Christmas with the Langes

Last night we had Christmas with my Mom's side of the family! This is always such a fun and crazy night! Lots and lots of cousins running around crazy. They are always a sweaty mess at the end of the night. But my big boy did such a good job, he had no nap and was a trooper. He has been so good the last 2 days!! Here are some pictures from last night!

Love my boys

Monkey Umbrella:)

It was raining he said and he needed to go to Target! Can you tell I go there way too much!

Such a sweet boy! I love htis picture!!

So excited!

Air hockey expert!

Love:)

Thank you to everyone for spoiling us! We both truely have the best families ever!!

Santa Night

Last night was our annual Santa Night! Colton was anything but shy around Santa. He greeted him at the door as showed him right in. Even posed for a million pictures! Here are some pictures from last night! Warning: There are tons:)

My favorite picture of the night:)

We had such a good time. This is a fun tradition that I'm glad we have been able to extend to our friends and their families! Thanks you to Mama and Papa and Aunt for putting it all together!! We are off to Day 2 of 4 of Christmas fun! More pictures coming....

Happy Halloween

I know I am a few days late, but I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Colton sure did! He certainly knows what trick-or-treating and candy are this year! He had so much fun! Grandma and Grandma, Mama and Papa, Aunt Ash came to visit him. Then we head out the door in search of candy! He got to trick-or-treat with Alex and Abby!!

Here are a few cute pictures from the night and from his pumpkin carving!

Fall Fun

We have been so busy this fall that I have been a total slacker at blogging! I will do my best to catch up:) A few weeks ago, we took Colton to the pumpkin patch. It is amazing how much different he is this year doing all this stuff. He had so much fun running around the pumpkin patch.He understands what everything is and knows exactly where he wants to go! He is quite a handful to keep up with. We saw lots of painted pumpkings, played in the bubble machine, saw ponies and puppies, played on the play ground and of course got some kettle corn and 2 pumpkins!! Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch. Tomorrow we plan on carving them....I'll post pictures tomorrow:)

Such a Cheeser face...still!

Fall has begun

With summer coming to an end, mom and Colton had to get back into a routine. School has started and Colton has started back at Jen's. However, we are determined to make the most of our weekends. We have been blessed with great weather the past few weeks. We have been able to go outside and not sweat to death.

2 weekends ago, we took the long drive (and ferry ride) to Grafton, Ill. to go apple picking. This was Colton's first time apple picking. Boy was he a pro! He was such a good picker. He probably ate at least 3 apples out in the fields too! He loved them. He got to go on a wagon ride, feed the goats, eat yummy kettle corn and play in the apple fields! We certanly made some great memories. The next day, Dan did a lot of baking. We enjoyed an amazing homemade apple pie and cinnamon apples. Delish!! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day! Thanks ma ma and pa pa for going with us! :)

Love the family pictures!

 Love him! Such a sweet smile.

 How big is our baby?!?!?

More of our fun fall weekends to come soon:) Before we know it I will be posting about CHRISTMAS!!! Where has 2012 gone!!??



The start of another school year

The start of another school year has begun. After 3 years, we finally have a good routine down! Colton is a great little helper in the morning. He gathers his monkey and lovies to take with him and usually cooperates well. One change our little man has thrown on us, is he is acting like a big boy and needs his time to wake up. I have to get him up 15 minutes earlier so he can watch some "toons". Usually some Clifford:) After he wakes up a little, he is good to go!!

We had been working on some potty training, but I don't think he was ready yet. We sat for a long time....and he never went! So we may revisit this winter! Hopefully he will be ready then.

Some exciting news on my front, as I start my 5th year of teaching, I have ALSO finished my MASTERS!!! I am so excited to be done doing my homework, and I was even more excited when in my mailbox at work today was a letter from my district congratulating me on my continued education and SALARY ADVANCEMENT!!! Happy girl:)

We are continuing to enjoy our weekends as a family. 2 weeks ago we went to the lake, last weekend we did birthday parties and this weekend we will head back to the lake! One last summer fun weekend before fall comes. I won't be complaining when cooler weather comes. All my boy wants to do is cut grass (play with his bubble lawn mower)! But it is soooo hot and we are so exhausted after work! He can cut grass forever that boy!

Her are a few pictures from the end of our summer break!

Goofy Face at the Butterfly house! I have this same picture from last summer! He has grown so much!!

His new MIZZOU Jeep! Thanks Mama and Papa! 

On my birthday! Love my boys!

Sweet Summer time

As a teacher, how can summer not be my favorite season?!?! This summer has been especially fun because Colton is growing and doing more each and every day! He is quite the active and vocal little man. Here are some of my favorite parts of this summer:

- I love how each morning he calls my name to come get him out of bed (sometimes earlier than I'd wish for) and then we snuggle in mom's bed and watch cartoons before breakfast!
- I love eating all the "food" he makes me in his kitchen....and drinking the endless supply of "super hot coffee" (as he calls it). I wonder where he learned to make coffee :)
- When he plays hide-and-seek, (he's still in that stage that if he can't see you, he thinks you can't see him) he puts his lovey over his head and says "Where's Colton" and when we ask him....he says TARGET!!! I guess we go to Target too much!!
- He is doing such a good job sleeping in his bed. He usually goes right to bed and doesn't get out unless he calls us.
- He is becoming a pro in the pool. He is such a dare devil and goes in the deep end (with his floaty vest of course!)
- He is SO smart! When we are out driving, he recognized places. He knows: Mom's school, Dr. office (yes! he loves it...weird, I know!), both sets of grandparents houses, where his babysitter and friends live, and he even know familiar restuants we go to! Where do they learn this stuff???
- He knows how to play on the iPad...and how to pick out his own games! Such a 21st century baby!
- He is such a good little shopper with mom...loves to go for car rides!
- His vocabulay is so big! He can say and name just about anything!! It's amazing! However, he's never quiete!!!

Though some days may be more challenging than others, I still love every minute of my summers with him. Let's face it....he's two and going to throw some fits, but when he's done....I can't help but think I have the cutest baby on the planet!!!

Riding in style!

 Saw his first movie this summer! Kung Fu Panda II

Disney Part-2

Wednesday:
On Wednesday we had a little rain. We decided to have a more relaxing day and we headed to the pool. The resort's pool was great. It wasn't crowed at all and they had a whole seperate kids swimming pool. It was no more than chin deep and had a jungle gym for the kids to climb on and slides. He had a blast! After spending the morning there, we headed to Downtown Disney for lunch. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe. He was in love. That resaurant was great!! All the animals move and seem so life like. They even have a "thunderstrom" every half hour. Food was excellent too. After lunch, we just walked around and shopped. We got treats at the Goofey Candy store. Colton LOVED his chocolate covered pretzel. We also played in the water fountains they had. That evening we went back to Epcot for dinner. We ate a Japanese restaurant. It was yummy!!!

Thursday:

This was our last full day in Disney. It was a VERY rainy day:( We went to another character breakfast at the Beach Club Resort. Colton got to meet Donald agian and Minnie. After we ate, we headed to Animal Kingdom. We took him on a Safari ride through the jungle. The animals were out walking around! I don't think anything was hiding from us. The only thing I have to say about Animal Kingdom, is the St. Louis Zoo spoils us!!! It was just as good, in my opinion! We had lunch in Animal Kingdom and head back to the hotel for a nap. That night we went to Holleywood Studios for our last dinner. On the bus ride there, it started to POUR....and it never stopped!!!!! We were in ponchos and had poor baby Colton under an umbrella. We were soaked!! So we didn't get to see much that night. Dinner was good, we went back to a restaurant we had been to for breakfast, Holleywood Vine I think. So after we ate, we headed back to the hotel to dry off!!

Hi Minnie

 Riding a rollar coaster!

 We didn't let the rain stop us!

Friday:

We headed home this day. We got up and went to breakfast on our resort. The luggage people were waited on us when we got back....opps! Then we went to the main building on the resort to check out and wait for the Magical Express to take us the airport. It was a short 45 minute bus ride. Once we got to the airport, we had an early lunch and waited for the first plance ride. The ride to Atlanta wasn't too bad, but the ride from Atlanta to St. Louis, man.....I think Colton was ready to be home. Mom and Dad too!!! We had tears and fits, but we made it!!!!!

The Disney vacation was amazing! I will do it every year. He was so happy and loved every minute of it. I made a book of the pictures he loves to look at it! I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone!! :) An amazing first family vacation!!

Disney World 2012- Part 1

Last week we visited Disney World in Orlando Florida. It is a vacation that I will definitely repeat. All 3 of us had such a good time! To remember the vacation, I want to put down what we did each day. It will be long, so you can just look at the pictures if you want. :)

Sunday:
Our plane left at 6am! Mama and Papa were kind enough to drive us to the airport at 4am!! Eeek! Colton was of course too excited to sleep. We checked our bags and didn't have to wait long before boarding our first flight. We had a layover in Atlanta. We landed there at 8:30ish, and grabbed some quick breakfast. It was a fast layover, they were boarding already when we got  to the gate! Colton fell asleep on that plane ride. He did really well on the planes. His ears didn't bother him much. We landed in Orlando at 11:30, got our bags and headed for Disney's Magical Express. This was a bus that took us to the resorts. We got to the resort, Saratoga Springs, and checked in. We grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel and then took a golf cart ride to the room. Mom and Colton napped :) And then we got ready and headed to our first park....Epcot!! We had dinner in a revolving restaurant and saw lots of characters!! Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale! It was a great first day:)

Monday:
On Monday, we got up and went to have another character breakfast in Hollywood Studios. At breakfast we got to see Jake the Pirate, Oso the bear, and many more. After breakfast, we headed out to explore HS. Colton got to go to Disney Junior LIVE. So fun to see it on stage. Then we played in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, rode It's a Small World After All and rode our favorite ride of the whole week TOY STORY. It was a kid friendly ride that was dark and you got to shoot your laser at all the toy story characters. It was 3D so we got to wear fun glasses too! He laughed and had such a good time! Dad and Colton beat Mom:) Then we rode the bus back to the hotel and took a nap. That night we headed back to Epcot for dinner. We ate at Napoli's (and Italian restaurant). It was sooo yummy! The best part of the all inclusive meal plan we got was that the meals came with appetizers, the meal and dessert!! So good!! We were stuffed the entire week!!

Character Breakfast

 3D Glasses for Toy Story ride! Like father, like son!

 Dinner at Epcot!

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning we took the monorail to another resort for breakfast. He loved the "fast train" as he called it. It was a Hawaiian place and the food was really good. The boys loved the juice. ha ha. It was also a character breakfast so Mickey, Lilo and Stitch visited. Then we visited Magic Kingdom. Boy was that place crazy!!! It was so packed. We wound our way back to the rides we knew he would enjoy. He loved the Tea Cups ride. He thought that was fun to spin. The line for Dumbo was insane...almost an hour. Needless to say, we skipped that:( We did ride, Winne the Pooh Honey Pots, It's a Small World, and the Carousal. He had a good time. We ate at a restaurant there and even got to watch the tail end of a parade. He got to buy "duck" (Donal Duck :) ) and a new t-shirt from Magic Kingdom! That night for dinner we took the short bus ride to Downtown Disney and ate at Planet Hollywood! We shopped and Colton got his Mickey ears hat! He was adorable!! Here are some pictures from Tuesday!

At breakfast

Pluto!!!

Tea Pot Ride:)

Cute!

In front of the Magic Castle

Love it!!! Mickey Hat!!

Second half of the vacation coming soon:)