Sunday, May 6, 2012

Birthday... I Can Remember My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Big 3 Year Old ARLO!!!!!!!!!

Arlo's birthday has been a long time coming.  We had a birthday party for him on the 21st of April where we invited over family and friends to BBQ and celebrate his special day.

I love making special birthday cakes for my boys.  This year Arlo wanted  pirate birthday cake.  Since I had no idea how to make a birthday cake into a pirate, I made a treasure chest instead.  It worked out wonderfully because Arlo does not like birthday cake but he loved the chocolates/ring pops/rock candy in the treasure chest, so this year he actually got to eat his birthday cake.



It was a really fun day, we spent most the day outside while the kids played in the water,




And then came in for presents (even though I warned everybody not to bring them, he still got a few:-)


I was so busy finishing up with the cake/ food/ cleaning/ getting ready for people to come over I forgot to change out of my junk clothes when the guests came... Oh well, I'm glad it was close friends and family!



 Then on May 1st... not April 30 (his real birthday) we celebrated Arlo's birthday.  He woke up to 40+ balloons over his bed and then it was pretty much a do what ever Arlo wants to do day. 
 We had a huge Arlo choice breakfast of french toast, hash browns and bacon, his dad took him ice skating, we sang and had cupcakes for dessert (after lunch) and played ALL DAY!!!!

It was a fun and exciting birthday month.  I sure do love my Boy!  

Thursday, May 3, 2012

What's Not To Love???

Have I ever bragged about how wonderful my boys are?  I love them so much!  I am so lucky to be able to stay at home with my boys and watch them grow little by little.  And since time goes by so fast I  forget to slow down and enjoy each and every moment that I have with them.


Since Cohen was sick on Easter, we had to take pictures in the boys Easter outfits the next week.  These are the results, and I have to say my boys are cute!


Arlo, is following in his fathers footsteps and becoming a hockey player.  Tim and Arlo go to the rink as often as possible and play hockey at home even more often (like every day).  Tim has made sure his boy has everything he needs and more to make hockey fun and safe.  Gloves, skates, net, pucks, balls, sticks, helmets, etc...  Arlo loves it and it is so much fun watching Tim and Arlo play together.





Have I mentioned that my boys love to watch Yo Gabba Gabba?  Well, there is a segment on there that is called 'Cool, Cool Tricks and Arlo likes me to video tape his 'Cool, Cool Tricks'.  He comes up with them about 50 times a day, it can be anything from him doing his fighting skills to jumping to saying silly nonsense words.  If he thinks he is doing something wonderful he'll say, "you wanna see my tool, tool trick?" and then proceed to show me, but if he thinks it is really cool, he will tell me to get out my camera.  So here is a 'tool, tool trick!'

Arlo Just turned 3, (there will be a birthday post in the near future) and he is such a great kid.  He is getting to the age where he is connecting things and learning from everything and it is so funny to watch him take in the world around him.  For example, when talking to his dad about where he works, Tim told him he works at the bank and Arlo said something along the lines of Cool! You get to see pirates!  Tim and I were laughing hysterically because of the connection with pirates and banks... there is no connection with these things in my brain, but then I realized that Arlo watches a show called the Backyardigans and in a pirate episode there is a song that says "we'll take all of your treasure and put it in the bank' so with Arlo it made perfect sense that his dad would work with pirates.  Arlo has also been needing explanations for why his dad is gone all the time.  Before, we could get away with saying dad is going to school, or dad is going to work, but now it is why?  So we talked about how dad goes to work to make money so we can live.  Now when Tim goes to work Arlo call out "bye dad go bring me home some money!" and when Tim gets home from work Arlo asks "did you bring me home any money?" One day Tim brought home a dollar and gave it to Arlo and Arlo looked at it and said "that's not money dad, thats a dollar."  so Tim got out two pennies from his wallet and Arlo very excitedly says 'WOW!  Thanks dad!"


For a few other tid bits on my big boy... Arlo loves to make up new songs but is a horribly picky eater. He loves trains but has a temper when things do not go his way.  He loves facetime, but not talking on the phone.  He cannot live/sleep without snuggling first, loves to clean the windows, is horrible at picking up unless it's made into a game/race, can recite books after 2-3 reads, tries to read every word he sees by making up what he thinks it should say, says the best prayers that melt my heart every time and does not like to be shirtless but will take off his pants and underwear every chance he gets.  He loves being outside, loves candy, loves that he can put on and take off his clothes all by himself.  He can be the best brother and his brother's worst enemy, he needs to work on his listening skills and I don't think I could ask for a better kid!




Cohen my baby is growing up way to fast!  Right now he is working on talking, as for a list there are too many to write but for his favorites... mama, dada, arlo, please, mine, night night, popsicle, baba, bunny, hand, cracker, me, eyes, ears, cheeks, cheese and behold; and in sign language yes, please, thank you, all done, food, drink and binki.  Now for a few stories behind the words... Cohen has become very protective of the toys he plays with.  I watch kids for a living and one little girl that is a few months older than Cohen loves to take toys from him, so he has somehow learned the word mine and whenever she comes anywhere near him and he has a toy in his hand he automatically holds it up over his shoulder and yells at her MINE!  Cracker is a word that he uses 100 times a day because this boy is ALWAYS hungry.  So all throughout the day he will come up to me and ask for my hand and drag me to the kitchen where he will proceed to tell me 'cacka' until I get him some food or he will climb on me and yell 'cacka' until I get up with him and get him some food.  Tow also loves to sit on anyones lap and point to body parts and say their name.  He's been doing this for a few months now, but he still does not seem to get enough of it, he loves it and we are adding to the list with words like eyebrows, chin, hair, head, elbows, armpits etc.  Cheese refers to not only the food but what you say when we take pictures.  WHen ever I get out the camera Cohen will be the first to stop and look at me and say with his biggest, cheesiest, grin and scream 'CHEESE' if you look at the pictures you can definitely tell which ones he has his cheese face on!  As for the word behold, when we read scriptures at night, to make it more interesting for the boys, Tim has made a habit of yelling behold and raising his fist in the air whenever the word is read (which is quite often), and then the boys will repeat it with the same gesture and they love it.  As for his sign language, the really cute one is his thank you, for thank you he likes to blow a kiss.




This next picture is cute because unlike Arlo who is nothing but a destroyer, Tow loves stacking and building things.  Whenever he is not attached to my hip I can find him in our pantry with cans... stacking them.  I remember growing up so close to my sister and hating the fact that because we were so close in age and we are both girls everybody belived we would be alike, but after people got to know us they would realize just how different we were.  So it is funny how every day it surprises me just how different my boys are.  And they have been different since they were born.  At Cohen's age Arlo was so independent.  He never wanted to be held, since he started walking all he wanted to do was go, go, go.  But Cohen still believes that we are connected by umbilical cord.  That boy cannot go 5 minutes without me.  It is a love/hate relationship with that fact because as much as I love him and love to hold/snuggle/hug him, it makes it so hard to watch 4 other children, keep them busy, clean house, make food, do anything.  Today I actually let him cry for an hour as he was following me around the house.  I know it sounds mean but I did try to distract him with toys and food and everything else but every time I tried to distract him he would throw a tantrum by falling dramatically on the floor and putting his forehead to the ground.  After the hour was up I picked him up and after a minute of calming down he was happy and smiling and acting like I didn't just kill him the past hour... SO FRUSTRATING!!!


Other than when he is attached to me Cohen is one of the happiest boys in the world and his toothy smile wins over anybody and everybody.  He loves water and loves to lay down in it so it covers his ears and then he makes lots of noises because I think he likes the sound of his voice while he's underwater.  He loves to wrestle, read, and run (I don't think he knows how to walk).  He is a mama's boy but when daddy get home he runs to the door screaming 'dada, dada' until Tim picks him up.  He has two blankets and cannot sleep unless he has at least 50 binki's in his crib.  He has broken both of our bunny Coalbert's ears, and is a wonderful dancer.  We have had to take out the drawer from under his crib and put the mattress on the floor because he was starting to escape and after seeing how he does it (by sticking his foot over the railing and literally falling to the ground) and scaring me half to death we decided it was better to be rid of the extra storage and keep his neck in tact.  Tow is also making it through about 10 seconds of prayers where he will fold his arms and be quiet before he realizes that he has free reign of grabbing noses and poking eyes out while everyone else has their eyes closed. 




Here is some pics of the goo we made that the kids loved.  (I love pinterest!)




And here are some pics of us standing in line for about 35-40 minutes to eat at Rudy's.



So to answer my title's question... NOTHING!!!!!!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Easter With Kids

All parents out there... back me up, Holidays with kids is sooooo much fun!!!
The excitement, anticipation, joy and fun they bring to the day makes a great day... amazing!!!!
Saturday we went to Tim's uncles house for a delicious potluck and egg hunt.  Here are all the kids ready to go.




Cohen was a natural, he ran around with dad and loved picking up eggs and placing them in his basket.  When the egg hunt was over I told Arlo he could only have two eggs for the night, so a few minutes goes by and I can't find him.  When I do, he is up in the play house with almost half of his eggs opened and a chocolate ring around his mouth!

On Easter Sunday Cohen woke up with a 101.7 temperature.  He was so sick, but was determined to have a good day.  I was grateful for the many distractions throughout the day, because with out them he would have been even more miserable.  (He was sick with nothing but a high temp for 3 days the highest temp was around 103.6, then on the 4th day he broke out in spots... Rosiola... the same sickness Arlo had on Christmas!  My poor boys pick bad times to get sick.)  Needless to say, Cohen could not go to church, so we stayed home and snuggled while Tim and Arlo went to church.  When Church and naps were over and done with Grammy and PaPa came over for the presents that the Easter Bunny brought.











We spent sunday morning dying eggs and getting easter baskets ready for the bunny to fill.  After naps we had an easter egg hunt, got into easter baskets and ate way to much candy.

Throughout the day I tried to talk to Arlo about the real reason we celebrate Easter.  Who knows how much he understands now, but hopefully one day he will understand that Easter is so important because it is when our Savior died for us.  So, that we may live with Him again.  And that through His selfless sacrifice we may atone for our own sins.  I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for that opportunity!