Warrior 1

Cole did some yoga with me this afternoon and I had to get a picture of him in Warrior 1 pose. Not bad! He didn't let me finish, but I got a half hour in.

Merry Christmas to All!

We were invited to our friend's house for Christmas Eve. It was lovely! Cole was very tired by the time we got home from church. I didn't know my iPhone had a flash on it, but I loved getting a picture of him sleeping on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Catching Up!

 I realized while speaking with my in-laws tonight that we left out a few recent events from the blog!  This past Friday night we went with our friends, Cary and Lisa Keen, and their two girls to Ollie's.  It is a restaurant not known for it's food, but for it's wonderful decor of model trains of several gauges.  Needless to say, Cole was totally thrilled.  He was dancing while eating his gourmet corn dog (perhaps a video to come later)!

 

A few weeks ago I was doing something in the kitchen and idly thought about the refrigerator boxes my father used to bring home when I was a child and my brother and I would make forts out of them and play in them for hours.  So, I thought to call Lowes and they ended up calling back about a week later and had held this box for us!  Cole loves it!

 

Cole running the slot racers at Bass Pro Shops earlier in December.  We went in hopes that Santa would be there, but he didn't start coming in the morning until the next weekday...ugh.  It was still fun!

 Cole loves trains.  Can you tell?

 And he loves fish.  Bass Pro is wonderful for both of his loves combined during Christmas!

 Lunch with a dear friend.  She got a picture of us afterward.

Cole's friend, Heidi.  He loves this girl!  And why wouldn't he?  She is delightful!

 Making cut out cookies.

 Getting a little carried away with the sprinkles.

 Yum!

I thought it was cool how the sun was only on his face.  This was our next attempt at Bass Pro Shops Santa and it was successful!

He liked the talking reindeer that had previously scared him.

Loving Santa!  At first he was apprehensive, but he warmed up quickly.

And rattled off his 3 desired Christmas gifts.

 1. Geotrax
2. A Spotted Eagle Ray stuffed animal
3. a remote control tarantula (eek)

We got last minute tickets to another Santa event at the South County Rec Center in Glenpool, OK.  It was a western themed event.  His eyes just glowed when Santa got to him.

 Look at that smile!

Today I had the photo shootI have been wanting to have with him and Christmas lights.

 My favorite.

 In his room in the dark. Neat how they illuminated his face.

Daddy finished the table he made for Cole for Christmas.  We had been missing a coffee table since our house flooded in June.  Jonathan made a replacement that is for multi-purpose...aka trains.

 Daddy set up the track!

 

A few more picture of Ollie's (from beginning of the post).

Cole danced and ate his corn dog.  He really enjoyed it!

The Joy of Giving

This is the type of thing that is just overwhelming.  Cole came in today and said he "wanted to give some of my toys to my friends for Christmas."  He also said "because I don't want to have too many."  And he said "It is very fun to give my toys to my friends."

It is so nice that amidst some challenging times with a 4 year old we see these wonderful pieces of his personality come through.  Sweetness and generosity at a time when greed (especially around Christmas time) is so prevalent.  It makes our hearts happy that he is thinking of others in this way.

Christmas activities

 My new do/cut.  I love it!  I hope it is as easy to take care of as I think it will be:).

Us doing Christmas things.  Santa, cookies, Bass Pro Shops:).  Cole was quite in awe of the man in the big red suit this year:).

Cole Says: December 2012

Cole called candy canes "uni-canes".  Our only guess as to why he kept calling them that was because unicorns have spirals on their horns in pictures he has seen of them.  It was very cute.

Cole always says "Can we do it in a couple bit?" instead of "little bit".

Jonathan started saying "Mobee" instead of Maybe and now Cole does that a lot (especially when wanting to be cute).

He also says "for I was a little boy" or "for I get home" instead of "when I was a little boy" or "when I get home. 

He has figured out how to say the "y" in yellow, but instead of his usual lellow he instead says yewo.

A few weeks before Christmas

 Cole received a package from Jonathan's cousin's, Heather and Jessica, this week.  This was unwrapped (the wrapped ones we are waiting for him to open at a later date...maybe with them watching).  He named it "Ham".

 This ornament I wanted to make sure to get a photograph of.  For those of you who didn't know when my brother and I were very small (think maybe 4 and 1) my father nearly died right around Christmastime.  We each got these ornaments for Christmas that year and for some reason I link the ornament with a reminder of how much God blessed us by the doctor's finding what was wrong with him andn finding it out in time!  He still has a huge scar along his side, but much better than the alternative.  I am always thankful, when I look at Raggedy Ann, for two parents who love my brother and I.  These days this is a unique blessing, with divorces being so high.  But I am thankful for his life being spared.  They say every boy needs a daddy, but that is true for girls, too, certainly!

 Yesterday we made these crayons out of our broken crayons.  When Cole was a baby my cousin suggested breaking his crayons so he would hold them right.  Well, it actually resulted in him not wanting to use the imperfect ones....even as a baby!  So, we finally decided to make them in number molds for friends for Christmas and Santa will be bringing him some new crayons.

We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops today.  Cole was quite hesitant at first, but then he warmed up and told him his top two desires for Christmas...Geotrax and a remote controlled (eek) tarantula.  He has wanted one of these spiders for quite some time.  I don't understand his fascination with them!

A few from this week and cole quotes

Cole says the funniest and sweetest things. Sometimes they are profound. Yesterday he told his friend who was worried about sleeping alone in her bed "don't worry Heidi, God sleeps with you."
He also followed a little friend around the house last week who was turning on all of the lights and said "don't do that, it wastes electricity."
He is obsessed with cars lately (real ones) and especially likes corvettes, mustangs, camaros, jeep wranglers, hummer h2 and h3s, fj cruisers, and Hondas in general. In fact we took out a Honda book from the library that was a children's biography on the man who started Honda. It was actually very interesting.
He was listening to Wizards in Winter by trans Siberian orchestra the other day and I had not idea he knew what the name of the song was. All of a sudden he blurted out "mommy, where are the wizards?"
He asked me to pray over him one night when he called one of us back to his room. He asked me to pray that God would take away the pictures of pinching bugs from his mind. It was so sweet. We have prayed about things like that before, but he has never asked us to do so.
Pictures are from cole watching the train at bass pro shops and from him helping wash dishes.

Beard

Jonathan was yelling for me to come up tonight and when I did he was applying shaving cream to Cole's face.  It is so cute how he wants to be like Daddy and he was loving looking at himself in the mirror with his shaving cream on his face!

A 4 Year Old Helping Decorate a Tree

Is so funny!  Seriously, he just put them all at the bottom like a bunch of tassels.  So cute.  Until I asked him how the train was going to run with all those ornaments and he responded "oh no, will you help me move them".  Such a funny boy!

Playdate and Train Table

 

We had a fun playdate with a little friend this week and Daddy worked on his Christmas gift to Cole...a train table.  Since we lost our coffee table type piece of furniture in the flood in June, Jonathan brainstormed this table.  It is huge, but it is beautiful and we have the space for it!  We have been missing a coffee table.  The fact that it can double as a play table for Cole is awesome!  He put the first coat of stain on it today and WOW!