So I need to write these down before I forget them.
A few weeks ago, Jared and the boys were sitting on the kitchen floor playing with each other, just making funny sounds and faces and such, and Evan would crack up at Cohen when he would do something, and then when Jared would do something funny, Evan would look at him like he was crazy, and then look back at Cohen to do something funny! It was hilarious to watch this little baby think his big brother was the coolest, and think his dad was a nerd!!
Cohen gives a mean zerbert!! Man!! The other day I was blowing raspberries on Evans tummy, and of course that looks interesting and fun to a 2 year old, so he comes over and joins in on the fun. I don't know how he was doing it, but he was giving the best ones I've heard in a long time. Nice and low and gross. Jared and I were laughing so hard! It's just like a boy to know how to make gross sounds right away, isn't it?!!
We had the annual Easter Egg Hunt in Grandma's back yard last Saturday. Josie brought some plastic eggs that were shaped like footballs, soccer balls, and baseballs. Cohen found one of the footballs, picked it up, yelled, “Hike”, sat it on the ground and with a resounding kick sent candy eggs scattering all over the yard. What a cute kid.
Cohen had his first real phone conversation today with Grandma Ward. He usually just listens to the other person talk and he smiles, and I've gotten him to 'roar' at them a time or two, but today he was actually talking back to Grandma and didn't want to give the phone back to me!! It was so cute! He kept the phone for a good 2 minutes before he finally got distracted by Riley barking at the neighbors to give the phone back to me. Every time I had tried to take it back or tell him it was my turn, he backed farther away from me and said "Mine!" or "My turn!" He's growing up so fast.
Last weekend we took a trip to Vegas (finally) for Jared's 10-ish Year High School Reunion. We had a lot of fun hanging out with his old friends, and with Oma, Papa, and Kelli. Oma and Papa's house is all torn up because they are in the middle of a complete remodel. It's coming together though, and it's going to be beautiful once it's all done. It may take a few more months, but they'll get there!! They want to give us the blue sectional from the TV room, we'll just have to see if there is any possible way for us to go down and get it. We got there late Thursday night and went straight to bed. Friday we went to lunch with Chris at Thai BBQ. . .YUM!!! Honestly some of the best food on earth. It's pretty greasy, but so good!! 
Then we went to LVA for a tour of the school. They have a big new theater, and some of the old rooms have been updated or changed. It was fun to walk around with all of these old friends and hear all of the crazy stories that they remembered. Jared and some friends had spray painted their names in a storage room backstage, and they were still there!! After all these years nobody has painted over them or anything. Crazy. 
Saturday morning we went fishing at a park close by. Jared caught 2 little fish that we just let go when we were done because they were so small. But nobody else was catching anything, so he was pretty lucky.
It was Cohen's first fishing outing with Papa, and I'm sure there will be many more to come. He was mostly interested in the ducks and playing with the kid with a football, but a good first fishing lesson for a 2 year old nonetheless!! 
Saturday there was a get together at Rachel Benke Roberts house. Not too many people came, but she had some crazy old videos that we watched. . .SO FUNNY!!! Oh gosh, I was laughing over and over at these old videos. There are some of me somewhere, so I can't make too much fun of them, but WOW!! Rachel is such a sweet girl, it was good to finally meet her last weekend.
Saturday night was the 'official' reunion and it was too expensive, but fun. We must be getting old because we went to the 'after party' but only stayed about 10 minutes before deciding we were tired, and it was too loud, so we just left. Are we really that old?! I mean, we're turning 30 this year, but geez, you think we could stay up late once in a while!!
Sunday we went to Thai BBQ again because Adam invited everyone for lunch. Same yummy greasy food. 
After that we went back home to spend the afternoon with the family, and we left at about 8:00 that night so the kids would sleep the whole drive rather than me having to squish in the backseat in between their carseats for 6 hours!! I was pretty sleepy by they time we pulled in our garage, but the kids slept the whole time and that was worth it!!
Missy from across the street had been taking care of Riley and she wasn't expecting us home until Monday night. Her mom, Sherri had come and let Riley in and locked up the house on Sunday night. She left the living room light and the porch lights on. I guess she got up around 4am to let their dog out to go to the bathroom because she saw that all the lights were turned off at our house and thought that someone had come over and robbed us, and killed Riley and the whole bit. She had scared herself to bits, and had called the cops to come check it out, so we woke up just after 4 to Sherri and 2 cops coming up our stairs into the living room!! It was pretty funny.
Evan is rolling over now, from front to back but not the other way. He just doesn't really care about getting from here to there unless he's on his feet. He cut the first of his top two teeth while we were in Vegas and the other one is about to come through anytime. We are walking outside a lot now that the weather is getting warmer. Cohen loves to be outside, and he's getting pretty good at hitting a big bouncy ball with the bat almost every time. He can't hit a baseball sized ball, but he's good at getting the big one!! I can't wait until next summer when we can put him on a soccer team or something. He's gonna love it.
Well, Cohen turned 2 on Monday!! Unbelievable, that he is so big already. We decided to have his birthday party at the Hogle Zoo, and it was a little chilly, but the weather was pretty nice for February. Jessie & Janessa, Amie & Jace & Desi, Rachel & Jackson, and Grandma came with us. So 6 adults and 6 kids under the age of 3. . .it was a lot of fun!! 
Cohen loved all of the animals, the monkeys, elephants, giraffes, turtles, penguins, bears, zebras, and the lizards. The tiger was asleep, so we didn't see him, and they don't have any lions anymore, which his favorite thing to do is 'roar' and his favorite movie right now is The Lion King so we wanted him to see a real lion, but we had to do without. It's not a big zoo, but it's just the right size for these little kids because you can basically see everything by the time everybody is tired and ready for a nap! 
I made an incredible Elmo birthday cake, and we had a picnic and cake after seeing all the animals. Cohen was so cute with his little friends, making sure that they were coming with us when we moved on to the next exhibit. Jace gave him an over the door basketball hoop, which he loves. We have it on the back of a kitchen chair so he can reach it, but he loves it. Grandma gave him the movie "Dumbo" which he hasn't watched yet, but with his passion for watching movies, I'm sure it won't be long!! We got him a few more DVD's, the Leap Frog Fridge Alphabet thing which will help teach him the ABC's, and a little potty!!! He actually loves his little potty. No pee pee or poo poo yet, but he likes to sit on it, and looks in it for any 'production' every few seconds. Thats a great start!!!
Evan is growing up so fast too. He weighed 20 lbs 3 oz at his 6 month check-up, so he's still in the 95th%. He is getting better with his hands, he is so grabby!!! Anything that you are holding, or trying to eat or drink he wants some and reaches for it. Dangerous!! He's finally eating baby food like a pro a few times a day. Rather than spitting everything back out at me he's actually eating it!! Yay!! He's figuring out how to march his chubby little legs forward so we like to walk him across the floor a few times a day. No rolling over yet, but he's getting closer. He almost did it yesterday, but got upset before he did.
One funny little story from a few weeks ago. We don't know where he picked this up, but when he's talking to both of us he calls us "Guys." Smart. We were in the car and Jared and I were disagreeing about something trivial, but we both sounded irritated. Cohen pipes up from the backseat, "guys. . .guys. . .GUYS!!!!!" We turned around to see what he needed, which seemed to satisfy him and he went back to drinking his bottle. I guess he just wanted to put us in our place and let us know to be quiet!!! We started laughing and that was the end of it!!
The most exciting thing in my life lately is that I've lost 7 lbs since Jan 1st!!!! I have never been on a regular exercise schedule ever before in my life, and I've walked/ran on the treadmill every morning except sundays since the first of the year. Thats saying a lot for me, because I don't really like to sweat. I can powerwalk forever, but I don't really like to run. So, I've been pushing myself to do it everyday, and on January 1st, I could only actually run for 2 1/2 minutes without dying, and now I'm up to at least 10 minutes a day!!! I mean, I'm on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes, but thats as long as I could actually RUN. pathetic, hu?! But I'm going to run a 5K sometime this spring, so I want to be able to run the whole thing. Too bad all the weight that Evan is gaining isn't weight that I'm losing!! Why do I have to work at it?! I've also sworn off sugar (mostly), and am being A LOT more careful about what I eat. I'm not counting calories or measuring my portions or anything, but I'm trying to eat smaller portions in general, and a good variety. I guess it's working, at least the scale says it is!! My skinny jeans are still another 10 pounds away probably, but I'll get there.
A week or so ago, we were driving somewhere in the car, and Cohen fell asleep in his carseat. Out of the blue he starts to giggle at something really funny, and we turn around, and he's still asleep!!! It was so cute! Laughing in his sleep!! We tried to get him to do it again, but he was off somewhere else in dreamland because he just went on sleeping. It was so funny.
Evan loves to watch Cohen play, and loves to have Cohen make him laugh. They were in the bath together the other day, and were both just laughing their little heads off at each other. Evan sits in this little bath seat to help him not fall over, and Cohen thinks he needs something fancy to sit in as well, so I put the baby bathtub in the big bathtub, and Cohen sits in it like a little boat.
Cohen is saying a lot of words now. He's finally copying a lot of words too. Not that he understands what he's saying always, but he's good at copying the sounds you make. His favorite thing to do is watch movies. . .sigh. . .I do my best to limit the amount of TV and movies he watches every day, and I do pretty well, but sometimes I just need him to be entertained by something besides me!!! He loves 'Finding Nemo' and 'Cars', and he loves Elmo and Sesame Street too. It's hard to tell if he wants to watch Nemo or Elmo, because they both just sound like 'momo'. He loves to try and scare you by 'roar'ing at you. He crawls around on the floor and whispers 'roar, roar, roar' and then he comes up close to you and does a big 'ROAR' and of course expects you to be terribly frightened by it. He could play this game all day long!! It's really cute. He likes to sing action songs like 'Itsy-Bitsy Spider' and 'Patty Cake', well he likes ME to sing them, and he likes to do the actions with me. His favorites are to "WASH the spider out" and "mark it with a B".
I got the "Once Upon A Potty" book at the library, and there are a few pages when the boy gets his new potty that say stuff like "Was it a hat? NO, it's not a hat! Was it a flowerpot? NO, it's not a flowerpot!" etc. So I had read the book to him a few times, and I catch him reading it to himself, turning the pages saying "blah blah blah? NOOOOOO!!!. . . blah blah blah? NOOOOOO!!!" (He doesn't really say blah, he just babbles whatever :)) So now we can ask him any question in that same tone of voice and he'll say 'NOOOOOO!!!' What a smarty-pants, already reading to himself!!!
Well, its been a month, but we had a great Christmas. Of course we spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Wards house, and Evan got to play Baby Jesus. . .yea, an 18 lb newborn. . .not so believable. But he did a great job laying there in his swaddling clothes looking cute and hardly crying.
Cohen was already pretty tired by the time we got around to the nativity, and we tried to force him to play Joseph, and then a Shepherd, but he was having none of it. He finally went downstairs to watch a movie so the rest of us could enjoy it without him screaming and throwing a fit in the middle of the manger. It was funny.
By the time we were half way through opening up the presents, Cohen had gotten ahold of the idea that each of these boxes had something new in them, so he was a great unwrapper by the end of it.
We just hung out the rest of the day, and I didn't want to cook, but we wanted a 'nice' dinner, so, yep, we went to the nicest place that is open around here on Christmas Day. . .Denny's!!! What a yummy Christmas dinner, hu?!!! It was fun anyways!
The boys are doing great. Evan's first tooth came in a couple weeks ago, and he continues to laugh at anything and everything. He is honestly one of the happiest Babies I've ever seen.
Cohen is becoming more of an independent little boy every day. He continues to learn new words, and loves to figure out how to do anything physically that you can teach him.
He has mastered jumping, and walking like various animals- Including a duck, a penguin, and a horse. Still the loving brother, he constantly looks out for Evan and makes sure that he gets to share Cohen's toys, or come with when mom runs an errand.
Jared will be officially hired for the church starting in January, and is definitely looking forward to a steady income and benefits, as he continues in this job that he already loves so much.
Natalie continues to be the best mom you could imagine. Always teaching and playing with her two boys who adore her more than anything in this world. We are looking forward to Christmas and the chance we have to spend with a couple members of the family.