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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!

I Heart Vacation

Sorry for the late posts these days. Here are some pics from our sunny vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico!! We arrived on a Tuesday late afternoon and checked out our hotel at the Ritz-Carlton (super nice!) and the adjoining casino. We went out for an authentic Puerto Rican dinner which totally sucked. Up the next morning and walked to the corner for some breakfast and then off to the beach and pool for the day! Ahhh, so relaxing! It felt good to get my pasty white skin some sun too!! Didn't stay at the beach too long; it was super hot and the ocean was like bath water and not too refreshing. I found a spot at the pool and asked for a floatie and floated in the pool for awhile. Seth and I met up with some friends at the pool and decided to go get some lunch at the poolside cafe. We had the best jerk-chicken nachos ever!! Sounds gross but they were so delicious!! More fun in the sun for the remainder of the day until we had our group dinner reception later that night. Up the next day for some breakfast and a little sun before we left for our Bacardi Rum tour. Sort of lame. Especially for me who could not partake in the yummy looking rum drinks after the tour. Dinner that night at a place called Toro Salao. It's a tapas restaurant and holy cow were we FED!! I thought the food was delicious but Seth just thought it was "okay" (naturally). I think Seth may have had about 12 mojitos while I splurged on a diet Coke. Again, the food was so GOOD!! Off to the casino after we returned to the hotel. The next morning found me at the pool while Seth went on a deep sea fishing trip. I waited and waited for him to come back and two hours after the group was supposed to be back they arrived at the hotel with NO fish! It was a total bust AND Seth got sick over the side of the boat! Later that night we went to a hacienda in the rainforest for dinner. The whole group went to this huge estate and had dinner, dessert, games and such. We left early (I was so tired) but still had a a nice time. We got home and Seth found himself in the casino :) He did win a little bit, but considering that we've been putting money in with no return on the other times in the casino, we hardly won. The next day started out at the pool and then we decided to go into Old San Juan (the main part of the city where the "tourists" go) for some lunch and shopping. We had an excellent lunch and then lots of walking around the city going into the shops and browsing. A pair of earrings is the only thing I found that I wanted to take back home with me. Seth on the other hand found a really nice looking watch at a jewelry store and we went there a total of 4 times so Seth could be sure he was getting/making a good deal. In the end he FINALLY bought the watch!!!! We caught a trolley back to the hotel and had dinner at a local restaurant and then dessert with some friends at the hotel. Once again, Seth found himself at the casino and I packed up our things. I collapsed into bed and we left the next day. We checked in at the airport but interestingly enough, we didn't have to pay for our luggage to be checked AND our large suitcase was over the allowed 50 lbs. I didn't say anything to the lady checking us in but mentioned it to Seth on the way to our gate. We thought we lucked out! When we got on the plane I couldn't find our seats. I got a small pang of nervousness when I said something to the flight attendant but she just guided me to the opposite end of the plane towards FIRST CLASS!! Ah yes, Seth and I may have lost at the casino, but we hit the JACKPOT on the way home (which is why we didn't pay for our luggage to be checked---first class!). It was nice to sit in huge leather seats and to be greeted by name and asked what we'd like for breakfast. Ah yes, breakfast on real plates with real silverware and real glass for our beverages. A bloody mary for Seth, because he could and it was free of course, and because I secretly think he liked it when the flight attendant addressed him by Mr. Davis when she came by :) It was a lovely 3 hour and 45 minute flight!!
All in all it was a great vacation and very relaxing. Here are some pics:

View from my chair at the pool one day

Seth on the beach

The beach

Old San Juan

Old San Juan

Seth buying his watch--it's the one on the big poster in the background!

The store we frequented quite a bit for Seth's watch

The HUGE sandwich Seth ordered at lunch in Old San Juan

The Tapas restuarant we ate at on Thursday night

View from the fishing boat. I assume it's Old San Juan?

The fishing boat used on the trip--just kidding!

The LONG line at the free drink bar at the Bacardi Rum Distillery

Bacardi headquarters

A bartender showing us how to make a true mojito using Bacardi

The Bacardi Rum symbol---the bat represents family...