Define Necessity......

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My sweet 11 yr old was baptized tonight. It really was a thrill to see him follow God is this area. He did beautifully and was such a big kid. I was proud. Logan was blessed to many extended family members there. Good job Log, we love you so much!! Just a little funny..... On the way home Madeline asked him if it was scary getting dumped. :). Funny girl! Julie

Recent Pictures

Here are some pretty recent pictures.....

Daddy and Gideon playing soccer.

Anna in action (sort of, she would be the one picking her fingers in the back).

Asher is such a hoot.  This is last year's Christmas present and he rock's it all over the house, much to the dismay of our floors.  Check out under the saddle..... closer picture to come.

This is trick or treat at McAuley's Center.  We have two fairy princess', a pumpkin (my niece Gracie), Superman, Bob the Tomato and Captain America's daughter (my niece Cadance).

                       Iron Man (my nephew Jack), Logan in his ghillie suit and Tyler as an army man.

Madeline in action.

Gideon and Anna playing soccer.

       Logan and Gideon taking a break.  Logan had just played a game in Bellefontaine (hence the mud).

                                      Leah ready for the 8th grade dance.  Ahhh, my beautiful girl!
               

                                    Madeline at her birthday celebration #1, at Aunt Sue's house.

             The kids asked me to take this picture and it is awesome of all three.  Man I love these monkey's!

                                               Daddy getting one of Madeline's bear hug! 

                           Madeline and one of her wonderful presents.  She got so many thoughtful gifts.  Kayla     
                       (you can see her in the back of the pic) made her a wonderful card that Madeline adores. 

    Madeline and her birthday celebration #3, at home on her actual birthday.  This is her princess ring from Daddy and I.  Later in the day we went on a 4H trail ride.  Maddie got a nice long ride on "Mousy," our friends pony.  She loved it.

           Asher and Lucy at gymnastics last week.  It was visitor's week.  Look at Lucy's huge blue eyes!

                            Gee on the balance bar (in the back) and Ava on the balance bar in front.

Ok, so this was under Asher's saddle.  Aparently it is how he gets his crayons from place to place.

That is all for now!

Julie 

All is well.....

Well, life here at the Cole house is moving right along.  My husband treated me to an evening away tonight.  We went to Columbus and did a little shopping and ate at Chipolte.  It was great and much needed and appreciated.

Life has settled down a bit now for us.  Volleyball finished up a couple weeks ago and our last soccer games were Saturday.  It looks as though Logan is going to play basketball, so that will consume some time.  To be honest though, I don't mind so much in the winter.  There's not a lot to do anyways. 

Our newest "fun thing" around here are our horses, Sophie and Charlie.  They are great and gentle and just a joy to be around.  Having horses is something we have always dreamed of doing and here we are.  Charlie is a 14 yr old Quarter horse and Sophie is an 11 yr old Paint.  I need to get some good pics of them and their completed stalls (and tack area)!  We plan to do lots of trail riding some showing.  Leah is already working on riding Charlie English and Logan has been riding Sophie western (they are taking riding lessons from local lady who knows her horses).

Even though sports aren't real intense right now we are still very busy trying to get some projects finished up before winter.  Plumbing was ran to the barn last week and the electric will be finished up tomorrow.  It is so cool to have plumbing in the barn.  Last year was so trying when it came to getting water to the animals in below freezing temps and we only had chickens last year.  Oh and we are already enjoying the electric that is already in.  It is good stuff and I feel so blessed to have all these new things.  We still have to finish the hay loft before winter and we have some major dirt moving to do.  Moving dirt has been slow due to the rain and mud (and my yard is a mess), but we are at least headed in the right direction.

The kids are doing great.  So far no major illnesses this season (knock on wood, I know).  I am homeschooling Anna, Gideon (K) and Madeline (1st) while Leah and Logan attend West Liberty.  3 little ones all at one time is very tricky.  Plus Asher wants to be a part of everything.  He is quite cute trying to be a big kid, but he is very loud and he can really slow down the learning process.

We are looking forward to a fun weekend.  Friday night is a playoff football game at the school.  West Liberty went undefeated this year I believe.  Saturday during the day we are doing some special digging (more about this in another post) and then we have church.  Sunday we are going to go on a trail ride with our local 4H group.  It will be our first real trial ride and it should be a good time.  Also, Sunday is Madeline's 6th birthday.  My smart, beautiful and fun baby girl is growing up into this amazing big girl.  How did that happen?  She is pretty excited also to be spending some of her birthday riding.  She loves the horses and wants to be in control of the reins as soon as she sits down.

Well, until later......

Julie

Some long overdue pictures......

My garden is dying down. Yeah! I got lots of peppers, green beans and mammoth sweet potatoes. I canned a decent amount of tomatoes, but they met their demise too early due to a fungus. My cukes were short lived also. My 5 heads of cabbage were lovely and me beets did great!

Here are some peppers ready to be chopped and frozen.



My tomato set up. It's real rough having the TV there.



This was Asher's set up while I canned.



It was obviously rough for him also.

Daddy rocks because he bought the 4 littles new rain boots. They love them!

Say bye-bye to this old barn. It is in a pile of rubble right now waiting to be burned and buried.

Lucy and Truett camping a few weekends back. It was the funniest thing. She just embraced him for no lie probably 5 minutes. And he just stood there.

He seemed less than impressed.

A rousing game of ring-around-the-rosie.

Baby Emma, Leah, Naomi (Gee's best bud), Lauclan (spelling? - bad aunt, yes) and Jami.

This is Asher's hair after playing in the grass.

He was rolling down the hill (and kind of in to the road).

SOme pictures of our sweet cowies. We just moved them over to the in laws to have some time on the still green pasture. This is our little twin that we bottle fed from day 1. She loves to say hi and get treats.

Our barn stalls almost done. They are done now with 2 great horses in them.

Our twin's twin Goofy. She really warms up to us now.

Our tack area almost done.

Ok, so this it the tool you use to turn a bull into a steer. Yes, Ryan and I did this ourselves (so proud of us).

Sorry guys..........

The younger guys enjoying their new saddle.

Leah playing volleyball. Bad picture, yes. And, I got a little scolded for flash photography during play. I should have known better.

Madeline playing soccer.

That's all for now!

Julie

Bad Blogger!!!

Oh man, I am such a bad blogger these days. Truth be told though, we have been extremely busy. Like busier than we ever have I think. 5 kids on 4 separate sports teams is a little nuts. Not to mention the constant drive to get the barn/stalls/home projects done. Every minute we are not at a game we are working on the house. Really, I am not complaining. Usually busy is A-OK with me.
Maybe not THIS busy, but it is all really blessing. I enjoy watching the kids play sports and I also enjoy working with my hands and getting projects done around here.

Madeline had an MRI this past Wednesday and she was just precious. They ended up not having to sedate her. Yeah! We explained everything to her as thouroughly as we could. She was just quietly compliant the entire time. We kept telling her she had to be very still and she was, like a statue. They only had to retake one picture and that was because she was breathing so heavy at first because she was scared. She still never moved. I was soooooo proud of my girl! We have no results yet, but we pray that everything is ok.

A major time sapper in our lives right now is our search for the perfect horses. We are hoping to get two. This is huge for us. We have always wanted horses, but have never had a place for them until now. It is really exciting. We have a really darling friend who is a horse trainer and is helping us. She is doing great. We are being very picky because the horses need to be dead broke for kids, but still spunky enough for Leah (and maybe Logan) to show. Long story shorter.... Here is the horse we have bought for "me." (Really though any horse we get will be for everyone to ride)




Isn't she darling???? I love her. We have not brought her home yet because there's a pending issue with another horse we may get from the same owner. Her name is Sophie.

Well, that is all for now. Both older kids just went to bed and Ryan is pretending he is awake on the couch. I think I will take this opportunity to hit the bed early. I was up at 5:45 this morning and my bed sounds so nice right now. Man, I am such an old woman.....

(FYI, Ryan is now snoring)

Julie

Camping this weekend.

We went up to the lake this weekend to camp. It was a great time with the family and the weather was beautiful. Madeline fell yesterday though and that turned things around a bit for me though. She fell off her bike and didn't seem too hurt, but she was crying hard. Her crying hard turned into only wanting to cuddle on my lap and then she just wanted to sleep. That was extremely odd for her. We were there with her best buds/cousins and not wanting to play was not like her at all. She was also complaining that she couldn't see. We determined that she could see, just not real well. We assumed at that point that she had a concussion. That was further confirmed when she started throwing up. We took her to the ER and long story short, she did have a concussion, but a CAT scan confirmed there were no bleeds/fractures. I have never in my life seen Madeline like she was yesterday. She was dead asleep, even through the CAT scan. She ended up throwing up a total of 5 times and slept most of the afternoon into the evening. She did end up perking up later last night around the campfire which was good to see. Today she is acting much better.

To our surprise, the CAT scan revealed a secondary finding. Apparently Madeline has a cyst in the right ventricle of her brain. Very scary sounding. The ER doctor says they see this occasionally and they feel it is nothing to worry about, but they want her to do a repeat CAT scan in 6 months to see if it has grown. To be honest, I am just trying not to think about it. It scares me.

For some reason this fall and ER trip affected me more than maybe it should have. Our children are just so precious to us, but Ryan reminded me in the ER that our children are not "our" children, they are God's. I know this, really I do, but to be honest, I think I need to daily give my kids back to God. I know they are his, but I think I pull them so close sometimes that I like to think I am in control. I cannot fathom loosing one of them. God willing I will never have to worry about that.

Julie

Plane Crash update.....

Well unfortunately we indirectly knew the man who passed in the plane crash today. He is the brother of the man Ryan has been working a second job for. He is a good guy and he taught Logan everything he needed to know this year about his 4H beef feeder. Their family just lost their father a few years back and now this. I have been praying for them all day and I just feel really bad for them......

Aww, stink. A plane went down.

About an hour ago I was up in our attic messing with some tubs and I heard a plane sound like it was really low. It also sounded a little off. I thought it was wierd and almost came down from the attic to our garage to check it out. I didn't though because I am lazy and planes fly low around here a lot dusting crops. About 5 minutes later I came down and my SIL Emily was stopping by to get some eggs. She said, "did you see that fire over in the corn field?" I could see the smoke clearly from our house and I could smell the smoke also. I said "I wonder if a plane went down." Emily said her grandma had heard the plane also (we all live within a couple country blocks of one another). I drove over to the spot and it ended up being right across the road from our good friends' mom's house. You couldn't really see any smoke anymore, but the fire truck and squad were there. My good friend just happened to be at her mom's house at the time (picking up a few things) and was leaving. She said her mom always walks this road at this time and probably saw what had happened. As I left a sheriff pulled up and my friends mom was telling all she saw. Ryan called me and confirm that WHIO was reporting a plane going down near West Liberty. This is so very sad. I cannot imagine that anyone lived through that, and no med flight kind of confirms that. I pray it is no one we know......

Julie

Nope, not dropped off the face of the earth.

I like to try and keep up with the blog better, but we have been extremely busy lately. School has started along with 5 kids on 4 different teams. Plus the garden needs harvested and processed daily it seems. Oh and we are working very hard to put stalls in our barn for our horse we are hoping to get soon. (Yeah!)

I wont lie, having the two oldest in school has been a big adjustment for me. Them too, but I think especially me. I know that most people reading this blog wont understand this, but I have gotten used to being with my kids 24/7 (except for Leah last year of course). I like it that way. Multiple people, just making small talk, ask if I am ready for the kids to be back in school. I answer honestly and say, "no, I miss them." It is like someone all of sudden said "sorry, you only get to be with your kids for half as much time as you use to." Most people slowly lose time with their kids. It starts when they are 4 with preschool. I know, I am totally pathetic. It is getting easier though. Hey, I already get them home for the next 4 days!

Besides adjusting, life is good. My three 5 year olds are suppose to start school next week. However, we may bump it a week. They are excited about it. I have their curriculum, but I haven't done lesson plans yet or anything and I need to get in my attic to get some manipulatives from years gone by. Maddie will be starting 1st and Anna and Gee are starting Kindergarten. We were going to wait until next year to start get and then they would all be staggard, but Ryan wants me to try Kindergarten with him. I have no doubt he has the brains, he just doesn't seem to have the focus yet. Time will tell I guess.

Well, I have some pics to add for next time. Garden and barn stuff mostly.....

Later,

Julie

Trying not to cry........

Logie is gone.....

So I whine when Leah is gone, so it is only right that you here my whine when Logan is gone. Well, really I miss him a TON. He went to Vineyard camp ALL BY HIMSELF. I am so proud of him and I am sure he is having a great time, but man, this is by far the longest he has ever been gone. Our home is certainly not the same without him here. Having him gone and knowing that in a week and a half he and Leah will be gone all day, well it is about more than this sappy mama can handle. I like being with my kids. I have gotten accustomed to being with them 24/7. I prefer it that way. But alas, life is every changing and life this year takes Leah and Logan to West Liberty. I recognize that this is something that a wide majority of people have dealt with since their kids were 5, but I haven't and it is a very difficult switch.

So last night Ryan and I ended up going to the beef steer show at our county fair. It was pretty cool. Leah watched the kiddos for us. I am starting to love when Leah sits for us. I come home to a clean house and pretty happy kids. Last night I came home to some amazing artwork. She even wrote on the sheet what each kids said the picture was about. Priceless.

Here are some close ups:






The whole thing, on our bedroom wall:



This picture makes me scratch my head. Anna obviously got a hold of my camera at some point. I think this is taken in the chicken "barn" at the fair. Gotta watch that girl.

Our fair booth won first place out of all the booths. We worked hard on this and our win was pretty impressive considering all the booths there. Here are some close ups of Leah and Logan's stuff:

The whole booth:

Until next time,

Julie

Just some recent pics and fair updates....

Well, we are back home after a long 4 days at the fair. It really was fun and a good learning experience, but it was also very hot and busy. Thank goodness my super cool neice and nephews helped us out with the younger kiddos.

Logan's beef feeder ended up being probably the most trying thing of the weekend. We are just so new to the whole "beef world" and the learning curve is quite large. Let's just say we ended up being a little fish in a big pond, but that is ok because Logan did great and we were soooo proud of him. His calf, Samson, still has a future as a nice looking steer next year, he just needs to "beef" up a bit. :)

Leah placed 3rd in her class and 3rd in her skillathon. The judge said she had the nicest silkies there. Leah has really enjoyed her silkies and is thinking she will breed her own next year. That would be lots of fun I think.

Right now my garden is dripping with beans and needs some attention, which it will hopefully get tomorrow. Also the storm that blew through yesterday (and forced Ryan and I to run for shelter in the fair grandstand with all 6 kids plus 1) knocked over some plants. They need staked. My tomatoes are super top heavy anyways.....

Lately I have been dehydrating everything I can get my hands on. Bananas and apples are my favorite. How pretty is this?

This is from a week or so ago. Gee opening presents for his birthday, with a little help of course. That's ok, it was Katelyn's birthday too!

At the West Liberty park with my Aunt Donna and the cousins. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate Gee's birthday.

How cute is this picture!

Mommy and Gee on his birthday at the David Crowder Concert.

Leah doing her interview at the Ohio State Fair.

Later!

Julie