Kohen is 2

My sweet boy turned 2 today. This milestone hasn't been as hard as it was when he turned 1. Maybe because he has seemed so much older to me in many ways for a while now but nonetheless I can't believe it and wish he would slow down. I feel SO incredibly blessed to be this "baby" boy's Mom. He has brought more joy and love into my life than I could have ever imagined. 

Happy Birthday Kohen!

We waited to do the birthday festivities until Kohen woke up from his nap since Stuart sleeps until noon. He was so cute when he woke up and saw his birthday stuff and kept saying "Wow!"

 It's tradition in my family to put a balloon on the birthday person's chair so I put a few on the wall behind Kohen's high chair. He pulled those off right away and probably would have kept playing with them if we didn't direct his attention to his presents. He started by opening Nanny & Grandpa Rupps card and kept saying "Hop hop hop" since there were bunnies on it and was excited about the airplanes on Great Papa Luymes' bday card. (Easily ammused)

Opening some of his presents from Mommy & Daddy and Grandma & Papa Rawlins

 One of the gifts he got from my parents was a horse stick thing. We all went to Toys R Us together to get his gifts while we were in Sacramento and he LOVED this and would gallop through out the store. Today when he got it he remembered it made horse sounds and wouldn't gallop unless it was "Naayying"  :)

For dinner we had pesto pizza (or "peetz peetz" as Kohen calls it) and watermelon

and left overs of Daddy's cake. Kohen made us light the candles twice so that he could keep blowing them out. He probably would have done it another ten times had we let him.

He LOVES cake (and it is stinkin cute when he begs for it) so it was fun to have a reason to let him have it even if it was the third day in a row.

These pictures are all from today and each so typical of my Kohen. The one on the left is from him helping me get tissue for my allergies and dragged the toilet paper all the way from the bathroom to where I was in the living room. He is always willing to help and has always been super independent. He is such a "cool dude" and loves to wear his sunglasses and nod his head like "Oh yeah. That's right. I'm cool" As busy and curious as he is I love his very full personality.

The picture of him on the potty: He is ready to start potty training for sure and now that we are done with all our travels I am getting ready to jump into the task. He is smiling because I told him to keep his shirt down (for privacy reasons) but last minute he lifts it up and follows by cracking up at himself for tricking me. He has such a sense of humor and keeps us laughing and entertained.

I love my happy boy!

The picture of him bundled up reminds me of what a snuggle bug and how loving he is. I love that as busy as he is he is awesome about constantly giving us loves 10+x a day. Or how if he thinks we are hurt or sad he asks in the CUTEST voice with a hand on your back and head cocked, "Are you ok?"  How can you NOT be ok after hearing that?! 

Here's to 2 years of Kohen-isms and hopefully a lifetime more!

Happy Birthday Stuart!

Stuart's birthday yesterday was pretty low key since we had just gotten back from camping the night before (we came back a day early), I had gobs of cleaning and other things to do, and Stuart had to leave for work around 4. He requested frozen hamburgers and was fine with a store bought cake. He did however get some coupons/rainchecks, one of which was for sugar cereal which made his day since I don't ever buy it. :)  He is easy to please. 

We love him so much and appreciate the husband/Daddy he is!!!

Sunday: The day of rest

I love this picture because Sundays we all feel like this. I'm sure things will get much crazier with a newborn baby in a couple months and 9:00 church next year but for now I'd like to document our crazy Sunday schedule to remember these good times :)

This particular Sunday (about a month and a half ago) I could not get Kohen to wake up for anything. 

Sundays usually consist of this schedule:

 5:00-5:30 am  Stuart gets home from another 12 hr shift at work and heads to bed

5-7 am  Kohen wakes up/Mommy's up

Feed Kohen, chase Kohen, comfort Kohen, ...etc.

(if you're a mom you know this is an ongoing thing)

Start prepping dinner and Stuart's "lunch" for work

Pack Kohen's church stuff (snacks, toys)

Do any last minute YW stuff

Distract Kohen while I try to get a shower/get ready (although usually this doesn't happen until after I get him down for a nap)

11-11:30 attempt to get him down for a nap

(lately he has at least been letting me get him dressed before his nap since he is not a fan of getting dressed right after waking up)

12:00  Hope Kohen is asleep

Wake up Stuart 

Get ready myself

12:30-12:40 Wake up Kohen 

Have Stuart load him up

Do his hair and put on his shoes/socks in the car

AFTER CHURCH

4:00-church out

4:15- home from church

Stuart sticks Kohen in the bath tub (nursery can be gross)

I scramble to finish dinner/Stuart's lunch (because usually it's leftovers from dinner)

Hurry to the bathroom to bathe Kohen (no he was not left alone....this is all in a 5-10 min period)

Pull Kohen out and get him dressed after he screams bloody murder for washing his hair

Set Kohen in his high chair to feed him. 

Am usually running around getting Stuart and Kohen their dinner. It's never ending I swear.

4:30-Stuart leaves to work

Clean up and trying to keep Kohen awake and entertained until at least 6 while also hoping his second wind doesn't kick in and keep him up until much later 

(not always an easy task with a tired and cranky little boy)

Summer 2012 Family Portraits

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)