Freedom...FREEDOM

This past week Stuart took the DAT (Dental Admissions Test). It's kind of a big deal.
He works STINKIN hard at all that he does and this was kind of the ultimate test to see if it'll all be worth it.  It was a lot of pressure but...drum roll...he did well and is SO relieved! He finally gets to have a summer break and not feel guilty thinking that he should be studying for something. We are excited to be able to spend more than an hour or two with him. He has been kind of MIA since last summer with some intense semesters/busy schedules. Seriously, how can I complain being a "single mom" 98% of the time when this guy works so stinkin hard so that I can be a Mom 100% of the time?!

Since Stuart had to take the test in Spokane we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. Partly to get his mind off things right before and of course so that Kohen and I could get out of our apartment and have some FUN!

We purposely left to Spokane around Kohen's nap time so that he could sleep on the way since we had plans for when we got there. BUT of course he didn't fall asleep until we were 2 minutes away from Spokane.

I think I planned out our mini-vacation a good month or two in advance. I wanted to cram in as much fun stuff in a little over a 24 hour period as I could.
First stop-the Children's Museum.
 

 At first Kohen just explored and checked out all the different exhibits. Camping, build a house with those wooden boards, Tiki hut, Blocks, Costumes, Instruments, ....etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Kohen LOVES dinosaurs! That has been his obsession for the past few months. We ended up spending the majority of the time in the dinosaur section. He loves to line things up and whenever another kid would try to play with one he would have a fit. Unless it was his idea to share of course. He would continuously scare us with them and pretend they were fighting with their tails.

 This was a favorite among most of the kids and was hard to get a turn. Kohen thought it was awesome and all but it wasn't in his top 2 of favorites.

 Tarantulas, Play fish, horses, and canoes.

 There was a cool tree house fort that Kohen explored for a while. It even had what they called "bunny holes" where the kids could climb down in these secret compartments. I thought it was pretty dark inside and apparently so did Kohen because he didn't play in those too much.

 Haha this exhibit cracks me up. It was really neat with a doctors station, fire station, ...etc but the point of it was to teach you about safety rules when crossing the street and driving. Apparently Kohen and I totally missed that sign because we both were awful and would go the wrong way and "cross the street" with out checking first. In fact, Kohen had more fun chasing and being chased by the kids on the cars then riding one himself. And when he was driving he would plow through the cones and drive the wrong way. Thrill seeker??

 I think the water exhibit was tied with the dinosaur exhibit for 1st place. He loved the "whales" and just playing in the water.

 We planned to get back to the hotel fairly early so that we could have a little swimming time before heading to bed early. After seeing my large pregnant self in a swimsuit I opted out of embarrassing myself and disgusting everyone around me and just watched.

Kohen and Daddy having fun with the tube

Luckily Kohen is pretty cautious around the pool (unlike last year) but Stuart still tried to get him to float on his back or kick his legs.  Kohen wasn't a big fan. It didn't help the water was cold too.

Kohen loved answering the phone every two seconds "Hello. Who is it?" and we were all excited to be able to watch something other than PBS even though we never really did.

While Daddy was taking his test all day, Kohen and I checked out the local stores and then headed back to the hotel for a nap so that we'd be nice and refreshed when Daddy was done.

Then after Stuart's test we got to go out to a celebratory dinner and to the mall to get a few maternity clothes. It was cut short since both Stuart and Kohen were bored and melting.  :(  

 Kohen on the way home with his bag of toys, sunglasses and leftover "peez peez"

Thank you Stuart for letting us come and play while you took your test and for doing well so that it was a happy event instead of a bummer.  :)

Two Peas in a Pod

We love it when Leann and Brennan come back in town to visit. Kohen and Brennan are only two weeks apart and it's so fun to watch them play together. They've always been two busy boys and seem to be able to read each other's minds as they come up with new schemes. 

 

Checking out all the bugs on the tree and of course playing with sticks.

I love how they switch taking turns chasing each other with the stick! 

 

 At first there was only one swing available so we got them to play a game of tickle the "swinger's" toes. Luckily, they liked it and would even opt to not swing so they could tickle the other.   Then there was the mud puddle. Haha. Kohen, who is usually always finding a way to sneak a stomp or two in it, and who snuck in the first stomp, mainly just kept reporting to me that it was "yuck"

 

They loved running and exploring and keeping us Mom's chasing them all over the place. At one point they even decided to follow the school class and play with them. (Notice the two little boys with no sense of boundaries joining the big group of kids).

It took them a few hours but by the end they were finally starting to slow down. We asked them if it was time to go and take a nap. Brennan thought of the brilliant idea of napping right there at the park.

Since the weather has been super moody lately (and mainly LAME) it was SO nice to be able to spend a beautiful day at the park with awesome friends!

Baby Slurpee

Before the next baby comes I need to catch up on documenting Kohen's earlier life since, so far, this is the only "scrapbooking" I've done and I have thousands of pictures. Still trying to figure out the cheapest/best way for me to "scrapbook" them all before I add to my collection.

Kohen was nicknamed baby slurpee when we found out we were pregnant since he was due on 7/11. 

Here are his ultrasounds.

9 weeks

13 weeks. I remember looking at this and thinking "it" had my cheekage already. 
Notice the hand up by the face like his sister  :)

 This picture was measuring the heart (thus why the arms/legs look funny) but I thought it was cute.

 17-18 weeks? We found out this appointment we were having a boy!
Look at him showing off his muscles :)

My Kohen, all snuggled up. (17/18 weeks)

Kohen is going to have a little SISTER :)

Here she is! No..we don't have a name yet. I thought we were narrowed down to two but now I'm back up to almost my full list. But I suppose we have a little while.
 I was just writing in my journal the night before how it was sort of our last night as a family of 3. Sure, we knew there was a baby coming but for me it just didn't seem real still and wondered how our family dynamic would change once we found out the gender. We didn't have any preferences but because I felt like it was a girl before I even took the pregnancy test, I was worried that everyone would be disappointed if it was a boy.  I seriously looked at way more boy clothes, had a boys name picked out and even what I was going to take him home in.
 As it came closer to the appointment I kept having weird dreams and worried about it's health. So that was the first thing I had the Radiologist check when we got in (not much help since the doctor supposedly has to be the one to tell me).   I had just gotten done having the doctor count the number of toes (because it looked like 6 to me...yes...a little paranoid) when he asked if we wanted to find out what the gender was. He announced it so quickly that it caught me off guard. Didn't take long for the excitement to kick in.

In the pictures above where you can see the hand, the radiologist kept joking she was trying to find her hand to suck on.
Below are the 3D ones. I know some don't prefer these but I LOVE them! Especially because with Kohen that was the only kind we had and we lucked out and got them often. In comparing baby girl and Kohen, my personal opinion is that she has more of Stuart's head shape (aka...not as round/ w/ out my cheekage). And we both think she looks a lot skinnier. They say "chubs" don't add on until later but I'll post Kohen's sometime to compare the two.

But for now, here she is all cuddled up.

I was getting anxious as it was but right as we were headed out the door to our appointment we were told the Doctor was running behind and that we would have to wait another hour! I thought that was eternity until she mentioned the words "or schedule you for another day"   Oh heck no!  Haha. Luckily we only had an hour to fill and spent it playing outside with Kohen. Stuart and Kohen came up with a new game too. Stick Kohen on the long board and roll him across the parking lot, catching him JUST before he crashes. Kohen thought it was hilarious. Such a boy. No fear.  (Poor Mom)

We had a little family outing and celebrated with some ice cream right after the appointment.

Stuart and I have made it a tradition to get a new outfit for the baby the day we find out what we are having.  This time we couldn't resist getting two. The one on the right Stuart picked out and even thought of putting leggings under it for extra warmth. I was impressed by his "girl skills" already.  :)    I have to admit, I still found myself looking at all the boy clothes too. I'm used to having to veto the girls section. Oh our poor budget.

Oh What Do You Do In the Winter Time....

Pull up Netflix on Mommy and Daddy's phones

Make funny faces in the mirror. CRACK UP

Explore with lights and colors

Check out the many ways to wear glasses

Paint a bird house and poster

Play with the moving boxes

Play in the rain

Play lots of variations of scaring/boo/" Where's Kohen"

Hang out in your window chatting it up with all the neighbors and checking out all the cars

Be every stores personal tester outer of anything that looks fun 

Wear Daddy's work glasses and take pictures of each other at the same time

Play card games with Mommy (sort by shapes and colors)

Pretend the mop is a horse

Climb anything and everything

Chill on Mr. Moose and eat orange slices

Work on multitasking skills such as pretending to talk on the phone while playing on the laptop

Play and just be a kid

Lots of Costco visits

Help Mommy clean the house

Have a camp out kind of day

Line all the books up