Kostina? Not bad....

Kosty found these Cinderella sunglasses at the park and wore them for hours! He refused to take them off, all while playing on slides and with trucks and dirt. Here is our little "Kostina" in action! It was so hilarious! Love that little rascal!

But here's one to prove that he really is "all boy!!" I swear. :)

Little Known Facts...

Good idea, Jamie! I thought I should take you up on the challenge and take the trip down memory lane! Some little known things about us...

- I had a major crush on Jer from my freshman year of high school and he didn't even know who I was.
- After he graduated, he saw me at the mall while I was working and since then, he has never left my side!
- Even when my dad would come outside at midnight (in his underwear) and yell for me to come in. Poor Jer. and me!
- I was engaged my whole senior year. We didn't get married until I graduated high school, but I was only 18 and NO! I will not let my kids get married that young, hypocrite, yes.
- My first job at 15, was at Jake's Pizza, and Jer worked at Big O Tires
- We found out I was pregnant on Valentine's Day, both pregnancies!
- Pretty much the only food Jer and I have in common is Cold Stone banana ice cream with brownies mixed in. The first time he ordered it I thought he was nuts, then I tried it and have never ordered anything else! DON'T KNOCK IT TILL YOU TRY IT!
- We have never ever, even ONCE left our kids overnight with someone else, I think we're both scared to! or maybe just too attached.
- I drove a hideous copper-pinkish rusty Ford Taurus for my first car ("The Toourus" as Jenna would say)
- I balled like a baby when we sold Jer's first car, the Jetta, in front of the sales guy. I was so sad to see it go.
- I still drive by our first home when I'm in the area, just to "check" on it. Stalker, maybe, but I prefer just sentimental!
- Jer had three surgeries in our first year of marriage, 2 hernias and one to get his appendix out.
- The sweetest thing Jer has ever done for me was when I had Koston early, he stayed up all night and painted and finished the nursery before we came home from the hospital. It was the best surprise ever.
- Jer never ever calls me by my real name, EVER. Hardly anyone does. So when I hear "Chelsea" it sounds foreign to me!
- Brayden was born three days late and had a blister on his hand from sucking on it in the womb, he was born hungry and still is!
- For Jer's high school initiation, he ran across the Lake Powell bridge (where he used to live) buck naked, and he never fails to mention this, and the fact that it was a quarter mile
- We spent our first Christmas in Hawaii when we were on our Honeymoon
- Jer got his first dirt bike when he was 5 and raced in AZ and UT
- Jer and I both hate milk, we never ever drink it, but were happy Brayden loves it!
- Jer can do a backflip on solid ground
- MY DAD took me to get my belly button pierced on my 16th b-day, uh, regret? definitely
- I never learned to dive and still can't! :(
- I once looked like Freddy Krueger's sister. When I was little, my dad took my sister and I on a little dirt bike ride through the neighborhood and a car hit us. I face planted into the street, and broke my wrist (but I was thrilled about my hot pink cast)
- Jer would love to have like 8 kids and then adopt some too, but I am still debating if going from 2 to 3 is gonna happen!

Pillow Talk

Why is it that whenever I am tucking Brayden into bed, he says the cutest things ever!? So tonight as I was tucking him in, he was asking if he had school tomorrow and when he turns five if he'll go to the big kids school. Then he said, "When I'm six or eight, I can still call you Momma. But when I grow up to a Daddy then I'll just call you Dove." (Jer's nickname for me) I love that boy! (For some reason he is under the impression that there is a certain age cut-off where he will have to start calling me "mom.") Anyways, just one of those cute moments that I want to remember.

Thank you all!

I turned the big 25 yesterday and I just wanted to thank all my family and friends that made my day special! Birthdays are just another day when you are older, especially as a mom, so its very nice when people go out of their way to make it special, I feel so loved, Thank you all!!!!! I have the best family and friends. I think the card that Jer got me summed it up best, here it is: Besides the fact that my kids are throwing up, it was a good day! Kosty was yesterday and now Brayden today. Poor Brayden, he is being so brave, and using the bowl very well. Whenever I take Kosty to the Dewper show on Thursdays, Brayden is at school. So he has always wanted to go but couldn't because of school. He asked me if he could go yesterday and I figured, what the heck, let's live a little! ha. So I let him ditch school and took them to see Dewper. Brayden has had this weird issue with "characters" for a while now, but I explained to him before we got there what to expect, and let him decide if he still wanted to go. For example, when he was 2 1/2 he was OBSESSED with Toy Story and anything related. So when we took him to Disneyland, we saw Buzz Lightyear in rare form, dancing in the middle of the cafe where we were eating! I was surprised to see how awkward he was and wanted NOTHING to do with him, all the other kids were over the moon, and dancing with Buzz. But no, no not Brayden. It seems he has carried this on over the years! So anyways, he insisted on the the Dewper show, and as you can tell, he was less than thrilled, and was acting completely awkward and miserable. FUN!! So we ditched out early and rode the carousel and then we were all smiles again. We came home and Brayden went to a neighbor's house and Kosty took a 4 hour nap, so I was able to relax and doze off myself, no present better than that!! Jer brought home a Cold Stone cake and we had family over and chowed down. It was a good day!

Welcome Baby Zoe!

Jeremy's sister, Mindy's water broke on Easter Sunday! and Zoe Mila was born at 3:30 ish in the morning, Mindy had just wished for an Easter baby last week, and she got it! Zoe was three weeks early, but healthy and cute as a button. She was 5 lbs 14 oz and 17 inches long. Another new niece for us!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all. We finally went to the Easter Pageant this weekend, and I think the last time I went was about 4 years ago, regrettably! it was a really nice way to reaffirm the reason that we celebrate. And I was happy to grab a great "feel the spirit" moment, since they are more infrequent than I would like! We met Jer's familia and they were sitting all the way on the side of the stage, so we sat down and Brayden said, " I can't see, that darn tree is in my way." Then about ten minutes later when everyone was towards the back of the stage, and we really couldn't see anything, he said," Maybe it's the Holy Ghost, that's why we can't see it."
I was really on the hunt for an Easter egg hunt (clever, I know) this year for Brayden. Luckily, my very inspiring friend Jaime, (while out on her daily 7 mile morning run at 7 am, gag, I feel like a loser now-thanks) happened upon a sign for an egg hunt somewhere in the neighborhood, so I took Brayden and it was just what we was hoping for and more! hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, face painting, pics with Easter Bunny, bouncy things, and of course, the most important element was the egg hunt, even broken up into age groups. Score! It was assembled by a Christian church in the area, so when we first arrived I felt like the odd man out, everyone had their special church t-shirts on, but they were friendly, and luckily Jaime showed up later to save me before I was converted. Oh yeah, how could I forget the awesome Christian jams the DJ was spinning. Brayden would not for the life of him sit and pose with the Easter Bunny, I was so annoyed, they were even taking the pic for me and I would actually have a memory to take home, since my camera is still getting repaired, but no, he refused until the last minute when he accepted my bribe of going straight to Grandma's afterwards and if I would sit with him. Well since the Easter Bunny had pink flip flops and long blond hair coming out the back of the costume, I felt a little awkward. So I just stood next to her, eh, the Bunny. Yes, mission accomplished!! I felt so much better about my feat until, dun dun dun.... they said the pics would be available at their church on Sunday for pick up, urg. Maybe I'll bribe Jer to go in and get it. Then it was off to Grandma's house to dye eggs and have a family dinner.

Kosty, I guess is skipping the whole talking chapter and is now onto sign language, I guess its better than nothing, but come on kiddo, we want those words! He has watched the Baby Signs video a couple times and he is picking up really fast. At dinner he puts his cute little hands together and makes the "more" sign and says, "mo, mo." And he will make the sign for "eat." But my favorite has definitely got to be his "milk" sign, he squeezes his little hand together like he's milking a cow, it is very humorous! Oh, and he was mistaken for a girl yet again this week when I took him to the Dewper show at the mall. He was digging in my purse, and this lady said to me, "She just stuck something in her mouth, and I'm not sure what it was." Thanks. Ok, I know he has cuter hair than you lady, but seriously, thats an insult in 2 ways, #1- he was in a BLUE t-shirt and BLUE jeans, so duh! #2- if he was a girl, do you think I would actually dress her like that? gimme some credit! Oh well, it gave me a laugh.

Ok, to all who understand where I am coming from, am I the only one who picks up around the house!??? Seriously, it has been getting on my nerves, and I am surrounded by boys, messy boys! it is NEVER-ENDING! AH! Please tell me you know how I feel. So Brayden has been really into the X-Box and PSP lately, both Jer's toys, but now he is starting to turn into a teenage boy right before my eyes, and it is not ok! He said to Jer yesterday, "Hey Dada, you wanna play Halo with me?" Um, no. That is not a game for 4 yr olds! So when he gets the itch to be a lazy video game player, I will quickly distract him with a bike ride, or a game, or something. So on Saturday when Jer was home the two of them were playing X-Box and after about an hour, I had enough and told him he better go play outside like a normal kid. Seriously, kids these days are getting so lazy, they should be active, not sitting around playing games, I will not allow it. The point of the story is, the ever important decision arose again, about what to have painted on his cheek at the Easter festival, all the other kids picked bunnies or animals, and what did he choose? an X-Box. (well, I guess its a step-up from the scorpion, kind of)

Reminiscing...

Nothing too exciting this week, still no camera either! On Wednesday I babysat my niece Libby, she is 2 months old. She was a happy little thing, and I got to experience what life would be like with an 18 month old and a new baby! It went smoothly, but I only had her for the morning, and then she was picked up! I don't know how other moms do that, have kids so close together, its like having a big baby and a small baby! the boys were so dang sweet to her, it was so precious. Kosty surprised me because lately he has been into smacking me and Brayden, and he thinks its hilarious! So I was a little surprised to see how he reacted to the baby, he would smack me or Brayden and then go up to Libby and say,"Ah!" so sweetly as he would rub her hair and try to kiss her head. He kept on making this nerdy face, (my personal favorite of all of his facial expressions) at her when I was feeding her the bottle.

Brayden had his friend Jerron over and they were very brave to try out the Slip-N-Slide, even though the water was pretty cold. They

giggled and played forever with that thing, yet another "Dangit, where's my camera" moment. Those have been far too frequent lately! Argh!

We went to the kiddie pool on Friday and it was a little chilly but the kids still had a blast, finally all the other kids got out and wrapped up in their towels, and my little Brayden through the chattering of his teeth, could barely muster out the words, "Why..is..everyone..getting..out..?" Saturday came and we had a big neighborhood picnic, with food, a bounce house, face painting, and balloons for the kids. We waited for what seems like hours in line for the face painting clown, and Brayden was going back and forth with the important decision of what design he wanted. First it was Spiderman, than he decided on a green dragon and his mind was made up! Until, finally it was his turn to sit and all of a sudden he changed his mind to a scorpion?! It was such an odd choice for him, of course I tried to get him to rethink it, but his mind was made up, and out of all the things, he ends up with this huge, black, nasty scorpion going up his arm. Nice! (wish I had a pic of that, but once again, no camera! Dang.)

My little Kosty will be 18 months old this week, (hallelujah! time for nursery) I was reminiscing about when Brayden was his age, and how quickly it passes! It makes me want to savor every moment of this cute age, and vow to never forget the cute things he does and says. But like all moms know, sad but true, we do forget. So that's why I am grateful for my little online journal to have it in writing! Kosty, you are such a little firecracker, my little "wolf in sheep's clothing " as I affectionately call you, and I do mean that in the most endearing way. You are very shy, it takes some time for you to warm up to people. You are very selective in who can be graced with your presence! You have a complex personality, much different than Brayden's. You are so shy and quiet in any uncomfortable setting, but where you are comfortable, you are a wild man. So sassy and full of life. You are starting to learn more words and I know you must get frustrated that you can't vocalize all the things your little mind thinks about. Your favorite words have to be "A-gin!" and "k" for okay. I love your sweet "Hhhhiiiii!" whenever dada comes home form work. You love your brother, even though you bully him, whenever you see Brayden's "mimi" you will pick it up and rush it to his side, because you know how important snugglies are, since you are so attached to your blankie. It was once a beautiful soft and fuzzy thing with satin on the back, but now it is worn in, to say the least! You LOVE to be outside and play on the skateboard or a big bike, nothing for babies. You bring me my shoes and force my feet to the floor if I am sitting down (a rarity). You are demanding, but oh so sweet at the same time. You love to snuggle and read books. You love motorcycles and make the cutest little motorcycle noises. You make all the animal sounds, my favorite is the camel, you fling your cute hair and attempt to spit. Your hair is my favorite, so blond and silky, and it flows like a bell. I am jealous, I pay good money to get mine the same color! Even though you get mistaken for a "she" more often than we would like, its worth it to have every last moment of that baby hair since it never comes back! Just a few of the things I want to remember about this age...

(Brayden at 18 months left, Kosty at 18 months right)