just for giggles

We took these pictures when Crew was less than a week old. I wasn't going to show them to you because...well, it's Cooper in a bra! haha but my friend recently posted a picture of her 2 year old daughter wearing her bra and I mentioned that we have pictures like that of Cooper. So these are specifically for my friend and for you to giggle at...and maybe even embarrass Cooper some day!

it's beginning to look like fall!

I am pretty sure fall is my favorite season. I love the change in colors, cooler temperatures and thinner air (not that Idaho has heavier air than good ole Michigan). Even the food tastes better - soups, casseroles, and cookies! Everything is FALL to me. Here are a few things we have done so far...

Made cookies! Brady hurt his big toe REALLY bad and had a friend from the ward take a look at it. He's a PA and we wanted to make sure it wasn't broken. So the cookies were a thank you for taking a look at his foot on his own personal time.

 Long sleeve shirts and football! Here's a cute picture of cooper sharing pretzel sticks with daddy.

 these two are the best! cooper is asking to watch football now so they have fun sitting and staring. this last saturday we were invited to watch our friends sons play in their first flag football game. cooper LOVED LOVED LOVED to watch them play and kept yelling at them from the sideline. I joke with Brady that Cooper just might end up being a hard core football player instead of soccer. :)

 here he is at the pumpkin patch! we met up with Travis, Alisha and their kids to pick some out. The kids just ran around picking out their favorite pumpkin to take home. This year we picked out 3 for the boys and 1 for us.

 Brady in his Michigan game gear.

 Cooper really enjoyed picking up all the "ball" and throwing them.

 kenna and peyton. peyton is about 2 months younger the crew and is MUCH bigger! he is so sweet!!

 our family. it's hard to imagine Kegan in the picture. he'd be 4 1/2!

 crew was super happy about being back in the car!

 Here's Cooper when he's tired. the blanket is up by his nose!

 peyton is passed out on the floor :) i think he should give crew some of that hair!

 kenna and cooper played really well together. they are starting to be great friends. lots of hugs, kisses, and high fives for these two little (big) ones.

 cooper is starting to be REALLY interested in what I'm doing in the kitchen. he knows that things are "hot" and believes every thing near the stove is hot. i'm okay with that! but lately i've let him stand on a chair and "help" me with things. this picture is of him "cleaning dishes". i poured some soap into a clean bowl and gave him some clean silverware to "wash". he thought it was pretty great!

A few other things we have done: made home made beef stew, turned the heat on in our home, pulled out winter jackets, bought Crew's halloween costume and threw away the summer pool.

More things to come: halloween, my birthday!, a new nephew, and hopefully family pictures.

1 year ago.

here's our little cooperman one year ago! crazy hair, messy face, and cutest little smile!

today he has been a perfect little boy. we watched cartoons when i was feeding crew, then went outside to play with sidewalk chalk, and then came in for a nice warm grilled cheese. he actually ATE!! i was so excited and kept giving him food since it's the most he's ate in weeks. maybe his appetite is coming back. then we played and waited for daddy to come home for lunch. as we were eating he had a few pretzel sticks and calls them crackers. after daddy left we watched a bit of tangled while i fed crew again. then it was nap time! he went down without a single head bang!!! YAY!! i really do love that little boy.

Little cute things...

Cooper's doing some cute things and I wanted to share a few:

- when we say "just a minute" we always put a finger up  - not sure why. Well, lately he's been more patient when we say "just a minute" and he will say it in his own jibberish and hold up his finger meaning "just a minute."
- he's saying prayer now and it sounds like "payer". and he says amen in his own little jibberish but it's always the same so I know that's what he's saying.
- crew is officially "baby". we never call crew baby but that's what cooper calls him! so cute.
- my sister in law (tara) showed cooper that if you push your belly button you go "beep beep" well now he goes beep beep to everyone's belly button. haha it's adorable.
- he says "up" all the time now and wants to be picked up. yay!! :/
- he has another favorite that has to go to bed and everywhere with him...a soft, squishy baseball.
- he LOVES LOVES LOVES to play catch. we will sit across the room from each other and throw it back and forth. he has perfect aim (not even kidding a bit. it's perfect) but has no desire to actually catch the ball. I have horrible aim so I usually just kind of toss it to him...even then I usually miss! he thinks it's funny :) He's starting to distinguish between different balls. there's a baseball "beball" and football "fooball". He has even started to ask to watch football, which is odd because Brady doesn't watch it that often (he wishes he could watch it more).
- he LOVES all things with a motor: car, truck, train, airplane, etc. He hears an airplane and flips out! He runs to the window and searches the sky! I wish we had an air museum near by.
- his new favorite movie is "how to train your dragon." he giggles and smiles at the main black dragon. it's a way cute movie. if you haven't seen it...watch it!
- he knows what pants are, shirt, hair, sock, shoe (of course-he's obsessed), feet, hand, ear, eye, nose, buttocks (we call it bum), and privates (yes he's very aware that he's a boy).
- i mentioned shoes above...every day he gets into our front closet and drags out shoes. he's very picky on what shoes he wants to wear. if we try to put on different shoes than what he wants he cries, kicks, and flips around. he doesn't get away with that. he has to wear tennis shoes when it's cold out!
- he can do a sommersault. way cute!
- he gives the best hugs EVER!! We will be doing whatever and then all of a sudden he comes running at me and tackles me with the best hug and a little "mmm" to show his love. And sometimes I even get a kiss at the same time.

Anyway, that's all for now. I seriously love our biggest little man and am so incredibly grateful to be his mother. He brings so much happiness to our home. He's a wonderful big brother and loves Crew more than I ever imagined at his young age.  Even on the hardest days I am so proud to be a mother and I love every day I get to stay home with them.

playing vs clean home

Being a parent is tough. I always knew it would be but I never realized I would be a "neat freak" when it comes to our home. I honestly stress a LOT about dishes in the sink, clothes in the laundry room, bed not made, and toys everywhere. I feel the NEED to have things clean and organized at all times and I feel like it's my responsibility to have it done. So when a toddler and a baby come into the picture I struggle finding a good balance between playing and cleaning. I am recently finding that Cooper's tantrums and whining moments ease with a little bit more one on one time with him. This made me think about how much time I was actually putting into playing vs. cleaning. So this week I have put cleaning off for nap time and after bedtime and Cooper's been so much happier! I may feel a bit more overwhelmed and stressed but I am working on the whole "don't worry about it" part of cleaning.


I came across this quote on someone else's blog. I thought it was perfect for my week...


“Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach. T. Berry Brazelton. Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with ‘Goodnight Moon’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.” Then she goes on and talks about some of the mistakes she made while raising her babies. “…the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make…I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of [my children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

--Anna Quindlen

cheese!!!

I think I have the cutest boys! Enjoy these pictures!

 {WARNING: the picture below is not flattering. Not even in the slightest bit. I worked a weird schedule - Saturday 2pm-1130pm and Sunday 6am-4pm. So I am EXHAUSTED here.}

 He's so big and no longer needs me to cut his sandwich into bite size pieces!

emotions?

Woman are very emotional.

It's just natural.

So when I go from being content to crying my eyes out ... it's pretty normal.

However, when both my boys go from smiling to screaming in half a second...that's not very normal to me!

Crew will be quiet as can be then out of no where he's screaming! not crying, not whining, just screaming. he's always better after a full bottle and some cuddling. {cooper as a baby always whined and made noises before he started to full out cry or scream - this is very new to us}

Cooper will do the same thing...only with a teeny tiny bit of warning. but he's also starting that whole "terrible two's" stage so it's a bit more expected :)

So what's the deal with emotions? Or should I say hormones?

All I know is ... I don't like them.