Translations of Cole Language

Cole jabbers and jabbers many people say he speaks Russian, Italian, or Alien. There are a few words however that we actually recognize. Here are a few of them:
*"bir" bird
*"but" button, which just this week has become "butt E"
*"peez" please, this just started this week and is SO cute
*mam" mom
"da" dad
he says something for amen but it's not really a word it's more of a quick alien like sound, something like "meep"
I really can't wait for him to talk so we can understand what he wants but the truth is I LOVE when he rattles off something with real intent to me and then laughs like it was a funny story. Oh he's so cute I can't stand it! :D If we could only know what's going on in that little mind of his.

Redneck Tree

I received an e-mail with this picture attached from my friend and neighbor.
The subject line was "Redneck Tree."

I almost just deleted the e-mail because I figured it was just another forward.  I didn't though--good thing because it was a funny one. :)

The e-mail read:

"You might be a redneck if you try to grow a tree in a trash can... (see attachment)

Hee hee hee!"

I didn't look at the picture until last.  When it was done downloading I died laughing-- it was our garbage can.  :)  She said her kids saw it on their way home from school and laughed and laughed at it because they said it looked like the tree was growing in the garbage.

Call the Firemen!

Cole's latest "favorite thing to do" is one that has me a little concerned. He's sure to burn the house down. He loves to put the hot-pads and my kitchen towels in the oven. Hmmm. I hope I remember to check before I turn the oven on to pre-heat. I also hope he doesn't let one slip through the slot to the pilot light. I know you're thinking that I should stop him. Well this picture is of him being stopped. I had distracted him with something else but as you can see as soon as mom is gone I resume the dangerous activity!

Kade's 1st grade class

Kade brought home this picture he did in school today. There are 10 girls and 10 boys in his class. I loved his self portrait.

1st day of 1st Grade

Today was Kade's first day of 1st Grade and he couldn't have been happier. We are sad that summer break is over though. The summer weather didn't start until recently in Heber so we're feeling a little gypped. Oh well we'll just have to run through the sprinklers after all the fun at school! Kade's teacher is Mrs. Mecham and we've heard all great things about her. Kade has been asking daily when today would come for weeks. I'm so glad he loves school. I wanted to get a cute 1st day picture of him but Mr. Cole apparently thought I was talking to him when I told Kade to stand against the wall. We tried to bribe him out of the picture but he wasn't moving as long as Kade was there. Oh well it's a super cute picture of both of them!
Last night Kade came in my room at 2 AM to let me know that he knew what he was going to wear, "The perfect shirt for the first day. My JR Smith Elementary School Shirt!" I was glad he had it figured out but I was worried he was going to be a zombie all day at school since it seemed the anticipation was keeping him up. He did just great though. I was also worried about the sleep issue since he takes a nap every afternoon, but he hasn't seemed bothered by missing them. He does crash pretty hard on Saturday afternoon though.

One Last Hurrah!

I wanted to get in one last trip with the boys to 7 Peaks before school started-- it starts tomorrow so today is the day! :) Really I'd wanted to go earlier but the weather has been rainy so we didn't want to chance getting down there and not being able to go. Well this trip was going to be perfect-- I had it all figured out! Provo school district started last Monday so I thought the park would be bare-- wahoo! We headed down and arrived a little before 11. We were getting closer and Kade said, "No one is there mom! It'll just be us!" Then with the same enthusiasm he says, "And there is no water!" Why is he excited about that? Clearly he doesn't understand that isn't a good thing. Turns out that 7 Peaks starts opening at 4 PM when Provo school starts. :( That puts a damper on the day. We remembered Aunt Wendy was heading into the MTC today so we called them and they were having lunch at the Subway right by us so we went and had lunch and tried to come up with a plan for our "Last Hurrah." I figured there wasn't anything else we could do but head to Trafalga. I couldn't remember how to get there and so after a lot of phone calls and a few missed exits we finally arrived. We only had about an hour to play because I had to get back to Heber for a faculty meeting. There was hardly anyone at Trafalga so the boys went on the rides over and over and over. Cole was so good to just hang out and watch the boys have fun. They really wanted to do the water boats but without someone to watch Cole while we were in the boats it wasn't an option. On our way out of the park Kade was saying something about how much he wanted to go on the boats as we walked by them. The girl running the boats told him he and Clint could go together by themselves. Yea for the girl who bent the rules! She really made their day. On the way back to Heber I just couldn't bring myself to taking the boys home and leaving them with a babysitter especially since this would be the last chance we'd have to go to 7 Peaks before it closed. I decided that since I've been to the meeting every year this year was going to be the one I just couldn't make. I was really torn by it because I just don't miss things like that but I just knew where I needed to be. Sometimes you just know when you need to be with your family and today was one of those days. Darryl has been gone a lot lately and so I really hated not having one of us spending the evening with the boys before their first morning of school. So, I turned toward 7 Peaks and the boys were so surprised that we weren't going home. It was such a fun night. The boys had a blast in the wave pool.

Family Pictures

Since we were all gathered together for Wendy's "farewell" we had family pictures. Marcia decided we'd do a BYU vs Utah theme. The sad thing was there was only a few moments for the pictures to happen and we didn't get to check them to make sure they were great. They're good but they aren't as crisp as we'd like. Oh well, Wendy's off and we've got 3 babies coming in the next few months so I think we'll just have to get a new one when she returns. It was a special weekend because Melanie also got baptized in Salina while they were up. It was fun to have everyone together. Darryl, Wendy, Jackie, and Greg have spent the last few days doing canyons in Zion. They wanted one last hoo-ra before Wendy left. It was a great thing for them to have a few days together experiencing some amazing canyons.

Cute Boys

 
Kade wanted me to take a picture of him with Cole--turned out pretty cute other than it's from a cell phone. We'd just been playing at the park. Cole really likes to go down the slide though it takes him forever to initially go.

Stake 5K

Today was the Stake 5K.  We decided it would be best to go with biking this year.  Darryl ran and did an awesome job.  He was nervous because the high school cross country team showed up but he beat many of them!  Way to go old man! :)  Actually a guy that is in his 50's beat everyone. ;)  Kade and I rode our bikes and Clint and Cole rode in the bike trailer.  It was a perfect setup.  Next year when Clint has a bigger bike he can ride too since he'd be able to keep up.  Maybe even next year I can run!  That would be great!  I had started to get back into running early summer but I started to have some pain so I got scared and stopped.  After talking to a physical therapist he said my mistake was I was going everyday.  He suggested every other day for a start up-- oops.  Hopefully I'll get there soon!  I just want to be back where I was when I could run and run and run and I loved every minute.

Deer Creek

I was seeing summer slip away and realized that we hadn't made a trip to Deer Creek(aka the beach, as the boys call it). So we went this afternoon and had a great time. It was too cold for me and the boys didn't end up swimming a whole lot either but as always the trip was worth it. It doesn't get much better than water, sand, and sun.

Another View

Cole loves these glasses. Once he finds them in the toys he wears them the rest of the day. He doesn't look at the world with rose colored glasses-- just blue. :)

Clint's photo shoot

I decided to try doing the boys pictures instead of taking them to Walmart. I get so tired of trying to convince the photographer that I only want the basic package. I'm cheap what can I say. If they don't want me to get all the pictures I need for $5.99 then they shouldn't offer it!!!!!!!!!
I've been meaning to do Clint's 5 year old pictures for well about a month now and I finally took 20 minutes to do it today. The pictures turned out okay considering I was struggling with everyone. I was trying to keep Cole out of the pictures, trying to instruct Kade where to hold the reflector, and trying to keep Clint from smiling fake. Boy the Walmart people make it look easy.

Swim Lessons

We all started swimming lessons today!  Kade is in Level 1, Clint is in Pre Level 2, and Cole and I are in Mom and Tot.  I figured Cole wouldn't just sit and watch the other boys every day so I better just sign us up too.  I didn't like it because I couldn't watch Kade and Clint and see how they were doing.  Cole wasn't always cooperative either.  He loves the water though so we had a great time each day.  The Spencers signed up for the same lessons so we had a great time playing with them for a while after lessons.  I really love swimming lessons.  It takes up our whole day but I love that throughout the day the boys will say something like, "It a great day."  Water makes us happy-- we must be fish. :)

STAYCATION--Hotel Room and Bandito Mustaches

the boys like to take pictures with my phone

these pictures the boys took turns "being angels" the things they come up with. :D

STAYCATION--Kangaroo Zoo