Strawberry Pickin', Part Deux

We went strawberry picking again, only this time it was at Cottle Strawberry Farm.  The weather has been cool and pleasant, although much cloudier than I'd like.  But the cool thing is, the strawberries are huge! The size of Iris' fist!

 Lily moves too fast for the camera, however she did use the PortaPotty.  Iris was strapped in so took some good pictures.

She preferred to sit on the ground pulling weeks in the paths.  Unfortunately, there were strawberry casualties on the path and she looked like she was in a war zone by the end.  Oxyclean to the rescue!

Nana feeding and playing

Nana and her bff, Iris, had some lunch and snuggle time.  So much fun, and I loved the help!

Then Lily decided to play hide and seek with me and the camera.

Yep, that's her foot. 

When we took Nana back to Greenville to catch her flight, a nice man offered to take a picture of all of us.  It was a nice day and a great ride up there, however the GSP elevator is old school. I mean, you open a door, open a cage, go in and close them all up.  It was the size of a closet and I barely fit the stroller in.  But we did it! 

I look enormous next to Nana.  Anyway, we got to see Nina and Michelle and had lunch in downtown Greenville.  Iris was overtire but Lily was so happy to see Nina she didn't act up at all!  Plus, she used the potty 2 times at the restaurant.  I think we can say Lily is officially potty trained.  No accidents in weeks!  Really, I set Iris up for failure since she didn't get any good nap but Michelle is wonderfully patient and gracious.  Lovely time!

Weekend with Nana

Nana came out to spend some time with the girls and Jason for his birthday.  We had a wonderful time, including a date out for me and Jay!  Whoo hoo!  We went to the mall and Iris was in rare form with her scrunchie faces.  There is a special bond between her and Nana.  Iris tends to be a little more, shall we say, sensitive... when she is around almost everyone.  She likes me and loves Jason, but others, not so much.  But when she saw Nana, she completely and totally lit up and was giggling and so excited to see her.  It was so nice to see that, but also very suprising.  They have a special bond.

 

Then Lily played in the bus.  She had chicken and Sprite.  Happy day!

Strawberry pickin'

We went strawberry picking at Lever Farms this weekend.  It was so much fun and the strawberries were great.  I picked a basket (8 cups) in about 15 minutes.  Lily had to be reminded to pick the really red ones but mostly ate them.  When I cleaned them later this weekend, I saw many many bit marks.

Iris was not digging it though.  She cried and cried in her stroller.  Finally, I took her out and sat her down in the path.  She was one happy camper after that! She crawled around in the dirt and pulled at the grass.  I tried to have her all cleaned up and pretty for Nana's visit but that didn't work out.  I guess its just her pretty face!

Great time with some good friends.  And 6 jars of strawberry jam and some dehydrated strawberries.  Can't beat that!

Random Videos

Here are some fun videos of Lily using her words and then playing at dinner.  She is always very entertaining!!! I love the last one when her glasses get the best of her.

Christmas 2011

This video is from Lily last Christmas.  She was just learning to talk and to walk.  At this point, we had told people we were pregnant again and I was enjoying being lazy and pooped. 

We had a full house: Judy came and stayed with us, and my parents stayed with Michelle mostly and a little with us, but everyone came down for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Its AWESOME having Michelle and Rod 90 minutes from us.  Wish it was closer but its so much better than several states away.

As per our custom, someone brought a nasty sick from Texas.  Mom picked it up from school and gave it to Dad.  We stayed healthy in the Cole house, but the Carter house got hit and Judy brought it back to Nacogdoches.  Oy.

For Christmas Eve, we had a delicious prime rib (thanks Michelle!) with all sorts of yummy fixins'.  Lily wasn't too interested in opening presents.  She loved looking at the books she got and really liked this dress, which is why I uploaded this video.  Her weird thing this Christmas is she growled when she liked something.  She did it softly so we couldn't get it on video, but it sure was cute!!

Christmas Day Michelle, Rod, Nina, Mom and Dad came down, and Judy was here and some good friends from church.  We had a wonderful lunch with everyone and all the kids and then headed over to church.  A very nice Christmas!!

So our computer crashed.  And became unrepairable.  Quite annoying.  We were left with a laptop my dad gave me, which saved our sanity but it was very, very slow.  As a result, I had to stop my addiction of Gardens of Time on Facebook and also this blog.  After trying several attempts to fix our computer, we finally got another one. 


Since I don't scrapbook, I am going to spend a couple of posts updating this blog so I have the memories, without having to cut out and glue pieces of paper.  More power to the scrapbookers, I just can't do it.  Makes me feel like a big fat failure when it sits and waits for me to do something, like organize pictures.  Not relaxing at all!!  Anyway, here we go!

Over Thanksgiving, we drove to Texas to spend time with Jason's family.  We (stupidly) decided to switch Lily to her forward facing car seat.  Huge mistake!  She was so overstimulated she did not sleep at all.  Let's just say we were considering selling her at the border of Louisiana and Texas.  But Nana was happy to have her and we got to have a nice break from hearing her screams.  She was MUCH better on the way back because we switched her to rear facing on the Louisiana and Texas border on the way there.

While there, Lily was walking some, but mostly pushing her little push toys around.  We found she walked best in places she was most comfortable so by the time we left Nana's, she was doing a lot more walking around. 

At Thanksgiving at Jason's Aunt Richie and Uncle Joe's, Lily was really good and loved on by everyone.  We spent a great time with Jason's cousins' and extended family.  They are so much fun and great to talk to.  We announced to everyone there that we were expecting our second child.  Much sooner than we planned but there is truth to the saying that "Man plans and God laughs."  We are living examples.  Next time we go out to Texas, we will be a family of 4!

Wish we took pictures or videos, but of course we didn't.  Next time!