Sunday Fun Day!!

My husband is the man of many projects....MANY projects. We had beautiful weather on Sunday so he decided to tackle a couple of his projects, and while he was cutting and nailing I was digging and planting. A few months ago Stu built a planter box for me and I decided to plant some mums...purple, yellow, orange, and red ones. Cohen played and squealed in his walker on the deck while I planted and Stu built chairs.

Fall Photos at Red Bluff Farm Folsom, LA

DSC_3110
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

This was our second attempt at Fall family photos. The first attempt was a fail due to the 100 degree weather forecast for last Saturday. I had went shopping for outfits for our photos and naturally bought cool weather clothes assuming that mid October might be cooler than 100 degrees....i was proven wrong. As bad as I wanted to take photos last weekend risking all of us having heat stroke and sweaty family photos was not worth it.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to find a pumpkin patch...this took a lot of googling, but i finally managed to find a farm (Red Bluff Farm) about an hour north of our house that had pumpkins. The farm was nice, had a few pumpkins and a petting farm. Cohen seemed to really enjoy the baby cows and pigs. We also took photos at City Park...my favorite place in New Orleans. We had so much fun playing with Cohen and watching his curiosity. He wasn't sure about the feel of grass on his hands and knees, which triggered many laughs from Stu and I. He's such a fun little guy.

Monday evening bike ride

Monday evening bike ride
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

The weather yesterday was perfect. This was the first time in months I opened up my front door and was not greeted with a hot, stiff, cloud of air. It was sunny and cool...84 degrees cool. I waited for Cohen to wake up from his afternoon nap and then I loaded up the bike and we rode up and down the streets in our neighborhood. We talked about the trees, the cars, houses, dogs, holes in the road, people on the streets, etc. I'm not really sure what Cohen was saying back to me as I chatted his ear off, but whatever he was saying sounded like he was enjoying himself. Before we left I threw a couple dollars in the backpack so we could stop by one of the three snowball stands around our neighborhood. We sat under the colorful umbrella at the snowball shop and shared a banana cup of ice.

When Stu came home from work we quickly filled our bellies outside on the back deck and once again hopped on our bikes and rode up and down the oak lined streets in our neighborhood. We were not the only ones enjoying this weather...it seemed like everyone was out and about greeting everyone as they rode by on bikes, or strolled along walking or pushing their children and pets in stollers. I even think I might have smelled Fall while riding my bike. I'm not sure if it was just in my head as I am envying everyone back home in Indiana right now who is experiencing the cool fall like weather or if i actually did smell the begining of Fall.

My 29th Birthday

My 29th Birthday
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

29...WOW...where in the world has time gone? The thought of 29 is scary to me...maybe because I know 30 will creep up faster then I want it to. I can remember thinking 30 was old when I was kid. I have examined my face a thousand times since my birthday to see if I could find any more wrinkles or evidence of aging. Just yesterday I took notes on finances in your 30's and which face creams I should be using to prevent wrinkles in my next decade…two things that seem to be heavy on my mind lately.

My little family of three celebrated my birthday at a restaurant...we all ate too much...so much in fact...there was NO room for dessert, but Stu made that up to me this past weekend when he took me to dairy queen for ice cream. I know you're probably thinking Dairy Queen? Really? But oh yes...we just recently found this heavenly Dairy Queen. The closest one to us used to be Mississippi and we'd stop in on every trip back from Florida and Indiana. There is nothing in the world like Dairy Queen ice cream. There are very limited chain restaurants in this city, which some might think is great, but when you are craving something in particular and it doesn’t exist where you live…it gets frustrating. Thank goodness for friends and family who send us care packages of food we can’t get here (thanks Uncle Jet)!! My Uncle Jet for my birthday…sent me a HUGE care package of Tastykakes. These are an east coast snack I ate when I was a kid visiting my Pop Pop and Nanny. The butterscotch krimpets are my favorite.

Labor Day Weekend

Teri and Don (aka Gramps and Mimi) came to visit "us"....more to visit Mr. Cohen. The weather was amazing the entire time they were in. I am sure to them it was still sun scortching H.O.T, but to us it was much cooler and enjoyable then it had been the weeks before. It was enjoyable enough for all of us to gear up on the bikes and head to City Park. I had just recently ordered Cohen a bike carrier for the front of my bike. We have a pull behind child cart, but the roads are so bumpy and full of holes that I am scared I'll bounce Cohen out or he'll get hurt.  Gramps pulled the dogs in the child cart and I toted Cohen on the front of my bike. He squealed...happy squeals most of the way to the park.

On Sunday we had Cohen baby's dedication at church. It was so great to have Gramps and Mimi share this with us. 

Cohen kept trying to hold the hand of this little boy in the picture. Every time I would try and pull him away he would start to cry. 

Gramps and Mimi brought up a big boy bike for Cohen....by this time next year he'll be zipping around the house on it. Cohen LOVED this bike and would honk the horn with his mouth. 

Here are some other fun photos from Gramps and Mimi's visit:

A rainy weekend

VIDEO - thinks popsicles r funny!
Originally uploaded by stuflannery

What a rainy weekend. I guess it went hand in hand with the city's remembrance of Hurricane Katrina. Since we didn't get to venture outside or do anything on our list of "To-Do's" (all of which were outside) we did what we could inside and played with Cohen. It's funny how sometimes we think we need all kinds of toys and games to entertain ourselves and then a moment like this (video) comes along and you realize a frozen popsicle can be quite the entertainment for an almost 9 month old.

I know I say this a lot in my blogs but this has to be one of the happiest babies in the world. This kid is something else. I often wonder if my other children will be as happy and content. Nothing seems to get this little guy down.

Some things we did this rainy weekend:

- found old hats and tried them on
- helped daddy work on his new project out at the airport
- baked a cake
- made cinnamon rolls
- watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (A LOT)
- got a new haircut (Cohen looks like Lloyd from Dumb & Dumber)
- went to church
- played in the laundry while mommy attempted to fold it