Coop's First Halloween

It's been a busy week!

First Matt turned the big 2-6

We did a Texas Roadhouse style dinner and I attempted to make their famous rolls

(I only call them rolls because they are American and every recipe I looked up said rolls)

Needless to say they didn't turn out nearly as good but were still edible

And for dessert of course we had a peach pie

I don't know what it was about that weave pattern but I was having some serious difficulties

For his presents Cooper gave him a tie that matches a little one for Cooper

And I made him a book about how we met

I know it's a super girly present but I think Matt kinda liked it

Then we took family pictures right before Halloween

We'd postponed the pictures for a few weeks because of Matt's leg and the weather

It was a little chilly outside so we were only out for 45 minutes but I think we got some cute pictures

Then came Halloween!

I haven't dressed up for Halloween for a few years but it was so fun to all dress up together!

We knew all along that Cooper was going to be Clark Kent

So originally I planned to just dress up as Superheroes

I bought a Batman shirt with a cape attached

I figured it was easy enough cause I could just wear some black pants with it and I'd be good to go

Here's how the conversation went when I ran that idea past Matt

Me: So we'll just be superheroes. I have that Batman shirt that I'll wear and we'll find something for you.

Matt: So we're going to be fake superheroes now??

Me: ..........What?

Matt: It's called Batman not Batwoman

I should have figured he would take Halloween this seriously

Especially when I considered his last Halloween costume

So we were back to square one since Matt understandably didn't want to wear a girls shirt

We headed to the Halloween store and Matt found a sweet costume

It was impossible to find an appropriate superhero costume for a girl though so I ended up making most of mine which was actually pretty fun

This kid amazes me so much!

We went to the Welling Halloween Party and he didn't touch his wig or glasses for the whole 2 hours we were there!

I think he had a tough time recognizing me with the wig though

Thank goodness he's not playing strange yet

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Cooper's First Snow!

It snowed last night and although yesterday was definitely one of the most stressful days I've had in a long time it was all worth it waking up to fresh snow on the ground.

Cooper and I got all dressed up and played in the snow for a grand total of 5 minutes then came in and warmed up with hot chocolate, or at least I did.

Look at my little boy getting all grown up! What a stud!!

I'm so lucky to be able to spend all day with this cutie pie!

Hiatus

Well I'm finally back from hiatus!

The past few weeks have been super busy for us so I took a little break from blogging...

I'm mostly back because of 2 things

1) It's freezing outside so Cooper and I have been indoors today and

2) We finally have internet at our new place!

That's right we've moved

Basically here's how the past few weeks have been

Remember how excited I was to go to Utah?

Well about a week and a half before we were supposed to go we decided to move...luckily there was a place here in Welling for rent so we get to stay in our AMAZING ward!!!

I figured our Utah/Vegas trip was out of the question because I knew how much "crap", as Matt would call it, we have accumulated over the past few years.

But thanks to my wonderful husband and our amazing families that we have around we were able to get everything moved over to our new place just days before we were supposed to leave.

We decided to cut the trip a little short though and only go to Utah.

In hindsight I'm glad we did because we were ready to come home after 10 days.

So we left on a Tuesday and took 2 days to drive to Utah.

We stopped in Andrew's mission and dropped off a care package for him with a lady in his ward.

This lady lived in Hyrum.

Do you know where that is?

We didn't so we used our trusty little GPS to find it.

It did a fantastic job until we were trying to get back to the highway.

Could we have just backtracked? Probably

But I was driving and I have undying faith in our GPS.

In hindsight I'll just trust Matt's gut instinct instead because when it comes to directions he somehow always knows where to go.

So we ended up in our Tucson driving on this road

I reluctantly kept driving and slowly the road got even more barren eventually turning into this:

Then the gravel road turned to a quad trail....

At this point I was very nervous but Matt just laughed and said we'd get to the highway eventually

We rounded another bend and this is what we saw

My heart sunk......

until we came over the hill and saw the freeway just below us

Finally we made it to Provo to see my cousins at BYU and then went to Park City for 2 days!!

It was amazing!

If you've never been you should go. 

It's this incredible outlet mall that's outdoors.

I planned on being there 2 days because I didn't want to tire the boys out too much and I think Matt was pretty happy that we did it that way.

I found so many great deals for Cooper! I'm pretty sure I won't have to buy any more clothes for him until he's at least 5. 

Yep I'm a planner like that and bought stuff that was 5T

Am I ashamed? Not in the slightest. 

After Park City we went back to Provo and my fantastic cousin watched Cooper for us while we got to go to conference!

It was incredible!

*Side story* 

Just before we left on our trip I called Matt's doctor and got us a handicapped pass for the month. At first we felt ridiculous using it and I'd tell Matt to make sure he was limping really bad when he got out of the car, but I'm so glad we had it for conference because there was no way Matt would have been able to walk that far on his leg! Thanks Grandma for suggesting it to us. You're a lifesaver!

So we got to park in the Handicapped section right across the street from the conference centre (don't judge us)

Even though we could park so close it was still 6 whole hours that we were away from our little Cooper!

Definitely the longest we've both been away from him at the same time.

Alexis did a great job with him though and we're so thankful she was able to watch him for us.

After we picked up Cooper we headed down to see De and Jason!

But first we took a couple hours to stop at a dirt biking shop that Matt loves in Payson. 

Finally we made it to Richfield!

We got to watch conference with De and Jason and their kids.

It was so much fun seeing them and we even got to have Canadian Thanksgiving with their family and their neighbours! 

We started on our way back on Tuesday so we were only able to see their family for a couple days but we loved seeing them and having them meet Cooper who their kids loved!

On our way home we almost ran out of gas....3 times......and I was driving each time.....I choose to blame it on the fact that I'm still getting used to the Tucson and don't quite know how far I can go on a tank of gas.

It was a little scary seeing as how we literally coasted into Shelby on fumes with me putting it in neutral and turning the car off every time we were going down hill.

All in all it was a great trip! 

Wanna know how you can tell?

Because we were having such a great time that we forgot to take pictures :P

Not About Cooper

So this post is not about Cooper.

Trust me there won't be many like this because not a whole lot happens in my life that doesn't involve him.

This is more for my own good since "those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it."

A few weeks ago I was asked to help out with Activity Days here in Welling. 

They asked me to still keep my calling as Primary teacher and since 1/2 the girls in Activity Days are from my class I figured it couldn't be that much harder since it's only twice a month after school. 

For the first activity we did an Unbirthday to celebrate everyone's birthdays at once.

My job: make cupcakes. Easy peasy I thought.

Then my favorite sister Maycee stopped by.

Maycee: I heard you have to make cupcakes for Activity Days next week. I have a whole book on decorating cupcakes. You can borrow it if you want. There's this one that makes them look like high heels that I really want to make and it's really easy.

Me thinking to myself: Make a cupcake look like a high heel. How hard could it be?

*This was my first mistake. Overestimating my abilities*

Me: Yeah that sounds like a lot of fun, but with Cooper I might need some help.....

Maycee: I can help you!!!

Me: Oh really? That would be great.

Matt and I stopped by my parents on Monday and I took a look at the book. After reading the 4 pages, yes you read right 4 PAGES!!, of instructions I started to have a few doubts. 

I figured it'd be better to back out now so she didn't get her hopes up too much.

Me: Sooo Maycee, about these cupcakes....

Maycee: Aren't they great! I already told Baylee and Ellie about them at school today and they're so excited to come on Wednesday!

I was stuck.

So I went home and got to work.

5 1/2 hours and 2 days later we were left with 18 high heel cupcakes.

That means it took over 18 minutes to decorate each cupcake.

Opposed to 2 minutes to throw some icing on them.

But I got to hang out with Maycee for an afternoon and we had a lot of fun "designing" our shoes.

Morale of the story when asked to make cupcakes.....just make a regular old cupcakes....they're just going to get eaten either way.

The Accident

WARNING: This post contains graphic content. If you have a weak stomach for the sake of your computer keyboard please stop reading.

Cooper is a GREAT baby! 

Really he is. 

That's why sometimes when other moms of new babies talk about some of the things they're struggling with I have a hard time relating. 

I am by no means trying to brag because I have this feeling I've gotten off pretty easy with Cooper and my next one (not that there will be a next one for awhile) will be a lot more trouble. 

So when I hear about these nasty blow out diapers some moms have to deal with I've always counted myself really lucky with Cooper.....until last week.

*At this point if you're not a mom or someone who can handle a little potty talk you should stop reading now. Don't worry. I won't judge you. To be honest I found this all a little TMI before I became a mom*

It all started a few days ago. Cooper's on solid foods and so I've noticed him having some "trouble" filling his diaper lately.

Each day that went past one part of me breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't have a poopy diaper to change....

And the other part dreaded when it would happen knowing it would be just that much worse.

Well Friday morning rolled around and after waiting 3 days I knew this was going to be bad.

Cooper woke up that morning and I knew today was the day.

He got real quiet.

He clenched his fists and concentrated really hard.

His face got VERY red.

With his stalky build I would say he was nothing short of a mini red Incredible Hulk.

Luckily for me Matt was still home!! And after a little begging he agreed to change the diaper if I made him breakfast. 

As I'm scrambling the eggs Matt comes back with Cooper....too quickly. Then he said it really wasn't that bad and I knew it was not going to be a good day.

Later that morning the Incredible Hulk appeared again.

I fearfully put him on the change table and expected the worst. 

It wasn't bad at all! After giving myself a quick pat on the back for having such a great kid I threw his diaper in the garbage and grabbed another one from on top the dresser. 

Boy was I in for a surprise.

In that 3.45 seconds this was what I had welcoming me....

I was almost glad I hadn't gotten the diaper on him because that was definitely not all and there is no way it would have all stayed in there. 

After that mess I feel like a deserve a plaque saying "Welcome to Motherhood".

But even if it's filled with more days like that I'm glad I've arrived and think I'll stay awhile.....

My little baby is 6 MONTHS!!!!

I can't believe how fast time has gone already.

For his half birthday we......

made freezer meals....

All day........

We were both pretty exhausted by the end of it.

Along with turning 1/2 a year old we had to get his immunizations done today.

He was not a happy camper.

But on a happier note Halloween is getting closer which means

Cooper got to try on his wig and he loved it!

I thought the wig might bother him or at least he would try to pull it off

But go figure this kid didn't even try to touch it.

I think he was just excited to finally have some hair.

September?

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last blogged,

Not to mention that it's already September!

Could someone please tell me where August went?

I guess when you're trying to cram your entire summer into just the month of August it flies by so quickly!

Here's a little recap of our summer August.

Our little man weights a whopping 20 lbs now!

I laid Coop on the bed while I went to the bathroom and came back to find him zonked out sucking his thumb. I'm not sure how I feel about the thumb sucking but for right now it's pretty darn cute.

We've gone harvesting a bit these past few weeks and Coop loves sleeping in the combine

Mom and Dad got to go out for dinner for the first time without Cooper!

Cooper has loved splashing in his pool this summer

Matt could not stop laughing when he was playing Peek-A-Boo with Coop and he got the blanket in his mouth.
Name that movie. Anyone? Here's a hint *Mr. Napkin Head*

Lately Cooper's been watching movies....and I've been watching Cooper watch the movies...I can't help it he's just so darn cute! He even jumps and grabs his teddy bear at the scary parts!

We gave Cooper a chocolate chip cookie right before bed......it probably wan't the best idea we've ever had sine he was up a lot later than his bedtime that night, but.....

Seeing his face like this made it all worth it.

We have loved spending time together as a family this summer and are looking forward to our trip in a few weeks. We get to see some family and have them meet our sweet little addition, go see Conference, and of course do some shopping!! 

I'm just glad Cooper isn't old enough yet to gang up on mom with dad and ix nay the whole shopping portion of the trip ;)