while we were out...

... (as in "away from the computer" kind of out), we had a good weekend. saturday kelvin had to work, so i packed up the kids and went to mom and dad's . my first time taking the kids out for more than an hour by myself... it got off to a questionable start; i thought i had everything and was quite pleased with myself for getting everything plus both kids packed into the van without any major incidents. then i backed out of the driveway, only to pull back in again (several times) for things i realized i'd forgotten. i can't stand forgetting things- it's one of my pet peeves, since it makes things more hectic! then we stopped to get gas at the shell station, because the bp only takes debit cards inside. for some reason, the message on my gas pump said "see cashier inside" when i swiped my card... no way was i about to get both kids out of the van and inside just so they could swipe my card again. ha- not happening!! so, we went to the bear creek citgo, where thank goodness i had no problems. sorry, but i don't see the reasoning of having a pay-at-the-pump station when half of them require that you mosey on in anyway. not with two very small kids.anyway, when we got to mom and dad's the guys were getting ready to go snowmobiling, and uncle dale and aunt mary were there with little gus. wow, has he grown!! cole was a bit scared of gus at first, but eventually warmed up and even shouted "GU!!" when he and great-auntie mary played fetch with gus.

auntie sarah and madison got a little quiet time on the floor after cole went down for his nap...

...and this is what miss madison was wearing! it's been hanging in the kids' closet for a few weeks (we got it shortly before she was born) and i've been anxious to put it on her!

what do you get when you add auntie sarah's shoes to grandma's utensil drawer?? see above.

also in the utensil drawer- a fun cord to play with grandpa with!! again, it amazes me what little kids can have a blast with...something as simple as a power cord with grandpa at one end!!

i had to catch the classic "watching daddy shave" moment... i think that this is the first time cole's ever watched kelvin shave. he was a bit intrigued; someday, he'll get to play with shaving cream too! but not on sunday morning... too much mess!

"daddy's funny!"

cole has a nasty habit of screeching at the top of his lungs when he's mad or frustrated... he's been doing it since we were in arizona. so much for outgrowing it! a phase, my eye. anyway, we've tried about everything to get him to stop doing it, including screeching back at him in hopes that he'll realize how irritating it is. now we're doing time-outs. so this morning, cole was upset that i wouldn't let him play with the baby, so he screeched. i told him that we don't scream in the house and that next time he screamed he'd be getting a time-out. apparently he gets that part of it, because he went straight to the table, pulled a chair w-a-y out and tried to sit on it. smarty!

aww, how can i resist this little face?!

mr cole has fallen into the big brother roll quite nicely and has very recently been incredibly affectionate. there's nothing sweeter than his chubby little arms reaching around my neck or his sweet little hand on my face, pulling me in for a kiss. such a romantic little man!