TWO???

Where did my baby go?

March 2014

Colorado snow march 2014

Your favorites...Grandpa and Ace

Such a good sleeper 8:30pm - 7am and one 2 hour nap a day

You are a shoe boy - you must have options and you must pick them...sigh

Lucky to have lunch with family a LOT of days.

We visit Ms. Susan and Mr. John every few months. ;-)

Cohen, you are TWO YEARS OLD!

Say WHAT?  How did that happen?  Seriously, yesterday you were here:

days old

weeks old

And now you here:?!?!

*These were taken by Dana Bustos, but Cohen had a high temp on that day..

A cute pic by Dana Bustos, despite Cohen having a fever

I haven't kept up a few monthly posts because I knew we would just update your life in one giant happy birthday post (I'll keep telling myself that...)

Two year stats:
                Weight: 27 lbs (25-50%)
                 Height: 35 inches (75%)
                 Head: 48.5 (50%)
You have one set of molars, the eight front teeth and are STILL trying to cut your incisors.  You've always been slow on getting teeth ;-) The dentist says that just means you have healthier enamel, so we are ok with the delay.
*You are wearing 18-24 month clothes for the most part right now.  2T is still too long for you, but the pants fit around your cloth diapers a bit better than the 18 month ones.  PJs you are wearing bigger than 24 month (Carter)
*We are still cloth diapering full time and our favorites are the bum genius free times.  We do have to double stuff everything as you are growing, but hopefully we will be out of the diapers...soon..

Love to be nakey baby AND to read!

What you do:

You speak a ton of words.. a TON.  I'm afraid that you've gotten your talkativeness from your parents... some of the key phrases are below but you literally talk all the time.
I love you SO much
Mommy sit down
Bella and Olivia are outside
I'm hungry...eat!
Complete conversations about the Owl going to bed in a tree outside...
You name our house, Cici's house and 'mommy's church'

You love your teachers at school (this was May 2014)

Favorite foods: Oatmeal in the mornings (or paleo pancakes with maple syrup), chocolate shakeology (you won't touch the other flavors!), fruit snacks, baby cheetos, orange bell peppers/snow peas and hummus, anything peanut butter and chicken (esp if its chickfila - haha!) You love carbohydrates and raisins, and you have started to drink some chocolate milk.  We are going to get you tested for dairy allergies this month ;-(

Favorite toys/things to do:
Stairs, Outside, Bicycle, Baby Ace and Aunt Audrey, Books, Coloring  (your handwriting is small when you are using a pen and large when its markers or paint!), you like to jump, climb and explore everything around you.  You talk about airplanes and cars and biiiig trucks in the car while we run errands around town.

Love LOVE living so close to my parents that we make this walk pretty regularly.

Independent and like to put on your own shoes.

You and daddy get special time most evenings for bath and bedtime. You decide whether you want bubbles or not ;-)

Guess who loves his daddy?

You've had an interest in potty training and we have had the best time with peeing outside on the grass, on the patio, on the stairs.  Right now I think its more of a game, but as you get older we are going to try the mickey mouse potty FOR REAL.

This has been a fun year to watch you grow into a little person.  Despite your stubbornness and tantrums, you have a happy disposition.  You are so social and love to be the center of attention.  Cohen we love you soooooo much.

A month away...

So I was away from home...for a MONTH.  And I had a great time..but a MONTH was WAAAAY too long!

Teachers right before our last day's recital!  Cindy, Me, 

I got to teach at the annual Flute Frenzy camp in Allen.  We get a bunch of amazing teachers and students together to embrace just being us.  (You flute players know what I mean).  I love getting to teach and change lives, even if its only a few hours a day.

I sooo enjoyed teaching, visiting, and running this month in various cities of the great state of Texas. But honestly, as I am sitting here at the airport, I am beyond ready to get home to my little family and a routine.

Just a few highlights from my road trip 2014...

Cohen decided HE wanted to come to flute camp, too.

Our running crew at TBA 2014

TBA...aka Texas Bandmasters Association..aka the BEST few days with friends every year.  I even go to clinics and watch concerts on occasion, still.  This year was special because we all ran the 5k together in a friendly competition. The girl's lost, but we had a great time talking smack and paying for their dinner..not...oh well.  There's always next year!

Photobomed by Ray Hilley- me, Barb O and Amanda

When I got back to Houston to teach some band camp stuff, I also got to hang out with some of my coaches on my beachbody team.  When we all got up to leave after dinner we realized ....

that EVERY.  SINGLE. ONE. of us had a coach purse. Great minds think alike in more than one way, right?

Speaking of, from a nutritional perspective it was TOUGH to eat right when I wasn't in my own kitchen.  Plus, we were having social gatherings every night that included at least one glass of wine or a cocktail.  I did keep up my PiYO and running but just barely... Here I mixed my shake with water before flute sectionals IN MY OLD COFFEE CUP.  #dontjudge #addictedtocleaneating #icannotmissmyshakeology

The hardest part? Being away from this sweet boy.  I made it through most days because I have this awesome app called 'FaceTime' ;-) Heard of it? Sometimes when I would 'call' Cohen would get really upset because he could see me but he knew I wasn't there.  It broke my heart...

However, he was in good hands and I am not sure he missed me all that much ;0) Both sets of grandparents, Miss Susan, and some awesome friends covered days for me that I was out of town!

Crazy morning hair but he say good morning momma!

Patrick and Cohen got to fly down for a weekend to visit me and our new niece, Parker.  We had fun at the neat places around the Woodlands, for sure.

I just love him...sposies while traveling..don't judge.

All in all, I'm glad to be home.  And even more I am finally in a place that i can truly say I am following my passion.  I still get to be a musician and teach, a mom and a wife, and a coach to help others.  #blessed

Mickey Mouse cookies recipe

GEEZ. I haven't blogged in TWO MONTHS.

Time to get with the program!  Sorry guys!

In my search for Mickey themed party snacks on Pinterest, I found these cute Oreos.  They really weren't too difficult to make, and Cohen enjoyed 'helping.' Maybe bookmark this one - it was easy and fun for us to do this afternoon when neither one of us was in a super great mood. haha!

Ingredients;

Oreos and mini Oreos

Icing that hardens

Candy melts in red (I bought mine at Michael's)

White chocolate chips

How to:

And i found this at my local craft store to bond the cookies. 

First thing is twisting the cookies apart. 

And then I scraped the fake cream stuff off the mini Oreos so they would hold the icing later!

Then I squeezed some chocolate icing to attach the ears and body back. 

While I melted the red candy melts, I stuck these on parchment paper in the fridge to quicken the hardening process of the icing. 

Dipping them...

 Stick the white chocolate chips on before the candy melt re-hardens. 

Done :)

Well, if you can keep them away from the Cookie Monster!

um...no..i did NOT eat that cookie...