I guess I should update this blog and announce that Andrew Ryan Collins was born on Feb. 4th. He was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20" long. He is doing great and his big brother is so happy he is here. (for now anyway) Here are a couple pictures of our new little man!

It's a...

BOY! Another boy for the Collins' house. I am really excited, although a girl would have been pretty exciting, I am so happy for Sam to have a little brother to grow up with. I really couldn't be happier, everything looked great on the ultrasound. I guess my life will be alot of soccer games and other sports, but I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

What was I thinking?

I obviously wasn 't thinking when I named this blog a long time ago. I guess since I had just had a baby having another was def. not on my mind. But technically, I should change the name to the Collins 4!!! Baby #2 is due the end of January. We will actually find out the sex of the baby this Thursday and I am very excited. It's amazing how fast things are flying by!
Other than that, we have had a great summer. We went to the beach twice and had a great time. Sam is def. a beach boy. He is happy playing in the sand all day taking a nap and going right back out. He actually talks about the beach every day and loves to look at the pictures we took. He is such a good little guy and makes us laugh all the time. I am so thankful for him. Hopefully, I will be a little better at updating. I will def. update on Thursday to let you all know Boy or Girl!!!!!

My Little Soccer Player

Z's parents spent 3 weeks in Ireland recently. When they returned, they had this cute little soccer uniform for sam. Zac can't wait until Sam gets old enough to play soccer with him. He is also holding out that he will be left handed baseball pitcher. :)

How can you have a bad day with this little guy around?

Recipe

These are so good and so easy!

Crock-Pot Chocolate Peanut Cluster Candy

16 oz. unsalted peanuts
16oz. salted peanuts
4oz. German Chocolate bar (in baking section)
12oz. bag of milk chocolate chips
2, 12oz. bags of white chocolate chips

Place in crock-pot in the same order as above and heat on low for 2 hours
After 2 hours, stir ingredients until you have a consistent mix
Spoon onto wax paper and let cool

Romp & Roll

Yesterday I took Sam to Romp & Roll for open gym time. He had a lot of fun and really tired himself out.

His first stop was the trampoline.

He had no fear of climbing on everything.

I got a work out too...he wanted to keep swinging on this but he couldn't hold on alone.

This weekend we went to visit my cousins and some other friends down in SC. It was so much colder down there than we expected! We went to a soccer game on Saturday night and I knew I had to bundle Sam up a little extra than I planned on. So we went to Wal-Mart in hopes to find some long johns. They were totally out, so I bought him some white tights! I so hope I have a little girl one day to put tights on...they are so cute. Sam looked pretty cute in them though! He was so tired when we got back to our hotel, he didn't wake up while we undressed him.

Just Plain Cute!

One Year Old

Well, my baby is now one. I can't believe how fast this year flew by. It's been so much fun and challenging too. I wouldn't trade this for anything though, Sam has definately added alot to our little family. Here are some pics from his first birthday. We actually had two parties for him, one at our house and the other at my parents house in Rocky Mount. Sam enjoyed both, but def. put on more of a "show" at my parents. I think his first time having so much sugar def. helped out in that! Oh and I thought I would add a picture of his real birth day just for memories!

I Love Cake!

A Day at the Park

Recently, we have been taking Sam to the park. We have a really nice one close by and the weather has been perfect "park" weather.

Labor Day

On Monday morning we went to Belle Isle with our friends Brian, Alyssa and Andrew. We started the morning with eating Krispy Kreme donuts out on the rocks on the river. Then the guys rode their mountain bikes and Alyssa and I walked the trails. We had such a nice time. I was glad we got their early because it got very hot later in the morning and very crowded. I'm looking forward to the fall temperatures!!! Here are a few pics from the day.

View of the City

Hollywood Cemetary

Rock Climbing

Beach Time

Last week, me, Z and Sam went to Virginia Beach. Some friends of ours own a condo on the North End of the beach and for the last two years have let us use it. It is so nice to get away and relax. Of course we enjoyed laying out in the sun and swimming but it was also nice to walk the boardwalk at night, listen to the bands playing and people watch! Oh and of course eating ice cream!! :) We really enjoyed our time and are already looking forward to returning next year. Although, Z keeps saying we are going back to Mexico, I think he is still dreaming about the fresh guacamole. :)

9 months

I can't believe that Sam is 9 months old! The time has flown by and I have enjoyed it so much. I still look at him in amazement that he is our baby. He is quite the little show off now. At church it seems he is passed around alot and he just takes it all in and tries to entertain as much as possible.

Here are a few of his 9 month pictures:

We took Sam swimming last week for the first time. He loved it! He didn't mind getting water in his face at all. Good thing he liked it so much, now we can spend the summer at the pool!

A few weeks ago, we met Laura and Chris halfway between Richmond and Rocky Mount. I think we stayed out a little late for Sam, he was pretty much done by this time. It was good to spend time with L and C, maybe one day we'll be closer to each other.

This past Friday we had our friends over and celebrated Z's 30th birthday. We had such a good time with everyone. It was fun seeing all the kids together. Pretty soon, they'll be running around and we'll be chasing them. For now we will enjoy that they stay in one spot.


Sam with his new buddy Elise.





This was right after we caught Sam eating his friend Andrew's hand. We have to watch him because everything goes in his mouth these days. He loves chewing on his toes!

I love this little guy so much!

This past weekend we took the youth group to a retreat in Ashville, NC. We left the church Sat. morning around 5 and headed back on Monday. Sunday everyone went skiing at Black Mountain. It was a terrible day for skiing! Sam was such a good baby the whole trip. I think heenjoyed being passed around and especially his first bus ride!