The Swanson Family

These are Priceless Times

2011-02-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

This last month has granted Scott the unique opportunity to have a brief stint of a stay at home dad role, or as we refer to it, "daddy daycare." At first the task took a bit of an adjustment period. Cohen is quite a handful, quite energetic, quite talkative, and quite busy. In short, he is a lot for any one person to handle. He is far too smart for his young age, quite determined, and has decided during this time to give up napping, which only means that many more hours throughout the midday for daddy to entertain/referee. It was a daunting task at the beginning and one that Scott wasn't sure he was cut out for. But as the weeks have passed, it has been awesome to watch the transformation. The boys have bonded so tightly, come up with a great routine, and worked their system out quite nicely. Scott has become Cohen's hero. In fact today as I got him out of the shower he was shouting "I want my favorite daddy!!!!" And his report that he brought home from his first full day of daycare today read that he told the teachers "My dad is wonderful- the very best!" How highly he thinks of his daddy now! They have become best buds, his hero. I have to admit there is a bit of jealousy on my part watching the fun that the two of them get to have together each day, but I know full well it isn't all fun and games, it is challenging too to be a full time parent. I am just thankful for this short time that Scott gets to have this experience that he will look back on and relish, and mostly I am just thankful that he is such an awesome dad, that has embraced his role so fully, that this is really no problem at all. I tease him and call him Suzy home maker but really I am just getting spoiled on days like today when he baked a delicious batch of homemade oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies, and cooked an amazing steak, Parmesan roasted red potato, and green bean dinner, I think I have it pretty good. I am also so thankful for my career, that the nursing profession has granted our family such flexibility, freedom, and financial stability to be able to provide for the family when needed. This is why I think there is no price one could put on this time in our life right now when we have the awesome opportunity to watch our little boy grow and learn every day and watch my boys create an unbreakable bond!

Bye Bye Binky!

2010-09-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

After flying back into town from a two week vacation, being two hours delayed sitting on the tarmac, carrying a sleeping Cohen IN his car seat off of one plane into the airport and then onto a new plane, we decided (or more so I) what better time to get rid of the oh-so beloved binky? Well to be fair, this was something we had spent much of the vacation attempting to prepare Cohen for, had talked multiple times about the plan, and had let him decide it would be a panda bear that he would put his binky inside of at the Build A Bear store. And with my work schedule we had to take advantage of the whopping two nights that I had off to be home and assist in the bedtime battle before returning to work and leaving daddy on his own. So since we had devised a plan, spent time talking to him about it, and really lets be honest mostly because once mommy makes her mind up about something, that is what we do, we decided this was the night. So a very nervous mom and dad and a carefree photographing nanny, and an unsuspecting 2 year old all set out at 7pm (30 minutes prior to bedtime no less) to the Chandler Fashion Mall Build A Bear store to follow through on the proposed adventure. Much to my surprise we walked in the door and told Cohen he could pick any animal and he walked straight over and pointed to the panda (which I wasn't sure he even knew what was).

So we promptly grabbed it and handed it to the nice lady who picked right up on the fact that this was a "binky bear" and proceeded with the attempted up selling efforts, before resigning to just stuff the bear, put the free heart in, and let Cohen shove the beloved binky inside, then quickly pulled the strings, cinched the sucker up and viol la bye bye binky!!!!!

Cohen was mostly clueless in the store, distracted by the displays, climbing on stuff etc, but did opt for the big cardboard box "house" for the bear and carried his new treasure (or enemy) out of the store straight to his favorite play area, where he promptly tossed it on the floor and headed onto the toys.

We let him play for a few minutes then took off for home to see what would happen next. After following our normal bedtime routine minus the binky of course, he realized it was inside the bear and exclaimed "I want my binky out of there!" at story time. But I just kept reassuring him that he was big boy now and didn't need it anymore and that it was inside the bear. We said a prayer about sleeping without a binky and then off to bed. He quickly started yelling about getting his binky back and when I went back in the room he had the bear flipped over and was digging at the back of the bear right along the stitching and there was a great deal of black hair tufts spread throughout the crib. I thought briefly that he had actually ripped it open, but he hadn't. So instead I gave in on three rounds of Cheerios, water, and lots of reassuring talk and convinced him to go to sleep. I heard a little fussing at 3:45am but no major disturbances. At his nap the next day I again explained that none of our big kid cousins or friends have binky's, that they are for babies and that he is a big boy now. After putting him down with Cheerios again of course I heard him on the monitor explaining to all his animal friends that "binky's are for tiny babies and that I am big boy now, I'm a big boy." The second night he told me he wanted to be a baby and have his binky back but I again reassured him and distracted him with Cheerios, snacks, prayers, and a chewing ring and sent him off to bed, to which he woke up at an ungodly hour in the morning then proceeded to skip his nap all together as he and daddy battled it out today while I attempted to sleep. So all in all I would say Cohen has championed through the binky farewell fairly well, we will see what tomorrow brings. Now his teeth can come back down into place and we can celebrate being rid of that darn thing!

Home

2010-08-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

This last week we got the opportunity to go home for a week! Well Cohen and I a week, Scott 4 days, but none the less we were all there. Thanks to my great friend Ryan, his wedding was the original purpose for buying the tickets. But as luck had it we ended up getting to meet two friends brand new babies as well, so it was really a treat all around. The wedding was beautiful and he made the last of the group of us 4 best friends to get married, so of course a highlight for me was getting a picture together, finally, of us 4 and our wonderful spouses!

The trip as a whole was not relaxing in the least and of course I totally overbooked myself. But oh well I got to see lots of family and friends and that made it worth it! Shawna and Alyssa came home, so we took advantage of having all of the cousins in one spot, and Bethanie booked us a "cousins" photo shoot. Even though Cohen only smiled for one of the probably 50 photos snapped, it was still a success all in all, with some super cute pics as a result.

Ya ya, Aunt Jenny, and uncle Paul came for a visit on Saturday and that was so much fun. We needed a babysitter for the wedding as both my parents and us were going, so ya ya gladly accepted the request and came for the weekend. Cohen was so excited to show them all around the farm, the barn, the turret, his toys, and anything else he could find. On Sunday morning as I was loading Cohen's car seat up for church, a frog jumped off of it and into nana's car. So of course instead of just reaching in and grabbing it, I ran and yelled for my mom to come get it out. Luckily yaya proved to be the bravest of us all and dirtied her white pants to crawl around on the garage floor and car floorboards searching under the seats for the frog. Which she finally found hiding under the gas pedal. She snatched it out, threw it on the garage floor, and all 3 of us adult women screamed and jumped and danced around it as we shooed it and chased it out into the flower bed. The whole experience left quite a mark on Cohen because still today he said, "yaya caught the frog?" Every couple of days he brings it back up and we re-live that silly scene.

I had to work 2 shifts at Memorial while I was home (to keep my available status) so I worked Sunday and Monday evenings and mom and dad looked after Cohen. But it was fun to get to see a lot of my friends who I haven't seen in a long time and catch up there!
Tuesday I headed off to spend the day with my dear friend Kristen and her boys in Wenatchee and sneak in a quick visit with Nonni. The boys had a blast together as usual and Cohen ate every last raspberry off of Nonni's bush as fast as she could pick them.

The weather was nice enough that two of the days Cohen and I enjoyed swimming at the Hartmans and playing with the cousins. We are having an awesome time living here in Phoenix, but boy do we miss our Yakima friends and family!

The last night before heading home I was able to get some quality time in with our dear friends the Knautz and McCoys. I got to take advantage of some snuggle time with the McCoys newest addition, Luke, got to enjoy some adult visiting time, and got to watch all the kiddos thoroughly enjoy the sand, dirt, play structure, and yard. That gave another great reminder of the wonderful things we appreciate about Yakima. All in all the trip was a whirlwind of friends, family and babies but it was a great break, a ton of fun and such a nice feeling to be home.

Transformation

2010-07-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

What a transformation! Both Scott and I are amazed when we look at these pictures. What an accomplishment! Scott has lost nearly 40 pounds over the last 3 1/2 months and is a transformed man! Not only does he look awesome, he feels that way too. It has been totally amazing to watch and listen. He has more energy, more self esteem, more joy, more desire to exercise, more nutrition knowledge, and more discipline than ever before. He didn't even realize what the burden of extra weight was bearing on him until it lost it, and now he never wants to go back. Now he is just getting to enjoy all the benefits like buying a new wardrobe, not worrying so much about what he puts on in the morning, not having as sore of knees, being an example of health to his classmates, and getting to hear frequent compliments from people around him. The best was the other day when he was playing golf with someone he didn't know and they said, "wow you hit the ball far for a little guy!" Some other men may not take that as a compliment, but this time, we both had to smile at this comment! The pictures don't even do him justice, I am convinced the camera does add 15 pounds, like they say, but at least you get the idea. I am so proud of him and so happy to get to share life with a happier healthier Scotty!

Camping!

2010-06-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we braved our very first camping trip with Cohen! I was so excited to give him this experience and was so sure he was just going to love it since he is the boy who constantly wants to be outside and playing in dirt, water, and rocks! So we planned a trip with Lindsi and Eric and headed out on Friday afternoon about 40 minutes past Payson, AZ up to forest and mountains! We found a great spot with an already built fire pit and about a 1/4 mile hike to Bear Lake, which was beautiful. The scenery and surroundings were peaceful and picturesque, and the closest feeling we have found yet to Washington. We promptly set up camp, handed Co a peanut butter sandwich and called it dinner, and set off to explore the lake. Then we hiked back up and started up a fire (which Cohen called a light) and made French dips and smores. After finally getting our air mattress blown up sort of evenly, we all 4 (including Stella) snuggled into the tent. Cohen was not having any part of actually putting his body into his sleeping bag, so he just laid on the air mattress and I kept covering him with a blanket all night. But for the first time he actually kept his head at one end of the bed the whole night and slept like a champ! Our other child is the one who proved to be ridiculous. Trying feverishly to squeeze onto the 6 inches left behind me on the edge, pacing, whining, shedding like mad, and finally figuring out that Cohen wasn't using up all the length of his spot in the middle, so settling into the foot of the air mattress between Scott and I. The next morning there was enough dog hair in that tent you could have made a stuffed animal! It was disgusting! So of course even though we didn't go to bed until probably 9:30 (way past Co's bedtime) he awoke with the sunrise and we were up and at 'em by 6am. We trekked down to the lake to find Lindsi and Eric already fishing away. After they had been at it an hour or so with no luck, Eric handed his pole over to Scott and on his 2nd cast he caught what turned out to be the only fish of the day for our party! We enjoyed blueberry pancakes over the camp stove and Cohen entertained himself with driving his trucks and scoops through the dirt, unloading the tackle box, throwing every rock he could find on shore into the lake, eating endless snacks and juice boxes, and once about every 2-3 hours declaring "I'm so tired" and asking to go lay down in the tent. So I would haul him back up the trail get in there, lay down for 5 minutes until he would decide "I not tired anymore, I'm awake." So we would get out and do it all over again. By 5pm we learned where Cohen's threshold ends for skipping a nap during the day. He was done and for the first time he was the one asking to go home, previously it was his dad asking incessantly. So we promptly packed up our campsite, said goodbye to Eric and Lindsi and headed home. Cohen was asleep in the car before we got out of the campground. So I guess 24 hours for our first camping trip isn't bad. A lot of work for a short time, but at least we got to do it! We made some fun memories and managed to capture a few pictures to remember it by too. All in all, glad we did it!

Cohen doing his best to help set up camp

Our Campsite

Lindsi fishing at the lake

Cohen LOVED being down by the lake!

The fun just keeps on coming!

2010-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well the summer has arrived here in Phoenix and we have already had our first triple digit days. We now celebrate a day that only reaches the 90's! Poor Cohen is going to be hearing a lot of "no honey, it's too hot" in these next few months to come. But we are still loving our time here. It just means a little more creativity with indoor activities. Now Cohen is enrolled in a painting class and a Toddlercize class which our first one was last week. It was basically a bunch of 18 mo-2 year olds running crazily around amongst balls, balloons, bubbles, a parachute, and moms and grandmas, singing songs and stretching, and he of course loved the pure chaos of it all! Perhaps painting class will be a little more subdued. To list a few of Cohen's favorites these days:
Favorite toy: anything trucks
Favorite food: chicken nuggets
Favorite saying: "I'm a big boy"
Favorite show: Super Why
Favorite song: Jesus loves me
Favorite drink: apple juice
Favorite movie: Clifford
Favorite place: any park
He continues to make us laugh so hard on a daily basis. I am convinced he is going to be quite a funny kid. He says news things all the time, surprises us with the things that come out of his mouth, uses hilarious hand and face gestures, voice inflections, and pronouns and often finishes a sentence with "you got it?" He can be a naughty two year old from time to time, but he still shows his sweet side often saying, "you look cute mommy", or "I like your hair mommy." This week, anytime the word baby slips out of our mouth in reference to him, he repeats the sentence replacing the word baby with big boy. I guess he isn't our baby anymore, sad day!

This last week we enjoyed a 5 day visit from Shawna and Alyssa of which we packed each day full with activities. Monday was a wash because her flight was severely delayed. Tuesday we went to the zoo, came home and napped, then did a little father's day shopping, ate dinner, then went to our favorite yogurt shop. Wednesday I went to Bible study while Shawna braved the park with the 2 two year olds, went to the play area inside the mall, home for lunch and naps, then it was off to the spa for massages and poolside refreshments with Lindsi for us girls, followed by a brief shopping trip for Alyssa's birthday. Then Thursday we braved Sister's closet which at one point we had two fit throwing 2 year olds and us two mama's all jammed into one dressing room, followed by the Train Park where we all rode the train and carousel, had a picnic lunch and played on the toys, home for naps after getting lost for an hour on the way home, then aunt Lindsi came over for a mini birthday party for Alyssa. Finally, Friday we had to say goodbye and take them back to the airport. It was a blast and the two kids loved being together, even if they had to work through a few toddler sharing moments.

I couldn't be prouder of Scotty, who if you didn't know, has lost a substantial amount of weight recently, looks like a totally new man and feels like one too. It is so rewarding to watch him transform physically, mentally, and spiritually through this process. I am floored by the man getting out of our bed now at 5:45am and going to the gym to workout to start off his day, having a completely new outlook on nutrition, exercise, health, wardrobe, and life in general. He brings me much joy!

As for me, I am finding a new peace with my job finally, trying my best to focus on the positives. After a half marathon, a full marathon, and two sprint triathlons, I am taking a break for the hot summer months, before starting to plan for my next event. Although my co-worker has already invited me to do another half marathon in November, so I will see about that.

We are continuing to pray on hearing God's next plans for us and trust that He will lay out our path. It is exciting and scary all at the same time to have no idea what is in store next for us, but we will just keep enjoying to the fullest where He has us now.

New York

2010-06-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well this is far overdue, but we should at least put on record our fabulous trip to New York. Let me tell you, it was pure bliss to be on our own agenda, with no set plans, no bed times, or wake up times, and just enjoy 5 straight days of together time. We pretty much covered all of Manhattan on foot. Covered Central Park, Time Square, little Italy, saw a Broadway show (which was fabulous), walked to Battery Park and ground zero, the financial district, the United Nations building, across the Brooklyn bridge, rode the ferry to Staten Island, and then culminated with the beautiful wedding followed by the most amazing reception on a rooftop in the shadow of the Empire State Building where we ate, drank, and danced to our heart's content. It was fun to get to see Scott so uninhibited and joyful amongst his dearest friends and their families. We learned the subway system, got to enjoy a few fabulous restaurants, take a few taxi rides, almost sleep through the continental breakfast most days, get in some good people watching, and just relish is pure freedom with each other. We both decided we would never choose to live in New York City, and may never even go back to be honest, but we made the most of our time there, and enjoyed the visit for sure!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

This year Easter and Cohen's 2nd birthday happened to fall on the same day. So when I looked at my work schedule and found that with one minor trade I could secure 5 days off in a row, we promptly jumped on board to book plane tickets home to celebrate with family. We knew that Cohen would only have about 5 guests at his party, 3 of which he lives with, if we hosted it here in Phoenix, so we figured for the poor little guy's sake, we should give him a decent party. Of course it gave us a great excuse to get back home to see our family, friends, church, house, and a little R&R. And that is exactly what it was. We had such a blast seeing all the cousins. It is amazing how they just attach at the hips when they get together. Avery undoubtedly spends every night that we are in town at Nana and Papa's making sure she isn't more than an arm's reach from Cohen at any time. Cohen feels like he is in heaven as he plays, rides the tractor, talks to all of the farm animals, spends lots of time in the barn, climbs the stairs to the turret, and is loved on by his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We are always so thankful for the hospitality at my parent's house. My mom cooks, cleans, and entertains grandkids tirelessly the entire time. This trip was complete with the cousins getting to all dye Easter eggs together for the first time. I would have to say just a few days under 2 might be a little young for that activity, the concepts of fragility, dexterity, and extremely permanent colorings, were a little difficult to grasp. But we got the job done. We were sad to miss out on seeing Scott's mom's side of the family due to a snowy pass, but were glad to get to spend some time with Dave and Beth. We were also lucky enough to get a little adult time with some dear friends, but mostly just hid out and relaxed at my parents, soaking up all the family time we could possibly squeeze in.
Now it is back to life as usual here in Phoenix, with the temperatures rising daily. It has been in the 90's this last week and Cohen has already been out playing in the sprinklers, splash parks, and baby pool. The sunscreen lathering rituals have begun! I even got a nice little burn while tanning on the trampoline last weekend.
I continue to train for the sprint triathlon coming up in May, trying hard to squeeze in all the bikes, runs, and swims that I can find time for. Scotty continues to hone is his golf game, coming home daily so excited about the sport, his classes, new clubs he has built, a great shot he hit, great round he had, funny story from his school boy friends, or "free" hat he got for buying the $50 box of new golf balls. He loves it and I am happy for him!
Cohen continues to amaze us with his ever expanding vocabulary every day, his sweet spirit, and comical self. His latest is singing his version of Twinkle Twinkle, which he sings as "shoopy doopey little star, how I wonder what you are." We love it. He adds a few more letters on his ABC's each week, and Meagan reports that he counts to ten in Spanish while in the swings at the park. He has had 2 gymnastics classes so far, and although it is mostly chaos with two year olds running around with wild abandon, taking turns throwing fits, doing the exercises, and stopping for juice breaks, I think he is managing to actually learn a thing or two. Although at the last class he became obsessed with the idea of going to the bathroom like the big boys he saw in the hall, so he stood in the door of the classroom and announced with his hand straight out "I come right back, I go poop in the bathroom." Our largest obstacle continues to be dinner time, the begging, pleading and bribing that occurs to get food in, and not thrown off the tray onto the floor. But with Meagan's help we are coming up with a system to break the cycle.
What we are most excited about right now is that in one week Scott and I will be enjoying ourselves in New York while Cohen is blissful in Yakima at Nana and Papa's, accompanied by Avery of course. We can't wait!
After yet another awesome church service this Sunday at our church here, we really can't complain about much. It is clear this is where God had in mind for us to spend this year at least! We are happy!

New Adventures

2010-03-12T04:03:00.001-08:00

We are all about living life to the fullest while we are down here, let's be honest what other option do we have? We have been talking and talking about getting bikes, so with part of our tax return, we pulled the trigger. Of course we couldn't just get a couple bikes, the package had to be completed with a trailer to pull Cohen in, helmets for all 3, an odometer, and now the hunt for a rack for the car. When we set out on our first ride, we tried to hype it up all day to Cohen about how fun it would be to ride in his special bike trailer and where his fancy hat. So once I finally stopped oohing over how cute he was in his helmet and insisting on taking pictures, we set out. Cohen actually did quite well, only when we got home we realized the straps of his helmet left red chap marks all over his sensitive little face.
So the next day as I was perusing my emails I stumbled upon an all womens sprint triathalon event here in Tempe in May and once again the challenge juices started flowing. So if all goes as planned 6 weeks down the road Bethanie, Lindsi and I will be completing our very first triathalon! Woohoooo!
Along the lines of firsts, I got the pleasure of sharing my first skiing trip with Lindsi recently. She is a beginner snowboarder and I was on skiis, but we had a blast. It was another first for me, skiing in sunshine with no coat and only glove liners on my hands.
At the end of April we will be traveling to New York City to attend a wedding. This will be my first time to New York, and Scott and I are so excited to get to have a vacation away just the two of us!
Cohen went to his first art class last week. The theme that day was outer space and he made all kinds of projects to fit that. Then at the end after he said "goodbye art class" as we were walking to the car, projects in hand, he said to me, "daddy's gonna be so proud of you Cohen." My heart melted. We continue to crack up daily at the things that come out of his mouth.
So life is well at the moment, we are enjoying this 75-80 degree weather while it lasts before the summer sun moves in to fry us!

Revolving Door

2010-03-12T03:14:00.000-08:00

We have had the great pleasure of hosting a revolving door of guests lately. It seems everyone got the memo that March is fantastic weather down here and a great time to get away from the winter dreeries elsewhere. We started out with my childhood best friend Erin. We had the absolute best time catching up, enjoying great girl time shopping, hiking, grabbing a drink, and mostly just spending quality time that had
been greatly missed over the last 2 years. The same day she left grandma and grandpa Swanson showed up. Cohen was so excited that the performance mode got to continue. We enjoyed time spent, a fun round of golf shared by all 4 of us, an eye opening experience I am quite sure for them of "enjoying" dinner out with an almost 2 year old, some trampoline time shared by Cohen and g-ma Charlene and what seemed like an hour of grandpa pushing Cohen on a swing at the park. After saying goodbye to them we once again whisked the sheets into the washer, I managed to sneek a couple nights of work in, and then 2 days later Ya ya (Kathy) flew in for the weekend. We had the pleasure of adding uncle Larry and aunt Renee to the dinner table,whom we always enjoy sharing time with. We had the best experience yet at the fabulous Phoenix zoo, went to church, and again watched Cohen in full company form where he doesn't let any guest out of his site, even to use the bathroom. His famous tag line of "I see what ya ya's doing" and promptly follows her into the bathroom. As always we were sad to see our company go, never knowing for sure when we will get to see them next. But we always feel blessed to have any visitors. This experience of living away from family and dear friends has given us a whole new appreciation for the special people in our life and the time spent with them. So for one week we were back to just the 4 of us, until 2 more of my dear college friends flew into town the next weekend. Lisa, Megan, and I had such a blessed time catching up, sharing everything, and soaking up sun any way possible including hiking, running, and just laying on a blanket at Tempe Town Lake. I introduced them to my favorite store (Sister's Closet), my favorite frozen yogurt place, and just enjoyed every moment spent together.

We continue to be thoroughly amazed by Cohen's ever expanding vocabulary and verbal skills. He speaks in more and more sentences every day, like one week after me working 4 straight days he said, "mommy I missed you when you were gone on the weekend." Perhaps not perfectly but I know exactly what he was saying. He shocked us all by reciting his first memorized book when ya ya was here. None of us even knew he knew it, but as soon as I said the first line of clap hands...he proceeded to reel off the rest of the book as both yaya and daddy whipped out the flip videos to capture the moment. This is such a fun stage. We see hints of 2 lurking but are loving watching him learn every day.

This last weekend we enjoyed a whirlwind roadtrip to California where we got to spend a day in S. Pasadena with Aunt Sue, and cousin Christen and her 2 boys, attend Ben and TJ's beautiful wedding overlooking Laguna Beach, and spend one night with g-ma and g-pa in Palm Springs and see some cousins and their 2 little boys on Charlene's side. It was a lot of driving, but Cohen was a champ and it was well worth every minute. As we were driving we heard him making drinking sounds, to which we assumed he was sipping on his water cup and then heard his little high pitched voice exclaim, "I'm drinking my feet!" To which we turned around to see him sucking about 8 of his 10 toes. The boy cracks us up daily!

This weekend we will be traveling home to celebrate Easter and Cohen's 2nd birthday, which happen to land on the same day this year. We are so inexplicably excited to spend time with family and a few friends. Cohen has been counting down the days to this trip for weeks.

We are Pathetic Bloggers

2010-02-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

So I know it has been far too long since we have added a blog post. I don't really have any excuse, its not like we have nothing to talk about, I guess we just aren't very good at taking the time to write it down. So what is new?

Scott pulled off an over-the-top Valentines surprise for me complete with checking into the W hotel in downtown Scottsdale, enjoying drinks and appetizers in the bar there, roaming around the incredible but totally unaffordable Scottsdale Fashion Square, getting all gussied up and eating dinner at Flemings Steakhouse, sleeping in until 9am, something I have not done since the birth of our son, then relishing breakfast at one of our fave spots down here, before hurrying home to our little guy. I guess when you are spoiled with a live-in nanny you can't help but take advantage of an opportunity to get a night away! So way to go Scotty, that was a good one.

Scott is still loving school, coming home almost every day with stories to share, accomplishments to tell of, like a career low of 4 under par 68 (his first time in the 60's) and an occasional club he has hand made.

Cohen amazes us every day! His vocabulary is exceptional, he talks in sentences all day long, repeats any word we say, and strings things together and comes up with new words that we have no idea he even knows every day. Our favorite story lately is that this week while I was working Cohen decided to get up at some unspeakable hours, so on the 2nd morning that Cohen woke up at 5:45 and Scott went in to get him and asked him, "Cohen, why did you get up so early?" Cohen responded, "I missed you dada." How can you get mad at that?

He is all boy! His favorite activities right now are going to ANY park, watching "truck scoops" live, on his movie, or on you tube at all times, digging and playing in the dirt outside with his trucks, reading books, and talking, lots of talking.

This is a great picture of his mischevious side, which he has also been developing. 99% of the time, he is a great kid. However, instead of asking to be excused from the dinner table like a well mannered kid, or even just saying a simple "all done", Cohen chooses to throw whatever is on his tray as far as he can. Stella loves this, but Mom and Dad aren't the biggest fans. At least after he thows the food, he asks for a timeout and says "poor choice Cohen." Smart kid.

Making Christmas

2009-12-14T19:51:00.000-08:00

We are having such a ball ringing in the holiday season around our house. We have the unique opportunity this year to have a very limited circle of friends down here, which therefore allows us to focus our time and energy on our little family. Scott and I started out by doing a date night and began our Christmas shopping on that night. It was so blissful walking through a HUGE beautiful mall without a wee one in tow. We debated this year about getting a Christmas tree or not, since I unfortunately forgot to bring down a single Christmas decoration. Our first plan was to go to the mountains with Lindsi and cut one down, but when that didn't work out we instead started looking around at some local tree lots. Being raised in a family where we never spent more than $10 on a tree since we just bought a permit and then found one in the forest, I was horrified to find out that even a dinky little tree was going to cost us no less than $45, then buy a stand, and some decorations, hmmm, a bit much on the budget. So we finally settled on going to the good 'ol Wally World and picking out a "beautiful" $20 artificial number and as Scott puts it, spent about $3.50 on decorations, came home put all the pieces together and voila, here stands our sweet Charlie Brown tree. The part that really matters is that the 3 of us did this all together and had a great time doing it! After erecting this wonder of a tree, Scott took one look at it and declared "now if that's not Christmas, I don't know what is."

Next I of course had to start pestering Scott about getting on writing the letter for this year. So as usual the first step in this process is to take a family picture, which as Scott already mentioned, that was fiasco, with no less than 100 shots snapped, and no more than 3 good ones out of the batch. But without fail, we combined our efforts and letter has successfully been mailed.
Next came this last weekend of baking Christmas cookies. Scott and I got a head start on it and made one batch on Friday night and the dough for sugar cookies. Then Lindsi came over on Saturday and I made a ton of sugar cookies and she and I spent hours frosting and decorating them. Scott was the photographer and official taste tester with the help of Cohen. We all had a blast together and for the first time Cohen learned how to say Lindsi and kept calling her over to show her his trucks, colors, etc. Later that evening Scott and I finished the task off by making a third batch, the peanut butter filled Ritz dipped in white chocolate. So all in all we have a ridiculous amount of cookies around our house and have delivered 2 plates to the neighbors, 2 plates to Lindsi's house, 2 plates to her work, 2 plates to my work, and still have managed to have a supply for the homefront.

Tonight, Scotty came up with the idea to go look at Christmas lights, so he hopped on the internet, found a street close by, and the three of us jumped in the Tahoe and headed to Chandler. What we found was incredible. Not only was each house in the whole cul d' sac decorated to the hilt in its own style, but at the end of the lane was a huge lighted, wooden set up accompanied by surround sound, telling the entire story of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection. It was a breathtaking reminder of what this season is about and why we have a Christmas at all. What I love most about these pictures is that it was still 55 degrees tonight and yes we have our son in a stocking hat and gloves, hey that's cold to us now.

All in all our little family of three is thoroughly enjoying celebrating the Christmas season together.

Recent Happenings

2009-12-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

We have been getting into the Christmas spirit around here, even if it is sunny and 60 degrees! Last week Trish and I went out on a "date night". I have no idea why I just felt the need to use quotations, because we actually did go out on a date. We went to dinner at Z Tejas in Chandler and then headed over to the HUGE Chandler mall to do some Christmas shopping. The mall is a lot like Bellevue Square, only bigger. It has every store you could ever imagine and then some. It sure is a change living down here from living in Yakima. It was so nice to have some time to ourselves and do a little reconnecting. We had a fantastic dinner and a really nice time just walking the mall without a stroller. Also, since we don't the chance to go out just the two of us very often, we went to a late movie. We saw The Blind Side, which is a hard to believe, but true, story. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a feel good movie.
On Saturday we went down to Tempe Town Lake to try and take some family pictures. I'm pretty sure Meagan took about 200 pictures of us and we were barely able to find one suitable for the christmas card. I'm sure I'd rather have a root canal than take pictures with a 20 month old again. We did get some great shots of Cohen and Stella together though that are a lot of fun.

On Sunday, Trish ran in her first race to prepare for her marathon in January. She ran the Fiesta Bowl half marathon in Scottsdale and did awesome! She finished in under 2 hours and really enjoyed running in a timed race. I am so proud of her; it is quite an accomplishment!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

So, I have been told by a good friend (who's wife is an avid blogger) that I am a "shi**y blogger". Ouch. That hurt down to the core, friend who shall remain nameless.

On to more important things. We are finally recovering from Thanksgiving and having Trish's entire family in town, and staying at our house, for the week of Thanksgiving. I would love to post pictures of the festivities, but we neglected to take a single picture the entire week. Whoops, I guess we were just too busy playing golf, shopping, driving F1 Go Karts, going to the Phoenix Suns game, swimming, bowling, jumping on the trampoline, going to the zoo, going to the bouncy house, eating lots and lots of good food, dancing and generally having a great time. It was so much fun to have family in town, something we have REALLY missed being down here in Phoenix. Trish's sister Bethanie and her husband Darren and their two kids, along with her sister Shawna, her husband Bryon and their daughter stayed at our house (if you are counting, including us that is 10 people at our house) and Trish's parents stayed with Trish's other sister Lindsi at her house. Lindsi only lives about 5 miles from us, so it was easy to spend lots of time together. It was hard to have everyone leave, and Cohen spent the few days after wandering around the house asking where everyone was. We can't wait until January when we will be home to visit and see everyone again.

Here is a new picture of Cohen. It really is amazing how fast he is growing up.

What are we doing?

2009-10-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been way too long since we have updated this thing. I guess you could say life has been a bit busy. I'll try to recap a bit. For those of you who don't know (does anyone read this thing anyway?), Trish, Cohen and I have moved to Phoenix so I can pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a golf pro. Let me clarify....I am not going out on the PGA Tour. Everyone asks that whenever I say I am training to become a golf pro. I am hoping to become a club professional. We moved down here so that I could go to school at the Golf Academy of America. This is a 16 month program that will give me the skills I need to teach the game of golf, run a pro shop, manage employees, run tournaments, etc. Basically, I will get 5-10 years of knowledge crammed down my throat in the next 16 months. I should probably pay attention. That's a lot of stuff. Anyway, I also get the time to work on my own game with 2-3 rounds of golf per week and unlimited time at the driving range.

I guess the real story starts back in May, when Trish and I were talking about the future and what we wanted to do. Both of us were very happy in Yakima, near family and friends, both with good, secure jobs. However, Trish knew that in the back of my mind I had always wanted to give golf school a shot, and that not having a degree was eating away at me. We researched a few schools, and found the GAA in Phoenix. We took a trip down here in June, and I was able to tour the campus and play a round of golf with some current students. I really felt called to come here at that point. We were able to secure housing pretty easily, as Trish's sister Lindsi lives in Phoenix and had a second house, sitting empty, waiting to be sold or rented. We agreed to rent the house from her, and as it turns out, the location is almost exactly between school for me and work for Trish. The hardest part was breaking the news to our friends and family in Washington. Thankfully, we are blessed to have been surrounded with wonderful people who all gave us nothing but encouragement. Sure, there were tears (on both ends) but we have had nothing but support from everyone.

Our biggest hurdle was Cohen. Living in Yakima, we had phenomenal childcare (thanks to Margaret) and the thought of putting Cohen in daycare was tough to swallow. Trish's good friend Meagan, however, became the solution to our problem. Trish and I prayed long and hard about what to do, and the thought came to us to ask Meagan, who was a social worker at the time, to move down to Phoenix with us and become a live in nanny for Cohen. Meagan had been thinking for a while about going back to school to obtain her Master's degree, and taking a bit of a break seemed like a nice idea to her. So, she quit her job and moved down with us. She has been such a blessing to Trish, Cohen and I. Cohen absolutely loves "Meg Meg" and she loves him back. We never have to worry when we leave the house...Cohen is in loving hands.

Trish was able to find a job working at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center. A former co-worker from Yakima had moved down here a few years ago, and Trish gave her a call to find out if they had any openings. Sure enough, they were about to post one for a labor and delivery nurse, and Trish applied and was hired within 3 days. The hospital is run by the federal government, which means Trish is a government employee. A perk about working for the government...they paid for us to move down here! All we had to do was get our vehicles down here and they took care of the rest.

So, with everything falling into place so perfectly, on August 22nd, my step-dad Dave and I left Yakima and drove three vehicles (my Tahoe, towing Meagans car and Dave driving Trish's Subaru). I got to spend my birthday in Wells, NV, which, I highly do not recommend. We did, however, spend a couple days in Vegas, so it was a great trip and really nice to spend a little quality time with Dave, something I had really missed living in Yakima.

All in all, we are very happy down here. It has been a big adjustment, and I am MUCH more homesick than I ever thought I would be. We have had lots of visitors though ( and would love more!) and Trish has been able to make a trip back home with Cohen. We have found a church already that we both really enjoy that has a great children's program too. We both really feel God has placed us down here for the time being, but are hopeful to return to Yakima when school is over. Cohen is doing well and is changing everyday. He has a new word almost daily and is such a happy boy.

I hope to be a better blogger and keep this thing updated, mostly with pictures and stories about Cohen, because let's face it...he really is the star around here.

Mohawk

2009-10-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

I guess they call this a "faux hawk". Either way, he looks like a 4 year old now!

Wenatchee

2009-07-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday after church, we loaded up and drove up to Wenatchee to visit our wonderful friends Tom and Kristen Moberg and their 3 boys Bradley, Noah and Caleb. Trish and Kristen met in nursing school at SPU and have been friends ever since. Cohen absolutely LOVES his "brothers" and has such a blast playing with the boys. They treat Cohen like one of their own. We will truly miss the Moberg's when we are in Arizona.

From these pictures, it looks like Cohen had a screw loose, rake licking, yogurt smearing, bathtub splashing, warm towel drying, dresser climbing, neck sniffing GREAT time at the Moberg house!

We also had a chance to visit Trish's Nonni, who lives in Wenatchee as well. You wouldn't know it by visiting with her, but a few months ago she fell and broke her hip, was in the hospital for a couple weeks, and a rehab center for a few more weeks after that. She doesn't use a walker, is back out fishing and gardening, and is even driving around town. Oh yeah, and she is 93. What an amazing lady!

The Amazing Race

2009-07-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Trish and I are big fans of the CBS television show "The Amazing Race". For those of you who have not seen the show, it consists of 12 teams of couples racing literally around the world, following clues, completing tasks and having the time of their life. It is such a fun show to watch, and we get hooked every season. So naturally, when our church announced some months back that they would be hosting a modified 2 day version of the Amazing Race, we were quick to sign up. Trish's sister Bethanie and her husband Darren are also huge fans of the show, so Trish and I asked them to join us as a team. Our team name, "Family Feud" couldn't have been further from the truth. We worked so well together and had so much fun.

pre race photo shoot

We started out at Yakima Foursquare Church Friday afternoon at about 4:30 for registration, dinner and rules. At 6pm sharp, an air horn was blown we were handed our first clue. We had to search the church for 3 bags with our team number on them, and then use the pieces inside each bag to complete a puzzle. Upon completion of the puzzle, we were handed our next clue and the race was on! Friday night's clues took us to Skateland to complete 50 laps on roller skates, the Yakima Fire Department's training facility to drag hoses, rescue a dummy from a smokey building and play "name that fire fighting tool", in to Selah to the high school, we took a ride on a 100 foot slip and slide, did a little bowling, grabbed some french fries at Miners, took said french fries to a dentist, and then back to the church for the night. We were a bit disappointed that when we ended back up at the church, we were in 8th place out of 11 teams. Not the way we had planned.

At the church for the night, we were just getting settled into bed and sleeping when one of the officials came running through the church, blowing the air horn again at midnight. We had to get up from our sleeping bags and head upstairs to play "Midnight Scrabble". As a team, we had to use the letters from the words "Amazing Grace" to come up with 3 more words. All we were told was that we had 10 minutes to complete the task. No results or any more information were given. After we completed, we were allowed to go back to bed, this time for the night.

Sleeping on the floor in one of the Sunday school classrooms.

After an early breakfast, we were told the starting order for the day. The first team to leave left the church at 7:27....we didn't get to leave until 7:38. We were literally the last team out of the parking lot, and the last team to pull into the parking lot of our first task. At the Weaver Flower Company, our first task to make an exact (and I mean EXACT) replica of a Christmas display that the company sells. Thankfully, Trish and Bethanie are very detail oriented people and we made up some great time and were probably the 4th team to leave the flower shop. After that, our clues for the day took us to the Silver Dollar Cafe, down to Sunnyside to the Darigold Plant, to Granger, and a couple stops in Zillah. While in Zillah, one of our clues took us to Hyatt Winery. When we arrived at the Winery, we were told we were the first team to check in. We were shocked! We knew we had made up some good time in Granger, but had no idea we were in first place! After Zillah, we headed back to Yakima to an auto wrecking yard to find our next clue. Wouldn't you know it, after we left the wrecking yard we were back in the middle of the pack. After that, our clues took us to a pet store to buy goldfish, to a park to solve a puzzle and deliver the goldfish to a pool, a lunch break, a run back to the pool to retrieve the gold fish, to a taco stand to eat cow tongue taco's, to an indoor soccer arena to learn a native american dance, and then out to west valley to Starbucks. At Starbucks, we had to order an iced latte and then were given 3 license plate numbers to find and write down the make, model and color of the cars. We lost some time on this task, as one of the license plates was on a display car at the car wash and we looked past it a few times. When we found our license plates, we had to chug the latte, and solve another puzzle. Our clue for solving the puzzle was to head to the Yakima Valley Museum for our "Final Test". Once we arrived at the museum, we were directed to head downstairs to pick up our test. We were given a 15-20 question test and were told the answers could be found throughout the museum. We were probably the 5th or 6th team (our of 11) to get to the museum. We spent what felt like an eternity trying to solve the questions (Do you know the year William O. Douglas was considering a run at Vice President? Maybe you know what year Betty Crocker was born?). When we finished our test and handed it in, we had 3 questions wrong and were told to find the correct answers. Only one problem....they didn't tell us which questions were incorrect! We went back a couple of times, and finally had the test correct. At this point, the official reached into his bag and handed us our final clue. We had to get all of our clues from the past 2 days, and our envelope with our registrations and proof of insurance (in case we got pulled over, if the seal was broken we were assessed a penalty) and run to the finish line! At this point, I hadn't seen any other teams leave the museum. Unfortunately for me, the car was parked at the far end of the museum and the finish line was in the park on the other end. I sprinted to the car, grabbed our clues and envelope, and the 4 of us made a mad dash for the finish line. Just like in the TV show, they had a matt and flags for you to run to and stand on. When we crossed the line, we were told that we were the first team to arrive! Team Family Feud were the winners of the 2009 Amazing Race!!! We were shocked! To come from 8th place, in our first race (other teams had done this before) was unbelievable. I think some of the race officials pretty shocked as well.

We had so much fun with Bethanie and Darren, and with only a month left in Yakima before we head south, it was such a great way to spend a couple days with them. Steve and Margaret were gracious enough to watch the 3 kids so we could do this, and we can't thank them enough. Trish and I are even talking about flying up next summer to defend our title. I think we night have to change the name from Family Feud though. Maybe Champs will do!

After the race, back at home.

Buddies

2009-07-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

When Trish was pregnant with Cohen, I was very worried that our first "baby", Stella, would be very jealous of Cohen and I really wasn't sure how she would react to him. I had hoped she would tolerate him and maybe just leave him alone.

When Cohen first came home from the hospital, things got off to a bit of a rocky start, as while we were there Stella chewed up a journal that Trish had been keeping during her pregnancy. We really hoped this wasn't some sort of sign as to the way Stella would treat Cohen once he came home.

At first, Stella was pretty indifferent to the whole thing, as Cohen didn't do much. She would come get us when he cried, but for the most part, she just left him alone. As Cohen has gotten older and much more mobile, they have become best buddies. Cohen uses Stella has his personal play thing, and she takes all the abuse he can throw at her. Yesterday, he used her as a trampoline, hit her in the head with a plastic hammer, pulled her ears, yelled in her face and jumped on her. What did she do in return? This......

This is how I found the two of them on Saturday morning, after the above mentioned abuse. I used to joke that even though Trish picked her out, she is my dog. I guess I have now been replaced. Stella is definitely Cohen's dog.

One Move Down, One To Go

2009-07-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

I can't even describe how happy I am to have taped the final box shut and scrubbed the final cupboard down! Over this past weekend we officially moved out of our house and into my parent's house. This is where we will reside for the next 2 months until the real move to Phoenix. Luckily I have very generous and gracious parents who are happy to welcome us under their roof, and who are eager to love on Cohen. As I stopped by our house to welcome the renters yesterday and hand over my garage door opener, it was a bit strange to stand there and watch someone else's furniture and belongings being moved into "my" house. It still seems surreal that we are going to move away since this first time we are still here in town. I still get a knot in my throat every time I think of hugging my parents goodbye at the airport on Aug 26th, but I am sure I will survive it. I think Scott is secretly happy that he gets to miss out on that little event since he will already be down there, seeing as how much he hates seeing me cry! At least I will have Meagan with me to keep me on my feet and caring for Cohen through the airport and flight. We are still very excited about what the future holds for us and can't wait to see all that God has in store for us! We await this awesome adventure!
Now we just get to spend the next 2 months packing in as much time with our family and friends here as possible, trying our hardest to visit them all and bank some more memories before moving away. We are planning to participate in our church's Amazing Race competition with my sister Bethanie and brother in law Darren in a few weeks and I am sure that will add some priceless memories to the bank.

Following our Dreams

2009-06-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family:

We are excited to announce this huge opportunity that God has graciously paved the path for us to experience. Beginning Sept 1st I will be following my dream and attending the Golf Academy of America in Phoenix, AZ. We will be moving there mid to late August. Trish will be working for a traveling nurse company to support our family during this time. The school lasts 16 months, and I will graduate with an associates degree in Business Management with a focus in Golf Course Operations and we will see what God has in store for us after that. We will be renting Trisha’s sister Lindsi’s 2nd home in Tempe. The house is four bedrooms so we will still have an extra room for guests. So yes that is a hint that we welcome visitors, often! We look forward to this exciting adventure and to see what God has in store for us.

Any of you who know me know that I have had a passion for golf my entire life and have talked on many occasions about pursuing a career in it. We feel this is the perfect timing in our life to take this opportunity. We have prayed through this process that God would pave a smooth path if this is what He desires for us and if not that He would throw up major road blocks to stop us. So far details have progressed exceptionally smoothly giving us the confidence that God is leading this decision and we are confident for His blessing in this.
We will be renting our house to a fabulous couple relocating from the Westside of the state. And we are taking our dear friend Meagan with us to be our live in nanny! She will be such a blessing to our family and we feel so lucky to have our baby in trustworthy, capable hands right off the bat.

We apologize for the informality of having to send this news via email but welcome any phone calls or emails to encourage us on our way!

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm....Easter to Memorial Day. Looks like we have taken a big of a blog hiatus. We packed three days worth of stuff into one Saturday this weekend. We drove over to Redmond and Issaquah and got to see some of our favorite people. We had lunch at my Grandma's house with Gram, Jenny and Paul , Aunt Linda and Aunt Jane. Cohen had a blast running around the farm, and even got to take a "tractor" ride!

After lunch, we met our dear friends Adam and Kirsten for coffee at Starbucks. They were in town from Dallas for the weekend. It is always so nice to reconnect with them. They played a huge part in our lives as a dating and engaged couple. Adam lived with me at the Ravenna house and Kir and Trish lived together at the Gresset house. They were both in our wedding, and it has been so great to share life experiences with them. They are expecting their second child, a boy, in July.

After coffee, we headed up to the Plateau to see James and the Olsen family. James and family had not had a chance to meet Cohen, so we hung out for a while and let Cohen explore. It was great to see Cy and Debbie and Nate as well.

After that, we went down to the Coho Cafe with Mom and Norm to celebrate Norm's birthday. It was great to see them and Cohen had a lot of fun playing with Grama. Cohen was a champ all day, especially considering he took 1 nap in the car on the way over.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key and Trish had to work. Awesome church service on Sunday, followed by house cleaning and yard work. We had a BBQ on Monday at Trish's parents house as well.

It's going to be a tough work week for me, as I have to work Tuesday and Wednesday before we leave for Coeur d'Alene on Thursday!

Easter

2009-04-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

This year, for the first time, I got to experience Easter as a father (last year, Cohen was about a week or so from being born). I think this year, more than any other, I got a real hard look at our Fathers love for us. The sacrifice He made, His only Son, takes on much more meaning to me having my own son. To even think, for a second, about giving up Cohen...it's impossible to comprehend. The love that God has for each and every one of us is a love so great, so pure and so selfless, that He sacrificed His son, and Himself, for us so that we could be in relationship with Him.

We had a fantastic (as always) church service Sunday morning. Trish and I feel so blessed by the church family, pastor and staff we have at Yakima Foursquare. It is going to be a challenge to find something similar in the Tri-Cities!

And, of course, what blog post would be complete without pictures of Cohen. Enjoy!

Dedicated

2009-04-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dedicate: to devote wholly and earnestly, as to some person or purpose. Sunday, Trish and I dedicated Cohen to our Lord and Savior. In the Foursquare church, we believe that a baptism is a choice, one we pray Cohen will make when he is ready. In our church, we dedicate our children to the Lord, with the blessing of the church and it's members. Words cannot describe the feeling I had standing in front of our congregation, their arms outstreched, praying along with us and our pastor. It was truly a blessing to have our family and friends along with us to share this special day. I was very nervous to pray in front everyone and completely forgot what I was going to say. I know that it was truly the words of God that came out of my mouth up there. Cohen did great in front of the church, even when Pastor Dave put the oil on his forehead. We are so blessed to have a church family that loves our son.

Happy Birthday Cohen

2009-04-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we celebrated Cohen with a baseball themed birthday party. If I had been asked to choose a theme, it would have been golf. However, I wasn't asked (and that's probably a good thing). We had close to 30 people at our house and had a great time! I think we had 12 kids under the age of 8 at our house and nothing got broken, damaged or stained. All in all, I think it was a success! Cohen was loved on by so many people and he had a blast. I have a ton of pictures in our Picasa album...just click the link to check them out. The weather even cooperated as it was sunny and 60 degrees outside. The kids were able to run around outside and work off some of the sugar we pumped through them!

Cohen of course made out like a bandit...he is so lucky to have so many giving people in his life!

Walking

2009-03-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. Cohen is a walking machine! One week before he turns 1 and he decided to let go of the walls, couches, cupboards and our hands and break free. I can't believe how fast the time has flow by. It feels like just yesterday he was born, and now he is moving around anywhere he wants to go. I have a feeling a leash is in his future...

Daddy Days (or Daze, depending on the moment)

2009-03-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

For the past two days, Trish has been in Portland with her family as her Nonni underwent surgery to repair a fractured pelvis. With tons of prayer and one strong willed 93 year old, she came through and is expected to make a full recovery. It seemed a bit touch and go for a while, so Trish and her sister Bethanie took off early Thursday morning to drive down to Portland to be with her. This left Cohen and me on our own for a couple days. I must say, the terrible circumstance aside, I have had so much fun on my own with him. We have so much fun together, and he is at such a great stage of life. I can't believe he will be 1 in 3 weeks. He is such a good boy and is SO close to walking now. We have had a great couple of days together running errands, wrestling, playing with the dog and just bonding. It's not like I don't ever get alone time with him, as Trish works 3 evenings a week, but even if it's a weekend evening, I get 5 hours at best. I have had 48 uninterupted hours with him and it has been great.

Tonight I took him to his first birthday party for a friend of ours son Jake. Cohen went to the party decked out in his best purple and gold (which was great, considering Jakes parents are cougars). I was so proud of Cohen...he let anyone who wanted to, hold him. He just lights up a room with his smile and people just seem to be drawn to him. He was on his best behavior (98% of the time) and I think he had fun. It was too bad Trish couldn't be with us, but she will get the chance tomorrow as we go to another birthday party for another 1 year old.

I can't put up a post without a picture, so here is Cohen decked out in his new UW outfit.

Time Flies

2009-02-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

Wow how I have come to realize that time flies, especially when you are a mother. I can literally think back to Cohen's delivery day like it was yesterday, remembering the details of that incredible experience, and grasping for that overwhelming feeling that flooded me as he was born. I can think back to struggling through that
1st night home from the hospital when Cohen decided not to go to bed until 4am and surprisingly both Scott and I maintained our composure through the whole ordeal. Scott was so gentle and devoted as he tried out all his tricks that he learned in his "daddy Bootcamp" class to swaddle, shush and sway Cohen to sleep. Next it was overcoming the challenge to get him to nap in his crib (as opposed to his co-sleeper), nap for longer than 45 minutes, sleep through the night, move off the sleep positioner, then it was losing the swaddle blanket. Now we have conquered weening from breastfeeding (although involuntary), drinking an actual 8 oz bottle, speed crawling, furniture and wall cruising, and rescuing him from locking himself in the bathroom by shutting the door opening the drawer behind it. And although many tears were shed on that one from both Cohen and mommy, we survived, unscathed. Next we will move onto working on getting through meal times in the high chair without a fit, taking 1st steps, and learning 1st words. What astonishes me is how fast this all goes, how temporary each phase is, and how nothing lasts for long. As I left work early tonight, I battled the temptation to feel guilty for the money unearned, but quickly reminded myself that my baby will only be this age one time, and that being present in these moments with him is worth so much more than any paycheck. So I eagerly drove home to be greeted by a smiley, drooly, jabbering, little strawberry blonde headed boy who quickly left his post at the dog's crate to crawl up on me, reach his little arms around my shoulders, and plant a slobbery bite on my chin. I wouldn't change this for the world and enjoy every minute that God blesses me with this honor of being his mother.

Big Steps (Pun totally intended)

2009-02-02T11:06:00.001-08:00

It feels like we went from this.......

To this......

almost overnight. Cohen is now a walking (with some assistance) talking (Dadda, Momma, Thank you, up, hot....though he doesn't always know what he is saying) machine in 10 months. It is so hard to believe that our snuggly little baby is turning into a little boy. It has happened so fast and I don't think Trish and I are quite ready for it. We have been baby-proofing the house, now that his favorite things are cupboards, drawers, electical outlets....basically everything we don't want him to get into.

Other than baby proofing, we have been busy enjoying Cohen. He is such a great kid, and we are so blessed to have him. He starts smiling the minute he wakes up in the morning and doesn't quit until he goes to bed at night. I can't believe that in just 2 months our little guy will be 1. Time sure flies!

An Apology

2009-01-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Brian,

I can't believe I spelled your name wrong Bryan. You would think a common name like Bryen would be easy to spell, but obviously I messed up. Bryin, please accept our most sincere apologies.

First Haircut

2008-12-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

On the Tuesday before Christmas, we took Cohen to get his first haircut at Crazy Kids in Selah. I was a bit nervous that he wouldn't sit still, because at home, he never sits still. The lady cutting hair had this awesome seahorse that he got to sit on and he loved it! Trish held him while I took pictures, video and fed him snacks. He was very interested at what was going on around him and loved to look at himself in the mirror. He did great and he looks like such a big boy now. I can't believe how much a haircut can change him! Below are some before and after pictures.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-31T10:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas started a bit early for us this year as we took a weekend trip with the Weber family (minus Lindsi and Eric) to Coeur d'Alene. We loaded up the Tahoe with Darren, Bethanie, Nyan, Avery, Trish, Cohen and me and followed Steve and Margaret, Shawna, Byron and Alyssa to CDA. We stayed at the Coeur d'Alene resort which is my favorite place in the world. I have been blessed to have stayed at the resort quite a few times, but never in the winter. Steve had arranged for all of us to take a boat ride and view all the Christmas lights along the lake and let the kids see Santa's workshop. Santa new all the kids' names, and whether or not they had been naughty or nice this year. Thankfully, all 4 kids were on the nice list! The older kids loved it...Cohen had no idea what was going on but loved riding around in the backpack all bundled up. It was about 8 degrees out, so we didn't dilly dally for too long. We enjoyed a nice breakfast the following morning and took our time getting home to Yakima. We spent some time shopping in Spokane and had lunch. The kids did great in the car, and Uncle D was a lifesaver riding in the back with Cohen much of the way home.

Our actual Christmas day was pretty quiet, as it was just us and the Hartman family in town. Trish's parents went to Phoenix to visit Lindsi and Shawna and Bryon went to Disneyland. We got up early, opened presents with Cohen, who couldn't have cared less, and then headed up to the Hartman's where we made breakfast and hung out for a few hours. Avery got a beauty salon thing from Santa, so we all took turns getting our hair done. My haircut and shave cost me $2000....it's a pretty high end salon.

Thankfully, there were no pictures taken of me at the "salon". I did manage to get a picture of Avery giving her dad a makeover though.

All in all, Christmas was good this year. We missed seeing our Seattle family, as it was just too snowy and the pass was closed. We will be seeing some of them in January before we fly out to Palm Springs to have another Christmas with my Dad and Charlene. Cohen is going to be spoiled, that's for sure!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Thanksgiving.....and some crime

2008-12-04T09:23:00.001-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. I think I might like it even more than Christmas. I don't know why....it's not the massive amount of food or the football. I think it is because at Christmas, everyone is concerned with opening presents, trying out new presents or rushing to the next event. Thanksgiving is relaxing; a time to catch up with family and friends and to just enjoy being together. That having been said, we spent Thanksgiving in Yakima and Seattle....so we rushed around a bit. It was still fun though, and Cohen did awesome driving across Snoqualmie Pass 4 times in 2 days. 4 times, in 2 days, you ask? Why is this? It seems someone, and we have no idea who, thinks we have really great stuff and broke in to our house again sometime on Thanksgiving night and stole our TV. So, we drove back over to Yakima at 11:30 that night to fill out a police report and make sure nothing else was missing. None of our neighbors saw anything though, so the chances of catching whoever did it seem slim to none.
Saturday we got up early and headed back over the mountains to Renton to my Mom's house for their annual post-Thanksgiving brunch with Norm's family. It was great to catch up with family and Cohen was a hit. He was crawling all over the place and laughing and being his usual great self. We spent the rest of day relaxing at Mom's and then headed in to Issaquah to meet my friend Sarah who was visiting from Alaska. She got to meet Cohen and we got to catch up. It was great.

Also, a few weeks ago we went out to see a long lost friend from college who is an awesome photographer. I think I mentioned it in my last blog post. Here are a few of the pictures she took.......

There are about 60 or so in our picasa album....click on the link to the right to see.

In other news, Cohen is 8 months old today. Time has absolutely flown by. He is crawling all over the place, yelling at anything that moves (or doesn't move) and is generally an all around happy guy. Trish and I are having so much fun with him. We are taking him up to the mountains this weekend to pick out a Christmas tree. Should be a fun adventure!

Goodbye Ty!

2008-11-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Well, Saturday confirmed the firing of Tyrone Willingham at the UW. That was truly a pathetic game and season. Almost ruined my weekend. Actually, we had a great weekend other than the Apple Cup. Our great friends Aaron and Andrea came over with Baby Jackson and hung out with us for dinner and a movie. We have so much fun with them and really value the time we get to spend. We couldn't be happier that they had a baby within 6 months of us. We are excited to figure this parenting thing out together! Sunday, Cohen stayed in the nursery at church for an entire service for the first time. Trish did have to go in once and change his diaper, but he was happy to go right back to playing. He is such a good boy. That afternoon, we headed down to White Swan to a friends house who we hadn't seen in a long, long time. Jen is an amazing photographer and was gracious enough to allow us to invade her house for a photo shoot. She and her husband and son live out in the country and have such a great place. Cohen did awesome with all the posing and didn't fuss at all. He got a bit tired toward the end, but was a total trooper. Check out her blog for some pictures. As soon as we get them, I will post a bunch. Jen, you are such a talent and we hope to see you (and CJ and Owen!) again soon. Cohen is now crawling all over the house and LOVES it. He started a couple of weeks ago and has now moved on to pulling himself up on every piece of furniture he can find. Below are a couple of videos of the little guy crawling and playing in his "Jumparoo". Please excuse the hair in the second video...I have no idea what Trish was thinking.

Halloween

2008-11-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a bit uneventful around our house, due to the double ear infection, runny nose, cough and nasty diaper rash that Cohen had. You would think with all of that he would have been in a bad mood, but no, our little guy is a trooper. He was still is usual smiley self and he even enjoyed having his medicine. We had really hoped we wouldn't have to start him on antibiotitcs at such a young age, but our pediatrition (and great friend) Dr. Bethel reccomended it. As I was giving him his amoxacilan, it brought back a flood of memories from when I was a kid and got to take the "bubblegum" medicine, as I was prone to ear infections myself.

Cohen's cousins Darth Vader and The Little Mermaid (Nyan and Avery) and a Pirate (Aunt Bethanie) stopped by to Trick or Treat and we snapped a few pictures.

Cohen and his buddy Jackson dressed up in matching pumpkin costumes, and though they didn't actually get together on Halloween, they will never know. Trish and Andrea got some pictures against Jacksons wishes. :)

From an awesome weekend to a horrible monday

2008-10-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

Fall is has arrived in the Yakima Valley! I love the fall weather here....it is one of the many reasons I love living in Yakima. On my way in to work between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning it has been between 29 and 33 degrees. Cold, but not so cold as to freeze fruit on the trees. However, by midday I have my sleeves rolled up and the fan going in my office because the sun is shining and it is close to 70 degrees outside. The leaves are changing and falling, starbucks is selling Pumpkin Spice lattes and there are pumpkins everywhere. Also, it is that great time between having to mow the lawn every week and shovel snow. It is wonderful.

Our weekend fun started a bit early on Thursday when our close friends Aaron and Andrea had their baby, Jackson Eugene McCoy. Trish was able to be a part of the entire deliver, from Wednesday night at 8pm until he was born Thursday morning at 8am. From what I hear Andrea was amazing and the whole process was amazing for Trish to be a part of. She gets to do this all the time for work, but it is totally different when some of your best friends are going through it. We couldn't be happier for Aaron and Andrea and I know Cohen is looking forward to playing with Jackson as soon as he gets big enough (although, at 9lbs 2oz, I am sure that won't be long!)

We got some great pictures of Cohen this weekend in the leaves and at the "Pumpkin Patch". Trish's mom grows a huge garden every year, and she must have 50 or so pumpkins this year. We set Cohen up in a few and took some pictures. He was a great sport all day taking pictures and he even discovered leaves don't taste so good.

Sunday we had a amazing time of worship at church, Yakima Foursquare. Worship at our church is typically awesome every week, but this week we had a guest speaker/worship leader, Caleb Quaye. Caleb is an amazing man of God, not to mention a phenomenal guitarist. He led a God filled time of worship that I did not want to end. He is also a great speaker and God is using him in wonderful ways.

The rest of our Sunday was pretty lazy around the house. I installed some light fixtures in our hallway and bedroom while the cable guy was working on our TV and Trish and Cohen played. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Monday was a different story. Work was long, but that is a typical Monday. As I was getting home from work around 5, Trish and Cohen were just getting home from a walk around the neighborhood. As we all walked in the house together, I noticed that our TV stand was a mess and the glass doors had been ripped off. I asked Trish where my Playstation 3 was, and we realized at the same time that someone had come into the house while she was gone and taken it. Cords were ripped out of the wall, everything was unplugged, and the person (or people) made off with some DVD's, some cash and the PS3 and controllers. It was very unnerving to both of us for different reasons. Trish is upset because of the fact that someone was in our house and now she doesn't feel safe; I am upset because now I feel like I can't protect our house and family. It is an uneasy feeling and one I wouldn't wish on anybody. The bright spot is that they didn't take anything of real value, like Trish's wedding ring that was in the bathroom, pictures, my gun, the computer or other electronics. The sherrif was pretty sure it was some neighborhood kids, and we have talked with our neighbors to be on the lookout.

Other than that, things are going well. Cohen is growing like a weed, is very talkative, and is so close to crawling. He crawls backwards and rolls all over the place.

Update

2008-10-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

I think I should hand over the blogging duties to Trish as I have not posted a blog in some time now. Life is getting busier and busier as Cohen gets older. He just passed the 6 month mark with flying colors and is getting bigger. At his 6 month check up he weighed in at 15 pounds 5 ounces and was 26.5 inches long. I guess we breed em long and skinny. He surely doesn't get that from his dad.

Towards the end of August we took a trip down to San Francisco, Tahoe and central Oregon with Trish's parents. We got to visit Trish's great Aunt in San Francisco and my Aunt and Uncle in Tahoe. We even managed to get a round of golf in and Aunt Renee cooked pancakes (my favorite!) for my birthday breakfast.

The only downside of the trip was returning home to a house that had flooded while we were gone. All is now well, and after almost 6 weeks of living with Trish's parents we are back home with new flooring throughout about 2/3rds of the house.

In early October, Trish and I spent our first night away from Cohen. Grandpa Dave and Grandma Beth were kind enough to watch him for a night and they even booked us a room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Issaquah. We had a great dinner in Bellevue, did some shopping and slept in until almost 8! (we have been getting up with Cohen between 5 and 6, so 8 was a treat. We spent Sunday at Salmon Days, although Cohen has no idea we were there as he slept in the stroller for almost 3 hours. I guess the Grandparents must have really tired him out.

2008-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

This blogging thing is a lot harder than I thought. Either that, or I am just lazy. Anyway, we have been having a ton of fun with Cohen lately. He turned 3 months old on July 4th, and has really turned a corner. He is smiling constantly and loves to talk. He just sits in his seat or on his playmat and talks away to anything that moves. The big news is that Trish went back to work and the transition was smooth and painless. She eased herself into it, going back for one day the first week, two days the second week, and finally three days the third week.

We had a pretty low key 4th of July this year. We played golf in the morning with our friends Tyler and Katie, went to a BBQ and Aaron and Andrea's, and then had Trish's family over for some cards. We didn't even see any fireworks! I felt a bit un-American, but then I remembered fireworks were invented by the Chinese and felt better about myself.

Cohen is going to be spoiled rotten this month. My mom drove over the mountains last weekend and stayed the night with us, allowing Trish and I to have a mini "date night". We went out for dessert (even though my diet told me not to) and had a glass of wine with the McCoy's. It was nice to get out of the house past Cohen's bedtime, and Grama O did a GREAT job putting Cohen down to bed. She pretty much held him every waking moment, and he loved it!

Tomorrow, Grandma Charlene comes into town for 5 days to finally meet Cohen. We are excited for her to finally see our house and Yakima and get to spend some uninterupted time with her. I am sure Cohen will get very spoiled again.

Cohen finally fits into his backpack, which has been awesome for walks and picking blueberries at a U Pick place near our house. He just rides around, naps and plays and really loves it!

Hopefully I can keep this thing updated a bit more often and get some better pictures uploaded of our daily activities.

Birthday Cake

2008-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

I hope I don't have to see birthday cake for a long time after this weekend. Why can't we have birthday pie? Or birthday cupcakes? Anyway, the past two weekends have been full of birthday parties and travel. Father's Day weekend we traveled down to Bend, OR to celebrate our niece Alyssa's first birthday. Trish's sister Shawna and her husband Bryon are very creative and transformed their house into a beach house for the party, complete with beach balls, signs and beach themed food. It was a lot of fun to watch Alyssa dive into her cake and it was the first time that all 4 Weber cousins (Nyan, Avery, Alyssa and Cohen) have been in the same room.

For Father's Day, Darren and I played got to play golf (for free, thanks Bryon!) at the hardest course I have ever played. Needless to say, I will not be posting my score in this blog, but it was my worst round in about 6 years. After the golf, Steve, Darren and I headed home (someone needs to work!) and the girls (Bethanie, Shawna, Trish, Margaret and Nonni) stayed in Sunriver for a "Weber Girls" retreat. Lindsi, due her @$$ of a boss, wasn't able to make it this time and was missed. Cohen had an awesome time hanging out with his cousins and the girls enjoyed all Sunriver had to offer.

This past weekend was filled with more birthday parties. Our good friends Tom and Kristen Moberg moved to Wenatchee a few months ago, and we traveled up there to celebrate their middle son, Noah's, third birthday. We had a great drive up, and even had a chance to drive by the orchard and take a look to see if any fruit was hanging. We should have our first crop this year on the Jazz block, which is really exciting. Cohen was a champ on the way up and slept the whole way. He had a great time at the party, being handed off to every woman to be cooed at and held. The ride home, however, was not so good. Against my better judgement, Trish wanted to take Blewett Pass home, which quite possibly has the most twists and turns of any highway in the state. Cohen woke up about 10 minutes into the drive and spent the next hour and half crying and fussing. Not a good ride. We did make it home in one piece though, and he was so tired from the drive that he fell asleep and slept through for almost 9 hours.

Sunday saw us celebrating another birthday with our friends Geoff and Amy. Their oldest daughter, Riley, turned 4 and they had a cake and ice cream party at their house. It was a lot of fun and sure was an eye opener to what we have to look forward to in the years to come. I think we are going to enjoy this stage of Cohen's life, where all he needs is someone to hold him and binky, and he is pretty much content.

If cake and ice cream wasn't enough, our small group had our last time together for year Sunday night, and banana splits were in order. Luckily for me, I am allergic to banana's, so I wasn't tempted to have one. It was great to spend some time with the people who have been such a blessing in our lives, and we will miss getting together with them on a regular basis this summer.

And we're blogging!

2008-06-13T07:59:00.001-07:00

I think the hardest part about blogging is the first blog. How far back am I supposed to go? I would imagine that the two or three of you who might actually read this know everything about us, and this will most likely just be used as a forum to brag about Cohen, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to give a bit of an update and recap on where we are today. Trish and I are coming up on our 5th anniversary this summer and our 3rd year in Yakima. Trish is working as an RN in Labor and Delivery (which sure came in handy a couple months ago when Cohen was born!) and I am working for Clark Jennings and Associates, financing and selling agricultural real estate. We also have started farming a bit with Trisha's family. We planted 55 acres of Jazz apples a couple of years ago (to go along with the 170 or so acres Trisha's dad already farms). However, the most important part of our lives is that we became parents for the first time to an adorable baby boy on April 4, 2008. Cohen Michael Swanson came into the world a couple weeks early (and at 7lbs 3.8oz, Trish was very happy he was early!). The last 10 weeks have absolutely flown by and I can't believe Trish goes back to work (part time, at least) in two weeks. I'll leave this post with a few pictures of Cohen and hopefully this won't be the last post we ever make, otherwise this could turn out to be a very boring blog!