This past week...it's been awhile!

I started my first week of working part-time and so far, it's been really fun! I teach 2 classes in the morning, leave school by 11:30, pick Cole up and am home by 12:15....just in time for him to take a nap. It's nice because it gives me a chance to get a few things done so that when he wakes up from him nap, we can play. The beginning of this week was unbearably HOT! Like 107....if anyone knows me or has heard me complain about Texas summers, you know I'm not a fan! It's hard to work part-time and spend the afternoons with your toddler when you are stuck inside. One afternoon I had to go get a couple birthday presents so of course I had to stop and let Cole play with all the other kids. He had a great time!

Luckily, there was a cold front that came through yesterday and the temperatures have been in the 80's which is awesome for Texas this time of year! Cole and I even went on a wagon ride yesterday and spent a lot of the afternoon outside, which he absolutely loves! When it was finally time to go in and eat dinner, he threw a big tantrum. :)

Cole has been doing great at Jennifer's (our new sitter). He cried most of last week when we would drop him off, but this week he's gotten much better and hardly cries at all. AND, when it's time to pick him up, it takes a little bit of time to pry him away from whatever it is he's doing.
Jennifer sent some of us mom's this picture today while we were at school. These are the 4 older kids, so you can see that they are all very close in age!

Some other exciting news....Nick and I both got the new iPhone 4! We were thinking about waiting awhile before we got them but we decided to pull the trigger and just go for it. We knew that we wanted to put our old iphone's up for sale on ebay to see if we could get a little bit of money for them, so Nick first put my iphone 3G up for sale and eventually it sold for $167!!! We were shocked!!! THEN, Nick put his up after mine and got $181!!!!! Are you serious!!! So, all in all, we only had to pay a little bit extra for the brand new phones. Crazy!
The new phones are so much fun, Cole loves to call dad at work because we can now video talk. There is also a camera on the front of the phone so it's easier to take self-take pictures...ha!
Cole thought this was the funniest thing when we got home today, he kept wanting me to take pictures over and over.

So I'm going to do a bit of complaining now.....for the past few weeks, Cole has been waking up in the middle of the night, or, he will wake up at like 5:00am. He doesn't do it every night, just a few times a week. Nick will go into his room, rock with him for a few minutes, Cole will fall right back to sleep and that's that. I guess I'm more of the mean parent because I just try to make Cole cry it out because I felt that if we were going into his room every time he woke up, that he would just keep doing it. After a couple nights of trying the cry it out method, which obviously wasn't working because he would get so worked up and have snot dripping down his face and then try to climb out of his crib. It's so much easier when one of us can go in there, give him a little cuddle and he'll be back to sleep in a jiffy. I was reading in my fabulous "Sleep Easy Solution" book that I read when Cole was itty bitty to get him to sleep longer than 2 hours at a time and I read up on the toddler stuff. It said that between 18 months-2 years, they will wake up sometimes in the night because they are afraid and just need a little cuddle. They don't understand that mom/dad is in the next room. So, I'm hoping he grows out of this soon. Till then, our weekends might just keep turning out like this early in the mornings......

This was after a 5:30am wake up.....Nick and I were so tired still and knew that Cole was not ready to get up for the day. I brought him into bed with us (which I hate doing) and of course he passed out, taking up half the bed. We have a king-sized bed and these two guys, including the monkey, gave me the boot! This also was after Cole head butted my face and gave me a puffy lip for awhile, I then decided it wasn't even worth fighting over a space on the bed so I probably went and watched TV or something.
Again, I hope this phase goes away quickly.....I like our "good sleeper" Cole much better!!! :)

Love this Toddler Stage!

I have said over and over that this 18 month toddler thing is hard! I think between 15-18 months has definitely been the hardest, but still so fun at the same time. At this stage of life, they are sponges and will sometimes repeat everything you say. Everyone knows that you have to say, "no no" a lot to a toddler, and everyone knows that sooner or later, that toddler will start saying, "no no" back to you. When they first start doing it, it's kinda funny. Just like when they learn and associate what "mama" means. Of course it's so cute to hear them call you that, but when they walk around saying, "mama mama mama mama", after awhile you want to pull your hair out and change your name.
Well, back to this "no no" thing.....let's just say Cole has gotten a little too good at this "no" thing and he's starting to get a bit sassy with it now.
I took this video on our way to the airport last weekend when we were taking my parents to the airport and his sassy-ness sure came out! He does not like people touching him while he's in his car seat for some reason....:)

I also forgot to put this picture on my post from earlier this week. We took this picture right before we left for the airport and I thought it turned out really cute. Cole still walks around the house saying, "Papa, Papa...Meme". AND, what's so cute is that he will say Mama, Dada, Papa in his regular voice, but when he says Meme, he gets super high pitched...ha!

I'm so glad the weekend is almost here! This has been a long week full of teacher in-service and now the kids come back on Monday. I guess I'm excited for another year to start, but a little nervous because I'm teaching a new class.
Cole has been doing great at the new sitter's. Her name is Miss Jennifer and she is just great with all the kids. He does fuss for a little bit when I drop him off, but Jennifer is so nice in that she called me today right after I got back into my car and told me that Cole had stopped crying already and they were snuggling. She just didn't want me leaving thinking that he cried all morning. :) There is another little girl there that is one month older than Cole and Jennifer said they had a "No" war today, just saying no-no back and forth to each other. ha!
We are so blessed to have found another great sitter and I know Cole will love it there!

The Past Few Days

This past week was a such a great way to spend my last week before going back to school!! My mom got here last Tuesday and then my dad got here on Thursday. My mom was able to see Cole finish his last 2 days of swim lessons and on his last day of swimming, we decided to take him to the splash park by our house. The heat here in Dallas is a little unbearable to be outside so we didn't stay at the park too long. Cole had fun though and was able to burn off some energy!

All the little kids were screaming and squealing, so in this picture, you can kind of tell that Cole was screaming along with them. :)

Friday we mostly hung out at the house and played since my dad was now in town. We were able to meet up with Dennis and Tracy for dinner and this reminded Nick and I, once again, why we don't like going out to eat with an 18 month old.....

This is what went on for most of the meal...haha!!! Each of us would take a turn and follow him around the restaurant because the last thing he wanted to do was sit at the table. He's just at a hard age that you can't really reason with him yet on why he needs to stay in his seat...ugh!
Good thing Granddad is so tall so Cole can reach the giant beer bottle. :)

After we had dinner, we all went back to our house and hung out for a bit. When I got home, I immediately got Cole ready for bed, gave him some milk and expected to put him down right away as it was already past his bed time. Well, as you will be able to tell from this video, he got a little crazy and rowdy and was pretty much bouncing off the walls! Finally around 10:00pm, I had to be the bad guy and finally call it a night. Cole was literally our entertainment for 2 hours!



Saturday was our little friend Carter's 1st birthday party. Ethan and Oni have a pool in their backyard but they also got this giant water park/slide thing and it was a big hit! Cole, who isn't a huge fan of water even loved playing in it.

It was great getting together with so many friends and letting the kiddos play. It's nice now because all of us have kids now and can all relate better to each other.
This is a picture of Cole with his friend Joseph. They are so cute together and Cole would just follow Joseph around everywhere.

My dad even got Cole to try on some Spiderman gloves...ha!

Unfortunately this week had to come to and end and my parents are having to go back to Colorado tonight, boohoo!! Besides the unbearable heat and not being able to be outside too much, we really did have a great week. One thing that really cracked me up this week is that for the past 1.5 years, we have always referred to my parents as "Grandpa and Grammy". However, while they were here, Cole kind of changed their names to "Papa and Meme". How cute huh? I think he says Papa because Grandpa is harder to say and for some reason, Meme is what he decided to call my mom. He would walk around the house saying, "Meme, Meme....Papa, Papa". So precious!
I start my teacher inservice this week and then the kids come back the following week. Again, I'm super excited that I will only be teaching 4 hours a day so Cole and I can hang out in the afternoons. I think we will start the Mommy and Me swim classes with Cindy but those will only be once a week.
Oh Summer....where did you go!?!

Finally Done!!!

Well Cole, it's about time that......YOU FINALLY ARE GRADUATING FROM SWIM LESSONS!!!!!
It only took 7 weeks, but you have gotten so good and I totally trust that you would not drown if you fell in :)
Today you had to swim with your clothes and shoes on and today was probably the best day you had! You even had to wear a normal (not swim) diaper and that alone is like 10lbs! You only fussed a little bit and worked really hard. Cindy even had you do some flips to try to get you disoriented and you did so well with everything she threw at you. We are so proud of you Cole!!

Here you are with Grammy Volk before lessons

It was nice having someone other than myself be there to take a picture of the two of us :)

Here is his video with his clothes on. Unfortunately, I didn't get the good stuff with all the flips and crazy dips but this is pretty cool too! Tomorrow is our last day and I will get in the water with him so Cindy can tell us what to do when we go swimming with him. Yay, I'm so glad we are finally finished with lessons. Now we will probably start the group lessons where I can be with him and maybe he won't cry through them anymore...ha!

Sleep Over

This weekend was pretty crazy busy! Friday, Cole and I got to hang out at home most of the day and we got a chance to just play and relax. I feel like during the week we are on the go so much that I haven't had much time to just hang out and do nothing. So, what happens when we are stuck at home with not much to do??? We climb on everything, under everything....oh, and get stuck! ha! This first picture is kind of hard to see, but Cole climbed under our bed. Not really sure why, but he thought it was pretty funny.

Now he's trying to figure out how to get out from under the bed. I guess he figures that the dogs do it all the time, so why can't he?
Ahhhh....there he is! You made it Cole!
Friday evening, we were having a sleep over with our Young Lives girls, but before we did that, we enjoyed a great dinner then we went rock climbing! Even though I'm from Colorado, I really haven't done too much rock climbing so I was definitely a beginner! It's also funny how when you get to be a bit older, you start to become more chicken....like I all of a sudden was a little afraid of heights! I've never been before in my life, however, it also may have been the fact that none of us girls had ever climbed or been the anchor at the bottom so I was having to completely trust my girl at the bottom not to drop me. :)

We definitely had a blast though!

This is a picture of Lucy and Lupe, two of our teen moms....sweet girls!

After we rock climbed, we went back to Casey's house and stayed the night there. We ate junk food, talked, played games and acted silly. It was great to spend this time with the girls and get to know them even more!

Saturday morning, we fixed the girls breakfast and then we all went and got pedicures! How fun is that? The girls were so appreciative as they had never had pedicures before.

Now, while us girls were enjoying a night away from the kiddos.....our sweet husbands agreed to watch the kids at our house (next door). It actually worked out great because Lucy's little guy Jayden was the only baby that needed babysitting, so between Nick and Ryan, they only had to watch Cole, Lexie and Jayden. Jayden is only 7 months old and is truly such a sweet baby!!! Is this not the sweetest face ever??

Nick had Jayden sleep in our bedroom with him and Nick said he woke up a couple times during the night but would go right back to sleep as soon as he would pick him up. Ryan and Nick agreed that Jayden was actually the easiest to take care of between the three kids.

After everyone left to go home Saturday afternoon, I was really wanting to go with Emily while she tried some wedding dresses on. However, I felt really bad sticking Nick with all the kids for 2 days, then taking off again to go with Emily, but he was totally understanding and said I should definitely go. So, after a few hours of dress shopping, Emily definitely found some great dresses! I can't wait to see which one she decides on. Of course they all looked good on her! :)

Again....great weekend, and this week we have my parents coming into town so we are definitely excited about that! I'm sure we will keep very busy and I'll try not to think too much about the fact that I have to return to work next week....boohoo!!! :) Although, I guess I can't be too upset about it because I will only be working from 7:45-11:30!!! Not bad at all!

Week 6 of Swim Lessons

Cole is in the middle of week 6 of swim lessons. Now, most kids don't go longer than 6 weeks and pretty much have the techniques down after 5 or 6......but not Cole!!! haha!!! As Cindy, the instructor says, he's the most stubborn, laid back kid she knows. I know it's kind of a oxymoron. He is doing so much better, but will probably still have to go one more week after this. Oh well, at least he's still cute! :)
Auntie Em got a chance to watch his lessons today and I'm sure she thought it was pure torture, ha! Here is his video from today.

Wisconsin Trip

Last Tuesday, Nick, Cole, Auntie Em and I flew to Green Bay for a week vacation. We met the rest of the family up there and headed straight to Crivitz. Nick's Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy have an awesome cottage right on the lake so besides being SO fun, it's so relaxing also!

Once we got there, Dan and Judy's two girls Anna and Emma were pretty excited to see Cole. They had not seen him since last summer so they were anxious to play with him.

This picture is of Gramma Tracy and Emma walking with Cole. This is the view from their cottage...pretty amazing!

Emma walking down to the boat ramp with Cole, how sweet are they!
While at the cottage, it is filled with lots of boating, skiing, tubing and fishing. Unfortunetely the fishing wasn't too great this time of year, so we opted out of getting fishing lisences. Nick did get in a few minutes with this high-tech fishing rod. :) Snoopy rods are the greatest!
Like I said before, we spent a ton of time out on the boat. I was even proud of myself, I got up on skis! I haven't done it in several years so I was a little rusty.
Ok let me explain.....I promise my drink was the water, but somehow I got stuck holding 2 beers for people and Nick thought it was a funny picture.
Dan and Judy even had a life jacket for Cole. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it as it was a little restricting around his neck, but he didn't seem to mind it too much. Cole still is not a big fan of the water so he did not spend too much time in the lake. He was more content wandering around and exploring around the cottage.
One of the nights, we celebrated Granddad, Judy and Anna's birthdays. Anna turned the big 1-3 so she was pretty excited to be a teenager now! Dennis and Judy, well, I won't tell you their ages, but they both don't look a day over 30!! hehe!

We decided to dress up in honor of Anna's birthday and we also enjoyed an awesome dinner at a fun restaurant.

I think for Granddad's next birthday he should invest in some new reading glasses so he doesn't have to use Aunt Judy's :)

For Anna's birthday, she got a karaoke machine, and Cole had a blast playing with it!

Later on in the week, Blake (Emily's fiance) joined us and we thought it would be fun to get Nick and Blake to battle it out on the tubes. It sure was fun to watch!

This is us in the boat, looking back at Dan and Judy's cottage.

Again, we couldn't get Cole in the water very much, but Gramma Tracy and Granddad did get him out on the hot dog for awhile.
On Saturday, we all made the trip back to Green Bay to attend Nick's cousin Brianne's wedding. I forgot my camera so I didn't get an pictures of the wedding, but it sure was a great time!

Nick, Cole and I, along with Anna and Emma stayed at Nick's grandparents house over the weekend. The girls had a great time playing with Cole and Cole was being a little crazy and wanted to attack the girls and wrestle with them.

Grandma Betty also found some old blocks that Cole could play with

Sunday afternoon, we met up with Gramma Tracy's family and we had a great time visiting with family and watching the kiddos play. Jake and Kerry (the house we went to) have two sets of twins so obviously they had a TON of fun toys for Cole to play with.

This is Cole with the younger twins in "baby jail"

Cole played with all sorts of bikes, jeeps, footballs, etc.
Cole absolutely loved this jeep and he let Ali give him a little ride.
For Granddad's birthday, Aunt Judy got him and Cole matching outfits so we got a picture of them together.
We spent the rest of the weekend back at Granpa Ed and Grandma Betty's and just hung out, played cards and played outside.

This picture is so funny of Cole....I just thought it was so cute, he didn't have any pants on :)
Cole had fun playing with Grandpa and Grandma
He even earned his keep by helping sweep the sidewalk

We truly had such a great time. We were all sad to come back to Dallas, especially when we drive home and the car says it is 107 degrees outside!! Not cool!! I want to go back to Wisconsin, where you can be outside all day and not pass out from head exhaustion and where you have to wear long sleeves at night because it gets chilly......Oh Dallas, how I did not miss you!!