15 month check - 1 month late

Coulson had his 15 month check up last week and here are his stats:

Weight: 24.10 lbs - 40%
Height: 32.25 inches - 80%
(This basically translates into long legs that need long pants, but a skinny waist that can't keep the pants up that he needs)

The doctor told us he was doing great and even a little ahead for his age. She even told me that he was already "good at being a two year old". This was after he threw a small temper tantrum to get out the door because he was done... I'm not quite sure how to take that :)

RS General Broadcast

Saturday night was the Relief Society General Broadcast and I have to say it was amazing! I drove over with a good friend at five for a wonderful dinner. The men served us ham, potatoes, rolls, salad and some kind of dessert (didn't really eat it - too much other good food). I had the wonderful opportunity to sit with three of my dear friends - Jenn, Ashely and Ashley. It was so much fun to sit and talk about everything - jobs, kids, having babies, lack of sleep, politics, and just enjoy their company. It is amazing how the Lord blesses us. For the first time in a good year or more I feel the blessing of friendship. Now, I'm not saying that I don't have friends - I have many friends, but none of them live even remotely close to me. Since we have moved to Utah I feel the closeness with other women that I have longed for since having Coulson. But that isn't all - I then got to sit and listen to three amazing women of the RS Presidency and Elder Uchtdorf and feel as if they were talking to me and only me. Like I was sitting directly at the foot of the Lord being taught. It was truly an amazing and fortifying night. I returned home feeling more at peace than I have for a while. Now my challenge is to keep that feeling and continually do stuff everyday that allows me that feeling. I hope that all of you sisters had the chance to listen to everything that was said and even if you did or didn't I challenge each of you to listen and read the talks many times because each was for us. We are each amazing and loved daughters of God.

Here is the link to the broadcast - Relief Society General Broadcast

Under Construction

For the next week or so be warned that the face of my blog might change many times because I am trying to learn how to create my own backgrounds and so far I haven't had any luck. For any of you who know how tips would be nice. I know it is probably not hard it is just that everytime I actually get a moment to figure things out the baby wakes up or something else comes up. You know how life goes. Anyways, just have patience as my blog goes through multiple personality disorder. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Bret!!!

Today is the birthday of my best friend and hubba hubby! Because of this I get to gush about how amazing he is without any complaining... (mwuahaha * evil laugh*)
Bret is such an unbelievable person. He is caring, talented and creative beyond belief, hardworking, and a great husband. More than once he has gotten up early and done little things around the house to help me out, or when he comes home he will take over for the night with cooking, clean up and the baby so that I can have a night to myself. He is so thoughtful. He also does some of the goofiest things just to hear me laugh and see me smile.

But more than that he is a wonderful father to Cole. I wish everyone could be a fly on the wall for just one day to see the bond and friendship that Cole and Bret have as father/son, and double trouble duo. Each day Cole anxiously awaits the arrival of Bret and as soon as he sees that Jimmy pull in he yells "Daddy" and is off to the door before I know what happened. When Bret walks in he gives Cole a huge hug and the games are on. Tickling, throwing him in the air, hide and seek, sneaking up on mom, wrestling... I could go on forever. It is so fun to watch.

I really couldn't be more blessed than the day this man came into my life and made me happier than I ever thought was possible. His family
always comes first, and he is such an awesome example. I love ya babe and look forward to so many more years of laughter, adventures and happiness together. Happy 28th Birthday!!!

Adventures in Wonderland

One of my good friends in our ward, Ashley, and I have been trying to be active mom's and going out once or twice a week with the kids. On Tuesday we drove to a local park and let the kids play. Then for today we decided to bike to our local nature center. Cole and I got a late start for the morning after finding and playing with a leaf bug. They are pretty cool. Bret helped me catch it since it had taken up residence on Bret's bike. Not a good match. We then quickly got dressed and ate breakfast. At 9:40 I headed out the door with Cole secured into the bike trailer and biked to Ashley's house. Upon arrival she opened the door and started to laugh. They too were running behind and she was still in her pj's. We got everything taken care of and at 10:30 headed for the nature park. This is about a 3-4 mile bike ride - nothing big. Well on the way Daviny (one of Ashley two little girls) needs to go to the bathroom. So we pull over at a local business for her to do so - strike one. It was a government building and required a key card to even enter. So we kindly told her that she would have to hold it, we were almost there. 5 minutes later I realize that Ashley has sprung a flat on her bike trailer. A pretty bad one. We needed something like bike slime. Stopped at the gas station, no luck. Then we biked by this Country Store. I knew we were probably going to strike out again but had to try. No luck. But the sweet store owner offered to drive me and the trailer to the local bike store for slime and air. How amazing. When I asked him why he would do that all he replied was "I hope that someone would do the same for my wife". What a great guy! Off to the store we headed where nice guy number two enters the scene. They fixed the tire for free! I headed back to the store where I had left Ashley with all three kids(amazinly she had survived watching a 2 year old, a 16month old Cole, and her youngest daughter at 9 months.)We finally arrived at the nature center, had a snack which we faked as lunch for the kids since it was now 12:15 and walked to see the birds. We arrived just in time to see some wild turkey, and a keeper feed a pelican. Totally worth the $3 I paid. We then walked to the tadpole pool and the mom's decided they were tired and ready to go home. When we arrived back at the bikes we discovered that Ashley's "fixed" tire had exploded. We called Bret and he arrived (My knight in shining armor) taking Ashley and her two kids, Cole, her bike and both trailers home. Since that was all the room left I biked home alone and arrived home just as Bret was pulling in. Talk about adventures! I wonder what next week will hold for our outings!

One of THOSE days!

It started off with a "friendly" wake up call from our neighbors motorcycle right outside our open windows. That is a pretty loud noise - especially when you are dead asleep at 7:30. Once I settled Cole down and kissed my sweet hubby good bye we ate breakfast and I started on my personal "Mt Everest" of laundry that seems to build and then explode once a week. As I'm getting on my very last batch (Cole's clothes) my house starts to smell awful and somewhat smokey. Yes, you can guess it. Not only did my dryer go out but so did my washer! It is a conspiracy I'm telling you. Since I couldn't find my cell phone anywhere I instant messaged my husband to find out what I needed to do so that the whole house didn't burn down with the laundry room. When he got home for lunch we headed out to a used appliance store downtown. Well, it just happened to be there one day off - go figure, it was Wednesday! So we headed home. The day continued until Bret got home and requested the VCR remote. Missing in Action. We looked for an hour (turning my newly cleaned apartment upside down) before we concluded that our sweet adorable son had most likley thrown it away but since remotes aren't light, like shoes, clothes, books and toys I didn't notice. Sigh. RIP remote. So we decided to take the dripping wet clothes (they weighed like 50lbs no joke) to the laundry mat at the apartment. I only had $1.50 worth of quarters and really wasn't up to driving 10 minutes just to access a bank, pull out $20 just so that I could get $0.50 more. So I did the horrible thing and broke into Cole's dino bank. I justified it because they were his clothes anyways - horrible I know. Well the first washer (we split the clothes into two so they would have a chance to actually dry) ate all our quarters but refused to dry our clothes (greedy greedy). SO, into one dryer all the clothes went. At 9:30 my sweet husband headed down to bring the dry clothes up. WRONG. Nothing was dry and they ended up spending the night on my kitchen floor on a beach towel so they would dry enough for round two the next day. NEXT DAY: I go to take the clothes to our apartment laundry and the power goes out of all things. So we waited until Bret got home and we headed to the local laundry mat where they rip you off by charging $0.25 FOR FIVE MINUTES!!! Do I look like I'm made of quarters??? Anyways - all is well. They got dried for less than $10 and we will soon have a new washer and dryer. Did I mention we also discovered that our tires are falling apart...

Pizza and Oreos

So the other night we order pizza in for FHE. Papa John's Spinach Chicken Alfredo Tomato - yummy. We cut a slice up for Cole but left a good chunk on the crust so that Cole could have his options. Of course being the "independent child" that he thinks he is, he immediately went for the uncut crust and just had a hay day eating it. Pretty cute to watch him learn to use his new teeth. After he had dimolished the entire slice of pizza I gave him an oreo cookie (the blondie kind). Well it was so adorable to watch him pull the two sides apart, eat all the frosting off, and then eat the rest of the cookie! I have no idea where he learned it but it was pretty cute to watch! He was so proud of himself at the end of the entire meal. What a cutie!

On a side note- sorry I don't have any new pic. We left our camera in Twin Falls and won't get it back till Monday!

Daddy, daddy... HEY BET!!!

So as many of you know we spent two weekends in a row in Twin Falls, Idaho with Bret's family. For both weekends the entire family was there which is a total of 10 people at once. Well with that many people and kids Cole quickly got frustrated with the fact that when he called out "daddy" either 3 dad's looked or no one looked. He kept trying and most of the time he caught Bret's attention. Well, again with that many people it gets loud and with Cole being sick many times I was downstairs with the baby and Bret upstairs with everyone and I would call out "Bret" for help after I had been thrown up on (again) and finally I would have to yell "Hey, Bret" so he could hear me. This pretty much happened the entire weekend. Then everyone else of course called Bret by his first name. Well when we finally got home on Tuesday I just about died laughing when I heard this...

Cole:"Daddy. Daddy. (Bret was tired and slightly zoned)
Dada. Hey, Bet!"

He had learned that Bret would for sure respond to his own name. So now we are trying to break him of the habit. So far nothing has worked and Cole continues to call his father by his first name, much to the horror of Bret and the stifled laughter from me. I'm sure with time it will wear off and he will start calling him daddy all the time again. Have I ever told you how much my son makes me laugh. We love this kid to death!

Twin Falls County Fair - YEEHAW

As in true Parrish tradition each year we head to the Twin Falls County Fair. Now I've been to a lot of fairs and this one tops them all! The day is full of food, fun, laughter, animals, and the rodeo. This year is was just a little different - mostly thanks to our son. The day started off with Cole not sleeping and then finally waking at 4am. Not wanting to go back to sleep we attempted to keep him entertained until 6:15 when Grams and Opa took over. I decided to head back to bed - I had had no sleep at all since I went to bed at 11:30 and Cole woke up every half hour till 4. Bret got ready and headed off to the second Parrish men family tradition - golfing. I woke up around at and discovered that my adorable son had finally passed out just minutes before. He slept till 11 and then we got ready and met up with the boys, exchange kisses and kids and the girls took off to go find beads at Michael's for Brook to make into beautiful jewelry for us. We arrived home just after noon and headed to the fair. The grandparents bought all the boys cowboy hats in true fashion and we headed off for more fun (notice the cowboy boots Bret bought him - pretty cute if you ask me).
Of course the first thing we did was grab some much needed lunch, then headed for the big barns were all the companies hang out with free stuff. Then to the much anticipated petting barn. Bret and I were so excited to see what Cole would do with being able to pet and feed the animals. He LOVED it! His favorite was the goats and spent most of his time with them. It was a cute tug of war going on - Cole trying totouch their noses and the goats trying to nibble his fingers. Neither won. Probably for the best. After the petting barn Cole became the property of Opa. Not really but it was so fun to see Opa take Cole to see all the other 4-H animals. Horse, chickens, rabbits (where he got to pet a baby rabbit), and the cows. The entire time in the cow barn he walked around with Opa saying "Moo" to everything. Dang cute. He seemed to be having a blast. Bret and I sure were have fun watching our little boy explore everything. Later that night we headed to the rodeo. This is more fun for the adults but the grandkids enjoy bits and pieces. My favorite is the mutton busting. For those who have no clue what this is it is for 4-7 year old children and the get put on the back of a sheep and try to hold on for dear life. Don't worry they have helmets on and lots of adults around for safety purposes. The winner gets a trophy that is no joke bigger than them. It probably stands a good 4 feet tall. Someday Cole will be a mutton buster - Champion. Just wait. The rodeo was great fun and always enjoyable - even the walking around part chasing my son - which happens quite often. I usually get to see half and Bret half. Tag team the toddler. Then we headed home. This family picture is my favorite because Cole is mooing at the cows.
Now I had mentioned that this year was a little different - well throughout most of the day Cole refused to eat or drink - excitement, I hoped. Wrong. On the way home I got him to finally take some milk and the last two blocks from home he decided his stomach no longer wanted it. With out further details I'll just say eww and leave it at that. Along with all the souvenirs my son had also brought home the stomach flu. For the next 4 days Bret and I spent most of our time dealing with aftermath of Hurricane Flu - bathing Cole, washing all our covered clothes, bedding, and changing diapers - then washing more clothes from blow outs. Not fun. Poor Cole, but he was such a trooper. Thankfully he is doing better and starting to return to normal.

The rest of the week is a blur of sickness, mingled with fun. I did get to go see Mama Mia! There were 3 Parrish girls, 4 Arrington girls (good friends of the family) - GIRL TIME!!! We laughed so hard the entire time. Go see it. You'll love it if you like musicals and comedy. Awesome. I'm buying it.
Now the thing you have to have understand is that I don't buy movies so it says a lot that I want this one - and the soundtrack.

Anyways, Bret had originally taken Tuesday off for us to go play in SLC but we ended up home with Cole. Still worth it. So there you have it. Fun, but exhausting, weekend.