Sixteen Candles

Yesterday my youngest brother Brett turned 16.  I seriously can't even believe he is that old!  The other day someone asked me how old he was, and I replied, "14, oh no, I guess he's 15"  and Matt chimes in, "he'll be 16 next week!"  HOLY COW  that snuck up on me!  I really think the older I get, the faster time goes.  When I was little, a year seemed like so long, and now it just flies by!  It's funny how that happens.  I remember going to the ultrasound appointment with my mom when she was pregnant with Brett.  A BOY. I cried.  I wanted a sister so badly, but once he was here, I sure was glad he was a part of our family.  Brett is such a great brother!  He always helps me with my kids.  Helping me in and out of the car with them, picking up a cup over and over again that Cooper keeps dropping on the ground during dinner, playing with them... He is great with them.  He is such a hard worker.  I don't think I've ever seen a teenager with as much determination as him.  He has a cumulative 4.0 GPA; he took a summer math course this year and got 100% in the class, learning an ENTIRE years worth of math in ONE MONTH!  He works hard in baseball, and does P90-X all the time.  I often wish I were more like him.  Here's to 16 Brett!  I'm so excited for you!

We have been excited for Brett's birthday for a while now.  Sydney is very into birthdays and is always asking who's birthday it is.  So after Molly's birthday was over,  Brett's was next.  She would call him almost every day and ask him if it was his birthday yet.  Sydney and I, with help from Matt, tackled a big project, and made Brett a cake for his birthday.  It was fun to keep it a secret and Sydney was so excited!  It was a nice day because Matt had the night off work, and so did my dad and mom.  So the whole family was able to be together, which doesn't happen all that often between all of our workaholic schedules.  We went to dinner at Winger's and then opened presents and ate cake and ice cream!  It was great!

Cooper slept through the whole party, and isn't in the whole family picture, so I thought I'd document his involvement...

Gotta love self timers!

Molly's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY! 

Since Molly lives far far away in Oregon, we don't have any pictures of her birthday, but I do have a recent picture of Molly and Sydney when we went to the zoo on her last visit here! We hope you had a great day Molly, and are excited to see you soon!  Here's to 18!

Two Great Summer Activities

As I have read other people's blogs, they often warn their readers about a "picture overload."  Usually, I am pretty excited to see a lot of pictures, because, let's face it, the pictures are the best part of a blog.  You can obviously tell that is my philosophy when you look at my blog, because, yes, there are a lot of pictures.  My "regular" blog entries typically equal others "picture overload" entries.  Oh well, I like it that way :)  Believe it or not, I have to ALWAYS decide on what pictures to include, because I typically have a bunch more.  So here's my undying warning, for every blog entry I ever write: PICTURE OVERLOAD.

Last Friday was my family's old stake's Lagoon Day.  (It was pretty hard to word that- their old stake, had a Lagoon Day).  My brother and sister wanted to attend with their friends from the old ward, so the kind members of the old ward got my family a bunch of tickets.  Lagoon is a LOT cheaper when you use Stake Lagoon Day tickets, so we thought we'd take advantage.  Believe it or not, it was still $30 dollars for each of us, including Sydney, and would have been about $100 to go.  So we nixed the idea to save some dough-re-me.  However, one of the best things about Stake Lagoon Day, is that you can get an Entrance Pass for free, valued at $42.95.  So with the Entrance Pass, you can enter the park, but can not go on any rides.  As I have become old in age this Entrance Pass thing actually suits me.  I have found that there really are only a few rides that I really enjoy going on, and I'd rather push the stroller around with my babies in it and enjoy the atmosphere :)  So I conceived a brilliant plan:  Brett needed to be dropped off at Lagoon to meet up with the others in the afternoon.  I told my mom that we should drive up there, park, use the FREE ENTRANCE PASS to get in, buy a few tickets for Sydney and let her ride a couple rides, then leave and drive home after an hour or so.  Let me tell you, this plan really was brilliant!  We stayed for about 2 hours, enjoyed the atmosphere, let Sydney ride some rides, and left $14 later.  Sydney absolutely loved it!  She calls it "the fun place" and wants to keep going back.

Cooper was itching to go on every ride, he really likes to play with his big sister!

Yes, Sydney is wearing her "tu-tu", she really wanted to, and who was I to stop her... I think it made Lagoon all that more magical 

Her favorite ride was the swings.  She went on them first and last, and giggled the entire time BOTH times!

Sydney also really liked the boats, and loved having Cooper go on them with her.  I think he was the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I couldn't resist getting the shot with the back of his tiny little head popping out!

Taking a break so Cooper could eat when my mom captured this candid shot...

I have so many memories of Stake Lagoon Day, and for some reason just love it there.  I'm glad I could make it there this summer!  Maybe we'll watch for another Stake Lagoon Day, and be able to go again with Matt, it was a blast!

If Lagoon doesn't say "SUMMER" to me, then Draper Days definitely does.  I think I have made it very clear how much I love summer.  I love that it gives us the opportunity to do fun things outside together, like Lagoon and Draper Days.  We actually haven't been over to Draper Days for a while now, but I have so many memories of it.  I love the fact that I grew up in Draper.  I love that I grew up there while it was still a cowboy town.  My memories of Draper are so different than Draper is now.  Cow/dairy farms, the Buttermilk Gang treehouse, fields, small not-busy roads, walking to friends houses, building our own treehouses, riding bikes, horses, big trees, beautiful mountains, and one of my favorites: Draper Days parade, rodeo, activities, and fireworks.  I love it.  I am glad that we got to take the kids over to the activities.  We met up with the Walch's and took Sydney over to the free games they have for kids.  Sydney had a lot of fun, but we didn't stay too long because it was SO HOT!  So we headed back to Matt's grandparent's house, and did another of my favorite summer activities: Swimming!  Then we hung around for a while, BBQ'd with the whole family, and waited again for the main festivity: Fireworks!  It was fun to be able to have a day packed with activities, and still be able to relax in between them.  Papa made some caramel corn and homemade ice cream, and we watched the fireworks from their back yard.  It was an absolutely perfect day!  I wish I could end every day with fireworks and homemade ice cream! Seriously though.

I love these pictures of Cooper and Papa.  All of a sudden we turned around and there was Cooper helping Papa make homemade ice cream.  I think they both loved it!

Lisa's Baby Shower

I put together a baby shower for Lisa on Wednesday, while her mom and some other family members were in town.  We had it at Nana and Papa's house and had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:

The invitation:

Blue, Blue, Blue... and my favorite cookies ever- White Wonders:

  I made my first cake with fondant and it turned out pretty well.  There are lots of pictures of it, because you just have to see all the cute one-sies on it!

Cutest little baby clothes!

This cradle has been apart of our house for 3 years now.  It started out with a PINK mattress cover when I was pregnant with Sydney, and has been in our "master" bedroom the entire time.  I remember dreaming about placing my baby girl in it before she was even here.  Definitely has some sweet memories to go along with it... Matt even slept in it when he was newborn.  The big empty HOLE in our room will take some getting used to!

The baby bump!

Favors!  My brother teased me and said the mints had an after-taste of green beans... I cleaned out the jars very well! :)

We sure are excited to have our first nephew and cousin in September!  I tease Lisa that her pregnancy can go long, because when her little guy is here, my little guy will be one... luckily I will have another little baby to cuddle and hold, and I won't be the one with sleep deprivation.  There is something magical about a first baby.  Not that the 2nd, and I'm sure 3rd and on, are any less loved.  But with the first it just seems so surreal.  I remember being so anxious to get that baby here, but so nervous about how it was going to be.  There is so much to do to get ready for the first, because you literally start from scratch, which is why we do baby showers.  But really, I like to do baby showers more to just celebrate a new family starting.  It is so exciting to watch a family grow!  Families are definitely part of Heavenly Father's plan for us.

Thank you Nana and Papa for letting us celebrate at your house!  You are always so kind and generous to let us do all of our "group" things at your house.  And of course a big congratulations to Chris and Lisa!

9 Months!

9 Months!  It is hard for me to believe that Cooper has been in this world for longer than he was in my tummy growing.  How is it that it goes by SO MUCH FASTER when they are outside of you?  I think this could be my favorite stage.  I absolutely love it!  Cooper is 100% perfect at the moment.  He doesn't talk back or say no, he doesn't throw fits, he sleeps through the night, he still needs me, but is independent and crawling all over the place.... it is perfect.  I am trying to savor every moment, give him a billion kisses on his cute little baby body, and just soak it all in, because I know the baby stage is coming to an end, and toddlerhood is just around the corner.  I think I am having a harder time with him growing up than I did with Sydney, I really wish I could just keep him as a baby, but it is fun to watch him learn and grow, and I am sure he will be a fun toddler!

9 things about Cooper at 9 months:

1.  He is the happiest, cutest, most content baby alive!  

2.  His absess/infection is gone.  He has a bruise-like spot left on his bum, which the doctor said is scar tissue and will probably always be there.  

3.  He pulls himself up to stand on furniture and walks around it.  He also likes to let go of the furniture, put his arms up above his head and balance.

4.  He has 2 teeth that have popped through.

 5.  He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth and had his first visit (and ours as parents) to the Emergency Room this week.  I pulled a piece of plastic wrap out of his mouth, that he found under the bed.  Throughout the day I would notice him making this weird sound, so I called the doctor to see if it were possible that some had stuck in his throat and if it had, what should I be listening for. I told them he was breathing and acting fine, but I just wanted to know what to watch for.  The nurse I talked to FREAKED OUT at me.  She was basically yelling, and told me I had to take him to the Primary Children's E. R. right away.  She made me feel awful and really scared me.  So off to the E.R. we went.  Everything was fine, thankfully, and the doctor there wasn't very impressed with the nurse who did not ask me one question and sent me straight to the E.R.

6.  He loves to crawl all over the apartment and follow Sydney, follow Mommy, or just explore.  He breathes really heavy and fast when he is crawling because he is so excited, and he loves experimenting with his voice, making weird noises (which I know now).

7.  Whenever anyone holds him he puts his toe or foot in  your pocket.  

8.  He has developed a sense of humor and has the cutest laugh.  He is also very ticklish and laughs like crazy when he's being tickled.

9.  He loves to eat and is a chubba, chuncky, perfectly rolly polly baby! 

Cooper's 9 Month Stats:

Height: 26.2 inches (-5%, yes he's not even on the chart and must take after his mother, poor boy)

Weight: 19.2 pounds (about 30%)

Head Circumference: 17.8 inches (about 38%)

Since he started crawling his weight on the growth curve has decreased, however his Weight-For-Length Percentile is still 95%!  

Pretty Booms

My favorite month of the entire year is July.  I think one of the best things about living in Utah is that we have an extra holiday in the month of July, so it kind of extends the 4th of July into the entire month.  I love it!  To me there is nothing better than the 4th of July, and it really is my favorite holiday (in conjunction with the 24th- because without that it is just too short.) What could be better than hot weather, swimming, BBQ's, parades, red-white-and-blue, spending time with family and friends, beautiful nights, baseball, rodeos, concerts, and FIREWORKS?!  I've made my point, right?  On Saturday we went to a park, had some dinner, played some catch, talked, and then we headed over to Jordan High to watch Sandy's Fireworks Show.  I absolutely loved it- and so did the kids!  What a blast! Can't wait for Draper Days, so we can enjoy more festivities!

if you look really close- you can see Cooper's tooth coming in...

Sydney and Cooper both loved the "pretty booms" and were worn out by the end of the day...