Holidays

The last few months of the year went by in a flash.  Thanksgiving happened and we have exactly two pictures of the big event at Uncle Paul's house.  Katie was looking so cute in her Thanksgiving shirt and Jacob enjoyed a little play time with Alex.

We missed the Cole family this year, but Christmas was fast approaching.

Christmas Eve we went to Babcia and Dziadzia's house.  As always, Babcia and Dziadzia cooked a delicious feast.  After eating, we heard some noises outside and sure enough Santa had left some presents.  Alex said he saw some shadows outside, but Dziadzia was outside fixing the Christmas lights and said he only heard some bells jingling in the distance.  Looks like we missed seeing Santa in his sleigh again this year.

Jacob got the first present and we watched him rip off tiny pieces of the paper for 5 minutes.  What could be under all that paper!?!

Finally, Jacob got a peek of Thomas coming from under the paper and we never saw him move so quickly.  Jacob ripped the rest of the paper off in one quick motion.  The excitement was palpable as Jacob sprinted to the kitchen looking for scissors to break open the packaging!

This was Jacob for the majority of the night.

Not to worry, there were plenty of other awesome Thomas toys to unwrap as the night went on.  This Christmas was a big one since Jacob was a little more knowledgeable about opening gifts.  Unfortunately, this also means Jacob was too busy to take family pictures.  Luckily we still have one cooperative child!  And what a cutie she is!

Christmas day we opened presents at our house and went to mass.  By now, Jacob was very familiar with the present process and wasted no time.

Even Katie had a great first Christmas in her first home.  

Then we headed to Grammy and Gdaddy's house for Christmas weekend and round three of fine tuning our present opening skills!  Immediately upon arrival, Jacob learned that the new next door neighbors had received a sure fire way to break your arm aka a trampoline!!!!!  Well, of course Jacob went next door with the twins to jump jump jump!  This is the only picture we got since it was pretty chilly and only energy filled little boys want to go jump on a trampoline!

Jacob played with the girls and dressed up like a butterfly and what a cute butterfly he was!  Coincidentally, Ashley also taught us that the candy cane is the symbol of a Shepard's cane. 

  While Jacob occupied the girls, Katie spent her time snuggling......eating......

demanding to be carried.....

and checking out the awesome dolls that she is not used to seeing at home with a big brother around!

Jacob opened more presents!  Sneaky Grammy always slides in some clothes.  Luckily Grammy saved the best for last....

Jacob also got a TRAIN!!!!  What do you do when you get a train for Christmas?  Well, you put on your butterfly wings to play....of course!

2014 was a big year! 
We brought home our beautiful little Katie and started on our new family home.  2014 sure has been memorable. 

9 Months

Well Katie is 9 months old.  She has grown so much since those first few days in the hospital, but she is still our little peanut.

Oh my!  Katie still loves her thumb and she still has the sweetest dimples.  She is working on growing out her hairs and sprouting her teeth.  We now have a couple bottom teeth!!!  She is almost ready to order steaks. 

Katie is very talkative and smiley.  Still a happy baby even when Jacob is always saying "no no Katie don't touch that".  Katie hears that so often that those may even be her first words.

 

Right now we are working on those consonant sound babbles, but I am sure sentences are close.  We are also very excited about your first Christmas coming up.  Katie is especially excited to chew on Jacob's new toys!

Katie's favorite book is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" that Aunt Denise brought over.  She gets so excited that she swings her hands around......it may be beautiful bright colors.....

or possibly how perfectly the corner fits in Katie's mouth!  What a delicious book.

Katie is still our petite baby in 6 month close and size 2 diapers.
In other big news, Katie loves to "walk".  She leads you where she wants to go and loves to go into the bathrooms and look into the bathtubs!  She also really enjoys her baths and LOVES to splash water.  By the time she is done, all the observers are as wet as if we had taken a bath as well.

Our sweet girl is also starting to feed herself puffs!!!  Those teeth are coming in and Katie has been shoving everything into her mouth.  Jacob is not loving this phase and prefers that Katie not eat his trains.  Maybe Santa will bring her some toys to chew on!

Jacob's October and November Art

October was a big month in preschool beginning with Fall Break!!!!!!  Jacob especially appreciated some time away from all the structured activities.  Of course there were a few days left to learn about the color orange, number 3, and the Triangle!!!  They even squeezed in pumpkins and Halloween!  Just ask Jacob if you need someone to point out a pumpkin....he is the Cole family pumpkin expert.

On pumpkin patch day, Jacob picked out and decorated his pumpkin.  He told us that the pumpkin has eyes, nose and teeth.  Babcia said that the pumpkin made Jacob's tote bag extra heavy so it took all his muscle to carry it to the car!

Jacob also explored his Halloween crafts with some good old fashioned construction paper masterpieces!

Fingerprint dalmation and pumpkin with seeds!

We LOVE opening Jacob's school folder and pulling out his personalized art!  We have a shell shocked knight Jacob and Jacob sitting criss-cross applesauce on a pumpkin!

And then out of no where November happened and we really don't even remember all the art, but apparently the subjects were brown, 4, and rectangle.  Jacob still loves to glue and cut with scissors (luckily he hasn't attempted to style Katie's single long hair with those same scissors), BUT he doesn't really care to color.

Also in November, the kids got down to business with their letters!!!
A for apple
B for some sort of abstract bunny (with ears down low and a fuzzy tail)
C for cow (maybe)
D for dog

And somewhere along the way was some discussion of Thanksgiving and the 5 senses. 

And of course, Jacob is a good apple.

We rounded out the month with a last bit of cuteness for Thanksgiving.  Oh my!

8 months

Katie is 8 months old!!!

We have big news at 8 months!  Katie has tasted banana and carrots!!!!!  Jacob helped out with the first official taste.  Jacob was on board helping with Katie's big moment.  He lovingly posed for a picture next to his baby sister.  He watched her take a bite and then was concerned about the mess and requested a napkin to wipe her face. 

The carrots got mixed reviews, but bananas are a hit and milk is still the primary food group!

When Katie is laid down, she immediately rolls over and since being on her belly is not her idea of fun, Katie complains until she is stood up.  Katie loves to "walk".  She holds our hands and leads us to where she wants to go.

Katie is also the proud owner of a walker.  Even Jacob thinks it is a neat ride since we have caught him trying to climb in a few times.

Katie has started wearing 6 month clothes and she is still between size 1 and 2 in diapers.  Our little Katie is an awesome sleeper until she sees that someone has peeked in on her and then she lets you know that she wants to be picked up.  

Love these two.......even if they go to bed late and wake up early!

October Already?

October was quite a month.

Our weather was something else!  We had hail and Dada ushered us quickly into a bathroom since "atmospheric conditions were ripe for a tornado" - Dada is an amateur weatherman.  Jacob kept asking "what's that noise" and we tried to keep the mood light by answering in overly happy sing song voices "that's hail".  We feel certain that Jacob was only minimally traumatized.....just like our roof.  Luckily, we have very conscientious roofing companies in Middle Tennessee that were happy to swarm the neighborhood as soon as the sun came out the following day. 

Not to worry, in October we also had sunshine and Jacob has been frequenting the park after school.  Here we have Jacob on a nice day posing in his leisure suit and a giant snail.  Don't let the sweet smile and happy disposition fool you........

The weather was not overly cooperative on Halloween when we had a cold front come through.  Brrr.  Luckily Jacob was happy to stay home and play trains, but our Katie got in on the action and dressed up as a skeleton.  And she was the cutest skeleton ever. 

Jacob LOVES to play with trains.  2013 was letters and numbers, but 2014 has been the year of the trains.  Even Katie gets to occasionally touch a piece of track or a train when Jacob is busy reconfiguring a layout.

Jacob has researched these trains extensively and knows all their names, colors, numbers.  We are pretty sure this knowledge will only pay off in an obscure trivia competition. 

One weekend, Jacob had a cold--which is an every other week occurrence now that he is in preschool.  I heard lots of coughing and got up to check on him and found him in the kitchen.....watching videos and playing trains -- did I mention that it was the middle of the night?  Thank goodness Jacob didn't feel like taking the car out for a spin around the neighborhood.

What a great October. 

7 Months

Seven month old Katie is such a good baby.  We have a generally happy girl, but she sure is shoving those hands into her mouth so we anticipate teeth any moment!  Kate is constantly moving and comes across pretty blurry in most pictures.  Here is our little pumpkin in action...

Katie is rolling over and bearing weight on her legs like a champ.  She doesn't love being on her belly so we expect she will just start walking and avoid the whole crawling on dirty floors process.  Evenings are her least favorite time.  Katie has been snuggling her head into our shoulders when she gets tired.  It is just about the most precious thing ever.

Katie likes to keep an eye on Jacob and Jacob loves when Katie touches him or pulls his hair.  Sometimes he even says "easy Katie."  Jacob is very good to his baby sister and we hope this continues when she starts walking.  Katie is allowed to play with Jacob's toys and even hold his trains.....at least until he decides he needs that particular piece.  

Kate is also starting to sit up a little at a time as long as she has a little support.

Our sweet girl went to see Dr. Perkins on Friday and she is up to the 15.4 lbs (20th percentile) for weight and at 5.9% for length.  Kate is much smaller than Jacob, but perfectly proportionate since weight to length puts her at the 50th percentile.  No wonder our petite girl fits so well into those 3 to 6 month clothes!  

It is also starting to get chilly in Tennessee so Katie tried on some winter gear.

We love our precious girl.

Jacob's September Art

September was all about the blue, squares, and the number 2!!!  We can't get much out of Jacob about his masterpieces, but if we act really excited he will smile and tell us what the item is.  In Jacob's own words here we have.......

Two, Blue, and Squares in crayon, marker, and paint, oh my!

There were many blue squares this month and I may have missed some, but you get the general idea of the types of blue squares that made it home.

Jacob also channeled his love for his little Katie and made her a ladybug...as well as a dinosaurs, and some bugs in a jar!  It looks like Jacob is a minimalist and applies the smallest bit of color......or he really isn't into coloring

Jacob also learned about Sports and made a football and possibly a kite (or just a square with a yellow string)....either way it is beautiful!!!  We are pretty sure he perfected his sponge painting skills on that football and possibly used a hole punch on the kite.  Genius!!!

Lastly, Jacob explored plants!  So much complexity in pasting the flower blossoms to the stems.

Preschool is so fun!