Jake and Alyssa

16 months later....

2012-02-05T21:56:00.002-07:00

I can't believe how much can happen in 16 months. Kyler has grown and learned so much. It literally blows my mind. I really should be doing a monthly update on him but who has time? I can't list everything he has learned since the last time I did an update so I figured it would be good to just go through our day to day events lately.

He sleeps between 8 and 10 hours at night, which I love. For some reason he only likes to sleep in late when I can sleep in. In other words, he is up by 8:30 on the days Jake has him so Jake never gets to sleep in. He also takes a good 2 or 3 hour nap when I have him and Jake is lucky to get 2 hours when he has him. I told Jake it is because I am quieter than him but he just thinks its not fair. I think its funny.
Mornings, depending on the day of the week, either start off with breakfast or going to grandmas house. His nap time depends on what time he wakes up but is usually around 1:00. After his nap he eats lunch. He is a big boy now and refuses to eat baby food. (and who can blame him?) Which means I have to be creative. He used to eat a jelly sandwich almost every day and he must have got tired of it because he won't even touch them now. Now he likes grilled cheese. He is his fathers son because he LOVES pizza. I can't believe how much he eats. He also loves peaches and mandarin oranges. He still likes apple sauce and gold fish. He loves almost any kind of cereal and always wants you to share yours. He likes cheese and grapes and yogurt and potatoes and spaghetti-o's. Oh, and he also loves pancakes and French toast for breakfast.
Next is play-time. He is finally walking! And almost running. He has been working on it since Christmas but has always been just a little hesitant to let go and take off on his own. Well at the beginning of January he decided to be brave and take off on his own. At first it was so cute because he still had his arms out for balance and he walked like a little Frankenstein. He is pretty pro now. His favorite toy at the moment is a baby stroller and the little stuffed, black cat he pushes in it. Mindy at my work noticed how much he liked to push the strollers there so she got him one of his own! I was hesitant at first but he absolutely loves it. We had to pull the table out far enough that he can go around it and make sure nothing is in his way. He will run you over if you get in his way so watch out! He also loves his kitchen, cars, and books. Especially the ones with the buttons to make sound effects. He really likes to pull stuff out of the recycling garbage can, which drives me nuts, and he plays with my paint bottles and brushes. That's what I get for leaving them within his reach.
At dinner time you know he is almost done when he clears his plate. As in, dumps everything on his tray and yells, "mom" until I take it. He is really good about letting me wash his face off, which I am grateful. I babysat a pot of kids who threw a fit when they had to get washed off. Same goes for diaper changing. He isn't too squirmy and doesn't fight me to change his bum.
On to Kyler's favorite part of the day. Bath time!! As many of you already saw on my Facebook, he does not like bubble baths. Worst thing ever. But regular baths are the best thing ever. I want to record him some time from beginning to end. He runs to the bathroom when I ask if he wants a bath and then jumps and gets super excited while I fill up the tub. I start to take his clothes off and its like I can't get them off fast enough. I throw in his letter toys and then in he goes. It's the best part of both our days because he will entertain himself for a good 20 or 30 min and I can just relax while laughing at all his silly pretend conversations he has in the tub. He never cries when I wash his hair and body and then out he goes. Daddy lathers him up with lotion and puts his jammies on while I empty the tub. We then clean out his ears and brush his teeth and its off to bed. I let him turn off the light and I rock him while I tell him how much I love him and sometimes sing him 'soft kitty'. It's from The Big Bang in case you were wondering. He gets a kiss and goes into his bed. He always lays in a little ball on his tummy and giggles when I cover him up. I shut the door and that's it.
Can I just say I have the best baby ever! I'm terrified to have another because what are the chances of me winning the kid lottery twice in a row?!
A couple other things I want to mention/remember: He has very long blonde hair. It is super straight and always lays flat on his head. I've cut it a few times myself and it kinda looks like a bowl cut because I am not very professional and I love it so much it is hard to cut short.
He currently has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom and 2 bottom molars coming in.
He talks a lot but it sounds like Chinese. Just a bunch of jibber jabber and sometimes I think he says a real word but I'm not sure. He knows mom, which he already yells to get my attention. He knows Dada and no no no and thank you but it comes out da do. Words I think I've heard him say are dog, juice, and bye-bye.
He loves to talk on the phone to pretend people. He doesn't do much talking when there is a real person on the other end. He uses our phones, his play phones, and whatever he has in his hand to talk on the phone and he will walk around and play with other things while talking to whoever. It is so hilarious and I really don't think I talk on the phone that often but I guess he had to get it from somewhere.
He likes to try and put his own sock and shoes on but he hasn't quite figured out how to get them on his feet yet.
He sings and it is my favorite thing! His song he made up sounds like he is singing 'oh day, oh day' I love it!
He is the very best cuddler and always has been. He likes to cuddle with us on the couch and watch tv and he gives very good hugs and will even pucker up for a kiss sometimes he will grab your face and kiss you, best ever!

Well, that will be all for now. If I think of anymore and have time tomorrow I will add to this.
I love, love, love my sweet little boy!

What's been going on.....

2012-01-08T18:42:00.003-07:00

Guess I should do a blog update. It's been awhile. Since the last time I posted we've had the three holidays, thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years. All of which were great. Thanksgiving was nice. Nothing too exciting. Christmas was a lot of fun. We were hoping Kyler would be excited about presents and opening them...he wasn't. He had no desire to open anything. I even wrapped a coat in a big box just so he could play with the box. He opened it with Jake's help and then proceeded to push the coat back in the box and crawl away. Christmas day at the cohoons he didn't want to open anything so we let him play for awhile and then put him down for a nap while we opened all his presents. He didn't seem to mind.
We did have a sort of Christmas miracle. On Christmas Eve we had a yummy dinner at my aunt Suzette's. Afterwards, we were just talking and I set Kyler down and he just took off walking. He's been working on it for awhile but just hasn't had the confidence to take off on his own. I was so proud of him. Of course I could only get him to do it a few more times that week. He's been practicing a lot since then and is almost ready to take off running. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. It's fun to watch kids hit mile stones but then you realize you aren't ready and they are growing up so fast.
New years came and went. Nothing exciting. I was super tired and Jake got home late. We rented a movie and tried to stay awake til midnight. That was it.
Since then we have just been doing the usual. Work, stressing about the house in St. George, and just hanging out. We are in the process of doing a short sale on the house in St. George. And in the mean time we have "rented" it out to try and save up some money. In the 3 months they have been there we have received a total of $50. I've pretty much had it up to here (hand way, way above head) with all of it. Hopefully it will sell soon and I can have one less head ache.
So that's us, plus the fact that we had a lovely weekend of the stomach flu. Poor Jake said he has never been that sick. For the first time ever he left work early. I must point out he did not and has not ever called in to work. He went in for almost 3 hours. He had to come to the doctors office that morning and get a zofran shot. It makes the nausea and throwing up stop. I got one too since I was starting to feel sick. In case you are wondering, it hurt but it worked so I can't complain. Kyler never officially threw up but we are pretty sure he wasn't feeling too well either. Sadly, it is going around and pretty contagious. I'm sorry if you ended up getting it as well. Don't blame me though, I had to have got it from somewhere, I'm just not sure where.
We are all doing much better now and are excited for the week ahead. Jake has the whole week off because he had vacation days that needed to be used. Guess that's all for now!

They grow up so fast...

2011-11-01T22:15:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to write this for awhile but haven't gotten around to it until now. Kyler has learned so much in what seems like such a short amount of time. I just LOVE to watch him grow. Everything he does is so entertaining, who needs TV when you have a baby? Here are some of the things I love to watch him do and things he has learned recently:
I love that when he hears music he dances. And sometimes he even sings along just making noises.
I love that he is a very good eater and when he eats something he really likes (like ice cream) he says "num num num".
He is a lot more vocal lately and knows he can get my attention by saying "mamamamaaaa".
He knocks on every door and says "dad?"
He talks on the "phone" which is usually just whatever is in his hand. And he usually talks to Jake, saying "dadada".
I love that he is a perfectionist like me. His food has to be right where he wants it when eating and he tends to eat in order, from the left to right of his tray or visa versa.
He is worse than our dog now when it comes to food. Has to taste everything we are eating even if he just ate and I know he isn't hungry.
When he puts a lot if food in his mouth I say chew it up and he makes this really obvious chewing motion even though he only has 4 teeth. Cracks me up.
I love that he gives good kisses. He will sometimes just come up to me and say "obah!" That's how he says muah. Too cute. And usually his mouth is open, of course. And if I tell him to give someone a kiss and he doesn't want to he will just put his forehead by their mouth so they can kiss him.
He is an amazing hugger and the best snuggler. That might be my favorite thing. He loves to just sit next to me or Jake and watch TV or just cuddle when we hold him.
He teases Nala and it's hilarious. They are so good together. He knows how to pet her and is always so soft and she knows not to lick him. Sometimes he will come up to the couch where she is sleeping and grab her feet, which she hates do she runs away and he chases after her laughing the whole time.
He isn't quite walking but is so close. We bought him some shoes for his birthday and he actually doesn't mind them. If he finds them on the floor he will try to put them on and it is so cute.
He is very good at helping clean up his toys...but doesn't understand that he has to leave them put away once we've cleaned up. Which is why my house is always a mess. And to that I say "meh, I have a baby."

I'm sure I could just go on and on about him so I'll just leave it at that. But I must say he is amazing. Children in general are. Recently, at work, someone asked the doctor what was the most amazing thing he knows about the human body. His answer was that we can survive. That we go through so much in the womb and then after we are born and our bodies take on so much and yet, here we are. I thought that was a wonderful answer. And it's true. I didn't think about it until after having my own child how much of a miracle life really is. Kyler is my everything. He is amazing in everyway and couldn't be more perfect. It is such a joy to have him in my life and have the oppertunity to watch him and care for him and give all my love to him. I think the best thought of all is knowing that whatever happens in this life he will always be sealed to me, always be my little baby, for all of eternity.

Kyler's Birthday Pictures

2011-10-09T16:28:00.011-06:00

I don't have all the pictures we took, yet, but here are a few...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KYLER!!!!

2011-10-04T22:36:00.003-06:00

I can't believe it's been a year already! The time sure does fly. It just makes me want him to stay my baby forever! I don't even want to think about him growing up because before I know it it will already be here! So here is how Kyler's first birthday went...
He woke up at 7:30am and ate. Then mommy tried to put him back to bed but he must have been to excited for his birthday because that didn't work out. Finally around 9:30 he decided it really was too early and went back to sleep. Mom slept another half hour (woohoo). Then I woke him up at 10:45 so we could meet with someone about our house in st george at 11. He got dressed and mom fed him cereal in the car on the way there. He played on the floor while mom and dad had their meeting. Then we went home and had some lunch. Mac and cheese, apple sauce and some puffs. Then it was nap time. He slept for almost 2 and a half hours! That's a good nap! When he woke up he played for a little bit and then we went and fed the ducks. It was lots of fun and they kept bitting mom's toes. We got back around 5 and we finished all the chores around the house. Dad ordered the pizza and then the guests started arriving. In attendance were: grandma and grandpa Kimball, Kayla, William, Mason, grandma and grandpa Flores, Issac and Mandy. Grandma and Papa Cohoon, Bobby, Emily, Landon, and Kathryn. First, we ate pizza and salad. Then Kyler opened his presents. He did a great job for his first time! He got lots of new toys and clothes. Then it was time for cake! We had a wheel of fortune cake and Kyler even got his own little cake. We sang Happy Birthday and then let him dig in. He was a little hesitant at first but then really enjoyed it. He seemed a little thirsty so daddy got him a drink of milk for the first time. He really liked that, too! Mom is happy about that because she wants to be done nursing. After cake we all just hung out and dad opened all his new toys. He played for a long time and then had a bath. And now that his sugarf high is wearing off it's time for bed! What a fun day! Happy Birthday, Kyler. What a blessing it is to have you in our lives!
*pictures soon to come*

Back to the Blog

2011-08-13T18:27:00.007-06:00

It's been awhile...a little over 4 months. Which means I have yet to blog about all of the milestones Kyler has hit lately and all the events that have happened this summer. (Can you believe it is almost over?!)

In other words...this is going to be a LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG blog! I'll try to break it up a little so as to not overwhelm anyone.

Kyler

Kyler is now 10 months old!! And this last month he has learned so much! I felt like he wasn't progressing fast enough around 6 and 7 months but from 8 months on he has just been go, go, go! I almost can't keep up!

Looks:

He now has lot's of think, blond hair. It is starting to look a little more strawberry blond, which I am a fond of. And he is just about ready for a hair cut. We gave him a trim a few months ago but now it is almost in his eyes and pretty long in the back. If you're wondering where the blond hair comes from it is Jake. Jake was a blond baby and his hair didn't get dark until he was a teenager and then didn't get curly until he was in high school. I also have some blond family members on my mom's side of the family so it could be from me too.

He now has 2 bottom teeth. They both came in within a couple weeks of each other and he hasn't got anymore since. I keep thinking he is getting a top one in every time he gets cranky but nothing yet!

As far as how big he is he has gotten bigger but actually didn't grow a lot from his 6 month appt to his 9 month.

What he has learned:

He talks a lot! Ok, maybe not real words, it's just jibber jabber but holy cow is this kid loud! Some things are starting to make sense like "mama" and "dada" but that's about it for now. He will have a conversation with you, you just can't understand what he is saying.

He learned how to clap his hands a few months ago and that was pretty cute. And he can give you "5"...if he wants to. This kid doesn't do tricks unless it's on his time.

He also can now feed himself which is a good and bad thing. Good for me so that I can just put food on his highchair tray and let him go for it, bad because he puts Everything in his mouth! I know babies usually do this but he just started this last month so I had things pretty easy as far as not worrying about him eating something he found. He did try to eat a rock at Lake Powell but luckily I caught it.

A little over 6 months ago he finally started rolling for real. And he did that until almost 8 months when he finally stopped rolling from one end of the room to the other and would scooch backwards instead. It took him until just the other day to really get the hang of crawling forward. Most babies his age have been crawling for months by now and are even starting to walk. We decided Kyler is just too relaxed about things to need to go anywhere or have any reason to be mobile. And honestly, I was totally ok with that. Putting him on the floor to play and knowing he would stay there was nice.

He just started pulling himself up to stuff this past week. Watch out Ladies and Gentlemen! He is on the move!

He really likes to go "babababa" by hitting his hand over his mouth (if that makes sense). He makes lots of silly faces and he loves to do anything else he can to make us laugh.

Speaking of laughing he has some funny laughs. Sometimes it sounds like a "ssss ssss" like Ernie on Sesame Street would do. And other times it is just a funny noise i can't describe while his whole body just shakes. He is so silly!

What Kyler Loves:

The water! He loves his baths. Loves to splash and never cries when i pour water over his head. At Lake Powell he loved being in the water and never complained, even when the waves would splash him in the face.

This kid loves to eat. He is an excellent eater and I hope it stays that way. He hasn't eaten too much real table food before recently because he had a hard time getting the chewing thing down. Baby food is pretty runny and he was used to just swallowing it. Now he will eat lots of stuff and some of his favorites are jelly sandwiches, apple sauce and cereal puffs.

He loves dogs. He has always been around them and is never afraid of them, no matter how big. He gets so excited when he see's one.

Books. I hope he is a reader. He loves to be read to and if he finds a book he will hand it to you and quietly wait while you read it to him. Then if you hand it back to him he will look at it for a second and then just hand it back so you can read it again. I've already read a few of his books too many times to count!

I wanted to post a ton of pictures on here, now that I have a computer, but for some reason it isn't working so they will have to come later. Keep checking back becuase the rest of the blogs I want to do have pictures as well.

Happy Half Birthday!

2011-04-04T23:15:00.002-06:00

I know its been a long time since I've blogged on our family blog and I've been dying to catch up but almost every post has pictures and I don't have a computer handy, just my phone. So as soon as I can I will update with pictures. This is just a little blog to say...
HAPPY 1/2 BIRTHDAY TO KYLER!
He is already 6 months old! I can hardly believe it. I know they always say kids grow up so fast but when its your own and you see them everyday it just seems unreal.
A little bit about my boy...
Kyler has always had a strong personality. Even before he was born I just knew kind of how he would be. Happy, energetic, a flirt, a wiggle worm, etc. Its just amazing how he really has his own unique personality already.
He smiles at anyone that smiles at him. He laughs a lot. He isn't shy. He is a flirt. He only cries when he is hungry or needs something. He is very loud. He yells a lot and says dadada alllll day long. He loves his mommy and daddy very much. Nala is already his best friend. He laughs at her a lot. He loves kisses and is an excellent cuddler. I'm a little worried we have a dare devil on our hands. He loves to be scared, whether its by saying, "boo" or throwing him in the air. He thinks a binky is just a chew toy and I'm totally ok with that. He is almost able to sit by himself and roll over, I think I need to push him a little harder and practice a little more. He loves food. He has been fasinated with us eating and when I started him on rice cereal he was a natural. So far he has loved everything he's tried.
I'm pretty sure I could go on for days about all the amazing things our sweet son does. The most amazing thing to me is still the fact that Jake and I could create such a perfect little being. Being parents is the greatest thing in the whole wide world. I just hope I am able to enjoy every moment that I know will fly by.

Me As a Mommy

2010-12-28T00:58:00.003-07:00

Life as a mom is wonderful. But as every mom knows, being a mom comes with challenges. As a new mom I'm learning a lot everyday and I don't think moms ever stop learning. Every child is different and everyday with that child is different. One day they sleep well and eat well and are perfectly happy, the next they feel sick and wont stop crying. Life as a mom is hard. And if I were to give advice to any new mom it would be: There are no right answers. Sure there are do's and dont's but no baby is the same. I guess really I'm writing this to make myself feel better. I had this image in my head of what I would be like as a mom and it didn't quite turn out the same.
Kyler isn't really on a schedule. I see lots of moms who know exactly when their child will eat, sleep, and poop. I consider it lucky if I guess the time Kyler will want to eat next. Maybe I could have done a better job when he was first born at getting him to eat and sleep when I wanted but it just didn't seem that important. I read a baby should eat for about ten min on one side, burp, and eat another ten min. Ha! Sometimes he eats 5 min, sometimes he eats 20. Just depends on his mood I guess. And sleeping..."a nap in the am, a nap in the pm and wake up every 4-7 hours at night". Well considering I didn't get up until 11 when I was home with him what's considered an am nap? And then if it takes from 4-7 to finally get him to stay asleep (he's a light sleeper, like me. And I'm out and about a lot) how do I control when his bedtime should be? I'm happy for and impressed by moms who do have their kids on a schedule but if MY life isn't on one how can I expect his to be? So am in not as good of mom because he isn't on a schedule? Sometimes I think 'yes' but I just have to remind myself I'm not.
It's hard because I'm a perfectionist. And my life is crazy. No two days are the same. I want the best for Kyler but what I guess I need to convince myself is that the best for him doesn't mean he has a perfectly scheduled life and I do everything perfect. As long as I am doing my best and he is happy and healthy and knows I love him more than anything I'm doing great. And honestly I think more moms need to remind themselves of that. To every mom out there- just remember You have the greatest job on earth and no matter what your kids say or do just remember that as long as they know you love them things will be ok.

(Thank you, Blogger, for letting me vent and remind myself everything is just fine. Also, I'm not looking for advice or sympathy, just letting out my thoughts.)

Annual Fall Walk Up the Canyon

2010-12-10T15:13:00.003-07:00

I wish we would have taken more pictures but on the way back Kyler got hungry and we had to hurry back. Last year we got a cute family picture and I was hoping to get one again this year but it just didn't work out. It was still fun though, I just love seeing all the pretty fall colors.

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-12-10T14:30:00.004-07:00

This year's Halloween wasn't too eventful but Kyler did get to dress up. He was a football. My mom threw together this adorable costume for him and I just loved it. I wish I would have planned better because I could have dressed up as a cheer leader and Jake could have been a football player. But of course after having a baby I wasn't too focused on Halloween and it kinda hit me by surprise this year.

He looks so scared!

Jake and his little football!

Goal!

Cute little outfit from Jennifer!

Jake decided since he was now 4 weeks old it was time he should change his own diaper.

We did manage to carve pumpkins this year...

Jake's Firey Scull!
Alyssa's Starry Night!

5 Generations!!

2010-12-10T14:12:00.003-07:00

Kyler is lucky enough to have a great-great grandpa! Not many of us get know our great-great grandparents. Kyler met his Great-Great Grandpa Gordon on Oct 26 and on Nov 8 he got to meet his Great Grandma Karen so we were lucky enough to get a 5 generation picture.

Great-Great Grandpa - Max Gordon

Great Grandma - Karen Wilson

Grandma - Leslie Flores

Mom - Alyssa Cohoon

Kyler!

First Bath

2010-12-10T13:22:00.004-07:00

Kyler's first bath at home was a pretty eventful one. The first bath we gave him was a sponge bath because his umbelical cord hadn't fallen off yet. Jake did most the work and I took the pictures. The picture I missed was Kyler peeing and it going into Jake's mouth! It was so funny!

What a good daddy Kyler has!!

More Pictures of Kyler's First Day

2010-12-09T16:04:00.004-07:00

Aww, my little thumb sucker...

First time meeting grandpa!

Getting a bath...

Welcome Home, Kyler!

2010-12-09T15:54:00.004-07:00

Kyler came home on Thursday, Oct 7.

First time in his new bed.

Happy BIRTHDAY Kyler!

2010-11-22T14:47:00.005-07:00

The story of Kyler's Birth...

My actual "due date" was Oct 17, 2010. Knowing that my mom had all of her babies at least 3 weeks early I had a feeling I wouldn't make it until then. I just wanted to make it until October. We were really hoping for the 10th so that his birthday would be on 10-10-10 but that didn't happen. On our 'sealing anniversary' (May 16) Jake bought me a beautiful necklace with the October birth stone. After that I just prayed he would be born in October.

I had a doctor's appointment on Thurs, Sept 30 and found out I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. This didn't surprise me because I woke up feeling different. I knew I wasn't in labor but I could tell something was changing. The doctor said I could have the baby anytime now, even that night. That worried me because it was not Oct yet! What if I didn't make it until midnight? Not to mention, that is my best friend, Jennifer's, birthday. That day has already been claimed! So I went home and laid on the couch all day. I felt like I had the flu or something anyway, not to mention the stress of knowing I could have a baby at any minute, so I enjoyed the day off.

Well, the day went by and between naps I made sure I had everything ready for the hospital. I wasn't really having contractions, and when I did I hardly noticed and they were, at the closest, 10 min apart. Jennifer came over to keep me company and help me get things ready. (I think she did it more for her sanity...she was a little anxious). After Jake got home we decided to go get something to eat. It was 9:00 and we decided if it were going to happen sometime during the night we might as well eat while we can. We went to Village Inn (because IHOP couldn't find a minute to serve us) and had some ok food. We went home, went to bed, woke up the next morning...nothing happened.

Friday came and my contractions were still very very minimal. Jennifer and my mom came over (for both of their sanity) and we went to the mall to walk around. It was October now and I was so ready to have him. By that evening I was having almost no contractions.

Saturday Jake and I decided to walk some more and get things going. I was getting so impatient and stressed because everyone kept asking about me. I'm glad they were concerned for me but things were going so slowly I wasn't in the best mood. I went to work for a few hours and spent the evening having dinner at my aunt and uncles to visit family that had come from Cali for conference. It was really nice and got my mind off all the stress I was having. By the end of the day I had decided I was going in reverse. I wasn't having any contractions so he must have changed his mind.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. After Jake went to work at 4 I decided to do some of the exercises I had learned in my birthing class. I had done a few the days before but now I was anxious for the baby to come so I really put some effort into it. Around 6:00 my contractions started again. YAY! I didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't want to jinx it. I just kept swaying my hips on my birthing ball (basically a work-out ball I got from my class) and praying they didn't stop. Around 7 I remember thinking "hey, that felt like a real contraction!" They were about 8 min apart and around 7:30 I finally told Jake I was having real contractions. By 8:00 they were getting uncomfortable. They were still about 8 min apart but sometimes only 5. I decided to take a bath, something I learned in my class, to relax. After being in the tub 15 min I decided it was too uncomfortable and Jake should come home so I wouldn't feel so anxious. So much for that idea...When I told him he should come home he said he couldn't for another 45 min. *Hello! I'm in labor and stressing out! Come home now!!!*

By this time it was around 9:00 and they were 5-7 min apart and painful. I was doing ok but really wanted Jake there for support. He finally came home around 9:30 and we started packing things in the car and getting ready. We finally left the house around 10:45. My contractions were 3-5 min apart and were painful but still manageable.

We got to the hospital at 11 and of course they admitted me (I was almost dilated to a 5- yeah, after almost 4 days I had dilated almost one cm).

I planned on having a completely natural birth and my doctor told me I didn't have to be hooked up to an IV but that I had to have a saline lock just in case. I HATE needles so I wasn't happy about this but didn't have much choice. That was the only thing that made me cry, sadly the nurse poking my hand was worse than my contractions.

Well, the night went on with the nurse checking me every hour or so and my contractions getting closer together and more intense. I was having back labor (which they say is worse than normal labor but I really have nothing to compare so who knows) most likely because the baby was face up (portiere) rather than face down, how he should be. Because of this I wasn't progressing even though the pain kept getting worse.

Jake was so good to rub my back every time I had a contraction (which was about every minute, lasting a minute). I was doing really well...but here's where I was not so happy...

I had asked in my "birth plan" to be on the monitors as little as possible so I could be free to move around (also the reason I had no IV). Well, I had a Monitor Nazi Nurse (excuse the language, but she was). If I moved even a tiny bit and it messed up the monitors she would be in my room in .02 seconds to fix it. I couldn't lay certain ways or the monitor would freak out. I decided I wanted to walk the halls to get things going. Plus, because I was having back labor it helped for Jake to lift my belly (something we learned in class). Well, the nurse came in and instead of taking the monitors off, hooked me up to an IV pull so the monitors could still be attached. Ok, I could deal with that...Well, we get about 10 feet down the hall from the nurses station and I swear the nurse is on a dead run to us. "You have to come back! The monitor isn't picking up the signal, you're too far away from your room!" So we were limited to about 20 feet of hallway in front of my room and the nurses station. After about 10 min I decided it was ridiculous and I was tired of her sitting there watching me walk. It was stressing me out. So we went back to the room. I tried sitting on my birthing ball (another thing from class) only to find her back in there telling us "the monitor's don't like it when you sit like that." Ok, so how about a bath. The rooms at Orem Community Hospital all have jetted tubs. And the monitors could go in the water!! Finally, something they won't freak out to. I get in the tub and the nurse comes to remind me "not to get your saline lock wet". So I'm stuck with trying to find a comfortable position while holding my hand out of the water. By this time I had had it. I got back in bed, limited to laying on my left side (monitors didn't like me laying on my right).

Around 5 am the nurse checked me and said I was just barely 6 cm. After no sleep and no progress and not being able to do anything I was done. I had been in labor over 12 hours (at least labor with contractions) and was just worn out. When she told me I hadn't made any progress I think it was the last straw for me. I didn't know how much longer I had to do this and I couldn't even do it the way I wanted. I decided to get the epidural.

Of course right when i decided to get the epidural it was shift change and i got a new nurse. She was super nice and probably wouldn't have been so crazy about the monitors. But it was too late now, I'd made up my mind. I was just too discouraged to keep going.

Being afraid of needles I was not looking forward to getting one in my back. However, I had an awesome anetheseaologist and I didn't feel a thing. From the moment he started the epidural I didn't feel anymore contractions. I could finally relax and get some sleep...0r so I thought. Hospitals are probably the worst place for trying to sleep. People are constantly in and out of your room. No rest for the weary. It was a little after 7am and I was told to rest a little and then my doctor would be in to break my water. He came in I think a little before 8am and broke my water and hooked me up to pitocin because I was still only at a 7. So in one hour I had broke three of my own rules: 1)epidural 2)water broken for me 3)pitocin. I was pretty sad about it but I have to admit it was pretty nice to just relax and not feel anything. I was so exhausted.

At 10:00 the nurse came in to check me and said I was at a 10 so she wanted me to sleep until about 11 and then I would start pushing. Of course I didn't sleep, even though I tried, and at 10:45 she came in to get me ready for the doctor.

I guess she thought I'd have to push for a long time so I was going to push for a little while before the doctor came. I pushed twice and she told me to stop! Then we waited for the doctor. I guess his head was just sitting there and finally the nurse got on my call button and told someone to "tell the doctor to get in here now!" He came and she was all upset saying she was about ready to deliver this baby by herself. It was pretty funny. The doctor got all ready and I pushed I think 3 more time and he was out.

The second I saw him I couldn't stop crying. It was amazing. The doctor kept saying congratulations and all I could do was cry. Jake cut the cord and then they started weighing and measuring and cleaning him up.

Kyler was born on October 4, 2010 at 11:12 am. He weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. He is absolutely perfect! I don't think the pregnancy and birth of my first child could have gone any better. I still don't know what I was so scared of. I almost can't wait to do it again (even though I'm sure the next one will be completely different.)

First time holding my precious baby boy.
Jake is so happy to finally be able to hold his little boy.

Poor Jake was so good to sleep here for the 3 nights we were in the hospital. I am so lucky to be married to such a wonderful guy. The perfect husband and now the perfect father.

Pre-Kyler

2010-11-22T14:22:00.004-07:00

Here are some PRE-KYLER pictures--just for fun!

As crazy as it might sound, I look at these and miss being pregnant! I loved being able to rub my belly and know that Kyler was in there, safe and secure. Now he is here in this big, scary world and it's not as easy to protect him. I loved being pregnant. I was blessed with a very easy pregnancy. I never threw up and my "morning sickness" was just a little nausea or loss of appetite every now and then. I was uncomfortable my last month but I think that was the worst of it. I'm not ready for another one yet but when I am I can't wait to be pregnant again. I just hope the next one is as easy as this one was. It's crazy to think I used to be so terrified of being pregnant and having a baby.
I think this was the last picture taken of me when I was pregnant.

Things to Come...

2010-11-02T15:53:00.002-06:00

Because my computer is out of commission I haven't been able to do any posts. I plan on doing some soon, so here is a preview of things to come...
*Some Prego Belly Pic's
*Kyler's Birth
*Kyler's First Photoshoot
*Welcome Home, Kyler
*Kyler's First Bath
*Fun Times
*Hiccups
*Kyler's First Halloween

Just some random stuff....

2010-06-24T13:53:00.004-06:00

I'll start out with the good...Yesterday, for lunch I decided to make crepes and Jake made orange julius. I thought it was the perfect meal and just had to take a picture to show it off. I'm not much of a cook so when something (even something as easy as crepes) turns out this good I just have to show it off.

!!!!!!!~CAUTION!!! WARNING!!! BEWARE!!!~!!!!!!!

I MUST WARN YOU THIS NEXT IMAGE IS SLIGHTLY GRAPHIC. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LIKE THE SIGHT OF BLOOD, LOOK AWAY NOW! Ok, it's really not THAT bad...

Every Tuesday night Jake goes and plays church basket ball. Last week he came home early and I knew something was up when the first words he said after walking in the door were..."Honey, don't be mad. I'm ok." Of course I started going through possible injuries in my head; broken arm, broken leg...and if you're thinking 'but he drove home by himself, it can't be that bad' let me just remind you who drove himself home from road hockey with his roller blades still ON while missing half his mouth.
Anyway...turns out it really wasn't too bad. He got elbowed in the head and it gave him a pretty good gash. It probably should have had stitches but he wasn't in a lot of pain and didn't want to pay ER fees for a few stitches. We tried to go to Insta-Care that night, only to find out they had just closed minutes before we arrived. His mom took a look at it that night and we decided he'd be ok until morning. And as his mom added "just wrap it with an ace bandage" (the Cohoon's will get that). Funny thing is he couldn't just put a band-aid on it because of the hair so he put some gauze and wrapped it with...what else? an ace bandage. The next day he went and saw Dr. Johnson who said it would be fine. And so far I think it has healed really well. He'll have a pretty good scar but knowing Jake I don't think he'll mind one bit. And now for the glorious picture. (That really isn't that bad so don't worry)

Jake's Latest Masterpiece

2010-06-24T13:20:00.003-06:00

Last month, while at Wal Mart, Jake found some really cool palm trees. They only had 3 and no one knew what they were called. The only sticker on them said "Cold Hearty Palm". Of course Jake got really excited because he loves palm trees and these sounded like they were made for Utah. (We will see come winter time!) So he bought all 3 and then realized we didn't have anything to put them in and just putting them in the ground might not be such a good idea. (In case we do have to bring them in for the winter.) Also, our pond was looking a little bare. So together we came up with the idea for planter boxes. (Jake's idea-Alyssa's drawing) Jake got right to work and they were finished in no time. Here are some pictures of my hubby hard at work:

And here is the finished product! I think our yard looks so beautiful. And as soon as we paint or do something with that white wall in the back it will be perfect!

This is an attempted picture of our whole back yard. I love our gazebo but I'm pretty sure Jake's next project will be some chairs to go under it. I just wish we had more money for him to build all the stuff he wants to. He loves working with wood and everything he does turns out beautifully. I'd say he really has a lot of talent and I am so grateful for it!

Our New Friend

2010-06-24T13:10:00.003-06:00

Every summer we get a new friend in our yard. This one is actually in the neighbors yard but might as well be in ours. He/she lets us know he/she is there...every morning! We have a wood pecker. At first Jake thought I was crazy but after about a week he believed me. He/she is a very effective alarm clock on the days we want to sleep in. And I finally got it on video. Enjoy! (sorry it's so shaky, I was zoomed way in so it's hard to hold the camera steady)

Camping Trip!

2010-06-22T21:31:00.007-06:00

Technically, this was our second camping trip of the year, however, I don't have pictures from the first one and it really wasn't all that great... We wanted to go up to Payson Lakes, but they weren't open yet. So, we went up AF canyon and found a nice little camping spot. We got all set up and had a yummy dinner and roasted marshmallows. Then we went to bed....with Nala. She had never been camping before. I think she was a little scared and confused. As Jake put it "she was shaking like a Little Caesar's sign." Needless to say the 3 of us didn't get much sleep. At around midnight it started raining. And it didn't stop...until sometime the next day. Our tent started leaking around 9am and we figured we'd better pack up when we realized the rain probably wasn't letting up and i couldn't go without food for much longer. Only bringing food that has to be cooked and having no canopy to cook under wasn't so great. Anyway, we packed up and came home.

Our next camping trip was a million times better. We went up to Payson Lakes. It was so beautiful up there and the camp grounds are really nice (can't say so much for the bathrooms but it's camping so ya just gotta live with it). We went with some friends from Jake's work, Ed and Megan. And we didn't bring Nala this time.

I'd say it was the perfect first camping trip. The weather was perfect the whole time and there weren't very many bugs at all. We went fishing both days and Jake and Ed got to have fish for lunch. Everyone caught a few fish (Jake caught over 15 between both days-he only kept the ones to eat though) except me. I caught zero. I had fun though, and that's what matters. And I did get to gut the fish, so that was exciting for me. (Might sound a little crazy to you but I was excited because I hadn't gutted one in awhile. I used to go fishing with my grandpa all the time and when my younger cousins got grossed out by the dead fish I was put in charge of gutting them.)

We also had some camp ground friends! A few chip monks and pot guts/prairie dogs were playing in our camp ground. They were not shy and got really close to us!

We went on a fun little hike to Grotto Trail. There is a water fall at the end and it was so pretty! I think we want to make it a tradition to go to Payson Lakes for our first camping trip of the year every year. It really was one of the best camping trips I've ever been on!

Kyler Kelton Cohoon

2010-05-24T18:21:00.002-06:00

It's A Boy!!!

Sorry, the pictures are a little fuzzy. And sorry for those of you who don't know how to read an ultrasound picture. It's kinda like 'Where's Waldo' only it's 'Where's Kyler'?

In this one it looks like his head is really big in the bottom left corner...It's Not! Actually, the top of his head is right in the middle on the bottom. He is upside-down. His tummy is on the right side and his leg and foot are on the top. He is pretty much folded in half. Silly kid!

This one is almost the same shot as the first one. That dark spot in the middle on the bottom is his eye. And you can see his leg really good at the top.

This is his arm. He is making a fist. His elbow is on the right and the fist is kinda in the middle. I think the fuzzy thing behind it is his other arm. I can't remember. And last but not least his boy parts! It's really hard to see cuz this is a picture of a picture but the angle that he is at he is pretty much sitting on the camera. So the thing sticking out on the top is a leg, a ding-a-ling in the middle and another leg, before it goes all fuzzy. I'm not sure but I think in the bottom right his the top of his head. It's all pretty fuzzy but he is "definatly a boy!"

I think he is adorable already! Only a little over 20 weeks left (assuming he is full term) and we'll get to meet this little guy! He looks great so far and is measuring right in the middle on all the growth charts. Some were even a little above the average. Which is great news cuz that means he is healthy and growing at just the right rate.
He is a very wiggly baby. I felt him kick for the first time on May 11 and now I feel him move all the time! The ultra-sound tech had a hard time getting a few of the pictures she needed because he wouldn't hold still. I guess maybe he takes after his dad in that way! Good news for us is that we'll get another ultra-sound next time we go in--more pictures!
We picked the name Kyler Kelton Cohoon. Almost 2 years ago we found the name Ky and heard that it meant ocean in Japanese. (still not 100% sure about that but it sounds good to us). And if you know anything about us you know the ocean is one of our favorite things. So it fit pretty well. We just wanted him to have a longer name so we came up with a bunch of ideas until we found Kyler and loved it. For the middle name I originally wanted Jacob. Only Jake doesn't like the name Jacob (I know, what a weirdo). But I didn't like Kyler Jake. So we thought of Kyler Jacobie. Which is one of Jake's nick names. We liked it for a really long time. And then I decided it would be weird to give our kid a nick name for a middle name. So I had my friend, Jennifer help me out. She works at UVU and looked up all the Kylers, and then all their middle names. I saw Kelton and loved it. And so did Jake. So that's what we decided. Who knows if it will change in the next 4 1/2 months. I'm not planning on it but you never know. I hear it happens a lot. So far that is what we're sticking to.

Baby Update

2010-04-20T21:59:00.004-06:00

I just figured I hadn't posted anything in awhile so since I had a minute I would do that.

Lately...and going to be for the rest of my life...the biggest thing on my mind is BABY. Everything is baby. Of course I don't mind that, it is just a huge change in my life and it just gets bigger everyday...literally!

I am now 14 weeks pregnant meaning I am in my second trimester and 1/3 of the way there!! According to the books the baby is about the size of a lemon now. And I'm just wondering how it fits in there! I am starting to show a little bit, but not much. I'm pretty sure the only people that can tell are me and Jake and my close friends. It really just looks like i'm a pig and ate a really big lunch! I love that my belly is actually starting to stick out now. I can't wait until I look really pregnant.

As far as "How are you feeling?" which I get on a regular basis....I'm feeling good. I never get morning sickness (in the morning that is) but I have had a little evening sickness. It really isn't too bad, though. It's mostly just loss of appetite or heartburn. Speaking of heartburn... I really hope this kid has some hair. I really doubt with my genes it will but they say Heartburn=Hair and I've had it from almost day one. I really love that I'm in my second trimester now because I can tell things are starting to get better. I am not as tired and I don't feel like I have to eat every 3 seconds.

In other, non-pregnant news: Jake and I went on a mini vacation last week. We went to Vegas with my friend Courtney and her boy Alec. It was a lot of fun. We all really needed a little get-a-way.

We stayed at Excalibur. (And just for anyone planning a trip to Vegas soon, I'd stay in the Golden Nugget, that's our favorite cuz they are always clean and friendly and it's not crowded. Excalibur was ok but let's just say it's hard to please a girl who does housekeeping for a living.)

Looking out the window of the CocaCola Factory. We took this same picture 3 years ago, right before we got engaged (as in literally, he bought my promise ring just hours after).

At the Cheesecake Factory. And of course this just had to be one of the nights I had no appetite. I got a pizza thinking it would just be something semi-cheap and easy to eat. It was delicious! I ate one slice. I feel really bad about that one but what is a pregnant woman supposed to do?

At the CocaCola Factory we got an "Around the World" which is drinks from all over the world. Let's just say I'm glad I live in America because I only liked about 3 of them. We also got one for floats...but those were actually good because they were things like Coke and ice cream (my favorite!) and orange, cherry, and grape fanta and stuff like that. Nothing too weird.

Courtney's favorite picture from the trip! Haha I know what it looks like but they did not get hooked in Vegas. Courtney was looking for a dice ring (like the one off the movie What Happens in Vegas) and we tried just about everywhere and thought maybe one of the wedding chapels would have one. They didn't :( and we never did find one, sadly.

And of course a sunset picture Jake took on the way home (while driving).

Baby's First Photo!

2010-03-12T20:26:00.003-07:00

On the 5th we went to my first doctor's appointment. I got an ultrasound and we got to see the baby and hear the heart beat! It was absolutely amazing! I can't believe this little thing is actually growing inside of me.

In case you're wondering, because it is the all famous pregnancy question: I'm feeling great! I very rarely feel nauseous (thank goodness) and I hope it stays that way. I am starting to feel pregnant in other ways though! I am soo tired all the time and I have to eat at least every 3 hours or I feel sick and like I'm starving to death. It is taking some getting used to. Nothing too horrible though, and for that I am glad. I really want to enjoy being pregnant and when I start feeling like I'm not enjoying it I just keep reminding myself that it only lasts so long and that there is a little miracle growing inside of me that will be one of my greatest treasures in life.

My due date is now officially OCT 17, 2010.

We have names picked out but don't ask! We are not telling until we find out if it is a boy or a girl.

Guess What!!

2010-02-18T16:52:00.002-07:00

Yep! It's positive! And despite what you might think it wasn't a surprise. Did we have you fooled? Granted we have only been trying since the beginning of the year but it was planned. It just happened really fast! We just found out on Tuesday so I'm not very far along at all but we were so excited we just couldn't keep it a secret. My due date is Oct 16....or somewhere around there. After I go to the doctor we will decide a for sure date I'm sure. Don't worry, we'll keep you all updated.

Christmas Lists!!!

2009-11-28T12:14:00.004-07:00

For anyone racking your brain on what to get us this year....here are a few options:

Alyssa's List-

Spiral Bound Hymn and Primary Books
Piano Music- anything semi-easy, or any of my favorite artists; Regina Spektor, The Fray
I Pod Adaptor for Car
Church Clothes- dresses and skirts
Church Shoes
Nativity
Curling Iron- I think 2"
Scrapbook Stuff- I love the big books of paper vs. just sheets of paper, ABC stickers
Canvas'- As in painting canvas. Pretty much any size is good.
Shirts

Jake's List-

Air Compressor
Nail Gun
Shop Heater
Herb Grower
Jumper Cables
TV for bedroom
Tool Set- wrenches, screw drivers, ratchets (Alyssa would prefer some with a tracking device so he can't lose them.)
A Remote control car....not the battery kind, the real kind, as in uses gas and you have to put it together and stuff.

OUR List-

Kitchen Timer
Cooling Racks
Board Games
Anything for our food storage
A China Set -min. of 8 people. We like simple designs and silver is good-no gold.

The Pantry

2009-11-07T13:24:00.003-07:00

Yep, just showing off my amazing husbands handy work again. This last week we did a complete over-haul on our pantry. I didn't take any before pictures so for those of you who don't remember or never saw what it looked like let me just describe it a little bit. You open the door and it was about a 16 in. step down onto a cement floor. There were shelves on two of the walls- if you can call them that. They were basically scraps of wood all put together at random to make what looked like shelves. We have recently decided that we really need to be more gung-ho about food storage and that seemed really hard to do when that is what we had for a food storage room. So we tore out all the shelves and painted the walls with some left over paint we found. Then we built a floor so that it is even with the rest of the house and Jake put a trap door so that we can store luggage and other things under the floor to utilize that space as well. Then we bought some new shelves and set them up and now it is just beautiful! I love LOVE love it now! It is so clean and organized and I can't wait to fill up all our shelves with food storage. (If any one has suggestions on how to do a great food storage let me know). I would just like to thank my very talented husband for all his hard work. This was a pretty frustrating project because as we have found in old houses nothing is straight. Not to mention that the shelves we bought were pretty stupidly designed and he had quite a time putting them together. Thank you Thank you Thank you Jake!!!

The now even floor, so you don't kill yourself when you walk into the pantry. (We love stick on tiles-so easy and they look great!!)

You can't even see the trap door, just the String to pull it open.

The trap door.

And my mostly empty (at the moment) shelves!

Halloween Party

2009-11-07T13:06:00.003-07:00

The Monday before Halloween we had a Halloween party at our house with Bobby and Emily and Landon and Mike and Meagan. It was a ton of fun. We had a pizza, a pumpkin carving contest, Disney Scene It, and pumpkin cake and hot apple cider. We all dressed up and it was so much fun.

Our pumpkins: From left to right--Jake & Alyssa, a skeleton, Mike & Meagan, a cat on a broom in front of the moon, Bobby & Emily, a witch on a broom stick in front of the moon. Bobby & Emily won first place followed by Jake & Alyssa followed by Mike and Meagan. We had our neighbor judge the pumpkins and although we didn't all agree with his decision that was the out come and I am just glad we all had so much fun doing it!

I dressed up as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and Nala was Todo (or Toda because Todo is a boy).

She didn't like the basket very much, but I don't really blame her.

Landon and Uncle Jake having fun during the party. I hope we can keep this tradition going, it is soo much fun!

Nala

2009-11-07T12:56:00.003-07:00

This is the story I wrote about my puppy. (Inspiration from Allyson-thanks!) It is intended to be a children's book with pictures so just use your imagination!

This is Nala. She is my dog. Sometimes I wonder if she is really more than that.

Sometimes she pounces on things just like a cat does. Maybe she is related to a lion!

Nala can run really fast, just like a cheetah does! And when she starts to slow down she hops like a bunny rabbit.

She always has her tongue flicking in and out like a snake. She just loves to give kisses and lick everything she sees!

Nala must think she is an elephant. When she gets a drink of water she tries to drink it through her nose. Doesn't she know she doesn't have a trunk?

When I'm watching TV Nala sits on the top of the couch with her paws on my shoulder. If I were a pirate she could be my parrot!

If Nala gets scared I pick her up and hold her like my baby. She holds on tight- just like a monkey!

Nala must have the memory of a fish. She gets so excited to play that she forgets where the ball is!

Nala thinks the grass is a tasty treat. She eats it just like a cow does!

I love when Nala gets really excited. She tries to wrinkle her nose and she snorts like a pig!

My silly puppy can't decide what she is!

Dog, Lion, Cheetah, Rabbit, Snake, Elephant, Parrot, Monkey, Fish, Cow, Pig.
Whatever anmial she chooses to be is fine with me because she will always be my Little Princess!

Fall 2009!

2009-10-24T11:37:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday (10/21/09) Jake and Nala and I decided to take a walk up Provo Canyon by Bridal Veil Falls to see the beautiful fall foliage. Here are some pictures we took along the way...

Jake's Latest Project

2009-10-24T11:11:00.004-06:00

My mom has had this antique buffet in her dinning room for a very long time. It was already an antique when my step dad bought it and then it went through 5 kids and well, it looked pretty bad. A few years ago they decided they wanted a china cabnit, however, those can get pretty pricey so they decided to just build shelves on top of the buffet. It turned out ok, however it never got finished because it would be a very time consuming project. Since my mom didn't have the time to do it and knows how much Jake likes to refinish things she asked him if he would like to do it for her. Of course he said yes and I'm glad he did because it turned out Beautifully!

Only Jake can take this....

...And this...

...And give you...

THIS!!!

TA DA!!
He added display lights...

And we painted and stained everything.

(same technique we used on our kitchen cabnits)

And he did this beautiful tile work.

Needless to say my mom is very happy and it looks beautiful in her dining room.

The only problem? She doesn't want to put anything on it!

Outdoor Coffee Table

2009-09-12T12:23:00.003-06:00

Jake's latest project has been this beautiful coffee table. We got the idea from a table we saw in Lowe's and decided that we could do better. It is going to go outside under our gazebo/canopy after we find some chairs to go with it. And in the winter we can bring it inside and it will look great in our front room. Here is the table in the beginning stages:And here is the finished project:

Jake's beautiful tiling job:

I love it! Jake is so talented!!

Nala

2009-09-11T18:39:00.003-06:00

Jake and I decided that it was time to give Nala a hair cut. She always looks like a completely different dog after she gets one. Mostly because we just have them pretty much shave her to get rid of the tangles and so that we don't have to take her in every month, which you probably should with silkies. Below are her before and after pictures:And after the hair cut: a brand new dog (who can actually see!).

A little bit about Nala (because after all she is my only baby and most people like to blog about their kids and stuff)....

Nala is about 2 1/2, almost 3 years old. I have no idea when her Birthday is because Jake doesn't have a clue. He thinks he bought her in December of 2006 so my guess is she was born in Sept- Nov.
She is a very VERY hyper dog (maybe a little ADHD but we're not sure if you can test for that in dogs). We don't mind too much, though, because it's always a good feeling to come home and have someone SUPER excited to see you, even if you only went out to check the mail and come back.

Her favortie thing to do is lick. Lick, Lick, LICK!! She licks anything and everything! This is a picture of her giving my brother, Issac a bath (and boy does he need it)!
Nala runs really, really fast! When she needs to let out energy she runs from one end of the house to the other about 20 times, non-stop. I think she also does this for attention because it happens a lot when we have guests over and they get a kick out of it.
Nala is more than just a dog. Since we've had her we have discovered that she is a lot of other animals in one. Such as:
She is a lion. As you might have guessed she was named after a Lion and there is good reason for it. She pounces. Like a cat. I have never seen any dog pounce on things like she does.
She is a pig. When she gets really excited she likes to make a grunting noise like a pig, weird.
She is an Elephant. For some reason she thinks she has a trunk, not a nose, and tries to drink from it. She coughs almost everytime she gets a drink of water because she gets it up her noes. Duh!
She is a fish. I don't know if this is a scientific fact or not but they say a gold fish only has a memory of about 10 seconds. Nala might be worse than that. Partially because she gets distracted easily and partially because she just can't remember where that ball went.
She is a cow. I know it is normal for dogs to eat grass every now and then but she seems to do it a lot and every time we're in the backyard playing we have to remind her that she is not a cow and to stop eating the grass.

So far I think that is all the animals we have discovered inside her. No matter what though we love our little princess. (And she really is just as spoiled as a princess)!

Our Other "Pet"

2009-09-07T18:21:00.005-06:00

This is our other not-so-nice, not-so-cute, don't-want-to-pet-it-or-even-look-at-it, sorta pet. It has no name because it doesn't deserve one and no gender because I'm not getting close enough to check. This is A Hobo Spider. I say A instead of THE because just now I saw 4 in the yard. This is the only one I got on video. Scratch that...I just looked out the window and saw another one, I'm going to get in on video too.
Anyway....For those of you who have never heard of a Hobo Spider let me tell you a little bit about them, besides the fact that they are a spider....They are huge, ok maybe not like a triancula huge but still pretty big. I'd say the average size if you were to draw a circle around one would be like a quarter. They are either a brown or gray color and have a sort of stripe down their back. And the worst feature of all, in my opinion, is they have buggy eyes, or what look like eyes but really they say that hobo spiders can't see very well so they will often run towards you before they run away from you. VERY SCARY!!!
Also, it can be very bad if they bite you. They say that they only inject venem 50% of the time but I still don't want to be in that 50%. Most people have heard of Brown Recluse....Hobo Spider's bites are pretty close to that. You can get a big ugly blister like thing from it that I'd imagine hurts pretty bad and it can take anywhere from 1 month to 3 years to heal depending on how bad it is. If you want more info here is awebsite I would recommend looking at...http://hobospider.com/info/index.html.

And now the videos...

Our New Pet

2009-09-03T17:53:00.004-06:00

As some of you may remember when we first moved into our house we found out we had a snake living in our back yard. This year we've seen at least 3 snakes (a mommy, daddy and a baby) and found out they live under the house. The other day we were fortunate enough to find one sun bathing and got some pictures before Jake scared it back under the house (he tried to pick it up). Because you can't really tell in the picture I thought I should let you know this snake is probably about 18 in. long and maybe an inch thick. The baby snake is only about 1/4 in. thick and maybe 6 in. long. You might be surprised to know I love snakes so I was very excited to see the ones I've seen and excited to now have a picture to share with you all. P.S. His (i hope this is the boy) name is George, Jake named him. I decided that the mommy snake will be Georgina and the baby is Georgie. Yes, that's right, George, Georgina, and Georgie. :)

Jake is now 28!!

2009-09-03T17:37:00.002-06:00

Jake's Birthday was on Aug 24. For his birthday I took a teddy bear holding balloons and a card to his work that day. That evening we went with my family (my dad & cece and the kids and aunt suzette and her kids) to a very yummy restaurant in SLC called the Asian Star. If you haven't been there I recommend you go! You will love it! We had a really good time being with family and eating food :). On Tuesday we got together with some friends and family and went out to eat at the Olive Garden. Afterwards we went to Trafalga for a little mini golf, go carts, and arcade games. It was a blast. Afterward we were going to eat cake but everyone ended up leaving at different times and I guess we were having so much fun we just forgot about it. However, it was specially made for Jake by one of my good friends and I figured since no one got to see the cake but us I should post some pictures. I think she did an awesome job!

Piano

2009-08-23T13:14:00.004-06:00

As most of you know, Jake bought me a piano for Christmas. A very old piano. He had to wait until the weather warmed up and then he stripped it and refinished it. It has been done for awhile but since we didn't have internet when it got finished I couldn't post about it and forgot until now. Here are some pictures of the beautiful job he did. I just love it. I'm not sure how old it is but our guess is that it was made in the early 1900's. It could be around 100 years old! And it plays beautifully. The seat still needs to be recovered but I just found the fabric I wanted and will be doing that this week. (You should have seen the 4 layers of fabric we pulled off...it was like looking back in time and you could tell exactly which time period each of the previous fabric's came from.) The top is glass so that you can see the strings and everything inside. It is very unique and it makes it look so antique. I love it. I also thought I should put up some pictures of our 100% finished fire place. I put pictures up from right when it got done but now it is all decorated and everything and looks even better.

Bear Lake

2009-08-22T17:57:00.002-06:00

Recently Jake and I got to take a trip up to bear lake with Bobby and Emily and Emily's family. It was a blast! We spent a lot of time on the lake. Here are a few videos and pictures I thought I'd share...

Emily, Debbie, and Carly getting ready to take off on the banana.

Buddy enjoying the wave runner/water bike/sea doo/ whatever you want to call it.
Jake the boat driver.

The "oh, so wonderful BARREL ROLL!" (by Bobby)

I have a video of Emily, Debbie, and Carly going for a ride on the banana only it is really long and taking a long time to upload so I will have to put it on later.

Alyssa's First Time Wake Boarding

2009-08-22T14:43:00.003-06:00

That's right, after 2 years of being married to someone who loves the water and most of all wake boarding in it I finally had by big debute. I'm surprised it didn't come sooner with the amount of times we go to the lake. I do have a fear of water and Jake is very good not to push me to do things until I'm ready. He was very patient with me. I was very nervous and my ride didn't last long but I did manage to get up on my first try! Here is the video...watch carefully- it's over in about 2 seconds. Maybe next time we go out I can have a longer ride.

2 years - already!

2009-08-09T23:56:00.002-06:00

Well, believe it or not it has been 2 years since that wonderful day when Jake and I got married. 2 years! I can hardly believe it. Time really does fly when you're havin' fun! And it's been a blast! I can't wait to see what the future brings and I hope that they are just as great as the past two years, if not better! I feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo super duper lucky to have Jake. I couldn't have dreamed up a better man. Cohoon's-thank you soo much for not only raising this wonderful guy but also letting me have him and be a part of your family. I'm happier than I have ever been, and that's the truth.

It's amazing to think that after two years I'm still telling people that "we have yet to have our 'big fight'". (and let's hope it never does happen). Jake is so patient and understanding and never does anything to upset me if he can help it. (besides tickling me until i want to cry-grr) We have already made so many memories together- vacations, time with family, our date nights, just hanging out, fixing up our house, getting sealed, etc. I just love it, every minute of it!

I think one of the biggest things I am thankful for when it comes to being married to Jake is how much he has strengthened my testimony. (I know that the past two fast sunday's I've had that nagging 'get up and bear your testimony' feelings...and yet, I just can't do it. Too much stage fright I guess. So maybe I'll post it on here, no stage fright and knowing that my family and friends will be the ones that hear it is comforting.)

I grew up going in the church, going to church, all that fun stuff...but I never really thought about my testimony a lot. I just always knew the church was true. And I thought that's all a testimony was about, knowing the church was true. Well, in the past few months I've realized that sometimes having a testimony about something in the church helps you to realize why you know the church is true. For me that something is the priesthood. I grew up a little different than most people that grow up in the church. I didn't always have someone in my house to give me priesthood blessings and use the priesthood power like they teach in church. So although I had been giving priesthood blessings I never really had that much of a testimony about it.

I love love LOVE that Jake is a priesthood holder. As many of you may recall I had an allergic reaction (we think) to the birth control I was on only a week after Jake and I got married. In that situation the first thing Jake did was get his mom (a nurse), as soon as she said I should be taken to the ER I started freaking out even more (I am VERY afraid of hospitals, needles, etc.)

Next thing I knew Jake and his dad were getting ready to give me a blessing. While I was screaming in pain (or so I was told, I don't remember) Dave and Jake gave me the blessing. We got to the ER and I don't remember the needle hurting when they put it in my arm, I wasn't scared of whatever the doctors were going to do to me or anything.

After running the blood tests we found out that I had pancreasitis (spell check). And the weird thing...I wasn't in any more pain, at all. And when you have pancreasitis protocol is that they put you in the hospital with an IV because of the pain and you aren't allowed to eat or drink for like 3 days. And I was fine. The doctor didn't know what to do, and didn't know why I wasn't in anymore pain. Jake just smiled and whispered "priesthood blessing" in my ear. It was such a comforting thought.

After that we spent a lot of time in the hospital my mom and his dad who were in and out for awhile. During that time my testimony grew even more, every time he or his brothers gave his dad a blessing or he and my step dad gave my mom a blessing. It grows every time Jake says something that I would expect a priesthood holder to say. A priesthood holder that I know will be there to bless my children and keep the church as an important part of our household. Seeing Bobby bless Landon recently was amazing and sort of gave me a preview of what it will be like, and the spirit I'll be able to feel when we have children.

Not only has my testimony about priesthood grown but also my testimony about temples. Growing up not being sealed to anyone brought a lot of mixed feelings for my testimony. At first it was "I have to marry in the temple because I'm not sealed to anyone and i need to be" and then later "i don't know what the importance of being sealed is because I'm not sealed to anyone, so does it really matter?" And the closer Jake and I got to being sealed in the temple the more I realized how important it really is and how important temples are. The greatest feeling in the world is being sealed to Jake. Not only to know that he is there, forever, no matter what, but also to know that I get to be sealed to his wonderful, my wonderful family as well.

I thank Jake all the time for "saving" me. For finding me when I needed him the most. Because I know that if Heavenly Father wouldn't have put him right in front of me at that very moment and if Jake wouldn't have been so persistent in being with me, I would be in a very dark place in life. No one but me can or will ever understand how important Jake really is to me and how thankful I am for every little thing he does for me. I am so thankful that I got to marry a return missionary who holds the priesthood, would do anything in the world for me, and most of all loves me soo much!

More Pictures!

2009-07-29T11:20:00.006-06:00

I promised that when I got internet I would put up some more pictures from when Jake and I got sealed so here they are!
What a wonderful thing it is to be married to such a wonderful person, and to know that they are mine for all of eternity. May 15, 2009 was one of the best days of my life!

FHE At My Mom's House...Fire Saftey

2009-07-09T21:47:00.004-06:00

So this last Monday Jake and I went to my mom's house for a BBQ. (Kind of a 4th of July BBQ, just a little late cuz Jake and I work too much). Jake and Issac got the charcol going and we had hamburgers, hot dogs, and of course grilled pineapple (along with other non-grilled items). We had a great dinner and then were watching some TV waiting on the homemade ice cream to be finished when we heard a loud knock at the door. We were all a little hesitant to answer so Joe answered it. And the boy at the door said "the side of your house is on fire!!" We all ran out the door (some out the front door, some out the back). Joe immediatly got the hose and started hosing down the flames and I called 911 (a first for me). When I got outside the flames were gone but it was very smokey. Soon, we had a police car, fire engine, ambulance, and a saftey truck thing in front of our house, blocking off half the road. (oh, and a helicopter in the sky). The fire was out by then so the firemen didn't really have anything to do except file a report. And how did the fire start you ask? Well, Jake was a little busy trying to get the charcol going and asked Issac to get rid of some ash. (Issac doesn't really have a lot of first hand experience with fire). He put the burnt news paper in the recyling garbage can- and put some dirt on it to put out the spark. Well, I guess those sparks didn't go out and the fire burned through all the paper and the whole garbage can before starting the house on fire. Luckily, the people who told us our house was on fire stopped when they did. The only damage done was some melted siding and a melted recyling garbage can. We are so blessed!! We were all a little shook up but no one got blamed because we all learned a little fire saftey. And now some pictures of what it looks like now:

MEXICO!!

2009-07-09T20:31:00.006-06:00

Finally, I'm updating our blog! And first on the list is our trip to Mexico! We (Jake & Alyssa, Brady & Cece, Kayla, Mandy, William, Mason. Suzette, Jacqui, BreAnn, Madison. Kayci & Jeff, Grace, Claire. Amy, Hailey, Jake, and Sue) All went to Cabo for a week. We stayed in San Jose Del Cabo, which is about 15 min from Cabo San Lucas. And now some pictures from the trip!

Our beautiful view from our condo balcony.

A (sideways) picture of dad and Willaim in our condo. (sorry, too lazy to rotate the picture, turn your head.)Trip on the glass bottom boat. We went on a tour to see the famous arch, lands end, lovers and divorce beach and lots of fish, "mexican snow" and seals! (I'd put pic's of all that but most of it is on an earlier blog from when we went on our cruise to Cabo.)

William having fun looking at the fish in the bottom of the boat.

Aww, the happy couple :)

Oh, look at the sweet boy. Isn't Mason just so adorable! I hope my kids are at least half as cute as my baby brother!

William and Alyssa making a sand castle. By the way, the water was just perfect that day. Everything was perfect and I am sooo ready to go back!

Grace having fun in the sand.

Claire just chillin' on the beach. What a cutie pie!

Mandy and Mason havin' fun in the sun!

And last, but not least, one of our favorite restaurants Cynthia's. MMMmmm good!!

Yes, I know it looks dumb...

2009-06-26T17:50:00.002-06:00

Yes, the background and banner for my Blog look funny. Why, you ask? Because I don't have a real computer with internet and I'm borrowing my moms. Which means I am trying to change my blog stuff using VERY slow internet and it is already frustrating. Also, I haven't blogged in a very long time and forgot or don't know how to do a lot of blog stuff. I'm not very computer smart so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing. If you can tell what I'm trying to do and know how to do it could you please tell me. And then next time I use a computer I can fix it. Until then you'll have to deal with my ugly page. Thank you.

Pictures Finally!!!!

2009-06-08T19:19:00.006-06:00

Well, I don't have very many but I do have some pictures to put on here. Some of the pond and some from our sealing. Enjoy!!
(I'll put some more next time I get an opportunity.)

whiney little me

2009-05-26T23:38:00.000-06:00

So much has been happening and sadly I can't post any pictures. As I've said before we only have internet on jakes phone so pictures are a no go, not to mention how long this takes because a blackberry's key board is tiny. So I'll just briefly list some things and hope that one day we'll have internet again. May 16 jake and I were sealed for all of time and eternity in the mt timpanogos temple. It was a fantastic day!! May 20 bobby and emily had their adorable baby boy, landon craig cohoon. Wish I had pics! May 24 our first day teaching nursery. If you haven't heard already yes, we just got called to be in the nursery. It was so much fun! (At least I thought so). Just so happened that it was memorial day weekened so we had visitors! Let's just say 2 hours goes by a lot slower with 13 two year olds! Well, that's all for now but cross your fingers that I'll have real internet soon so I can post all of the fun things coming up this summer!

Waiting for May

2009-04-07T00:08:00.000-06:00

I can't wait for the month of May. So many exciting things to look forward to. First of all it will be summer which means nice warm weather and no more snow. Warm weather means people will come out of their houses and we can start doing fun stuff again with the family cuz I've missed that lately. Speaking of family bobby and emily's baby is due in may which means a new nephew (and a cure for my baby hungry-ness). And on the 16 Jake and I will be sealed for all of eternity. I am so excited that I get the privlage of spending forever with the man of my dreams. And lastly May is the month before June and in June we are going to Cabo and I can't wait! So hurry up April showers cuz I can't wait for May flowers!

mini post

2009-03-30T21:08:00.000-06:00

So our internet is not working and hasn't been working for almost 2 months. It is driving me crazy but since our renter in st george is over 2000 dollars behind in rent we can't afford internet right now. Therefore I am stuck using jakes blackberry. Which means no pictures for my blog. However I can post a few updates. First off we are happy to announce that we will be getting sealed on may 16. We are very excited. Second: remember those lovely perfect weather days last week? Well we got excited and got to work on our yard. We built a pond in the backyard. Its not too big (its not a swimming pool) but it does have a waterfall and lights and a fountain and maybe later some fish. As soon as our internet starts working again I'll put up lots of pictures. Well I think that's all for now.

Another Finished Project!

2009-02-13T21:23:00.010-07:00

This week we decided to remodel our fire place. I found some ideas in magazines, used my imagination and drew up the plans for our perfect fire place. After that Jake got to work and made my idea come to life and it is beautiful!

The "before" picture. And in case you're thinking "Why remodel? That's a beautiful fire place!" Let me show you some up-close pictures.

As you can see it's not that pretty.

Covered in paint, crayon, and whatever else was on it, not to mention some chips in the brick that wasn't so pretty.

This is a little more than half finished. We painted the brick step and what surrounds the fire place, covered the bottom in wood, added to the mantel piece, and put sheet rock on the top. Jake does a wonderful job!The finished project!

And the final look...still missing some decor but that's pretty much it. It looks better up-close and personal so come over and take a look! We love visitors!

CRUISE!!

2009-02-06T21:45:00.011-07:00

Jake's 5th, Our 2nd, Dad and Cece's 3rd, and our family's FIRST CRUISE! And we had a BLAST! On Saturday, Jan. 24 we left the hotel in LA and went down to the port to board the big cruise ship. This picture is us waiting for dad to catch up from parking the car and as William would say "We're off!"This is a picture of our cruise ship when we were in Mazatlan, Mexico.
Two Handsome boys who are happy to be on the cruise ship and in 80 degree weather!
Mason is SO ready for this vacation. Our first port Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We didn't do much here except shop because lucky us we are coming back in June to stay for a week!! Can't wait!

The famous arch (in the first Pirates of the Carribian movie)

Another view. We got lot's of beautiful pictures because we took off durning sunset.
Still Cabo. The ship above my head is a pirate ship and the beach to the right is Lover's Beach.
A pretty picture of a Cathedral in Puerto Vallerta, which was my favortie place even though we didn't get many pictures. Not that I'm not grateful to be going back to Cabo, I wish we were going to Puerto Vallerta. I wish we could have seen more. I really want to live there, I loved it.And last but not least the ship Jake wishes he would have been on....
Yay for Cruising! We are so lucky that we got to enjoy this awesome vacation with our family. As soon as I can figure out how I will put the videos we took on here too so check back soon!

Kitchen Update

2009-01-11T11:31:00.005-07:00

For Christmas we were very lucky to get a new kitchen sink and 2 new faucets (I guess everyone realized how bad our old one was). We installed the sink and a faucet and took the other faucet back and bought kitchen hardwear. We also got new light fixtures and under-cabinet lighting. We're not done yet but I had to show off how good it looks with all the new stuff.

Money, money, Money!

2009-01-06T23:47:00.002-07:00

Since August of 2007 (when we got married) we have been...ok, mostly Jake has been....collecting change in a 3 litter bottle. We are proud to say that we finally filled it to the top (or pretty close). After dumping it out and then sorting for maybe 20 min and then counting for about 45 min and then rolling for another 30 min we are glad to say we are a whole $326.47 richer! I took some pictures but it turns out they were all fuzzy (and really not that interesting) so I decided not to post them.

Gingerbread House

2008-12-26T19:36:00.010-07:00

It's finally FINISHED!! As some of you know the Cohoon family had a Gingerbread House building competition. It was between Jake and me, Mike and Meagan, and Bobby and Emily. The deadline was Christmas Day and we had some of the neighbors come over and judge, that way they wouldn't know which was which. Jake and I got the "Most Edible" prize. Bobby and Emily got "Most Original" and Mike and Meagan won "Grand Prize"!

Front View

Back/Top View (that's a lake on the side)

Close-up of Top Side View

Our idea. It's a building somewhere in Russia.

Mike and Meagan's Gingerbread House. I haven't got any pictures of Bobby and Emily's but I will soon.

Family Time

2008-12-11T21:47:00.010-07:00

This is our lovely Christmas Tree. You can't see the ornaments very well but that's ok, and don't worry we now have an angel on top.

On Wednesday Jake and I had my Dad, Cece, Mandy, William, and Mason over for dinner (Kayla had YW and got to go to temple square instead - we missed her). After dinner we were all just hanging out and I realized I don't get to see my siblings that often which is why I don't have many pictures of them and they get bigger every time I see them! William has a loose tooth and Mason can rollover now! Oh, and Mandy's taller than me (no fair!). Anyway, I got the camera out and here are some of the moments I captured:William Reading Cute little Mason Just Chillin'Mommy and MasonMandyAnd last but not least, Nala (our dog-for those of you who don't know....just kidding aunt suzette)

Kitchen

2008-12-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

So my last post stated how messy the kitchen was and how I couldn't stand it. It was true. Not even 24 hours after that post I went crazy and cleaned the whole kitchen, cabinet doors or not. I organized my cupboards, cleaned out the fridge, swept, mopped, everything. It stayed clean the next day and then the day after that got messy again because we started painting some more. It's ok though because now it's clean again and the cabinets are all painted. We still need to paint the walls but I am so happy to have the cabinets done I had to put up some pictures.Jake's fabulous idea for painting the doors without having to put news paper everywhere. He put things under them (by things i mean boxes of cake or pasta, Tupperware, tool boxes, whatever he could find really. So we had a row of doors in our kitchen. It worked out pretty good and I only had to scape a little paint off the floor. TA DA!! CLOSE-UP (It's a little discolored in the picture)

Messy Kitchen

2008-11-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

We are painting our kitchen cabinet's. What we thought was a cool idea we saw in the store turned into a big head ache and now a big mess. We saw a bathroom vanity in Lowe's and I fell in love with it so we decided we should paint our kitchen to look like it. Pretty easy right? That's what we thought. We still haven't figured out how they did it but there are a few spots on it that look "crackled" so that it is antiqued. No, it's not crackle, it doesn't look the same. Then Jake got the genius idea that they burned the paint with a blow torch and it dried really fast and that's what made it bubble. It was perfect and we decided that's exactly what they did. We went home and tried it...nope. It didn't work again. So after reading books, looking online, testing over and over I decided I didn't like it as much and we should just paint and stain them and forget about the stupid crackle. So that's what we did. It's been 4 days of painting here and there and we're only about half way done. Which is just fine and dandy except as many of you know I tend to be a clean freak (not that my house is always perfect but I try my hardest) and I get anxiety when things are a huge mess. My kitchen is a HUGE mess.
Our laundry room (below) aka cabinet painting station.
My fabulous idea of how to paint all the drawers at the same time and not have to empty them or have them spread out all over the house. I was very proud of myself for thinking it up.

Turkey Bowl!!

2008-11-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

"It's Provo Sizzler vs Orem Sizzler. This is Huge! It's bigger than the Super Bowl or Daytona 500!" Says Jake Cohoon before he played in the Turkey Bowl Thursday morning.

For those of you who don't know, Jake works at the Provo Sizzler and Mike, his brother, works at the Orem one. Organized by Tim (another Orem worker and friend) they decided to see who was really the better Sizzler. Both teams gathered their best players and held two practices earlier in the week. I wasn't there for the Sizzler Turkey Bowl but the winning team (to Jake's disappointment) was the Orem Sizzler with a 3-0 score. Jake hasn't talked much about it but when I asked he said "We got slaughtered". After the big game others joined in the fun and that's what I got pictures of. They aren't great because it's hard to focus on people who are constantly running from side to side. It seemed like everyone had fun and I was glad that Jake said it was worth it because he's been in pain ever since.

Update of our House

2008-11-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

So on Tuesday we decided to paint the living room (again). We bought the new couch and decided to do a blue accent wall behind it. After some time and thought and an unnecessary comment from a visitor to our house we realized it just wasn't the right color. Also, the new couch might have been a better choice because of size but it was in the wrong spot and the room was way unbalanced. We finally got up the courage and tackled our big job of painting the whole room and moving the entertainment center and other furniture, not to mention all the dolphins. (I was going to take a picture but I forgot, the dolphins were laid out on the table during the move and lets just say you couldn't even see the table...it was all dolphin.) We think it looks a lot better and it opens up the room a lot. Just for those of you who don't like it...It's our house and we like it so keep your opinions to yourself. (I was hurt, seriously some people need to learn respect.) And now for pictures!! P.S. It's a lot better in person, come see for yourself!

Sorry, this one is really dark. I'll try and fix it later.

My Jakey

2008-11-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Cece to answer the following questions about my husband, Jake.

#1. Where did you meet your husband?

We met at Dudley's house for a blind (sorta) date.

#2. How long did you date before you got married?

Does that include being engaged? If so, 3 1/2 months. We were engaged after dating 3 weeks.
#3. How long have you been married?
From today (11-20-08) it's been 1 year, 3 months and 11 days.

#4. What does he do that surprises you?

Cleans. Most men don't help out a lot with cleaning the house, and if they do you just have to re-do it. Jake actually does the dishes and laundry (that doesn't including putting it away) and he doesn't mind vacuuming the living room. He'll sweep and mop if I ask him too but I'm picky about it so he usually just let's me take care of it. Oh, and he makes pretty much every meal. If he's home to cook it, he'll cook it. I hardly ever make food for myself - his choice. I'm spoiled.

#5. What is your favorite feature of his?

His eyes. They're pretty. Actually, when we first started dating he had blue contacts so his eyes were a dark blue color. The first time I saw him without contacts I about died. He has the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen. After that I told him he wasn't allowed to get color contacts. I hope our kids get his beautiful brown eyes.

#6. What is your favorite quality?

Like EVERYTHING! haha, he is just so sweet to me all the time. Even when I'm not in a good mood he tries his hardest to make me happy.

#7. Does he have any nick names for you?

Too many to list. There's the usual, honey, baby, sweety, beautiful, etc. And then there's baby-waby, lyssy, and I think it's cute when he calls me baby doll, I'm not sure why.

#8. What is his favorite food?

PIZZA!! He could eat it for every meal, every day, and he was until he met me and I made his switch it up a bit. We have pizza every monday night and of course he has to have his frozen tostino's pizza's every now and then, oh and mini pizza pockets, and pizza hot pockets.

#9.What is his favorite sport?

To play or to watch? To play it would be hockey, even though he hasn't played for a long time because of his knee's. To watch it would have to be football - I'm learning to like it...or at least tolerate it.

#10. When and where did you first kiss?

Haha, it was the night we met so sometime in April of '07, at Dudley's house, on his cuddle bag.

#11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?

We like to eat out a lot. Sometimes on dates with friends but usually just by ourselves. We go to Ruby River a lot for our date nights. If you were to ask him this question I think he would say we like to fix up our house. Which is fun but personally I think eating out is more romantic.

#12. Do you have any kids?

Just our puppy Nala. Maybe we'll have kids in a few years...a FEW...that means 2 or more, just so you all know.

#13. Does he have any hidden talents?

He really likes to work with wood. He likes to build and refinish things and they always turn out beautifully. Oh and he is very funny. A lot of people don't know it but he can do amazing impersonations of Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler, and a few other people but those 2 are my favorites.

#14. How old is he?

He is 27 (and just for those of you that know how old I am and don't want to do the math, it's about a 6 1/2 year difference. It just makes it fun because we grew up in different times.)

#15. Who said "I love you" first?

Jake. And he reminds me that every now and then. He said it after about 3 days, I think it was. I said it back almost a week later. I just wasn't as sure as he was I guess. Plus, his was sort of an "accident". He said it when was saying bye to me on the phone one night and then text me right after "Do you realize I just said "I love you"?" It was so cute.

#16. What is his favorite kind of music.

He likes country but for some reason hasn't listened to it since we've been married. He also really likes Metallica, which was a big turn on because that's what was in his car the first time he drove me somewhere. When he's in the car by himself he just listens to what I call "Blah" aka 1160 AM talk show stuff.

#17. What do you admire most about him?

How he is so caring and loving, to everyone. He loves his family so much. He gives the best hugs and my moms love it (maybe cuz I don't hug them enough, I don't know) and I love how sweet he is with my little siblings and his nieces and nephews. He is going to be a great dad, which I am so excited for (but that doesn't mean we're having kids soon!).

#18. What is his favorite pass time?

TV, watching TV, oh, and did I mention TV? As he would say "It relaxes me". I'm not a big TV watcher, I just get bored. He could watch it all day long and be just fine.

#19.Will he read this?

If he does it will only be because I'll tell him I updated the blog and he has to look. He's not as into the whole blogging thing. I like the computer, he likes the TV (which is fine by me, more time on his lap top for me!)

#20. Who do you tag?

I am going to tag.................Emily Mason and Allyson.

Nala Baby

2008-11-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

Because we love our baby soo much I decided to make a slide show dedicated just to her. Be sure to watch to the end...the last pic is the best one!

Purses!

2008-11-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

This post is just to show off my mom's purses. For those of you who don't know, my mom makes purses. If you are interested in any of them or would like one custom made let me know. Also, you can check out her website floresdesignstudios.com (it's still in the beginning stages). Enjoy!
(p.s. Thanks a TON, Allyson!!)

Our House

2008-11-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Allyson has requested that I put up some pictures of our house, I thought it wasn't a bad idea so here you go...

Our Fire Place, in the front room. It won't look like that for too much longer, hopefully. We are planning on covering it with sheet rock, the brick isn't as nice as it looks.

The Front Door and one of my favorite things about the house, a bay window. I've always loved them and now I have one! Just a side note, when we first moved in we made this room "The Lighthouse Room" because it went with the ocean theme and my mom and Mandy made some cute pillows with lighthouse's on them. I loved it at first...now i'm thinking the whicker furniture idea wasn't a great one and after we do the fire place it won't be the lighthouse room anymore.

The Dining Room, which contains my favorite piece of furniture...

The Table, this is my favorite piece of furniture not only because it is beautiful but because it only cost $25. It used to look awful and have a leg broken off, we picked it up at Savers and Jakes dad was so nice to take the time to fix it up for us. He did an amazing job and later we got the chairs as a gift from Jake's parents.

Half of the kitchen....

Other half of the kitchen...yes, we need a new stove...ok, Jake needs a new stove.

Dolphin Haven...AKA the Living Room. This room was hard to photograph so there are lots of pics of this room.

The cumfy couch, we sold Jake's old sectional because this fit the room more and it's so cumfy. P.S. the painting is an Alyssa Original.

Jake's Shelves. Jake designed and built these really cool shelves. I love them.

Jake's Table. Jake took a plain old, falling apart end table and turned it into this. I love it. The box in the top has sand and sea shells and lights up. So cool!

The Master Bedroom. Pretty self explanitory.
Well, that's it. I didn't take any pics of the laundry room or either of the bathrooms but I will eventually. The batteries in my camera died. Hopefully soon I'll have the "after" pics of the front room, living room, and kitchen. We're planning on re-doing all of them.

It didn't work.........again.

2008-11-13T16:48:00.001-07:00

.....cont. of cry for help. Thank you for all your comments.....when my internet finally decided to work long enough for me to do something i tried the photobucket. it seemed to work....i copied the code, the preview looked right so i pushed "publish post" this is what came up at the top of the page...

Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not closed: < embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://w11.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w11.photobucket.com/albums/a177/AKimball/Purses/963d4770.pbw" height="360" width="480" >

what???? so now what? that's what it was saying when i tried the slide show from slide.com too. i know i posted the right code, i've done this before on other websites so why wont it work on this one?

Cry For Help!!!

2008-11-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is a cry for help! I thought I was pretty smart when it comes to computers and stuff but for some reason I can't make it work! A lot of you have things on your bloggs that show pictures in a slide show. I thought I knew how to do this but for some reason it won't work. Maybe I picked the wrong program. Please Help! Thanks.

Six Random Things About Me

2008-11-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, I guess I'm really bad at reading other people's bloggs on a regular basis (oops) and Emily Mason tagged me to say six random things about me. Here goes:

1) I love the show House but I can only watch half of it.
And I don't mean I watch 15 min and then turn it off, I mean half of it is really good and the other half is all blood and guts and needles which make me queasy. I have to watch it with Jake so he can tell me when to open my eyes after all the blood and gore. And the other weird thing is that the show is sooo predictable. We can't look at the clock anymore when watching it or we know exactly what will happen. I don't usually like predictable shows cuz it's like what's the point? and yet, I'm obsessed. Crazy I know.

2)I'm mad at the Library.
Some of you have already heard this story and for those of you that haven't here it is: I checked out a book from the library (duh) and I loved it. It was one of those books where you feel every emotion, happy, sad, scared, ect. After I finished it I realized that it was a series of 4 books. So I went back and got the next two. Read them, loved them. Went back for the last book and....it was no where to be found. No, it wasn't checked out. No, it wasn't in the wrong place. No, it was damaged or lost or anything else. THE LIBRARY DOESN'T EVEN OWN A COPY!!! What I would like to know is how the person who orders the books thinks its ok to order 3 books out of a series of 4???? I talked to one of the librarians who had me fill out a request paper. 6 months (give or take) later still no book, and i've asked about it every time i've gone in. I'm guessing you might have read the Twilight series? (I haven't but eventually I will) How would you feel if no one had a copy of the last book? wouldn't it just drive you NUTS!! Well, that's how I feel.

3) My new obsession is books by Madeleine L'Engle.
I never read any of her books in school and never planned on reading them. Then Jennifer convinced me to check out "A Ring of Endless Light" and I reluctantly started reading it...and found out it was amazing! Then I read "The Small Rain" also pretty good. So I went back to library and checked out 5 more books by her. She is an amazing author and makes me want to be a writer. I wrote down a list of all her books and I am checking them off as I go...I have a lot more to read but I plan on reading them all. If you haven't read anything by her you should. Good books.

4) I'm a little OCD.
I know most of you already know this but i'm running out of random facts about me. The biggest thing effected by my OCD is my closet. ALL the hangers HAVE to be white. Not metal, wood, colored, WHITE! And all of my clothes are organized by color. Its fun to watch Jake do laundry and have to figure out what goes where in my closet, he's getting a lot better at it though. And no, I don't make his closet be in color order.....it would drive me crazy because I know he wouldn't keep it that way. I'm OCD with a lot of other things too but that is the biggest one. The weirdest is probably....the spice rack. All spices are in ABC order.

5) I love music.
Ok, not very random but I've found that for some reason people are shocked by the kind of music I listen to. (not that its like really bad music) I guess they just don't know me very well and don't think it fits my personality. Crazy but I've actually been told that a lot. I like to rock out and concerts...rock, alternative, some techno, a little hip hop, NO country!!! And the louder the better!! I think if music were a form of drug I would be addicted. I do everything while listening to music (yeah, it's on right now) I even read while listening to music.

6) Dream job.
I have a dream jobs that I doubt I will ever do. I want to be a wedding planner. I love to plan and I love weddings. I help my mom run her wedding flower business. I would have to move to another state to actually be a wedding planner because Utah is so "self-reliant" that they don't' need a wedding planner, or they just couldn't afford one. And there aren't really any wedding planning classes I can take here or a wedding planning business I could work for, unless I went to SLC maybe. However, I do know a lot about weddings and have a lot of wedding planning stuff so if you know someone getting married that needs help I am totally willing to help, for free.

I tag....Jennifer and Cece

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T16:39:00.000-06:00

This wasn't our first Halloween together but it sure seemed like it because last year neither of us had the night off. This year we went all out. I decorated the porch and we both had fun dressing up. I was a purple spider witch and Jake was a scary skeleton guy. He wished we would have had more trick or treaters to scare but I guess we don't have very many kids in our neighborhood. It was still a lot of fun, I hope we continue to have halloween night off every year. Now that we know how much fun it is, it would be really sad to miss it.

Update

2008-09-22T22:51:00.000-06:00

For those of you reading this that don't know a lot about us or what's going on recently here it is:

We just had our one year anniversary August 9th
We bought a house in Provo
We have a silky terrier named Nala (and she is all the kids we need right now)
Alyssa got a new car....finally
Jake works at the Provo Sizzler as Kitchen Manager
Alyssa works at a care center doing Housekeeping
This summer we went on vacation to Oregon in May and Lake Powell in August
Jake's Birthday was the 24th...Happy 27th!!
Mason Steven Kimball was born June 26th (alyssa's brother)

Those are all the BIG things that happend this year, so far. Right now our main focus is our house. We just got a new couch and painted the living room. Jake is Really into building and refinishing furniture and stuff like that. Since we've lived in this house he's made: a shelf for our room, shelf for the guest bedroom, really pretty shelves for the living room, a coffee table that lights up, and an end table for the living room. We live a couple blocks away from the D.I. so when we have the money and a day off we go there to see what he can find to refinish. It's amazing too because if we go there with something in mind it magically appears. (The coffee and end tables for example). We also got very lucky the last time we went there. We went to look for a very small end table and found a magazine rack that would look perfect....and we found a set of 4 chairs in really good condition, that were the exact chairs we have with our table...who knew, we needed extra chairs...not that we have company too often, but at least now we can accomidate.

Another exciting (more like freaky) thing recently...we've started to find a lot of these really big ugly brown spiders that chase you...so we looked them up online. Hobo Spiders. Turns out they really are as scary as they seem. They are huge for one (maybe about the size of a quarter, legs included) they're eyes bug out so that's just gross. And their bite is pretty bad. You get a sore that turns into a boil that's all red and sore around it and it's about an 18 month healing process. I wouldn't be so worried about it but like I told Jake "Usually, they say 'it's more afraid of you than you are of it' well, Hobo Spiders will chase you so it's more like 'it's NOT more afraid of you than you are of it'." SCARY!! So what are we going to do? Not kill the other spiders first of all (internet said pestisides were bad because it kills off their enemies) and get sticky spider traps. I guess that works pretty well. If we still find a lot of them we will call the bug killer guys, the professionals. That's $90 for them to spray/fog, whichever, and put out traps. 3 month guarentee. I'm pretty freaked out so it might be worth it. Other things you can find in our yard....frogs (we hear them at night) snakes (garden and water...we're close to a river. Jake found one about 2 1/2 ft long, spiders, and birds....in our attic. I can't tell you how many dead baby birds we found over the summer. I was so sad. We tried to save one but our efforts failed. Having our own house is so much fun!! I can't wait to see what the winter brings.

Well, I guess that's a start. I'll try and keep things pretty updated. I'll post some pictures below of some of the things I've mentioned.

Jake and Alyssa in the kitchen

Lake Powell. Alyssa made a picture in the sand while everyone else played water volley ball.

Our baby, Nala. She never looks at the camera.

HOBO SPIDER!!! (it looks scarier up close)