Cohen's 1st Christmas

We had so much fun for Cohen's 1st Christmas. We were so lucky to have all of my family meet us in St. Louis and be able to host in TJ's grandparents home where there was plenty of room for everyone. Spencer, Nikki & Kelan were the first to arrive and we were able to hit the free night at the Magic House. It was so fun to watch Kelan...he loved it and called it the "Bubble house." He really didn't want to leave and Spencer had to drag him out! Luckily we made another trip back with all of his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents once they arrived. My parents and Merilee arrived on the 22nd and Stephen and Afton came the following day. Because paying for baggage is so expensive now my parents elected to do most of their shopping once they got here. So TJ and I made 3 trips to the St. Louis Mills outlet malls the week of Christmas. It was crazy but lots of fun to do lots of shopping will all the procrastinators in the world. And of course even with doing all last minute shopping Me-ma and Papa still spoiled us all like crazy!

Cohen holding his own bottle as we strolled through the mall. One thing on our "last minute to do list" that we didn't get done was a cousins picture with Santa...oh well maybe next year.

Papa attempting the infamous trick with Cohen. My dad does this with almost every baby he picks up and I've never seen him drop one so I wasn't too scared.

Tada! Success

Cohen and Daddy on Christmas eve dreaming of Christmas Day

For Christmas Santa brought Cohen and exersaucer. He absolutely loved it and so did the rest of his cousins.

Try to stuff a 4 moth old's stocking. It is actually quite hard. Cohen's was stuffed with spoons, bowls, rice cereal, puffs, bibs, teething rings, vaper bath (which I absolutely love), & binkies.

Brooks coming to play with Cohen in his exersaucer.

TJ and I with our stockings

Opening a gift from Uncle Spencer, Aunt Nikki & Kelan

Rubber ducky inflatable bath tub from Uncle Stephen, Aunt Afton, & Brooks.

Pooped after an eventful 1st Christmas. Nana Mimi and Jay also came for our Christmas and we loved having them. TJ, Cohen and I were also very spoiled by her of course.

Cohen wearing Aunt Meme's bow that he gave her in his hair and one of the big bow's Nana Mimi is known for. Cohen is the greatest gift I received this year. I would have been happy with getting absolutely nothing for Christmas. This little guy is all I need!

Uncle Spencer and Cohen hanging out in Kelan's new tent

Cohen at the end of the tunnel inside the tent

Our first Christmas with Cohen. I love my little family!!!

For Christmas we decided it would be fun to feed Cohen rice cereal for the first time. His first reaction was unsure but soon enough he was wanting more. My little chubs is such a good eater.

"All done"

Isn't he adorable? All in all we had a fantastic Christmas. Ryan and Carrie and their four kids joined us all the way from Texas a couple of days later. We spent lots of time eating delicious meals that everyone helped with, feeding the missionaries (thanks Ryan and Carrie), playing karaoke, ticket to ride, candy land, and lots and lots of trains, went to the magic house, shopped and simply just enjoyed being all together. We had so much fun and appreciated everyone making long trips to come to us. My siblings & parents are my best friends and I miss them like crazy when I'm not with them. It is too rare that we all are together anymore so I cherish the times that we are! We love you all and hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Karma

Funny story:

In deciding what rooms we would put everyone in while they were here it made the most sense to put Merilee in one of the upstairs rooms in TJ's grandparents house. TJ's grandma calls this room her heritage room. She has hung lots of beautiful pictures of her ancestors and has antique looking decor throughout the room. This room totally freaks Merilee out. She says that she has seen way to many scary movies to be able to sleep with a bunch of deceased persons hanging on the walls. I gave her a hard time about it, removed a bunch of the pictures from the walls and she finally agreed to sleep in the room. While she was getting ready for bed Nikki and I could resist the temptation to scare her. I hid under the bed and Nikki hid in the closet. When Mer came out of the bathroom and into the room Nikki popped out of the closet door and made the creepy grudge noise and I popped out from under the bed. We scared her pants off...it was so funny she was jumping and screaming for at least a minute. Following this she moved all her stuff downstairs and refused to sleep up there so the room remained empty until my sweet niece and nephew came and slept in it without a complaint.

Then Christmas Eve Nikki and I decided to wrap up one of the pictures and give it to Merilee. It was also pretty comical except for the fact that it ended up in a few of my cute Christmas pictures of Cohen. Guess that's karma.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Just a cute picture of Cohen sleeping in his swing. Doesn't he look deep in though? The swing is has been or "go to" method anytime Cohen wouldn't sleep. He loved it and never slept better!

Daddy reading Cohen his favorite book "Goodnight moon" because as TJ says its fun for kids and adults too. (because he gets to look for the mouse on each page!)

I LOVE my boys!

Cohen enjoying a little tummy time before it was time to decorate the tree.

This Christmas my whole family was gathering in St. Louis for Christmas since we are the central location for everyone and we have the most room. Thanks again to Pops and Gem for allowing my family to stay in your beautiful home. We decorated the basement with our Christmas decor since we don't have near enough to cover the whole house.

Mommy and Cohen decorating the tree. He was such a good helper.

The Sunday before Christmas we celebrated with the Bunnell side of the family. This included a delicious dinner, ginger bread house making and lots of presents.

It is a BIG tradition on the Bunnell side to make gingerbread houses. And not with gram crackers like my family always did, real gingerbread. Karalee made the gingerbread and Mike and Jay did an amazing job cooking it and cutting out the different pieces of the houses. It's a lot of work and usually Gem does it all herself.

Kelan saying "cheese" he loved decorating gingerbread houses just like his mom...and what kid wouldn't love being surrounded by candy???

Mirae, Jay and Cohen observing the festivities.

Devin, Sterling and Karalee all in on the action.

The finished products. Aren't they beautiful!

Weddings & Thanksgiving

My blog has magical powers....it has the ability to take you back in time...to say 2009 which the Bunnell family blog seems to be stuck in. Everyone keeps telling me to just start now and quit trying to go back and do posts for the past, but I'm bound and determined to not skip any and get caught up. At the beginning November 2009 I went home for a couple of weddings and Thanksgiving. I flew with Cohen all by myself and I stressed way too much over it. He was so good and slept most of the way. Everyone was very nice and helpful.

Cohen sleeping right before we left to go visit g-ma and papa in Idaho again.

I was there for almost 3 weeks without TJ. It was hard to be away from him for so long and I know he missed Cohen and me like crazy and we missed him. It was so fun to get to spend time in Idaho though. Aunt Meme and Cohen taking a little cat nap.

Me with the first wedding couple of the trip. From the get go I have told Lindsay that she should go for Jordan and that he would treat her so well. Finally she listened and sure enough I was right! Lindsay was one of my first roommates and we hung out with Jordan a lot too. We are so happy for them and so glad we had the opportunity to attend their wedding.

Another one of my first roommies Elsa. I had such a blast hanging out with her the weekend she was in town. We even attended the midnight showing of New Moon...it was fun but I think I would have rather been sleeping. It's all about the experience though right?

Oops posted this picture twice.

Miquelyn, Lindsay, Me, and Elsa at Lindsay and Jordan's Luncheon

While home we did lot of fun things but apparently this is the only thing I really got on film. We went to my cousin's sons state championship football game. He was the quarterback so it was very fun to watch.

My mom and I at the game.

G-ma and Cohen

Cohen and I at his first football game. He looks like he could make quite the good football player himself. I love my chunky baby!

I didn't get any pictures of Thanksgiving. My parents, Merilee, Cohen and I spent the day with my Uncle Neils and Aunt Susan and there family at a cabin in Preston, Idaho. Following Thanksgiving my parents drove me down to Utah to attend TJ's Uncle Ryan's wedding. There Cohen was able to meet Pops and Gem for the first time. They absolutely loved him and he loved them especially GG (great grandma). They had so much fun dancing together at the reception.

Cohen and GG at the breakfast before the wedding. Congrats Kristen and Ryan we were so glad we got to be there.

I also had a chance to get together with my friend Jerrica from highschool. Jace and Cohen are about 6 weeks apart. He was such a cutie and Cohen and I loved getting to see him.

So Cute...

I love this picture. Cohen is such a happy baby and his smile just lights up my day. I'm so thankful that I get to stay home with him everyday. I feel so blessed to be his mom. I never knew that I could love anyone so much. I'm thankful for an amazing husband who supports me in everything I do (even leaving for 3 weeks so I can go visit my family). He is so hardworking and makes it possible for me to be at home with Cohen. Happy Thanksgiving. (For a second you thought it might be November 2009 right???)