2 Years Old!

Jack's 2nd birthday was yesterday. We had a little party for him when he woke up from his nap. It was just us, but still pretty fun. Matt did the decorating. Jack picked a monkey theme...he kept telling me it was the monkey's birthday.
His big present from us was a tricycle. He isn't quite big enough to pedal it well yet, but I think he liked it. The big hit was the "batcave" from Grandma and Grandpa Mac. He will sit and play with it all by himself for pretty long stretches. Cole liked watching all the festivities...especially the balloons.I won't ever be asked to work for the Ace of Cakes, but you can tell it's a monkey!
It sure tasted good!Dinosaur hunt.

Chris sent a box of instruments that was quite a big hit. He's been marching with them today.

Sorry this is so dark. He loved having Happy Birthday sung to him.

Utah

In January Matt had the dreaded night rotation, so I headed off to Utah with the boys. I'm not sure flying with a 3 month old and a two year old by myself ranks very high on my list of favorites...but we made it. Lindsey was able to come up from New Mexico with Liam the same week. We missed Matt, but we had a great time (and we would have missed him at home too).
We went to Build-A-Bear--Jack loves his new frog...

Cole is obviously thrilled with his dog. Jack loves giving Cole his "puppy". (I don't know why this picture is turned, it's not on my computer...?)
We went to the aquarium...

We relaxed...
We had so much fun, but were happy to come back home.Jack has had a tough time staying in his bed lately. I can't say how many times I've gone in to check on him before I go to bed to find his light on, his toys out, and Jack sleeping on the floor.Cole is getting to be a good little napper too.

Christmas

I'm a bit slow to post again, I know...it's been pretty busy around here.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, our little town has a Santa parade...I was really surprised at how big it was. Jack had a great time watching the floats and the animals go by and picking up all the candy. He made off with quite a haul...it seems like a lot of people threw whole handfuls just to him. He was loving it!
Cole was so good and stayed pretty much exactly like this the entire time.Over Thanksgiving, my family was able to make it to see us. It was so much fun to have everyone there, especially since we won't be getting together for Christmas this year.Since we had family in town, we took the opportunity to bless little Cole. We just did it at home since everyone was leaving on Sunday. I liked having it be so small and low key. We're grateful Sasha(a member of our bishopric) was willing to take time out of his holiday weekend so we could do it!
We spent most of the weekend just enjoying each other's company and watching our cute little boys play. We made it down to the nearby outlets to do some shopping on Black Friday (wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected!). I came back with these little boots for Jack and was hardly able to get him out of them for the next week or so.We also discovered that both Jack and Liam quite enjoy Rock Band. No one else really got to play.We also took the boys to do "gymnastics" at the community center. They had a great time running down the tumbling track. Lindsey and I even did a few cartwheels! (i definitely don't have pictures of that.)
A few weeks ago we got our tree. Jack has now finally decided to leave the ornaments where they are. He's been wanting to redecorate, and often brings me ornaments so I can help him hang them back up
Jack is pretty good playing with Cole. He's always trying to help with him and especially likes to help me bathe him...he uses a cup to pour water on his feet and helps with lotion, too.
Last weekend we had snow on the ground, so Matt took Jack sledding at the little hill in the park across the street. He LOVED it. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of the actual sledding, but we took a few as they were leaving.,We finally got Cole's smile on camera! We've been trying for weeks, but it hasn't worked out. Now we have a picture AND a video! He's such a fun, smiley little guy!

a few more pictures...

Just a few more pictures from the last few weeks. On Halloween we stayed home and carved pumpkins. Jack wasn't so sure about the pumpkin guts at first...

...but definitely liked the finished product. He picked the design and "helped" me carve it.Cole has decided that he will sleep like a champ in the morning for several hours, if I let him do it on his side and on our bed...I'm kind of a pushover if it means a little more sleep before Jack gets up. He is such a snuggly little boy!
He likes to hold his binkie in...he has a hand or a finger on it a lot of the time.
He is a smiley baby just like his big brother was.
Lately I've been letting Jack help me cook. He LOVES it and spends much of the day trying to take a chair into the kitchen saying "I cook, Mama!". He is so proud of himself. The best part is that when he's helped to cook, he tends to eat better (he's been on a bit of a hunger strike lately). This morning after making the pancake batter (and being very concerned about some spilled baking powder), he ate three huge pancakes!

Happy Birthday Coleman!

We went to the hospital late Monday night after I started contractions. They weren't all that strong, but pretty close together. Once we got there, contractions of course stopped...so we walked the halls for a while and were admitted, although I think they'd have sent us home had they not known us. Once we were admitted, labor did start for real, just slowly. I was about to get my epidural meds (they had already placed the cath and used some more temporary drugs), but it was too late, Cole was ready to make his entrance to the world. Matt told me I could push if I needed while my doctor got gowned and gloved etc. Well, that's all it took. Matt saw the head, told me to wait...hahaha...and then delivered Cole bare handed. (It's nice to have a husband with medical training that can step in like that.) Cole is absolutely perfect...he looks just like Jack did, but with even more red hair. He makes sweet like squeaking sounds, but when he gets upset he shrieks. He's the sweetest little thing and we love having him home!
We brought Cole home to meet his big brother on Thursday (no kids under 18 at the hospital right now). Jack did great...he thinks the baby is pretty great so far. He likes to bring Cole toys (especially the little elephant grandma helped him pick out especially for "the baby". He's been loving having grandma here (and so have we)!

This is a video I took not too long ago--Jack is really into "dancing" right now and is always making requests for his favorite songs with motions. As usual, you may want to tune out the singing--I hate listening to myself!



Last weekend we went to a local pumpkin patch to get Halloween pumpkins. They also have a petting zoo and some other fun things for the kids. Jack loved the animals, especially feeding the goats. He also loved going on the big blow up slide with Daddy.
We had our ward Halloween party earlier tonight and Jack went as a cute little elephant. I'm so excited that I got to see him wear his Halloween costume as I am likely to be in the hospital or home with a brand new baby when it is actually Halloween. I'm not sure I'll make costumes in the future as this one turned out to be a much bigger project than I had anticipated...we'll see, I do like how it turned out. By the end of the night he even stopped pulling the "elephant hat" off!"Parade"