Vocal

Here is a video of Jackson and my grandma Ginny. Notice he's discovered his "squealing/screaming" abilities. It's pretty long so if you're not a relative, bare with me. The even funnier part is my grandpa, bless his heart, playing in the background with my dog. Tucker is like that dog in the movie Spanglish - once you start playing fetch with him he'll never stop. Good ole Grandpa is the one that will always play with him while we're all visiting, playing with Jackson, etc... I love my grandpa.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I have not been in the holiday spirit as much as normal, but I think it's finally kicked in! We went to church Sunday night for the candlelight Christmas service and the whole evening consisted of singing carols and learning about the true meaning of Christmas. The snow, and the candlelight service has finally put me in the spirit and now I can't wait to spend the holiday with my little family. It is so exciting to be celebrating Christmas with Jackson for the first time! He and I are headed to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday. Wish me luck - I'm pretty nervous about flying with him for the first time, but hopefully he'll do well. I think he will.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's the holiday season!

There has been so much going on that I haven't had time to blog! Here's a recap of the last few weeks...
This past weekend we had our annual girls Christmas gift exchange. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of all of the girls, but we did get one of the little ones! The gift exchange was so much fun. Our theme this year was stocking stuffers and for dinner we had tappas. We ate, we drank, and we talked and laughed until 2 in the morning. I look forward to it ever year and this year was just as fun as all the rest. I think we've been doing it for 9 years! Here's a pic of Ava, Jackson and Cameron in their jammies.

Here's my christmas tree. Aren't the feathers cute!?
This is Jackson on his 6-month birthday. I love this one because you can see his two front teeth!

The weekend before he Cole women got together to bake Christmas cookies. I think we baked for 5 hours! It was so much fun. We made traditional cut out cookies (Grandma Selis's recipe), Oatmeal scotchies, no-bakes, chocolate covered pretzels, buckeyes, and buttery graham crackers with pecans. Mmmmmm...

Nothing much new to post about, but I always feel like I should. What do they call this - blogger's guilt?
I sold my horse Dan two weeks ago. It was very difficult to leave him at his new owner's house. Fortunately, however, they are extremely nice people and I think they love him already. Last night, his new owner called me to tell me that he had had an accident. He tried to kick their mare and got his leg caught in between two stall boards. He cut his leg open pretty badly and has to be in a sterile padded stall for four or five days. I'm thankful that he doesn't have any broken bones and that they won't have to put him down. I haven't seen it myself, but I think the cut must be pretty bad if they're keeping him at the vet's office for so long. Dr. Langhofer is treating him so I hope he will take good care of him. The poor guy - I drop him off to a strange place and then he gets hurt! I think that his new owners will do everything in their power to make sure he's okay. I could tell that she felt terrible when she called to tell me what had happened. I hope to go see him tomorrow.
We had a great time in Roanoke for Thanksgiving. A lot of relaxing, eating, and laughing. My brother David gets funnier every time. He can make me laugh harder than anyone I know. A lot of times what he says is extremely inappropriate, but that's probably what makse his comments so funny. Love you, David!
This is for all of my fellow '99 graduates from Penn High - i just got a request from Erin Milliken to join a fan club for Josh Garrel's music. DO you guys remember him? He is a pretty successful Christian singer in Portland now...go figure! There are videos of him singing in concert on You Tube. He's really an awesome singer. I hadn't heard anything about him since high school so it was pretty cool to see the videos. Thought you might be interested!
That's it for now...of to pick up my little man.

Thanksgiving was a great day. We went to DJ's aunt and uncles and then over to Justin and Heidi's for a little while. Last night we drove out to Roanoke - Jackson slept 3/4 of the way here and played with his toys the rest of the way. Everyone was waiting for us when we arrived at Matt's - Jackson of course was the highlight. :)
Today we are just hanging around Roanoke. Tonight is the Haefli family reunion - hosted by my dad this year. Should be fun! DJ can't sit still so he's walking around the farm and heading over to Martin Implements to check out the equipment.
Tomorrow is my annual shopping day with my dad! I'm SO excited! DJ will stay in Roanoke with DJ and we are off to the windy city! I am especially excited as I haven't bought any Christmas gifts yet. My friends' gift exchange theme this year is "Stocking Stuffers" and I haven't bought Kara (whose name I drew) a single thing! I hope to find her some cute stuff in Chi-town.
Peace!

Mmmmm....

I'm making Paula Deen's Creamy Macaroni & Cheese for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow at DJ's aunt and uncle's house. Someone at work recommended it to me. I am excited to try it out! Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (an 8-ounce box isn't quite 2 cups)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stuck) butter, cut into pieces
2 1/2 cups (about 10 ounces) grated sharp Cheddar cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed Cheddar cheese soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Directions
Boil the macaroni in a 2 quart saucepan in plenty of water until tender, about 7 minutes. Drain. In a medium saucepan, mix butter and cheese. Stir until the cheese melts. In a slow cooker, combine cheese/butter mixture and add the eggs, sour cream, soup, salt, milk, mustard and pepper and stir well. Then add drained macaroni and stir again. Set the slow cooker on low setting and cook for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day to everyone! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays - great food, time spent with family, and a reminder to be thankful for what I have. Here's some things that I'm thankful for this year:

• My little boy, Jackson. The past five months of my life have been the best five months of my life. I am so lucky to be your mom.
• DJ - I love you more now that you are Jack's dad. You are so great with him and he loves his dad sooo much.
• Chocolate Chip Dessert Balls - Kelly - thanks for this recipe. It was a hit at our first Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday. Mmmm...think I'll go eat some very soon.
• My parents - they are so supportive and love me unconditionally - I hope that I can be as good of a parent as they've shown me to be.
• My grandparents! Thanks so much for watching Jack for the past 6 weeks - I KNEW you'd take such great care of him.
• Friends - I am so lucky to have an incredible group of girlfriends that let me vent when I need to, cry when I need to, and ALWAYS make me laugh. I am so excited that we are getting together on December 12th for our annual sleep over and gift exchange. I look forward to it every year!
• My job - although it's been really tough to come back to work since having Jackson, I really am thankful for my job and being able to enjoy what I do (even if it is stressful at times)
• Movies - does anyone love to go to the movies as mucha s I do? Well I know aunt dawn and heidi do. :) I love seeing movies on the big screen and eating popcorn and the whole experience!
• Christmas shopping - I haven't started yet - but I can't wait to try to find the perfect gifts for my friends and family.
• Our health - I'm so blessed to have such a healthy family.
• hmmm...there's so much to be thankful for - i'll add more later.