Over it!

Look what Santa left for Cody

Cody is our little American Idol!
Me with my sewing machine
Daniel with his phone

Wow, so all I can say is that Christmas is over and I am over it. It was fun and all, but very exhausting and am glad to have it over for the first time in my life. Neither Daniel or I could sleep very well Christmas Eve. I think we were too excited for Cody. So we started the day already low on energy. We spent Christmas morning at home playing with new gifts and socializing with the neighbors outside. Our neighborhood is pretty social and everyone was out with new toys and bikes...even all of the adults in their PJ's. It's so nice to have neighbors like that. Then later in the day we ventured over to Daniel's parents since his sister who is serving a mission in Fiji would be calling. One by one Daniel's siblings came with their families to open presents and hang out. With seven kids in his family it can get pretty loud with all of the grand kids adding to the commotion. We had a nice Christmas dinner and socialized some more. Daniel and I were so very tired by the end of the day. Cody managed to score big time as usual with gifts. He got a new bike and a Lightening McQueen watch along with some of the cars from the movie "Cars" from Santa. He also got a kids digital camera, a guitar with microphone (we have some fun jam sessions to mommy's music), new PJ's, a web cam to see Grandma and Grandpa Bell, a personalized sing-a-long CD of Mickey Mouse and a CD player for his room. And a lot of other toys that if I named everyone it would go for a while. Anyhow, he enjoyed playing with cousins all day and has lots of fun stuff to keep him very busy.

Daniel's main gift was a new fancy cell phone and my main gift was a new sewing machine. I am going to take up sewing and lots of other crafts this year. I am very anxious to get started. We have a craft store here that I spent 2 hours looking in the other day. I could go nuts. I am going to try to take up painting on canvas, making a new comforter for our bed with pillows and perhaps some scrapbooking. My main goal is to figure out how to use my sewing machine!!! Should be a busy new year!!

We hope everyone else had an awesome Christmas and we are looking forward to a fun (and prosperous) New Year for everyone!

Learning the hard way...

So don't you hate learning things the hard way! No matter how old you are it still ends up that way sometimes.
On Tuesday I started my holiday cooking and Cody was right there to taste every single thing that I made and with every single ingredient I added, he thought he had to have another taste. He had cookie dough, rice crispy treats, decoration sprinkles, chocolates, fudge dough, and fudge (after it was done) and then a few cookies and frosting as I was frosting the cookies. I kept trying to tell him that his tummy was going to hurt and finally made him leave the kitchen and the table so I could finish up cooking/frosting. Well, sure enough Wed. it hit him with a vengeance. He was in the bathroom quite a lot and complaining that his tummy hurt every time. But do you think that would stop him? He's back asking for candy today!! Crazy kids...

And then it was my turn...
I should know better than to ever turn my back or rather take a shower and not keep a eye on Cody (don't ask me how to do that while taking a shower). Anyhow, so I noticed that he had found a Black Sharpie marker and it was on his toy chest. I saw a few marks on his measuring board on the wall and one mark on his wall but I figured no harm done and quickly took the Sharpie marker to put it in a safe high place. When I later walked into my bedroom to get laundry together, to my surprise was a lot more marker on my wall!!! I called him into the room calmly and asked him what he did. He told me that he drew me a race track on my wall!! It's hard to be mad when they say cute innocent things like that. I emphasized the idea that we only write on paper! I have never really had the "we don't write on walls" talk yet, but I guess I got to learn the hard way that it's never too early to have that talk. So all of you out there with little boys who haven't had this talk...it may be time.

Cody licking the spoon after mixing the cookies and many other tastes of the batter.

Cody licking the spatula after mixing up the fudge and many other tastes of the batter.
The race track Cody drew for me on my bedroom wall. (Luckily we still have paint left over)

Precious Times

Just a few of the fun times lately...

We had our "Breakfast with Santa" today at the church. Not quite the same atmosphere as our usual Ward Christmas Party but they decided to change it up this year for some reason. As you can see, Phearson was not too excited but Cody and Porter did pretty well. They boys got to eat some pancakes and eggs and make some crafts before seeing Santa. Cody was sad afterwards when we left because he wanted to eat with Santa longer but we told him that he had to go back to the North Pole to help make toys.

Too much fun with tree time!!

Cody was very eager to put the star on!

And held the flashlight so Daddy could see while giving the tree water

The finished product!!

We decided since Cody had a ruff day of not feeling well and having to stay indoors for the past couple of days that we would take him out to get a Christmas tree. (He has strep-throat). He enjoyed watching the men at the lot put the tree in a shaker and cut the end off to put the stand on. He definitely loves everything about tools. Cody couldn't wait to start putting the ornaments on the tree when we returned home with it, and was very anxious to get that star on the top. He was quite the helper, wanting to be a part of everything that Daddy was doing. He has been very excited this year with each new activity. It's so fun to watch his reaction to all of this holiday hoopla! He's starting to understand more and more as the month goes on what this Christmas season entails...parades, lots of shopping with mommy, yummy treats, (fake)snow, trees, ornaments, fun music that he now requests mommy and daddy to sing as we put him to bed (favorites-Silver Bells and Winter wonderland, Jingle Bells). Today he watched and cried as I wrapped his cousins fun gifts that he wanted to keep for himself. We had to take a break and write a letter to Santa to let him know that he wanted all the gifts that his cousins were getting. Holidays are definitely more exciting when you have kids. I enjoy this time of the season and it really helps remind me to be thankful for all of our blessings. It seems everywhere you turn there's a charity trying to raise money or give gifts to families/kids in need. It makes you realize how good you have it and it makes you want to do more for others which is what Christ wants. So, in other words, Happy Holidays to all and count your blessings!!

Who does Cody look more like?

Start the season right!

First of all, A very belated Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! Hope you all were able to eat lots of good food! It's the one day you have to let yourself splurge like crazy!
To start our holiday season right we took a trip to Disneyland this week on the first day they put up the Christmas decor and started all of the Christmas activities. Daniel and I took Cody and Porter mid morning (Autumn met us later with Phearson) and as soon as we got there we realized that everyone else in Southern California decided to come that day as well. We had a fun time taking the boys around and mostly taking pictures with the characters, looking at the reindeer, Santa and Mrs. Claus. We, of course. had to hit up the Buzz Light year ride for the boys because that's their favorite ride. Other than that and a few others we didn't go on too many of the rides because of the longer lines. Autumn and Phearson met up with us later and we hung around until the Christmas parade. The boys had been waiting so long but they loved watching all of the Disney characters go by with Christmas excitement. They were dancing, clapping and awed the whole way through. I love to watch them enjoy this kind of stuff. By the end of the parade Phearson was sleeping and the other two boys were well on their way to falling asleep. Porter fell asleep on the walk out and Cody as soon as we got in the car. What a fun day though. Definitely the right way to start our Christmas holiday. We love being so close to Disneyland!

Just hanging around

We haven't been up to much lately. Just hanging out, enjoying the fall weather...and then summer weather...and now I think we're heading back to fall/winter this week. We are excited and getting prepared for the holidays!

Cody's new toy from the rummage sale that he got at our ward Harvest Festival. Hard to believe someone wanted to give this away. He LOVES music.

HALLOWEEN FUN!

TO INFINITY...AND BEYOND!!

I have never been Halloween person but when you have a 3 1/2 year old who really gets into his Halloween character it's so much funner than just handing out candy. Cody was Buzz Lightyear this year and he loved every minute of it. He was running around saying "To infinity...and beyond!!" And "Buzz lightyear to star command". Daniel and I couldn't stop laughing. We have a lot of kids on our block so it was quite the hang-out also. Daniel took Cody around the block (since it could be his only chance for quite awhile) while I stayed and handed out candy. Daniel managed to dodge getting force hired this year but it was a close call. Cody really enjoyed going around the block with Daddy and saying trick or treat and getting candy. He even gave our neighbor across the street (Bill) who is about 90 a big hug! Cody had plenty of practice though. He practiced about 4-5 times with our next door neighbors (Debbie and Larry) before we actually took him out. Cody was very excited when Porter, Phearson, Jay and Logan showed up to take some pictures and see everyone's costumes. They had fun seeing each other dressed up. It was a very sad good bye for him to see his friends leave. But we took him to Daniel's parents house where some of his cousins were there so he was able to play some more. Grandpa Titel gave all the kids glow sticks and they were having fun spinning them around. Cody's somehow managed to fly off his string and hit his uncle Josh right under the eye so that was an end to the spinning glow sticks. The night eventually came to an end and Cody was pretty tired. Daniel tied Cody's glow stick to his fan as it spun on low and it put Cody to sleep in less than 10 minutes. We were all pretty wiped out, but it was a great Halloween and for the first time I enjoyed the holiday.

Cody as Buzz and Tyler as Thomas the Train

Jay and Logan as Mario and Luigi, Porter as SWAT and Cody as Buzz

Who is the cutest monkey...Phearson!

Tyler as a cat, Dallon as a zebra, Kyle as a skunk, Carson as a butterfly, and Cody
(at Daniel's parents house)

Family fun!

Pa's Pumpkin Patch fun!!

Cody's green light from school!

Cody throwing the frisbee!

This week we took a trip to Pa's Pumpkin patch. Other than it was very windy and there was some ash in the air from the fires, we had a lot of fun. We were surprised to see how many rides Cody would go on this year. We tried to get him on the big slide and we had two close calls, but as soon as he started going up he decided he had changed his mind. We'll give it another year and maybe he'll be ready then. He had a lot of fun picking out his own pumpkin this year.

Another huge accomplishment for the week is Cody got a green light at school on Tuesday. He hasn't received one of these since the first week of school. Getting a green light means he was very well behaved that day. He didn't push, hit or throw which is a huge accomplishment for him. We've been trying to work very hard with him on using his words since he's seems to lean towards being physical with kids because he was/is speech delayed and didn't know how to communicate well with words when people get too close, or if they have toys that he wants to play with. (not to make excuses of course)We tried to show him how happy we were and proud of him and he was pretty proud of himself. He gets to bring a toy to share with his class and gets to be the leader of the day on Thursday. He really can be such a loving child, I just wish that he would project that towards other kids a little bit more.

We have also introduced a new sport to Cody. We've been playing a lot of frisbee. He actually can throw it pretty well. But he does tend to hit cars once in awhile...our cars of course...but we have lots of fun.

Christmas in October

Okay, so those of you who knew my little secret of starting my Christmas excitement in mid October...well Cody is following right in my tracks. He pulled out our Polar Express DVD today and that's his new favorite movie again. I was actually looking forward to Halloween this year because we are going to take him trick or treating for the first time but he's already jumped ahead and keeps telling me he wants Christmas! What have I created!! But I think when he gets his costume on he will be back in the Halloween mode.

Poor sick boy!

We also finished Cody's height chart for his room. Daniel shaped out a longboard, stainned it, painted and we were pretty happy with the final project. Cody's excited to have his own surfboard like Daddy's.

Our week hasn't been to eventful. Cody has been sick most of the week but that doesn't mean he acts sick. He had to stay home from school and speech therapy on Thursday. Trying to keep him from going outside or playing is a joke. The kid may have his nose runny and coughing but he keeps running around and I find him wiping his nose on the couch and on his shirts. I try to make him lay down and rest and he ends up driving me nuts. I kept a roll of toilet paper in his room for night time and I got out of the shower today to find him basically toilet papering his own room! He got pretty excited when I offered to make him a Mickey Mouse pancake though.

Out with summer...In with Fall!

When the boys in the neighborhood start throwing leaves at everyone we know that summer is passing and fall is here. Our neighbors have a tree that drops lots of leaves. Cody and our neighbor's grandson, Tyler enjoy throwing the leaves around and at each other. It's all good fun. This is the best time of the year! It's nice and sunny outside but the temps cool down and it gets a bit chilly at night.

Cody dressed to impress

Daniel and Chanda at Dr. Kim's wedding

Titel Family starter

I gave into the pressure and started a blog for our family. Our small family consists of Daniel, Chanda and as of now our only child Cody. Cody is 31/2 years old and quite the lively child. He keeps us on our toes at all times. Daniel works for the city of Santa Ana as a Firefighter/Paramedic and just passed his 3 year anniversary there. For the past 6 years I have worked.- in an Optometrist office with two doctors as their Office Manager. Because of circumstances I have cut my hours down to one day a week now and am lucky that I have such a wonderful Boss. We've lived in California for 6 years and just a couple of years ago moved into our little home. Between mine and Daniel's schedules we keep pretty busy and try to keep Cody busy just so he will sleep through the night.