Adam. Jennifer. Avynlee. Cohen.: 2013

Monday, December 9, 2013

Thanksgiving

I am super late on a Thanksgiving post. We had a great and super busy Thanksgiving. We closed on hour new house the Tuesday before and got our keys the day before so we spent much of the weekend moving. When we weren't lugging heavy boxes and furniture around, we were eating and spending time with family. We were still staying with my parents and all my siblings were there too. It's sure fun, and lately quite rare, to have the house packed. We are officially at our new house and are working on getting things ready for Christmas, working on finishing up finals (yep...I'm pretty much always in school), starting a new job (AK, not me), unpacking, and cleaning our stuff out of our parents houses. Life has been a little crazy lately but I couldn't fail to mention how thankful we are for all our blessings.

We are immensely grateful for Avynlee. She is the light of our lives. She makes us so happy and makes everyday so much fun. Our lives wouldn't be nearly as full without her in them. We love her so much.

I am thankful for Adam. He is amazing. He is funny, smart, hard working, and super hot. I love every second I get to spend with him and still miss him whenever he's not with me. He is a great husband and pretty much the world's best dad.

I am grateful for our new house. I'll be even more grateful when it's fully unpacked and clean. I really love our new house and our new neighborhood seems fantastic.

I am grateful for our parents and all of their help over the last several months. We lived in my parents basement and Adam set up his office at, and worked out of his mom's house. They have been so supportive and patient with us and I really appreciate it.

I am thankful to be home with Avynlee for now. I worked a lot when she was tiny and it was very hard for me to leave her (even though she was left with my dad most the time). I never knew how much I wanted to be a stay at home mom until she joined the crew. I am so thankful Adam was willing to let me stay with her and that he works so hard and sacrifices so much so I can take care of our daughter. Being a mom is the most important and rewarding thing I have ever done.

I don't know what I did to get so lucky but I have so much to be thankful for.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Halloween

I never posted our Halloween pictures so here they are. I have never been a huge lover of Halloween but because my husband and child are, I have tried to embrace Halloween and we pretty much go all out now. This year, we went to my parents Halloween party the weekend before (I think I will one day get the picture from that, we'll see) which Avynlee loved. On Halloween, I made Avs a Halloween breakfast and took her to a special Halloween story time and the West Jordan library where she also go to trick or treat. We trick or treated at Grandma Jo's bank too. That night, we trick or treated in my parents' neighborhood, had clam chowder and pumpkin pie (like very year) with the Grandparents Chipman, then trick or treated in Adam's parents' neighborhood with Bree and Lyv. We had so much fun. Avs has asked at least once a day since if she can go trick-or-treating. Poor girl has to wait a whole year!

Can you see the two jack-o-lanterns and the Mickey? I died them orange for the festivities.

This year we were characters from Monsters, Inc. (Remember last year?) I have really enjoyed making our costumes within a theme. Matchy and lame? Maybe. But I still love and will do it as long as my family lets me. This year, Avynlee wanted to be a monster. She didn't seem to care what kind so I suggested this and she loved it and pretty much thought the whole thing was her idea. Win win. I am Mike, Adam is Sully, and Avs is Boo in her monster costume. We loved them and were much warmer than last year.

I had big plans to carve a bunch of pumpkins. I only made it through 3 though. Avynlee chose two patterns and Adam chose one. I didn't get around to carving mine. We got all of these bad boys from other people. Sweet! Our realtor gave us three big ones, Mary Jo gave us a big one and a gourd, Avys got the medium sized one from Ruby's party, and Kyle and Gloria gave us all the babies.

Avynlee's Hello Kitty witch and her melted crayon gourd. I thought melting crayons onto her gourd would be a fun toddler activity, having never tried it. It isn't. It is super hot and hot wax kind of blows everywhere. I did most of it and she watched. Then she was sad because, "Gourdy all dirty now!" At least I tried.

Avynlee became a huge fan of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and would watch it often. She also chose the Linus with the pumpkin pattern.

This is the dire wolf Adam chose. It turned out pretty cool.

All in all, Halloween was a blast. We are still prying candy out of Avynlee's hands on a regular basis and reminding her that Halloween is over. I am already getting excited for next year since we'll have a new house to decorate (and therefore new decorations to make/obtain) and a new theme to decide to dress up as.

House Progress

These are a bit old but I wanted to post them anyway so we could look back and see the progression of our house. The first two were taken October 27th after the hardy board was painted and the garage door installed. The rest were taken November 2nd. A lot has changed since these were taken and we will actually have our final walk through in two days. We are hoping to close next week and get our keys and move in the day before Thanksgiving.