that prayers are really answered.
Kelci is 6 years old now and has blossomed a lot this year in first grade. She’s enjoying learning to read and has beautiful handwriting. The handwriting thing has been a little bit of a situation at school. It seems she is very concerned about things always looking so neat that she doesn’t always get her work done in a timely manner. We have discussed this and she assures me she is “just getting it done now.” She loves to play with Brody, and loves that she is able to pick him up now and carry him around. Unfortunately Kelci told us right after soccer season began that she wanted to play. At this point it was too late to signup. She is looking forward to next year and playing soccer.
Cambree is now 2 years old. This does make for some interesting times around here. We joke that she is officially two and terrible. But of course it’s not always terrible. She loves to sing and it is really fun to listen to her. Emery recently got a hamster for her birthday and Cambree is so cute to check on it throughout the day while Emery is at school. One night the hamster woke up and she ran over to the cage and said, “Hi Cubby, you awake? You want to watch a show and have a snack?” She is a feisty little thing when she needs to be, but we love this about her, it keeps us on our toes.
Bryan has a new job as a General Manager for a new restaurant here in town, Costa Vida. There are a lot of hours involved with this new job, but Bryan really enjoys this challenge. On occasion I will take the kids over to eat dinner with Daddy at the restaurant. They love going to see him there, not to mention they like the food as-well. I continue to stay home and take care of children and all the other great things that need to be done around the house. I have been fortunate to find some great kids to babysit throughout the week and that has helped out a lot. I’m so blessed to be able to stay home. It was a quiet year for us as far as trips are concerned this past year. Because of Bryan’s hectic work schedule we did a lot of day trips to visit family in Fairfield etc. We were able to take a trip to Disneyland right before Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Collins and Jenna. We had a wonderful time there. We really enjoy our trips to Monterey to visit Angela and her family there.
Well that is our family happenings in a nutshell. We are so thankful for family and friends and love hearing from you. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It’s wonderful to have a little boy in the family. He is just slightly spoiled, but who can blame us. He is learning to talk, his first word was “no” or “na”. Can’t imagine why that would be his first word, but it might have something to do with his 2 year old sister Cambree. He has moved on to “Ah oh” now, which is helpful for me to know when he starts to throw his food on the floor while sitting in his highchair. He has endless energy and a great little personality.
Emery is going to be turning 8 this month, where has the time gone. She is such a great big sister. She is always willing to help her siblings out whenever it is needed. She has a great sense of humor and it really is fun to watch her grow up and develop talents. Speaking of talents, she made a 3rd attempt at soccer this year, and we think it finally clicked for her. There was less dancing and scooting around the field, and more focus and drive. She is looking forward to being baptized in January. She loves our Heavenly Father and has figured out that prayers are really answered.
Kelci is 6 years old now and has blossomed a lot this year in first grade. She’s enjoying learning to read and has beautiful handwriting. The handwriting thing has been a little bit of a situation at school. It seems she is very concerned about things always looking so neat that she doesn’t always get her work done in a timely manner. We have discussed this and she assures me she is “just getting it done now.” She loves to play with Brody, and loves that she is able to pick him up now and carry him around. Unfortunately Kelci told us right after soccer season began that she wanted to play. At this point it was too late to signup. She is looking forward to next year and playing soccer.
Cambree is now 2 years old. This does make for some interesting times around here. We joke that she is officially two and terrible. But of course it’s not always terrible. She loves to sing and it is really fun to listen to her. Emery recently got a hamster for her birthday and Cambree is so cute to check on it throughout the day while Emery is at school. One night the hamster woke up and she ran over to the cage and said, “Hi Cubby, you awake? You want to watch a show and have a snack?” She is a feisty little thing when she needs to be, but we love this about her, it keeps us on our toes.
Bryan has a new job as a General Manager for a new restaurant here in town, Costa Vida. There are a lot of hours involved with this new job, but Bryan really enjoys this challenge. On occasion I will take the kids over to eat dinner with Daddy at the restaurant. They love going to see him there, not to mention they like the food as-well. I continue to stay home and take care of children and all the other great things that need to be done around the house. I have been fortunate to find some great kids to babysit throughout the week and that has helped out a lot. I’m so blessed to be able to stay home. It was a quiet year for us as far as trips are concerned this past year. Because of Bryan’s hectic work schedule we did a lot of day trips to visit family in Fairfield etc. We were able to take a trip to Disneyland right before Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Collins and Jenna. We had a wonderful time there. We really enjoy our trips to Monterey to visit Angela and her family there.
Well that is our family happenings in a nutshell. We are so thankful for family and friends and love hearing from you. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The night we brought the hamster home!!!
Well it's big news for us, we finally have a pet. For Emery's 8th birthday she asked for a hamster and after much thinking about this situtation. We decided that would be fine. I have to tell you about the day we finally got the hamster because it was a little funny. On the day of her birthday I thought while she was at school I will go with the little ones and pick out the cage and set it up before she gets home. Oh I should note she wasn't sure still if she was getting one actually on her birthday. I got home put the kids down for naps and than started to assemble the cage, only to discover
it was BROKEN!!! I was a little upset, going anywhere can be a chore with Cambree especially. So now I'm thinking ok there went the surprise, now I have to box this back up and take it back to the store. So Emery got home from school and I broke the news to her, but reassured her we would go after dinner and get everything. She was so excited, all of the kids were. So I headed back out to Petco and picked out another cage and than someone came over to assist with picking out a hamster. The first guy that was helping us, hated hamsters, he didn't really have anything nice to say about them at all. He was sort of putting a damper on the moment. He took out a hamster and put in the container and so I thought I would try and pet the hamster, of course it turned and bit my little finger. It hurt too! Of course now I'm bleeding and having second thoughts about this. I'm looking at Emery's face and she was a little concerned but still wanted to get one. We started to wonder if maybe a female might be better than a male....maybe this was a stalling tactic on my part. I brought this up to Emery and told her we would have to wait until next week to get a female because they were out of them that night. At this point she was starting to worry and almost looked like she was going to start crying. We 
ended up leaving the store without the hamster and it was not a good feeling. She was devastated and I was really sad. I know you are probably wondering why we left, but the other kids were starting to lose it, etc, etc. You get the picture right. Well loaded up in the cars and started to drive home (it was very quiet) and all of a sudden I just got this strong feeling that I should not go home without a hamster. I could not stand the thought of letting her down, I knew I wouldn't sleep either. So it was off back to the store. We picked out a male hamster bought the cage and headed home. Emery and Kelci were both so excited, I don't think they stopped talking all the way home. When we got home we had to still assemble the cage. Meanwhile out new little friend was starting to eat his way out of the box he was in. The box was inside a bag so Bryan ties a not at the top of the bag to keep him from getting loose. Sure enough about 2 minutes later he was out of the box. We are still rushing to get the cage assembled, Brody is crying for fo
od in the highchair, Cambree is helping herself to the Carl's Jr. we picked up on the way home, things are a little crazy. All of a sudden we heard a thump and looked and the hamster fell off the counter and hit the floor. Everything stopped, everyone was looking at the box. I'm thinking oh great all this and now he is dead!!! Pretty soon he started to move and we picked him up and finally loaded him into his new home. Wow....what a way to bring a new pet into the family. It's been a week and he is still alive and ticking!!! Cambree is so cute, the other day, the hamster woke up. She ran over to the cage and said, Cubby are you wake? You want a snack, you want to watch a show? All this in her little squeaky voice. It was very cute. Oh and yes the hamtsers name is Cubby, which has it's own story as-well. Thanks for reading this long story. ;)
it was BROKEN!!! I was a little upset, going anywhere can be a chore with Cambree especially. So now I'm thinking ok there went the surprise, now I have to box this back up and take it back to the store. So Emery got home from school and I broke the news to her, but reassured her we would go after dinner and get everything. She was so excited, all of the kids were. So I headed back out to Petco and picked out another cage and than someone came over to assist with picking out a hamster. The first guy that was helping us, hated hamsters, he didn't really have anything nice to say about them at all. He was sort of putting a damper on the moment. He took out a hamster and put in the container and so I thought I would try and pet the hamster, of course it turned and bit my little finger. It hurt too! Of course now I'm bleeding and having second thoughts about this. I'm looking at Emery's face and she was a little concerned but still wanted to get one. We started to wonder if maybe a female might be better than a male....maybe this was a stalling tactic on my part. I brought this up to Emery and told her we would have to wait until next week to get a female because they were out of them that night. At this point she was starting to worry and almost looked like she was going to start crying. We 
ended up leaving the store without the hamster and it was not a good feeling. She was devastated and I was really sad. I know you are probably wondering why we left, but the other kids were starting to lose it, etc, etc. You get the picture right. Well loaded up in the cars and started to drive home (it was very quiet) and all of a sudden I just got this strong feeling that I should not go home without a hamster. I could not stand the thought of letting her down, I knew I wouldn't sleep either. So it was off back to the store. We picked out a male hamster bought the cage and headed home. Emery and Kelci were both so excited, I don't think they stopped talking all the way home. When we got home we had to still assemble the cage. Meanwhile out new little friend was starting to eat his way out of the box he was in. The box was inside a bag so Bryan ties a not at the top of the bag to keep him from getting loose. Sure enough about 2 minutes later he was out of the box. We are still rushing to get the cage assembled, Brody is crying for fo
od in the highchair, Cambree is helping herself to the Carl's Jr. we picked up on the way home, things are a little crazy. All of a sudden we heard a thump and looked and the hamster fell off the counter and hit the floor. Everything stopped, everyone was looking at the box. I'm thinking oh great all this and now he is dead!!! Pretty soon he started to move and we picked him up and finally loaded him into his new home. Wow....what a way to bring a new pet into the family. It's been a week and he is still alive and ticking!!! Cambree is so cute, the other day, the hamster woke up. She ran over to the cage and said, Cubby are you wake? You want a snack, you want to watch a show? All this in her little squeaky voice. It was very cute. Oh and yes the hamtsers name is Cubby, which has it's own story as-well. Thanks for reading this long story. ;)
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