A little personality from January

There wasn't a whole lot of excitement in January. 

It was a breathe of fresh air.

Josh actually left for a week to go shadow some doctors in Henderson (just outside Las Vegas), Nevada.  The boys and I missed him dearly, but we got to play with all the new toys, so it was ok. 

(I'm making excuses.... I really died not having him around, and missed him sorely, as did the boys.)  Good things came from the trip, so all is well now.  Oh, and Parker survived, even thouh he made his first trip to the emergency room the first night Josh was gone.

Cohen certainly goes through his phases.  I love to watch him get excited about something new.  Here he is holding Buzz Lightyear (thanks Grandpa Gary!), dressed as Buzz (I did the best I could, per his request), and watching Toy Story (Buzz).  He is very much into outer space, rocket ships, astronauts, space rangers, the moon, etc.  One of his other favorite movies right now is the Leap Frog "Math to the Moon."

It snowed!!!!  This is our deck.  I just love how Oregon takes all precautions for snow.  I find it humorous.  The schools shut down, the roads were clear of cars.  There were people frantically shopping the night before the storm for extreme emergency rations.  Everyone you see is dressed like an Eskimo.  It's just funny.  This is the amount of snow we got.  It was a few inches at best, very slushy, and was mostly melted by the afternoon.  Cohen is an Oregonian.  He was captivated by the snow.  I let him enjoy.  :)

Good thing my friend Ashlee told me about Chocolate Fest!!!!

I don't have any idea why I've never gone before. 

I am a chocolate lover, and this event was right up my ally.

We had to pay an entrance fee, but then there was chocolate galor!

All we did was walk from booth to booth and try their chocolate.  Amazing.  I didn't think I could get sick of it, but after eating chocolate for an hour and a half, I did start to get a stomach ache. 

Good times!  Thanks, Ashlee!
Strange, velvet manikin?  Yes.

We had to try out our poses for the next chocolate fest girl.  I'm not her.  Guarantee it.

Ashlee?  Perhaps.

I sure wish I would have taken pictures of the actual chocolate creations and goodness. 

There was some amazing stuff.

Here's Parker the day he turned 14 months. 

He's got such a cute little personality.  I love to watch him play with Cohen, or try to communicate, or imitate whatever the rest of the family does.

I couldn't live without this little cutie!

Christmas, just us and wonderful

I had a hard time, at first, with the idea of Christmas with no family. 

I was worried I'd be bored or not make it feel like Christmas or something. 

Well, I'm happy to report it was still Christmas, and we had a wonderful time of it. 

The boys are to the age now where they want to play with their toys, and not sit still long anyways. 

It was so nice to do everything at the pace we wanted. 

To my family, I did miss you, dearly.  I hope that Christmases in the future will include you. 

There's something about sharing in the joy of the children, and watching eachother open exchanged gifts that brings the holiday to life.  There's something about tradition that warms my heart.  New traditions can and will be made, but the old ones are joyious.

We did a little nativity roll play while Josh read the scriptures.  Parker was a sheppard, who never really stayed put for more than two seconds, and Cohen and I played the main parts.  The cute boy even wanted me to get on his rocking horse and drag me around.  We had to modify things a bit.

I got the boys matching pajamas they opened the night before. 

Cohen has this thing for footie pajamas right now.  It's adorable.

I snuck a picture in after Santa had left. 

I heard from him that he only had to spend $10 to make the fooseball table!  Way to go Santa!

Do you see the mess in the background?  That's what it looked like AFTER the initial clean-up.  How fun.

We invited our friends the Zukerans over for Christmas dinner.  It was nice to have a formal dinner and enjoy the company of friends.  We sang Christmas songs as I played on the piano, let the 3 year olds play, the dads talked about school, and we all had a grand time. 

Here is Cohen's friend Makena who we had over for dinner.

The day after Christmas I finished taking some goodies around.  I found a great recipe for cream cheese peppermint candies.

A couple days later Debbie came in for a Christmas visit! 

It was so nice to have her here and the kids got Christmas all over again.

Lots of time just hanging out and playing as a family is what we did.  We loved it!

What a fun December!

OK, get ready for lots of pictures!

I'll try to keep my words brief, because we all know a picture can say a thousand words on it's own.

Cohen was so excited for Santa and Christmas this year. 

Just barely three, he was the perfect age, in my opinion.

This first video is of him watching Santa arrive at our church Christmas party.

Sitting on Santa's lap, he asked for a drum set and a Foosball table.

Parker didn't do as well.... but I distinctly remember the same situation when Cohen was this same age at our church Christmas party in Utah.

See!

This is simply a cute picture of Parker sleeping.  That's all.

 Cohen pretended to be Santa pretty frequently through the season.  Here he is coming in on his sleigh with Rudolph leading the way.  I had been a very good girl and he left something under the tree for me.

December was full of emotion.  Christmas time was huge of course, but we also had to say good-bye to several dear friends.  This is the last time Cohen and Kaleb got to play.  Cohen really misses him, and is a little confused why we aren't moving to California too, just like Kaleb.

 We phased Cohen out of naps.  It was time.  Now bedtime is 7:30, instead of 8:30 plus an undetermined amount of time of struggle and stay awake tactics.  I could go on and on, but it was just time.

The poor little thing fell asleep in Walmart while the groceries were being ringed up, and stayed asleep while I put the groceries on and around him, and all the way through the bumpy parking lot, I had to make great efforts to wake him up to get into the house.

 We now have a sunbeam!!! I can hardly believe he graduated from nursery!

 I had to say good-bye to 2 wonderful friends.  Lacey Poytress was fantastic, and brought girls together and was so easy going.  I really miss her!

Sabrina Mangum.  Oh, I love her!  I'm so sad she's gone!  We did lots together with and without our kids, who are the same age.  She's someone I look up to in many ways; she's smart, funny, fun, frugal, crafty, spiritual, loving, a great mother, and a great friend!

Hope I didn't embarrass you, Sabrina!

Since we weren't going home for Christmas, I tried as hard as I could to make it seem like home, and do as many traditional things as I could.

We went to see Santa at the Clackamas mall.  They had a train there and Cohen loved it!

Waiting to see Santa.... he's SO HANDSOME!!

I simply refused to pay $30 or more for pictures with Santa.  How ridiculous!!!  So, this is what my mom snagged from far away. 

The picture tells a lot about our situation, I think.  I kind of treasure it. 

Weird, I know.

So, Nana came!!!! Hooray!!! It didn't really feel like Christmas until she came.  She was here for about 4 days, about a week before Christmas.  We had a wonderful time.

 Cohen and her got us started with gingerbread houses. 

 Cohen's job was to unwrap all the really old candy I had stashed in the back of the cupboard. 

He was very dedicated, and very good.

(I know candy lasts forever, practically, but I wouldn't want to eat 2 year old smarties.)

 Even Josh got involved!  Thank goodness for school breaks!

This is the best picture we could muster with the kids and my mom.  Oh, well.

 They both got lots of tub toys from Nana.  Cohen was happy as a lark.

 I love my mom.

 Mom went back to Utah, but I still needed to go see the lights with the family.  Peacock Lane is the place to go, I heard.  Wow, traffic.  Sad to say, I was pretty disappointed at the display. 

 Perhaps I'm just used to seeing temple square.  It was fun, non the less.

 The most memorable moment from the trip, this guy. 

Santa suite, unicyclist, bag pipe guy going down the middle of the street.

 We went to the Grotto.  This was another attempt to create the Christmas spirit.  They had this beautiful nativity, music, puppet shows, choirs, lights, stories, gift shops, etc.  It was lovely, and wonderful.

 I was loving it.

This is one of Cohen's best moments there.  The sad part is, he was in a rotten mood that night, and so we didn't stay nearly as long as Josh and I wanted.  Oh, well.  Better luck next year, right?

Next post, Christmas!  I'll get there... promise.