boo.

jack-o lantern by jenny

eskeleto

giving mom the finger...

we had another happy halloween.
we went to our ward party/trunk or treat.

andy dressed up as a white trash guy. mullett and all.

i forgot to get a picture of it.

i'm still a little mad.

here are some pictures i forgot to post from cohens first bday party...

daphne and whitley..teaching him how to eat cake..

his girlfriends...

demkes

uh-oh. andy is getting baby fever while holding jay.

ONE YEAR AGO...

WE BECAME PARENTS

I'm amazed at how quickly this:

A healthy 8 lbs 9 oz. 21 inch baby

Became this:

A 26 pound, 31 inch boy

in 12 months.

I TOOK PICTURES OF COHEN FOR ALL OF HIS MONTHLY BIRTHDAYS.

SO WE CAN WATCH HIM GROW...

1 MONTH

2 MONTHS

3 MONTHS

4 MONTHS

5 MONTHS

6 MONTHS

7 MONTHS

8 MONTHS

9 MONTHS

10 MONTHS

11 MONTHS

12 MONTHS!

fall is here. that means the holidays are coming. we got festive with our friends and went to Bates Nut Farm (https://www.batesnutfarm.biz/) and picked out a pumpkin, cohen rode a pony...and a tractor, saw the petting zoo, and [cohen's favorite] played in the dirt. needless to say, we had a good time, and we can't wait to make this one of our new family traditions.

cohen doesn't wear shoes. i try. he hates them. he refuses to walk in them. he loves being barefoot. his feet are always dirty and he looks homeless most of the time. but i like to believe that its making him more tough. by the time he turns ONE he will have the feet of a mohican, and i will never have to buy him shoes again. kidding. kidding. it is my goal to have him wearing shoes before rainy season. but that would be nice.

cohen's filthy dirt face.

riding the pony. (too bad i didn't get the pony in the picture)

The 3 Amigos: cohen, weston, and his new pal luke

cohen kept clobbering his friends, so we had to set him on the haystack. i keep telling him that no one is going to want to be his friend if he can't play nice, but he never listens.

oh yes, and i forgot to post that our boy is now officially walking....everywhere.

he's getting a lot more personality, which is making him a lot more fun to hang out with.

oh yes, if you are like cohen's shirt go to http://littleshredder.com/default.aspx

Summer- y

We got gym passes. I never thought i'd be the type who goes to the gym. the thought of sweating and exercising in a giant room full of sweaty strangers in their fancy workout clothes has always kept me away from the gym. that is, until my friend karina started bringing me along with her free guest passes and i became addicted...so here i am ($300 x 2 later)...a gym go-er. oh yes, and i do not wear fancy gym clothes..i am the most ghetto gym goer at 24 hour fitness. its embarrassing. i'm always on the look-out...hoping that no one i know will see me. i wear leggings, an oversized t shirt, and my mom's old shoes. i refuse to buy expensive clothes that i am going to look gross and be sweating in. i would rather spend money on cute clothes to wear after i sweat at the gym. and i do sweat. a lot. more than andy..if yoou can believe that.but no offense to those who buy gym clothes. i just have a cheap disease. anyways. so far we love it. i'm excited to get rid of my flabby butt cheeks.

We went camping - twice. Camping at the beach is hardly camping. But you do stay in a campground. and you do sleep in a tent. We stayed 3 nights at doheny beach(dana point). and then the following week we stayed 4 nights at carlsbad beach. it was fun. but i dont think i will ever take a 10 month old to a dusty old campsite again...if he could walk at the time it would've been a lot easier to keep him clean. BUT cohen had the time of his life playing in the ocean and eating sand, so i am happy we went eventhough i couldn't really relax the entire time he was crawling in the dusty, spider infested campsite. my computer is having issues, so i can't upload any pictures right now. i will try to fix later...

We did some home repairs. not because we really needed them, but just because i wanted them. okay, lemme explain...

I wanted to repaint my too dark green cave-like bedroom and turn it into a relaxing bright and cheery room. so i started to go on the best home decorating websites to get some ideas:

http://apartmenttherapy.com/

http://ohdeedoh.com/

http://decorpad.com/

and

http://designsponge.com/

then. i became obsessed. everytime i turned on the computer i had to check and see if they updated anything. then. i started look at my house and wished it would look more like what i saw on the websites, so i ended up redoing my home. here is what we did.

we got rid of our old bulky tv stand and got a skinny one. so we have more room to walk in our ity bitty living room.

we got rid of our old used-to-be-light beige but turned brown carpet. i wish we wouldve done this sooner. its not fancy, but its clean and it feels like heaven on my feet.

we also got rid of the ugly split pea soup green wall paint that i never liked. we settled for a nuetral cafe latte color that i still dont really like (surprise,surprise), but definitly will not be repainting. i'm hoping it will grow on me. i still need some new curtains, pillows, pictures, etc so maybe that will make me like the room more. i hope so.

my light blue, relaxing new bedroom. which is also still a work in progress (need new pillows, pictures,etc). but at least i like the color.

Legoland

So I finally went to Legoland with Andy's lovely sister Angela and my little nieces last week. Cohen can only go on 2 of the rides, but he LOVED playing on all of the little playgrounds and stuff...and I loved how pretty and shady the park was...and the weather was delightful. I am excited to go again...and now I can go whenever I want because I have a pass! I'm so excited.

Cohen LOVED the train. I don't know why. it's not that different from his stroller. and he HATES his stroller.

The night before we took the girls swimming in Carlsbad. it was chilly, but they didn't care. There was a time in my life when I didn't care how cold the water was. But, now I do. I'm turning into an old lady.



Oh yes, and Cohen is now 10 months old.
my boy is getting so big.

I've been on vacation from my blog...

Time to get back into blog mode.

Here are some pictures from our Montana trip.

I will have more pictures of other stuff we have been up to this summer as soon as my camera is done charging and i have time to upload them on my computer...

Brian and his friend Caleb forgot to put the plug in their raft...

This picture kept coming out sideways and I don't know how to fix it.

same with this one...

and this one...

Father's Day

This father's day was extra special because it was Andy's first. He is a naturally good dad. and i'm not just saying that. i always knew he was going to be a good dad, because he was good with his nieces/nephews and the primary kids. but he continues to surprise me with how helpful he is with cohen. he helps even when i don't really need his help! he is great. i love my baby's daddy.


I'm also lucky to have such a great dad. he is fun, hardworking, busy busy busy, and sooo helpful.

Here is an example of how helpful he is: a few weeks ago my parents were houseitting our house (while we were in Utah). when we got home the house was spotless, and our kitchen was FULL of new groceries. Not just groceries, but NAME BRAND groceries (andy and i are big into the store brands). Pork chops, chicken, pizza, cereal, bread, soup, pop tarts, ice cream, drumsticks, and the list goes on and on...

he is and always has been a very busy man. Work, church callings, and traveling about 3 times a month has kept his life very hectic, but he still always makes time to do all the things he loves : family, vacations, U2 concerts, and going to the movies. I love my dad.




I only knew andy's dad for about a year and a half. But i really liked him. that's probably because he reminds me a lot of andy. especially his voice and feet. andy sometimes tears up when there is a sweet/sad scene on a tv show/movie and he always says "I'm turning into my dad!" Which is a good thing.

Andy has this shirt his dad is wearing in this picture... he plays basketball in it every Tuesday.

i'm sick of the glooooom!

It' the middle of june and i don't think i have seen the sun (for longer than a couple hours) in almost 3 weeks. All this gloom is turning me into a grump. i thought june gloom was suppossed to "burn off" by the afternoon. weathermen can be such liars sometimes.


i zoomed in so you can get an extra good look at my face. what is he smiling about?

HAPPY FRIDAY!

ketchup

here is a picture summary of what we've been up to lately...

BRIAN GRADUATED! from CAl State Fullerton. he now has a degree in Advertising.

so happy for him. i hope he ends up getting a job in san diego. i've been trying to lure them down here for years. i don't think it's working. but i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We got to go. the may gray burned off as soon as the graduation started. it was so hot...and i wasn't wearing breathable fabric. ugh. it was a sweat-fest. really. i sweat more than the average male. it's so gross.

my friend whitney graduated with my brother. she's all grown up.

the graduation party...

we finally took a family pictures...

cohen's first girlfriend Emma. he couldn't get enough of her. and she couldn't care less about him.

The cute little kidlets at Whitley's birthday party (over a month ago).

all the cute little kidlets.

Cohen=7 months

obviously i don't have anything new to blog about.

i've been a lousy blogger lately, so i'm trying to make up for it by doing a lot of posts... here are some new cohen pictures. these are his 6 month pictures that i never got around to posting when he turned 6 months old.,.he will be 7 months old in a few days, so expect more pictures soon.

a rare smile for the camera

cohen is a very big child. he eats A LOT...and you can tell. he moves all over the place these days...but he does not "crawl" like most babies do. he drags his body (like a slug) from room to room. (picture a baby with 2 broken legs trying to get around the house - that's what he looks like. i don't know if he will ever crawl. we try to show him how much easier it is to crawl on all fours, but he insists on doing it his way. oh well. what can you do.

Thanks Dad!

i was admiring my beautiful roses, (that are slowly dying) so i decided to take a picture of them. and then i decided to post them on my blog. thanks. i love you.

Happy Mother's Day to Me and My Mother.

Supposedly these ugly bonnets were "in style"

side pony...


i'm wearing a pirate shirt...she's wearing shoulder pads...

This mother's day was special because it was my first. Andy made me pancakes and gave me the longest foot rub of my life. Then we got to go to church. I got to watch my adorable primary kids sing the same primary mothers day songs that they have been singing since i was in primary. after church, my family and grandparents came to our house for dinner. this was exciting because we have not been able to just stay home for a holiday in a very looonng time.
happy mothers day. i love my mom.

Fake Burberry Sunglasses

A few weeks ago (on our Palm Springs trip) andy and i bought some new sunglasses from one of those fake designer sunglass stores that you find in tourist-y areas. We got the 2 for $15 deal. I got the Burberry knock offs and andy got some other fake brand.

I went to kohls yesterday to return some things. i had my sunglasses in the cupholder of the stroller and cohen in my arms (he doesn't like to be strapped down). Andy was in the dressing room trying on some cheap shorts that i wanted him to buy. i go into the dressing room for less than 30 SECONDS to give him a different size (leaving my stoller in the entrance) and WHAM! my fake designer sunglasses are gone. I'm so annoyed. i'm especially annoyed because i know it was my fault for leaving my stroller in the entrance for 30 seconds. Someone is out there with MY fake Burberry $7 sunglasses...probably thinking they got the "real deal." ha.

Baby Conrad

Cohen is so lucky...he is going to have 3 BOY COUSINS (Dutch, Conrad, and [Jay?]), 2 second BOY cousins (Brandon & the new baby), ONE second GIRL cousin, AND 3 BOY "friends" (boys that i want him to be friends with)..Weston, Henry, and Luke ( am i forgetting someone?) Count'em up! 8 boys. ONE Girl...all less than one year apart.

Boys EVERYWHERE. (except for Christina's baby girl on the way)... what is the deal with that?

ANYWAYS...

here is a picture of the newest member of the Demke clan:

Aaron and Kim had their baby boy Conrad (kim's maiden name..love it) on Saturday, April 18th (their due date).

We are so excited for them, and can't wait to go to Kingman in a few weeks to meet the new little guy.

Cohen and Dutch Boy

We recently got cohen and his cousin dutch together for a mini photo shoot at Grandma Becky's. Cohen is 1 1/2 younger than dutch, but he is WAY fatter. They were fighting over an empty water bottle. Cohen is a vicious fighter. There was lots of ear pulling, pushing, cheek sucking, and frustrated squeals. i hope they can be friends someday..

Cohen boom boom, Dutch boy, and David poops. happy.

fighting

musical geniuses

ear pulling.

2 Year Anniversary

This year we decided to celebrate our TWO Year Anniversary in Palm Springs.

We had to bring the little nugget along with us,

so it was more of a family vacation than an anniversary trip.

.

We stayed at our FREE hotel in Palm Desert (thank you HiltonHonors Points).

We ate, went swimming, and pretended to be richer than we are.

The next day we went to Palm Springs...

We rode the Tram for the first time. Andy is afraid of heights so he didn't look down the entire time.

It was 75 degrees at the bottom and 37 degress at the top of the mountain.

top of the mountain..

there was still snow up there. brrrr.



Shopping on Palm canyon drive.

Happy Anniversary to US! I love my boo.

I'm happy that i married a guy who cooks, cleans,helps me with the baby, AND puts up with me. he is the BOMB.

Happy Birthday to my girl Whit

whitney and i have been friends since the beginning of 7th grade.

i was attracted to her because she dressed cute, and she had older, 8th grade friends.

she was attracted to me because i had a big blonde ponytail on top of my head and i was sitting at a lunch table full of my boys friends.

since then, we have been through a lot of fun times. lots of tacky clothes and bad makeup. lots of catty girl fights with our other girl friends...lots of little adventures: san diego, riding the bus to the beach, camping at the beach, venice beach, rosarito, our soma holidays, and our OC nights where we would eat way too many popcorn w/m&ms and my brother would yell at us for drinking all of his soda. oh yes, and don't forget the time when whitney accidentally drove my neighbors car down the street with her car keys.

note to whitney: i hope this post makes you want to visit me sooooon

and i also hope this post with make you want to start a blog.

Happy Birthday Daddio!

For my dad's birthday we all went down to La Jolla to watch the boys go ParaGliding off the cliffs over Blacks Beach (a nude beach in SD). Andy and I didn't go because it was #1 too expensive ($175 for a 30 ride!) and #2 Andy is afraid of heights. but we both regretted not going after we saw how much fun they had...so we may do it again for andy's birthday this year.

Trip Highlights:

#1: When my mom looked down the cliff and saw an old nude man wearing nothing but a fanny pack.

#2: when my dad's parachute had to land on the beach, with all the nudies, and he had to hike back up the cliff.
#3: when andy lost my purse with everything in it..wallet, camera, gift cards, car keys.. and we went back to find it 2 hours later and it was still in the SAME place he left it with everything in it. whew!

Cohen and his dorky sunglasses!

gliding some more...

observing....

Cohen = 5 months