Toothy Grin

Colin's mouth is full of teeth these days. He currently has 14 teeth that are fully through the surface, and 2-4 that will soon be on their way. Luckily, teething has never really been a problem for him, so these 14 have made their appearance without being accompanied by any drama (just lots of drool).

We were able to capture a few pictures of all those pearly whites today while playing outside, so I thought I would share. This boy is just too adorable not to share pictures!

Colin was hanging out in the back of Matt's truck and throwing a golf ball onto the ground, which resulted in a lot of giggles. Don't worry, we took a video for your viewing pleasure!

Halloween Fun

This past weekend we attended 2 Halloween parties to celebrate the holiday. We dressed Colin up as a pirate for both, but Matt and I declined to wear costumes.

Colin is 13-months-old now, so I hope that's enough explanation for why we weren't able to get any decent pictures of him in his Halloween costume. It's also the reason he has a crooked mustache and why he doesn't have a pirate hat. There is NO way he was going to keep it on.

This boy does not sit still for a second. He's always racing from one thing to the next, not to mention trying to play with anything he's not supposed to. Colin knows how to keep me busy.

Other exciting news from our Halloween festivities...

Our ward's Halloween party included a chili cook-off and a pie contest. I entered two pies in the pie contest, and would you believe I won both first AND second place?!

We got 145 trick-or-treaters. We had no idea how many to expect, so we ran out of candy. Good thing we had our giant box of fruit snacks from Sam's Club so we still had something to hand out :)

And speaking of trick-or-treaters, what's the deal with teenagers going trick-or-treating? I'm pretty sure that the sport of trick-or-treating is more about seeing cute kids in their cute little costumes. That's why my philosophy is going to be that once my kids are old enough to go out on their own, they shouldn't be going at all. So take that!

We had a great Halloween full of fun and treats, and now we've moved on to November. Hooray for November!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

Recipe and image source here

Thanks to pinterest, I've discovered a few new recipes that I want to try out. And these cookies happened to be first on my list.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

And there's no butter or flour in them, so they can't be all that bad for you, right? ;)

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies
originally taken from epicurious
recipe as adapted by divine-baking.com

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided (I used 2 cups)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme.

Whisk 1 cup sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue.


Pour lukewarm chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips into mixture. If dough does not become stiff, stick in freezer for a few minutes.

Place 1/2 cup sugar in bowl. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until puffed and tops crack, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets on rack 10 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.

Yield: Makes about 18


I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate chips anywhere, so I just bought the chocolate bar and chopped it up. Some comments on the original blog also mentioned using semi-sweet instead and just cutting down the sugar a little.


Make these cookies...you will not be sorry. I preferred them still warm, but Matt liked them better after they had cooled. Either way they are gooey on the inside. Mmmmmm...


Let me know what you think!

Sure as Shootin'

This week I embarked on an adventure that will now officially classify me as an Oklahoman. So much so that I am now allowed to use phrases like, "I'm fixin'," as in, "I'm fixin' to take the trash out." Or adding 'a' to the beginning of words like, "I'm agonna have red beans for dinner!"

I can now shamelessly use these syntactic and pragmatic nightmares of phrases 

because this week I became a real Oklahoman when I went shootin'.

Can you believe it only took me 10 months to accomplish that? Life in Oklahoma is always an adventure :)

Showcasing all but one of the guns we got to shoot with.
If you ask me what they are, I could throw out some numbers and pretend like I know...

Tate and Eleece recently got their conceal and carry permits,
so they were excited to go shooting with us.

Me shooting...some kind of rifle.
But it was so intense that it made both Matt and I make stupid faces :)

We had some targets we were using to practice, and this is Matt showing off his bullseye!
What a stud.

Mostly I wanted to take pictures of our adventure because it reminded me of this season's opening episode of Modern Family where they go to the ranch in Wyoming and Cameron takes a picture of Mitchell holding a gun...

But also, I had to document that I can now cross this off of my 101 in 1001 list. Holla!

12 Months and 1 Week!

That's right, as of last weekend, we have a one-year-old on our hands. And a cute one at that! But because we celebrate birthdays in style around here, Colin got to enjoy a whole birthday week.

Get ready for picture overload...

The birthday boy on the morning of his big day

Megan came for a quick visit over Colin's birthday.
We have Delta to thank for a great last-minute weekend sale!

One of his birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa Tiner...
a super cool motorcycle that even has sound effects!

Enjoying a cupcake on his birthday

All of his Elmo-themed gifts. It's true, Colin loves Elmo.

Before Megan left we went to the Tulsa State Fair.
Here we are enjoying the petting zoo.

Megan and Colin at the fair!

The weekend after his birthday we had some real fun. We had a few friends over to enjoy some monkey business :) Here is Colin enjoying his individual monkey cake. Definitely the fanciest birthday cake I've ever made...

Arial view of the cake-eating

This is Zoey, one of Colin's friends. They have a lot of fun together :)

And how about a picture of me in a party hat? Since I'm so cute and everything ;)

 It was one fun, busy week. And I'm still getting used to the fact that when people ask me how old Colin is I have to say, "he just turned one." What happened to my baby that used to look like this?

Oh that's right. He grew up :) And has recently taken to pulling all the red yard out of the top of this monkey's hat. Hmmm...

Happy 1st birthday, Colin! We love you!!

Montana Visitors

The last week on August we had some awesome visitors that traveled all the way from Montana to see us!

Grandpa Dean and Grandma Chris were here for a week, and we did all sorts of things to make their first time in Oklahoma lots of fun.

But can you believe I didn't take a single picture on my camera while they were here? I guess I was too busy being an excellent hostess...Luckily Chris took plenty, so I borrowed some from her to show you.

We spent one evening at the playground of the elementary school by our house. Colin loved it.

And we had to take them to one of our favorite spots--Pop's outside of Oklahoma City. We bought 15 bottles of pop to sample :)

We ate a ton, we saw a lot, but mostly we just enjoyed spending time together. It was so nice to have them visit, and the best part was that when it was time to go, Colin and I got on the plane with them. They had a layover in Phoenix, where Colin and I got off, but it was fun to fly part of the way back with them.

Thanks for coming to visit! We had so much fun, and we can't wait for you to come back!

Update Time!

Where does the time go? It's already the middle of September, and I have yet to post about the visitors we had the last week of August or our trip to Phoenix the first week of September.

But this post is about my little boy, who, in less than three weeks will be turning 1! He took his first step the beginning of August, but for 6 weeks wouldn't walk more than 3 or 4 steps at a time. Finally on Friday last week something must have clicked for him and he has started walking all over the house. In the few days since then he has become quite the pro and today attempted to run a few times...


I'll admit I'm a little scared for my future ;)

Colin also waves. A lot. He waves anytime at anyone. He's a very friendly little guy. This video is from the end of July, but it's cute and he's waving :)

He can say hi, dada, mama, bye bye, and night night.

He loves to pretend he's talking on the phone by holding anything up to his ear.

He loves dancing. If he hears music, he waves his arms around and bounces up and down. Cutest thing ever.

He loves Elmo! Sesame Street is about the only show that holds his attention, and when Elmo comes on he usually laughs and waves his arms around (his version of clapping).

And I'm pretty sure that the word "no" has a different meaning to Colin. If he ever hears that word, he takes that to mean, "let's make a game out of that!" He thinks he is hilarious when he is doing something he shouldn't be. Like pushing all the buttons on the side of the TV, climbing up on anything he can, or the trick he learned today, throwing (with force) all of the food on his highchair tray onto the floor...If anyone has advice for me on this one, I'd appreciate it :) I've tried "no" and I've tried ignoring the bad behavior. Neither one seems to make a difference...he just smiles and laughs no matter what.

I'm thinking I should make this the Naughty Spot ;) Maybe the threat of a ride in the washing machine will scare him into good behavior...

And there you have it--the 11-month-old Colin update! As you can tell, we stay busy around here. Colin loves to laugh and smile, and even though he's been known to be naughty, his little smile makes my day!

Decorating (Part 3)

We've lived in our house for 6 months now, and I am still slowly, but surely, working to have it all decorated and "homey" feeling. 

One of my most recent projects was curtains in our dining area. There were blinds in the window when we moved in, but they didn't work. In an attempt to be able to let more natural light in, we took down the blinds, and I sewed some cafe curtains out of white muslin to put up. The problem there is that white muslin is really boring!  So after seeing an idea for this, I bought some painter's tape and went to work.

One curtain finished, one in progress

Finished. Much better than plain white :)

This other one involved no work from me other than ordering vinyl lettering...but I think the look completes the entryway.

Until my next decorating adventure!

Surprise!

It's been awhile since my last post, and I have lots of things I need to catch you up on, but this story is too good to postpone!

Yesterday morning I put Colin down for a nap in a t-shirt and his diaper. He talked to himself for awhile, but it was obvious he wasn't going to fall asleep because eventually he began to whine and cry. I finally went in to get him, but it wasn't until I picked him up that I realized he had taken his diaper off. And THEN I noticed there was poop on his mattress...(and if you're wondering why it took me so long to notice, it's a brown sheet :) I started cleaning him up, but it was obvious he had been playing in it because he had poop all over his legs, hands, and shirt, so Matt put him in the bath while I threw his sheet in the washer.

Colin may not be walking quite yet, but I think it's safe to say we're moving into the toddler phase around here...although I hope there's no more poop involved!

A peek at our days...

I think these pictures describe our days pretty well. There's always a new mess around the house! Sometimes (usually) it's in the kitchen with the tupperware, sometimes he finds the food in the pantry, or sometimes he gets into the pots and pans. Other times he opens drawers in his room and likes to pull out all of his clothes. We are also continually baby-proofing the house as Colin discovers new ways to get into trouble. It's so fun to see him learning new things!

This boy loves to smile and laugh! He is quite the speed-crawler, and he's quickly becoming more steady on his feet. He is also a champ at eating finger foods (and eating in general...he loves to eat!) and will finally hold bottles and sippy cups on his own!

And for those curious, his stats from his 9 mo. doctor's appointment a few weeks ago were as follows:

height: 28" (40%)
weight: 17 lb 6 oz (6%)
head circ.: 17.5" (25%)

He may be small, but what he lacks in size,
he makes up for in spirit.
Colin is one energetic, curious kid!

The 4th (14 Days Later)

Here's another post in my attempt to get caught up!

The 4th of July was a pretty low-key day for us, but we sure partied it up in the evening. We had Matt's parents over for dinner and fireworks. Lots of people in our neighborhood were also doing fireworks, and I thought for sure Colin would wake up at some point, but he didn't. Amazing!

Not much to report other than that, so I'll just skip right to the pictures. It's what you're really here for anyway :)

We hope you all had a great holiday too! And sorry for the belated holiday well wishes...