Gingerbread House Party

Yesterday at Ella's school, the parents were invited to join their child for a gingerbread house decorating party! It was a blast, and the kids got all sugared up to boot! ;)

This Year's Christmas Cards

Due to increasing age, forgetfulness, and my decreasing ability to send cards on time, here is my card to cover every Holiday.



Happy Friggin' Everything....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow!! I have totally been SLACKING on my blog lately! There has been a lot going on, so really it's been the last thing on my mind-sorry 'bout that!

Anyway, we had a GREAT Thanksgiving at my parents house this year! Saw a few movies, put up some Christmas decorations, had some chillin' out time, and ate a lot of yummy food! Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving day.

Cooper's first Thanksgiving dinner!


Helping me make a pecan pie!

The finished cherry and pecan pies!

Pilgrim Ella-for her school Thanksgiving program

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So Funny

I forgot this picture was on the camera. Can't you tell from his face that he loved sitting in this chair? ;)

My Beautiful Autumn Girl-Having Fun in the Leaves!

Today's the day!!!

Get out and VOTE today!!! Don't be one of "those people" who doesn't vote. JUST DO IT!!!


GO MCCAIN!!!

Halloween 2008!

Here are just a few pics from our Halloween! I posted a ton more on Facebook, so request to be my friend and you can see more! we had a great Halloween weekend! After Ella's Halloween parade and party at school, we headed to Nashville to spend some time with Reid's family. Ella and Cooper got to do their trick-or-treating there with some friends that live next door to Reid's sister Ashley and her husband Michael. We had a ton of fun!

How Tall This Fall?

Every year we go to "Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Patch", and every year we have to get the "How Tall This Fall?" picture-it's a must!! Here are the pictures from over the past 4 years. I thought it would be fun to compare :)
Ella-2004-5 months old: What a peanut!

Ella-2005

Ella-2006

Ella-2007

Ella-2008! What a big girl!


And here's Cooper!
Little 2 week old Cooper! 2007

Cooper-2008-This is the best picture we could get. He wasn't too happy about standing there ;)

Spaghetti: The After-Math

(Sorry it is sideways-I did it with the digital camera, and didn't realize that I wouldn't be able to rotate it)

Rubbing food in your hair+wet wash cloth=funny after dinner entertainment

Homemade Halloween Decorations!

Look what Ella and I did this afternoon during Cooper's nap! The scarecrow she made at school, but the pumpkins and bats we did today! I found the pages of eyes, noses and mouths online and printed them out. We used construction paper to make the pumpkins,and cut out the faces and glued them on. So fun!

Gymnastics Olympic Superstars Show

This past Friday, Ella and I went with our friends Laura and Libby to see the USA olympic gymnastics team in a show at Phillip's arena! It was put on by Disney, so they had fun music, lots of cool costumes and of course lots of awesome gymnastics! The bonus was we got to sit in the Mayfield Ice cream suite and have free ice cream! :) We had a ton of fun-definitely a great girls night!!



Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin!

Rainbows are always magical!

(This is from a few weeks ago, and I just now added the pictures, so now I can post it!)

Last night after dinner, we walked outside and there was this HUGE rainbow in the sky! You could see both ends of it. Ella kept saying "It's SOOO gorgeous!!" She loved it, and was even talking about it this morning. Unfortunately these pictures don't do it justice! Also, a picture of the drawing Ella made of it this morning :)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Cooper!!

My baby boy is ONE YEAR OLD!! Can you believe it? How does a year fly by so fast??

Cooper is doing so well. Today he had his one year check. He weighed in at 22 pounds, and he is 30 inches long. (A little over 50% for height, and 50% for weight) He is doing everything developmentally that he should, and is very healthy! He had two shots today-HIB (Which we only got today because they were out of it when he was suppose to get it) and polio. Oh, and he also had to get a finger prick-which totally didn't phase him! The shots were a different story-it was very sad :(

We had such a fun party for him on Sunday at "Family Dinner" at my parents house. We ordered pizza (his favorite!...well, besides blueberries...), opened a few presents, and of course had CAKE! He was so funny with his little cake. I had put an icing border along the top of his cake in a light blue icing-he picked off each little "star" shape and ate them. It was so funny! So basically, he just ate the icing.

In celebration of Cooper turning a year old, here are 12 fun facts about Cooper!

1. He is a happy, easy goin' guy! He is more than content to just play and explore on his own. I can go about my business around the house, and he is happy just to play around me.

2. He has a very adventurous spirit! He loves to explore and CLIMB! Let me tell you, this boy LOVES to climb on anything and everything. It doesn't matter if it's an inch off the ground, he wants to climb on it because it is off the ground. It also doesn't matter if it is the end tables in my family room. Yes, you read that right. He pushes his little walking toy over to the end table, and the couches, and climbs up. Little stinker!! He gives Miss Donna (the child care worker) at the gym a run for her money-being in her words "The youngest baby to climb up the slide."

3. Cooper's idea of the perfect diet is cheese, fruit and crackers. If I would let him, that is all he would eat. Cooper is a somewhat picky eater. He will not eat meat-unless it is McDonald's chicken nuggets-nice, huh? He also won't eat bread, but he will eat crackers. Also, veggies-forget it. He was such a good eater with baby food veggies-but he doesn't want to be fed anymore by spoon. So, we tried little diced up pieces of veggies. No go. So, alas, I keep offering them at lunch and dinner, hoping one day soon he will eat them. He does eat freeze dried corn, but I seriously doubt that has much in the nutrient department. I am excited though that he likes black beans, and he ate an entire black bea burger last night at dinner!

4. He is veeeeeeeery close to walking! He is cruising all over the place, and will even stand up on his own right in the middle of the room. No go on the walking yet though.

5. He has 3 teeth on the top, and 2 teeth on the bottom.

6. He is all done nursing, and was no problem to wean! He also has been sleeping soooo well since being weaned! yes!

7. He says several words now: Dada, Mama, Ella, hi, all-done, bye-bye, down, cheese

8. He is a pro stair climber! He also has started to figure out how to get back down. He even knows how to get off a bed all by himself.

9. He loves playing "chase" with his sister. Basically, she runs around our kitchen island and hides on one side, waiting for him to crawl around and find her, then she runs off again. Both of them giggling the whole time. It is so cute. I can hardly wait until he can run after her :)

10. He loves being outside and exploring. And by exploring, I mean picking up leaves and other nasty things and putting them in his mouth. I keep trying to tell him that if he would learn to walk, he would have way more fun outside! :)

11. He loves to follow Sammy, my parents dog, around their house and "pant" like Sammy does. It is so funny!

12. This sweet little spirit melts my heart every day, and we are so blessed to have him in our lives! We love you, baby boy!!

Here's a few pictures from the party day! The awesome picture above my sister Kelly took! Isn't she an awesome photographer? Check out her blog for more pictures!

Don't Worry....

I have lots of Cooper's birthday pictures to post this week, and of course his one year update. But for now...I'm going to bed!!

'Til tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday: One of the many joys of having a big sister.

Cooper's First Hair Cut!

Cooper got his very first hair cut on Sunday!! He did so good, and didn't cry at all-I was so proud! Now, this is probably due to the fact that I gave him a lollipop and he thought it was the greatest thing EVER! (No comments on me giving my 11 month old candy, k? But a Mom's gotta do what a Mom's gotta do to keep the kid from crying!;) Here are a few pictures from the big event. Look at the cute little barber chair! How precious is that?!

Before-look at those baby curls, sniff, sniff

Handsome little man, AFTER! Still going at that lollipop.

Look at my lollipop!