Lower Floor Appliance Store

This year for Halloween(I know this post is a little late) the first floor teachers at the school I work at all decided to dress up as appliances. One of the other first grade teachers is pregnant, and she was going to be a bun in the oven. After deliberation, heaven forbid she offend anyone so we decided to back her up and all be appliances. It was so fun! My kids kept on pushing my buttons and asking for popcorn or Eazy-Mac. In the end we ended up with an oven, a computer, a toaster, microwave and a coffee maker.

Not to turn sappy or anything, but these ladies are a big reason I go to work everyday. They have such passion for what they do and are so fun to be around. Lunch time everyday is just ridiculously fun. I can't imagine a Stalker Elementary without them!

Pumpkin,Pumpkin.....

Take at Least One Bite

Today at lunch my colleagues stirred up some childhood emotions and memories. One of the other first grade teacher I work with started talking about this youtube kid who flipped out when his mom tried very nicely to get him to eat green beans. As we talked about how funny it was we talked about all of our childhood fears about food. All I remember is that my mom would say "Heidi you have to at least try it." Bless her heart. I have found that I am a meaner mom than my own. I make Colson eat everything. Which I think is working to my advantage. He loves broccoli, garlic, fruits, veggies you name it. I posted the Green Bean video because it's so so funny. In fact I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard. Enjoy!

Kid Hates Vegies

Broken Camera Equals No Blog

So my camera has finally gone kaput. Hence no bloging for quite a while. I know I could have just written without pics, but I really don't want to bore anyone. I finally just downloaded some pictures and videos from this past late spring and early summer.

Shane and I are convinced that one of the important reasons you have children is becuase they provide the best entertainment. Colson is making us laugh all the time. I love this video. Colson is getting quite good at multi tasking. Eating and sleeping at the same time takes true talent. You might say Colson made his cake and ate it too.

A B C D E F G

Even though it's the end of the school year, as a teacher you can't help but start thinking and preparing for next year, at least I can't. Now that I have a year under my belt I feel like I have a better hold on what I need to get done to make me feel less stressed. I'm feeling a little anxious about next year even more so, because I will not be teaching 4th grade next year. I'm getting moved to 1st grade. It's a big responsibility for sure. Some people think I'm nuts for being so excited to be moving down to 1st. But I'm over joyed! Some of the comments people have said to me are:

1. Wow you get to tie shoes!

2. You have to deal with potty accidents

3. Good luck with all the runny, snotty noses

4. I'm glad it's you and not me

5. You do realize 1st graders don't read, like you're going to have to teach them that.

6. The good thing is they give you unconditional love

7. They hug you more than 4th graders hug you. I hope you're ready for that

I am so excited for this fall. It will be challenging, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm also thrilled, because I get to teach along side a fantastic team of 1st grade teachers!

BUT I'm glad summer is right around the corner.

Eleven o'clock Church

This is what happens when you have eleven o'clock church, nap time is at 10 o'clock, but of course on Sundays never gets his nap at 10, and lunch is at 12 but he won't eat early becuase he's not hungry yet and by the time sacrament is over graham crackers and juice won't cut it any longer and you have to leave church to feed your kid real food and he falls asleep in his highchair after taking three bites because he's so exhausted from all of the above and getting in two molars.......

Rub a Dub Dub Mommy in the Tub

A few days ago I found myself in need of a quick shower. I handed Colson off to Shane so I could bathe. As I started to wash my hair I heard the door open and shut and heard Colson squeel with excitment. *Side note, Colson loves anything to do with the tub. I peeked around the shower curtain and there's Shane laying on the bathroom floor playing on his phone while Colson was on the other side of the cutain peeking into the shower. So I get back to showering and something hits my foot. I opened my eyes just in enough time to see a little hand throw a bathtoy crab into the tub. Another second later the same tiny hand threw a little turtle into the tub. All I could do was laugh. My cute Colson wanted to share his favorite bath toys with me! What a sweetie pie! Too bad I was taking a shower and not a bath, because I just might have stopped to play with those bath toys!

I Really Didn't Want Seconds....

After you go through a trial have you ever thought to yourself, "Well, I'm glad that's over with. That was really hard, but I got through it." and then you move on remembering but no necessarily dwelling on it. I felt that way last summer and fall, as we dealt with the after affects of Shane having his seizure in June. I think I honestly thought that there really wasn't a possibility of him having another one. At least I had made myself believe it. Maybe it was a coping mechanism. Wednesday afternoon my sister-in-law called after school to let me know Shane had had another seizure. I was more than horrified as I sobbed in the office as I waited for Joni to pick me up. I was so scared for Shane, for my sweetheart and Colson's daddy. I had no details so of course I imagined the worst. Shane had been cleaning off the beet planter when it happened. He had been on his knees so he didn't drop too far, which is a blessing for him. The Lord I know was watching over him, because his cousin Blair was there with him and was able to keep his airways open after the seizure had happened. Blair also got on the radio to call for help. How blessed he was. He got released from the hospital, but had pain over every inch of his body. He's feeling much better now but his shoulder is still hurt and he can't move it certain ways without being in extreme pain. We go back to our Neurologist on Monday. We still don't know why the seizures have happened, but we're praying that we can find something soon. Until then we're just counting our blessings.

Simplicity

Simplicity. Oh how I love simplicity. I often feel like as I get older I make things more complicated than they need to be. I get wrapped up in the details when I should be looking at the big picture. I've recently felt an urgency to alleviate any unnecessary extras I have brought into my life; a Spring cleaning of sort. The simple things are the important things. Like me sitting in the middle of the lawn and Colson walking in big circles around me for 20 minutes talking to himself while muttering a few mamas every now and then. That is what I want. Joy through simplicity.

Greenie Beanies

Colson has been very insistant lately that I let him feed himself. So I'll feed him a good amount and then let him do the rest. He got so messy tonight. His green beans were everywhere. It was straight to the bath right after dinner!

Slimy green monster!

Our First House

Well, I can honestly say that I feel like we're "coming home". Shane and I have lived in 5 different places in our 2 years of being married. We've said over and over that we just never felt settled and never really felt like we were "Home". I believe that there are houses that are just houses to live in and houses that feel like your home. Shane and I feel like that right now. Even though we have yet to move into our home, and we won't until the end of May.

Here are a few "before" pictures we snapped when we went to go and measure for furniture. My favorite thing about the house is how much character it has. I really don't like cookie cutter houses that look all the same. So I absolutely fell in love with this 1933 house! I didn't include laundry room pictures, toy room, den or pictures of the little apartment over the garage, maybe later.

Front of the house. We're going to cut down the two trees in front of the house because we think they hid the curb appeal of the house.

The living room. The wallpaper in this room is not me. In fact the wallpaper pops up in several different places in the house. I've already coaxed my little brother to come down from school on a weekend and help me take it off. Any other takers!?

Bathroom. I don't think I'm going to do too much to the bathroom, I might just get a new mirror.

I'm not too big of a fan of the cupboards in the kitchen. I think we're going to redo all the cupboards. I really don't like the blue either. I hate blue paint. It will have to go too.

I love the little eating nook. It looks into our backyard. But once again the blue will have to go.

Spare bedroom. If you come visit this is where you will stay! :)



Our bedroom.

Colson's bedroom. I love the bookshelves! They are my favorite part of his room.

Looking out at our back porch from our eating nook.

We have an additional 2 car garage in the back of our house.

The side of our house. The chimney is black! I love it.

The back of the house. You can see the apartment over the garage from the back.

So I would just like to remind you that these are before pictures. I plan on doing a lot of work this summer. I'll post after pictures when everything is all done!

BOXEN and more BOXEN

For those of you who are Brian Regan fans my title of this post should make sense. Over the past few weeks it seems like our whole life has been put into boxes. (It took a little while longer than our last move because after I would get one box packed, I would come back and Colson had it all unpacked)Yes we're on the move again, and it won't be the last time either. We've moved out of our apartment and moved in with Grandma and Grandpa Polatis (Shane's parents) for the second time during our marriage. We do have a reason behind our current madness.... our first house. We picked over the Blackfoot housing market over and over again with our realtor and found our house only a few days after it had been on the market. We close on it the very end of May. It is the cutest little house. We did run into a few bumps. But those bumps are being smoothed out. I feel very blessed to be able to move into a home all of our own. Shane and I were talking the other day about how in 08 we got married 09 we had our sweet baby boy and now in 10 we're buying our first home. Who knows what 11 will bring, but I'm thinking Physical Therapy school... lol I only allow one big event per year. I'll try to post a picture of our house as soon as I can. At least an outside shot!

Nothing Runs like A Deere...

For Colson's first birthday Grandma and Grandpa Polatis gave him a John Deere ATV. It is one of his favorite toys. He's started to stand up on it and lean over putting him bum in the air making it look like he's doing tricks. It's pretty darn cute. When pressing one of the buttons there's a song that it plays. In the video Colson's kind of dancing to it while he sits on it, but you can really hear the words too well...so I typed them up!

I can push or pull all your heavy loads

Fast or slow start me up here we go!

Dirt and mud are no match for me...

'Cause I'm a rough and rugged John Deere ATV.

Colson Walks for Real!!!!

So when I posted that last video, it was sooooo the wrong video. That was from like October! It was late at night when I posted so I never really checked it. So I promise I'm not crazy. Hopefully this works!

Go Colson Go

Colson has just taken off walking. He walks everywhere. When he falls he just gets back up and walks again. We're working on him walking in shoes. Here's a peek.

A Late Christmas Post

I realize these pictures are late, but there are just some of our christmas pictures from Denver. Colson's First New Year Nielson style!

Colson's 1st Birthday Party

I decided that for Colson's first birthday I was going to make the best cake ever. I started at 6:00am and didin't get done until late afternoon. I completly thre away one cake because it was breaking and wouldn't stack right. I was tempted to just buy a cake, but I couldn't bring myself to it so I went back to the drawing board and came up with what is below. Since Colson's nickname is monkey we decided that a monkey would be the best choice. I think that it cake out pretty cute. Colson really didn't dig in like we thought he would. Really do most children? We had to help him see that he could just put his hands in his cake. He played in it a little as all of his cousins and sunts and uncles encouraged him to make a big mess!

Ya that onsie was so stained by the time he was done........

To Celebrate Colson's birthday even more we headed to his 12month check up the day after his birthday. They wanted to make sure he was getting enough iron for him to grow properly so the Doctor ordered blood tests. They took blood from both of his arms because his veins were so tiny they couldn't get as much blood out as they needed. I was the one who "got" to hold him down in my arms as they repeatedly poked him. The green wrap around his little arms is where they poked him. If that wasn't enough after that he got his vaccines in both of his legs. He just layed on our laps the rest of the night. Happy happy birthday.

Colson

Colson

One Year Older

My little baby turned one today. I can't believe it! It's gone by way too fast. He still has no teeth and hasn't started to walk, but I'm okay with that. I'll let him be little for as long as I can.

Almost 5 Months Behind

So I frequently get the question why don't you update your blog? When are you going to put pictures up etc, etc, etc. Well I'll tell you why I haven't I've been way too BUSY!!!!!! I won't bore you with all the details of my busy life because I'm sure you would stop reading this in a second. So instead I decided that I would just post a bunch of pictures from the previous months that I've never put up. Yes I might put a caption or two, but don't they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words? (I'll put them on in a few different posts)

Colson's first time in the water at the cabin in Island Park.

Shane holding Colson and Elenor (I hope I spelled her name right guys!)

Colson fell asleep on our evening boat ride. I love hi little life vest. Safety first!

Chelsey, Tate and Colson

Janelle, Me, Tate and Colson

Two of my best friends from Colorado came up to visit for a weekend. It was so much fun. We hung out, went to the National Potato Museum :), went to the water park, ate at some of the popular places in Blackfoot and enjoyed each other's company.

Colson's pants kept falling down. In fact in this picture I had no idea they were even down! lol

Tori please don't kill me !!!!! This was during our family vacation up at the cabin in Island Park. We had got a little crazy. When we get together who knows what will happen!

After dinner one night up at the cabin I asked Shane to hold Colson while I helped clean dinner up. When I came back out Shane had put him in the basket in between him and Todd on the camp chairs. Colson thought it was the funnest thing! It was darn cute!