And he's ONE!!!

Where do I even begin? We basically have had about a week long party celebrating Cole turning one, and we have another birthday bash planned this weekend. Haha. Actually, Murray took some vacation time, and we headed to Pickwick for a much needed family vacation. Of course, the main focus of the trip was Cole's birthday, and we did have a big party with all our family on Saturday (his actual birthday). I think that we had 30 people there... grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts, great-great aunts and uncles... you get the picture! This little boy is definitely loved! He may have been a little overwhelmed at times, but overall I think he had a great time and enjoyed his first birthday very much. I know for sure that he is enjoying all his birthday presents! Here are a few pictures from his birthday party...

Trying to figure out why so many people are singing to him... haha.

He needed a little coaxing with the cake. I was honestly kinda surprised because this boy normally has no problem making a mess or getting his hands dirty at home. Must have been all those eyes on him making him nervous!

He did get a little more into it as the time went on though...

Opening some of his MANY presents! Good thing we just got such a nice toybox!

Really excited about his new dvds & travel dvd player! Those long car rides just got a lot better!

This is the best wheelbarrow ever!!!

Definitely a favorite... he could stay in this car all day! He just loves turning the wheel, honking the horn, and making his car noise with his mouth. Thanks Mimi & PopPop!

And such a fun pool from Nonny & Poppy! It's his very own splash park! Who needs the zoo?!?!

Quick video of the pool fun with Daddy...

These by no means were all of the pictures, but they hit the highlights! I will do another post later with pictures of all our lake fun, and of course I will put pictures up from his "friend" party this weekend.

As far as having a one year old goes... how can I have a one year old?!?! Haha. If I had one phrase to describe our little boy it would be that he is a mess! He has such a personality that just develops more and more everyday, and I couldn't love it more! He thinks he is so big and is too smart for his own good. I definitely have my hands full with this one! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a picture of how I found him today to prove my point.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... that is a whole, brand new roll of toilet paper completely undone on the floor. If it's not the tp, it's the cabinet full of all his bowls, forks/spoons, and cups. Or his basket of books. Or... you get the point. Now that he is walking (basically running) everywhere, there is no stopping him! Luckily most of the time I am able to see the humor and just enjoy having such a busy boy. ;)

As far as developments go, he will eat just about anything... even soybeans at the japanese restaurant the other night! His favorites are grapes, strawberries, bananas, hot dogs, CHEESE!!!, and nutragrain bars. We have introduced milk, and he loves it! He was chugging it this morning, and it was so cute to see his little milk goatee. Haha.
He can definitely say a few words and has added drink, all done, shoe, and outside to his list that at least momma & daddy can understand. He likes to try to color, but you do have to watch that those crayons don't make it to his mouth... it is just so tempting!
Physically the most obvious change this past month has been the transition to complete walking, but he has also started trying to feed himself with spoon and fork (for all of you out there wanting to know fine motor skills too- yes, I'm a nerd).
I will have to post his growth stats later because our appt. isn't until tomorrow since we were out of town on his actual birthday.
He is so sweet and social. He rarely meets a stranger and LOVES to wave and smile at everyone who passes by. He will give kisses and hugs to just about anyone when asked, but the sweetest kisses are the ones that he gives out on his own randomly. Melts my heart to get those!
As you can tell, we feel so blessed to have been this little boy's parents for the past year, and we are so looking forward to all that his future years bring.

Too leave you with something a little less sappy... here is a video of Cole "getting" his Daddy! Too funny!

Fun times!

The past 4 nights have been late nights for my sweet boy! We had VBS at church this week, and, with mommy teaching the 2 year old class and daddy working late, Cole didn't make it to bed before 10 Sun-Wed! He was such a good boy though and got rave reviews from all the nursery teachers! I think he enjoyed his first VBS!!!

Today we headed to the zoo for some fun time outside. It has been such nice weather this week. Sunny, but not too hot and a great breeze! Here are some pictures of Cole and Daddy feeding the giraffe! Cole was pretty brave about such a big animal being that close!


We also hit up the water park with our buddies Liz & Davis! Are these boys cute or what?!?! They have a great time together and are so sweet with each other. One day we will have to teach them that boys don't kiss boys, but for right now, their sugar-sharing sessions are pretty cute!

I found a cute pair of cowboy boots for Cole awhile back so I decided to have a mini-photo shoot of him in them with his cowboy shirt and horse. He wasn't so sure about it at first...

But, he definitely got more into it as we went on!

As fast as he seems to be growing up, I know he won't let me do these kinds of things for long so I have to squeeze them in while I can!

And on a side note, he may look cute and adorable on my blog, but he can be a real booger... I guess most things come full circle though, and I'm getting payback for when I was a baby. Today, I fought him for 30 minutes trying to get him to take a nap, and still I didn't win. Normally its a quick thing to rock him to sleep and lay him down, but not this afternoon!!! If he wasn't making indian noises with his hand and mouth, then he was trying to blow rasberries on any inch of bare skin he could find on me, or he was swinging and arm or a leg or, yes, even his head to stay awake, and he even tried getting me to pray by putting his hands together over and over. I have to admit I laughed out loud in spite of myself a few times because it was truly funny & some of the rasberries really tickled. Haha. Guess this is one afternoon where he is going to have to cry it out... sorry baby!

First Haircut & Walking Outside

Murray has been wanting to cut Cole's hair for awhile, and I have to admit it did need it. He definitely had some wings on the side and quite long hair in the back. I was just nervous to take him somewhere and try to get him to hold still. Plus (call me Scrooge) I really didn't want to pay someone to trim off the little bit that needed trimming. Well, you would think if I were nervous about letting a professional do it, I would be even more nervous about doing it ourselves, but nevertheless, we did it! It's a little higher above the ears than I would have liked and probably not exactly straight, but I think he looks cute as ever. So here are the pictures... judge for yourself. =)
The before shot...

Scary- huh??

The end result...

No complaints from Cole!!!

Cole and I played outside for a while this afternoon, and I was SO impressed with how he was walking. He was all over the place, and he didn't crawl anywhere! I think having to have his knees drag on the sidewalk or getting cut grass all over his hands was motivation to avoid crawling and just stand back up when he would fall.
So proud of himself!

I seriously wonder sometimes just how big he thinks he is... carrying a gun taller than he is around the yard!

This is a longer video, but check out how far he walks and how controlled he is! It's just crazy to me.

Seeing him walk around makes me so proud, but it is the weirdest thing too! I can't describe how strange it is to see my "baby" just walk into the kitchen looking for me. For those of you that read this who have little ones younger than Cole, trust me when I say they will be walking before you know it so enjoy your cuddle time now!!! =)

Busy Boy...

Here are some videos of what Cole and I have been doing this afternoon- and this is just a tiny glimpse of it all. He doesn't stop! Haha.

Helping me look for bargains... sorta. ;)


Walking more and more...


He can stand up without pulling up now too...


LOVES his $2 yard sale mower! It really must run in the Butler boys genes!


***Don't miss his big Chicago trip post below!***

Mommy & Me Road Trip!

Murray is back on Ortho Trauma so Cole and I decided to hit the road. I don't know if I was brave or just stupid, but, after Cole's tubes Monday, we headed to Chicago on Tuesday. I was a little nervous about driving 300 miles without any help in the car, but luckily our good buddy Davis let us borrow his dvd player. It made a world of difference. We only made 2 stops on the way and on the way home. Guess Cole does have quite a bit of his momma in him... check out how zoned into the tv he is. Haha.

aaahhh... love a sleeping baby!

One of our stops was at Chicfila... I got lucky because this one had a special toddler treehouse. He loved it, and it was a great way to stretch out after being in the car.



Checking out the world...

Mom... do you see the size of this butterfly?!?!

At last! The Chicago skyline! I have to admit, I don't miss the traffic, but I do miss some of the views. And I definitely miss my awesome girls there! It was so nice to spend a few days hanging out and catching up with them! I really couldn't have asked for a better trip!

One of the main reasons we went was to visit with my friend Gina and her sweet new baby girl Paige.

Cole was so cute with her. He was really good about being gentle and actually wasn't too jealous about mommy holding another baby.


Kisses for Paige... since we still open-mouth kiss, we avoided the face!

We stayed with my good friend Kelly. She was getting in some early morning cuddle time with Cole.

Cole's first time trying a Potbelly's sandwich. It was a hit!

And of course an Oreo shake!

After lunch Kelly, Cole, and I headed to a park. Cole did have fun swinging and going down the slide, but he was really glad that the little girl who came let him borrow her car. Haha.

Cole sharing his books with Kelly.

Excited that I told him we were heading to the zoo to meet Katie.

He was so distracted by the MILLIONS of kids running around.

Katie... I have someplace really fun to show you...

The playground!

If only, I were a little taller!

He really enjoyed the Chicago-style pizza, but he didn't really know what to think about he fried zucchini!

On our way home, we made a pit-stop somewhere way better than chicfila... great grandma & grandpa's! Cole was very excited to see them!

My grandpa made a toybox for me when I was little so we asked him to make Cole one for his big birthday coming up. Isn't it awesome?

I think he likes it!

He definitely didn't mind being the center of attention for a while.

And they definitely didn't mind seeing his sweet smiles!

It was a great week, but we were both SO happy to get home and see Daddy. We surprised him by showing up at the hospital in between his surgeries. Cole didn't want to let him out of his sight! We are ready for some Daddy time now that we have all our traveling out of the way so we are keeping our fingers crossed that nobody in Louisville breaks any bones this weekend! =)

Cole's Surgery Day

If you keep up with the blog at all, you should be somewhat familiar with our trouble with ear infections. Well, we had an appointment with the ENT last Wednesday, and he told us that we needed to have tubes to put in his ears. So bright and early this morning, we headed to the surgery center. I was definitely nervous since he wasn't allowed to eat at all before the surgery, but he was so great. He waved at everyone and gave them his big smile. I know I'm crazy for taking pictures, but this was a big moment! And hopefully we will not have another moment like it again soon. Now that I have defended myself, here are the pictures.

He had a fun time crawling under all the chairs in the waiting room.

He especially loved his new Elmo book that Nonny sent him as a get well soon present.

And this is why we had to get tubes... his ears are constantly bothering him, and he is constantly messing with them. Poor baby!

Trying to decide what he thinks about all of this.

He might have been sweet before, but he was quite cranky coming out of anesthesia! Thank goodness Mimi and PopPop had brought him a fun rocking horse to take his mind off of it.

The doctor said that everything went extremely well so hopefully we will have a healthier baby from here on out. He was cranky for a while, but he was so sweet and fun tonight. I think that he is definitely feeling better so thank you to everyone who was thinking of us, praying about today, and calling/texting to check in.