:: the place that I call home ::

 We went to my beautiful home town of St. George, again. I love s.g. trips. You may have already caught onto that. I may be a little bias, but I can promise you one thing....if you go live in s.g. for no more than one year {so you can witness each season} you will be hooked. You will fall in love. You won't be able to leave - EVER.

 {Co watching the fish in my parents pond}

 Lots of swinging + lots of playing hard = good naps and night time sleeping for Cohen = happy mommy

 We played every kind of ball, played guns with Kai, cars with Corby...

 And had yummy treats the WHOLE weekend.

 {taking a play break for a popsicle - do you think these cousins are watching a movie? I think yes.} 

 Playing golf with Daddy. Cohen is drawn to golf balls. Not the fake ones, only the real ones. My parents have just about every kind of ball in their backyard and Cohen only wanted to play with the real golf balls. Maybe I have a future golfer on the hands....

 Or maybe the next Michael Jordan...

 Possibly a mini Babe Ruth. He's all boy that's for sure.

How cute is Nana K?! Playing a little baseball in her dress even.

 We had a surprise CONGRATULATIONS party for my sweetheart for getting accepted to Medical school. I went to St. George a day earlier than him, so when he got into town we had a party waiting.

 {My beautiful sister-in-law Jenna and I}

 {playing some crazy basketball with Daddy and Uncle Josh}

 THE REASON WE MADE THE TRIP.

My mighty, manly, hunter shot us a deer.

Yuck, but yay!

I'm sure this will be his last hunting trip for quite some time, and it was a successful one.

Way to go Brock! Now let's hope I can cook and eat the meat. Yucky.

 Two of my good friends from high school came and played one morning with their sweet babes.

Wish we had more time to play! One day....

 Ty Partridge : : Aubree Wiest : : Cohen Kitchen

We wore him out AGAIN.

He was sleeping before we made it to the freeway.

It never fails. St. George is just way too much fun.

We love our families so very much.

I just can't think about possibly moving far away from them. Blah.

One day - We will get to see them on a daily basis when we live in the beautiful town that I call home...

St. George, Utah.

:: boo-boo's ::

 Wowzers.

This little boy just can't stay on his feet. Bless his heart. These pics do not do justice. The day after I took them face planted it on the cement outside and got two more golf ball size bruises on his forehead.

I hate seeing him hurt.

BUT...

On a positive note, many other parents and grandparents have looked at him and have said "oh I remember when my kids were in the stage". That made me feel a little better, like I wasn't the WORST mommy in the entire world.

He's one tough cookie.

"IF" he cries when he falls, it's only for a short moment.

:: if you need us we'll be at the OPERA ::

  

We went to the opera.

It was actually Brock's idea.

We went to support a couple that Brock home-teaches in our ward who had a big role in the show. 
 They did AWESOME! Lacey was the most funny role in the show and her voice is beyond great.

We are NOT really the OPERA type.

Don't get me wrong - I think it is absolutely PHENOMENAL what those people can do with their voices, while acting at the same time.

BUT...

It was 3 hours long.

Every song was in German.

I was sleepy to begin with.

It was probably 50 degrees in the theater.

Nonetheless, it was a great date night.

Maybe because of the photo shoot we had....

 {And here is probably the best picture of the night..

my new skirt from Gap that I love.}

:: why so much happiness? ::

 {Cohen grabbing his nose like the little boy in his book}

I love being happy.

I love good days.

And especially I love when my whole little family is happy.

We are really happy.

Why you may ask??

Drum roll please.............

BROCK GOT ACCEPTED TO MEDICAL SCHOOL!

WOO! Wow. What a relief. 

Him and I have been on an emotional roller coaster since he got the phone call. We are HAPPY, relieved, excited, anxious, and a lot of NERVOUS feelings on my part.

He has been accepted to Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Fort Worth, Texas. Just outside of Dallas.

YIKES.

It's starting to sink in. I could pack up and move my family to TEXAS in less than a year. {big knots in my stomach as we speak}

What a blessing to know we at least have ONE option for med school and don't have to apply next year. He is waiting to go to another interview and see if he receives others.

Pray for me.

Pray that I can be tough and have faith 

to go down the right path that is meant for us.

I'm still HAPPY. Just a lot of "scared" of the unknown.

Change is good right? RIGHT. It helps you grown.
{trying to think positively}

 {my boys reading books before bedtime}

I am SO proud of Brock. This is what he has been working towards for 3 1/2 years. He deserves it, and will become an amazing doctor.

Watch out world.......Dr. Brock Kitchen is on his way!

{ok, maybe in about 8 years, but still.}

I am happy.

And I love it.

:: 16 months ::

 Cohen is 16 months today.

What's new with Cohen... 

• he is Mr. Independent in every way possible. He wants to eat everything with a fork and drink out of a glass cup like mom and dad. He is pretty good at it.
• loves throwing his diaper away after every diaper change. {I love this new trick}
• LOVES LOVES LOVES airplanes. He will point to one in the sky while making an 'O' shape with his mouth and whispering an 'O' sound. He can hear one in the sky from inside the house.
• loves sticks, rocks, and especially loves all the acorns on the ground outside our house. His cup holder in his carseat is full of them, as well as the pair of pants he's wearing now.
• he now says "Bless You" when someone sneezes {I've been working hard on this one} It's more like "bets ew" but it's so very sweet. 
• Co now has 12 pretty, white teeth. {all 4 molars are all the way in}
• He is getting longer white leg hairs. So cute! He's turning into a big boy.
• Knows MANY animal sounds {dog, cat, monkey, elephant, duck, chicken, pig} He will also say "Yee Haw" when asked what a cowboy says, and he'll make an airplane-in-the-sky sound when asked what sound an airplane makes.
• When counting, he still just says 2 and 3. I'm working on counting 1 to 5.
• He doesn't say the ABC's quite yet, but he makes his own letter sounds while singing the tune. {one of my favorite things he does}

 {taking a stab at the mac}

{The 'O' face} 

:: 24 on the 9th ::

{my birthday gift from Brock}

I am now 24.

Where has the time gone? I say that every year, 

and I'm sure I will keep saying it every year.

I have lived 24 years of bliss.

My birthday was perfect, just perfect.

I was side by side with my prince charming the WHOLE day in Park City, Utah. 
Being with Brock for a whole day is a treat to me.

We shopped, ate and laughed more than we have in a long time, and that was heavenly.

Sadly, Brock did not buy my the beautiful Porche in the picture above, but we were lucky to happen to be in the right spot at the right time to hit up a Porche car show. Beautiful.

The dark blue one was my favorite. One day, it will be mine.

 The car show was all the way down Main Street. Every Porche owner looked exactly the same - black jacket, jeans and a baseball cap. Hmm. Interesting. Brock and I found that funny.

 We ate lunch at the Red Banjo. YUM. It was a packed house, with one server. We surprisingly got our food quickly, although this sweet, stress-case of a server was hilarious. She would ask a table a question, for example: "How does everything taste folks?" but she would ask the question as she was speed walking away to get to her next order. HA. FUNNY. What topped it off for me was when she rushed to our table to bring drinks, she takes out ONE straw from her apron and set it down saying, "Oops, I only have one straw." then walked away. HA. Another funny. We thought for sure she would bring a second straw...NOPE.

Our food did hit the spot.

Bless our server's heart.

She gave us some very good laughs.

 Mr. Cohen was a sport. He shopped with us til we dropped. Needing to let some energy out, we let him down to explore every so often. This little man never stops when let loose. Like in the pictures below - one second wants to climb the railing, the next second runs away. All within the time of me clicking my camera to take a picture. I love him.

 ENOUGH SAID. We were all POOPED on our way home.

{notice his left sock pulled half way off, one of his new corks} 

After the babies were in bed, we had brownies and ice cream and cupcakes. And played the most funny game of Spades-hearts-heck.of.a {which ever name you want to call it} 

with Ty, Laura, Tiffy and Jade.

Needless to say my 24th birthday was perfect.
It didn't have one flaw.

I woke to my favorite breakfast made {sweet rolls and hashbrowns}.
I opened gifts from Brock and Cohen, 
then we were off for Park City for the day.
Half way through the day I even found a birthday-love note in my back pocket of my jeans. WHAT THE? How did he do that?!


I love my boys.
I LOVE birthdays.
Dang, now I have to wait a WHOLE year for another.

:: Zupas for lunch ::

 {Abs, Laura & Co at Zupas}

My sweet Laura {and 2nd mom to Cohen} took me to lunch for my birthday. We had a blast! It was laugh-out-loud funny sitting at our TINY table with two babies wanting to grab everything. I ate with my plate on my lab. I love funny times like these.

Laura is the best.

Not just because she took me to my favorite place to eat,

but because she is one the most amazing women who have impacted my life for the best.

I appreciate her more than she'll ever know.

She is always, ALWAYS there when I need her most,

especially to help out with Mr. Cohen.

I cherish her wonderful friendship and always will.

Now we just need to figure out how to get Ty to 
P.A. school in the same town Brock goes to Med school. Hmm. Might be a toughy.

Thanks for the perfect lunch date!

:: morning devotional ::

 We have a routine of doing a morning devotional.

Sometimes Cohen is present, other times he isn't.

Depending on what time Brock has to be to work or school.

I live for the mornings that Cohen is there with us.

We sing, yes sing, and read a scripture and pray.

Cohen gets excited.

He gets ready and grabs a mini hymn book and starts humming.

Wow.

He is learning.

He can feel the spirit.

What more could a mommy want?

I LOVE our family devotional.

Even more I love the spirit that is with us all throughout the whole day.

Cohen, please stay sweet, innocent, and obedient FOREVER.

I love moments like these.

 :: RAIN. AUTO SHOP. DANCING ::

Even being stuck at an auto shop for HOURS while finding out the only problem was our battery, {BLAH} he was all smiles.

He was so good I thought a treat was well deserved. SKITTLES for the first time. Wow, how amazed he was by the candy machine!

The best 15 month old boy I have yet to know.

Maybe in about 8 months when 2 years old things will be different.

Good thoughts about this day as a mom:

Stalling while waiting for the car to be done and eating 

chicken nuggets at Wendy's across the street.

Dancing to RON POPE with Cohen and singing at the top of my 

lungs until I couldn't anymore cause we both were laughing SO hard.

Shopping at Target, then walking outside to everything 

covered in rain and the smell being SO DELICIOUS.

Having 4 men open one set of double doors {2 doors} 

while entering a building with a kid in a stroller. 

Hilarious, but I am very grateful.

Seeing my son smile from ear to ear when seeing 

his Daddy walking to the car to be picked up from work.

Cohen saying over and over again, "Oopsie!" with the "S" sound in a lisp.
{his new favorite word}

:: st. george marathon 2010 ::

{court, sheryl, brock, matt, josh & kai, todd, jade & tiff, me & co}

WAY TO GO NANA & PAPA!

This is a day that is in my book of favorite days of the year.

I have ran one st. george marathon four years ago and absolutely loved it. I am not a runner by any means, but it was a very incredible experience. Todd & Sheryl have ran many which I admire. They had a great race!

Watching the runners is so inspiring. Having ran the race, I can now feel their pain and joy as I watch. Such a bitter-sweet thing, also a major mental game. The whole event wants me to push myself a little harder in life. At least get into better shape!

{Liisa Frei, Kaye Berry, Sheryl}

MY OLD RUNNING GROUP

 {Cohen & Corby cheering on the runners}

My early birthday party, celebrating with family and friends

 Em and Me

 Tam, Me and Lon :: Do you think they are related?! I THINK YES.

 General Conference. 15 people together watching.

KAI AND CO. Cute cousins, playing in the BIG tubby at Nana's.

We had such a great weekend, like always.

I never will be able to get enough of St. George until I live there.

General Conference was relaxing, refreshing and reassuring.

Who doesn't love church at home in your jammies with treats?!