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???)

Cohen's 1st Halloween

Cohen had a great first Halloween. He was a Giraffe...and one of the cutest little giraffe's I have ever seen if I do say so myself. We celebrated by going to the ward trunk or treat a couple of days before Halloween. TJ had to work the actual night of Halloween so Cohen and I went to the Fullers and passed out candy. It was lots of fun...all of the kids in St. Louis tell jokes before you give them their treats...it is so cute. It reminded me of my Great Aunt Vivian who always made us do a trick before we got our treat. TJ and I bought a pumpkin...but never carved it so sorry you won't get to see any amazing pumpkin artwork this year!

Baby Giraffe and Karate Kid (aka Cohen and Devin)

Sterling (as Cosmo), Devin and Cohen

My mom got Cohen this cute little Halloween outfit...it had a little hat...but it didn't stay on very long.

This picture makes me laugh...Cohen is seriously the happiest baby...he smiles at anyone and everyone.

We went and had his pictures taken at Portrait innovations in his halloween costume...it turned out very cute...Happy Halloween!!!

Cohen's Two Month Update

Height: 24 3/8 " - 95th percentile

Weight: 12.11 oz - 90th percentile

Head: 40.5 cm - 50th to 75th percentile

Cohen also received his first set of shots at this appointment. I always told everyone that I was going to have my husband take my kids to get their shots because I would not be able to handle it. (Seriously I hate needles...I sat on my mom's lap as a teenager and cried when I had to get a shot!) Of course TJ worked on this particular day and I had to go by myself. Cohen screamed like I had never heard him scream before and it was awful. We survived though...and he spent much of the rest of the day sleeping...not a bad reaction to have to shots...no fever...no rash...just super super sleepy!

Cohen's First Big Road Trip

On TJ's 26th birthday I got a call from my mom. She informed me that my dad had suffered from a stroke. He hadn't lost any physical movement but was struggling with memory loss. It was very difficult for me to hear this and be so far away and unable to do anything. I wanted so badly to be with my dad and offer any comfort I could to him. I called all of my siblings to inform them of the situation. My brother Spencer immediately decided that he wanted to make the trip to Idaho and invited me to go with them. I was hesitant to drive such a long way with a 7 week old baby. I asked TJ if there was any way he could get time off and go with me, he was unsure but said he would try. Luckily he did get it off and we left at 4:00 that afternoon and drove through the night and arrived in Idaho around 3:00 the next afternoon. It was a long trip and other then a couple of nasty blowouts (diapers not tires) our little coco beaners handled it like a champ. We were so glad to be with my dad...and after repairing a hole he had in his heart which they thought was what had caused the stroke he was back to work. It has been a hard couple of months for him with the struggle of not being able to remember things as fast as he used to but he is now doing much better. We feel so lucky that his stoke was not any worse and appreciate all of the prayers and support we received from family and friends on his behalf....we love you papa!!!

While in Idaho Cohen got to visit one of his cousins on TJ's side of the family. Boston was born about 20 days after Cohen....don't they look so cute together!

Cohen in his church clothes...what a stud.

Cohen loves hanging out with his Uncle Spencer

While we were there we decided to celebrate my mom and TJ's birthday's (even though they were already passed...any excuse to have cake right?). Plus Kelan loves to sing a hapta birtday to you any chance he can. We pretty much sang hapta birtday to someone everyday for the rest of the trip.

Aunt Meme and Cohen are so sweepy!!!

I love love love this picture. Nothing better than a long cuddly nap with a sleepy infant to help papa to get feeling better!

Cohen loves his Papa! TJ and Spencer drove back to Omaha together then TJ flew home to St. Louis from there. Nikki, Kelan, Cohen and I decided to stay an extra week. We had lots of fun but when it came to the drive home...we wondered what we were thinking??? A newly potty trained two year old and an 8 week old made for a long, entertaining and interesting 16 hour (exept I think it took us 19 hours) drive to Omaha. It was fun though...and I'm so glad we went. I then made the 6 hour drive to St. Louis by myself which wasn't too bad either.

Cohen right before we left on our trip...we had lots of fun...lots of laughs...and made lots of long lasting memories...but most importantly we're glad that papa is healthy, here and happy!!! We love you so much!

Photo Session: 1 Month Old

I really wanted to get out and have newborn pictures of Cohen taken, but with as crazy as our life seemed to be the first couple of weeks I failed to do so. The company OUR365 that took pictures of Cohen at the hospital called me and told me they wanted to give me a free 8 X 10 shot of Cohen at 1 month...and that they would come to our home to do so. I knew this was a gimmick to get them in then they would take lots of pics and I wouldn't be able to resist and have to pay to have all of them...and sure enough I did just that. They did a pretty good job and I was happy with the way they turned out and thanks to some graduation money could afford to purchase these "priceless" photos. Here is a brief sample of a few of my favorites.

Our very first professional family photo