Good bye 2012

That is hard to believe, but what a wonderful and totally blessed 2012. The Lord has blessed us for sure and I am so grateful. We had many first in 2012 with Cole. He took his first steps, had his first birthday, spoke his first words, ate his first bites of "real" table food (although I wondered if that was going to happen at all. The boy loved his bottle! but he did give it up.) We had our first of many ear infections, our first surgery (tubes), etc...It was a wonderful year!!

Speaking about first...The boy has learned a word and he uses it all the time!!! NO! then he points his finger, NO NO NO!! Ugh!! He is totally testing his independence and wants to do everything his self. I have no idea where he gets it? Another thing Cole does that we think is pretty funny is saying " I stuck". It first started in his car seat, which he still uses, but if he cannot get somewhere (baby gate up) he will stand there and say "I stuck" or if he wants you to go some where with him and you are sitting down, he will come over and grab your hand and start saying "stuck". He also says "I did it!" It is the cutest thing. I am sure we will have more first in 2013 and as we approach 2 years old :)

My Ipad which Cole refers to as "Caillou" since that is what he uses it for

First taste of ketchup! It was a hit

New Arkansas hoodie from Jessi and Julia

Acting like Paw Paw Wilb and checking the receipt!

Last minute Christmas shopping with mommy

Watching some serious TV

What a JOY!! Fun at school and Christmas

not wanting to take a picture :(

checking out Gibson's new books

It is hard to believe this year is almost over and Cole is now 20 months. Wow! Hard to believe. What a joy he is to us. He is the funniest little kid. Something new all the time. Talking is the big thing. He has been talking for a while, but the things that he understands and repeats just blows my mind. He is just a little person! December has been busy and fun! I have lots of pictures to share and I am sure there will be more to come as we embark on the Christmas festivities that will be coming in the next week. On Friday, the 21st, we had Cole's "school" party. It was so funny to see the little kids sitting at the table and the parents all around talking and with camera's. Then of course they had to show out and do a little dancing. I love it! I love seeing that Cole is only 20 months and what he understands and does at school. They are so routine and that is so great for him. They tell them to line up to wash hands. All of the kids have a snowflake to stand on and they know to move up, step up on the stool, wash hands with assistance and then go to a chair to eat. When they were done they threw there plates away and put their sippy cups in the sink and went to go sit chris cross applesauce on the carpet to wait for all there friends. Blows my mind. I LOVE IT!!!

Mrs. Darlene and Chelsea the birthday girl

A little dancing with Mrs. Darlene and Grace

We had a book opening party

Checking out Lilly Kate's book, The Hungry Caterpillar

Yay!!! for Christmas. You were SO much fun to watch this year. You loved it and it was a joy to watch your face. You thought it was great, well everything but Santa. Some how after getting your picture made with Santa you became NOT a fan. We you came downstairs Christmas morning you just stood there and said "Wow! wow.....wow! Then you tore into it. Later that mroning we went to KK and Papa's and celebrated. You got a big rocking horse name Blaze. You thought he was pretty great. Uncle Craig got you a Caillou train and stuffed animal and Uncle Brad added to your savings bond. He is making sure you are financially secure. Make sure you listen to your Uncle Brad when it comes to money. He is the smartest I know.

Your Aqua Doodle Mat

DVD player and new head phones

Blaze! from KK and Papa

Santa CAME!!!

12-12-12

What a cool date! Apparently the last time we will have another date like it. My friend Karin had her baby boy today, on his due date!! Welcome Kohen Michael. That would be a pretty cool birthday. I felt like I needed an update then I remembered the date and thought I definitely need to post to remember this date. So Cole will be 20 months tomorrow. That sounds crazy! 20 months! That's almost 2 years old!?!? How did that happen? He is amazing. Full of personality and he just talks, talks, talks. He has begun to repeat, yes people watch what you say, I have a repeater who is taking everything in. He loves Caillou. This is his new found love in the last month. It is a cartoon on Sprout. Caillou is a 4 year old with a high pitch baby voice and his is bald. Not sure what it is about him, but he is a big hit. He loves to run, jump and bounce. A favorite is for him to come up to you and say "horsey" which means he wants you to bounce him on your leg. Apparently he is looking more and more like me (I have heard it is harder for the people who look alike to see it, I think that is true). A lot of people have said he looks like me for a while, but now I get it from complete strangers when we are out. It's a little funny.
Cole is not sure about Christmas but he loves "ho ho" which it what he says whenever he sees a Santa hat. He loves the tree "tee". He has done really well with the tree. It is really funny, but there is this one ornament that apparently he does not like. He would look for it and yank it off. Casey hid the ornament and ever since he has not paid any attention to it really besides telling us there is a tree there. So weird and funny. I took Cole to see Santa Saturday. A girl that I went to HS with, her sister Andrea, has her own business. She did a Santa photo shoot out of her house. I loved the Santa. He looked so "real". Cole did not cry, but he was not sure about him. I think it was so much for him that he blocked it out because when I ask him "did you see Santa?" he says "no". He was so serious. Casey said it was because he had on that "awful", his words, outfit. Besides Casey, everyone loved it and I got SO many compliments on it. I do not dress him like that often, but I thought it was cute for the picture.

Caillou-in case you don't know him!

Thanksgiving

The whole crew
Brad and Craig
Tony, Casey, Me, Cole (19 months), Dad, Mom and Kristie
Cooper (16), Kyle, Grandmother, Faye
Grace (10-Dec 3rd) and Olivia (8)

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We went down to "the country", Perry Co. where my dad is from and my grandmother, uncle and aunt still live. This year it was at my grandmothers house. As long as I can remember it has always been at my great aunt June's, but my cousin Chris had hip replacement surgery the day before Thanksgiving so Aunt June was busy with him. It was nice and simple and super delicious. If you ever need some good comfort food, my Aunt Faye is the person you need. She cooks everything and it is ALWAYS so delicious. My cousin Kristie was in town with her family from St. Louis so it was nice to see them, since it had been about 3 years since I had seen them.

It was a beautiful day so we spent pretty much the whole day on the back porch. Cole thought he was so big playing with Grace (10) and Olivia (8). He was all over the place, following them and seeing what all he could get into. Brad also brought his girlfriend, Karen (who took the picture!) so it might just be serious if he is bringing her around all of us! :)

Digging in the dirt with my spoon

In grandaddy Shelby's old truck.

Wheeling around with daddy

Mom, these people really related to us?

Posing like a picture from 7 years ago-being silly

Daylight Savings...Sigh

So I remember people telling me how this affects kids so much, but I do not think it has really been so noticeable until now. Well at least I hope that's all this is :)So this past Saturday we fell back an hour. We had a yard sale on Saturday and had been super busy so Cole did not get to bed until a little later Saturday night, like 8:15-30, which he typically goes to bed around 7:30. So Sunday morning he slept until 8:20 am, well now 7:20am, so I was all excited thinking it had not phased him. Then Sunday he was just fussy. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him? Sunday night came and he was just so restless, he could not fall asleep around 7:30pm. It was more like 8:30pm, but then I had to wake him up for school Monday morning and he was not happy about me waking him up! At school on Monday they said he threw a fit/tantrums at nap time today, which he has never done. Monday night he went to bed fine and woke up Tuesday about an hour earlier than he normally does. Tuesday night he was the same wrest-less kid he was Sunday night. Wednesday he cried on and off for about 10 mins before going to sleep, but woke up at 12:30 like it was 6:30 am and was up until 2:00am and then I had to wake him up again this morning. Whew! Are you following all of this? if not, bottom line is he is OFF!! I was reading somewhere on-line and it said that sometimes it can take up to two weeks for a child to get back on there routine. Oh goodness!!Times like this it makes you appreciate your good sleeper and then makes you think, oh goodness I do not know if I could have another and go back to sleepless nights!! :) hahahaha...here's to hoping he regulates back to normal soon!

On another note...words, words, words... Our little boy is talking up a storm. It blows my mind the things he is able to say and how fast he picks up on things. My new favorite is "love you", so freaking cute! Melts my heart. The other day we were watching a cartoon show, Caillou, and in the theme song at the end it says "thats me!" We had only watched the show once or twice. The show was coming on and right before it said it on TV, Cole said "that me" and then it said it on TV, "that's me!". I was like, seriously? you picked up on that all ready? So watch out people. I have a talker!!

Trunk or Treat and The Deming's Bonfire

Our little Clark Kent

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Well, I have to say we had a fun time celebrating although Cole was still unsure of what was happening. His favorites were dumb dumbs, marshmallows and his new found favorite...fruit snacks. Tonight we just stayed home and passed out candy since we went to trunk or treat at church Monday night. I originally did not know what to dress Cole up like? I was at Wal-Mart going through the costumes and bought a Superman costume about a month ago. Mainly because it did not have a hood or hat. I figured he would not go for that, plus I thought it may be too hot (wrong! cold spell came in and it was 40 degrees Monday and SO windy). So one night while on pinterest.com I ran across the idea of Clark Kent. We already had everything for Cole to wear except for some glasses. So I took the costume back and got some glasses. We had been playing around with wearing them for about 2 weeks before time to wear them. Cole was hit or miss with them, so I had no idea what he would do when it came time to wear them. So Monday night KK came over to come with us and Uncle Craig was going to meet us there. Oh my goodness!! When we got it all together I was loving it. He was the cutest Clark Kent and when we got to church he was so excited about being there and checking everything out he kept the glasses on the whole night, which just made his outfit. He was a hit for sure!! Uncle Craig put on his Hulk mask and Cole loved it. It really surprised me. I thought it would scare him, but Cole was so curious about his mask. He just kept laughing at him.

with daddy

My cute little Clark

Trying to figure out Uncle Craig

My buddies Batman and Robin...aka Aiden and Brody O'Neal

I love it!

So Sunday night we went to Michael and Beth Deming's house/farm for our annual home church bonfire. Here are a few pics from the night.

Bonfire with my buddies Luke and Jake

Bible story before the hayride

Pumpkin Patch

So Casey and I had been discussing going to a pumpkin patch this year. Casey really wanted to go last year but we ran out of time and then convinced ourselves that Cole was to small for it at 6 months, but now at 18 months he is into everything, loves to run around and be chased, and he is all about some farm animals. I had heard lots of great things about a pumpkin patch called Lucky Ladd in Eaglesville, TN It was about 45-50 mins outside of Nashville. Then I talked to Julie and she said they were going to one on Sunday too in TN. So I got excited thinking maybe we could go too! It was Lyon Farm in Fayetteville, TN. I thought, it's farther but it will be so much fun, plus she said that a few other family friends of ours were going. So I asked Casey and he was like "whatever you want to do is fine with me". So we had it all planned, go to church, come straight home for a quick lunch and nap and then head out. Well, while Cole was sleeping and about 20 mins before we had planned on leaving Casey must have looked it up. He freaked out when he found out it was an hour and a half away. He came in  where I was and was saying things like, "this is ridiculous, admit this is stupid, why are we doing this again? these people would not drive this far to meet us, etc..." He was driving me nuts. He waits until right when we are suppose to leave? plus he had already said we could go. Typical Casey fashion. :) Yes, I know it was farther, but it is not like we do it every weekend, plus it will be so much more special with great friends. I cannot say he went with a smile on his face, but needless to say, after all that, we went! and had a GREAT time. We met Julie, Bert and the girls (almost 3), Zac, Carrie and Aubrey (2 1/2 yrs), Dave, Regan and Davis (4 yrs), and Dolph, Kim and AJ (5). The weather was perfect (78 and sunny). Lyon Farms had so many fun things for the kiddos. We slid down slides, played in corn feed, went on a hayride to pick pumpkins, played in an inflatable bounce house, watched pig races and had a small petting zoo. All that with great friends!! Not sure if Casey would admit it was worth it, but he would say we had a fun time. I still think he would say it was crazy/stupid to drive so far, but he did have fun too!!

Weeee....

Watching the big kids :)

Kim and Jessi

Miss Julia...big girl

Brave Aubrey...she LOVED IT!

Serious talking by the men

About to slide with daddy

I think I found one...

How about this one?

On the trailor going to pick a pumpkin

Julie and Julia

Checking out the cow with daddy

Our little turkey