A Change

I have been working on a new blog for a couple of weeks now.

This August will mark 5 years that I have had this blog up and running... can you believe it?  I laugh every time I read my first post here.  :P  I had no idea what to do with a blog really at that point. 

I've just been ready for a change and have grown tired of Blogger.  So change your bookmark or update your RSS feeds!  I will be posting at my new blog location from here on out!

Meghan's View 

Let me know if anything is wonky or just doesn't work right... I'm trying to figure it all out, but there will definitely be a little bit of a learning curve!

Lashes for DAYS

Can you believe my little girl's lashes??

On Saturday she got to be all dolled up for her dance recital dress rehearsal and pictures.  Afterwards, I took her outside for a couple quick shots because knowing me, I wouldn't get around to on the night of.

The theme for the night is TV shows.  So her 3-4 year old class is dancing to the theme song from Gunsmoke.  There are a couple of boys in there, so they are cowboys, a few girls are cowgirls, and there are just a couple little "cow Belles".  Scarlett is one of those!

She loved the red lipstick the best, I think.

 

She's in a Tap/Ballet class, but their dance is a tap number for the recital.  She's been practicing it a lot.  I was a little surprised at how much she knew on her own without watching her teacher.  It's really cute.

Here are a couple pictures I took at the dress rehearsal...

Both taken with the iPhone... I love the Hipstamatic app for pics.  That's what I used for the first one.  

Scarlett ran into her friend, Janice, from preschool there.  We didn't even know she danced there!  Her dance is a Rainbow Bright one... cute, right? 

It's going to be a long couple of weeks until Scarlett can just wear her costume to dress up in. It's kind of torturous for her to have to stare at it in the bag waiting until her recital. ;)

A little garden

We had a few gorgeous days in a row last week and Saturday was perfect to put the garden in.  I bought a planter box last year but it took forever for it to arrive, so I missed my chance to plant a garden.  It was probably a blessing in disguise because I was so overwhelmed with my small kids and being hugely pregnant that I'm certain I would have let it just die.  ;)  I have hope that this summer will be much less miserable for me and the garden will be something we enjoy instead of just being a chore.

The kids helped and feel pretty proud of it.  It's not very big (4' by 8'), but it's a good enough size to see what we'll want to do for next year.  Kanyon shows it to anyone that will pay attention to him.  So, beware.  Don't come over if you don't want him to drag you out in the backyard and show it to you! 

If they are this excited about it now, I can't imagine what will happen once we have little tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc to show for it.  Maybe I can get them to eat tomatoes this way. That is if I can keep Cohen from pulling my plants out!  There has already been a casualty or two, so we'll see.  Honestly, I can't even tell you which plant is which (besides the tomatoes) because Cohen pulled all the little labels out of them before I had a chance to figure it out.  I guess we'll have to see once things start growing a bit more!  Like I have said before, Cohen always makes life interesting.  ;)

The rest of the day was spent out in the yard working and playing.  

 

My friend, Kaylee, pointed out this flower to me that evening... it was growing out of a crack at the end of my driveway.  

It's cute, right?  One of those "against all odds" kind of things.  I had to take a picture of it before my kids ran it over with their bikes!

It's crazy to me that the kids only have 2 more weeks of school and then summer will officially begin... I'm not sure if I'm ready!  I'm going to have to have plans and fun activities to keep everyone happy!

The Babies

I always refer to my two littlest boys as the babies.  You know, like...

"Kanyon and Scarlett, be quiet because the babies are sleeping!"

They really are my babies.  Cohen will be a baby to me for as long as Kelan is just because he missed out on a lot of his time as the baby with Kelan coming along so quickly. 

Here are my babies being so cute together a couple of days ago... 
Cohen actually asked to hold Kelan.  That was a first!

I was so happy to see Cohen back to himself because this was him earlier this week...

 

You know when this kid is asking for me to make him a bed on the couch and he lays there perfectly still that something is definitely not quite right. He never stops moving and a few days ago he actually fell asleep laying there.  It was a weird bug he had because he would be happy and play great and then hit a wall and lay on the couch like this... then he'd go running like he was fine again.  The only sign that he wasn't feeling good was a real low fever.  I'm glad it didn't spread to anyone else though and he bounced back quickly.  

While Cohen was laying on the couch, Kelan was on the floor...

 

Kelan has been holding his own bottle for a while now and it's so nice for when I need him to eat, but I also have 3 other little ones that need to eat as well... everyone can be happy at the same time!  And believe me, this was a welcome change because lunch time could be a bit chaotic at times!

It felt like Spring...

...but just for a minute because yesterday morning we had another 5 inches or so of snow on the ground. (Thankfully it was fully melted by the afternoon, but that doesn't mean that there weren't more snow flurries throughout the day! :/)  The picture above is Kanyon's bird feeder he made in preschool.  The birds have really enjoyed it. 

Cohen likes playing out in the backyard. Especially in the wheelbarrow full of mud/water. Yay. Here he was after a few minutes outside unsupervised. :P

We had to hose him down and get him right in the bath. Steve has now been given the assignment of getting rid of that mess in the wheelbarrow. ;)

Kanyon and Scarlett...

They are such good little buddies. They play so well together that I don't really get hounded every day by them asking for a friend to play.  Don't get me wrong... they definitely have their moments with each other... but I really love that about having my kids so close in age.  Lately too Steve and I have been noticing that Scarlett and Cohen will play together so well.  The age gap is beginning to lessen with those two now that Cohen is getting older.  It makes me excited for them and for the relationship that Cohen and Kelan are sure to have for only being 15 months apart.

Cohen is 2!

On Friday, Cohen officially turned 2 years old.  He didn't really know what was going on, but he enjoyed opening up gifts from us that day. 

Kanyon and Scarlett gave him some "Cars" toys.  They change colors in the warm and cold water, so bath time has been extra fun for him since then.

Steve and I gave him a little bike without pedals.  He rides it around the house and is getting better at controlling it.  Normally it wouldn't be in the house, but with the cold/snow we've had... I have been a softy and let him.  The older kids have liked riding it in the house too, although, they are a little faster and crazier on it and I'm looking forward to it having a new home out in the garage this week.  ;)

 

I'm predicting that Cohen will be able to ride a 2-wheel bike before Scarlett.  She's still on the training wheels and I don't think she has much of a desire to take them off any time soon.  She might surprise me though.   Steve and I really dislike the training wheel stage, so we are trying to eliminate that phase altogether with Cohen (and Kelan once Cohen moves on from this bike).

We let him pick a place to eat dinner out with our little family Friday night and he chose Noodles of course, along with Red Mango for dessert.  My kids are so predictable.  :)  They love a routine!

I can't believe that he's already 2, but then I look at Kelan at almost 9 months and I think... is he really only just 2?  ;)  

Here are the pictures from the family party we had on Saturday.  We had a pasta dinner with salad, garlic bread, and watermelon.  Here is the cake I made for Cohen:

 

We had to keep it hidden from him because we knew he'd just want the cars off the top.  ;)  I'm glad we did, because I was right!

 

It was a 2 layer chocolate cake with mini chocolate chips inside... a much denser/richer cake.  I usually just use boxed cake mix, but this time I did it differently. The icing was just buttercream, aside from the black fondant that I used to make the road on top.

 

Here's Cohen after he ate a little cake and mostly icing.  :)  

 

He got lots of great gifts from everyone!  

 

His siblings and cousins were very helpful in opening gifts with him.

 

It was fun!  Thanks so much to everyone that came and all the nice presents he received!   He has loved them all... a few of them Kanyon has so kindly tried to talk Cohen into letting him have.  ;)  Gotta love the big brother!

**Cohen just saw the doctor on Thursday and here are his stats as a 2 year old:
          Weight:  27.8 lbs - 40%
          Height:  34.5 in - 50%
          Head:    49.6 cm - 70%
So funny, his doctor saw his weight and said, whoa!  He's so skinny, I expected him to weigh much less!  Nope, just my solid little boy.  :)

Prunes and Teeth

I grabbed my camera after a feeding session with Kelan... prunes, of course, since he won't eat much else these days.  I slipped in some bananas, but he looked at me like I was crazy.  Hey, I tried. 

Isn't he cute?

Check out his 2 little bottom teeth.  So glad both are all the way through now... which ones will be next, I wonder?  I hope we get a good break though just to enjoy a happy baby.  Teething is the pits.

 

I officially stopped nursing a couple of weeks ago.  It's great, but feels strange at the same time to not be needed in that way anymore.  Bittersweet, I guess.  

Easter 2011

I think we've been over run this year with Easter egg hunts and candy.  My sweet Cohen who used to beg for a banana for a snack is now asking for "tweats" (aka treats) non-stop.  It's far too difficult for me to keep even myself out of the candy, so I may have to just toss it soon before I go crazy.

Despite the excess of Easter treats, we had a wonderful holiday weekend.  I didn't have my camera on me for most of it, but I did enjoy it.

We had a little Easter party with Steve's brother and his family on Friday.  The kids loved playing with their cousins... they really are such good friends.  Then, we had an egg hunt/breakfast on Saturday morning for a church activity at our park in the neighborhood.  It's just too bad the weather has been so crummy still.  It was a little bit of a swampy egg hunt in 46 degree weather.  Where is Spring???  We colored eggs that evening.

 

I laugh when I see this picture and Kelan's expression... we colored one little green egg for him and of course he decided to taste it first.  I must have alarmed him when I said "eww, yucky!" because I got this deer in the headlights (and a little cross-eyed!) look when I snapped the photo.  

 

I'm not sure what Cohen did, but I asked him if he wanted to go on timeout... I snapped this photo mid-answer.  I like that he's giving me this innocent pleading look as he says "no". ;)  He is such a little charmer when he wants to be.

 

Then Sunday, we attended church and had a great Easter dinner with wonderful friends and family.  I ate entirely too much turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, jello, veggies, etc.  It was just all too good!

I should have gotten a picture of everyone when they were sitting down and eating, but that didn't happen.  It's a little chaotic with 6 kids needing to be fed too... but here is the table before people and food.

 

My friend, Jen, motivated me to try growing my own wheat grass this year.  I have wanted to, but just never got what I needed in time.  It turned out so cute!  I have harvested a bit of it and Steve is going to toss it in a smoothie and see how it tastes.  ;)

Here are the kids just before we left for church that morning.

 

Don't they all look sweet?  Even Cohen.  But, don't let that fool you.  Mid-way through our Sacrament meeting that day (a short 30-45 minutes after this photo was taken), a chain of events led to me chasing Cohen outside and into the parking lot.  To top it off, I was in heels AND carrying Kelan at the same time.   Good times...  He ended up face planting it right there on the asphalt.  Now there is a lovely little scuff mark on his nice suit pants to remind me of this very incident.  Luckily his face was spared.  He certainly makes life interesting!

Me and my monkeys. I didn't plan to match them... but once I realized that I did, I made Steve wear a purple tie too.  :P  No time to figure out a family photo though and still make it to church on time... too bad.

 

After church, the kids went on an Easter egg hunt in our house.  We let Cohen go first because he's the youngest and he only made it half-way down the stairs.  He found an egg on the stairs and decided to open it and eat all of it's contents before continuing.  By the time he finished it, the older two had found all the eggs.  He didn't seem to care though as long as he had his candy.

Aren't the two boys hilarious?  The shed their white shirts and ties within seconds of being home.  That Easter egg hunting is serious business!

  

Next year, this little guy will be running with the rest of them!  It will be so fun.  :)

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter... It always seems hard to keep the focus on what the holiday is truly about when you have children.  My sister-in-law gave me the cutest thing that definitely helped my kids this year.  You can check it out here or easily make your own!