Cole's top 10 list of favorite Christmas gifts

#10 NEW MARKERS: Pip Squeaks Mix'Ems washable crayola markers. The markers actually have a mixing chamber inside of them to change their colors. He also got new markers that you can draw all over the bathtub and the color washes away with soap and water. What great bathtime fun. Santa sure knows his stuff.

#9 SNOWMAN: A loveable plush snowman with an adorable Elmer Fudd hat from Nannie and Papa.















#8 PAJAMAS: What else is there to say...look at how adorable they are. The jammies did make the #1 Christmas gift on Christmas eve until he opened the rest of his presents Christmas morning.
















#7 GAS STATION: We actually now have a gas station in our house where all the cars, scooters, motorcycles, etc. can get re-fueled. Now the question is "unleaded or super-unleaeded"?














#6 FLASHLIGHT: New flashlight from Grandpa and Grandma for all those hunting trips late at night when it's dark in the house. You never know when you're going to run into a bear. If it's not in bed with him, you can usually find it in his jeans pocket.

#5 ALARM CLOCK: Finally a big boy alarm clock so he knows exactly what time he should get up in the morning. So far, it hasn't made getting up any easier, bu the sure feels like a big boy listening to music when he goes to bed.

#4 SLED: An old-fashioned wooden sled that fits two from Cabelas. The kids opened quite a few presents on the sled Christmas morning. Now, if we could only get some snow. We're going to have lots of memories with their new sleds.















#3 TRANSFORMERS: So my little bumblee decided he wanted transformers this year. So he got new transformer bedding from grandpa and grandma. He was so excited to sleep in his new bed and asked me to help him make his bed when he woke up. Very funny!!! He also got robots of Optimus Prime and Megatron from us and Bumblebee from Aunt Maria.















#2 A NEW GUN: So what makes this rifle so much better than the other 20 guns around our house...it has a scope (or as Cole would call it, a telescope) on it. Here is just a normal day in our house going hunting.














#1 PILLOW PET: Santa's gift made #1...who would have thunk it...A pillow pet. And why you ask are these so special? It's a huggable, soft, cuddly animal that with any easly unvelcro of a strap turns into a pillow. Cole saw a commercial for these on TV about three months ago and sold me wtih the sales pitch "they are even machine washable". They have been a huge hit with the kids. They go to bed with them every night, have taken them on two long trips in the car, and pack them all over the house. Finn's is named Quack Quack and Cole named his puppy Clippord. I think he was trying to name him off of Clifford the Big Red Dog, but it comes out Clippord. Love it!!!

















Hope everyone else had a very Merry Christmas and were as blessed as we were!!!

Catching up!!!

To all my fellow bloggers and blog followers (yes that is you Maria and Nicole), I am so sorry for neglecting my blog. The last three months have been extremely busy for the Wilkins household. So we've got some catching up to do. What's been going on with us:

Riley has been hard at work with his apprenticeship with Avista. He had the summer off but now is busy back at school on some Saturdays and some evenings during the week. He's been working out of town a lot lately, so he's only been home on the weekends. He just took a huge vacation and went to hunting camp with my brother-in-law Rod and his friend Mike. Although they had a great time hunting, Riley still has yet to get an elk or deer. I'm sure he's postponing shooting something so he can still go out every weekend until hunting season is over :)

As for me, I've been busy being a mom and working. I work about 37 hours a week at Lake City Surgeons and the other 131 hours a week being a mom. I got to take a trip to Seattle about a month or so ago for work. It was a great conference and I also got to go to a Seattle Mariner's game while I was there. First time for me in Safeco Stadium, so it was pretty exciting.

Well, Cole's been busy being a 4.5 year old. He's back in preschool for his second year. He's so much more outgoing this year and is learing lots. Although there are some things I wish he wouldn't learn. We've been trying to work on our manners and not talking naughty(so hard for a little boy). He loves playing dress up and his favorite toys right now are his gun and knife(go figure).


Finley's busy doing what 1.5 year olds do. He loves trying to keep up with his big brother. He is my little monster that likes to run, and I mean run, from room to room destroying things, pulling things off shelves and out of cupboards. He rarely will sit down and play with them, just likes making a mess. He's just starting getting a little pickier about the foods he will eat and in the last week has actually started throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Not really sure how to react to that since Cole never through tantrums. Most of the time he's a pretty good little guy.

Happy Birthday Finley

Sunday was Finley's first birthday. I can't believe how fast a year goes by. He is so much fun. Crawling all over the place, trying to walk, trying to keep up with big brother. He loves food. For the most part, he is a pretty happy baby. Loves to push cars around and make the vroom vroom sound, says mom and dad, and claps.

We had his birthday party on Saturday in our backyard. My mom and dad and sister Kristin with her baby Brodie came as well as our neighbors David and Stephnie and their two boys Cory and Blake. It was a really nice day. We set up the pool and Blake and Cole spent most of their time there. Finn just had fun being outside eating his two cupcakes, which later caused him to puke all over his crib when he went to bed. But, I'm sure he'd say it was all worth it. Happy birthday baby.

learning T-ball

So my boss is taking all of his employees to Avista Stadium in Spokane to watch and Indians game this next Wednesday. Family is invited, so I thought Cole should get some practicing in. I bought his this T-ball set today and he's doing pretty good already.

Silverwood

Silverwood was a blast. My good friends Rick and Nicole and their boys Dallon on Todd came to our house Friday afternoon. The boys played outside riding their bikes and swinging most of the evening. Saturday morning we got up bright and early. I had to make the big boys breakfast in order to pursade them to get out of bed and get going so we could get out of the house by 9:00 am to get to Silverwood. First we rode the big train. Then we headed to the rides. Cole was so good. He rode every possible ride he could for his age, which is a huge improvement from last year, since he wouldn't get on one. Then we headed to the waterpark for lunch and swimming. Dallon was pretty much glued to the red slide. Cole did a little expiramenting with his dad. He didn't much care for the yellow slide. I think it was a little too big for him. Rick and Riley stole away as much time as possible to head to the adult waterslides. They had a great time. Then it was back to the rides and back to the waterpark and then back to the rides. We were exhaused by the end of the day, but totally worth it. Cole keeps asking when we are going back. Thanks again Rick and Nicole for sharing Silverwood with us.

Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July with the kids. This was Finley's 1st 4th of July. We went to Riley's family cabin up at Three Rivers. We had so much fun. Cole got to bring his 4-wheeler and what a show-off he is. He was riding with one knee on the seat yelling at his girl cousins "sound good, right on, and heck yah." We played down at the beach and the kids had a blast. Cole got his first experience swimming in the river and Finn had a great time eating sand. Saturday night we went out to Three Rivers and watched the fireworks show over the river. Cole thought the sparklers were pretty amazing.

Trip to Cascade

So over Memorial Day weekend, Riley and I thought it would be a great time to take a few extra days off and make the long trip to Cascade to do some work on our house. Yes, we still have that house. We have renters in our house, Andrew and Brittany and their two children. How strange is this, but like us, they have two boys, almost identical in age to Cole and Finn. We pitched a tent in the front yard as to try and not intrude too much on our renters, who by the way were very hospitable. I was very thankful for Brittany letting me shower and use the bathroom. I told Riley that if I was going to have to use the outhouse, he was going to have to remove the spiders from their home.

Well Cole had a blast. He had a little buddy, Ian, to play with the entire weekend. He was pretty much covered in dirt the entire weekend. We had great weather and got quite a bit of work done. Riley had two loads of gravel brought in to smooth out the driveway, which the kids thought was their own personal playground. Cole was a little disappointed when Riley took the dirt away, but did have fun on the backhoe helping out. I got the flower beds weeded and looking good. Riley started building a walkpath from the backyard down to the river. It's going to be amazing when he gets it done. Now we just need somebody to buy the house. Let me know if you're interested, I'll cut you a great deal. LOL!!!

Thanks again Andrew and Brittany for all your hospitality.