So Blessed...

I can't believe how fast Christmas has come and gone! Crazy to think that by the end of the week we will be in a new year already!

We were so blessed this Christmas for so many reasons; it was our first one with Owen, what an awesome blessing to have him in our lives - he had a great Christmas! Also, we were able to spend a lot of time with family and friends - we had four separate 'Christmas Parties' to attend. We also feel blessed that even though we are faced with uncertainty in our lives, that Scott and I both have steady incomes, a roof over our heads, and food on our table!

Our festivities began with Christmas at our house as a family of 3 - Santa visited our house for the first time ever and we all opened our gifts in the morning.



Owen got a new ball and some fun toys and even a camo onesie (from dad, of course!).
Scott and I decided to get ourselves a Wii for Christmas (we figured we'd have to wait until after Christmas to get it though since everyone was sold out - but somehow my mom and Nathan found one on Christmas Eve while they were out doing some last minute shopping!!)

Around 10 or so we finally managed to get ourselves out of the house and headed over to my mom's for Christmas at her house. Nathan came into town - so the whole fam was there!! Nathan and Travis have this thing where on Christmas (and sometimes on Thanksgiving too) they slick their hair back and wear sweaters - they say they like to get dressed up for the event - anyway, here is Nathan in his getup w/ Owen in his...



We also decided to take a family pic - since we haven't had a pic of all of us together in forever (actually since Nathan's graduation from NMU in May of 05)...
Notice how somehow Nathan grew a little bit in the second pic?





We all had a great time and had a 'lucious' breakfast of ham, eggs, toast, and bacon (yum!) and for dinner we made bbq ribs with all the fixins (we decided to take the non traditional approach this year, as typically we have a turkey or ham for dinner).

Scott and I got a new digital video camera from my mom - we're still figuring it all out, but this will be so nice to have to capture all of the growing up Owen will be doing in years to come! :)

On the 26th we headed over to Scott's parents house and had our family Christmas with his parents, Jen, Paul and the kids...We had a yummy breakfast of egg caserole, monkey bread, fruit, and lots of other yummy goodies!

Here are O and Gma...



The kids all made out like bandits and had a great time tearing into all their gifts!



Own loves his Mr Brown Bear...



We weren't able to spend the whole day there, since at 4 we had our next party to attend, the VI Christmas at aunt Carol's!!

We headed home around 2 just in time for Owen's nap - and then we got ready to head out again. The whole extended family was there - and Owen had a great time playing with all the second cousins! We even tried for a pic of all the kids! Here is Dylan trying to keep his cousin occupied...



Lots of awesome food and company to enjoy!! It was a bit overwhelming for Owen with all the noise - but he is such a trooper!! By the end of the night cousin Michelle had him fast asleep in his bouncy!!

On Saturday at 4 we had the Kole Christmas at Great Grandma and Grandpa's clubhouse - the whole fam was there... Here's O w/ Great Gma...



Once again we had a great time eating, spending time with the fam and oh, did I mention eating?! (I think I've put on a few lbs this holiday season!!). Owen was so out of sorts by the end of the night though - I think he was just overstimulated - and over tired, so we left a little early and headed home.

Our plan for the week is to tear out the flooring in the dining/kitchen/hallway and put in laminate wood flooring - it will be much easier for Owen to crawl around on and also easier to keep clean!!! Since this is central area in our house and there will be a lot of dust and stuff from tearing out the tiles, Owen and I are going to be staying at Grandma Ruth's for a couple days! Scott had to work today but will get started on it this afternoon when he gets home from work!! I ordered the dumpster which should be arriving any time now! I'm so excited to get a new floor! I'll post more on the progress of our project!! :)

New Milestone

Owen has reached a new milestone, albiet a bit late, but he's reached it nonetheless...He learned to roll over - just stomach to back for now...



...stay tuned for a blog post on the Kole Family Christmas...

Deck the Halls (or something like that)...

The Christmas tree is finally decorated! I tend to be a procrastinator - but once I get going on something, I am so glad I started and have a lot of fun with it!!

Scott and I had a great time going through all of our ornaments and putting them on the three. Many of them were ones his mom saved for him throughout the years - so thee are ornaments that are almost 30 yrs old and newer ones too...

A few of our favorites...

The Bear Golfer......

The Zombie Drummer Boy....

The Ginger Clown (for those who know me, I am terrified of clowns, so why I allow this on my tree I do not know, but it is tucked away in the back of the tree)...

Side note; why is it that when its not fit for man nor beast and the local authorities are urging everyone to stay indoors, that all the men must venture outside and drive around anyway? Yup, Scott had to go check out the roads !!!

Here is our driveway around noon today...(yes that's the Jetta under all that snow - Scott last drove it around 10 on Fri night - and we've gotten all that snow and blowing since!)


Hope everyone here in MI is staying warm today - what a great day to make cookies, cuddle up and watch movies and just relax!!!

Christmas Survey

Emily posted a Christmas survey on her blog - which originally Brenda posted on her blog with a challenge to other bloggers to copy and paste the questions and answer them. So, here are my responses...

Favorite Christmas movie (cartoon or children's)? How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacay

When do you usually start Christmas shopping? Whenever I see something on sale that would make a great gift for someone throughout the year, but usually the week or two before Christmas

Favorite Christmas present? A dollhouse when I was about 8

Real or artificial tree? both - we did real the first year in our house, but then bought a artificial pre-lit tree a few years back (for $36 in an after-Christmas sale) and it is awesome! (I tend to get allergic reactions to real trees)

Colored or white lights? definitely WHITE

Favorite Christmas memories? My brothers and I all sleeping in my bedroom on Christmas Eve night and then waking eachother up to run downstairs and see what Santa brought - always in red/green/white paper (I was red, Nathan green, Travis White). Also, making Chex mix, relaxing at home and playing with Christmas gifts, going bowling, etc

Favorite Christmas song? I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (no not really), Silent Night, Its Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas, Joy to the World - I kinda like them all!

Do you like eggnog? its ok - a few sips of it anyway, drinking a whole glass might be overwhelming

Peppermint canes or fruity ones? Peppermint

Yea for the Snow Day!

So nice to be home and enjoy my fam today! Scott had the day off and I had a snow day, and so far we've spent the day having fun!

Making cookies, trying to teach O to roll over, singing, wrapping presents, and maybe (hopefully) decorating that darn christmas tree!!

And of course what fun day would be complete without some dressup for O? Here are my two guys - donning their cammo lids...


He just LOVES camo!! :)

My B.A. Baby

No time for a real post - just some quick pics...

Little O is quite the character...

He loves to hang out in new places. (He was so in awe of this box it was unreal, I'm suprised I could get him to look up from the fun he was having tugging and batting at the box flap)...


He refuses to roll over, yet somehow can migrate from underneath his music thingy (and turn a full 90 degrees)


and he is just a stud...

Chowder, Grillz, and Other Weekend Happenings

This weekend, Scott, Owen, and I headed up to the cottage in Ludington with Tim & Emily. A good time was had by all.

We we went on a shopping excursion to the finer stores of Dollar Tree and Walmart - the best purchase? Some grillzzzzzzzz from the dollar store.

Owen was a perfect little man - and slept the whole night through AND slept in until 745 on BOTH Sat and Sun!!!

Saturday, the boys went hunting and the girls and Owen made some corn chowder - good comfort food for a dreary winter day!

Sun we had a delic. breakfast of cinnamon swirl french toast and bacon - thanks Emily!! :) and headed home around 1:00. ...and what trip to Ludington would be complete without some Wesco popcorn and A&W rootbeer for the ride home - thanks babe!!

This afternoon Scott, O and I are just chilling out at home and making some plans for our winter construction project - we're tearing out our kitchen/dining/hallway flooring and installing new 'stuff' - as we'll both be off work around the holidays - I took the week between christmas/new yr's off and Scott's work is shut down during that time. There's always bound to be fun when tearing your home apart!

5 Months!

I can hardly believe that 5 months have passed since little O man was born!! Its amazing to see the changes in him and his abilities and what a little person he is becoming!

Some of his newly acquired 'skills' and daily routines...

• Balancing in a sitting position on his own (still falls over though)
• Making noises such as datdadap, bodababa
• Grabbing on to everything
• Putting EVERYTHING in his mouth
• Moving things from one hand to the other
• Arching his back and throwing his head back when being held - just cuz he can (this has started within the past couple of days)
• Nursing/taking a bottle about 5 times per day and eating rice or barley cereal twice per day
• Napping 2-4 times per day

In observation of his fifth month birthday - we did our traditional froggy buddy shot with Owen on the couch...(click here for a collage of months one through four)...

This month proved to be the most difficult photo session yet, due to Owen's desire to sit on his own and jam everything within reach into his mouth (as illustrated here)...

'Tis the Season...

Last week Monday, we put up our tree and sadly, it still hasn't gotten decorated - oh well, as Emily put it so eloquently - decorations are way overrated! :)

On Tuesday, we went to VanWieren to see Santa, and Owen was oblivious to the whole thing, I don't even think he noticed that he was on Santa's lap, I think he just thought he was sitting down on a chair or something - and with all the crazies making him smile during the picture, he had a great time!! :)


Afterward, mom went out for coffee with Jucy and Al and Papa was left to hang out with little man, here is one of the pictures from the evening - papa was getting O ready for bed and couldn't resist taking this one (notice the little roll he's got goin' on! )...



On Wednesday, Mom left for a conference in Lansing, and came home Friday afternoon - once again, it was hard to be away, but it was a great conference and the time went by so fast. I hate pumping after being away for so long though!! To satisfy curiosity on how many ounces I came back with - I did not come back with enough to beat the record 80 oz from the last conference - for two reasons, 1. I pumped one less time (roughly 5 oz worth) and 2. I was able to give Scott the 20 oz I pumped during the day at work on Wed....Had I not done that I would have broken the record, as I came home with 65 oz. Not sure if me being away has anything to with this or not, but somehow starting on Saturday morning, Owen decided to go on a boob boycott, and has refused to nurse - hmmm makes me feel unneeded - but I have been trying diligently to get him back in the swing of things - and it is finally starting to work - a little....

Papa worked all day on both Saturday and Sunday - since he was given the opportunity...since his work will be on a mandatory time off during the holidays, we figured it would be a great time to try to make up for some of that unpaid time!

On Saturday Kelly and I went out shopping in Grandville (yes we braved the crazy weather, we saw a lot of slideoffs, but we made it there and back safely) We had fun @ Macy's, and Old Navy and got the best deal ever @ Bath and Body - we spent $1 and got evergreen room freshener AND a lipgloss (thanks for the coupon, Kelly!) :)

Saturday night we decided to get some pictures of our little fam so we can get our Christmas cards out in the mail! Mr Murphy even got in on the fun..


We had a great time, but little man was not really into it, this one certainly shows his excitement level...

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

This year's Thanksgiving was a little different than past years, for one we had a new addition to the family, and for two we weren't running back and forth between families and getting stuffed with two dinners in one day (yeah for the waistline :) )

On Thanksgiving day we went to my mom's house and had a turkey with all the fixin's :) with Katy, Travis, Nathan, Scott, Mom, Owen, and I

Owen got dressed up (of course) to celebrate the occasion in a cute little Baby's first Thanksgiving outfit (from Aunt Bev and the gang - thanks guys!!)

What a little cutie - posing and sticking out his tongue....



During dinner - Owen was just chilling out in the swing and playing with a little connector ring thing (he loves them) he was also fighting off sleep and was sucking his thumb - he finally gave into the sleep thing and got the ring stuck on his face because it was on his hand when he was sucking his thumb....what a silly silly little man....but he certainly provided some fun dinner conversation!



After dinner mom and I made our plan of attack for our ritualistic (and slightly neurotic) Black Friday shopping spree...this consists of flipping through the ads and noting any gotta have em deals and figuring out which stores open when....we like to have fun with the craziness of it all and make fun of the psycho shoppers...we decided we weren't going to go too overboard and crazy waiting in lines so we opted to meet at 5 am Friday morning....

So 5 am it was and we didn't end up getting trampled at all - though it did take me about 5 minutes to get from the front to the back of the store at WalMart...but I was in and out of there in 30 min total (mom dropped me off at the door as there was no way we were going to find a parking spot any closer than say Staples area) ...then we headed to Younkers and Kohls and then to Sams for a free breakfast, which to our dismay was just ending as we got there (at 7 am) so we hit Burger King - ate while we were driving and headed back to Younkers and then to Menards...After that we headed home cuz I had forgotten my Pump and it was about 8 am. So I fed Owen, then we decided to venture out to do some Downtown shopping - and ended that excursion around 11 or so....but the Black Friday shopping fun doesn't end there my friends, oh no....

Scott and I packed up our stuff for a weekend getaway and headed to Ludington - BUT on the way there we had a couple of stops to make in downtown Grand Haven and the Muskegon Kohls...

Once at the cottage, we had a great time! Mom Kole and I hung out with Owen on Saturday and made Thanksgiving dinner while the guys were out on the lake duck hunting...

Here is O with Grandma hanging out in his Bumbo (we've decided he needs a 'jumbo bumbo' since when we go to take him out of it, his little thighs get stuck and the whole bumbo comes up with him)...

Oh and not to forget I get the bad mom of the year award for forgetting a bed for my child - yes I forgot the pack n play - but luckily Owen is not rolling over yet and luckily there is this great little cot that kind of dips in so he probably couldnt roll off of it even if he could roll over and its only like three inches off the ground, so we tried it out for his nap just to see if it would work, and its MAGICAL - every nap he took was at least 1 hr in length AND he slept both Fri and Sat nights all the way through and got up no earlier than 6 am!! I was in heaven!

The rest of our weekend was just a relaxing and fun time with family....and we ended up home around 4 on Sunday because of the snow we were getting and we didn't know how bad it was going to be...once home, we just unpacked and relaxed trying to enjoy what was left of our vacation!

Stay tuned for the next edition of the Kole Chronicles for pictures with Santa....