Afternoon in the country

 We haven't been to the country since this past rain and were pleasantly surprised to see some green vegetation and full tanks on this last trip (as seen behind Cole's cow aka CiCi).  Whenever we go out there, Cole likes to do 3 things: 1. Feed the cows; 2. Ride in the vroomvroom (polaris ranger); and 3. Ride in the tractor.  He fills up a bucket of cubes and chunks them through the fence at the cows as he hasn't quite gotten up the nerve to feed them any closer.  Given, I'll never forget the first time I tried to feed cows and thought it was a joke that they would eat the cubes out of your hand until that sandpapery tongue snatched it right from me.  Those are pictures that I will not be posting anytime soon!  Anyways, here lately the boy likes to sing "Old Macdonlad" and dance a little jig while he feeds cubes and I caught him this time:).  For me, I like going to the country to get out of town and to play with my camera.  Even though I like cooler weather, the signs of spring were a welcome sight.

The rest of January

Besides spending fun times with cousin, we have also been busy going to church activities, music class and gymnastics class; playing outside on oddly warm January days; and found lots of things to do inside like:

Painting on our new easel with our new apron.  I was really nervous about not having him strapped into his booster seat to paint and ending up with paint all over the house but he did really great!

Cooking in our matching aprons!  We like vegan blueberry muffin batter the best!

Playing with our new train....I caught him mid-ChooChoo!

Helping Dada build our very early birthday Jeep.  We had thought about getting him one for Christmas but I'm weird and prefer non-motorized, use-your-leg-muscles-to-move-and-burn-energy-to-go-to-bed-easier-at-night riding toys.  However, after he liked cousin's so much and the fact that Academy had a big sale on them after Christmas and the fact that he won't realize yet what he does and does not get on his actual birthday, we decided to get one now.

Crusing in our new Jeep!  I think he looks like he's checking cows in this picture:) Oh, and Russell will officially be teaching this child how to drive after I was told "Cole can't hear you, Mama.  I'm driving my Jeep" when I tried to show him how to not run into something.  That's better anyways as I still can't park worth a darn!

First week of January

So behind....We have been pretty darn busy so here is a recap from early January!

Cousin got a Barbie jeep for Christmas that she does not like to drive but prefers to ride in which is perfect because my little daredevil LOVES to drive!  I think they were having just a little bit of fun:)

Cousin turned 3 in January and had a fun Cinderella party.  Silly face...

Monkey see, monkey do!

 

Sweet face with her new doll figurine

Modeling cousin's new bling

 

One of cousin's classmates does pageants and shows the other girls how to model...I got so many cute pictures of her catwalk but this was my favorite!

Christmas 5 & 6

Christmas Eve morning we went to Somerville to celebrate with Russell's family. Cousin was all about opening gifts whereas Cole opened a trash truck (he loves them, ever since reading Trashy Town which he also got for Christmas) and was too busy filling it with "red trash" (wrapping paper) to worry with anything else. We tried to take family pictures but some people were not wanting to cooperate....

 Looking at stockings that Santa brought early

 Oh, the trash truck!

Photo 1: Cole finger in nose 

Photo 2: Monkey see, monkey do! 

Photo 3: Slightly blurry, but I think you see the humor... 

That night, I had to work in the church nursery but thankfully the family that left the one baby left early and I was able to participate in communion and the candle lighting. Cole love blowing out candles and proved that when mom lit my candle and before I could light Russell's, I hear "puff"...we quickly re-lit so the rest of the pew could have candle light and Cole patiently waited until "Silent Night" was over to puff again! Once we got home, we put out carrots for the reindeer (who we like more than Santa) and a cup of water before bed. If it wasn't such a long video, I would post evidence of what happened Christmas morning and why Santa may not visit our house next year....let's just say it involved a pouty fit with an empty water cup being thrown when someone discovered that the reindeer were not still there as he thought they were going to be! He finally came around and started emptying his stocking at which point the dog starts to choke on the treat from his stocking that he attacked immediately as he remembered goodies from years past. And yes, all of this is on film....maybe there is an America's Funniest Home Videos submission in our future:)

After all of that, we got ready for church as the nursery was to be open that morning for an hour and then went to Christmas with the Meier side of the family.  And just like the first Christmas, I forgot my camera, again.  Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

Christmas 3 & 4

Christmas 3 and 4 were combined with my grandma and my parents. This year was bittersweet being the first Christmas without my grandpa but we really enjoyed the time with my grandma and remembering all the fun Christmas memories from baking cookies to eating sausage balls to our favorite gifts over the years. Cole was sweet and reminded us all that grandpa was in heaven and is an angel now:)

My mama and her mama

Aunt Meme and Uncle Ry (my sister and her hubby)

Gives a whole new meaning to "air brushing"!

The biggest container of animal cookies ever!  Can anyone guess where Nana and Pop bought these?

Christmas 1 & 2

As always, our Christmas season is crazy with 6 get togethers but despite the busyness, we always enjoy getting to see everyone and visit!  I'm going to split them into different posts as to not to overload one post with pictures.  Our first Christmas this year was the first week of December with the Gerland family and I forgot my camera...mom of the year, I know.  Cole had fun playing with all of his second cousins and wolfed down "hot dogs" (sausage) and okra. Here are a few of the boy at home...

 "Which decoration do I want to take off next?"

He kept having the camel eat the baby Jesus and would say "num num num"....I'm hoping it's just because the baby was on hay and not some deeper religious/emotional issue...
Christmas 2 was the third weekend with the Driskill family coming in from south Texas. Cole put on a show for my Mom-ma, Pop-pa, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Rodger with his new drum and an old keyboard piano. He wanted all of them to go in the blue room at my parents house (where all of his toys are) and no one else was allowed in!

 

Giving sweet kisses with presents...

More kisses...

New drumsticks!

Oh, the piano that Mama is so glad stays at Nana and Pops house!  Check out my Christmas bokeh in the background...I think I'm finally learning to use my big girl camera:)

Christmas Cards

I meant to type this a few weeks ago and forgot.  As many of you have probably noticed, you did not receive a Christmas card from us this year.  Don't worry, we still love you and didn't send one to anybody.  No, we aren't scrooges.  We are annoyed, cheap perfectionists (or at least I am).  Snapfish had cards on sale right after Thanksgiving and I was going to order cards then.  Earlier that week, my sister in law and I decided to take our children to a professional to try and get a good picture of them together to give to my in-laws for Christmas as we can't ever get them to sit still and I figured I would use one of those in the Christmas card.  Ta Da!  Cards and gifts done in just a few days, I am a genius!  Well, the photographer we got a Potrait Innovations was very nice but didn't do that great of job of distracting toddlers for a picture and the pictures we got were ok....still good enough for gifts and cards though.  I considered buying their cards but holy moly, they are expensive (hence the cheapness).  Oh well, I'll just use the free cd to make cards like I always do, I thought and left the studio sweating (I mentioned photographer didn't engage the toddlers so my sis-in-law and I had to jump up and down like idiots to get ok pics) but with photos for gifts at least.  That evening I uploaded the pics from the cd to discover they are EXTREMELY low resolution and were going to be blurry even in the smaller 3X6 cards where the picture is the size of a wallet print (annoyance and perfectionism starting now...).  Sears and Olan Mills both gave cds with the ability to at least print 5X7's so I thought there must be an error but Portrait Innovations informed me that all their cds are low resolution which begs the question of why even offer a cd?!  I'm really annoyed at this point and my cheapness wanted to order right then (as sale ended that day) and my perfectionism didn't want to wait as I know myself and I wouldn't mail them until next year if I waited any longer.  Then I had the epiphany to eliminate stress and not send any and donate the money I would have spent on cards and stamps.  So I did.  Next year I promise to get my decorations out earlier and take pics myself to avoid this mental meltdown happening again as we have really enjoyed all the cards we received this year!