Let There Be Christmas!

Kohen loved helping but thought he was the boss

Normally I am a scrooge about waiting until after Thanksgiving to get ready for Christmas or play Christmas music. Especially when Stuart (the exact opposite) asked if we could set up the Christmas tree before it was even Halloween (exaggerating...only a tad though).

I gave in and a week before Thanksgiving we set up our tree AND played Christmas music. I don't know if it was
-the practical side of me with valid excuses as to why we should,
-the CUTE ornaments we saw for an awesome price I couldn't resist,
-or the fact that I'm not looking forward to a doom and gloom winter and wanted to spend as much of it with holiday cheer as possible.
Christmas comes so fast as it is and then it's all over. So why not bring on the cheery music, gingerbread cookies, the happy and giving attitudes and everything else wonderful about this time of year?!

I love how our tree turned out and I can't wait to do more festive activities!

Pilates

Yep. Kohen does pilates. haha

Or at least he tries to copy me.
To be honest, I think he has better form than I do.
What's funny is
1- IF I work out at home it's usually while he's napping. This "little," almost 30lb guy is just too much weight when trying to do a push up or something.
2- I haven't done pilates in a few weeks...yet Kohen started busting out these moves recently
(And if you're wondering if he's imitating a dog peeing that crossed my mind too.
But he's never seen one.)




When Daddy came home and Kohen showed off his trick, Daddy grabbed his legs.
Now Kohen likes to walk around with his arms w/ Daddy....if he's not laughing too hard.



Taking a breather in his rocker that he's obsessed with.


OTHER RANDOM KOHEN MOMENTS FROM THE PAST WEEK

Kohen was laying down (top left pic) (a rare occasion)
But when he realized I was taking a picture of him he ate it up and even posed.
(As you can see)



To say Kohen loves to climb and explore would be an understatement.
This just happened to be his climb of the day.
He'd pull various objects up to the gate and try to climb over.
(Even though he figured out the week previous how to reach through and pop the sucker open all together)
Luckily for me he has either forgotten or lost interest in both tricks at the moment!
*sigh of relief*

Our Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

To make a long story short:

Stuart + friend Andy + cousin Lewis = good friends at school
Stuart + free turkey as a gift from his job + big dining table given to us
= who to invite for a traditional dinner

Me+ love of decorating = An excuse to pick up a new project
$1 Gold chargers + $1 Purple plates + 50% fabric at Joanns = SCORE!
Handmade cloth napkins, place mats & table runner - sewing machine that wanted to work
= last minute hot glueing table runner (Didn't look AS tacky as it sounds)

We had the Ashford family and a couple of Stuart's cousins over for a Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner.
It was so funny to hear/see them get excited and try to plan it. haha
This was Stuart's first year making a turkey and it turned out great!
I was so proud (even if I was too grossed out to eat it)
Although, after the dinner we felt guilty that we were having a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner when there are some out there who don't get any at all. So we vowed to donate our turkey next year.

I have to be honest. Thanksgiving is not one of my favorite holidays.
Not really keen on traditional Thanksgiving foods and seeing as the holiday is geared towards stuffing yourself with them.... you get the picture.
I'm not much of a fall colors person either
(although I liked my choice of gold and purples this year with only accents of Orange)

However what I DO like about Thanksgiving is being around family and I LOVE that we still have a holiday to help us "remember" to be grateful.
I am so grateful for family! All of our family and the love and support we are given from them.
I am SO grateful for our health and safety.
It's something that I try to never take for grantid as a mom. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday and pretty much beg that we may continue to have it.

I am so grateful for our home. Ok, it's an apartment. But it's perfect for us.
I dream about the big house I'd like one day but am always so grateful for our apartment now.
(The lightness, light/cleanish carpets, dishwasher, washer dryer hook ups, and storage all help too of course)
I'm so grateful that we have been blessed enough to continue working towards our future. Stuart has a great job that allows him to go to school full time and support us. As hard as it may be on both of us, we are so grateful that I am able to be home with Kohen as a full time Mommy.
I am so grateful for Stuart and the intelligent, hard working, loving person he is.

Although I'm grateful for much much more,
I'm sure you'd be grateful if I'd leave it at that.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week!

Hasta Luego Whitney Family

The good thing about being in our student/nomad phase is that we get to meet lots of friends.
The kind of stinky part is that we have to say good bye to them.
Zach, Amy and Addie Whitney have moved on to bigger and better things.

So we had a Mexican themed potluck for them to say "Congratulations" and "Hasta Luego."

We had about 30 people in our little apartment but it made it so fun and lively!




Recognize these bathtub baby faces?!?!
The kids had so much fun playing and wrestling.
Kohen was in heaven and I think jumped a few energy levels
when the big boys walked in.



Kohen and Addie checking out the cool "tent" under the table




A day or two later we had Addie come over to play so that her Mommy could get some packing done and to enjoy every last bit with our friend.

What started out as fun and games playing with the tent......

...QUICKLY turned into not so happy Addie and very confused Kohen.
Poor Addie must have been tired from all the moving action because she's usually a happy, smiley lil girl. That day, however, she was very expressive of how she felt about us. haha



When she went to the door to look for her Mommy
Kohen rushed over to comfort her by giving her hugs,
rub and even kissed her back (bottom left picture).

(Pictures stopped here because I had a little girl to comfort even though there were more cute moments)

We miss you Whitney Family and wish you the best of luck!

Something Sweet About A Sleeping Baby

From these pictures it looks like Kohen slept a lot but the truth is he was always pretty alert. He had always done pretty well at not getting his days and nights mixed up. However,
Kohen was a lot like me when I was younger and didn't want to miss out on anything.
So therefore, he doesn't like to go to sleep either.

Being a new mom I constantly had struggles as to what was "the right thing to do" when it came to sleep. Part of me listened to the advice/books that say you don't want them to get "too attached," "needy," or SIDS if he were to sleep with me. I saw a movie about mothers and babies from different cultures and I thought it was odd how we are some of the few cultures that choose to put our baby away, in a different room even, so that we could have our own space and not have a needy baby.
So I would lay him in his bassinet and keep an arm (and almost constant eye) on him all night.
(In between 2hr or less feedings anyways).
But those feedings and doing EVERY night and EVERY day shift by yourself becomes exhausting.
So, due to exhaustion, horrible back problems, and the fact that I hated being a foot away from my baby I decided to let him sleep in my bed.
Yes, that made life harder later down the road at times but I have never regretted it.
I was going to snuggle, kiss and love my baby as MUCH as possible. And I have to say some of our BEST times were while cuddling in bed.

Although these pictures are a crack up (to me at least),
they also remind me of those good times snuggling with him every night and waking up to his sweet face every morning.
Enjoy :)

My Sweet Snuggle Bug

I think Kohen gets a bad rep sometimes because he's been so big, ALL boy w/ growls and wrestling urges included, and DEFINITELY not one to sit quietly staring off into space. He has always been a busy, busy boy who is not too shy to throw a fit in public either. HOWEVER, don't let that "tough guy" persona fool you. He is T.H.E. SWEETEST thing. He loves (and so do we) to give lots and lots of kisses. All kinds of kisses. Sloppy ones. Ones with sound. Ones with out sound. Blow kisses. A bunch of kisses in a row just like Mommy does to him. He loves to snuggle face to face and will pull your head in and rub your nose with his nose. Hold his adorable little hands on your cheeks as he kisses, smiles and talks to you. Or hugs your head. He'll softly rub your head and face over and over and over.

He went through a phase when he was younger where he'd whack ya. (Now he's onto head butting thanks to Stuart... *sigh*) But he quickly picked up how to "be soft," as we call it. He's so cute with babies because he tries to give them hugs and of course does his squat down to their level thing to ooh and aah over them. (Even if the "baby" is bigger than him)

I hope his need to get snuggles lasts a long time.
AH! I just love my snuggle bug!

Wedding Cake

Back in September Stuart's sister got married and to make a long story short
we made her wedding cake.
The top and bottom layers were chocolate with a raspberry filling and white ganache.
And the center layers were white cake with a lemon custard and white ganache.

We both enjoy culinary and confectionery things and so it was fun to be able to do this together.
We joke that it was the wedding cake that ruined our marriage. Haha
It took a lot of planning, altering, patience, time, ........ etc. however, we did it AND were able to transport it 45 minutes along a windy road alongside the river with out any problems.

I had read that you can bake the cake beforehand and freeze it but I wanted it to be as fresh as possible so I started baking it at 8 am the morning before. By the time Stuart got home from school that night I was STILL baking. (Each layer is two cakes and when they are that big it takes a lot of time to cook. Not to mention how many batches goes into just one layer. It's a LOT of cake) Poor Kohen didn't get much play time with Mommy that day.
We finally got the cakes baked but I think around midnight is when we started rolling fondant for the first layer. Our table was soooo wobbly and two of the legs wouldn't even stay in, so we kicked out the other two legs and did it on the floor.
(Thus the picture of the table on the floor)
(Note: I am a huge germ freak and made sure everything stayed super sanitary
...so don't get too grossed out)
You can't know all the work and stress that goes into a cake unless you've done one. Fondant, baking, transferring, trimming, frosting, stenciling, and oh man, lining up the cake to put in the dowels. So when it's 4 am you can see why we called it what we did.
It wasn't perfect but we were happy to be done with it.
Next summer we have a couple more we have been asked to do and we're excited to use our new skills and tricks to see what else we can create.

I'm sure you can only guess who took a bite out of the apple above. Yep. My little mister.
I was in charge of some decorating and had used fake apples as part of my decor. Kohen apparently thought they were real. What was funny is that I didn't notice it until I went to pack everything and saw this apple with a chomp mark in it. We didn't even know he knew what that was since we had always given him sliced apples prior to that.

Kohen and his cousin (the two boys in suits) had fun dancing the night away. But he and cousin Talo didn't think snuggles from Auntie Marta and Uncle Shaun were too bad either.
Kohen was a little cake hound. He had been begging for the cake he saw on the counter for the last couple days so when it came time to serve cake at the wedding he was all over that!

The pole Kohen has was actually a polynesian stick (forgot the name) that Stuart's brother had carved for one of their performances. Kohen thought it was pretty cool.

Halloween 2011- Trick or Treating

Yes. It's a fact. He is the cutest boxer in the world!!!
Like the sweaty chest and all?! haha
We had thought of this costume last year but Kohen was obviously too young
and so I was so excited this year that I ordered it months in advance.

Stuart taught Kohen to head but and punch along with his costume (Why? I don't know)
But weeks later, even though there's no costume, I'm still getting Kohen's "tough guy" head buts.
Thank you Daddy :/

I'm so glad we got this family picture because as a mom,
you are of course the photographer 99% of the time.
It's nice to have proof I was there.
Kohen was anxious to get back to trick or treating by this point.
Sure didn't take long for him to catch on.

Nanny and Grandpa came up from Boise to share Kohen's first trick or treating experience with us. I'm so glad too because half of the fun is showing him off.
We went to a few houses around the neighborhood first. At the first door Kohen was a typical "rookie trick or treater." He looked confused at the door, just sat and watched as the lady gave him candy (although he did say please and thank you), and sat down afterwards to check out his goody. But as soon as he realized it was CANDY he was getting he was pretty eager to get more.

We met up with the Ashford's whose tradition is to go to senior citizen homes.
It was great in that it was nice and warm and Kohen could just walk down the hall instead of door to door. I have to admit I was a little disgusted when we approached the first person. It was an (elderly ...duh) lady playing with her dentures. UGH! BUT luckily she just had an open bag of candy that Kohen could grab out of. It was such a funny experience. Everyone would have all their candy in a bowl on their walker or their tv tray sticking in the doorway. Kohen loved the ones that would let him get his own. He'd grab a handful! He's a natural :)

As you can see, he'd lead the way. He meant business!
Because they are hallways you of course have to pass the rooms again and Kohen couldn't understand why he was passing rooms with out getting candy.
He also couldn't understand why some people didn't answer their doors right away and would yell and knock again.

Kohen ate more candy that night than he had in his whole life....and was in heaven.
Although what candy Kohen did get - what all his helpers ate = not very much at all.
I would say it was still very successful.

Halloween 2011- Party

I had a few friends over with their kids for a little Halloween party and I'm so glad I did. We ended up spending Halloween with family and other friends and so I'm glad I at least got to see everyone's costumes.

Kohen was having so much fun with the kids but particularly baby Mckenzie. They both just sat there laughing and entertaining each other. He's so cute when he's "soft." He loves to give hugs and gentle pats.

I wasn't feeling like the traditional pumpkins this year so yes, I made purple/teal and black/green pumpkins. And I loved it! You can't see, but the table runner was this cool purple spider web fabric that I also loved! We had "eyeball" brownies, "bat" cheeseballs and chips and other yummy treats.

Halloween 2011- Pumpkin Carving

We called his trick or treating bucket a pumpkin when he first got it.
So when we told him we were going to carve pumpkins he ran over and grabbed his bucket/pumpkin and insisted on stacking it on top of our pumpkin.

Good helper

Mmm. Pumpkin doesn't taste too bad

The finished product

Halloween 2011- Cookies

Kohen enjoyed decorating the cookies
but his favorite part was of course eating them!

Sticks and Stones

Kohen has been drawn to "stones"/rocks long before he was even one
but do you think Kohen had fun playing with sticks??

I think YES!
He seems more and more boy-like everyday and less and less baby-like.
I LOVE watching him interact with other kids. The way he moves and holds himself crack me up. He's so expressive and seriously thinks he's big stuff. I loved watching him follow Will around jibber jabbering away and copying everything he did. He would squeal and laugh as he'd ran after Will. Poke and prod things just like Will. See how high he could throw his stick, just like Will. Pretend his stick was a gun (although Kohen didn't know quite yet that's what he was imitating).


I'm so glad Stuart had a couple nights worth of PTO that he had to use up. We had planned to go camping with the Ashford's one day and go biking along the river and other fun outdoor stuff the next, BUT the snow in the forecast that weekend kind of put a damper on things. We still had lots of fun nonetheless. Friday night we finally invited over a couple we've been meaning to hang out with for months and had a lot of fun. Then Saturday, the Ashford's (a fellow colleague of Stuart's and his family) showed us a cool campground/park not too far away where we had a picnic.

(The above picture was taken maybe 3 minutes into the drive back home)

I LOVE HIM !!!!!

K=15 months