Christmas

When we came back to Logan from Christmas we left our camera in Koosh, so sorry no pictures of our awesome Christmas. We had a really great one. The kids were of course spoiled rotten. Grandma Hatch especially spoiled the kids. They got a new little 50 fourwheeler. It's really cute. My favorite feature is the remote shutoff, if the kids happen to get going to fast or get too far away I can kill it. Cohen got a new tricycle which he won't be able to ride for a long time but he didn't need anything else. Caeli got the ballerina dress that she wrote numerous letters to santa about. They both got tons and tons of clothes which they actually needed. Cohen got lots of toys that are no where near age appropriate. He got a play chainsaw from my dad and a play rifle, also a toy train and well, just way too much to even list. Caeli got a leap pad the she is always playing. We are going to have to invest in some more games soon. She got a lot of random things as well. Then the kids both got little sleds so we can get some use out of all of this snow. It was an awesome day. kids make things like that fun.
Friday was our Chidester family Christmas party. I thought that it was so fun. But once again no pictures. I think that is a really good tradition we need to keep going..... We had lots of yummy food and opened more presents. The kids had a ton of fun playing together. And I always love to be able to see and visit with everyone that we don't see as much. Hope you had has as good of a holiday as we did!

Official Announcement....

After a very encouraging doctor's appointment this week we are finally making our little announcement. We are expecting another baby at our house! It has been a HUGE surprise. (I just sold ALL of my baby things in September!) However we are really excited now. I am 11 weeks right now, which puts the baby coming in July. I really like the doctor that I found up here. He is wonderful and very thourough. He told us about a new drug that will greatly decrease the chances of delivering early. He will start that at 16 weeks. We had an untrasound and he told me to plan on having one at every appointment. Things were looking well. It's always fun to see the baby in there moving around. It makes things seem more real. I am definately not in lala land (though maybe I should be) This could potentially be a really stressful 29 more weeks. However after a blessing and finding this good doctor, I am really encouraged and comforted. I know that the Lord will bless us, and I am grateful for that. Past experiences as well as this one have shown us that it doesn't matter what we do, things are in the Lord's hands and not to argue with him.

Just some stuff....

Granny this post is mostly for you. :) We haven't done anything exciting for the last little while but here are just a few pictures of life at our house. Caeli had so much fun decorating the tree. Luckily Cohen hasn't really bothered the tree very much. I have WAY too many decorations for our little tree. I kept at least half of them in the box and the tree is still pretty full. We had to go with a little tree because our living room isn't very big. I was just glad that we got to have a real tree. Even though at this point it is super dry and making a huge mess if you even breathe on it.

Caeli being silly. She makes me laugh all of the time.

We made Grandma's Yummy ginger cookies the other day. They would have turned out great, and a few batches did, but my oven is a hunk of junk and the temperature fluctuates when I am cooking. A couple of batches were fine, one was way over done and one took forever to cook. I promise I know how to make cookies, for a girl that hates to bake I can at least do cookies. It really is my oven. The kids ate lots of cookie dough. They were a huge mess, but they loved it.

I am so grateful for this time of year. It's really fun for Caeli to be old enough to get it. Not only Santa and all of that jazz, but she understands that it is when we celebrate Jesus' birth. She keeps telling me that Jesus was wrapped in "toddling" clothes and slept on the hay. Children are so innocent. I can see why we are told to be "as little children" full of so much faith and love and so forgiving. I am really grateful to my Heavenly Father for my children. What a blessing!

Gingerbread Houses

We spent ALL day making gingerbread houses. Caeli had a ton of fun. Thanks goodness that is all that matters because it was a ton of work and a huge huge mess. She was covered in flour.

We made a big house and a small house. Caeli and I decorated the little one and Cam took care of the big one. It really was fun to see the kids be so excited about something. Cohen just liked to eat the candy. So did I for that matter. It really was a lot of fun once I got the dough rolled out. I don't like baking at all.

The finished products. We aren't very creative. Cam did well though. It was late when we finally got around to decorating them. That's why we don't have any pictures with Cohen helping. He had to go to bed.

Comfort me

Cohen has developed this bad habit. When he gets really mad he SCREAMS really loud and starts repeatedly wacking his head on whatever is closest. The wall, the tile floor, me.... I have been just ignoring it and walking away, thinking he will stop, but he seems do to it whether I am watching it or not. The poor kid (with a huge forehead anyway) is having all sorts of bumps and bruises. It looks like I am beating him across the forehead. Any ideas anyone? Maybe soon I will just start beating him for real. :) (not really for those of you who don't know me... and those that do)

Thanksgiving and The Wedding.

Thanksgiving was a little wierd this year. I didn't get any pictures at all. We got uninvited to go up to Grandma Hatch's because our family is getting too big. That makes me laugh because I know what an actual big family is but anyway.... We did go to Grandma T's house which was great. There's nothing like Granny's cooking. My favorite part of the weekend was Steven and Jazmin's wedding. It was such a great day. Caeli was so excited to be the flower girl. All of my pictures turned out dark, so sorry they are hard to see. Bug Jaz looked beautiful, Steven even cleaned up nicely.. hehe.

Just a few pictures... Steve, Jaz and the kids. Caeli asked if she could always be Jazmin's flower girl. She stole the show at the end of the ceremony when Ron said they could kiss, Caeli threw a bunch of her flower petals into the air. It was really funny actually.

Caeli and Cohen with their Great-Great Grandma Mackay. They are so lucky to get to know her so well. She spent a lot of time in Koosh this summer so both of the kids always run to her when they see her. She is the best. She makes me laugh all of the time. Love you Grandma.

Cohen pretty much never quits eating. We had a really yummy wedding dinner. Prime Rib with all the fixin's. I was glad that the caterer thought to do chicken and mac and cheese for the kids. Cohen ate a ton of chicken. Overall it was a really great weekend. Busy, and with no shortage of great food.

Happy Birthday Caeli!

Today is Caeli's 4th birthday! She has been so excited for so long. She is spoiled rotten as usual. I think my favorite gift was the cute little apron that mom got for her. Penny made it. I have been making these silly little makeshift aprons for her when she helps me cook, so I am almost as excited for it as she is. She hasn't taken it off all day. She looks really grown up in it.

She couldn't wait, so we let her open presents first thing this morning. She was just as excited about the cards as the presents. She keeps going in and looking at all of her cards. She got a cupcake maker that she absolutely loves and a broom and mop set, clothes, a cute dress, make up and more to come because we are not actually celebrating until tomorrow when cam is off of work. Then she can open our present. Thanks everyone for sending the cute stuff up here. You made her day, and spoiled her rotten.

This is Caeli's cake. I am a horrible cake maker. I swore I would always buy the cakes after the bunny incident. It was actually ok. Caeli likes it and so that is all that matters. She asked for a pink butterfly a few weeks ago so she got it. I hate birthday cake making.

Sibling Love

Caeli and Cohen play so well together. Caeli keeps me sane by keeping track of him and is the best help. This top picture is when I was packing up in Koosh and I found them hiding with a pack of chocolate covered raisins. I am glad they like them because I certainly won't eat them. They thought that they were in trouble. I thought it was cute and I was perfectly happy that they were not in my way unpacking things as fast as I could pack them.

When I was cooking dinner the other night they sat down and played Pat-a-cake. They set there for a long time.

Caeli was making her brother be the prince and dance with her. She sings "I love you" over and over while spinning in circles. Cohen tries to get away but eventually just gives in. you can see he is wanting me to rescue him.

The day that our things made it up here to us the kids laid in the bed and watched incredibles while I unpacked. This is the first time Cohen sat still long enough to watch something. I think it was nap time and so he was tired enough to hold still for a minute.

I am so blessed with wonderful kids. They are really my joy in life.

By request....

Hi! I am finally connected to the world again. It is a nice feeling I must admit. As requested, here are just a few pics of the new casa. It is working just right for us. My only complaint is that we don't have hardly any storage. The kids rooms are pretty small too. Cohen's especially! It's been raining a lot since we got here but it hasn't really snowed yet. We miss home but for now this is a great home away from home.

Hi from Logan!

Hello from Logan ya'll! Things are going well and we are getting settled in. We are still waiting for them to come and hook up our internet. It may be a few days still. I have a few pictures and things that I will post as soon as I can. Just thought that I would post that we made it here and all is well. We have a cute little apartment/townhouse. I was worried moving up without ever seeing it but Cam did well. The kids are having a little adjustment, but we will get it. More to come soon.....

Steps

Cohen is FINALLY trying to walk. He will take a few steps. It is so hard to get any pictures of it though. He is mostly still just happy to crawl around. When we try toget him to try and walk for us he gets rubber legs and won't. When hs is just by himself though he will try a little.

I just about caught a picture of him walking, then he took a header. He's such a fun little guy. We are just about 2 weeks away from the year mark of his due date. A year goes by so fast.

Bridal Shower

Saturday was Jazmin's bridal shower. I love bridal showers a little too much. I take great pride in embarassing the bride to be as much as possible. I think I managed to pull it off. It was fun. The bad part was I didn't get any pictures at the shower. I had my camera and everything, I just forgot. But afterwards us Koosharem girls went and got some dinner at Sage Brush Grill. One of my favorite restaurants. My favorite in the area for sure. My favorite thing that we ordered was actually the prime rib sandwich. I was a big fan. It wasn't what I expected.

I am still laughing at myself about the shower......

Did I mention I love bridal showers?

The Halloween Party

Tonight was the Annual Koosharem PTO Halloween Carnival. It has always been one of my favorite traditions here in good ol' Koosh. As always we had a really great time. They start the night out with a little dinner and then costume judging. Cohen and I won most creative in our group. Thanks Jaimee! :) I ended up wearing the Man in the Yellow Hat because Cam didn't make it to the party in time for costumes. It was HUGE on me. but I got a ton of compliments. From the moment we got to the party to the time we left Caeli would not leave Kacey's side. She told me princesses need to be together.

Cohen loves Grandma Great. I don't know why but she is the ONLY one that he will do this to. He just cuddles up to her everytime she picks him up. Not fair. My mom is the most irritated by it.

Our cute costumes. Caeli absolutely insisted on being Snow White this year. Nothing I could say would entice her otherwise. I found the cutest banana costume that I wanted her to be and stay with the theme, but NO WAY. She refused to wear a coat all night. She told me princesses just have capes.

We came away from the party this year big winners. We won a little girl basket with a barbie, a tutu, a shirt, makeup and all sorts of things. We also won a little boy basket. It had a stuffed puppy, some cars, a Diego ruscue pack (I think that's what it is called) as well as a bunch of other silly little boy things. THEN, Cam and I scored the Date night basket, it included movie tickets, Pizza dinner and a night of free babysitting! We were very lucky. There were a lot of really cool prizes this year. It's an awesome tradidion and I love that you can still take just a few dollars and come away with some great bake sale items from all of the great candy makers in the valley. It was a great time. I hope we can always make it to the party. A lot of us who grew up going to the party come home so I got to see some friends I don't get to see very often. It's just one of my favorite times, in case you can't tell.

Oh, kids...

Kids say the darndest things... Caeli makes me laugh all of the time but for some reason today I just couldn't control myself. The other day my mom took Caeli to the dollar store and let her choose anything she wanted. She came home with a little basket of makeup. Today after her bath she went into the bathroom to do all of the usual, brushing teeth and putting on "lipstick" she then came out of the bathroom and told me, "mom, I won't be eating lunch today" I reply "Ok Caeli, lunch isn't for a while" She says "NO, Mom! I can't eat today, It might mess us my lipstick" Wow, I have some trouble on my hands. And she is only 3.

26

Ok, so yesterday was my birthday. The big 26. I know that 26 isn't usually one of those birthdays that seem big to people but I really don't like being 26. I am now more then half way to 50. Stinkin' Brithday. Also, on my birthday Cam left to go up to Logan. He started his job today.

Overall though, it was a good day. We were down in Anabella for a baby blessing. Baby Dallin. (Cam's sister Jolynn's baby) It was a fun day. I love family get togethers.

At least now I am officially an old hag I have an excuse for acting that way. :)

Quick update....

We have confused everyone and people have been asking what our plans are so here is the update- Cam starts his job up in Logan on October 13th. Yep next Monday. However the apartment we want won't be ready yet. So he is going to go up alone for a week or two until we can get moved into our apartment. I am hoping that it will be sooner than later. I am anxous to get moved. The few trips we have made to Logan have got me sold! I think it will be great up there. I am excited to live by Katie and Mike, and soon Kacey! So keep your fingers crossed for us that the apartment is ready soon. Off we go!

Circus and Logan.

I thought that this was a cute picture of the kids. Caeli was making "ant hills" and Cohen was eating them. This is Friday night as we were waiting for Cam to get off of work so we could head north. We ended up staying with Chad and Alicia and we had so much fun. Caeli kept wanting to go back to Carters after we left, we sat around that night and watched the office and laughed.
On Saturday we went to the Circus up in Salt Lake. Jazmin won tickets to see it and couldn't go, so we were happy to take them off of her hands. The kids had fun. Cohen liked the first half but lost interest in the second half.
I know this is a bad picture but there were a bunch of little white ponys that this lady had trained and when Caeli saw them she said that they were prince's brothers and sisters. They were actually really cute. The ponies and the elephants seem to be what she remembers most, more speciffically, watching the guys clean up the elephant poop.
After the Circus on Saturday we headed up to Logan to stay with Mike and Katie, we had fun staying with them and got a few productive things done. Cam talked to a few people about jobs and we looked at some apartments. I wish I would have got some pictures but we went to feed the ducks, poor Cambree was scared to death of them. Caeli lost interest pretty fast, Cohen however wanted to get them. He really liked them. It was cute. We had fun looking around Logan and checking things out up there. I think we will like it! On Monday while Cam was in a job interview we went and saw Mike at work at Sports Academy. While we were there Caeli saw the gymnastics room and she now won't quit asking when she can go to gymnastics. So I am thinking that instead of preschool and dance, that she is doing now, she can try out gymnastics. We will see. We just had a fun weekend. Thanks everyone for letting us crash your houses!

Threes to me!

I have seen this tag going around and T'nisha tagged me so I am trying to come up with something that you don't all already know...

List 3 joys, fears, obsessions/collections, and facts about me

3 joys
1- When Cohen will crawl up on my lap and cuddle up to me. I know having a little boy that can't last forever.
2- When I have made it through a day and felt like I actually accomplished something and am not too exhausted to read more then one chapter in my B of M.
3- Fall nights on the mountain. We went up the other night and listened to the elk and to see the look in Caeli's eyes when they got close- it was priceless. Also, the smell of pine trees and sage brush after a warm rain storm. There's nothing better.

3 fears
1- I know I mentioned this once before, but I am terrified of my house burning down. Wierd I know but I have made plan after plan of what I would do if my house started on fire.
2- I am scared of raising my children in this messed up world.
3- I am scared of bad health.

3 obsessions/ collections
1-You all know this, but I am obsessed with great food, both making it and eating it
2-I am a bit obsessed with plastic surgery. I have a wish list made and I like to watch procedures on discovery health. (Someday I will get that abdominoplasty with belt lipectomy sp?)
3- I collect pottery barn and house plan catalogs. I have a big stack of them in my room. Hey, a girl's gotta dream/plan :)

3 facts about me
1- I will do about anything for a girls night/day/weekend out.
2- I read the Reaper every week- I like the criminal justice section. It's interesting to see which old friends are going to jail :)
3- I hate Wednesdays.

OK, I tag Jazmin, Kayla and Jodi

Happy Birthday Millie!

Yesterday we celebrated Millie's birthday at Jolynn and Jon's house. It's so fun to get together. The kids had a blast as usual and Jolynn made some good food. The picture above is us gathering to sing Happy Birthday.
I tried and tried to get a good picture of the babies, but they wouldn't cooperate. They were way too busy tearing up Jolynn's house. But here is one I got of Cohen, Brianna and Brinley.
The little princesses Korissa, Hannah and Caeli, they dressed up and danced for us.
Now, for the shocker of the night and my favorite part, Cam helped with dishes!!!! Millie was in there working on them and so the guys went and booted her out and did the dishes. I was very impressed. I was glad I got a picture for proof! Good work guys. Happy Birthday Millie! We love you!

FINALLY...

For journaling purposes, Cohen got one of his top teeth today. (it's about time for heaven's sake he's almost 13 months old)

Hard day's work

The other day Cam brought home a HUGE thing of peaches from Richfield. It sounds like Dan and Millie's tree went a little wild this year. So I didn't know what to do with them so I decided to make jam. I had a few of my friends over (Jen and Jodi) Between running kids to and from school and taking care of screaming babies, it took us ALL day to get them done. But when we were done we had five dozen + things of jam. We did plain peach, peach-pinapple, and peach-strawberry. I hope they will ture out ok. This is the first time that I made the attempt with out Mom or Grandma's help. Jen had NEVER done anything like that. Jodi wasn't there the whole time so I was really worried it wouldn't turn out. It looks good, I hope it is as good as it looks. I didn't get many pictures but here is some of the finished product.


Thanks for the peaches Dan and Millie! Someday I will be domesticated. Right?

Happy Birthday Cohen!

Today is Cohen's first birthday. I can't believe how fast a year goes by! It's amazing how little he started out! He is such a good little guy. We are so blessed to have him in our home! Happy Birthday Cohen! We love you!

my little grown up

Caeli went to her first day of preschool on Tuesday! She was soooo excited. She woke up several times in the night the night before. She kept telling Cohen "sorry little brother, you aren't big enough to go to school"
Her teacher is Miss Allison. She came home and told me they did the "pledge of palegence" and had a treasure hunt. She has been asking all day today if it is school day again. It's so sad to see my little girl acting all grown up. However, it is a few peaceful hours. She goes to school from 10-12 and that is right at Cohen's nap time. So I even get to have a shower all by myself, and in peace. I think I am going to like this too.

Engaged!

Steven and Jazmin got engaged! We are so excited! He did it on Sunday evening. It was so fun. Teri, Tyson, Cameron and I went up to set it up for Steve. It was pretty cold. We went up to Fish Lake and Jazmin thought that she was coming up for a cookout. Here are a few pictures of us setting it all up.
The wind was blowing so we had a hard time getting the candles to stay lit. So here is what we did: we set up candles all along a path, with rose petals leading to where we had a little blanket set up with flowers and more candles and sparkling cider with cheesecake and chocolate dipped strawberries. The ring box was sitting right in the middle of the chocolate dipped strawberries. Steve did it right and even got down on a knee.
When they pulled up Tyson and Cam told them that they had to run to get some ketchup and would be right back and Teri and I stood by the ring and then ran around and the guys came and picked us up. Then he took her down the path and came up on the things we had set up. (everyone should have sisters like Steven does:))We gave them a little while and then went back in and got a few pictures. I wish I would have got a picture of the ring. It is awesome! He did really well on that one.
It looks like the wedding will be in November. So fun. Congrats guys. We love you!

Just a few more pictures

I thought that I had these pictures on the last post but.... anyway. These are the applesauce cupcakes I stayed up all night making. They actually tasted pretty good. The kids thought they were cool too.

Tim and Caeli at the park. Tim tried really hard to teach her how to play tic tac toe but all she cared about was that she could be the o's.

Jam packed weekend

This weekend we had a lot going on. It was a lot of fun. First on Friday Teri and Mom took the day off of work so we spent the day in Richfield at the park and then went bowling. Caeli thought that she was pretty big stuff when they had bowling shoes that fit her. She was so cute. Then in the last 2 frames she noticed that Cohen was on the merry go round and went to join him and totally lost interest in bowling.

Cohen is getting so big I can't stand it!! He had a lot of fun bowling but kept trying to get the balls so we took him over to play on the merry go round. He liked it.

As soon as we were done playing in Richfield I had to hurry home. It was our monthly girls night. We had grilling night and had some of the BEST food. I didn't get very many good pictures, but as usual, we had a great time. There were 9 of us there. I have the best group of friends. I got home pretty late and still had cooking to do for the reunion. So I had a LATE night.

This weekend was the Torgerson reunion at Grandma T's. We had a blast at the reunion. We went to the lake after breakfast Saturday morning. I didn't get any pictures, but the lake was perfect. The wind never came up and the water wasn't too cold. Then we headed back to the house for dinner and games. This is Teri and Jazmin gathering ammo for our marshmello gun war. We did a little capture the flag war game. We got pretty good with the guns and a few of us have some killer bruises. We also had a volleyball tournament and then came to our house for fireworks and guitar hero.
Not a very good picture but this was Cohen's first sawdust dig. He found a sucker and then decided to eat the sawdust. OK -so I just noticed my cousin in the background.... sorry about that. Caeli got lots of candy and I finally convinced her to pick up some chocolate and not just look for candy in pink wrappers.
We finished off the weekend with Trever's mission farewell on Sunday. He did a great job. Afterwards we had a huge dinner over at the hall. He goes into the MTC on Wednesday. He will do great, we will miss him!

I think fall is on our doorsteps here, so this was pretty much our last summer hoorah. In the next few weeks we have Cohen's birthday and Caeli starts preschool. I think the fun days of summer are over. What some good times!