I love food:)

If any of you know Noah and I, we LOVE food. We take pictures of our food and post them on facebook. I thought I'd share a summer favorite of mine. It is called the Summer Berry Salad from Paradise Bakery. It has a yummy lemon poppy seed dressing and you can get it with or without chicken. Look how pretty:

Mother's Day 2010

I'm a little behind on these posts but I have to say I had such a wonderful Mother's Day. On the Saturday before Mother's Day we had brunch with Grandma Carol, Papa Jack and Grandma Marilynn at Aunt Chiladas. It was delicious. Unfortunately we have no pictures. Sunday we took my mother out to breakfast at the Good Egg. We waited FOREVER but the kids were so good! Here is a cute picture of my mother:

Then we went to Ikea to buy me my Mother's Day present which you see here:

Then we went to the park for a friends bday party and spent a few hours enjoying the beautiful weather and relaxing!

Splinters

We won't go into detail about how he splintered up his hands, but here is a cute little photo of his owies

Ice Skates

This year for Cohen's cousins bday party we went ice skating. At first I wasn't sure Cohen would even want to go out onto the ice. But we put skates on him anyways. As soon as he got out there, he didn't want to come out! He LOVED it. I got tired of holding him up so I had him hold onto a chair but before I realized that it was probably a bad idea for a 2 and 1/2 yr old to try to hang onto a chair while ice skating, he fell right on his face and bit his lip. He was bleeding all over but didn't want to stop skating. We have one tough ice skater!

Easter!

Home made haricut

Noah and I just couldn't bear to take Cohen to get his haircut and risk the chance that they would buzz it all off. So we did it ourselves and did a pretty good job! Noah did the sides and I did the back. You have to be quick with a two year old!

My little ragamuffin before the cut

After the haircut-side view (yes he posed for us)

Back view (hair was wet)

There was a time...

There was a time Cohen loved balls more than he loves fans...I think he was trying to re-kindle that feeling he once knew.

My Grandpa

Without going into too much detail, I never knew my grandfather on my mother's side. She never knew him either. I guess one day he just up and left and was never heard from again. Until now. My aunt Paula had been looking for him for years and fortunately, her stepmother (my grandfather's second wife) was looking for them too. So this opened up a whole floodgate of new family and of course many stories and unanswered questions. Amidst all of the emails back and forth, a few pics of my Grandpa Yocius and Great Grandpa Yocius (Jocius) were sent and I wanted to share them.

My Grandpa Ted

My Great Grandpa Yocius

Pretty neat...

Summa Summa Summatime!

Well since we live in AZ we are officially pretending it is summer. It was such a nice Sunday afternoon we couldn't resist the pool. We were invited over to Adam and Cortney's home for Grandma Becky's birthday lunch. We had some yummy Chipotle for lunch, played on the trampoline and then swam! We love to swim at Adam and Cortney's clubhouse pool:) So here are some photos to kick off our warm weather!

Cohen looking excited to visit his Aunt, Uncle and cousins

Fuzz ballz on the "bounce-o-line" as Cohen has named it

Ava looking cute as ever

Grandma Becky trying too keep up on a bike ride

Cohen huggin a bush...??

Rock climbing

PS: Sorry about the glass candle holder Uncle Adam and Aunt Cortney:(

Zoo or Bust

I had to work Saturday. Noah was watching Cohen and grandma and grandpa Field came over and wanted to go to the zoo. So they all went to the Wildlife World Zoo. Cohen hasn't been feeling very good lately as far as being "regular" with his toileting habits. As soon as they got there Cohen wanted daddy to hold him because his tummy hurt. I got off work the same time they got in to the park so I was headed over there (way over in the west valley and I was in Scottsdale). About half way there Noah called worried about Cohen. I could hear him crying in the background. It's a cry I've heard before. The NO POOP cry. I told him to give him some time and he would poop and that I would be there soon. A couple minutes later I got another call from Noah saying they were leaving. They spent $80 for 30 min and I spent 45 min driving. When he got home the poop came and he was fine. Here are two photos from the very short trip.

Insert head *HERE*

A couple days ago when Noah and I were working late printing tshirts, we received a call from Carol who was watching Cohen. She was hysterical and had called to tell us that Cohen had stuck his head in her stair railing and was now stuck. She had already called the fire department. Cohen cried, and so did grandma Carol. Right before the fire department arrived, grandma and grandpa Kenyon pulled up, and of course Papa Jack thought he could get Cohen right out. Thank goodness the fire department showed up shortly after and pried the bars apart while tilting Cohen just right so as to slide him gently out. Cohen ran right to Papa Jack. The very nice firemen took Cohen outside to see the fire truck and even let him wear a fire helmet. Cohen survived and mom and dad showed up a little bit later to meet everyone for dinner at Galaghers. Of course their are no pictures or video of the incident but the memory will always live on....

Sick

Our little Coco bug has NEVER in his 2 years and 5 months been sick. No sneezes or runny nose. No nausea or vomiting. Until now. One night while Noah and I were up late I heard a bit of a "bark" coming from Cohen's room. Noah had his earphones in like he always does when he is working on his computer. So I snuck into his room to check it out. I leaned in for a closer listen and then it happened again. "Bark, bark" "Oh crap" I thought. I was sure it was the croup. I hurried out of the room (Cohen still sleeping at this point) and told Noah who didn't believe me and went to listen for himself. I also snuck in to take his temp with my new temporal thermometer. It was 101. So I made a midnight run down to the drugstore to get a humidifier and a smorgasbord of meds. I came home and set everything up just in time for Cohen to wake up and realize he felt like you know what. I held him in my arms while he screamed. He was so hot and sweaty from his fever and so congested he couldn't breathe. I felt completely and totally powerless so I did the only thing I could do. Cry. We got some tylenol in him and turned on the humidifier to high, sat with him in our arms, and had a pretty restless nights sleeping sitting up. The next day Noah took him to the doctor who confirmed it was probably a flu bug. But we didn't expect strep. So the Dr sent Noah on his way with some antibiotics and a little watery eyed, runny nosed child. Daddy held him all day long while mommy was worried sick at work. I was able to snap a few iPhone shots of the 3-5 days he was sick.

So stuffy it was coming out his eyes

This is pretty much the only position we were in for days

Of course with a little loving and rest he reverted back to the same ol Cohen

We love the old Cohen. We hope sick Cohen never comes back to visit-at least not for a long time.

3 years

Three years ago I was married to my soul mate. Ever since then life has never been the same. There is always a new adventure in our lives to keep us on our toes and make sure life is never boring. First it came Cohen, then literally right after came nursing school. The Phlop Shop is always staying busy when life gets busy but I'm not complaining, and the great news of me getting my first RN job with a schedule that would make anyone exhausted. We have been through our fair share of medical issues, first with my diagnosis of MS and all the lovely stuff that goes with that, then Coco getting his hernia surgery, and now believe it or not Noah is having some issues with "numb arms" (diagnosis to be continued...)  We somehow make it work. I don't know what I would do without my little family! We hope to expand sometime soon however life is interesting enough for now. Noah used his skills to make us a 3 year anniversary video. Check it out:
3 years

Crash on Coolidge

There is always something interesting going on on Coolidge Street.

So a car crashed into the house two houses down from us. Noah and Cohen were home at the time. It turns out that a man shot his mother (who was driving) and then hit our neighbors home and ran. Our neighbor had just left to get something to eat, but I guess the crash was right into where his bedroom used to be. The girl who was shot was taken to the hospital and lived. Nobody knew she was shot until she arrived at the hospital and had a seizure. The man was caught a day later. There was a whole mobile police station set up right outside our home almost the entire day/night of the crash. Then they left and multiple news stations showed up the next day. Coolidge has since quieted down, and the home is boarded up. Things are always interesting on Coolidge street. 

Cohen's Surgery:(

So we finally decided to go ahead with Cohen's hernia surgery. We prepped him the night before and the day of as to what was going to happen. He did so good. He loved his purple "pj's" that they gave him to wear and he did really well with everyone that came to "visit" for his pre-op checks. When it came time to separate, he did so good. Didn't cry at all. We were concerned about how he would do with the whole putting him to sleep thing, but the nurse came out and told us he put the mask on like a champ and they rocked to sleep singing songs, tear free. It melted my heart, my brave little boy. After surgery he did freak out a bit but soon after he was fast asleep at home recovering. When he woke up for good, grandma Carol was there feeding him her famous garlic bread (he didn't want spaghetti) and he got to eat all the ice cream and candy he wanted. What a brave little boy! He acted like nothing every happened!

Last meal: Home made pancakes with syrup!

Before we left

At Phoenix Childrens Hospital

Checking in, and checking out the floors

Cool bracelet

Getting dressed in our purple PJ's and being silly!

They has so many toys to play with while we waited (almost 2 hrs!)

Papa Stan

Pre-op check up

The wait....

After surgery-my little angle:(

Daddy, that is all he wanted.

Peaceful at home

Finally awake and eating...of course with his iPod!

Owies!

My First Day of Work

I finally got a job. It is in home health. I was a little sceptical at first. I didn't know much about how home health worked, what kind of hours I'd be working, and what kind of benefits/pay I would be getting. Well, so far I love it. You don't have to work 12 grueling hours in a hospital where you never see the light of day. So far it's not too stressful and I'm loving my patients. I'm also getting all kinds of RN experience PLUS some case management experience which is a plus. I run into all kinds of different things with my patients so I get that experience also. The schedule is a little confusing at times, and I'm having to work around watching Cohen and being sensitive to my hubby's tshirt business. So we need to work on it a bit but I'm loving it so far and just feel grateful to have a job in this economy:) So this is a pic on my first day of orientation. (I had to wear business attire since it was just office stuff but I wear scrubs in the field). I know I'm a dork for taking a pic of my self but I was just so excited:)

My friend Anna

I met so many wonderful friends in nursing school and when school was over, we didn't see eachother much. One of them, Anna, recently got married. So it was nice to finally catch up with the girls:)