a typical afternoon at our house....

We had just came in from running around in the sun.

Cole was hungry so I made him.....WAFFLES!!

He loves them just as much as his mama.

In fact, he loves all breads and nothing healthy and it drives me crazy!!!!

So, this video is nearly two minutes of him eating his waffles haha.

Pretty exciting ;)

a perfect weekend

Perfect because:

*I took my friend's family pictures at the most beautiful lake I never knew existed only 20 minutes away from my house! And they all turned out pretty dang cute; I'm excited to post them...tomorrow I think :)

*I found the perfect field of blue bonnets! It's easy to get to, it's beautiful and I'm taking Cole there asap so that he can frolic through them. he he. Oh, and so I can take his picture in them ;)

*And we went to the pool for a barbeque with friends yesterday. I think Cole probably braved the water the best; it was still a bit cold. He loved it though! 

*Also, we saw much more of Steve this weekend than last weekend when he took his boards. The last couple days have been so relaxing...I wish every weekend could be like this!

the calm after the storm

First of all, thanks to Emma, Cole and I have matching jean jackets! How cute is that?! Emma got him that jean jacket for Christmas last year and he's finally been able to wear it. YAY. I think Cole will be so thrilled when he grows up to know that he got to match his mama. A boy's dream come true, for sure.

Second of all, I already mentioned on the sister's blog that Monday night was the craziest thunder storm eVeR! The thunder was so loud, I'm pretty sure it was directly over our house because it shook the walls. I don't even want to know what a tornado would be like :/ They totally scare me. What was probably craziest of all is that Cole didn't even wake up once from it! I was shocked to say the least. Surprisingly, yesterday was beautiful and calm and as Cole and I were walking out to enjoy the weather, Steve drove up coming home from school so he go to join us :) Oh and I made that little video. It's nothing special really, except for we saw a turtle which we thought was pretty cool! And you can see Cole playing in the dirt. Yep.

Some other things that have been happening around here:

*Steve finished his part 1 boards (of 5) this past weekend! Wohoo! Way to go Steve! He was pretty nervous about them but he feels like he passed so that's good! We won't find out his scores until next trimester but I'm not worried about it :)

*Steve also got another scholarship! YAY!!

*I am getting SO pumped for our trip to Utah next month :) I've already started making a list of everything we need to do and it's getting looong.

*Cole has been cracking me up lately. I will be posting about all the funny things he does soon :)

*I spotted bluebonnets the other day. Oh you know pictures of those will be coming! Texas in the spring is pretty much perfection.

what I love best

*That pink tie dye shirt on munchkin. He's worn it a bunch already. He's going to hate me when he grows up, but I think it looks so cute on him! Even Steve kind of likes it!

*Texture, depth, patterns, bokeh. I love all of it when it comes to my photography. Maybe all photographers do; I don't know. But I definitely like it :)

*That man that let me get a picture of him as he shamelessly fished by the "no fishing" sign. We had a nice little chat actually. I asked him if he's really ever caught fish and he has. And he eats them too. I know because I asked. I was curious because I'm pretty sure if I caught a fish out of that canal I wouldn't dare eat it. The color of the water has to say something about the fish, right?!? I also asked him if he's ever seen snakes and he has but he said that they don't really come around til summer. Thank goodness! Then I told him about how our stroller fell into the canal last week. He didn't really react, so who knows, maybe it really does happen all the time. He said that come summertime he wouldn't get as close to the water because the snakes will be all coiled up in the rocks! Water moccasins even! yikes. I am SO glad that our stroller didn't fall in during the summertime.

*That beautiful butterfly that amazingly just stayed in the same spot long enough for me to get close a get a picture of it. At the playground even, where kids were running around. I couldn't believe it.

*The fact that Cole can walk now and actually enjoys the playground now. He loves the slide so much. I LOVE his huge grin every time he goes down. I love that little boy :)

something else I'm crazy about

I think I've posted pictures of waffles on this blog at least three times before.

Ever since I had Cole I go crazy with waffles. I don't really know why.

And then I found caramel apple butter at Costco and it took my waffle craziness to a new level.

I think I'm addicted to sugar and it's not good :/

I posted about them on Notes She Wrote today too :)

walking

Cole is officially walking :) I feel like he learned overnight!

Last Friday he could walk decent stretches, last Wednesday he learned how to stand himself up and ever since Thrusday he's been walking like a pro. I just can't believe how fast it happened. He loves to walk! I think he feels so big time now :)

I threw these clips together where you can see him walking (and some other stuff too) from this past weekend. It was a rainy one so we were pretty much indoors the entire weekend; Steve even made Cole a little fort which he loved!

 I'm still getting a hang of filming with my new camera and using the manual focus. I will keep practicing! I hope to get better! :) Also, it wouldn't let me upload this video in HD even though it was filmed in HD? So yeah, I'm not quite sure why!

things to be happy about

 *My family. I love my boys so much.{Steve skipped out on one of his classes today to be with us for a little bit since he left before Cole woke up and had to work late tonight. He's a sweet daddy.}

*Spring. It's happening.

*It's official: We are coming to Utah at the end of April for my MOM'S GRADUATION!! Beyond excited over here!

*My new camera arrived! (the Canon t3i) A week ago, actually. And I've been completely in loooove. It makes me wonder how I ever took pictures with my other camera?! Because hello, this is quite the upgrade :)

That one time our stroller fell into the canal

Yesterday we went for a walk after Steve got home from school. Family Home Evening!!!! I'd seen from the road that the trees were blossoming down by the canals and I was dying to get some pictures of them! When we got to where I was planning on going, I was so excited! It was so pretty! I was in heaven snapping away because it was sunset too, so everything looked even better. Steve was just excited to be playing with Cole so he got him out of the stroller quickly, left it on the path and took Cole into the grass to play with him and to show him the ducks in the canal. (Cole loves those ducks:) And he FORGOT TO LOCK THE WHEELS. 

So there we were. Steve playing with Cole, sticking him in the tree. Me taking pictures; gushing about how badly I wanted to do family pictures right then and there. I love spring.

And then I heard a splash. I looked behind me and saw that our stroller had rolled down right into the canal! I started sprinting towards it while yelling "Steve! Our stroller!" Steve was further away from our sinking stroller holding Cole, so he caught up with me, handed him to me and then went after our stroller. He took off his shoes and his shirt and then jumped in...that nasty water. It was actually kind of hard to get it out since it was full of water. As Steve pushed it up and out of the canal and onto the grass, my cute peace sign flip flops which had been at the bottom of the stroller fell out. And floated away :( I loved those flip flops! But luckily my bag which had my wallet in it, did not fall out. Everything was just sopping wet. And we didn't lose Cole's cute robeez shoes either! yay!

We just laughed at ourselves. We're those crazy parents. I couldn't believe that had just happened. While Steve dried himself off with his shirt, this older couple walked by on the other side of the canal and the man yelled to us: "There are snakes in there! Don't swim in there!" I thought to myself: he must not have seen what just happened. He wasn't swimming in there for fun! So I yelled back: "Our stroller fell in!" And then a man who lived right there and had seen everything happen came out with a broom to help us get my flip flops. Pretty nice, right? (Unfortunately they were long gone.) He told us: "Oh don't worry, you aren't the first this has happened to." Seriously?! I thought. People's strollers roll into the canal all the time? Crazy.

And it was at about this time that we realized Steve's phone had been in the stroller. And now it was somewhere at the bottom of the canal. It seemed pointless to get back in and get it since his phone would probably be dead once we got it anyway. Dang. We weren't laughing as much anymore. "Let's get home," Steve said. He was still shirtless and barefoot and it was going to get dark fast.

So we walked home. We still chuckled to ourselves as we walked. Steve pushed the stroller and I held Cole since you know, the stroller was soaking wet. We were just about home when Steve turned to me and asked "Wait, do you have the keys?!" I sure didn't. They had been in the stroller with Steve's phone. And now there were also in the canal :/ We seriously didn't think of the keys til then?!? Our little family outing was turning into a disaster. We needed to figure out how to get into our house. And then how would we get into our car? I called my friend Elaine who lives at our same complex to see if we could hang out at her house while we figured everything out. (Thank you soo much!!) Steve just wanted to get inside since he wasn't wearing a shirt and it was getting dark!

We brainstormed with our friends. How much would it cost to replace our car key? It was expensive. We only had one. How long would it take? Steve had his school bags in the trunk of the car which he needed the next day. Things were falling apart fast. So Steve decided that it was probably best to just go back and see if he could find the keys! Our friends lended us their goggles, and Ryan drove Steve back to the canal. I was worried since I now knew that there were snakes in the water. And who knows what else! Did he seriously have to jump back in that yucky water? In the dark this time?

But they were back before I knew it! Steve had just felt around with his foot and he found the keys right away. His cell phone too! And a huge piece of broken glass too!! Steve saves the day again!!!!!

As we walked home Steve said: "That's it. We're going out to dinner tonight. I just saved us $200." Ha. Now we're just trying to see if leaving his cell phone in a sealed bag of rice will fix his phone or not. Fingers crossed!

It was a crazy day but it makes for a good story. And now we know: always lock the wheels.

And at least I got my pictures ;)

sick weekend

Like I said before, Cole uses our bar stools as a little jungle gym as you can see above :) I got these pics of him yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday was so fun. Steve got home early from school, we went to Costco like we always do on Friday and in the evening we hosted dessert night at our house! Super. Fun.

BUT Cole stayed up way past his bed time and as I finally put him to bed, I noticed that he was a little hot! I didn't worry too much and he went right to sleep. But then when Steve and I went to bed a little later, we checked on him and he was still pretty hot. He ended up sleeping in bed with us because I was worried about him and at 5 am he woke up crying really hard. I knew he was hurting and I thought he probably had to throw up. And I was right! Poor thing. I could tell he felt awful. He never threw up again, which I'm so grateful for and he's been able to keep food down just fine so we're not sure what he has exactly. He still has a tiny bit of a fever now. I don't know if it's food poisoning or what. I just want him to get better! I feel so bad for him :( And I've done so much laundry today. Ridiculous. AND we missed out on going to our friends house tonight since he's sick. :(

I feel like he's been sick/injured so much lately! It probably has to do with the fact that he doesn't nurse as much anymore because I'm slowly weening him (tear) and he's way mobile now.

He has started walking so much! He can go pretty far stretches now! And he LOVES it! He gets a thrill out of walking and he even did a lot of it today even though he wasn't feeling so well :) Pretty soon here that's all he'll be doing and I'll officially have a toddler! I can't believe that!

Anyway, I'm just hoping that Cole will be well enough to go to church tomorrow. I'm kind of doubting it.