Thanksgiving in CO

Last Saturday our family of 4 flew to Colorado for a week. The flight was great, both kids were excellent! Once we got there we went to Gunther Toody's for lunch and I knew deep down that I shouldn't have had that giant milk shake :) Later that evening, Finley was NOT a happy camper. I knew that she couldn't handle a lot of dairy so that milkshake was definitely pushing it!!! What also stunk is that we were having a grandkid photo shoot that afternoon and she definitely cried through the whole thing....poor girl! I'm sure the pictures will be funny though :)
Of course when we first got home, my dad was so anxious to show us his new toy.

Sunday we went to church then met up with Ryan and Rachel's family for brunch.

Cole and Cameron love playing together and for the most part are very nice to each other :) How cute are they, walking together after brunch!?!

Sunday evening was a fun night! My mom and I went to dinner with some long-time friends, Kaye and Courtney and Rachel also joined us. After dinner I was VERY surprised with a little birthday surprise party...even though my birthday is a couple weeks away. It was so fun to see all my friends and lots of family. What a fun night!

Monday morning, we had to make a trip to the mall and Rachel had a doctor's appointment so Nick, my mom and I took Cole, Cameron and Finley with us. Even though it was one adult per child, it was still pretty crazy!!! We didn't spend a lot of time at the mall because if someone wasn't pooping their pants, they were having a meltdown. We were tired after that trip! :) After all the kiddos took naps and watched a little cartoons (how cute are these 3??), we headed over to Ryan and Rachel's to celebrate Ryan's birthday.

We enjoyed some yummy pizza and carrot cake that Cole and Cameron decorated. I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like :) If I wouldn't have helped, there would have been sprinkles in a two-inch radius :)
Papa absolutely loves having all his grandkids together and Finley definitely loves her Papa!

And Mimi is so funny, always making her laugh

Ryan got to blow out his candles, with the help from Cameron, and opened some presents.

Cole also had fun playing with Cameron's toys. We don't have a lot of these around our house yet!

Sydney is the sweetest baby! Love her!

Wednesday, Rachel and the girls came over so I could teach her how to make bows, rosettes, etc. Luckily Uncle Ross and Nick were around to help out with the kids while Rachel and I were being crafty.
Finley and Sydney had fun playing on the floor together. Finley was definitely curious about this other baby!

Finley also enjoyed making out with my mom. She only did it to my mom and was so funny. Finley would just grab her face and try to eat it.

That evening, my dad took us to the park to play for a bit. The weather was great, but once the sun went down, it sure got chilly!
Papa is so funny!!!

Finley even joined us at the park, doesn't she look cozy?

That evening, Nick and my brother Ryan went to an Avalanche game. I'm sure Nick was ready for a night away from the kids. When you aren't used to being around them 24/7 I'm sure it can be tiring! Ryan and Nick had a great time and I'm so impressed that Rachel let Ryan go, since they were hosting Thanksgiving at their house the next day, ha!

Thursday, we hung out for the morning at my parents and we actually got some family pictures.

After Cole woke up from his nap that afternoon, it seemed like he just wasn't acting quite right. I guess I just thought that he was tired because he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. However, once we headed over to Ryan and Rachel's for our Thanksgiving feast, we could tell he definitely wasn't feeling good. While sitting at dinner he asked to go to bed. He went a laid in Cameron's bed for awhile and when he came back down he was running a temperature. Nick and I decided it would be best to take him back home because we didn't want him to get any of the kids sick. So our Thanksgiving got cut short but we still got to eat some yummy food!
Ryan with Cameron...silly dad!!!

Nick dancing with Cameron and Cole....this was about the only activity Cole did all night, poor guy!

Poor Cole had a rough couple of days after that. He ran a temperature for a couple more days and was pretty much down and out till we left for home on Saturday. I have never seen him like that and I absolutely hated it! We had a house-full of little kids at our house Friday night and Cole didn't even try to come play, he just laid in bed upstairs and watched tv and slept.
He did venture outside a little bit to get some fresh air and sit by the fire.

After having 2 nights of VERY interrupted sleep and lots of crying, Cole turned the corner on Saturday. Nick thought it would be best to take him to the clinic, especially since we were flying home that night. Doc told us that he had an ear infection, which caused the fever. Cole has not had an ear infection ever so I was pretty shocked at the prognosis! He never said his ear hurt, but maybe the sleepless nights should have been an indicator...
Again, we were so thankful that Cole started feeling better Saturday afternoon because we were flying back to Dallas that night.
Papa with Finley before we left

Before we left, my dad gave me a ride on the motorcycle. This was my first time on one and it was pretty fun. I think what's scary is knowing there is absolutely nothing between you and the road! We didn't go far, just around the neighborhood but my dad absolutely loves it!
Finley loved his helmet too! she thought it was pretty interesting

We obviously don't like saying good-bye to all the family but my bed had never felt so good the night we got home!! We didn't get home till about 11:00pm so you'd think the kids would have slept in right??? Nope....7am, they were ready to go....ugh!!!!
We spent the day getting all our Christmas stuff out and set up and Cole had a blast helping out this year!! It's so fun to see your kids understand what Christmas is and participate in all the fun! He helped put ornaments on the tree, even though his were all on the same branch, ha!

Nick's parents came up and watched some Viking football and Dennis helped with the tree. Dennis and Tracy are headed to London for awhile so we wanted to see them before they took off. Tracy had to spend a little time in Minneapolis this past week so she brought back some goodies for the kids. Cole got these cute Viking slippers...they are hilarious!

We are now spending the next couple days getting everyone healthy (yes, Finley and I both came home with colds). Again, we had such a great time in Colorado will definitely miss my family! My parents were so gracious with sharing their house with our crazy family and also getting lots of fun goodies for the kids throughout the week. We so appreciate everything!

Finley's 6 month appointment

Yesterday I took Finley to her 6 month appointment. I always love well-checks, I just like to see how much they have grown. :) Here are her stats:
Weight: 17.5 lbs - 73%
Height: 27.25in - 93%
Head: 17in - 70%
I had a feeling that she was pretty tall, so this definitely made me certain. I think she's going to get the long torso like her dad and long legs like her mom...hopefully! Except hopefully she's not 6ft 5in. :) What I like about the second child is that the doctor is pretty quick with our appointments. Unless I have specific questions, he pretty much tells me what I need to know and sends us on our way. She was supposed to get her first ever shot yesterday but because she's been pretty congested for a couple weeks, he wanted to wait till she was completely healthy. She will get her first shot after Thanksgiving break, then another one a month later. I love that our doctor lets us do our shot schedule how we like...with some guidance, obviously!
Overall, she is great...the doctor and I were laughing because the second the doctor walked into the room, she just laid on the bed, so completely still. She just watched everything the doctor was doing and didn't take her eyes off him. He checked her eyes, ears, gums, everything and she sat there so still. Silly girl :)
Now we just need to work on getting her completely healthy. Start loading her up on some Briar Rose, hopefully that will do the trick! :)

Weekend Recap

Here is a little recap of our weekend. Friday night, I'm not sure if everyone will be able to handle what party animals we are, but I'll go ahead and tell you. Nick put Cole to bed around 8:00 and decided to lay down with him. Nick proceeds to fall asleep in there and I can't even tell you what time he came to bed. Since my evening was kinda shot, I decided to just go lay in bed and read my book. I end up falling asleep around 9:00...I know, we are ca-razy people, right!?!

Saturday, our friends The Cone's came for a little lunch visit. Dave and the boys were in our neck of the woods and came over for a visit and it was so great to see them! Cole and Evan always have a great time playing and to say "boys will be boys"....these pictures of them wrestling says just that!

Evan is quite the bruiser!! He had Cole pinned down pretty good a few times.

Saturday evening we met up with our friends for our "Adult playdate". Ha! We love getting together with everyone and it sure is crazy with all the adults AND all the kiddos. It is definitely entertaining and the kids have a great time.

Grayson and Finley

Even though this jumperoo is always in Grayson's play room, of course he wasn't interested in it till Finley got into it.

Crazy kid....yep, that's our Godson :)

It's always been a tradition to get a picture of all the kiddos and if you can imagine, it's not an easy task!!! It's funny because once the parents gets each kid in place it's a race against time to get the camera's flashing. We were like the paparazzi, flashes everywhere!!! We did get a few good ones but the other not-so-good ones are absolutely hilarious!!!
Liam, Emerson, Piper, Grayson, Cole

Here is their first picture together last year. It was a terrible picture and Grayson was little enough that he was in bed, but here are the 4 older ones:
Emerson, Piper, Cole and Liam

Sunday after church and naps, Cole and Nick did some yard work and also cleaned our windows. Nick got our yard ready for winter and now our yard looks a little bare :(
Cole had a blast washing windows with dad because Nick let him spray and he LOVED that!

"I got you mom!!!"

Just to leave you with a cute video of my kiddos laughing together this morning. I love that they are interacting a bit and can entertain each other. Nothing better than toddler and baby laughs!!

This should be a fun week, bounce houses, Bible Study, Finley's 6 month appointment, Mops and getting packed for Colorado!!! Can't wait to be in some colder weather!!

6 Months

Today, on 11-11-11, Finley Marie is 6 months old!! What a great day!!!

Not sure of your height and weight yet, you have your 6 month doctor appointment next week, but I can't wait to see how much you have grown!
You are still in size 3 diapers, size medium Bum Genius diaper. While we are home I'll slap a cloth diaper on you :)
Wear mostly 9-12 month clothing
Your legs are crazy long so a lot of your pants are too short
You still sleep pretty well. The last week or so, you were waking up twice during the night but I think it's because you are rolling so much now and you'll accidentally roll onto your back and you aren't quite sure what to do. You aren't real graceful quite yet :)
Bedtime is still 7:30ish and you will wake up for the day anywhere from 6:00-7:30am
Still taking 3 naps a day. A 45 min around 9:00am, then around 12:00 you will "hopefully" take a 2 hour nap. And then a 45 min one around 4:30pm.
We started giving you some food a few weeks ago. We started with sweet potato and you have also had green beans, peas, squash, zucchini, apples and pears. I would have figured that after doing this food thing for a few weeks that you would get the hang of it, but you really have no interest in eating. You love playing with the spoon but as soon as I put the spoon up to your mouth, you clinch those lips so tight. It's not like you don't like the food because once it's actually in your mouth you like it, but again, not a huge interest. However, I'll let you suck on a real apple and you LOVE that, so maybe you will just be one of those babies that's not a huge fan of baby food...ugh :)

You still nurse every 3 hours or so and definitely have no problem with the bottle now! You even take the bottle from the ladies at church, yay!!! :)
The days of you napping on mom and dad's bed is about over. You roll all over the place and now if I leave the room I have to make sure you are strapped to something, ha!
I'm trying to get you to practice sitting up, but you aren't that stable yet. We'll get there.
You are also getting up in the push-up position but not even close to crawling yet.....thank God!! I'm not ready for that yet.
You aren't as scared of strangers anymore. You are pretty comfortable with whoever now.
You will be making another trip to Colorado soon and I'm sure you will do just as great as you did last time.

We love you pretty girl and CANNOT believe you are half a year old already...sheesh!!!

Family Pics and big boo boo's

We took some family pictures this weekend and I was so excited for them! We haven't taken real family pictures since last summer so it was definitely time! Colleen took Finley's newborn pictures and she did our family pictures this weekend also, she is so great to work with! I had spent most of last week getting all our outfits prepared and semi-matching. I like to all have different colors but all follow the same color scheme. With it being winter and "kind of" Christmas pictures, we went with gray's, red's and blacks. I can't wait to see how they all turned out. I snapped this picture right before we left to send to my sister-in-law so we could talk about pictures the grandkids are taking over Thanksgiving...and this picture just turned out so darn cute!! Of course when you aren't really trying, they both smile, right?

Literally, 5 minutes before we are needing to walk out the door, Cole was running around like a crazy man. He tripped and went head first into our iron kitchen table. He was hysterically crying, you know those deep sobs where they can't quite catch their breath? We were a little concerned because he was acting a bit off, so I kept an eye on him and after some Tylenol and a couple suckers, he seemed to be ok.
He had a giant goose egg on his forehead and a few bruises on his cheek.

Our pictures went great, both kids were in great moods and the weather was great. After getting into the car, Cole crashed.

The rest of our weekend was great, we spent some time with friends and also spent some time at home. I love Cole and Finley are starting to interact a bit. Finley thinks Cole is the coolest, funniest person ever and when she laughs at him, he gets the biggest kick out of that. He is so sweet to her!

Crazy girl :)

Random story....Nick and I used to do P90X pretty regularly but when I got pregnant and the only form of exercise I could do was walking to the mailbox, we stopped doing it obviously. I'm really wanting to get back into working out but I have not done it in so long and am so out of shape that I was afraid to get right back into P90X. My mom has these other DVD's that is a part of Beach Bodies but they aren't as long and hard. I brought them home and would start with these before P90X. I had the DVD's laying in our office and this one was laying on top. Cole saw this and says, "Look...Mimi". Ha!!! However now, he sees it and says "Mama". Nick came home from work and he shows it to him and says "Dad, look...Mama". Yes Cole.....you are certainly correct. That IS your mama on the cover of the DVD!!! :)

Just some randoms

There is nothing I love more than snuggling with my babies early (yes, 6 am early) in the morning. Ok, so no I don't particularly enjoy getting up THAT early, but I do love sitting with these cuties and snuggling with them. With the time change tonight, I'm curious how that will go over. I'm not too worried about it. Finley is pretty good in that she'll sleep 10-11 hours no matter what time we put her to bed. However, Mr. Cole wakes up at 6:30-ish no matter what time he goes to bed. Ugh! Maybe we can bribe him to stay in bed an hour longer, yeah??? :)

Last night when dad got home, this is what he came home to. Yes, Cole is completely my child because this is exactly how my room looked when I was little. This made for a fun before-bed activity....I know you are jealous of our Friday night!!!

Last night I got this text message from my mom with this picture. Can you believe my dad!?! He just up'd and decided to trade in the four wheelers and get this! He's taking his class this weekend to get his license, but I'm not quite sure if I'll be ready to go for a ride when I come home over Thanksgiving. Maybe just around the block.....:)

Nick has a softball tournament today and I took the kids to his first game at 10:00am. I knew it wouldn't interfere with naps and even though it was pretty chilly and windy, we still had fun. Cole had a blast watching and cheering for dad. I had to stop him a few times from running onto the field because he wanted to play too. Nick was nice enough to throw the ball with him after his game. Cole has been so attached to Nick lately, wanting to do everything dad is doing, even wanting to go to work with him. Poor guy....he's just stuck with mom all the time :)
Don't you hate it when you are trying to make it home for naps and you try and try to keep everyone awake so they don't fall asleep in the car, because everyone knows that even if they sleep 10 min in the car, good luck trying to get them back to sleep. Anyway, unfortunately it didn't work. Finley fell asleep first and then Cole. Trying to get 2 kids back into the house and keep them asleep is quite the task! I got Cole inside, undressed b/c he was filthy, went potty.....except he didn't get "it" down in time and pee'd ALL over both of us and the bathroom. Great, perfect timing! Got us both cleaned up and him into bed and now it was Finley's turn (Yes, I left her in the car....don't judge). I got her inside, changed her diaper and fed her a bit so she would go back to sleep. Nope! She thought she was done with her nap. So....I spent the next 30 min doing this with her.

I got to rock her, which I actually loved doing because she doesn't typically like to be held or rocked while sleeping. She just likes to be laid down...so I definitely welcomed this! After she was good and asleep I did lay her down because her fat body was starting to hurt my arms :)
Now I am enjoying a quiet house and as I write this I'm wondering what that pee smell is and realize I forgot to change my sweater....guess I should go do that. I love boys!!! :)
Happy Weekend!

Halloween Festivities

Our Halloween fun-ness started last Friday at school. Cole's class had a party and the parents were invited. I have been saying since Cole started school that I would love to be a fly on the wall to see how he is during the day. Does he listen to the teachers? Does he play with the other kids? Does he eat his boogers?? Yes, I've seen him do it once!! So when we were invited I was so excited about going! I got to observe him play for awhile, which was pretty funny. He kept playing in front of the mirror, doing some funny dances and laughing at himself. Then they worked on a craft and had a yummy snack.

"Look mom!"

I had so much fun helping celebrate his party and I know he was so excited that I could stay! After we left the party, Finley and I went and hung out with James (Finley's boyfriend) and Katie. It's always nice to have some girl time, especially because she lives down the street from me! Besides Finley molesting James in this picture, are they not the sweetest babies ever!?! James cracks me up, he looks like a little old man. Such a sweet baby, and I could just squeeze those cheeks of his.

Sunday evening our church put on a Fall Festival so we took the kiddos to that. Obviously Cole loved the bounce houses, we could barely get him out of there. However, Nick had to drag him out after he kept punching kids in the head. I guess he took his Superman costume to a new level. :)

Cole also went down some fun slides.

While Cole was having all his fun, Miss Finley was just hanging out being a good girl. She even took a little nap with all the commotion.

Me and my girl

Yay!!! We finally got a family picture!!! Maybe in about 10 years we will have pictures where everyone is looking at the camera.

Monday morning, our mom's group had a party and there were TONS of kiddos there. Probably 25ish. They had so much fun and it was funny because towards the end it was meltdown city!!!! All us mom's were laughing because it was one meltdown after another. Cole took at GREAT nap yesterday!

He hung out by the food most of the time :) And he did lose his cape somewhere along the way.

We did do a little trick or treating last night too. We took him to see Andy and Teresa because they always like the kids to come by and saw some other friends while we were there. Unfortunately on the way home Finley was zonked and I had to go put her to bed while Nick took Cole around our neighborhood. Oh well, next year I'm sure she will cooperate more :) Overall, we all had a great time and can't wait for next year!