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!

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.  :)

A child's prayer

Don't ever let your children pray for the opportunity to build a snowman in April.  I'm certain that is exactly how we came to have about 6 inches of snow after a gorgeous 70 degree day before.

On Saturday (the 2nd of April and General Conference weekend), Scarlett looked at me after coming in from playing outside and said, "Mom!  We never got to build a snow man!"  So I said that she would just have to ask Heavenly Father for some snow so we can build one.  The very next morning, I awoke to this:

You can imagine that Scarlett was thrilled!  I was not.  I could only hope that it would melt quickly!  Although, it was pretty out there.  Scarlett immediately was begging Dad to go out and help her build a snowman.

Dad builds the snowmen in this family, so I took pictures from the window in the kitchen. 

 

How can you say no to this little face?  I couldn't, so I dug out some stuff to put a face on her snowmen.

A perfect carrot nose.

 

Apparently it wasn't great packing snow, so they built 2 little snowmen.

The snowmen were so melted by lunch time that they had tipped over.  That's my kind of snow day.  ;)

Here is Cohen that same morning enjoying a roll. 

Conference was especially good this time around.  It was one of those times when I really felt like every talk was meant just for me.  If you'd like to read more, click here.  We were also lucky to be able to spend the weekend with Steve's mom, Brenda.  She was in town and we had a great time with her!  The kids keep asking if she still lives in Hawaii.  :)

I wish I could say that this was the last of the snow in April.  :/  Maybe May will be better?

Following Cohen

I decided to sit up in the playroom with Cohen on Wednesday with my camera and just take pictures of what he busys himself with.  It was kind of fun.  :)  So fun, in fact, that I looked at the clock and realized that I was already 5 minutes late picking up the preschool carpool that day.

OOPS!

That's okay.  It was worth it.  :)

He played "cars" on his train set we put up together... apparently Thomas was not as fun today as "Mr. the king".

 

A little baseball...

 

"shootin' hoops" as he likes to say...  

 

He spent the most time doing this... with every kind of ball you can imagine including a golf ball and a football.  :)  All the while saying... "mama, watch!"  

 

He played with blocks... (don't mind his left eye, we were still in the throws of pink eye that day and it was still a little swollen)

 

Right after blocks, he spent some time at the lego table, but I didn't get a photo of that because I was too busy trying to save Kanyon's lego creations that Cohen was ripping apart. :/  That's usually Kanyon's first question when he walks through the door... "has Cohen been up in the playroom yet today??"  Poor kid.  When Cohen finally stops wrecking his stuff, Kelan will start.  ;)

Stinky the garbage truck got a lot of attention too.  (seriously, this toy is hysterical.  check it out if you haven't yet)

 

And apparently it made him mad... he doesn't really care for consoling though.  He cries and then usually just walks it off.  If I try and hug him or give his 'owie' a kiss... he pushes away.  He's my tough kid.  :)

 

Drove a different car up the slide...

 

Aaaaaand that was about the time I noticed that I was 5 minutes late picking up the kids.  :)  

I probably took these pictures all in less than 10 minutes though. 

By the way... I'm pretty proud to say that the pink eye was contained to just Cohen.  That is not an easy task with 4 young kids.  The last time we had pink eye... I just had 3 kids but all of them got it and I did too.  Not this time!  I was vigilant in my efforts to control it!  :)  It certainly paid off too.

Buzz

This is the first time Cohen has shown interest in the dress-ups.  But he brought one to me to put on him one morning.  It was so cute... way too big, but really really cute.  :)

He's getting so big lately... putting a couple words together instead of just pointing and saying one word. He's very aware of whether or not you are paying attention to him and if he thinks you might not be, he will put his little hands up on your face and turn it to him. I guess that's the life of the third child. ;)