Neighborhood Easter Social

On Saturday we had our neighborhood Easter social. I have been coordinating the social events for my neighborhood and have really enjoyed doing so. I find it fun getting to spend someone else's money. :-)

The weather was pretty unpredictable Saturday morning and even rained a little, but by the time the party started the sun was coming out and it warmed up a bit. All in all, I think it turned out pretty good.

He had his basket and was ready to hunt some eggs!

This was Cole being terrified of the Easter bunny

So I took my picture since he wouldn't!

My wonderful neighbors: Dani, Troy and their little guy, Kaden

Our "little brother" Matthew

Cole hunting eggs. We hid TONS of eggs so the kids got quite a bit of candy! :-)

Then on Saturday afternoon we had Ty's first birthday party. It has been so fun watching Ty grow and change over the last year. I am so glad we were able to celebrate his big day!

Tyler the 1 year old! :-)

Playing at the party

The cake was yummy!

Popcorn

The other day I popped some kettle corn for Cole and I to have as an afternoon snack. We had a little "picnic" in the living room and shared the popcorn together. Cole was loving this and devouring the popcorn so I will definitely have to make some more often. Here he is enjoying his snack.

Weekend Fun

We had a pretty good weekend here in Missouri, despite getting hit with about 9 inches of snow on the first day of Spring!!

The weather was BEAUTIFUL Friday so we took the opportunity to enjoy the day being outside and even roasted some marshmallows and made s'mores Friday night. Here we are in action (the cold front was moving through hence the jackets and wind)!

This boy swears he is grown! Roasting his own marshmallow!

Sharing with mommy

The yumminess! :-)

On Sunday we took the opportunity to play in the snow, hopefully for the last time this year!!

Cole in the snow drift. This must have been 16 inches of snow!!

Jonathan and Cole with the laying down snowman

Jonathan's snowman was so big that he couldn't get the balls stacked on one another, hence the laying down thing. I am probably going to have to make him dismantle this thing just so it will melt by summer. :-)

Tiny Tots Park

On Wednesday morning Cole woke up saying "bye, "bye". That was his cue to tell me he was wanting to go somewhere. He is my definitely my child in this regard because neither of us quite knows how to sit still. We usually have Bible Study on Wednesday mornings, but because of Spring Break we didn't meet. So, off to Tiny Tots Park we went. This was our first time going and Cole seemed to have a good time. They had lots of ride on toys, balls, a bouncy house and more!





Do you see a pattern? Cole mostly just wanted to play with the balls. He is a boy for sure!

Jumping

Cole loves to climb on and jump off of everything! So, anything that involves climbing and jumping is right up his alley.

Case in point: Climbing on my bed and then jumping. I am not too fond of this activity, but he LOVES it so I let him do it on occasion. Here he is right before bath time. Warning: he is half dressed so parts may be exposed. :-)

Climbed up and ready to go!

Jumping high!

Taking a break

All done!

There is never a dull moment in this house, at least not during Cole's waking hours anyway! He is lots of fun and is learning new "tricks" everyday!

20 months

My sweet boy is 20 months old today. I know, nothing significant about being 20 months, but it sure makes me kick myself for not starting a blog before Cole was born. I have done a pretty good job of documenting his life, but I wish I had been doing a monthly recap.

It is crazy for me to think that he is now closer to 2 than 1! My oh my the things that boy has taught me. :-) I now know the meaning of unconditional love. I don't think we can truly grasp that until we have a child of our own.

God has grown me and stretched me so much over the last year. I would like to think I am a better person now for having Cole as my child. I know I am at least a stronger person and can endure more than I thought possible.

Cole is a busy, fun, spunky little guy. He is a handful for me most days, but I think it makes me all the better in the long run. He is talking more and more and he loves his daddy SO much! I never knew a child could be so in love with their dad until now.


Thank you God for choosing us to be Cole's parents. He is such a blessing and brings so much joy to our lives!

OSC Tea Party

Last Thursday night I went with my neighbor, Dani, to the OSC (Officer's Spouses Club) monthly social. The theme this month was a tea party and we had yummy homemade sandwiches and DELICIOUS desserts at a quaint little cafe here in Warrensburg called Cafe Blackadder. I highly recommend you try it if you live in the 'Burg. Since it was a tea party we were all encouraged to wear hats. Having only baseball caps I did manage to come across a beach hat I had gotten when we went on a floating trip years ago while still in Oklahoma.

Here are a few pics from our night.

Dani and I in our hats

They gave away several prizes for best hat and Dani won one of them for her (or should I say Kaden's) cute pirate hat. She got some calming tea to calm her life. :-)

They also gave away three great door prizes. After the first two were handed out I mumbled something about never winning and being a sore loser and then, lo and behold, I won the third door prize!! I was elated and felt like I won the lottery. Look at all my loot!! :-)


They went with a spring cleaning theme for the prizes and I got the cute basket filled with a jewelry holder, ironing board cover, scented drawer liners, pant hangers, pretty pink shirt hangers, makeup bags, shoe holder and some super cute latex cleaning gloves. I will now clean my toilets in style! :-)

We had a fun night and I am looking forward to joining the OSC next year!!

Noisy

I got Cole this cute (and cheap!) shirt from good ole' Wally World (aka Wal-Mart). It pretty much says it all. :-)

Working the vocals!

And a few more cute pictures, just because.

Fruit snacks, anyone?

Posin' in daddy's hat

That is it for now! Have a great weekend!

Yummy

A few weeks ago we went out to eat at Rib Crib to celebrate our neighbor Bryce's 7th birthday. I took a few pretty cute pictures so I wanted to share a little of our experience.

This thing was HUGE and his face was priceless!

Good stuff!

Cole with his oreo and tic tacs. Can't be having bad breath! :-)

Cole thinks the cream is the best part. I agree!

We have been blessed with great neighbors since living here and this family is one of those blessings. We adore Bryce and his older sister Kaitlyn and Cole loves having them for playmates.

Life

I have been doing Beth Moore's Bible Study on the book of Esther on Wednesday mornings at my church. I did my first Bible study last January and it was also a Beth Moore study on the book of Daniel. I love, love, love these Bible studies. I have learned and grown so much through these studies as well as the fellowship with the other Christian gals in my church.

A couple of weeks ago while working on my Bible study homework, I came across this phrase written by Beth Moore- "I had to accept that I was not called to an easy life. I was called to a purposeful life". Wow! I don't know about you, but those words hit me up side the head like a ton of bricks. Those words have continued to pop into my head over and over the last few weeks. I think God is trying to tell me something! :-)

Some days I feel like my life is hard or challenging (goes with the territory of raising a toddler I guess), but so what as long as it is purposeful. Raising my son to love Jesus and honor God has never given my life more purpose!

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Proverbs 22:6

Mommy's Helper

As most of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with keeping my house clean. But, in my defense, I came by it naturally. If you have ever seen my dad's house you would understand. :-)

I think I might be rubbing off on Cole just a bit. Anytime he see's the smallest mess or disarray, he yells "mess", "mess". So, stinkin' cute that boy is!

I bought him first broom and dustpan so he could help me conquer the world. Or maybe just the kitchen!

Being a boy!