Christmas, a Baptism, & New Year's Eve... Oh my!

I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of the last week in Baltimore

Here is Cole with one of his Great Grandmas (My Dad's Mom)

Don't these two look so excited to have their second Christmas??

At least these guys were excited! There was paper flying everywhere.

Lilah seemed pretty excited about the princess leapster game, but not nearly as excited as she was when she opened up her "Nail Art" book...

Sunday, December 28

Cole's Baptism day

This is of Cole being presented to the Church. He was so good -just looked aroundPastor Mark, Darin, Cole, me, Karen & Justin (Cole's Godparents)

Samuel just couldn't take a photo with a nice smile that day...

Then we move on to New Year's Eve:
We took the kids bowling - a first for Samuel, but after Daddy showed him how it was done, he had a great time

Lilah Michael & Joshua

Talia thought it would be fun to move the balls from one lane to the other - you know - why not? She made it look fun

Then Kar showed her what to do

Cole just hung out & drooled & smiled

He had fun

And Scott & Almarie? They just looked happy

We started the post bowling party off right (at Almarie & Scott's) with

Rob's mojitos

YUMMM

Cole even got into the spirit!

the kids table

complete with hats and tiaras

Oh yeah - it got CRAZY
Then we had "midnight" (OK so it was 9 pm) outside

Can you tell that this little one isn't used to the cold?? No leggings?

It's not her Mom's fault - Lilah refused.

I'm not sure they had fun...What do you think?

Crying it out...

I waited so long to let Cole cry it out at night, but it's high time he figure this sleeping thing out. Mommy will be so much happier - and so will Darin, since Cole likes MY help to go to sleep. We started on Sunday night (putting the little guy to bed awake). He cried for 45 minutes, and it felt horrible to let him do that! Of course I checked on him and reassured him during that time. Then last night he cried for about 15 minutes. Tonight? Silence! OK, well not silence - he talked to himself for a few minutes then went off to sleep. Ahhh.

Now I just need to get him to do it during the night too. Soon. Very soon. I haven't slept more than a 5 hour stretch (and that's rare treat) since well, probably May, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Other than that, we're all well. Samuel keeps asking for his house, and I keep explaining that we're going to find another house to live in. He says, "OK, but after that house can we go back to our other house?". He'll get used to the change eventually. He is keeping very busy in the meantime playing with all of the new things he got for Christmas.

Cole is doing great too. He's getting the hang of rice cereal and seems to like it. He sits up very well on his own now and is too big for his 6 month size clothes. He is due for his 6 month visit soon, so we'll see how much he has grown.