91 degrees + a little water =

WATER FIGHT!

Cohen in his undies of course...

 Dear Summer,
We love you. But don't come too fast.
And try not to be TOO deathly hot this year.
Thank You! 

my baby  Brendon

 This boy...

So handome. So spunky. He's funny and wants to tease and crack jokes ALWAYS. He will fight back to the end, and he is stubborn. He knows what he wants when he wants it. Not much reasoning yet with this kid.

We like to go on dates to the park while Cohen is at preschool.

Last week we went to a new park and we found a few ducks that seemed to be living by this swimming pool. There was plenty of poop that gave me this assumption. When B and I tried to "sneak" up on them to say HI they woke up and ran and jumped into the pool. We found that pretty darn funny. 

 There is something about this boy that I am in love with. Maybe it's the fact that EVERY thing about him inside and out reminds me of his Daddy who I am madly in love with. Or maybe it's the way he still needs and wants me to nurture and snuggle and feed and kiss owies and rub our noses together and watch his new tricks and discoveries. Maybe it's those luscious cheeks that I have to always kiss when they're close. Or maybe it's the way he looks me in the eye now and says "I.....Wuv.....You!" as he does the actions along with it.

Yes, I love my Cohen in these same ways. He is my sweetheart, my stud, the big boy that first made me a mommy, the boy that wants to be happy always and makes sure it happens. I can not say I love one of my boys more, not possible. I love them both with my whole heart, more than I can write. I can say I love them in different ways. All good ways. I think my heart is more tender towards Brend at this time, a few more strings attached.

I think it all comes down to....

HE IS THE BABY.

It's intersting to think about having another BABY {in the far future} and how my heart will change slightly I'm sure, just as it did when Brendon was born.

Just a few random thoughts! :)

 

Here B is saying "Weeeeee!"

Of course. He can't slide without saying it. 

 

 

 B, I...WUV...YOU!

 

Best. Week. EVER!

Cort, Em & kids in TX for a week.

{April 5th - 13th}

Part Two 

Historical Stockyards downtown... 

 Watching these 5 together in the candy shop was the best thing ever! I wish I could have bought them all one of everything, just like they wanted. Parley had his first sucker from this shop! I think he loved it.

 THIS picture below is my absolute favorite of the whole week. Captured all their different personalities well.

Longhorn's have 6 foot horn span... 

How long is your reach?

 Brend's first time doing "the reach". LOVE HIM!

 Em and Corby wanted a pic on the bull, he was a LITTLE crazy and gave them a scare. He didn't want to hold still and turned in a circle. That was first time I had seen that! Well worth $5.

THE JUMP HOUSE!!

Cohen had this at the top of his list of things to do with cousins. We had a blast, even with a big crowd there.

 Cohen remembered this from the last time Cort stayed with us on a business trip, and wouldn't stop bugging Cort about it until it was done.....throwing/spinning the kids in the air and dropping them on a pile of pillows. I love how easily kids are to entertain! 

Ipad, Iphone, diggin' in the dirt...

So.... Em and I played beauty shop every day! Well, 6 out the 7 days. SO MUCH FUN! New cut, new color, I LOVE IT! Thanks Em!

Playing out front with toys and bikes...

Big boy Brend pulling sweet Parley James.

Picnics outside in the beautiful sunshine!

Friday was so much fun! Brock was able to do a poster presentation at his school about his big case report he did. We all went down to support and to see it and to show Cort and Em his school.

We showed them the "almost real" people. Haha. His school has these simulators that cost a million dollars each and they can have pretty much any procedure done on them. You can draw blood from them even. And in the other room someone in controlling them while you work on them. Pretty amazing!

Before getting back in the car, we let a little energy out with some races...

After seeing Brock's school, we all {even Brock} went to ride the Minature Train downtown...

Waiting patiently for the train to come...

Brend was TIRED but so good. And we saw LOTS of turtles.

Naoms is the cutest! And I love the art work that was a project to cover the graffiti. The sweet couple on the bottom right I'm sure felt like celebrities. I loved seeing them having a picnic in the park and little guitar jam! So fun.

My favorite face Parley makes! Glad I caught it. At the turn around point of the 40 min train ride, every one can get off and stretch and hit up the concession stand. Our boys only needed sticks and rocks for entertainment. So funny that they all went right to picking up sticks.

That night we had Cathy, Gabe & Chels over for Pizza and games. We had a blast!! We partied until midnight. It was so fun for them to see Cort's family.

Well, that's our week in a nutshell!
Felt like HEAVEN. 
Didn't want it to end.
Cort and Em AND their kids are wonderful examples to my whole family. They make me want to be better and happy always.
LOVE YOU CORT, EM, CORBY, NAOMI & PARLEY JAMES!
Miss you like Crazy.  

Best. Week. EVER!

Cort, Em & kids in TX for a week.

{April 5th - 13th} 

 These 5 cousins got to play and be together for a whole week!

We were all in complete HEAVEN. What a sweet surprise! My sister-in-law Em called me one day, we were just chatting about the weather and what not then out the no where she says "So, what are you doing April 5th-13th?" WHAT?! She then told me they were coming to stay with us. Cort was coming anyways for business and last minute they all 5 decided to come!! YAY! It couldn't have been at a more perfect, it was a huge pick-me-up for myself to get me out of my SLUMP of being sick of the mundane days.

We did NOT waste any time while we were togeter. I have to say, besides the fact of just being together, my two favorite things about this party week was watching mine and my brothers kids play and make so many memories and the other thing was getting to spend so much time alone with Cort and Em. Having them all to myself was WONDERFUL! Selfish, I know.

Here are pictures GALORE to show you how much fun we had:

OF COURSE we built a CORT FORT the first morning after we all woke up. Cohen had been counting down the days to make one.   

 It was an extra special General Conference weekend to be able to spend it with them. So the first two days were nice and relaxing.

 Played out back, played fetch with Miss Vicki and Tank next door, ate many fun meals on the "cool kids" table...

 Bedtime snacks & bedtime stories...

 Conference Sunday :)

 Towers, log cabins, remote control helicopter, skyping with my parents...

 Soooo lucky and happy to see these two! They stopped by to visit Sunday early evening for a couple hours. So great to see them and hug that cute belly of Ness's. That baby girl could be born any day. They moved to Oklahoma City for 4 months while Colt does training for his dream job he got at the Salt Lake airport. SO excited to have them only a couple hours away for four months. Can't wait to see that babe!

 I LOVED having our nightly routine together.

Monday morning Em and I and the kids met Melissa and Brooklyn Garza at the new Perot Science Museum in Dallas {Melissa is a sweetheart and used her pass to get us in for FREE} We could have spent days there! SO awesome and interesting. There is 5 different floors with so much to do and see.

 Corby made then drove the racecar, he was LIT UP the whole time. So fun to watch.

 And these two...

WHEN they get married this will for sure make it in their wedding video. ;) I love them! Here there were performing on the bleachers, or at least wanting to.

 There is a race track where you can pick someone to race {track star, cheetah, gymnast} and you run on the track and it feels like you are right next to them. Awesome!

 The floor with the childrens area was a HIT of course. We were probably there the longest. Brend didn't hold still for a second! Literally. Good thing there were three of us moms to keep an eye on him.

 Cohen + Water + LOVE.

This is the station Cohen spent the most time. I loved watching his face discovering and testing things out.

 The elevators are HUGE and they are glass so you can see over through the next elevator and down the shaft. Way cool! Petrified poop was cool, but not as cool as the Earthquake ride. They have a platform you can stand on and it shakes horizontally back and forth in the different sizes quakes. 

 A massive Geode that you can open and close...

 And two of the world's most valuable pieces of gold. {I thought of how Neil Caffrey would still it right away. I love White Collar!}

 The babes were getting restless but right as we were decided if we should stay or go, they both magically fell asleep. PERFECT! So we explored more.

 The DINOSAUR floor.

 They had other animals next to the dino bones to compare size which I though was a clever and helpful idea.

 The first thing Cohen said when we got into the museum was "Mom, can I PLEASE right the escalator?" Patient boy had to wait until the very end right before we left. And lucky for him, we went up one escalator and there were two more going UP and only UP. Then we had to ride the elevator back down to Em waiting with the babies at the bottom.

Riding the massive elevators were another BIG highlight...

  Outside the museum were some cool frogs to climb on...

 And WAY cool instruments to play!

 The boys rode a horsey to bed after a long day of playing.

 Such a great day!

We had family home evening that night, with ice cream. After the kids were in bed up BIG KIDS played Rook. :)