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!