Est. 2000

Kidese. . .

2012-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write down some of the funny things the kids say, but, yet again, I've failed. . .Here's a few things they say all the time, that one day they'll get right, and I won't remember anymore.

Cohen: Ever since he's started praying, he begins his prayer with the little phrase "Heanly Father Pray"...thats what he says...Heavenly Father Pray. . .and then goes on with the thank you's and the please bless's.

Evan: When telling a story, Evan says "One a ponce a time. . ." Ha! I love it.

Will is talking a ton, and trying to write all of his little words would just never do them justice. But he communicates very well, and last night said a full, and very important sentance, "I wan sum cookie!"

Cohens first Field Trip

2012-01-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

Cohen had his first School Field Trip today. They got to go to the Fire Station and to Smiths Marketplace! Yippee!!! Jared left for work just after 9, and called me a minute later to tell me that he was right behind Cohens bus, and that Cohen was in the backseat waving at him and saying 'that's my dad!!! Cute!! I made him take a picture on his phone. Cohen is in the left window.

(It's obvious that we support the safety rules of not talking or texting or taking pictures while driving, right?!! Ha!)

Pictures from Jareds phone

2011-12-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

OK, I know this doesn't really count as blogging, but here's a ton of pictures from Jareds phone from about the last year. . .yep you heard me. . .a year!!!! But I can't seem to even start the project I wanted to have done by Thanksgiving, and Christmas is next week. So this is all you get.

Blaze Game last spring. . .

BYU game with just the 3 of us. Fall 2010.

The first good snow of winter, a year ago.

Cute little Baby Will all bundled up on the porch just watching the rest of us play in the snow!

A 4-wheeler makes snow so much more fun!!

Our 'snow hill'

I can't believe this was just a year ago!!! My little baby is growing up so fast!

OK so this picture is really dark, but if you look close you can see Riley lying at the foot of Evans bed. She sleeps there most nights. Its cute.

Oh, here's another one from that Blaze game. . .but I'm not going to take the time to put them in the same spot!!!

Camping! Yummy Dirt! July 24th weekend, 2010.

We're ALMOST to the point where camping is fun for our family!!!!

Jared and I went on a little get-away up to Johnsons Mill in Midway. They have a little pond with paddle-boats and. . .swans!

EEEEWWWWW!!!!

Heber Creeper. Not worth a dime. Don't do it!! Such a bore. . .

Our car crash! Late August this year. Dumb girl turned left in front of us. We got a nice rental car for a month out of the deal.

The view from our new back porch!!!

More dirty-faced camping

We created a piece of family art-work for our new house. This is how Will ended up. . .and no, he wasn't supposed to BE the art-work!

Jared and his dad went pheasant hunting. . .they shot 18 birds in 2 hours or something.

Oma and Papa playing cards with the kids.

John scoping for deer. . .or elk. . .or ANYTHING!

Whats not cute about a baby bum?!!

The Blinds. . .

2011-11-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

I wish the picture was better but I figured these blinds deserved their own blog post. These were the beauties that were covering the big beautiful window in our living room when we moved in!!! Somebody paid A LOT of money for these babies back in the day, and they were the first things to go!! Honestly, we moved all the crap in, slept, woke up, and started tearing these things OUT!!!!

I didn't even know it was possible to buy blinds with fabric ironed on to them so they would match your swags. . .you learn something new every day hu?!

Pictures From My Cell Phone

2011-11-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here's Cohen and Evan at the 4th of July celebration in West Bountiful this summer.

Yum. . .

Who is this kids mother anyways? Where is she?


Cohen and Evan took swimming lessons this summer at the Rec Center.


I didn't take too many pictures. . .or maybe I did and they got lost. . .in one of my many moves.

Here's Cohen on the first day of Kindergarten with his teacher Mrs Holbrook.

Let the Updates Begin!!!!!

2011-11-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

As much as I want to have to house updated, and to our taste, part of my just wants to sit and wait for 6-12 months before the chaos ensues. . .well, as you can see by the following pictures, I didn't win that battle. I didn't try very hard because I knew I would lose, but after preparing a house to put on the market, then showing that house, then moving out of that house, then living in somebody elses house for a long time, then finally moving into this house and organizing and putting away and unpacking and cleaning and starting kindergarten and blah blah blah, I was just already tired. . .what the heck, it's been mayhem for the last 7 months, whats a few more eh?!

Here's the beginning of the next 10 years worth of house projects. . .

October 22, 2011 - The weird entry wall comes down.

October 25 - Jared and I tear out the carpet in the living room and pull out all the nails, staples, and old carpet tack.

October 26, 2011 - We tear out the linoleum from the kitchen. Thank goodness Adam came to help out. . .

Amazing!!! Check out this old linoleum!!!! The best part about it is that this is the exact same linoleum that is in my grandpas house!

And some more awesome linoleum. Why did they ever cover this up?!!

Oh it's a long story about installing the wood floors. Hire someone? Do it ourselves? Hire someone to help us do it ourselves? We finally settle on hiring someone and the quote goes all ske-wompus so they are out. . .we're back to hiring someone to help us. . .then we hire 2 guys (thank goodness) and they are up there finishing as we speak!!!

This is why we didn't want to do it ourselves, tying in the new to the old without totally screwing the whole thing up. Here's what it looked like yesterday after they had taken out the old pieces along the edge to tie into the new.

Summer 2011

2011-11-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

There are some more photos of this summer somewhere on some other memory card. . .maybe one day I'll find them!!! In the meantime, here are a few photos from the summer.

Chan brought here awesome new raft up for family reunion and we took it over to Bountiful Lake to test it out.

There was this Kayaking group there and they had these kid kayaks that they weren't using so they let Cohen and Hailey try them out. They were actually pretty good at paddling themselves around!

Cute Binkie Baby. . .oh how we love that binkie!!!!

Evan and Will playing in the awesomely wood-paneled room. . .notice the groovy stone-work on the bar at the right. Oh yes, we do need a few updates.

2 of my voice students, Bella and Harrison (sister and brother), started cleaning my windows one day while waiting for each other. AWESOME!!!! So of course we had to take some dorky pictures. . .

Baby Will LOVES shoes!!! He wants to be wearing them all the time and will bring you his shoes and socks if he's not wearing any. One morning he just couldn't wait for me to get him dressed and had to have those shoes on with his jammies!!

Band-Aids. . .

2011-11-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Evan is the kind of kid that a Band-Aid will fix any of his owies. Today he got a pretty bad bonk on the back of his head. It went kinda like this:

Evan and Cohen playing downstairs. . .Evan flopping on the couch. . .Cohen putting my 5 lb. weight on a pillow on the couch. . .Evan flinging himself backwards on to what he thinks will be a nice fluffy pillow. . .Contact with Evans head and the weight. . .and wa-lah. . .we need a band-aid. . .

(Another 'old' post. . .you can see we were in the house in Woods Cross still. . .)

Just a few more. . .

2011-11-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Cohen and Evan on the first day of Pre-School in September 2010.

This post is also pretty old. . .pictures got loaded but writing never got done. . .so here's some old photos!!!

Grandpa Barlows 90th birthday party.

How is it that there are hardly any photos of this child? He must not be my first. . .

Cute little baby Will in the bath!!

Don't forget. . .

2011-11-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

(I just discovered I had a few 'drafts' in my blog list that never got posted. . .I don't remember what else they were supposed to say, but figured I'd better post them. . .needless to say, the information they contain is OLD!!!!)

This one is from last winter. . .maybe January or February. . .

First off, let me just say that my cute little baby is the BEST!!! Oh, he's needy and wants to be with me all the time, but he really is such a great baby. He's getting so chatty, it is the cutest thing ever. He babbles all of the time, and our favorite (how do you write in baby talk?) is when he gets his little tongue going lah-ler-lah-ler-lah-ler.

He is getting to the point in life where he wants to be crawling, he just doesn't know it yet. He's a-rockin' back and forth and starting to turn around in circles, but he just hates 'tummy-time' (all of my boys have). And I need him to start crawling because he is getting HEAVY!! I don't know what he weighs now (about 21 lbs I would guess), but there is another baby boy in our ward that was born the day before Will, and he's got a good 5 pounds on that kid!!

Evans 4th Birthday

2011-10-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, lets pretend something together shall we? Lets pretend that it's still the middle of August and that I am a very dedicated blogger mom and would not wait 2 1/2 months to post about my childs birthday, ok? Great, now that we are all in the right spot. . .

Evan is already 4!! Crazy!! He's such a wonderful little boy who is usually the most willing helper around here (probably has something to do with 2nd child syndrome, but that's OK with me!!). He loves playing with both of his brothers and for the most part is a happy child. We lived with my mom and dad for almost 3 months this summer and came out unscathed (maybe not Jared, but the rest of us :)), so we were living at grandmas during Evans birthday. . .and what do you know, another water party was all I could come up with! He wanted froggy cupcakes again like last year, and so we did that and a few cookie monster cupcakes just to mix it up. They are so EASY and turned out pretty cute.

HAHAHA!!! Some little bum-cracks!!!

Most of the party-go-ers.

Evan and all his loot.

There, are you happy? An update. . .phew!!!

Janessa might have some competition after all. . .

2011-06-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last week Cohen met a little girl named Megan at the park. They played for an hour and then saw each other again at Free School Lunch (the best thing ever by the way). While they were playing he came over and told me, "Her is a little bit older than me and her is a little bit cute." Good to know.

Later that day we were driving in the car, and he had obviously been thinking about her a lot because he kept on talking about the next time he would see her and how much fun he had. . .when out of the blue he exclaims, "Oh man!!!! I forgot to show Megan my muscles!!!!"

MOVING!!!!!

2011-05-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

So, we are moving. . .aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!! We've been looking at homes for a long time now, and were getting our house ready to put on the market. About a month ago we found a home that we finally felt excited about. It is a Short Sale, and we were not the first offer, but we went ahead and put an offer on it, because with a Short Sale, you can basically back out without any repercussion for any reason at any time until you get into the thick of things I guess, which normally takes a lot of time (the SHORT in Short Sale does NOT refer to the amount of time it takes. . .quite the opposite).

About a week later, we finally had our home ready to put on the market. We signed with some limited representation agency because of my background in 'the biz', but we knew it was important to be on the MLS. Anyhow, after a little mix-up where our home got listed as a 3600 sq ft home with 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. . .(see why I think I'm smarter than most Real Estate agents?) the guy finally got it right with all of those numbers being 1/2 of that. . .duh. . .1800 sq ft, 4 beds, 2 baths. We had some pretty good pictures of the house, and I think that was what made our next 5 days pretty successful. We had 7 showings in 5 days, and then an offer!! And at ALMOST our asking price. Nowadays, I would consider ALMOST asking price in 5 days to be just as good as full asking price, right?! So, we signed as fast as we could, and now we're just 2 weeks away from getting kicked out!!! And the Short Sale has. . .well. . .sat wherever it is sitting for 4 more weeks, which makes it 4 weeks closer to coming to somebody's attention, right?! Well, actually some things on that front have progressed, but . . .well, I'll get to that.

So, here are the pictures of our lovely little house. The one where all of our children have learned to walk. . .The one where 2 of them first came home to. . .the one where we have such great neighbors that I want to take them with me. . .so many things about this home we are going to miss. But we really are feeling the pull to be where we are going to stay for a long long long long long long time. . .Nobody's dream-home is a split-level, is it? Well, it's not ours, although this house has been good to us. . .

So, on to a bigger and better home, right? OK, the short sale, the short sale. . .We had a pretty good idea that our offer was higher than that first one, and eventually we knew it. Last week the seller sent that first offer (who was an investor by the way, so don't go feeling bad for them or anything) a letter requesting that they either up the ante, or step aside. Well folks, they stepped aside!! So we are now in first position, with our closing date on this home looming ever nearer!!! It's a good thing my mom and dad live so close. . .yep, now we're really going to be living the dream - moving in with mom and dad!! Whoopeee!!! I keep telling myself 'Just think of the money you could save the longer you stay there. . .' It's a way to look on the bright side, right?! No, really it's going to be great and we're lucky and thankful that we have them so close by so that we're not left in the streets while the bank gets its crap together.

I'll post more details about the new house soon. It's great. We're going to love it.

Baby Will is ONE!!!!

2011-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

As crazy as that is, it's true. My little baby is 1 already. This last year has gone by so fast I can hardly believe it! Will has been such a great baby. I don't know how I did it, but all of my babies have been pretty good. I was sure that after Cohen and Evan both being good babies that I was in for it with this one, but he has been just as good, if not better than the other two! (I'm sure it has everything to do with my amazing parenting skills.)

He's already talking a ton. He loves to babble, and is starting to copy a ton of sounds. His first official word was 'clap'. Not mom, not dad, but clap. It is more like caa caa caa, but he does it when he claps his hands so that counts. He also now says mama and dada, and just in the last week has started saying bahh for ball, wuh wuh for woof woof, dah or ahg for dog (he's been saying that one for a few weeks), and rrrrrrrr for roar.

He's doing this fake laughing thing that cracks us up. He'll put on his biggest, cheesiest grin, scrunch up his nose, and throw his head back and laugh. It's so funny!!! Honestly, he is the happiest kid!!!

He's getting close to walking, which makes him the slowest so far on that front. Cohen started walking, I mean real, actual walking, the day after his first birthday. Two days after Evans first birthday he was walking 5-6 feet between us but took a few weeks more to where he was using it to really get around. And now we have 3rd baby syndrome. . .we just haven't spent the time making him do it I guess!! He's getting close though.

So, being born the first few days of April is going to be bad for planning this childs birthday parties for his whole life. Because even if his birthday isn't on the Saturday or Sunday of General Conference, Conference will always be the weekend that you want to have the party!!! His birthday was last Saturday, so to celebrate, we watched conference!!! Super exciting eh?!! Yet another tragedy of being the 3rd child - your parents know that you don't know it's your birthday, and they no longer care to celebrate it for themselves. Cohen wanted to have a Pirate Party for Wills birthday and invite all of his friends because Baby Will doesn't have any, but I said no.

Between sessions I got up the nerve and made the cake. I didn't know when the heck we would eat it because we had plans in between 2nd session and Priesthood session. But I made it in faith that we would find time to eat it. I made it in the Elmo cake pan that I had from Cohens 2nd birthday and figured I'd just frost it with chocolate frosting and make it look like a bear. I asked Melissa to pick up some chocolate frosting on her way, but I failed to tell her that I was trying to make a bear-cake. To her credit, she did call while she was at the store and ask if she could get cream-cheese frosting instead. In the mayhem that generally rules my house, I said 'sure' and so. . .we have a POLAR BEAR cake!!! Ha!

Super fancy eh?! If you sort of cross your eyes and imagine Elmo, you can see that his eyes are where our polar bears ears are. . .see it? Oh yeah.

All I had was this black tube frosting to decorate with, so this is what you get. A Chinese looking polar-bear. Maybe we should have made it into a panda. . .

YUMMY!!!

I'm not messy enough!!! I've got to put my plate on my head so you can't just clean me up with baby wipes!!! (I would never. . .HA!)

Here. . .have what's left of my cake. (Poor Riley in the background. . .unnoticed by the sharer.)

Happy Birthday little baby!!! We love you so much!

Who's Right Here?

2011-02-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight at dinner, Evan starts singing:

"Follow duh pwahfet, follow duh pwahfet, follow duh pwahfet, (now shaking his finger at me) don't go a-stwaaaaaay"

First of all, I didn't know he could sing that song, so I was totally impressed.

Then Cohen joins in the singing and the way he's saying 'astray' sounds funny, so I ask him "Don't go a-what?"

C - "Don't go a-STRANGE."

Evan pipes up and in a very reprimanding voice says to Cohen, "NO! It's don't go a-STWAIT!"

So, either way you look at it, just follow the prophet.

THE BATMAN PARTY!!!!!!

2011-02-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

Cohen turned 5 last week!!! Can you believe it? FIVE!!!!!!! He'll go to kindergarten in the fall, and before you know it he'll be leaving me forever. . .my baby, gone!!! WAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I had all sorts of grand ideas for this Batman/Superhero party, but Baby Will was super sick last week and wanted to be held every waking moment so most of these grand ideas got simplified and simplified until they were. . .well. . .actually just right. Perfect!

We started with a game of 'Pin the Bat-a-Rang on the Joker'. Cohen wanted Bat-a-Rangs somehow. This is what I came up with. Brilliant, I know.

As soon as that game was over, we discovered a note written by the BAD GUYS!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!

I led them on a picture scavenger hunt (because most of them can't read yet, I just drew pictures of the clues) that ended here:

Oh yes, I created a Batcave. . .right in my own garage. . .you opened that door with the awesome hand-crafted sign on it and were led right into 'the cave'. I set up our large tent in the garage. Perfect, yes.

You'll notice in the picture above, pictures of 'BAD GUYS' taped to all of the balloons inside of the Batcave. . .Well, they had to STOMP out the bad guys in lieu of beating them up. Clever, right? (This was one of those things that was going to be more elaborate. . .I had plans to make a pinata decorated like some bad guy or other that they could take turns smacking, like beating up the bad guy, get it? This was SOOOO much easier!!)

So here they are stomping out those bad guys. Thank you TJ for making the appropriate face to accompany this photo.

Hidden deep within the cave, under an inconspicuous cardboard box. . .

THE CAKE!!!

(Another thing that was going to be elaborate that ended up being easy. Thank goodness!! What was I thinking? It just gets eaten!!!!)

They rescued it from the hands of evil that had confiscated it for evil-doing, so that we could, yep - eat it.

I even made myself a Super-Hero mask and wore Evans cape. I was Super-Mom!!! Dun-dun-dun.

It looks like you need to take a really really big breath to blow out all of those candles!!!!

Yea, we had something like 14 kids at this party. . .never again. . .

Then we unwrapped presents. I forgot to take a picture of him at the end with ALL the loot, so here's just a few.

He was so excited to get his first box of LEGO's from Connor.

Bad picture of Cohen, but here's the awesome Iron-Man dude he got.

Yummy Cake!

Baby Will. . .getting ready for his 1st birthday in about 6 more weeks. . .practicing with Cohens cake!

After cake we played games and let the kids just go crazy in the AWESOME Bat-Cave. I think everybody left happy. Success.

2011-02-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

This morning I'm getting ready, and Cohen, right out of bed, comes in and says "Mom, I need to tell you something." OK. . . "Will you get me a computer for my bedroom?" What?! I say "No, you're not old enough for that." C - "Ok, will you get me one when I'm 6?" By now I'm just chuckling. . ."No, we have a computer for our family, we don't all get our own. C - "PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAASE?"

Really? A computer in your bedroom at 5 years old? I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

And then, later, when we're eating breakfast, I'm talking to the boys about what they will be learning about at PreSchool. They have Show-And-Tell every Tuesday, and every week is a new topic, so the rule now is that you bring something to Show-&-Tell that actually has something to do with the subject rather than the same toy over and over and over, which is what was happening from my house at least! This week they are learning about our Country and Presidents, because it was Presidents Day yesterday. I ask if he knows what country we live in. "Yep, Woods Cross." Well, he's got the idea, but nope, that's not our country. I ask if he's ever heard of the United States of America, or the USA? Nope. Have you heard of Mexico? Nope. I knew he'd heard of China because I have threatened to send him there, and have also warned him not to call there when he's playing on my phone. Anyhow I say, 'But you've heard of China?' Yep! Yay! I haven't taught him NOTHING, right? and he says "I know how they talk in China." How's that? "Oo-ya-ka. And they say Oh-yee-sa-ha."

There you have it. Cohen is bilingual. Isn't TV great for educating your children?!

Quick Photo Update. . .

2011-02-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Naked babies in the bath. . .always cute.

Baby Will in December. . .gosh. . .there just aren't very many pictures of baby #3 are there?!!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree.

You want a Christmas Card? Here's your Christmas Card!!

The first snow of this year. It was a big one!

An awesome game called "Ring Around the Nosey"!! Thanks Lauren and Justin!!!

Cute Baby Will - 10 months old

Happy Monday Morning

2010-11-15T09:40:00.001-08:00

This is not a joke:

12:30am - Cohen coughs so hard he barfs in bed (in MY bed because Jared is out of town). We get up, start some laundry, have a bowl of cereal, go back to bed.

2:30am - Cohen coughs so hard he barfs in my bed AGAIN. We get up, clean it all up, start another load of laundry, I turn on a show for Cohen to get him tired again and at 4am he wakes me up and asks if I can change it to a new show. He's still awake watching TV. Ha! I turn it off and he falls asleep on the couch.

9am - Baby Will has the blowout of the century (in MY bed because we woke up at 6 to nurse and we both fell asleep), so I start a 3rd batch of laundry with my last remaining bedding. At least it's all clean now!!!

10am - Cohen spills a FULL bowl of Frosted Flakes all over him and the rug that's close to him. Milk and soggy cereal EVERYWHERE. I decide to just keep up the trend and start another load of laundry. Might as well wash the other rug in the kitchen too because it got drawn on with marker last week. Just as I'm starting that load, the baby (who is all clean and dressed after his bath earlier) chokes himself on the thing he's playing with and barfs all over his clothes. Luckily the washing machine was still filling up so those clothes just get thrown in. . .HAPPY MONDAY TO ME!!!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

My 2 nieces Makenzie and Katrisa both ran in the State Cross Country Meet this year.

Makenzie had a rematch race with Cohen and Evan to see if they could still run faster than her, like last year. Looks like she still needs to work on her speed. . .

This is what you do with a baby who gets a hold of his own bowl of baby-food-mushy-goo and dumps it all down inside the seat of his booster seat.

Big shoes to fill. . .

Spiderman. . .

Robin. . .again. . .he wouldn't wear Cohen's Batman costume from last year so that we'd have a 'Spiderman, Batman, and Superman' thing, of course. So we ended up with a 'Spiderman, Robin, and Superman' thing. Still all super-heros, but not quite the same!!

Yup. . .this is the only picture of the 3 of them together. Go figure. Nice muscles Cohen.

We carved pumpkins for FHE the Monday before Halloween. With Halloween being almost a whole week away from that, they were pretty much soggy, toothless-looking-old-men by the time Halloween rolled around! Ha! But isn't Baby Will the cutest thing ever?!!

I came up with this at the last minute. I don't know if it makes anybody else laugh, but it made me laugh!!

(I really had NO faith that we'd ever find anything worthwhile to do with that deer rack that was just taking up space on our garage shelves, but my faith has been restored.)

Hey Spiderman!! No hands!!!

Go Robin!! Lick it to death!!!

Baby Evan enjoying a cupcake from the cake-walk. . .YUM

Take a close look. . .this is what happens when you let your kid wear the same costume 3 years in a row. . .Looks uncomfortable to me, but to each his own I guess.

A few more pictures from summer.

2010-11-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

My Grandpa Barlow turned 90 this year and we had a celebration/reception for him in September. Here are my boys with him.

Cohen took these pictures of me and Baby Will

A baby in a bath is always cute!

Here's the boys on their first day of Pre-School this year. We're doing a mommy-co-op again, which means it's FREE!! There are 6 moms this year, so your turn only comes around every 6 weeks which is awesome compared to last year!

Updated pictures

2010-10-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

The boys are growing up so fast

Here are some more

The Celtic Festival

2010-09-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, we went up to the Celtic Festival in Logan with my sister Julie. The best part? Hands down, the Chocolate-Covered-Frozen-Cheesecake-On-A-Stick. Ohhhhh goodness me.

They had a train ride and pony-rides that were free once you were in, which was awesome because Evan was free to get in in the first place!

I love this silly grin.

They had lots of bagpipers and all those crazy Celtic Festival competitions going on, but the boys LOVED the little 'Fight the Giant' experience. They stood in line 5 times and killed that guy over and over! Here's way too many pictures of them fighting this guy, but it was so cute!

More Pictures From the Summer

2010-09-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here's Cohen and Evan with their future wives Juliette and Lizzie. . .Britt, if you have a better picture of this send it to me, cuz this was the best one I got. . .

"Look Mom! I gave Baby Will a hat!"

There's those 2 bottom teeth!

Cohen and Evan getting ready to play soccer with the Summer Rec program. They loved it!!

Go Evan!!


Here they are on a train-ride at the 24th of July celebration in Bountiful.

My dad invited us to come along to his company's summer picnic up at Pineview. It was a blast!! Evan got to go on a long ride with Grandma and Hannah. He loved it. . .and then he fell asleep on Hannah's back while they were still out there!!

Evan, Cohen, Hailey, Hannah, and me.

Here's Cohen the Teddy Bear. Aren't older cousins the best?!

Cherry Hill

2010-09-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

We went with our neighbors, the Dahlke's, to Cherry Hill for miniature-golf and batting cages a few weeks ago.

Yeah. . .the helmets were a bit big on the boys.

And apparently Blogger is updating their posting format, but it's kinda not working for me. So, sorry about that.

If he could see out of that helmet, he probably would have done better!

Keep your eyes open Evan!!!

Ok, so this is my awesome Baseball form. . .Yep, I pretty much can bunt that ball to heck.

Jared's form is way better, but his picture is blurry. Sorry. He hit most of them! Such a stud.

Evan's Birthday - take 2

2010-09-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

For our little family celebration of Evans birthday we went to Classic Fun Center in Layton where there's lots of bounce house things and a big Pirate Play-place.

Evan. . .must be really excited to be there!!!

Cohen climbing "The FORTRESS". . .dun-dun-dun. . .

Yep, that's Jareds foot pressing Cohens gas pedal.

Ski-Ball!!

Looks like he's saying "I'm number one!" but if you notice, the ball is falling to the floor right by his leg!!! Ha!!

Cute Baby Will

Teachin 'em young

Let's get a few things straight here. . .

2010-08-29T14:23:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, the Sister Missionaries were teaching Sharing Time for Primary. They were talking about how if we are righteous, we can go live with Jesus after we die. Cohen blurts out, "I don't want to live with Jesus! I already have a family, can't I just live with them?!"

He has a point. . .so they go on to explain how we can live with Jesus AND our families after we die. Our mom and dad, our brothers and our sisters, and he busts out again, "But I don't have any sisters. Well, I have two brothers and a sister that is coming soon."

What?! So, now all of the primary teachers are wondering if we are already having another baby, and if we are, then just how far along am I that we already know it's a girl. . .

Apparently he had them rolling in the aisles because we heard about it from about 6 different people!!

Let me just clear things up though, we are NOT having another baby yet. Cohen did have a dream about a sister, she had brown hair just like him and Evan and Mommy and Daddy, and he's certain that's what's next. I'll take his word for it, because that would make me really happy. . .but let me recover from the last one a bit first please!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Evan!!!

2010-08-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Oh my cute little Evan. . .3 years old already?!!! I can't believe it!!

Aren't summer birthdays the best?! You don't have to think up any creative theme or do much planning. . .just whip out the swimming pool and slip-n-slide, fill up some water balloons, bake some cupcakes and call it good!Carter W., Lizzie, Brett, Evan, Cohen, Braydon, Janessa, Kye, Juliette, Carter H., Haylie. . .and T.J. who wouldn't get in the picture.

I'm on the decline in my creativity with birthday cakes. . .well, maybe I've just got 3 kids under my feet or in my arms all of the time, so awesome train cakes or pirate ship cakes (like I did for Evans 1st and 2nd birthdays) will have to wait until I'm older. Ha! But I think these turned out pretty cute for a minimal effort. A few minutes spent google-ing cupcake ideas and then a quick mental checklist of what I'd already got in my pantry, and wah-lah! Cute little froggy cupcakes. A few crusty marshmallows, some chocolate chips, and red piping. Done. Oh, and if you take the time to COUNT the cupcakes on this tray, you will notice that there are only 18, not your typical 24.
Don't think that I only made 18, oh no. . .I started with 24. I made the full 24 the night before, and let Jared eat one because he's a hottie. I woke up in the morning to find 5 cupcakes gone. . .apparently consumed by this dog:We were dog-sitting my brothers dog Toby, and he enjoyed himself during the night I guess. Had a little chocolate-cupcake party all by himself. I guess he knew that that would be his only chance and he'd better eat some if he wanted any at all! He's a good dog and very obedient. . .but when there's nobody awake to tell him 'no', what's a dog to do?!

They must have been delicious. . .I don't think he could shove it in fast enough!

Oh, and here's Cohen. Kids and band-aids, right?! He had a mosquito bite smack in the middle of his forehead and insisted it needed a band-aid. Awesome. Yep, that's my kid.

Throwing some water-balloons. . .

Blowing out the candles. . .
And here's Baby Will. . .flipping the bird!!

Baby Teeth

2010-08-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

Baby Will cut his first tooth yesterday!!! At 4 months and 2 days old!! He has had a runny nose for a few days now, and yesterday he was fussy-ish. . .and last night I felt that first little tooth! All of our kids have cut their teeth early. Cohen was before 5 months, and Evan cut his first tooth on his 4 month birthday. So, I suppose Baby Will is just following suit! He's such a wonderful baby that I was wondering what was bugging him yesterday because he was fussy for the first time in his life. I am so blessed!!!

Really??? Already?!!!

2010-08-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Cohen informed me last week that:

"Nessa is my sweetie and Juliette is my girlfriend."

What?!!! I guess my mother always did curse me with children just like me, right?!!

2010-08-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a few updates. . .Evan is fully potty-trained!!! Yay!!! Compared to Cohen who took 6 months, one month seemed like a breeze!!! I wasn't going to start potty-training him until he turned 3, but he started waking up dry from the nighttime. I figured if he could hold it at night, he could hold it in the day. #1 only took a few days to get down, and #2 took about a month. But now we're done!!! He's doing awesome and I'M SO HAPPY!!!! Only one child in diapers. . .again. . .ahhh.

He's getting better at it now, but for the first few months Evan sounded like he was saying 'Baby Wow' rather than Baby Will. It was so cute!

June 2010

2010-08-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Cute Baby Will!!

I gave all the boys a haircut, and the next day, Cohen adjusted his a little bit with Jared's nose-hair-trimmer!! Ha! I guess this is our first 'self-haircut'.

Evan must have just gotten too worn out to get dressed!!

For Fathers Day, the boys helped me wrap Jared's gifts, and bring him breakfast in bed.

The food was supposed to be for Jared. . .good thing dad's know how to share, hu?!!

We took a little drive up the mountain and stopped for some lunch and to throw rocks off the mountain. . .

Evan started throwing the charred remains of somebody's firewood. . .

We went to a water party, and they had this little slip-n-slide. Evan was a little hog and took every other turn! He would get off, then go stand at the front of the line, stare at the kid whose turn it was supposed to be for a second, then go again!! I had to intervene, but I thought it was funny!

Memorial Day 2010 and Baby Will

2010-06-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

Woods Cross City does a little 5k Fun-Run and breakfast every year for Memorial Day, and since I had just started running again I wanted to go for it! We were still parking the car when they shot the gun to start, so I was a little late in starting and I still finished in 37 minutes!! Not too shabby for having an 8 week old baby, right?!

And finally, a few more pictures of Baby Will.
Hopefully more will follow soon!

Cohen Graduating From Joy-School

2010-06-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

This last year we for pre-school we did Joy-School with 2 other boys in our neighborhood. Big Evan (we had to call him that at our house, and our Evan became Baby Evan) and T.J. Here they are on Graduation Day!

I don't know if I'm the only one who finds this video amusing because I'm Cohens mom, but I think it's pretty funny!! Cohen is the only one who sings, well Evan sings a little bit but he wasn't even supposed to be up there!! The other two just stand there like they've never heard the song before.

Our Trip to D.C. . .5 MONTHS AGO!!!

2010-06-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

So, in February, Jared had a rare week off of work, so we decided to take a trip!!! Since who knows how long until that opportunity will arise again, we decided to make it a good one and went out to Washington D.C. to visit my sister Julie and Jareds sister Lauren and her family, and of course to see the sights! I don't know how we ended up not taking very many pictures, but we didn't, so here are some that we took and since it's been so long, I can't even remember what we did! Just kidding. I'll try my best to piece a few of the memories together. . .

Mostly the adults played Rock Band after the kids went to bed. . .SO FUN!!! Once you get the hang of it, it's a blast!! I have to say that Justin is a true rock star, and can sing most of the songs. I didn't think I would love it like I did, but I did!!! Here are a few pictures of me and the boys playing before they went to bed one night.

We were there over Cohen's birthday, and so we had to do something to celebrate. We tried to go to a bouncy-playland-type thing, but it was closed, so we decided to go bowling and to McDonald's instead. Luckily we didn't get pulled over, because we decided to all just shove into Laurens car rather than take 2 trips. . .so that would be Lauren, the driver, me at 7 months pregnant holding Evan on my nonexistent lap in the passenger seat, Ryan who took up the most space comparatively speaking because he was just 4 months old but took a whole space with his baby carseat. . .lets see. . .that leaves Jared shoved into the rest of the back seat with Cohen and Sophie!! Ha!! That little old car was feeling every bump for sure!!! So, as lots of illegal things are, it was fun!

Jared and Charlie. . .

We decided that we wanted this vacation to feel like a vacation, so we decided to only go up into the city a few times. I was willing to be a good sport, but I don't think I could have done much more than we did with my big belly weighing me down, and that baby sitting on my sciatic nerve like he was. It turned out to be the perfect amount of sight-seeing and relaxing, and we love hanging out with Lauren and Justin. The week went by really fast.

The most exciting and scary thing that happened was that we lost Evan at the Museum of Natural History. . .yep, an enormous Smithsonian museum and we lose our 2 year old. It was getting close to closing time and so we were getting ready to leave. We parked on a bench in the foyer for a little rest and to gather everybody together. I needed to use the bathroom, so I went to do so. Apparently Evan wanted to come with me. . .I didn't know it, but everybody else assumed that I did as they watched him walk away right behind me. I came back from the bathroom and asked where he was. . ."He went with you." Ha ha. No he did not go with me. . .so we begin the search, through millions of square feet of museum. . .I kept expecting to find him around the each corner that I turned, or that each time I would circle back around to where Justin was waiting he would have been found by somebody else and would be there waiting. Each time he wasn't there I got more and more anxious. Finally Lauren went upstairs so I went downstairs, this was about after 5 minutes which seemed like forever, right? At this point I began to imagine that he had somehow gotten swept outside with the throngs of people leaving because it was closing time. I was imagining him all alone outside and that's when I lost it. Crying, trying not to, I approach a security guard and babble my situation to him. He looks at me like I'm pathetic and sends me to the security office. By the time I got there and told my story again and described him, they had found him upstairs in the gift shop, and by the time I got there, Jared had found him. Of course he was crying because he really felt lost, it wasn't like he was browsing the shop for some souvenir to take! It was SCARY!!!!! I couldn't believe all of the crazy and scary scenarios that went through my head in that 5ish minutes. We got him back, he was safe, and now we have a good story to tell, right?!

So, there you go. A few pictures and details about our trip to D.C. Better late than never, right? Now if I can only get around to posting more pictures of our cute baby!!!

2010-05-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

From a photo shoot yesterday. The first pictures of all of them together. We love our little boys.

2 weeks old

2010-04-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more pictures of our sweet little Will.

Here's one of all that hair!!!

Cohen's first talk in church

2010-04-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Cohen was asked to give the talk in primary last Sunday about how Jesus restored the gospel through Joseph Smith. We had a family home evening lesson on Joseph Smith and used some pictures from the gospel art kit to tell the first vision. Then we asked Cohen to stand up on the couch and tell the family the story. He grabbed his plastic microphone, snatched the pictures out of Jared's hand and told us all about "a boy named Joseph Smith". He's quite the little story teller. Throughout the week we would say "Cohen, tell us about Joseph Smith", so on Sunday he couldn't wait to tell the other kids the story of the first vision. Several kids in primary got up to share a scripture, say a prayer, tell a story, etc, and they all had their parents with them. We were sitting in the back and began to wonder if we should get up to help him. We decided to just see what would happen. It was his turn. He climbed up to the microphone, pulled it down to his mouth, and... well, here is Cohen telling the first vision in his own words...

William Logan Haddock

2010-04-08T18:33:00.001-07:00

Our baby has arrived!!! William Logan Haddock was born on April 2nd, 2010 at 5:08 am! That was exactly 2 weeks early and he was 8 lbs. 9 oz.!! 21 inches long, and he has a lot of dark hair around the back of his head, but it's a little sparse on top. We think he'll have blue eyes like the rest of us, and we think he looks more like Cohen than Evan. He is so cute!!! Welcome to our family Will, we love you!

I'd been talking for months about how I didn't want him to be born on April 1st. Any time but April 1st!! I also had students paid through the end of March, so I wanted to give everybody their final lessons before taking some time off. So, for a long time, I've been saying that April 2nd would be the first day I would want him to be born. I didn't expect it to really happen that way!!

I started having contractions around bedtime on April 1st, but nothing that I hadn't had before. We went to sleep, and I woke up at 12:30 and again at 1:30 with harder contractions, but I was still able to go back to sleep. I woke up at 2:30 and they were really getting painful. I waited a little bit to wake up Jared, but I finally woke him up around 3 and we started packing a bag just in case. I didn't want to call my mom and go to the hospital in the middle of the night, only to be sent home, so I wanted to wait until I was sure this was it. Jared called my mom at about 3:15, and she got here just after 3:30. I was really having hard contractions by this point, like as hard as when I'd asked for my epidural with the other boys. We got in the truck and drove down to LDS hospital, and got there just after 4 am. We got up to Labor and Delivery at exactly 4:11, they sent us right to a room without really checking in because they could see I was really in the thick of it. I got into my hospital gown and onto the bed, and when she checked me I was already at a 6 1/2!!!! My midwife got there about 20 minutes later, and I was complete, ready to push! My body just knows how to have a baby I guess!!

I had planned on trying to go natural, and in hindsight, I think it's a good thing I was mentally prepared for that because I don't think I would have had time for an epidural even if I had wanted it!!

So, I pushed through about 6 or 7 contractions, the first of which were probably pretty ineffective because I could hardly breathe in, let alone breathe big and then push. . .anyhow, I finally told myself that if I could just breathe, he probably would come right out, and he did!!!

The whole thing was pretty intense, but thankfully it went by really fast!

So, I had tested positive for the Strep B virus, which is common in women but could pose a problem for the baby, so they want you to be on an antibiotic for 4 hours before the baby is delivered. Needless to say I only got about 20 minutes of the antibiotic before he was born, so they go on alert because of that. Then he was grunting with each breath, which Cohen did his first day too, but they say that can be a sign that he's having trouble breathing, so they go on higher alert because of that. Then they check his temperature and it's a little low, he's still not 30 minutes old - give the kid a chance!!!, so they go on higher alert because of that!!! Then they take his blood, and find that his glucose level is low, and they admit him to the "Special Care Nursery," basically the NICU. WHAT?!!! None of these things pose a real threat by themselves, but because he had four marks against him, they took him in there for 48 hours of anti-biotic for the possible Strep B, and glucose in an IV to raise his levels there, and put him under a heat lamp. . .blah blah blah. I have mixed feelings about it. . .I'm glad he was getting good care, but he did not need to be in there. He had just been born!!! Of course he was still adjusting!!! Give the kid a minute will you?!! I wish I hadn't let them take him so soon for the blood test, but you just assume that everything is fine, and he'll be back in your arms in 10 minutes. I wish I had just kept him with me and told them to hold off on the testing for an hour or two. I wonder if that would have made a difference. His temperature leveled out quickly, his glucose came right up, and probably would have done the same if they had let me nurse him, his breathing stayed grunty most of that first day, but we've been through that before, and his labs on the Strep B all came back clear as a bell!!! AAAHHHHH!!! It makes me frustrated to think about it.

Anyhow, he spent 48 hours in there, and I was never scared, just annoyed that he couldn't be in my room, and that Cohen and Evan couldn't come visit him in the hospital. Cohen was so sad that he couldn't see baby Will, he started crying when they left that first time. The second day, Will's nurse held him up to the window for them to see, but what kind of introduction is that?!!

Here's the boys enjoying my hospital bed!!! Laying in bed, watching a movie, eating cookies and having free drinks. . .what could be better than that?!!

So our hospital stay wasn't any longer than normal, but we probably would have come home on Saturday afternoon instead of staying all the way until Sunday. He's perfectly healthy and strong, and he's super cute!!

'Nearing the End!!!' - Pregnancy Post

2010-03-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

In my last post about this pregnancy, I mentioned that my hips were getting pretty painful, and that I was hobbling etc. Well, it just got worse from there, and pretty soon I was in constant pain all the way around my right hip area. It felt like if I could just stretch my sciatic nerve the right way, that would help, but my belly makes it so I can't round out my back the right way to stretch my lower back. I was in constant pain. Sitting, standing, walking, sleeping. . .constant pain. I discovered that if I ever have a condition that gives me chronic pain, I will probably not be one of those people who, when I die other people say 'she was always in pain, but you never knew it.' No, no, I would be a complainer I think. And even sleeping was a burden. I can't lay on my back, not only because they tell you not to, but because the weight of the baby pressing on my ribs and lungs makes it hard to breathe. I couldn't lay on that right side because then I was laying on the sore hip and it hurt. Laying on my left side wasn't any better because that made that nerve pinch just a bit more, and hurt even more!!
I could also feel that the baby was breech. I could feel that the bump at the top of my belly was nice and round like a head, and not quite like a bum. At my 33 week appointment, she did a 2 second ultrasound to confirm that it was his head, and then we talked about having to have an 'external version' if he hadn't turned by 37 weeks. That's where they push on your belly from the outside and try to get the baby to turn. Apparently it's pretty painful, and so I figured I would try all of the 'old-wives-tales' options that you find on the internet for turning a breech baby, rather than just wait until 37 weeks. Oh man, there are lots of crazy ways to try and turn your baby. Everything from laying upside-down on your ironing board that's propped up against your couch, to acupuncture and acupressure, to seeing a chiropractor to align your hips (I have a friend who this worked for, and since I was having so much pain in my hips, I was about to call her chiropractor and schedule an appointment). The best one is these Chinese incense sticks called Moxa-Sticks that burn really really hot, and you burn them next to your pinkie toes to activate your 'baby-turning-pressure-points' or something. I was about to try those too. I figured trying some of this stuff was worth it, especially if it worked, right?! So, the easiest option all of these websites suggest is visualization. I figured that was the easiest because I could do it when I laid down to go to sleep, so I decided to try it that night. I believe absolutely in the power of positive thinking, but I didn't think it would work right away!! I went to bed and visualized him turning a few different ways, and then drifted off to sleep. I woke up at 3:30 and got out of bed. . .and I could walk!!! My hip didn't hurt AT ALL!! He had turned, and the little stinker had been sitting on my sciatic nerve and causing all that pain!!! I was so happy that I couldn't go back to sleep for 2 hours!!
Anyhow, since then, it's been like any 3rd trimester, but I can walk!!!

Cohen's Primary Spotlight

2010-03-14T13:53:00.001-07:00

Cohen got spotlighted in Primary last Sunday, and here are his answers to the questionnaire, which I helped him fill out at the end of January:

1. What is your favorite Holiday?
- Christmas and my Birthday

2. What is your favorite Book or Toy?
- Lots of different dinosaur toys.

3. What is a pet you have or want?
- A dog named Riley.

4. Where would you like to serve a mission?
- The Zoo.

5. What do you want to be when you grow up?
- A train conductor and an airplane conductor.

6. What is something you love about your family?
- Mom and Dad and Evan and the baby and my dog.

7. What is your favorite scripture story?
- Jesus.

I happened to be substituting for another woman that day, so I got to see him get spotlighted. They have all of the kids stand up, and then they read each question and answer, and if what they say doesn't apply to you, you're supposed to sit down until only one person is left. It doesn't always work so well in Junior Primary because kids stand back up if they hear something they do like, even if it wasn't their answer, it's funny. As she was reading along, Cohen was standing up, but not paying much attention, and she reads "I have dog named Riley" and he snaps-to, jumps up and down saying, "My dog is named Riley!! My dog is named Riley!!" So he went up to the front while she read the rest of his answers, and he got a special pillow-case from the Primary. It was really cute to see him up there.

Where did he learn this?!!

2010-01-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a 'blah' day, but I finally got up the nerve and did the dishes, and had the boys help me clean Cohens room and the living room. I was sweeping the floor, and Cohen gets out these Finding Nemo 'go-fish' cards and throws them all over the place. . .not a big deal. The two of them proceed to pick up a few, hide behind the computer cabinet door and then on Cohens prompt, they jump out yelling 'Surprise!!!' and throw the cards all over. I go into the bathroom, and Cohen follows me in there with a big pile of cards and throws them at me and yells 'Surprise!!' and then runs into our bedroom and shuts the door. I tell him to come back in the bathroom and clean up the cards and he opens the bedroom door, looks at me, and says:

"Oh yea?. . .take THIS!"

and then he runs over and head-butts me in the leg!!!

What?!! I didn't teach him that!!!. . .I don't think. . .Where does he come up with this stuff?!!

Pregnancy. . .Oh the Joy!!!

2010-01-22T17:21:00.001-08:00

So, I've been meaning to do this post for a long time, so that I have a record and can remember what this pregnancy was like. I guess it will also include what I remember from the first 2, because I didn't keep a record of either of those, and I find myself wanting to remember!!!

I was so exhausted my 1st trimester this time around. I don't remember being so tired with the other 2, but I guess with Cohen I was working, so I had a distraction, and with Evan I'm pretty sure I took 2 naps a day still, because I could!!!! This time around, I would wake up in the morning, and immediately start counting the hours until Evans nap time. I just needed MORE SLEEP!!! Nap time would roll around, I'd stick Cohen downstairs for TV-time, and I'd go sleep for 2 hours. Then Evan would wake up, and wake me up, and I'd feel worse than I did when I laid down!!! What?!! It was aweful!! I know I've got it pretty good that I only get tired, and not pukey, but I could honestly not believe the level of exhaustion! And then, miraculously, along rolls week 13 and I start to feel better. I woke up one morning an thought, 'I don't feel like I need a nap today.' It was AMAZING!!

After having gained 45 lbs with Evan, and then feeling the repercussions of having to LOSE it, I promised myself that the next time around I would eat better and exercise. Well, I've eaten. . .better? Do the holidays count? And I've exercised. HA! Sort of. I walk on the treadmill maybe once a week since my 2nd trimester, but that's better than nothing, right? I'm 28 weeks now, and I've gained about 25 lbs already, so I'm pretty sure I won't just gain 30. . .but I'm hoping for something between 35-40. I gained 35 with Cohen so we'll see how this one turns out.

And in the last few weeks, my hip joints have started to, what shall we call it? Relax? Loosen? Spread? Whatever. I'm OK most of the day, but when I get out of bed, I can hardly walk!! Oh my hips!!! This happens every pregnancy, and turns me into a 'waddler'. I used to be naive and think that pregnant women waddled because they had gained so much weight. Nope. It's because our dang hips 'relax' and walking is just less painful when we waddle!!!!

OK, here's the crazy part. I've always been one of these women who thinks that women who birth their babies naturally are a bit crazy. Why wouldn't you get an epidural if it were available to you? I just didn't get it. But. . .

I've decided to birth this baby naturally. Don't ask me why. I can't tell you. I think I'm crazy 1/2 the time, but for some reason, I'm feeling a strong pull towards it. Cohen, my 1st, was only an 8 hour labor, and I was induced with Evan and that labor was only 4 hours. I know I can do it. Ha! I say that now, right?!

I'm back to seeing Nancy Mooy, who delivered Evan. She moved down to LDS hospital over a year ago, and since I'm lazy, I had just decided to see an OB here at the Lakeview clinic. Why drive 20 minutes to all my Dr.'s appointments, and to have the baby, when I could drive 5 minutes? Well, once I really made the decision to have a natural birth, I decided that I would want a good midwife to help me labor rather than hoping for a good nurse and maybe getting a crappy one, right? I've only been to 1 appointment with her, but I felt so much better afterwards. Just knowing that I'll have that support made a lot of my fears go away.

So, check back in 3 months and I'll let you know it goes!! What am I in for?!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Looking Up To Dad

2010-01-22T17:20:00.001-08:00

So, me and the boys were just playing ball with the Lighting McQueen ball, just bouncing and throwing it back and forth to each other. Cohen says 'Lets bounce it and bounce it and throw it in the hoop!' I tell him that it's too cold to go outside, but they can bounce it around in here like a basketball and he says "YES!!! Evan, come on!!! Lets bounce it and throw it in the hoop and be dads!!!!" We went and watched Jared play church ball. . .TWO weeks ago!!!
Now, they are playing basketball across the living room with imaginary hoops at each end, and Cohen will dribble it across the floor, then throw it at the curtains shouting "HOOP!!" or "SCORE!!"

Christmas 2009

2010-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

A few weeks before Christmas was our ward Christmas breakfast, and Santa came to visit. Cohen asked for 'a truck, a scope, and lots of awesome toys.'

On Christmas Eve, Julie and Melissa came over, and we were supposed to go with my parents over to a retirement home and take some treats. . .but thats another story. Ha! No good cheer spread by us on Christmas Eve, but we did wrap some presents and we had fun waiting for mom and dad all night. Oh well, we had good intentions.

After they all left, we lit a fire and read some Christmas stories. Here are the boys watching the fire. Perfect.
Then we continued a tradition that comes from Jareds family, that we all open a present or two, typically the ones from us to each other. Cohen had been waiting for weeks to open the present from Uncle Davids family (it was the only present under the tree for a long time, so he was really anxious to open it!), which was a package of 'Zubbles' which are high-tech bubbles that are awesome. They are colored, and the package swears that the dye washes out of anything, but we're going to wait until spring to use them!! We did a few outside on the back porch, but now they are safely hidden away until warmer weather!!

Evan opened the doggy from Cohen, and he loved it, and continues to love it!! He really has attached himself to it, and likes to cuddle with his puppy at night. This is Christmas Eve night, right after he got it, sleeping soundly with his arms wrapped around that new puppy.

I don't know how we made it through the morning without taking any pictures INSIDE the house. . .duh. . .but here are a few of the boys in their awesome new Jeep Power Wheels (are they brats now? Who didn't want a Power Wheels when they were a kid? And we were all jealous of the kids who had them, weren't we?!!).

Evan got behind the wheel and basically drove around it circles, he's still getting the hang of steering, but Cohen was so funny trying to get on with that Jeep going!! And Evan took full advantage of having the upper hand and didn't let up on the gas at all! It was hilarious!!

We waited until the Monday after Christmas to do our traditional Nativity at moms house because we wanted to wait for Chantelle's family, and they didn't come into town until after Christmas. Here's Evan being an Angel with Hailey. He was really cute, leading all of the singing, just like any good angel would, right?!
. . .And the whole cast. Cohen was one of the 3 Wise Men.
New Years Eve we all got together at my moms for another party. We basically kept it up the whole week!! We're getting old, because by 10:30 all of the adults were ready to go to bed, but we didn't want to be party poopers! We made it all the way to midnight, and blew horns and wore hats and stomped on balloons and bubble wrap and made a good ruckus for about 5 minutes, then shoved the kids out the door and into the truck so we could get home and go to bed!!! We were home by 12:20!!!! We're so old!!!!

Here's my niece Hannah partying it up!!
Me and Julie. And no, we weren't drinking. . .well I know I wasn't, I can't speak for Julie!!
And cute little Evan. He was in a good mood all night long. What a party animal!!

More Fall 2009

2010-01-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving at Ray and Bev's this year. Everyone from around here was there, as well as David & Kathy from Moab. It was good food, and good company, and we only had 18 pies!!! I love that we love pie. Lots of kinds to choose from, and lots of leftovers!!

Jared, Andrew, Sam, and Ben were playing Around-the-World ping-pong, with a mean little twist: if you were the one that made the playing stop 3 times, then you had to stand at the end of the table and let everyone else take a free shot at your back with a ping-pong ball. You would think that a little ping-pong couldn't do much damage, but you would be wrong. Especially with Jared playing. Hecks sake!!! I don't know if you can see it in this small picture, but if you want to see a ping-pong welt, just as it appears on my nephew Bens skin, click on this picture so it's bigger, and look right above his left bum cheek, and you'll see it. He's about to start crying. Ha!

Evan wanted to play too, so they let him start trying, and he was so good!! He could hit that ball over the net almost every time!! It was crazy! Heaven knows he didn't get his hand-eye coordination from me!! That all comes from his daddy!

While Julie was in town for Christmas, we went out and did a little photo shoot just for fun. It was freezing outside, so we didn't stay too long, but we got some good shots, and we had fun.

If you have kids, raking leaves is fun again!!!

2010-01-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

We started helping my mom rake her leaves one Saturday, well, blow them with our awesome leaf-blower, and here are the results!!!

Halloween 2009

2010-01-08T09:43:00.001-08:00

This year for Halloween, Cohen was Batman and Evan was Robin. Cohen likes to play a few games on the Wii (he's actually really good at a few of them, it starts so early!!) and the character he always plays is Batman. So I figured that was an easy and obvious choice for a Halloween costume, and I wouldn't have to stress over finding something creative and cute only to procrastinate the whole thing into never happening, right?! And then that made Evans costume easy, he'd just be Robin and I could call it done!! So I ordered some costumes off of Ebay, and they were supposed to be here a few days before Halloween. Cohen's Joy School class had a Halloween party a little early on the 22nd, and the costumes hadn't shown up by then so that morning I was stressing about what to do. I told Cohen that he'd just have to be a cowboy for the party, but he was having NONE of that!!! Then I came up with a brilliant idea and just put some black clothes on him, and cut an awesome mask out of construction paper, tied some string to it, and ta-da!!! A batman costume!!! He didn't know the difference, which made me wonder why I had paid for the real one!!! Oh well.

So, this is a picture of Cohen and the 2 other boys in his Joy School class. T.J. is a ninja and Big Evan is a skeleton. They did a costume parade, sang some Halloween songs ('I'm a mean old witch with a hat'), and served sugar cookies to their guests. It was a lot of fun.
Then the real costumes came in the mail, and we went to our neighborhood Halloween Carnival. A few ladies organize it, and then everybody pitches in, so it's not a lot of work for anybody, and it's a lot of fun!!! Cohen loved his muscle-filled Batman costume, but Evan would not wear his. It was freezing outside, so that turned out to be OK, all of the kids ended up wrapped up in their parents coats!!! Here they are eating donuts off a string. Evan's got the right idea!!

We went to Blanding to see our Rich & Wendy, and Alan & Camille and their families. Richard had a big old pile of yard clippings from the whole summer, so we had a 'little' bonfire. . .yea. . .it was pretty awesome!! You would think it would burn the whole field down, but it stayed right where it was supposed to!

Here he is folks: The Batman

And the only decent picture of Evan, of course eating candy. At least he wore most of his costume to go Trick-or-Treating!! I think there were some threats on his life made in order to get him to wear it, but I'd spent real money on that thing!!!

Here's Cohen and Toby, the dragon, his favorite cousin, who is just 5 months older than he is. They had so much fun together.

Brigham the 'Boo-boo Ghost', Jared as Harry Potter and Emma as Hermione. Notice the books she's carrying. Alan and Camille made them, and they say "Charms" and "Hogwarts, A History".

And here are the two amazing Alan creations for the year. . .Elijah as the Headless Spectre (a guy carrying his own head), and Ammon, who's only 1/2 in the picture, sorry, as an Alien Abduction (fake legs in front, and a fake alien head in back make it look like he's being carried away by an alien) . Alan spent weeks creating these costumes, and as amazing as they are, they made it hard for all 10 kids we had with us to charge up people's stairs and knock on the door!!

We had a lot of fun, and Jared got to go 4-wheeling with Richard all day on Saturday, so now, we have 4-wheelers in our future. . .

The Fire Station and Makenzie's Race

2010-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

One day in the fall, we went to the fire-station in Bountiful for our neighborhood playgroup.

They let one of the moms put on a fireman's uniform, and Cohen wanted to try it on too! It was so cute! The boots were so heavy that he couldn't even pick them up with his feet, he could only drag them about an inch at time along the floor.

Proof that I was there too.

In October, my niece Makenzie ran in the State Championships for girls track at Sugarhouse park. She ran 3 miles in about 22 minutes, and took 11th place, but her team took 1st place as a team! She's only a Sophomore, so she's still got time to win it all!!

Here's Cohen and Evan and their favorite cousin Toby watching the race in our TRIPLE stroller!! Ha!

Cohen loves to race and was so excited to cheer Makenzie on. He would scream and yell with the rest of us every time she ran by and when she wasn't running by, he was asking where she was, and if each girl who did run by was her. We waited in the bleachers for the trophy ceremony for a while, and the boys raced up and down the walkway the whole time! Notice how Cohen is really going for the win!! No 'give-the-little-brother-a-break-because-he's-smaller' from Cohen!!

When Cohen heard that we were going to watch Makenzie race, he wanted to race her, so she was nice enough to race him across the field a few times. He loved it!!! He's a dirty racer. . .he does this in the backyard at home, and you can see the start of it here in this picture. . .you say 'go' and he runs right in front of you so he's in the front from the start! What strategy! You can even see him measuring the shadows to make sure he's ahead!!

Yet Again. . .

2010-01-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Here I am playing 'catch-up'. I want to be a good blogger. . .I do. Maybe I'll make it a New Years Resolution for this year. But if I do that, am I bound to fail at it? Ha! Anyhow, this has to count for something, right?

Here's what you get when the boys want to play outside, but it's raining. Cohen was really cute out there with that huge umbrella.

"Look Mom, I'm a dalmation!" - Cohen Haddock

Ha! This was fun. I took my boys and the neighbors Braydon and T.J. to the park one day when I was watching them while their parents went to a funeral. I sat down to read my book, and the next thing I know, they are splashing their Light Sabers in the one tiny little mud puddle and getting each other all muddy!! Ha! One would lean over the puddle and the other one would splash. Ah, to be a kid again. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except for their parents were coming to pick them up to take them to the cemetery part of the whole thing, and they needed to look presentable, right? So we had to come home and stick 4 muddy little boys in the shower real quick so they would be clean in time!

Here's Evan and Papa with the Antelope he shot in Wyoming at the end of September, 2009.

And Jared and Cohen with 'Therm II". . .I guess not really because this one didn't get mounted and placed on my basement wall. . .thank goodness!!

It's a...!!

2009-11-25T13:57:00.000-08:00

Cohen introduces our new addition:

It's a boy! from Jared Haddock on Vimeo.

A Ruptured Eardrum. . .

2009-10-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

So, last Friday, after Evan got out of the shower he was whining and pointing to his ears, so I got out a Q-tip and very carefully tried to get the water out of his ears. I then did a very stupid thing and let him play with the Q-tip. Cohen has played with one a million times, what would go wrong this time, right?! Well, a few minutes later he starts screaming. A hurt scream. Not a typical 'I'm ornery and complaining' scream. An 'I'm actually hurt' scream. So pick him up and try to calm him for a few minutes, then I see that there is blood on the Q-tip. Oh crap. Then I notice his right ear is bleeding. Not a good sight. Your 2 year old bleeding out of his ear. What have I done?!!!!

He cries himself to sleep, and I call my brother David, who is an audiologist, to see if I should take him to the doctor or even to Urgent-Care. He says to take him to the doctor as soon as I can, but I don't need to go to the ER, thank goodness.

After the doctor examines him, she tells me that he's ruptured his eardrum!!! With a Q-tip!!! Luckily it wasn't bad, and she just told me to not bathe his head for a week, and gives me a prescription for some eardrops to make sure it doesn't get infected, which could be bad. I haven't thrown out the Q-tips, and I won't, but I'll be more careful in handing them to my 2 year old!!!

ABCDE's

2009-10-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

So, Cohen is getting better and better at singing his ABC's, and the way he sings the end is so funny and cute, I'd better write it down!!

First, he ALWAYS forgets H I J. . .so if he is singing on his own it goes something like this:

"A B C D E F G. . .X Y Z" and on to the end.

If you help him remember H I J, he can sing the whole thing all the way through. I don't know what gets him hung up right there, but he does it every time.

Also, then ending goes either like this:

"Now I know my ABC's, now I know my ABC's."

or like this: (sung in the right rhythm. . .)

"Know my ABCDE's, Know my ABCDE's."

He's getting so smart. From watching The Letter Factory, he knows all of the letter sounds, but not their names. I guess thats better for learning to read though, right? So it usually goes something like this:

I show him the letter D and say "What letter is this?" and he says "Dog". We're working on letter names, and he's getting better at it all the time.

"Mom? I love you."

2009-10-08T15:35:00.001-07:00

Cohen just knows how to make his mom love him more and more, and get wrapped around his little finger without her hardly noticing. FIVE TIMES today, he has, out of the blue, and totally of his own accord, said "Mom?" and of course it sounds like he wants something, or needs something, so I say 'Yea?', and then he just looks at me and says "I love you." That's it!! That's what he wanted!!! To tell me that he loves me!!! My heart. . .oh my beating heart!!! It belongs to you today my boy. And it still sounds a little like "I wuff you." which reminds me that he's still such a baby, but such a big boy more and more every day. I love being a mother.

30+ lbs. . .coming on up!!!

2009-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true, I have 30+ lbs coming to me in the near future. . .well hopefully only about 27 because I've already gained 3. Dang. We are expecting another baby!! On or around (or BEFORE) April 16, 2010. So thrroroolptopyt0ortg-gfpofckrekjdfk,reklewaiijwqiwqiuiuat puts me at 12 1/2 weeks about now, so I'm exiting the 1st trimester already. 6t7axsttfqwetdfstfadfcaRDSe7y6te3ytwqtry

Okay, for all of you wondering, the previous portion of this post was sitting on my desktop, waiting to be finished, when a certain 3 year old came and finished writing it for me, and oh-so-cleverly even clicked on the 'publish post' button!! What a smart child I have, right? Anyhow, if it seemed a bit brief and unfinished, that's because it was!! Let me continue on. . .(but of course I'm going to leave Cohens addition, because it's funny, and I'm glad so many of you saw it.)

So anyhow, I've been feeling REALLY tired, exhausted, wasted, sleepy, groggy etc. I don't remember being this tired in my 1st trimester with the other 2 boys, but Cohen was my 1st, and then with Evan I could take a nap twice a day if I needed to. I probably did. And I figured this time I'd document it so that I WILL remember!! I just had this constant mild headache, and mild stomach-ache, along with the fatigue. If I had something to distract me, I could forget about it, but Jared has been working like a crazy man (18-20 hrs/day. . .no joke) so I haven't had much to do but contemplate how wasted I was. It often felt like I'd taken too much Benadryl or something, like I could feel the ache and tiredness in my arms and legs too, you know? I'm glad to say that I'm feeling much better this last week. Thank heavens that we leave that 1st trimester right? I'm very thankful that I haven't been barfy like lots of women, but I just almost couldn't believe the fatigue!! I actually have made it through most of this last week without taking a nap, and my waking hours are being productive again, rather than me sitting around longing for, dreaming of naptime!!! Needless to say, my kids are watching less TV again, thank goodness.

So, 3 kids. In just over 4 years. I didn't ever imagine this would be me. But I like it. I'm nervous for sure, but I'll make it through. Women do this all the time, and I'm totally competent, right?!! (Don't answer that question. . .) When I think about another baby, I'm excited. When I think about 3 kids, I'm nervous. But not nearly as nervous as I was to have 2, so maybe it'll be fine. . .or maybe I'm in for something awful!!! Either way, I'm sure I'll love this child and we're in for more adventure!!!

I had an ultrasound already, just a really fast one to check the baby's length to determine a correct due date, which put me 3 days behind where I thought I was. That's hard to switch from Tuesday all the way to Friday to be able to 'up' your number of weeks, but I'm almost adjusted. According to the ultrasound, I'll be 13 weeks tomorrow, Friday October 9. It's fun to get out all of the pregnancy books again, and read about the amazing things that take place in the 1st trimester. It truly is miraculous. So, we're excited, and scared, and glad we're getting over the sleepiness, and looking forward to meeting our new baby in April. It still sounds so far away, but I'm sure it will be upon us in the blink of an eye!!

2009-09-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

I want to remember some of these things about my kids, because they happen every day, and every day I look at them and say, "I'll remember this moment" or "I'll remember them acting this way or doing that cute thing" but the truth is, I won't. We forget so fast. So, I want to write some stuff down so I WILL remember!!

Evan still isn't talking much. He CAN say a lot of things, but the only words he uses to communicate are "Maaaa" and "No!" He can say (or make some sort of relevant but consistent noise) for a lot of animal sounds, as well as Star, Choo-Choo, Elbow, Purple, Papa, and a few others. He has to really be in the mood to imitate sounds and words, but when he's in the mood, he does a great job. I think he's just observing the world and is going to start talking all at once sometime in the next few months. He actually communicates very well for how little he speaks, by pointing and grunting of course, and he's very reasonable if you are patient with him and take a second to figure out what it is that he wants. He does get frustrated easier than Cohen ever did, but he's (knock on wood) passed through the worst part of his terrible-two's it seems. He was throwing a lot of tantrums, and they seem to be less and less. He’s also very loving. He is a good cuddler and will give you a hug and a kiss anytime you ask for one. He gets so excited when Jared comes home, and runs to give him a hug and a kiss. It’s so cute!!

Jared took Cohen to All-A-Dollar to get me a birthday present on my birthday last week. He tried to take him to the girly stuff like brushes and lotion, but Cohen didn't want to give me that boring stuff for my birthday. He went over to the toy section and proceded to pick me out some match-box cars, some Cars themed cardboard airplanes, and best of all, a wrestle-mania man complete with blue mask, bare chest, blue stretch-pants and silver lace-up boots!! Oh yes!! I LOVED it!! He was so excited to get these things for me. At the store, Jared said he kept saying stuff like “Oh, mom is going to love this!” and “Dad, can I get this for mom? It’s awesome! She’s going to love it!” And I did! They brought it all home in a sports themed gift bag, and Cohen proceeded to pull each item out and show it to me and ask me “Do you love it?” It was perfect.

Jared got the Wii Sports II game, and Cohen loves to play the ‘swording’ game. He’s too good at it for only being 3 ½ but he loves to play and wins most of the time! He just stands in front of the TV and swings that Wii Remote back and forth as fast as he can, but this seems to be a decent strategy, because he’s dang good!! He can control it well enough to play a lot of games and I’m already fretting about the arguments we’ll have over the years about how many hours of video-games he can play.

I'm just lazy. . .but here's some pictures

2009-09-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

Why is it that every time I post, I need to title it "Sorry it's been so long, heres the quick Update"????? It's always just a quick update!! I want to be a better blogger, I really do. . .but I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Maybe on the same day I learn to be a great scrapbooker. . .until then, update time it is again!

I just thought these were cute and funny of the boys and some yummy chocolate pudding.

Ta-Da!!! The awesome Pirate-Ship Cake I made for Evan's birthday!! Oh yes, I am a good mom.

We borrowed my dads awesome sprinkler contraption for the party. It was a hit!

Can't you just hear him thinking, "I have the coolest mom ever. She must love me a lot to make such an awesome cake." He can't say it, he can't say anything, but I'm sure he was thinking it.

Here's a few on Evans actual birthday.

He's listening to Oma and Papa wish him a Happy Birthday!

The boys were swimming in the neighbors backyard, and ended up playing Army Guys through their rows of corn. It was so funny! They all ended up covered in mud but they had a great time!

Here's Cohen being part of the Dragon in the play the kids did at Family Reunion.

He hadn't gone to the practice, so he didn't know what he was doing. We just told him to follow his cousin Toby. He didn't quite stop in time, and you can see him crashing into Toby here.
The dragon after it "Kicks the Bucket" - notice all the buckets on the ground. . .
Cohen and Levi played football together while all the big people played Ultimate Frisbee. Levi is a few years older, but they were both pretty dang good!!

"Look Mom, I'm a dalmatian!!" - direct quote from Cohen.

Potty Trained

2009-08-05T14:57:00.001-07:00

BY THE WAY. . .Cohen is officially potty trained!!! Has been for a few weeks now!!! He even stayed dry on the 6 1/2 hour plane ride to Hawaii. We put a diaper on him for the trip, but he went once on the plane, once at the car rental place, and ended up at the condo dry dry dry!!! We've had a few accidents, but. . .I'LL TAKE IT!!! I'm so happy!!!

Jareds birthday. . .almost a month ago, I know. . .

2009-08-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Papa John was here on Jareds birthday, so we decided to go fishing up at Silver Lake (right by Brighton Ski Resort) and see if we could catch anything. . .Did we ever!!! It was the best day of fishing ever!! I don't think they had their lines out more than 10 seconds, and they'd get a bite, it was ridiculous!!! And a lot of fun. Cohen and Evan both caught their first fish, or rather, helped reel in their first fish. Now the only trouble is that Cohen has the wrong idea about fishing. He thinks that 'casting your line in the water and almost immediately reeling it it' is fishing. . .not 'cast your line into the water and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait, recast and wait some more, and finally go home with nothing'. He hasn't seen the boring side of fishing!!! It was really cute to see him fish with his daddy and Papa though. We ended up bringing home 10 trout, and that was after throwing a lot back!!

And then we saw so much wildlife you would have thought we were at the zoo. It was crazy!

Here's Cohen with his first fish ever! At this point we thought we were just lucky to have one, so we let him reel it in.

Papa helped Cohen catch this fish, so here they are together.

Here's Evans. I did take a picture of him reeling it in, but it was all blurry.

This one is cute of Jared and Cohen fishing together. (Jared had to wear my jacket because of the bugs, thats why its so tight!!)

The successful fishermen!!! If you're looking, you can see all those fish hooked onto the chain.

Cohen and Papa with thier catch.

All of a sudden, 2 moose came running through the field right next to us. They were running crazy, and kinda scary, but eventually settled into eating so we could walk back to our car. This is just a picture of one of them, but there were 2, I promise.

And then we saw a beaver swimming through the lake. . .

And then a deer came bounding by. . .can you see it bound? :)

And there were two MORE moose over by the parking lot! What?! Crazy!! Now my kids have a false sense of the great outdoors, thinking it's ton's of fish in an hour, plus all the wildlife you can handle, right?!

Boys & Girls

2009-08-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

I have a ton to catch up on, but I had to write this down before I forget.

Cohen and I were just in the bathroom brushing his teeth, and he informs me. . .
"Mom, I like Spidermans, and Batmans, and Diego. . . .and girls like. . .Dora. . .and dancing. . .and pinks!!! You like pink mom."

West Bountiful 4th of July Parade. . .at the end of June!!!

2009-06-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

I guess this is the pose I get when I tell Cohen to sit next to Evan and smile, right?!!

Cohen bringing back hoards of candy. . .aahhhh Taffy. . .perhaps you shall be my 'potty-training-motivator'. . .

Evan LOVED all of the music, he would stand up and jam every time a band or dance group came by. He even danced to the bagpipes!!!

It's never too soon to start in on that huge bag of candy.

After the parade we went to the carnival at West Bountiful Park. It was a lot of fun with a lot of free activities for the kids!!! Yay FREE!!!! There were also some bounce-house things that cost $, so we did spend a few dollars, but not many!!!

Cohen wanted to get his face painted so we waited in the long line, and of course he wanted to be a tiger. The squiggly lines around his face are supposed to be a hair-line, not messed up tiger-stripes for those of you who maybe couldn't figure it out!!!

Evan got to be a tiger too, more of the baby version I guess. By the time I got my camera out of the car to take pictures Evan had HAD IT!! Plus he had wiped off most of the orange coloring. But he's still cute, even when he's screaming in the sand at his mother to pick him up, and all she does is take his picture, right?!!

Soooo sleepy. . .

Cohen started Soccer & T-Ball!!!

2009-06-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

So, we've officially started what will be years to come of soccer and baseball, right?! And we're excited! We signed Cohen up to play with the Woods Cross Summer Rec program, which is just 3 weeks long, 2 days a week, so not an official team or anything, but exciting nonetheless!! He was so excited to get started, and of course he's a superstar!! This kid was born to play sports!!

Here he is getting ready to play. Notice the awesome shin-guards I got him at a garage sale for 25 cents!!

After he got his 'team' shirt, waiting to be put on a team!!! He was so excited!!

He got worn out after about 45 minutes and 'hid' under the picnic table so he wouldn't have to finish. The next time we made sure to eat a big breakfast so he wouldn't run out of energy.

Why are you so happy?

2009-06-10T11:42:00.001-07:00

Cohen is not the greatest at answering questions quite yet. You ask him "Cohen, why are you laughing?" and he responds, "I just laughing mom." Stuff like that. So, the other day, Cohen woke up while Jared was getting ready for work, so he got him out of bed and brought him in to lay down by me. He was just laying there smiling and smiling at me and so I said, "Cohen, why are you so happy? What are you smiling about?" And he says, "'Bout Jesus." Jared and I just looked at each other and started laughing because our son is so cute!!!

Our little Park City trip

2009-05-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went up to Park City for the weekend and stayed at the Westgate Resort for 2 nights. . .for FREE!!! Ok, so while you're there you have to go and listen to their 90 minute presentation on why you should purchase their time-share blah blah blah, but I figure that is a cheap price to pay for a 2 night stay, right? Right. Anyhow, it was so fun to go on a mini-vacation and really just have some relaxing free time as a family. We swam in the pool, pooped in the pool. . .that's another story altogether. . .went for a long bike ride (we borrowed nice bikes and a sweet bike trailer for the kids from some neighbors), shopped at the outlet mall, swam in a post-poop-nice-and-clean pool, and just had fun being together.

When we went on our bike ride, we rode off the trail for a bit because we saw this awesome old truck in a field, and of course, we had to take some pictures. We also threw some rocks into a pond, which the boys could have done for hours if we had let them!!! So, here are way too many pictures of the truck and rock-throwing.

I love this next little series of pictures, where dad gets in on the rock throwing!

Looking for the perfect rock.

Nice toss Evan!!!

OK!! Time to go!!!

And proof that I was there too, being my totally normal, not posing for a picture at all, self.

Jared got out the camera when Evan was eating his chicken nuggets last week. He had been licking the ketchup off of the plate (yum? or yuck?), hence the awesome ketchup-nose!! So cute!!

Shoveling them in. . .Evan doesn't really know how to eat slow. He must belong to me.

That was some serious plate-licking!!!

And Cohen insisted on having his picture taken too. I was showing him how to pose like a cheesy 80's JCPenny photo, and he's watching me out of the corner of his eyes!!

Memorial Day, 2009

2009-05-25T17:40:00.001-07:00

So, it's Memorial Day, and I just feel like blogging. I don't know that I even have anything exciting to say. Jared's been out of town for a few days, Hawaii from Friday morning to Sunday morning, and then he left for Nauvoo Sunday afternoon!! He came home for church and a nap and then we had to drive him right back to the airport. He'll come back from Nauvoo tomorrow, but I don't know if he's even coming home before driving up to Idaho for 2 days. Three trips in one week!!! Crazy! Anyhow, he wasn't here today, and I was all bummed out because it's a holiday, and it should be an extra day off, right? Ha!! But luckily last night my little spanish friend Luz called me and asked if I wanted to walk in the Woods Cross 5K with her this morning. I had wanted to run it, but I got this awful cold at the end of last week, so I didn't want to run it and just cough and cough and cough the whole way through, and I didn't want to go by myself, so I had decided not to do it. Anyhow, Luz called and I was so happy to have someone to go with. So we got up early and were there by 6:55 and the boys had their blankies and sippies and a granola bar, so they were all set. We walked, and Luz is short, so we didn't walk fast, and we finished in 51 minutes. (Last year when I ran with Raymond and Jared I made it in 30 min 36 sec. That doesn't have anything to do with this other than I wanted you all to know that I've run a 5K in a not shabby time.) After the race, they had a little Memorial Day presentation and a breakfast which is free if you do the race. They had a little Fish Pond with lots of lame prizes, and a Helicopter came and landed in the baseball field so all the kids could check out the inside. It was a lot of fun. I really like it because of the 'small town feel' ya know?! There's lots of people there that you know, and nothing super fancy. It was a lot of fun. I'm really glad that we went and did that, because that made me not mope around all day!! I'm so thankful for Luz! She always calls at the right time, right when I need someone to talk to. Anyhow, the rest of the day was just normal, and Cohen got to play outside with Connor for an hour or so, and then when we came in, we decided to have a Peanut Butter Sandwich Picnic in the backyard for dinner! The weather was perfect, and after dinner the boys wanted to swim. It's still a little chilly for hose water, but we this awesome/weird Hot Water faucet in our backyard, so I just filled their little pool with some hot water and some cold water, and they had their own little hot tub going on!!! Pretty fancy, eh?! Anyhow, its been a great day, even though Jared was gone. I still would rather have had him here of course, but I'm thankful that the Lord is watching out for me, and helps me have a great day, when I was determined to be bitter and have a bad one!!

Pretty sweet set-up, eh?!

This was from a few days before, when Evan had gotten in the pool in all of his clothes, which I then took off of him and he enjoyed the water NEKID!!! Ah, the luxuries of being a kid. . .

A mud hole, and a fat lip.

2009-05-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

So, on a warm day last week, I was letting the boys play with the hose, and this is what it turned into. At least they had fun, right?!

They even got Riley all muddy!!

A few days after that, we went outside to ride bikes, and Evan went cruising down the driveway on his little Clifford bike, and at the bottom, he went over that one inch lip of the driveway and went face first over the bike! He started to cry, and I hadn't been watching him, and he crashes all the time, so I rolled my eyes and went out to give him a hug. I picked him up off of the pavement and blood was pouring out of his mouth!! Aahhhh!! Luckily the bleeding stopped and we didn't have to go the ER for stitches or anything, but he had this awesome fat lip for the next few days.

We had a fun Family Home Evening last week. We told the story of Noah and the Ark, showed some pictures from the Gospel Art Kit, and then dressed each of the boys up like Noah, filled a laundry basket full of animals, and tipped them around like they were on a stormy sea for a while. No, we weren't creative enough to think of this on our own, but it was a lot of fun, and you may steal the idea for your own future FHE.

How Expensive is Child Neglect?

2009-05-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well, on this particular day, it cost me $23.

So, one day, a week or so ago, I was enjoying some sanity by 'listening' to the boys take a bath. By this I mean that I was sick of them, so I put them in the bath because they'll stay in there for a long time and play. I was out at the computer listening to make sure I could hear both of them, that nobody was drowning, right? Anyhow, I soon find myself in one of these motherly moments thinking, 'I haven't heard much noise for a while.' Listen, listen, listen. I can hear Cohen laughing, but not Evan, I'm not worried, but I figure I'd better go check, right?

And this is what I find. . .

Books!!! THREE books!!!! Two of them are Library Books!!!! The books were in the bathroom because we read them every day while Cohen sits and tries to go #2. In fact, two of them were potty training books!!! "The Potty Train" and "The Prince and the Potty." They are now in the bath, soaked, shredded, and strewn about the place!!! They discovered that wet paper sticks to bathtub walls and so they had thrown it WAY higher than they could have reached!!

Needless to say, we weren't able to return those 2 books to the library on time. Ha! Can you see how thick the bottom of the tub is with printed paper?!!!

Luckily, they had been in circulation long enough that I only had to pay 1/2 of what they were worth. . .oh PLUS $4 each for processing or something. So, $23 later, we were the proud owners of books that had already left our home, and our dumpster never to be heard from again.

Easter

2009-04-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Easter was weeks and weeks ago, but I have all of these cute pictures I want to post so you'll have to live with my tardiness.

Grandpa helping Evan dye eggs

Cohen's awesome blue egg. He did it all by himself.

Here's the 3 of us. Daddy was in Hawaii.

Cohen's basket hat.

Cohen loves his big cousin Matthew.

Cohen found one on the trampoline.

Cohen showing me his bounty!

Cute Evan on the trampoline.

Cohen did an awesome donkey-kick and I caught it at just the right moment!!

Cohen 'smiling' for the camera on Easter morning, showing off his new Sunday shirt and tie. Doesn't he look handsome?!!

This was honestly the best photo with both boys in it!

Evan's crusty

2009-04-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

Which do you like best? Color or B&W?

Shirt Spit and 3 year olds using cell phones. . .

2009-03-05T22:01:00.000-08:00

So, Cohen has this little quirk that I love most of the time, but not all of the time. He really likes to be clean. I love this when he wants me to wash his hands or his face, or wipe his runny nose or something like that. He doesn't like to be 'messy' as he calls it. What a good habit to have, right?! I hate it when he spills a drop or two of water on his shirt and then cannot survive if you don't take it off because it is now 'messy.' I especially hate it when this happens at the store or somewhere where we don't have immediate access to a clean shirt, because he will kick and scream and yell until you take it off, and then have to make him wear just his coat for the rest of the errands you are on. Picture it. Lovely. So a few weeks ago, I hadn't put a bib on Evan for lunch and so his shirt needed to be changed because we were eating oatmeal, and not something that brushes off really easy like Ramen Noodles. Anyhow, I take Evans shirt off, and Cohen begins insisting that he needs his shirt off too. I tell him that his shirt is still clean and that it doesn't need to be changed. "No, iss messy mom!" "Where?" "Righ here?" and he points to a perfectly clean spot. "Nope, its clean." He tries again, pointing to another spot, "Righ here?" "No Cohen, you don't need to have your shirt changed, it's clean!" He points to one more spot, which is also clean, which I also turn him down for. He then looks at me, looks back down at his shirt and spits a big ol' spit-wad onto his shirt!!! What?!! At least he's a problem solver, right?! I should have made him wear it, but it made me laugh so hard that I just gave in and took it off. "Yep, now it is messy Cohen. You are right!!!" So funny.

A few days ago Cohen was playing with my cell phone. He likes to watch the numbers come up on the screen as he pushes the buttons. I was bringing in groceries or something, and all of a sudden I hear my phone ringing, and not the ringing sound it makes when you are receiving a call, the ringing sound it makes when you are making a call!! He had turned on the speaker, thank goodness, and I don't know who in tarnation he's calling!!! So I run down the stairs to where he is and of course he's got the phone in his grubby little paws and doesn't want me to have it. He can sense my frantic state. I'm trying to grab it from him and he tells me, "No! I'm calling daddy!!" And lo and behold, who answers on the other end? Jared!! No kidding!! I was so relieved to hear his voice say "Hello" that I just started laughing! I had made 4 or 5 calls since the last time I had called Jared, so it's not like he just pressed Send Send or something. I don't know how he did it, but he did!! I know we are saying that kids are familiar with technology younger and younger nowadays, but this is a little rediculous!!!

I think Cohen's favorite phrase lately is, "I want do meeself!!!!" I grew up hearing stories about how my phrase like that was "Myself-a-do-it!!" So I actually find this endearing because even though I'm sure most 3 year olds have this independant spirit, it makes me think 'Ohhh!! He gets that from me!'

Jared had to work for a few hours on Valentines Day, so the boys and I made an awesome snowman!!! It was perfect snow for packing and we had a great time.

Cohen thought it was awesome that we gave him a carrot nose!

Yes, I did make him pose for this picture.

So, yea. . .this is Cohen getting into my makeup. He even has it on his teeth!!!

Cohen was blowdrying his own hair, and gave himself this sweet hairdo!

Cohen is THREE!!!!

2009-03-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

So, we know we're getting older because Cohen has turned 3!!! How am I going to feel when he turns 10? or 20?!!! AAAHHHH!!!! Anyhow, he is such a good boy, and he keeps us laughing every single day. I just love listening to his little voice, with his not quite right pronunciation of things, you know - his kid-talk. I still have to figure a few things out, but for the most part I can understand what the heck he's talking about!!! Communication is a beautiful thing. And he's very reasonable too. And by that I mean that when he is in the middle of throwing a fit, you can usually talk him back to normalcy if you use the right tactics.

For the few weeks before his birthday, we kept telling him that he was going to be 3, and asking him what he wanted to do for his party and every time he would spit out some mostly incomprehensible response that included 'pancakes' and 'candles'. At first I thought that was pretty creative of him, to have the candles on a pancake, but then I realized he was talking about regular cake!! Duh!!

We had a little party for him on his birthday that ended up being a lot of fun, and not a lot of planning or stress for me! Perfect! I kept on hoping that some brilliant idea would come to me of what the theme should be for his party, and all of the games and treats and cake that would go along with said theme, but it never did. So the day before his birthday I gave up that dream and just called a few friends and invited them over for a small, but perfect-for-a-3-year-old, birthday party. We did go to the expense of buying the awesome birthday streamers and party plates and cups from the Dollar Store, I know, we're big spenders eh?! So, the 18th rolls around and during Evans nap-time and Cohens TV time, I hung up the streamers over the kitchen table, put on the balloon table-cloth, and blew up all 25 balloons and had them strewn about the place. I was doing something in the other room when Cohen came upstairs, and wasn't really thinking about it when he comes in and is very insistent, "Come here mom, I show you someting!!" So I follow him out to the living room where he does this little gasp and points at the streamers and says, "What is dat?!!!!" He was almost overcome. I tell him it's for his party, and he was so happy and amazed, "For MY pahty?!!!" He seriously walked around with his mouth open taking in the glory of the party decorations. It was so cute!!

Here's Cohen and Evan playing in the balloons before the party started.

So since it's his birthday, I let him get up on the counter and help me color the frosting for the cupcakes. And also since it's his birthday, I let him eat however much blue frosting he wanted, right?! Well, we finish getting ready and the guests begin to arrive, and one girl was telling my neighbor about how she'd had a cough and she couldn't stop coughing. Cohen comes over to me a few times and points at his throat or his mouth and tells me that he's sick. I kiss it better each time, and I'm thinking that he is just making it up because of what Missy was saying, like he was copying her for being sick. I think nothing of it. Well, the 4th time, he comes over and I kiss him, and he steps back and barfs blue frosting all over the floor!!!! Oh yes, it's true!! And I have to assure everybody that he's not really sick, that I haven't invited them over to our house for a party when my kid had the flu and so their kids would get it, but that he really had just had too much sugar because he ate so much frosting!! In hindsight I guess they figured that was true because all the barf was bright blue!! Pretty obvious what had made him sick. At least the party could only get better from there, right?!

This is not a picture of him helping color the frosting, but helping make the cupcakes the night before.

Yummy!!!

So, we played Duck, Duck, Goose, andCohen insisted on playing like this, "goose, goose, goose, goose. . .GOOSE!!!!" You could tell what he meant by the inflection of his voice, but he would not say Duck!!

Here's everybody who came: Evan, Cohen, Jessie, Jackson, Janessa, Garrett, MarySue, Connor, Aubrey, Missy, TJ, and Brayden. Grandma came later too. Notice that Cohen is not wearing the green shirt he was wearing in the picture of him and Evan playing in the balloons. That shirt got the blue barf on it!!

Then we opened presents, had all of the kids decorate their own cupcake with frosting and lots of candy, and we called it good!!! Perfect 3 year old party. No planning, no theme, no expensive prizes to give the guests to take home. Just lots of balloons, and simple game, and cupcakes!! I would suggest it to anyone!

2009 so far. . .

2009-02-14T11:21:00.001-08:00

Hmmm. . .the most exciting thing going on at our house is potty training. And it's not been that exciting. We've been at it for a good month now, and I think we're ALMOST there. Cohen just decides some days that he's got it, and some days he doesn't. I still mostly remind him to go every few hours, but as long as I do, we go most days without any pee-pee accidents. Poo on the other hand. . .aaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!!!! Poo we still have a hard time with. The thing is, he calls all of it poopy. . ."Moooom!!!!! I need a poopy!!!!" when he really just needs to pee. And this is the phrase he uses wheather he does indeed need to pee, or if he has already peed. So sometimes I get excited that he's telling me he needs to go, only to discover that he's already gone. But we're saving lots of money on diapers!!!

I don't know where he picked this up, at the excercise class I go to or at nursury, I don't know but Cohen's new favorite phrase is "Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!" He even puts his hands up by his face and wiggles them around. He's not sticking out his tounge yet, but I can imagine thats coming soon. He'll just taunt Evan over and over. Good thing Evan doesn't quite get it, and doesn't quite care, so the taunting goes unrewarded I guess.

A few weeks ago Cohen found the lighter and holds it up to me and says, "Let's play with fire mom!!" Boys. . .it really is genetic, isn't it?

Evan is talking. . .a LITTLE bit. He's a quiet kid. I've even decided to take away his binkie except for sleeping time so that should he feel the urge to say something, at least he won't have the excuse of having something in his mouth, right? I guess it's a little early to get worried, but if it goes on much longer, I just might. He just grunts and points. But the grunting and pointing are working for him, so what reason does he have to start talking? I dont' know!

If I come up with anything more exciting to say, I'll update this boring post!!

Just some random pictures. . .

2009-01-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

Here it is. . .well, 1/2 of it. . .my glorious shower. It's done now, but I need to take a picture of it still. It's beautiful, and it smells like rain when you shower in it.

Cohen is shockingly good at the drums on Guitar Hero. He's not even 3 yet, and he got a streak of 6 perfect hits his first time around!!!

Vaseline does NOT wash out of your hair. . .not even with dish soap. Just in case you were wondering.

So, we're potty training Cohen, but Evan is more excited about it some days.

Here's Cohen helping me shovel the driveway with his new kid-size shovel.

Baked Potatoes and Sour Cream

2009-01-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

So, here's yet another post about Cohens prayers. He loves saying the dinner prayer, and is even starting to bless things, rather than just babble about his day. He blesses each of us, usually more than once, he ALWAYS says something about 'playing with the kids', I don't know if he is praying to play with some kids, or if he's thanking Heavenly Father for being able to play with some kids, anyways, and then he has started scanning the table and blessing each of the food items and other things on the table, like the drinks, the chicken (any meat is chicken), sometimes the plates, you get the idea.

So, the other night the prayer starts out normal. . .

Dear Heanly Fahder, bless a mommy, a daddy, a mommy, a Evan, a mommy (no joke, I got blessed 3 times!!! Maybe I need it!!). . .

Bless da food good taste (we'll just hope this is more of a courtesy, than a reflection on it's usual flavor)

and then the table scanning begins

(rattled off quickly) bless a drink, a lettuce, a potato, a chicken. . . a. . . (long pause) and he gets this confused look on his face (yes, I'm always peeking at him saying the prayer because his face is so funny while he tries to keep his eyes closed) I can tell he's looking at the Sour Cream container, and this must be the view he has of it

because he scrunches up his nose and says "a. . .what IS that????. . . Is that. . . POOP???!!!"

Needless to say, Jared and I lose it and laugh until we cry. . .I mean, if thats what he thought it was, you can understand why he looked so confused. Can you imagine the thought process in his little head? "Why on earth would my mom put a jar of that stuff on the dinner table?!"

Ahhh. . .Good times :)

Our Family

2009-01-13T09:10:00.001-08:00

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

2008-12-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Trying to get Cohen to look at the camera, when all he really wants to do is play with his new race car track. "Look at Daddy Cohen, look at Daddy"

It was the worst of trees, it was the best of trees. . .

2008-12-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

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!!

But the good news is that at Home Depot, they let us pick any tree that was 6-7 feet, so we got a REALLY nice one, one that would be like $50 or something. It really is beautiful, and we never would have paid for it. So, the moral of the story is to buy a tree on sale for 17.99. . .let it die and then trade it for an awesome one. The fact that it was on sale should have been our first clue, right?!

The New Tree: Please take time to admire the 1/2 decorations. . .and there are red lights on the tree too, they just didnt' show up in the picture.

I don't know what is going on with the font on this post. . .sorry its so small, I can't get it to change. . .

"You Da Man, Mom"

2008-12-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

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!!

We had a wonderful Christmas!! Oma and Papa and Kelli came for most of the week, and we had fun just relaxing and hanging out with them. The boys got a ton of stuff, and as a matter of fact, they still haven't opened their stockings yet!! I don't even remember what we put in there!! Just dollar-store items, but still. Oma and Papa got the boys really nice snow-suits in sizes that are too big, which is perfect because then they will last a few extra years!!! They also got Cohen a LeapFrog Leapster game system which I was really excited about. His first official video-game system, but at least it's educational, right?! I would have never bought something like that on my own, I'm too cheap, but I'm really excited to own one. We got a ton of kid-sized games, which we didn't really have any of before, and we're finally getting to a point in our lives where we need those kinds of things. They got a Lightning McQueen race track from daddy, and a lot of matchbox cars as well. I got my $10.49 crockpot (thats a good story too) and Jared got me a flat-panel monitor for my computer. Yay!! He also replaced the keyless remote to the Subaru for me!! Yipee!! Now I won't lock my keys or my kids in the car anymore because I will be used to locking the door from afar, and not the old-fashioned way. It was a great Christmas!!!

I'll get some pictures up soon. . .

I know it's almost Christmas. . .

2008-12-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

. . .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. . .

Catch-Up Time!!!

2008-10-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Would you be enticed by a bag of "Poopy Prizes?"

2008-09-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

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. :)

2008-08-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

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

So, yes, it's been a long time since I've written, and hence have forgotten most of the details about the things that I need to write about. But hopefully somebody will be reading this years down the line (maybe some great-great-granddaughter or something) and will be thankful that I kept this chronology of our lives at least. . .

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!!

We stopped by Pearl Harbor, but it was about to close so nothing was really open. You can just walk out onto this submarine, and I guess during regular hours you can go down inside of it as well. There was a sign on the building next to it that said 'closed', but there was nothing in front of the ramp up the sub, so we just walked on up!! We were there long enough for one other family to follow us up there and take our picture before a little Japanese worker lady came and yelled at us to get down because it was closed!! What rebels, hu?!

Evan turned 1!! We made it!! I always said that if I could just make it through this first year, we'd be set, and here we are! I almost can't believe it, honestly it's gone by so fast. We didn't have much of a party for him, but Chantelle was in town and so were Alan and Camille and we were all going up to Ray and Bev's for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, so I decided to at least make a cake. What to make for a 1 year old? Well, there were lots of great ideas, and Chan told me about a train cake that she had made with Twinkies as the train cars. . .sounds easy enough, right? Well, I baked myself a cake, and bought myself a box of Twinkies and lots of candy to decorate with and just started. Now, I'm not usually a great creative thinker, or very artistic or crafty, so it was truely inspiration that I made such an amazing cake. . .honestly one of the coolest cakes in the history of amature-mommy-cake-decorators. Somehow I thought of doing a tunnel. . .and the rest just came out of me. . .5 hours and lots of sugary frosting later the masterpiece was done. . .I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here's Evan with my brother Alan. Can you see how amazed Alan is? And how jealous he is that he didn't ever make his kid such an awesome cake? Can you also see how the train track comes around and UNDER the tunnel?!! Green coconut grass. . .brown coconut dirt. . .chocolate licorice train tracks. . .quartered chocolate wafer cookie rail-road-ties. . .and the engine even has a cow-pusher thingy. . .I'm a great mom, I know.

Here's a better view of the tunnel.

I couldn't resist these pictures of Evan enjoying his
birthday cake!!!

We finally went on our vacation to San Diego with Jareds family. It was so great!! We were so close to the beach, and spent a lot of time there boogy boarding and making sand castles and stuff. Jared got a rediculous sunburn at the beginning of the trip and spent the rest of the week in lots of pain. We went to Sea World, which Cohen loved of course, he just loves animals. He was totally enthralled by Shamu and the dolphins, and all of the animals. It was great.

Cohen and Sophie enthralled with the Shamu
Show. . .and Justin too!!!

Here we are having fun on the Merry-Go-Round at
this little carnival place just down the street from our
beach house.

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

Here's the family photo on the beach. Jared is such a great photographer, right?!

This picture basically sums up how we all felt by the end of this picture-taking adventure. . .Poor Sophie

Our cute little family walking down the beach. . .so picturesque, eh?!

Cohen is talking a ton, which is so cute. He's starting to use his imagination so much, I love to just sit and watch him play with his little horseys and dinosaurs. Their conversation goes something like this. "What are you doing?" "I don't know" "Whats your name?" "Dinosaur" "Hey!! Don't do that!!" "Don't hit me!" and stuff like that. Its funny. I find myself just watching him, hoping he won't notice that I'm watching so he'll keep on playing in his little imaginary world. I love it!

Evan has started walking for real, thank goodness!! Because he's HEAVY!!! He has been taking a few steps for a while, but just over the last few days has been walking across the whole room. He loves to just practice walking, its so funny!! He'll just walk in between the couch and the windowsill over and over and over. It's cute.

2008-08-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Things We're Thankful For

2008-07-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

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:

J:Dear

C: Dear

J: Heavenly

C: Helny

J: Father

C: Faher

J: Please

C: Peez

. . .you get the idea. Also, Jared loves gummy worms, and we've had them around the house lately and Cohen just calls them 'worms.' Tonight at Family Home Evening, we were giving Cohen a gummy worm each time he answered a question correctly.

Jared: Who is this?

Cohen: Jesus.

and he gets a gummy worm. . .

Jared: Does Jesus love you?

Mommy: (whispering) say yes.

Cohen: Yes.

and he gets a gummy worm. . .good system if you are Cohen, right? So we get around to saying the closing prayer and he is asking for another 'worm.' Jared tells him he can have one after the prayer. Hence, the closing prayer going a little like this. . .

J: Dear

C: Dear

J: Heavenly

C: Heanly

J: Father

C: Faher

J: Thank you

C: Dee doo

J: For

C: For

J: Jesus

C: Worms

Thank you for Worms!!! And he really is thankful for gummy worms, so at least we know he is understanding prayer, right?!