We love candy and Aunt Alli

Most of you probably already know this, but Brian loves candy. Not chocolate, but the sour sticky stuff like Airheads, Now & Laters, and fruity stinky gum. It seems his love of the sour stuff has been passed down to my sweet boys. It's not a bad addiction, just a fun treat they share together. But that almost changed recently. Brian came home with "The Claw." It's a miniature version of the classic arcade game where you use the joystick to move the claw around to get prizes like stuffed animals and jewelry. Brian's is full of candy. Or should I say was full of candy. Not because he ate it all, but because I ended up returning it. Sorry honey, Carter was eating WAY too much candy :) I did snap a photo for history's sake.



Aunt Allison came to visit on a last minute trip. She had some miles that were about to expire and while Matthew was out hiking for a few days in the Guadelupe Mountains, she came here. Yeah for us. Here's a picture of her and Carter eating the trail mix that mom made for her. There was quite a lot to go around.



Carter insisted that Aunt Alli climb in his climber with him. She's so good - she did with a smile on her face. And I'm so mean, I snapped a shot of it and then posted it on the Internet. Bad sister-in-law, bad sister-in-law.



Here is Cole crawling towards his lollipop the other night before bathtime. He's crawling alot more now. He even followed Carter and his friend Awbrey into the other room today. He wanted to play with them, it was so cute.

And this is a picture of Brian putting Carter to bed. Or at least what he was supposed to be doing. They found eye ball stickers in Carter's sticker book and put them on each other. It was funny. Surprisingly, even after all the excitement Carter did fall asleep shortly thereafter.

And Phoebe told me that I can now embed my videos from YouTube so I don't have to edit my videos to make them shorter or compress them. So much easier! Here's my first YouTube video, hope it works. It's of Cole playing the xylophone. Yes, it's 3 minutes long and there are some boring parts but since I didn't have to edit it - I didn't!

9 months brings lots of milestones

Cole turned 9 months last week and he is just checking off his milestones like it's a grocery list.

Putting himself in a sitting position, by himself - Check.

Clapping - Check.

Cutting his first tooth - Check.

Crawling - Check.

It's crazy around here. And that's just one kid. Carter is doing great too. He absolutely loves school. He comes home and insists that his artwork from that day go up on the fridge. He tells me about his day, though it does take some questioning on my part. Geez, now I know how my parents felt when they would ask me how my day was and I'd respond "fine." Carter does something similar when I ask what he did at school. He almost always says "I played with my friends." Too cute. Though tonight we were talking about his friends and he mentioned one girl at school and said "She pushes." I asked him if she pushed him and he said "Yes, outside." I asked him if Mrs. Hewitt saw it and he said "No, Mrs. Zarse did. And she told ****** 'No pushing." I love having conversations with him. I sure hope it lasts. Tomorrow is Circus Day at school. They are transforming the gym into a Circus and he's looking forward to it.

We've had wonderful weather here lately. It has really made for some fun family time. Two weekends ago we went to the Cy Fair Fire Fest. Carter loves fire trucks and this got him up close and personal with some trucks. Check out the matching shirts the boys have on. My friend Phoebe gave those to them when Cole was born. I promise I didn't go out and buy fire truck shirts just for the Fire Fest. But the cold spell came just in time to show them off. Just perfect.

And compare the picture from this year to the one from last year.

We went to the zoo this past weekend. It was Zoo Boo, where they celebrate Halloween. They had candy stations setup all around the zoo and Carter had fun "trick-0r-treating." It was good practice for the 31st. Here he is petting the goats.

We've been spending a ton of time in the backyard lately. Carter plays on his climber and slides. Brian throws the frisbee around. Cole and I sit on a blanket and play with his toys. We blow bubbles, throw the ball around and just really try to appreciate this season. It's been great so far. This is a video of Carter doing some somersaults.

This is one of Carter after he caught his first frog. He was carrying it around for awhile and as the minutes passed, the tigher he held onto that thing so it wouldn't hop away. I really thought he'd squish it to death. We finally let him go, though Carter came back looking for him the next morning. Thankfully for the frogs sake, he hasn't returned.

Here is Carter running around the backyard popping bubbles.

And Cole standing by his play table. He is getting good at balancing himself. He'll hold on with one hand quite often and then sometimes just use his belly for a little support. Rarely will he stand by himself because he'll fall after a second or two.

Another thing he's mastered is his Little Tikes basketball goal. He's really into balls right now and putting them where they belong. Here he is scoring his first goal, seriously, it was his first one. I just happened to have the camera out when he did it.

And another one of him with his favorite ball toy.

Here he is getting ready to crawl. I have tons of "almost pictures" of him getting ready to crawl. None of the actual event. But I did get it on video - even better. I've tried to get him to do it again, but I need to wait until Carter is at school or napping. Carter keeps taking the toys I use as incentives for Cole to crawl too. Or even better, he'll just give it to him. He doesn't understand the point of my "game."

While it's been mostly good weather we have had a little rain. It prompted me to have Mom pick out some cute rain gear for Carter to wear to school. I think he's going to need it for real tomorrow morning. He's just been playing in it lately.

And this is a cute picture of the boys in the bathtub. Carter loves to wash himself and Cole as well. We go through soap like crazy, Carter washes his hair several times a night.

So as you can tell we've been pretty busy lately. Now imagine us all (well not Brian) being sick. No it's not the swine flu, though there was a close call when one of our friends came down with it. Just your run of the mill cold that has turned into ear infections for the boys (again). I'm just suffering from the coughing and sneezing and utter exhaustion, but I feel I might be turning the corner. We have another weekend of great weather coming our way, so we MUST get healthy soon. Besides, Sissy and Ruppert are coming for several days. Matthew was in for the night last night. And Allison is coming for a short weekend stay as well. Then next week Erica and her boyfriend Jake are coming for 4 days. Then the following weekend Becky is headed into town for 4 days. So we have LOTS of fun ahead in the coming weeks, no time for sickness.

Off to bed, this one blog post has taken an HOUR to do and I need my sleep.

Cute pics

Here are a couple cute pictures of Cole that my friend Niki took. She's a photographer and got a new camera lens and was trying it out while we were at the gym the other day. Just my luck!

I think this picture is adorable, it really shows off his rosy cheeks.

Awbrey loves "Baby Cole." She and Emma must have kissed him a 1000 times that day. That never gets any less sweeter.

And here is one of Cole that my friend Kelly took at her house recently. He is just so CUTE!

Fun outing

Mom and I took the boys to the Woodlands Children Museum on Friday with Joanna and her girls. It had been awhile since we'd been there. Carter was a little young for all the imaginative play last year, but really enjoyed himself this time. I'm not sure if it is that he's recently started school or just an age thing, but he's starting to play more independently AND play "pretend" with things.

This is inside the kitchen of the miniature house they have there.


Cole is obviously too young to play pretend, but he loves to stand up and hold onto to tables now.



Here he is sitting on the checker board.

This is the Dinosaur Dig. It's filled with chopped up pieces of recycled tires. He had a good time looking for dino bones with the shovel and excavator.

They had an ocean/sand room that was a big hit. Here is Carter playing next to Awbrey.

And this was the cutest and funniest moment of the day. They insisted on wearing their lifejackets and getting in the kayak. They started singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." It was hilarious. They were even swaying back and forth. SO CUTE!

I think this was his favorite part though. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting him a cash register (with a credit card swiper) for Christmas. He loves to play with pretend money. Well, he loves to play with money period. He always insists on being the one to pay when we're out shopping. And since places like the grocery store have your own swiper and pin pad, he's in hog heaven.

Mom kept bringing him groceries to pay for. This went on for a long while.

Then he discovered the ATM where he could get MORE money.

Cole chewed on pretend asaparagus during the grocery shopping exhibit.

And here is Cole kneeling next to the train table. He wanted to pull up to a standing position, but he's not quite strong enough yet.

We went for lunch afterwards and Cole ate part of an apple pastry, those are the crumbs all over him. And then chomped on my sour pickle for awhile.

We had a really nice time. I'm disappointed to say that the Childrens Museum in the Woodlands has now closed. That was their last day. The owners of the mall have sold their building and now they are looking for another home. I'm glad we decided to go when we did, what are the chances we would go on their last day open after not visiting for over a year.

All things outdoors

Last weekend we went out to Bridgeland (a master planned community that a friend lives in) and went to a festival called Naturefest. We went last year and had fun, but it was much bigger this year. I'm glad we went again. Here are some pictures.


Carter loved the petting zoo, as usual. Funny thing, it was the same petting zoo that was at church last weekend. No special occasion, they just had a fun little surprise for the kids in the Kingdom Club (that's the childrens ministry there).



They had pony rides, but Carter picked the one and only donkey. I'd make a cute "jack ass" joke, but I love my husband :)

They had some bounce houses and Carter burnt a lot of energy in one. Cole just had to look from the outside, but he wanted in. Can't say I blame him.

The big slide. Carter did this one and the obstacle course multiple times. Needless to say, he took a great nap that afternoon.

They also had a firetruck and ambulance there from the CyFair Volunteer Fire Dept. You might recall we went to their Fire Fest last year. I'm so glad they're going to do it again, we'll be there. Carter loved pretending to drive the truck.

And here is our "new" backyard slide. Seth and Jen weren't using theirs anymore so we took it off their hands. Carter loves it. Cole can't climb yet, but he will soon.

In the mean time, we keep Cole on a blanket with some toys.

Here is Cole's newest and funniest expression. He does it alot. He waves his arms like he's trying to take off and makes this silly face. It's hilarious.

Here is Cole playing peekaboo with me in his crib. He's trying to pull up on the rail. He can get to his knees, but not a standing position. We need to lower his crib soon so we beat him to the punch.

Here is Cole with Carter's underwear on his head. Carter was refusing to put them on so I stuck them on Cole. Of course, Carter subsequently HAD to have them back. Works every time. This time I had to get a cute picture.

For those of you that didnt' know it, I had misplaced my video camera for almost 2 weeks. I was physically ill over it. Mom and Dad gave that to us when we found out we were pregnant with Carter, so the fact that it was a gift was difficult. Plus, Cole is on the verge of crawling and I kept thinking I was going to miss it. Every time the boys did something cute I would smile but then get upset because I couldn't capture it on video. Well Sunday night Brian found it - OUTSIDE! It was on the fence. It had been there for 3 weeks and had endured lots of rain. But it still works. I'm so amazed - thank you God.

I've taken several small videos lately of Cole eating. He's really getting into the table food stage. And he makes funny sounds. I'll have to download them to my computer and get them on the blog soon.

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