this, that and the other thing

blogging has sort of taken a back seat to the rest of life, lately... between spending time with the kids, making hats, going to biolife twice a week, other random happenings and now a new job, it's kind of been pushed to the side. my dear, sweet husband pointed that out... :)

so, once again, this is a catch-up post!

cole found a new use for the exersaucer. you should see him when he stands up to walk away- talk about loopy!!

now that madison's doing more (like, walking while holding onto our fingers) he's starting to show a bit of jealousy. lately he's been mimicking her when she cries or babbles- perfectly normal, but i've started reacting to him the same way i react to madi just so he doesn't feel left out. it won't be long and he'll tire of being "babied", i'm sure!

daddy and madi playing tug-o-war with madi's paci!
within the past two weeks, madi's new thing has been 'sharing' her paci with us. she does it quite forcefully, but she's SO proud of herself when she succeeds at popping in into our mouths.

kelvin got some photos of me and the kids- just spontaneous snapshots. cole was NOT in the mood for it, unfortunately....

... but madi was! she's almost always game for being in front of the camera. she really knows how to work it!

monday evening there was a small dinner at mom and dad's for sarah- she, mom and dad are on the way out to montana right this minute. for those who don't know, sarah's moving out there and is staying with elissa and logan for a little while, getting her residency and then going to school. that's the plan, anyway... so monday evening was in her honor!

the kids and i got there before lunch so we could spend a little extra time with her.

what better way to spend a few last hours with auntie sarah than going for 'rides' in the laundry basket?

madi wasn't left out- she was in something a bit more size-appropriate: a plastic storage container. she didn't quite get the concept of playing in laundry baskets (or storage containers) so she mostly fussed. we tried.

she did enjoy a little quality time with uncle "tid", though!

(*that's how cole says it... and on a cute side note, every time we go past the billboard with a one-legged runner on it by bear creek corners, he yells "TID"!!!)

love it!

cole had fun playing with his cousins... he's still getting the hang of playing with others. he's not quite old enough for organized activity but he's outgrown the whole "do-you-own-thing" thing. sorry, kristian! you put up with cole really well- gold star for you!!

the "girls' night" girls

poor cole was trying so very hard to blow out the candle that wasn't on sarah's cake.

maybe he thought if he blew hard enough, it would magically appear.

who knows.

goofy-cute!

while it's SO hard to say goodbye to sarah, i know that this is her adventure. this is a good thing... and she'll do well. miss her like crazy already!

cole had some fun with his bath crayons from auntie elissa, uncle logan and cousin coy. i know- he got them for his birthday and didn't use them till today. that's my fault... i was dreading the clean-up. it wasn't as bad as i thought, but it definitely won't be a sunday morning ritual. he had a blast: "bath! colors!!"

yesterday was my first training day at the brick oven. i LOVE it!! i never though making pizza could be so much fun; since it's carry out/delivery only, there's no dining room or customer dishes to worry about. i've already done the waitressing thing and didn't care for it at all, so this is really nice. i had a flashback to a recent home-made pizza episode in our own small kitchen: i was making pizza dough (from a jiffy mix- good stuff, by the way) and cole was watching me try to get the dough off my hands so i could knead it. he stood and watched, his little face one big question mark, then finally said dramatically; "siiiiiick!". i think i fell over laughing! anyway, daddy and the kids did just fine without mommy home to hold down the fort- everyone ate well at supper, went to bed well, etc.! it makes me feel a little less guilty about missing out on the routine that i've been a part of for the last 26 months. i discovered today, though, that my patience was in slightly greater supply, so maybe the "break" is good. i'll miss them on nights that i work, but i can rest easy knowing that they're at home with daddy.

oh- there is one bad thing: the photos on our old harddrives? well, they're most likely gone forever. a HUGE thank you to stephen for trying hard... if you don't get them, it's ok! maybe i'm being a big baby about it, but i've cried over the thought of never getting them back. if they weren't of the kids, it wouldn't matter much... an entire summer (including sarah's graduation, first parades for both kids, several 'firsts' for madi, fishing with kelvin's family, cole's second birthday party and many other things) is probably gone. that's a hard one to deal with... but i guess it could be worse. at least i've still got the kids :)