Christmas Craziness!

Well, some might say we overdid it this Christmas, but, we wouldn't be us if we didn't travel like crazy and say yes to everything, would we? Haha. Besides, it was our New Year's resolution to slow things down, and we still had a few more days till New Year's. We had a great time with all our family, are glad they all got to share in Cole's first Christmas, AND got WAY too many presents. Cole can never doubt how much he is loved! Here are a few of the TONS of pictures that we took. We definitely captured the moments!

Christmas morning in Memphis... Cole helped me wake everybody up. He was ready... don't know about Daddy!

We take this picture every year while we are waiting for mom and dad to get the video camera set up to record us seeing what Santa left everyone. We are starting to run out of steps though because our family just keeps growing! What a blessing!

Opening his presents Christmas morning.

This may be Murray's favorite present this year... good job Logan!

Things are never dull with the boys in our family... Smith's feet were apparently feeling chilly.

Cole sporting his cool rock and roll shirt from Uncle Logan!

We had a cookie decorating contest this year... boys vs. girls. Here is a picture of the boys' effort...

Do I need to explain to anyone why the girls obviously won?

Just had to put this one up because my mom is so beautiful! She is glowing with the Christmas Spirit!

Cole is wondering why he didn't get a gigantic candycane like Aunt Neesha!

All the Nickleson kids!

Christmas dinner at Murray's house. We are outgrowing the table here too!

Look at all those presents! We must have all been really good this year!

Easton enjoyed driving Duke crazy with the bike horn we gave him. Make sure you find Duke in this picture... really funny!

Opening presents Christmas morning at Mimi & PopPop's house.

Gonna be just like Daddy!

Checking out the snowman toy.

Playing with one of Easton's vacuum toys he got for Christmas. I love Cole's face in this. It also documents the fact that we are totally in the drooling stage. Notice the drool ring that is soaking the top of his shirt!


Christmas is definitely a time full of gifts. Murray, Cole, and I couldn't appreciate any gift more than the blessing of our family and friends. We love you!

Merry Christmas!

Murray, Cole, and I are going to be traveling to Tennessee this week so we decided to celebrate our family Christmas a little early. Luckily, Cole has been a good enough boy that Santa agreed to make a special trip to our house. Here are some pictures and video clips from our Christmas Eve and morning!

"Santa's coming, Santa's coming!"

"I love my jingle bell bear!"

Dreaming of dancing sugar plums!

Duke was thrilled with his Christmas present. We haven't been able to find his favorite chews anywhere in Louisville... until last night. Santa must have thought Duke had been a good boy too.

Stockings full of goodies!

Mommy and Daddy are feeling the earliness of Christmas morning. Haha. Cole was excited though!

Opening presents... or eating them. Hey, it's Christmas- whatever makes 'em happy- right?

"I will not smile... all you got me are boring clothes Mom!"

"Now this is more like it! Thanks Santa!"

Checking out his singing, counting cow.

"I LOVE CHRISTMAS!"

Daddy enjoying Christmas morning with his Cole Bear!

Trying to figure out this new toy... and what Mommy & Daddy are so excited about. =)

As excited as any 5 1/2 month old about opening presents. Haha.

"Wow... this thing is really fun!"

We had a great 1st Christmas with Cole and are looking forward to celebrating later this week with our families back home! Merry Christmas!!!

Has Santa come yet???

Look what he left under our tree!

Graduation, Anniversary, & Get-Away

The past few days have been VERY busy! Cole and I went home for Kelsey's graduation from nursing school, Murray and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary, and I made a quick trip to Chicago to visit some of my friends. All that in 6 days! Needless to say, I'm happy to be home (for a few days anyway), and our New Years' resolution is to slow down and be in town more. Haha. Seriously though, it has been busy, but with all really great stuff!

Here are a couple of pictures from Cole's first airplane experience! He did SO good! You know he is a good baby when even after the flights people are telling you how sweet and cute he is. I was definitely proud of him- especially since our flight home was delayed 4 hours! What a little trooper!

We were happy to be home for Kelsey's graduation. She graduated summa cum laude... little smarty pants! She will be starting a job in the ICU at St. Jude in January. I am so proud of her! Her patients are going to be so lucky to have her!

Cole & Poppy snuggling during the graduation ceremony.

The girls.

Cole was so excited for Kelsey he couldn't be still for the picture. =)

The fam... minus Murray and Logan.

Cole loves his Nonny! And his Momma! Haha.

Murray and I have been married 3 years today! We really celebrated our anniversary last month with our trip to Universal Studios, but we went out for a nice dinner on Monday night. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful the past 3 years have been. He is the best husband and now the best daddy ever. I am so blessed to have him!!!

One of my best friends from Chicago had a baby girl at the end of November, and I have been dying to go see them both (and all my other friends). I didn't know how I was gonna do it all with Cole, but Murray worked it out for his mom to come stay with Cole for a couple days so that I could have a quick Chicago getaway! Cole had a great time with his Mimi, and I think that she had a little fun with him. Haha. Thanks so much Mrs. Jenn!

Here are some of the most fun girls I know! We ate at Cheesecake Factory and had the best time catching up.

Not that you can hardly tell, but Gina is 20 weeks pregnant! I even got to feel her sweet baby kick! Looks like I'll be making another trip to Chicago to see her baby at the end of April or early May!

Kjirsten is on the right and her sweet baby, Eliise, is the one we were trying to show off in this picture. =)

Katie & Gina

Isn't she sweet? And she is such a good baby!

Stay tuned for more updates because we have several fun things happening in the next few days! I know you are waiting on pins and needles to know what they are! Haha.

The Spirit of Giving

This time of year, there are Salvation Army bell ringers in front of most every store. If I actually happen to pay with cash and have some change, I'll drop it in on my way out, but, honestly, most of the time, I walk right by barely even making eye contact.

Today I was at Hobby Lobby exchanging some Christmas lights (a whole other long story!), and there was the bell ringer. I passed right by on my way in without really even noticing, but, what really caught my attention was what happened when I was leaving the store. A mom gave her little boy (couldn't have been older than 3 or 4) a couple of coins to drop into the pot. I wish I had gotten a picture of his face after he had given the money. Pure, innocent joy is the only way to describe it.

He had the biggest smile on his face and was literally jumping up and down from excitement as he held his mom's hand and walked into the store. As Christians we are commanded to be cheerful givers, but when was the last time we felt that kind of joy from giving? I know it has been a long while for me. I guess God knew I needed a reminder to worry a little less about saving money this Christmas and to focus on what the true spirit of giving should be. It's times like this that help me understand more fully what Jesus meant when he said we should be more like children!


***P.S.- Don't miss Cole's 5 month old post below.***

5 months old!

How can this be possible? 5 months old, sitting alone, and so much more... It seems like just yesterday he was barely filling out his newborn outfits, and now most 3 month outfits are out the door. Just yesterday we were so excited to see him with his eyes open, and now we are so excited to see him with them shut. Haha. Seriously though, Murray and I were talking the other night about how much he was changing and how fun each new thing was, but also about how bittersweet it is in a way. He will never be this small again! We are definitely trying to enjoy each stage while we have it, but so much has changed in this past month!

As you can see, Cole is sitting up now. I'm still not brave enough to move more than about a foot from him, but he is doing great. We started rice cereal this past month, and he eats like a champ! I mean, sometimes we feel like we fix way too much accidentally, but he eats every last drop. Unfortunately he thinks it's really funny spit his food everywhere. I keep telling him "No, No." but so far he's not getting the meaning! =) He also thinks that anything I eat now, he should be eating. If I'm eating cereal, a sandwich, drinking from a cup, whatever, he stares at it intensely, reaches for it, and grunts. Haha.

He is trying to crawl but has really only figured out how to scoot backwards. As you can imagine, this causes him great frustration when he is moving farther and farther from that toy he wants in his mouth SO badly! He is so much more coordinated with his hands though. We have to watch out when we sit with him at the table because those little hands are finding everything! And everything that he gets in his hands, goes straight to his mouth!

He still absolutely adores Duke. When he is in his Bumbo seat, he is right at Duke's level. He gets so excited when Duke comes up to sniff him, and you should see the smile if Duke kisses his hand! Duke has to watch out too though because Cole has learned to grab onto Duke's hair. Luckily Duke has been well broken in with our nephew Easton so he is really great with Cole.

He talks all the time now and loves it when his Daddy "gets him." Those are some of his best laughs! He still really likes to look at books and to be outside (if the wind isn't blowing!). He has been sucking his fingers for a while now... the pacifier is a thing of the past. He chews on all of his fingers, but, when it's time to sleep, you can bet he will be sucking on the first 2 fingers of his left hand. It's so sweet!

Mean old mom & dad have gotten tougher on him so now he goes to sleep on his own in his bed for naps and sleeps from about 11pm to 7am without needing to eat. He really is a much more rested and happier baby for it, but it was rough on all 3 of us at the start! =)

I am so glad that he is becoming much more of a cuddlebug too! It's still not very often, but I treasure those moments! I know y'all will think I'm crazy, but I promise he gave me his first kiss today. I was hugging on him, and he snuggled his head into my neck (hugging me back- haha), then he raised back up, looked at me, opened his mouth, put it on my cheek for a second, leaned back, and gave me the biggest smile like he knew exactly what he had just done! You may say he didn't mean it as a kiss, but you will never convince his momma of that! =)

Like all proud moms, I could go on and on about my sweet boy. I'll stop here for now though. I'm sure you guys are tired of reading my novel. Haha.

Birthday & Bachelors Degree

Well, we had a BUSY weekend! We headed to Huntingdon for a couple of big events. Easton turns 4 on December 16th, and we were able to be there for his birthday party. We also were able to go to Mrs. Jennifer's (Murray's mom) graduation! She has been working hard for her degree, and we couldn't be prouder of her!

Here is a picture of the enormous jumping thing that Joseph rented for the birthday party. It was definitely a hit with the kids. I tried to get Easton to stand in front of it for a picture, but he was SO excited that I don't know that he was still for a second the whole time!

Heading down the slide!

Cole had a great time at the party. He didn't make it into the jumper this year, but he got a lot of good lovin' in with a lot of people. Here he is with his Aunt Morgan. He LOVES her! (I think it may be mutual... haha!)

I was trying to take a picture of Murray's cousins Hailey and Collin playing basketball, but Easton scooted right through the picture. His face is great! You can tell he had a blast at his party!

Joseph is the cool dad for sure! All the little kids love him. Here he is tickling one of the many boys that attacked him during the party.

Some of the older kids feeling exhausted from just watching the little ones running around!

Cole did steal a little of the attention at the party. Who can resist that smile though?!?!

I think Cole was excited to be held by such a pretty girl!

It was a "Cars" party. Easton loves playing like he is Lightning McQueen!

We told Andrew to pass on some baseball tips to Cole!

Snuggling with his great-grandmamas!

Cake time! Love that I caught Easton mid-blow! Haha.

I have to say... our noisy, fast-paced, gift that requires very little concentration was a big hit! =)

Now onto the graduation... Proud graduate of Bethel University! Way to go Mrs. Jenn!!!

Rachel was introducing Cole to Baby Maddox! We can't wait for him to get here mid-January!!!

I love this picture! So sweet! Cole is such a lucky boy to have so many grandparents & great-grandparents to love him!

Cole is so excited for his Mimi!

Mrs. Jenn with her boys.

Cole and Daddy... looking good in their matching red and white!

PopPop was looking good in his hood & gown. Cole had to get a picture with him too!

Aren't they too cute! He got to speak at the graduation since he works for the school.

The whole family.

It may have been busy, but it was a great weekend! We were so glad that we could be home for such fun events! It was great to see all the family, and definitely made us look forward to spending time at home for Christmas!