Cold winter fun...What a month!

What a month! Unfortunately, I have been so busy with school and class (Chris and I are taking a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class for 12 weeks), there just hasn't been much time for taking photos and blogging. There have been a few exceptions in which the Coleman "cam" came into some use and I thought I would compile them into one big blog.

Earlier this month, we were invited to Sarah's friend, Nico's 2nd birthday party. It was lots of fun hanging out with friends and watching Nico open presents.

Nico's mom Karen, bringing the birthday boy his cupcake.

The kids were anxiously awaiting their cupcakes as well. Here you see Avery, her baby brother West, Sarah, and her "best buddy" Caden.

Cohen was a little too impatient to be given a cupcake, so he took matters into his own hands. He is truly a man of action.

Nico got lots of cool presents! Most were related to planes, trains, and automobiles! A true boy's birthday dream.

Andrew, Anna, Phoebe, and Amelia also joined Nico in the celebration.
It was a fun day of hanging out with friends and getting out of the cold. And boy was this month cold!

Here is one of our minor snow events. Sarah loves playing in the snow so much! I must admit, I think it is fun as well. Having a child gives you an excuse to do lots of things I secretly miss from my own childhood.

She was mesmerized by the snow stacked on the car. We spent lots of time examining flakes and knocking them off the roof of the car.

I love to watch Sarah think. That tongue always creeps out.

Here is one of my few family photos of the month. She loves her Daddy so much, and as you can tell, the feeling is mutual.

Sarah is giving the camera one of her famous looks. She is becoming quite the comedian at age three. Just the other day she came up with one. Sarah goes to daycare at Mrs. Joan's house but all of the older kids call her "Joanie". She looks at me the other day as we are watching the nightly news and says, "Mommy, Peyton and Zoe call Mrs. Joan "Joanie" but I call her "Joan McCain". She is such a hoot!

Now for a mini-photo shoot. We have had "Wildcat Fever" since Jodie Meeks caught fire and began scoring an average of 30 points per game (with a high of 54 one night). Sarah is excited as well. Here is a cheer leading photo shoot for Mamaw and Papaw.

Go cats!





The serious, pensive pose.

Not really sure what this move was supposed to be, but it was cute.


Finally, a real photo! No goofing around.



With a cheerleader this cute, the Cats have to win!






Finally tired, Sarah decides to take a rest in Papaw's arms.

These two are so close, he is very high on her list of "Buddies". We are just glad they are able to come up and visit pretty often.

Stay tuned, the "Great Ice Storm" of 2009 photos are up next.

Better late than never...

Some random but cute moments from the holiday season. We love Maura and Julie so dearly and cannot wait for their return!


Rudolph the Red nose reindeer from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.


Rudolph (part 2) from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

PS. I now love vimeo.com (as you can tell). Putting video on the blog is so much easier!

Boys already?

Untitled from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

Ballet anyone?

As I said in the last post, Sarah has become quite fond of ballet.
The proof is below. Enjoy!


Sarah the Ballerina from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.


Untitled from Angela Coleman on Vimeo.

Totter Otterville

Over the New Year break, we spent a lot of family time just hanging out together at home. The one exception to this came just before it was time to return to school and work. We took a day trip to Cincinnati to go to the mall and to visit Totter Otterville in Covington. Chris's sister Amy told us about the place thanks to a friend of hers who lives in Grant County and takes her son there often. We have been trying for months to visit, but for one reason or another, it never happened. Finally, we were all together with nothing but time on our hands and decided to give it a shot. We are glad we did. For $7.50, all three of us got in and Sarah played to her hearts content. This place was sort of like a children's museum. It had a ball pit, slides, train tables, water activities, and conveyor belts, but it also had lots of pretend areas like living rooms, kitchens, grocery stores, ballet rooms, puppet rooms, veterinary hospital, etc. For a three year old, it was paradise! The only downer was that the outside activities (dinosaur bone digging, construction zone, and real train ride) were closed for the winter. A kid could easily spend 5 or more hours occupied in this place. Below are a few photos and video clips of the fun.

Sarah was drawn to the pet hospital first. She especially liked dressing up like a vet!


She said she felt like Diego, taking care of all the animals.

Sarah's love affair with dance has recently manifested itself in ballet. I think this room has a lot to do with that. She LOVED strapping on the ballet shoes and tip toeing around. I guess I need to start saving for some lessons... Too Cute!

Here is the pint sized grocery store. It was very realistic.



Notice the baby trapped under all of the groceries. I guess the mothering instinct will come later.

Ready to check out!

Here is a view of the store, complete with check out lanes!

Here is the pizza restaurant. There were many staff members who cleaned regularly. Chris said when he entered that he felt like he was in a universe of germs, but I saw them spraying toys down often. This makes a mom feel much better in the middle of cold and flu season!

Our exploration of the different rooms ended when Sarah heard screams coming from the puppet theater. We moved over for a closer look. She loved the puppet show!

Just after this video, she found the puppet room and began putting on her own version of this show. This is a great place to visit and we hope to return really soon.

"I'm a big girl now!"

New Year greeted us with the dilemma many American families experience during the weeks after Christmas. "Where are we going to put all of this new stuff?" We actually bought one another a hutch for our desk for Christmas for this very reason. We also converted the front room into basically a playroom to minimize the toys lying around all over the house (it has helped a little). But the biggest change of the New Year is that our girl moved to a new big girl room! We had intended on painting the large guest bedroom last summer, but you know how that goes...six months later, we have finally successfully completed her room! We have bought items over the past year for this room and were able to use many decorations from Sarah's old room so, it was very inexpensive to create. I even used our old comforter from our newlywed days as her bedspread (Chris is mortified that he was at one time expected to sleep under wild flowers). We told Sarah of our intentions, but then whisked her away to the grandparents for the bulk of the painting. We knew what would happen when she tried to "help". But being the good Daddy he is, Chris left her a small spot behind the door to finish off the room. We thought this might help the transition into the room by giving her some ownership. Below is the result.

Sarah was thrilled to help her Daddy with the painting. She even did a pretty good job!

Below is the finished product.

The book/toy shelf is probably her favorite part of the room. She loves books more than any toy in the house. She not only "reads" but she builds bridges with them all over the floor! I was happy to move her to a bigger room where more of her items could fit in one place. Now if I can only convince her to clean up after her bridge creating!

My old furniture from childhood is still in the room. We were planning to move Sarah's furniture in when she was ready to move over. We expected this to take a little time to warm up to the idea of leaving the only room she ever knew. We were shocked when she immediately asked to sleep in the new room!


As you can see, there is a full bed in this room. The first night, she only managed to stay alone for 10 minutes before announcing, "I think I am too little for this bed". Then she walked back to her toddler bed and slept safe and sound. The next night she walked right into the new room and slept like a baby all through the night! She has been there ever since.

Notice the ugly blue chair? It is the most comfortable chair in the house! We cannot bear to part with it. I guess it will have to move elsewhere now that the room is pink and green. I remember so many late nights rocking Sarah to sleep in this chair....Memories....

One of the great draws of the room is the lighting. We went to Ikea in Cincinnati and found these cute decorative lights shaped like flowers and ladybugs.

At night, they let off just enough light to read. She likes to leave them on for the "settling in" ritual every night.

All that's left is moving some furniture and buying some curtains. This was one easy transition that was such a pleasant surprise! She is so excited to tell her teacher, friends and family about her big girl room with all of the butterflies and flowers.

She is such a big girl now!

Christmas break family, friends, and fun

Well everyone, I sit here counting the minutes as they edge me closer to the dreaded workday that will most certainly arrive with the ugly ring of an alarm clock at just after 6:00 am Monday morning. This will go down in my memories as one of my favorite family holidays so far as a parent! Chris and I both had virtually two weeks off together and, for the first time ever, we did not travel! This truly felt like two weeks of break. My home looks much better. We even painted and decorated Sarah's "big girl room" (photos to come). She has not yet decided she is brave enough to move in, but it is ready when she is. We took down all Christmas decorations and created a study/playroom where the front living room used to be! I hope it will contain the toy mess in the future. I don't know about you, but my mental wellbeing hinges in large part on my world being organized, so I am feeling great! I have included a random assortment of good times we have had over these two weeks (with more to come very soon).




On the last Sunday in December, we joined the McReynolds, Crutchfields, Ashley's mom, and Jerry for lunch at one of our favorite places "Jalepenos." It was a fun time of catch up and discussion of the new baby entering our family very soon. Congratulations again Jason and Ashley!

Sarah forgot which holiday we were celebrating. She definitely had Valentine fever sitting next to Caden!

Just as she planted on on him, Chris began thinking about how to convince her that Caden really is a "cousin". Just not by blood!

Cohen also had a great time smiling for the camera. He is so cute!



Our next visit of the week was to our cousin Michael's home in Nicholasville to drop off some late Christmas presents and visit with the family. Jason joined us in the visit.

Chris and Sarah quickly became engrossed in reading one of Ava's books. Reading is definitely tops of Sarah's list of activities.

I noticed this beautiful painting on Mike and Michelle's mantle. I was in shock when she told me that her father painted it for her. He is an ametur and has only painted for the past five years! I could have sworn this was done by a local professional.

Michelle and Ava had fun on the floor opening her presents. She is so sweet! We are so glad Sarah gets to spend time with her.

Ava's favorite game seems to be "Hugs". She walks around from person to person and shares the sweetest embrace. It is now my turn!

Grace is equally sweet but much more reserved. I hope some of it rubs off on Sarah! Mine is a loud little ball of energy (whom I love more than life itself :>)

These were just two of many photo worthy visits that I plan to share with you soon. Stay tuned for the "big girl room"

Till then,