Tate is 3 months old!

Wow! How time flies! I can't believe this little guy is already 3 month old! How does it go by so quickly? He is so much fun! he smiles and giggles, he loves being talked to. He will just smile so handsomely if you are even talking near him! He is a great baby and is going to be another fun personality in our family! These pictures were just taken today. He looks so cute in browns and blues with his rooster like red hair! he's a goofy looking thing but we think he's soo cute anyway!

Koelle Car Classes

Great for the drivers, or soon to be drivers of the family! Classes start Sept. 19, 10AM
Call Neil to reserve your place today!

Summer Showers

First there was this...














And then there was this!













Who needs a hose anyway?

Need Recipes!!!!

OKay all of you out there, I need help desperatley!!! I dn't know what has happened to me, I think having kids is sucking the brain cells out of me, but I seriously cannot think of good meals anymore! I try to figure out what to make for dinner and my mind is a blank! All I can see is chicken... but chicken what? Please send me your favorite recipes!! Quick and healthy is best, but anything will do. Just help me!!!! You can email them to me, or leave them in a comment, either one is fine. Thanks ahead of time for helping me salvage some sanity!

Picture Site

Since it takes so long to upload my pictures to my blog, I'm sharing my pictures through a shutterfly website. Our family one is koellefamily.shutterfly.com, I'm working on it so it only has a few pictures so far, but if you want to see more pictures of Tate I started a baby one for him first, which I'll probably delete now with the fam one, but that site is babyjustintate.shutterfly.com. I think I can use these sites just like a blog so if I can actually figure out how to do that I'll probably start using just that site instead of both. Of course that all depends if I actually put the time into it, which who knows if I will! If you visit the site leave a comment with your email so that I can post it to my friends and family list please. I will erase it from the comments when have put it in my list. Thanks!

Justin Tate Koelle

And he will be known as "Tate". We had 2 names, Justin Heath and Ryan Tate/Tate ryan that we couldn't decide between so to make life easier we decided just to combine the 2 so he had a name other than "boy" and then we would decide later which to actually call him. Neil came in with Travis the next morning and said "Travis what's the baby's name?" and Travis said, "Tate." It was very cute, and so it was decided, although I was already planning on telling Neil that I wanted Tate too, so it all worked out well.
He was born on July 6th at 6:55PM. Almost 7 hours after getting to the hospital. Since I was 8 days overdue and already 4 cm dilated the doctor made an appointment for me to go to the hospital and he would just break my water. He did that at 12:30PM, so I guess it could have been longer than the 5 hours of actual laboring I did. It sure was boring though! It was a pretty great experience in the end though because my doctor was in surgery when the baby was coming and so he called in his back up and they sent down a midwife that works there. She was so great, I will go back for her next time! The baby started coming so fast though when it finally started happening I was so scared. I all of a sudden had a contraction and he was coming, not just oh, it's going to be soon, it was there is a freight train coming out of me and there is no stopping it! My mom ran for the nurses and I just looked at Neil and was ready to tell him to get over there and catch the baby. The nurses came in and said hold it back the midwife should be here any second. I had 3 more contractions before she got there and they were all agonizing because I was literally holding him back! She finally got there, threw on an apron over her clothes and some gloves, still wearing her flip flops and then 10 min. later out came the boy! I actually delivered him lying on my side, and she worked with me so there was no tearing or anything. It was great! You know extremely painful, because we worked him out a little bit more gradual instead of the 3 big pushes and it's out, but all in all it was a wonderful experience and Ramona (the midwife) was so amazing, she made me feel so comfortable and was so supportive. I just can't say how great it was!
Okay so I could describe more, but for the sake of writing a novel I'll finish .. he was 8lbs. 2oz. and 21 inches long. He came out all wrapped up in the cord and was surprisingly blue, but he got his color quick and received an APGAR score of 9 both times (not that it's that big of a deal). He kind of looks like he has strawberry blonde hair right now, but we figure it will all fall out and come in blonde too.

Blowout!

Crazy thing happened to me on Tuesday... I was travelling along Sossoman to go to my Chiropractor's appointment (which I had just made that day because I couldn't take the pains anymore!) and about a mile and half from there I hear a big BANG! I immediately pull the suburban over because I knew it was the car tire. Yes indeed. There in the back on the passenger side is my nice blown out tire that is only 2 months old! Pretty scary, although it happened so fast all I did was react, and I'm very glad it wasn't one of my front tires, or that it didn't happen earlier in the day when I was on Ironwood or the freeway with Travis in the car too. It just so happens though that it was the one day Neil was not around to help me. His company had sent him to Yucca to set up a weather station, so he was 5 hours away. So being a full blown 39 weeks pregnant it ended up being a really fun day/night. I just wish the fear or suddeness of it would have sent me into labor, but no such luck! It only took about 3 hours to finally get my car back to my parents house and this was after the first spare tire didn't work that Buck put on, and then I finally called Neil's dad, Randy to help me (he's very mechanical too). It was all just crazy and long and hot! This is the completely condenesed version of the story too, the whole thing was a complete nightmare to take care of. I am very grateful for the circumstances under which it happened though. It could have been so much worse and I was so lucky that the kids were all at places they were taken care of.

Sycamore Creek

We finally had another family outing this memorial day weekend. We decided to head on out to Sycamore Creek to just play for a few hours. Neil and I had great hopes of being out on the road by 8AM, but of course we slept in and didn't leave until about 10:30AM. It was a fun journey out there, the first road down Ellsworth we were stopped short by a road block. All roads leading the tthe lake had been shut down becasue of an accident. Neil is getting mad at this point... it's a detour now. So we head out to Power because the road worker said it should be open... nope, onto the freeway that doesn't apparently have exits at Gilbert or Satpely, not until Country Club are we able to exit. Fun, family fun trip! Neil is fuming, he wants to turn around and go home. I sweetly remind him of the conference talk from last session about how we need to keep a sense of humor and laugh when we feel like doing otherwise. I am a very good wife. So finally we hit the real road out there, Bush Highway is also closed of course, but luckily we are able to find a way there anyway. The bumpy road was not so fun for a girl in her 37th week of pregnancy, but we got down to the very small creek finally! Yea!!

The kids played. We caught 5 half formed tadpoles that Neil nicely let them bring home. Neil and the kids built a little waterway from the creek to another patch of water. Mommy deciced to sit down in the creek to cool off a little and had to wait for Daddy to help her up, which he took his time to do of course! I must have looked like a black beached whale just sitting there all by myself wating for help getting up. I could have gotten up myself of course, but the creek bed was rocky and it would hurt my knees, so I just waited. So after a long road there, it was worht it. We really did have fun despite the setbacks and we were all really glad we went. I took some cute pictures of the kids with Neil's phone because I didn't bring the actual camera, but we're having trouble downloading them. They were all so excited about their tad poles. trav couldn't stop grinning when I caught his, of course he let it go in the waterway they were building (twice), but then Neil caught him a really big one and we were able to bring it home! So in our fish tank they sit, smelling up my kitchen with the lovely creek water we thought would keep them alive longest. I'm getting rid of them tonight! They will find a nice home in a little canal somewhere out here in QC. So, family fun trips are worth it, despite the setbacks along the way. We're thinking of heading to Roosevelt next weekend... we'll see!

Birthday's Past

We've had a few birthdays in the family these past few months and I haven't done much about it.

Travis turned 2 on January 14th. I'm so glad little kids don't realize whats going on because I had just sprained my ankle at the time and I wasn't moving much even with the crutches. My mom and dad did bring him over a cake and we sang to him. Sadly I still haven't bought him a present. Good thing he doesn't care!

Mally turned 7 on Feb. 18th. It was a Wednesday, so early release and no time to do much before the after school kids got to the house. So I took her out the Monday before on Pres. Day. We decided we are only having birthday parties every other year, so this year I took Mal to the mall and we got her ears pierced. it was really exciting for us! I had told her a couple of years ago that it was up to her to tell me when she was ready to do it and she told me thats what she wanted for her present this year! I remember getting my ears pierced when I was 5 and thats why I don't pirece my baby's ears. it was just a fun experience and I want my girls to be able to have that memory too. She did an awesome job and just flinched on the first ear, but the 2nd was so easy and she did great! As part of her present she got to pick out a few more pairs to have when the first came out. It was pretty exciting! Then on Saturday I let her have the neighbors come over for cake and ice cream. Overall i don't think she even missed having an actual party.

Then there's me... I turned 29 on Feb. 24th. We haven't really done anything yet. The weekends are so crazy around here we haven't gotten to it, but Neil did get me some perfume for my birthday. Eventually we'll go out too I think...

The BEST place for the kids...

Notice the progression....





The best part was that the dog was on the outside the whole time and people were driving by and I could hear them laughing as they went by.

A tag from awhile ago.

Well as most of you have figured out by now, I rarely check or update my blog, which means I rarely check other people's blogs too. I have apparently been tagged by Leslie to list 7 things about myself that people might not know. So sorry Leslie it has taken me so long to check your blog, but I'm gonna do this one just for you!

1. I'm VERY opinionated. I keep it hidden pretty well if I don't know people well,but that doesn't mean I don't have fighting words when they say something I don't agree with. People who do know me well... you already know this because we've probably had discussions and maybe have even disagreed!

2. I'm scared to garden! I know very weird. I really want to, but I'm afraid I will somehow mess it up and then have wasted money on it. Probably has something to do with being broke.

3. I love big trucks/ suv's with meat on their tires, and absolutely despise mimivans. I think they are a disgrace to mankind! I don't care that they have better gas mileage, they still look horrendous! No offense!

4. I can't decorate my house. I'm afraid I'll do something and then totally hate it. Stupid because of course I have hardly anything done or up in my house and I absolutely hate that!

5. I love the light! If there are blinds closed during the day it drives me crazy and I feel like I'm in a cave. I keep my house lit up at night too until bedtime because I love light and don't like dreary, dark corners.

6. I want to be a camping family. We don't have much time available to do things like that with Neil's school schedule, but I am absolutely determined that this be the year we start to be a more adventurous family.

7. I love being outside by myself. It doesn't matter if it's day or night just as long as the weather is nice, although I don't mind the rain. It just gives me a chance to breathe and get a grip, especially after a tough day. Just being out there alone is so revitalizing.


Okay, I get to tag people now...
Jenny
Kasey
Brenda
Maelynn
Jill

I won't be offended if you don't do it. I probably won't even look for about a month!

koelle expansion

I guess it's time to publish the news... number 4 is on it's way and will make an appearance around the end of June. I'm about 18 weeks along right now, and no we don't know what we are having, and no we're not finding out. It's our own Koelle tradition and we LOVE it! I'm secretly (or not so much) hoping for a girl. everyone in our ward has just had boys and we tend to run in cycles so I'm hoping this means I will get a girl!

So thats my big news, I'm super busy lately and between the pregnancy, watching kids, homeschooling , and most recently my sprained ankle, blogging just comes last on the list as usual. I hope everyone is well and had a great Christmas!