Est. 2000

Let me tell you the tale. . .the tale of the BAAAAAD Christmas Tree vs. the GOOD Christmas Tree. . .

A few weeks ago, we finally get some time together and set out to get our Christmas Tree. We've always purchased a live one, because Jared likes the way they smell, and also, we've always had good luck with buying a $20 tree because we're cheap, right? Well, until this year. . .we went to Smiths and, lucky us! their normally $20 trees are all on sale for only $17.99!!! Woo hoo!!! Just our lucky day, right? We should have known. . .

We bring it home, decorate it, feed it, love it, you know, do all of the things you're supposed to do with a live Christmas Tree. I don't know if it was the boys repeatedly tearing off all of the decorations that they could reach and throwing them down the stairs, or if it was them pulling off as many strands of lights that they could get their hands on after I stopped redecorating the tree with all of the ornaments from the bottom of the stairs, so the poor little tree was only decorated on the top, but this tree wanted to die. It had no will to live. We put water in it the first day we had it, and then a LITTLE bit a few days later, but the darn thing just dried up. Like it's purpose on earth was fulfilled, which it was NOT. It's little limbs start drooping until we couldn't even have put presents under it if we had tried to. Then Jared broke off the end of a limb just to test its flammability. . .wow. . .it went up in flames in about 2 seconds flat!!!

Jared didn't want an ugly dead christmas tree. . .i'm guessing because his parents were coming. . .like they were going to judge us for an ugly one? I don't know, whatever husband. . .anyhow Smith's, where we got the tree, isn't selling trees anymore and the other night we were at Home Depot and Jared asked some girl if we could get a really great deal because it was almost christmas. . .and she tells him 'nope, you can't have a good deal until Christmas eve, but if you bring in your dead one, we'll replace it.' Jared: Even if we bought it at Smiths? girl: "umm. . .wink wink. . .sure."

So. . .I had spent all day Monday and Tuesday cleaning and cleaning and sweeping and cleaning and vacuuming because we were having guests come on Tuesday, the 23rd and Jared comes home from work that day and starts taking down all of the decorations and lights. . .what can I do but help, right? He was a man on a mission, and it was going to happen no matter what I said, so I helped. But that dang old tree was sooooooo dead that it leaves a MASSIVE trail of needles in its path, completely destroying all of my efforts at sweeping and cleaning and vaccuuming etc etc etc. And to make matters worse, when we came home, Cohen gets into the pantry and gets a bag of Ramen, and starts chewing it up, eventually opening a corner of it. . .can you see where this is going?, and he comes into the living room and starts SHAKING this bag of chewed up Ramen everywhere!!!! Ramen Noodle Snowstorm. . .right in our living room. With all of the pine needles, and now ramen noodles. . .its worse than it ever was!!! Why did I try?!! I don't know. So, we swept and vaccuumed and blah blah blah and had it clean by the time the in-laws showed up.

I love Jared's face in this picture. . ."Seriously, we PAID for this tree?" He's so disgusted, I love it!!

So here's a funny little story.  A few days ago I was sitting at the table feeding Evan (a common occurrence here at our house, but not the subject of this post. . .) and Cohen climbs up behind me on my chair.  I was wearing a hat and he starts teasing me and pulling it off of my head and putting it on him, and then back on me again etc.  After a minute of this, he puts the hat back on my head and says, "You da man mom, you da man!!!"  I started laughing and asked him, "Did you just say 'you're the man?!'" and he says, "Yep, you da man!"  It was so funny I had to call Jared right away. Where did he pick that up?  I don't know!!  

. . .but here are some Halloween pictures!!!! Better late than never, right?!! Here are a few pictures of the ward Halloween party mentioned in the previous blog. . .Cohen ended up being a Cowboy on actual Halloween, so I'll post those pictures soon. . .maybe in 2011.

Um. . .uh. . .yes this is the best picture with BOTH boys in it.


Cohen eating his yummy cupcake that he 'won' at the cakewalk.


The only picture of all 3 of us!! I know I should have dressed up. . .so not like me to just let it slide. . .

So, it's been a full month since I've posted anything, but I've been faithfully keeping notes on a post-it so that I'd remember the stories I want to tell!!!

Thank goodness it's getting a bit colder, because we were having a TON of flies in our house every day. Because when the weather was nice, not too hot and not too cold, I would leave the back door open so that the dog and the kids could go in and out at their leisure. Unfortunately this also meant that the flies could come in and out at their leisure also, which mostly means coming in and not so much going out. So, every evening I would hold a big fly-swatting party in my kitchen and living room and kill as many as I could. This has led to Cohen being a pretty good fly-swatter himself. He would help me during these fly-infested times, and now that we only have 1 or 2 in the house at a time, whenever he sees one, he finds it his duty to get the fly swatter and chase it around for a while. He's actually a pretty good shot if the fly lands far enough down on the window for Cohen to reach it. We've always dreamed he'd grow up to be a great football player, but maybe he'll just be the world's greatest fly-swatter.

Our ward Halloween party was on the 17th. . .like I have been thinking forward enough to have my kids costumes figured out or something. Anyhow, I just figured Evan would be the default costume, Superman, because we already have that costume and it takes NO effort on my part. It gets to be about 6:30 that night, and the party started at 7, so I finally start digging around my house for something for Cohen to wear. I end up with a pair of brown camouflage pants that are just a bit too short, a green camo shirt that is WAY too small, and a black camo fleece jacket that fits just right. Thank goodness for the jacket because his little belly was hanging out the bottom of the shirt and that would have just been embarrassing. I drew some black stripes on his cheeks and he went to the party as. . .an army guy!!! I really am a great mom, eh?!! And if I had never written this on my blog, I could lie to him in years to come when he looks at the pictures and tell him that he asked to be an army guy and not that I was just a really bad procrastinator!! I still don't know what he'll wear on actual Halloween. . .I'll probably just try to borrow something from a neighbor. I want to come up with some hugely creative idea, and have everybody look at him and think, "What a great costume, this child must have an incredibly brilliant and handy mother to come up with such a creative costume." But alas, it is not to be. Not this year at least. Maybe next year.

So here's a fun little thing Cohen is doing that is driving me bonkers. Every time he comes up the stairs he wants me to carry him upside-down by his ankles. He lies down on the ground and says, "Hold the toes mom, hold the toes." It's funny, but apparently he's complete debilitated himself from walking up the stairs, because even if he's down there by himself, I'll hear him yelling up the stairs, "Hold the toes mom, hold the toes!!" I like to play it with him sometimes, it can be fun, but EVERY TIME?!!! Come on child!!! Give your poor mom a break!!

Cohen is progressing in his prayer saying. The other night I was putting him to bed and I asked if he wanted to say the prayer, which usually means that I say a word and then he repeats it until we're done. He says yes, so I fold my arms and say Dear. . .and he says 'No mom!'. . .I continue Heavenly. . .and he says 'I do it!'. . .so I say OK, and here is his perfectly childlike first prayer without any help: "Dear. . .Heanly. . . . . AMEN!!!" I busted out laughing and told him to at least pray for Daddy, so he began again: "Dear. Heanly. bessadaddy. . .AMEN!!" That amen is his favorite part.

Evan is starting to say a few words. . .and I use that term lightly. . .he's starting to grunt a few words is more like it. He says Uck! (Yuck. . .during a diaper change) and Wack! (Quack, like a duck) and he can trumpet like an elephant. No, he does not say mama yet, but trumpeting like an elephant?! Now, that's talent!!

I am an Activity Days leader in our ward for the 8-9 year old girls. We had an activity where they were learning how to entertain young children, and we played Duck Duck Goose. A week and a half later Cohen had coerced me into playing with him, and he starts patting himself on the top of the head and is saying 'Duck, duck, duck.' I get it figured out and we play an awesome 2 person round of Duck Duck Goose in the living room!!! It mostly consisted of us running around in circles and sitting down wherever, but it was fun!! I couldn't believe he remembered that!!

There you are. All the cute stories from my post-it reminder note have now been transferred to this here blog. The update is complete. Adeiu.

So, we are in the midst of potty-training. . .Cohen is doing awesome at peeing in the potty, but NOT so awesome at pooping in it. In fact, he has NEVER pooped in the potty. Yuck for me. So we took a trip to All-A-Dollar and bought all of these awesome prizes, to be distributed after a successful poop-in-the-actual-potty. . .They would motivate me if I was a 2 year old boy, so why do they not motivate my child? Bubbles, a horsey, some stickers, a cool little gun, and a styrofoam sword for crying out loud!!!! Every day, we sit down in the bathroom with this bag of prizes and review 1)how awesome they are, and 2)what it will take to win said awesome prizes. And every day, he wants these prizes, oh yes he does. . .but apparently not bad enough. WHYYYYY????!!!!! I'm not going to put him back in diapers because we're doing so well otherwise, but I'm getting really disgusted by the clean-up of the poopy underpants. Hopefully this story will have a happy ending, and SOON!

So now that Evan is walking so well, the boys are playing pretty well together, usually. This was kinda cute. . .Yesterday they were not really playing that well together, one getting poked or hit or pushed every few minutes. I was trying to get ready to leave the house, so I kept reminding them to play nicely together in hopes that they actually would, and that I'd be able to do my hair and makeup in peace. After many failed attempts at this playing nicely thing, Cohen dragged his blankie up to me and asked if he could go night-night. Of course you can go night-night!!! That is just the kind of help I need in getting ready!! We didn't need to leave the house for about an hour, so I got him a cup of milk and plopped him in bed. He hasn't been napping at all lately, except for in the car if we're going somewhere late in the afternoon, so I didn't really think he would go to sleep, but I was willing to let him try. Evan saw me leaving Cohens room and shutting the door, and he toddles down the hall and starts banging on Cohens door!!! Even though Cohen had been kicking the tar out of him for the last 1/2 hour, he still wanted his big brother around to play with! (Wait, it gets better.) Since I want Cohen to actually fall asleep, I tell Evan 'no' and pick him up and remove him from banging on the door. A few minutes later, Evan has also apparently had it, so I plop him in bed too!! Woo hoo for me, right?!! Well, being the prophetic mother that I am, I knew Cohen probably wouldn't go to sleep, which he didn't, and after my few minutes of glorious silence, he starts banging on his door to be let out. I let him out and hope that after his little rest he will be a happier camper. He walks out of his room, down the hall and looks into the living room. "Where's Ean?" he asks. . .for crying out loud!!! The two of them were at each others throats not 5 minutes before, and now they are banging on each others doors and asking for the other?!! At least it encourages my hope that they'll turn out to be best friends, right?! It was pretty cute that even though they weren't really getting along, they still wanted to be with each other. Forgive and forget, right?!

So, Cohen has inherited Jareds body's intolerance for mosquito bites. . .we'll be outside and Jared will have 10 bites before I even notice that there are mosqitos out there at all!! Also, he has some sort of allergic reaction to some bites as well, because sometimes he'll swell up all around the bite, like too much swelling for a little mosquito bite, like it kinda looks like he has a tumor on his arm or something freaky, right? Anyhow, Cohen has had a few mosquito bites before, but he finally got bit by the crazy ones a few days ago. . .he came in and had one smack in the middle of his forehead, and another right below the corner of his right eye. I put some Caladryl lotion on them so he wouldn't itch them, and they didn't seem to bother him the rest of the evening. The next morning, Jared gets him out of bed and comes in to ask me how Cohen got a black eye. What? Well, it wasn't black, but it was all red and swollen up HUGE underneath his little eye!! Sad!!



I didn't notice the swelling on his forehead until later that day, but that one got all swollen too, and once you noticed it, it looked like he had some crazy Klingon forehead or something!!!! (Is it scary that Klingon is NOT underlined in red by my automatic spell-checker?? As I was typing that word I was honestly thinking to myself, 'well, I won't know if I've spelled this right or not, because Klingon is not actually a word, so even if I spelled it like it's supposed to be spelled, it will underline in red, right?' WRONG!!!!) Back to the forehead. . .yes, it was poking out of his head WAY to far, and of course we run into someone we know at the store. I even brought it up just in case they noticed, so that I could explain that his forehead was not always so crazy and ugly. . .maybe they wouldn't have noticed on their own, but if they had, and I hadn't explained, they would have thought 'how sad for that little boy with that unusually large forehead. . .' Good thing I explained, hu?!!!



Speaking of injuries on childrens foreheads. . .a few weeks ago Evan fell down the stairs in the backyard and landed on his forehead on the cement so he's had HUGE scabs covering his forehead for a week. Lovely. People must think I beat him.

Here's a picture of the boo-boo right after he got it. Over the next few days the scabs got darker, and thus more prominent. :)

Pictures have now been added!! Yay!! How exciting for all you blog subscribers!!

The last week of July I was finally able to go to Hawaii with Jared. The other 'wives' came too, Allison and Michelle - not Jared's other wives, but the wives of David and Ross. . .ha. The boys had to work most of the time that we were there, so us girls just hung out on the beach, and by the pool, and in our rooms, and in the pool, and at Matsumoto's, and well, wherever we felt like it. People keep asking "What did you do in Hawaii?" and my best answer is, "Nothing." Honestly, it was everything an actual vacation is supposed to be. No children, no commitments, a good book, the beach, great breezy weather, good friends, GREAT food, and my great husband. We just took it easy and RELAXED!!! Wow, I don't know that I'll ever be lucky enough to have such a great trip ever again in my life, but I loved it!!!

This is Jared and I eating at the Luau at the PCC.


Besides just sitting around basking in the sun, we did do a few touristy things. We hiked up through the botanical gardens to Waimea Falls, but tragically there were no falls. Apparently it's just the end of the dry season, so the falls were just trickling down the mountain, but it was beautiful anyways. All of the flowers and trees over there are so amazing. I just loved seeing each new thing!! On Saturday Jared and I went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. AMAZING!!! This is the thing to do if you go to Oahu. It is a fish sanctuary, and there are so many amazing kinds of fish. After we had been in the water a while, we got to where we felt like we were just seeing the same fish over and over again, and then some crazy new type would swim in front of us!! We were inches away from these huge turtles, and countless types of tropical fish. Pictures couldn't do it justice. Honestly, if I ever go to Hawaii again, I would love to do this again.

OK, this is a hideous picture of the both of us, but the only one we took at Hanauma Bay. If you look close, you can see the snorkel mask indentation on my forehead!!

Doesn't jared look excited?!!! He's going to be so happy
that I posted this picture!!

Cohen is learning how to pray.  Every night for dinner, we ask him if he wants to say the prayer, and if he does then Jared helps him.  It goes a little like this:

Before I get started, let me just say that JARED IS 30 TODAY!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!! Ok, so I'm only 10 weeks behind him, but for the next ten weeks, he's in his 30's and I'm still in my 20's!! He's in Navuoo today, and I really wish I could be with him there. I wanted to make a big fuss and have a big party, but alas, he is out of town for his birthday, AGAIN!! I really love him a lot and miss him terribly. He's such a great husband and an awesome dad. I'm really happy (and jealous) that he is where he is, I only wish I could be with him. So, instead of a party, he just got a few mushy texts from me, and a box of snacks that went to Palmyra because he was supposed to be there for a few more days. . .and so the box is in New York and he's in Nauvoo. . .go figure. I love you Jared!!!! Happy Birthday!!!



So, I haven't posted in a few weeks, and a hundred things have happened that I've thought to myself "Write about that next time you blog. . ." and of course I've forgotten all of it!! Oh well, let me just upload some pictures and we'll have a nice little 'lets have lots of pictures and not too many words' post. . .because we've had some fun, but nothing that makes a real good story, you know. . .

This is at the 4th of July parade in Centerville. It was supposed to be the hottest day of the year, up to 110 or something outrageous, but there were lots of clouds, and it was still hot, but not 'it's so hot, who cares about a parade, lets go home' kind of hot. The kids loved it and Evan was a perfectly sticky dirty mess by the end of it. Oh, and the laundry needed to be done, so this was our best attempt at patriotic clothing as well. . .
The other kids in the picture are Cohens best friend Janessa, and Jessie's cousins boy Taylor who we go swimming with.



This is my favorite picture from the parade. . .so patriotic don't you think? You can just see how passionate Cohen is about waving that American Flag. Funny!



After the parade they had a little carnival with those blow-up slides and stuff. Janessa was too chicken to go, so Jessie and Jim pushed Evan around in his stroller while Cohen and I went through this little obstacle course a few times. It was FUN!! Cohen needed me to help him the first few times, but then crawled right up this thing on his own after that!



Here we are about to go down the big slide at the end. . .



Later that day we went to my moms for a BBQ before going to Rob and Josie's for fireworks. You'll notice that all of our 'red,white, and blue' clothing must have gone in the laundry because it all got so sticky and gross at the parade. The best we could do after that was camo. . .patriotic in a different way, right? Evan's shirt has one little stripe of camo on it, so it counts!!



Here's a video of Cohen and Evan jumping at Grandma's house. It's cute, and funny. . .poor little Evan. . .



Here's the boys all ready for church on Sunday. So cute. Some of you may be wondering "Hey, didn't we see Cohen in that outfit that Evan is wearing just like. . .3 months ago?" Well friends, the answer is yes. . .Evan is a tubber. . .and thats not a real word but you get exactly what I mean.



This is the Hamper Monster. . .one of our favorite pastimes lately.

OK, somebody buy me a hide-a-key box RIGHT NOW!!! I haven't locked the keys in the car for 10 years, and now I've done it twice in three weeks!!! DUH!!! And I thought the last story was exciting.
So, I take the kids with me down to Salt Lake to pick up the wall mount for our new TV (that's a whole different story) which I had found on the KSl classifieds for $37 rather than in the store for $100+. I'm such a great shopper, I know. Not so great at not locking my keys in. . .So, I get to where I'm going, I think, and Cohen has fallen dead asleep. I figured that since we drove about 30 minutes there, if he just kept sleeping and slept the 30 minutes home too, that would be a half decent nap and would be better than waking him up because he's a power-napper, so to him 30 minutes is as good as 3 hours. It's at this old house thats been turned into a business, and there are trees all around the small parking lot, and only one other car in the parking lot. I figured it belonged to the guy I was meeting. Now I had the thought to just call the guy and have him bring the dang thing out since I was paying him cash anyhow and we could just do all of our business in the parking lot. But if I had done that, I wouldn't have this highly entertaining story to tell, now would I? So the thoughts in my head go like this: "I don't want to wake up Cohen. There is NOBODY else here. It's a pretty secluded spot. We're even parked in the shade. I will HONESTLY be 2 seconds. I'll just run in and tell the guy to bring it out real quick because my kid is asleep in the car. OK, leave the air conditioner on at least." So I leave the keys in the ignition and leave the a/c on and get out of the car to get Evan. I pull him out of the car and then say to myself "Well, you should lock the doors, lock him IN, just in case. . ." which I do. You can guess my next thought. IDIOT!!!!! So I call the guy and tell him to come on out cuz I just locked my kid and keys in the car. . .and we end up doing business in the parking lot anyways. Too bad I wasn't even at the right place and he had to walk across the street to get to me, hu?!
I take a moment to knock on the window to try and wake Cohen up, but then I realize that he doesn't know how to unlock the door, or open it on his own, and he's also strapped into his carseat and so wouldn't be able to reach the handle anyways. I decide to leave him sleeping.

Now, I finally get up my courage and call 911 to admit what a bad mother I am. It goes a little something like this:
911: 911 Emergency, do you need police, fire department, or ambulance?
Me: Um. . .probably police. I've locked my sleeping 2 year old son in the car.
911: What address are you at?
Me: Blah blah blah. . .
911: Is the car running?
Me: No, but the air conditioner is on (like that makes me not so lame)
911: OK, well it's policy to send the fire department out in a case like this, so they'll be on their way.
Great, like a police car isn't inconspicuous enough.

So, about 4 minutes late the fire truck pulls up, three guys get out, lugging all of their paramedic gear with them. . .oh, and this really long skinny pole and a wooden wedge that unlocks the car in about 20 seconds. . .much quicker than a cop with a slim jim thats not long enough, just so you know. Cohen sleeps through all of this, until they open his door and wake him up to ask him if he's OK, consequently dashing all of my good intentions to keep him asleep until we get home. Again, DUH!!!



Just then a cop pulls up to give me a lecture on locking my kids in the car, even if I don't lock the keys in, and even if it's just going to be 2 seconds because 'he saw the same kind of thing in Tampa Florida where the mom was going to be gone just 2 seconds, and some crack-head broke the window and drove off with her 2 kids. . .blah blah blah.' OK, first of all we're in Holladay, not Tampa. . .so after making one lame excuse I stood there and took my lecture like a good girl, and thanked him, and said 'yes, sir' and all that. Firemen are so much more laid back and friendly than cops are. . .

By now, Cohen has noticed the 'beep' (thats Cohen for fire truck) and of course wants to get out. Poor kid has been through so much and doesn't even know it, plus I want to get a few photos of the experience, so I get him out of the car. We go take some nice pictures with the firemen and firetruck, and then strap everybody back in and get on our way.



So, the good thing about all of this is that I locked Cohen in the car as well as the keys, because if I had only locked the keys in I would probably have had to call a locksmith and payed $50 to get them out again. But 'lucky' for me, I had locked my firstborn in there, so I got my keys back for free. . .

Just nominate me for the "Mother of the Year Award" right?!!

Here's a few cute pictures of the boys lately.

Evan must have wiggled around a lot before falling asleep!!


Cohen and Riley. . .look at poor Riley's face, like 'Please save me!!'


Cohen praying with the cast during Nauvoo Pageant rehearsals


Cohen loves to spray the hose, this one was pointed at Jared.


Apparently I didn't put the lid back on the Cetaphil before I came upstairs. . .I was wondering why it was so quiet!

So, last Sunday was Fathers Day and Cohen ended up giving Jared the best gift. It was awesome. A little background: on Mothers Day during sacrament meeting, all of the primary kids went up to the front and sang their little mothers day tribute. Cohen was fascinated, and when they were all walking back down to their seats he kept saying "My turn? My turn?" He got really upset that we wouldn't let him go up there, and I think we even ended up taking him out in the foyer because he was so mad. Anyhow, come sacrament meeting on Fathers Day. . .and the primary kids start filing their way up to the front again, which catches Cohen's attention and I can see that he wants to follow them. Well, he is such a copycat nowadays, especially of older kids, so I just knew that he'd go up there and do what everybody else was doing. So I ask him if he wants to go up there with them and he says "Uh-huh." Mind you, he's not quite 2 1/2 yet, and he won't actually go to Sunbeams until he's almost 4 because he has a February birthday. So, I scoot him out of the bench, and he follows all of the kids up there. Our ward has the biggest primary ever, so nobody really knows everybody, so one of the leaders sees that he's the shortest person up there and helps scooch him up to the very front. Perfect!! They start singing, and Cohen looks around and sees that everybody is singing, and he starts singing along!! For both songs!! I wish I had a picture or a video of his little face up there, it was priceless! You would have never known that he wasn't supposed to be up there because he was singing probably more than the real sunbeams!! We didn't run into any trouble until it was time to come down from the stand. All the kids start filing down, and I hope that he'll once again just follow the crowd. He starts to, but then realizes that they are all leaving and decides that he's not quite ready to go down yet. He turns the other way, discovers the little step stool thats there for kids to give their testimonies and pushes it back right next to the bishop and climbs up and sits down!! He was just going to sit up on the stand as the 3rd counselor for the rest of the meeting! Jared had to go get him of course, and one of the primary leaders sees him, picks him up and hands him to Jared. Jared had to walk straight out into the hall because Cohen started screaming. It was so funny! And priceless!! Honestly I would give almost anything to have a picture of it.

So last week me and the boys were running some errands. I was on the phone when we pulled into the Smiths parking lot, so I just turned off the car and finished my phone call. When I was done, I just got out of the car, got the boys out and locked the doors. Now, I have a keyless remote. . .but it's broken. Not just a dead battery here folks, it's really broken. So I'm in the habit of opening the front door and manually locking the doors. Ancient, I know. . .but it's my life. So, I go about my business, shopping blah blah blah and then as we're back out at the car I begin searching for my keys. . .DUH!!! I left them in the ignition when I turned the car off, and now, YEP, they're locked in the car. Brilliant. AND it's raining. . .AND it's naptime. So I head back into Smiths to see if they have anybody that can help me, and luckily the Bountiful Police Department still will come and help you unlock your door for free. So we wait inside the doors for 20 minutes for the cop to show up. He eventually does show up, thank goodness. . .we're minutes away, right. Wrong. At least it's stopped raining. We go out to the car and the Slim Jim the cop has is too short? What? He jimmys and jimmys and jimmys that Slim Jim and nothing happens. He starts telling me that he doesn't have a great 'Slim Jim Kit' and that other cops have better ones, and so he's going to call one of them. My keys are locked in the car, and the cop has to call for BACKUP!!! True story folks. In the meantime, Cohen is just running around our car jumping in all the puddles. Why not? As you know, he is the ultimate copycat, and after a few minutes of watching the cop shove that Slim Jim down the crack of the door he discovers a popsicle stick on the ground and starts putting into all of the cracks in the car, between the doors and windows and stuff. It was really funny. So anyhow, the backup cop finally gets there, and he has the job down in like 10 seconds flat. What an adventure huh?! I'm just glad we were in Bountiful and not somewhere else where we would have had to call a locksmith and pay $50 or something ridiculous.

Evan is starting to develop this sorta cute, sometimes annoying eating habit. He eats just fine for a minute or so, and then he wants to hold the spoon, and try to scoop his own food. Now, I really do want him to learn to feed himself, but when he actually happens to get a scoopful, and then spreads it ALL over his face in about .01 seconds, it makes a big ol' mess. I try to get the bowl empty and then let him scoop away. I've also resorted to using 2 spoons, one for me and one for him. If I'm not in a hurry, it's cute. If I'm in a hurry. . .annoying!!!

I tried to take a picture of Cohen and Evan's thighs together so you can see just how fat Evan's are. The picture's not that great but you get the idea.


I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! It makes me laugh every time I see it.

So, this is kinda sick, but really funny too. . .so if you've got a weak stomach, stop reading this post right away.
Yesterday we hear Cohen playing in the bathroom, which isn't necessarily weird, he plays all over, wherever, whenever, just as long as he's out of our hair we don't always pay attention. Anyhow, after a while, we hear him giggle. . .and then again, a really good giggle, like something is really funny, not just some mild laugh. . .so Jared goes into the bathroom to see what he's up to. I can hardly describe the scene he comes upon. Cohen is standing in front of the toilet, having already unrolled the entire roll of toilet paper, is taking big handfuls of said T.P. and is dipping them into the toilet water, then throwing his T.P. wad across the room onto the wall. . .if you were ever wondering, a huge handful of toilet paper that has just been soaked in toilet water sticks really well to a wall!!!! There are all of these drippy wads of toilet paper stuck all over the wall!!! And toilet water is streaming down, down, down the wall onto the floor below. Hence the 2 year old giggling. Hilarious eh?! Too bad we were too sicked out to think to take a picture. Silly us, we just cleaned it all up right away. Disgusting.

This morning we were outside playing in the sandbox. Cohen is having a bit of a hard time understanding the concept of not throwing sand AT his brother. I can see the fun in it, but he doesn't quite get that sand could get in Evans eye. . .blah blah blah. So, he figures out an ingenious way around the rule. . .he dumps a big shovelful of sand right on top of Evans head. And not just some little sissy shovelful. . .we've got a BIG digging shovel, yeah, a shovelful from THAT shovel. I turn around to find a PILE of sand on Evans head. A PILE!!!! Like a little pointed hat!! Of sand!!

Evan is doing great at crawling. He still mostly pushes with that crazy right leg, but sometimes he goes on both knees! He is going UP the stairs now too. He can make it all the way up from downstairs. I still stand behind him when he does the big stairs because sometimes he likes to take a break by either sitting in the middle of a stair, or standing up with his hands on the wall and looking behind him. Neither of which are safe. . .obviously. He's not really into going backwards down the stairs yet. I kinda have to force him to practice, but he's got to get it someday, right?

So heres a cute little story. Jessie called the other day to tell me that Janessa announced to her that she wanted to go and see her boyfriend. Jessie asked her who that was and she said "Baby Evan." And we always thought she was in love with Cohen. . .

Cohen Loves Broccoli!!!



Cohen has this funny little antic that we find ourselves repeating and laughing at every day. Instead of saying 'yes' to things, he says 'OK' in this cutest little voice. . .and it doesn't always fit the question you've asked or the affirmation you are looking for. For example: he asks for something, you don't quite understand so you repeat what you think he's asked for, if you are correct he says 'OK'. . .like "Cacker." "You want a cracker?" "OK". . .like you were the one who had suggested it in the first place and he was merely going along with your suggestion. Also when you ask an actual yes/no question. . ."Are you poopy?" "OK". . .what?!! So funny!!

So the best news is that Evan started crawling!!! He's not a pro yet, still a beginner, but he's deciding to go somewhere, and then slowly making his way!! What an exciting day for a tired, but more buff mother! (He weighs 23 1/2 lbs already by the way) So, he's been close to crawling for a few weeks now, going from sitting to being on all fours, but he either has just pushed himself back onto his bum, or has given up and flopped onto his belly where he DOESN'T like to be. We've tried a few different motivators, cheese, toys, crackers, etc. but nothing has motivated him quite enough to get moving. A few days ago I was sitting with him at the kitchen table and he was reaching for Riley's dog food a few feet away. Now, anybody who knows me just has to deal with the disgusting fact that I don't freak out when my kids eat dog food. . .deal with it. So I finally put 2 and 2 together and pick up the dog dish and the baby and take them to the living room. I put baby at one end, dog food at the other, and a few short minutes later have taught my baby to crawl!! Just like that!! A bowl of dog food teaches my son to crawl!! But here's the catch, it's sort of lop-sided, kinda gimpy. He rolls forward from sitting and gets on both hands, but on his right knee and left foot. That foot does all of the forward motion, and the knee leg sort of just drags behind. At least it's really cute, right?! So he's crawling more and more every day and we'll see what develops from this one leg/one knee approach he's taken. Maybe he'll lose all of the fat in his left leg, and keep it all in his right. That would be tragic.


This is Evan after he 'tasted' an easter egg!!


Saturday we were outside mowing the lawn and doing lots of yard work. Cohen insisted on helping me push the lawnmower, which was really cute but slowed my progress a bit. But who am I to stop a boy from wanting to learn to mow the lawn? After all, he's going to be doing it all by himself sooner or later, so I might as well let him do it while he wants to, right?

So, for documentation purposes I need to write this down so we'll always remember. Cohen says "Eh-an" for Evan. It took me a while to figure out he was saying Evan because it would come in the middle of some other unintelligible babble, but once I figured out thats what he was saying, I've realized that he actually says it quite a bit! He's doing his best at learning to be nice, and not hit, or bite, or kick, or push, and some days are harder than others, but he's a good big brother.

We went to Jace's 2nd birthday party last week.



Cohen is such a stud at sports!!! I mean honestly!!

So, I've realized that my posts are really boring, and I'm trying to get over it, honestly who will ever want to read this stuff? Probably just me years from now. Anyhow, I just have a few things to write about so that when I am reading this years from now, I'll remember when and how stuff happened in my childrens lives. . .

Cohen started using the potty!!! He went in it for the first time last Sunday, twice, and has gone a few times since as well!! He's not always interested in going, but when he's already naked and in the bath, he'll get out and go. I don't know where the happy medium is because now when I try and get him to go in the potty, once he has his pants off he wants to take a bath!! Now, taking a bath AND going potty takes ALOT more of my time than simply going potty does, so I don't know if I can only encourage the potty training when I have enough time to let him take a bath, or if I'll be able to distract him away from the bath after the potty-going with some delicious candy or stickers or something. The first time he went, Jared dumped the pee in the sink. . .forgetting that Cohen is the ultimate copy-cat (oh yea, and that it was THE SINK!!!). I come back in the bathroom a few minutes later to find Cohen attempting to dump another pot full of pee into the sink all by himself!!! Wow, what a good kid, hu?!!! AAAHHHH!!!! Thank goodness for Clorox disinfecting wipes, hu?! So, now we dump the pee in the toilet. S-M-R-T, I am so smart. . .

Evan is getting really close to crawling. He's pushing backwards with his arms, and if you pull his legs up underneath him he'll at least be up on all fours for a few seconds. I really need to take some pictures of his chubby little legs before he loses them. I measured them the other day, and they are 30 centimeters around. . .Cohens are only 28!! I've always said that Evans were bigger, but I wasn't sure if they actually were or if they just looked bigger because he's shorter. Nope, they are actually bigger! He's so cute though. People are always commenting on how beautiful his eyes are, strangers at the park, at the store, anywhere. He really is a beautiful baby.

So I need to write these down before I forget them.

A few weeks ago, Jared and the boys were sitting on the kitchen floor playing with each other, just making funny sounds and faces and such, and Evan would crack up at Cohen when he would do something, and then when Jared would do something funny, Evan would look at him like he was crazy, and then look back at Cohen to do something funny! It was hilarious to watch this little baby think his big brother was the coolest, and think his dad was a nerd!!

Cohen gives a mean zerbert!! Man!! The other day I was blowing raspberries on Evans tummy, and of course that looks interesting and fun to a 2 year old, so he comes over and joins in on the fun. I don't know how he was doing it, but he was giving the best ones I've heard in a long time. Nice and low and gross. Jared and I were laughing so hard! It's just like a boy to know how to make gross sounds right away, isn't it?!!

We had the annual Easter Egg Hunt in Grandma's back yard last Saturday. Josie brought some plastic eggs that were shaped like footballs, soccer balls, and baseballs. Cohen found one of the footballs, picked it up, yelled, “Hike”, sat it on the ground and with a resounding kick sent candy eggs scattering all over the yard. What a cute kid.

Cohen had his first real phone conversation today with Grandma Ward. He usually just listens to the other person talk and he smiles, and I've gotten him to 'roar' at them a time or two, but today he was actually talking back to Grandma and didn't want to give the phone back to me!! It was so cute! He kept the phone for a good 2 minutes before he finally got distracted by Riley barking at the neighbors to give the phone back to me. Every time I had tried to take it back or tell him it was my turn, he backed farther away from me and said "Mine!" or "My turn!" He's growing up so fast.

Last weekend we took a trip to Vegas (finally) for Jared's 10-ish Year High School Reunion. We had a lot of fun hanging out with his old friends, and with Oma, Papa, and Kelli. Oma and Papa's house is all torn up because they are in the middle of a complete remodel. It's coming together though, and it's going to be beautiful once it's all done. It may take a few more months, but they'll get there!! They want to give us the blue sectional from the TV room, we'll just have to see if there is any possible way for us to go down and get it. We got there late Thursday night and went straight to bed. Friday we went to lunch with Chris at Thai BBQ. . .YUM!!! Honestly some of the best food on earth. It's pretty greasy, but so good!!
Then we went to LVA for a tour of the school. They have a big new theater, and some of the old rooms have been updated or changed. It was fun to walk around with all of these old friends and hear all of the crazy stories that they remembered. Jared and some friends had spray painted their names in a storage room backstage, and they were still there!! After all these years nobody has painted over them or anything. Crazy.
Saturday morning we went fishing at a park close by. Jared caught 2 little fish that we just let go when we were done because they were so small. But nobody else was catching anything, so he was pretty lucky. It was Cohen's first fishing outing with Papa, and I'm sure there will be many more to come. He was mostly interested in the ducks and playing with the kid with a football, but a good first fishing lesson for a 2 year old nonetheless!!
Saturday there was a get together at Rachel Benke Roberts house. Not too many people came, but she had some crazy old videos that we watched. . .SO FUNNY!!! Oh gosh, I was laughing over and over at these old videos. There are some of me somewhere, so I can't make too much fun of them, but WOW!! Rachel is such a sweet girl, it was good to finally meet her last weekend.
Saturday night was the 'official' reunion and it was too expensive, but fun. We must be getting old because we went to the 'after party' but only stayed about 10 minutes before deciding we were tired, and it was too loud, so we just left. Are we really that old?! I mean, we're turning 30 this year, but geez, you think we could stay up late once in a while!!
Sunday we went to Thai BBQ again because Adam invited everyone for lunch. Same yummy greasy food. After that we went back home to spend the afternoon with the family, and we left at about 8:00 that night so the kids would sleep the whole drive rather than me having to squish in the backseat in between their carseats for 6 hours!! I was pretty sleepy by they time we pulled in our garage, but the kids slept the whole time and that was worth it!!

Missy from across the street had been taking care of Riley and she wasn't expecting us home until Monday night. Her mom, Sherri had come and let Riley in and locked up the house on Sunday night. She left the living room light and the porch lights on. I guess she got up around 4am to let their dog out to go to the bathroom because she saw that all the lights were turned off at our house and thought that someone had come over and robbed us, and killed Riley and the whole bit. She had scared herself to bits, and had called the cops to come check it out, so we woke up just after 4 to Sherri and 2 cops coming up our stairs into the living room!! It was pretty funny.

Evan is rolling over now, from front to back but not the other way. He just doesn't really care about getting from here to there unless he's on his feet. He cut the first of his top two teeth while we were in Vegas and the other one is about to come through anytime. We are walking outside a lot now that the weather is getting warmer. Cohen loves to be outside, and he's getting pretty good at hitting a big bouncy ball with the bat almost every time. He can't hit a baseball sized ball, but he's good at getting the big one!! I can't wait until next summer when we can put him on a soccer team or something. He's gonna love it.

Well, Cohen turned 2 on Monday!! Unbelievable, that he is so big already. We decided to have his birthday party at the Hogle Zoo, and it was a little chilly, but the weather was pretty nice for February. Jessie & Janessa, Amie & Jace & Desi, Rachel & Jackson, and Grandma came with us. So 6 adults and 6 kids under the age of 3. . .it was a lot of fun!! Cohen loved all of the animals, the monkeys, elephants, giraffes, turtles, penguins, bears, zebras, and the lizards. The tiger was asleep, so we didn't see him, and they don't have any lions anymore, which his favorite thing to do is 'roar' and his favorite movie right now is The Lion King so we wanted him to see a real lion, but we had to do without. It's not a big zoo, but it's just the right size for these little kids because you can basically see everything by the time everybody is tired and ready for a nap! I made an incredible Elmo birthday cake, and we had a picnic and cake after seeing all the animals. Cohen was so cute with his little friends, making sure that they were coming with us when we moved on to the next exhibit. Jace gave him an over the door basketball hoop, which he loves. We have it on the back of a kitchen chair so he can reach it, but he loves it. Grandma gave him the movie "Dumbo" which he hasn't watched yet, but with his passion for watching movies, I'm sure it won't be long!! We got him a few more DVD's, the Leap Frog Fridge Alphabet thing which will help teach him the ABC's, and a little potty!!! He actually loves his little potty. No pee pee or poo poo yet, but he likes to sit on it, and looks in it for any 'production' every few seconds. Thats a great start!!!
Evan is growing up so fast too. He weighed 20 lbs 3 oz at his 6 month check-up, so he's still in the 95th%. He is getting better with his hands, he is so grabby!!! Anything that you are holding, or trying to eat or drink he wants some and reaches for it. Dangerous!! He's finally eating baby food like a pro a few times a day. Rather than spitting everything back out at me he's actually eating it!! Yay!! He's figuring out how to march his chubby little legs forward so we like to walk him across the floor a few times a day. No rolling over yet, but he's getting closer. He almost did it yesterday, but got upset before he did.
One funny little story from a few weeks ago. We don't know where he picked this up, but when he's talking to both of us he calls us "Guys." Smart. We were in the car and Jared and I were disagreeing about something trivial, but we both sounded irritated. Cohen pipes up from the backseat, "guys. . .guys. . .GUYS!!!!!" We turned around to see what he needed, which seemed to satisfy him and he went back to drinking his bottle. I guess he just wanted to put us in our place and let us know to be quiet!!! We started laughing and that was the end of it!!