Memorial Day Weekend 2011 - With Nana

Nana came to visit for Memorial Day weekend. I hadn't seen my mom since Christmas so I was beside myself with excitement to pick her up from the airport. There's nothing better than your mom!!  We did all kinds of fun things with Nana while she was visited. Of course we went to City Park...my obsession. I had never been to story land in City Park so i decided to wait for Nana's arrival so we could take cohen together for the first time. Storyland has all the characters from the nursery rhymes i remember as kid such as Little Bo Peep, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, Hickory Dickory Dock, etc. Cohen was more obsessed with the wandering ducks than any of the cool stuff in the park.

We also fed bread to the ducks....not all of the ducks were nice. 

We went to the Zoo!  We ate suckers and rock candy and got sticky!

Nana came with gifts so we played dress up and ran around the house. 

We played on the deck in the pool and in the house.

RIO

Have you seen Rio yet?  If not...load up the kiddos and head to the theater. This movie is great. It's so colorful. We have been tossing around the idea of taking Cohen to the movies for about a month now. We couldn't decide if he was old enough to sit through a movie or if he would get scared. Saturday I brought up the thought of taking him to the movies again and we thought about it and decided we'd try it. Matinees are cheap and Cohen is free so if he starts crying or just doesn't like it we can leave and not feel like we wasted a ton of money. My little man did such a good job. We got our tickets and popcorn and slushies too and found our way to our seats. The theater provides booster seats for little ones so we picked one up, plopped it down in the seat, and sat Cohen on top. We gave him his sippy cup and a cup of popcorn. We couldn't have timed it better; the movie started playing as soon as we sat our butts in the seats. He sat and ate his popcorn and watched for about 40 minutes before making a peep. He even laughed a couple times. After about 40 minutes he got a little wiggly but we just took turns sitting him on our laps and letting him stand up on his booster seat...and NO we were not the obnoxious couple letting their children stand and block the view of other people in the theater. We were up at the top against the wall so there was no one behind us to block. Cohen seemed to have a lot of fun and it adds something to our list of "fun things we can do with Cohen" now that we know he likes to go to the movies.

Weenie Wednesday

On Wednesday nights when the Zephyrs baseball team has home games they offer $1 weenies. We love weenies and who can pass up weenies for a buck. This was the first time this year we had been and we took Cohen with us and crossed our fingers he would behave. When we arrived at the field Stu bought our tickets and we helped Cohen climb three flight of stairs up to the top of the stadium. While we were walking in the National Anthem began so we stopped and waited quietly before heading to the weenie stand. My stomach was growling....i was gonna eat 4 weenies. We get up to the weenie stand and i notice the sign that is usually posted for $1 weenies is missing. I ask politely for a $1 wiener and I am told tonight it's $3 "Wine Wednesday" and that weenies are $4. WHAT...what happened to my beloved "WeenieWednesday"? I looked at Stu...with my growling belly. We were going to go broke buying wieners tonight. What a bummer!!  I can't enjoy $3 wine because I'm preggo and I'm starving and I am going to have to spend $16 on 4 wieners. Do you know how many packs of Jennio Turkey Franks I can buy with $16...I do...that would be 16 packs of Jennio Franks. I sucked it up and bought 5 weenies total. Two for me Two for Stu and one for Cohen and a bag of peanuts...oh and some nachos too. We spent $32 bucks!! 
ZEPHYRS - bring back weenie Wednesday so my family came come to games for cheap!!!  BTW - Cohen was really well behaved at the game and seemed to actually pay attention. We had a loud couple of people in front of us cheering the team on and he found them amusing!  Notice the lack of crowd in the picture....hmmm....maybe because THEY TOOK AWAY WEENIE WEDNESDAY.

Have you had Pinkberry?

 

It is addicting and my 17 month old son LOVES it!  It's frozen yogurt, but it tastes nothing like sweet ice cream. It's more tart. You can choose from original, chocolate, green tea, pomegranate, and coconut. After you choose your favorite yogurt you get to pick three yummy toppings and they have TONS AND TONS of toppings to choose from. Oh i could go on and on about this yummy treat!!  If you see a pinkberry try it out...it's so unique.  

Mother's Day Weekend

family, a photo by stuflannery on Flickr.

My Mother's Day weekend was so much fun. We started celebrating on Friday night. Last month we bought tickets from our church for Vineyard in the Church. Our Church rented out the Carousel Gardens in City Park, which is like a carnival for kiddos. We rode the train and the carousel. Cohen was terrified of the carousel at first, but warmed up quickly once it started moving and he got to wave at daddy as we went round and round. They had free food and free ice cream, we took advantage of that. Cohen had his own ice cream cone for the first time. He destroyed it!!

We woke up early Saturday, packed up the MV (mini-van) and headed to Gulf Shores. We had no idea how Cohen would react to the beach...he LOVED it. He would scream and laugh when the waves came crashing in on his feet. I think we spent most of our time chasing Cohen who was chasing seagulls on the beach. They stole his sandwich...which was hilarious. I am not sure if Cohen liked the beach or the pool more.

Sunday morning we headed back down to the beach to enjoy a few more hours of sand, seagulls, and ocean before we drove home. We didn't last too long because Cohen fell face first in the sand and ate a bunch of it, which caused him to throw up...needless to say he wasn't happy after that so we packed up and went back to the hotel to swim.

My Mother's Day weekend ended with my very sweet husband vacuuming out our minivan and cleaning all the sand off the stroller, umbrellas, chairs, etc. He's the best!!

Audubon Zoo

I'm laughing so hard as I go through our zoo pictures because I came across one where I had a flash back of "mistakes parents make" and this is one Stu and I can add to our ever growing list of parental oopsys. The zoo just opened a new exhibit called Cool Zoo. It's a splash area for kids and it looked amazing from all the commercials. Before we left that morning for the zoo we put a little swimmer diaper on cohen thinking it would save us time and headache trying to change him at the zoo in the Cool Zone. Well....take a look at this picture:

Let me tell you what you don't see...HA!  Cohen just peed on Grandma Nancy. He was sitting on her lap and peed and it went right out the little swimmer and down his legs onto Grandma Nancy's lap. I was just happy it was pee pee and not poo poo.  Grandma Nancy is a good sport and just laughed and laughed about it.

EASTER!!

Grandma and Grandpa Carey came to visit us for Easter. Easter and Christmas are my favorite holidays so I was really sad this year knowing we weren't traveling to Indiana for Easter, but a last minute trip from Grandma and Grandpa cheered me up!! 

This is Cohen's Grandma Nancy....this is who my family thinks Cohen looks like. I would have to agree!

Here's that fancy table Stu and Cohen were building. OH...and I got to cook so i was happy!  We ate breakfast and dinner outside on the deck everyday Grandma and Grandpa were in town.

Here's a family tradition (my mother's side). It's pickled eggs and beats. I think I was the only one who liked them, but that's ok!!  Keeping the tradition alive.

Here's another picture of the table without all the food on it.

Bunny Cohen

Grandpa Dave, Cohen and Grandma Nancy.

Our Family.

Fun Things

IMG_5558, a photo by stuflannery on Flickr.

This picture is of Cohen on our deck out back helping daddy build a table. Stu had a really great idea for a FREE table and he wanted to build it before grandma and grandpa Carey came to town. We spent one entire weekend building this table, which turned out amazing! The only expensive part was the bench cushion and umbrella.

We live in a neighborhood where everything is in walking distance...even the grocery store. So on occassion I put cohen in the stroller and we walk down to the grocery store to get a treat, which usually consists of us sharing an ice cream. They had popsicles on sale so I bought a box and gave him one when we got home. He made a big mess, but it was fun and he loves popsicles. Oh by the way did you notice i painted???  I was sick of the brown cave, so I painted. Stu didn't even notice...i had to tell him.

Big Brother

IMG_5324, a photo by stuflannery on Flickr.

Here are some photos of Cohen wearing his big brother onesie! He's adorable....had to share. Oh his sibling (I fond out Tuesday if we are having a girl or a boy) will be here around September 30th.

VIDEO - High Heels

VIDEO - High Heels a video by stuflannery on Flickr.

My son is obsessed with my high heels. I find it hilarious. He has a shoe fetish at 17 months. He tries on whatever shoes he sees, but I think the reason he likes my high heels so much is because he can keep them on his feet when he shuffles around the house. He's going to LOVE this video when he's older and has a girlfriend.

Toyota Sienna - Woot Woot

It's offical...I am a minivan driving momma!!  Did I mention this is the best vehicle EVER! I was totally against minivans and told everyone I would NEVER EVER drive one. I am a liar a big fat liar. I test drove one a couple months back and fell in love. All mommas need a minivan. This car simplifies my life. Everything works by pushing a button and Cohen loves the DVD players and so do I on longer trips. I just can't say enough good things about minivans. If you don't have one...and have children; load up your kids and head to a dealership to test drive one...I bet you fall in love!

Don't mind the hobo hair?

This was one crazy week.This picture was taken right after Cohen pooped in the tub. Stu worked late this entire week so I freaked out because I was gagging from the poopy (first trimester nausea) and my baby was sitting in the tub with it floating around. I had no choice, but to tackle the issue. I will admit I was sweating. The week only got worse. The next day I switched vehicles with Stu and I forgot to grab a house key and locked Cohen and I out. At first I thought no big deal I grab the hidden key, but to my surprise the hidden key was missing...thank you stu for not putting it back. There I was with crying/cranky baby, stu was in a meeting until 7PM and our neighbors who have a spare work with Stu and are in the same meeting. BTW is 4PM...I have to kill 3 hours. Well....my baby loves to eat so I took him to Wendy's to get a happy meal. Being pregnant and locked out of the house....I was about to pee my pants at this point so I rush with Cohen in the Wendy's bathroom and gave him my keys to play with. When I stood up Cohen threw my keys, which landed in the toilet....so yep...I had to reach my hand in the toilet and pull out my keys. I did manage to keep Cohen entertained for abour an hour and a half in Wendy's with his happy meal toys. Luckily Stu's meeting ended early and I got home at 6PM.



YAY!!  I survived the first trimester. It was tough. I didn't have any morning sickness with Cohen...instead I was hungry all the time and gained a ton of weight in the first trimester...not this time. I was sick. Everything made me sick. I still can't change poopy diapers without covering my face. Meat was the worst. I couldn't look at it, cook it, smell it, eat it....we ate out a lot.  I'm 14 weeks 5 days preggers in these pictures. I haven't gained any weight yet, but my doctor is not worried. She said it will come.

Hogs for the Cause

MUSIC, BEER, AND PORK.....WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?

On March 26 Cohen, Stu and I packed up our stroller and chairs and walked over to City Park's "Hogs for the Cause" event. Hogs for the cause raises money for families who are struggling with the financial burdens of taking care of a child with brain cancer...so what better way to give!!  We ate and ate and ate and ate. We tried all kinds of smoked and BBQ'd food. I think Cohen looks like a stuffed pig in this picture...HA!!

He just finished eating some BBQ ribs...I couldn't pull the meat off fast enough for him.

Other than great food....there was great music too!!  Cohen ran around and played with the other kids and danced to the music while Stu and I watched in our chairs. It was HOT that day...86 degrees. I put sunblock all over Cohen and I and then nagged Stu most of the day to put some on. Stu burned.