first lost tooth!!!!!

toby lost his first tooth! he pulled it out himself- twisting it while watching tv. he was so excited! laughing and almost crying at the same time. sweet moment.....

why prescott is awesome

why we love our little getaway spot:

free lodging- we couldn't be more thankful for the lovely 3 bedroom house that jim and sandi bought here and let us use free of charge. we contribute to some staples, and elbow grease to keep it clean is the only other investment.

20 degrees, or more. the difference in temperature from phx to this little mountain top.

2.5 hours. time to get here, door to door. long enough to neccessitate a 3 day minimum stay, short enough to be a true "runaway".

quiet. we can hear the wind in the pine trees. and right now, the very loud cicadas.

safety. toby can play outside nearly unfettered for hours.

trees, treehouse, boulders, and a walking route. we all get some god outside time.

downtown prescott. seriously, so cute, it's almost precious. the huge courthouse plaza is literally "small town, usa"

mt vernon road. the old victorian style homes are always beautiful. always.

altitude. makes for sleepy babies. toby, once upon a time. miller, now.

cooking. i really get my cooking groove on. i become the pioneer woman who cooks 3 square meals a day, from (mostly) scratch. today, this included: cinnamon rolls, prepping fruit- melon, champagne grapes, peaches, cherries- for easy consumption, picnic for 3 outside during miller's nap, pork loin, roasted broccoli, egg noodles, roasted sweet potatoes, blanched green beans, and brownies. tomorrow begins with eggs, bacon and toast.

movies. old and new. sometimes we bring new ones, sometimes we watch the old vhs tapes up here that we've seen 100 times. this time, we showed e.t. to toby.

bunk beds. toby loves the bunk beds in the kid room. i hate putting sheets on them. this is the closest i will get to having bunk beds. ever.

kid room. it's so fun to have my boys in the same room. i look forward to them sharing a room in the future at home. but for now, it's such a joy to hear them interact and giggle after bedtime cause they really like each other. and miller thinks toby is hilarious.

fishing. matthew and toby recently started fishing. it's very sweet to send them off early in the morning. (and then having almost an hour alone til miller wakes up...)

chill in the air. i know i already mentioned the 20 degrees. but it's really that great, it deserves 2 mentions. i love that in august, i'm actually cold in the morning and evening.

thanks prescott, for being an awesome, welcoming retreat for my family and me.



ps- toby lost his first tooth up here this trip! it'll get it's own post once i have the pictures loaded at home.

dinner with the folks (and melodee, before she goes back to hawaii

finally!

we finally had a really big monsoon storm in chandler! this is the video matthew got of the storm, about 10 minutes after the roughest part! this is pretty mild compared to how the wind and rain had been for quite a while. toby shares his take on the storm in the video, of course, adorably! love az monsoons!!

non-cation! yay!...first night away from miller :(

14 years ago, these two people liked each other, and decided to go on a date. 12 years ago, they got married. 6 years ago, became parents, and 11 months ago, they added a new baby.

so, 3 weeeks ago, these two people decided they still like each other enough to go on another date. an overnight date/non-cation to a fancy resort close to home. it was a wonderful time away.

we started the evening, after checking in, by joining in a networking event that turned out to be really fun. at citynorth, a cool shopping/eating/living area designed to be like a new york, chicago style living community- with loft apartments and condos over shopping and dining.

then back to the lovely resort for a late dinner and hanging out listening to the talented dwight and stephen.

some pics from the networking event......

first pic at the event, second pic after dinner....

matthew took lots of beautiful pictures around the resort....

first day of school! 2010

i know, i'm 3 weeks late. ack! but a lot of my friends kids in gilbert and mesa just started a couple days ago, sooooooo, i'm just slipping these in like it's no big deal. got it?
can't believe my toby-baby is in 1st grade! he was excited for school, and so excited to find a lego t-shirt for the first day- he tried to wear it on saturday before school, too. love this sweet boy!!

all settled in, ready to learn. smart mrs. supple, put his desk right next to hers!

mrs. cleaver? yes, please.

i love pier 1. i covet many things there. i haven't been in a very long time.

baby, school, teaching, etc. you know the drill.

but tonight, i went. with my sweet littles.

we spent a long time.

smelling candles, squeezing pillows, and toby was amazingly

adorable pointing out stuff he thought i would like.

we got a butterfly net and bath fizzies for him, and i found a glorious candle for me.

then, i saw the aprons. i found one i really liked. then, some long ones i liked.

then, the most darling one i really liked.

price: 15. sale sign: 20% off. sale price: 12. hmm.

i thought and thought. i took a picture.

i couldn't bring myself to spend 12 dollars on this thing i wanted so much.

maybe i could talk my mom into making it? she doesn't have enough to do? no.

it wouldn't be the same, anyway. it wouldn't have the exact, paper light

material, or the delicate girly bounce to it.

so now, i'm left thinking again about it. thinking about going back tomorrow

to collect this little indulgence for myself.

i'll wear it around the house, with pearls,

like the mrs. cleaver i've always wanted to be.

i'll cook better, i'm sure.

i'll be a storybook wife and mother.

because i will have this perfectly darling apron.

seriously?

my dear husband is very smart, diligent, motivated, driven, generous, and works harder than anyone. he is also complete oblivious!

my dear son is very smart, diligent, motivated, (noticing a trend?) etc. he is also quite sneaky. these two things, when added together equal mischeif when i'm not watching said son.

the latest example happened last night. i mixed up some yummy sugar cookie dough to make cookies for becky's baby shower. this dough needs to chill for at least one hour before you begin rolling and cutting. i had an errand to run, so it was working out just right, i'd chill the dough while running the errand, come back, and roll, cut, bake!

having been gone at night before, and found evidence of toby sneaking down to the kitchen after bedtime (while said husband is being oblivious), i knew i couldn't leave my dough unprotected. so, i put the dough in the garage fridge. told matthew, "if you hear the alarm do it's chime that says the door is opening, that's toby trying to get the cookie dough. do not let him eat it!" i left, so pleased with myself that i had created such a fool-proof parenting, cookie dough protection plan for matthew!

i return less than an hour later. i open the garage door. the light is off. i had left it on. hmmm.... i look to the door, which is precariously not all the way closed. uh oh. i look in the garage fridge at the dough. a nice little trench has been carved. i come in. go upstairs. toby's still awake. i ask, "how did you manage to get to the cookie dough without daddy hearing you?"

"i just did. sorry mommy" i turn to go to my bedroom.

"matthew, how on earth did you not notice the alarm?"

"what? what happened?"

seriously, dude? he stil has no idea what went on! poor little oblivious overacheiver!

"k, babe, i told you that if you hear the alarm chime, that's toby trying to get the cookie dough. how did he turn on the hall light, go downstairs, open the door, making the alarm chime, get some dough, come back upstairs, and you not notice anything?"

"i don't know. sorry. don't get on me!"

"im not 'getting on you', i just can't believe you're this obtuse!"

"i get it. sorry. please don't keep talking about it over and over"

i like to really drive a point home sometimes. i think it's cute that he knows this well enough to make a pre-emptive request. ;)

under my breath, as i leave the room, "you said you 'got it' the last time he did this" (i admit, this statement was a bit out of line!)

i like that we argue without really arguing.

i head downstairs, knowing all is really ok. i still have plenty of dough, toby didn't really take very much. matthew always tries, even though he misses stuff sometimes.

so, i'm back to the task at hand. roll roll roll, cut cut cut, bake bake bake, frost frost frost. i cleaned up the evidence and hid them from toby so i'll have some to take to the shower. today, i'm piping some white frosting to detail the pink, lavender, and pale yellow cookies.

and i need to prepare the game i'm in charge of. it's gonna be catchphrase with baby terms. my brilliant friend, theresa did this game for my shower.

i'm so excited for becky (matthew's little sister) to join the mommy club!! and i get a new niece that's close by! not in australia or alabama, but here in arizona (do coates' have a thing with living in places that start and end with a?)

fishing with daddy

i strongly suggest whistling the andy griffith show theme song as you peruse these pictures


nothing was caught this first time out. they got a late start and it was too hot to stay out for very long. but toby was so excited to hang out with dad and super thrilled with that they "almost caught something!"

the rest of the summer.....(picture heavy!)

we packed a lot of stuff in between our trip to boulder and the beginning of school!

me and the boys travelled to a far off land......glendale! we toured the cerreta candy factory, toby made a chocolate pizza (yes, i did the white chocolate drizzle).

and then we stopped to take a picture of toby outside of the elementary school that matthew went to!

we went to the bass pro shop for fishing poles (and dreaming of owning a boat)

daddy and toby check out a play place by daddy's office

one last vbs at nana and bumpa's church

random photo shoot in the sunset at our church

we took toby to his first musical, joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. he loved it! we were thrilled. although, when we asked if he'd like to be on stage doing that someday he replied, "no, that's ok." is he really our kid?

this is just pretty........

i do realize that these summer posts have been incredibly picture heavy. we take a lot of pictures- there's only a small percentage shown here. i do lament that i haven't been posting more musings. i resolve to do that. we have photo books for our pictures, and i want to start capturing more of what our life is like day to day. things the kids do or say. miller is pulling up all the time now, and even stands on his own- if only momentarily. toby is having a wonderful time in 1st grade so far (yes, pictures of his first day will be posted soon! i know it's almost the end of the second week already!) and he's really funny and smart. so, pictures will continue, but i also intend to post more often about our life in words, too.