sharing licks

These pictures speak for themselves...

"Hey Bro, I wanna lick."

 "Okay Brend, I'll give ya a taste."

 

 "I'm not so sure about this Co."

 "Oh wait...it's yummy!"

 "Oh heck yeah! I love suckers!"

 "Gimme more, gimme more!"

 THE END.

This story cracked. me. up.

A few new sayings, favorites, tricks & happenings lately:

- an excuse Cohen used for coming out of his room one night was "But mom, the tiger's gonna get me." He's really not scared AT ALL. Nice try Buddy.

- Brendon MAY have waved for the first time to a lady at the store today. I thought he was just flapping his arms but then he did it 3 times in a row copying her.

- One of my favorite things Co says is "Hanitizer" {hand sanitizer}

- Brendon wants to JUMP JUMP JUMP every waking moment.

- Cohen is starting to correct himself while speaking. An example: He ran up to me one day and said "Mom! Mom! Where is Loni?" And he said the "L" with an actual "L" sound instead of a "W" sound. I'm going to miss this.

- I'm realized I use the word HURRY way too much every day all day. I'm working on it changing this.

- Cohen plays his harmonica while Brock sings with him.

- Brendon is a solid sitter now. We're working on crawling now.

- I love that Cohen is asking me WHY? during the day. He is so curious and has a huge desire to learn. I'm going to have to start studying to keep up with his questions. This week he's been asking things like "Where does the rain come from?" or "Where do oranges come from?" or "Why do we eat lunch?".

- This week something funny but scary happened...Brendon had just woken up from his nap and was talking in his crib, so Co and I hurried out front to pull the big garbage can in the garage before we would go get Brend out. Well, Cohen ran into the house about 5 steps in front of me and hurried and shut the door and locked it. I had no keys, no phone. I was locked out of my house with my boys inside. SO.....I yelled to Co to go get his stool he uses to wash his hands. He came back to the door with it and I tried coaching him through unlocking both locks on our door. I would guess I was locked out for about 20 mins. Right as I was about to run to a neighbor for help he finally got it unlocked. Co and I both were about in tears. But now we can laugh about it. Our new rule, no locking doors, PERIOD.


P.S. Terrible story, I'm not a writer.
But the pics are sure cute.

t o d a y...

 Today I woke up to my little guy talking in his crib.

One of my favorite parts of my every day is getting him out of bed first thing in the morning. He is oh so happy, kicks his legs and flaps his arms really fast. I pick him up and he always has a snuggle for me. I let snuggle as long as he will.

Cohen has been sleeping a bit longer than him lately, so have a little alone time. We go to my bed, I nurse him, then we chat. We laugh. We snuggle. It is heavenly.

When Co wakes, it's another happy time. He also wants a quick snuggle as it takes him a little while to wake up all the way.

{what am I going to do when my boys don't want snuggles anymore?}

Today we were playing cars in Co's room and he said something that made me laugh - he had two cars talking to each other and one car said "wanna go to the park? Yeah? Oh did you pee your pants at the park? Oh darn it. It's ok."

 Brendon could watch Cohen play in his room for hours, and he usually has a stare on his face like this one...

 Lately we've been teaching Cohen about the importance of eating healthy, trying to encourage him. One thing that is encouraging to him is if he eats well, he'll grow big and strong like Dad. The other day at the dinner table Co said "So Dad, I'll grow up big to lock the dead bolt." I loved it.

He's also been talking to himself or maybe an imaginary friend.

Hmmmm...

He'll say things like "Oh you did? Yeah I did. Oh good I see."

As if he's saying both sides of a conversation.

Silly man.

For entertainment and festivity,

we hung hearts in our living room.

Happy February tomorrow!

The month of LOVE.

Sleepover in Dallas

 We had a sleepover.
And it was perfect.
Melis called me in the afternoon last weekend and said "Lis, how spontaneous are you two feeling?" I smiled and said "Very?". They invited us over for dinner, with the missionaries in their ward, and for a sleepover so we could be together longer and not have to leave early enough to drive 40 mins back home. Perfect idea! Dinner was delicious, as usual. Kabobs. After the missionaries left and as we were cleaning up dinner Melis had a cute smirk on her face and said "So...we got a babysitter tonight, just in case." HA! I love them. So much that they knew we would be all for leaving our kids with a sitter after they were asleep. That's just what we did.
We went geocaching.
If you haven't heard of it, look it up, better yet DO IT.
So it's like finding a hidden treasure.
You go online and get a map that gives you clues and little puzzles you have to solve, then you plug the numbers in as your GPS coordinates and you search for a hidden treasure! People do this all over and I guess some people are very into it.
Thing was our first time, and it WON'T be our last.
On our quest we had to find different murals and answer questions about them. We were in the "ritzy" part of Oakcliff in Dallas. {reminded me of Park City, Utah} 

{Think these cars parked close enough together?!}

 Whaa laa!
We found our soup thermos under a stairwell.
So I guess the deal is when you find a treasure you can sign your name on a page in it saying you've been there {we didn't} and you can also put something in it. An example of something random inside our thermos there was a tube of sparkles.

 After geocaching, we went strolling.
Very cool shops, with very appealing merchandise, with extremely high prices. 
We were definitely 'window shopping'. 
Still so fun. My favorite, this Soda Pop shop. 

 The trees outside had knitted tree sweaters on.

 I had to get a pic in the bathroom with all these stickers. 
Crazy cool!
Make sure you look at my socks - I didn't dress for the outing and borrowed Melis' coat and socks. Too bad my feet are 2 sizes bigger than hers or else I would probably have a pair of her boots on.

 We also hung out with Marilyn and The King in the Soda Shop. Not sure what my face or pose is in this pic...just trying to be cardboard I guess.

 

Cork board and bottle cap decor.

 After all this exploring, the night was still young.
That's one reason I love being with the Garza's.
We headed back home to sound sleeping babes, paid the sitter, 
and got ice cream and graham crackers out.
We talked for hours.
When I layed my head down in bed the clock said 1:55 am. 
And I thought....oh so worth it.
Then I though....when can we have our next sleepover?


We made it home the next morning for church.
We LOVE sleepovers in Dallas.
They sorta feel like a mini get-a-way.


Thank YOU Garza's.
Xoxo

p l a y m a t e

 We had a new friend come play at our house yesterday, Ethan. He's three and he's in our ward and his mama just had twin girls. He and Cohen had a blast! I was expecting plenty of fights over toys, competition, screaming...there wasn't any of that.

 

 The boys worked VERY hard at building "a big huge bridge tower".

 {had to post this sneeze face. perfect timing}

Ethan is a great friend, and a good example.

We are excited to have him play again tomorrow.

Let's hope things go as smoothly. :)

Brend

 6 months

weight: 17.4 lbs {50%}

height: 28 ins {80%} 

 Two words:

MELLOW.

FIREBALL.

He's sorta like an oxymoron.

But he is delicous.

He is HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY.

He smiles MOST the day.

He is snuggly.

Content playing alone, although he is needing more entertainment lately. 
Cohen is perfect at doing that for him.

He eats anything given to him.

LOVES to jump while being held under his armpits.

Loves his voice, especially when it's extra LOUD.

rainy days are good days

 On a typical rainy day at our house, we stay in jammies extra long, eat a few extra snacks, watch a few extra shows, and play with playdough. 
Jello playdough, homemade with love by Grandma.

 We even went BOWLING with playdough.

 Of course build a snowman. Co named him Snowflakes, original.

He also took this picture of Snowflakes and I ALL BY HIMSELF. Pretty impressive.

chubbs

I love his chubb.

I also love our new church time, 11:00 am. 

Sure beats 8:30 am by a long shot.

I feel like we actually have a morning that we can be together as a family, have a yummy breakfast, and not have to run out the door half dressed to make it on time.

2012 is going to be a good year.

summery winter

 The second week of January and we were running around outside half naked. Heavenly! The boys are so much happier and easy going, and that makes me one happier mama.
Do I miss winter in Provo? Heavens no.

 It was so nice Dad even had to take a break from the books and play a bit. One of Cohen's favorite tricks - throw the ball on the roof, get it stuck, then knock it off and try and make a basket.

We love summery winters!

Holiday weekends.

 We absolutely LOVE when holidays come around and Dad doesn't have to go to school. Martin Luther King Day was a little chilly but that didn't keep us inside. We headed to a fun park called Arcadia Park just down the road from us. It has an awesome covered playground, swings, tennis & basketball courts, soccer fields, trails to ride and walk on, and a frisbee golf course. We took our frisbee golf discs for the first time to play.

Very cool area with lots of trees that makes you feel like your in the woods 

{yes, even in FLAT Texas}

Definitely can't pass a river without throwing at LEAST one rock in. 

I love raising boys.

Sunday evening we had the Garza's over for dinner and dessert. It feels like "HOME" when they are with us. Cohen and Brooklyn played and played.

Cute little friends.

 Wonderful holiday weekend.
Relaxing. Entertaining. Lots of time together as a family.

M Y   B O Y S

Cohen

:: age 2 1/2 ::

Recent quotes and quirks and new tricks by Co:

- "What's wrong with the moon?" {covered by clouds}

- "Oh I see. Yes, you're right."

- "Shake ya bootie."

- "hmm....must be st nick." {even after Christmas}

- candles of any kind = happy birthday

- He's on a shortening-name fetish {Grams. Gramps. Nan. Lon.}

- Playing with my parents answering machine, he pushed a button and said "I'd like a hangaber!"

- "Drat!" - a word used by the big bad wolf in a book.

- "Holy Moly."

- "Where's me at?"  {when's he's hiding}

- "Where's Grandma?" mom: "Utah." "Oh man! Well I'm posed to live in Utah for a long time."

- While him and I were eating crackers and hummus he joked "I don't like hummus in my mouth, I like it in my nose."

- He is beginning to like oatmeal...finally.

- He can drop kick a big ball VERY well. 

{cross your fingers for a little soccer player}

- He pulls his pants or undies down if they are SLIGHTLY too high, which is every time they get put on.

- We made some family goals to start out the new year and two of his are 1. Be nice to Brendon daily & 2. Learn all the sounds of the alphabet with no mistakes. He is doing great on both! I've been VERY impressed with how well he's remembering to be nice to Brend. He'll help Brendon out then look at me with a proud smile and say "My Goal." Good to know he's remembering.

- learning to ride his bike well.

Brendon

:: 6 months ::

 
What's new with Brend:

- Sitting up well.

- Loving baby food solids. He has eaten anything and everything we have given him. He even eats the green veggies {Cohen would not}. Peas do make him gag at times, they have to be plenty warm and mixed with rice. He eats rice cereal and about 2 jars of food every time he eats. I'm almost positive he'll be passing up his big brother before we know it.

- Sleeps from 8 pm to 8 am, takes a 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day, sometimes a tiny cat-nap late morning.

- Just getting over a nasty cold, but wasn't grumpy for a second the whole time.

- Happy happy happy happy happy.

- Smiles at anyone that makes eye contact with him.

- Starting to laugh at many more things.

- Still thinks Co is the best in the world.
- Size 3 diapers.