6 month pictures!

We got Collin's 6 month pictures taken at Target today. He did pretty well, except for the fact that he's hesitant to smile for people he doesn't know. We got some cute shots, but none of his big smile. He just stared at the photographer like, "I don't know you!" Had to get some of the big girl and the kids together too. I think they turned out pretty well. They kind of uploaded on here in a weird way, but at least you can see what they look like! Enjoy!!

Collin is 6 months old today!!!!

It's hard to believe that my baby is already 6 months old!!! Where did the time go?? I can barely remember that tiny little baby he started as already! He's turning into the sweetest baby boy I've ever seen though!! Boy has he changed over the past 6 months! In about 30 minutes it will be exactly 6 months ago that Collin joined our family (4:42pm on Friday, February 13). He weighed 6 lb. 3 oz. at birth, but was 5 lb. 9 oz. when we brought him home. Such a little guy!!! He was at the doctor yesterday to get his ears checked and weighed 16 lb. 13 oz. He's growing great!! He goes Wednesday for his 6 month check up and shots. Over the past week, Collin has really started to grow up!! Saturday he started to really sit on his own. We can pretty much trust him that way....until he gets excited or sees a toy that's out of his reach. He's found his voice. It gets louder every day!! He's now rolling across the living room and loves the phone!! I can barely even talk on it while I'm holding him!!! Last month we started cereal and introduced a few new foods. So far he's had bananas, applesauce and sweet potatoes. He LOVES to eat!!! He's doing great with solid food, but has decided that he does NOT like the bottle and will not take it!!! It's neat to see the personality developing in him and how different he is from Emma. They may look alike, but they're night and day different in their personalities!! Collin is much more timid than Emma was and is a bit more wimpy than her too!! On the other hand, Emma was too busy for me to ever cuddle her and Collin would be happy as can be if I would hold him and snuggle with him all day!! I'm hoping that he doesn't decide that he wants to crawl and walk as early as she did!! He sure loves his big sister though, so I don't know how long it will be before he's wanting to keep up with her!! Collin has brought so much joy to our family and I can't imagine life without him. It's been a great 6 months getting to know this sweet little boy!!! The following two pictures are of Collin and of Emma at 6 months. They do look a lot alike, but he's smaller than she was. Emma was 18 lb. 6 oz. at 6 months! They also have different eye and hair colors (not that either of them has much hair at this age)!!!



Collin at exactly 6 months old....taken today!! Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen??!! :)

This is Emma at 6 months, but almost 7 months. For some reason I couldn't locate a better picture of her at this age, although I know I have them! This is with her cousin Adam at a wedding reception for Ryan's cousin Heather.

Over the past few weeks, Collin has started to stick his tongue out ALL THE TIME!!! It's so cute, so I had to document it on here with a picture!

Emma thought that Collin would love to wear her pink sunglasses. He did actually like them, but daddy wouldn't let him wear pink glasses for too long!

Big sister Emma just LOVES her brother and he thinks she is the best person EVER (besides mommy and daddy)!! When she comes in the room, he gets so excited and pulls her hair to get her face close enough for him to "kiss." She's a very good big sister and Collin is fortunate to have a sister who loves him so much!!

Family Camping Trip

This past weekend we went camping with my parents and Jody, Aaron and Analise. My parents have a membership to American Campgrounds, so this place is really nice!! Unfortunately the weather wasn't the same!!! Friday night and Saturday were pretty yucky!! It rained more than I've ever seen while camping!!! Fortunately we were in campers, not tents, so it only flooded outside, not inside. It was a cozy day with all of us crammed in Jody and Aaron's trailer....or my dad's "poop van." If you wonder why it's called the poop van, ask me later!! Once the evening rolled around on Saturday it had cleared up and things were drying off. It got HOT then!!! Sunday was VERY warm and we were glad to pack up and get into the air conditioned vehicles!! It wasn't the best camping weekend ever, but we still had fun and it's always nice to get away from home for a few days!!


Analise and Collin in their strollers. We went for a walk once the rain cleared off on Saturday.

Emma plays so hard that she fell asleep right in the lawn chair. She actually slept there for a while Saturday evening before we woke her up for dinner!!

When we were stuck in the camper Saturday morning, Collin started to REALLY sit up on his own!!!! He'd sit for about 5 minutes at a time!!. Ever since then he's been doing great!! He basically only falls over when he gets excited because he smiles with his whole body!!! He hasn't even been using the boppy to help him sit since we've been home!! What a big boy!!!

After the rain Emma and some other kids found frogs by the lake!! She had to bring one back to show us (in a bucket, not her hands, of course)!

Papa showed it to Analise. She would have gladly touched it or eaten it, but her mommy was freaking out a little!!! :)

Emma with her frog and her Papa. She finally got brave enough to touch it with 1 finger!!! Despite the weather, we had a good time with family!! I'm excited about all the memories my kids will have from these times!!

Daddy's Company Picnic

On Saturday, August 1, we went to Ryan's company picnic. It wasn't as big as it has been in past years, but the steel industry is hurting right now and we're just glad that he has a job at all!! It was pretty fun though and the activities were much better for kids Emma's age! We went to a park and had burgers, hot dogs, brats and other picnic items. They had bounce houses for the kids (even a bouncy slide...Emma loved that), airbrush tattoos, spin painting frisbees and a few other things. They even had a police car and officer so the kids could sit in the car and see what it's like. It was fun! We planned to head over to the zoo since our children's museum membership gets us in the zoo for free this month, but it started downpouring, so that idea didn't work. We ended up going to the $3.99 movie theatre instead. Emma has seen a few movies in the past and likes it. I wondered how Collin would do, but he was just in awe of the huge screen and sat and stared the whole time....until he fell asleep!!

Emma's airbrush tattoo. We made sure to get one in good colors so that when she wouldn't want to wash it off before church the next day it would be ok.

Collin's first (and hopefully last) time in a police car!! Let's hope he doesn't take after his Daddy!!! J/K

Emma wasn't too thrilled about sitting in the police car, but me made her sit in there just long enough for a picture. Can you tell how thrilled she is of this idea??

Emma loved all the other kids at the picnic and had a great time! She brought her digital camera to take pictures. We got a lot of them. I'll have to post some of her pictures on here sometime. She actually takes pretty decent pictures.....well, as decent as that camera can take!!!

Grimaldi Family Reunion

This past Saturday (the 25th) we had a family reunion with the Grimaldi side of the family in the Greater Chicago area. We love spending time with this family!!! Emma especially loves it because she gets to see her favorite cousins ever!! She doesn't have any girl cousins her age around us, so she just loves to see all of them. We drove down Friday evening and spent the night with some family, had the reunion Saturday and drove back Saturday night. I guess it shouldn't really be called a "reunion." Reunions seem like times when you see people who you haven't seen in years. We actually do see a lot of this family fairly frequently. We try to make more of an effort now that Emma is forming relationships with her cousins. In June I drove down (by myself) with both kids to take Emma to Six Flags Great America with her cousins. She had a great time and it was great to be able to see them. Collin didn't do as well though, so it wasn't the most run and relaxing trip I've ever taken. Probably not one I'd ever do again by myself. It's great to be able to see them more often....I just wish we were a little closer so we could see them all the time!! My cousins, Will and Fiona, have a beautiful home with lots of space for the whole Grimaldi gang to get together. They even have a nice pool and BOTH of my kids just loved it!!

This was Collin's first time in a pool. I figured he would like it because he LOVES to take baths! We forgot our baby floaty at home, so fortunately for us there was one there that we could use. He just relaxed and enjoyed floating around in the pool and watching everyone. He didn't even complain the numerous times he was splashed by his crazy bigger cousins (and their parents)!!!

Analise loved the pool too! She feels more comfortable being held in the water than being in a floaty though. She just loves to see baby Collin and was so excited that he was in the pool with her!

Ryan was nice enough to swim with both kids so I didn't have to. He wanted a picture with both of them, but it was super sunny out and I couldn't see the screen on the camera, so I didn't notice his eyes were closed. Oops, sorry Ryan!

Emma just loved these squirt guns (more like squirt cannons)!! She was easily able to fill it up in the pool and spray everyone in there. She got sprayed back plenty of times, but doesn't care. She loves to rough-house with people!

Here's my sweet baby boy lounging in the pool!!! He was so cute in there!! I just wish I could have gotten more pictures of him, but I was afraid of my camera getting ruined by all the splashing and spraying of water around me!!

My cousin Vanessa's little boy, Vincent, would NOT go in the pool!!! His grandpa even got all ready to swim and in the water and he wouldn't go in!! What a sweet papa he has!! Vincent just turned 2 in June, so I guess that could explain the STRONG opinion about not wanting to get in that pool!! Vanessa and Natalie-hope you don't mind me posting this picture of you guys!! Vincent was just too cute not to post it!

Before Collin got in the pool, he loved just dipping his feet and legs in a watching everyone play. He's really been fascinated by watching people lately!

Here's Emma spraying people again!! She moved from spraying people in the pool to getting people NOT in the pool!! Good thing she can run fast and has that cute smile to get herself out of trouble!

I had to post a picture of the cutest neice EVER going for a swim with her daddy!! She sure loves him!

Collin was worn out after swimming, so his Auntie Angela rocked him to sleep in her arms!! What a good auntie he has!

Sorry for the red eyes, Analise was at a weird light angle I guess. Analise took great naps while we were at the party, so she was in a great mood when she was up! I just have to brag on how smart she is!! She knows all the motions to "Pat-A-Cake" and can do them along with the song without even watching someone do it!! Here she's doing "roll 'em and roll 'em." She was SO cute!! She was very proud of herself and would do her big open mouth smile and sniffy nose when everyone clapped for her!!

Collin has just recently noticed that he has feet and loves to grab at them and play with them! When he sees them, he looks at them for a few seconds like "hey, where did those come from." Then he tries as hard as he can to grab them. He's starting to suck on his big toe like he does his thumb!

These next few pictures were taking on my cell phone because my camera was packed away and I didn't have time to go find it. Cousin Maty did Emma and Laney's hair for them on Friday night. It was super cute!!

After getting their hair done, they dressed up wiht funny shoes and posed for the camera. Crazy girls!! Can you tell they're cousins??!!

This picture may not seem like a big deal, but BOY it is!! For some reason Analise DOES NOT like swings!!! No one knows why, but she screams and tries to climb out when you put her in one. I thought I'd give it another try though and slowly put her into this one. I had to do one clip, then slowly the other so she didn't realize I was strapping her in (and so I could get her out quick if she cried right away). She sat in the swing for about 3 or 4 minutes and even let me push her! Jody had just gone to do something, so Aaron went to find her so she could see. Of course, as soon as she was coming out, Analise decided she was done. I took this picture as proof that she actually went in the swing because I knew she wouldn't last until Jody could see her! Way to go Analise!! What a big girl!!!

Fun in the tub!

Analise came over to play with us on Thursday night for a while. When it was time for Emma's bath, Analise was trying to dive into the tub.....she was so excited!!!! So, we stripped her down and let her play! Boy did she have a good time!! She sure LOVES to splash!


It was hard to get a lot of pictures because my camera was getting so wet (and I was trying to keep Analise from standing up)!! I kept missing all the cute smiles she was doing. This was the best shot I got!

Emma likes to dump water over her head, so she thought Analise would like it too. As you can see, she wasn't too fond of getting water poured over her head!

Emma used to scream whenever she would get even a drop of water in her eyes!!! Not so much anymore! She's gotten used to it now and this is what she LOVES to do when she takes a bath!

This is the best shot I could get of both girls (well, at least the best "G" rated shot!) They were really cute together! Analise just loves Emma, so she was so excited to get to take a bath with her!

This was Analise's favorite toy in the tub. She would bite down on this foam fish and yank it out of her mouth while she was still biting. Must have felt good on those gums or something. She was super cute!