Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Well its nearly Christmas... so that means its about time to get the Thanksgiving post up!  We had a great time out at Suncadia with Cindy, Kate, Reed and Pam and a few other visitors throughout the trip. Cindy's brother Norm and his family (Monica and Kelsey) stopped by for a night, Pam's sister Karen and her husband popped in to meet Cole and our friend Garrett used us as a rest stop en route to Pullman (Go Cougs!).

Overall, we had a great time with the combined family and some delicious food.  We watched Cole perfect his stair climbing technique, played a lot of Mississippi Marbles and spent a good amount of time relaxing (see below for evidence).

Getting ready to climb!  Make sure you get this picture!

Jailbird.

Spending a lot of time on the move these days.

Almost to the top!

Mississippi Marbles underway

Off for a walk

Thanksgiving dinner.  Cole led us in the blessing

Sleepy boy

Celebrating Fall

This post has been a long time coming....  Things have been pretty hectic around here so we're going to try and do a quick, catch up post...

Daycare had the infants dress up as a pumpkin to get them into the fall spirit - Cole did not like being a pumpkin :(

The good news is, Cole snapped out of his bad mood as soon as we put some paint in front of him  - here he is preparing to paint his gourd.

Our little Tigger : )  Unfortunately, Cole was sent home on Halloween with a 102 degree fever.  We did not quite have the Halloween celebration we were anticipating.  

The angriest I have ever seen Cole :(

Cole loving his birthday gift from Aunt Melissa, Uncle Jason and cousins Jack & Maggie.  He absolutely loves this car !

Happiest pre-surgery baby ever!  You never would have known Cole hadn't had anything to eat or drink for 8 waking hours prior to this photo : )

We're hoping Grandpa Reed will be sending us some photos from Thanksgiving soon so we can do another post - Drew and I seemed to have forgotten that taking pictures is a necessity when you're trying keep out of town family updated on your lives!  

Happy 1st birthday continued!

The west coast tour of Cole's birthday continued this weekend as we traveled to Redlands, CA to visits Smiths and Jensens alike.  Cole certainly showed all emotions this weekend from tired to excited to overwhelmed.  It was great to be able to introduce him to some more of his family that he hadn't met, including his Great Grandpa Smith, his second cousins Abby and Cade and many others.  We got into CA Friday afternoon and went straight to Great Grandpa Smith's house (after a quick pit stop at In-n-Out).

Here's Abby and Cade (and mother Lori holding up Cole)

Abby and Cade did a great job of playing with Cole 

Great Grandpa Smith spending some quality time with his great grandkids

Here's part of the Palmer clan (Kathy and Andrew)

The next day we headed to the Palmer's pumpkin patch, which is a county favorite.  They had all sorts of fun, from a petting zoo to giant inflatable slides.  We spent at least a few hours there until Cole couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.  The picture above is Abby (dressed as Minnie Mouse) feeding the goats

More goats.

Cole needed a hat to keep the sun off.  Aunt Kate made it too (in case we didn't mention that).  All the way from Atlanta! 

Here's Great Uncle Norm and David.  Cole is quite excited about the conversation.

And the whole crew that made it out to the pumpkin patch.

Later that night, we had the formal party at a local Italian restaurant in Redlands.  Cindy did all of the planning and it was a great party for Smiths, Jensens and other admirers.  Here's shot of Emily and Kate's cousins Sean, Ryan and Ashleigh (along with boyfriend Michael).  

Group shot!

What is this thing hovering over me?

At this point, Cole was past exhaustion.  But you can't keep a kid from his frosting, even when battling tears.

Its a love - hate relationship he had with the cake that night.

In the end, the cake was too good to be upset about.

And here's the cake the rest of us got to eat!  It was a great party and a better weekend.  Thanks to all that made it and spent so much time planning!  We couldn't have been happier to see everyone and introduce Cole to family.

1 year

My dad has always told me as you get older each year goes by faster than the prior - this past year I have learned just how right he is!  It feels like just months ago Cole surprised us with his early arrival, it's unimaginable to believe it's already been a full year! Drew, Cole and I hosted a triple birthday party on Sunday to celebrate Oliver, Cade & Cole's birthdays.  While Cole got a little overwhelmed mid-party, he seemed to really enjoy having his friends over to celebrate (for the most part).  Here are lots of pics. from the party...

Vivian, Micah & Cole

The only pic. we got of all the birthday boys with us moms - this was about 2 seconds before a major breakdown :(

Cole was still a bit too overwhelmed when it came time for eating cake in the kiddie pool - hopefully Cole will eat some of his cake  at his upcoming family birthday party.

Cade had no troubles eating his cake ;)

Oliver & Heather

After our house cleared out we tried to get our final month birthday photo of Cole.  I think Drew and I agree, the staged monthly photos are ending just in time - Cole doesn't sit still very well any more.  He's officially 1 and on the go constantly!

The only way we could get the sign right side up : )  Good thing he loves being upside down!

Cole was so exhausted after his day of celebrating he fell asleep mid-bottle. I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of him sleeping so peacefully.

Cole's exhaustion definitely carried over to today - he hasn't even been able to open his presents yet!  Hopefully he'll be up for unwrapping gifts tomorrow :)

We had his 1 year check up appointment this afternoon - 4 shots later Cole was ready for bed.  

The great news is Cole is continuing to grow at an astounding pace:

Height 28 1/2" (10th percentile)

Weight 19 lbs 8.5 ozs. (25th percentile)

Head circumference 46 cms (55th percentile)