Some very sweet sentiments.

So a few nights ago Ryan went upstairs to say goodnight to the kids. He was leaving Gee's room and said "goodnight buddy." Gideon asked "Dad, did you know we were going to be buddies when you got me?" Ryan said "got you from where, Guatemala?" Gee smiled and shook his head "yes." Really to me, it doesn't get much better than that. That is just precious on so many levels. Gideon loves his daddy like crazy and I hope they are always best buds.

Today I was heading back from Columbus with Asher and the little girls and we were watching the ever popular Veggie Tales. It was the beginning of one the video's where Bob is trying to convince Larry to play the Tuba and Larry says something about how he doesn't want to play because everyone will laugh. I hear Maddie say back to Anna "you didn't laugh did you?" She was seriously watching out for poor Larry.

I need to take this opportunity to say I love Veggie Tales. Leah and Logan really got in to them when they were little, but they have been a by gone thing for a few years. Now in the last year or so they have really been revived with the new batch of kiddos. They love watching them and I love that they are getting excellent messages from the bible in such an entertaining way. I mean, who doesn't love Bob and Larry?? Oh and I highly recommend their newest video "It's a Meaningful Life." It is kind like a Veggie version of "It's a Wonderful Life" and the "Polar Express." PLUS, it is adoption friendly (any Steven Curtis Chapman fans out there?)

Well, soccer is over and Logan and his team won their tournament. It was a great game and Logan did a super job. I am so very proud of my original little man. He was proud also!

I am also very proud of Miss Leah. She got a 4.0 for her first 9 weeks of school. I hear that she is the only one in her whole grade to do that. Her parent teacher conference is this Thursday so it will be great to see what they have to say about her.

I promise, pictures will come with the next post!

Julie

It is me again....

You know sometimes there just isn't much to blog. Not that I don't blog because of that, but I swear sometimes I do try and spare you the details. Today is not one of those days.

Life is trucking along like normal I guess. It has been a little warmer here than it normally is (like low 70's) and it has been really nice to get outside and try to enjoy the weather. It has also been windy and I heard today they are expecting gusts up to 60 mph. Goodbye pretty fall leaves on our trees. Step 1 to winter.....

Logan is in the middle of his soccer tournaments. He won his game last night and his next game is Saturday at 10:00. The little kids have their last game on Saturday also. Soccer is lots of fun, but it will be nice to have our Wednesdays and Saturdays back. Setting aside this time really hasn't been a big deal, but I feel as if we are just scratching the surface of "running" for the kids. Between piano, gymnastics, school and homeschool I feel like I run a lot, but with 6 kids I know we are only just starting the craziness. Even though we plan to restrict the kids and their endeavers, running like a mad woman is inevitable I guess.

I told you I already broke out the first Christmas gift buy, well now I am really on the prowl for good deals. Since my last purchase I snagged a deal for Asher on one of those deal of the day sites and I got a really good deal on some Veggie Tales stuff from the Big Idea site. I am still trying to pace myself though. We only spend a set amount on the kids for Christmas and I do not want to max that amount too quickly and certainly not before Black Friday.

Something a little exciting on Ryan and I's part...... We are taking a couple days away from the kids in a few weeks. We are taking a full Saturday, Saturday night and all day Sunday to get some adult time with some of the other adults in Ryan's family. We aren't sure where we are going yet, but wherever it is I am sure will be lots of fun. Plus, in a couple weeks we are heading up to Maumee Bay with Ryan's family. So two of our November weekends are going to be taken with fun stuff. Then add in there Thanksgiving, well, it will just be an exciting month.

Well, we have gymnastics in a little bit so I need to go. I have lots of pictures to upload, but my camera is in my diaper bag and my diaper bag was left in Columbus last Saturday. All is not lost though. They are holding my bag for me. Luckily my camera was the only thing of value in the bag. So really, as stinky as that is, I feel blessed to even still have the bag.....

Julie

"Gee's not marrying me!"

So Madeline just walked downstairs in one of her princess costumes and said "Gee's not marrying me, he's just running away......and playing with cars and stuff......." It was obvious that Madeline expected me to swoop in and make Gideon play along and marry her. My initial thought was "run Gee, run!" Marriage is wonderful, but not at 4 years old with a bossy sister. I told Maddie that Gideon was aloud to run and play. She stopped off. Ha. Very funny!

Julie

Christmas, already.

I bought my first Christmas presents last week. Oiy. And so it begins. It was actually fun to get, but I need to give just a tad bit of background.

I do not care for character type clothing/shoes. Leah and Logan never really had that stuff when they were little. No Dora backpacks or Barney t-shirts around here. This still holds pretty true even with the little kids. Well, until now. For some reason Disney (which I have not always "loved") is really getting to the kids (and me too I guess). I think it is because we pretty much go to Walt Disney World every year now and the kids are growing up with it. Gee is really loving the movie "Cars." He watched it for the first time about a month ago, he doesn't even know a new one is coming out. The girls though just LOVE princess stuff. Last year at Disney World it was so fun to see their little eyes pop when they actually got to meet a couple princesses. Anna loves Cinderella and Madeline adores Ariel (is she even a princess?). Since I love my kids and I like for birthdays and Christmas's to be more about what they want, cheaply made, but unusually expensive Disney paraphernalia is making it's way to the Cole house.

The Disney store was having some good sales and free shipping. So Maddie and Anna are getting a princess and prince doll (with clothes), a t-shirt, and a personalized jacket (so fun!). All in their favorite character. Madeline will get hers for her birthday next month and poor Anna will have to wait until Christmas for hers. I like getting Christmas early to some extent. I do quite a bit of my shopping on line these days (except for Black Friday of course). Last year I hesitated to buy for the kids too early because I was worried that they would really want something closer to Christmas, but my budget would have been already blown. That wasn't the case. This year I feel more comfortable buying ahead some because I think what the kids are really liking right now will hold true a month or so from now also.

I am hoping to make some Christmas again this year, but no where near as much as last year. It got to be a little out of control. Each of the kids will get a little something made by me, but nothing too major probably. I am definitely going to make Asher his mama made quilt this year. I have all the fabric and I even know the pattern I am going to use. All the kids have a quilt made by me but him.

Since we are talking about Christmas gifts, I know what I am getting from Ryan already and I am so excited! I am getting a new laptop. I have been using Ryan's Macbook Air for 2 years now. It is a very cool lightweight laptop and even though using an "Apple" takes a bit of learning, I really like it. It is dying though and we took it to the Genius Bar Saturday night and they said it would cost almost $800 to fix. Um, nope. Not paying that. I have been wanting an ipad for a while so we considered moving to one of those. I am sorry to say though that I do not think I would be happy with that long term. I have an iphone and really the ipad is just a big iphone. I want more than that, which it hard because the ipad is sooo cute! I think we have decided to stick with Dell. They make a good solid product and it is what Ryan has been using and happy with for a while now. Over the weekend I created my Dell and Ryan is going to e-mail the specs to his contact at our local Dell and see if we can get a better price. I am super excited!!

There was one aspect of ordering my Dell that was frustrating to me. Have you all ever heard of project (RED)? Here's a link: http://www.joinred.com/red/ It is a neat idea. Businesses can partner with project (RED) and part of the proceeds made from that product goes to help AIDS victims in Africa. I have bought a few products already. A Gap t-shirt and outfit for Asher and a coffee mug from Starbucks. Some big names partner with (RED). Dell is one of those big names. I was extremely stoked when I saw that Dell had (RED) products. They even had them available in the computer type I was looking at. There were like 12 or so designs to choose from and I picked my favorite. Well, it was an additional $170 to get a computer with a (RED) design. Very high and not something we would normally pay for, but we are pretty committed to giving back with what we have been blessed with, so we looked into to further. After more research we realized that only $20 of that $170 actually went to AIDS relief. Only $20!! I am sure the designer had to get his/her cut and Dell had to get theirs, but $20?? No thank you. Our money would be much better spent to send that $170 to World Vision. Nuts though, there were some cool designs......

Until next time!

Julie

The comfort of Heaven

You know sometimes I long for Heaven. Not in the sense that things are so bad here, not at all, I have a beautiful life. But there are times when I just find intense comfort in knowing that the God of this world is preparing a place for us. A place with no tears and no sadness. Much like everyone else, I have had trials in my life when things were miserable. I praise God though that my times of desperation have been far from me for a while. Tonight however, I was longing again for a peace that only Jesus can give. I almost feel pathetic even admitting to what was so heavy on my heart because I have seen real tragedy in this world. I think though that maybe other mom's like me will understand.

As Ryan and I lay in bed tonight I relayed to him the prayer Madeline had said before bed. Madeline really has precious prayers. In some ways she sounds wiser than her years and in others so like a child in the way she tries to mimic the prayers she has heard. Tonight's prayer was very typical and at the time, while sweet, it didn't strike more of an emotional chord than it normally does. For some reason though as we laid in bed, I found myself desperately wishing I had that little prayer seared in my memory. 10 or even 5 years from now I am going to want that moment that I shared tonight with Madeline (and Anna) back. Time goes so incredibly fast and as I delight in my children growing, there are moments that feel downright unbearable. Tonight was one of those night.

Tears just streamed down my face (as they are now) as I thought about all the missed opportunities with my kids. How many times do they ask to help and I say "no" because I know it will take twice as long. How often in a given day do I just sit down and color with them or play a game that they like. I am ashamed to say, not very often. I don't doubt that Satan uses guilt as one of his favorite tools, but for me it seems that every time I get sad that my babies are no longer babies, my next immediate thought is "you waste so much time on things that don't matter." While I can recognize that truly I do not think I am an awful mom, there is some truth to that thought and I intend to remedy this situation to some extent.

Well, I digress because what I really wanted to say was that in the midst of my heavy heart I was reminded of a conversation that I just had with a good friend of mine. This is the same friend that just lost her son a couple months back. We were talking about how we, as humans, place such an emphasis on time, especially when it relates to death. Her baby boy was "too young to die." But you know I really don't think God looks at life like we do at all. I think time is somewhat irrelevant to Him. This thought and my knowledge of Heaven brought such comfort to me tonight. I look at my babies, from 1 yr old to 12 and think "they are getting so big, so fast," but I know that when we all get to Heaven this will be barely a blink in God's eye. Yes, as a mom, I second guess myself a lot and it can be sad to watch my children grow, but what a joy it is to know that the time will come that everything will be ok. I won't feel sad that I missed some opportunities with my kids anymore, I won't feel sad because I will never hear that little 4 yr olds prayer again. My friend won't feel sad because her baby boy "died too young." Do I love my life, the good and the bad? More than I can say. Do I long for the perfect Heaven that only God can create? You bet.

Julie

Thriftiness and Recent Happenings.......

Life has been busy and I feel bad I haven't posted in such a long time, but that is the way it goes I guess. This past weekend we had all the "Cincy Coles" to our neck of the woods. Ryan's dad has one brother and between these two men their are like 18 children (including husband/wives) and 30 grandchildren. Plus, 2 more grandkids are brewing and one cousin is getting married in a couple weeks. This Cole side took the "be fruitful and multiple" thing very seriously. It was a great time though and I love that side of the family. They are fun and easy to spend time with. It is always a blessing. Grandma Cole was very missed though. I thought that numerous times throughout the event. We all still miss her........

This has become Asher's spot. He loves to sit here. This time Anna and Madeline joined him. Asher loves to get into my drawers and get out my lids and storage containers. He tries very hard to put the lids on, but 95% of the time they don't match and that is very frustrating to him. Anyways, this is almost always the spot he comes to with his spoils.

Gee said "take a picture of me" which doesn't happen often, so I did. Nice Gideon.....

Asher is just like a little tornado. He walks through the house puling out anything he can. I can always tell where he has been. Fortunately he is learning "no" pretty good so if I catch him in the act I can deter him temporarily. Here he is very proud of his empty pop bottle from the trash.

A wagon ride from this weekend with part of the crew.

Esther and Scott and their two littles (you can't see Coleson).

Uncle Dennis, Aunt Sheila, their daughter Sarah and two of her littles (she is pregnant with #4 and paper pregnant to adopt from China).

This is Aaron, son in law to Uncle Dennis and part of his crew (plus some). His wife Alisha is pregnant).

One of PaPa's shaggy cow's. If anyone is interested in such things, Ryan and I will be purchasing some cattle of our own soon. We are inquiring about possibly starting a herd of Ancient White Parks. They are a really cool dual purpose type cattle. They are pretty rare and right now we are very much in the getting prepared stage. It is exciting though!

Feeding the cows.

So, here's some thriftiness in my life right now. I found this great wooden car at the Goodwill. I love solid wood stuff for the kids. They are so durable and classic. I am so tempted to switch all their toys out for stuff like this. Do they made wooden Leapsters and I touch's?

Cute little shoes I made for asher out of a recycled wool sweater. He wears them all the time!

I just made these yesterday for Madeline. Anna and Gideon have a pair cut out and ready to sew. They are a little wonky and I plan to tweak the next two pairs.

Ooo, anther steal from the Goodwill. These are Robeez soft shoes for Asher. These retail for $25 plus dollars. I paid $1.99. They are like new also they just look a little smushed. I have been seriously been looking for another pair for Asher on line and very close to buying some. Good thing I held out.

This is probably my best all time find from a Goodwill (and I have found a lot). I loved this bag and could tell it was quality. Little did I know. After doing a little research on line I found that this bag is from a German designer and they retail for $200 to $500. I kid you not. I paid $2.99. Yeah baby! Now do I try and sell it knowing how big of a pain that can be, or just use it with a smug little look on my face?

Ok, so this wasn't thrifty because of anything I did, but holy cow, it is wonderful and it was FREE. My very excellent mother and father in law gifted this set to us. They moved recently and bought a different set for their new house. I cannot tell you how much we needed this. Our last dryer was very seriously on its last leg and it was sooooo un-efficient. I zip through laundry now and when you do about 3 to 4 loads a day, that saves so much time!