Balloon Fiesta!

Cole and I caught a ride with my Grandma and Grandpa Crockett from Phoenix to Albuquerque last week for a surprise visit to my parents house during the Balloon Fiesta. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! I think we actually pulled off the surprise! I'm definitely not acclimated to the cold anymore though. I had to borrow three or four layers of sweaters and coats from my mom and I was still freezing! Cole seemed to be warm enough with all of his layers though, and he loved being around all of the family. He especially loved "petting" the dog and rabbit (if you can call it that...more like grabbing and pulling out all their hair), bath time with Grandma Blacker, and hugging his cousin Zac.

Also, we went to the doctor for Cole's 9-month check up this past week, and it's official - he's a giant. He is now 25.5lbs, 30inches long, and has a 19inch head circumference. That's 97th percentile for weight, 95th percentile for height, and off the charts for head size (apparently he inherited everything from Dave, including his big head ;-). The doctor said he's not overweight, and he's happy and healthy so all is well. He has 6 teeth that have come through with 2 more almost here, he started crawling a couple weeks ago, and is definitely a mama's boy. :-)

Sometimes Cole isn't so photogenic...

This video is hilarious. Cole loves playing with dogs and while we were gone Dave got him his first pet. (If you're getting this as an e-mail I think you have to log into the blog to actually view the video).

More family reunion adventures...

I am finally getting around to adding more pictures from our family reunion in August. It's been a busy couple months with moving! I know there are a lot of photos, but I just thought they were all so cute. :) Cole loved having his cousin around and was super curious about another little boy. Zac on the other hand was more concerned about sharing his grandpa than anything else. We had a ton of fun kayaking, as well as feeding the deer that came right up to the cabin we were staying in. Check out how close they let us get! We were able to touch their velvet antlers and feed them out of our hands. Cole was amused/scared/thoroughly entertained by them. If you look closely at the pictures you can see all his different expressions.

Moving

Thank goodness Grandma Beutler came down to take care of Cole while we were moving! There is no way we would have been able to get half as much done with out her. He loved playing with his new doctor toys and all the attention he got from Grandma.

With moving comes baby hazards, and Cole found one of them. He managed to get a hold of our large clock, which toppled on him and broke on his head. Fortunately he's a tough little guy and was still smiling after a couple scraps and cuts.

Can you believe how big our baby is?! This is a 24month outfit...

One minute Cole was playing with his bunny, then the next minute I looked over and he was chewing on stuffing and had totally ripped the bunny's arm off. How does an 8 month old do that?! Maybe that was his way of dealing with all the change of a new house.

Family Reunion Adventures!

Wow - it has been way too long since the last post! A lot has been going on in our little Beutler family. Cole cut his first tooth the beginning of August, and now has almost 5 all the way through the gums. We visited the Blacker family in NM the middle of August, and we moved from Gilbert to Ahwahtukee (Phoenix) over labor day weekend. We contractually had to be closer to the hospital for Dave's cardiology fellowship starting next June, so we figured we might as well move sooner rather than later. Anyway, we have lots of pictures to post, but here's a start. Cole is now 8 months old and wearing size 24 month clothes!

 This is on the airplane to Albuquerque for the Blacker family reunion. We had to get up early for the flight. Cole was mesmerized by all the excitement on the plane, and then crashed.

He's not very good at chewing the puffs yet, but he loves to chew on the container. ;-)

 We had a fun afternoon picking raspberries and touring my dad's garden/jungle.

 Cole was content chilling with Uncle Bryan in the stroller watching us pick.

Grandpa Blacker definitely had his hands full with both grandsons. Zac was not so happy to be sharing his grandpa with cousin Cole.

They did have fun together though. They're wrestling/hugging here. :)

Our little rock star.

Family picture time!

This is the whole Blacker clan together. There are three new members since our family picture from last summer, so we decided to take another one (Aubri, Cole and Katie).

Mom and Dad Blacker.

Dave and Aubrey cliff jumping at lake Heron. It was pretty high!