No Floaties, Baby!!!!!!!!!

He is doing it....Nic is swimming without floaties. I was pretty confident he would swim on his own before summer was over, but I never would have dreamed he would be swimming before the 4th of July. Here's proof!

Mommy is very proud! Happy Summer!

Road Trip

The kids and I went on a road trip last week. First we stayed the night at my cousin Starla's house. We got there at 10:30 and left at 10 the next morning. We then headed more north to a little town called Chester where our very sweet friends Sean and Cynthia live with their two cherubs Bianca and Alex. We stayed there for a couple of days, went to the lake and to a town BBQ, had great milkshakes and even better company, then headed to Redding to spend the day with Jerry (Scott's little brother) and his wife Tina and their angels Lindsay, Emma and Nathan and sweet little baby Logan. They took us to the lake and to see the Sundial Bridge. It was a great day. Then we left their house at 8:30 and drove about 3 hours to my sister Val's and her husband Kip's house (in the middle of nowhere). I am telling you when I thought I could get no further into nowhere we kept on going. We spent a couple days there and then we went into Sac and went to the train museum and then stopped in Atwater to visit my cousin Amber and her husband Tommy (who doesn't say much...I totally understand I have one of those too). Her mom (my Aunt) Shelly stopped by and we spent a few hours with them and their 2 sweeties Dominic and Elizabeth (baby #3 on the way). Then after all that made it back in time to go to our very dear friend Logan's birthday party in town. Of course then fun did not stop there. We brought my niece Kamryn home with us for a few days and had tons of fun! Here are some pictures!
BTW...thanks everyone for your hospitality, our door is always open when you fell like a visit!

Alex, Nic, Hunter and Lanais in Lake Almanor.

Nathan enjoying Uncle Scott's brownies

The kids and I at Sundial Bridge in Redding (it really tells time)

Hunter riding Cody with my sister.

Now Nic's turn.

Kamryn and Lanais and Cody

Kamryn and the boys

At the train museum

Kindergarten Year End Activities

The kids all finished school last week. We are looking forward to a fun and relaxing summer. Lanais is entering 3rd grade and Hunter is starting all day school in 1st grade. The kids were fortunate enough to get the teachers I wanted them to have. So to end another great year at Mickey Cox the kids had a week of fun. On Wednesday before the last day of school Hunter's class had their party. They had water play and snow cones and we bought bouncy balls for the kids so they could sign each others ball. What a great idea! It was really fun. Then the next day we were off ot the zoo. Finally on the last day of school Hunter had a program, then we rushed him over to the talent show, ran back to the Kinder building to get some pictures with his friends then it was over, he is now a first grader. He had a great year. He is an awesome kid! Here are some pictures.





This is Hunter's teacher Mrs. Ervine, she had that baby the day after school got out. She said she was going to make it to the end and she did, she is pretty amazing.

Hunter and his buddy Mick They are together again next year, Hunter was thrilled.

Kitchen Remodel

Sorry, it has taken so long to post these pictures. To be completely honest, the kitchen has not been clean enough for any length of time to post before and afters...but finally here they are!

New Moon

Yes!! I am a big nerd. I put a New Moon countdown on the blog. After seeing the trailer on TV yestersay I just got very excited!

Memories

Going through old pictures always brings me to tears. I struggle between being glad my kids are getting older to wanting them to stay small. I have many memories of them as littler kids than they are now. I often forget what they used to look like. The new picture above melts my heart, I can not believe she is about to be a 3rd grader and almost 9 years old!

Kitchen update

IT IS STILL NOT FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ****Amanda screaming****

Karate Tourney!

Both the boys decided to compete in their Dojo's tournament this last weekend...BTW you should ask Nic to say the word tournament, it is pretty funny. Back on subject, the boys both did a Kata and Nic was by FAR the littlest guy there, he was the only white belt and in the picture below you can see how little he was next to his competitors.
Hunter also did a Kata but we all know Hunter is very good at Karate. Hunter placed 2nd in his division and Nic got basically a consolation prize. But the head judge did give him a 8.0, the only kid to get a perfect score. That was very nice of him and we Coleman's appreciate when other people come to our rescue!

Quote of the day

Here is a quote I ran across today and thought I would share...


"Always remember Pooh, you're braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." A.A. Milne

I have got to say that to my kids more often!

Getting old is NOT for sissies!

So here is the picture of me and my new friends...my spectacles. I have never needed glasses and now I have prescriptions reading glasses. I cant even buy cheap ones at the dollar store because each eye is different. I have no idea how to make myself wear these things. But when I do wear them everything is much clearer. Fancy thing about glasses I guess they're supposed to do that! I'm not all terribly upset about these things because I do love how smart I look in these suckers. People will have to listen to me now!!

It better be worth it!

We have been getting our kitchen redone since Easter Sunday. This is how it started...
I asked a friend of ours who is also a painter to give me a price on redoing the cabinets (because they are ugly). He comes over gives us a great price and mentions offhandedly that if we were interested in redoing the counter tops that we might do that before the cabinets. So after talking to Scott we decide that we should get new counter tops (granite of course). After many days of debating and arguing and fighting etc., I veto his granite counter tops and hire a tile guy that is very good and very reasonable (thank you, Shelby). We talk to him about replacing the tile and he mentions offhandedly that if we are thinking at all about replacing the garden window that replacing it before he puts the tile in is a great idea because they will have to damage the tile to get it out. So after many days of debating and arguing and fighting we decide to get the window replaced. Needless to say this little kitchen update has taken on a life of its own. We have been without a functioning kitchen since Easter, that is when Scott started taking the tile off. We are not quite finished yet. We replaced the garden window, had new tile counter tops put in, new stove top, new sink and faucet, new range hood, we are currently having the cabinets re stained. Hopefully, we will be completely finished by this weekend. If not,then the men in the white coats are going to take me away to the padded rooms! I will post before and after pics as soon as it is completely finished, that is of course if they allow cameras where I will be.

Lanais' Dance Fever

Lanais has been dancing for as long as I can remember and she wont give it up. She takes class after class and wants to do more. This year we let her try out for a competition team for young girls, she has really enjoyed it. Saturday we drove to Valencia for a comp. It was 8 hours in a super hot high school gym for Lanais to dance for 1:30 minutes. It was brutal but here is the video... BTW they won their division!!

More about Hunter

Hunter passed his purple-striped belt test a few weeks ago (yes I am way far behind). Here are some pictures of Hunter getting his belt from Sensei.

Hunter's Baseball team

Here are some pictures of Hunter playing baseball. It is really fun!
Scott has been helping the coach and the two of them are getting some really great bonding time!

Update #2: Poor Nic

OK, so went to see the Pediatric GI doc on Monday. I have to take in more stool samples, he has to have some blood work done and we are purposely trying to give him a stomach ache again. We left Monday and in 24 hours he was back to having the yucky poop. She is testing him for IBS, sugar absorption, Ph balances, Giardia, infections and etc. etc. etc. We go back in 3 weeks to go over test results! That is the latest and I will keep everyone posted on what they find.

Update: Poor Nic

I found out today that Nic does NOT have a bacterial infection. So hopefully we will see the GI doc next week! Wish us luck!

Poor Nic

Nic has had some pretty bad tummy issues for a few weeks. Every time I am about to drive across town to the doc he gets better, then he gets worse again. Yesterday was an especially bad day, so i took to him Dr. Lattin at 4 in the afternoon. (They were only 45 minutes behind schedule) So here is the deal...
1. Strict BRAT diet
2. No milk (even his lactose free milk)
3. Probiotics
4. Poop collection.

Regarding #4 I went this morning to the lab to pick up the containers and I have collect "samples" for 3 consecutive days. 2 containers every day except for the 3rd day in which there are 3 containers.

I am thinking that I dont want to dig his poop out of the toilet, there is a limit, right? I love that child with all I have but I want to draw the line at digging his poop out of the toilet. But of course I wont I will just complain about it and blog about it and be completely disgusted about it but I will do it. It's my job.

Hopefully his poop will show some sort of bacteria and then an antibiotic will fix him right up, if not off the the GI doc we go for xrays to make sure he does not have a blockage or something! I'll bet anyone $20 that it will not be as simple as antibiotics. It will be more complicated...if Im wrong drinks are on me!

The Happiest Place on Earth

You guessed it...Disneyland in the middle of the week at the end of February. We had sooooooo much fun. Nic was a little ill, but even he hung in there and we had a great time!

A few highlights...

Lanais was invited to dance with the cast member from the High School Musical Show. Big deal, I know...But when you are 8 in the year 2009 there are not many things bigger than that.




At California Adventure they have a life size Lightning McQueen and Mater....nuf said!


Yes he is trying to hug that giant car.




Lanais went on her first REAL rollercoaster. I love roller coasters so this was fun!


This is where they shoot you off like a rocket, fun fun fun!

Hunter had a great time as well, he did have a couple of disappointments. He was an 1/8 of an inch too short for Indiana Jones. One lady said he was fine the next guy said no, make a 6 year old cry at Disneyland, isn't that a sin. He did have a great time. He's a fun kid!



We love that place, I was happy to give the kids a mental health day and there is no place on earth that can do it like Disneyland!