Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

The Cooper gang gathered on Saturday to wish Grandpa Gene a Happy 90th Birthday! We had about 150 people stop by the reception we hosted. It was a good time!

When Amy and I weren't tending to our infants, we were on picture duty!

(Us and every other cousin in the room!)

Grace loves the cake!!! (Hee Hee, I love this picture!)
Tim stopped by in between sectional games and helped out with the children. The Volleyknights won sectional again this year! Go Knights!

After the official party, the family moved out to the farm for a picnic and hay ride. Here's Aunt Monica trying to keep Cooper warm!

Ava, Grace and Allison are ready to eat!

Grace got to help Grandpa Tim drive the tractor at the end of the hay ride.

Back it up and put it away, girl!!

7 Months old

Cooper is now 7 months old! Where does the time go? He has been fighting colds, I think he is always hungry, and maybe cutting some more teeth - so not the normal happy baby I'm used to! But we do have some good times!

Like our Moot picture.

Or when we are watching Ellen.

Or pulling up on the coffee table, couch, or lamp!

Or trying out our new sippy cup!

He loves his avocados and sweet potatoes, and we're working on applesauce. We'll also be starting peas and carrots by the end of the week, too! He already feels heavier!



This is Grace in a time out, kicking and screaming because that used to be her sippy cup and she couldn't handle it! She hasn't used that cup for at least a year, but she was not happy about it!

Right now Grace is really getting into reading. Her favorite is Curious George and she loves to read it at bedtime with Tim. When he is not here, she reads it to Elmo. :)

(She would not look at the camera AT ALL for this!)

(That "Planned Ignoring" you learn as a teacher... she does that very well!)

(It turned out cute anyway, I think.)

Uhhh, What the?!?!

So, after Tim leaves each morning I have about an hour or hour and a half to sleep before the kids start to stir. This morning I'm laying in bed around 8:30 when I hear someone in the hallway! I hear a door and walking... WHO COULD IT BE? Tim is gone, why would he be back at 8:30? ... Am I awake?.... Am I paranoid?....

So I roll over and dare to look to see who it is and this is who I see:

What the?!?! Here's how the conversation went:

"Grace? What are you doing here?" (Blink and rub my eyes to make sure I am awake.)

"I'm poopy."

"How did you get out of your bed?"
"I don't know. I'm poopy."

And off she ran to take her diaper off and put the poo in the toilet!!

What a way to start the day!!

Last home volleyball game last night.

So last week, for 4 nights in a row, I made "Chicken in a Pot" 12 times. Why - you ask? My friends at MOPS did a frozen dinner exchange! Not so much fun while I was doing it, but it is exciting to have 12 dinners frozen and ready to eat in the freezer! Here are my dinners and then all or our coolers ready for the exchange.

They all look delicious and I'll let you know how it works out for us.

To Clarify...

Ok, so on the previous post, I'd like to clarify a couple of things.

First, those are Grace's legs and feet. It happened while I was putting Cooper down for a nap. I knew the markers were out and she had never done anything like that before (so why worry?!)but when I said, "Please pick up your markers", she heard, "color on your legs and feet." What can you do but lovingly correct, remind her of the rule, then clean it up. :)

And second, that cute Cooper in the spider hat (the one spider we don't squish when we see it!) was getting into a good bear crawl position, but would then sit down. BUT! As of yesterday, he is now crawling!! It is not a very smooth crawl just yet, but definitely moving forward for things he wants! So, I have realized I am going to have to re-babyproof the house again! I didn't realize how much we would have to do or even how hard it will be to retrain Grace. Right now her idea of taking something away from Cooper is to take it and throw it. She also has small toys and stickers that may have to be put away for a while as I am not going to try and keep track of all of that!

Keeping busy at home

I think they are going to be the best of friends. Grace loves playing with Cooper, and he loves playing with her! They both LOVE it when Daddy gets home and wrestles with them!

Volleyknight fan!

We only color on paper...

Too cute not to photograph!!!

Happy Halloween

They do what they see

Like put on their own shoes.

And take pictures.

And shop!

Now, I don't know where she got this one...

but if you haven't smelled it yet, or she has not informed you that she will not go poopy on the potty, you can tell by her walk when she has filled her pants!

And here is Cooper - even with a cold with a touch of bronchitis he is still the happiest baby around! He has started to babble "DaDaDa" and continues to scoot around by falling over then setting up in a different place!
When Grace hears him saying DaDaDa, she says, "Sorry Coopie, Daddy is not here. He is at Volleyball. He will be home later." !!