Christmas in February

Cole finally got his Christmas present this morning. I promised his grandparents I'd post the video, since his gift was from all of them, too.

It's a long video, I know, but I wanted the grandparents to be able to share the moment. He immediately started throwing/rolling balls and cars up and down the slide.

And shortly after that, mastered all other aspects (including his telescope).

This was only his second or third attempt at climbing himself. I would be as bold as to say he has since mastered this feat, and has also realized, sans socks and holding on to the sides, he can walk up the slide!

Cole is having a blast! And even though we didn't get quite the reaction I thought we would due to him being SO sick, he is absolutely thrilled and has even had the opportunity to show off for friends. Thanks again grandparents!!! You have helped make this little boy so happy and entertained- at least for now!

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Due to a series of unfortunate events (including being out of stock/back ordered, additional government testing, and the unintelligent Yellow Freight driver who can't read a map- I mean seriously, have you ever heard such a ridiculous thing? A delivery guy who misreads maps?!?) Cole's BIG Christmas present (from us and all his grandparents) just arrived yesterday. Abe and I will be staying up tonight to set it up so when he wakes up in the morning, he will have the surprise of his short little life!!!

So, after waiting for months and months for his stinking gift to be available, we have now, basically for the first time, encountered the event of Cole's first illness. At our playgroup the other day his nose started running after literally 3 minutes, and I chalked it up to teething (really the only other time his nose has run) or a possible allergy to the hostess' cat, due to his eyes becoming red and swollen. However, my hopes for a simple explanation were dashed when no symptoms let up and he began coughing and running a fever on top of it all. He was miserable trying to sleep last night, and me, in my infinite wisdom, thought if he could just sleep with me, he would be fine. This ultimately just meant that I got no sleep (maybe an hour total, if I was lucky) between pathetic little coughs and intermittent wailings. Hopefully, tonight he will get enough sleep to have some energy to play tomorrow!

Since I felt taking my child to another scheduled playgroup today would be an irresponsible thing to do, and I needed to make an impromptu trip to Target to replenish the Tylenol supply, we decided to meet Abe at one of his job sites so Cole could check out the equipment (a new obsession he's had lately.) I dressed him in his finest Caterpillar duds, and off we went. This was his first time on a job site, and he had a blast. I didn't get too many pics, but here's what I got:

A few of the trucks. There were a good 20 or 30 out there just working away!

Doesn't Abe look great in his hard hat and safety vest?!? LOL

I'm telling you! Abe just becomes cooler and cooler everyday in this little boy's eyes!!! The foreman was totally willing to let Cole go for a ride, but as there was no equipment that Abe could ride with him and a driver, and Cole is still unsure about stranger danger (thankfully), we decided maybe another time. I think I see another Geupel boy with Construction in his genes (he would be at least 4th generation!)

Imitation = Flattery

Cole thinks his dad is the coolest!!! He also thinks everything his dad does is super cool, like glassing deer off the deck. After being outside with Abe, Cole had him come back in the house and kindly begged for the scope behind the TV. Abe grabbed it and Cole ran back outside, took Abe's seat in the chair and proceeded to "glass" just like his dad does nearly every evening.



He totally did all of this without any encouragement! He just knows that whatever Abe does must be the thing to do! (Although he wasn't too successful, if you look closely he's glassing with his nose!)

Superhero Dad

Abe has always given me a hard time about spoiling Cole, but lately he's been the guilty party. Two weeks ago he brought home a Hot Wheel monster truck, which just made Cole's little day. Then last week he brought home the "Dog" book (its a touchy, feely book with the little tabs that move the tails and legs- which I had to read no fewer than 10 times those first 24 hours and is currently confiscated due to Cole ripping off a dog's head and me needing to fix it still) The other day he brought home this little beauty (which I must give him credit, he did offer to give it to me to give to Cole so I could be a hero for once- so thoughtful- but I decided to let him revel in his Superhero-ness a little more). Cole instantly tried to bust open the box.

Success!

Here he is checking it out for the first time. He starts laughing because Abe was chasing Dozer with it. Easy entertainment, picking on the dog. Oh, that little laugh never gets old!

He even tried to work it, but to no avail.

Nice surprise, Dad! You know, sometimes I get a little jealous of how much Cole idolizes his dad, but I am so glad that they have the relationship that they do! Especially since when Abe gets home, all Cole wants is Dad!

I lost Cole!!!

Oh, what will this kid do next?

Handmade Valentines

This was the project I made at the workshop I attended in Phoenix. I wanted to post it because a) I told Jeni I would and b) I'm pretty darn proud of it. Abe seemed to like it. He took it to work, so I had to have him bring it home so I could snap these pics. It's an accordion album made from a file folder with "photo tags" in each pocket.

Success!

Operation Truck Retrieval was a success! Abe and Tim left at 4:20 am and did not get home until 3:30pm. But they made it home with the truck! The truck was intact and all forgotten items left in the truck were still there. Abe said the only tracks near the truck were that of deer and mountain lions. They were able to drive out with no problem! Getting in was a different story: (click on the picture to enlarge)

1. Tim's truck when they first arrived at "the Rim Road". Rim Road is an anxiety inducing, white knuckle causing mule mining trail from the 1800's that is barely wide enough for a vehicle. The forest service has it blocked except for a cattle guard that also is barely wide enough for a vehicle, but is a handy back way when the Verde River is too high to cross to get to the ranch (like now). However with this much snow, a very scary endeavor and caused much more work (like digging out Tim's truck 8 times and tree removal in picture #3)

2. There was so much snow on said scary Rim Road that they literally floated on the snow once they deflated their tires.

3. Aforementioned tree removal.

4. The surly truck retrieval duo.

5. See the fingers? That is literally the edge of the cliff! What you can't really see is the slide tracks from last week from every time Abe would hit the gas.

6. That is the drop that my dear husband and his truck opted to not go over last weekend. If you look closely you can make out to Tim just to the right of the truck to really grasp the scale of the drop!

That being said, we are glad the truck is back, and Abe is already in the works of upgrading the truck to prevent this kind of thing from happening again! And, we owe Tim big time!!!

Busy weekend and HOLY SNOW!!!

This is on our COVERED deck last night. When we woke up this morning there is about 5-6 inches in this exact spot!

So I am back from Phoenix (went for my sister's b-day and a card swap/scrapbook workshop) and Abe went to the Ranch (QT with Tim and beer drinking), and we are both back in Prescott- minus one truck, plus 10 inches of snow!!!



The story with the truck is that as Abe was trying to leave the Ranch, its rain soaked, muddy "roads" decided to stop him. I have no pictures, but all I do know is his truck is in slick, slick mud, in the middle of nowhere, precariously perched on a 200 foot drop. We're just hoping things dry up and that his truck (only 6 months old) is still on the road and not down the cliff when he goes back to retrieve it this weekend! And honestly, I'm glad he gave up trying to unstick it and left it there, and didn't end up over the cliff himself!





We both came home to a light dusting of snow, which has just kept growing and growing, and last night when we thought we'd seen the most of it, we woke up this morning to about another 6 inches on top of what we had!


We took Cole outside once Abe was home from work last night, and he had a blast!!! Check out the video below. That was the highlight of his first real snow experience. I, on the other hand slid down the driveway yesterday in my car going to my first MOMS Club meeting (SCARY!!, but the MOMS Club was good) and fortunately have had no other 'sliding' incidents since (Thank you 4 wheel drive!). Although, we did make a trip to the grocery store today with its un-plowed parking lot! How do people do it? It took me a good 5 minutes to push the cart through mucky slush and snow to the door, trying so carefully to not totally biff it in my oh-so-ever-snow-appropriate Pumas. (I thought it better to push the cart and have something to hold onto than trucking through the parking lot, holding Cole, and trying to balance on the icy patches) And then loading groceries, I couldn't even get the cart remotely close to the car, so that was another challenge! The whole time I just thought, I only have to do this a day or two here and there, how do all those crazy people that live in snowy country do it, on a daily basis? Of course, their grocery stores probably plow the parking lots!

When Abe first got home last night, he threw a snowball at Cole and me in the window (we were inside), and Cole cried. But after another snowball, Cole realized how absolutely entertaining it was, especially when Abe would get them to stick to something, or pretend to throw them at me!

Oops!

So, I'm in Phoenix this weekend and my mom just shared that she tried to look at my cookie recipe link and that it hadn't worked. I just checked and sure enough, bad link, so let's try this again! Click here. There! All better! Happy baking!

Yummo!

I have been looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe forever! I am pretty particular about how I like my cookies (think perfect, thick, bakery-style), and haven't found a recipe that comes close...until yesterday. I stumbled upon this little beauty, and let me tell you, we have a winner. I have never baked cookies at such a low temperature (325) or for so long (20 minutes!), but I think it's what does the trick. The cookies are ENORMOUS (I could only fit 6 on a sheet at a time, and the entire batch only yielded about 18 cookies), but they are so good!!! If you're up for a little baking, give these bad boys a try!

Don't your cars sound like this?

Again, for the full effect- stop/pause the music.


Abe was playing cars with Cole and making sound effects (not as brilliantly as Cole does, of course) and Cole immediately followed suit. Now everything makes car noises, especially his food (unless it is something that "moo's", which is pretty much anything with 4 legs!) I love how he purses his lips. Abe loves it too, but I pointed out that he does it too, so really Cole is just making Abe's face and uttering whatever sound goes with it. His 'cars' are usually much louder and with a greater variety of noises, but Cole's been a little intimidated by the camera lately. I'm actually relieved I was able to catch this.