A POLICE OFFICER'S CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the streets, not a person was stirring, 'cept an officer on the beat. As he quietly patrolled the town with great care, children and parents slept peacefully there. The officer was clad in his blues and his vest, gun on his hip, always looking his best. He'd just pulled aside for a quick bite to eat, When all of a sudden, out on the street, A bright light appeared from out of nowhere, He shielded his eyes from the brilliant glare. 'Twas an angel of the Lord at the squad's rear, He smiled and spoke, "Dear Officer, don't fear." "I've been sent by God with a message for you who faithfully serve while wearing the blue. He wants you to know He loves you all, He's pleased with the way you've answered His call. "To protect and serve others, so selfless you've been, Your bravery and kindness have known no end. Even in tragedy, when nights became long, You've helped countless strangers by being strong. "God sees your heart, the joy and the pain, He knows the profession can often bring strain. So he sent me here to let you know, That as you patrol, He goes where you go. "As you protect others, your Father protects you, His angels go with you, His Spirit does, too. No bullet too fast, no bad guy too strong, I'm sent to make sure that your life will be long. "So fear not the night, and fear not the day, fear not the threats that might come your way. I'm sent to accompany you on your beat, There's not one moment you're alone on the street." The officer sat stunned by the love of His God, He bowed his head, with a tear gave a nod. As the officer said thank you, the angel took flight, "God's got your back, carry on, and goodnight."

OH I FORGOT!!!!

When we were eating Thanksgiving dinner Alex looks at me with all seriousness and says, "Mommy, did the turkey die?"

It's the Holiday Season!

Our tree!!!

Bina loving on the donkey. But it doesn't matter what kind of animal... she loves them all!

Smirk!

Jesus is the reason for the season!

LOOK LOOK TAKE A PIC B/C THIS WONT HAPPEN AGAIN!

She loves looking but actually got exciting about touching this bunny!

It was a Happy Thanksgiving!

Aunt Krista and Pretty Sofi taken by Tyler!

Bina getting into dessert all on her own!

Cheese... but I don't want to drop the bite in my mouth.

Dessert with the boys!

I can't hear you...

CHEEEEEESE!!!! Many pics cameout like this... she sees the camera and says CHEEEEEEEESE!

"Cheese"... with a mouth full of sweet pots!

YUM YUM

Great decorations!

SAY CHEESE OR YOU DON'T GET DESSERT!

The girls!

FUN!

Moving boxes being enjoyed by all!

YUMMY CHOCOLATE PIE! YOU CAN SEE MY TWO TOP TEETH!!!!!

You should have seen how much of it I ate! This is only a small small fraction!!!

TWO TOP TEETH!

Sabrina Star now has both top teeth!!!

A day with Carolyn and Ann!

I love dessert and Carolyn!

SEE I LOVE HER!

And I love Ann! I ran right to her!!!

She is my buddy!!!

Our new bed!!!

First Real Hair-do

I actually had to use no more tangle, a hair tie and a bow! SHE LOOKS SOOO PRETTY!

Such a pretty girl!

Greetings...

Sophia is now able to reach door knobs. She knew her sister was still sleeping, but then heard her crying to be picked up. I was in another room so Sophia took it upon herself to go into to rescue her sister! IT WAS SOOO CUTE!!!

Future gymnast!

Sofi doing a roll!

Forgot this pic too!

My kiddos!!!

Some more thoughts...

Here is my first flower, brought to me by my oldest son, Tyler. Here it sits in the kitchen to remind me of what a darling boy I have!!!

The boys window treatments are up!!!

BINA HAS A TOOTH! As of Saturday she has her first tooth! It is her top left. YIPEEEEE!!!!

Country girl!

Christina L be sure to show your mom the pics of the house!

I realized, more than ever, that I am a country girl. I walked outside early one morning and heard a rooster and got soooo happy! I also saw raccoon tracks on our front porch and their is a beautiful sound frog across the way from us that we hear often!!! I LOVE MY HOME!

New everyday...

My cozy tub!

Amazing hallway with my Grandmother's sewing machine.

Kids bathroom

Sofi's room :)

Bina's room

Formal Living

Kitchen and breakfast nook from family room.

Sofi helping me clean, as ALWAYS!!!

Close up of sewing machine!

Boys' room

Update on girls: The girls have been doing so many different things. When you ask Bina is she is poopy, she grunts :) even if she is not poopy. She also ran to her sister's room today after waking from a nap to see her as soon as possible. She has so much personality! Sofi did a summersault all by herself!!!! I will take a video tomorrow so you can all see! Sofi is also repeating almost any word we ask. They are both growing and learning sooo much! It is such a joy!

Long lost pics...

My phone wasn't working right... so these pics are long over-due. I will be taking more pics in daylight and post them tomorrow!!

Young Padawans

OH NO! MY HAND IS DIRTY!

My new chiair

I don't like this chair!

Well, I did at first...

Alex's hair matches the hay!

Faith Junky... the story of our house!

I may be adding more details that I have forgotten!! but here it is....

It all started a little over two months ago. I called a “mortgage guy” to see if Aaron and I would qualify to buy a home. I would have gone to my dad, but he is not able to do loans in Washington State. We did qualify for the amount we wanted to mortgage. We were thrilled… and the ball began to roll. But then it stopped, because we had no money to put down. Then we heard about an USDA loan that allowed qualifying families to purchase a home without any money down. This was their incentive to encourage people to move into rural areas. We found that because we had four children we did qualify for this loan. Thank God once again for our twin girls. We still were not sure about staying out west, but it seemed there were many doors opening showing us God wanted us to remain here.

A few weeks before this Aaron and I were driving around different areas talking about where we would live if we were going to stay on the west side of the world. We found a few locations that fancied both of us. Once we heard about the USDA loan we realized all the locations we like were in the rural areas to allow for the USDA loan. Hello God! When I began the house search Aaron was visiting his brother Joshua in San Diego, CA. I drove all about finding neighborhoods in the areas we liked. I looked through a few open houses to get a better idea. Our taste buds for a home were different than we first started this journey. So I did some more looking.

By the time Aaron was back from his visit I found our house and had an appointment set up right after Aaron got off the plane. WE LOVED IT AND PUT IN AN OFFER! After three long days, they did not take our offer. It was rough. I found some more houses. We narrowed the hunt down to 3 houses. We made an appointment with our realtor/mortgage guy, Chris, to view all three houses. Aaron didn’t like any of them. I didn’t love them, but I liked one quite a bit. Aaron did not. It was a model home that didn’t seem very well put together. At this point, Chris mentioned a home in La Center, WA that was the same set up as this model home, but a tad nicer. We said we would not want to go to La Center and I knew when Aaron saw the house he would want it. We agreed to go check it out. On our way there I said he was going to love this house, so I made sure he was ok with La Center.

We walked in the door and that was it. He was ok with La Center. We could not find a thing we did not like. We were so excited. This house was listed at $356,000 two days before and dropped to $275,000. God anyone? If we didn’t put an offer in on the first house we would not have been delayed to see this house for the cheaper price. Timing is everything. So, needless to say we put in an offer and just said if it is to be it will happen. I didn’t want to feel disappointment like I did with the first house, so I just rested and waited to see if this was the house for us. Our offer was accepted! Howdy God! A few days later, the first house came back and said the offer they accepted fell through and wanted to know if we still wanted it. It seemed God was asking us, do you really want the home in La Center? We realized we do and said thanks but no thanks to the first house.

Now was the wait for USDA. In Oregon processing the loan was only backed up 3 days. In Washington the delay was 3 weeks. We traveled to the East coast and got news that the delay was extended another 3 weeks. We were disappointed and didn’t know what to do. Currently there is a tax credit for first time homebuyers. The deadline was November 31^st. This second delay could have cost us the tax credit. The seller wasn’t cooperating with the repairs, so we could back out if we wanted to, no penalty to us. At this point Aaron and I took a second step back. We were making sure we want to live in La Center and make this move, even if it meant we would not get the tax credit. The reason I keep mentioning La Center as I do is because it is 22 miles from the river. This would mean a long compute for Aaron and all our friends and family. But we did love the area. After going back and forth four times we really knew this was the house we wanted. We were walking in on $60,000 of equity. The only concern was the delay unlocking our 5% interest rate.

Added note… Aaron and I owned two homes in New York but the tax credit law says you could not own a home less than 3 years ago. August of 2006 we sold our last home. We began looking at the end of August 2009. This was not intentional. God anyone???

From here we went back and forth with the seller trying to get repairs taken care of and measurements done so we could shop for appliances. We found the appliances we needed but had to wait till closing, as to not mess up any credit score issues. We shopped at Sear Scratch and Dent and found a killer deal. They were already discounted and then because we used a card another 10% more off, they had a sale, another 10% off and because we bought it all at once, another 5%!

I was in contact with USDA and we were supposed to close on the 17^th. Persistence and diligence paid off. We get a call and papers were signed with in three days. We prayed for favor from the USDA, so we could close by the tax credit deadline and we actually closed two weeks earlier than we thought! My first call to them was to a darling woman who connected me with the right people. She was great! While waiting from the final word from USDA, Senate extended the tax credit to April 2010. We were in the clear no matter what. And now we are closing early and the 5% was locked once again!!!

So many pieces have fallen into place. It is hard not to see God through it all. I am now a faith junky! We have a home valued with insurance company for $400,000, appraised at $365,000, asking price of $356,000 2 days before we saw it at a selling price of $275,000. We will be getting the $8,000 tax credit and a brand new model home, never lived in!!! 5 bedrooms, 2700 square foot home with a fenced in back yard, three-door garage that is fully finished (the model’s office)! It is a perfect fit for the Cole family. At night… YOU CAN SEE THE MILKY WAY! Thank you Chris for your hard work!!! Thank you Jesus and my hard working husband (Let’s here it for my man!) for making it all happen!!!

More joys of twins!

Now, most often than not, the girls are playing in their cribs before each nap time and bedtime. They giggle and play and then fall asleep. It is so fun to hear them play... but I am not sure yet what makes them giggle. When I go in their room they stop... and their blankets and pillows are on the floor. So, the only thing I can think is that they laugh at each other throwing their pillows and blankets overboard!

The girls are also sharing their food. Bina like to eat the meat and Sofi likes to eat the carbs. They both love green veggies and fruits. These... they fight over :). Speaking of fighting.. the girls are doing this much more often. I feel like a referee. So now, I let them go at it. I look to make sure they are not hurt... and then I look away. At that point they don't know what to do... so one ends of relenting. They work it out on their own. I am finding this tactic to be much more successful.

The other interesting thing they have been doing lately is this... eg... Sofi touches the TV and gets told no. As she is being told no Bina heads over to the TV to test the waters... Looks at me asking with her eyes... "Can I touch the TV?" And this happens both ways. When Bina is being told no Sofi heads over and makes sure she can not either. DOUBLE TROUBLE! I GET IT NOW!!!