Birthdays....and lots of them!!!!

First off....I'M AN AUNTIE!!! I have been waiting so long to be an auntie and it's finally here! Little miss Cameron Brianne Volk was born Saturday February 13th. Ryan and Rachel sounded like they had such an awesome experience and are just tickled pink (literally) to now hold her in their arms. Rachel had such a textbook labor and delivery...although, I really do hate her because I think she pushed 5 times and she was out, but I am so happy that it was such a great experience, there truly is nothing like it! There is nothing more I could have wished for than to be there in Colorado, especially when they announced her name, but my mom was so good about giving me updates and letting me know what was going on.

Here are a few pictures of the happy parents...and these are courtesy of Ryan and Rachel's blog pictures....yes, I stole them :)

The beautiful new momma (how did she just have a baby, she looks so good!!!)

The proud dad....he is so in love with that little girl already!

Grammy and her granddaughter
Ryan, Ross and my dad....the only one missing is ME!!!! :)

I cannot wait to meet this little girl, if I could have, I would have flown out yesterday but I think I'm going to wait a couple weekends and luckily my good friend Sarah is needing to get rid of some buddy passes and is nice enough to get me on a flight home to see my niecey. Thanks Sarah Beth!!!

In other news....I have now had a 5-day weekend. We had a massive snow storm that started last Thursday early morning and our school district closed Thursday and Friday. Pretty much everything was closed down on Friday. Nick even worked from home...and that's huge! Nobody expected it to snow that much, but it literally snowed all day on Thursday and we got about a foot of snow....crazy!!! I have so enjoyed spending these last few days at home playing with my little man.

Our backyard....just a few inches into the storm

Cole watching the snow fall...we loved staying in our jammies!!!

Nick's mom called us Thursday night and told us her power had gone out, we told her to come on up but the roads were so bad that night that she braved the cold house for the one night. She and Dennis spent most of the weekend with us as their power was out for about 3 days..brrr!!! Dennis and Tracy definitely had fun playing with Cole....well, I don't know who had more fun, Cole or the grandparents. Cole absolutely loves having them around, they will just play with him for hours. I think he was bored with us once they left. :)

Here is Cole loving up on Max (Tracy's doggy) Cole loves to give hugs now

Friday night Nick and I went out to The Melting Pot with some friends and Tracy watched Cole. That was our Valentines dinner and we had so much fun!!! It sure was gooood!

Saturday night we were celebrating Nick and Emily's birthdays since we were all finally in town at the same time. Here is G'ma Tracy getting Cole into his cute outfit for dinner. Doesn't he look like such a little man?? Love it!Cole enjoying some Granddad time...He sat there for the longest time :)

Mom and Cole
Dad and Cole

For Nick's birthday present, we all went in on a "spa day" for him. Sounds fruity, I know!!! However, it was a man's spa, for men only. I think he really enjoyed it because he's been talking about getting a massage for the longest time. It was a 4-hour ordeal and he got a 90 min massage, hand and foot treatment and a 5- course hair treatment. We were giving him a hard time about his buffed nails and going to a spa...then at dinner he decides to order this drink...shown below. :) ha!! Just adding to the fruity-ness....Love you Nick!!!

Blake and Emily at dinner

Cole got this cute swim outfit and Blake wanted to model it for everyone...the hat's a little small there Blake!!!

We sure have had a great weekend and I even get one more day to enjoy it. We have Monday off for President's day so Cole and I are just going to relax and have fun at home. I wish I could have every Monday off!!!

Feed Time and School Bus

This is how much fun mom is while eating dinner.....
Actually, I have to do a lot of entertaining to distract Cole from throwing the food on the floor to feed Roxy, so we always end up having a silly time while eating.

I was tickling him in this picture

Sooooo Big...he gets so proud of himself when he does this....silly goose

Here is a video of just how much fun we have....I just can't get enough of his giggles. Oh, and I was tickling under his tray, that's why you can't see it.


While we were in Colorado, Ryan and Rachel got this awesome school bus for Cole's birthday. It's so fun because it packs down so small, so at the end of the day we can put it up with no problem. Cole thinks it's so fun, especially when dad gets in it with him.....see below.

This last video is just Cole playing at the fridge....I've had such a hard time getting Cole to not be right at my feet while cooking or putting dishes in the dishwasher (he LOVES playing in the dishwasher) so luckily a friend from work got him this magnet farm set and he LOVES it. Sometimes he gets a little violent and throws the pieces off the fridge, but he loves pushing all the buttons.

Scary!?!

I was playing around on this website and I put in pictures of Ryan and Rachel to see what their daughter is going to look like....she wasn't too bad looking.
I then put in pictures of me and Nick to see what our future daughter will look like. Wow!!!! Talk about scary!!! I think if my daughter really looked like this I would cry! (NOOOO...I am not expecting a daughter or any child for that matter)

I don't understand, these pictures of me and Nick aren't THAT bad...so why is our baby so ugly? Guess we don't have to worry about her being Miss Texas......

And seriously...what's with the mustache?

Weddings and babies

Nick, Cole and I headed out Friday morning for Colorado. My college friend Maegan was getting married and I had to fullfill my bridesmaid duties. It was a whirlwind of a weekend that started with us flying Southwest. We typically don't fly Southwest because there isn't a direct flight, but we just had to make a quick stop in Amarillo and then we'd be on our way. When we got to Amarillo, this is what the pilot says to everyone...."well folks, sorry for the delay, but there was a plane crash on this runway this week...blah blah....the runway is too icey...blah blah...." Basically, that is all I needed to hear to freak me out. Seriously, why do pilots tell the passengers this stuff? Anyway...after the runway gettting cleared off, we took off and everything was fine. As soon as we got to Denver, my dad picked us up...and I immediately had to meet Rachel and go to the bridal luncheon. We had a great time with all the girls. We also had the rehearsal and dinner that night.

The actual wedding was so beautiful, Maegan and everyone did such a great job decorating and planning everything. Rachel and I were on the go for 2 days straight and I was POOPED!!! How is it that a 9 month pregnant lady has more energy than me!?! Seriously....Rachel was such a trooper and did way more than we were expecting!

My parents were able to watch Cole while I had wedding stuff, I really didn't get to see him for 2 days, but I know he had a blast and my parents had so much fun with him. He did decide that he didn't want to take afternoon naps while he was there, guess there was just too much activity going on for him and he didn't want to miss out on anything. Cole also got haircut number 5...thanks Grammy!!! I, of course, wanted to keep his hair longer, but as my mom was just going to "trim" his hair, she kepts hearing from my dad...."shorter, shorter"...ha! It sure looks cute though! Here are a few pictures...and does anyone see a theme to these pictures?? Cole's new thing is to carry everything around in his mouth now, Nice!!!!

We were all T-I-R-E-D when we got back into town Monday. I took a nap which I never do and Cole slept for 12 hours and I even had to wake him up, he was tuckered out. He was so excited to go to Andy and Teresa's this morning. They opened the door and immediately reached for Teresa and was just squirming to get down and play. I am so thankful that he loves his sitters and doesn't cry when I drop him off!

Here is me and Nick being our normal cool selves at the reception

I know I look really creepy in this picture, but we were laughing b/c this is one of the flower girls slips and it was so small so we were joking that it could have been a garter.

The beautiful bride

Speaking of babies....Rachel is due next weekend and I am SO excited to finally be an auntie! I wish so bad I could be there, I just can't wait to meet my little niece. Isn't Rachel such a pretty pregnant lady? She sure doesn't look or act like she is due any day! I was going to try to slip some castor oil in her drink while I was home so she would have her while I was there, but I figure we should probably let her cook as long as possible.

Cole's 12 Month Check up

I took Cole in for his 12 month well check Tuesday afternoon. I usually have a long list of questions for the doctor whenever we go in for his appointments, but I really didn't have much to ask her at this point. You would think that a year is an age where there are so many changes going on so I SHOULD have lots of questions right?
Well, we have just sort of answered our own questions as time goes on. Like....

1. Should he be getting milk only 3 times a day now? He just started weaning himself off of that one feeding in the middle of the day, so there ya go...3 milks a day.
2. Why is he not sleeping through the night yet? Right after we got back from Minnesota for Christmas when he was waking up every 3 hours, we returned and he has slept through the night ever since. He goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up around 7:00am. For not being a very good sleeper the first 10 months of his life, he has turned out to be a GREAT sleeper, both at night and for his naps. I just love the fact that since he was 4 months old, we could lay him in his bed and he would just talk and talk and put himself to sleep. As I'm sitting here right now, I'm listening to him say "da-da-da-dooooo" and just singing up a storm in his crib. Love it!
3. Should he not be using a bottle anymore? Some doctors say that by a year they should not be using a bottle anymore...so I tried to get Cole off the bottle and just use sippy cups. He let us know pretty fast that he still wanted a bottle at night!!! When I asked the doctor about that she said that I should not even worry about him being completely off the bottle till 18 months. She said "he's still a baby". So, we'll continue to do sippy cups (with milk) during the day, but we will keep the night bottle for awhile.

Those have been some of my main concerns over the past couple of months, but it's funny how things just work themselves out.
Dr. Bain was very pleased with his vocabulary and how active he was. Let's see, he did manage to get himself into one of the cabinets while we were waiting for Dr. Bain and there was one of those sticky ant traps....well, Cole stepped in it and got his sock stuck. So as I'm trying to get his sock off the trap, the doctor walks in and just laughs. She said he is definitely an active little guy, which is good!
He did get one shot and had some blood drawn for a CBC. Since he was on breast milk for so long, they needed to check him for anemia, so hopefully those tests come back ok. He did let out a big 'ol cry when he got his shot and then I was like "oh great, he still has to get his finger pricked". BUT, he did not even flinch when they pricked his finger....he's tougher than I am because I think getting fingers pricked is one of the worse things!!

Here are Cole's stats (and no he's not in the 99%tile anymore...haha!!!)
Weight: 26lbs (82%)
Height: 31 inches (86%)
Head: 19 inches (93%)

Happy Birthday Nick

Poor Nick, his birthday will forever be overshadowed by his son's. Hopefully he doesn't ever feel that his isn't AS important. We will be celebrating his birthday in a couple weeks with his family so that should be a good time. It's so funny how up until this year, all our birthdays consisted of going to a nice restaurant, pretty late a night, then maybe going out for a few drinks afterwards and then getting home late. When you have kids, the dynamics of "going out to dinner" change so much!!!

I told Nick that we can get a sitter and leave Cole at home so we can stay out later and not worry about him throwing food across the room, BUT, Nick wants Cole there, so it looks like we will be doing a 5:30 dinner and call it an early night...ha!

Nick truly has been the best dad anyone could ask for. He is such a big help with everything and he loves his son so much!

For Nick's birthday, I'm making a list of some of the things I love about him:

• I love seeing Cole's face when Nick comes home from work and how he crawls at light speed to get to him.


• Eventhough Cole is sitting at his feet, Nick always comes to me first and gives me a hug and kiss (ahhhh!!!) - even if I'm mad at him for getting home late :) ha!

• If Cole ever wakes up in the middle of the night (Sunday night for instance), Nick will go in there without me even asking and rock with him. Poor Nick, he sat on the rocker for a couple hours so Cole would keep sleeping.


• I love that 9 times out of 10 when Nick and Cole are hanging out and playing, it usually ends up with Nick singing "If you're Happy and you Know it" and Cole clapping along with him. Nick has turned into quite the singer and there is nothing better than listening to your husband sing to your child.


• I love that Nick and I can sit down and watch a football game together and be totally content. I guess Nick lucked out and found himself a girl that loves sports! :) We both love to go to sporting events and would choose that for a date any day!
• I also love how passionate he gets while watching his teams play. For example this picture. This is him realizing that his Vikings are about to lose to the Saints. Do you see the defeated look on his face?? Poor Nick.....also, does everyone see the Vikings flag that he hung up for the game? What a dork!!


• Nick definitely keeps me grounded, even though I hate it at the time, he always says thing like, "are you sure you need to buy that", "do you really need to be talking bad about that person?" or "don't yell at Roxy, she just wants your attention".
• I love that we can be silly together and act like kids...example below
  

• Nick is also such a forgiving person and lets things roll off his back very quickly. The other night we had a little disagreement going on, we got mad, did the silent treatment and next thing I know he says, "I'm over it, are you?". We laugh at eachother for being dumb and go on our way and that's the end of it.

Most of all, I love Nick for being such a great husband and dad. He does such a great job of balancing me and Cole and there is nothing more I could ask for. I love nothing more than to see him interact with Cole and to sit back and be in disbelief that we are now parents and how our lives have changed so much in the 9 years we have been together.

Thank you Nick for being so good to us and for everything you have provided us with. We love you so much!!

Cole's first Par-tay!!

Warning: Mega overload of photos ahead!!!!

Saturday we had Cole's 1st birthday party at our house. My parents were nice enough to make the trip down here and I sure appreciated having them here. They were such a huge help! The party was a great success and we all had such a great time! We needed to make sure that Cole was nice and rested for his big day, so here he is with Grandpa, getting in a little nap before his guests arrived.
Here are a few pictures of the decorations, food and cakes.
I actually made this banner, who knew I had a little bit of creativeness in me! It turned out better than I thought it would and maybe we can use it for more than his 1st birthday.

Here is one of his birthday cakes. This is the cake that everyone ate. It was a marble cake and extremely yummy!

Here is Cole's smash cake. It was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. He seemed to really enjoy it!! (Pictures to come)

Here is our kitchen table, we had drinks, snacks for the little kids, and a vase filled with M&M's with straws coming out of the vase for the root beer floats that we served.

Here is our dining room table with all the adult food. We served sloppy joes, a bean dish, queso, fruit, veggies, etc. My mom also got this nice flower arrangement made up for me.

Cole was having such a great time with all the kids and playing around, but then it was time for us to sing happy birthday and him to experience the greatness of cake! We took a few pictures before he got messy.

Here he is with both sets of grandparents

Our cute little family

We sang happy birthday and here is a little clip of his reaction. It was sorta like this...."why are all these people singing and looking at me AND taking so many pictures??".



He was not quite sure of the cake at first, probably because Nick took Cole's hand and dug it into the cake and pretty much tried to force-feed him...ha! Cole was not impressed. We were about to give up and get him out of his chair, but Nick tried one more time and finally got some in his mouth and he curled his nose up at first, but then once he realized that all this sugar tastes pretty good, he started to dig into the cake! He LOVED it!!!
Here is a video of him really enjoying the cake...we finally had to take it away from him because I didn't want him to get an upset tummy.

And here is what he looked like once he was done. Good thing the whole cake wasn't red, otherwise we would have been in big trouble!!

After a quick clothes change and some washing up, Cole opened up some of his presents and got some great stuff!!! He got all kinds of toys from a baseball set, his first tool kit, a tractor...all kinds of "boy" things.

Here is Cole and Kylynn playing with his tractor set. Kylynn is one of my friend Tracey's little girls and Kylynn also goes to the same sitter as Cole. Kylynn is such a little mother-hen, whenever I pick up Cole after school she comes up to him and says, "Bye Sugar". So cute!!

Some more present openings

The gift that we are most excited about is Cole's new wagon. Both sets of grandparents got this for Cole and I CANNOT wait for it to get warmer so we can go on wagon rides. I think he's starting to get a little bored with the stroller, so I hope he enjoys this. Our sitter takes the kids on wagon rides when it's nice outside, so he should be used to it.
I also think we got the Cadillac version of wagons, I mean, it has a canopy AND a cooler AND drink holders! What more do you need?
The cooler...crazy huh??

It truly was such a fun day and I am kind of sad it is over, but we have so much to look forward to. We are so blessed to have such a great kid who brings so much joy into our lives, we couldn't ask for anything better!

A Year ago today...continued

So there I am, all drugged, drowsy and feeling good when the doctor tells me that I am now half way there. What!?! It hasn't even been painful yet. I guess that is the good thing about sleeping aids, is that it numbs your body, ha! Don't get me wrong, I could feel the contractions, they were just about getting to the point where I couldn't talk through them. They weren't all that painful, just took my breath away.

This is about how I was feeling before the epidural...not too bad

I then asked if I could go ahead and just get my epidural, Nick left because he's a wussy :) and they came it, shot me up and next thing I know.....I'm feeling like this.....AHHHHH!!!!!

Pain free and listening to some tunes

I am then told that I am completely dilated, except one thing....Cole was upside down. Um ok, they could have told me he was coming out with two heads, I didn't care at that point. They informed me that I COULD get him out, it would just be harder. Heck, I was up for it. BUT, my doctor had a great idea to put my body in some acrobatic position to try to get him to flip over. So, with one leg practically over my head (ha, not really), I laid there for another hour and next thing we know, he flipped the right way and we were ready to go. My doctor is so smart! :)
Without going into too much detail.....an hour and a half later...Mr. Cole was born. 8:57am weighing 7lb 6oz.
Does anyone remember that scene from Men in Black when Will Smith is helping that lady deliver her baby in the car and the baby comes out as an octopus with all those tentacles?? That's what I swore came out of me when he came out...ha! Gross??

And here is a beautiful picture of me and Cole....yep, I'm still all drugged up and feeling good. Can't you tell by my eyes!!! Sheesh!And that's Cole's birthday story....couldn't have been a better experience and it truly has been the best year of our lives! We are so blessed to have such a sweet boy. We love you Cole!

One year ago today...

We had an ice storm. Schools were closed, everything was shut down....but it was the most exciting but scariest day of my life.

I went to get my nails and toenails done. The ladies there said to me, "ahhh, you are pregnant, when are you due?" I said, "Tonight!!"

Nick and I packed up the car and took one last picture.....(sorry Roxy that you didn't make it into the picture!!)

We headed to the airport to pick up my parents, then we all met up with Nick's parents at Celebrity Bakery for dinner. It was so weird sitting there with the grandparents, knowing that we were on our way to the hospital.

You just always have in your mind that "going into labor" is such a chaotic time and there is yelling and pain and frantic parents trying to get to the hospital. This was all BUT that. It was such a relaxed evening and we really enjoyed that last meal before d-day.

After dinner we said good-bye to Nick's parents, "we'll call you in the morning once they start inducing me". We drove to the hospital and walked in, knowing we'd be leaving with a baby, that truly is the craziest feeling ever!

Once they get me hooked up to the monitors, get my IV in, the nurse tells me that I'll only be a little crampy during the night and that first thing in the morning they will start the induction process...and I need to get comfortable...."so here, take 2 ambien to help you sleep tonight".

Ha! Little did anyone know...that little baby Cole did not want to wait that long. Literally, once I swallowed the Ambien and started to feel pretty drugged up, they informed that I was in full blown labor.....Really!?!

And....more to come tomorrow on what happend next!!! Happy ALMOST birthday Mr. Cole!!

Some new things....

Now that this cute face is close to a year and is SO close to walking....

...we finally decided to get him some real shoes. It bums me out so bad because we have had the cutest shoes given to us and Cole has not been able to fit in any of them!!! He has got the fattest and most wide foot and we couldn't stuff his foot in any of the cute shoes. It also doesn't help that he took after his father and curls his toes constantly which makes it doubly hard to get shoes on.
So....we made a trip to Stride Rite and got him fitted for his first pair of big boy shoes.

Here they are.....Size 5 and extra wide...that's my boy!!! :)

Wow Cole, how cute you look in those new shoes! It is pretty funny watching him tromp around in them. He's not used to wearing shoes so he is still a little clumsy in them. I wonder if he'll keep shoes on better than he keeps socks on...hmmmm

Ok, this picture I just couldn't resist. What a cute little rump....and do you see all the dimples? Here he is waiting for his bath to fill up. He loves to stand by the tub and help me put his toys in, he's such a good little helper!

If you look closely in this video, you can see what I mean about his fat feet, AND you can also see him curling his toes about halfway through. Funny!!