Happy Birthday Cole

Happy 2nd Birthday Cole!!

Cole turned 2 on November 1st. It seems like last week that he came home from the hospital. At his 2 year old pediatrician appointment the first thing the Dr. looked at was what size clothes he was wearing. 4T. He is 39 inches or 3'3''. 36 pounds and his head is 53 cm. At least he is off the charts on all levels. He is equally large on all accounts. No more bobble head stats. Now I can look back and laugh that the Dr's were worried about his growing and weight for the first few weeks.

I have enjoyed (probably too much) acting taken back and surprised when complete strangers comment on how big he is for a 2 year old. I have started replying to their comments with "Really? You think he is big". As well as telling snoopy strangers he is already on a baby football team when they ask "Are you going to put him into sports?".

At 2 he loves to play trucks, throw and catch a football, colorand dance. His favorite music being rock & hip/hop - AC/DC, Lady Gaga and Ludicris being his favorite in the past few months. He must climb on everything. He is fascinated with shoes and the vacuum. Everyday he pulls the salad tongs out of the drawer and picks up toys with them.
He hates having his diaper changed - it is a battle. Gets really upset when I channel surf on the radio in the car. Also really hates having his hair done.

Favorite present. Uncle Brandon and Aunt Jessie found an extra large Tonka truck he likes to ride in.

Cole with Grandpa & Grandma Albrecht

Happy Birthday Cole!!

It's a...............

Japan

Justin and I safely arrived home from Japan on Tuesday November 10th. We were fortunate enough to spend a little over a week traveling and had an amazing time taking in the culture, eating the yummy food and taking the trains and subways all around the Tokyo area. While we had been hoping to travel to Japan for the past 2 years after two of our friends moved there the timing never lined up. Finding out I was expecting a baby and that our friends were going to move back to New York from Japan in the next year made us finally get out act together. We ended up booking our tickets and flying away 2 weeks later. Talk about a last minute trip 3 1/2 months pregnant halfway around the world. Good thing we have our passports up to date. Even better we have AMAZING friends that offered to watch Cole while we were away. Thanks again Holly and Tay!!

Nikko

Shinkyo Bridge, Nikko.

Katie and I at the entrance to Nikko.

The three wise monkeys over the Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan.

Eating lunch - Udon and Soba noodles in Nikko. Justin was a little too big for the tables.

Many more Japan photo's to come!

Mid May

A new baby Albrecht is well on the way! Scheduled to arrive sometime mid May. I am 14 weeks and counting, feeling SO much better and can't wait to find out what this baby is going to be.

Cole is still in shock over being told he was going to be a big brother.

A Utah man am I.....during football season.

It is well into football season. Since I went to both USU and Utah I only feel it is fair to cheer for Utah during football season and USU during basketball season. This may or may not also be each schools strong sport. Here are some pic's of Cole. He wears the respectful school colors on game days.

It took all of 4 minutes for his shirt to get filthy. You have to love little boys for how fast they can become a sticky little disaster.

He meant well

The other day I walked into the laundry room to find Cole washing the floor with a kitchen washcloth and the dog water. Yuck. He meant well. I really couldn't get mad. He had DUMPED the dogs dish out on the floor spilling water everywhere. What a funny site to see my not yet 2 year old scrubbing away as best he could. I think I must clean too much.

If you need your floors done I will gladly drop Cole off to do the job.

Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day we went to Bear Lake with 3 other couples and their boys. I knew the trip was off to a great start when I realized I left my toiletries in their bag all packed up and ready to go in SLC. I had to laugh at the fact that I realized this moments before we arrived in Bear Lake instead of moments after we left the house. Even better was finding out that Rachel had forgot a bra. Yes I just said she forgot her bra. Funny stuff. The first night we were there after a great afternoon on the lake Rachel and I went on an adventure to find toiletries and a bra in Montpelier Idaho. After 4, yes 4 stores, using the oldest gas pump I had ever seen and 6 lottery tickets later (I won 8$) we ended up with not 1 but 3 bras and as many grocery store toiletries a girl could ask for. Rachel scored a pretty sweet 2 for 6$ special on the oldest bras I have ever seen and then found a more suitable replacement bra at store #4.

The oldest gas pump I have ever seen - half of the dials didn't work.

We spent Saturday afternoon crossing the Lake to Shell beach. The little boys had a blast playing in the sand and getting completely filthy in the process. We were all having a great time and I started to notice that the other 50+ people on the beach had left all around the same time. Not thinking anything of it other than it was close to dinner time, we spent another hour or so letting the kids run around like little boys do best. As we loaded up the 2 boats to make the 50 min journey across the lake to get home we all noticed HUGE dark clouds in our midst and nothing but large white capping waves as far as the eye could see. We made it home safe - obviously - but not before we took on quite a bit of water into the boat, were all soaked, cold and starving by this point since it took quite a while to get across the lake with HUGE waves and rain coming in at every which way.

Looming storm clouds

Arriving safely at the marina. Can you see Cole hidden in the towels?
Captain Justin braving the storm.

The rest of the trip we ate lots of yummy food, watched the little boys run crazy all over the cabin, beach and boats.


Cole watching the action behind the boat.

Dixon making us feel like we are really terrible at wake boarding after watching him.

Dixon

Chip

3 little boys trying to get into trouble.

The gorgeous view from our cabin

Reflection of the moon on the lake and marina.

Question??

So lately my blog isn't updating. I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem? I log on and it hasn't updated comments or other peoples blogs on my side bar. When I click on the "Search Blog" tab at the top of any blog it will update to the most recent post. Also, if I log on through my phone the blogs are all updated just not when I log on through my laptop. Any thoughts? Is my blog sick? I have searched on Blogger for help with no success.

Catching up...

Catching up. Hmmm. I wish I had lots of exciting things to post about but mostly we have just living day to day. Cole is still all over the place. Loves to climb on anything and everything. He must run everywhere. He is 21 months - 35 lbs, 38 inches tall or 3'2'' as I like to tell people when they ask. After what Justin and I like to refer to as the "when animals attack" incident he is now afraid of cats - picture to follow. If we show him a picture of a kitten or cat in a book he says "No More" and holds up his arm. I know I shouldn't' think it is funny - but it is. Cole has mastered the scowl and grumpy face which is actually quite hilarious.

When animals attack. Poor Cole. None of us saw the "cat incident". The owners of the cat both separately said Cole must have either A - hit the cat or B - poked it in the eye. Funny since nobody saw it happen. I have been waiting for him to smack Bailey or poke Bailey in the eye. I am still waiting - at least Bailey would deserve it. Please don't send PETA after me.

If you were wondering who wears the tightest PJ's in the Albrecht house - it is not me.

Cole in the tightest PJ's you will ever see. They are 3T.

Just in case you didn't get a close enough look at the tight PJ's.

Here is an action shot while dancing.

As a family we have been spending a lot of time out on the boat. Justin has been spending a lot of time working and traveling for work - but enjoys his job which is great.

I just finished up a summer of pro bono babysitting for my 8 year old niece. Any downtime I used to have while Cole was sleeping has been going towards keeping an 8 year old entertained. I have to admit it was a learning curve going from a 1 year old to an 8 year old. She is really a sweet little girl. I can undoubtedly say after watching someone else's child all summer it makes watching just your own seem like a breeze. So if any mom's out there are feeling fed up with being at home all day with their kids - add a few more kids for a few days and then just having your kids will seem like a walk in the park.

We spent a weekend at Bear Lake with our "B team" the Billses where we were thrilled to hear that Rachel is expecting their first baby!!! SO exciting. Baby Bills is expected to arrive at the end of February. Congrats Billses.Then Rachel told me I had to keep her baby a secret for over a month. It nearly killed me. Would it be lame if I put a baby countdown clock for Rachel's baby on my blog? I am obviously not excited for her at all. I only whipped the camera out once on the Bear Lake trip and the pictures ended up looking like Justin and Ed were more than "just friends". Not that anything is wrong with that :) Since Justin and Ed are both bigger and stronger than me and I spend a lot of time on a boat with them and like to stay dry most of the time I have decided after much debate to NOT post the "just friends" pictures.

Justin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We ended up giving each other the same present. Watches. Same brand, style, color. The only difference was his/hers of course. Not talked about. Not planned. I bought his online and he bought his in a local store. Now we match. We had a great dinner at Flemming's downtown - and in true Cole fashion he pooped in the tub for the nanny that night. Sorry I know it is gross but poop stories are kinda funny when you have kids.

My sister is still living in the basement on occasion. Her stuff is here and every once in a while I will come home to an extra 100lb dog in my house, but I really only see her bi-weekly. My parents are still crazy busy in Missouri. They have had lots of naughty missionaries - the latest naughty incident was when 2 of their missionaries invited the Bishops daughter over to get in the hot tub. Funny - not for my parents to deal with - but funny to others none the less.

Bailey Dog turned 5. He is still SO much work everyday. Cole loves him and enjoys giving him food, toys, phones, brushes, cans of food, caprisuns, wallets, sun glasses, string cheese, pens, - pretty much anything Cole can get his hands on goes straight to Bailey. I spend a chunk of my day rescuing precious items from Jack - that is Baileys name when we are mad at him. And yes he answers to both names. On the flip side Bailey is amazing at getting the newspaper in the morning. We will keep him for that reason for now.

Raining Gorge....I mean Flaming Gorge

After last years super fun 4th of July: http://justinalbrechtfamily.blogspot.com/2008/07/nothing-says-4th-of-july-like.html

we decided last minute to put together a family camping trip to Flaming Gorge. We checked the weather, called up some other Albrecht's and were set for Cole's first camping trip. Justin and I feel like we are being punished by the weather Gods. Practically EVERY weekend this spring and summer has been cold and rainy. We thought for sure we could luck out and get a few days with sunshine over the 4th.

We drove through storm after storm on our way to flaming Gorge. The highpoint was a 45 minute cattle drive with Cole saying "Boo, Boo" at every cow, since that is what he says instead of Moo right now. A Big thanks to Wyoming for having cattle drives through the middle of the highway on a busy holiday travel weekend. As we pulled into our campsite it was pouring rain. It continued to rain all evening and into the night. Lucky for us it cleared up in the morning and we were able to spend a great day up out on the water.

Here is a sweet camera phone picture of the cattle drive. We went 5 miles an hour for 45 minutes.

This was actually a double rainbow - but it is hard to see. I was worried my camera wouldn't fare well if it took too long of a rain shower.

If you ask Cole "who's big and strong?" he will flex his little muscles for you. Yucky side note - after we returned home and I was giving Cole the "I haven't had a bath in 3 days of camping" scrub down I asked him 'who's big and strong?" and he pooped in the tub. Funny stuff - I will not be asking him that in the tub in the future.

Cole was one happy camper despite the weather. Do you like our sweet 16$ stroller. We packed SO much stuff we couldn't fit either of our big strollers. Justin was so upset that the choices were pink and Winnie the Pooh.

Another huge storm rolling in.

Look at the dreary sky behind me.

My nephew Issac jumping into the lake. We did have a few good hours of sunshine.

Not only was this Cole's first camping trip, he also experienced another big first. Below is his first minor concussion. While we were scrambling to set up camp (in a torrential down pour) he took a header into the picnic table. Poor guy. He only cried for about 30 seconds though.

Here is the Monster fish my brother-in-law Brandon caught.

Despite the cold weather we had a great time. We are headed to Bear Lake with our friends the Billsessssssssss ( is that the correct spelling Rachel?) next week. I would bet $ that we see lots of rain again.