Jingle Bells!

Of course singing Jingle Bells in front of the Christmas tree ends with punching. 

Oh - sorry, I spoiled the ending.

Merry Christmas.

Merry 2012 Christmas!

Your once yearly digital Christmas card.

This year, we are fully stoked about Christmas.  Both boys helped cut down our tree, a very sharp blue spruce, helped decorate by hanging lights and ornaments and generally cannot help themselves when it comes to those odd Christmas toys that we use to decorate our house.  Christmas music has been on a constant repeat since we cut down the tree.  Ed and I are drunk on holiday cheer.

Not one ounce of Christmas spirit is lost on Jr.  He is so excited and he is nervous about getting on the Naughty List.  P.S. He is not.  He has been excellent lately.  Ed and I try to tell him constantly how proud we are of him.  We got rid of the TV in the dining room and he eats all of his dinner and visits with us about the ins and outs of Rocky Mountain Pre-School.  Below is his letter to Santa.  He later clarified that he wants clothes made of garbage.  So there is that.

On the other hand, his brother may be on the Naughty List.  He is a lovely child with a sweet voice and angelic looks that can turn on you in an instant.  He is two.  That is what they do.  He will move on, I know he will.  We just try to distract him and change the subject.  There are so many things I want to remember about him at this age though.  He tells me secrets, he pulls me close and whispers in my ear and says "Mommy, you are my best friend."  He gives the best hugs ever and isn't stingy with kisses.  He rubs my back every night and sings songs to me.  He is goofy and sings and dances for no reason whatsoever.  He has moments where he is so damn sweet, so damn cute, so lovable.  Just not during meals... 



Photo credits - the lovely Kim Moog

Photo credits - the amazing Kim Moog.

We are still mourning the end of our Florida vacation around Thanksgiving. It was an awesome trip - we were gone for 10 days. Ed and I didn't want to come back. The boys were great on the plane and loved visiting their grandparents. We went to the beach every day, played in the sand and the ocean. We went to the zoo, we went to the dock, everywhere we went, they had fun. Especially when we got to hold a little alligator. Jr. still wants a baby alligator. The boys LOVED harassing their Uncle Ock!  Grandma and Gramps, thanks for spoiling us - we miss you!



You just can't keep clothes on that kid.

On the bay!

In Everglades City.

Daddy holding Ali.

Everglades City.

Holding Ali the alligator.  She was very cool.



Feeding the giraffe.

Feeding the giraffe.



Beach baby.

Watching a man cut down a palm tree.



Turtle club!  Yum!

Monkey boat at the zoo.

We hope your holidays are merry and bright.  Love - the Colemans!

Boo!

Late on the draw, we are.  But none the less, here are some fall photos including some from Halloween.  We got the costume catalogs in early September and Jr. has been obsessing over the Captain Rex costume since then.  I was like - NO WAY - am I going to spend $50 on a costume.  He was thinking Spiderman would be a good second choice.  Well, we went to Great Falls one weekend and made it to the Halloween Costume superstore and they had the Captain Rex costume for $20.  MIRACLE! 

Graham wanted to be a "Bad Guy".  I had decided a long time before that he should be Yoda.  So we compromised on "Bad Yoda".  He was a super cute Bad Yoda. 

We went next door to the neighbors' house for a Halloween party and trick-or-treating with more kids.  Jr. had a BLAST.  They ran like crazy people from house to house barely panting out "Trick-or-Treat!" and couldn't be bothered to say "Thank You."  Oh well, someday.  We lost the kids after a few blocks and Jr. and mom decided to go it alone.  Graham wanted to stay home and watch Cars 2 with his dad.

By the time it was bath time, each of them had one piece of candy each and were exhausted.  By some amazing miracle, all of their candy save one or two pieces had dissapeared.  They didn't even care.  I have been letting them wear their costumes as much as they want.  I don't know why in the previous years, I put their costumes away.  Dummy.  Jr. absolutely LOVES to wear his Captain Rex costume.  Who is Captain Rex, you ask?  He is a Clone Trooper Captain in a cartoon spinoff of Star Wars.  Seriously people....

I borrowed Uncle Ryan's ref uni to go as Shannon Eastin for Halloween.  Daddy went as Lefty Candy Taxman.  His hand surgery prevented him from dressing up for Halloween - ever.  Ha ha.

Graham is obsessed with "Bad Guys".  Bad guys are always to blame when there is a mess or bad things happen.  Bad guys come to our house all of the time and rip up paper, draw on the floor and pull all of the books off of the shelves.  Graham has his own way of dealing with bad guys.  It sounds terribly serious...

Graham got moved into a big boy bed much sooner than his brother did.  He is doing very well.  I layed down the law with him right away, no getting out of bed, just yell for us.  He stayed in bed all night and all nap.  He is such a big boy.  I miss rocking him to sleep though.  Now we snuggle in his Cars 2 bed and he plays with my earrings or hair and he slowly dozes off - and sometimes I do too.  I don't exactally fit into a Cars 2 bed comfortably, but I manage.

Oh yes, and then there is the obesession with Cars 2.  Graham actually threw a hissy when I wouldn't let him watch NASCAR the other day - yelling "Mommy!  Cars 2!!!"  I turned off the TV telling him - "not in my house little boy.  Not in my house."  Ed and I are missing the days of Elmo or George.  Mater is pure madness.

Jr. is kicking so much butt at Rocky Mountain pre-school.  He has some emotional days learning how to navigate "best friends" and cliques, but he has a couple of good buddies that are just as wild and big as he is.  He is very wild and has a ton of energy.  The only thing that sucks the energy out of him is going outside.  Now that we are under 2 feet of snow, going outside is hard work dressing him in his 700 layers, but he loves it in the snow.  I have the garage almost all cleaned out so he can ride his bike in there this winter.  He is crazy athletic.  One week he could only do three of the monkey bars and then the next week, he could do the whole set.  It is awesome to see him turn into such a strong smart big boy.  He is so tall too.  He is all legs and, well, giant head.  Poor kid - he never had a chance.

Holy Cow

It has been a very long time.  I think about this blog a lot and then the time I have at night to put key stroke to screen vanishes into thin air. 

Garden gnomes.

Life around here in the summer is nutty.  I work long hours and we try to maximize fun in the off hours.  We love to get these two to smile and play nice together.  The four year old is so cool lately.  He loves his pre-school we bask in his intelligence.  He has some sweet buddies and is quickly becoming the king of the school.  The two year old has a couple of good buddies and is pretty jolly.  Add them together and let the fighting commence.  Sibling rivalry is alive and well in the Coleman house.  Just when Ed and I think we are going to go crazy, they play so nicely together, so quietly. 



Jr. and his dragon carrots.

Graham and the tomato harvest.



Graham's first day at Jr.'s pre-school.

September was marked by the passing of my grandmother, Jeri.  I was gone working on a fire near Bozeman when I got the call that her liver was failing.  They gave her 2 weeks to 2 months to live.  All of the family was assembling in Chinook to wish her well on her journey.  Jr. and I busted a move to get up there just in time to see her hours before she passed.  It was easily the most surreal and intense experience of my life.  Jr. was great, he rolled with all of the activity and fully understood the gravity of the situation.  I was so grateful to get to see her one more time and wish I could have talked to her while she was still lucid. 



I miss my grandmother so much.

I came home, picked up Ed and Graham and headed back to Chinook for her funeral.  Everyone was there, all of my cousins minus a couple and we had wonderful celebration of her life.  We decided to stay a few more days to hang out with my poor grandfather.  The boys had a blast.  We were a little bit nervous about rattle snakes nearby, but the boys got to do all of the fun things we got to do as kids.  They love it there and were sure pick me ups for my aunts and my dad and stepmom.  Even my grandfather described their sweet voices (?!?!?) as music to his ears.  Ed worked for my uncle Scott on the Ranch.  We attended a homecoming volleyball game and watched as the Chinook Sugarbeeters beat the Centerville Miners in a Friday night game of 8 man football.  It was so fun to watch my cousin Courtney and Gavin play sports.  We are excited to head back soon.




The boys at my grandmother's funeral.

Dancing outside of the funeral.

Ed and I after the funeral.

Baby on the 4-wheeler.

Big boys on the four-wheeler.

Papa Bill up on the prairie.

Jr. shooting at cans with a bb-gun.  Both he and Graham knocked the can over (with mom's help...)

Jr. with his shooting eye protection.

The boys and my cousin Gavin.

Ed driving the tractor.

Spiderman and Batman.

The boys with Grandpa.

We came home in time to celebrate Ed and my birthdays! Ed and I got to go to dinner for his birthday with some friends. Then my mom came to town this last weekend to watch the boys while we went to camp and hot spring in Norris. We were tickled pink to camp just the two of us - well, plus my cousins and Cissie - but still, no boys. Don't get me wrong, we missed them, but this was the first time EVER we have had a night to ourselves without either child since Jr. was born. We may have gone a little crazy... Happy Birthday to us!