THIS WEEKEND I:

Watched: Mariah Carey bomb on Rockin' New Year's Eve
Listened: to Jack bang on a little pan to ring in the new year
Learned: a new crochet pattern 
Ate: pork and sauerkraut for good luck
Read: Little Tug, Jack's new favorite bedtime story
Drank: non-alcoholic blueberry sparkling cider
Thought: about my resolutions for the year
Wished: that Hillary Clinton was being sworn in as President in 2017
Realized: that I might never feel the same about this country with Trump as President
Bought: nothing! 

A Very Matching Christmas!

Happy Christmas! My family is amazing and let my sister and I pick out matching pajamas for everyone to wear! I really didn't think everyone would go for it, especially my father-in-law, but everyone agreed! They were such good sports in the fleece Star Wars PJs! I will cherish these photos and memories! 

 I think the boys had a fantastic Christmas in our new house! Santa stopped by with more presents than they could count and they played all morning long! I'm so in love with this family that I get to call mine! Merry Christmas!

Yelp Makers and Bakers Night

The Ginger and I went on a super fun date night recently. I'm a Yelp Elite member and every month Yelp Pittsburgh hosts fun events for it's community. This time we attended a craft night at a cool hotel in East Liberty. Lots of local shops and businesses were there to help us make a few crafts to take home or to give as a gifts. Plus, we got to eat sweet treats the whole time!

We ended up stopping at almost every table, making everything from hand stamped cards with Pop Craft Pittsburgh, to Shrinkydinks with the Make Shop from the Children's Museum. We painted canvas ornaments with Paint Monkey, laser cut gingerbread men from the Tech Shop, and sewed our own cup cozies with Contemporary Craft. It was such a fun night interacting with Pittsburgh businesses and I'm so thankful we have such an active Yelp community in town! You can't beat a free night out just for posting reviews and checking in on the app. There's always free fun to be had if you're willing to look for it and sometimes put a little effort in! 

My Nona's sister, Aunt Sylvia, lives in Evans City. We don't see the family as much as we used to, but with everyone getting older we are trying to make a point to get together every season. My Dad's cousin Kathy organized a giant party for our family and her husband's family. It was a fun day to see everyone and celebrate the holidays. 

I know it means a lot to my Nona to see her sister. I can't imagine not seeing my sister at least once a week. I hope that we can always make time to see each other, no matter how far, busy, or ill we get. 

 
So much can get in the way of family...distance, politics, opinions. I don't want to let those things be a barrier to the love that can exist in a family. I'm not sure everything can be fixed with older generations, but I plan on doing everything I can to keep my generation together. I don't want to look back and regret any decision. I want to know the people that are my blood. I don't want to just make generic small talk, I want to really know the members of my family. This kind of get together really reminds me of that. 

Christmas in the City

The Ginger and I lived right in the center of the city when we were in college. We spent years exploring Market Square, going to Light Up Night and taking in all the sights during the holidays. It's so special that we get to do this with our kids now. It's such a fun progression of life, from college kids to married couple to family.

 We took the boys to the PPG Winter Garden to see the Santa display and the gingerbread houses. Then we stopped by Market Square to see the big guy himself. I hadn't planned on getting photos with him, just a quick stop to get Jack used to seeing him. But to my surprise, Jack went right up to talk to Santa and we got a cute photo! Ezra slept on me the whole time in the carrier so we'll have to do more photos later!

Pittsburgh is such a fun city in the winter. The holiday market in Market Square is such a fun addition. It really helps to get one in the holiday spirit! And to see the kids enjoy this makes the holidays even more fun! 

Santa and My Babies

Merry Christmas from the Cole Boys! 

The boys loved seeing Santa this year! Ezra was a little apprehensive but still hasn't learned the stranger danger fear yet, so we managed without him crying this year. And Jack was thrilled to see Santa and ask him for Mater from Cars for Christmas! It was so sweet watching him talk with Santa and tell him that he was a good boy this year. He even told him that Ezra would like some bath toys, including a rubber duck and some boats! This was such a sweet moment! 

Color Coordinating Is My Favorite

It's so important to me to have photos to document this time in our lives. I want photos of the boys, but I also want to have the Ginger and I in the photos too. I want to remember what we look like in the last year of our twenties, in the throngs of raising two young kids together. So we took our second family of four portraits. A great photographer that we know from college took them, Rachel Tokarski. We drove about an hour outside of Pittsburgh to her family's property where she shot a mini session for us with cute little wintry vignettes. 

I often spend WAY too much time perusing Instagram, admiring outfits and family moments. I think all that scrolling paid off, because we had the best outfits for this shoot! I don't think I'll ever be able to pull off better color coordinating again! Haha, I loved it. Most of the boys clothes came from Target, except for Ezra's cute little hat that was once Jack's. That came from a shop on Etsy. And my poncho is from an awesome local Pittsburgh shop, Number Fourteen. I know not everything is picture perfect all the time, but it sure is nice to have a few polished moments that we can look back on later! 

I can't believe we'll be sending out our first Christmas cards as a family of four. This little family feels so complete and I love it. Looking at these photos I just know that we are in it. You know, in those moments that we'll look back on when we're 50 and the kids are in college. We're in some of the best times of our life and I'm happy that we could document it. 

A 3rd Birthday Adventure

For Jack's 3rd birthday we took a trip to see his favorite trains, Thomas and Percy! We drove about 4 hours east of Pittsburgh to the Strasburg Railroad. We were so excited to find out that the railroad hosts a Day Out with Thomas & Friends about 4 times a year. What luck it was to have the November dates fall on Jack's actual birthday! As obsessed as I am with party planning, I think this trip was better than any Thomas party I could have thrown!

My parents and sister, plus the Ginger's dad traveled with us for the adventure! We stayed at the Fulton Steamboat Inn in Lancaster for the night and it certainly added to the experience! The hotel was laid out just like an old-fashioned steamboat, with Victorian touches! It was great fun and we even snuck a late night swim in!

              

But the real fun started the next day when we arrived at the railroad. As soon as we got there we had to stop at a railroad crossing and we saw Percy riding down the tracks! Jack was beyond thrilled! I knew then that this was going to be the best day! From there we got to ride on Thomas and have our photo taken with him. Then we rode on Percy, shopped in the many stores at the station and drank hot chocolate to keep warm. Our final ride was a on the real Strasburg train, but after a very full day it was one train too many. Everyone ended up falling asleep on the ride! We finished the day at a Pennsylvania Dutch family-style restaurant and then headed home.

It was so special to be able to plan something like this for Jack. I hope to always be able to provide little adventures for the boys that really show that I understand their interests and passions. I am so glad we got to experience this together! It's not every day you get to ride on your favorite toy in real life!

A real shock was how much I loved Lancaster! There seemed to be so much to do with outlet shopping, amusement parks, learning about the Amish and much more! I hope we will return since it's not a far drive from Pittsburgh!

THIS MOMENT

I never want to forget these perfectly imperfect moments. With Ezra's slippers on his hand, big brother Jack gives Ezra a little kiss without warning while I try to take a staged photo in matching outfits on Ben's late Grandmother's blue chair that we somehow ripped in our many moves. It's these moments I want to remember when I'm ninety.

Champions!

Despite growing up in Pittsburgh, sports were never a big thing in my family. I can remember watching a Steeler game only one time in my entire childhood, the Superbowl against the Cowboys. My mom screamed like a lunatic, probably the only reason for the memory! So when I started to work in sports it was a big shock for everyone, including me! 

In high school I took a communication class and knew that I wanted to work in TV, which led me to major in broadcast journalism in college. In my sophomore year of college I was recommended for a small part time job at a local TV station to work on a sports call in show and that same year I started freelancing, starting with high school football. That was all in 2007 and now almost 10 years later I'm still working in sports broadcasting! One of my favorite freelance jobs is working for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I run graphics for the jumbotron and it's truly a blessing! I learn more and more about sports every job, every year. And I almost think that not getting caught up in the emotion of a game helps me perform better! So instead of blaming my parents constantly (which I often do) I guess I should thank them for my lack of interest in sports! 

So last year I worked the whole Penguins season until playoffs when I was in the hospital off and on with preeclampsia! Actually, every time there was a game when I was in the hospital the Pens won! I like to think my consistency has a little to do with the wins, superstitions and all! Anyways a couple weeks ago we got to see the Stanley Cup in person! I was thrilled to bring my boys to my work place (PPG Paints Arena) and show them it! And putting Ezra in the cup was icing on the cake! It was perfect! I'll never forget it and I hope that the boys will be just as excited when they're older to see photos of them with the legendary cup!