Middle of Winter

Nothing much going on here. It's the middle of January and it's getting to the point where nobody likes winter very much (except for the ice fishermen) and I am sick of the cold, dry weather. The only thing going on with us is inside the house. Kole and I pretty much stay home all day---it's getting too tough to take him places these days without Seth's help getting Kole in the carseat.
Over the weekend, Seth's dad, Carey came over for an ice-fishing extravaganza. Seth and he started early on Saturday and reached their "limit" and got home late in the afternoon. Sunday morning found them on the ice once again and had a good day. They guys had fun and we'll be eating fish until the cows come home. gross.
We did get out today, but it was to the doctor's office. I was having some pain so we went in to be checked out. Everything "checked out" fine; I am having ligament pain, which feels different than any other kind of ligament pain I had before. Glad it not a big deal and so was the doctor. He said the baby sounded fine and was growing nicely. He wants to schedule a c-section for May 17th. Hopefully all is well until that point and we can plan on having a birthday for that date! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted :)
Kole is doing great and runs around his little compound (our living room) all day long while I do my best to "lay low". He is still in love with his Veggie Tales and has taking a liking to empty paper towel rolls. Nana sent over a LONG one for him--must have been from wrapping paper--and he's been loving it! He likes playing with his blocks along with putting the clear box over his head and walking around with it like a helmet. He loves all his books and brings them to us all the time for us to read. We are teaching him a couple of more words in sign language lately. So far he knows MORE, MILK, and ALL DONE and uses them appropriately. Seth taught him PLEASE and I've been working with him on HELP over the past couple of days. He's such a sponge, we are sure he'll pick it up soon! Jersey is still his BFF and he likes to stand on her when she's laying next to the couch or chair so he can climb up. OH, THE CLIMBING!! Kole climbs on everything you can think of!! He's our own little monkey boy!
That's all for us, we'll be sure to post anything fun and exciting that might come our way!



The catch


Carey with one of the good catches of the day

Multitasking--riding his car AND playing his activity table

What a cute kid!

He loves this little radio that Grammy bought him ages ago. He carries it around with him.

Oops. Somehow, Kole got stuck in a toy basket in his room

GOOFY Kole! He's just babbling away in his diaper and dark socks. What a sight!

Kole is very careful in certain things he does. He likes to group things together and that includes ALL of his blocks on the living room ledge one morning.

A little dancing.

playing with Papa

playing with a new toy from Nana

Talent Show

Look for the big finish...

Look for the big finish...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone!! We had a long weekend of celebrating and as I write this on Sunday night, I can't believe it's all over. Kole's second Christmas was toy filled and fun filled for him and for the rest of us. Where shall I start? Thursday morning I suppose: it started out not so hot since Kole had a haircut first thing in the morning. It was torture for him of course, but he managed to get through it. After his morning nap we headed over to Aunt Joanne's house. The whole family was there including our out of town families and a guest of cousin Sarah's. It was nice to catch up with everyone before we ate and Kole and Emma got a chance to play too. Well, it was more like Kole doing everything he could to kiss and hug Emma. Seth had to pry him away from her so Emma could have her own space! We ate a big yummy dinner (I'm so glad we brought Kole's high chair over) and visited for awhile afterwards. Kole ran around the living room with his paper towel roll (aka: his Christmas Stick) for an hour I think. We all went to the basement to open up gifts; we started with our White Elephant gifts. Everyone was so generous with thier gifts this year; we all received GREAT gifts! We moved on to the kids gifts--they were totally spoiled! The women exchanged their gifts and the kids kept on playing. Kole finally let up on trying to kiss and hug Emma, he just wanted to play now. A little more visiting, a group game and some pics and we decided with the weather being icy, we should head over to our house and exchange gifts with the kids and parents. We had fun watching the kids open their gifts (and our own gifts too!). We stayed up a little while after the kids went to bed and then went to bed ourselves. Naturally, I stayed up a bit longer to enjoy my pretty Christmas tree and my Christmas Eve :) The morning came early as Jay, Keri and Emma needed to get on the road at a decent hour. We saw them off and then headed over to Aunt Joanne's (in our jammies) for breakfast. We came home and Kole and I took our respective Christmas naps. We had a nice relaxing day and then Seth and I decided to let Nana and Papa babysit while we took in a movie. Saturday found Seth and Carey on the ice with their fishing poles and me at the mall with Tina. Did some shopping with her and came home to take over "Kole duty" while Seth left to go back out fishing with a friend. Sunday morning found Seth on the ice again and afterwards we got ready to host my family at our house for another Christmas celebration. Seth made a ham and mashed potatoes and we had some yummy snacks as well. We had a really nice time and as usual Kole was the center of attention :) We opened gifts and had fun watching Kole play with his new bricks that Grammy gave him. I think Seth and Matt enjoyed them just as much! Kole and I took our respective naps (again) and had a nice night playing.
We had such a nice (super) long weekend with everyone and it was nice to spend time with our family. Can you imagine what next Christmas will bring?? I'm excited just thinking about it :)



Kole is totally digging unwrapping his Christmas present




Matt playing with Kole's bricks. Didn't take long for them to get knocked down!


Kole and his bricks


Playing with sock monkey in the box

Apparently having fun while Papa pushes him on his car

The infamous "Christmas Stick"

Mommy and Kole on Christmas morning

Sweet Emma spending some time in Kole's chair

The Davis Boys

Cute cousins

The (growing) fam!

Kole playing with his new train

Kole in a box...

Sweet Emma :)

Kole doing his best to kiss Emma

Getting ready to plant one on Emma

Jayne and Laura with the little kids

Uncle Seth and Emma

Uncle Jay and Kole

Sleeping baby

My "kids"

Jersey giving Kole some love

Playing bricks

Playing lawnmower

playing bricks some more

Christmas in the Woods

Last weekend we went up north to Irons to have our Christmas celebration at Dad and Deb's house. All the kids were there and all the grandkids too. We went up on Saturday early afternoon and enjoyed the time before everyone arrived and the house was full. We went for a little walk while Kole napped, played with Jersey in the snow and both Seth and I went hunting (naturally, we saw nothing). We had a big dinner and then presents galore! The little kids were so excited to finally open the gifts!! Kole had a hard time staying awake; we had to put him down to bed, he was so tired!! We opened all of our gifts and we were all so tired after that!! More relaxing by the tree then off to bed for a sleepless night because Kole had a hard time staying asleep and being quiet. Morning came a little too early but we had a yummy breakfast of waffles (Dad's "special" recipe). We packed our car AND Rachel and Matt's car because we ran out of room. We left mid morning and Kole and I slept the whole way home :) Here are a couple of pics courtesy of Rachel.

Jersey Girl in the snow

All the grandkids: Meghan, Kole, Jocilyn, Morgan, Madison

Uncle Matt and his stocking stuffer

Random Pics and Vids

Here are a bunch of videos that we shot over the past week. A few of them were over the weekend. Seth actually stayed home this weekend and didn’t go hunting! It was a nice time to spend as a little family.
Kole saw Santa this past week as well. He thought the guy in the red suit was pretty neat. He liked touching his jacket and his beard. He clapped and gave Santa a high-five. It was so cute I had to spend the fortune on the photo. I scanned it to my computer so I could share it with everyone.

Getting some beauty sleep :)

A Few of Kole's Favorite Things

Well, Winter has officially arrived---last night to be exact. The weather has been pretty mild the past few weeks but today is another story. I measured 5 inches of snow on the deck today. I thought it would be fun to take Kole outside for some fun in the snow. I bundled him all up in his snowsuit and boots and out we went. Let's just say snow is NOT one of Kole's favorite things. You'd think I was torturing the kid the way he was screaming. Well, he better get used to the cold because we have quite a few months of this ahead of us!

Kole is FINALLY cutting his two top teeth! I was worried we'd have to ask Santa for his two front teeth! They are both coming in at the same time and it's obvious in the way he's been acting lately. Between his mood swings and mine, it's been a lovely house to live in the past week.

Kole has a few favorites lately and since we had the camera out today I snapped some pics of him with his favorite things or doing something he loves. Well, we ruled out that Kole HATES the snow, so that's not one of them. He loves playing in his bedroom. However the door must be shut when he's playing. One of his favorite toys is a metal box of magnetic letters and numbers I picked up on Craig's List for 5 bucks. He loves throwing the letters out of the box on to the floor then putting them all back in the box. He also loves to sit in his chair in his bedroom. He's really good at climbing in and sitting down on his bottom (Thank you Auntie Rae for teaching him this one). He climbs in and out and in and out. He also loves his toy duck. Yes, that light up duck is still around and he loves it. He calls it "guck". He hands it to me to "turn on" the lights. Kole LOVES chicken! He eats about half to three-quarters of a chicken breast for dinner when we have it and eats cut up chicken for lunch. He has a wonderful appetite now and I'm hoping it lasts. Most of you know this but Kole loves his Veggie Tales. He now understands me when I mention "Veggies"---he beelines for the living room and waits for me to turn them on. He also loves to run around the living room with his hands in the air and his head thrown back yelling. Our living room is more like Kole's living room. Filled with all of his toys and pretty well child proofed. Now that we have the Christmas tree up he likes to touch the tree and mess with the ornaments. Well, as you can see from the picture we now have a lovely gate surrounding the tree. Kole still loves to touch the tree but now it's over the gate and sometimes he tries to "climb" on the gate. Kole loves his books too. He likes to throw them out of a little yellow container in his room and pick out his favorites. He'll either go over to a little spot near the door and read it or bring it to me to read. And of course last but not least Kole's very favorite thing in the whole world.....Jersey. The dog and Kole are BFFs. Jersey sits under Kole's high chair waiting for something to drop and sometimes Kole feeds the dog if he's full or doesn't like what he's eating (like carrots). Kole yanks on Jersey's tail and she doesn't even care. They "play" with certain toys together and Kole just cracks up. He knows how to let Jersey out of her crate and does so each morning (and even when she's being punished in her crate). Jersey is sweet and likes to give Kole kisses---yesterday it was a full kiss from chin to forehead at least two or three times. Kole just laughs. He also laughs when Jersey is being a "space hog" and knocks him down on his butt. But just try getting a picture of them together....they are both far to quick and restless for that!

Here are a bunch of pics and a few vids for you to enjoy!! Most of it is from today (I was having fun with my camera, what can I say?)

HATING the snow

Still HATING it

What the heck is this stuff?

A bit of a smile

What did I do to deserve this?

sticking tongue out

feeling just okay...

Jersey on the other hand...she LOVES the snow!

CHICKEN!!!

Hangin' out in his chair

Kole's "guck"

Watching Veggies

Crazy man

Throwing out the books

Kole and our lovely Christmas tree behind the gate

His letters in a box

Kole "loving" the snow

Giving Jersey a treat

Jersey trying to get her own lunch

Jersey having fun in the snow!