destruction monster

Our little monster loves him some destruction. He can hear you stacking blocks from another room and he will hunt you down until no block is left standing.  Dale always builds the best towers for Cole. I have zero patience to build a tower and give it a nice pattern but Dale, he is the best. Here is a little glimpse in to Cole's favorite activity ever. He is all boy through and through...poor Mommy.

Hark, is that block stacking I hear?

 Oh, it sure is. Score!

Note to self: learn how to run

Got distracted

Oh, hey there other less important toys. I'll get to you later

Oh, Mama. Hi!

 Dad, you rock. You are so skilled in tower building. Permission to knock it over?

Nice craftsmanship, good arches. I approve. 

                                          And the hand goes out, and the crowd goes wild...

                                                 I missed but this is still the best day ever!

                                   I have to look at just one more time before sweet victory is all mine

       Oh, look...a surprise hidden archway. Nice touch, Dad. 

   The calm before the storm

 Sweet Victory!

Helping to clean up. What a sweet boy. 

2013

We have spent every New Years eve since 2006 at Red Robin with our friends, Grey and Heather. We added a new, and very cute, member last year with the addition of Cole to our little group. We started the tradition randomly in Raleigh in 2006 with Dale's college friends and ironically we ate at that same Raleigh Red Robin this past year. It is funny how you can never picture which direction your life will turn. If you asked me in 2006 if I ever planned on living in Raleigh I would have said no. We had fun eating with all the early birds at 5:30pm on New Years Eve and let me tell you, that place was packed. We all knew exactly what we wanted to order, no menus needed. Cole even enjoyed some delicious Red Robin fries and I think my husband loved me a little bit more for wearing flannel with him.

Later that night we lost our poor little Golden, Rio. Cole was in bed and we were all sitting around playing a really nerdy new board game when I noticed that the back gate was open and Rio was gone. The search was on in less than 10 minutes. We all walked around the neighborhood, hung up signs, posted on craigslist, and informed facebook that little Rio was missing. Now Rio is not that outdoorsy type and we were so afraid that she was going to just keep running and running until she came across people. She is not the type to run away at all. We don't usually put her on a leash if we are running around the yard and she has never run off. Hence, she did not have a collar on when she actually ran away due to fireworks. Anything loud and with surprise element is Rio's arch nemesis. We hunted for her until around 3:00am and we had to give up even though we were all so sad without little Rio. My sister and brother in law drove from Greensboro as soon as they heard Rio was missing to help look for her and I will be forever grateful for their love. We went to bed with so much sadness and all I could think about was she is gone forever and that someone had snatched her up and was going to keep her. Dale and I slept on the couch in the living room just in case she came home in the middle of the night we could hear her. We left her blanket on the back deck and another on the front porch along with her favorite soccer ball at the back gate to entice her home. Around 4:30am, Dale heard a scratch at the back door and it was Rio! We were overjoyed and mad at her all at the same time for giving us a heart attack. Dale and I hugged Rio so tight and even let her sleep between us on the couch for a couple hours. In the morning Rio woke everyone up by jumping up on the beds and acting like nothing ever happened. Cole was happy to see his doggie the next morning and he never even knew she was missing. We will never forget the New Years where we lost our sweet Rio. She is a important part of our family and we are so glad that she is home. 

This is an old picture of Rio and Cole but I couldn't resist the sweetness and mushiness. Plus, it just goes to show that Rio's ball is never far. 

bittersweet birthday

This post is a little old considering our baby turned 1 almost a month ago. It has taken me awhile to come to terms that our little guy is growing up. I could not even sing the birthday song to Cole before his birthday because I would cry. I have officially turned in to my mother. No one tells you that you are going to be sad on your child's first birthday. We have so much to be thankful for and I am so happy to have a baby who is healthy and growing but there is something about that first year that really gets to you. Dale of course thought I was being too emotional (no surprise) and don't get me wrong, I do not want to rewind but that first birthday is the first part of letting go of your little baby. We are so proud of little Cole and we really can't wait to watch him grow, talk, and boss everyone around...I just want him to grow a little slower.

Carnival craziness should have been his birthday theme because it was definitely chaos. My family and I went a little overboard creating a theme that Cole will not even remember.  Our house was complete with a ball pit, big top tent, circus take, and too many banners to count. Cole loved having so many people he knows in one room and was jumping from person to person just being our little ring leader. Happy 1st Birthday!

staying home

Dale and I have an inner battle constantly fighting itself. We love to be on the go all the time but then we complain that we never get to spend time as our little family of 4 (including Rio). We told ourselves that this past weekend we would stay in Raleigh and have a fun filled family day.

On Friday by wonderful sister said that some random person at work gave her NC State basketball tickets because she "helped him so much." Ana knew that her secret ticket giver was married and worked in IT and that was about it. I was pretty touched that there is still good in this world and random acts of kindness. Pass it on. Cole went to his first NC State basketball game and did not hate it. Cole sometimes is a ticking time bomb and cries at things he used to love just when we think we had him figured out. Cole enjoyed sitting on our laps and his eyes were fixed on the basketball players. Dale and I were so proud of our little man for staying awake for a 7:00pm game.

On Saturday we got stuck driving around for about an hour exploring Raleigh because Cole fell asleep in the car and we do not mess with a sleeping baby. We ended up in Durham because I wanted to check out the new West Elm at Southpoint Mall. I absolutely love Durham. I feel like I am back home in NoDa when I am in Durham because it is a perfect atmosphere mix of hipster and a little shady. I like the fun shops and being able to walk to restaurants People just seem happy in Durham. We walked around the mall for a couple hours and Cole enjoyed people watching. There was a guy playing his guitar at the outdoor part of the mall and Cole strained his neck for as long as possible to see him. Our little guy just loves music; he gets it from his Uncle Jonathan obviously. Saturday night we went over to Cole's cousins' house for a little sleepover. We watched Erin and Anna while Gina and Bob went out on a hot hot date. I was in heaven playing dress up with the girls while Dale corralled Cole away from sharp edges and toys with little pieces.

On Sunday we met some of my family in Greensboro for a little birthday celebration. The weather was AMA-zing and we sat outside and went on a walk. Ana made the best brownies ever with oreos in the middle and I am still savoring the leftovers. Cole was kind of a hot mess while we were in Greensboro because he had only had about a 10 minute snooze in the car from Raleigh to Greensboro. Dale and I had to build a wall with our bodies and let Cole flop around and cry on the bed until he finally fell asleep when he landed on Mommy after one good fall. Cole had his first official nap without any kind of baby protective device; we put him on the dog's old (clean) bed on the floor. Our options were very limited but Cole did great and we all rolled with the punches.

chick magnet

Cole was a chicken for Halloween. I know it is kind of an unmanly costume and I have to say that I am just a little embarrassed for our child. I saw the idea in Parents magazine and I absolutely was hooked and I really can't resist baby hats. Cole was a good sport and wore his costume for about 30 minutes. We didn't actually take Cole outside because we felt like a 10 month old can't eat candy so really Dale and I would be asking for the candy for our own personal benefit.

Side story: Dale had a couple hooligans come to our door while I was giving Cole a bath. We have noticed that some tweens/teens in our neighborhood are really all about some cigarettes. We see them walking around when they should be in school smoking. Some of the smokers came to our door for trick or treating and they did not even bother to put out their stick. Dale asked them if it was kind of counter intuitive to smoke and trick or treat? Giggles! Dale still gave them candy which I was kind of mad about...oh well.

cutie mccuterson

I've been slack. I really had big dreams of posting all the time and being super awesome at keeping up with our life on the internet. Oh well. We have been busy with work, school, and figuring out how to manage all of our time with family and friends. We love having a hectic schedule and being on the go but sometimes we just want to hide in our house and do nothing. We shouldn't complain because we are so lucky to have such fun family and friends to hang out with who love us (or really love Cole).

We are still in to going to the park at least twice a week. It is so nice and convenient to our house that sometimes we walk if everyone has had their nap.

Cole was running fevers for about 4 days last week and it was so sad because he did not even want to play or eat. Cole wanted to be held constantly and actually cuddled on the couch with me and Dale.
We went on a downtown Raleigh trolley "ride" Saturday night for a friend's birthday party. You basically peddled this trolley with 14 people and enjoyed a few beverages while you peddled to different bars. It was way more fun than one might imagine. Dale dressed up as Mr. Clean and I was a pirate. I wish we had taken some pictures to share the joy. On Sunday we entertained by having a group of Dale's college friends over for a reunion and poor Cole was sick the whole time. We had fun hanging out with all our friends and reminiscing about the good ol' days.  Cole had fun sharing his toys with his new baby friend, Lucas.