a joyful nest…

our blog has a new name and a new home!
please fly on over to ajoyfulnest

hope to see you there soon!

pumpkin patchin…

we decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and hit the pumpkin patch early in october. it was a wonderful day, and coen had a blast. of course his favorite (FAVORITE!) thing to do was ride the mini tractors.

a little push from mama always helps…


there was SO much to do at the patch. i mean SO SO much. after we bribed coen off the tractors, we headed up the hay bale pyramid.


we made it to the top!

next, the petting zoo! so so fun.

a tractor ride up to the patch…

then a wheelbarrow ride to find the perfect pumpkins!

and so the search begins…

before we know it, we are heading back with some beautiful pumpkins!

we washed and dried the pumpkins, put them in the car, and took our chances at the pumpkin launcher!

and of course a trip through the corn maze.

whew! what a fun, busy day! as we were leaving, coen stopped to listen to some folk music. he just needed a little chill time.

goodbye summer, hello fall…

in seems to be getting harder and harder to keep up-to-date entries on our blog. busy summer. busy toddler. ah well, here is a wrap up on what exactly has been keeping us so darn busy.

in early september matt and geri tied the knot in a beautiful beach wedding ceremony. all three of us were in the wedding, and boy was it crazy fun! we were so busy in fact that i got NO pictures, expect this one, the whole night. coen danced his heart out, was a hit with the ladies, and by the end of the night was running around in his diaper.

lucky for us, the wedding was on the oregon coast and we made a long weekend of it. we had beautiful weather the whole trip and had a blast playing on the beach. we plan to make this an annual trip. it was SO much fun!

we took coen to see the sealions. he could hear them before we could actually see them, and he was so excited to figure out what was making all that noise.

knowing our sunny days are numbered, we try to get outside and enjoy it while we have it. that means some good hiking with coen and lily. oh so fun!

just a couple weeks ago coen started a “little kickers” soccer class. it is so ridiculous to watch him run around in his uniform. there will be many many more pictures of soccer class to come, promise!

it has been really fun to watch coen become interested in helping us do things. lately, he looooves to feed lily. he will pick up her bowl and carry it to the door. after we put the food in, he decides the perfect place to put it down. it’s a different place every time, and then he insists on hand feeding the food to lily piece by piece. this stresses her out, but she is so patient with him. well, the other night i was cooking dinner, and we went through the whole processes with coen “helping” us feed lily. i looked up to find him shoveling the food into his mouth with a spoon! eep! what is a good mama to do?! grab the camera of course! don’t worry, after i captured the moment i scrapped what i could out his mouth. after all, it’s just dog food.

there you have it. check back soon for pictures from our pumpkin patch adventure. did we really find the perfect pumpkins?!

summer road trippin’: medford

the final stop on our 2 week adventure was to visit my family in southern oregon. although it was much hotter in medford than anywhere else we had been, we tried to get out early and enjoy some fresh air. one morning we decided to hike up table rock.

this hike is short, steep and has beautiful views of the valley from the top. it was a little warm to stay out for too long, as there is no shade. we managed to have some fun before heading back down to the car.


coen loooves to visit papa john’s work. there are big rigs everywhere you look. it was too hot to be outside, so they watched the trucks from the window.

nana was able to take a day off to play with us. we went to “the farm” to see goats, ducks, horses, a snaggle toothed llama, and a donkey.
gotta love this llama…


my sweet boy loved the goats.

and the llama llama.

the “corn box” was oh so fun!

a pony ride…

and oh course, a tractor ride.

we also got to check out the new splash park. coen wasn’t a fan of the splashing, but he did enjoy watching all the big kids play.

coen sure loves his nana. (and his finger in his nose)

we had a wonderful visit with papa george and grammie. thanks for letting us stay

on our way out of town we stopped at papa john’s house. good clean fun.

whew! what a chaotic and fun couple of weeks. it was a blessing to spend time with everyone. can’t wait to do it again next year. okay, maybe we can wait a little bit

summer road trippin’: truckee

after a great week at the beach we headed up to truckee, ca for a weekend in the mountains. on our way we had the chance to stop and visit with grandpa thelen. coen was a big hit with all the ladies, as you might imagine. and he spent most of the time checking out the wheels on all the walkers and wheelchairs. once we got to truckee we hiked to long lake for a picnic dinner and evening swim. coen waded right into this beautiful alpine lake.

it’s hard to imagine, but long lake is under at least 20 feet of snow in the winter! wes was super stoked that he was in the sierra nevada mountains AND drinking a sierra nevada. coen doesn’t seem to be too impressed.

we had a couple other great hikes. one was up around castle peak. gami joined us for the afternoon. coen was a little restless on this hike, and i recited every song and book i know…ten times. fun and exhausting!

after a few days it was time to keep our adventure moving. on our way out of town, we stopped in reno for a visit with kara and cruz. kara is a good friend from college. her son, cruz is 2 months (exactly!) younger than coen. last year was the first time the boys met. they were such tiny little guys!

then in december, they got to “play” again.

this play date was much different. they are so cute, and such boys. coen took a digger on the tile floor and left cruz’s house with a huge bump/bruise on his forehead. bummer.

it is so fun to watch our boys grow up. i wish we lived closer for more frequent play dates. then again, these picture really show how much they have changed. love them.
play-date 2009

play-date 2010

summer road trippin’: stinson beach

recently we set out on a 2 week road trip. our first destination: stinson beach, ca. this is a trip we take every year with wes’ family. this was my eighth (yup, 8!) year at the beach. last year, coen was just barely 4 months old. let’s just say, this was a whole new adventure. keeping a 16 month old entertained for 14 hours of driving was, shall i say, difficult. but of course it was oh soooo worth it.
our first morning at the beach house coen took time to get acquainted with his new surroundings…and is “aunt’s”, lola and rosie.

there were so many new faces. coen especially enjoyed the big kids. and he loooved the sand.

it was so fun to watch him actually play in the sand. last year, not so much.

this year he loved to run around, chase waves, and push his cars in the sand.


such a beach bum.

some of the big kids decided that this was their year to lean how to boogie board. they were so serious, they rented wet suits from the local surf shop.

it took wes all of 10 minutes to decide he needed to jump in and help them. he did not have a wet suit, but he was a pretty good sport about it. they all had fun.

yet another fun week with family and good food!

some favs…

geesh! we have had a super busy (and fun!) month! in early july grandma maise and aunt debbie came to visit for a few days. as always, coen loved having the company and attention. the first morning they were here we all pilled in the car and drove a couple hours to gianna’s 2nd birthday party. it was quick trip, but it was fun to see everyone and celebrate little g!


coen had fun hanging out with his crazy uncle matt

and loved walking around with papa john

during their visit, we took them to one of our favorite places for lunch. after eating some great food we took a walk around the grounds. these crazy gals were just silly about all the plants.

coen was busy showing grammy all the cool things in the garden.

thanks for coming to visit, we ALL had a great time! xoxo

squishy shoes…

the time finally came for our little man to get some real walking shoes. since coen has been a late walker (praise God) he has never actually worn shoes. ok, that is a lie…when he was 2 weeks old i attempted to put these loafers on him for easter. they fell off every five seconds and i never attempted “shoes” again.

that is, until he learned how to pull off his socks. then came the adorable giraffe robeez.

quickly he outgrew those (tear) and moved up to these faux fur robeez booties.

and boy has he worn those babies out! they were the perfect “not shoe”, to learn to walk in. but it was time for something new, something with…shall i say, some “soul”. so we headed out on the search. mama was certain we would come home with a brown leather dress sandal (i had done my research). once we got there, the sales women quickly talked me into a more durable everyday sandal made by keen. geese, that was easy.

EXCEPT…it turns out those little feet are not so little. the keen walker shoes do not come in a “wide” option, and his feet were waaaay to chubby to fit. bummer. so the kind lady listened to me ramble as to why i didn’t love the other options for an everyday sandal (you know, the color is wrong, they won’t match everything….blah blah) and went to the stock room. when she returned she said, “i think i found you the perfect shoe, and it comes in wide!” bless her heart. we got the shoes onto his precious, chubby, size 6 feet and off he went. walk, walk, walking all over the store.
after he took them on a test drive, she brought him out a balloon and a stuffed “nordy” (the nordstrom’s kids mascot). he was overwhelmed and began hugging and kissing nordy. what a sweet little boy.

when we put him in the stroller, big boy shoes and all, i couldn’t believe how grown up he looked. no more little piggies hanging out. he said “bye bye” and blew multiple kisses to the sales women (such a flirt) and kicked his legs all the way home. we didn’t get the shoes off of him till it was time for a bath. perfect little shoes, for some perfect squishy feet.

independence day…

last year coen was a squishy little 3 month old for his 1st fourth of july and he slept right through all the fireworks. funny thing is, this year wasn’t much different. we ventured up to washougal and had a sleepover with susan, steve and alex. this was coen and alex’s first sleepover, and i imagine there will be many more as they grow into little boys.

they have so much fun playing together.


after some good food, we headed outside for a campfire. coen hung out for a while in the backpack with daddy, and then headed to bed. he was asleep before it even got dark.

we enjoyed hanging out around the fire eating smores and enjoying our own fireworks. the little girls danced around with sparklers singing…precious! mr titus was very scarred of all the loud noises ad had to be snuggled by his mom and dad all night…poor guy.

in the morning we hung out, ate yummy pancakes, and talked about next year! what a fun tradition…thank for having us be apart of it!

flowers are for…blowing

somewhere coen has picked up that you blow on flowers. maybe when we smell them, he thinks we are blowing? yesterday i caught him almost face down in the grass. when i went to investigate, i discovered that there was a little yellow dandelion growing in the grass and he was bent over blowing on it…bless his heart! i picked it for him and he continued to blow, blow, blow.
check out these eye lashes…they are growing as fast as he is!