Grandparents coming to town!

Today I got the unexpected (and wonderful!) news that my parents are coming to visit us in two weeks! Yay! I was a little sad thinking that because we were so far away from family (and out in the middle of nowhere) we would rarely get visited. I know that my other family (the Meyers) is going to try and come in a few months, and we are very excited about that, but I honestly didn't think that my own family (Coltharps) would be coming out...especially anytime soon! Dad just happened to have a business trip in Pheonix and mom decided she'd go with him. So I am very very excited to have them as the first guests in our home...even if it is only for a couple of short days. And Sam is excited to see Grandma and Grandpa!

So I finally started one of the books I have been wanting to read today - "The Brothers" by Chris Stewart. I only got through the Prologue and half of chapter one and I am already loving it! What does it say for a book that I was already bawling by the end of the prologue?? I'm sure it will be great and I am excited to get through it.

Anyway...peace out.

This and That

Sam had his year checkup on Monday and it went well. He is growing like a weed up-wise, which means he's not growing much in weight. He is in the 75th percentile for his height (30.5 inches) and only in the 15th for his weight (only 19.9 lbs.). Tall and skinny! He hated getting his immunizations, of course, but not even a minute after Dr. Greene was done he forgot about them and was fine. It gets easier every time. The pediatrician he goes to now is good, but it's his own small practice so it's just him there - not what we were used to at Upper Valley Pediatrics!

He is doing more fun things everyday. Today he decided to mock me after I yawned. So now, if he sees us yawning (or when we try to get him to do it by faking it) he opens his mouth big and squints his eyes like he is yawning. It's so cute! He is getting better at standing on his own. If he would get over the fear and just trust himself he would be perfect at it!

It's been so warm the last few days! We are loving it. Dave likes the fact that he can be outside washing his car at 6:30 at night with no shirt on, as he teased his mom about the other night. We took Sam to the awesome pool the other night for family night and he loved it. It's so fun for little kids. We are grateful that Bagdad had accommodated it's occupants with a good community center.

Along with the constant cleaning and getting settled in that has been going on, T.V. has been our main source of entertainment (there's not much else to do here, okay!). We (well, I should say me...Dave isn't really into it, though he will watch it when it's on) have been religiously watching American Idol and I just have to say that I am just loving the little 17 year old David Archuletta (or however you spell it)! He is by far my favorite that has ever been on the show in 7 seasons. The best voice!

I also quickly have to mention another great show (not that people want to hear about what I watch on TV, but it's my blog, right?)...if you want to know what's really going on in the world (especially with politics) from someone who isn't afraid to tell it like it is, watch Glenn Beck. His opinions on things are right on (in my opinion :). I'm not going to discuss my political views, but if you watch the show or know anything about it, it's right on with where I stand. He gives the real facts and I feel so informed watching his show. I definitely recommend it...to anyone that cares, that is. :)

Okay, now that I got that out, I need to go get ready so that Sam and I can take a stroll to the store!

We're back online!

"B" is for Bagdad! Hello Everyone! This last month has been absolutely crazy (has it really already been a month??). We didn't have internet until the middle of this week because it took them 3.5 weeks to come set it up once we signed up for it...one of the many joys of living in a small town. Anyway, now that I have most of our 196 new inbox messages in our email cleared out, I figured I should update our blog!


So far, other than the huge culture shock of living in Bagdad, we are enjoying it. Dave is still in the stressful stage of learning and getting used to things in his job, but he likes it. He got his new truck (new 2008 Dodge Ram) a couple weeks ago and though the hassles we have been dealing with have been a huge headache (the dealership, etc.), he loves his truck and he is pretty proud of it.


One thing I am definately enjoying here is the weather, though I know I probably wont be saying that in the summer. It has been raining a lot here lately but I will take rain over snow any day! It is beautiful here...beautiful in a different way than what we're used to. It's all desert...rocky, hilly desert with huge cactus (and little ones too). If you look closely at this picture you will see them. This is in Bagdad, close to the mine.


There are some annoying things about our house, but we also love it! We have been very very fortunate. The Lord has definately blessed us in so many ways recently. It's so nice to have our own home! (well, it's not technically ours, but still) We still don't have it decorated quite the way we want it, but that will come with time.


We have met some wonderful people here and that part has been one of my favorite things about Bagdad. We were befriended and fellowshipped as soon as we came and everyone has been so great! They are friendships that we hope will last a lifetime. Our ward is absolutely tiny and so different than anything we have ever experienced, church-wise, but again, I absolutely love it.


Sam is now over a year old and doing good...crankier than ever, but good. His teeth have been coming in like crazy so it seems he is always in a mood. Whether it's his teeth, he's sick, or just plain tired from being off his sleeping schedule, it's always something with him. His personality and temper are getting more and more fiesty every day, which is such a huge challenge - and I know it will only get worse as he grows closer to the terrible twos. But with all that attitude he is getting more and more fun and cute. He is becoming more like a little boy and less like a baby all the time. :( It's a happy and a sad thing.


He is very close to walking...it will be any day now. He eats anything and everything and every time Dave and I sit down to eat something we feel like we have a begging puppy at our feet. He climbs up and smacks his lips and says "num nums" over and over again until we feed him. He can be full from just eating his own meal at his high chair, but he will still beg for food and eat it when we give it to him. And as we discovered recently when he "blew chunks" all over the family room floor, he doesn't even fully chew his food. He just swallows it in whole pieces. Hoepfully as he gets more teeth he will learn. He is so funny and he is our main source of entertainment in this house.

There isn't really anymore big details to report on. We miss and love everyone so much! We promise we will keep this updated more often. If you want to see more pictures of Bagdad and our house and stuff go to our Photobucket website! Our house looks really boring and blah because we don't have grass or anything else yet. It will get there!

Last Update For a While

Well, I thought I would write one last update before we leave. We are officially leaving Colorado on Wednesday after the movers get us all packed up. It will be a very sad day for us, but when we get to Bagdad and settle in I'm sure we will be very happy! I think one of the things Dave and I are most excited for is to be able to sleep in our new King size bed for the first time. Yay!


Even though Sam's birthday isn't until February 11th, we had his birthday party tonight so that all his family could be there. It wasn't much of a party though. I don't know if he is getting sick or if he just senses the stress all around of us leaving, but he hasn't been himself so he didn't get into the whole cake thing at all and he was fussy the whole time. Oh well! Such is life!

Anyway, we probably wont have internet set up there for a little while, so wish us all luck and I will update everyone when we do again!

Bagdad, here we come!

Well, it is official...we are headed to Bagdad! Bagdad, Arizona, that is. Dave officially accepted the position on Monday and he will be starting his job on Monday, January 28th. He would be the Industrial Hygienist for a mining company called Phelps Dodge (part of a corporation called Freeport McMoran). We have a lot of mixed emotions about it, but mostly we are very excited. It is going to be a great opportunity for him, career-wise, and there are many great benefits, perks, and opportunities that come along with the job. We have been praying for months for a job opportunity and we never expected such a great one right off the bat. We are definately thanking the Lord every chance we get!

It might be a small mining town in the middle of nowhere, but I think we can handle it. It will be a new adventure for both of us, as both of us have always lived in a normal/big city. The closest it is to any normal size city is about an hour and a half to Prescott, and about 2 hours away from Pheonix. But, even though it's a small town there is still a ward/branch building there, so at least we wont have to drive an hour and a half to church every week!

We don't know the day we are officially driving down there yet because we have to find out first how soon we can move into one of the houses down there. Everything in the town is owned by the company, including the houses, so we will be paying rent to them to live in one of the houses for a very reasonable price.

There are a lot of other small details that I wont go into here (if you want to hear more, email or call us), but basically we are excited! Wish us luck!

Yes, we are alive!

Well, it has been about a month since our last post, and a lot has happened during that time, which is why I haven't had the time to write. Okay, I guess I should rephrase that - I haven't taken the time. So now I am going to update you all on everything that has been going on in our lives.


First of all, Dave finally graduated with his BA in Health Science on December 14th! Woo hoo! No more school - at least in Rexburg, anyway. His whole family came out for it, even though only Mom and Dad could go to the graduation. The girls (Jessica, Mary, Jenny, and Jeana) just babysat Sam, which we really appreciated! The gradutaion went really well and we enjoyed hearing from President Clark and Sister Tanner. Mostly, we were just excited to be done! So, after 4.5 long, hard, and stressful years he is done - and he did it with a 3.8 GPA. We are all so proud of Dave!


That weekend was pretty jam-packed. We had graduation, moving, Grandma's surprise birthday party (which was also very fun!), etc. That Thursday night (the night before gradutaion) when the Meyers all got into town they helped us pack up the truck Dave's friend let us borrow. Moving and packing is stressful enough as it is, but when you're doing it in the dark it's even worse - especially with a baby. Yes, that's right, the power was out in our whole apartment complex for about 4-5 hours that night. Perfect timing. Sam was down for a nap when it went out and the family all arrived and we tried to all do it in the dark, while one or two people held a flashlight. Then when Sam woke up he cried for about an hour strait while we all packed because he didn't remember or recognize the family and it was dark and he didn't know what was going on. But it finally came back on right at bed time - when we were done, of course.


Anyway, there was a lot of moving going on this last month - we moved back to Colorado to live with Dave's family until we figure out what's going on, Jason and Brittany (Dave's brother and his wife) moved back to Rexburg to finish school and Cindi and Braxton (my sister and her hubby) also moved to Rexburg to start work at Melaleuca and get out on their own. So Dave had to quickly go to Idaho Falls a few hours before his graduation and get the Uhaul trailor we rented, we packed it, went to graduation, came home and did more packing that night, and then early Saturday morning (about 5am) Dave left to Colorado with the first load of our things. He unloaded our stuff at his parent's house, loaded Jason and Brittany's things, went to my parent's house in Highlands Ranch and loaded Cindi and Braxton's things (Dave wasn't doing this all on his own, by the way - they all helped), and then he and Jason headed back to Rexburg the very next morning. They unloaded Jason, Brittany, Cindi, and Braxton's things at Grandma Mary's house and then Jason drove one of our cars (packed with more of our stuff) back to Colorado the very next morning. Whew!

Then, because of Sam's bottom and the surgeon wanting to keep an eye on it, Dave, Sam, and I didn't actually drive our other car down to Colorado with the rest of our stuff until that next Thursday. We had a truck, a trailor, and 2 car loads full of stuff, and we still had to leave things behind! Well, we learned what not to do the next time we move.

So, now we are here in Colorado, back with family and loving it. We miss Rexburg, but honestly, we are SO glad to be done! Sam's bottom had a few more break-outs since then, but over the last week it has been doing great and healing up wonderfully! Other than his cold he has had, he is doing great!

Okay, onto the next item of business - my little sister, Cindi, also announced last month that she is now pregnant! She is due on Aug. 12 of this year and both her and Braxton are very excited to be parents. We are all happy for them and I can't wait to have another cousin for Sam to play with! She has her first apointment on Monday! We just all wish they could be closer. :( But they are very happy in Rexburg to have their own place. They just started their jobs at Melaleuca this week and talking to them about it has, oddly enough, made me miss it. Oh well, I wouldn't trade what I am doing now for anything!


Brooke, Dave's sister in Utah, had her baby last week and we are all very excited about that - especially Dave, as it is his first blood nephew! Baby Davyn was born on December 27 at 1:15 and is 8 lbs. 3 oz. Dave got to see them when he was in Utah a couple days ago and says he is very cute. He took pictures on his phone and yes, he is adorable. We are all very excited for her. And if we do end up moving to Utah, it means Sam will have another cousin to play with!

I guess that moves me onto our next topic of conversation - jobs. I'm not going to get into details but basically he has been offered one in Arizona and he has interviewed with one in Utah. We wont find out more until tomorrow and will have a decision made by monday for sure. There are pros and cons to both so we will just have to determine which would be better for us. We have definately been blessed with these two opportunities though - more than we expected and we are very greatful for that. So we will keep everyone updated on the outcome.


Christmas went really well. Christmas eve we spent here with the Meyers and had a little Christmas Eve program, as is tradition. People sang, played instruments, and we had a fun little nativity skit. Jason played Joseph, Brittany played Mary, Jennifer and myself played wise-women, Mary played the inn-keeper, Jeana played a sheppard, and of course, little Sam played baby Jesus. It was so cute. A sheet was put up when Mary was "giving bith," while we put Sam in the manger. He cried at the perfect time, but then once he was in and the sheet was lowered he was quiet and happy. It was adorable.


Anyway, Christmas morning went great. It was a joy to see Sam on his first Christmas. When you have children it definately changes - you don't care what presents you get - only what your kid gets. :) He didn't quite know what to do about the presents but we tried teaching him how to open them. He got a lot of fun toys! It was a good Christmas, probably one of my favorites.

New years was ...interesting. It didn't quite feel like New years, but when does it ever? Dave and I spent it with Braxton and Cindi, which was fun. We just watched Lost until midnight, paused it a minute before midnight, poored some cider in some plastic cups, toasted when the new year rand in, and then finished Lost. It was like any other night, but we were in good company.

Speaking of Lost, we are excited for it to start again in a couple of weeks and way excited for Prison Break to start again on Monday, but we are sad about our other shows that aren't starting or finishing because of the Writers Strike! I wish it would end! Yes, we are a little too dependant on our T.V. shows.


Sam has been growing so much and is advancing so much, especially over the last few weeks we have been back in Colorado! He is doing so many fun things, like waving, dancing, sticking out his tongue, standing, getting into everything, and playing with his new favorite friend, Macey (the Meyer's dog). We will miss family so much when we have to move again!

Anyway, I think that about covers everything. I will write more when anything new happens. Oh, and if you want to see anymore of these pictures, you can go to our Photobucket website. Happy new year everyone!

Sam Bum Update

Thanks to everyone who has kept Sam in their prayers and have been thinking of us! I am relieved to say that we are done with the whole hospital thing, and it feels so good! We were scheduled to go in this morning, but yesterday afternoon Sam started screaming and crying in pain and there was nothing I could do to comfort him, so I checked his bum and it looked 10 times worse than it did that morning, so I took him to see the surgeon and he told us we needed to go admit him to the hospital that night and that they would do it then because it probably couldn't wait. Oh, and I was wrong...it wasn't a sist, even though I heard nurses calling it that. It was just an abscess. Anyway, we arrived at the hospital at about 5:15pm and due to some annoying circumstances (Sam having to have an empty stomach and the fact that there were 3 emergency C-sections that night), he didn't actually get into surgery until about 11pm. During that waiting time though, he did surprisingly well. He was going 8 hours tops without food and his bottom hurt so I thought he'd be doing a lot worse. But he was definitely manageable. And I think we have the blessing he got to thank for that. Anyway, to make a long story short, the surgeon said it was a little more complex than he was thinking (the abscess had a tract that spread to different places under the skin) so they had to cut more of the skin, which means his recovery will be a little harder than they thought. So we had to stay over night. Poor Sam was so tired of being poked and prodded and he felt so awful. Every time a nurse would even come into the room he started to cry. It's hard seeing your baby all hooked up with IVs and seeing them feel so awful. But he did sleep pretty well throughout the night, probably thanks to the anesthesia. Daddy went home to try and get sleep for his big day today, even though unfortunately he still couldn't sleep thinking about Sam at the hospital. It was a good thing he wasn't there though, because I ended up having to move to the 2nd bed because Sam was hogging the whole bed we were sharing and I couldn't sleep. So, after a long hard sleepless night (I literally only got 1.5 hours of sleep) we finally got discharged this morning and got home about 10:15. Sam is doing great and you can tell he is just so happy to be home. We all are! Thank goodness that part is over with. The recovery will be a pain in the butt (literally!) but the worst is over. And I think it was a blessing that it happened last night because I got to have Dave there with me and that helped me keep things together. Everyhting happens for a reason. I wish we brought our camera so we could post pictures of him in his cute little hospital gown. Anyway, thanks for everyone's support!