Cole Turns 5

Cole turned 5 September 28th.  We had a party at our house with all our family.  This year he has been really into toy story so he had a Buzz cake with Toy Story cupcakes and his gift was Buzz and Woody.  We have found him sleeping with Buzz and Woody many times since.  I think it is safe to say he likes them.

Cole at 5
Favorite Food:
Favorite Toy:
Favorite TV Show:
Favorite Color:
Favorite Thing to Do:

Cole loves doing anything outside and being with his dad.  He is very tender hearted and generally nice to everyone.  He has the most awesome primary teachers and I have seen a lot of growth in him spiritually this year.  He can be shy when he wants, but competes with his sisters to talk.  He enjoys preschool and has started playing soccer this year and loving it.  For being the only boy, he is pretty good to play with his sisters and let them boss him around, but his all time favorite thing is still playing firefighters.  We love you little buddy!

Soccer

Cole played his first season of soccer this fall.  It was awesome!  He loved going to practice and games.  He also had a great coach and great team and they had a lot of fun together.  Not to mention they were pretty good :-)

Emergency Room

Bailee took her first trip to the Emergency Room for eating a whole bottle of Tylenol.  The night before I had bought a new bottle and opened it to give Brooke some.  The next morning, I got off the treadmill to find the bottle empty.  Bailee told me she had eaten it.  I immediately called poison control and they had me weigh her and asked if I knew for sure how many she had eaten.  I found one on the floor and I knew Brooke had eaten 2 the night before so it was likely that she took almost the whole bottle.  Luckily, because they were children's Tylenol and not junior, poison control told me just to watch her but that she should be fine.  She seemed fine most of the day, but that afternoon she started throwing up repeatedly.  I called poison control again and they still said she should be fine.  But, being the worrying mother then I called the doctor's office and they though I should bring her in because that is a lot of Tylenol.  Long story short, after about 10 phone calls to different people and finally talking to the actual doctor on call, I decided I better take her up to the ER.  She threw up again on the way there and we were admitted quickly because the doctor had already called and told them we were on our way.  Bailee was terrified and not happy that they had to draw her blood.  She was very brave though and only cried a little.  After they drew her blood, they kept us to monitor us while they checked it and also had her give a urine sample.  After being there for a few hours, they let us go home and said she should be fine.  She was back to her normal self the next day.  A few weeks and a nice bill later, we learned a valuable lesson... poison control knows what they are talking about.  Listen to them.  

Kickball

Cole had a lot of fun playing kickball.  He was almost a whole year older than most of the kids that played because of his birthday... he just barely made the deadline to play one more year.  He was one of the few that actually understood the rules and what you are supposed to do (it helps when your dad is the coach).  He could kick the ball fairly far and loved running the bases.  I love when he has things to entertain him and get some of his energy out.

Mud Bath

Brooke and Bentlee were playing after church on a Sunday.  In an effort to give Mam's some peace and quiet Annie told them they could do anything outside as long as they didn't bug her while she ran to the store.  When I got there to pick up Brooke, this is what I found... two girls in a mud bath!

Boys Will Be Boys

Cole and Tate love to play together.  They typically have a play date once a week.  This particular day they had been playing at Mam's house and were covered in mud.  Annie undressed them and was going to hose them down before they could come in the house... but while she was getting the hose they made a get away.  Someday boys... pictures will be payback :)

Hair Cut

Brooke has been asking for months to get her hair cut.  I like it long, but I finally gave in and told her she could cut it, as long as it was still long enough to put into a pony.  She thought it was really cool to go to a real salon and get it washed and sit in the chair.  And it looks pretty cute!

Lunch Date

Brooke has had a little bit of a rough start to her school year.  It has been a tough adjustment being gone all day.  She feels a little left out that Cole and Bailee get to stay at home with mom.  We debated for many months whether or not to put her in the new dual-immersion French class and at the last minute I decided to move her to the regular class.  I really feel like we made the right decision!  I was worried about her not having this opportunity, but with the way her year has gone I know she is right where she needs to be.  About 70% of her class is kids from our neighborhood so it has been great for her to have so many friends so close!  Her teacher is great too; just enough tough love and just enough caring.  She loves to have visitors at school and it seems to help the days go a little smoother.  Matt and I have both been able to go a few times and have lunch with her.  We miss her while she is gone all day!

Back to School

1st Grade

Brooke is in first grade this year.  All day school has been a hard adjustment for her.  She is in a really fun class with lots of kids from our neighborhood and she comes home happy everyday.  It is just a fight every night at bedtime and every morning.  I think she hates getting up and going straight to school all day.  She'd rather sleep in and hang out.  I think it has also been hard for her that I am tending London again and another baby named Carter.  She loves to help with the babies.  Things have improved a little since Cole and Bailee started school too.  

Her school started a dual-immersion program this year and I debated and debated if I should put her in, but at the last mintue I decided to put her in the regular class.  The French class had 28 kids in it and the regular class only had 15.  I also was worried about her having a hard time with the language and hating school.  Seeing as how it has been a fight to get her to go almost every day I feel like I made the right decision!

She says her favorite part of school is lunch.  She loves the school lunches and both Matt and I have been able to go and eat with her.  She thinks that is pretty cool.  

Preschool Year #3

Cole is going to the same preschool this year that he went to last year.  He loves Teacher Kira and once he got over the fact that he wasn't going to kindergarten he was excited to go back.  His cousin Rylin is in his class this year.  They sat by each other the first day.  I hope they will be good and not too crazy!

First Year Preschool

It was so hard to see my baby leave for preschool!  She was SO excited.  Her teacher had come to our house to meet her and we also went to an open house at her school so she was really looking forward to playing in the playhouse with Teacher Camille.  I was worried she would cry like she did for swim lessons but she never even bat an eye.  Matt has to drop her off so I can get the big kids to school on time.  He said as soon as Camille came to get her she was just talking her ear off.  When I went to pick her up she was all smiles and told me all about her day.  

Once we got home she was pooped!  She asked for lunch because she was starving and then went down for a nap without even complaining!  That night in bed she said, "mom tomorrow can we play school and I will be teacher Camille and you be the little girl and I will get you out of the car."  She can't wait to go back next week!

Canning

My mom and I (well really just mom) had the brilliant idea to can salsa this year.  We have never canned anything before and we both hate to cook, so I don't know what we were thinking!  We knew it was going to be time consuming and a lot of work, we just had no idea really how much! The first batch took us until 2:00 a.m. and we ended up doing spaghetti sauce too because we had so much.  Then her friend gave us more tomatoes so we ended up doing it again the next weekend. It took much less time the second time around and we knew what we were doing.  Even though it was WAY past bedtime we had a lot of fun doing it and it actually tastes good too :)

Half Marathon

Matt and his sister Cammie ran their first half marathon!  I helped Cammie come up with a training plan and ran with her a few times.  She trained for months and worked really hard to be able to run  it.  I hope she had fun!  She ran it in 3:06

Matt has been wanting to do a marathon for a while, but with his knee surgery this year he wasn't sure he'd be able to.  He trained a little this summer and did ok so he decided to run.  He said his knee started hurting around mile 9 and he had to slow down, but for his first race and just coming off a full knee surgery he did awesome!  He finished in 2:15.

I signed up for this race shortly after Boston and by the time the it came time to run I was burned out and hadn't trained at all.  In fact, I've actually cut back on my running by quite a bit (we are talking from like 30-40 miles a week to 15-20).  I really only ran because I had paid for it and to support Matt and Cammie.  Considering all this, I actually had a really good day.  I ran a PR of 1:34 and took 2nd in my age division.  

My friend Jamie is also a runner and we run in a lot of the same races.  I was determined someday to beat her so I knew if I could just stay close behind her I'd be fine.  I ended up passing her about half way and finally beat her :)  (love ya J!)

Even though I'm still burned out I am more back in running mode and ready for cooler fall running weather and maybe a few late winter/early spring SHORT races.  One of these years I really am going to run Top of Utah full and not burn myself out training for a spring and early summer race.