Taylor had preschool this morning and they had a Halloween party. She was sent home with a note saying that they could wear their costume, but I didn't think she'd enjoy that, so I sent her in a super cute Halloween shirt that her Aunt Courtney gave her.  She looked adorable!  I don't know what the did, because she can't tell me, but I think that she had a lot of fun, because she came home with chocolate on her face and in a really good mood.  I played with the kids when she got home and then I made them some blueberry waffles for dinner.

After that trick-or-treaters started to show up.  So, I got the kids in their costumes and we went outside to take pictures before the sun went down.  It was SO hard to get a good picture of Taylor because she would. not. hold still.  But, she was having fun trick-or-treating over and over again at our neighbor's house and playing with the neighbor kids.  I had to finally bring her back inside because she wanted to follow them and I wouldn't let her and it was making her mad.  I was waiting for Derek to get home from work before I took the kids trick-or-treating.






 When he got home, Taylor was a little ornery, because she was tired and it was hard for her to wait.  But, once we got going and she got the hang on things she enjoyed it a lot.  She would try really hard to say "trick-or-treat" and then to my surprise, would only take one piece of candy and then say, "thank you! buh-bye!" It was ADORABLE! We had a lot of fun.  At one point, Taylor slipped while playing on a fire hydrant we went by and bit her lip, but she was brave and got over it quickly.

When we got home, we let the kids play for a minute and then it was very obvious that Taylor was ready for bed, so we put the kids in the tub and then put Taylor in bed.  Cohen was still in a great mood and it was only 7:30 pm, so we let him stay up for about a half an hour and then we put him down too.

I went and picked Derek and I up Chili's to go for dinner and we watched the Sing Off and ate some Halloween candy.  It was a good day. I love my kids and how much fun they make holidays.

This afternoon, we finally carved our pumpkins.  We were going to do it yesterday after dinner, but Taylor was SO tired and we decided it wasn't worth it to do it when she probably wasn't going to enjoy it.

I'm glad we waited, because she was so cute.  She climbed up on her chair next to us and tried to scoop out to goop.  She'd touch it and then go "yuck!'  But then she would lick the outside of the pumpkin and go "yum."  She's a silly girl.  I don't know why she thought we were going to eat them.  Kids really do make holidays more fun.  Cohen just crawled around and played while we did them.




Here are the finished results... Left to right:  Derek's, mine, Cohen's, Willis', and Taylor's.

Where did October go?  I can't believe it's been a month since Cohen turned one! 

Here are some things about Little Man at 13 months:

• He is getting SUPER close to walking.  He can go about 4-5 steps.  As soon as he notices what he is doing he sits down and crawls.  I'm not in a hurry for him to walking, so it's fine with me that he still isn't.
• He can get into standing from sitting without holding onto something.
• Is transitioning from two naps a day to one.  It just depends on the day.  Usually if he sleeps in until 9:30-10:00 am then he'll only have one nap, but if he wakes up early, he will need two.  Lately, he has been sleeping in pretty late in the morning so usually only has one nap. 
• He loves to ride on momma's shoulders and "run away" from daddy and Taylor. He laughs SO hard. 
• He laughs as parts of shows/movies that he thinks are funny.  It's so cute, but at the same time makes him feel SO grown up! 
• Still wears size 3 diapers, 12 month clothing and size 2 shoes (which as still pretty big on his feet, this is the reason why I think he isn't walking yet, his feet are so small.) 
• He learned how to go down the stairs and climb off the couch. 
• He is starting to like to go down Taylor's slide. 
• He is still super sensitive and gets his feelings hurt easily, but is still calmed down just as easily. 
• He is still cuddly and is starting to do it a little less than he has on the past.  It just depends on how tired he is or if is hurt.
• He still loves to hold hair and still holds on to his own and sucks on his bottom lip for comfort.
• He LOVES to eat.  His current favorite foods are: bananas, fresh pineapple, scrambled eggs, french toast, pancakes, water, chicken, broccoli, green beans, bread, taco soup, chicken alfredo, lasagna, cheese crackers and graham crackers.
• He is still nursing 2-3 times a day.  Even with all of his 8 teeth, he has never bitten me. 
• He has discovered the light switch and loves to turn it off and on.  Every time he switches it one way he stops and looks at the light fixture and goes "wow!" 
• He loves to play with balls.  

We got to watch my cousin's adorable little girl for an hour Tuesday night.  She is a such a doll!  Taylor as so excited that she was here and was so gentle with her and didn't pick on her like she does Cohen once.  She was in SUCH a great mood the whole time she was here, despite it being close to bed time.  It was fun watching my kids play with her. 

Cohen is our little animal lover.  He LOVES our dog, Willis.  In fact, our neighbor's dog, Jake, was the very first thing Cohen laughed at.  He is always loving on Willis.  While we were out in Roosevelt last weekend for my Grandparent's anniversary party, my sister, Deb, brought over her new kittens to my mom's house.  Cohen LOVED them!  I could not get over how gentle he was with them.  He kept leaning down and snuggling with it and would softly touch it.  I was so mad that I forgot my Flip video camera, because it was so stinking adorable. But, at least I have pictures of it.  One of the kittens ran across his legs and he pointed at it and said, "no, no!" So cute!  Taylor didn't really care about them.  Which was weird, because she normally loves kitties, but she was tired and too busy playing with her cousins.

My Grandpa and Grandma Roberts celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on the tenth.  My mom decided to throw them a party, so we all got together out in Roosevelt on yestrday.  Originally, it was supposed to be a surprise, but my mom decided that she better let them know in advance so that they could have the opportunity to dress up if they wanted to.

We had it at my parent's ward building and it turned out pretty great.  We set up a table with a cake and pictures of my grandparents together in high school and from their wedding reception.  We also put together a folder of letters from everyone in the family.  We had a soup bar and it was delicious.  It was a lot of fun and it was nice to see family members who I don't see very often.  My mom did a GREAT job putting it together.

My grandparents are two of the greatest people ever and I love them oh so much.  What great examples they are to me.

Thursday night, Derek and I decided to take the kids to the Pumpkin Fest at Cornbelly's.  Taylor enjoyed it so much last year, and we knew that if we waited any longer, we'd be too busy and wouldn't be able to go.  He met us there, since it was we could get their sooner then waiting for him to get all the way home from work and then going.  It really was late enough, as it was, because the kids were tired. 

Taylor loved it though, so it was all worth it.  She especially loved playing on the hay bales, going down the slides, playing in the big house they had made of out Lincoln Logs, playing in the pumpkins, and of course, riding the cow train.  After that, it was apparent that she was beyond tired, and we needed to go back home.  Cohen also had a good time.  He really is such an easy going baby, and was just happy to be out and about and people watching.

We are so glad we were able to find them time to go.  I am pretty sure that this will be a yearly trip we make.  I am excited to go next year, when Cohen and Taylor can play and run around together.

Taylor and Cohen have been playing a lot more with each other lately.  It really is cute.  Cohen thinks that he is just as big as Taylor, and boy does he love to watch her cartoons with her.  He gets so glued to the TV, it's hard to get his attention if he is watching it.  It cracks me up. 

I found them like this a few nights ago. Taylor was patting his head while they were watching their show.

I had to take Cohen in for his one year checkup this morning.  Here are his stats:

• Weight: 19 lbs 13 oz - 6th percentile
• Length: 28 1/2 inches - 12th percentile
• Head Circumference: 19 inches - 92nd percentile

Haha! So, he pretty much has stayed on the same curve and still have a humungous head!  I guess he is going to be our little rocket scientist or something!  His doctor was pretty pleased with his growth and said that he was sitting pretty much perfect on the little one year questionnaire I had to fill out. 

Taylor was a ham, as usual and ate up the extra attention she got from the nurses.  I felt bad because Cohen was in such a good mood and then he had to have five shots!  He cried pretty hard, it was so sad! I hate shots so much, but know that they are a necessary evil.  I also had them give Taylor a flu shot, since we were already there.  She was such a champ and didn't cry at all.

Cohen's birthday invitation.

 Saturday we had Cohen's first birthday party.  It was so much fun!  One of our good friends, Cory, has a friend who own a couple of bounce houses and he was able to get a hold of him and his friend let us use one of them for free, as long as we went and picked it up and took it back.  It was so nice!  The one we got was a lion, but I never actually took a picture of it, darn it.

We decided to try and do his party in between the two sessions of conference, but it went a little later, because we were having a good time visiting with family and friends.  Good thing we have the DVR and the internet so we can catch up on what we missed!  We had it in the big grass area behind our town home.  It worked out perfectly.  My mom was nice enough to bring out a couple canopies, which we were grateful for because it was a pretty hot day!

It was a little stressful getting every thing set up, since we were running a little behind, but I had a lot of help from family, so it ended up being just fine.

The table set up with the cake and cupcakes and the banner I made.

The monster cake my mom helped me with.

The cupcakes.  I designed the flags and cupcake wrappers and my mother in-law helped frost them.

Cohen had a lot of people show up to celebrate with him. We had both of our parents and all my siblings and their families, and Derek's sister, Alyson, and brother, Evan.  Derek's Uncle Kerry also came and my cousin Shari and her adorable family.  We were also lucky enough to have two of our good friends and neighbors show up, the Lapioli's and the Kent's.

Back Row: Addison, Miles, Taylor, Tylee, Parker & Caitlin.  Front Row: Brandon, Jessen, Ellie & Cohen.

We had pizza and then had Cohen open up some of his presents.  He actually did a pretty good job helping me open them.







When he started to act pretty tired, we decided it would probably be a good idea to to cake and ice cream before he crashed.  He was doing really good until we put his party hat on.  He didn't like that at all. So he started to cry.  But, once he had a handful of frosting in his mouth, he cheered right up.  Boy did he make a mess, but that's what a one year old is supposed to do on their birthday, right?

He didn't like the party hat, AT ALL.

 After that he was a little more awake, so we had him finish his presents.  He got a lot of nice things and people were very generous!  He now has more trucks and cars than he probably knows what to do with, but it is nice for him to have some boy toys.

Cohen never went in the bounce house, he was just too tired. Derek tried once, but he really didn't want in there.  Taylor on the other hand loved it! We had a hard time getting Taylor out of the bounce house so we could take it down.  She pretty much spent the entire time in there other than when she had a cupcake.  Her little cheeks were so red, because it was pretty hot in there.  When I brought her in the house she had a pretty big drink of water.

My cousin's adorable little girl, Ellie.

Cohen was so tired that he crashed after the party at about 3:30 pm and slept until about 6:15 pm.
Thanks to everyone who came, we had a lot of fun!