First Halloween

Cole's first Halloween was about as successful as I thought it would be! Not one picture of him smiling in his costume! After about 27 pictures I gave up and I was just happy he was even looking in the direction of the camera! Below are a few pictures of his first Halloween, we went and visited Jason's mom working at the hospital then when down to the ER and visited with a coworker who also brought her baby (3 1/2 months) dressed as a bear, so they took some pictures together, both of course showing just how enthused they were that their parents put them in silly costumes to laugh and take pictures! Hopefully Cole will show a little more excitement next year!

Just wanted to add one more note, we have entered Cole into Gerber's cutest baby contest, voting for his month will start November 3rd and end the 30th, to vote go to the link below and click vote (starting the 3rd) you can vote once a day everyday! You will have to have an email address to do so but you will not get anything from them they just need to make sure voting is fair so that is why they ask for it. At the end of the month one child from each milestone (6 milestones) will be chosen by who gets the most votes! Each of those six will win a video camcorder then in January the children from the past six month who won will be judged by Gerber's judges and the winner out of those 36 will win a $25,000 scholarship for college and a Gerber photo shoot. So that being said this next month is very important that everyone vote everyday, after that his chances will be 1 in 36 of winning! So please vote!! I will remind everyone again starting Wednesday! We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

The link is http://www.gerber.com/photo/?entryid=163392&/#/detail/

Cole with grandma Karen at work

Family picture

Cole meeting another child forced into a costume by his parents! I think he was going to help him rip it off.

How he really felt about his first Halloween

Wedding buzz

Since Cole is sleeping and I for once in the afternoon have nothing to do I will just post a little about what's going on with wedding planning! Jason and I have decided to save a little money on invitations and make them ourselves. Since I would rather spend a few hundred dollars on anything but paper that people will just throw away afterwards I figured why not? And being a graphic design major this project was actually a more fun part of the planning for me but this is a sneak peak of what they will look like, you will have to wait to see the whole thing when it comes in the mail!

                                                                          Invitation

                                                                             RSVP

We will be saving about $400 by doing this so to me it is well worth it! I also talked to our cake lady yesterday and she has told me that this is the last year she will be baking and decorating cakes, I am very thankful to have booked her because from what I have heard she is as an amazing decorator as she is baker so I cannot wait to see how it turns out.  I do not have an exact picture of what the cake will look like but this picture is close. The only difference will be no green leaves on ours and the main color will be champagne and the flowers will be a very light pink. Other than that the flowers will be piled on top like this one and cascading down into fewer and fewer bunches near the bottom. Ours will also be three tiers, I am very excited to see how it will look in May!

                                                                     Cake

For those of you who have not seen my dress I will not post it on here because Jason does occasionally read this blog but if you are dying to see what it looks like email me and I will send you the link otherwise you will have to wait until the wedding to see that too! I will post what the bridesmaid dresses look like though, the coloring is horrible in the picture, they are so much better in person but you can get an idea of the style at least.
                                                                 Bridesmaid dresses

Well that's enough wedding buzz for now! Will update the blog tomorrow on how Cole's first Halloween went!

Six months old!

Oh where have the last six month gone! I cannot believe our baby is six months old today, I would be okay if the next six months did not go this fast. Cole had his six month pictures taken today at Brian's photography here in town and just proving that Cole will do what he wants he did not smile!! I think Brian was able to get a few good ones of him smiling, but I mean a very few. He said they would be ready to look at by late next week so I will post how they turned out when we get them back. I am also looking into buying a new digital camera, mine takes okay pictures but I would like one a little more professional and I have gotten pretty good at using a manuel lens after taking my photography class.  So for Christmas we will be looking into that!

The winter storm passed us by last night through today and all Grand Forks received was a lot of rain, if only we could get this lucky all winter!

Cole six months old!

Winter is coming...

We finally got the first winter storm watch of the year. Am I excited? No. I have dreaded driving in winter weather and now with a baby I feeling like staying inside until April!! We had a fun night out tonight though at Jason's sister and brother in-law's house, they made us turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and carrots. It was a wonderful meal and to top it off I made my first apple pie for the occasion! It is much harder than I thought and I probably will not be making them too much but it was fun to see it turn out and have everyone enjoy it! Cole has also learned to drink from a glass which surprised the heck out of me! Paul (Jason's dad) was giving him sips from it and he was drinking it without any dripping out of his mouth! Such a big boy he is becoming.  We are getting Cole's six month pictures taken on Wednesday and I am hoping the weather along with Cole will cooperate! I will make sure to post those as well when we get them!

Cole drinking from a glass for the first time!

Pumpkins carved!

We carved our pumpkins last night! Cole stayed up for it and loved watching everybody work on them, his uncle Jamie carved his for him since we decided a knife wouldn't fare well in his hands. But they all turned out very cute! Becky is the only one who drew and carved hers all by herself, I had to help Jason and Jamie out with their drawings and Jason finished carving mine, but we had a lot of fun carving them!

Cole watching the pumpkin carving

And the finished and lit pumpkins! Cole's (carved by uncle Jamie) is first, then aunt Becky's, then mine and last is Jason's! We are hoping they will stay on the porch and not end up in the street up to Halloween!

Engagement pictures!

Our engagement photos are finally in! The link is  http://shalista.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=290168  then the password is DeVaney and you may have to put an email in but just click the opt-out button and she won't send you anything. She put a few on her facebook sight so I will post what she has put up.  They turned out very well, Jason and I are pleased with them! Can't wait for her to do the wedding!

Photo shoot

Cole had pictures taken today and this is one little boy who refuses to smile in front of the camera! I think she may have gotten 5 of him smiling out of at least 100! Oh well, he looked adorable in all of them anyway! The pictures were taken by an RN (turned professional photographer) who works with Jason's mom up on the OB unit at Altru, the plan is to take pictures of staff's babies and grandbabies and hang them up around the OB floor! Much cuter than the landscape pictures they have up there now! I am excited to see how they turn out and I will make sure to post some on here once they're finished!

Sitting up

Cole has finally mastered sitting up.....well for about ten seconds anyway! He is doing very well with it and  can hold his balance for a little while before falling over. He is also starting to figure out he can get up on his hands and knees although that takes a lot of work so he doesn't try it too often unless I make him! Rice cereal is still going about as good as the first day went he will take down the first few bites but after that he starts gagging still, I am hoping by next week he will decide eating it is not so bad! Cole has also figured out that he can scream, that started yesterday so instead of the talking and singing he used to do a lot of it is now all high pitched screams. As you can tell he had a very busy week! It is also midterm time for me so I had three midterms last week and I can say I am glad that week is over!

Cole sitting up!

Rice cereal!!

Cole had rice cereal for the first time tonight!  He did very well at first but after a few bites he decided he wasn't so sure about it and by the end he started gagging on it.  But I think a few more practice tries with it and he will love it!  I did decide to start 2 weeks and 1 day before he turns 6 months old but he was showing all the signs of being ready for it so as long as he continues to tolerate it well we will keep it up! Here are a few pictures of our experience!

The first taste

Another spoonful that didn't seem too bad....

And by the end it was terrible!

Baptism

I am finally getting on to update about our weekend! It has been very busy but very fun! He wore the same baptism outfit both of my brother's wore when they were baptized and it fit him perfectly! Cole was baptized today October 10th, 2010 at the 10:30am traditional service, he did very well and did not get fussy until the very end when he wanted to take a nap. We had a lot of people come to visit us for the weekend my mom and brother Andrew came Friday night, my sister and other brother Daniel came yesterday and for the baptism Jason's sister and brother in-law Becky and Jamie, his aunt Melba and his uncle Allan, cousin Angie her baby Madelyn, cousin Beth her baby Emery as well as Jason's mom and dad were there! So it was a full house here this afternoon! Cole did not feel like entertaining this afternoon though and wanted to sleep most of the day, he has not been acting like himself the past few days so I am still not sure if it is teething, upset tummy or getting sick.  I wish he could tell me!

Other than that the week went by fast, it is already midterm time at school and as much as I like some of my classes I do not like others so I am already waiting for this semester to end!! Below are a few pictures of the baptism!

Cole and Grandma on the way to church

The baptismal service

Daddy, Cole and mommy after the baptism

Pumpkin patch!

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch tonight! We tried our best last night but by the time we found our way out there (Jason drove and that's all I will say) they were closing for the evening.  But we did get out there and picked out a pumpkin for Cole, Jason, myself and aunt Becky because she came with us too! There was a corn maze and a haunted trail that we walked through before picking out the pumpkins but the mosquitos were atrocious out at the farm and made it hard to enjoy. But we had fun and we are looking forward to carving all of them in another week or two! Here are a few pictures of our evening!

Jason, Cole and I going through the corn maze

Jason and Cole on the haunted trail

Cole trying to decide which pumpkin to get

 

This is the one he finally decided on

Our family of pumpkins!

School

Well I met with my academic advisor this morning and I knew I couldn't leave that building feeling good because it has yet to happen since I began college back in 2003! He told me that the soonest I would be able to graduate from the graphic design program would be May 2012, and he said that would be pushing it! More than likely graduation will be Dec. 2012 or May 2013! I shocked because from what the GD requirements online tell me is that I could have been done this coming summer, however after meeting with this advisor he told me that in order to graduate with graphic design I must take entrepreneurial classes which equals another year because of course they do not offer the classes each semester. I have to take 6 classes every other semester for another year and a half! No wonder this school has so much money, they obviously think the students are made of it! Okay enough with my rant on UND....
The weather is beautiful out today so I think Jason and I are planning to take Cole to the pumpkin patch tonight to pick out his first pumpkin!  I will take a lot of pictures and post them later tonight if we do make it out there!

Go Sioux!

Cole is enjoying his first Sioux hockey game from home tonight! He is is dressed for the occasion as you can see from the picture, he is also ready for Christmas just like mommy!

Cole has also figured out how to scoot backwards! He can get up on all fours but only for a second, however staying in one spot has now come to an end in this house! We are planning on heading to the pumpkin patch sometime this week also as long as the weather stays decent outside, cross our fingers!

Catching up

Cole is sleeping and while I should be taking a nap too I cannot sleep so I decided to update the blog with a little of this and that. Jason is hunting for the day so Cole feels like going to the mall after he wakes up from his nap! Cole did not sleep through the night again last night I am not sure if it is still teething, growth spurt or him getting sick but since he has let Jason and I sleep through the night from six weeks old it is hard getting out of bed at 1:30am!  I can't complain though because he is such a good baby when he does get up! Hoping for a full night sleep tonight but we will see!

Grandma left today to head back down to Sioux Falls, she figured since she will be up here next week for the baptism she should get some things done in the few days she will be home!  We will miss her company though! 

I know some people (especially those not from Sioux Falls) have been asking me what our wedding reception site looks like since it is taking place in a museum, I have posted some pictures below so everyone can see where we will be celebrating after the ceremony! There is a balcony above part of the room of which I did not get pictures of because I was in a hurry but I have posted what I was able to capture! Only 7 1/2 more months!!

The reception venue: This is a picture of the ballroom in the museum and the day I took the pictures it was actually set up for a wedding the next day.

I could not get this picture to turn the right way but this is another view of the room.

This is a picture of the ceiling where the antique chandelier hangs.

The room can be set up differently but ours will be set up pretty close to how these are set up.