For my little monkey

So this is the table that Jeff and I made for Cohen for his birthday! I forgot that I never posted a picture of this! We got the table from Ikea, we painted the wood green and painted the top of the table with chalkboard paint!! Oh, and then we got those vinyl animals to put on the chairs! I love the way it turned out! Hopefully he will enjoy it when he's a little older! :)

Cohen's 1st Birthday!

Wow, What a day! Everyone and I mean EVERYONE tells me all the time that the time goes by so fast! And they grow up so fast! And quite frankly I was ready to smack the next person that told me that! But it seriously does. I'm not kidding. How am *I* a mother of a ONE year old? How is my little baby ONE already!??!

It was a very fun day. Very hectic (for me), but very fun. There were a few things I would change for my next one year old's birthday... so now I know. Obviously Cohen had no idea what was going on. But it was a very special day for Jeff and me.
Top pictures... Cohen opening his first present of the day! We had him open just one present in the morning. It was an outfit for him to wear that day! He would just bite the present! bottom pictures: Cohen eating his birthday breakfast scramble! I was holding the phone up, cause his Aunt Jenny and cousin Gwen were singing happy birthday to him! Lots of people called to sing to him! He would just try to grab the phone! :) And then Jeff kissing the birthday boy before he left for work.

Okay, I am sorry, but isn't this picture so cute?! Ahhh.... Cohen and I met Jeff for lunch. We ran into Keith (our bro-in-law) there, so he joined us as well!

His cake!!! The top one is the one he got to destroy... and the bottom one was for all of us! I was pretty happy with the way it came out. It took me WAAAAY to long. But it was worth it!

The PARTY!!! The Hesters have that big blow up water slide... so we borrowed it. It was really fun! The kids had a blast! We also had a slip n' slide! I missed it when Cohen was crawling all over the slip n slide :( It was really fun watching all the kids playing around!

Present time! Cohen had ZERO interest in the presents. So I got to open all of them! :) His new favorite thing is climbing up the stairs... and whenever we are downstairs in the playroom, he knows exactly where to go! So the whole time I was opening his presents, he was constantly making a break for it, and Jeff had to go capture him! Cohen got A LOT of verrrrry nice gifts. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!!!!

The Cake! I was pretty excited for this part of the night... I'm not going to lie! :) HOWEVER... It was not the way I thought it would go! He was so dainty about it! The mess you see in the pictures, was after I picked at it, trying to get Cohen to get into it. The kids had fun feeding it to him though! :)

I just want to say thank you for everyone that came to his party! It meant a lot to us! And I'm sorry to my family and friends in Portland, that weren't able to share in this day with us.

I will admit that I got a little teary eyed when we were singing 'Happy Birthday'... It really did hit me that he's no longer my little baby. I am soooo excited though, for the next chapter of his life.

Can't sleep...

So i was laying in bed... not able to get to sleep. I just kept thinking about tomorrow, and everything I needed to do to have a fun day with Cohen, and everything I needed to do for his birthday party. Then i got to thinking about what I was doing exactly one year ago. Well... I will tell you what I was doing...

I was sleeping. Not knowing that three hours from then, it would change my life forever. How would I have known that such a little thing, with cute little fingers, and sweet soft little feet would steal my heart? Or that a cute little laughter from such a sweet little mouth would rip my heart out and snuggle it? Okay.. or what about the first smile I get when I walk in his room after he wakes up............. oh .... my..... gosh..... HE TAKES MY BREATH AWAY!

One year ago I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Actually... i still don't! But all I know is that I have this precious little boy that I get to love. He has changed my life completely, in the best way possible.

I am so thankful for you, Cohen. What a sweet little boy you are.

Happy birthday sweetheart. Thank you for joining our family.

our saturday...

Well today was a LONG day! We got a lot done, so I feel very accomplished... but I am pooped now. This morning, while Cohen was sleeping, I looked outside, and it was overcast!!!!! I was sooo happy! It has been in the hundreds allll week. And our garden was desperate for some weeding... But I didn't even want to look at it, cause it was sooo hot out! So after I saw the WONDERFUL, much needed, overcast weather, I ran in and woke Jeff up, and told him we HAD to weed, RIGHT NOW!!! So we did.

Then we ran some errands... to costco, and then to Target, to get (hopefully) the last of Cohen's birthday stuff for his party. When we got home, we put Cohen down for a nap, and then Jeff and I got to work! We had to put together a few things we got Cohen for his birthday (which is wednesday for those of you who don't know!) I was going to post pictures of the finished product..... however, decided we would wait until after his birthday! :) We got him a table and chairs set from Ikea, painted it, and did different things on it to make it cute... pictures to come later..... So that took all afternoon putting that together and painting it.

Then after Cohen woke up, We FINALLY worked on Cohen's room. I feel like a horrible person, thinking we've lived here for HOW LONG, and we are just now getting to Cohen's room. BLAH! We couldn't decide if we wanted to paint his room or not. Cause for some reason, the people that own this town home, decided not to paint the room that he's in. They painted the ENTIRE house, except his room. And so we were going to paint.... however there are vaulted ceilings, and it's just really awkward, so we decided not to. :(

I am soooooooo happy with this train picture thing. I had made his name thing the week he was born, and had it hanging from a curtain rod. Then right before we moved here, I bought the train vinyl thing. I just thought it was the cutest thing ever! For months, I scratched my head wondering how I was going to put it on his wall. I didn't want to put it directly on the wall, in case I couldn't get it off if we move. So two weeks ago, I was at Ikea. I was in the "as is" clearance section, and there was a section of cabinet doors, and such. I picked up that black door, and it HIT ME! Why hadn't I ever thought of something like that before?! So for TWO DOLLARS, I ran with it!!! I put card stock on it, and then stuck the train on! Then I stuck his name thing on it. WOW, I just love it! I will admit, that Jeff had a hay day trying to get that thing mounted on the wall! But he did a great job!

I can not believe that Cohen will be ONE on wednesday!!! How on earth do *I* have a ONE YEAR OLD?! WOW! Cohen has changed so much this past month. We just put him in a forward facing car seat! He already looks so much bigger in it! What a little BOY! ACK! Oh I just love that little kid so much! I feel like he's going to start walking any day now. His favorite thing right now is to climb up the stairs! There is a door that shuts at the top of the stairs, which is really nice. But downstairs, they are wide open. So anytime I am doing laundry or we are doing anything down there, and Cohen crawls off, we KNOW he is going straight for the stairs! He gets like three stairs up, and he just starts CRACKING UP!!! I have NO idea why he starts laughing... but it is soooo cute! And i can't help but laugh too! I'm trying to teach him to crawl down backwards, but he's not having it... hopefully soon!

'Utah Graham's' BBQ!!

Okay, I completely forgot about these pictures until I put in my memory card today and... HELLO! Cute pictures!!

So two weeks ago, my cousin's and I decided we needed to get together for a little bbq! It consisted of: Aunt Jan, Ashley, Grant, Sara, Oliver, Devin, Lindsay, Jeff, Cohen, and myself! It was sooo much fun! We decided to eat on the floor downstairs, cause it was waaaay cooler downstairs! So that is why we are eating on blankets! It was so much fun, I really hope we keep this a tradition.... of doing it! :)

Top right: I was taking a picture, and they were complaining that I took it while they were eating... so I took another one OF them eating! Oliver LOVED the cupcakes, and he and Cohen were soooo cute playing together. Just a great day.

Granola yumminess!

Last week at enrichment, it was Summertime Fun! They had different tables set up with kid craft ideas, bbq'ing secrets, and yummy kid friendly treats. I don't think I've ever had straight granola before... but let me tell you... IT WAS DELICIOUS!! Yesterday I decided to make it! It was so easy, and really cheap... and it made A TON! So here's the recipe if anyone's interested:

4 Cups rolled oats
1 Cup wheat germ
1 Cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water
1 (6 oz) pkg dried cranberries

:: Heat oven to 300*. In large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, wheat germ, nuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. make a well in the dry ingredients and add the oil, honey, and water. Toss the mixture until the ingredients are well combined, then spread evenly on cookie sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, or lightly brown, stirring every 10mins to keep mixture from sticking. Let cool then stir in cranberries ::

Jefferson + Cohen = REALLY cute cousins!

So as I stated in the below post, I was able to fly to Portland from my vacation in Lake Tahoe for my grandpa's funeral. Luke and Jefferson were able to come as well! I was only in portland for 24 hours, so these are the only pictures I could get of the two of them. Jefferson wasn't really in the mood to have a little kid take his toys. However, by the time I had to leave, we did catch Cohen hugging Jefferson, and Jeffer didn't pull away! :) Too bad I didn't get that one on camera. Oh I just love that little Jeffer!

...Grandpa Graham...

I don't really know what to say here. But I just wanted to share my love for my Grandpa. He passed away on this past 4th of July.

I Love my Grandpa so much. And I'm sooooo glad I was able to go to his memorial. He is such an amazing man, and such an amazing example. I left that day thinking, 'MAN, I need to do better!!!'

I'm so thankful for the many people that my Heavenly Father puts in my life, to better MY life. My Grandpa was one of them. He didn't say much. But when he did, you better believe we were listening!

I love you, my cute little Grandpa!!!

Cute little Cohen with his Great-Grandpa a few months ago.

Top Picture: Devin Graham (**** Devin took some amazing pictures that day, but I just couldn't post some of them. It just didn't sit well with me. ****)

Lake Tahoe 2009!!!

Jeff's family, since his mom was young, have made it a tradition to have a "reunion" at Lake Tahoe, every year. I'm talkin, his WHOLE family! Let's see... I think there were like 8 or 9 families that come. It's crazy, but fun! We got there on saturday, the 4th, and left saturday the 11th. It was a very relaxing and crazy week. Cohen was soooooo cute. It was so fun watching him play in the sand, and be on the boat, and play with all the cousin's. He had a few 'firsts' while we were there! The first one was, it was the first time he'd been on a boat! He was soo cute with his little life jacket on! And he totally didn't care! We even took him on a tube ride! :) Another one was he started fully standing on his own!! Oh boy, it's so cute. I couldn't ever get a picture of it though... I see walking in his future!

Cohen was so comfortable with everyone!! It was so fun watching him interact with everyone! And it was just so nice that he had people to play with, and everyone was so sweet to him, and always looked out for him.

Those cute little girl's are: Calie: Jeff's cousin's daughter, and Kelly: Jeff's aunt & uncle's daughter. Kelly took him as her own that week! she was sooooo sweet with him!

Family pics! We decided it would be a perfect time to get a family picture while we were in such a beautiful place! I think they turned out great!

Okay, so Jeff's family decided to go out to dinner, So we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have a "family" date night! We decided we would go out to dinner, and drive up to the view point to get some pictures, and then go to a park to push Cohen on the swings, just the three of us! Well we get ready to go, and I'm standing next to the car waiting for Jeff to unlock the car... and I hear him yelling from inside the condo to come back in. I was very irritated cause I had been waiting a while, and it was very hot out..... Come to find out, Jeff had left the car keys in his sister's car from lunch earlier that day!!! Everyone had already left for dinner, and NO ONE... i mean NOOOO ONNE answered their cell phones!!! BAH! So to make good of the evening... we ordered pizza delivery, and just hung out in an empty condo! We ended up having a blast. Cohen was in such a good mood. So we took a bunch of pictures.... here are a few of them:

Last day in Tahoe. The top right picture of cohen sitting in the sand, is my favorite picture I took of him all week! I seriously took like a hundred pictures of just him playing in the sand, cause it was just so cute. He didn't have a care in the world!

I had a blast in Tahoe. At times I was very bored... but if you knew my family, you would know why! But I think my favorite thing, besides being with Cohen and Jeff, was the scenery. WOW is that place just BREATHTAKING!!! The way the lake looked with the Moon shining on it at night, or the sunsets.... And the crystal clear water. It was just so BEAUTIFUL. It really makes me think about the blessings that we all have, that we might take for granted.

I'm so glad we went.