E A S T E R   2 0 1 2

Happy Easter weekend!
I love Easter.
I more Easter holidays I get to celebrate, 
the more I grow to love the holiday.
Our weekend started out with a walk in the wagon.
The boys wore their new Easter hats from Grandma and Grandpa {my parents}.
 

 Cohen was "holding" the camera for me, little did I know he was working on his photography skills....

 After we got home, we did yard work together.
Can I just say how much I enjoy doing yard work as a family? Everyone is together, outside, we can all get dirty and it DOESN'T MATTER. It's great. We make some much needed progress on our front yard.

 Trimming the roses = fresh flowers for my table!

 Saturday evening we attended an Easter egg hunt and picnic put on by friends in our ward. Beautiful weather, sunshine with a light breeze. Co was thrilled this year for Easter. He still wanted to open every egg and eat it before he picked up another one.
I wonder when that ends?

 After that party, we headed over to Andy and Beka's new house. The hot tub was OH SO RELAXING.

 Nixon brought my camera to me and said "Cheese?"
I turned it on and he stood there and said "CHEESE!"
He steals my heart every time I see him.

 Easter Morning
Brend woke up first, of course. So we let him explore he very exciting basket. He just wanted to shiny grass to play with.

 The Easter Bunny hid eggs around our living room.

 Co showing me just how heavy is basket was.

Supreme French Toast for breakfast.

 Baskets, egg finding, breakfast AND Egg dying all before church at 11:00 am. Cohen's eggs were all dipped in every color at least once. Whatever floats his boat!

 Ready for church!

  We went back to Andy and Beka's for an Easter feast.
So much yummy food!

 Sweet little Bridger.

 Andy & Beka, Matt & Telicia and Andy's cousin and her cute family and us got together at the Philipp's for an Easter feast.

The boys had a blast, as usual.
No one got too hurt, not so usual. ;)

JUST CALL ME CUTE!!!!
Brock snapped a picture of me as I was saying "wait!" or something like that....and this is the outcome.
Yikes. I should be embarrassed, but it's too funny I can't help but laugh at myself! My boys should be proud.

Beka :: T {Telicia} :: Me

  I guess you could call us the 3 amigos?

We had a wonderful Easter holiday.
So grateful for great friends to share holidays with. We're like family away from home. Most importantly I am forever grateful for my Savior. 
For His life, His atoning sacrifice, and His Resurrection. 

A Treasure.

 Every first Monday of every month, we are allowed to set all the junk we want on our curb by our garbage cans for a big truck to pick up. On this first Monday morning the boys and I were on a run. I passed a house and saw this car. Hardly a scratch on it, just a sticker peeled off. A young boy was outside so I asked if I could take it, he said of course! People do this often, snatch each others junk.

Sweetest treasure find ever!!

We ran home, got the van and brought it home for a car wash.

It was like new.

 Beep! Beep!

Co & Brend

 Brendon Lee Kitchen - - 9 months

- Will eat anything we give him, such as: chicken enchiladas, guacamole, pieces of orange, instant oatmeal {he ate a whole packet of strawberries and cream yesterday}, LOVES goldfish and will stuff his mouth full if I'm not looking.
- Was done nursing at the end of 7 months {due to my milk drying up}.
- Has 2 bottom teeth {at 8 months} and working on some more.
- His reflexes are getting "cat like", getting quick to knock the spoon out of my hand EVERY time not just sometimes.
- Still sleeping GREAT. Short morning nap around 10:00 at home or out and about, then sleeps around 1 or 2 for about 2 hours. Then 11.5 hours during the night. Goes down at 8, up at 7:30.
- Prefers his tummy. SO close to crawling.
- Making sounds like "dee" "da" "Mmmm".

The phrases Co comes up with and things he does these days are hilarious. He will be 3 in 2 months and is acting his age ;). 

- He is getting better and riding our razor scooters and his bike. He loves to pull/push Brend in our wagon.

- Being more social with strangers/ new friends at the park or library.

- Waves and says HI to most people we pass in the grocery store.

- The other day I found Cohen pulling his undies down while eating some cheerios, and I told him keep them up, and he repied "But Mom, I'm getting my Cheerio!" He found his cheerio and popped it in his mouth. GROSS! Didn't even phase him.

- Can now completely dress himself, pants, shirt and socks. We're starting to work on tying laces. But flip flops are great for now!

- Last week he has scary dreams a few nights in a row. It was heart-wrenching! This is the first time ever. He said something about a scary tiger. After Brock gave him a blessing and lots of prayers for him to have good dreams, we have not ran into this problem again. The power of the priesthood and prayer!! Wonderful.

- He has discovered how to unlock our bedroom doors with a butter knife. SO BAD! So so bad. Bye bye privacy.! We've made a few new rules due to this occurrence.

- Found him and Brend playing "naptime". They were laying on the floor with Co's blankets, and Co  told Brend "it's ok Brend, you don't need to be scared, you'll have good dreams, and I'll sing you a song." He sang to him then said "ok I'm going back to my bed."

- We've been going to Storytime at the library and we love it. It's during Brendon's cat nap, works out great. This week they talked about Poetry and rhyming. All the kids wrote poems about themselves, with the help of an outline and mommies. Cohen's poem says:

I AM...

I am silly and handsome.

I wonder where the rain comes from.

I hear birds tweet outside.

I see the sunshine through the window.

I want a treat.

I am silly and handsome.

I helped him on one or two, but that was pretty much the first things that came to his mind. 

 Their friendship is blooming, and it makes me giddy.
I knew this day would come quickly.
When both of them wake up, they want to see each other more than they want to see their mommy. And I am OK with that.

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE.

To my sweet Cohen,

I could watch your every move for hours without end.

You have been a trial of mine at times lately {I blame it on your age}, but I wouldn't change that for a second. You teach me oh so much. You are what life is all about. You were meant to be my little one, my two year old. You make me want to be more care-free, more patient, more quick to forgive, more driven about gaining more knowledge and more anxious to wake up and start a new day.

Thank you for being a humongous part of my world.

Thank you for loving me for who I am.

I LOVE YOU more than those three words can say.

Love, Mom

General Conference

{flowers from our yard}
 One of two best weekends of the year.

General Conference is like a breath of fresh air.

Not only do we get to have "church" at home in our jammies with yummy food, but the words I hear from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the other apostles of the church, give me HOPE, STRENGTH, MOTIVATION and ADVICE to help me make it six more months of being a wife, mommy, daughter, sister and friend....until the next session of conference in October.

We made breakfast for an army. Hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, muffins, fruit - delicious. Cohen will lick any batter or dough bowl that you will let him. Especially blueberry muffin batter.

 We walked out front to go for a walk before conference started, and we got a sweet surprise......

 We got egged!

Our ward is passing this sweet surprise around. Our front yard was full of plastic eggs filled with candy.

Cohen was thrilled.

 HOT Sunday morning walk.

 Building temples, of course, while listening to conference. Brock hooked his laptop up to our surround sound speakers, which made it much easier to listen.

 Our newest conference tradition:

MAKING CINNAMON ROLLS!

Delicious.

This was completely Brock's doing and his idea.

And I must say it's a PERFECT one.

 The boys watching A Giant Among Men: Gordan B. Hinckley dvd.

Cohen will sit and watch the whole thing almost, he loves it.

 Wonderful weekend. 

Yummy food. 

Great company. 

Even better words of wisdom.

new editing tools.

{pics taken from my phone, obviously, bad quality}

 This is after trying to part Brendon's hair to the side. After plastering it down, it will stay for a few minutes, then slowly starts sticking straight up!

 He's a movin'! So close to crawling, he rocks and will move his hands and knees a tiny bit, then just wants to fall and roll to his back. I find him stuck under something at least once a day. He won't cry when this happens, I will just hear him talking and go in to check him and he's stuck.

First shopping cart ride with his brother.

They both thought that was pretty sweet. 

 The cheesy grin I adore.

Soaking up some vitamin D.

Introducing my new nephew:

Parley James Mathews

Born March 27, 2012

in St. George, Utah
  

 I can't tell you how bad I want to snuggle him!

It's killing me being this far away. BLAH!!

 "Fresh from Heaven" as Cort would say.

I love these two boys with all my heart.

I'm so proud of Cort, world's greatest dad AND brother.

 Wish I could nibble those cheeks and kiss those lips.

He is precious!!

So happy for Cort and Em.

Parents of THREE kids.

I couldn't ask for better role models.

WE LOVE YOU MATHEWS FAMILY of FIVE!