Growing Too Fast!

Kohen is now 15 months and I am amazed at the things that he can say, do and understand already!

*His favorite toy is still any ball he sees. He even sees just a basketball hoop, like during sacrament, and will say "ball ball ball" over and over again and point to the hoop.

*He loves the slide at the park and will stare out our back door at the school playground and point to it. He laughs when he goes down, when mom or dad go down and especially laughs when Koda goes down!

*If he sees a hat of any kind he will point to it and then pat his head. He loves wearing them too.

*He loves to cuddle blankets or his stuffed animals

*When he sees flowers he leans forward to "smell" them and says "mmmmm". We stop to smell the flowers in the grocery store, when we are on walks or our center piece on our table. We even had to smell the flowers that were on my birthday cards... funny boy!

*At bed time he loves to tease us with kisses. He will stand up and pretend he will give us a kiss and the second we go to kiss him he falls down in his crib and hides his face laughing! So we pretend to walk out and he does it all over again.

*He LOVES books! He will crawl behind his rocker in his room and will look at all of his books. He would sit there all day if I let him. His favorite book right now is his Jesus book and the book about bubbles.

*He is just starting to walk. He is getting pretty good at it and I must say I am excited he is walking now. I love having him come up behind me when I'm cooking or something and he just wraps his arms around my legs. That's my new favorite thing. Our new thing is helping mom push the cart while grocery shopping.

*He loves to tease Koda and laughs so hard when Koda chases him or licks his face.

*Words he can say are: Banana, Balloon, Ball, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Bath, Shoes (boos), Book, Bubble, moon, Watermelon (its hard to describe in words how he says this but it actually really sounds like watermelon), Koda, Drum (sounds a lot like "mum"). He loves drums. Anything he can hit his hands on and it makes noise is a drum. We had a jam session on the table during lunch yesterday.

*Words he knows in sign language: More, Please, Milk, Shoes

*Sounds he can make: Horse, tiger, cow, firetruck, duck, motorcycle (voom), crashing noise. He will take his Mickey Mouse toy with wheels and ram it into the couch and say "crash" or make a crashing noise (that I'm not really sure how to describe) and then just laugh and do it all over again.

*Pictures he can recognize: He can pick out balls, flowers, fish, mom and dad, and drums in books or in pictures around the house.

*When we ask him to show his muscles he raises his fists in the air and tenses up. Its really something you have to see because his facial expression is priceless!

*He can be Tarzan, on demand, by patting his chest and saying "AAAHHHH"

*His new thing is when you ask him a yes or no question he nods his head yes. Cutest thing ever.

*I have been trying to get him to blow kisses for a few months and last night he finally did it! I must say it completely melted my heart!

*He can make a fish face... hard to explain again, but super funny and cute!

*His newest thing is being cute. If you ask him if he is cute, or to be cute, he puts his hands on his cheeks and tilts his head to the side and smiles. Soooooo funny! (and cute!)

We haven't had a camera for the last month because it broke and we had to send it in. Of course it has to be the time when Kohen starts walking and doing all this new stuff, so once I get some of this recorded I will post a video. I'm sure there are probably things I'm leaving out especially because it seems like he learns something new every day.

I love watching him growing up and learning new things! He has the cutest personality and is the happiest little guy I know!

Bon Voyage!

Jeremy and I started our tradition of a cruise by ourselves every 5 years on our anniversary. And so this past month we took a cruise to Key West and Nassau, Bahamas. It was so much fun to just go and be with just Jeremy 24/7! (Every couple needs that time for just them!) I was super excited as the trip got closer but also very worried about how I would be without my little man! But, surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed my "mommy free" week. I missed him A LOT but I was so glad to just be with Jeremy. Apparently he was going to miss us too...


Since we booked a 5 day cruise, we were able to qualify for a free hotel stay which worked perfectly because we had to fly in the day before the cruise. So we left for Jacksonville, FL early Sunday morning. After a long day of flying (we decided that Southwest was not exactly the airline we would choose to fly again) we finally landed in Jacksonville. We checked into our hotel and were ready for dinner. Side note: When Jer was on his mission he loved to eat at Zaxby's and they are all over in Florida, and lucky for me (: there was one within walking distance from our hotel. (I don't necessarily think its that great). I have this issue with strange bugs and rodents that exist in the south so walking around at dusk I was skiddish. We saw lizards and the skin of something on the side of the road. I still think it was an armadillo but Jer thinks it was a cotton mouth (aka: extremely deadly snake). I'll stick with the armadillo idea thank you! Luckily no roaches came out while we were on our walk... So we ate and headed back to the hotel and just relaxed after a long day of traveling and noticed on the news they were tracking a tropical storm, potential to become a hurricane, that was going to go right on our path of the cruise. I was a little nervous just because I didn't want to come all this way to not be able to go to where we planned and what cruise is fun in the rain? You go on a tropical vacation to bask in the sun! So I really just wanted good weather. Jer called the cruise line but they weren't worried about it so we slept a little easier that night.

We got to the port right around 12:00 and got on the ship well before 1:00. We were surprised at how short the process was. One thing that we learned was pack a swim suit in your carry on so if your luggage takes until 6 or later to get to your room, you will still be able to swim or lay out... so we just wandered and explored the ship.

So, we found our cabin and we walked in and this is what I found...

My sweet hubby had it decorated and it was a surprise to me...and to him! They weren't supposed to decorate it until the day of our anniversary. But it was actually nice that they messed up because then we could have it decorated the whole week and it was a surprise to Jeremy too. But it was a very sweet surprise!

We loved our cabin! The first cruise we went on we had an interior room so we opted for an ocean view room this time and that is the way to go! The window was a lot bigger than we thought it would be and it was nice to be able to see out when we were in there.

Our dinner table was pretty fun. All of the couples were around our age. It was a little funny though as we were introducing ourselves one couple said they had just gotten married that saturday and then two more of the couples said they did too! So there were 3 newlyweds, one couple that weren't married yet and then Jer and me... celebrating our 5 year anniversary! We felt like the old married couple! But all of the photographers kept calling us newlyweds so I guess that makes up for it. (:

Our first stop was Key West Florida. We went snorkeling when we took our trip to Hawaii a couple years ago and we loved it so we decided to do that in Key West.

The reef we snorkeled around is the 3rd largest reef in the world so there was quite a lot of life on it... including lots of jelly fish. Once I heard that and then saw them from the ship I was a little nervous (yes, I'm a sissy). Jer's brother, Jed, let us borrow his waterproof camera (thanks Fred!) so we were able to take pics of what we saw and some video of a little turtle that we found.

These fish were so friendly. They weren't skiddish at all. And they were loud. We could hear them nibbling on the coral and rocks.

And just before this picture was taken Jer was stung on his arm by a jellyfish!

There was a storm headed our way, as you can see in the pics and luckily it waited until we were back on land and didn't last very long.


After snorkeling we wandered around Key West finding our traditional treasures and such. We came across a replica of a shark they caught off of Key West's shores. I'm really glad that I saw that AFTER we were in the water...

We woke up early to watch the sunrise the next day and it was so beautiful! A great way to start our 5th anniversary!

Next stop, Nassau, Bahamas!

We had a lot of fun in Nassau but we are definitely going to have to return. We did enjoy ourselves but we didn't feel like we got the experience the Bahamas as we had imagined we would. We went the the Atlantis resort, and the Dolphin Encounter. The resort was fun, huge and exciting.

This is a view of the resort. It is 171 acres... it could easily take a good week to fully enjoy it!

We went down one water slide that took you through their shark tank so that was pretty cool. They also have an aquarium there that we briefly walked through at the end of the day. They have an 11' manta ray! It was huge!

So the resort took up a lot of our time and then it was off to the Dolphins!

The dolphins were very fun to be around and touch and, yes, even kiss! We learned a lot about them and thoroughly enjoyed being in the water. The dolphin we swam with was named Palmer. She was only 3 years old and super active and cute.

The day was nearly over by this point so we wandered over to the beach for just a few minutes but not very long then headed back to the dock. By this time all the shops had pretty much closed and this place is not really a place I wanted to be in at night... we hit the end of the street where the straw market was and it was pretty much over so all the stands were covered with tarps. That made me a little nervous. I felt like I was going to go in this sea of tarps and disappear!

Jer likes to collect street signs or license plates from the places we visit (not real ones of course but the touristy ones, like in Hawaii he got one that said "I got Lei'd") So, this lady was really adamant about us buying something and was trying to sell us little trinkets (I don't do trinkets). So Jer said he really wanted to find a license plate or street sign. So, the lady reaches, without looking, behind the tarp and pulls out a license plate! Not a fake one, this one is the real thing!!! Is that even legal? I dunno if it is but Jer bought it anyway! We just thought it was funny that she actually had one. So we headed back to the ship exhausted from the non-stop day!

The ship was a welcome sight after the long, adventurous day!

The last day of our cruise we were at sea so we just enjoyed the sunshine and relaxing one last day. I was so glad that the storm bypassed us completely and it was perfect weather to sun bathe and just relax!

I love watching the sunset on the ocean. You just feel like you are on the edge of the world!

Hopefully I really don't have to wait another 5 years for a cruise! We had too much fun! But it was the perfect way to celebrate my life with my sweet husband!

Party Animal!

What's a birthday without a party?? I love planning parties and i'm not really sure why because they just stress me out! But, I am so happy that Kohen's party turned out so well! First off, I just wanted Kohen to enjoy the day so I made sure he got his morning nap, which he slept for 3 hours!! Just enough time for us to get everything prepared and decorated. And with the help of Aunt Heather, he was dressed and fed so he could be ready to go!
The biggest thing that stressed me out was the cake. I had a really cute idea for a monkey & banana cake but original plans fell through and I needed to simplify if I had any chance of making it on my own. So, I tried my had at making a fondant monkey for a cake topper. I did a practice run with Play dough first... (a brown monkey is much cuter than a neon orange and green one!)


I was satisfied with the way it turned out, however, I failed to store it in a cool enough place and he melted a little by the time Kohen's party came around.

Jeremy was such a big help with decorating the cupcakes and Kohens cake that morning. I still hadn't quite figured out what I was going to do with his cake. I really wanted to put the bananas all over the cake so it looked like a pile of bananas the monkey was on but they are hard candies and Kohen couldn't eat them so I didn't really know what to do with it. I had gone back and forth with so many ideas in my head I just didn't care any more. Luckily, I have a husband who is frighteningly good at everything he does so he did Kohens cake while I worked on the cupcakes.
Finally....
Decorations were up, cakes and drinks were in place.... Let the fun begin!

My friend at work is amazing at making any thing to do with scrapbook paper so I asked her to make me a banner. I love how it turned out!!!!

This was Kohen in his Born To Be Wild shirt while we were finishing setting things up...

We started with presents and boy did he make a haul! He's so lucky to have so many friends and family that came.

These were the first 3 presents he opened: the chair, bubbles and some books. Obviously he was content with just those but we were just getting started...


He loves this chair, given to him by his cousins, he opened almost all of his presents sitting in it while cousin, Dawson supplied the presents and mom assisted in opening them... talk about spoiled!



Does this picture show the excitement or what!? I think he was satisfied. (I didn't have time to photoshop so his arm looks like its broken or something. I promise it's not!)
There was just one thing that was slightly unplanned, the cupcakes started melting before we ate them but hey, frosting is frosting and it tastes good in any form! (especially the rainbow chip kind... mmm.)
But ofcourse, nothing will stand in the way of a 1 year old and their cake. Kohen just dug right in.


And we couldn't let a hot sunny day go to waste without going swimming!

It was a great 1st birthday (I'm sure Kohen would agree) and thank you to everyone who came to make it great!