AWESOME!

As it has been forever since I have posted a blog I now have picture of Baby Kate (Amy and Zach's new arrival) at two weeks old and I now have pictures from yesterday of her at 5 weeks old that I will post in my next blog. She is absolutely adorable.

Kate Elizabeth Mathis

The proud daddy!
I think she was over me taking pictures of her.
The happy family.

Aunt Elizabeth and Kate.

Cole continues to want to go see the animals at the zoo and when you ask which animals he wants to see it is always elephants, giraffes and monkeys. Unfortunately there is not a zoo locally that has these animals so we hoped that the Junior Museum would suffice. Shari and Joshua joined us a few weeks back and the boys had a great time. Here are some pictures from the "zoo."

Cole and Joshua checking out the map and deciding where to go next.

Swiper the Fox.

They had a race on the slides.

Peek a BooHe climbed up on this tire monster and then realized getting down was not going to be as easy as climbing up.

Joshua climbing the poll.

We finally were able to make a trip to Destin to visit with Todd, Carly, Brody and Wade. The boys are 18 months old now and are absolutely adorable. We had a great visit and the boys played so well together. Saturday morning we new, despite the freezing weather, we had to get the boys out and get some energy out of them so we took them to the park. Carly's friend Whitney and her daughter Campbell joined us and they all had a great time playing together. We had such a great visit and it is always such a shame to live so far apart and not be able to get together more often.

Carly and Brody heading to space.

Here are all the kids climbing up the jungle gym and sliding down the slides.

Brody coming down head first.

Here comes Cole.

Wades turn.

Brody again.

Pile up on Slide 2

The pile up had begun to clear as Campbell and Wade were able to shake free.

Carly wasn't going to let the kids have all the fun!

Brody and Cole decided to take a trip to space.

Weekend away from home...

We traveled to Orlando this weekend to visit with my mom for her birthday and also got to have lunch with my dad and Olivia on Monday. Saturday we went out to the soccer field near my mom's house and Cole was showing off skills.

We went out on the boardwalk on the lake and Brian hid the soccer ball from Cole so it didn't get in the water. Any idea where it went?

Naptime!

After nap we got out on the golf course to hit some ball. Cole really enjoyed it and was totally styling in his outfit.

Sunday Uncle Rob, Aunt Kathy, Robert and Jeff came over for a cookout and Cole got some one on one lessons from Uncle Rob.

He didn't believe me that it was cold.

This is the Cove in Inverness. A great restaurant on the water off the beaten path. Cole and PePaw off to check out the water.

How dare you?

Granny, Cole and PePaw

PePaw and Cole both very excited.

DORA, DIEGO, DORA

Cole is obsessed with Dora and now has an obsession with Diego. I mean it is to the point of when he wakes up in the morning, "i want to watch Dora" is the first phase on a daily basis. He will walk around singing the theme song, oh, and I will too. And we both like to sing the Grumpy Ole Troll song too. And for any of you who watched the Christmas, we really like the Baby Troll. "He's funny!"

The good news he is learning from Dora. We stopped in Inverness on our way home from Orlando on Monday and had lunch with PePaw and Granny (my dad and Olivia) and we were all out by the lake after we ate and I guess not moving quick enough because Cole screamed to us "Vamonos". Quite the character that one is.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mix match PJs: He loves to get in "momma's bed" to watch Dora. Someone must have done something he didn't like. Whitney, Kat and I took Cole to the Winter Festival downtown a couple Saturday's ago. He was sporting Kat's sunglasses sitting in Su-nana's seat (that would be Suzanna)

He is not a fan of characters. This pictures doesn't even show how much he did not want his picture taken. Also, at school before the holiday, they had a party that Santa attended and all of the kids got to sit on Santa's lap and get their picture taken. I was informed when I picked him up that day that if I were to go online and look at the picture to not expect to see one of Cole. Looks like Disney won't be an issue for quite sometime.

Sunday before Christmas, Bill and Michele's neighborhood had a bike parade led by Santa and so we went over for dinner and to join in the parade. Sydney rode her bike and we pulled the boys in the wagon. They had a blast.

Ho Ho Ho!

Cole is starting to figure out the steering on this bike, thankfully. It is scary to watch him tear down the driveway at high speeds.

Some of you may remember this snowman from a few years back. We tackled him on for our Christmas card picture. Here he is getting much more love from Sydney and Cody. Guess what, Cole was scared of it.

On Christmas Eve, we all went over to Bill and Sandy's for dinner and family. Granddaddy got a new camera so it is like having the paparazzi around at all times between the two of us. (He is worse, I think) :) Love you G-Daddy!

Look at that face!

Sydney and her new headband.

When we all get together it is fun to get a generations picture and have been able to do that in the past with little trouble. As you can see from the photos below this years picture was not much success (at least for my boys).

When we got home from Sandy and Bill's Christmas Eve, my mom opened a gift to Cole of a bear that reads 'The Night Before Christmas'. He really enjoyed it.

Here are the cookies, milk and carrots we left for Santa and the Reindeer.

And here is the little that they left.
After Cole went down, we finished wrapping up the gifts and got to bed a little late but woke up around 7:00 with the excitement of Cole's reactions to Christmas morning. He definitely was getting most of the concepts. When you ask, what does Santa bring? He knows the answer is presents. Christmas morning we cooked a breakfast and Bill and Sandy came over to join in the fun before heading over to Bill and Michele's for lunch.

Here he is with his new red scooter.

As part of his stocking he got jingle bells, a tambourine, a whistle and maracas. Brian, Cole and I started a band.

His big gift was his John Deere Gator that he got from us so he and Daddy could ride in the yard together. Cole calls this his tractor, although my dad informed me that tractors are actually red. Dad, I'll let you explain that to Cole!!! :)

I think he was a little pooped from all the gift opening.

We took some gifts over to Cody and Sydney after we opened all of ours and to wish them a very Merry Christmas. Here is Cole helping out his cousin open his scooter.

We got everything cleaned up from the morning and while Cole took a nap we began preparing all the food for Christmas dinner. We ate around 5:00 and had a delicious meal of turkey and ham, gravy, cornbread dressing, squash casserole, broccoli, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and rolls. WOW! Cole enjoyed the ham and that was it. Little stinker.

I think we were all so full of fun from the day and food from dinner that it wasn't too late of a night at our house.

Saturday Susan, her mom Marcia, Emmy and myself drove to St. George Island to look at a beach house we have rented for next summer. Stephen and Susan are going to be getting married next summer and we are going to have a small ceremony at the beach while we are there for the week. The house is beautiful and so was the beach. I wish it were time to go now!

Everyone made their ways home on Sunday except my mom who stayed until Monday and she and I were able to get my house in some semblance of order before she left which was a huge help. Thanks mom.

Cole is out of school for two weeks so Brian and I have been tag teaming keeping him home. It has been so fun to have him around. Tuesday I took him by Brian's office. He terrorized it by running full speed ahead and dipping into people's cubicles who were working and probably not to thrilled to be interrupted by "Hi, Hello, What does Santa say?" "Ho Ho Ho" This is what he said to EVERYONE he saw! He is so funny.

He had a great time singing Christmas Carols which is absolutely adorable. Also, this morning he had his Dora doll (who doesn't wear a backpack) and Cole asked Brian where her backpack was. Then he told Brian, Um, she lost it. Too funny!

Tonight we are having dinner with Bill and Sandy and Cole is spending the night with them tonight and tomorrow as Brian and I travel to Jacksonville to see Bobby's last game. GO NOLES!

Have a wonderful New Year!