Est. 2000

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. . .