Baby Cole Stats

Coley-Bolie had his two month check-up yesterday. He now weighs 13 pounds 12.2 ounces and is 23 inches long.

That means he gained just two ounces shy of four pounds in one month.

Holy freakin' cow, kid!

The nurse and the pediatrician were all very impressed. As was I. (Spencer and Josh didn't care -they were too busy trying to break the scale.) He must be trying to catch up with Joshie, who was also a rather rotund infant. That's how we like 'em around here - round and bald.

And you thought I was exaggerating when I said he eats all the time. I wasn't. He does.

What is Wrong With Me?!

Seriously. What is wrong with me?

I needed to make some cookies this afternoon. (Yes, need. For Lance's LAN party and for a baptism tomorrow.) I put the butter and sugars in the bowl, turned on the mixer, and...


realized I had forgotten to make sure the bowl was locked into place. That bowl was stuck. It took me a good 15 minutes to get it unwedged. I was pretty worried for a few minutes there. (The love between a girl and her KitchenAid mixer is special - I didn't want it hurt!)

Between the backing into cars, the garage door attack, and now this, I probably shouldn't be allowed near any type of machinery for a while.

Killer Garage Door

The garage door assaulted my mini van today.

The attack was completely unprovoked.

It happened suddenly and took me completely by surprise. One minute I was driving out of the garage and the next minute my poor mini van was stuck with a vicious garage door wrapped around it, snarling and growling in triumph.

It took me a good seven minutes to get the garage door up, release my traumatized and whimpering mini van, and then get the injured garage door down. I know it was seven minutes because I was watching the clock because Cole had a Dr.'s check up we needed to get to.

Of course.

Anywho, Lance and I think what happened is that last night when he was pulling the mini van into the garage the emergency pull for the garage door must have gotten tangled in the luggage holds on top of the mini van. So when I drove out it pulled the cord and *BAM*!

Luckily, the van only suffered a few very minor scratches on its roof, where no one can see. (Wait - isn't that abusers do? Inflict injuries where no one can see?) And the garage door wasn't as bad as I thought it was - Lance was able to repair it fairly easily when he got home. In fact, the door used to make this loud banging when it went up and down, but now it doesn't. (Maybe that's why it was so angry.) Good job, handyman Lance!

The killer thing about all of this is that this isn't the only crash we've had around here lately. Two Saturdays ago I decided to do a little shopping sans the older boys. Lance was working in the garage when I left. As I was pulling out, Josh came out of the door from the kitchen. This completely distracted me, because he's been known to dart to the side and then behind moving vehicles in an effort to catch the driver. (Will that child live to see five? Who knows...) For some random, unknown reason, instead of stopping to see what he would do, I continued to back up slowly.

*crunch*

Right into the Camry.

#$Q%$^(1!!!

The mini van only had some scratches. The poor Camry had a squished front bumper. (Poor Camry - that's the second time in two years it's had bumper problems.) I talked to the insurance agent, who said that in some states if you hit your own car you don't even have to pay the deductible. Indiana is not one of those states. In other states, you only have to pay the deductible for one of the cars. Indiana isn't one of those states, either. Nope, in Indiana you have to pay the deductible for both cars.

Of course.

So we have to pay for all of the repair costs since they're less than the deductibles. I guess it's a good thing that they're not too pricey, but for some reason I still feel very dissatisfied about that.

So that's my story.

And the moral? I'm not sure. Other than that maybe I should stay away from driving for a while and keep an eye on that bloodthirsty garage door.

Two Months

Yesterday was Cole's 2 month birthday. Honestly, Cole, you don't look a day over 6 weeks. (Haha.) By the way, the picture above cracks me up. All of my kids like sticking out their tongues for some reason.

At two months old Cole likes to:

• Spit up all down my neck
• Eat - a lot
• Work on growing that fantastic double chin
• Spit up all down the front of my shirt - especially if it's clean
• Eat some more
• Go to sleep all by himself without fussing (what a good baby!)
• Hold up his head like a bobble toy
• Grow too long for most of his summer onesies
  
• Make cute little meowing sounds when he's tired
• Go from 0-60 in 5.3 seconds if he's really hungry (we'll work on patience)
• Get wrapped up in his fuzzy towel after a warm bath
• Lay on the boppy and watch his crazy older brothers entertain him by getting right in his face (kids don't believe in personal space, in case you haven't noticed)
• Spit up all over my pants
• Eat, eat, and eat. Hey - those fat rolls don't just develop by themselves! (At least on babies...)
  

I was thinking about my time in the hospital when Cole was born and remembered two things my kiddos said that are totally blog-worthy but I forgot to mention earlier.

1) It was the afternoon after Cole was born and my fam came to visit us for the first time. Now, anyone who has had a baby knows that less than 24 hours after having a baby you still look considerably pregnant. That's just the way it is. But Josh has never had a baby and so didn't know any better when he marched in, looked at Cole, looked at my tummy, and said, "When is the baby coming out? "I've already had the baby," I replied. "See? He's over there in the bassinet." Josh frowned and looked exasperated. "No," he said, pointing at my belly, "the baby in there." Thanks, you rotgut toddler.

2) We had just had a little birthday party, complete with cake and ice cream, provided by the hospital. I decided to get out of bed and go for a walk up and down the hall while pushing the bassinet. (Seriously - it felt so good to be out of bed!) I had on two hospital gowns to make sure I was all covered and decent. Spencer came up to me, and in darling little boy sincerity said, "Mommy! Your dress is soooo pretty!" What a cutie.

At Least It Wasn't the Blue Screen of Death

For reasons that are both unimportant and boring, all three kids were in the back of the Camry this afternoon as we drove to pick Lance up from work. Spencer and Josh, unaccustomed to sitting right next to each other, promptly began to fight/play by kicking each other with their 'foot friends'. (Their term, not mine.)

After much screeching and laughing I heard this:

Josh: I won, Spencer, I won!

Spencer: No you didn't!

Josh: Yes! I won! Game over.

Spencer: Yeah, well... restart... play again.

Josh: No! No restart! Game over!

Spencer: Sorry. I hit play again. Now we have to play again.

Josh: Otay.

And the kicking, screeching, and laughing began again.

Think they need to cut back on the video gaming?

Random Happenings from Today

This morning we trekked on down to the Farmer's Market. (It's not that far, it's just that lately going anywhere with my little brood is a trek.) Boy was Josh disappointed when I explained to him that we weren't going to a farm, just to where the farmers sell their food. He had his little heart set on seeing some cows and asked one of the sellers if he had cows. (He didn't.) Perhaps a trip here is in order when uncle Kevin comes to visit next month.

Spencer had a dentist appointment this morning. In the past he's been fine having everything done by himself, but today he decided he needed me to come with him. Which meant Josh and Cole as well. (It was a bit snug, but we all fit.) Josh was really interested in everything going on. He got to look at the little mouth mirror, move the chair up and down, feel the spinning toothbrush on his finger, and feel the air blower. During Spencer's cleaning he would pat Spencer's leg and say, "How are you doing, Wencer? Are you okay?" Tre cute.
Today I was brave and took the boys to the pool for the first time. (We went to Castaway Bay, a much smaller, less crowded pool, and thus safer pool for us.) Alas, after only 30 minutes we were all ushered out of the pool because of thunder and lightening. Talk about two sad, downtrodden little boys. I had to promise we'd go back soon.
I didn't really feel like cooking tonight, so we had a pancake jamboree - my famous pancakes with whatever toppings you would like. (By toppings I mean you put them on the pancakes while they're cooking so they're cooked in. Mmmm...) We had leftover apple crisp from FHE last night, so I randomly decided to put some of those apple slices and crumbled topping on my pancake. Heaven. IHOP's got nothin' on the Madsens.
Cole showered me in spit up this afternoon. It was all over the front and inside of my shirt, as well as entirely covering Cole's face and onesie. It was gross. It even impressed Josh, who was standing nearby. That's not an easy feat.

Just a Few More of Cole

Cole's Baby Blessing

Today was Cole's baby blessing. This is the first time we haven't had family come for a baby blessing (one of the disadvantages of having a busy-summer baby and living so far away). But that's okay because our ward is full of many friends and our good friends the Souths also came. (See, Misty? I told you your kids would blend right into the ward sound-wise!)

We could have waited until the fall for our families to join us, but that just didn't feel right. Plus, I wanted to use the same outfit Spencer and Josh had been blessed in and I knew it wouldn't fit then. (It barely fit today - Cole's getting really long and chunkin' out!)

Surprisingly, Cole behaved really well for the blessing. I say surprisingly because he had to be woken up for it and it was time for him to eat. And lately, when he wants to eat he lets you know it. In no uncertain terms. Loudly. And quickly. Anywho, who says there are no modern-day miracles?

Spencer and Josh were fairly well-behaved during the actual blessing, so I got to hear most of it. (To be honest, I wasn't anticipating that!) The blessings I remember most include Cole being a good example to those around him, being a peacemaker in our home, and bringing many people into the gospel through missionary work.

Despite our disasterous family photo (see previous post), I was able to get quite a few good shots of Cole in his blessing outfit. Here are a few of my favorites.


I'm already finding it hard to remember what life was like without you, Cole. You are such a wonderful, laid back, happy baby. I love you very much and am so happy you're a part of our family!

Oh My

Today was Cole's baby blessing. More on that later.

What I really wanted today was a good family photo. I had to stay after church, so I told Lance to keep the boys (and himself!) in their church clothes until I got home. An hour later (I know!) I finally made it home. The boys wanted to eat and play. Lance wanted to sleep. Cole wanted to eat. And I lost the camera for about five minutes.

But I was still determined to get that photo!

Lance set it up and we got two shots in before calling it quits.

This was the better of the two.


Oh my.

This photo is so wrong on so many levels.


Oh well. Maybe part of FHE tomorrow will include another family photo shoot.

p.s. Thanks, Mindi, for introducing me to Picnik. It made the whole bad family photo experience way more fun! :)

Bread of the Month: Soft Pretzels

I must confess: I find the boiled breads fascinating. Weird, yet fascinating. And since tonight's Elder's Quorum pinewood derby activity also includes brats and such for dinner and we are supposed to bring a side dish, soft pretzels seemed the way to go.

Let's do this thang.

I decided to use Alton Brown's recipe. I love Good Eats. I love Alton Brown. (In a strictly platonic, on-TV-Chef sort of way.) And I love soft pretzels. Thus, this, too, seemed the way to go.

So, I totally forgot to take pictures in the beginning. I even used my food scale to measure the flour, because that's how Alton does it. So that was pretty cool. But now you'll never know. Too bad. But I figure you can probably follow the recipe, measure the ingredients, and mix it up pretty well on your own without pictures from me, right? Right.

So you mix it all up and knead it for a while. (Love. My. Mixer.)


By the way, I doubled the recipe since I was making it for a large group of people. Hence the Large Wad of Dough.


Large Wad of Dough would be a good name for a redneck rock band.

Next I let the dough rise for a while. My rising spot of choice in the summer is on top of the freezer in the garage. Nice and warm. You don't have to have a watering can next to it, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt. Oh - and that five gallon bucket behind it? That's my turkey bucket. (For brining. Mmmmm... brine.)


Okay, back on track. As the dough was rising I heated the oven and boiled the water and the baking soda.


I'm sure there's some great scientific explanation as to why you have to use baking soda. I just don't know what that is right now. And I'm too lazy to look it up. If you really want to know.... well, that's what Google is for, people.

The water gets all foamy, in case you're interested. (I was.)


The dough loved the garage and rose very well. Very well.


What's up with all the junk food behind the dough you ask?


Well, I have a little boy who has promised to start going potty on the potty tomorrow. He has the underpants, the ability, and the support. Those are his bribes. I mean incentives. I'm not holding my breath, though. Josh can be very fickle. And by fickle I mean a liar. And by a liar I mean he says he's gonna go on the potty, and he might even think he's gonna go on the potty, but I don't believe him.

Let's just all hope that I'm wrong.

But back to the pretzels. (Pretzels would never lie to you about going potty on the potty. That's another reason why I love them.)


I split the dough in two and then cut each half into 16ths. (I decided to make smaller pretzels that Alton.) Notice anything wonderful in the photo above? That's right, the Zyliss. I love my Zyliss. Alton introduced us. I love Alton.

Now's the time to shape the pretzels. I thought about setting up my Gorilla tripod and filming it. But I got too lazy again. So instead you get a few photos with a weird looking hand in them.

First, you roll the dough into a snake (Joshie's term) and make it into a horse foot shoe (Spencer's term).


Right over left...


... left over right...


... and press the ends into the pretzel body. (I discovered that if you don't press them down hard enough they can come apart when boiled. Not cute.)


Then you put these little cuties on oiled parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Now it's time to boil.


I put four at a time into the water for 30 seconds. It got all bubbly, I think from the gluten.


Then I took them out and put them back on the parchment paper. They puffed up a bit and looked kinda slimy. Appetizing.


Then I put the egg wash on top and sprinkled them all with Kosher salt. Some of the lucky pretzels even got sesame seeds. (Yum!)


Into the oven they went and out they came, all goldeny brown and delicious.


The recipe said you should let them cool for five minutes, but I could only wait about three.

*Chomp*Chomp*


*Chomp*Chomp*Chomp*


Verdict? These aren't really like the soft pretzels you buy at the store. The crusts weren't as chewy I would like, but I guess that could be because of the humidity. So they tasted like pretzels but had more of a consistency of dinner rolls. But that's okay, because

Yum.

I mean, YUM.

And it's not just me who thinks so. We went to the aforementioned Elder's Quorum activity with 36 pretzels and came home with exactly zero.

You Gotta Be Tough...

...to be a Madsen Boy.

Poor Spencer split his eyebrow the other day. I'm not sure how. One minute he was sitting on his chair eating lunch, the next he was running into the living room with a bloody eyebrow. He said it was Josh's chair's fault, but I can't get any other clarification than that.

I thought briefly that he might be the first child in the fam to need stitches. But then I decided against it because 1) it wasn't bleeding that badly, 2) he'd probably only need one or two, 3) there'd probably be a scar regardless, and 4) I had just put Cole down for a nap and didn't want to wake him up. (We're all about the truth here, good or bad.)

Concentration

Scene: We're driving home in the van after a rather uneventful trip to the Wal-Marts. The theme song for Spongebob Squarepants as sung by Avril Levine is on the radio. (Yeah, I know.)

Me: Boys, what do you want for lunch today?

*Silence*

Me: Boys?

*Silence*

Me: Boys!

Joshie: Quiet, Mommy! I'm concentwaiting.

Me (trying not let him see my grin in the mirror): Oh. Excuuuuse me!

Joshie: Dat's okay.

Notice I didn't ask what he was concentrating on. Some things are just better left unsaid.

Our Evening at the County Fair (As Told Through Photos and Video)

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