Our sweet pups

It's so funny how before we had a child, all the pictures in our camera and phones consisted of pictures of Benson and Roxy. I always feel so bad that the dogs don't get as much attention as they used to BC (before Cole). They have been such troopers in the last year and a half, treating Cole so great and being like a second babysitter. I love when Cole is in his room taking naps, most of the time Benson is laying outside his room, keeping an eye out for me...ha! Then, when Cole wakes up or starts crying, Benson runs straight to me and then runs back to his room to let me know he's up. Ok, so Benson is like babysitter #2....Roxy...her whole mentality is...."whatever". She is the most easy going dog and will let Cole do just about anything to her. I think she deep down loves all the attention he gives her, even if it's riding her like a horse! :)
This morning it was so cute, I got Cole in the car to take to the sitter and I let the dogs ride along with us. Cole loved it, but he didn't love it when I went to get him out of the car because he had to say bye bye to the puppies. I think he wanted the puppies to come inside with him. :) So my kid who usually runs up to Andy and Teresa's door with excitement, had a total meltdown after we got out of the car. oops!

The rest of our weekend was fun and eventful. Sunday afternoon we went and met up with a bunch of college friends. My good friend and college roommate Amy was in town for a wedding so we got some of our college buddies together and had lunch. Almost 3 hours later we said our goodbyes. We didn't realize it was that long of a meal, but we all had a great time catching up. Nick and I were both surprised that Cole did as well as he did! Usually after 30 minutes or so, he's ready to get down and go. He was pretty entertained and had a great time. It sure was great seeing old friends!

The last few days

We haven't had too many exciting things going on the last few days. Here are some pictures that will show just how we have spent them.

The other day, I really needed to run to the store, but I had just put Cole down for a nap. I knew Casey and Lexie were home, so I just took our video monitor over to their house and asked them to keep an eye on it for a few minutes. Now, I know this isn't "Mother of the Year" material, but I figure there are worse things I could do! :)

Well, I literally was gone 2 minutes and I got a text message from Casey that says.....

"Look who ended up at our back door"

with this picture attached

How cute are Lexie and Max?? I left the dogs outside while I ran out and somehow Max ended up next door wanting to play with Lexie! :)

These next few pictures really have no story attached with them....I just realized what a dorky outfit I put my child in. He still had a little bit of diaper rash yet, so we were wearing cloth diapers for awhile. He didn't want to wear pants so I put his moccasins on so his feat wouldn't get cold.

I've said it before, that Cole isn't a huge fan of sweets, he'd much rather have a spinach salad over ice cream! BUT...I have found that he loves rice crispy treats.
Poor Roxy, she is just torturing herself sitting there waiting for some of it to drop.
Cole is pretty good at sharing and he wanted to share his treat with Roxy, but I kept having to say "no no Cole". So sweet!
Friday night, Nick and I went on a much needed date night with some friends. We went to The Melting Pot, our favorite!!! We had so much fun being with friends and eating ther for over 3 hours! Blake and Emily were nice enough to come babysit for Cole and it sounds like Cole sure hammed it up for them!

Today, Nick played some golf with a buddy and Cole and I were lazy around the house today. Cole took a 3 hour nap and I took a nap myself, it was delightful!

Tonight while we were eating dinner, Cole was being pretty funny but we were also teaching him some bad habits. :)

He loves to stick his tonue out and make almost a farting noise....ha!

This video shows him practicing his new bad habits

Then after dinner, we have to wash our hands....how do you like that cheesy smile??

Cole and I also got a self-take picture tonight before bedtime...love this little guy!

Monday and a few randoms

Texas is getting to be HOTTTTT!!! I really couldn't complain the first part of the summer because it was abnormally warm, not hot. Well, summer is in full blast now and I don't like it! Kids need to be outside, kids can't be outside in this kind of weather! Even at 9pm, it's still unbearably hot. Ok ok, enough complaining.....

What do you do when it's hot outside?? Yep, we get snocones!!! Casey and I were so bummed that our snocone lady across the street is no longer there so we had to find somewhere else. I'm telling you, those snocone places bank during summer time!! Casey and I took the kiddos and this was Cole's first experience with snocones. At first he wasn't so sure about how cold it was, but he quickly realized the goodness of it. I have always gotten Tiger's Blood, hoping that Cole could just share with me and sure enough, he loved it!

I was so impressed that he didn't even make a complete mess. He ate most of it, only giving me a few bites here and there....oh well, I probably had more fun watching him eat it!

He loves Lexie!!

Random....earlier in the day when I went to pick up Cole from Andy and Teresa's, they had his hair freshly brushed and looking so cute. But wait....I sat there a minute and thought there was a striking resemblence of a really famous kid right now.

What do you think....doesn't his hair look a lot like Justin Bieber?? The sad thing though, I can't stand Justin Bieber's hair....meaning, Cole needs another haircut!

But, when you have such a precious face like this, who cares really?!?

Last random.....ever since we were at my parents house earlier in the summer, Cole has refused to sit in high chairs. I have no idea why or why just all of a sudden he didn't like them, but it makes it kind of difficult when we go out to eat now. At home we just have a booster seat basically, with a tray, but anytime he sees those wooden ones at restaurants, he throws a fit. So, we've decided to try regular booster seats.

This is him with his first booster seat experience. He did pretty good, only had one close call, but otherwise it was a success!

Ugh, since when do kids grow up so fast?

Where's Max?

We have been dog-sitting for Tracy's dog Max. Although, it doesn't really feel like dog sitting because he's like one of our own. The dogs all get along so well and he's so easy to have around! Cole especially loves Max because Max will actually sit still long enough for Cole to love up on. Cole loves to give him hugs. Yesterday Cole and I were headed to our pool and I was putting his shoes on and I was trying to find Max, so I yell..."Max". Cole thought that was funny and now Cole walks around the house saying, "Maaa....Maaa". He doesn't quite have the "x" down, but it's pretty funny anyway.
This video is of Cole trying to find Max. Please don't pay attention to the toilet flusing...Thanks Nick :)

We are having a pretty fun weekend so far! Yesterday Cole and I went to the pool with Casey and Lexie and I was so excited because Cole actually liked being there! He usually cries and holds on to me with a death grip, but he was actually having fun! He even swam for me a little bit. Cindy (swim instructor) said that the more time he has in the pool, the better. I think he's getting used to it more and more because he would swim back and forth, and float on his back. Good job Cole! Last night after Nick got home from work, we went with the Holler's to our other neighbors restaurant in Little Elm. They are from New Orleans and opened up a New Orleans style restaurant and it's always BUSY! I'm so happy for them because I know it can be tough having a restaurant right now but they are doing so well! They have even been approached about expanding. If anyone ever ends up in Little Elm, you have to go to The Waters Edge Cafe...it's Gooooood!!!
This morning, Nick, Cole and I went back to the pool because we knew it was going to be HOT today and wanted to get there before the water got too warm. Yesterday afternoon the water felt like bath water...yuck! It was nice because we were the only ones there and we had a blast!
This afternoon, I am going to a baby shower, then we are headed to Ft. Worth to see some friends and meet their baby Ella....AND we get to go to Joe T. Garcia's for dinner! YUM!!

Week 3 of Swim Lessons

Here is his week 3 video of swim lessons. Still not crazy about being on his back but getting better! I imagine we will go 3 more weeks after this week.
Good Job Cole!!!

Happy Birthday Granddad!

This weekend was Granddad's birthday celebration. Since Friday was his real birthday, we went and had dinner with them and hung out for a bit that night. Sunday night, Tracy and Dennis had us all over for a nice meal to celebrate with some other friends. We all had a great time and even though Cole was dealing with a BAD case of diaper rash (which I'll get into in a minute), he still had fun being crazy!

Here is Cole hanging out with Granddad....not quite sure about how we feel about that pink bear he is holding, hmmm. :)

Cole loves to be held by Granddad, probably because he's waaaay up in the air! :) Especially when he gets to ride on his shoulders!

Cool Dudes!

Cole loves hanging out in Dennis and Tracy's office, mostly because their computer is in there. Cole will climb up to their desk, grab a hold of the mouse and act like he knows what he's doing. I'll even walk in there and catch him on a business call which is obviously super important! I think while we were at their house for a few hours, he hoarded about 5 cell phones and walked around with them. :)This video is hilarious!!! Like I said before, Cole LOVES cell phones and he loves it when they ring. He was doing the funniest thing last night when the phone would ring, like he was so shocked or something. Watch his face, it's hysterical!!!

Dennis and Tracy also have an old rocking chair that is perfect size for Cole. He loves getting on it and rocking.
So back to this diaper rash thing....On Friday, Cole started having some #2 issues. He was acting totally fine, but kept having problems down there :( I'm thinking it was maybe some teeth coming in because he never seemed bothered by it. Anyway, a couple mornings during the weekend, I'd go get him out of bed and he had crazy amounts of #2 so I'm sure he sat in it for quite awhile, giving him diaper rash. Yesterday was pretty bad, he couldn't even walk! He would just stand there and cry if he tried to move. Nick and I did everything we could think of. He basically walked around without any pants on all day so he could air out because I read that that is the quickest way to get rid of it. When we did have to put a diaper on him, I used cloth and then changed him about every hour and used lots of Butt Paste!
This is what he looked like most of the day without pants on....ha!

This video shows just how uncomfortable it was for him to walk. Poor guy, he was walking like he had just been riding a horse for a few hours.

Week 2 of Swim Lessons

Cole is on his 2nd week of swim lessons and is doing pretty good. He has a hard time wanting to stay on his back to float, but Cindy says that's pretty common with this age. We are also working on getting his arms out when he floats because as you will see in the video he wants to put his hands up by his mouth for some reason.

We have also realized with a couple other kids that are doing lessons that when the mommy's take their kids to swim lessons, they cry a lot more. When the daddy's take them, they don't cry nearly as much and are much more calm. I find that very interesting....I wonder how Cole would do if someone other than mom took him to lessons...hmmm.

As soon as he gets out of the water, he is happy as a clam, especially since he gets a sucker! I'm not quite sure how I feel about him having suckers because I'm afraid he'll choke on them, but he thinks he's pretty cool stuff when he has one! I usually don't let him have it unless I'm right there with him so I typically take it away when we get in the car, but I had to get some cute pictures of him with his sucker first.

This afternoon I made a trip to Toys R Us with the intentions of buying this little drawing desk for Cole. I had a couple coupons so I would have gotten it pretty reasonable.

When I got there, they didn't have any at the store. The nice guy that worked there told me that will all my coupons, I could basically get this bigger more expensive one for the same price. So, that's what I did! This one is quite a bit bigger and I think a little too big for him now, but I think he'll eventually love it!

I love finding great deals :) Now I just need to stock it with crayons and other crafty things.

Love my crazy Volk Family

After our little family got back from Colorado, we only had a few days at home to unpack and re-pack our bags for our trip to Minnesota for my cousin Justin's wedding. I love being busy busy like that, but my house does not like it, especially when it looks like this most of the week! How embarrassing is this picture!!

We flew out on Thursday afternoon after Cole's swim lessons and headed to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We were a little nervous about these flights because typically we fly to Denver which is only a 1.5 hour flight, but to Minnesota it was almost 2.5. Plus, Cole is basically the size of a 2 year old who should have his own seat. Lets just say that after 2.5 hours of entertaining Cole with everything we had in purses, diaper bags, seat pockets....Nick and I were EXHAUSTED!! So, when Nick's dad picked us up from the airport, we were happy to hand Cole over to Granddad for awhile! :)
Later that evening, Nick and I got to enjoy a night out on the town with some crazy cousins. It was great getting out and staying out late and also catching up with family.
Friday, we headed down to meet up with the Volk clan for all the wedding festivities. We went to Valley Fair which is basically like Six Flags. It was such a fun day!!! Hardly anyone was there so we got to basically walk right on to all the rides. I was a little nervous to go on some of the roller coasters because ever since I've had Cole, my equilibrium has been a bit off. I definitely can't spin or go upside down, but I did find some fun rides to go on. My mom took Cole on some kiddie rides and they had a great time!

Later that evening, some of us went to the yummy restaurant.
Here is Cole showing Uncle Randy that he is sooooo big!

Saturday was the wedding day. Nick and I were wondering how long Cole would last through the ceremony before we had to take him out....ha! First off, isn't this such a cute outfit? Look at those cute loafers!
Ok, so he made it about 15 minutes before he started getting really loud and kept telling everyone around him, "no no"....ha!
Nick took him out to the lobby and he found a little friend named Lily to play with :)

Ok, something you must know....the Volk side of my family (my dad's side) is HUGE!! My dad is the oldest of 12 and I have about 40 cousins just on that side. So, when we all get together, it gets pretty crazy. This picture below shows all the musicians in the family. This was all who participated in the music portion of the wedding and it just amazes me that they all are very talented musicians/singers! I don't think this even shows all of them.

Here is our cute family after the ceremony

The reception was at a great golf course. We all had a great time with great food and great dancing.
Here is my cute cousin Abby.....love her! :)

Ok, probably half a year ago, I had this picture of my cousin Garett over Christmas. It seems that each time we see him he has some crazy hair/facial hair.
So again, this was over Christmas......

This is Garett now....a little scary huh :)
He was trying to be silly with Cole but I think he ended up just scaring him.

My sister-in-law Rachel with my niece Cameron

We all had a great time at the wedding, congratulations Justin and Renae!!

Sunday, a lot of the family decided to go to the horse races that were right across the street from our hotel. However, I opted out of going because can you imagine chasing around a 17 month old the whole afternoon?? Um, no thanks! Nick and I used to go to the horse races all the time, especially before we got married so I would have loved to have gone, but I knew I'd be doing a lot of chasing around.
So, Rachel my mom and I decided to hit up the Mall of America. We had a great time, especially doing some bow shopping for Miss Cameron.
I think she would fit in great in Texas with this size of bow!

We walked around for quite a few hours and the kiddos did great! Cole finally fell asleep, he was exhausted. Doesn't he look gigantic in this picture? He's got tree trunks for legs!

Nick, Cole and I flew back to DFW early Monday morning. Nick and I were so completely tired as we only got about 3-4 hours of sleep each night. So, we felt like zombies on the plane ride. LUCKILY, Cole surprised us and fell asleep watching a Baby Einstein video. Nick leans over to me once Cole fell asleep and says, "don't move". haha!! My rear end was pretty sore for most of the flight since he was sleeping on me, but it was so worth that hour of not having to entertain! :)
When we finally got home, we all took about a 2.5 hour nap and felt so great!
Later on in the evening, our smoke alarm kept going off, but it didn't sound like the normal smoke alarm would so we were kinda confused. Nick messed around with the alarms a bit but it kept going off. Next thing I know, Nick comes into the bedroom and says, "it's the CO2 alarm that is going off, I think you and Cole need to go over to Casey and Ryans". Yikes!
Nick ended up calling the Fire Dept just for precaution and this is what was outside our house.

The firemen went through our house with their detector but they didn't find anything. They told us that if it goes off again, to take it apart and blow out all the dust that sometimes if it gets dusty it can go off. Whew! We felt kinda silly having the fire trucks, ambulance and police car all show up at our house for a little dust, but we weren't going to take any chances!!! My grandparents had a CO2 leak in their house and it was bad! So, we thought better safe than sorry...especially since it was almost bedtime and we were going to sleep :)
All is well in the Seeman household and now we are getting back to our normal schedule of swim lessons, play gym and kindermusik. We will be in TX for a few weeks before we head out to Wisconsin for Nick's cousins wedding. Hopefully we will survive this TX heat! :)