Life in the Farm

NEW thing #1

It's the start of the new year, which always makes me excited and energized.  I like to look forward and think about what the next year will hold for our fam in the Farm.  I have three completely different NEW things going on in my life and it is time to blog about them!  Two of them have been in process for quite a while, and the third is about 5 days old.  I'll start with the third!

I am an "all or nothing" type of work out girl.  I will take on a new exercise routine and go crazy with it for weeks or maybe months at a time.  Then I get burned out and quit exercising all together for a few months.  This past summer was a crazy, Jillian Michaels work out frenzy which culminated in me getting tired of it and not moving a muscle all fall.  I decided I am ready for a new fitness challenge.  I didn't want to go back to my old ways of the eliptical and 30 Day Shred; I wanted something new and maybe a little bit harder.  Then I came across the Couch Potato to 5k plan.  

A little background.  I wish I was a runner.  Many people in my family enjoy running and I have watched them run their little hearts out in all kinds of weather.  But it seems every time I run, my knees or feet hurt, so I quit.  I also prefer not to go outdoors unless completely necessary during the winter.  So how could I even consider taking on a running plan in January???  Madness!  But like I said, I have always been envious of runners and I needed a new fitness regime.  I like the Couch Potato plan because it starts off very slow and you only do it every other day.  I also like that it gives me a specific plan, because let's face it, if I just go out and run, I will stop after about 2 minutes.  So I started it.  Today I walked for 5 minutes, ran for 7, walked for 5.  Easy Peasy.

Another little bit of info here for full discloure.  It is possible that I might be interested in working out again because the hubby and I are taking a cruise in two months for our 10 year anniversary.  Which gives me 8 weeks.  The Couch Potato plan is 10 weeks long, so I had to start on week three.  But no big deal, because thankfully I am not THAT big of a couch potato, so my skill level pretty much starts at week three anyway.

Okay, I put it out there, now hold me accountable!

twist love

Before I launch in to my NEW things series (three parts, that's right!) I have to sneak in another hair post.  I am seriously getting into twists these days.  In addition to my last post about twists, I did bigger sectioned twists for Christmas and today I gave medium, unbanded twists a try.  The benefit of unbanded styles is it removes the risk of breakage by a rubber band at the head.  The other benefit is that because it isn't pulled as tight, you can be  a little sloppy with the parts because they don't show all that much.  The downside to no bands is that the twists can get loose immediately, so I don't expect this style to last all that long.  It's going to get pretty fuzzy, pretty quick I would guess!  I haven't learned the trick yet on how to do these and get them tight at the top.  

Here is how it looks from the back...

I put a cornrow down each side to keep her hair off her face.  Plus I knew that even if the twists didn't hold, the cornrow would!

In case you can't tell, Alexis still has absolutely no interest in allowing me to take pictures of her hair.  This took me about an hour, which included taking out previous braids and doing this style.  We'll see how long it holds!  

Christmas part 2

My last post didn't even begin to describe post-Christmas, which was with my side of the fam.  My parents came into town in the afternoon on Christmas and stayed for a few days.  The best part of that time was a hotel meet up with Joel, Lora, and Beto!  They are in GR, so we got together in Lansing for a day of hanging out with my little nephew.  

Here are the cousins...

Aunt Allison with Beto

The girls spent hours in the pool, which amazingly did not translate to falling asleep early in our hotel room.  Oh well.  I know by now never to truly expect that they will be asleep before 10pm when we are all sharing a room!  

After saying goodbye to our Nica family, we returned to the Farm for some hair washing and styling after all that pool time.  Love seeing Lexi with free hair, and this picture doesn't even begin to capture what it really looks like after a wash and detangling session.  That lucky girl has lots o' beautiful hair!

We visited the Wizard of Oz exhibition at the Henry Ford, took a winter walk, read lots of books and played with lots of Christmas toys.  The best surpise for Sasha was that Allison gave her an American Girl doll.  Sasha had been asking and asking for one, but there was no way Nate and I were willing to spend that kind of money on a doll at Sasha's age.  But she was lucky to have a very generous aunt who was willing to share hers!  :)  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures because I was relying on the pictures my Dad took and I totally forgot to copy them onto my computer before they left.

And now our Christmas has been (mostly) documented!  For New Year's Eve we cleared our house of all the clutter, made fondue for dinner and were in bed before midnight.  I will be posting soon about some NEW things for the Cole fam in this new year!  :)

I know I am way too late, but...

I am pretty sure that everyone is sick of Christmas pictures, but since I have been MIA for a while, and my girls were stinkin' cute, I'm going to have to post some.  I really, really, really, planned on blogging more these past couple weeks, but with the fam here and all the craziness, I just couldn't do it.  

So here are my favorite Christmas pictures...

I bought both of their Christmas outfits at Mom 2 Mom sales this summer...love that!

You could say there was a bit of excitement before the Christmas Eve service

We spent Christmas Day at Nate's parents' house with his sibs.  Here are the ladies...my sis is in there too!

And the guys...

Sasha amidst a gazillion presents

Tiana nightgowns from aunt Allie

And princess dress up clothes for Alexis.  Sasha of course got in on it too.

If you want more details, you can read an aunt's perspective here.

twists!

Twists are probably one of the most popular hair styles for little girls with curly hair, yet they have always eluded me.  I see them everywhere, and they are always talked about as one of the easiest styles you can do, but for some reason they never looked good when I tried them on Alexis.  Until today that is!  I normally don't style during the week, but Lexi's last style gave me a full week and a half, which doesn't normally happen.  I loved it, but it meant that she seriously needed a new hairdo today!  Below is a picture of the style that lasted 1.5 weeks, cornrows leading into two puffs.

We didn't have anywhere to go so I took my time this morning and decided to give twists a try.  The biggest difference between these twists and the ones I have tried in the past is that these are technically rope twists.  So that means that I twisted the strand of hair one way before I twisted it over the other strand in the other direction.  This gives it much more definition and I think it helps it hold better.  I also found that this is the perfect use for a styling cream I made.  A few weeks ago I used an electric beater to mix coconut oil and shea butter together into a light and fluffy mixture.  I have been using it different ways on both girls hair, but using it to define and moisturize the twists in this style worked awesome.  I don't often use rubber bands like this anymore because I worry about breakage, but I decided to do it after seeing so many other little girls with a version of this style.  I think it turned out so cute!

I let Lexi play with the clips I wasn't using to get her to sit still for the pictures, and I think this is her way of letting me know she was done being my model!

All in all it was a happy hair day!

baby blitz

Babies, babies, babies are what's for Christmas this year!  We have several beloved friends who either just had babies or are having one very soon, plus my third nephew came into the world yesterday!  My brother Zack and his wife Michelle had their second little guy and he is such a precious gift to our family.  Sasha and Lexi have been blessed with three boy cousins...Charlie, Beto, and now Grady!  It seems like every day I am telling them of a new baby who has arrived.  And to make things more exciting, My brother Joel, his wife Lora and baby Beto are coming to the states for Christmas and we will be seeing them and meeting Beto for the first time this Saturday.  It is going to be a memorable visit for sure!

Welcome to the world precious Grady, Luca, and Julian!  :)

best buds

Nothing like a little reading time when you first wake up!  I was looking for the video camera and couldn't find it, so a picture had to do instead.  So precious.

getting in the spirit

I love traditions.  We had an awesome time the day after Thanksgiving putting up the Christmas tree and decorations with the girls, which is something we do each year.  But it seems to get more fun, since Sasha gets more and more able to really help.  This year I sat on the couch with a bowl of homemade broccoli cheese soup (finally found a great recipe!)  and watched Sasha decorate the tree.  She did a pretty good job too.  We also started a new tradition this year when we gave the girls the Little People Nativity set.  After the tree was set up, we put the gift under the tree and let them open it.  They have been playing with it like crazy, and then we will put it away after Christmas and they will re-discover it next year!

Alexis showing off her letter ornament

The magical moment of opening up the nativity set!

One of our December traditions is the Christmas Countdown Calendar.  You can read about when I made it here.  At about 6:55am today I remebered that I wanted to have it up on the wall before Sasha woke up.  So I interrupted Nate's quiet morning time and had him trudge down to the basement and retrieve it and hang it.  He did it with a smile, of course!  All of the parts of the Christmas story are in the boxes, but there isn't an activity in each box.  So I quickly looked on Pinterest and found a craft that both girls can do that wouldn't drive me crazy.  And so began the morning of bead ornament making.  You can read about our first day doing the calendar two years ago  here. 

Here are the girls showing off their beautiful ornaments.  Although technically Lexi just threw beads all over the floor, I did the candy cane, and Sasha made more of a necklace than an ornament!

I love this time of year.  And I love to do fun things with the girls that are just a little bit different than our normal day to day routine.  But most of all, I hope the girls grow up with some great memories, and that they remember the REAL reason for Christmas, which is not just fun traditions, but is the birth of Jesus!

 

Nate's Yearly Post

Nate here, writing my one yearly blog post.  Sasha loves to play with my work camera and I'll often go to retreive pictures and find some pretty funny shots she has taken without my knowledge.  I'll spare you the pics of Heidi and I, but here are some funny self-shots she took.

 

And finally one of sister...

My feet are killing me but...

....I rocked Black Friday!  Oh my goodness was that fun and satisfying!  And now for a recap and timeline so I can remember for next year.  I went to three stores last night armed with my list and I got everything I wanted (plus a little more, of course)!  Black Friday must absolutely be done with a friend or two to make it a true success.  I would recommend between 1 and 3 friends who are fun, deal saavy, and also think it is a great idea to go shopping in the wee hours of the night.  We started out at Toys R Us, where I got a little bit of a shock.  We purposely went 90 minutes after the store opened (1o:30pm) so we wouldn't have to wait in line.  Ummm...still had to wait 45 minutes in the cold, and I was NOT prepared for that.  But in the end, I appreciated it because it kept the store under control since they were monitoring how many people went in at once.  If they had let us all in at once, it would have gotten ugly, mostly because it would have been way overcrowded.  They are genuises in the way they have the line start at the back of the store and wind forward through different aisles.  My friends and I found just a few things we didn't know were on our list as we waited!

We headed over to Target and got there about 20 minutes after it opened (12:20am) and were able to walk right in.  I grabbed the two things I was looking for and got in line.  The line-buddy system worked excellently, although there was one slightly crabby person behind us.  Kohls was our last stop and I knew it would be the longest since their checkout moves extremely slow.  I got in line very soon upon entering the store and we spent the next couple hours in line trading off standing and corralilng our stuff and shopping for more.  I love Kohls.  I buy just about everything there, so I had been waiting for Black Friday to get some things we needed for better than usual prices.   I was home by 3:30am. 

This morning I needed to do some emergency stretching, because I was in pain!  But I am feeling good.  I got the girls some gifts at great prices that I know they will love and I was able to get some great deals on gifts to donate.   Plus I was able to pick up other much needed items for Nate and I and our house.  I now have a pair of winter boots for the first time since high school!  Now I don't need to trudge through the snow in my tennis shoes like I usually do, although that was super cool when I did that.

On the agenda today...Nate made crepes for breakfast, I've already given the girls manicures, and we are going to put up Christmas decorations.   It's gonna be a good one!