And they are backkkk.....

Can anyone guess what I am referring to???

HIS BOOOTS!!!!!!

I hid misplaced them a few months back, Cohen discovered them again today. Made sense b/c we did have a small rain shower. Lets see if they become the same obsession that they were before... I apologize in advance if he is wearing these tomorrow at church, or Monday at the park, or Tuesday, or Wednesday...

they are cute aren't they ; )

An interview with Comen, I mean Cohen : )

I saw this child’s interview on Pinterest. It was something I thought would be fun to do with Cohen (and Caleb when he can talk) from time to time to see how their answers change! I did this interview with Cohen this week. 

What is your name? Comen   (i love how he calls himself that)
How old are you? 4 (haha, he always says he is 4 and caleb is 2)
What is your favorite color? gween    "green"
Who is your best friend? LilahJax. and Grayson (funny, because he never even sees Grayson however speaks of him often) haha. He also always says LilahJax as ONE word.
What is your favorite animal? dukey
What do you want to be when you grow-up? daddy. .....this sounded so cute although i think hes too young to know how to answer it. but it sure did sound good : )
What is your favorite Movie? oy stoy (toy story)
What is your favorite book? oy stoy
What makes you happy? chuch     "church"   : )
What makes you sad?   (distraction, never answered this one)
What is your favorite food to eat?  tweets!       "treats"
What is your favorite song to sing?  ABCs
What games do you like to play? Cars (I think he means play with his cars)

I LOVED doing this. It was so cute to have him answer these. He probably didn't even know half of these questions but they made sense! 

Superhero!

Cohen is really into watching Youtube videos while I clean up breakfast/lunch. We found this video and Cohen can not get enough of it! Now he will ask me after a meal "comen watch esus hero?" "peez"

Beware, you may be seeing spots afterwards lol.

what im loving wednesday!

 

I'm loving this pool we got the boys to play in!

I'm loving duke : )

I'm also loving this from Pottery Barn. Its on my wish list!

Has anyone heard of this site yet?

I am loving the idea of it! I haven't decided if I should do it yet or not, but it sounds sooo cool. You pick the store (Kroger for me). They provide the plan! Each week you will receive a brand new plan with a complete grocery list organized by sections. Each meal plan is ONLY $1.25 per week!! You put how many you need to feed, nutritional, etc. Then it selects 7 meals for you, makes a grocery list for you, matches it with coupons, and emails it to you. How clever for those of us who don't feel like it I mean don't have the time to do all of this. LOL.

I am also loving Cohen's cute phrases lately.  If we go somewhere as soon as I park the car in a parking lot, Cohen will say...
 c: mommy, take me...peez (please)
me: of course im gonna take you
c: good, tank you (thank you)

he says "take me" in the most sappy pathetic voice. it melts my heart  ; )

and she makes house calls!

One of my dear friends Terin just completed hair school.  I am so happy that now I know a hair stylist that not only is professional and certified, but one that makes house calls : ) This makes one happy mama. No more Cost Cutters for Cohen every other Wednesday, no $10.00 hair cuts, and no waiting!

She came over this past Friday and not only gave Cohen a haircut, but myself as well : )  This is awesome b/c I can't drag my two children in a high end salon for me to get a cut! Even better is she got hired on at my favorite salon in Salem, Carringtons! It takes months to get an appointment there, but now I got my own personal stylist ; ) Congrats Terin!

you know you are redneck when.....

You let your child give himself a mud bath... outside....naked.

Don't judge me :) It was hot!

on another note, cohen is doing so well potty training! well at least not using diapers. i caught him doing this today after we came in from his mud bath!

Yes, he is peeing in one of his toy buckets.

:)

farmers market :)

This morning the boys and I visited the Farmers Market downtown Salem.  I have always been a fan of the market but haven't had the time to go in the past few Saturdays.  We went at 8am to beat the heat! Cohen loveddddd it! He loved meeting the "farmers", he loved handing them the money, and he loved picking out his veggies and fruits. These are some of the goodies we came home with....

I would normally get tomatoes also but thanks to my tomato plant we don't need those :)

 

I decided to make some homemade baby food with some of the things we got : )

Mixed Veggies

Ps. those homemade sourdough rolls are AMAZING!

one bottle, so many uses.

The other day I came across an article that was saying how its better to clean using vinegar and water then the chemical cleaners. One its better for the enviorment and two, its better to use if you have kids. It then dawned on me how many uses vinegar REALLY has. :)  Check out this link for alllll the ways to use vinegar. 

http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=7

I mixed vinegar and water to get out tough stains in the carpet, and it worked wonders, better then anything else I have ever used!!!! 

what im loving wednesday!

I saw this last week and couldn't wait to start doing this every wednesday!

what am i currently loving?


http://pinterest.com/
This is a site where you can "pin" ideas you are having. Ideas for a room, a party, etc. ANYTHING. Great way to keep all your ideas "organized".


i'm also loving coffee again. :)
this is what i loveeeee...

yum, makes coffee good!


i'm also loving the fact that cohen is potty training! he is doing SOO GOOD :) He had no accidents at church tonight from 6:30-9:30. WOW! He went potty 4x.


what are some things you love?

Someone is.....

EIGHT MONTHS OLD TODAY!!

stop growing sweet boy!


You are so precious....


We love you Caleb :):)




Someone was jealous that your picture was
being taken so much, so he posed for a shot.
I think he tried to steal your thunder.
We love him too!

our boys must taste sweet!!!

This is a very popular item in our home lately. Mosquitos, spiders, bees, pretty much any insect loves our boys. These poor kids get eaten up daily. I use bug spray, skin so soft, dryer sheets, you name it, we use it to help prevent the bites. Sometimes they even happen indoors, creepy huh? Guess it comes with the territory of living in the "hollar".

(this is poor calebs leg from 15 minutes outside playing (with bug spray).
:(

Cohen currently has 3 spider bites on his feet, 7 bites on his legs 1 on his face from mosquitoes, and got a bee sting a week ago.

so for the record, when you see my children, all eaten up, dont report me.

cohen has a new love for....

what do all of these pictures have in common?

DIRT!
cohen has a new hobby.... playing in dirt. typical kid i guess :) every morning he wakes up and asks if he can go play in the dirt, i always say no in the morning b/c we are usually on the way out the door but i say "if your good today... you can play in dirt after nap!" geez, i never thought i'd bribe my children, with dirt. he loves it! he will spend forever out there making "roads" and "tracks" and even gathers rocks to make "caves". as much as i cringe cleaning his clothes with stain remover and changing him at the door so he doesn't track it in, i know its a pointless battle b/c hes a typical boy and loves dirt. and it occupies him so i can clean the car, water plants, play with caleb, etc. :)

oh brothers

these two really crack me up :) the other night they were laying in bed watching veggie tales when i was trying to get them (ahem, cohen) to go in his room so we could go night night. he hurried and got the laundry basket and covered him and caleb up and said...

"go away mommy, brror "brother" and i dont want night night! as they both were giggling.
i was frustrated but this turned into laughter, then tickles, then bed :)

perfection

lately i have been remembering Zach and I's first home. it was a cute cape cod that always had vacuum lines and no toys, anywhere. i stayed home (with Duke) while Zach supported us by working a full time job and mowing lawns on the side. i had all day to fluff pillows, go to target, walk long walks with duke, and prepare a full candlelit dinner for hubs when he arrived home, with Frank Sinatra playing in the background. haha yes i like frank.

i was remembering this house and those times the other day while watching the boys play while i made dinner, which was a quick and easy crockpot dish, and i set the table to "Jesus loves me", I remember only setting the table for 2, now its a table of 3 with a highchair :) i loved that our life started out one way and then in just a few years it has turned to this. never a quiet moment, the pillows are usually on the floor from where cohen threw them, and we listen to "ABC's, Jesus Loves me, etc" on repeat, oh and candles we don't use anymore, ever. too risky with a certain someone running around.

i love our new life. i love that i trip over toys (sarcastic). i love that i wake up to giggling on the baby monitor, i love that my day now includes playdates, music class, preschools, etc. (although target still manages to fit in our schedule : ) i love that sometimes the laundry isn't done b/c i took the time to read to the boys rather then fold the clothes, or the fact that i can't make vacuum lines even if i tried, i can't say how amazed i am that we were blessed with this life, even though none of it was planned. that is the beauty of God. :)

throwback thursday

cohen, way back when :)

what is todays activity?

I recently stumbled across this site called Productive Parenting. You can enroll and they will email you an age appropriate activity for your child each day.

https://www.productiveparenting.com

for example today it says to let caleb explore with play doh to work on his sensory skills
cohen has an activity called "move and sing" to work on language/pre reading. (it goes into a lot more detail on the site)

i love this site :) you can also sign up for what days you want them to email you so that way you aren't bombarded on days that are your "busy" days and may not have time to participate.

enjoy ; )

i didn't even have to tell him.....

every day I give Cohen a "chore". Now of course a 2 year old can't really perform a chore but its things like helping unload the dishwasher, load it, switch laundry into dryer, fold clothes (which i go back and redo), and water the plants. Earlier today I told him his chore this evening was to help mommy water the plants. I was making dinner and looked out the window and saw this....


melts my heart :)
he didn't know i was watching, after he
ran inside saying "i did my chore!".

i sure wish this phase would last until
he's 18 but im not naive. haha ;)


speaking of plants...
this is our tomato plant!


yay. this will be the second batch of tomatoes
to grow in the last week.

family vaca 2011 :)

We had an AWESOME time at the beach this year : ) This was the first vacation in...well forever, that I never got "homesick". I was so happy though to come home b/c I was beginning to miss my family, friends, and church body like crazy. oh and Duke, I missed him a lot too!
Enjoy pictures from the entire week :)

the first day we hit the beach!
















we (aka daddy and cohen) napped after a long day
at the beach :)


the second day we always go visit Zach's cousins (or something) about 45 minutes away.
every year we go the boys (cohen and colton) love to play outside.

(this "bear" is part of a tree decoration
that the boys took down and put on their
faces) don't ask.


we also spent a lot of time at the pool, i hate doing this when
we are at the "beach" but so much goes into packing 2 children,
sunscreen, swim diapers, chairs, tent, cooler, extra change of clothes,
stroller, sand toys, etc. ... the list goes on.


on the 4th we went go kart riding.
we always go to this particular track b/c they
let cohen ride in the 2-seater even though
he is supposed to be 10 years old.



(ps, the new battle scar he has on his face is from a face plant
on the cement while running to daddy).


one day we took the kids to the aquarium.


cousins :) cohen and colton are the best of friends. they
spent so much time together this trip.



we stay in a resort while at the beach. we love it because it
is secluded, its shaded, the pool is right beside our villa and its
across the street from the beach, what more could you
ask for :)


cohen loves to swim now! he can just float all alone (with adult
supervision of course)



while doing this maneuver cohen ripped off even more of
his toe that was trying to heal from V's b-day party.


mommy and caleb <3


calebs first cookie!



and we went go kart racing again......


this time we took popaw and uncle andy!


i won!



brothers watched mommy and daddy race :)


back to the beach for our last day....



cohen's first trip-6months

wow he has changed...

caleb's first trip- 7 1/2 months