Winter at the Coles

We are cold here. It is lovely, a lovely change. The kids went wild to see real icicles hanging of our roof.
Mark likes to use our fireplaces as much as possible to heat the house. A good spot for QT.
We still made it to our regular playdate at the Nixon's house. The boys played chess, the girls did as they always do - dress up!

Weekend in Waco

This weeknd we went to Waco to visit friends. The kids loved spending time with Mr. & Mrrs. Roberts. Mark and Matthew went with some of Mark's old college buddies to a basketball game after we had a blast at the children's section of the Mayborn Museum.

Dress Up time

Annie Rose

Annie is keeping up with the big kids. She is in that crawling, dirty hands & knees, put everything in her mouth stage. She is putting more weight on her legs now, so perhaps walking won't be too far away. Her 2 buddies Belle and Hope are both walking!

Matthew

My big, strong boy. I am so proud to be his momma, as he calls me.

Dancing princess

Lily loves to dance. She is always moving and singing and dancing. She loves the musicals Cats, Sound of Music and Starlight Express and can sing along to all of them. What fun having little girls.

Another dancing princess

Laura has taken to dancing everywhere, just like Lily. We do family worship after dinner and when we sing the doxology she runs around with her arms out. We are thinking perhaps she will be a charismatic :)

Back to School

We had a pretty succesful start to the homeschool year. Mark and I had a big planning session on Sunday thanks to the Michelsens for taking our kids home after church. Lily is doing really well in her Veritas Press Phonics Museum. She does Math U
See, Bible, copybook, Latin songs, art and gmnastics also.



Here I am with my cross Mommy look.
Even Laura gets some school done. I am concentrating on her learning her letters. She knows all her shapes, colors, numbers, matching things, animals etc... she can sing the ABC song, but now will be learning to recognize them. Lots of flash cards and reading aloud.

Matthew is going to continue to do the 3rd Grade work he has been doing, but we are adding in Veritas Press history this term (Last term her read 'A Child's history of the World on his own and wrote a summary and did an illustration per chapter). I will sit down with him and do history - it is Rome, should be interesting. He does Latin and Greek with Mark. He does literature, math, spelling, film review and chess himself. He does Bible, Latin songs, art and copybook with Lily. And of course he has Karate and Gymnastics. And he does 'Men of Valor', like boy scouts, which is organized by some teens in church. Phew!

A few days in Tulsa

We went to see Mark's family in Tulsa after Christmas. It was fun. This is Grandma Marcia with my 4 and cousins Everly and Delaney.
That is Mark and his dad.

We had fun, we stayed at Mark's brothers house and we played tons of games. I didn't get photos of his sister (sorry Dedi!).

At Grandma Marcia's house Lily and cousins Delaney & Everly deorated a cake for Uncle Clyde's birthday.

We went to a fun park and rode some rides.

We played with cousin Taylor.

We ate their food.

We did crafts.
We lounged.

Matthew beat everyone at chess!

Christmas at the Coles

Christmas at the Coles passed with lots of presents and fun. We started with a waffle breakfast, pretty much the one we have every Saturday where the girls help dad make waffles and sausage. They we had our family worship time, which we do after every meal together at home, remembering that Christ is center of ALL.

Of course present opening time followed. We love seeing our kids enjoying their gifts, the ones we gave and the wonderful presents from family. Matthew got his bigger bike, here the girls are in the princess costumes that uncle Andrew sent, they are perfect.

We had to have a break from present opening at one point, so we went for a family walk. After watching some of the Sound of Music DVD, which we bought for Lily (the girl loves musicals), while Mark cooked a roast and garlic mashed potatoes, we went to our friends house for dinner. Three familes were there and we had turkey, ham and roast... no veggies here! It was as wonderful time.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to all our friends and family. To anyone wondering where the Cole Christmas card is this year.... well, ummm... I never got around to it! I may do and New Years card.... but then again....

They could only be sisters

Tired after a Christmas party last Saturday I couldn't resist taking this picture.

Christmas is coming!

Look who is hiding behind the presents. Last night I wrapped all the kids gifts and let them join the gifts from relatives under the tree. My girls decided to play house behind them. In order that they actually get to enjoy their presents we let them pick and open a gift a night until Christmas. We have found that doing this means some stuff that could get upstaged and forgotten on Christmas day can be fully enjoyed for at least one night. On Christmas Eve we let them open their stockings. What fun!

The Nutcracker

This year Mark took Lily to the Nutcracker Ballet. They had a nice lunch together and bought a Nutcracker doll and even got to go on stage afterwards and to meet the cast. She loves the Ballet and the music. Next year Laura will get to go also.

Fun in a Hammock

Our good friends the Fryes gave us a hammock on Thanksgiving. We have been having so much fun on it!
The kids and I have been lounging out on it after school. We pretend that we are on a ship and have to fight off various baddies, Lily of course is the ship cat who eats the rats. And I thought hammocks were for relaxation :)

Some recent pics of us in our back yard.

Me and my youngest

I have the same shot taken 2 years ago with Lily and Laura in these outfits, now it is Annie's turn.

Civil War Reenactment

We went to a Civil War Reenactment this weekend near by our house. It was fun seeing the folks in costume in their camps. The girls made friends with some 'locals'.

I didn't get to see much of the 'war' as Laura didn't like the sound of the guns!