can you control height of plant?

Ive been noticing that lights that are further away makes the plant grow tall and skinny, and if its real close like touching they get thicker.

is it possible to control the height or is it best to let them grow real tall?

id rather not have like 6 or 7 foot plants.

Yeah dude, it's actually recommended that you keep the lights closer to the plants so that they don't get tall and lanky. There's nothing bad about controlling that. The only reason the plant grows tall in the first place is because it naturally wants to be close to the light (they love that stuff!). If you put the light closer, then the plant gets just what it wants, and doesn't need to reach for it. Not to mention it's a bit handier for the grower.. the plants take up less space that way, and when you get around to flowering them, they're usually better able to withstand the weight of the buds. Having tall plants isn't bad, it's just that they take up more room and occasionally need to be held upright.
Depending on the type of light you have, you generally want your lights between two and six inches above your plants, depending on how much heat they produce. We don't want to sunburn our babies! I'm using compact fluorescents, which put off next to no heat, so I could actually let the plants touch the lights.. I usually keep the lights about two inches above. My first grow started out sitting in the window where it wasn't getting enough light, but now I've got them under close indoor lighting, they're bushing out and loving life.

yeah thanks, thats what i thought. just one question comes to mind. both of my plants are touching the CFL tube lights that I use, they put out hardly any heat so its not burning them. Anyways my question is should i raise the lights now? or just leave them

You might as well raise them. CFL's shouldn't burn the plants, but it's generally a good idea to keep the lights at least a few inches up. You'll have to raise them soon anyway, since the plants will want to keep growing.

yep your doing good if your plants are not stretching. Nice tight internodes with beefy stems is what you want. To further limit the height there are alot of other things you can do. Scrog, topping, fimming, and tieing down your plants works to control height and maximizing your light. beefcake, beefcake!!!!