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!

THE BOYS.

Brendon

8 months old

- eating new foods; like lunch meat, kix, string cheese, baby yogurts, guacamole.

- when going to sleep takes his binky and any blanket touching his face. Snuggles and goes to sleep very quickly.

- first tooth popped through {mar 15} was a little fussy, enough to let us know teeth were coming.

- he loves to sing with us. When we sing a song for FHE he jabber with us. Also when I put him down at night I see or hum a song while I get a little snuggle time. He'll hum very softly, and this is one of my favorite times of every day. 
- he laughed in his sleep for the first time this month. Brock and I were in our room and heard him on the monitor.
- FINALLY interested in moving. He is rolling from one end of the room to the other. Not really scooting yet at all. He is still just contend sitting or laying around, I'm getting a little impatient.
- His fake cry only makes me laugh these days. He even adds a nose wrinkle to it. So cute! He knows the perfect time to let it out too....like when Cohen is just playing by him, not really hurting him, trying to make mom and dad think Co did something. Sneaky. Smart little guy already.

Cohen

2 years and 9 months old

 This kid is a HAM.
- He is Mr. Independent and showing us that he is growing up and getting big. Just tonight we were eating an orange and the slices were pretty big so I reminded him to bite them in half. He said to me "mom, I put the whole piece in, that means I'm big."
- He wants to buckle his seat belt and get in and out of his car seat BY HIMSELF. Now we just need to work on wiping after going to the bathroom. ;)
- Something that Cohen is very good at doing is reasoning. Thank heavens. He has his days {most days} where something small upsets him, but if you simply explain things to him he stays calm and is pretty understanding.
- Still takes a nap after lunch, same time as Brendon. He'll sleep 1.5 - 2 hours. But at this point he is just fine without a nap. Which has been very nice. If we are out and about or at a friends house he just plays and is great.
- The things he says KILL me sometimes. He's got his own little spunk and personality, and we all are in love with it.

Some quotes that were worth writing down:
- He asked me and question at the dinner table and I answered. He then turned to Brock and said "Dad, did you hear mom's answer???"
- "Mom, I really like your hair."
- On a day that we didn't think anything could go right, I was completely out of patients with everything and everyone and I was getting Co's jammies on and getting mad because he was trying to dance, he said to me "Mom, just relax!" Which make me smile. Then so serious he said "And mom, you stink." I was laughing at this point. I DID stink from running earlier and STILL hadn't showered by 8 pm. The truth comes out!
- Cohen played with a new darling friend named Audrey a few days ago, and the day after he came up to me and said "I want to text Audrey." OH BOY.
- "Jesus doesn't want me to ride motorcycles." 
{not sure where this came from}
During FHE we were talking about remembering manners, specifically PLEASE, THANK YOU, YOU'RE WELCOME. So we did a few role plays and Brock said Thank You to Cohen....We waited and asked Cohen what he says back. He said "Sorry?" Good try. "I love you?" Wrong again. "You're welcome!" Yes. Reminders are good. 

s p r i n g   b r e a k

:: Days 9 & 10 ::

 Saturday was oh so relaxing. We slept in, recovered from our two crazy busy FUN days. We headed to Arcadia Park. We stopped at the dollar store on our way there, and Josh grabbed a few kites for us. They were surprisingly way sweet kites and worked great.

 Darling Mr. Kai in his green shoes for St. Patrick's Day.
{I miss this boy SO SO SO bad!}
THIS picture below has to be one of my recent favorites of Cohen.
He's looking so grown up.
Bittersweet feelings about that.
He was proud to fly his very own kite. The kites were too high to get a picture of them where you could actually see them flying.

 Oh my sweet Cohen....he is easily distracted/clumsy at times.
While watching the kites fly so high, he walked right into this HUGE muddy Bog. It scared him half to death. He was muddy wet up to his chest. Now that I look back it could have been much scarier than it was, thankfully we were right by him. He wasn't close to going under, so it turned out to be more funny than anything. 
The stench was AWFUL! Horse poop smelling.
Poor boy. We didn't have extra clothes, so he threw on nothing but my sweatshirt. He was a good sport while dad ran home to grab new clothes. It didn't stop him from swinging and sliding.

 This picture cracked me up, and was pretty sweet...
His definitely has his eye on the ball.
And hit it far.

 Sunday was church and a day at home.
We had a bbq and got Josh, Kai and Jenn all 
packed up and ready to fly home back to Utah.
Sad!
We enjoyed them in our home oh so much.
And can't wait for them to come back.
Hint. Hint.

Spring Break, we LOVED you.
Well needed break.
That went just as planned.
 

s p r i n g   b r e a k

:: Day 8 ::

Train to Dallas Aquarium

 This was all of our first time on the train to Dallas.
It was so fun and stress free to all be able to just chat, and eat snacks, and relax on our 40 minutes ride to downtown Dallas. The price was $5.00 one way for adults and kids age 3 and under are free.

 THE BOYS walking in the big city, on our way to the Dallas Aquarium.

 Again, we fought the Spring Break crowd. I thought was going to be WAY longer to actually get inside, because the line was wrapped around the whole outside of the building. But it wasn't too bad - other than the horrid sewer stench that we smelt while waiting on the corner. :)
This was a sweet fish tank on the building by the street.

 Trying to be patient to get inside.
{I believe Cohen is winding up to whack Kai, stinker.}

 This man was one amazing Sax player. Just playing on the corner of the aquarium, smart man. People were throwing bills at him like crazy, including Cohen. He thought that was pretty cool to be able to give him money.

 For even more entertainment, there was a group of these crazy indian-looking people walking around to take pictures with.

The aquarium was great! SO PACKED like I said, but great. A little pricey {$20 per adult, 3 & under free} but worth it.

 The jaguar was my favorite part of the day.
He was in a HUGE glass cage and we saw him grab a live fish out of a little stream and eat it right up. Sweet!
Then he walked over to his big salt block to have a few licks.

The shark tank was also very neat.
It was a tunnel tank, so there were sharks and turtles and fish all around you. 

 Definitely tired by the end of 3 hours through the aquarium.

 Waiting for the train...

 Successful day.
Thank you, Dallas. 
You treated us well.