Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010 - The Second Post

The Kole Family had such a beautiful Christmas. Marshall and I (plus Norah!) are so thankful Momma T was able to fly out and spend a whole week with us. We are sad to see her go but cherish all the memories we made this Christmas.

Here are a few memories captured:

One word to sum Norah up by this photo -

SPOILED (as 95% of those presents were for her)!

But yes, she is very much loved.

STOCKINGS!

MK and I bought Norah a shopping cart. She loves to push her stroller around but is a little too short to actually push it successfully. The shopping cart was a hit. Grandma (or Nana, as that's all Norah can say) got her a Memory Game. YAY! Pops and Ma - I'm sure you remember how much I loved this game growing up, and I am so excited to play the game with Norah!

Wings provided by Nana (and Aunt Grace).

Marshall's Dad and Jody bought us a knife set. THANK YOU! We are very stoked about this gift as most of our knifes are dull and quite old. Marshall does cook frequently, so I know he is going to enjoy putting the knife set to use.

We gave Momma T a neck pillow she had been wanting for traveling and reading.

By the look on her face, I think she was pretty excited about it!

Norah got a cute bag from Auntie Rod and

some great alphabet books from Great Grandma and Grandpa Mabon.

Norah loves music and loves the "Little Drummer Boy" Christmas song!

So when we saw this, we knew she'd love it.

".....pa, rum, pum, pum, pum...."

Christmas for us literally took the whole day. Norah would open a few presents, and then would want to play with them. Who wouldn't?! So she'd play, open presents, eat, sleep, open more presents, play....etc. By dinner, she still had a couple of presents left under the tree.

We decided to go to the park after nap time just to get some fresh air.

When we got home, Momma T made delicious enchiladas for Christmas dinner. YUM!

Our white Christmas came a day late. After having only small flurries here and there in the early part of December, we got our first "blizzard" the day after Christmas. Our area only got about 5ish inches but the rest of New England was hit pretty hard.

This picture is Papa and Baby watching the snow fall.

Last night Momma T and I played dress-up with Norah resulting in lots of laughs and smiles. Norah was pretty pleased with herself, enough so that she hugged herself (aka the mirror) multiple times. Thanks Nana and Grace for all the dress-up clothes!

So that was our Christmas. Pretty awesome, eh?

Thank you Lord, for all of our blessings -

for family, for love, for joy.

Thank you.

Christmas 2010 - The First Post

We open one present each on Christmas Eve. This year, we decided the Christmas Eve gift would be our stocking gifts from Dad and Jody. Amongst other, more educational and practical gifts in her stocking, Norah got a kazoo.

And she lost it. Best (?) Christmas present ever for a 20 month old?




More posts and pictures coming in the next day or two!

GO PACK GO!

What's that? Football is the best and greatest thing ever? Oh yes. You're quite correct. Thanks for pointing that out.

We got tickets to go see the Packers play the Patriots at home in Gillette Stadium this past Sunday night. It was cold and a little bit snowy, but totally awesome in every way. Our seats were excellent, the people around us weren't too hostile as we cheered for the Pack, and the game ended up being pretty exciting. This might have to be something we start doing every year....

Seven-dollar Bratwurst. Delicious explosion.

Finally...

I'm finally feeling better. MK caught the flu and got sick on Tuesday night. Not good, but he was fortunate enough to only get sick once. I caught the flu and got sick roughly six times early Thursday morning. But my loving husband has allowed me to get a TON of sleep the last couple of days, and I am finally feeling almost normal. WOOT! Just in time to go to the Patriots vs. Packers game. And yes, we will be cheering for the Packers while sitting on the Patriots side.

I uploaded some pictures off of our camera tonight.

Just thought I would share...

One of my favourite pictures, ever.

Norah is obsessed with trying to wear my clothes. All of them.

The second photo is how she looked after a good solid nap.

I am so thankful she is, in general, a good sleeper. Whew.

Another awesome picture. Pretty much sums our kid up.

Second photo - finishing up the tree. Norah was a "big" help. Ha!

Norah loves playing in this kitchen drawer. She is going to be so devastated when she is too big to sit in it. Second photo - Norah hugging Z (a little one who belongs to friends of ours from church. They watch Norah quite often and we watch Z. It's great!).

We love and miss you all.

Sending BIG hugs your way!

Pictures from Grandpa!

I'll still have yet to upload my pictures from Iowa.

And I now realize I have very few pictures of my mom.

Silly me - where was my brain?

Anways, here are some pictures my dad took while I was in Iowa:

This chair used to be mine when I was little. Norah LOVED it!

(Great) Grandma W on Thanksgiving.

I am very thankful for her and all the love she has for my entire family.

Auntie Rod sent some GREAT birthday party materials! So I put them up around the house, made cupcakes, and we had a small (the 4 of us) birthday for my ma.

Norah was most stoked about wearing the party hat. But as you can see, she clearly enjoyed a cupcake as well. The cupcakes were DE-LISH!

Iowa, I miss you.

Oh Iowa, Oh Iowa...

Noteworthy observations and events from the Iowa Trip:

- Norah was an angel on the flights to and from Iowa. As in no crying. At all. We read books, used the iPod Touch flash card application, colored, and slept. Norah did throw a book at a lady sitting next to us on one flight. But to be honest, I can't really blame her.

- Arby's is still delicious. Now if only we could have Arby's in NH.

- Norah quickly warmed up to her Grandma (my ma) and was quite slow in warming up to Grandma (my pops). Grandma and Norah read quite a few books one morning, allowing me to get in a nice long shower. And a few times Norah eagerly gave Grandma goodnight hugs. How precious!

- Without the internet and cable TV I played a crap ton of Bejeweled on the iPod Touch. I also was able to read quite a bit (I'm currently reading "The Red Tent" - SO GOOD).

- Norah LOVES blocks. My dad made a large set of blocks for me when I was growing up. Having Norah play with those same blocks was SO special.

- Grandma Kole (MK's mom, also know as Momma T) and Great Grandma Mabon (MK's grandma) came down for a visit. Most memorable moment: After observing the way Norah's pants were falling off her bum, Grandma Kole stated, "She looks JUST LIKE Marshall!". HAHA! I guess you had to be there...

- Norah was able to see her Great Grandma Wiley (my gma) not once, but TWICE! I love my grandma like crazy...she is one of the best people I know. For the second visit Great Aunt M came down too and gave Norah some wonderful (SANTA-FREE) Christmas books. THANK YOU AUNT M!!!

- Nothing beats my Ma's tater-tot casserole. YUM! Well, maybe Arby's.

- I did not have Dairy Queen. Much sadness.

- I got to see my Iowa bestie, Amy. She made me a pendant with Norah's name on it. Love you bugaboo.

- Norah and I bonded, but we definitely missed our Papa Bear (as I'm pretty sure he missed us too).

- Norah was reunited with her sock monkey once we got to the car at the Boston airport. I'm not sure I've seen her THAT excited in a while. Norah and Monkey talked and giggled almost the whole hour drive home.

Love and miss you all.

Will post pictures soon of our trip!

Thursday

I am thankful that I don't have a lot to be worried about.
My wife makes me a better husband than I want to be most days.
My kid is, like, super stoked to run across the room to give me a hug when I ask for one.
My job comes naturally to me and feels productive.
We have some money in the bank.
It's football season.
I feel at home in New England.
I feel like God is moving out of my head (most days) and into my heart/gut.

I hope you've got something to be feeling good about right now, too.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Stay Gold!

MMK

WWMXD?

A good sort of advice for all people. Just something to think about...

"Now I hope you'll forgive me for just speaking so informally tonight, but I frankly think it's always better to be informal. As far as I am concerned, I can speak to people better in an informal way than I can with all of this stiff formality that ends up meaning nothing. Plus, when people are informal, they're relaxed. When they're relaxed, their mind is more open, and they can weigh things more objectively. Whenever you and I are discussing our problems we need to be very objective, very cool, calm, collected. But that doesn't mean we should always be. There's a time to be cool and a time to be hot. See, you got messed up into thinking that there's only one time for everything. There's a time to love and a time to hate. Even Solomon said that, and he was in that Book too. You're just taking something out of the Book that fits your cowardly nature. And when you don't want to fight, you say, "Well, Jesus said don't fight." But I don't even believe Jesus said that.

Also I am very pleased to see so many who have come out to always see for yourself, where you can hear for yourself, and then think for yourself. Then you'll be in a better position to make an intelligent judgment for yourself. But if you form the habit of listening to what others say about something or some one or reading what someone else has written about someone, somebody can confuse you and misuse you. So as Afro-Americans or Black people here in the Western Hemisphere, you and I have to learn to weigh things for ourselves. No matter what the [white] man says, you better look into it."

- Malcolm X, 1965

Hey Everyone! Come See How Good We Look!

Our friend Beth took our pictures back in September. She posted some of them on her blog, but we didn't post any here. We wanted to wait to post them until we figured out which of the photos we'd end up using for our Christmas card this year. Having ordered our cards today, I figured I'd share the rest with y'all here.