It was pretty warm today, so the kids and I went out back to play when Taylor got home from school.  The slide was a little dirty, so I got out the hose and sprayer to clean it off.  Taylor wanted the hose when I was done, so I put it on the mister setting so she couldn't soak someone if she sprayed them.  Well, as soon as I gave it to her, she went after Cohen and started spraying him. Luckily, the boy loves to get wet and was a good sport about it.  She thought it was hilarious and continued to spray him until he was sopping wet and was starting to get cold and had had enough.

Today is Cohen's third birthday! Obviously this sounds cliche, but I really can't believe that he is three years old.  Times goes by so fast sometimes. Last night, I baked some cinnamon rolls for him to have this morning at breakfast.  I also got up this morning and decorated the kitchen with balloons and a table cloth. When he woke up, we brought him downstairs, gave him a cinnamon roll with some sprinkles, and stuck some candles in one for him. He loved blowing them out.

I took some pictures of him in his new birthday outfit out on the front porch before we headed off to church.  He is so stinking handsome.  His big brown eyes and long eyelashes make my heart melt. He's going to be a little heartbreaker someday.

After Sacrament Meeting, I brought Taylor home with me.  She was recovering from a sinus infection, and I needed to make Cohen's birthday cake.  I tried to make a little Mickey Mouse head on top, but it turned out a little messy, oh well. It's the effort that counts right?
After Derek and Cohen got home from church, Kendall and Evan came over to have dinner with us. Since we had already had his favorite food, pizza, yesterday, I decided to make him breakfast for dinner, since eggs and potatoes are also some of his favorite foods.

After dinner, we skyped with Sandi and had Cohen start opening his presents. He got some pajamas, books, little Pototo Heads that dress up as safari animals, an elephant backpack, blocks, some stuffed animals, an awesome train Grandpa Denney sent for him that was hand carved, and a Little People roller coaster.

We took Cohen out to lunch today at The Pie for his birthday lunch, since his actual birthday is tomorrow, a Sunday.  Both of the kids loved it!  They also are happy to have pizza, and The Pie is some of the best pizza out there.

Both of the kids were begging for cookies this afternoon, so I finally broke down and made them some.  Taylor had a hard time being patient for them to bake, and watched them the whole time. 

This afternoon after I got Taylor on the bus, Cohen and I headed down to Provo to meet one of my oldest friends, Janelle, for lunch at Sammy's. We had a great time catching up.  She has been on a mission for the past 18 months... so we haven't seen each other for a while.  She is one of those friends that no matter how much time has past, when we get together it feels as though it's only been a few weeks.

For Taylor's homework every night, Derek or I have to read to her for 20 minutes.  She is loving it. Her favorite party is coloring in the apple on her homework sheet when we're done showing that we read to her.  We really need to go to the library and check out some books though, I'm tired of the handful we have.

Tonight when Derek got home from work, we walked over to the other side of the loop for the annual neighborhood block party some of our neighbors put together every year.  This was our first year going, and it was a lot of fun. They had hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, and a photo booth. Taylor and Cohen had a blast just roaming around and dancing to the music. We didn't stay long, because the kids were super tired and needed to go to bed.

After the cardiologist appointment this morning, we grabbed lunch at In-N-Out and then dropped Taylor off at Kindergarten.  I packed up our things and got us ready to go out to Roosevelt while she was at school.  I went and picked her up and then drove out to my brother's house to pick up Jessen and Tylee, who were coming out to Roosevelt with us a few days earlier than the rest of their family was.
Taylor was so excited to see them.  We swung back by my house, picked up mom and Cohen and headed out to to Roosevelt.

We stopped in Heber and grabbed some Little Caesar's for dinner.  When we got to Roosevelt all of the kids had fun playing together and they went to bed later than they should have. The next day, Derek came out.  We went over to my aunt and uncle's house for a going away party for my cousin, Jason, and his family who are moving to Texas pretty soon. It was pretty hot and my  kids were getting grumpy, so after we ate lunch, we walked across the street and spent some time visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Roberts. Afterward, we went back to mom's and the kids had fun playing outside together. Cohen kept grabbing my hand and leading me over to the neighbor's horse. That boy loves animals.


 Sunday morning, we went to Loganne's blessing.  She wore the same dress that Taylor and Addison were blessed in, so that's kind of fun. We spent the rest of the day enjoying family and then loaded up the car and the kids after dinner and headed back home.

Taylor had a routine checkup today with her cardiologist.  Mom was awesome and came out to help me.  Taylor did surprisingly well.  She had to have a full echocardiogram, which meant that she needed to hold still for about a half an hour. Last time we went to the cardiologist (when she was 2 1/2) she wouldn't hold still at all so they couldn't even do it.  But she was a champ this time and they were able to go get the echo done in just over a half an hour. So proud of her.

Her heart looks pretty good, so Dr. Mart discharged her from his services. Always love good news!

Cohen loves Willis.  He is always wanting to lay down by him and play with him. Willis doesn't love Cohen quite as much, but they still are pretty good buddies.

The kids' sandbox only had one bag of sand in it this year and it has been slowly emptied out by them throughout the Spring/Summer...so it pretty much doesn't have much left it in. So, Taylor has resorted to playing the mulch instead... funny girl.

Crazy that Taylor is five years old and this is the first time we have participated in the annual Buddy Walk -- which is the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation's big fundraiser they do for the year. Last year was the first time I knew it existed, but we were in the middle of buying our home and we couldn't work it out to go.

We had a lot of support from our family members this year.  My entire family, minus Eric and Eva, were able to come, and Sandi was still in Utah, so she came with Kendall.  They had some booths set up for face painting and fishing, and they also had some blow up slides for the kids to play on.  There also was a little show with a couple of clowns and Taylor liked that.

We did a little walk around the park after the show was over.  It was so much fun to see so many people there dressed in the green buddy walk shirts supported those that they loved with Down syndrome.  After the walk, we had lunch catered by Chick-Fil-A.  Just as the event was ending it started to rain.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

This is an event we will definitely be doing every year from now on.