Brandon's bedtime prayer. . .

Brandon's bedtime prayer. . . what a cute boy :)

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please help mommy not to get a ticket
Help her car not to be a race car
Bless daddy that he will not get burned welding
Bless daddy that he will not shoot his foot when hunting
Help me be nice and not hit
Bless sissy not to hit me
Bless the food to help me get strong muscles like Hulk
Amen.


I haven't gotten a ticket lately, Eric hasn't been burned or shot in the foot (thank goodness). Not sure where he comes up with some of this stuff. Now the hitting. . . this is something we're working on. They've been particularly bad about hitting each other lately, not sure what to do about it. Nothing seems to be working. Any ideas?!

Something I Swore I'd NEVER do. . .

You know how it is. . . you have a mental list of things you'd NEVER do when you had kids. For example: my kid will NEVER cry during church, my kids will NEVER have a nasty runny nose, my kids will NEVER eat hot dogs (do you have any idea what those things are made of? me either). Any way, you get the point. Well, one of the things I'd swore I'd never do is feed my kids T.V. dinners and let them eat it. . . that's right, in front of the T.V. I'm all about eating real food at the dinner table as a family. But. . . .

Today was not a good day. I'm piled high in home work, we have no groceries, Eric's working until 11pm and I'm tired. So I took a quick trip to get the kids dinner and a movie. They were SUPER excited to have their first T.V. dinner ever.

We got home, I heated up the Kids Cuisines. . .turned on the movie and dug into my homework. They are in bed now, fast asleep with garbage for food in their tummies. (I was sure to put some fresh veggies in Lexi's lunch for tomorrow) . Perhaps it's not normal to feel so guilty. . . at least I fed them dinner right? :)

Excited to watch "Honey I shrunk the kids" (a 1990's classic)

Yum! Yum!

I'm Back!!

We did it!!! we went 30 days Internet/cable free. (we turned it back on quite a while ago, but I've been too busy to blog) It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was a fun way to end the summer- lots of family time.

Any way. . . life is crazy as ever around here. Lexi turned 5, Grandma Cole came to visit, Brandon started pre-school, I started my LAST year of nursing school and Lexi started kindergarten. I have a lot to catch up on and tons of pictures to share. . . but not tonight. I have lots of homework, a load of laundry to fold and clinicals early, early, early in the morning.

Stay tuned. . .

It's time for a vacation. . .

It's time for a vacation- from internet and cable, that is :) That's right, we're going internet and cable free for 30 days. It's so easy to waste hours of precious time wandering around on the internet. It's even easier to waste time watching TV. We want to enjoy these last few weeks of summer with nothing to distract us. We'll be turning the internet back on in September, but only because I HAVE to have it for school- cable will be left off.

We've gone four days so far. (I'm at my parent's house borrowing their computer at the moment) At first I thought the kids would go crazy with out morning cartoons- the whining is getting less and less and they are actually beginning to play with their toys and use their imaginations :)

And as for my self. . . I get SO much more done during the day. I have to admit it was hard for me at first too. I've been making breakfast, playing outside, folding laundry, reading. . . . and when the kids go to bed, I do too! There's nothing else to do. Any way. . . call me crazy, most people could never survive, but I really think it's what's best for us- at least for now :)

In other words. . . blog post from the Cole Family will be few and far between for a while.

File Folder Fun

I have the file folder bug! I made 15 games over the weekend- my hand is still cramping from all the coloring and cutting!

Lexi LOVES file folder games :)

Brandon playing the animal alphabet game



Lexi using Brandon as a calculator

Subtraction Fish- My sister made this one

Matching Frogs

Wishing Well Alphabet

Vegetables vs. Fruit

Sunflower Reading

Shape City

Both kids have surprised me with how fast they pick up on new concepts. Lexi figured out subtraction in no time and Brandon knew fruits vs. vegetables the first time he tried. Any way. . . I just ordered a new book to make more. Fun Fun Fun!

Fun in the Sun

I got to work this morning. . . and was reminded I had the day off. :) I was more than happy to come home and play with the kids instead of work! We were out side almost all day. We played in the sprinkler and played with water balloons and bubbles. It was a perfect summer day and the kids had tons of fun.Filling balloons with a syringe- it worked great :)

I know- I know- I shouldn't let them bite the balloons but the picture I snapped was priceless!

Brandon running over his water balloon with his bike. . . he thought it was pretty funny

Mischievous little boy :)

Playing in the beach ball sprinkler. . . .

Camping 2009

We finally made it to the mountains! We went to Medicine Wheel Lake over the weekend and had a fun time. We spent a few hours in the tent waiting out the rain and thunder storm but eventually got to eat some good food, spend quality time by the camp fire and fish.

Lexi and Brandon watching a movie in the tent waiting out the rain storm- seems wrong doesn't it?

I'm not sure what's so fascinating about poking sticks in a camp fire- but the kids love it.

Enjoying some good ole' fashion Hobo dinner- a camping classic :)

And of course- some fishing :) We didn't catch any fish but at least we got some cute pictures :)

And who is this, might you ask? Our new guard dog. . . he will be introduced in another post. Eric brought him home as a "surprise". . . . *sigh*

Things to remember next time we go camping:

1.lighter fluid- there is nothing worse than not being able to get a fire started because everything is water logged

2.warmer sleeping bags- I thought we might freeze to death. We ended up unzipping all the sleeping bags and making one big bed- Eric was in the middle to keep us all warm :)

3. A coat for Lexi- what was I thinking? Every one else had something warm but her. . . she ended up wearing one of Brandon's long sleeve shirts under her t-shirt.

4. An air mattress- I'm getting to old to sleep on the hard ground :)

5. Mugs- hot cocoa and nothing to drink it out of? we ended up making it in a water bottle- the kids thought it was pretty cool :)

6. Leave the puppy home- he was cold, whiney and into everything :)