Cohen's Half Birthday

For Cohen's 1/2 birthday I made him this little frog cake. We went over to Nana's to play for a little bit and celebrate.

1 and 1/2 candles

Cohen pretending to be one of Nana's dogs

For Cohen's 1/2 birthday we got him his first baseball hit and a tee. He loved it. He was really good at letting us help him at first but by the end as usual he wanted to do it his way and by himself.

Happy half-birthday little man. 

Presidents Day Weekend

On the 18th of February TJ had an Orientation for Dental School so we decided to go out. Thursday night we stayed with my cousins Heather and Bruce. The next morning we went and looked through six different townhouses in Riverside to try and decide which one to buy for the coming fall. We found one! More pictures of that to come. We then quickly ran Cohen back to Heather's house. She was nice enough to watch him while we attended the 5 hour orientation. It was good just a little long.  After the orientation we decided to make a trip out of the long weekend and drive the extra 2 1/2 hours up to Omaha and spend some time with some of our favorite people. 

 At the Omaha Super hero's convention. 

Kelan all Super-hero-ed out!

Look at those moves!

Cohen was happy as long as we could keep his snack tray full.

Kelan in the bounce house

No naps missed here

Kelan petting the giant snake...gross!

Me, Kelan and Nikki with the Big Tortuous 

We always have fun when we go visit our Omaha buddies! 

Ansley's 24th Birthday

A few weeks before my birthday Pops and Gem gave me an early birthday present. Cake decorating classes. Gem could clearly see a need when I attempted to help her make T.J.'s congratulatory cake when he got into dental school. I had class the day before my birthday so I made myself a birthday cake in class.

 For lunch on my birthday my good friends Lindsay and Emily took me to Lunch at Bread Co. It was a beautiful day and 70 degrees outside (keep in mind Feb 16th) so we decided to eat outside. It was a perfect lunch and I have the best friends!

For dinner we went with Pops and Gem to Friday's.  It was delicious and made for the perfect ending to a perfect Birthday! 

I should have taken pictures of all my presents because I got very spoiled! My parents and Merilee sent me lots of clothes & money which I later spent on my clarisonic face brush which I love! Mirae and TJ got me a silhouette which has been so fun to have. I'm finding more and more uses for it everyday. My friend Emily brought me these beautiful flowers which stayed on our table all week, and Lindsay got me an Idaho necklace which I love wearing to keep home a little closer to the heart. I also received cake decorating supplies from the Fuller's, a gift card to Nordstroms from the Karlinsey's and a necklace from Spencer and Nikki! Thanks everyone for making my birthday so special!

Valentines Day 2011

For V-day we went on a triple date with Pops & Gem and Gina and Mike. We just went to dinner but it was nice to have a quiet night out. The food was amazing...though I'm drawing a blank as to what the restaurant was called...some type of Tex-Mex place.  

A trip to the Zoo & Snow Days!

  

Just a few cute pictures at our favorite spot in the zoo...the Hippo tank.

We decided in November last year that TJ should quit his job in January and take a 12-14 credits at Logan College to make himself a stronger candidate for dental school. When he got in we heavily debated dropping out and having him go back to work. We decided the classes would be a good prep for dental school though and we were enjoying not having a Walgreen's schedule for the first time in 3 years! One of the perks of school is SNOW DAYS!!! I think TJ had at least three. These pictures are after a trip up to Logan's hill to go sledding! We had him all bundled up but he definitely got some rosy cheeks.

January 28th

January 28, 2011 brought even more exciting news for our little family! At about 8:30 am TJ received a call from UMKC informing him that they would love to have him as a Dental student starting fall of 2011. It goes right up there with our wedding day, and Cohen's birth as one of the BEST days ever! We were so relieved that TJ wouldn't have to go two semesters at Logan, and we wouldn't have to wait another year and go through the dreadful and expensive application process again. We know a lot of prayers were given in our behalf and our pursuit of this goal and we are so thankful to all of you who helped get us to this day! We had to celebrate and wish we could have had you all there but we pulled together all those that we could and went to dinner and had chocolate cake and ice-cream for dessert!

All of us at dinner (Karlinsey's, Fullers, Pops & Gem, Mirae & Jay, & Tyler, Linds & Lyla)

TJ & I....don't we look so happy!

I wanted to go buy a cake and Gem suggested we just make one! I decorated it which led Gem to a great   idea for my birthday gift...more to come on that in the next post.

TJ in his new UMKC dentistry shirt...we seriously couldn't stop smiling. And again we can't thank all of you enough for everything you did to help us get here! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! (We might even throw in some free dental work we are so thankful!)

Party all Year Long

Our first great news of 2011 actually came in December of 2010. TJ got two interviews for dental school. One with UMKC and one with Creighton. He interviewed at UMKC January 10th and Creighton January 17th.  We decided to just head over to Omaha and have Cohen and I stay the week with Spencer and Nikki while TJ went back home after his interview for his first week of school at Logan.  He then came back the next weekend for his interview with Creighton. The interview with UMKC went amazingly well and with Creighton not so amazingly well but we felt blessed to have two interviews.  Cohen and I enjoyed an fun filled week with our best buddies and partied hard. (Not too hard cause it was so freezing we didn't leave the house much!)

1st we learned cousin Kelan is very good at sharing his pudding if you hop up on the chair to sit by him.

And cousin Beckham loves to share a good ride on the ice-cream truck at the mall

Kelan with his new "brella" he bought with his Christmas money from Papa and Mema

While we were there we got to celebrate two very special Birthday's. Nikki & Beckham!

Nikki's better than sex cake....so yummy!

Nikki and Spencer were down to like 4 glasses...so as lame of a present as it is we got her glasses!

There was lots of snow so Kelan and Cohen went out to play in it with Spence.

Beckham and I decided we'd just watch and stay nice and warm inside.

One of the few days we braved the cold and ventured out we hit the zoo. If you ever go to Omaha...go to the zoo it is amazing!

My Monkey Boy

Best Picture EVER!!!

Best Buddies

For Beckham's Bday bash we headed to the Pizza Machine. So Yummy. We had so much fun but I definitely had my worst mommy melt-down. We lost Cohen for the 1st time and found him after only 5 minutes but it was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I used to judge parents who used leashes but after this experience Cohen is definitely getting a leash....I don't care who judges me!

Me and the Birthday Boy

After the Pizza Machine we headed back home to have cupcakes and juice. 

Kelan & TJ had lots of Nerf gun wars.  What a stud!

Beckham with all his presents

We got Beckham some snack traps for his Birthday.... a must have if you don't own any! 

I think he likes them...they're missing a key ingredient though....where's the snacks???

Happy Birthday Becky-boo! We love you!

And not trip is complete without a couple of good bath's with your cousins.