Animal Sounds

I am sure every parent feels like their child is the smartest, but I am pretty sure Cole is bordering on genius. Just listen to him...

Beach Video

Here is a quick video of Cole at the beach on 4th of July weekend. He was drinking the ocean water like he was parched in a desert (wait, we do live in Arizona) and I was sure he was going to get sick. But, his immune system prevailed and he was fine.

San Diego

It was supposed to reach record highs over the 4th of July weekend in AZ, so we decided a San Diego trip was in order. We had so much fun over the weekend. We got to see my good friend Julie, her husband Mike and their 3-month old Mason. The next day (Saturday) we saw Jamie, Danielle, Kate and their 3-week old addition Lily. On Sunday Cole's Nana, Papa and cousins visited too! Add into that staying the whole weekend with Alli, Brian and Kelsey, plus a couple of BBQs, the beach and Cyndie coming over and it couldn't have been a better weekend.

Second generation of friends...Cole, Kate and Kelsey!

There are so many people I want to visit each time I go to So Cal it can be hard to fit them all in. There are still about 50 people (or more) that I wish I could have seen, but this was a great trip! We saw so many great friends. It reminded me (as San Diego always does) how much I miss living their and my friends and family.

Cole had a GREAT visit. I am so happy so many people got to see him as he is in such a fun stage right now.Daddy and Cole on the beach.

Cole and his fabulous eyelashes!
P.S. Good thing we got out of Arizona - the temperature hit 119 on Saturday!

Golfing...

In the nude!

Little Prince

One of the gifts that I got at my shower was this cute little prince robe. Unfortunately, it was one of the things that never got worn by Cole. Until recently...we found it in a drawer and decided to see if it would still fit. Not exactly, but the results are still cute!

Easter at School

Cole's school had a party on Saturday for Easter. Cole had a great time. The morning started with an Easter egg hunt. He really wasn't that interested in the eggs, but once he got his hands on them he didn't want to let go. So he really only needed two eggs to feel complete. Then, there was a snack (donuts! first one - delicious), a craft activity and finally a meet-n-greet with the Easter bunny. We thought the meeting would be a disaster, but he actually did OK. I think since the bunny had a human face he wasn't quite as afraid. All in all it was a lot of fun and we are happy Cole's school has fun events like this for parents and kids to go to!

Craft time with Dad!

Holding my eggs and playing soccer.

The hunt...pretty uneventful. Was more like "The Stand and look at eggs."

Dancing Dinner Party!

Sorry for the poor video quality, but even blurry you can see how cute it is! I apologize for the singing BTW....the things we do to entertain our children.

Big Boy!!!

Cole got his first hair cut - oh my dear, was it tramatic! He cried the whole time he was in the chair. They blew bubbles for him, played a video - but nothing could stop those tears. I would share the photos here, but all are lost. I had 3 months of photos on my camera and somehow managed to delete them all before transfering them to the computer.

So, you will have to settle for the post-cut photos, which are cuter anywhere since he isn't hysterical.

Who became a big boy with just a few snips of the scissors?

Let him eat cake!!

Cole was so lucky on his birthday. He had family and friends visit from Hawaii, California, Virgina, Arizona...all to celebrate him. The party turned into a weekend long event with people arriving on Friday and staying through to Sunday/Monday. It was so fun. I think ultimately the party was mostly for me. I stressed out a little bit, but for the most part had a blast. I really had fun visiting with all our family and friends the rest of the weekend. We are so blessed that so many people from near and far were able to come. Here is Cole enjoying his cake. He wasn't sure what to do with it at first but wound up eating some and licking his fingers.

Three Generations of Schwartz Men

Hmmm..failure anyone?

So, I know I am like the worst blogger EVER! It has 4 months...and I swear so much has gone on in those 4 months. Cole's first Christmas, a trip to Iowa, a first birthday, a first haircut...you get the idea. Lots of firsts.

I was talking to a friend tonight who was politely not giving me a hard time about the fact that everyone else I know can blog at least a couple of times a month, and yet hear I am taking 4 months to get one post up. I really want to do better. I just wish I could will the photos and stories onto the page.

Here are a couple of photos from the past 4 months....

Cole tells me he loves me..

Music to my ears....even though he has no idea what he is saying!

A time of Thanks!

We have a lot to be Thankful for here in the Schwartz household. Even though I don't love living in Arizona, we both have good jobs, we have a nice house, and we have loads of wonderful family and friends (even if most of them live in other states!). So lots to be thankful for.

Mostly this year we are thankful for Cole - he is such a fun baby/little boy and we are blessed to have had a happy, healthy first 1o months under our belts.

Due to Chris' work schedule it is hard for us to travel for Thanksgiving. We have been with friends the past couple of years, but this year celebrated just the 3 of us. We had a yummy dinner. Below are some videos from the day - we are still waiting to purchase a camera.

I can crawl!

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I am sure anyone who reads this blog must be used to it!

We still don't have a camera (we are thinking of getting one for Christmas!) so we are operating off taking videos and pulling stills from them for photos. Or, in the case of this blog, just sharing the videos.

Cole is now 10 months old. He has changed so much recently and is so much fun! He can crawl now and is working on walking. He loves to cruise around, either on the furniture or holding our fingers. He is very vocal, loves to smile and just is coming out of a period of "strangers=danger" where he always preferred to be held my mom and dad!

Chris and I are both doing well. We are keeping busy with work. We just put the house on the market this week. We had an open house yesterday and had a great turnout. Hopefully we will get the house sold in the next few months. Aside from that, not much else is new.

Here is a recent video of Cole crawling. He is a bit faster now and has straightened it out a bit!

Trying to crawl

Cole is getting pretty close to crawling! Probably any day now. Here he is showing his form.

He also just had his 9 month check up. He is 18 lbs 2 oz, 28 inches (I think) and he has two teeth! Teething has not been the funnest thing, but he is getting by and so are mom and dad.

Dang...that's impressive!

Cole was getting his jump on in his exersaucer while Kurtis was watching. Cole has some amazing bounce skills which Kurtis really appreciates. Check out Kurtis in the background be struck with awe as Cole jumps.

My ears!

This video is from August, but I thought I would still share as it is pretty funny. He can't handle the sound of his own shriek.

Is it just me, or does this photo make my lips look big?

No more lip plumping for Cole!

Cole and Kurtis meet!

Cole has had a very fun couple of weeks! Two weeks ago, he got to meet his cousin Kurtis for the first time. Matt, Riana and Grandma were all here as well. We all went to the pool, the playground, cooked good food, and just generally had a great time! It was so fun to see the family - Matt and Ri hadn't been down to Vegas for a year and it was Grandma's first trip back to the Mainland since moving to Hawaii. The next weekend we all headed to CA to celebrate Papa Spicer's 60th birthday. Unfortunately, we had a mishap with the diaper bag and the camera (leaking baby bottle - oh no!) so we have no pictures from that weekend and need to buy a new camera!

Who loves the bath?

Cole has graduated from sitting in a "baby" bath in the big tub, to just sitting up and chillin in the water. He absolutely loves it. He loves to splash Chris and I. He gets this really deep look of concentration on his face while he splashes the water and sometimes acts surprised when he gets his face all wet. It's that casue and effect thing he doesn't have down yet. Regardless, bath time = fun time at the Schwartz house.



Enjoy!