Civil War

Well, the game was pretty sad (for the Beaver fans), but we managed to have a good time despite the bad football. The Klinkhammers and Sahnows came over and the kids played together so well the whole time.

The kids table @ dinner.

Lourdes and Jo were visiting from California. They were good Beaver fans, even though it's not really their team (I think they usually cheer for Cal). They even went out and bought Beaver gear for the big game.

We brought out the Fire Station that used to be Cory and Brads. Such an awesome idea! It goes over a card table and makes a fort, that the kids ended up playing with for hours.



The big kids, off to save someone from a burning house, or to get a kitty out of a tree, or whatever other emergency they could dream up!

The little kids on their stoop, chillin with their sippy cups.

I just love this photo. They all look so concerned/curious.

Celebrating one of the few Beaver touchdowns.

Thanksgiving

This year we split time between our families on Thanksgiving. We spent the morning in Lebanon with the Badgers. We are all thankful to have GG Billie back! It was great to see her. As always, I wish that I had taken more photos! I hardly got any good ones, but here are a few.

Cole and Grandpa compare phones.

Grandma got out her bucket of toys, and Cole loved this baby doll. He was actually hugging and kissing it, which was pretty sweet.

The house was all decorated for Christmas with Santas everywhere. This one is an antique from the 30s and his eyes light up. Kind of creepy, actually, but Cole was amused.

The Badgers house sits on the canal in Lebanon and it's so beautiful back there. It was a nice afternoon so we spent some time outside looking for the ducks. They have resident ducks that come up to the house every day and Walt feeds them. Here are a few family portraits. Now that I'm thinking about it, we should have done one of the 3 of us! Could have been a potential xmas card photo.



Then we headed back to Corvallis for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, where I took no pictures! So these are some that I stole from Krista and Nathan.

The spread (minus all of the sweet treats in the kitchen). YUM!

The table train, one of my favorite traditions! More people, just add another table and a few chairs. In years past the train has extended all the way through the living room. It was a bit more manageable this year.

It was Bob's birthday, and he let Cole help blow out the candles. You can see Cole signing "hot."

Grandma, the hostess with the mostess.

13 1/2 months old

I know I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but it seems like Cole is changing so much every day. Keli commented recently that he is looking more and more like a toddler, not an infant anymore. And it's so true. He is looking like a toddler ... and acting like one too! He's mastered walking, almost running at this point. Talking up a storm, some real words and a whole lot of jibberish, which is hilarious! Cory can really get him going. And then of course there are the not-so-fun toddler tendencies that I'm hoping are very temporary, such as spitting out his food when he's done, crying when you take something away from him, especially phones (ok, I know that is not going away anytime soon), crying and arching his back when he doesn't want to leave, and other fun things like that.

I have a couple cute photos from this week to post ... but my laptop died and I don't have my charger, so those will have to wait for another day.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We have a lot to be thankful for a lot this year and I'm especially thankful, as always, for such wonderful friends and family. Love you all!

this weeks happenings

A few miscellaneous photos from this week.

Cole and I went to the toy store on Monday and spent most of the time at the wind-up toy table, where he found this new penguin friend, so we had to bring him home with us. Along with a new pair of shoes that were much needed as his favorite thing these days is walking outside.

Cole modeling the hottest Fall fashion -- stripes, stripes, and more stripes. We love these moccasins, by the way. They've been great as Cole is learning to walk since we have lots of hardwood floors, which can be super slippery, and the moccasins have good traction. Plus they're much easier to get on than shoes, and I think his fat little feet are probably much more comfy.

On one of our daily walks around the neighborhood. He's getting so good at walking and is so very independent. He refuses to hold my hand and when he falls down on the hard sidewalk he just gets right back up on his and keeps going.

Checking the mail.

Today we went in for both Cole and Cory to get their hair cut. Cole has actually gotten a few haircuts already, but this time we took him to a place that has a cool kids car to sit in, which he thought was fun. And he was pretty good for the first 5 or so minutes, and then he got a bit impatient. Luckily they also had a box of toys that were good distractions. (excuse the blurry iphone photos)

Checking out how dad is doing in the other chair.

Check out that handsome little guy!

multitasking

Cole has been practicing his walking a lot, every waking moment really. And is now feeling confident enough to multitask while he is walking. Walking and drinking out of his sippy cup, walking and eating, walking and carrying his toys, walking and texting on his cell phone.

a few of cole's favorite things

Anything that someone else is eating or drinking. Including my coffee cup this past weekend. He wouldn't stop asking for it, so I ended up pouring my latte into a mug and giving him my empty cup. He was in heaven.




Hats. He doesn't necessarily like to keep them on for any length of time, but he loves hats. If he sees one on someone or in a book, he always signs "hat" and if he finds one around the house, he trys to put it on.




Being outside, or a distant second is looking outside through our front window. Here he is staring longingly ... if only it wasn't raining!

one determined little guy

Learning to walk is hard work! And it's amazing to see how determined Cole is. He walks a few steps, falls, gets right back up and tries again. He's getting better every day, gaining balance and confidence. And in the last day or so he has learned the word "ball" and "kick" and is loving carrying his football or green ball around and then throwing it and then kicking it. All along saying "ball, ball, ball, ball" (the way he says it and the face he makes is so cute -- I've got to get a video of that).

Cranberry-Walnut muffins

I picked up some cranberries at the farmers market and found this recipe on americastestkitchen.com. These are probably the best muffins I've ever had, for sure the best that I've made. I'm thinking I might try making the cranberry apple pie for Thanksgiving. Yum!



Cranberry-Walnut muffins
makes 1 dozen large muffins

INGREDIENTS
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
1 cup granulated sugar , less 1 tablespoon
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
1 1/2 cups chopped cranberries , fresh or frozen
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Vegetable cooking spray or additional unsalted butter for muffin tins

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in one-half of dry ingredients. Beat in one-third of yogurt. Beat in remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with yogurt, until incorporated. Fold cranberries and walnuts into finished batter.

3. Spray twelve-cup muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray or coat lightly with butter. Use large ice cream scoop to divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm.

thankful

Last Sunday Krista had us over for craft night. It was so much fun -- ladies, crafts, delish apple cider and yummy trail mix to boot. We made these adorable little "thankful" decorations. They have a pocket in them where you can put slips of paper that say things that you are thankful for. Last night I had Cory write two and then I wrote two for me and one for Cole.

We have a lot to be thankful for. There wouldn't be room in this envelope to hold all of the things that I am thankful for. When I stop and take the time to reflect, I appreciate what a wonderful life we have. I am thankful for Cory and Cole, my family, my friends, my health, and this week I am especially thankful for BARACK OBAMA!!!

I'm sure if Cole could talk he would say that he is thankful for milk, crackers, his toys, and of course his parents! And I know he would say that he is thankful for Brittney, who has become like a part of our family. We are so lucky to have found her. I realized that I never posted a photo of Brittney, and many of you haven't had the chance to meet her, so here she is!

baby steps

Since my morning post Cole has been working hard on his walking skills. The furthest he walked tonight was from his crib to bookcase, about 8 baby steps. I couldn't help but post these photos. It's hard to see the "motion" but you can kind of tell that he is moving. It's so fun to see him vertical. 

taking steps

Cole has been flirting with walking for quite some time. He has always been a stander, pretty much since birth, and  for the past couple of months has been cruising around on furniture like a champ. But has seemed to be quite happy with crawling, and he's pretty good at it! I've heard from several people that he is the fastest crawler they have ever seen. I can only imagine what he will be like once he learns to run! We are going to have our hands full I think. 

In the past couple weeks he has shown more interest in walking, using his push cart to cruise around the house, and happily walking while holding onto our hands. And in the past couple of days he has let go of one hand and been walking just barely holding on. So we have been thinking that walking would be coming soon! And he is most certainly on the brink.

This morning as I was blow drying my hair, Cole was playing on the floor next to me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him moving. I looked over and he was walking! One, two, three steps. I was so excited and that made him so excited, and then he fell over. But then he was determined. He kept getting back up and taking a step or two, and then falling over. It was so cool to watch and he was so proud of himself! A milestone, for sure. 

I'm glad that we have "babyproofing" on our to-do list for this weekend.

Halloween festivities

We started off the Halloween festivities with trip out to the pumpkin patch with Nathan & Krista and the kids. Complete with apple cider, fresh donuts, a hay ride, it was lots of fun! Cole loved crawling around in the mud. And he liked the donuts, too, of course.

The weekend before Halloween my parents hosted the annual pumpkin carving party. It was so warm this year that we were able to carve outside, which was lovely. Cole enjoyed helping to clean the insides out of the pumpkins.

Cole's pumpkin

My pumpkin

Cory's pumpkin

On Halloween day we headed downtown to meet up with the crew (Sahnows, McGowans, Klinkhammers) for a little downtown trick-or-treating. Cole rode in the wagon, no candy this year, but he had fun. He was a quarterback. Then we came back to our neighborhood and joined Eden and Caden for some more trick-or-treating, and ended the night handing out candy -- almost 10 lbs!