Home at last!

Cash, Cosette, and I spent the last two weeks in California. What a busy time! I attended a Hypnobabies Instructor Training for 4 days while Christine, Tommy, and Larissa watched the kids. After that, I took the kids to Vegas to visit friends and then back to Tommy's for birthdays and the beach.
I am so grateful to have such loving and generous family who are so supportive of me. Thank you so much!

Here are a few pics from Ru's camera when we went up to Vegas (sorry so tiny!):
Ruthy has a neat function on her camera that lets her select which colors to highlight--here's some pink:

My oldest and dearest friends! Here we are at Jamie's son Trajan's 1st birthday party. Jamie, Shannon, and I have been friends since Kindergarten...and Ru joined us in the fourth grade. I love my girls!

Curious Cash peeking from a playground tunnel:


More pictures to come!

A Visit from Uncle Beer!

We have had kind of a slow, sad summer, so we were so glad to have the excitement of a visit from Uncle Beer and kids this week! Okay, Uncle Beer is actually Uncle Richard, Fox's oldest brother. For some reason, Cash decided to call him Uncle Beer most of the time.
He and his kids were headed our way to go camping and stopped by for a visit on Monday. The next day, we headed over to Hyrum State Park, a cool campground about 8 miles from us, to hang out for a while.
Fox schools Violet on checkers:

Richard is a firefighter, so he brought along some gear. Cash was so thrilled to wear an actual firefighter coat!

Sweet 7 year-old Violet. She wanted to hold Cosette almost the entire time, and Cosette loved her! She is such a cutie! Behind her is her crazy, fabulous, wonderful brother William (5 years old).

All the kids hanging out. Amanda is 11 and the oldest. Josh is 9.

The Ellis brothers: promoting mischief!


It has been 2 years since Cash and I have seen Richard and his kids, so it was so fun!

Okay, and of course, a Cosette shot:


She's crawling and pulling up now. Watch out!!

7 Months Old!

Cosette is now 7 months old! Yep, this blog is a bit slow and very baby-obsessed! Here is what she is up to:

Little head, big diaper (that's a Bummis Superbrite cover for all you cloth diaper fans!). She is now 18 pounds, but her head has yet to catch up!

Playing in the tub with big brother. I have been waiting for this! They have such a blast!

Hmmm...where does this piece go?

And her latest--attempting to crawl!

6 Months Old!

Cosette had her half-birthday yesterday! To celebrate, she tried some mashed banana! (A bit different from Cash's half birthday since Grandma Joanie put her foot down on Cool Whip. I only gave her a teensy taste of the evil white stuff this time around.)

These are shots of her first solid food the day before. The wonderful mashed pear! Getting ready:

Completely unimpressed with the whole "swallowing non-milk food". So, we are going to be waiting a little while longer. She still has a bit of a gag reflex and isn't too interested.

Hanging with mama on Saturday:

Cosette can now almost sit on her own. These past few months have flown by, but I'm so excited for the 6-9 month stage. It's so fun (minus the teething part)!

Ten Things...

You (most likely) don't know about me. Okay, my cousin Heather tagged me, so here goes. Actually, if you know me even slightly, you probably know all of these things, as I tend to blab alot. It's very hard to come up with things someone might not know!

1.) I love the smell of skunk. Especially on country roads. Ahhhh.

2.) My minor in college was psychology. I ended up taking a bunch of psych classes for fun (psych of gender, anyone?) and had enough to minor by the time I was a senior. I love it and wish I majored in it.

3.) I regularly eat an entire carton of mushrooms for a late-night snack. Sauteed in butter and olive oil and garlic. Yummy.

4.) I don't have my ears pierced. I'm waiting for Cosette to want hers done (in many years) and then I'll (maybe) get mine done with her. But, I do really like my earlobes, so I am not sure if I'll ever puncture them!

5.) I am unnaturally obsessed with celebrity babies. I can tell you at any given moment which celebrity is pregnant, their due date, and their resulting birth story. It's bad. (Here--I'll get you hooked on celebrity babies, too.

6.) I try to teach myself how to knit about twice a year, work on it for about thirty minutes, get frustrated, swear it's not for me, and go back to crochet. One day, though.

7.) My favorite treat is Chex Muddy Buddies. I make these waay too much and have even experimented with healthier versions. I just love them. (Sorry, WIC--now you know what I do with your free cereal!)

8.) I get constantly told to speak louder, that I talk too soft. This isn't that I am quiet. Most of the time, I lose my train of thought and just start mumbling incoherently to finish whatever I started saying. Oops.

9.) I am very afraid of ostriches and peacocks. And rabbits. Maybe just a fear of being bitten. More likely a fear of seeing my own blood from being pecked by a sharp beak or buck teeth.

10.) I am always searching for jobs, even if I don't plan on working or no one I know is currently looking for a job. I just love reading job postings. I have a secret hope of finding a "get paid to review frosting flavors from home"-type job. Know of any?

Tag!: Megh, Meg, Kels, Christine, Amber

a lil' update

Just wanted to let you know:

Fox: is still planning on entering the Air Force as an officer. They are doing background/medical checks on him right now. He will have a board review in August and then hopefully enter Officer Training School sometime between January and March. This means he gets to do another semester at USU, which he is excited about. He gets to take some fun classes from his favorite professor and hopefully teach sophomore English as well. Since the semester ended, he is out of a job, so he has been feverishly looking for one. Praying he finds one soon!

Amy: gets to go to Hypnobabies Instructor training in California at the end of July. I am *so* excited about this, since I've wanted to do it for such a long time. After the training, I will be able to teach Hypnobabies, which I love love love!

Cash: wanted you to know that he was nice at the playground and "no hit kids". Between his defiant booger eating, refusal to pee in diapers but willingness to pee in regular underwear, and "no Mommy, I do it" attitude--we are deep into the terrible twos!

Coco: is busy giggling herself silly at booger eating and grabbing huge handfuls of hair (while still attached to heads--mainly mommy's and the kitties') whenever it gets even slightly near her vicious grasp.

Uncle Dave and Auntie Amber Visit!

Dave and Amber came to visit yesterday, and we had so much fun with them! When I told Cash they were coming to visit, he yelled "Amber hold you!" before they even got here. As soon as he saw them pull up, Cash was so excited! He loves his Uncle Dave and Auntie Amber.
We took them to Willow Park Zoo, Logan's local free animal park. Here is Dave checking out the aggressive tortoises:

Feeding the duckies:

After the zoo, we went to Angie's Restaurant, which is famous for it's "Kitchen Sink", a replica of a sink full of ice cream, bananas, candy bars, and whipped cream. We had to get it! Sadly, all 5 of us (yep, Cash dug in) hardly made a dent!

The fabulous Hulihans. Isn't Amber's hair cute?


Once again, I (Amy) was behind the camera. In true Mom fashion, the only one who usually takes pictures of me is my own mother!