this week's rave

alrighty, so i've never done a weekly rave.

i don't get out enough to find anything to rave about.

(that was kind of a joke...)

*~*

some of you know of our sort-of-new endeavor in color-free foods.

that's right folks: everything's stark white!

kidding.

seriously, though... cole has benefited quite a bit from avoiding artificial colors; there've been some pleasantly positive changes in our spirited little man.

in going the color-free route, i've run into a few challenges. for example, so many commercially produced kid-friendly things have added colors, so i'm always reading labels and hesitantly trying new this or that. sometimes we get a good "this", sometimes "that" isn't going to be a new favorite any time soon.

today, we've discovered what just may become a household staple: mac and cheese!

huh?

yeah, but it's not just ANY mac and cheese. it's nash brothers trading company shells and cheese. natural. no bad colors that would prevent cole from eating it.

normally, i wouldn't be quite so excited about a meal from a box, but here's the thing: obviously, we can't feed the kids kraft because of the color, and we've used annie's organic pasta and cheese, but annie's is kinda pricey. and to be honest, i personally didn't care for it all that much. it's healthier than kraft, generic and what-have-you, but it was a bit bland for my taste. a little dry, too, when re-heated. it was the better choice for our kids, so i tolerated it.

but nash brothers?

creamy, flavorful AND healthier. not to mention a mere 10 cents more than kraft. yup! GOOD mac and cheese for well under $2/box.

see why i rave?

you can't see it, but i'm smiling quite widely over this... :)

the last two weeks, in photos!

a little advanced notice... if you could care less about photos, this post probably isn't for you.

because there are lots.

i had a really hard time picking out my favorites to highlight the past 14 days...

*

i'll start with thursday, the 8th. mom came over to sit with the kids while i took some real estated photos. the original plan was for her to watch the kids while i boxed up some stuff and made the house "showcase quality" for our realtor's annual tour of homes.

(hear me snicker when i say showcase? that's because we have an old house, not enough money or time to make it perfect and hello: two toddlers!!)

before supper, the kids got to read books with grandma- always a highlight!

miss madison got braver on the stairs- still no climbing, though!
she can master the three stairs between the levels at mom and dad's house, though.

friday night we went to my parents'. the original plan was to stay overnight and be there on saturday morning when elissa, logan and the boys were awake (they were supposed to get in late friday night). however, we ended up going home for the night because little coy had tossed his cookies several times somewhere in minnesota, so i thought it might be better to go home for the night. but the kids had fun playing with "gah-pah", and i got a chance to try out my new flash.
trial and error, baby... trial and error!
:)

grandpa DID impress the kids with his headstand, though!

in the morning, we came back to mom and dad's... after a very late night and a little sleeping in, coy seemed fine, so we went to see them. the kids were a bit tentative at first, but it wasn't anything a little big bouncy-ball rolling and some coloring couldn't take care of!

madison loves her cousin bentley... the fact that he was in the swing made it even more fun.

a baby AND a nifty swing!
she did her part as a tiny mama and pushed the swing for bentley.

*

elissa and i took a walk in the afternoon with the smaller babies; we got to get in some fresh air, exercise and sister-to-sister bonding time. madison and bentley seemed to enjoy it too.

see? totally doting on her baby cousin!

madi and her auntie elissa.

(there was an outburst of frantic tears mere seconds after this was snapped; she's still not into being held by people she's not frequently around.)

on the swing in the barn

we sisters tend to get a bit nostalgic when we're all up at the farm; it's where we grew up, after all, and being together gets us remembering the days when we didn't have a care in the world.

so, for old-time's sake, we had to take a few turns on the swing.

thanks, elissa, for manning the camera!

so with all this bonding going on, i had to do a little of my own, with my newest nephew.

he's got THE sweetest giggle!

while the boys ran off steam in the yard, madi drooled on the concrete.

and shredded a pinecone.

what a life, huh?

cole and the new "motorcycle"

(fortunately, this is a toy that stays at grandma and grandpa's...)

on monday, mariah came to our house to do a photo shoot with madison.

check out her work at baseman studios!!

cole had fun hanging clothespins from the curtain on the porch door- he had to be JUST like mariah.

the kids spent wednesday night at grandma ruby and grandpa dan's... and auntie kandace was there!

(it's pretty silly, but elissa called wednesday and said that she was sick, just like coy had been, so i got really nervous because we'd spent saturday, sunday and part of monday with her and the boys. every time i even hear or read of someone getting a tummy bug, i feel icky too; if i've been around the person in question, well, i'm as good as done. my worst thing is tummy bugs. so, i started feeling pukey, called the in-law's, they happily took the kids, and i waited, gagged and worried over nothing. thank goodness. poor elissa... at least it went quickly!)

cole got to sit on his daddy's four-wheeler. he even got a ride on it, thanks to grandpa dan!

he proudly told daddy all about it the next time he talked to him.

friday (the 16th) found us back at mom and dad's for supper.

one of the girls that dad used to work with (while he was at the state farmer) wanted to see us all while elissa and logan were here.

her name is sara. without an "h".

(sorry, shorty... hope you don't mind!)

it was quite fun to chat, play with the kids, chat some more...

... even madi warmed up a little!

(i have to giggle every time i see this photo of her- it's cute)

coy, cole and uncle logan put together some tracks.

this evening, watching me upload photos, cole said "coy! logan! roads!!"

remember how much madi loved bentley?

well, cole loves him too. he calls him "blen-tee".

i've never seen him so gentle and sweet with another baby before- he was SO careful with him!

the cool dudes on saturday...

coy trying to fill his grandpa's shoes.

you've got a little growing to do there, my man!

kristian and cole racing down the barn hill

there was a mini reunion at the farm saturday; grandpa and grandma pheifer were there, as well as aunt mary and uncle dale, ted, sarah, stephen, kristian and erin, and naomi.

it was a blast, i should say!

grandma krisher and her newest great-grandson...

... and four generations!

cole was no longer happy just sitting next to his "blen-tee".

he had to hold him.

and once again, he was so very good!

little coy, on our walk to the lake

playing by the water with gah-mah.

(yes, i was standing in the water to get this. and yes, it was cold. and no, i didn't learn my lesson, because i waded back out there to attempt logan and elissa's family photos. which i will post a sample of, after they see them and allow me to share.)

coy and grandpa...

*

yes, it was a busy week, filled with photos, fun, and bugs. the bugs weren't fun, just to clarify. almost everyone who was at the farm on saturday got the tummy bug; so far (and i knock on wood!!), the kids and i have been ok. we've been taking colloidal silver and germ-ex'ing like fiends. ok, so i'm the fiend and the kids are at my mercy, but hey- so far, so good! it's been 4 days since we were around anyone, so i'm pretty sure we'd have gotten it by now. even dr h said that it almost always comes on within 48 hours. i'm crossing my fingers that we're lucky...

anyway.

madison's 15-month appointment and vaccinations were yesterday. she weighed in at 17 lbs. a gain of 7 ounces in two months was definitely not enough to satisfy dr h OR us. oh, and she's 29.5 inches (20th percentile). but she's strong and on track with everything else, so that's good. our tiny peanut- i think she really surprised dr h.... he obviously wasn't expecting her to be as strong as she is. not sure where she gets it, but that girl is powerful. she can definitely hold her own, especially when it comes to toddler spats with her brother. she had him by the shirt recently, taking him down to the floor in a disagreement over a toy. cole was fighting back, but not really getting anywhere.

just call her "muscles"!

little boys...

...are sweet,adorable,

full of adventure,

and oh-so-cuddly!!

madison and bentley got along fabulously in auntie elissa's new jogging stroller...

have you ever seen two sweeter sleeping babies?

~*~

this is just a preview of the past week... once again, i took far too many photos (well, elissa snapped a few too- thanks, sasa!). over 500, to be exact.

yikes.

anyway, we had a great time with elissa, logan, coy and bentley, and we miss them already!!

love you guys!

it's "blog post" day...

yup, that's what's happening today. i SHOULD be getting stuff hidden away and all for the "open house" this weekend. my lovely offspring have decided that i can't do that today. i mean, i'm lucky i even got a shower in...

must be a case of the gray-day crabbies.

at least they've let me blog. i even posted new things here!

this was monday. cole was in a tower-building mood.

hahahaha! reminds me of one of the three stooges... only smaller. and cuter.
(the first time he almost fell in. all but his one big toe had left the terra firma)

this one's for daddy...

we caught it on camera!!

and what's coley smiling about?

well, he and madi were getting into mischief:

they were biting the papasan cushion.

i told him that if he didn't stop biting it, i'd have to make him a stuffing sandwich for lunch.

of course, he didn't get it, but it made him giggle.

yesterday was the day i've been waiting for for about 2 weeks now: FLASH DAY!!!

i love it... :) thank you to my wonderful husband, best friend and soul mate.

(and for the record, i still love him that much even when there's no photography toys involved)

while i tried out my new flash, cole had fun with the over-sized bubble wrap.

being that the bubbles are the size of half-dollars, they're far easier to pop than the regular bubble wrap.

it's also louder.

like gunfire.

even madi hit the deck!

(actually, in the preceding photo you can see her crying already. poor thing!)

"i'm freakin' out and you're playing with the flash?"

and then i made the mistake of showing cole how to walk on the stuff.

so he stomped it.

*

poor madison- bubble wrap yesterday, sirens the night before... actually, that's kind of a funny one. just as the kids were heading for bed (or rather, i was attempting to steer them that way), the sirens went off. we live 2 blocks from the fire house, so most often, the trucks pass our living room windows on the way out to a call. we had to watch for the firetrucks; cole was excited, pointing out the window and saying "oh-oh-oh, wow!!". madi's starting to copy the expression, and imitates barking dogs (groan!!) and sirens. she was busy making her noises and was more or less oblivious to what was happening. that is, until the first truck came flying past! since we're on the corner, they blow the horn (as a warning when they near the intersection), and between the lights, sirens and honking horn, she didn't know what to think. she was pointing, still making siren noises, but shaking like a leaf, cutting off the circulation in my arm and trying to climb over my head. it was like watching a train-wreck- her instincts were to hide but she just couldn't peel her huge round eyes away!

at least she didn't cry...