Park Day

We've had a nasty week over here of sick kids and parents....we needed to get out of the house. This was exactly what we needed!

Cole went on the swing for the first time....we'll have to perfect it I think....he liked trying to eat it....:) Hoping next week will be a little better!

Another year older.....

Happy Birthday Rick! (ok...a couple days late)

Last year Rick and I were on a cruise by ourselves.....this year was still fun but less crazy.

We took the kids out for breakfast before schoolRick and I snuck off to eat lunch by ourselves at an old favorite restaurant of Rick's, Rustic Inn. Notice how Rick has crab legs and I have chicken fingers....I told him he's lucky that I'm a cheap date:)Rick wanted to take the kids camping for his birthday, so we did. We went around the corner to a park by our house and set up camp. Cole was excited about his first camping trip.The most memorable part of the trip was that after dinner it started pouring rain. We jumped up and huddled together under the lifted up gate in the back of our caR. We were going to just head home and do cake there, but our camping neighbors invited us to come over and use their trailer awning, so we had birthday cake over there and made new friends!!
I was up in the air as to whether or not Cole and I would stay the night, but we decided to be adventurous and do it. He was a trooper like always, and slept great on his packnplay mattress in the corner of the tent. The other two had a blast telling campfire stories at bedtime and playing in the tent. In usual Tolbert fashion, the kids wokeup bright and early (notice its still dark outside) to cook breakfast on the fire. It was a fun trip! Our tent is getting a little small though, it seemed much bigger last time we used it when we just had Carson! Happy Birthday Rick! Rick was lucky this year and got an new Canon T2i camera for his birthday, so our pictures should start to look much more amazing!! (or so you'd think at least....)

Our little big boy

Love this sweet little smile!

Cole turned five months old this week! I can't believe that he's growing so fast! Here's what hes up to at five months.... (mostly just journaling for me)

-Coles been loving the exersaucer....although it took the ladies putting him in it at the gym to remind me he was old enough for it!

-He just started eating baby food and rice cereal, he LOVES it, he had peas first, sweet potatoes, carrots, and loved them all. I waited with the other two until they were a little older, but Cole's a chubbier guy and has been waking up more at night.... so I thought, he's probably hungry!

-He also just started sitting up (he's still a little wobbly) and is rolling all over the place

-He is such a happy and smiley guy as long as someone is around to look at him, he loves to just catch your eye and smile

-He LOVES water and the bath

-He loves his brother and sister and loves when they play with him

-He has two blocked tear ducts... which make his eyes look goopy a lot...hope they clear up soon!!

What a fun little guy...we love him so much. And those kissable cheeks....so glad to have a chubby baby finally!!!

Christmas

We wokeup bright and early and opened presents at our house first before we headed over to Grandma and Grandpas for more. We kept these two in the hall while we got our cameras ready .... Brynnli loved the present Carson got her.....I loved this cute hug.Cole slept through all the present opening and wokeup at the end

Then we headed over to the Tolberts (sr.) for more gifts... Does this guy resemble the big guy just a little? Minus the beard? Ho Ho Ho!!

I'm sure there's tons of kids out there who got recycle cans for Christmas....totally normal:)

We suprised Grandpa with a family ski trip next month for his 60th birthday. We're all headed to Park City Utah! Wohoo! Rick headed off to work overtime Christmas night....but it was a great day.

Christmas Eve Florida style

This was our year to celebrate with Rick's family and it was great because we didn't have to pack or fly, we just hungout and had a fun time.

We started a new tradition this year (Rick's sister Trisha and I decided to make it one) of going to the beach on Christmas eve. It was too chilly for us Floridians to swim (probably in the sixties), but we played on the playground and in the sand and had a blast! The kids may have ended up partially in the water......

Maybe next time we'll go in the water!


We came home, took naps, unwrapped our one Christmas eve present, and then headed to Grandma and Grandpas for dinner with Cuban food and Christmas caroling. The kids had a blast singing Christmas carols, Brynnli was especially cute belting out the words so loudly, even though she didn't know all of them. After caroling the kids acted out the nativity. At one point the "Marys" (played by Brynnli and Kaitlyn) got into a bit of an argument over baby Jesus....who was played by.....sweet "Coleman" No Christmas is complete without putting out food for Santa, but more importantly, the reindeer, afterall, how else do they know where to land? And then, the matching jammies!

We left Grandma and Grandpas to do secret Santa duty.... my favorite memories of Christmas as a kid were of our family helping out another family in need. The kids loved this, and thought it was so funny to watch Rick sprint to the car afterwards!!!