UTAH trip. {cont.}

::Christmas Eve/Day::

The little lover cousins, checking out the Christmas lights.

Watching a Christmas show on Gram's and Gramp's bed, wouldn't stop watching for a second to take a picture.

Cohen's trick, as of late....he's so proud of it.

Delicious food, even better company. Uncle Dean and Aunt Karma came, The Hulme's, Grandma Sheryl stopped by, and Cort and his family. Brock also made his famous Apple Pie, and signed his trademark in the top. Maybe one day we'll open a bakery called BK Pies. Hmm...

Brotherly love.

I love this man.

He's incredible. Wonderful husband, dad, brother.

In heaven, I think everyone will be more like Cort.

The Nativity.

Cohen thought being a wiseman with Gramps was pretty cool. Em made and provided all the props. She's so crafty and creative. And my handsome husband played the PERFECT donkey. We were all laughing so hard, sorta drove the spirit away, but needless to say it was memorable.

He we are, the giddy parents ready for bed waiting for Santa to arrive! I can not tell you how enjoyable this Christmas was, "working" for Santa and seeing the expressions on Co's face Christmas morning. I would pay lots of money to see it all again. 

{or I could just watch the film I took on the video cam}

So flying for Christmas was a tib bit tricky. We bought the bike online and shipped it there, then had to ship it back to Texas. Every thing else for our boys and every one we gave gifts to were small enough to fit in a big duffel bag.

{Santa found the boys}
This darling little table and chairs and baby bed were made by Cort and my Dad for Cort's kids. They turned out great!

This boy LOVES his bike! Christmas Day he could not stop talking about it. At first he had a hard time reaching to push the pedals too much, but now he is a champ at bike riding.

Daddy helping him out. I love his face in this pic, just so excited to have his very own bike.

Dr. Cohen Kitchen now has his own Dr. tools and won't have to play with Dad's anymore. Grandma Sheryl came over for the morning, which wouldn't be the same if she wasn't there.

Just a normal day for Brendon. He had no idea what was going on. We let him sleep until he woke up himself to make sure he would be happy.

Ready for church!
I really enjoyed attending Sacrament meeting on Christmas Day.
It felt like there was an extra special spirit in the meeting.

After church we headed to Brock's parents for the evening and to open some gifts with them. Grammy and Pop were there as well as Kai. It was so great being able to see everyone.

We headed back to my parents for the night, where we slept almost every night. The weekend of Christmas Cort's family slept over with us too. So much fun to let the cousins play for so long!

 Christmas wouldn't be right without being with our families and loved ones. I am forever grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. For his birth, life and resurrection. I enjoyed so much teaching Cohen about the true meaning of Christmas this year, and love hearing him sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, still in January.

Merry Christmas everyone,
and Happy Birthday Jesus. 

UTAH trip.

Dec 2011

::Week One::

 Alright, I'm keeping it short when it comes to words.

St. George, Utah, is HEAVENLY.

Everything about it, everyone in it.

Our flight went well! Brendon slept more than half of the flight, and only cried for a min while descending {his ears hurt}. Co watched Cars and Mator and the Ghostlight and ate snacks and candy, and didn't ask to get out of his seat once. Good boy.

 RIO!

Oh, how I miss you. This pork salad makes me salivate.

Brock's sweet parents picked us up from the Vegas airport then took us to Cafe Rio for lunch, the perfect way to start our trip.

I was very impressed with Brendon this whole trip; he was happy as ever, slept well, and would let any stranger hold him. 

After spending a few hours at the Kitchen Residence we headed over to my parents house to party for Naomi's birthday. She turned 2! And she is A DOLL. Her and Co were connected at the hip for 3 weeks. Broke my heart to separate them once again...

My two favorite things to hear Naomi say are "Hi Yissy!" {Lissy} and "I'm a pincess!" {princess}.

My goodness it felt so refreshing to see and hug my family. It was like it filled up all my emptiness I've been feeling for 5 months.

 There she is, the cutest Princess I've ever seen.

My darling sister-in-law Em surprised us with donating 16 inches of her hair, she could be and SHOULD be a maternity model. 

{Baby Mathews #3 due April 4}

 And FINALLY....

These two best friend babies of two best friend mamas met!

Adyn Aldridge stole my heart from day one.

He is snuggly, solid, smells delicious, handsome, and I love that him and my Brendon are only 3 weeks apart. They liked each other!

 So, we really wanted to go see the live Nativity at Tuachan and there was only ONE night that we were available to do so. Of course it had to be FREEZING...like take-your-breath-away, make-your-eyes-water freezing. Cohen kept looking at me like I was a crazy mom. Kinda was. We were there long enough to watch the Nativity for about two minutes and tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas. Better luck next time, hopefully.

 Game nights with my family.

LOVE THEM. Miss them. Could play for hours.

 A drive up Snow Canyon.

If there was one reason, and one reason only, that would entice myself back to St. George {besides loved ones} it would be SNOW CANYON state park. Heavenly Father created some of the most amazing sights to see right outside my parents property.

 Cohen showing the crowd how we do it in Texas...

Yee Haw! Ride 'em Cowboy Cohen!

 After been home a week, Co is still talking about Gram's toys that we got to play with at her house in Utah.

 My Girlfriends.

Missing a few in this picture, but I was SO SO SO glad we were able to get together with our husbands and babies for dinner and to catch up. I get bummed thinking that I only get to see them about once a year, but how lucky I am to have such great ladies in my life. And we do make some of THE cutest babies around.

{Meg & Aubree Wiest, Lindsay & Tess Robinson, 

Lex & Ty Partridge, Me and Brend, Aubree Vogt & Co}

Lex and Aub are both due this summer. Can't wait to add more babes to the group. 

Keep them coming!

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.