The Blizzard of 2012

That would be the headline on the news, anyway. Last week was very snowy around here! So much so, that I didn't drive my car out of the driveway for an entire week. I don't think that's ever happened in my adult life. While it was fun, I'm happy everything's back to normal now. Cole gets to go back to school tomorrow, which we're all very excited about! Don't get me wrong...I think that boy is the bee's knees, but he's gotten pretty used to staying busy with a lot of structure at school, so we've all been a bit antsy this past week!

No offense to Cole, but I wouldn't have pegged him as a little snowboarder. His balance hasn't always been the greatest! Our neighbor girls brought over their cool little snowboards and he gave it a shot. Over, and over, and over again. We had to force him to stop after hours for several days in a row! He got pretty awesome at it too, if I do say so myself! Wishing I would have tried it sooner, I stuck Brady on one the last night of our beautiful snow. Also, to my surprise, that little 3 year old actually rode the board down the driveway! Go Brady! Unfortunately, there's no way in hell I'm going to have a snowboarding family - not for real, anyway. I can't afford that type of hobby and Mark and I aren't "snow" or "mountain" people, so the boys will just have to stick to the driveways & hills at the golf course for now. That is, until they get jobs & cars, and then they can go ahead and take it up as an official sport. Sorry, kids. That's just the way it's gonna be.

Now, sit back and enjoy some snow photos!

I really should start blogging again...

It's only been 8 months since my last post. That's not so bad, right?!? Yeah, okay, that's pretty bad.

I can't even recall everything we've done in the last 8 months, but 1 huge change is that Cole's in school now! We decided to send him to all day kindergarten this year and it's been wonderful! Last night he said he was really sad it was the weekend, cause he really wanted to go to school. Pretty awesome to have a kid that loves school that much! He's reading so well already and constantly improving. He continues to amaze me everyday.

We have new neighbors that moved in over the summer. It's a mother and 11 year old daughter and we just adore them. The 11 year old girl comes over before & after school and is a wonderful addition to our family. The boys look forward to seeing her every morning and love playing with her. She said she's always wanted a little brother...well, now she has 2! And even better, she can just come play with them when she wants and when she gets tired of them...she gets to go home!

Cole is still taking karate and really enjoying it. He's been in the youth karate class for a couple of sessions now which puts him with older kids. He has gotten much better at keeping up this last month. I'm still taking karate too, and loving it! It's pretty neat to be able to practice together - although we need to do that quite a bit more than we do!

Here are some pictures of the boys I've taken recently. I'm gonna try to get back to updating the blog again. Don't hold me to it - I know I've said that before! Hopefully I can actually follow through this time!

Karate Kid!

Cole had his belt testing last week for karate. Today was the award ceremony, and he was promoted to yellow belt! He was absolutely FLOORED by this! I'm so proud of him! He's done such an amazing job, and I'm so happy that we made the decision to get him started with this last fall. He's now moving up to the youth karate class, which is for 7-16 year olds. That freaks me out, considering he's only 5, but he says he's up for the challenge. I've been taking the same style karate classes since the beginning of the year, so I'll be able to help him practice at home, which should make it go a little smoother!

Here are a few pictures from the class & ceremony.

We're still alive! Not sure where to even start...

So, it's been 4 months since I last posted. I've been getting worse and worse about updating this blog as time goes on. I'd love to say that I promise I'll get better about it, but quite honestly, I don't trust myself enough to promise something like that! I'll try, though, cause 4 months is pretty rediculous!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day & anything else I may have missed since November!

I thought I'd show you what our latest art project was! It only took about 4 days from start to finish...I may have underestimated the time & mess factors when I started this! We made masks out of a milk jug! I cut the jug in half, and for the side without the handle, we made a nose out of foil & masking tape so it would look like a face. We then mixed up a nice gooey flour/water/salt mixture, dipped strips of newspaper into it and proceeded to paper mache the whole jug. It took a couple of days to dry (longer than I thought!). The boys and I painted and decorated them using random art supplies & a hot glue gun, which I went ahead and let Brady operate! Ha! Just kidding! Only I got to touch that! The boys told me where they wanted things glued on and I hot glued them on for them.


Here are some pictures of the process and the final product! They are now hanging on our wall and look so cool!

Happy Halloween / Happy Birthday!

How am I so bad at updating this? Goodness! The boys both just had their birthdays, and it's pretty hard to believe I have a 2 year old & 5 year old running around here! It seems like Brady was just a little baby! They're both doing excellent. Cole is in karate and LOVING it! It's absolutely amazing to watch him progress. I thought it was going to be something that he just wouldn't learn well, based on the first couple weeks, but now, he's doing so well! I'm so glad I enrolled him! We'll definitely keep him in it as long as he's having fun. Brady started a little co op preschool once a week. I stay there with him the whole time. We did the same thing with Cole at this age, and it's really great for his social development. It's also teaching him a little structure, which is wonderful!

The boys had their annual Dr. appointments today (boo for shots). Cole is pretty close to average at 40 lbs / 42.5 inches (40th / 50th percentiles). Brady, on the other hand, is not so average! He is 32 lbs / 35.25 inches (90th / 70th percentiles). The kid is a football player, even the doctor said so! They're both very healthy and doing great, which is always a nice reassurance! Here's a couple pictures, since it's been so long!

Karate, Haircut & Bread Making!

What a day, huh? Cole had his first karate class, I gave Brady a new haircut & Cole and I baked 2 loaves of bread!

We started with the haircut. Brady has been known to boycott said haircuts, which is the reason I let it get SOOOO long this time around! But to my surprise, he sat there and was totally cool with it! So cool, in fact, that I got to take my time and really give him a nice haircut! Of course, he's so squirmy that I couldn't get a great picture of it, but I've posted my best shot up next to a shaggy before shot!

Next up, Cole and I made some bread! Again, to my surprise, it turned out wonderfully! We brought a loaf over to Gigi (my grandma, and kiddos great grandma). She loves it when we bake, cause she always gets some! Or maybe not, sometimes...if what we bake isn't so wonderful! I try not to share those items, though!

Last but not least, Cole had his first Karate class today! He's been looking forward to this for such a long time! It was awesome! It's gonna be so good for him, both challenging and fun. And cute, if I do say so myself!

Cole's riding a bike!!!

With no training wheels! We bought him a balance bike about a month ago, which he rode maybe 10-15 times, and now look! He got on a real bike and rode it. This never would have happened without that balance bike - well, it would have happened eventually, but no one wants to ride a bike with training wheels when they're in high school!
Here's the proof! Sorry about the shaky video...I was walking, and my camera doesn't have image stabilization - hope you don't get sea sick!