Happy Holidays

I can't believe Christmas is already here! I realize it has been quite a while since my last post so let me catch you up on what's been going on in the Conte house! Both boys were pretty sick during November with various viruses. Nick and I were even sick so something was definitely going around. Luckily we were all on the mend by Thanksgiving. My mom and Grandmommy came down and stayed for a week!! We had such a great time with them and Mom helped out so much with the boys and around the house (Thanks Mom)!! We didn't think that Darrell was going to be able to make it down for the holiday b/c he recently started a new job, and wasn't going to be able to take any days off. Well, he ended up surprising us and he was here when I got home from work the day before Thanksgiving! We were all very excited that he was able to make it...it wouldn't have been the same without him! We had a really nice Thanksgiving and a very tasty turkey dinner! Cole really enjoyed eating all the good food. Chase is still super picky, so he had Trix cereal (served in a China dish no less)!!

December is flying by. I am in the midst of Christmas shopping, and trying to get my cards sent out. I pick them up tonight and plan to mail them tomorrow so be on the lookout for one in your mailbox soon. Getting a good picture was quite an ordeal this year. I have a bunch of funny rejects for sure! I was finally able to get a half way decent pic of the boys and Rocksie, and I am hoping my cards turn out ok! We shall see!

Chase has a Christmas program at school this coming Tuesday night. We are so excited to go and watch him perform with his class. They will be singing 7 songs and some skits. I will be sure to get some pictures and possibly some videos.

I will be baking Christmas cookies this weekend. I have 8 recipes on tap, most of them family traditions. Everything from Grandaddy's chocolate chip cookies to Mimi's pizzelles to Aunt Pam's nut ball cookies. MMMM!! I can't wait. I am going to let Chase help cut out the sugar cookies and decorate them with sprinkles. Hopefully all the cookies will turn out good!

Well, that bring you up to today. I am going to do another post w/ some pictures of the boys' visit with Santa! They were a trip....I couldn't get them both to make a normal face at the same time.

Happy Halloween (a bit late)!

We had a great Halloween even though it was very hot here!! Chase had a blast trick or treating. Cole wasn't quite sure what to make of it all...I think he will really like it next year. I will have to watch the weather more closely when choosing costumes. Cole was a furry lion and he was burning up! After we walked around to a few hosues, we came home and changed and the kids helped to hand out candy. I think Chase had just as much fun doing that as actually trick or treating!

Preschool Open House

We went to Chase's school last night for an open house. We got to see him in action in his classroom, and then all of the kids sang a couple of songs for us! They also gave us a few books that he had made during the first quarter of school (I am not sure how the first quarter is already over...it seems like he just started going there)! One of the books was "All About Chase" and included some pics of him, his height/weight, favorite color, etc. It is really cute. My favorite part of the night was watching the kids sing. I took a short video of them, but it is kind of dark and hard to understand them. I thought it might make you smile though.

Singing a song in the classroom

Chase and his teachers...Ms. Cindy on the left and Ms. Lisa on the right. Ms. Lisa is the main teacher of his class.

Singing a couple of songs in Church

Here's the video clip

Picking out Pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch this Saturday to pick out a couple of pumpkins. We ended up w/ 2 big ones and 4 little tiny ones. We plan to paint them sometime next week! Nick and I figured that we should wait until they are older to try to carve pumpkins...right now, it would just be he and I doing all the work!! :-)

Jaguars vs. Titans

We went to the Jaguars game this afternoon and had a great time! We picked a really good game to go to! We headed downtown this morning about 10am to tailgate w/ some friends from Nick's work. The boys had a great time and wore themselves out...they both took naps during the game!! The game was pretty one-sided for the first half w/ the Jags winning big time! We decided to go ahead and leave at halftime since the boys had had such a long day! They both did really well though, and they are looking forward to going to another game! Thanks Pop Pop and GiGi for giving us the tickets for today!

Watch out World, Here He Comes!!

Cole is officially walking! He started taking a bunch of steps last weekend, and now he is really on the move! Here are a couple of videos of him this afternoon!! He's still a little stiff, but his confidence is definitely up!

Happy 1st Birthday to Cole!!

I can't believe our littlest guy is 1 year old today. His first year went by way too fast, but we have enjoyed every minute of it (well, most of it anyway)!! We are looking forward to his birthday party on Saturday! Hopefully everyone in our house will be over this virus that we are passing around. Cole was home sick on Friday and Chase came home sick yesterday! They are both back at daycare/preschool today and things are good so far! Keep your fingers crossed for us. The house is being de-germified as we speak, so hopefully that will help!

We gave Cole a couple of presents this morning...he didn't seem to be too impressed, and he let Chase open them for him! Maybe it was just too early! He's not the morning person that his big brother is! Chase actually gave Cole his gift last night b/c he just couldn't wait any longer!! Chase definitely takes after me in the gift department!! I got to open my bday gift early thanks to him too!! We came home one evening last week and he said "Mommy, we wrapped your present this morning. Do you want to open it?" I said that I would wait until my birthday, and then Chase said "Ok, it's a new iPod" and walked off!! I couldn't stop laughing! Then the next day he proceeded to tell me that he got me a card that sings and then he went on to say that it sings Celebration!! He is hilarious! After all that, Nick gave in and let me open the gift!! Thanks Chase!!! :-)

I have a big pot of meatballs cooking at home for Cole's birthday dinner. I am hoping they turn out good!! I can't wait to walk in and smell them along with the clean house...2 of the best smells ever!!

Here are a couple of pics of Cole opening his gifts!