To The Cohenater.

Dear Cohen,

You test my limits every single day, but oh how I love you. I could make a list of 1000 things I love about you (including every square inch on your sqeezeable body), but for the sake of time I will just list a few of the things that make you the coolest Cohen ever.

1. The Legs Wide Stance.

I find you assuming this stance quit often. The stance is made even more awesome by the fact that your Dad was famous for this stance when he was a wee little man also. There is many a picture to prove it. My favorite is when you assume this stance in front on the mirror. I can tell as you look at yourself that you think you look awesome. NEWS FLASH! You do.

2. Your love for anything and everything electronic.

Many an old cellular phone has been handed down to you because of your love for electronics (thanks to your aunt Jessie and your uncle David). The best is when you pretend to talk on the phone. Your conversation consists of "Hi!" then you speak a few seconds of gibberish, then end the convo with a very quick "Bye"! You then proceed to slam the phone shut. The whole process is very matter of fact. And if possible you will then stick the phone in your "pock" (that is the word you use for "pocket".)

3. Your creative ideas for cup holders/coasters.

Why put the sippy cup directly on the table when it can be placed in a shoe first?

Genius!

4. Your Guilty face.

Makes me want to forgive you of any and all wrong doings.

5. When you walk around with your shirt on your head in preparation for bath time.

6. Your perma rosy cheeks.

If they are still around in October I am so dressing you up as Santa Claus for Halloween.

7.Your curly hair.

More specifically, the hair that curls up behind your ears.

8. Your recent love of performing and smiling for the camera.

Ever since you learned to say "Chesse!", not only do you love it when I take a picture of you, you also love to walk around with your hand me down phones, hold them up to anyones face, and say "Cheese!, take a pretend picture, then examine the pretend picture.

9. Your ability to eat yogurt many different ways.

There is the basic eating with a spoon way.

Or eat it with your hand way.

(look at that big grin with those big ol' Darby teeth. Makes me laugh out loud every time I look at this picture.)

Or the, what the hell! Lets just drink the yogurt way.

They all get the job very well:)

10.When you don't have a "pock" (aka pocket), you use your diaper as a "pock", obviously.

I mean, where else will you put that phone if you don't have pants on?

11. When your Dad gets home, you yell "Dada", and run into his arms. I will never get sick of seeing that.

(Of that situation, there is no picture.)

12. When you try to keep up with Chase while playing the Wii.

Hilarious, but again, no picture.

13. When I can tell you want to do something naughty and I say "no", you say "peeese, peese, peese!" (please)

That is pretty much the key to me letting you do it all.

Things I don't love so much:

1.Every time I ask you to give me a kiss you say "NO!", then run giggling the other way.

I just want one of those cute, lip smacking kisses!! You give them so freely to everyone else:(

2. Your willingness to sit and cuddle with Dad for long stretches of time, but when I try to sit and cuddle with you I am lucky if I get 2 minutes.

Love,

Yo Momma.

Snow, Snow go away and come back never.

This morning we woke up to this. The snow falling. Again.

Do you want to know how I feel right now? I feel like winter drags on a little to long in Utah. And trust when I tell you that if we had the means ($$$) to move to a warmer climate, we would.

Our backyard mountain. Living on a mountain we tend to get the brunt of the snow fall.

This past week I have longed for summer days like....well I can't think of a word to describe how much I have been longing for summer days. I miss them like crazy.

I have been day dreaming about the picnics and bbques we will have during those summer nights in the backyard of our new house (the one we put the offer on. The shortsale). I should not be daydreaming about such things, because I feel like in so doing I am ruining our chances of actually getting the house.

Remember in the last post how I said short sales suck? Well, they still do. What if we don't hear back from the bank for like 5 months? What then? We have to be out of this house by the beginning of June, at the latest. So we press on, looking at lots of houses, hoping that if this short sale house doesn't work out, then something else will. Why am I even complaining about this? What a dumb thing to complain about.

Hmmmm. I do have cramps really bad, so theres that. That reminds me, did anyone else think 30 Rock last night was beyond hilarious? I sure did. And if you did watch, you will understand why me having cramps reminded me of last nights episode.

A song I like, a sick little boy, and my thoughts on a house.

First on the agenda on this here blog post:

Love the song, love her house.

Please watch and enjoy.

Or, save time and listen while you scroll down and read (but I will warn, with this song as a back ground the post will seem a lot more melancholy than it actually is)

Second:

The past few day my little man Cohen has been very sick. Fever, runny nose, nasty cough....then a few days ago he started majorly limping, as in, he could barely walk or stand on his own 2 feet. Basically if he wasn't being held, he was screaming.

When he just had the cold symptoms I wasn't to worried. I thought it would run its course and he would be fine in a few days. When he started limping I didn't think it was at all connected to his sickness, I thought maybe he fell and tweaked something. As far as I new he hadn't had a fall, or done anything where he could injure his leg enough to not be able to walk on it, so I was very confused.

I called the doc, and they got us in right away (shout out to Dr. Lindgren. Best pediatrician ever). Turns out the high fever combined with the limp could be some very serious business. I can't remember all the things the doctor told me it could be, all I remember is the phrase "this could be nothing, or it could be something very serious, as in a life long disability serious".

Before we left the office the doctor gave me very strict instructions to keep a close eye on him, and if the limp continues into the next day I was told we would need to take him to Primary Children's to get some blood work done.

Today he still has the nasty cold symptoms, but luckily NO GIMP LIMP. I am beyond relieved.

Heres the sick little man cuddling with his Dad.

Just look at those sick, sad eyes and rosy cheeks. Breaks my heart.

Third:

I don't want to jinx anything, but I do want to say we put an offer on a house a few days ago. It is a short sale so it will be awhile before we hear anything, but I must say, I really want this house.

Looking for a house has been discouraging, exciting, and frustrating at times. It seems there are an insane amount of short sales. Guess lots of people got in over there heads. Bad for them, but nice for us. Lots of good deals, and really good interest rates right now. But at the same time short sales are annoying. This offer we put in, we probably won't find out if the bank has excepted it for almost a month. See what I mean about annoying?

BUT, I feel grateful that we are finally looking for our own home. Renting, and living in Jamison's parents while they are in Georgia has had its perks, but we are so ready for a place that is our own. And since Chase will be starting kindergarten (i am in denial) in a little over a year, we want to be more settled.

So please, send your good house hunting energy our way. We are still looking while we wait to see if this offer was excepted, and so far, we haven't found anything we like quit as much.

This picture has nothing to do with anything in this post. I just liked how they both fell asleep in the head kinked to the right fashion.

Happy Saturday:)

what did exist: alive together, lisa mueller

Speaking of marvels, I am alive
together with you, when I might have been
alive with anyone under the sun,
when I might have been Abelard’s woman
or the whore of a Renaissance pope
or a peasant wife with not enough food
and not enough love, with my children
dead of the plague. I might have slept
in an alcove next to the man
with the golden nose, who poked it
into the business of stars,
or sewn a starry flag
for a general with wooden teeth.
I might have been the exemplary Pocahontas
or a woman without a name
weeping in Master’s bed
for my husband, exchanged for a mule,
my daughter, lost in a drunken bet.
I might have been stretched on a totem pole
to appease a vindictive god
or left, a useless girl-child,
to die on a cliff. I like to think
I might have been Mary Shelley
in love with a wrong-headed angel,
or Mary’s friend. I might have been you.
This poem is endless, the odds against us are endless,
our chances of being alive together
statistically nonexistent;
still we have made it, alive in a time
when rationalists in square hats
and hatless Jehovah’s Witnesses
agree it is almost over,
alive with our lively children
who—but for endless ifs—
might have missed out on being alive
together with marvels and follies
and longings and lies and wishes
and error and humor and mercy
and journeys and voices and faces
and colors and summers and mornings
and knowledge and tears and chance.


I came across this here today. I thought it was so beautiful I couldn't help but share:)

Rain Or Shine, Will You Be Mine?

Today I celebrate my 3 Valentines: Jamison, Chase Emma, and Cohen. They are my world.

Jamison and I have never made a big deal of Valentines day. Usually we just do a little something for each other and the kids, and if possible, go out to dinner (which sometimes isn't possible with the 2 kiddos) and I'm OK with that. I have to mention the fact that we have got each other some real doozies when it comes to V day gifts. One year, maybe 7 yrs ago when we were still dating, I got him a 12 pack of coke with a gas gift card taped to it. That same year he got me the vhs tape of the movie Sweet Home Alabama. We still joke about how awesome (and by awesome I mean awful) both of those presents were. Luckily our Valentine gift giving skills have improved. Today I woke up to the greatest letter from my hubby. That letter meant more to me than anything he could have spent money on.

Since going out to dinner wasn't possible tonight, Jamison took a long lunch at work and we met up for some delish lunch eating....and I was able to steal an afternoon Valentines kiss.

Muuwaaaaah.

Look at him. Just look at him. He makes me happy.

Along with these 2 munchkins. They are the cheese to my macaroni.

He always has rosy cheeks. I should have dressed him up as cupid and taken a picture. But not really.

Do you think Cohen showing the world the food in his mouth is cute?

No?

Well, I think its adorable so you may just have to deal.

Yesterday one of Chase's little friends had a Valentines party for all the little girls in the neighborhood. We were told on the invite to dress up in pink (and come ready with a sweet tooth, which for Chase was so not a problem). This was the best we could do when it came to dressing in pink. She doesn't have a whole lot of pink stuff...except for the tights she is wearing. When I went to take this picture of her she said to Jamison in the sweetest voice "Daddy, will you please come be in the picture with me?". So here they are . Jamison and his girl right before her Valentines party.

These were right after the party. Hence all the chocolate around her lips.

Now my friends I have a question.

These Valentines, pictured below, are some Valentines that Marilee, Jamison's Mom, saved from when she did a Valentine exchange in elementary school (about 50 years ago). I love them. I wish they made them like this still. Anyways, I have been trying to think of a way to display them for Valentines Day. I couldn't come up with anything this year. They are very old, and I don't want to handle them to much, or do anything to ruin them.....so I need a good idea. Have any good ideas of a creative way to display them?

Anyone?

My favorite one is the little elephant. On the front it says "Rain or Shine Be Mine.", and on the inside it says this:

I thought it was very sweet.

I wonder who Judy Bailey is.

If only she new that the valentine she gave out all those years ago would be featured on my little ol'blog....

"Tell Someone How You Feel today"

I stayed up tonight perusing the interwebs for blogs. More specifically, awesome blogs that have a large following. I am doing this for a job I now have. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is that during that blog finding journey I came across this video. Its very possible that you have already scene it. I have scene it posted by a friend or two on facebook, and it seems a few other blogs I have come across, but I personally had never taken the time to watch it. I finally did tonight, I liked it, and wanted to share it.

As I get older I have found that it is exhausting not telling someone how you feel. And equally as exhausting when people aren't up front with you about how they feel. Does that make sense? Guess thats why I enjoyed this little video:)

And on that note I shall say......GOODNIGHT.

Ice Castles.

Located at the Midway City Park a certain fellow ( I don't know what his name is), built lots of ice castles. Yesterday I asked Chase if that would be something she would be interested in seeing and she proceeded to jump up and down numerous times and scream "YES, YES, YES".

So we decided that since this week has consisted of us all having strep throat and being cooped up in this house, and finally we were all feeling better, what better way to finally get out and enjoy the fresh air then head up to Midway and check out some super awesome ice castles. They were pretty cool, I must say. It did freak me out walking through the actual castles. I kept picturing one of those long icicles falling down and impaling me through the head. Luckily that did not happen:)

BUT, were they worth the $23 dollars we were charged to see them? Yes, only because we had been so cooped up all week. If that had not been the case, then no, I don't think it would have been worth it.

Would you like to see some ice castles? Oh, well just take a looksy at the pictures I took with my personal convenient handheld electronic typing, calling and picture taking device. Also known as a computing cellular mobile telephone.

I enjoy this picture. Nice view of all the ice castles with the mountain in the back ground.

See what I mean about super long icicles? No wonder they make you sign a release saying you won't sue before you walk in. I believe my fear of being impaled was very justified.

And just so you know (and not that you care), but it was actually a pretty nice sunny day.

I used the shake it app to take the pics, and it makes the day look all dark and dreary.

Well, it wasn't.