Busy December!

Cole still has trouble sleeping through the night, and this morning was a particularly bad one. We had been up and really grumpy since 4:30am, and by 7am he had finally fallen back asleep in his bouncer watching Baby Einstein with Mr. Monkey. He has NEVER fallen asleep while playing before, so this was a first. Thank goodness we both had a long nap after that!

Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. Cole was mesmerized by the lights and all the people.

Playing with Grandma Beutler over Christmas Break.

Nana, Dave's Grandma, sent Cole a cute little (we could barely squeeze him into it) Elf outfit, so of course we had to do a family photo shoot before we visited Santa. He was by far the cutest little Santa's helper at the mall!

 

The dogs were the best Christmas entertainment we could have asked for. :)

Cole's favorite place to play is our tupperware cupboard. He always leaves behind a trail of destruction behind him.

Merry Christmas!

We have been visiting the Beutlers this Christmas and Grandma took Cole to go see Santa Clause. Nana, Dave's Grandma, also sent Cole a sweet little Elf outfit, so of course we had to wear that when he saw Santa. Isn't he the cutest little Elf you have ever seen?!

Cole has also been really entertained by Tiger...check out how good she is playing with him:

Cole Overload!

Cole is our whole lives right now, so be prepared for an overload of cute photos of him!

We still go on our morning walks every day, but it's starting to get cold here (imagine that), so we broke down and got him a coat and a hat. The monkey just fits him so well...

 Somehow he always manages to get an appendage stuck in the crib when he's sleeping, so the crib bumpers are back once again! Someday we'll be able to take them off...

I know this picture is fuzzy, but I couldn't get a good one of Cole playing in his saucer and I thought this was so hilarious. Now instead of actually sitting in his saucer his favorite thing to do is crawl in and out of it underneath the seat and play tag with me around the outside of it.

This picture is one of my favorites - isn't he the cutest little tiger?

We also discovered after Thanksgiving dinner that Cole really likes stuffing...notice the back of the hand technique he uses at almost every meal time to keep his food in his mouth. Classic.

Here are also a few of our favorite videos of Cole recently. We put up safety gates and he loves to stand at them and jump up and down. He's also started "purring" lately...enjoy!

Downstairs Renovations - Before and After

Dave and I have put a lot of work into renovating our new home and making it our own. We've done most of the huge projects but still have some smaller ones left to do. Just in case you don't notice the changes in the pictures, we removed the old flooring and had new flooring put in, painted the entire house, including the kitchen cabinets, got new granite counter tops, put on the kitchen hardware, put in our stainless steel appliances, hung several light fixtures, put together a couple new pantries, and we're in the process of baby-proofing everything. A lot of work! Take a look:

BEFORE

AFTER

Pictures of the rest of our renovations throughout the house will be posted at a later date...aka when we finish. :-)

Cole's First Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday we took our first trip to the Phoenix Zoo, and based on Cole's reaction there are going to be several more. He didn't really understand what we were looking at when the animals were holding still, but when they were up and moving around he loved them! His favorites were the lion, the baboons, and the squirrel monkeys. The baboon came right up to the glass and was playing with him and when the squirrel monkeys got close he would "talk" with them (more like scream at them) and try and touch them, but they were too fast for him. I was really surprised at how much he actually did enjoy seeing the animals, but I think all of the little kids running around were also a main attraction for him. He loves them!

Cole also loves watching Wheel of Fortune with his Daddy. It's about the only time during the day that he will sit still on the couch like this. Aren't they a cute pair?!

Happy Halloween!

Cole was the cutest monkey in the jungle this year! He didn't really like the hood on, but when he saw the monkey in the mirror he thought it was so cute and he couldn't stop smiling and laughing. The pictures don't do it justice, but we definitely had fun getting him all dressed up for our ward trunk-or-treat and to pass out candy. Dave insisted on actually taking him trick-or-treating to a few houses even though the closest he got to eating candy was chewing on the wrapper and a sucking on a dumb-dumb. The only reason I didn't object was because Cole looks about a year older than he actually is...and because Dave really wanted to go. ;-)

Cole is becoming a super-crawler, but his favorite thing to do is crawl over to the gates we have up and bang on them like a caged monkey. He always has the best faces!