b e r r i e s

 Today, Cohen and I ate berries and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Delicious.

We talked about nothing, and laughed.

He is such a good friend of mine these days.

We also talked about how yummy berries are and how good they are for our bodies. 

Cohen LOVES learning about anatomy/nutrition.

Maybe he'll follow in his father's footsteps...

Cohen @ 2.5 years

weight: 30 lbs {50%}

height: 34.5 inch {18%}

When the nutritionist was about to check his iron she was so nervous that he was going to cry, which he never has. She had me hold his wrist tightly and she told Cohen to watch what color comes out of the poke....he waited then saw the blood and excitedly said RED! I don't think he even realized he got poked. She was impressed.

Lately, Co has had an obsession with "zippy" jammies. 

He only wants footsie jammies, which we only have 4 pair as of now.

When he goes to bed or down for a nap, I've started to do something my dad did to me when I was a kid and couldn't sleep. We call it RELAX. I start at his head and go down to his toes and softly touch or tickle his hair, eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, chin, chest, belly, arms, hands, fingers, legs, knees, feet & toes. Saying "relax" before everything I touch. He thinks its magic, and so did I. It has worked every time so far. Let's hope the magic stays. My favorite part about it is he calls it "Belax".

 He has been loving to learn new Christmas songs. He knows 'Rudolf' and 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' really well. He thinks he is so funny when he starts singing one song, then switches to the other in the middle of it.
After washing Co's hands after lunch I picked him up and slowly said "You...are..." then I paused, and Co finished and said "the...cutest...boy...in...the...whole...world".

A few of my favorite phrases from his mouth lately:

- "Let's get on my motorcycle. We're going on a date mom."

 - When he does something naughty he'll say "It's ok mom, don't get mad." 

Stinker. It only works sometime.

- "I'm just teasin' mom." or "I was joking!".

He's quite the tease these days.

- In his prayers, he's grateful for the lights, and that Daddy could study at home, and that Brendon's here. His prayers are precious.
- I love the way he says the word remember, "reNember".

 He is still my baby boy.

And he's a spit-fire.


P.S. Three days until we are in UTAH!

Christmas ornaments.

The boys usually go down for an afternoon nap at the same time, but Cohen wakes up about an hour before Brend. That is "our hour". We try and make the most of it and do something fun for Co. Yesterday, I came up with the idea of making salt dough ornaments. He thoroughly enjoyed it.

He is one determined little/big boy.

 He wouldn't stop trying to fill the 1/2 

of cup of salt until it was full.

 After insisting on tasting the SALTY dough, 

I said GO FOR IT. He gagged it down then yelled

for water. That was his first AND last taste of salt dough I'm sure.

 Showing me he's strong enough to lift the rolling pin.

 "C" for Cohen, colored very nicely by Co.

Happy Holidays!

Brendon

 I love your gummy smile.

I love when I kiss your forehead you close your eyes and get sleepy.

I love your long fingers and feet, just like mine.

I love how content you are playing/talking by yourself.

I love you in yellow.

I love the way you jabber in your crib every time you wake up.
I love the way your hold your breath and 
smile when I put your shirt over your head when getting dressed.

I love that I can't remember life without.

 

Boy, you keep your mama happy and spoiled.

 I LOVE YOU.

baby it's cold outside...

When it's a LITTLE bit too cold for the babies 

to play for too long outside what do we do?

Well, here are a few things we've been up to:

 Our ward Christmas Party

Cohen playing with his girlfriends from Nursery,

Lucy, Audrey & Violet  

Family Home Evening

Writing a letter to Santa and a birthday card for Jesus.

Cohen is doing well at understanding the meaning of Christmas.  

Eating. Of Course.

Brendon has now tried Bananas and Sweet potatoes.

These pictures are from about a week ago, but I've been mixing the food with rice cereal and a little water and he eats a whole jar of the food plus rice cereal. He's an eater. And he hasn't grabbed the spoon. Such a different experience than we had with Cohen. I'm enjoying this. He is very impatient while waiting for his next bite to come. I have a feeling this kid is going to tower over his big brother quicker than we think.

Baking.

Honey Whole Wheat bread.

And Cohen "helping" me clean up afterwards. He played in the sink for almost an hour. This boy just needs water and dishes and he's good for awhile.

Building forts.

I have to admit, Brock is a WAY better fort builder. He's probably had a lot more practice than I have. Both boys LOVE doing these. 

Kids Christmas party @ Lucy's house.

Cohen LOVES his friend Lucy from Nursery. He talks about "Wucy" all the time. She is darling. When they see each other they light up, smile and say HI, in a shy way. Flurting? Maybe. He keeps talking about "that one time" he went to Lucy's house.

We ate Mac 'n' cheese and chicken nuggets for lunch, decorated surgar cookies, watched Rudolf and played with toys.

Heavenly for the children AND moms. We had a great time visiting while are kids entertained each other.

Daddy getting tricky with the boys.

Brendon standing on Brock's hand.

Ironically, we have a picture of Cohen a little older than Brendon now and he's wearing the same outfit. HA. 

 

I've been trying real hard to keep having good, fun days, EVEN when it's chilly outside. This month of December has been wonderful so far. 

If we can make it through January I think we'll be ok.

P.S.   Five days until we are on a plane to ST. GEORGE, UTAH!!  

Slodkie Snee

 A few phrases and things I've heard from this cheesy grin lately:

> "what did you say to me mom?" - when he can't hear me.

> "I want to go on a date Mom."
>"Oh sorry mom, I didn't mean to."

> "Does that sound like a good idea?"

> "Slodkie Snee!" When we tuck him in bed at night, he says Goodnight, I love you, Slodkie Snee {which means Sweet Dreams in Russian}

> He is one amazing player of MAKE BELIEVE. He is constantly going to school, the store, the library, the dentist, Grandma's house. Every day is different. 
I love his imagination.

> He is the only one that can make Brendon laugh.

> And he is still singing his ABC's with the K and J backwards.
> "I like mac 'n' cheese all day long, Mom."
> One of his recent favorite songs to sing, "Old McDonald's had a farm", he adds the S the McDonald's just like the restaurant.

 Brendon is Mr. Smiley, always.

And oh so mellow. A bit different from his brother.

{at least for now}

 Brotherly bonding. They are getting better at that.

 We've been working on the lyrics to some Christmas songs...

Santa Claus is coming to town is his favorite I would say,

And he is reminded PLENTY times a day that Santa is watching.

This boy is Fire & Ice at times...

but I love everything about him.

pie and a piano.

 I got the surprise of my life last night!

OUR first piano!

Brock used some of his birthday money and only $35 dollars of our own money and found this screaming deal on craigslist for $150! There are a few scratches on the bench, but it is in WONDERFUL condition. So here's the story...Brock and Colton went and picked this up one day and told me it was Vanessa's surprise Christmas gift from Colt. They stored it in our garage and that was that. Well last night we were having friends over and the "plan" was I was going to take Ness into the other room while the boys brought the piano in from the garage, then when we walked out she was going to be surprised. Well...When we walked out the joke was obviously on me! I was in shock, I really was. I saw the "Merry Christmas Melissa" sign and had to look twice then a third time. We didn't get pictures of my surprised face but Colt did film the whole thing on our camera. I was in complete shock.

 I'm in love with it!

It couldn't be more perfect.

 After Christmas when the tree is down, 
we'll find the perfect spot for it.

 Another first of the night - Brock made his first pie, an apple pie. Yes, BROCK made it all. The only help I gave was peeled and sliced the apples. He's amazing! A man of many talents. ;)

He said it wasn't a pretty pie, but it's turned out pretty if you ask me. It was the most tasty thing I've tried in awhile!

Just out of the oven. Beautiful!

 So delicious. With vanilla ice cream of course.

 Our amazing friends that were supposedly coming over to play games and eat pie, or so I thought, helped out to make the night perfect. Thank you!

 Colt & Ness Salazar and Andy, Beka & Nixon Philipp

  Brock's amazing surprises never end.

He makes me feel like a queen.

He loves when I play the piano, Cohen LOVES the piano, and I have missed playing oh so much, so this gift for us is more than perfect.

Merry "Early" Christmas to me! 

the countdown is on....

 No, this is not a countdown til Christmas, but a countdown til we leave for UTAH!! 
19 days!! Once we get to Utah, then comes the Christmas countdown.

19 days...

I hope I can make it.

Every time Cohen talks to my parents, somewhere in their
conversation he says "I'm coming to your house next month!"

He's been saying that since Nov. 1.

It's been a long month.

December 17th, please hurry up!

Bon Appetit!
Brendon's 1st feast - rice cereal

At four and a half months Brendon tried his first taste of cereal. As you can see from pictures, he wasn't too in love with it. Although, he was not nearly as bad as Cohen, who gagged and spit out every little speck of cereal that went in. Brendon tried it and did ok, but then whenever I would put a spoonful back up to his mouth, even before he tasted it again, he would get a grossed out look on his face a let out a tiny whine cause he knew what was coming.

This last bite got to him...

 We'll keep trying.

I would be gagging too if I were him.

BLACK FRIDAY

 I've been listening to Christmas music for couple weeks, but today is was the best yet. There's nothing like listening to Christmas music, N'sync Christmas of course, while setting up the tree. Cohen did a great job decorating {we had to move a few ornaments}. He was bummed when we were all done. He wanted to take them off and start all over.

 Funny story about our tree this year....This actually isn't our tree. Ha. Ours is much smaller with no tree skirt. When I was up in the attic getting our tree and decor out I find this one! The people that lived in our house before us must have left it. So, I thought WHY NOT put it up. If they magically come back and want it, we'll gladly take it right down for them.

 My pretty nativity that I've used for the first time now that we have more space in our house. Thanks Carma!

 Cohen LOVED help checking the lights to see if they worked. I'm surprised they didn't blow up for how many times and how fast he plugged them in and out. In and out. In and out.

 We didn't attempt the very late/early black friday shopping, since we didn't have anything BIG to buy this year.

We did go to 3 stores late morning, and it wasn't too bad! We found great deals and only waited in ONE huge line.

Happy Holidays!