Happy Birthday to my two favorite people!

 Happy Birthday today to Cora and tomorrow to Geoff!

All of Cora's cousins came to celebrate...

 Cora loved licking the candle ends and then re-dipping them in the frosting and licking them again.  It was hilarious!!

 

I can't believe my baby is 2 years old.  Geoff and I were just talking last night about how much she has changed since her 1 year birthday.  She has grown up so much!!  She talks up a storm now and has this personality that entertains us all day long.  We love her so so so much and could not imagine our lives without her!

At 2 years old Cora....

-loves her blankey
-sleeps from about 8 pm til 9:30 am
-has some favorite foods: eggs, french toast, oatmeal, broccoli, carrots, pineapple, raspberries, fruit smoothies, pasta, mashed potatoes, salmon, ham, rice pudding, goldfish crackers (fishies)
-loves dogs, especially coopie (Steve and Nancy's dog), chloe (Karen and Jon Quist's dog) and Max (Tony's dog)
-loves to have play dates with some neighbor friends and her cousins (she's pretty obsessed with Cade and Connor)
-talks all the time!  Some of her signature phrases are:  "Love you, miss you, bye-bye, hello, thank you, please,  I did it!, Mommy do it, where daddy go?, daddy's sleeping (she says this almost every morning), watch show (she loves mickey mouse clubhouse), donald funny (as in Donald Duck from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), hide (she loves hiding under her blankey)
-loves everything princess and thinks she is a princess (her favorite princess is Cinderella, she calls her Rella)
-loves washing her hands
-loves bubbles in her baths
-loves to twirl and show off a pretty skirt or dress she is wearing
-loves to do make-up with mom
-does GREAT in nursery at Church
-loves pops (lolly pops)
-twirls the right side of her hair into the CRAZIEST knots when she is tired or during nap time and during the night when she's sleeping.  That side of her hair is now shorter than the left side.
-is going to be a big sister in a few weeks!

Christmas 2012

We have been in Arizona this Christmas with Geoff's family.  It has been a wonderful trip, just what the doctor ordered!!  Cora has had the chance to really get to know her cousins (the Rudd's) that live here and she has soaked up ALL of the love and attention that Grandma and Papa have been giving her.  Cora really could not be any cuter right now and we are loving every second of her and the fun personality she has.  Here are some pictures from our trip so far...

 

Eating out at a restaurant called Buffalo Chip near Steve and Nancy's house on Christmas Eve.  The kids loved this fun atmosphere and were tearing it up on the dance floor!

Cora and Grandma Christmas morning.  

Trying out her new toy with Papa.  Cora has been such a Papa's girl this trip!

Cousin Lexie and Cora...They have been buds this trip!

Rockin out with Lexie's new electric guitar!

These two played the piano for a long, long time together at the New Year's Eve party at Michele's house.

Cousin Chloe reading to Cora New Year's morning.  Cora is really going to miss her cousins!

City Creek

We had a fun day at the City Creek food court and play area in Salt Lake City with some of my mission companions and their kids!  It's so fun to see us all as moms now and have our little ones play together.  Cora had a blast climbing on everything and going inside the shells.  We can't wait to go back!  

visit to NY

 We are enjoying our little visit to New York to see my family... Cora could not be having more of a blast with her cousins!  She has felt so comfortable here with everyone, and I love it!

 The Fall weather here is perfect!  Here we are about to go pick apples with Great Grandma Pat.

change is FUN!

I got a much needed haircut... and felt like changing things up a bit without chopping my hair all the way to my chin like I did over two years ago (i've been growing it ever since).  SO... I had the thought to get bangs, and when I asked the gal cutting my hair what she thought she was ALL about it and VERY excited.  She thought it would look really good, so I trusted her and I LOVE IT!

My grandpa Elmer would be proud because he always told me when I was younger that I have a big forehead and would look better with bangs.  He was so right!  I'm glad I finally listened and took his advice.  I like to think he is smiling down from Heaven at my new do!

The 4th

Happy 4th of July!

We spent it with family in Park City Utah.

Papa Steve, Grandma Nancy and all their Grandchildren
(expect for Stacie's 4 kids who were in Washington)

laying down to watch fireworks, and trying to get Cora to lay with us.  She was too busy though and did not want to sit still.  She mostly just wanted to sit with Grandma Nancy.

watching the fireworks with Grandma

 

a whirlwind

 May and June were a whirlwind of crazy and unexpected events happening all at once.  Here is a quick update of what went down.

Geoff's Grandma Georgia (his Mom's Mom) passed away at the age of 91.  We all went to California for the services.  Here is Cora with her two cousins Mason and Cade just before leaving for the funeral.

 Two days after Geoff's grandma died, my Grandpa Tony (my Dad's Dad) died unexpectedly at the age of 84.  He was happy and seemed to be healthy the day before, so we were all very shocked and sad.  His funeral was the day after Geoff's grandma's funeral, and there was no way I was going to miss either, so we went to Grandma Georgia's on Friday and flew to NY Friday night (a red eye), landed at 5:30 am and went to Grandpa Tony's that morning at 11 am.  Cora held up surprisingly well and it was very special to be able to be with family and be there for grandpa.  The next 7 pictures are of our time in NY.  We stayed for a week after the funeral and had so much fun with my family!

 

 

 

 

 I love when Cora gets to spend time with her cousins.. and she loves it too!

 

A week after I got back from NY my good friends from NY flew out to Arizona to visit us and see some of the cool things AZ has to offer.  They had actually planned to come to AZ the week of the funerals, but were able to re-schedule.  Here we are in Sedona.

 

We had to soak up the Arizona sun at the lake while we still could because we found out while we were in NY that Geoff's company needed to transfer us to Utah.  We were sad to see our time in AZ end so soon (we were only there just over 5 months) and VERY sad to be moving away from Geoff's parents, but also excited to be moving to a state where we know our way around and we have LOTS of family.

 

 

 Here we are on our road trip to Utah at Lake Powell.  We love stopping on this dam and looking at the beautiful sites.  We were quite the sight as Geoff was driving the 26 ft UHAUL and pulling one of our cars, and I was driving the other with Cora.  After 12 long hours we finally made it!

 

We have now been in Utah for a week and a half and we are settling in.  We love our townhouse we found in Lehi and Geoff has hit the ground running at the new hospital he is building.  Hopefully our lives calm down a little so we can catch our breaths!  So pretty much all of that is why I have been MIA on this blog, but I hope to keep it more updated now!