this kid

He's been sick for the past two days! :( 

(these pictures were taken a few days ago when we were on a walk and he wasn't sick..)

But even though he's been sick and sleeping SO much, he's been so cute lately. He's grown up so much and really gets so many things now. He babbles all the time; he hasn't said any real words yet which kind of surprises me, but when he babbles, you can tell that he really thinks he talking. haha

He claps his hands...a new thing for him :) I think it's adorable! And he makes the same sound when we get him from his crib or when we turn the corner and come into his view. It's a high pitched sound that kind of sounds like he's saying "hi," although I don't really think he is.

He still dances whenever he hears any sort of beat.

He LOVES books. He will sit on the floor and "read" them to himself.

He loves that ball.

He loves all animals and tries to imitate the sound they make when he seems them. In real life, or in pictures in his books too.

He's just been melting my heart lately. (I guess he always does) and I just want him to get better! There's nothing sadder than a sick coughing baby!

lots of kiwis

I know we're already about a month in, but with the new year has come new ideas for this family's eating habits. And that main idea is to eat healthier. I bought a big thing of kiwis and I try to eat one at least once a day. Sometimes I feel like eating them and sometimes I don't :/

Steve and I already eat a big salad before dinner and we've been pretty good about it since we made the goal to do it last year. It's actually not as hard to do as I thought it would be. It makes meal planning way easier for me since I know that we will always have a salad. I never have to come up with any other side dishes! And surprisingly eating a really big salad (I mean really big) before we have the main course really fills you up; sometimes we don't even feel like having it!

Next step is to get rid of dressing. I try not to dump it on because I know dressing is not good for you. It kind of defeats the purpose, but I can't get myself to eat salad without it yet. It makes me feel like I'm eating grass. Gross.

One thing that I want to start this year is for us to have green smoothies everyday. We're more hesitant to start doing this because it just sounds like a huge MESS. And I need a Vitamix. I'm not sure that our magic bullet is going to cut it on this one!

Any healthy food tips for me?! :)

hoodie + flag football

Today on MLK day, Cole and I dropped Steve off to play flag football with some buddies and then we went off to do a little photoshoot! (Cole's favorite thing ever) I wanted to get some shots of him wearing that adorable hoodie that Meredith made for him for his birthday before he grows out of it. Because now that Cole is eating loooots of solids (and still nursing too) he's growing super super fast and growing out of everything!

This hoodie called for its own photoshoot though, because my friend Meredith measured him the night before his birthday party, and the next day she had already sewed him the hoodie! Amazing right? I thought so. Thank you Meredith! That was so sweet of you!

Also, I liked the location I picked out (Cole liked the gravel). I love all the freeways here and I'm excited to use this spot in a future photoshoot :)

After our photoshoot, Steve called from his flag football game telling us he'd injured his knee and needed to be picked up. He's not sure exactly what happened, he just landed funny and now he's in a lot of pain and crippled. :( Hopefully it will get better soon!! I feel bad for him. He's even taking ibuprofen and he hates medicine. haha

And before I go, I wanted to say that Cole is finally sleeping normally!! YAY! Life is SO much better when your baby sleeps :)

back to real life (and mini apple pies)

I shared these pictures of the mini apple pies that I made with Steve's mom on the second to last night that we were in Washington on Notes She Wrote today. Silly me, it wasn't until after I posted it and people started asking about the recipe that I thought I should probably share that too along with the pictures. Haha.

Anyway, she was so sweet and sent me the recipe which you can find here!

Now that we are home from Washington, we are back to real life after three weeks of vacay! Cole is still adjusting to being back in Texas. Overall, he is sleeping better than when we were in Washington, BUT his sleeping habits are still way out of whack and it's about to drive me crazy. He won't fall asleep in his crib or take any naps and I'm not getting anything done! We have a "protocol" (as Steve calls it) when we put him to sleep. We lay him down. He cries. We let him cry for 15 minutes. Then we go in and comfort him. He cries for another 15 minutes. We go back in and comfort him. And it goes like this for HOURS it seems. We just want him to sleep in his crib and take naps! Like he used to!!

Here's to hoping that we get it all figured out sooner than later. :(

Christmas/New Year's Card 2011

 Actually, it's not really a Christmas card at all!

But here is the "Christmas" card we are not sending out. Instead we are posting it all over the internet in hopes that all of our family and friends will see.

Have a Happy 2012! :)

Rhythm

It's our last day here in Spokane :( Tomorrow we're flying back to Texas. The only good thing about that is that hopefully Cole will get back on a normal sleep schedule. Ever since we've been on our trip, he has refused to sleep in the pack n play...so he sleeps with us. Not only that but he has reverted to being a newborn and wakes up multiple times a night and wants to nurse. You would never guess that we have a one year old at night. I just don't have the energy to sleep train him again...especially when we're not in our own house and when we're on vacation!

But other than his horrible sleeping habits, we're sad to say good-bye to family and head back to real life. I think Cole will especially miss all the attention he's been getting from his wonderful grandparents and aunt and uncles. He'll also miss that adorable mini blue guitar that was given to his Uncle Ben while we've been here. He played with that thing nearly every day! And Cole has rhythm; he hears the rhythm in everything: all music, that guitar, a dripping faucet, a running washing machine. He'll start to shake to the beat. It's the most adorable thing ever!

Anyway, today for our last day of vacation, we made sure that it counted! We went out to lunch, took family pictures, Yvonne and I went to Planet Beach where she treated me to aqua-massage and red light therapy! 

And then tonight we made mini apples pies together :) YUM! I'll post pictures of those later :)

We pretty much had a blast. I'm so so lucky to have such wonderful in-laws :)

Ice skating in Spokane

Here are the pictures I took when we went ice skating a couple days ago! It was a lot of fun, super cold though! I hadn't been that cold in a long time. I do live in Texas now after all ;)

It'd been two whole years since the last time I'd gone and I was totally rusty. I didn't look like a natural at all.   You will see what I mean in the video I put together. This video is super choppy. Sorry about that :/ I have no idea what I did wrong when putting it together or how to change it. I need to learn though!

If nothing else, it's a fun memory to have :)

Next time hopefully Cole will be old enough to skate with us. He was just on the sidelines this time around.

Taking a walk

I put up pictures of my sisters on my photography blog today! I thought they turned out cute so you should check them out :)

The pictures above are from the walk Marie, Lissie and I went on on Christmas Eve. Gosh, I love my sisters. They are so much fun!! And I miss all of them so much :(

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's! We stayed home and played games: mafia and Just Dance on the Wii (so fun!!) I actually stayed up until 1 am. Amazing. Ice skating didn't end up working out which is ok since we're supposed to go today instead. (Fingers crossed!!) Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some ice skating pictures! :)