NINE

That's the number of years we've been married today! Nine years ago in August, in Dallas, it was 104 degrees. If you look closely you can see we're both a sweaty mess:)

It's been quite the ride. The other day I was showing the kids pictures from our wedding and all of a sudden i was like.....whoa, we don't look the same anymore! I feel like up until now I thought we still did (maybe because my mental age is still stuck at 21...). Crazy. Rick looks like he's twelve!!!

Ten or eleven years ago when we were dating, we went through a lot to be together (what with a year of long distance, Rick getting baptized, and me trying to date other guys) and It's been well worth it. We have tons of fun together still, and I"m so thankful I get to be married to my best friend.

Happy Anniversary!

Kindergarten!

Carson started Kindergarten today. I was so proud of him. He wokeup excited, knew right where to go to his class (even though Brynnli and I walked with him), and sat down ready to start the day. I was lingering behind and I asked him...."do you want me to stay a few more minutes?" He said, "no mommy, I will be home after lunch ok?" He was so excited. I was devestated. I put on my happy face until Rick picked me up in the car....and then I started my ugly cry. It was a sad day for me today, but I am so excited for Carson.

I was most nervous about Carson riding the bus home by himself today....but he has been looking forward to riding the bus since he was like two. He did great and has tons of new friends already. My little guy doesn't need me all the time anymore! Luckily, I have two more who still do.....:)

Staycation

Summer is almost over. School starts next week. We have a kid in school, and now I feel like I am committing to something for the rest of my life! Making lunches, waking up early, homework, should I be excited about this? You know how some people get the pre-wedding jitters, fear of committment? I feel like I have the pre-school jitters. I digress.....so all of a sudden on Saturday I freaked out a little, feeling like I needed to get all the fun out of my system before school started...so we tried to plan a fun getaway this week. I researched all the hotels and we WERE going to stay on the beach. Then, Sunday Cole was miserable, teething, sick, or something. I was adament we were still going, and then I checked the weather. Rain, Rainy, more rain. That's all it said. I gaveup. I was bummed. Two weeks ago our vacation to the keys got cancelled by the tropical storm....me and weather are not on good terms. The worst part? BOTH times, the weather prediction was wrong. The tropical storm disappeared right after we cancelled our reservations, and the rain here for this week.....nonexistent. COME ON!

Ok, moving on. Since I'm married to Mr. Optimistic, we decided to make "lemonade out of lemons" (those were his exact words). We headed out and had the most fun we could at home. We went bowling, which was a blast, and out to eat every meal (part of my request so I didnt' have to do dishes or clean.....like I was on vacation), and then we setup our tent inside and watched a movie, had cookies and milkshakes, and slept under....the ceiling fan. Well, Cole slept in his room, and the rest of us slept in the tent. It was a good time. It was cute listening to the kids tell people we were on a "staycation." The best part, no unpacking!

Any by the way, Cole is officially the cutest bowler ever. Here's a video. You had to be there, but still can't remember when I've laughed so hard.

Sandbar

We went out for a day on the boat with Rick's parents last weekend. We let the kids get in the water and "snorkel" for shells and help Rick catch a lobster. They loved it. We stopped by a sandbar on the way back in to swim, I was slighty distracted by the ominous storm that appeared to be heading our way.....but the captains of the boat (Rick and Grandpa T.) knew better, it missed us entirely. It was a great day.

COLE'S ONE!!!

Happy Birthday to our little "Cole-man!" It was his birthday yesterday and we had such a fun day celebrating with him. We kept it lowkey and just let him do the stuff he loves to do. We started off the morning with a visit from one of our friends, the garbageman. He's seen Carson and Cole growup, so it was only fitting for him to head up the day. Carson is training Cole to be a garbageman just like him, so it looks like I"ll be in for another five or six years of watching the truck. Yay. We swam, played outside, and played with Cole's new toys.

I was looking through Carson and Brynnli's books to see how they compared at the same age to Cole, and discovered that for Carson's first birthday we had a party with 35 people, Brynnli's had 15, and Cole's 7 (our family + Grandma and Gpa Tolbert). I guess if the pattern continues, if we have another kid we'll have to only invite half our family:)

Cole had a ball themed party because that's what he's into, anything he can carry or throw.

He LOVED eating his cake.

Cole has a blocked tear duct, which he'll have to have surgery on later this month. Most days it looks fine, but today it looked especially bad, like he got punched in the eye. Poor guy.

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpas

Cole's bday present, a firetruck ball pit

Cole's stats at 1 year:

Weight:22lbs

Height: 31 in.

Walked at 9 3/4 months

Waves, dances, loves music, playing outside, and anything with a ball.

Talking: Shakes his finger "no" and says "na na"when he's doing something hes not supposed to do. Mum, Da, "NUN"-Carson, maybe a few other words only we understand:)

He sleeps 8-7 FINALLY, and has two naps for 1.5 hours.

He's a happy guy and loves to follow the other two around.

Other than the morning when we swam, it rained all day. Cole woudl rather be outside than anywhere else in the world, so before bed I finally caved in and let him go out in the rain. It was just drizzling. He was so excited.

Can't believe my little baby is one. I really can't.

Cole's Birthday dance party