Our Crazy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010 took place at our house this year. We were so excited about having everyone in town and it was kinda nice to not have to travel for a holiday! :) The whole Volk clan got here the morning of Thanksgiving and we all went straight to work...but not before Cole got re-acquainted with all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin. Cole was pretty good with showing Cameron all his toys and sharing. Every once in awhile we'd catch him taking something away from her because it was "mine" but overall he shared so well!

Uncle Ross and the kiddos getting some play time in after they got to our house

Cole being silly with Mimi. I love that he's at the age where he now remembers my family, especially since he doesn't get to see them a whole lot. As you can see he was pretty excited to have everyone at his house! :)

Cameron is at the age where she always wanted to be by Cole, sometimes even tackling him, ha! I thought this was such a cute picture, just shows how much of a size difference there is between the two of them.

We all baked, cooked and roasted most of the day and we had SO MUCH food. I'm always worried that we won't have enough food, but we probably could have fed 20+ people easily. Luckily we still have leftovers!
The day of Thanksgiving didn't seem too crazy because I got a lot of cooking done before everyone got there. I love hosting and cooking and baking so it was a lot of fun for me. Not that I'm any good at it, but it was still fun! :)

Cole was so funny while him and Cameron were eating their Thanksgiving meal....he had all this good food on his plate but for some reason he was so interested in Cameron's puffs. He kept asking Aunt Rachel for "more more" and after we said he was all done, he then just decided to pull Cameron's high chair to him and steal hers. What a stinker!

The rest of the weekend was lots of fun. I was a little worried that they would get bored because when you have kiddos in the picture, sometimes you have to plan your days around naps and when Cameron and Cole's naps sometimes overlap eachother, it's hard to plan things out. BUT, I think we stayed pretty busy.
Here are our cute flannel pajama babies...haha!

Cole and Cameron even got to take a bath together. They are going to hate us when they are older!

Since we saw Cameron last time, she has become quite the talker!!! It's pretty funny because it really sounds like she is saying complete sentences but it's just babbling. She's even got this funny side-smile-popeye thing going on, and her tongue is constantly in motion.
Please don't pay attention to my crazy, obnoxious dialog going on in this video. I was just so amused by my silly niece that I couldn't contain myself :)

Even though it was pretty chilly this weekend, we still managed to take a family walk to Starbucks. We just bundled the kiddos up and doesn't he look so cute!

After Starbucks we stopped at a park to let Cole play some. Thankfully Nick, Uncle Ross, Uncle Ryan and Papa played on the playground with him. I didn't feel too much like climbing all over the place :)
Here is a picture of my weirdo brother Ryan and I hanging out at the park

And we had to snap this picture because our two manly husbands with the strollers :)

Just thought this picture was pretty cute....Cole on his way to church. He looks like such a big boy!

Nick and I had to go back to work on Monday but my family was still here so they watched Cole for me in the morning. That afternoon, we decided to go to the big ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. It's a huge Charlie Brown ice sculpture presentation and they even have slides and fun stuff for the kids.
This is our cute family before we got into our big coats

Here is Cole with his gigantic coat

Cole wasn't sure at first about this giant slide but by the 2nd time, he had a big smile on his face. It was pretty cool, all ice and people can get going pretty fast!

My cute parents in Snoopy's house. Yep, that whole thing is ice!

The hubs and I in the ice tunnel.

After we were done in the ice, Cole got to bond with the Gigi and Mimi

The family left very early this morning and now we are back to our regular grind. I think Cole was a little bummed that everyone was gone because he was very stoic today and just wanted to cuddle a lot and kinda whined a bit. I know he had so much fun with everyone visiting and he probably gets bored with 'ol mom and dad.

However, this evening, Cole's Christmas present from the grandparents showed up!!! I know we should wait till Christmas to open it, but we didn't know what to do with a giant box. So, Nick's mom said to open it now, so we did :)
Cole always loves sitting in Lexie's chair when we go to their house so we knew he'd love his own chair.
Here are a few funny pictures of him posing with his new chair

Thanks so much Papa, Mimi, Granddad and Gigi!!!! We are so excited to have it!

A few things before Thanksgiving

A couple Sundays ago, we had big plans to watch the Vikings/Bears game at our house and have Nick's family up. I've said before that Cole won't fall asleep anywhere but in his bed...and sometimes the car. So, Sunday before everyone got to our house, Cole and I were sitting on the bed watching some pre-game show and all of a sudden....Cole literally just fell over. I thought at first he was playing around, but when I looked at him, I realized his eyes were closed! Poor guy, he must have been pretty tired! He has never done that before.

I guess he knew that he wasn't going to miss to much watching the Vikings game :(
He looks pretty comfortable though doesn't he?

So my last post I talked about how Cole kept trying to climb out of his crib and it worried us a bit because we would have no idea that he was even awake. We were literally out of options and were ready to break open the crib conversion set to make it into a toddler bed but then a friend from high school recommended that we do the following......

She said to take the springs off the crib and just put the mattress on the floor! Genius!!!
Now, Cole can't even come close to climbing out and our problems are solved!

Yeah Cole...you keep laughing, till you realize your climbing days are OVER!! bwahahaha!!

This week has been a little chaotic, trying to get everything ready for Thanksgiving. It is a little stressful hosting Thanksgiving and being in charge of food, but luckily Nick's parents are helping out with the turkey and ham because preparing that meat may have taken me over the edge!! :) Meat is still very yucky to me!
We've been putting up Christmas decorations (Nick is NOT happy about this, as we aren't supposed to do it till after Thanksgiving), doing lots of baking, cleaning and organizing. I love being busy like this tough, much more fun than being bored!
Last night we even got to watch our little friend Jayden for the night. One of my YoungLives girls called and asked if we could watch her little guy for the night so she could go out with some friends and I know that she doesn't get a chance to go out much anymore since she has a baby so we were more than happy to help her out! Jayden is the sweetest boy and was such a great baby! He was so easy to have around and I kinda wish he could have stayed longer. Lucy told me that Jayden still doesn't sleep through the night and I thought, "great, that's all I need is a bad nights sleep before all our company comes"....but he actually slept through the night, and Lucy was so mad!!! haha!! Doesn't that always happen when someone else is watching your baby? Cole wasn't too sure about this baby that was hanging around this morning but he shared his things and was very nice to him. We can't wait to have Jayden again!

My whole family gets here Thursday morning and will be staying for about 5 nights. We are so looking forward to having everyone here and celebrating this wonderful holiday!!

She spoke my mind!!

I came across this blog awhile back and I've gotten a big kick out of it. The girl actually won "pregnancy blog" of the year on thebump.com and she is quite entertaining.

For the longest time, I've tried to explain to people how I've been feeling this go around with rugrat #2 baking away and it's just so hard to explain. When I read this girls blog post, I was like, "uh hello....she read my mind!" She totally hit the nail on the head and I would love to just copy and paste her blog post and claim it as mine, but obviously that would be wrong of me :)

So, I'll put a link to her blog post and hopefully you'll think it's as funny as I did and you'll get a good understanding on how I've been feeling lately!!

Click Here to read her blog.

And just so you don't think I've been neglecting any grandparents with current pictures of their #1 grandbaby (and I don't mean #1 because he's the coolest b/c Cameron is pretty gosh darn cool too, but literally, he's the FIRST grandbaby, make sense?)....here are a few pictures and things we have been up to lately.

Here is just a random picture from this morning. He usually never does this, but he fell asleep on our way into Jennifer's this morning. He did wake up pretty early for some reason so maybe that is why. Ok, speaking of waking up early....here is our current dilema. The past couple weeks when Cole wakes up from his naps or in the morning, he doesn't say anything, doesn't cry, we can barely hear him. So, the next thing we know, we look on the video monitor and he's half-way out of his crib, trying to climb out!!! I mean, all he has to say is, "Mama, come get me out"....ok, he can't quite put sentences together yet but even if he made a peep of any sort, I would come get him. So this is our dilema. Do we go ahead and take down the one side of his crib and make it into a toddler bed? I just don't know if we are ready for him to have free-reign of his bedroom yet. OR, do we just put some pillows on the floor in case he does fall out...haha! Is that mean? We really wanted to wait a few more months to move him to a toddler bed but unless we are sitting there with our eyes peeled to the video monitor, we would have no idea that he was awake!

I promise I'm not obsessed with pictures of Cole sleeping. However, the other afternoon we were running errands and he fell asleep in the car...again. He was in such a deep sleep that yes....that is DROOL dripping down his chin!!! Poor little guy! :0) Is he not the cutest thing ever?

When our friends Beau and Stacey had baby Grayson, we let them borrow some of our baby gear. The other day they brought some of it back because obviously we're going to need it in the next couple weeks (enter sarcasm...ha). I was like, "no really, keep it at your house for awhile". I don't want the clutter, haha! So, before Nick has a chance to put this stuff back up in the attic, it has been sitting in our family room and of course Mr. Cole is pretty curious. He's been sitting in the chairs and bouncers and thinks it's pretty funny. What do you think, does he still fit?? I can't believe that he used to fit in this thing at one point! Where does the time go?

My craftiness...that I stole from a friend

I know some people may be shocked, or just plain annoyed that I might say this....but yes, sometimes when I'm at home with Cole in the afternoons, I do.....I sometimes get bored!!!! How can I be bored with a toddler?? I am just not one for sitting around, having nothing planned, I like to have things planned or things to do at all times. This is another reason why the first few months of this pregnancy has been kinda hard because it has totally put me down and out and I do not like that!!! I want so bad to just go hang out with friends, try out new restaurants, but that just isn't doable yet with how I've been feeling lately. So I've been stuck at home more than I'd like and that's why I've had to come up with things to do.

But let me just say, anyone that knows me knows that I DO NOT have one ounce of creativity in my body!!! Not one!!! I absolutely love doing crafts and attempt to make things, but coming up with the ideas is just not in my blood. I would love to be one of those moms that can sew up all my new babies bedding, curtains or even make clothes...but no. I even attempted to knit, but my basic scarf ended up looking like an hourglass, not pretty.

However, I can do some easy crafts....if I have step by step directions!! :) A friend of mine who is an amazing DIY (do-it-yourself) person, has started a blog and she has some pretty basic crafts with step by step directions. Yay, I was so excited! I have to say this because I don't want anyone to think that I came up with these ideas on my own. :)

My first craft was to get peel-n-stick foam and I cut out numbers and stuck them to Cole's bathroom mirror. My friend also had directions on how to make a Thanksgiving turkey, which I may attempt today, but this may also be a disaster, we'll see. I realize now that you can probably just buy these pre-made, but that's no fun! They also have fun glitter foam if you are making it for girls!

The second craft I completed was this wreath. This was a little more tricky, but, I think it turned out pretty cute and I was pretty proud of my self!

I'm not going to go through on how I made these, but if you want to check out Amanda's website, it's pretty fun!

http://theivycottageblog.blogspot.com

This weekend, I am actually going to attempt to make something on my own!! Well, kinda. If it works out and I'm willing to show pictures, I will post those later. Wish me luck!!

13 Weeks

13 Weeks

(People are NOT lying when they say you start showing much sooner with the 2nd!!!)

Pregnancy Highlights

(I stole this from a couple blogs I read and thought it was a cute idea)
How far along: 13 weeks

Size of baby: 3 inches, the size of a giant shrimp

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 1 lb...which is good, but at this point with Cole, I had lost about 10lbs!!! Yikes!!

Maternity clothes: I sooooo want to wear maternity pants b/c my regular pants are so uncomfortable, but I don't feel like I should just yet.

Gender: Not going to find out

Movements: None yet, although I swear I have felt something, but it's probably just gas....ha!

Sleep: Much better!! Had total insomnia for a few weeks but getting much better! No more sleeping on my tummy, kinda sad!

What I miss: Eating normal food! Sitting on the couch at night with Nick past 8:00, that's my new bedtime :)

Cravings: Nothing really, just eat what sounds good, which isn't much

Symptoms: Still not liking food too much, watery mouth, bad taste in mouth, very sensitive to smells and tiredness

Best moment of the week: Finally getting some candles and plug-ins in our house to make it smell better...haha!! I was the same way with Cole, but for some reason the smell of our house is yucky to me, ha!

I guess I'd have to say that overall I am feeling better. I am actually able to sit at the table when people eat now, still can't eat the food but sitting at the table is a huge step! :) Last weekend Cole had a sleepover with Nick's parents so we could sleep in. BUT, did we sleep in??? Heck no!!! Nick was up at 6:50 and me 8:00 (which actually is pretty late for me). We still really appreciated Nick's parents taking Cole for the night, I know they all had a blast!

Dennis even got to watch Cole all day Saturday because us girls did some more wedding dress shopping and Nick was with some buddies watching football.

When Nick and I packed Cole up to take him home, he WAS NOT happy to be leaving!

It was a great weekend, but I was pooped by the end of it! :)

Halloween festivities

This past weekend we went down to Houston for Cole's furture wife's 1st birthday. Originally we were supposed to go down to Austin for the Texas/Baylor football game, which by the way......WOOHOOOOO for Baylor!!! Nothing better than beating those Longhorns!!!

Anyway, I knew going into the Austin trip that I would not be up for the entire game, plus going out afterwards and staying up late. I knew I'd be a party-pooper so we decided to not go. Instead, we went to Houston to see our great friends.

We headed down to Houston Friday evening. Luckily our neighbors let us borrow their car DVD player so that kept Cole busy for about 3 hours and then he fell asleep. I'm all for DVD players on long trips, but personally, I HATE having DVD players in the car and watching them all the time, just to drive to the store, silly to me. I think kids having some quiet time in the car is good for them, lets them use their imagination and day-dream.

Ok so anyway, Friday night we stayed at some different friends house and they have a little girl named Paige who is just a bit younger than Cole and they had a blast playing! Cole loved all the new toys and loved going up and down their stairs. Now I'm realizing I love not having stairs in our house!

Here is Cole playing on the rocking moose! :) I think this was his first time on a rocking animal but he loved it!

We finally met up with the birthday girl on Saturday. We all met up for lunch, then the plan was to all go back to their house for nap time, then head to the birthday party. We set up a pack n play for Cole and he went right down....so we thought. I'd walk past the room every once in awhile and I'd hear him talking, so I was wondering if he was even going to sleep. After about 1.5 hours he started to fuss and it was about time for us to leave so we got him up. I then realized why he had not slept during naptime.....he got a hold of my cell phone that was on the edge of the bed and was playing with it for 1.5 hours. ha! So, if any of you received funny calls, texts or emails from me, that might be why :)

So because Cole did not take his nap at the proper time, this is what he did during the whole birthday party!!!!! What a party-pooper!!!
This is the birtday girl....little Miss Reagan, and Cole's future wife :)
Reagan's mom made her outfit and hat, I was so impressed!!!
We headed back to Dallas Sunday morning because we had fun Halloween plans. First, here is a picture of Cole's Captain Hook outfit. I know, the hat is on wrong, I realized that a little later, but this is the only picture I got of Cole and his entire outfit.
We met up with some friends at a huge Fall Festival that one of the churches puts on. It's is gigantic and their is so much stuff to do. We started out with me taking Cole on a train ride, which he loved!!!

He then participated in the Lawn Mowing race :)

Granddad and Grandma Seeman also met up with us because Granddad had not seen Cole in a really long time and Cole sure was excited to see them!

Here is Granddad helping Cole with the water gun

We also got Cole to go into the bounce house. We weren't too sure if he would like it but he loved it!

Peek-a-boo!!!

On the other side of the bounce house was a big slide. It took Cole a little bit to figure out how to get up the slide but a nice lady helped him out.

Weeeeeeeee!!!!!

And how's this for your typical proud Dad and grandparents??? haha!!! They were trying to get Cole to come down the slide, I just thought that was funny! :)

Cole loved the train so much that he wanted to go again, so Granddad took him. They had so much fun together.

After we left the Fall Festival we stopped by our old babysitters, Andy and Teresa, so Cole could see them. They always have little treats for their daycare kids and Cole definitely enjoyed seeing them again. We then went home and handed out candy to all the kids. I think Cole had more fun watching the kids come to our door.

We definitely had a great weekend and stayed busy busy and now we are all pooped! Luckily we don't have too much going on this week. I have my 12 week doctors appointment tomorrow...I'm really hoping that getting into my 2nd trimester means that I'll start feeling better soon. I'll usually feel pretty good the beginning of the day, but by bedtime, I pretty much feel like death and just go to bed at 8:00pm so I can just sleep and not feel like poo. I still hate food but am really looking forward to loving food again. I'm getting real sick of my diet, so again, I'm REALLY hoping and praying that I start to feel back to normal in the next week or so.