12.14.2010

Ho, Ho, Ho!!

A local Culver's has Santa at their restaurant on Tuesdays.  It's free and Santa looks great!  We never took Cole to see Santa last year, but I thought it would be fun this year because he's more aware.  When we ask him what Santa says, he says, "Ho, ho, ho!" And he'll point and say the same thing if he sees a Santa hat or picture.





Well, as expected, he thought Santa was cool from afar, but once I handed him over, the screaming and tears ensued!  But what's Christmas without a "Screaming-Kid-With-Santa" picture! :)  Enjoy!





Merry Christmas!!

12.04.2010

Halloween, Hunting, Snow

You know it's bad when I'm writing about Halloween in December.  Instead of apologizing at the beginning of every post that I suck at doing this blog thing on a regular basis, just know that I am not good at doing this on a regular basis. :)


Halloween

Cole was a puppy for Halloween.  And a darn cute one at that!  Rather than trick-or-treating in the cold, we went to a local church who puts on a huge event.  They had everything there!!  Even live animals!  It was a ton of fun and afterward, Cole had the biggest sugar rush ever!  It was pretty hilarious.





Hunting

Ben went hunting several times this year and finally got the biggest deer he's ever gotten in his hunting career - a 10-point buck!  I always find it exciting to get the  breathless phone call and to hear the child-like excitement in Ben's voice.  And now we have ground meat to last us quite a while!



 I was a little nervous about Cole seeing the buck dead.  Ben has been showing him a lot of pictures of bucks, so he's come to really like looking at them.  Well, Cole was excited to see the buck and grabbed right on to the antlers and pet the fur!  However, he seems to have a little insight as he said, "Buck....uh, oh!" :)

Snow

And not that long ago, we got our first snow (today we got our third!).  We were excited to take Cole out because he never played in the snow last year and wouldn't remember it.  He wasn't to excited...he was annoyed because it was hard to move in his gear and in the snow.  And it was kind of windy, so he wasn't too happy that the snow was blowing in his face.  But in any even, we got some cute pictures and he now LOVES snowmen!








The next snow storm started with ice and when we went outside to run errands, Cole slipped and got his pants wet.  We were trying to hurry so we thought we could just do a quick change and we ended up laughing at our cute little skinny legged boy.  Love!





Fun at Papa and Nana's House

**Update - I meant to post this back in October, but I guess I never hit "Publish Post"....so here you go!**

This past weekend, Cole and I decided to take Friday off and head to Wisconsin Thursday night to hang out with my family.  Ben stayed behind and decided to go hunting for the early season.

We started out on Friday with my mom, Cole and I going to the Children's Museum in LaCrosse.  Cole had an absolute blast and I did too because I could just let him run around and he could touch anything and everything!! :) 



He especially loved the fire truck...



the swoosh vacuum thingy (don't know how else to describe it)...



and the boats in the water.



Saturday it rained and was pretty gloomy.  My brother and his family came over for dinner and we made our own fun while being cooped up inside. 






Back in Minnesota, Ben was sitting in a tree all day and getting soaking wet!  He didn't get anything, but saw two buck and is excited to see them again come hunting opener in two weeks.



Sunday we went to church and visited some more family before hitting the road to head home.


Thanks for a fun weekend Papa and Nana!!

10.11.2010

Fall Fun


When you know it's going to be a nice fall weekend in MN, you try to pack in as much as you can, knowing it may be your last chance before the snow flies.  So, we took advantage of the gorgeous fall weather this past weekend and decided to head out to the apple orchard.



Oddly enough, I don't have any pictures with apples in them.  All Cole really cared about were the animals, tractors and various dogs that were out and about.


We thought he would enjoy climbing on the hay bales, but it turns out he didn't like the feel of it and didn't like it sticking to his socks.


We met Ben's folks and Oma treated her grandson to his first hayride.


And on the way home Cole showed us how "Joe Cool" he was - just chillin' mom!


And what a perfect weekend to help Daddy wash the car.  Last time Cole "helped", he ended up eating the soap suds, so we had to keep a close eye on him.


And he actually helped this time.  He would scoop up some suds and take it over to the car and wipe it down.  Very cute.




On Friday as I was driving by our local fire station I noticed that there was an open house this past Sunday.  Cole has been really into fire trucks and sirens lately so we figured he would enjoy it.


So many buttons to push, so little time.  Luckily they can disable the buttons so the kiddies don't raise the ladder or turn on the sirens. :)



Already riding in the back of a cop car!


And a couple pictures from tonight - Cole making some expected and unexpected messes!


We're trying to let Cole feed himself so he can get used to using a fork and spoon and for the most part he does a pretty good job.  But with yogurt (or yo-yo as Cole calls it) he gives up and chugs it straight from the container.

And the unexpected mess??  Ben was working on his car and Cole loves to pretend drive, so Ben let him have at it.  What he forgot was the container of baking soda he had in the console.  Well, you guessed it.  Cole found it!




And in other news, Cole is pretty much broken from the Nuk!  WOW!  I never thought it would happen.  We decided to cut the tip off of the nuk so that it wasn't as fun to suck on and he lost interest and won't take it anymore because it's "broken".  Way to go kiddo!


9.27.2010

Catch Up Time

Shall I catch you up a bit on what's been happening?  No?  Well, tough.  I'm going to.

After we got back from the cabin, we joined some friends for our first trip to the new Target Field to watch a Minnesota Twins game.  It was good to catch up with friends and enjoy a little outdoor baseball.  Oh, and the Twins won, so that was a bonus.



We also celebrated my niece Maggie's 1st birthday!  Ben and Cole stayed back in Blaine for a little daddy/son time and I went to LaCrosse for cake and ice cream (which she obviously enjoyed immensely).




After the party, my mom, dad and I ventured back up to the cities and went on our annual outing to the Minnesota State Fair!  Gluttony ensued!  Some of the best food this year?  Chicken Fried Bacon (really it was quite good) and the usual indulgences like Pronto Pups, corn on the cob, ice cream from the dairy barn and Sweet Martha's cookies.  Cole actually did really well!  He loved people watching and seeing all of the animals.  And our wagon came in handy when he was dozing off.





We also decided it was time to say farewell to our Mazda.  We bought it when Ben and I first got married and it's been a great car.  But we knew it was a matter of time before things started falling apart and boy were we right!  The day that Ben put it on Craig's List, the tie rod broke and we had to put $$ into it.  But now it's all fixed and just like new! :)  So if you know anyone who needs a cheap, reliable car with a "few" miles on it, send them our way!



Otherwise, we've been enjoying the lovely fall weather and getting outside as much as we can before the ice and snow hits in a few months (I felt like I just swore when I said ice and snow, so if I offended anyone, I'm sorry.)  This past weekend we went to our local pumpkin "farm" to enjoy some fall activities.  Here is a picture of Cole last year when he was about 5 months old and this year at 16 months!  Still as handsome as ever.





And to end this update post, here is a video of Cole busting a move!  Enjoy! (Oh and I apologize to all of my family in Wisconsin and fellow Green Bay Packer fans for the shirt that Cole is wearing....it pains me too.)