my monthly rambling

...well the stockings are hung by the chimney with care and reports from our elf Leo...be bad?.... "dont you dare!".... we have had a fire in the chimney and the fresh wreaths on the door...then 65 degrees came and killed them...ill have to buy more...we have written our list to the old jolly man..hoping for wii and of course, iron man..... the coles are ready for the excitement christmas day...when the little ones scamper down the stairway.....too see all the gifts from Santa himself and know that Leo was a good ole' elf....merry christmas to you all....hope your holidays are bright...we will know all's right with world if only for one night..

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

homemade ornaments with my boys

we had a super turkey day and were SO blessed to spend it with my family in chattanooga at my brother and sis in law's. they completely rolled out the red carpet with shrimp that looked like lobster and steak the first night. of course thanksgiving dinner we all pitched in with a few dishes and seth and roger went to my brother restaurant Champy's to fry us a turkey...boy oh boy...it was all yummy yummy...and 3 lbs later im still trying to get that off before christmas...ughhh. seth had the cousins a 4 wheeler hay ride when we got there and a bonfire! i just absorbed it all and counted my many many blessings! we couldn't be a luckier family and what a day to remember all we have and are thankful far..God is so good! the last day we hit up the smokey mountains christmas tree farm to pick out our real tree (not suppose to have one for allergy purposes...but i would just rather suffer than have a fake one). well we really went for the height of the living room ceiling as pics will show..we quoted about 15 lines form christmas vacation the whole process...hilarious..the hubby and i chuckled the whole 6 hour ride back...a great start to the holidays! well its up and lit and HUGE...im so proud of my enormous tree...i ran out of lights and ribbon, but i still love it. we have made a couple visits to santa's lap and both boys did great! we are looking forward to the weeks to come and remembering all that is fun and festive and of course the true meaning of christmas.

the coles have been having a fantabulous month. we tailgated with friends at the msu vs. ark game and much to our overtime chagrin...we lost, but anytime we get a chance to go starkville, it never disappoints. airey got to pose with the egg bowl trophy and Bully no less and have his face painted. mom and dad got to enjoy friends and great tailgate food and adult beverages. gotta love the SEC and the atmosphere anytime they play. i just cant imagine a better time.

a whole lotta fun...

well over the last few weeks the coles have celebrated halloween, mom had a girls trip, a family outing or two , a baby shower, a wedding shower {or two}and added a new family member...dont get to excited its not what you think....

i will try and be brief, but you know how i am... i'll do my best...the boys had such a super halloween weekend. i hosted airey's 3K preschool party the wednesday before halloween and came as tony romo and boy did airey just light up. he is completely obsessed with him and talks about him non-stop, oh you think im exaggerating....NON STOP....by the way we have officially entered the 20 questions portion of airey's life and it is daunting....we have 100 questions to every single observation or task...our patience has officially been tested and we are trying our best to answer each and every question with a long responsive answer...but gheeesh. well anyway where was i...oh yes...so airey loved his school party! we then celebrated saturday at aunt katie and uncle ed's with lots of friends. the boys bounced in the bouncer in their costumes, which campbell was oozing fluff by the second. as for their costumes airey was batman at school, tomospider at pops and kitty's and finally spiderman at the actual trick or treat in the neighbor hood. campbell i decided was going as a deviled egg...we had thought piglet or something, but it just wasn't campbell, so i remembered this costume a guy wore to a party years back and he was a deviled egg. how perfect for cjc! as you can tell from his face when i put it on him....he was...well ...."devilish". i knew it was the perfect costume, hehe. all in all we enjoyed just being a family for the weekend. we carved pumpkins, toasted pumpkin seeds, made popcorn balls and trick or treated until 8:30. boy what a holiday! such a fun one for all of us. mom and dad got in on the halloween action at Kim and Kevin's costume shower hosted by the wedding party. Rog and I love Mad Men, so decided to go as Don Draper and Megan. I think we nailed it! Rog was such a good sport as i told him i was going to dye his hair for authenticity...well "just for men" doesn't wash out as i had hoped....so he has a little skunk do , but i think we are one haircut away from ditching the black.

mommy got away for my annual girl's alluvian trip and all of us ladies had a fabulous time. we did the spa all day including having our make up done. we felt like princesses...or sheba's as roger calls me ;). we had a great time laughing and catching up and feasting on yummy food and drinks at Gardenia's. that trip is such a perfect girlfriends getaway and i treasure those girls and the time and memories we get to make together {even the jason shelby odds}.

this past weekend we celebrated again with kim and kevin at a Las Vegas party hosted by the families. they had bartenders,craps and a roulette wheel...mastered by the "man in white" aka Terry the mayor cole. we are so excited for kev and kim and are looking forward to the january nuptials! another fun celebration was Saturday afternoon as me and the girls hosted a baby boy shower for my dear friend kim. the beauty shop was the perfect place for our chic mama. im so excited for her and nate and know she will be an amazing momma! sunday we had a laid back family day that started with church and then three little pigs for lunch {yum} and then rog suggested we take the boys bowling. OH what fun....it was great to have something that we all could do together and take turns :) the boys cant wait to go again. we got home and watch the cowboys resurrect themselves {thanks goodness jerry finally fired wade} and my sweet hubs grilled me a steak and we had a date night in...perfect end to a perfect weekend

our bowling baby

OUR NEWEST MEMBER OF THE FAMILY....baby jaguar..gigi and i went to goodwill in oxford and campbell fell in love with the bargain .25 cent jaguar, he sleeps with him, feeds him, and carries him around non stop...so now he is Linus with the blanket and now a jaguar

megan draper...

spiderman

we had have some sick days lately too....we all got it about 2 weeks ago..ughhhh

don draper with his classic lowball

the deviled egg....

airey's 1st school day picture....im a terrible mother...i know he needed a haircut

campbell being all boy

me and mommy to be at the beauty shop

airey and campbells pumpkins

the girls trip

cute costumes

close to home

well the coles have been keeping it close to home the last few weekends and its been nice. we had the most amazing lazy sunday yesterday and i cant remember the last time we stayed in and lounged in our p.j.'s. we have been watching lots of football and enjoying some much needed weekends at home with the boys. we cooked out with the johnston's last weekend for the bulldogs big win, which the boys couldn't have had better time and that goes ditto for the adults. this past weekend took the boys to their first CBHS football game and it was a biggie against MUS. Rog loved showing them his old stopping ground and the boys wagged their footballs around all night. Airey couldn't get enough of the "purples"...hehe. The next day we had our godsons' Gray 3rd birthday party, which was a pumpkin decorating theme and it was just too cute! Speaking of Pumpkins the boys and i went to Russell's Farm supply to get ours for this year and lets be honest its off the square and ......So is YO-LO yogurt....im semi obsessed so the boys and i go to the collierville square at least once a week.....anywho....what was i saying....oh yes, anyway we went to get a couple of pumpkins and ended up with 10 somehow??? well there are so many new kinds to choose from..heirloom...cinderella....regular....white... gourds....love them all....love the fall! The boys got to ride in a wagon so airey decided he needed to fill it with the whole pumpkin patch, so needless to say ill be needing some pumpkin recipes soon.

airey is obsessed with dressing up these days and cant decide what to be for halloween. We got him a cool lightening mcqueen racing suit in Chicago and he has batman and a construction worker, so we will see what Sunday brings. Campbell is going to be a a pirate (we tried whinny the pooh piglet costume b/c he is in love with anything Pooh) but when we tried to get it on him he flipped out, so we will see how that goes too ;) The boys have been just rough and tumble all the time now wrestling and running everywhere together. We are so glad they have each other especially two boys, its really fun to see them go at it! Hope you all are doing well and we will follow up soon with an annual halloween post.

boys will be boys

ok maybe campbell was the butt of the joke....literally

CBHS

watching the "wave"

decorating his pumpkin, wart style

we have been doing lots of fall baking, so i let them in on the all time best part of baking...THE BEATERS! yummmmmm

tomfoolery

mama got a new do!

yes campbell in a bucket with his mammy

sweet cheeks

lil heartbreaker

the boys helped me make caramel apples....yummm

love that smile!

10-10-10

run roger run....26.2 miles completed in 4:03. we are so proud of daddy and his 3rd marathon! i just teared up every time the groups would run by and i would try and catch a glimpse of roger. i stood in utter amazement at all the 50,000 runners and the hard work and goal setting it takes to run a marathon. that just tells you an ounce of the character that roger has and everything he does he does 110%. we are so proud of him. we love you daddy!!!!

not only was the marathon a wild and fun experience, but we got to spend 4 days in chicago together. we had so much fun laughing over deep dish and cold beer and having romantic date nights too. we had a completely amazing meal at art smith's (oprah's old personal chef) restaurant. i mean come on ..a gourmet deviled egg and a pickle platter. i was in heaven. of course the staff was so incredible and even gave roger a complimentary cake for an extra carb boost ;). if your ever in chicago, you MUST eat there. its super small in this old house off elm that looked like a cottage ... just a perfect date place. we got to hang out and celebrate post race with roger's great friend Adam and his super sweet wife Tiffany. We laughed and cut up and talked about our crazy boys (they have twin boys!). we love getting to see them when we get a chance and cant wait to see them again at Christmas.

also in chi-town we hung out at a fun sports bar for the cowboys( dont even say a word...), shopped all down michigan avenue's magnificent mile (turning roger's arms into clothing racks...no seriously i did) he was such a great sport as i drug him into saks, bloomies,h&m, and even cartier(hey.. a girl can dream right???)

we love getting the chance to get away and we are so blessed to have my mom and my grandmother enjoy keeping the boys so much! they didn't stop talking about mimi and gigi and campbell wouldn't even come to us when we got home :( Airey on the other hand, for the 1st time actually realized we were gone and told mimi and gigi he missed us and called roger to see if he won the race (so cute...tear). He was napping when we got home so when he woke up and saw roger he threw his arms around him and wouldn't let go ( it was a moment that touched his heart like never before!) and when he asked if he wanted to see mommy, he ran outside and stormed down the driveway as fast as i have ever seen him run and was tearing up yelling mama, mama, mama the whole way! He jumped on top of me and i melted! Oh my we are so blessed to have each other and then come home to these two amazing boys that truly are God's perfect gift!

the little heartbreaker

our monkey

roger ran on the MS team and raised of $1500 for MS research in honor of his mom "Kitty"

din din at TABLE fifty-two

the deviled egg

giordano's.....deeeeeeep dish ( i could only eat 1 piece!)

all the runner names were engraved into a wall outside of nike, how cool?