Colton Leo Black

This past Spring, we found out we'd be welcoming a third boy into our family! Wow, three boys, we were excited and overwhelmed!

The Name

Weston and Landon both happen to end with 'on' and since Devon does, as well, we figured we'd better keep the trend going. The name Colt was first introduced to us a few years ago as a friend's rejected name for her son. Devon and I mentioned that we really liked it but, we never really gave it a second thought.  While trying to think of names, I overheard the name Colton in a doctor's waiting room. I immediately knew Devon would love it because of our earlier run in and it included our required 'on.' It was a winner! 

The middle name was a bit tougher, we just couldn't agree on anything. And by that I mean Devon didn't like any name I came up with. After presenting my billionth name, he finally just suggested we name him after my grandpa Leo. I don't know why I hadn't even considered that, it was perfect. 

The Pregnancy

I was the sickest with this pregnancy, but still relatively mild. I went to a new doctor since Landon's doctor was now about 30 minutes away, this proved to be an awful choice. She was perfectly nice but a little test happy, to put it mildly. We had one possible, tiny imperfection on the 20 week ultrasound that led to a miriade of tests, each easing concern about the original issue all the while introducing a new issue. This pregnancy was wrought with a lot of needless worry, I was very happy for it to be over! 

The Birth 

This kid is a prankster! At about 37 weeks I started having bouts of pretty regular contractions, which would get us thinking it was just about time to head to the hospital and then just stop. This happened about five times. But then one day, they didn't stop! We headed to the hospital only to be monitored for three hours and sent home. Two days later, when contractions returned I was not hopeful until at a church Halloween party, that night, they started to get more painful. We left the party thinking this was it, but the contractions got further apart instead of closer. Defeated again, Devon went to sleep and I watched a movie. Soon the pain got to be so intense that I woke up Devon and we once again headed to the hospital. By time we pulled up, there was no doubt this was the real thing. I was in immense pain, screaming like a crazy woman. My epidural could not get to me fast enough, literally! As I was sitting up, getting my back cleaned for the epidural, I felt the baby coming. The doctor, who had seconds before entered the room, told me to lay down. She then announced this baby was coming. Fear overtook me, as I was not prepared for natural childbirth, but little did I know the hard part was already behind me. Just two pushes later, my perfect little 7lbs 13oz, 20 in, boy was here! 

The Aftermath

My mom brought the boys the next morning. Weston was SO excited to hold his new little brother! 

Landon wanted nothing to do with me or Colton. We had to bribe him with my phone to get him close enough to take a picture. 

The boys went home with dad and came back after naptime. This time around Landon decided he wanted to see what all the fuss was about and decided to give the little guy a chance. It was love!

Colton got to go home on Halloween, donning his first costume, a pirate! 

Colton's been a pretty good baby, but this kid LOVES to eat! I would love to just sit and nurse him all day, but that isn't possible with two naughty little boys running around! It won't be long till I have three naughty little boys running around! I can't wait...

Like Father, Like Son

There's no disputing the fact that Weston looks like my side of the family. But, the more I learn about Weston's personality, there is clearly no disputing he is his father's son. Over the past few months we have learned that the CRAZIEST things appear to be genetic in our family. Here are just a few examples.

**When Devon was little he was fascinated by the chorister at church. His mom says that while hymns were being sung he would stand up on the pew and lead the congregation. 

From a very young age Weston would try to mimic the chorister, by waving his hand around. Since he has gotten older, he's kicked his fascination up a notch. He now turns on the Ipad to choose a church hymn. He then goes stands on the fireplace and leads the music.

**Devon's grandpa played the viola. Devon adored his grandpa and want to be just like him. So, he would often pick up two sticks and rub them together as if he was playing the viola. It's because of this that Devon started to take violin lessons at the age of three. Leading the way for just about all of his siblings becoming violinists.

Unfortunately, it takes an act of congress to get Devon to play the violin nowadays. So, Weston has never seen his dad play, but that hasn't stopped him from falling in love. The second he saw his uncle Ethan play at Grandma Yoak's funeral, he was hooked. From that moment on, he played anything he could get his hands on. He would pick up toy guitars and put them under his chin. During Christmas time at Grandma Black's house, he would take the violin ornaments off her tree and try to play them. But my absolute favorite is when he used a balloon as a violin.

I love the intensity on his face!

**Devon is INCREDIBLY literal! If I told him I was hungry and asked him to throw a can of soup on the stove, I would walk downstairs to find an unopened can of soup, sitting on top of the stove. 

The other day, Weston was eating some applesauce. He started to bring it to the coffee table in the living room, but I told him he needed to eat it in the kitchen. He brought it to the table and was trying to eat it standing up, but the table was just a little too tall. Realizing that he wanted to eat it standing up, I told him to go eat it at the window (we have window seat in our nook that he can set it on).  I looked away for a few seconds and when I turned back around this is what I saw...

He literally had it pressed up against the window.

Now, if he can just grow up to be as handsome, smart and as good of a husband & dad, as Devon!

Landon Turns the big 0-1!!

It's really hard for me to believe that my baby is already one, I feel like I was just pregnant with him. But it also hard to believe that he's only been in our family for just one year! 

Landon had a very fun and very busy first birthday. We started the day with donuts, I believe it was the first time both boys had eaten ever eaten a donut.  After our complete and balanced breakfast we headed to a gym right down the street from our house for some open playtime. Landon had a blast going down the bounce house slides and climbing over all the gym toys. We left directly from the gym to go have lunch with Devon. After finding out our favorite Mediterranean place closed down, we headed to a little Mexican restaurant. Landon once again had a nutritious meal consisting solely of tortilla chips and spoonfuls of queso dip (hey, you only turn one once!).

 After nap time it was time to P-A-R-T-Y! I made Landon's favorite meal;  pancakes, eggs and sausage. Once dinner was done Landon got to open presents, the highlight being his Cozy Coupe! I'd tell you he loves it, but to be truthful he hasn't spent much time with it. Weston has pretty much hijacked it and Landon seems quite content to let his brother borrow it, at least for the time being. Once presents were all opened it was time to make a mess with his cake. And make a mess he did, he couldn't shove it in fast enough!

Now, a few things I want to remember about my little guy at this age:

*Every time I look at Landon I think to myself, 'I seriously love this guy!' He is just so sweet, so cute and so adorable. A random stranger at Walmart told me that he's got the light. I can't explain what she meant, but I know exactly what she's talking about. 

* He is one coordinated kid. The week he learned to crawl, he went up the stairs all by himself. We didn't find him until he was already at the top (we turned away for two minutes!) Not only can he climb stairs but he already knows how to turn around and back down them. He LOVES stairs! He cannot get enough. If it didn't make me so nervous he would go up and down them all day. 

* He still loves to cuddle with his us. I brought him into bed with us the other night. We were both drifting off when I felt him crawling on me. He put his head on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around him and he immediately fell asleep. I could have stayed like that forever, if my arm hadn't fallen asleep.

*He sleeps with this stuffed giraffe named Travis, that Devon's co-worker gave him. As soon as I hand it to him, he brings it up to his face and rubs it on his cheek until he falls asleep. 

*He goes by LaLa around here. West can't say Landon, so he just calls him LaLa and despite Devon's best efforts, it seems to have stuck.

*He loves to eat and he can put it away! He easily out eats his brother and has even put down an entire six inch sub.

*He got two teeth at nine months and hasn't gotten a single one since.

*He loves to use utensils and he's even kind of coordinated with them. On Christmas day we went to Denny's and he got the idea to eat pancakes with a toothpick. It was the cutest thing and he was getting every bite into his mouth. When Devon looked up and saw him with the toothpick he insisted I get it away from him right away until he saw how cute it was .

*He loves to throw. Balls, cars, food and especially cell phones.

*He waves bye bye, claps when anyone says 'yay', give kisses and blows kisses. 

*He gets so excited when you get him out of his crib or car seat. 

*He is really laid back until he gets mad. He's got a TEMPER! If you take anything away from him he will literally scream like a banshee. And he has already learned how to get West in trouble, even when he's completely innocent (of course, I don't know that West is ever completely innocent). 

*And my favorite thing...He's finally sleeping through the night!

Brotherly Shenanigans

When I found a couple broken blinds in the living room West was the obvious suspect, until today when I walked in and found this...

I felt bad for blaming West, until I opened the blinds and found what was so enticing to Landon....

I guess that also explains why that window is always so dirty.

I sure love my boys ;)

Texas Ice Storm

On Wednesday we were living the life! It was nearly 80 degrees outside. We spent the morning at the park with friends, came home ate lunch then spent the hour until nap time outside.

 I was wearing jeans but I got so uncomfortable I went in and put on a pair of shorts.

I knew this weather wasn't going to last long, so after nap time we loaded up the stroller and went for a walk.

I was hoping, since we spent just about the whole day outside, that would tide us over for a few days. I had no idea how LONG the next few days would be!

We woke up Friday morning to snow! Everyone was really excited, so we hopped out of bed, dug out our warm clothes and headed outside.

We had FUN! But that lasted for about 10 minutes. It certainly wasn't the light fluffy powder we got in Utah. Weston had fun just tromping through it, but Landon was done right after we went out. He definitely does not like the cold (he's a true Texas boy). It was really surprising that the entire Metroplex shutdown after 1/2" of snow. But I'm beginning to understand. First of all, though it looks a lot like snow, it's pretty much just ice. Devon described it as the way snow gets after it's been compressed for a few days. Secondly, they're just not equipped to clear the roads here. And finally, people here just aren't comfortable getting around in snow.  So, the whole rest of the Friday was spent indoors. Even Devon worked from home.

Saturday started out indoors...

Until we couldn't take it anymore and ventured out to Walmart. I've never enjoyed being at Walmart so much!!

Church was canceled today, so yet another day inside. I did a little art project with the boys to keep them busy...

While I'm about to go crazy, I am thankful we're all safe and there's no damage to our house. There are tons of tree branches down in the area, due to all the ice. We only lost three small branches, though we have a whole tree that is leaning to the side.

The temperature is finally above freezing and I hear a lot of dripping coming from outside. I'm hoping we can get out of the house tomorrow! Wish us luck ;)

California

Landon was finally able to take his first trip to California! My friend Beckee (we've been friends for almost 30 years, YIKES!) was getting married in St. George, UT. Instead of just flying in for the wedding, I decided to fly into LAX and make a week long trip out of it.

I was a little scared to fly alone with both boys! They weren't perfect, but we survived!

 

The first thing I HAD to do when we got to Long Beach was meet my new nephew, Mason!

Isn't he seriously the cutest little thing!!!

The second thing I had to do was go to Dominicos (our FAVORITE family restaurant)!

A few months back a friend posted on Facebook about this cool little park, so I had to take the boys...

The boys loved meeting their new cousin and we were able to get a cute picture of them all.

The Marengo Cousins

Devon noticed in this picture that Mason and Landon are holding hands. Seriously, how cute is that?!?!?

 

 

 A HUGE benefit to having the wedding in St. George is that I got to stay with my other bestest friend, Jen and she finally got to meet Landon.

(A little side note, I also spent time with one of my most favorite high school friends and her two little boys, but I got no pics, boo me!)

And finally, the reason for the trip, the wedding. It was in a canyon just outside of St. George and it was BEAUTIFUL! Weston had a blast playing in all the dirt and trying to climb all the rocks, just like the big kids. 

I just love this outtake!

The beautiful bride

I LOVE seeing old friends!

We've all been friend FOREVER!

It was a fun trip, but I was SO excited to get home and see my hubby. I'm glad that Devon is coming on our next trip to Cali!!

Oh and a couple more cute pics of the boys from the trip...

And DONE!

Grandma Yoak

Devon's grandma passed away a few weeks ago, right after her 91st birthday. I am SO grateful that I was able to know her and that both my boys were able to meet their great-grandma.

I just LOVE this picture, the way they are both smiling at each other melts me

We flew Utah for her funeral. Although it wasn't under the happiest of circumstances, I was really glad to get an impromptu chance to see family and celebrate the life of an amazing woman.

The day of the funeral the boys got all dressed up...

The funeral was beautiful! One of my favorite things was the blanket display. 

Grandma crocheted a blanket for EVERYONE of her 38 great-grandchildren. The display took up a few long tables and showed the love she had for all those kids. The blankets are such a treasured gift.

And the graveside, there was a flower arrangement that had the exact number of flowers to represent all of Grandma Yoak's posterity. There were two lilies representing Grandma and Grandpa Yoak, five flowers representing their children, 21 roses for grandchildren and 38 carnations for each great-grandchild. Everyone was allowed to take their corresponding flower. I just LOVED that! I let West choose a carnation for himself & Landon and a rose for Devon.

 During a BEAUTIFUL violin number by his Uncle Ethan, Weston was literally mesmerized. So much so, that he didn't move an inch the entire piece and the Bishop, that was officiating over the funeral, pulled out his phone in the middle of the service and took a picture.

So, of course, when we got home West got a chance to try out the violin for himself.

We also had time for some fun! The boys always love playing with their uncles, but this time they really had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Black. Every morning Weston would walk around the house yelling, "Gandma Lack, get up Gandma Lack!"

Weston also really appreciated the fact that he has a TON of cousins in Utah. It was so fun to see him running around and playing with everyone. The day before we left we went to the Discovery Science Center with cousin Creed. The boys had a blast!

It's hard to be so far away from family, but it really makes you grateful for the time that you do have with them!