Thanksgiving

I have to write a quick post for thanksgiving. 

I feel like we have so much to be thankful for!

I'm thankful for the opportunity we've had to move out to Fort Macleod and the great new experience that's been. 

I'm thankful for a roof over our heads (even if our furnace is currently out of service for the time being)

I'm thankful for the gospel and most recently nursery! 

I'm thankful for the family we have so close to us and the help they've always given us. 

And most importantly I'm thankful for my own little family. Matt works so hard for us and is such a great dad. He loves spending time with Cooper and teaching him things around the farm. It makes me so happy to watch them spending time together. Cooper is the light of my life. We're so blessed to have been entrusted to look after his sweet spirit. He's taught us so much in the short time he's been with us! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Nap Time

For those of you who don't know Cooper, he's a thumb sucker. 

Honestly I think its adorable. 

I know some people might think he's too old but I don't think he's hit that point yet. 

Anyways today at nap time he only slept for 20 minutes. 

Usually he goes to bed around 9 PM and gets up around 10 AM. 

Last night Matt had hockey and we watched for a bit so he didn't go to bed until 10:30 and for some reason woke up at 8.

So I was a little disappointed that his nap didn't last longer. 

I decided to try to have him lay down with me for a bit even though he hasn't slept with us since he was a few months old.

I would lay there with my eyes closed and just peek at him once in a while to see if he was settling down. 

He'd lay there and suck his thumb for a while but as soon as he saw me looking at him he'd get restless again so I decided to just keep my eyes closed. 

All of a sudden I felt something wet touching my lips. 

I opened my eyes to see Cooper sharing his thumb with me! 

I love how sweet that little boy is!!

He knew sucking his thumb helped him fall asleep so he was trying to share. 

Minus the slobber it was one of the sweetest things he's ever done. 

What a doll!

My Little Man All Grown Up!

Ok seriously I'm so in love with this kid!

I can't believe he's already 18 months!

Where did the time go?!?!

• Recently he's gotten all 4 of his molars in
• He jabbers away all the time especially when he has a phone
• He loves to push my coffee table around the living room
• He's started throwing tantrums :S
• He gets really frustrated when he tries to tell me something and I don't understand him. Hopefully this just motivates him to learn to talk sooner
• He loves walking around with his backpack on!
• He brings me a pair of his shoes when he wants to go outside and if I don't take him out right away he helps me out by finding mine too. He even usually gets a matching pair!
• He gives the best hugs and kisses and has the cutest smile!
• His favorite game to play is Peekaboo

All you have to do is say "Where's Cooper?" and he automatically hides his face.

It's been a pretty nostalgic day looking through all the pictures we have of him.

Happy 18 months Little Man!

We love you so much! 

XOXO 

Mom and Dad

August

With all the packing and moving going on we've had to pack most of our summer into the month of August. 

Here's a little recap of what we've spent the summer doing.

We went swimming with some family and Cooper loved the water! 

I've only taken him a handful of times this year but hopefully we can squeeze in a few more pool trips before summer's over.

Cooper got to spend the weekend with his Grandparents while Matt and I enjoyed a little weekend getaway to Edmonton. 

We got to do some shopping and go out for dinner.

It was kind of like a belated Anniversary trip.......at least that's what I told myself.

In reality we went up to pick up a truck......

Matt's dad was looking for a new semi for the farm so Matt found this sweet Pete up in Edmonton.

Matt, his dad, and his brother Brad went up to take a look at it together.

They decided it was exactly what they were looking for so they told the guy they'd take it!

Matt was so happy he said he was almost in tears....I had to remind him that even on our wedding day he wasn't that close to tears.

His response?

"I know, but buying this truck is my dream come true!"

I think Cooper takes after his dad because neither of them can get enough of that truck.

Although I don't quite understand their obsession I'm glad it makes them both so happy.

Here's my little man all dressed up in his new clothes.

I can't believe how big he is!

He's gotten so big I thought he'd like to color a picture for his Uncle Nathan who's on a mission in England right now.

Here's how he stared out....

And here's how it ended up....

It was probably a total of 5 minutes before he started eating the crayons.

Even though he's not big enough to color he is big enough that I thought I should build him a little table and chairs!

I still haven't finished it but he could care less. 

The only thing I won't let him eat at his table yet is berries. 

As you can tell he gets just a little too messy.

This past week was also Brittany, my sister, and Brandon, her husband,'s birthdays.

Oh yeah and it was their anniversary too!

All within a week!

So I made them some pies to celebrate.

The only other thing we've really done this summer is have family movie nights.

Cooper has eagerly embraced the tradition of dill pickle popcorn and peach juice for movie watching.

We're hoping to take Cooper on his first camping trip this weekend since we haven't had a chance to use our trailer for the past 2 summers!

I'm a little nervous since I didn't do much camping growing up but with how much Cooper likes being outside I'm sure we'll have a good time.

House Tour!

So I finally got around to taking some pictures of our new house!

I would have done it sooner but sometimes with a 1 year old it's hard to keep things clean....

I thought I'd do some before and after pictures so you can see the difference

Here's what it looked like from the outside before we moved it from Brooks.

Here's our house on wheels. And yes I do know how red neck that sounds....

Here it is out on the farm!

Hopefully we'll plant some grass next summer...Cooper sure doesn't mind all the dirt though. 

This is the Living Room before...

And this is it after.

 You can't really tell but the ceiling before had a popcorn texture on it. Matt wasn't too fond of it so we scraped it off, retextured, and painted all the ceilings. It was A LOT of work and I may have complained just a smidge during the process. But I really like how they turned out.  And I know it looks a little funny with no picture in the frame, but one day I'll get around to printing our family pictures off.....

This is a dresser that I refinished into an entertainment centre just before we moved in. I love that it hides all our DVDs from Cooper.

This is Cooper's room before. We weren't really crazy about the color...

So we painted it before we moved in.

We also put a new window in and put up most of the trim.

This is what the guest bedroom looked like before. I'm pretty sure they let their kids pick the paint for their rooms....

This room isn't quite organized yet, but I like the color a lot better. So far it's a craft/sewing/guest room that has Cooper's big boy bed in it hence the John Deere bedding.

Cooper's bathroom before.

And after. We really didn't have to do a whole lot with this room.

This is the kitchen before

And after. We put up some new back splash

And we found this great table at the Brick a few weeks before we moved! It's nice to not be so squished around such a small table anymore. 

Here's the computer desk before...

We put the same back splash up here. Just a heads up for anyone doing renos, probably make sure you have enough to finish the job before you start. We ran out 1/2 way through and it was a huge headache to find some more. Oops...

Here's the back entrance/laundry room before.

The previous owners had some very bold color choices.

And after. 

I would have loved to have painted back here, but I was a little sick of paint by the time we got to this room. 

The Master Bedroom before

As you can see to the left of the bathroom doorway is a very large window. 

Before we moved in there was not 1 but 2 of these windows so you could clearly see into the bathroom. 

So the previous owners figured they may as well take the bathroom door off too since it wasn't doing much good anyways. 

We have yet to put a bathroom door up, but luckily I married a very handy man who, after some complaints, fixed our window dilemma.

This is our bedroom now.

See, no more windows!!!

This is the ensuite before

And here it is after a little paint....

And some new tile. 

It was really hard to leave Welling, but we feel so blessed to be able to move on to this new stage in our lives.