Tag - borrowed from Meari

1. Where is your cell phone? In my purse where I always keep it. Afraid I will forget it when I walk out the door.
2. Your significant other? Curtis, my wonderful husband.
3. Your hair? Very dark brown with gray; time to color again.
4. Your mother? Very stubborn
5. Your father? Deceased but also very stubborn
6. Your favorite thing? My family, cross stitch and my coffee
7. Your dream last night? Didn't get much sleep between one sick child and two cranky ones so not sure that I did dream.
8. Your favorite drink? Coffee
9. Your dream/goal? To be able to have my husband stay home too.
10. The room you’re in? Living room
11. Your ex? Ex what??
12. Your fear? heights, snakes and bees
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? More money and my husband a stay-at-home Dad (while I'm a stay-at-home Mom).
14. Where were you last night? at home like always
15. What you’re not? patient - never have been and doesn't look like I ever will be.
16. Muffins? Blueberry or banana
17. One of your wish list items? to have all the children sleeping in their own beds and in their own rooms this year!!!!
18. Where you grew up? In a small town in Connecticut
19. The last thing you did? changed a diaper and made a bottle.
20. What are you wearing? Sweatpants, t-shirt and socks; I'm cold!
21. Your TV? which one?
22. Your pet? none
23. Your computer? HP desktop
24. Your life? Full of therapies for the boys and lots of fun times with all.
25. Your mood? Very groggy but happy
26. Missing someone? My dad
27 Your car? Blue Dodge Caravan
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Target or Dillard's
30. Your summer? Spent with all of the kids while they are on summer break; maybe a trip to Houston to visit family. I sure hope so!!!!!
31. Like someone? In love with my wonderful husband
32. Your favorite colour? Purple
33. When is the last time you laughed? this morning
34. Last time you cried? Sunday night; I always cry when I watch a sad movie.
35. Who will/would re-post this? I dunno, but I want to know if you do so please leave me a comment!

Cole Family Artwork

A week ago Monday, the kids were off school for President's Day, so when Ryan's O.T. came for his scheduled visit they all got to work with him for his session. Since it was raining, we couldn't go outside so she decided to try some finger painting. I have to admit I've never tried this with the kids. I know, bad Mommy! For the most part Ryan enjoyed playing in it and Katie and Marie had a ball. Logan ran up a couple of times saying, "Paint!" and then would run back off. He even stuck his finger in some purple paint and made one little swipe at the paper but wouldn't do more than that. This picture is the end result of Katie, Marie and Ryan fingerpainting that day. I believe I will have to invest in some washable paints so that the kids can do this more often. They all loved it and didn't give me that much of a fuss when they were done and heading in to a nice warm bubble bath. Why didn't I think of this before? Katie hates to get into the bath and then hates to get out. After the painting session she was almost ready for her bath and didn't fight like normal. She still didn't want to get out of the tub but I can live with that!!

I think I'm going to put this up on the wall in the playroom to show off their combined efforts at fingerpainting and add more pictures to it as they do them. I can make a finger painting wall of pictures and I know they will love looking at their beautiful artwork!

Kid Fun Time Saturday

Saturday mornings are spent cleaning up before Ryan's 10:30 S.T. session. I have to block the rest of the kids on the other side while Ryan is in therapy or they will distract him too much. This Saturday Logan and Katie were not happy with being blocked. Once Ms. Kathy left, Ryan fell asleep in my arms and I put him down for a nap. I let the others out of their "cage" so they could have the run of the house to calm them down. This made Katie and Logan very happy as they like to run up and down the hallway or ride one of the push/pull toys up and down.

Once Ryan awoke from his nap we played in the living room and some how started playing hide-n-seek. I would grab Ryan and hide under his blanket while Marie counted. It was so much fun but hard to keep him calm enough until she'd rip the blanket off our heads and he'd scream with laughter. We then had him count to 10 while we hid under a big blanket and every time he'd coming running over and say "Mommy!" and grab the blanket off while Katie and Marie giggled. Logan watched this for a little while then decided he would help Ryan or whomever was counting. Once I threw the blanket over our heads I would feel Logan grabbing at my head and he'd giggle. We even got him to get under the blanket to hide a couple of times. He was having a great time right along with the rest of them. We decided to let Mommy count while the rest of them hid and I think they enjoyed that even more. I found them the first time because I could hear Katie saying, "I want to go see Mommy" so I came around the corner and yelled "Gotcha!" They all screamed and laughed and of course I had to keep doing that until everyone got way to hyper and we had to all take a time out.

Ryan had his O.T. yesterday afternoon outside in the front yard. She brought a storage bin that was really long but not too deep and it had a ton of rice and dried beans. She had hid some small plastic animals, some shells, some loose change and some small balls. He had to sit in the bin with his socks and shoes off and search for these things and put them in little bowls. He sat there the entire session and only threw things a couple of times. He seemed to like running his hands through all the stuff and didn't mind his feet being in it either. Although, he did have his toes curled at one point like he wasn't too sure if he wanted to be in there but after that he was fine. We will be making a trip to Wal-mart for a bin that size to put our 15 lb. bag of rice in and to buy some dried beans to add as well. I know that Logan likes to run his hands through stuff like this because he has a smaller version in his classroom or did the first year. We had planned on making one of these but couldn't find a bin with a lid so we didn't complete it. Now that I see what she used I'm heading out to purchase one today (or better yet, will have Daddy pick one up on the way home!)

Pics

Katie playing while Ryan was napping

Ryan and the nasal spray

Birthday and other stuff

Ryan turned two years old this past Saturday. Poor little guy was so under the weather we didn't celebrate until Sunday. Since he wasn't the only one not feeling well, we didn't do much other than to bring out his presents and let him play. He's afraid of Tickle Me Ernie, didn't care about the Happy Birthday Diego and his Elmo Knows My Name wouldn't work. He lay in my arms and let Logan and Katie press the button every time Diego stopped singing. Logan loved the Ernie and promptly took him in the other room to play which didn't bother Ryan in the least. We will be doing something more this weekend to really celebrate his birthday now that everyone is on the mend.

I think Ryan's napping patterns are back to normal or at least they were Wednesday. After his physical therapy, he climbed into my lap and fell fast asleep, snoring loudly. I was able to lay him down on his pillows and he slept for almost two hours. What a nice break it was, even though Katie did try several times to wake him up. She was successful the last time she tried but at least he had slept for almost two hours. Yesterday we spent the day with Daddy and he slept the entire time we were in Target and a little bit of the ride after that. He even took another nap when we got home, of course, he had to be in my arms to do that but at least he slept. Katie took a tiny nap on the way home; we had a 30 minute drive and she slept for the last 15 minutes but at least she did sleep.

Last night we had a good laugh when Ryan picked up my nasal spray bottle (cap tightly shut, of course) and put it to his nose and made a sniffing sound. I've been using it because I've been so stuffed up due to the cold and allergies. Apparently the little guy has been watching Mommy this week and decided he wanted to try it too. I was in the other room tucking Katie and Marie into bed when I heard Curtis bust out laughing. I came around the corner to see him doing it and promptly grabbed the camera to get a few shots. (pictures to follow)

Gone but never forgotten

A little dedication to my Dad who may have left us on February 5, 2006 but who is never far from our thoughts and hearts.

He was friends with my grandparents before Mom brought us back from California. It took them a long time to begin dating but he'd been in my life as long as I could remember.
Before they got married, he was always there for us even though he had to support a son from his first marriage he still made sure that we had everything we needed.

Three generations of West men; Bernie, Virgil or "Pap" as I always knew him, and Gary. Later when all of us kids started families Bernie became "Pap" to all the grandkids.

One of my favorite pictures; we would always spend a day snapping green beans and any other veggie we could to can for the winter. He would get up at the crack of dawn and head out to a farm to get all the fresh produce and bring it home for canning. It seems that it always ended up that he and I would be the ones in the kitchen getting the veggies ready and then Mom would start canning them. They were always up until after midnight finishing up. Oh those green beans were soooooo good!!

In Florida a couple of years after we moved down for the warmer climate.

Mom and him at my house at Christmas one year.

This picture still shocks me; I asked him if he wanted to hold his grand daughter while feeding her and he said sure. I didn't think he would but he did hand her back as soon as she messed her diaper and said that was Mom's job to clean up. Always a smart remark that made me laugh.

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Some of his favorite lines; take a short walk off a long dock (for when we were driving him nuts) I hid some green jellybeans outside for you; why don't you go look for them (if there wasn't snow at Easter) or I hid some white jellybeans outside (when there was still snow on the ground) The always funny (to me and him at least) Go play in traffic. The classics: Here's a kiss for ya or I think someone stepped on a frog.

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The time Don tore his engine up while studying engine mechanics at the local VoTech school. He yelled and then spent the day with Don putting it all back together. Don't think Don got grounded for that one.

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The time he, mom and some friends went to the Daytona 500 in the infield to watch the race. He came home with a very irritated look on his face and said "where's the beef?!" Apparently Mom had packed everything in the cooler for the race but forgot the hamburgers and hot dogs. They had ketchup and onions on hot dog buns. That was hysterical! He laughed about it when he got home but I don't think he was too happy at the time. He NEVER let her forget about that either. I think it was one of his favorite stories to tell.

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We were moving into the house in Ormond after being in a rental for a few months (after first moving down here) and there was a HUGE palmetto bug in my dresser drawer. I thought nothing of trying to swat at it until it flew at me! I started screaming, Mom ran in to see what the problem was she swatted at it while telling me there was no reason to scream and when it jumped on her she screamed bloody murder. Bernie ran in mumbling something about damn silly woman and took care of the bug. Our hero!!

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The time I was laying outside in the back yard and my husband (at the time) was across the street visiting with him. A HUGE rat snake fell out of the tree, I ran screaming out of the house and across the street and he laughed so hard I thought he was going to wet himself when he found out why I was acting like a moron. They calmly walked over to see just how big that snake really was so they could tease me about it for years to come.

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It's still hard to deal with but if we remember the fun/funny times then we can laugh through our tears.