HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOPER!!!

THE BIG DAY

This is long over due since Cooper's turned 3 on August 26th but I couldn't resist posting pictures of his special day and birthday party. For starters, we went to breakfast at Denny's where Cooper ate for free:) It was a lot of fun and even funnier when they came out with his breakfast clapping. He was almost embarrassed.

After running some errands we met some friends for pizza and Peter Piper. The kids had a blast and loved riding on all of the rides . . . and of course they loved the pizza.

For dinner, Cooper chose mac & cheese with hot dogs and then we met some friends for ice cream. When we finally got home we opened lots of presents.

Cooper, we love you so much. You make us laugh every day and you are truly the best big brother. Thank you for being such a joy!

THE PARTY

Cooper decided (with my help) that he wanted a Toy Story birthday party. We decided to have it at the community pool again since it is always so hot this time of year. We had swimming, water balloons, a pinata, pizza and alien cupcakes. The kids had so much fun and the weather was great. It was a little windy at one point and we were worried the storm would ruin the party but it blew over and it ended up being a cool night.

Thank you to everyone that was able to celebrate Cooper's 3rd birthday! We had so much fun.

Cute Pictures of the Kids

I was going through my pictures and I found some really cute ones of the kids. Enjoy!

Kamryn's FIRST encounter with a milk shake.

Cooper jumped on behind Kamryn and told me I needed to take a picture. He was right! Look at those cute kids!

On this particular day, Cooper decided to eat his peanut butter toast outside. When I looked outside I found him pulling his toast off of his shirt . . . I guess he must have tried bending over his plate because it stuck right to his shirt.

Kamryn's first encounter with spaghetti . . . YIKES! She went straight to the bath tub. I remember a lot of negotiations took place between Mike and I as to who was going to clean her off and get her into the tub:)

Oh Boy...Can you say Dumb Mom Moment?

The other day Cooper was playing and I told him to get his toys out of the speaker that is next to the tv. (Let me just add that he does this all of the time.) All of the sudden I heard screaming and crying and there was Cooper with his arm stuck in the speaker box. I tried pulling on his arm, tried telling him to pull out his arm, started searching the box to see if there was any way to get it open, tried everything I knew what to do but his arm was stuck! (As you can see in the picture above.)

What was a mother to do? I started thinking that I could maybe call the the fire department and that maybe the fire fighters might be able to get it out . . . but then I thought the only thing they could do was to break it open. So that's what I decided to do. I started with a small hammer that we keep in the house. I told Cooper to put his head down and I started pounding on that speaker box but that thing was not budging so I had to run to the garage to find something a little bigger (keep in mind Cooper is still screaming and crying and of course Mike is at work). I found a larger hammer and continued to hit that baby until I cracked it open and out popped his little arm. Poor guy! It was really wedged in there.

Moral of the story: 1. I won't be telling any kids to retrieve any toys out of there and 2. Cooper hasn't gone near that speaker box since the whole ordeal.

Oh, and in case you were curious . . . the speaker still works:) I just popped the front piece back in place and painted the chipped areas with black paint.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMRYN!!!

Our little Kamryn turned one on August 1st. We can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. She is such a sweet and loveable little thing. She is walking or should I say running all over the place. She loves playing with Cooper and doing everything he does. She is quite a Mommy's girl yet very independent. Although she is pretty easy going, she won't hesitate to tell you if she is not happy. We love her and wouldn't change a thing about her.

Special Delivery for Kamryn . . . My parents were in town for Kamryn's birthday and to watch my sister's kids. They came up the day before her birthday party and we pulled out the car seat they got for her.

Can you believe they all fit in that box?!? They had more fun that night playing with that box than any other toy.

THE PARTY:

The day before Kamryn's birthday we threw her a birthday party. It was so much fun. We had all of our friends and family there. These are a few pictures of the cute decorations.

I just fell in love with the ladybug theme.

We had live lady bugs and let the kids catch them. What a hit! I had no idea the kids would love the lady bugs like they did.

Even the parents joined in.

1500 ladybugs is a lot of ladybugs!

Kamryn loves kissing babies . . . here she is smooching on her little man Emmett.

Zach showing me his ladybugs.

Cam was one with the ladybugs. He had them all over him.

Owen trying to catch one.

Tyler was the most determined child there. She was outside for most of the party trying to get as many ladybugs as she could in her jar.

We also played "Pin the dot on the ladybug".

Kamryn even joined in.

Cute little Presley smiling big for the camera.

Kamryn and Mommy resting before opening presents.

Kamryn and her cake. She was not timid at all. She dug in to that cake and ate tons of frosting.

Kamryn sharing some frosting with Daddy. Thanks to everyone who came to share Kamryn's birthday with us. We had so much fun!

Cute But Random Pictures

I have so many pictures and a lot of the time they don't warrent an entire blog entry so here are a few of the best ones . . .

Cooper after pooping on the potty for the first time . . . I love that little face. He was so proud of himself.

Kamryn loving on Papa.

Lexy and Cam spent the weekend with us and the kids just loved it. Here they are getting comfy and cozy for a movie.

Kamryn and her first OREO. She loved it!

Cooper dressed up as Woody.

Kamryn dressed up for the 4th of July fireworks show.

Our tough guy with a black eye.

UTAH

We went up to Utah a month ago and had lots of fun. The trip started out as a trip for the kids and I and then I decided to talk Mike into joining us and it turned into a quick family trip. My parents live up in the mountains in Utah and when you step out their front door or back door this is what you see. Pretty amazing! Cooper had so much fun exploring and hiking and Kamryn just loved trying to keep up.

We found a patch of snow on one of our hikes. Cooper had so much fun running in it.

Cooper loved hiking up to this stream. He would run back and forth through the icy water and eventually decided to sit in it. Needless to say, he was frozen on the walk home.

Of course Kamryn saw what Cooper was up to and had to join in.

Kamryn started walking a couple of months ago and while we were up in Utah she started to walk around with her arms extended behind her body. What a funny little girl.