Help...

So...Brads uncle is a professional photographer which makes it really nice that we can take advantage of that. So while we were in Kansas we had family pictures done. They are in. I need help deciding.

After you click the link click on Brad Coates. Should be the first on the list. The password is ashton.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/store.aspx?p=21408

On a side note....my little chunky monkey is 16 pounds! He had his 4 months checkup/shots. He so didnt like the shots this time. Not that last time was better he was just really awake this time. He wasnt even breathing he was just screaming. As soon as the shots were over i picked him up and he did a pathetic 'i cant believe that just happened' cry. After a few seconds he was done with that and looked at the lady that gave him his shots. The lady said to him "Look, you're done. That was it. " Talans reply to that was a pouty lip and more bawling. She is on the bad list. Oh, and he is 26.5 inches. He's 97% for height so it looks like he is going to be a tall guy. Basketball maybe? Daddy would love to have a jayhawk!

You're never too old to learn something new...

We are finally home. It was nice to see the family, but 9 days is a little overwhelming. The following are some things I learned while in Kansas.

1. I'm allergic to Kansas. It is winter and my allergies started when we got to Kansas and quit when we got to Virginia.

2. I hate flying. Holy turbulence. I nearly threw up.

3. Talan can wear clothes meant for dogs.

4. I like dodge chargers.

5. Apparently this was the present Ashton had been waiting for all his life. 2 foam swords, a foam pirate shield and a freaky mask.

6. I may be the only person who DID NOT know this...you dont actually have to get rental car insurance.

7. My family is incredibly boring. On christmas we pretty much sat around the table and stared at each other. My mom talked about geese, while no one listened because we had all heard the story a few times, and my sister pretended to gouge her eye out with her fork when no one was looking. How I came to be so exciting and entertaining is beyond me. :)

8. Talan has no "routine" in Kansas. He did not have any meltdowns when 6:30 rolled around and he had not gotten his bath. However, today at 6:30 he had a meltdown because he was not in the tub. Go figure.

9. 2 adults and a baby do NOT fit well in a double size bed

10. If I say I can't breathe Brad has to lay by the baby thus Brad wakes up with him. :) I really couldn't breathe though.

11. Topeka, Kansas is incredibly boring and is full of country bumpkins.

12. I don't want to live somewhere it snows. I'm more of a "vacation to the snow" type of girl

13. My dad apparently told my 13 year old neice that I said she was a good babysitter, but I'm prejudice. Whatever that means. If I remember correctly, I'm not the one that said to their child, if you ever date a black guy we'll disown you.

14. There are 4 specific things I never ever want to hear my mother say again. That's all I have to say about that.

15. You should not drive in a blizzard. That only equals trouble. (this is directed at the 32 car pileup on I-70. My dad somehow escaped that. It is a really interesting story that I don't believe is all true if you ever want to hear it.

16. Brads dad is incredibly inappropriate, but oh so funny! We saw PS I Love You with Brads family and there is a line in the movie where a man says, "I want to date a woman that likes men." Then the movie was quiet for a second and my father-in-law yells out..."GOOD LUCK" oy! That was not nearly as inappropriate as him comparing the temple elevators with the casino elevators while in the temple in front of a temple worker or speaking german in the holocaust museum.

17. I packed way too much!!!

18. After you go through security there is no food or drinks in the Kansas City airport. You have to go out and back through security.

19. Ashton likes Kansas better than Virginia until there is a playstation involved.

20. Heeley's are very unsafe. I think I'm getting old.

21. Snow ice cream? Must be a mormon thing. I've never heard of anyone making it. I never had it made for me as a kid, but I guess we lived in Southern California and didn't have snow. Even so...I still feel a little jipped. Talan liked the snow and snow ice cream.

22. Presents are so much better with bows.

23. Christmas with 2 kids is way more fun than christmas with 1.

What a trip.

R.I.P. Tae Kwon Do

Its official. Ashton's last day of tae kwon do was yesterday, December 15th. The notice is in...there is no going back. He isnt going anymore because he whines, complains and throws a fit whenever he has to get ready to go. This in turn makes me irritable with him which causes my stress level to skyrocket ultimately leading to premature grey hair. Who wants that?! We told him if he wanted to keep going to tae kwon do he had to get with the program. He was with the program until 2 days later when he had to go to tae kwon do. He decided it was much more fun to throw his shoes around and lay in the middle of the floor. (and he wonders why we don't take him in public much). The result of that was he had to pay us $17 for the class that he refused to go to that we were paying for (SCORE MOM AND DAD!), and the notice was in.

Now, I'd like to do a tribute to Ashton's tae kwon do days:

Testing for his yellow stripe white belt:

Testing for his Orange stripe white belt:

Testing for his green striped white belt:

Testing for his blue stripe white belt:

Kamsah Formation:

whoa thats a big baby!

ashton has been begging to hold talan while standing lately. i've always been hesitant because talan is still sort of fragile. yesterday we were playing go fish and i had to sort the cards and i said jokingly to ashton "ok you come hold your brother and i'll sort." before i was even done with the sentence ashton was walking over arms stretched out. we found after a few attempts that holding talan facing forward is a pretty safe bet. that is also talans favorite way to be held. as soon as ashton got ahold of him i had to go get the camera.

did anyone else know my baby was this big? i must have been in denial or something. when did he get this big?!

Shane!

i found a picture of the green streaks. this was the best picture i had. see how we match! i was going to do red but thought we would look too christmasy.

the time has come!

when i was 17 i discovered how much fun hair dye can be. especially when your mom doesnt approve. i used to be alot wilder than i am now. i experimented with purple streaks, green streaks, bright red streaks. it became pretty much an addiction. i get tired very quickly of my hair color. whatever color it might be. i had been dying my hair before i was pregnant, but one day realized that the color i had been dying it was not much diffrent than my natural color. i vowed to dye no more since it seemed like alot of work for nothing. almost a year i made it. today i cracked.

my hair is red. my hair is redder than it has ever been, and i am finally satisfied with it. that is...until next month.

before:

after:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!

at first ashton was hesitant about this dance video. that is, until he went in his room and put on his super cool dancing clothes! WOO for sponge bob pants 4 sizes to small! he also wants to give a shoutout to his 3 pound weight. he told me the only reason he could dance so well is because he had pumped some iron earlier today.

so i edited this post and changed out my video. this video was the originally intended but there was some sort of problem with my memory card and my computer that i thought was hopeless to be figured out. then brad appeared out of the darkness to fix the computer. yay brad!

i've been heard!

do you love the new background?

i searched pyzam right after thanksgiving to get a christmas background for the blog. i was very dissapointed in what i saw. it is christmas for cryin out loud, they should have hundreds of backgrounds! they were all simply lame, so i did what any crazy person would do. i emailed them. the email was short, sweet and to the point. it said, "can we please get some christmas backgrounds that dont suck?"

did they listen? i have no idea. they at least added a couple christmas backgrounds. they, as well as mine are still lame but way less lame than a half naked fairy.

that is my rant for today.

Ashton, Ashton, Ashton

brad is the hardest person to buy for. he never knows what he wants probably because if he wants something he goes out a gets it. anyway, his birthday is coming up on saturday and i found the perfect present to get him. guitar hero for the wii. he stood in toys r us and played guitar hero for a good 20 minutes. the only reason he stopped is because talan was screaming, and i was standing behind him with my hands on my hips giving him a 'lets go already' look.

ashton is generally excellent at keeping secrets. we never have to hide a present from him (unless of course if it is for him) becuase he is so hard to crack! that all changed during one family meal on november 19th at about 6:24 pm. i'm going to dialogue the conversation because otherwise it doesnt do it justice.

just to set up the situation...brad somehow found out we had already gotten him a birthday present. he kept saying random things asking if it was that. ashtons answer was always no. he even said no when brad guessed guitar hero...and he had a straight face. that scares me a bit that he can lie so well. this went on for a good 15 minutes. then it happened...

me: what do you want to get justin for christmas?
ashton: maybe i could get him guitar hero for his wii which i didnt get daddy for his birthday.

so i start laughing hysterically because somehow BRAD HAS CRACKED ASHTON! ashton at this point doesnt realize that he gave up the present. and on with the dialogue...

brad: you got me guitar hero?
ashton: its a surprise so stop asking.

oy. the things kids say. so ashton isnt allowed to know any of the presents anymore.

Its a bad week for babies

tuesday--i was putting talan's carseat down and the diaper bag fell off my shoulder and right onto his sleeping head. luckily there were only diapers in the bottom.

wednesday--at playgroup i failed to save elliot from a crazy kid on a car. sorry elliot!

thursday--talan fell out of the spiderman chair. he was only about 3 inches from the ground but i cant imagine how terrifying it must have been for him. how scary would that be to feel yourself falling, know that you are going to fall on your head and not be able to do anything about it. i was sitting right next to him too. he always sits in this chair and never has attemped to fall out. next thing i know there is a thud and talan is no longer sitting on the chair. poor guy.

oy! i wonder what tomorrow brings.

Fireside Song

my mother in law sent me this and although i've never been to a fireside and really have no idea what a fireside is...i thought it was really funny.

http://www.spinozist.us/wp-content/uploads/FiresideSong.mp3

Ashton 2005

haha. how embarrassing is this going to be when he gets older! no wonder he hates everything girly now. what was i thinking. i was probably blinded by the sequins.

Christmas came early in the Coates house

WE GOT A WII!! yay! we've been looking for one for a while now. apparently there is some shortage going on. nintendo is limiting the number of wii's every store can have, which is really lame when they could just make more. whatever. anywho they had one at target greatland today. we only stopped because it is the only target in less than 20 miles that i havnt hit up yet for the 90% off halloween isle. the wii, which we have nicknamed boopie (in honor of talan since he is the only one that cant have fun with our new toy), is very fun! a pretty good workout too for the arms and shoulders. and apparently i need it. when i did the fitness test for the wii it said i was 70. :(

the whole family got to church in time today thanks to daylight savings time. talan was awake and looking at all the people and of course the lights. at one point i had talan sitting on my lap facing ashton. talan started cooing at ashton, probably telling him how handsome he looked in his blazer. ashton thought talan was starting to cry and got really close to his face and said something that surprised me.

he said, "dont cry talan. you shouldnt cry at church. church is very important. we learn to be sealed to our family at church and we get bathtized at church. dont you want to be bathtized talan?"

this coming from ashton was very surprising. usually he is the one throwing a fit, army crawling on the floor, taking several bathroom breaks or drinking fountain breaks. anything to not have to sit for an hour. it was really reassuring to know that we must be doing something right.

giggles!

WE'VE GOT BABY GIGGLES!

talan giggled for the first time today. he was laying on his favorite spot in the house...his changing table. dont know why that is his favorite spot although i have a guess. it doesnt even have a pad on it. he just lays on a plastic mattress and thinks nothing could be better. weird kid. i was kissing his cheek and he kept smiling and cooing so i started pretending to eat his face. haha. i just realized what weird things we do to entertain babies. he probably wasnt laughing because it was funny...he probably was laughing because i looked like a moron. whatever, i dont care. as long as he laughed. then finally it came. it was 3 little ha ha ha's. he has a deep laugh, but oh so sweet. there is nothing better than baby giggles.

toys!

talan figured out today that there are toys on his exersauser. he isnt sure if he wants to touch them. and he sure doesnt want to play with him. looking at them is good for now i guess.

ashton's EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE chart

brad came up with this new system to help ashton stop whining so my hair doesnt turn grey before i turn 25. he cleverly named it...ashton's eeeeeeeeeeeeeee chart since that is what ashtons whining sounds like. anyway, each time ashton does something good he puts a tally on the plus side and each time he whines or isnt listening he has to put a tally on the minus side. what are we adding or subtracting? quarters, the kid likes money. he scammed alot of change from the grandparents using the classic full house move. the sad face saying "please feed my piggy." he knows the grandparents cant resist. he leads them to believe he only has a few pennies in there when in reality he is sittin on about $50 in change. so we figure he will want to be good to make some money, right? how is that working for us you might ask. it is working out great for us...not so much for ashton.

i have a lot of things to blog about today. let me start at the beginning....

we chose the name talan makai because we liked both names. we were never really big on meanings of names, but now i'm not so sure. all throughout my pregnancy my dad kept asking us what talan's name meant. i kept saying i didnt know and getting irritated that he kept asking. i think i should have answered his question now.

when i was in the hospital with talan, brad had the task of calling everyone to let them know talan was here. i guess my dad had called him and asked once again what makai meant. brad went ahead and looked it up after he got off the phone with my dad. then i got a call in the hospital from brad. apparently makai is a japanese name. its meaning? hell. yikes right? but as he searched more he found it was also a hawiian name meaning toward the ocean. we figured we would go with the hawiian meaning.

a couple weeks after talan was born we got his social security card in the mail. i opened it and freaked out. the last 3 digits in his social security card coincidentally were 666. okay...getting freaky now.

i was telling brads mom this. she said how her mother in law had a fit when they named brads brother because his initials were bs. she then said was i was thinking. he lived up to those initials. she was warned and she didnt do anything about it, thought it was no big deal. is this my warning? what if i do nothing? is he going to grow up the same talan no matter what name he has?

to make matters worse we went and visited some distant relatives with brads family when they came into town. one of these distant relatives asked us how we came up with talan as a name. we said we heard it a while back and it stuck around. she then began to tell us about some sci-fi show with something to do with a mother spaceship and a baby spaceship named talan. i dont remember what it was about because all i can remember is the next thing she said. she said, "but dont worry, talan turned out to be an evil spaceship."

it gets freakier...

last night i was on the phone with brads mom. she said she was going through her filing cabinet and stumbled across brads brothers social security card. the same brother with the initials bs. turns out he has 666 on the end of his social security number too. what are the odds of that? i asked her if she was trying to make me feel better. she said she didnt know.

we were really glad to have talan blessed. it was a relief for me with all this weird stuff happening. and when brad gave talan his name during the blessing i felt like everything was going to be okay with him. i felt something tell me i shouldnt worry about it. i know it is just coincidences, but that is the freakiest of coincidences i've ever seen.

huh?

i love walking through a store with talan. people say some weird things when they dont know you're listening. anyway, today talan and i were walking through target. we were in the boys section looking for more long sleeve shirts for ashton. the only other people in the boys section were these two women. probably in their 50's. as i was walking by them i heard one woman say to the other, "this is my first venture into target" . huh? what planet are you from? who has not been in target. craziness.

what was i thinking?

i woke up at 5 this morning. actually talan woke me up at 5. it is now 5:32 and i'm wondering to myself. why didnt i just spend $30 and buy a ninja turtle costume. why do i have to try and be supermom and make one. sure, i have this great sense of pride when i know that i made something for him and he likes it, but is it worth the time and effort? i realized this morning while drifting back to sleep that i forgot to sew the elbow and knee pads onto ashtons shirt and pants. he has to take his costume to school today because his class is going to parade around the neighborhood so it has to be done. of course he wont just let them be tied on like originally planned...that bothers him. but then again so does the mask(which he refuses to wear). what is a ninja turtle costume without the mask? i'll tell ya...it is a turtle wearing arm and knee pads. oh well. i guess these are the kinds of things we do for our kids.

i'm officially a blogger

i am starting this blog because my good friend shane kept bugging me to and she pretty much runs my life so i try to listen. :) i was just sitting at the computer...brad is working...ashton is doing who knows what (I'm not sure I want to know)... and talan is getting some shut eye so he can be rested for bed. i wish i could take a nap before bed. as I was sitting here a bunch of thoughts are running through my head and I realized that a blog would be good. So here I am.
prepare yourself.