Cole Turns THREE!

I'm a few weeks behind, but wanted to take a few minutes to recap Cole's super fun third birthday!

His day began with us waking him up singing happy birthday with a bunch of balloons.  Then he enjoyed a yummy birthday hot chocolate complete with whipped cream and sprinkles (one of his favorite treats), and opened his presents from us before heading to school.

Corey, Jackson and I joined him in class that afternoon for his birthday circle. They do such a great job of celebrating each kiddo on their big day, complete with walking the earth (a globe) around the sun (a candle) for each year of life, and then showing photos of the kiddo at each age.  And to top it off, Ms. Kelly made him a crown again, which he loved wearing for his celebrations at school and at home. 

 

We all adore Ms. Kelly!

 Ms. Regina is pretty great, too!

Neal is one of Cole's BFFs.

After his birthday circle, he and I grabbed ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and then went to his 3-year check-up.  He did great and the doctor only had good things to say about his growth and development.  That evening, Ellie, Natalie and Lisa (poor Hads was sick and couldn't join in the phone, so Jason stayed home with her) came over for birthday dinner and cupcakes.

 

This perfectly sums up how he felt about his day - he loved all the attention and was so happy and excited all day long.

The next day, my parents and grandma joined Joan at our house for a family celebration complete with a yummy lunch and giant chocolate chip cookie. Of course he was spoiled with more presents.

 

So excited for his toy grass trimmer! Thanks, Uncle Elliott!

 

Totally normal.

 

This is a giant chocolate chip cookie - so yummy paired with vanilla ice cream.

 

Corey and Jackson got Great Gramma involved in their rubik's cube fun.

 

Not sure who enjoyed playing with Playdoh the most.

Cole has turned into quite the big boy over the last year and is so much fun. 

• Said goodbye to his pacifier and crib
• Talking up a storm
• Continues to love candy and all sweets
• Back to sleeping through the night after a few month off and on rough patch after giving up his bink (hooray!!)
• Knows all of his colors
• Counting to 20 (though sometimes forgets important numbers likes 14, 15 and 16)
• Knows the days of the week and their order but is never clear on what day it is, or which days mean school or not (when cuddling tonight (a Friday), he asked me "when I get up tomorrow, do I go to school?"; almost any time you ask him what day it is, his answer is "Monday?")
• Says the ABCs
• Understands past/present/future but hilariously has no concept of how far in the past/future something's happened (i.e. he'll show you an owie on his leg and say he got it "last year")
• Loves playing outside and is great at driving his car
• Loving his swimming lessons
• Continues to express his excitement through jazz hands (one my fave things!)
• Still taking a nap for 1.5-2 hours per day but we've been waking him at 3 p.m. or else falling asleep at night takes forever.
• Says "I love you" to us out of the blue.  
• Continues to give the BEST bear hugs.

It's been a fun year watching Cole's personality continue to develop and I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

We Did Disney!

We just returned home from a SUPER fun trip to Disneyland last weekend!  Neither boy had been and with nothing close to even remotely even base it on, they were both shocked and amazed with how great it was, and each had the time of their life!

We went with my parents and had a great time traveling with them, and also appreciated the extra sets of hands, allowing the us to divide and conquer a bit with the boys.  It got a little stressful leading up to the trip as parts of Washington were buried in snow, Snoqualmie pass was closed and my parents' flight from Yakima to Seattle was cancelled.  Luckily they found out early enough the night before we left that they could drive over White Pass, but didn't arrive to our house until after 2 a.m. and had to be up to catch our plane at 4:30 a.m.

But, once we worked through that, the trip was a breeze. We flew into Santa Ana and used Lansky car service which worked out perfectly to get to/from The Grand Californian.  The hotel was great, and was located right in downtown Disney, allowing us to easily come and go to the park as we pleased.  There was even an entrance directly into CA Adventure.  We purchased 3-day park hopper tickets and felt like that was the perfect amount of time to be there.

We had adjoining rooms at the hotel and J slept with my parents a few of the nights. Cole slept in the pack n play (all rooms had one in the closet!) one night and then the bed the other nights and did awesome. It meant early nights for all of us, but honestly we were so tired after long action packed days and tons of walking, we were ready for bed by the time he got into bed each night.

The boys did great on the flights and thankfully Cole is entertained by tablets/shows much more now than even just last May when we went to Kauai.  And on our way on board the first flight, the pilots allowed Jackson to sit up front for a few minutes, which he loved.

We arrived at the hotel around 11 a.m. on Thursday and headed right to Disneyland. Lines were really light and most of the time, we were able to walk right onto the rides, or wait <5 aria-haspopup="true" class="goog-spellcheck-word" id=":dj.3" role="menuitem" span="" style="background: yellow;" tabindex="-1">mins
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That evening, we had reservations at Blue Bayou which is the restaurant within Pirates of the Caribbean, which came highly recommended.  The following day, it poured until about noon, and even with rain boots and coats, ponchos and umbrellas, we were soaked. But after some downtime back at the hotel for Cole's nap, we were happy to discover sunny skies and headed back out that afternoon/evening.

Saturday was a sunny day and the parks were a little more crowded but not unbearable by any means.

At just over 48" tall, Jackson could ride all the rides and literally rode nearly every ride in both Disneyland and California Adventure, including a huge roller coast that went upside down!  At 37", Cole couldn't ride everything he wanted, but he really enjoyed all the rides he was able to go on.  It was so fun to witness the boys' excitement over each ride, and just watch how in awe they were of some.

Jackson's favorite ride was the roller coaster, though he wouldn't ride it again. (Not that I can blame him since the first time we rode it was when it was raining and rain was pelting our face and we got even more soaked.)  Cole told us he liked the coccinelle the best. We weren't sure what this was until Jackson informed us that this meant ladybug in French, which they'd learned in school. (We went on ladybug-like teacups which is what Cole must have been referring to!)

The boys loved when they spotted characters roaming the parks - they'd run up and give them hugs.  Cole, in his usual fashion, gave Minnie a HUGE bear hug around her legs, but had run up to her from the side which startled her and almost caused her to tip over.  Oops!

And no trip to Disneyland would be complete without some souvenir shopping!  The boys had fun deciding what they wanted to buy, and have enjoyed their final purchases.

We had such a blast and look forward to more trips in the coming years!

2016 - Year in Review

Whew!  Another fun year, nearly in the books.  While it's been a great year, we have lots of planned in 2017 and are looking forward to the new year.  But, before we think ahead, here's a quick look back at 2016.

Cole turned 2 early this year and around that time, he started in the Early Preschool class at school. He's doing great there and we just adore his teacher, Ms. Kelly.  He got rid of his pacifier ('bink'), went on his first camping trip, moved to a big boy bed (we converted his crib to a bed much earlier than planned, after he climbed out a few weeks ago), and has been dabbling with using the potty.

Jackson turned 5 this year, learned to read and has moved to chapter books, is writing much better, loves math (and has moved into multiplication and division), started Kindergarten, learned to tie his shoes, ride a bike, and started gymnastics.

We went to Whistler with the Barths in January and Kauai with the Reeders in May (and have a trip back planned next May!). My mom and I enjoyed a girls' weekend in Palm Springs in March. Corey and I went to Vegas over the 4th of July weekend, ran a 1/2 marathon in San Francisco with friends in July, and celebrated his 40th in Portland with the Reeders and McNeills.  Corey visited Spence and Renata in Olso as a birthday present, and he, the boys and my dad went camping.

We had a great holiday season with lots of celebrations and family time at home together, and with our families.  We wish you all a wonderful 2017!

Holiday Festivities!

It's been a whirlwind holiday season as we've enjoyed tons of fun activities over the last few weeks.

It all kicked off with our annual visit to Snowflake Lane.  As per usual, the boys loved it. We lucked out this year with close parking, light crowds and rain that stopped just as the show started.

Then we spent one evening driving around looking at all. the.lights.   One of our favorite houses with lights set to music that plays on the radio was no longer participating, but we did find some other nicely decorated places, and even another house with coordinated lights and music.

 

As usual, we visited Santa. Happy to report no tears from Cole this year, and Jackson actually had specific gifts to ask for, for the first time ever (a remote control train, magnetic calendar (like the one in his class), and Jack & Annie books).

 

 

Gramma Joan and I took the boys to A Very Merry Sammamish earlier this month, where they saw a real live camel, played in fake snow, had their faces painted and heard local elementary schools performing Christmas songs.  It was a fun event to help us get into the holiday spirit.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is receiving holidays cards/photos from friends and family near and far, which we display in our kitchen and often look at and discuss during meals.

Elvis the elf made his annual appearance on December 1st.  Jackson has enjoyed the whole Elf on the Shelf thing for a few years now but it was fun to see Cole get excited this year to get ready in the a.m. so he could come downstairs to help Jackson find him. I wised up this year and saved some ideas on Pinterest since I remember running out of fun hiding places and activities pretty quickly in years past. After finding Elvis each day, the boys enjoyed opening their chocolate advent calendar.

 We attended the Gossetts' annual holiday party and had a blast. Even Santa made an appearance (and brought gifts!), which was an amazing surprise for all the kiddos. 

 

 

  

We enjoyed a play date/gift exchange with Hadley one morning, and everyone loved trying out the Pie in the Face game Hadley gifted the boys.

The boys played at Ellie's and made gingerbread houses one morning, which they loved!

The boys helped me decorate the tree, and loved every minute.  We always decorate over Thanksgiving weekend so we have time to enjoy it, but I'm not going to lie, after 5 weeks of the tree and decorations taking over, I think I'm ready to take everything down and get organized this weekend.

 

We all enjoyed lots of time with Gramma Joan, Uncle Elliott (who was in town for two weeks!), my parents, Grandma, Scott & Anya.

 

 

J & Cole decorated sugar cookies - a favorite activity for them, and lucky for me, it leads to lots of delicious sugar cookies for me to enjoy (they're one of my fave desserts!)

 

We spent Christmas Eve with Elliott and Joan, and the boys received their first round (of three --- they're so spoiled!) of presents.  Jackson was SO excited about Christmas and Santa's arrival, he spent much of the day tracking Santa's progress around the world online.  He wrote Santa a note and left out cookies and milk for him to enjoy, while Cole left carrots, pretzels and water outside for the reindeer.

 

 

 On Christmas morning, it was just the four of us and J & Cole opened their presents from Santa and from us.  They had a blast opening everything and then playing with all their loot.  Later that day, my family arrived for gifts and lunch, and then Joan and Elliott joined all of us that evening for dinner.  I just love spending time with family during the holidays.

 

 

 

Corey couldn't help but buy J his own Tesla as our main gift this year.  #likefatherlikeson

I still can't quite believe Christmas is over and we're nearly into 2017, but we've had a great few weeks, and are looking forward to a yummy dinner at John Howie on New Years Eve with the Reeders.