A First..

So a year ago I made the random comment that Cole would be our "emergency room" kid because he's so wild and crazy, 24-7.... so when I got this text from Richard...

I wasn't the least bit surprised!  

Cole and Daddy were racing cars up and down the side of our bed and Cole slipped and smacked his eye on the bed frame just right.  A total freak thing, the bed frame was even covered with the bed skirt!  Apparently, Cole cried for 30 seconds and then kept playing.  He's one tough cookie!

Having fun in the waiting room!  He's all smiles because he has no idea what's coming next.  A new Lightning McQueen Daddy grabbed from our toy stash helped a bit.  

Daddy and Cole headed to Acute kids where we then met them and after a couple hours and 4 stitches later... good as new!  

He was SO mad at those nurses- it was pretty funny the glares he would give them, although a little embarrassing.  

Well, I'll left out the 10 minutes of screaming while the both of us held him down so they could sew him up.  I think he hated the being held down more than the actual stitches!  Good thing I'm not squeamish- it was pretty gross.  

A sucker always helps!

I asked Cole what he wanted to cheer him up and said he wanted cookies and ice cream for dinner- done!  We spent $20 at Nestle TollHouse!  Ha!  

Love you my little tough man!!  Hopefully this will be it for a while!  

Merry Christmas Part 1 - Texas

So I finally loaded my "real" camera pictures from Christmas at our house.   We filled the month of December with all of our normal traditions... driving around in our pajamas to look at lights, going to see the trains at Northpark, visiting Santa a Bass Pro, baking, drinking lots of hot chocolate, watching our favorite Christmas movies, decorating a gingerbread house, buying presents for each other and an "angel tree" child, putting up Christmas lights and Santa Yoda, singing carols, and a few more I'm sure I forgot.  I LOVE Christmas time, but it sure is busy!  It makes it even more magical to see it through the eyes of your kids.  Priceless!  This year was no different.  In fact, Cole really got it.

  

 Two foods Cole LOVES... cinnamon rolls and bacon

 Here are the kids sprinkling reindeer food on our lawn

 Leaving out a note, milk and cookies for Santa, along with carrots for the reindeer

 Grady insisted on reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to Cole

 The "loot"

 Santa gifts for Cole...

 Santa gifts for Grady

 Our mantle is my favorite decoration - I guess I like the jumbled messed up look! 

 This year I copied Michelle and hung cards from our banister

 Christmas morning

 Big boy got his big wheels...

 and a giant Light"m"ing McQueen

 Grady reading the letter from Santa to the group

 The kids got a basketball shooter from Santa for them to share!

I think it was a hit. 

 With Daddy too...

 G is super into art right now - I think the 1 dollar set of crayons and markers were his favorites!

 Noise maker ... Santa has a sense of humor apparently, and hearing loss.  

This thing might get "lost"...

 Marshmallow shooters

 A Witten jersey for Goose

 A light saber from Grammy

 Christmas breakfast - yum!

 Only a tantrum or two, it was a great day!

 

We had Grammy over for the craziness fun!  Uncle Jerry and Auntie Val came for the day as well but somehow I ended up with no pictures.  :(  (I was fighting off a fever and sore throat myself!) Aunt Lana got the flu, so she and Curt couldn't spend the holiday with us, but we got to see Aunt Lana afterwards. They got the kids books and Stuffies.  They both loved them although Cole refused to pose for pictures. 

It was another wonderful Christmas and we are so blessed!

Friendship

We consider ourselves lucky that we just happened to fall in to a wonderful group of friends.  We all met through Mrs. Stephie and what started as our kids becoming friends has turned into much more.  We spend lots of time together playing, laughing, wrestling, swimming, eating, going to sports events, birthday parties, you name it. 

Here we are celebrating New Year's Day at the Vaughn's house... black eyed peas and cabbage- two musts!  

Tiffany, Me, Katie and Kristen

Little kids...

Ella, Cole, Colton and Drew

Big kids...

Lauren, Grant, Jackson, Ava, Grady, Brody and Kate

The guys really love pictures!  

Silly boys

The Mommies have all kinds of adventures as well!  We see movies, shop, eat good (sometimes bad) food, and talk for hours.  Often times we plan out our next careers...  still working on that!  

The boys have adventures as well, but no pictures for proof.  

Sometimes the grown ups all get to go out together. This always includes a ridiculous amount of laughter and fun!  

Watch out for that pole!  

Anchorman 2 and then Benihanas- yum!  

Double yum!

One of the greatest gifts is friendship and we are so thankful for our friends.