Cooper's Blessing 11-22-09

Cooper's blessing day was such a special day for our family. Having the opportunity to bless Cooper really makes me so grateful for the priesthood. I am grateful to have a husband who honors and uses his priesthood. I can't help but feel so grateful lately for my family. Having two kids sure is hard, but I feel so blessed to be a forever family and to be raising these two little kids. Heavenly Father sure has blessed us by sending us these two special spirits. Sometimes I can't believe that he chose me to be their mother, and I am honored. Many times I become overwhelmed just thinking about how much I love them. The saying, "I love them so much it hurts" truly applies. I do feel like my heart is going to burst because I love them and my husband so much!

Matt did a great job with Cooper's blessing. He blessed him to have a good relationship with his Father in Heaven. He blessed him to be obedient to his parents and to have good relationships with them and with his older sister. He blessed him to be knowledgeable of the gospel, and to have good health. It is always a neat experience to have a good circle of men blessing our babies. It's neat to look at all of the good examples that Cooper has to follow. I love being surrounded by such great men. We are especially grateful for the examples of our missionary brothers, and we missed having them there. After the blessing, we had a little get-together at Matt's grandparents' house. Nana and Papa are always so generous to let us have get-together's at their house. It was pretty crowded and busy and would not have fit into our little apartment, so a big thank you to them for offering up their home. We are grateful to have such good support from family and friends.

Sydney loves playing at Nana and Papa's house! She had fun playing the piano and singing songs!

Cooper has brought such sweet spirit into our home. He is such a special baby and we all love him so much!

You Get What You Pay For

Yesterday we went to get our pictures taken at JCPenney's portrait center. I have been wanting to get Sydney's and Cooper's pictures taken together and thought the 2 year/1month milestone would be a good opportunity. We got Sydney's pictures taken there when she turned 1 and they were really cute. They had me jump in a picture with her, which I had not been expecting. So this time, I told Matt we needed to wear nice clothes in case they had us jump in a picture. We ended up taking one of all 4 of us. My hair desperately needs a hair cut, and it was kind of thrown together last minute, so taking that into consideration, I guess they turned out ok. I wasn't too impressed with all the pictures, but they were really cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for. It was funny because the photographer kept saying, "I just need him to look at me!" She didn't quite understand that Cooper was a newborn and was not able to look at her. Then she would put him in these sitting positions, that he could not do, and try to take some pictures and say, "I guess that's not the best position for him." She kind of struggled. We are planning on taking some nice pictures in maybe a year, so I will look forward to those, and have these until then. For professional photographers I would expect a little better, but I'm glad I have these pictures anyway. Here are my favorites... the rest are in the slideshow on the right...

Sydney's Birthday Party

Last night we had a little birthday party for Sydney. My family, Nana, Papa, and Jonne, and Chris and Lisa all came to celebrate her big day with us. We had a lot of fun watching Sydney open up her presents and blow out the candle on her cake. Sydney loved opening presents. She would pull little pieces of paper off the present and hand each piece to Brett saying, "here you go!" for him to put in the garbage before she would pull off another piece. I made her a turtle cake, because she likes animals. She would look at the cake all day and say "turtle." Then when I would tell her not to touch it she would run off crying. Finally the time came when she could eat it, and she was so excited! Thank you everyone for coming and for the presents, and thank you to Matt's family for sending some presents. We have such great families!

Cooper gets chubbier every day...I can't believe how big he looks in this picture!

Matt in his element, taking pictures.

Sydney held the shirt up to her without anyone telling her to... so smart!

Telling us that the turtle had a hat on him, with the number 2

Blowing out the candle!!!

Sydney's 2!!!

I can not even begin to explain how lucky and blessed I feel lately. I often find myself thinking about my beautiful kids or my amazing husband. We have been through so much this past year, but I feel like we have grown so much. Many times I feel like I could possibly be the happiest person on Earth. Special events, like our anniversary and Sydney's birthday, really bring back a lot of special memories.

I can't believe that Sydney is 2. She has been such a blessing in my life. I feel so privileged to be her mom. She has such a vibrant personality! I think she is almost always happy. She loves to play with her toys, read her books, and get into things. Lately, she will pretend to make food and bring it to me so I can eat it. Her favorite things to make are "cream," cake, and pizza. She loves animals and knows what almost every animal in the world says. She loves to spot things that she recognizes while we are driving in the car. She spots the billboards of cows, fish, or other animals. There was a billboard near Matt's work that was a fish. Then one day it changed, and she asked me where the fishy went. She spots the moon, boats driving by, buses, big trucks, and the like. One of her favorite things to spot is the water park on the way to Matt's work. She always says, "water...falling!" She knows when we are near Matt's work, my dad's work, or "pampa's house."

One of Sydney's favorite things to do is dance. When we are driving in the car she will tell everyone individually to dance. "Dance mom, dance dad, DANCE BABY!" She is a little boss, and always tells people what to do. She likes to boss around Allie or Jonne, and tell them to "Come mom!"

Sydney is the most loving big sister! She is always trying to help Cooper. She calls him "Coopy Coops." It is the cutest thing. She will try to rock him when he's in the car seat, and sings "Rock-a-baby, in a top!" She is also very good at taking care of her stuffed animals and dolls. She wraps them up in blankets, burps them, and sings to them.

Sydney knows and loves the Yankees. Any time she sees the NY symbol she says "Yankees, game, go go go!" She even will say "Jeter." Do you think we watch baseball too much??? She also LOVES Dora the Explorer. One day my brother Tim was babysitting Sydney. It was actually the day after he got his wisdom teeth out, so I told him to take it easy. He decided to turn on Dora for Sydney. After watching it one time, she would spot Dora in the store on everything. Ever since then we will let her watch Dora occasionally, which has become more of a consistent thing in the past week. But, she knows all the songs, the characters, and everything. My favorite thing that she says, is "Swiper no swipy, Swiper no swipy, Swiper no swipy...oh man!" It is adorable. She also knows "hicimos" Spanish for "we did." So at least it is educational!

I think Sydney could possibly be the smartest 2 year old ever (doesn't every mom say that?) But really. She talks so well. She can count to ten, with a little help from us, and to three all by herself. I wish I could even list all of the things that Sydney does or loves.

Sydney is such a special girl! I can't believe how much my little, sweet baby has grown up. She is such a blessing in our lives. I am so happy to have the memories that I have with her. I am grateful to Matt for making it possible for me to stay at home and take care of her. It is the biggest blessing in my life! Happy 2nd Birthday Sydney! I love you!

Sydney's first pigtails!

4 Years!

4 years ago Matt and I were married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. I love to remember that day. It was absolutely perfect and was the best day of my life! I am so grateful to have an eternal family and to know that our kids are sealed to us. I am grateful for the gospel and especially for Matt. He is an amazing husband and father. Happy Anniversary Matt! I love you!

Two Little Pumpkins

We had a fun little Halloween! Both kids dressed up as pumpkins, and I think we had the cutest little pumpkin patch around! Sydney had a lot of fun trick or treating. We went to about 7 houses in my parent's neighborhood. She basically had no idea what was going on. When we got to the first house, I told her to say trick or treat, and she looked at me like, "what????" After a few houses she would start to say "treat." And she said "thank you" at every house. It was so fun to walk around the neighborhood just me and her and talk. We had fun finding pumpkins everywhere we went. Every time we walked up to a house Sydney would say "ooooh punkins!" like it was some rare thing to see them there. The end of the night topped it all off... Taco Soup and a Yankee win! Lovin' this World Series!!!

One Month

One month ago was our first day home with Cooper. It is amazing how much he has grown, and how much joy he brings into our home. At one month he weighed 9 lbs 12 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. I love his little lips, his big eyes, and his tiny hands and feet. He melts my heart with his quivering lip when he cries! As Sydney says, we love our "Coopy-Coops!"