Catching Up - Post-Thanksgiving

Emily has been busy finishing up her first semester. Only four days left!!! She has done a great job at staying focused and working hard. Cole and I are very proud of her. Cole and I have kept busy by watching the snow fall (we've had 2 snowfalls in the past 2 weeks, with another one on the way tonight) and watching a great deal of football.

Cole got to experience his first Florida/Florida State game a couple weeks ago. Needless to say, he wasn't very impressed with the Noles and passed out in the middle of the 3rd quarter.

A fun, new thing that we just started with Cole is feeding him some rice cereal. He did surprising well on his first attempt, as you can see from the pics and videos below. However, he does tend to get distracted at times, mostly because he wants to play with his feet.

Mommy feeding Cole

Daddy feeding Cole.

Cole also got to experience his first SEC Championship Game, where the mighty Gators prevailed once again and will play for the National Championship on January 8th. Drew (Georgia fan) and Dave (Tennessee fan) joined us to watch it. Us SEC fans need to stick together out here in Big XII country.
Cole celebrated the Gators winning the SEC with a hearty bowl of rice cereal.

Catching Up - Thanksgiving

We stayed in town for Thanksgiving so that Emily could focus on getting some papers written. But we had a great time with some of our friends! Ryan played some turkey-day football in the morning, and then we headed to our friends' place that they were house-sitting for to spend the rest of the day. Cole got lots of loving and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from the day...

The turkey didn't thaw in time, so we stopped by the grocery store on the way and picked-up a couple of these beauties. Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a loaf of turkey! Here is a video of Drew "carving" our turkey.

Quite the Thanksgiving spread. It was delicious!
The whole crew.

Cole got lots of quality time with Laura, Jodi, and Erin.

Cole takes a post-dinner cat nap on the couch, next to the cat.

Roberts Family Thanksgiving 2008

Catching Up - Pre-Thanksgiving

Not sure why I have been lax on updating the blog. I have probably just been too focused on the Gators and their run at another national championship. So, over the next few days I will have you all up to speed on what has been going on with us.

Cole got to experience his first Michigan/osu game a couple weeks ago. Sadly, it did not turn out the way we'd hoped, much like Michigan's entire season. Luckily, Cole will never remember the worst season in the history of Michigan football.

Some Doulos friends, Greg and Joey, were in town for a Doulos fundraiser, so we met up with them at their hotel to catch up for a few minutes. It was so great to see them and for them to get to meet Cole!

On the Monday before Thanksgiving we had two of Emily's friends from her classes over for dinner, along with their husbands. Like me, Jason and Paul are also not seminary students, which is a rare thing around these parts. We have since started a support group called "My Wife Knows More About Jesus Than Me".

Cluck Cluck Cluck

Cole seems to have mastered a new trick just about every week. Rolling over, jumping in his jumpee seat, and now, making a weird clucking noise. He does this about once a day.

We will be staying here in Denver for the Thanksgiving holiday so that Emily can focus on completing her first semester with a strong finish. We will be spending Thanksgiving Day with some friends from the seminary and probably watching the Lions lose yet again. Have a great Turkey Day and be thankful!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

Cole woke me up with his usual whining at about 5:30 this morning. As I was crawling back into bed a few minutes later, I decided to look out the window to see if it had snowed, and indeed the ground had a good layer of the white stuff on it. So, once we were up and going, we put Cole into his snow gear and headed outside. Here are the pics and videos.

Mommy and Cole headed out to look at the snow.

Cole touching snow for the first (well, second) time. The first take didn't work :)

Mommy and Cole all bundled up.
Daddy and Cole :)
Just Cole. He looks pretty excited.
Scenic picture.
Our backyard.

Papa and Gramee come to visit

A couple weeks ago Papa and Gramee came for a quick visit. In a couple of days we managed to celebrate Cole's first Halloween, Ryan's 28th Birthday, and a Gator victory over the Georgia Puppies. We also got to hear all about their mission trip to Haiti, and they got to have lots of fun time with Cole.

Papa got Cole going into some hysterical laughter.

Papa and Gramee taking Cole for a walk.
Gramee and Cole on Halloween. Cole didn't give Gramee the black eye; she earned it in a fist fight with some rude Trick-or-Treaters.

Papa tries to cheer up a cranky Cole.
Cole in his Pumpkin outfit that his cousins wore.
Cole's real outfit was a peeled banana.

Want to Skype?

So, we have heard some friends mention that they "Skype", and looked into it a few months ago. However, we got busy and pushed it further down the to-do list for a while. Well, we finally got around to downloading the program, setting up our webcam and microphone, and figuring out how it works. Emily and Cole skyped with Shanon Warren today and it was pretty cool to talk to Shanon and see video of Shanon, and all for FREE. So, we just wanted to let you all know that we are now Skype users and that our Skype name is "ryangator". Since we are home a lot, there is a good chance that you can catch us online and we can chat for a few minutes. Plus, unless he is napping, I'll give you all the Cole time you want. Let me know if you need any help with figuring it out!

Here is a picture of us from the ho-down we went to on Friday night here at the seminary. We had a great time square dancing, line dancing, and dressing up like cow-pokes.

Our Apartment

Some people (mostly Emily's parents) have wanted to see what our on-campus apartment looks like. Well, after 2 1/2 months we finally feel somewhat settled and are ready to give you all the grand tour. So, if you're interested in seeing where we live, watching the three videos below will give you a pretty good idea. Enjoy!

Pucker Up!!!

For the past week or so, Cole has been making these sucking/popping noises with his mouth. Almost every time we try to get it on camera, he stops doing it. But we finally got it on video the other day.

Rachel & Andy: October 18, 2008

We flew to L.A. last weekend for the wedding of our friends Rachel and Andy. We had a great time hanging out with friends and enjoying the beautiful weather. Cole did well with all the traveling, which was a big relief.

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner. Emily was looking extra beautiful that night.

Lindsay and Steve at the rehearsal dinner. Lindsay was Rachel's matron of honor. It was so great getting to spend a few days with them.

We all stayed at a hotel on the beach, which where the wedding ceremony was as well. It was a beautiful setting for a wedding, and I was honored to officiate.

The happy couple at the reception.We got to spend a lot of time with Asdo as well. He loved hanging out with Cole, even if Cole did spit up all over Asdo's suit. Cole got to hang out with a lot of people, and I am sure he will write about the experience soon on his blog.The Roberts with the beautiful bride.

Cookin' Cole

Cole really loves being in the kitchen when I am cooking. So, I put him in his stroller and wheel him in there so he can see what is going on (or just stare at the bright lights). I made some cookies the other day and he helped out by holding onto the measuring teaspoon for me.

Emily took Cole with her to get the mail, but on the way back she grabbed this basket of clothes that was in our car. She had to put Cole in the basket to get both of them back to the apartment in one trip.

Giggling Cole

Once in a while Cole will give us a laugh or a giggle, but nothing like what our friend Stephanie can get out of him. For more on Cole, visit his blog.

While we were gone...

For those of you that visit the blog frequently, you may have noticed that it has been a while since the last posting. For the past week we have been really busy house/dog/teenager sitting. It was fun to live in a different house for a week, but we are glad to be back home. BUT, we won't be home for long as we fly out on Thursday night for Rachel & Andy's wedding in California. I'm sure we'll have plenty to blog about after that, so check back next week!

Their 3 poodles: Charlette, Emma, and Tessa

We watched after Anne and her sister, Kate.

Visiting the Warrens

This past weekend we headed up to the mountains to spend some time with our good friends, Chad and Shanon, and their 5 1/2 month old boy, Truett. Shanon was a bridesmaid in our wedding and they have been living outside Winter Park for the past two years. We had a great time enjoying the outdoors, catching up with each other, and watching our boys interact with each other. Shanon blogged about our visit on the Warren Report, so check that out if you want to see more pictures. Now, some pics from the weekend.

Out on a walk on Friday evening.

Emily and Fussy-Pants Cole
Shanon cookin' up something good in her kitchen.
Chad and Truett on top of a mountain. We rode a ski lift to the top to take in some scenary. Check out the beautiful aspen trees changing colors.
The Roberts Family on top of a mountain.
The Roberts Family in an aspen grove.

Emily on the ride down from the top of the mountain.

Truett showing Cole how good he is at rolling over. For more pictures and some video on Cole and Truett interacting, visit Cole's Blog.

Date Night

In desperate need of some time alone, Emily and I went on a date this past Sunday. We got all dressed up (see pic below), left Cole with our friend Maggie (see pic below), and headed down the street to a hole-in-the-wall Italian place that had been voted the best Italian food in all of the metro-Denver area. Upon arriving, we came to find out that the place closed down about three months ago. Big bummer. So, we found the nearest alternative (Macaroni Grill) and still enjoyed some great time together. Many thanks to Maggie to taking care of Cole!

Go Gators & Fight, Raiders, Fight!!!!

My Gators are now 3-0 thanks to their recent 30-6 beatdown of Tennessee, and are ranked #4 in the country. And Emily's Red Raiders are 4-0 and are ranked in the top ten for the first time in recent memory. Cole is catching the college football fever right along with us....

Mommy got Cole all dressed up for the Texas Tech game.

Cole & Ryan after the Gators took a 17-0 lead over Tennessee.
Gooooooo Gators!!!!
Cole passed out by the middle of the 2nd quarter, but he woke up in time to see another Gator victory!