I haven't done a post in a while. I tried to do one a week or so ago and blogger told me that I had to start paying to blog because I had uploaded too many photos! So, I waited until I figured out a way around it all. You will have to excuse my lower quality photos from now on, since they are smaller sizes, they take up less space so I can post more.

My green hair has come and gone. I really liked it, but it kept fading. After dying it three times, I decided to abandon it and dye my hair a more respectable shade for my little sister's upcoming wedding. It is now the usual very dark brown.

Cosby is a total drool factory, so we have to force him to wear his cape backwards all the time.

Atlas loves blocks a lot lately. He builds bad guys and good guys, robots, monsters and machines. (And still never wears pants)

He is too cool for school.

I love this little gremlin face.

Everyone keeps saying he looks like Nick, but I don't see it that much.

Here he is modeling in his sleep.

He likes to suck his fingers, but we have been trying to swap that out for a binky, because later on down the road, I can take away a binky, but I can't take away his fingers. (I saw too many kids with messed up teeth from thumb sucking when I worked at the dentist)

He had a hard time keeping it in his mouth at first, but he is getting the hang of it. Here he is holding it in his own mouth.

All Nick does is read. Lots of times he carries Cosby so that I can cook dinner or take care of Atlas.

We went to see Santa at a little sweets shop. Atlas liked it (at least before and afterwards), but was very shy. He wouldn't even look at the camera. He didn't sit on his lap, but he did stand in front of him and mumble while looking at the ground for a while.

There was also a face painter there doing Christmas face paintings, but Atlas requested Batman.

He loved it, but right when we got home it was nap time.

And he woke up like this.

Not even a bath would take it all off.

I don't ever feel like the photos I take of Cosby actually look like him. Here is a very short video (my camera ran out of space) of him. I was trying to film him cooing, but he always stops and stares at the camera in confusion once I pull it out.

 

Look how much he has already changed. This is from the hospital.

I have happy news. I am slowly figuring out how to upload and play back video that I have taken. I was forced to figure it out because my SD card is totally full. Here is a video I took when I found all the boys playing on the living room floor during the hurricane.


     
That is the first one I uploaded, but I promise there will be many many more.

Everything is pretty casual at our house. No pants necessary and you can eat ice cream right out of the tub.

In fact, you don't even have to use a spoon.

You can nap whenever you want. Which for this guy, is all the time.

And we even wear hand designed clothes. (Atlas made this for Cosby, thanks to some fabric markers and onsies Meg sent to us)

Cute Pictures of Cosby Round-Up

Cosby had his two month appointment today and got 3 shots and is not happy, but here are some pictures from before today when he was still smiling like crazy.

Oh man, we love this kid.

Halloweekend, Hurricane Sandy

We celebrated Halloweekend with lots of spooky food.
Black Rice and Orange Tofu

Spooky Witch Soup (Asparagus Soup)

Spider Web Cake (Banana Three Layer Cake) that we took to Nick's school and shared with his fellow fiction writers. Atlas calls layer cakes "big birthday cupcakes."

Brains! (Beet and Spinach Pasta)

Saturday we went to the zoo. All the kids were dressed up and adorable.

They had games, a Trick-or-Treat trail, a DJ for a kids dance party (where Atlas did some super sweet dance moves) and lots of fun things to do.

That night was the ward Halloween Party. Atlas loved having balloon sword fights.

There were lots of other games and treats.

Ward parties here are so fun cause our ward is so small. That means you know about everyone and whoever you don't know, you get to know. There is no sitting at a table and blending into the background here, which is what I would usually do in a large group.

Unfortunately, I totally dropped the ball on costumes this year, which isn't like me. I had a billion good ideas for costumes, but they all required money, time, and a sewing machine. Having a new little baby to care for and Nick being so busy has limited the time I have to get stuff done. I was a bit sad and have made a goal to own a sewing machine by next Halloween so that I can make the best costumes ever. For the party though, Nick and I just put on some skeleton make-up, but really we were pretending to be a Scandinavian metal band.

For Halloween night we pulled together some different costumes about 30 minutes before heading out to go trick-or-treating. I was Sonic.

Nick was Duke Silver.

Luckily we had a Mario suit for Atlas that his Aunt Cassie sent to him last year. He loved being Mario and was super excited when he got to wear his costume to preschool.

Cosby wore a hand-me-down tiger suit and looked great in it.

Atlas is at a great age for trick-or-treating. He was so excited. When we would walk away from houses he would say (about the person who handed out the candy) "they are so nice...... I love them." Going out on Halloween night with your kid is as fun as doing it when you are a kid yourself and trick-or-treating in Providence is lovely. The weather was great and I love having an excuse to walk up to these beautiful old houses and see into their pretty entry ways. Halloween is alive and well in New England, there is none of the trunk-or-treat crap so the streets are chalk full of cute kids running around in costumes and the leaves are lovely. It's magic. I have always loved Halloween. I wanted to stay out forever but Atlas and Cosby had both had enough in little under an hour. Atlas wanted to go back home when we were about 4 blocks away from our car and wouldn't hit up the houses in the path on our way back, which nearly killed me cause I was having too much fun. Also, it was hard to watch Atlas consistently make the wrong candy choices. The person would hold out a big bowl of candy for him to choose from and all of it would be great except there would be like one giant Tootsie Roll or something in there and Atlas would pick the Tootsie Roll. I have so many things to teach this child.....

Hurricane Sandy left us unscathed. The coast line of Rhode Island took a bit of a beating, but we are far enough inland that we were just fine. People around us lost power, but we didn't. Atlas and Nick had school off so it was mostly just 2 days to hang out at home and watch a crazy rainstorm out the window, which is actually quite nice.

The friends that we spent the most time with when we lived in Utah were Ryan and Addy Hall and Dan Midgley. The summer that we left, the Halls also left to Swaziland Africa to join the Peace Corps and Dan headed to LA for work. We've spent a lot of time missing them and wondering when we'd ever see them again, until a couple months ago I got an email from Addy telling me that they would be coming to America in  October for her brothers wedding and they thought they'd be able to come to RI to pay us a visit. We were so excited! They haven't seen any friends or family for a year and a half but they still drove all the way here from Pennsylvania and arrived on Tuesday. When they arrived they told us to come outside, there was a surprise in the trunk. When we got out there  Dan popped out! The quintet was complete! I had no idea Dan would be joining us. It may have been the most surprised I have ever been. I was ecstatic that we were all together again.

I can't tell you how happy I was to see these folks and that they used their time and money to come see us.

Atlas loves them.

Even Cosby was smiling in his sleep.

We seriously have some of the coolest friends in the world. The problem is- they are all over the world. I don't know when we'll see these guys again, which makes me sad, but these are the kinds of friends you have for a lifetime no matter where we all end up. Thanks for coming here friends!