Super Cooper Turns 3!

3 Years ago this silly monkey was born. What a fun ride we've been on. He's the light of my life. He still makes everyday worth waking up for. Everyday is an adventure, whether we are learning a letter, watching a PBS show, playing outside for hours in the hose until what one would think our well is dry or eating cow shaped peanut butter sandwiches we have a great time together. When Daddy's home from work it's even more fun! 

Celebrating his special day was no different. We had a house FULL of people on the morning of his birthday. His Gram, PawPaw and GiGi were in from FL and friend Phil and Anita were here from Kansas City were here to see them, therefore every floor, couch and bed we could find was full. Gary and I slept in Coop's floor on an air mattress so when we woke up we thought it would be fun to sneak out just the 3 of us and get donuts for breakfast for a special treat. We quietly make it to the bathroom and headed out the door. It was fun to sneak out…now that I think of it maybe that wasn't something we should teach…hmmmm. If it's for donuts at 8 am I think we can manage. Let's move on. 

 Super Hero Party

Our very own Super Hero!

We had fun making every detail super hero-ish.  

We had super hero cake, cupcakes, even water and juice that had super hero powers. 

 We had some very special guests including Nala, Cooper's new puppy. She was a good guest who even wore a cape, she slept most of the time. I won't complain about that! 

My mom and I made capes for all the kiddos that came. I cut their letters out but Gram did all the cutting and sewing of the capes. Thanks Gram! I'm so glad I had so much help getting the party ready!

Coop I hope you had as much fun as we did having your party! We sure do love you! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

NINE Years of Love and Marriage

Last week-June 6th, Gary and I celebrated 9 years of marriage.  I absolutely cannot believe it has already been nine years. Time has completely flown by. To celebrate we flew in a few babysitters from Florida because we're fancy like that…that's not the whole truth, my Mom, Jerry and Grandmama flew in for Cooper's upcoming birthday and happened to come in on our special day.  So after G got home from work we got ready and headed out to dinner and some shopping. We went to one of my very favorite restaurants Haruno for sushi and steak for G. 

We had a great dinner and time together. We had to double duty our night out because we hadn't gotten Cooper the rest of his birthday present so we also shopped for him then finished our date with Andy's frozen custard. Everything was delicious and wonderful. 

Our lives have been anything but dull these years of marriage. We've had fun, had rough patches, laughed, cried, rejoiced and thanked our Lord for ALL that He has given us. I hope and pray that our marriage is a testament to the love the Christ has for each of us. We are truly blessed. 

We are especially blessed by being a family of 3 with this little man. He's the light of our lives. 

Thank you Gary for the most amazing 9 years of my life! You are a wonderful husband, man and daddy we could ever ask for. Thanks for working so hard to give us the life that we have, for providing everything for us and allowing me to stay home with our little monkey. 

I love you more than anything. 

That's What Little Boys Are Made Of

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails.

That's what little boys are made of. 

Cooper has been proving more and more that he is ALL BOY lately. We've had all sorts of boy adventures and gross stuff from catching lizards, snakes and frogs to splashing in the mud he's done it all with pure joy. -Has this mama? Not so much but I'm glad he's enjoying these things. 

Bass Pro is one of Coopers favorite places. He's telling a big fish story here. He knows the store and can tell you where every fish, turtle and alligator is. There are rare trips to Springfield when he doesn't ask to go to there because he typically sees the billboard as we pull into town. Thank you Bass Pro for such good advertising that even an almost 3 year old can be lured in by it! 

This week we went to the zoo looking for J things. Last week we did Z so it was a good excuse to go for 2 letters. Z for Zoo and Zebra and J for Jumping animals. We had a great trip with beautiful weather. Courtney and Betsy got him this cute monkey shirt, he was thrilled to sport it to the zoo. 

Coop absolutely loves trains so our trip to the zoo was complete with a ride on the express. 

Riding the rails!

Our next boy adventure is playing in the hose or sprinkler. This week we added a pool. Pool side is where I worked on most of this post… by pool I mean a green turtle sandbox that we put water in. That counts right? I WISH! Hey it keeps him happy and busy and I get a little vitamin D from my lounge chair. I think it's a win win. 

We've had fun watching our garden grow. We already have tomatoes on one of the plants. He enjoys watering it and unfortunately tiptoeing through it. Hopefully when the plants get bigger he'll understand. 

I ran in my first functional 5K last weekend so the boys had the morning and afternoon together. I came home to these flowers they picked while riding the mule checking out the hunting grounds. 

He begs to watch movies on the computer which to him it means watching PBS kids.org clips of his shows he watches already but it keeps him happy and busy for a short while. Doesn't he look like he knows what he's doing? He gets to play with our iphones but we don't let the work happen on laptop just yet. His time will come but he's still a little rough. 

Here's where my BOY is ALL BOY!

After an afternoon outside with G, Coop came in with his "buddies" to show me… 3 lizards, a frog and a little green snake...

...that currently resides in a jar in our kitchen. This mama has caught more bugs for a snake to eat than any mama cares to! 

For breakfast on this morning it had ants! I'm pretty sure his time is limited but we've had luck thus far. I'm not sure if it's eating any of the bugs but it's still alive. 

He caught his first lizard this week all by himself! He did it like a pro. He was so excited and so proud of himself. We had to call Daddy to tell him. He played with it for a while then said he was done and let it go. Crazy kid! 

Having fun with Coop and Mama! 

At the end of the day after hands are washed, chickens are fed and put to bed, snakes have their bugs and the mud is washed off and out of the tub I still cherish every single boy adventure he takes me on. We have so much fun and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Coop you keep your mama hoppin but I sure do love you and enjoy every second together. 

Chickadees

We took the plunge and got chicks Easter weekend. Cooper instantly fell in love with them. He was so excited every time he thought to go check them. They lived in the laundry room for 2 weeks but with the warm temperatures we are having this week my Dad and I moved them out today. Correction, Cooper actually was the one that put them in the coop. He moved them on his own from the barrel into the coop. It was like watching a different child because he's usually scared to pick them up. It was hilarious. He loosened up today when we moved Dad's ducks outside and Cooper caught one to put in the pool to see if it would swim. After getting them all in the coop he decided he was going to get in and sit with them. He sat and played with them for a long time. It was hilarious. Dad told him he better be nice because I got a new place to send him when he's bad. If only that was ok (somedays).  That's not nice!

The chicks aren't as cute now that they are bigger but this "little fella" as Coop calls them or "chickadee" is cute!

Hopefully in 6 months we'll have fresh eggs to share. 

Hope you're having lovely weather this week as well. Get out and enjoy it!

Easter 2012

We had a nice Easter with beautiful weather and having meals with family but most importantly celebrating our Risen Savior. 

Gary has had some pictures and video in mind that he wanted of Cooper at the park so we headed to the see what we could come up with after nap time. 

We didn't get the video clips he wanted but ended up with some cute smiles and blue eyes. 

I made everyone get dressed again so we could take our Easter family photo. I didn't want to not have one so we raced the sun to get a few. 

Our little goober! He thought he was so funny when he put his arms around both of us.  

Being his silly self.

I have a neck touching phobia and apparently Uncle Kirk or Aunt Courtney taught him this method of torture. He was cracking up because I was squealing! 

Here's an extra for you. Cooper LOVES going fishing this Spring, we usually try to let him help us reel it in or at least get to see it before we throw it back if he wants to. This time he puckered up. He really did kiss this fish but of course my camera wasn't out so when we asked him to do it again he wasn't too excited so he pretended he was kissing it. Silly Boy!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating our Savior's resurrection. 

Get outside and kiss a fish or two, Cooper will be proud of you!

St. Louis Weekend

As promised I'm posting pictures from our weekend in St. Louis. 

We had a fabulous time with cousins. Cooper hit it off great with all of them. 

We took a trip to Purina Farms to see the animals. They had a lot of babies for Spring. Cooper always enjoys seeing animals so this trip was no disappointment for him.

Checking out the fish. 

Cooper and Madalin were a good pair for this adventure. 

Cooper is rarely brave enough to stick his hand in fences. Madalin was a good tour guide.

We have a cute stair step of cousins. minus the two little ones- they'll be playing in line soon. 

Cooper and Mason getting a peak of the kittens. 

Tunnel time. My cousin Janelle was a good sport and went through with them, even after having a baby 3 weeks earlier. 

Always fun to play with tractors and corn. OR anything and corn if you ask Coop! 

At Purina they have a real deal dog show, Coop liked watching them run through the obstacles and jump in the water to catch frisbees. 

Cheese!

Of course a huge highlight was feeding the chickens and getting to see all the other animals that Jon and Jan have. 

Emma is the newest addition. Cooper loved her! He was always "checking her" or touching her hair or trying to kiss her. He thought he was something special when he got to hold her. 

The ultimate fun thing was the pool of balls in the sun room! They all had a great time hiding in, throwing and jump into the balls!

I'm so glad we were able to make this weekend happen. It was perfect timing that we got to be there for Madalin and Mason's birthday party. Had we tried to arrange everything it wouldn't have worked out. Thank you Jon and Jan for being so flexible and allowing Cooper and I to bombard your house. So glad we got to spend the weekend with you. Hope to do it again soon! 

Pulling Out ALL the Stops

I'd like you to meet my friend Jamie. Jamie and I met our freshman year in college at College of the Ozarks. We hit it off immediately. I remember exactly what she was like before meeting her. She had sunglasses and a ponytail on top of her head, bopping around in flip flops everywhere she went. She had quite the standout personality. When we got our job assignments we learned we both got assigned to work in the wonderful cafeteria. Despite the oh so glorious job we actually had a really good time working there when our shifts were the same. We spent many hours watching movies when we were supposed to be reading for a class and journaling or working on art projects of our 2D class.
We were bridesmaids in each others weddings even after I moved on and decided to attend college elsewhere. We've always had such a great time together. Jamie knows no strangers. Her vibrant personality lights up a room.
I have a special request for you. Jamie is pregnant. She and her husband have been camped out at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for 5 weeks.  Jamie has been leaking amniotic fluid since she was 22 weeks pregnant, she has finally made it to 28 weeks. 28 weeks is a significant point in pregnancy. Her risks go way down at this point. You can check out more of her story and keep up to date HERE .
Their goal is to make it to 34 weeks and then deliver. Please pray that her fluid will stay in and increase, that she won't have any more contractions and that she'll stay at peace where she's at. I know personally this waiting game and it brings back such emotional memories. I think it keeps me that much more connected to what's going on with her but for you who have never experienced this kind of wait and fear I ask that you know the desire of a healthy baby be it your own, your grandchild or a dear friend and keep cheering her on and send up prayers as often as you can. There is HUGE power in prayer and I know that she and her husband Michael would appreciate all the prayers they can get.

Last week I had the opportunity to help in a little creative way. After having a short visit with them while I was in STL I was wanting to be able to be there to help but a few things changed and prevented my traveling back there. However I got a text asking if Gary was in the area that day, unfortunately he was too far away to run the errand she needed. You see, her doctor had told her he wanted her to eat some Cracklin Oat Bran cereal but unfortunately the hospital didn't offer it there and her mom Cathy was there with her but didn't have a car. So I began to brainstorm. I first called the Walgreens that was a few blocks away that I had stopped at while I was there to see if they carried the cereal. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if they did. I was secretly hoping they'd deliver it to her. Unfortunately they didn't carry it so I asked if there was a grocery store close. There was a Schnucks grocery store across the street so I called them with the same hopes that they carried it and had a way to get it to her. They quickly helped me and found out that they carried it then more brainstorming began. So I asked if they delivered groceries- No. Did their pharmacy deliver? - I interrupted that thought and asked if their floral department did… YES!!! Perfect! I got ahold of the floral department and told them my dilemma and could they help me. I asked if they could simply attach a balloon to the box so we could get it there. A few hours later Jamie had a chuckle delivered with a smiley face balloon! THAT my friends was "pulling out all the stops" I felt!  Her mom said it made her chuckle and Jamie said it was a nice smile and made her nurse smile as well. Sometimes you've just got to be a little creative to get the job done.
Earlier I had put a facebook status out asking if any of my St. Louis friends would be in the area and I did have one friend offer because his fire (ring) station was next to the hospital, his day off was the next day and had offered to help because he knew how hard it was to be in 2 places at once when you wanted to help. I hadn't talked to him in 12+ years and was so blessed to have the offer! Thank you Brad for offering to help, it was truly a blessing to know you were willing to help.

Jamie, Michael and Ruthie, we are praying for you! I find it a true honor to be able to take you to the feet of His throne daily and without ceasing.  Romans 12:12 says ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 


We are excited to meet Miss Ruthie but not excited enough for her to come yet! Keep baking my friend! You're doing a great job!!