He's Seven Months!

Cocoa Bean turned 7 months this week! Wow!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! This month has been an exciting one for little Coey...he sits up all the time now, loves to stand up with help, and is trying his darnedest to army crawl (which involves sliding his face along the carpet while he pushes himself around with his feet...it doesn't look comfy...time to learn to use your arms dude!). He smiles all the time and is just so happy...as long as he is getting adequate attention that is! I have never had a baby that was such a social butterfly! He loves to be cuddled & talked to ALL THE TIME! He will let me put him down for a few minutes...but if he starts to feel ignored in the slightest, he will let me know by SCREAMING EXTREMELY LOUDLY! It's actually pretty funny! Apparently, he feels that I should never again do any of the following: take a shower, do the dishes, dust the house, make the bed, clean the kitchen, get dressed, make lunch for his brothers, do my makeup, clean the bathrooms or do the laundry. He will however, permit me to put him down for the following chores: vacuum (I think he likes the noise), blow dry my hair (again with the noise), and pay the bills (as long as he is sitting in his high chair right next to me with a tray full of toys). I guess I should be grateful that I at least get to do those things! But, despite not getting as much done as I would like, I love this little guy to bits & pieces and think he is pretty much the cutest little kiddo on the planet! Because he's so stinkin' cute, I have (once again) included a plethora of pictures for you to look at...

Cohen "standing"...more like "leaning onto the couch & holding on for dear life"...


Such cuteness...

Trying to army crawl...

Hangin' out with big brother Aiden...whom Cohen hasn't been deathly afraid of lately!

Trying to lean over and get the camera...

Oh, I love those eyes...

More eye love...

Cohen wondering why Connor is jumping up and down like a maniac just outside of camera view (Connor was trying to get Cohen to smile, but Cohen just thought Connor had gone crazy)...

I always wonder what he's thinking...

Probably something to the effect of "I wish my mom would get this stinkin' camera out of my face for once"...

And now he's probably thinking, "Is this photo shoot EVER going to end?"...

"Okay...I'm done! NO MORE SMILES FOR YOU!"...

Love you Coconut! You are one cool & cute kiddo! --Mommy

A Trip to the Fire Station

Our little neighborhood preschool took its first field trip today! We visited the fire station in downtown Salt Lake...


Jessica, one of the moms in the preschool, has a twin brother that is a firefighter there (he's the one in the above picture). The kids had a blast! They got to tour the station and see where the firefighters sleep, eat, & workout. The kids even got their own shout out from dispatch, who welcomed them all to the fire station! It was really cute!!! Then, they got to go out and see the actual firetrucks. Justin, Jessica's brother, put on all his firefighting gear to show the kids what they look like when they go to fight fires...

And, he even let the kids get dressed up a little too...

They got to sit in the firetruck & even try on the headphones that are used to listen to dispatch...

After sitting in the firetruck for a bit, the kids got to try out some of the equipment, like the hose...

And, the ax...which Aiden was pretty dangerous with (notice the look on Justin's face! Haha!!)...

And, after the tour was over, the kids even got some memorabilia to take home! They got their own helmets, badges & a coloring book...

The kiddos had a blast! I'm pretty sure it was their favorite day of preschool this entire year...

Afterwards, we all went to Noodles & Co. for lunch...yummy! It was such a fun day for the kids & the moms! A big thanks to Jessica for planning the activity & to Justin for giving us the grand tour! --Lindsay

A Couple of Funny Stories From Life Lately

Story #1:

Okay, so a few days ago, I caught Aiden in a lie. I sent him to his bedroom for a time out. When the time was up, I went into his room to have a little chat with him about why it is not okay to lie. I explained what a lie was & then went on to tell him that lies make people sad. I said, "Aiden, when you tell lies it makes mommy sad, it makes daddy sad & it makes Heavenly Father & Jesus sad." To which he replied, "Well, it DON'T make Aiden sad!" Oh my...what am I raising?!?

Story #2:

Mike & I recently decided to bump up our life insurance. Because of this, the topic of "death" has come up quite a bit with us lately. A few days ago, we were talking about what life would be like for our family if I were to die. Here's part of the conversation:

Mike: Well, if you were to die, I think I would become a race car driver!

Me: Wow! That's awesome! (Sarcasm) So, instead of our children having only one dead parent, they can have 2 dead parents? That's so awesome of you! (Again with the sarcasm)

Mike: Oh, come on...I wouldn't die! I'm a GREAT driver! (By the way, I think I just figured out where Aiden learned his lying from! Hehe!)

Me: You...a great driver? Ha!!! You better not become a race car driver if I die! In fact, if you DO...I'll come back and haunt you!

Mike: So...HOW would that be any different than my life now?

Haha! I guess I should be offended by that, but I thought it was an awesome zinger! 1 Point Mike! --Lindsay

Our Trip to New York City

Mike & I just got back from New York City. We have always wanted to go & we finally got there...without our children!!! My parents were nice enough to take them for us so we could have a little getaway. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to them!!! We had a great time! Here's what we did (in pictures...lots of them)...

We flew into JFK & then took a taxi into Midtown Manhattan...


It was exactly what I thought a New York taxi ride would be like...lots of crazy driving, at least 16 near-accidents, I think he honked the horn at least 23 times, & I wanted to scream (but refrained) at least 27 times. It kind of reminded me of driving with Mike! :) Except Mike doesn't honk...but the rest was pretty much like driving with Mike! Love you hun! :)

We stayed in the Hilton Times Square on 42nd Street. It was a really neat hotel! The hotel actually started on the 23rd floor...below that was an IMAX theatre. So, you had to take one elevator up to the lobby & then another elevator up to your room. It was interesting! Anyway, right after we checked in, we headed out to see the sights in Times Square...


We had a blast! We went shopping, took lots of pictures & ate a New York hot dog...just for Amy Twitty...

They were delicious! I don't think I've ever had a better hot dog! After our lovely dinner, we ran into the David Letterman theatre...

And, the Hello Deli, but it was closed...

After doing some sightseeing, we headed over to the Winter Garden Theatre for our first Broadway show, Mamma Mia...

I love this show! I saw it with my mom & sisters in SLC a few years back, but Mike had never seen it. I was so excited to take him! He loved it! It is such a hilarious show & we had a blast at it!

After the show, we ate a late dinner (as in 11:30 pm...it reminded us of our Louisiana days before we had kids) at Planet Hollywood where Mike had an encounter with Rocky. Don't worry, he miraculously recovered afterwards...

The next day, we headed back out to Times Square & decided to jump on the "hop-on hop-off" bus...

Here we are on the bus...

We decided to jump off at Macy's...

It was beyond amazing! The store is an entire city block & is 9 levels! I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw an entire level that was devoted to shoes! It was a thing of beauty...let me tell you!

The Empire State Building was right down the street...

So we decided to walk down to it & ride the elevator all the way to the top...

It was awesome! I can't even explain how cool it was to be up that high! And, yes, we DID kiss at the top. Isn't that a requirement?

After that, we jumped back on the "hop-on hop-off" bus & took it down to Canal Street. I thought I was going to love it. What girl wouldn't love designer knock-offs?!? But, it kind of freaked me out! These people would jump out at you from nowhere, grab your arm & say, "Hey! I got Chanel Sunglasses & Gucci bags...you want some?" These people were nuts! I love a Gucci knock-off bag as much as the next girl, but LET GO OF MY ARM!!!

Anyway, once we escaped, we walked down into Soho where Mike found some random deli where we ate lunch. It was really delish. Here's a picture of Mike in his "authentic NY deli"...

After that, we continued to walk down into the Financial District & went to Ground Zero. They've built a new "overlook" to look down into it, but you can't really see a whole lot...

We also saw the list of all the people who died there. It really is humbling when you see how many people died that day & you realize that each of those people had their own lives & people that loved them. On our way back to the bus stop, we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral. It is the oldest church in Manhattan (many of the graves in the graveyard are from the 1600s) & it served as a triage center during the 9-11 attacks...

That night, we had the highlight of our trip...

We went to see "Wicked"!!! We both LOVED it! It is the most amazing show I have ever seen! If you haven't seen it, I totally recommend it! At one point, I was laughing so hard that I was crying! Loved it, loved it, LOVED IT!!! My favorite was Galinda...emphasis on the "Ga". She cracked me up!

I was still smiling all the way down the street...

The next day, we got up early & took the Subway to CBS. While we were waiting for our train, Mike found a friend...

Yes, that is a rat! It was the biggest, nastiest thing I have ever seen in my whole life!!! I seriously threw up a little in my mouth when Mike pointed him out to me!

Anyway, we went to CBS to see the Saturday Early Show (the show that comes on before my show on Saturday morning). My producer wanted me to try to get on TV so that they could show it on my show right after. I didn't think there would be that many people there, but they were having a wedding for Valentines Day so it was PACKED with people! I did manage to sneak up behind Lonny Quinn (the weather guy) while he was doing weather and got on national TV for approximately 3.5 seconds, but that's it. Afterwards, I got to meet him...

He spent like 10 minutes with Mike & I! He was so nice...and it was fun to get to know him since he comes on air before me every weekend & so I feel like I kind of know him.

After CBS, we went shopping on 5th Avenue...

And, by "shopping" I mean "looking into the windows of EXTREMELY expensive places that have doormen that glare at you as you walk by because they can TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT YOU that you don't belong there". Haha! We got a good laugh!

Afterwards, we walked down to Rockefeller Center...

And saw NBC...

Then we went to Fox News, where I took a picture of me next to Bill O'Reilly's picture for my dad & sister (who both have a slight obsession with the man)...

While we were at Fox News, I ran into this guy. Recognize him???

Yes, that's Governor Huckabee (former presidential candidate & now talk show host). I recognized him & just said, "Hey Governor!" We started a conversation after that. Now, don't get me wrong...I am NOT a Huckabee fan--never have been, never will be...especially after how mean he was to my beloved Ken doll politician, Mitt Romney. But, after talking to him for a few minutes, I was started to think that he wasn't so bad. That was, until we told him we were from SLC & his mood totally changed! All the sudden, he was quite a bit cooler & "had to go". LAME-O!!! Romney in 2012! :)

He wasn't our only celebrity-sighting that day, we later ran into Jennifer Love Hewitt...but she slipped into some building to avoid the crowds, so we didn't get a picture of her...much to Mike's dismay. Sorry Mikey!

After Fox, we went & saw Radio City Music Hall...

And then, frozen to the core, we went back to our hotel room to warm up...

Next, we went back down to the tip of Manhattan to Battery Park & took the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty...

Here she is...

Some British tourist offered to take a picture of both of us with Lady Liberty but apparently, he didn't feel the statue's head & torch were important enough to be included in the picture...

Here's the view of Manhattan from the Statue of Liberty. The Canadian tourist who took this picture is obviously a much better photographer than the British one who took the previous one...

After the Statue of Liberty, we went over to Ellis Island...

It was pretty awesome for me because my great-grandpa & my great-grandma both went through there when they immigrated from Norway in the early-1900s. They didn't know each other then, they came separately & then met here in the states. As I walked through the big hall where immigrants were processed, I thought about my great-grandma and how scary that would have been to do all by yourself (especially not knowing much English)! It amazes me what a tough chick she was! I don't think I could have done it! Hopefully, there's a little piece of her courage in me somewhere that I will be able to develop someday!

After the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, we were COMPLETELY frozen, so we headed back to the hotel room (again) to warm up. This time we both fell asleep...for 4 hours!!! We woke up at 10:30 pm! We decided to go get some dinner. We knew that things would be crazy, considering it was Valentine's night, but we never expected this...

The streets were PACKED with people...we're talking New-Years-Eve-Packed! You could barely walk! The first few days we had been there, it had been pretty quiet, but Valentines night was NUTS! Every restaurant, even at 10:30 at night, had a 3-4 hour wait! Holy cow!!! We ended up just finding another deli & ate a quick dinner. Then, we went to Cold Stone for dessert & took it back up to our hotel room to eat. It was awesome! I loved it! How can you not, when you have ice cream & THIS view out your window...

They had lit the Empire State Building up in red, pink & white for V-day. It was awesome!

The next day, we decided to take a Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan Island...

It was really cool to be able to see the whole island! Here's the view of the southern part of the island from the boat...

And, here's the Brooklyn Bridge...

After the cruise, we jumped on the "hop-on hop-off" bus again & took it up to the north this time around Central Park & into Harlem. We saw the Museum of Natural History (from "Night at the Museum") and had to take a picture for our kids...

And, we got to see the Apollo too! Totally cool for a James Brown fan...

We got off the bus on the Upper East Side & went to Serendipity for dinner...

When we got there, they had a 2 hour waiting list, so we decided to go shopping at Bloomingdales and some of the other shops on Madison Avenue...a huge Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Ann Taylor, etc. (again, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven). Finally, we got into Serendipity and it was delicious! My favorite was the frozen hot chocolate! Have you ever seen something so heavenly in all your life...

It was awesome! If you're ever in New York, you MUST go there! It's on 60th Street, between Madison Ave. & 2nd Ave. Delish!!!

On our last day there, we just hung around Times Square & did more shopping. We ran into the Naked Cowboy too, but the line to get your picture taken with him was WAY long so we decided not to. :( We took one final picture of us outside our cute hotel & then headed home...

It was such a fun trip! I loved every second of it! But, to tell you the truth, as much as I loved it...I was really happy to get back home to my cute kiddos and my boring suburbian life! I love New York, but I don't know if I could ever live there...I'm DEFINATELY more of a Salt Lake kinda gal! --Lindsay