Christmas!

December has been a total blur! We spent the majority of the month being sick back and forth between mostly me and Casen and a little bit for Marc too. Casen and I had an upper respiratory infection and he had to have breathing treatments again. We always hate when he is sick and this was definitely not fun. It took about 2 weeks to really get over it! When we were finally getting better, we were able to have a little Christmas fun!

Here we are at the Ethel M Christmas lights with Santa. Casen has loved meeting Santa this time around because he really felt like he had to tell Santa everything he wanted or it wouldn't happen!

We went with Marc's brother's family so here is a picture of Casen and his cousin Brooklyn with Santa!

I had to post this picture because Casen looked so darn handsome in it. Don't mind the look on his face. He likes to make weird faces when posing for pictures. Since I don't have a little girl to put in Christmas dresses, I went for the Christmas sweater. This was Casen's little church outfit on the Sunday before Christmas.

Christmas Eve at the Cox house. This was actually Casen's first time holding his new cousin Emmitt because he wasn't interested in holding him before. He asked to hold him this time and he loved it.

Casen with his Christmas morning loot. I think he is probably a little spoiled but in my defense he is an only child and most of them were small things. He was so excited to come down and see what Santa brought. It was also so much fun for us to see his face. He ran straight for his Santa presents and just started opening everything. The one funny thing was that I got him a clock when we were together and I didn't think he was paying attention. I had it wrapped with his Santa presents and as soon as he opened it he said "It's the clock me and mommy bought". Good thing he can't read that the tag said Santa. I will have to be more careful next year.

The main gift...his Buzz Lightyear bike. He didn't do too great the first time but the second time we went riding he took off so fast, I had to jog to catch up. He loves riding it so much.

Our family on Christmas day...yes we even let Sasha be a part of it. She wore her little Santa outfit the whole day. We had a wonderful Christmas splitting the day between both families and even catching a movie in the middle.

We have had a great year and once again I can't believe it has gone so fast. Every time I look at Casen, I am in awe at how big he has gotten. Sometimes I just wish it would slow down a little. We hope everyone else has had a great year too! Happy New Year 2011!

Halloween and Disneyland!

Casen really loved Halloween this year because he really got the concept. He was so excited to dress up as Buzz and he was especially excited for the candy. As much as we didn't want him to eat too many sweets he loves candy so much. He asks for candy for breakfast all the time. Since we went to Disneyland for Halloween, Casen's only trick or treating was my in-laws Trunk or Treat. He got to go with his cousin, Brooklyn the Bumblebee. They got to go around 3 or 4 times and got plenty of candy. They also had a little cupcake walk.

This year we also decided to carve pumpkins. Casen didn't like sticking his hand inside to get the gunk out (I didn't either). We tried to make one that looked like Mickey and then Casen picked the scary face one that I carved. My sister in law made a UNLV that was pretty cool but doesn't show in the picture! Casen liked going out every night and lighting the pumpkins.

For Halloween, we used the final 2 days of our annual passes to Disneyland. It was such a great year of Disney. I highly recommend trying annual passes sometime. This time we got a sweet deal at a hotel that had a full breakfast every morning and a full kitchen in our room so we saved a lot on food. Our system for Disneyland is to get there right when it opens because it isn't very crowded. Then we go back to the hotel for a nap in the afternoon and then stay at the park until 11. On our last night we stayed until midnight and Casen kept asking to go on just one more ride. It was pretty cute.
Here is a picture of Daddy and Buzz Lightyear going on the Buzz ride. That is one of Casen's favorites. We go on it multiple times on every trip.

We had to make sure and get a picture of our whole family this time it is only fitting that Mickey Mouse join us. If I get around to making a Christmas card this will probably be the picture.

Since Casen is so fond of LIghtning McQueen and Cars right now, we also had to make sure and get a picture with him. He literally watches at least part of the Cars movie every day. He has some of the small Cars that he has to take with him everywhere including tucked in with him in bed at night.

Before heading home, we stopped at Newport beach to play for a little. We were just planning on walking around and playing in the sand, but Casen had other plans. We were chasing the water and he tripped and got completely soaked! Here he is before getting all wet.

Marc had to go to the car and get his swimming suit and a change of clothes since he was so wet. He had so much fun after that. It was such a wonderful moment of parenthood to watch him play. He was so utterly happy and free just running around in the sand and throwing it and rolling in it and running on it. We also chased the water a lot as well which was fun for me as well.

He let me bury him in the sand a little bit to get warm after he fell in the water.

The only bad part about the beach is the sand that got everywhere. Casen was not happy about taking a shower at the beach so he drove home with sand in lots of places =) When we got home we let Casen hand out candy to the trick or treaters. He had just as much fun giving candy as he did getting it. He was so sad when we ran out of candy and had to turn the lights off. I would say it was a wonderful Halloween this year.

Back to Blogging...Finally

Since our computer broke a few months ago, I have been very behind in blogging. It has also been a pretty busy few months with Marc's brother getting married in August and then going back to work and being stressed out, etc... I am going to update on a few things in this post.

In August, Shane and Hannah got married up in Utah. Here is a lovely picture of the couple. We are so excited to have Hannah in the family. Casen loves her so much! He has tried to steal her from Shane on occasion!

Casen got to wear a little suit at the wedding and he loved it! He thought he looked so cool and he did!


On October 1st, Casen turned 3!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We decided to have a friend party for him this year since he was so excited about his birthday and really wanted his friends and a frosting cake.

Here is a picture of mommy, daddy, and Casen at the party. We went to the park and had pizza, soccer goals, and the kids could make their own visors. I didn't think about getting a picture of Casen with all of his little friends but there was a great turn out. We really appreciate everyone coming and having fun with us. We are grateful to have lots of friends and family here!

Casen opening some presents and also a shot of the toy story cake. The party was Toy Story themed of course.

We let Casen open his presents from us on his actual birthday. He got one of the super cool Buzz Lightyears that makes all the noise.

I will make another post to finish the update with Disneyland and Halloween!

Snow Canyon and Brian Head!

So I guess since I am off for the summer I have no excuses for being behind on my blog! We recently got back from a mega vacation. It started with me going to girls camp for 2 days. I am back in YW so I decided I wanted to go since I had a lot of fun last year and didn't want to leave! It was great to stay 2 days. I got to do a lot of the fun activities with the girls and get to know them better! After girls camp, Marc picked me up in St George and we stayed there for 2 nights. We took Casen to his first movie in the theater, Toy Story 3 and he loved it. We also went hiking in Snow Canyon. It was so much fun. Here are a couple pictures of us in Snow Canyon.
Marc and Casen climbing the big mountain as Casen called it. He was fearless and actually climbed pretty high. I was a little nervous!

Here is me being silly. I think this hike was called Jenny's canyon. It was this narrow area between the mountain that had all these cool holes. I would recommend a trip to Snow Canyon for sure.

After St George, we headed to Brian Head for a double family reunion. The first 3 days were with my immediate family, all 34 of us, and then the next 3 days was with the Cox family, Marc's dad's mom, siblings, and their offspring. It was a lot of people but really a lot of fun! With my family we hung out, made tie dye shirts, went hiking, and managed to avoid too much drama.
Here is a picture with my dad and all of his grandkids. We found a shirt that said Poppy's team so this is Poppy's team! My sister took a bunch of professional shots but she is still on vacation so I don't have those yet. This picture was taken with a view of Cedar Breaks in the background. It was an awesome view but quite the drop right behind where they were sitting.

Next was the Cox reunion. We had a lot of fun because our almost sister in law, Hannah, came up and let us use her family's 4 wheelers. We got to play games, go 4 wheeling, play horseshoes, shoot guns, and also go on the ski lift. The ski lift was so cool. We went to the top of Brian Head Peak. It was a little nerve wracking on the way up but I got over it. Casen came up with us. There was still some snow at the top so he had fun playing in the snow and running around. It was a really fun adventure.
Here is a picture of the Cox family great grandchildren. They all made little cowboy hats for a little craft time.

Here is me and Casen on the 4 wheeler. Don't worry, Marc rode behind him for the actual ride and Casen actually held on pretty tight. We just went for a very short and safe ride with Casen so he could try it out. Marc and I also got a chance to go with Shane and Hannah and that was a lot of fun. We went several miles all over the mountains and to a really cool lookout spot. We were gone for over an hour and I was covered in dirt.

By the time we finally got home from our vacation, I had been gone for a week and a half and I really appreciated my bed! So far we have had a really nice summer, just swimming and hanging out and going on trips! This will be the trend for the next month and a half until I have to go back to work =(

Disneyland again!!

We just got back from another wonderful vacation to Disneyland! We decided that we are really glad that we got these passes for our Christmas present! This time around we spent 3 days in Disneyland and a day at Newport Beach. We also had Marc's brother, Shane and his girlfriend (now finance as of last night!!), Hannah come with us this time, which made it even more fun! They were nice enough to help out with Casen so Marc and I were able to actually ride some rides together instead of taking turns alone! The trip started off a little on the wrong foot when we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for the whole way. What should have been 4 hours took over 7! I do not recommend driving to CA on a Sunday afternoon, it was awful! Luckily the rest of the trip made up for it and the drive home was much better!

This serves as our Happy Easter picture! Casen loves Winnie the Pooh and the adults like Splash Mountain so we spent a lot of time in Critter Country. We took pictures with most of the characters and here is us with Rabbit!

Mommy and Casen in front of the Castle. Casen loves to point out the castle whenever he sees it. He calls it Mickey's castle!
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Shane and Hannah on It's a Small World! They were nice enough to go with us since Casen loves that ride as well!

Everyone's favorite ride this year was Buzz Lightyear so we could see who could get the most points...that is until we discovered Toy Story. That ride is so much fun and has even more games. We now understand why the line is always so long. Next trip we will be hitting that up every day! Hannah was the winner on Buzz every time and poor Shane just kept trying and couldn't compete! I was also proud of Casen for actually watching the fireworks this time. He got traumatized by the fireworks in October because we were in Fantasyland right where they set them off, so has been afraid ever since. While we were sitting and waiting he kept asking to get out of there. He sat on Daddy's lap and we kept telling him how cool it was and he decided to watch. I wish I had a picture of his face, it was a pained smile that said "I am still not sure about this but I think I like it".

We took a break from Disney on Tuesday and spent the day in Newport Beach. It wasn't as sunny and warm as we would have liked but we still braved the water, built a sand castle (sort of), and had a picnic. Casen loved the sand but not the water so much. Hannah was holding him at first and he would just lift his body and do anything to avoid the water. I guess he is going to be like daddy and run from the cold water! Daddy showed him how to run from the waves and he loved that. He also loved to roll in the sand and collect shells. He collected all the shells we used for the "sand Castle". Here is Casen, Shane, and Hannah by the sand castle.

After our fun at the beach we decided to stop at the Newport Beach temple since Marc and I had never been there before. We had a nice walk on the grounds and took some pictures. It was such a beautiful temple! Hopefully we will get the chance to do a session there some time. Here is Marc and Casen by the temple!

We had so much fun. We are glad that Shane and Hannah came with us and that they still like us and each other =)

Better Late than Never!

So this is a bit old now but we had our first ever Sweetheart Cafe this year for Valentine's day! I had some friends that did this growing up and this year seemed to be a good year to try it. We invited all of Marc's brothers and their significant others but his parents were out of town and only Shane and his girlfriend ended up coming over. I probably went overboard on the decorations but it was a lot of fun! We even had little hearts on our fake wine glasses. Marc brought me the flowers to work on Friday to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the day we met =)

Shane and Hannah with my delicious dinner in the background.

Casen enjoying his Valentine's dinner!

Hockey Game Gone Wrong...

We went to our very first hockey game last night. It was the Las Vegas Wranglers at the Orleans Arena. It was a pretty cool game. There was a fist fight and all kinds of action.
Here is a picture of me and Casen. This is the last picture of Casen's nose before he gets a nice little injury that ruins the hockey game!


Sorry, this picture is not for the squeamish. So we are not postive about what happened because I only saw from the corner of my eye because Casen was sitting in the chair next to me. All of the sudden I see him crying and bleeding. He was still on the chair facing away from the rink as he had been but he was bleeding. I immediately just rush him out as fast as possible and they actually took us to the paramedics. When I got a look at the injury I felt sick to my stomach. There is actually a chunk of skin and tissue missing from his nose. I started feeling a little freaked out but I stayed very calm. That must have worked because Casen stopped crying and was so tough the whole time they cleaned him up. After he got all bandaged (there was no possible way to stitch it), I asked Casen what happened and he said..."The dog hit my face". I was a little confused but there was a seeing eye dog sitting directly behind where Casen was sitting. Once we started thinking about it, we believe Casen. The wound is too deep and weird to have been caused by the back of the chair which is the only other possibility based on his position. Marc went back down to get all of our stuff and look around for the missing skin and the guy didn't say anything. He had to have seen what happened. Anyway, they filed an incident report and we will probably call next week as well to let them know we are pretty sure it was the dog.


The wound is so gross and scary looking. We will probably have to consult a plastic surgeon in order to actually get his nose to ever look normal again. He is also on a heavy antibiotic to prevent infection and just in case it was a dog wound. The best part was that as soon as we got the bandaid on Casen was begging to go back to the hockey game. He was having so much fun he didn't want to leave. We had to step in briefly to say goodbye to the hockey game. We will try not to let this ruin our chances of attending another game!

Family Cruise & Disneyland

We had a great opportunity to have a family cruise with Marc's family as our Christmas present. We planned to go a couple of days early to take advantage of our Disneyland passes. It was so much fun! Marc's mom was nice enough to watch Casen on Saturday night when we got their so we could go on all the big rides that night without Casen. It was great! The next day we took Casen with us and had just as much fun as last time. Casen got so exhausted though. We ate lunch in Downtown Disney with Marc's mom and brother. Casen was so tired he fell asleep eating. When he woke up a couple hours later (we went to the hotel for a break). He was asking for his ketchup since that was the last thing he remembered! I tried to post the video but I couldn't get it to work. I will have to try it on facebook and see if it works there.
Here is a picture of Marc and Casen at Small World. That ride was closed last time so we made sure to check it out this time. Casen loved it the most out of any ride. He smiled and sang Jingle Bells the whole time. Casen actually got to meet Mickey Mouse in person this time. He was very excited at the idea but when it came down to it, he was a little shy. You can see the uncertainty in his face and he would not go any closer than that. On Monday morning we left for a Baja California cruise that goes to Catalina Island and Ensenada, MX. All of Marc's immediate family was able to come and it was a great family vacation. We love Catalina personally. Marc's mom agreed to watch Casen in Catalina so here is a picture of just Marc and I heading over to the Island while Casen was still sleeping. We went kayaking and ate delicious cheese fries without Casen. Then we decided to rent bikes (we included Casen this time) and we all went with Marc's parents and brothers. It was so much fun. I haven't ridden a bike in several years but it wasn't so bad. We went up a nice hill and then got tired so we coasted all the way down. We decided next time we will have to do that again! Casen thought it was pretty cool to be on the bike with daddy. Here is a picture of our family at La Bufadora in Ensenada. It is a natural blowhole in the ocean. It is pretty cool because the water will just spray straight in the air. We were lucky to witness someone with his back to the Bufadora get completed soaked when it shut up so high and then splashed down. I wish I could have had a video on that moment. Casen loved watching the water. We sat there for 20 minutes just watching and then had to drag him away. There is also a lot of shopping and bartering at La Bufadora. We didn't buy too much this time but it was funny because Casen wanted everything and the people were trying to guilt us into buying toys for him.
We also had a day at sea and a chance to go swimming (in the hot tub because it was a bit chilly) and watch the fun shows, etc. One of Casen's favorite parts was towel animal that was left in our room every night. We took a picture each night. This was a sea turtle in the picture. The first night we got home we got Casen out of the bath and I went to dress him on my bed and he asked where the turtle and pig were (we had a pig one of the nights). It was so hilarious. I had to break the news to him that we were back to real life now.

It was so nice to have a real break for a week and just have fun. It was also nice to come home in time for the 3 day weekend so that we could recover. Today is the first day that I am not swaying. We had a lot of fun and we highly recommend a vacation to everyone!