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)

Pumpkin Patch

Drew, Cole and I met up with Tony, Liz and Cade at Mr. Maze's Pumpkin Patch.  We had a great time for about 20 minutes before the skies opened up and the typical Seattle October rain started.  But we were fortunate enough to get a couple great shots of the boys enjoying their first pumpkin hunt : )

Some more firsts

We've had another bug going around the Hadley house.  So far only Cole and I have been fully affected by the cold/cough, and we're doing our best to keep Drew healthy.  The good news is we're on the tail end of everything so we should all be healthy for Cole's 1st birthday on Sunday : )

A few weeks ago Drew headed out of town to Vegas for work.  While he was gone Cole had a very big day of firsts - he waved for the first time, he ate at the big boy's table at day care and he had his first accident :(  While the first two were great firsts, the last one was on my watch and I felt horrible!  The good news is Cole's swollen, black eye was back to normal within a couple days and he barely has a scar...

While I don't have picture evidence of his first wave or his first injury, I do have a picture of Cole's first meal at the big boy's table.  

Cole's first time at the table

Cole with his best buddies Magnus & Wolfgang

In other big news, a little over a week ago, Cole got his first tooth!  We always heard teeth come in in pairs, apparently Cole wants to be a little different and just have 1 for a while.  While this picture doesn't show the tooth very well, this is the best pic we have (thanks to Reed).  

Here are some other pics from the last couple weeks.