Holiday Greetings

Sorry for the extended absence from the blogosphere. The Coles have been busy and hard at work for the past few months. We enjoyed visiting friends and family over the Thanksgiving holiday. We travelled to Louisville, KY to spend time with the Heards before heading south to Nashville to enjoy an afternoon/evening with the Bakers. We all loved being able to relax and watch plenty of football while gorging ourselves on some serious food and drink. Great times seeing Scott, Katie, and of course cousin Rogers. And we're very excited to spend the Christmas holidays both in Nashville and at home in Texas with the Coles.

Below are a few pics to update you guys on the Coles. Maggie feels so big now, it's very strange. She is cutting another tooth and seriously contemplating the whole crawling thing. We're going to have to keep our eyes out b/c soon she'll be into EVERYTHING.

BTW, if you have any pics that I don't, please share! Hope all is well. Love you all,

Tyler, Sallie, and Mags

I'm a big girl now!

So my fellow blogging buddies I felt the need to share with you my new hair style. Life as we know it has changed. As well as my new change, this past weekend the Cole family went to the Rangers baseball game and the Texas state fair. We felt the need to be short term Texans and enjoy what the lonestar state has to offer us. The state fair is only here for 1 month and who could refuse a freshly fried corny dog and funnel cake. Not this family!! Tyler started to stand in line for a fried oreo and snickers, but sad to say the line was far too long to justify waiting for a fried heart attack. He was sad, but we quickly moved on to some tasty root beer:) As you can tell we pretty much went for the food and the opportunity to meet Big Tex. And yes he does talk and his name is Big Tex. I checked out his booty and he was definitely wearing Dickies jeans. Love it. These Texans down here love their turkey legs and fried assortment of foods. I'm pretty sure we also saw fried margaritas. I really have no words other than...how. Next weekend we are heading to Austin for my cousin's wedding and will take numerous pictures to update with. Until then, adios mis amigos from Plano, Texas.



At the State Fair with Big Tex!!




Just outside the Ranger's stadium in Arlington



An updated one of our sweet girl. She is getting so big!!

Long Time Gone

Man, can't believe how hard it is to keep this thing up to date! Here's a few bullets & pics from the last 6 weeks.

• Maggie had her 4 month checkup - 13 lbs & growing healthy!
• Sallie & I are new volunteer leaders with West Plano YoungLife
• 9/10 we took a trip to Nashville to a) help Nana & Granddaddy move back into their condo after The Flood & b) have Sallie, Mags, Jo Jo & Big Daddy drive to Birmingham to see Rogers' dedication at church.
• Maggie can roll over back to front AND front to back now. She's so big!

She loves her new exersaucer!




Kinda backwards, but here's her reaction to her first dose of rice cereal!

Sallie adminstering the first dosage!

Me and baby girl

3 months

I wanted to share with you all a few new pictures of our baby girl. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Feels like yesterday I was holding her in the delivery room and now she's asking for the car keys. Well, not quite. She almost rolled over yesterday. Almost. I held her down because a part of me just doesn't want her to grow up.

I realize that there will be benefits and blessings aplenty as we watch her grow and mature. I know that I certainly won't be sad when there are no more 4 am feeding sessions, diapers to be changed, or spit up incidents. And I don't think I'll miss having to carry her everywhere either. But then again, I'm certain I'll be nostalgic for the times when she was totally and completely dependent on Sallie and I. There's incredible responsibility and joy that comes from being a parent. Without us, she simply could not survive. I love that. I love being able to provide for her. And even though Sallie undoubtedly has an upper hand on me in this department, I can't get enough of feeding her when I can, changing her when she needs it, playing and splashing in the bath. It's a love like we've never known before. And it's entirely God given.

We chose Maggie's middle name with care. We named her Grace because that is truly what she represents. She is God's gift to us. A treasure that we did not deserve, yet in His lovingkindness He chose to bless us. With salvation through faith in Christ. With a perfectly suited spouse, uniquely created to complete me. With a wonderful child, made in His image.

For it is by GRACE you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

~Ephesians 2:8-10

Thanks for sharing in our joy and our lives. We miss you all.

Nashville 2010 (Continued)

A few more pics for your viewing pleasure:

Nashville - June 2010

Here's a few pics from our recent trip to Nashville. We truly enjoyed being able to show Maggie to our parents, siblings, friends, and family. It was especially great to see our new nephew Rogers (that's him flashing the heisman pose!). And also for our own grandparents meet their new "greats". We loved seeing everone and hope you guys come visit soon!

Finally!

Well, it was about time that we jumped on this bandwagon and began sharing our story with the world. Or at least, those few in the world who want to know about the Coles and all their fun adventures. We've had plenty in the past year, and hope that we document those in the future much better than this past year. Let's just start by recapping the last thirteen months. After two years of long distance and a fourteen month engagement, Tyler and I got married June 20th, 2009 and went on a great honeymoon to Costa Rica. We moved to our new home in Plano, TX in July (Tyler bought the house in March) and quickly got plugged into Watermark Community Church in Dallas. Then I spent nearly two months job searching before finding a fantastic position with Children's Medical Center as an acute care nurse. That same week I found a job, Tyler & I were blessed to find out that we were pregnant! Needless to say, the next nine months flew by and now we have a 3 month old daughter. Margaret Grace Cole was born on April 27th, 2010 -- 8 lbs 10 oz and 19 1/4 in long. She's beautiful and funny and everything we could have hoped for and more. We know our family out of state missed being able to pop in and play with her so we hope this blog will be a source of encouragement and comfort to them, as well as us. Please leave us as many comments as you can. We love hearing from everybody. This one post could have been fourteen pages long, but I gotta run b/c Maggie is crying in the other room. Misses her mommy!

Love to all,

Sallie & Tyler