The gate pictured above is positioned in front of Cole's bedroom door to keep him in his room at night. For the last several weeks now Cole has converted this nook into his new bed. Every night we put him in his bed. Several minutes later he comes out, shuts the door, and curls up with his blanket on the floor falling fast asleep. We're just glad he stays on the right side of the fence, so we don't complain too much.
Cole and his great-grandparents have August birthdays, so we threw a Birthday Luau to celebrate all of them. It was a lot of fun. York made some delicious smoked pulled pork and we all dressed in our Hawaiian clothes.
York and Ben, his friend, made this really neat box maze out of old boxes. Cole loved it! It had several windows to peek out of and flap doors to close.
Group photo left to right: SSGP's Gloria and Glen, Great-grandpa, York, Cole, April, Great-grandma, and Grandma (my mom). Thanks for taking the picture dad and sorry I'm missing a few people that were present.
Cole received Jackson the turkey for his birthday from our dearest friend Ben. Jackson became a big part of our family for several days. He had a couple of places he loved to hang such as in a favorite cement corner, under the pine tree, and on our deck. After 3 days the decision was made that there was a happy home for Jackson to live at with other turkey friends, so we helped him pack his turkey things and he arrived there safely today. I'm curious to see how Cole reacts tomorrow because the past few mornings he always asks to see the turkey when he wakes up. Could be a sad moment.
Here's Cole following Jackson around the yard. This is how they "play" together.
To fill the empty void in our lives after giving Jackson the turkey away, of course we had to get another pet today...we now are the proud owners of Dexter the cat. (Thanks again Ben.) So far Dexter has done a great job at dodging Cole. Hopefully they will be better friends soon. :)
It's hard to believe our little baby is becoming such a big boy! He is growing so fast and is so well behaved! I think Cole must have realized his birthday was special day because he picked that day to start saying a combination of 3-4 words. Before he would only say 1-2 words together. (i.e. "tank you" is now "tank you, mama") It is so much fun being a parent and seeing Cole develop and things start clicking for him.
Here are a couple of my favorite Cole phrases that he currently says so sweetly.
"Love mama/daddy"
"Mahr" = more
"tank you" = thank you
"ah no" = oh no , "ah dear" = oh dear
"meow"= he does this with his eyes closed and in a high squeaky voice
Surprise!!! I'm blogging again! Instead of trying to catch up, I decided to post recent events. Here are a couple of things that happened the last weekend of June.
Cole received a new summer hairstyle.
Cole is talking more and more everyday. Here's a video of him showing how polite he can be while emptying my bathroom closet, and another video of him saying the first word he ever learned "cookie".
This winter we went on not 1, but 2 wonderful Disney vacations. Both trips were absolutely fabulous. Usually when we try and go somewhere warm during the winter seasons we get to our vacation destination to find record colds, and we freeze our tails off. It was a real treat to find warm weather on both our trips. It was also great spending time with family. Thanks to all those that made these trips so great!
I promise that the people I mention below really were on the trips, and I'm not making it up. I haven't been very good at taking photos lately. In fact, I have only taken a hand full of pictures for both trips combined. So I am waiting to steal other peoples' photos so I have proof of the fun we all had.
Trip #1 took place in January. We crashed last minute with my fam at a timeshare in Newport Beach, California. Lucky Amanda had the privilege of being our super roomie. We spent 2 days at Disneyland. My parents were so nice to watch Cole and cousin Kayden at the hotel each morning so that the rest of us could hit the rides. Then they'd bring the kids over to the park for the kiddie rides. It was so nice!
Just like Grandpa, Cole loves playing in the sandbox all by himself. :)
Trip #2 was a Bahama Disney cruise. York's parents took us, his brother's fam, and his sister's fam. What a feat to coordinate such a trip with that many people involved. Kudos to Diane and Michael! It was really great to get together with all of York's family. With everyone living far away from each other we don't get to see each other often enough. The cruise was superb with great food, service, and activities. The cruiseline did a great job of catering to families. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.
York and Cole all decked out for the required drill. Cole hated wearing the lifejacket. I was smart enough to take a quick shot before the "What is going on" phase was over for him.
My 2 favorite boys, in front of our giant ship.
The Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Caribean is on the island Castaway Cay, which is owned by Disney.
My least favorite thing about our cabin on the boat was that all light switches were placed where Cole can easily reach them. Cole has an obsession with lights. Whenever we were in our cabin, lights would go off and on like crazy with a little boy calling out "liiiight, liiiight". I loved that the bathroom light switch was outside of the bathroom, so many times while in there you'd get a surprise blackout.
Castaway Cay was absolutely gorgeous. I would've loved to stay here the whole time instead of stopping in Nassau first. Look how clear that water is!!! In this shot cousin Abbie (with the red bucket) was getting her just desserts for drenching her uncles and little cousins.
Lastly, we stopped by Kennedy Space Center with York's folks while in Florida. It was very interesting. We were so tired from having to get off the ship early in the morning, we all slept off and on through the IMAX show. My favorite quote from York's dad was "Did we make it to the moon?" Since that is what the whole show was about, he must have been out by the time the lights were dimmed. :)
I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Sorry! It's been busy with the holidays, company, Cole, and my new job as a Subway inspector.
Christmas 2008 turned out to be pretty great! Santa brought Cole a kitchen in hopes he would stay out of mine. No such luck! Cole also received clothes, a broomstick pony, toy cookie jar, and many other fabulous gifts. My parents gave us new pots and pans which are fantastic and many other great gifts. York's parents were kind enough to give us a riding lawn mower, this summer we'll be extremely thankful as we use it. I've mowed the lawn once since we've moved here and it took me over 4 hours total to do it. Looks like we must have been super good this year for all the fine gifts we received!
My parents and Amanda went to Georgia this year for Christmas and G-Daddy's Birthday, so the holidays felt a little untraditional without them. We did Christmas Eve at my Grandparents with Uncle Glen and Aunt Glo. Christmas Day we stayed home, put together Cole's toys and made a turkey dinner (Gloria did most of the cooking and it was delicious).
Here are a few fun Christmas pics:
Cole absolutely loves this Santa doll. All month long he carried it around the house and snuggled with it. He refers to the doll as "kitty." York and I call it "Santa kitty."
York and I debated this year if we should put up a regular tree or a baby friendly miniature tree. In the end, we decided to go miniature and high. It was so nice not having to worry about Cole tearing up the tree. Next year we might have to be more old fashioned. Since Cole will have a better memory by then and will begin to wonder why our tree is so small and way above the ground. :)
For Halloween Cole dressed up as a lion. We only made one Trick-or-Treating stop to Cole's Great-Grandparents house. They had a special treat of chocolate and a box of animal crackers.
York dressed up as a Subway employee (LOL) and I just wore an orange shirt. I know..."how original!" Maybe next year I'll be more creative and we'll come up with an amazing theme for our little family.
Here's Cole with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amanda. They were kind enough to bring dinner (in a pumpkin) and caramel apples over. It was delicious! Thanks! Then we watched "I am Legend."
We also had some really cute trick-or-treaters come by. Barbie (Savannah), an Angel (Kendall), and a witch (Reese). Kayden the pirate came over with his parents for dinner but left before I took pictures. Sorry.
