Monkey Boy

Anyone else have a monkey child like I do? It has always fascinated me to see siblings that are complete opposite. Most of the times they are and I know that God intended for it to be that way. What a boring world if we were all the same. I still have to wonder how children that come from the same factory can be so different. Our first son was so laid back as a baby. He didn't crawl until his first birthday and didn't walk independently until 18 months old. If he couldn't reach a toy, no problem, he would just analyze the carpet fibers or count the weave in the wicker toy basket. He just didn't have that desire in his eyes to get on the other side of the room. Then Mr. Cooper came along. This boy has been a wiggle worm since before he entered this world. He tossed and turned inside of me- in fact, he's a miracle baby because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 5 times. (He was the talk of the hospital. My Dr. said in 25 years he had never seen it that many times and especially for a baby to survive that.) As soon as his eyes open in the morning, his legs are kicking, he's jumping in his crib......He's extremely happy but always on the go. Here are a few pictures from the last day or two. He always wants to climb up or get on top of something- everything is an obstacle course to him! I'm afraid to see what he will be getting in to once he starts walking.

I took the boys to get pictures taken with the Easter bunny today. They did great. Hudson was very nervous and I had to bribe him with a handful of pennies for him to throw into the water fountain after we finished. It's hard to get a good shot of both kids at this age. Usually one will smile good while the other is looking off. I thought this one turned out pretty good. I don't know how to scan (guess I'd need a scanner first, huh?) so I just took a picture of the picture.

Earlier today, I came across another blog with this little survey on it. I copied it and changed my answers to my own. I thought I'd start a little game of "Tag, you are it!" So if you read this and you have a blog of your own, paste it on yours so that we can see your answers. Here we go!

1. I’ve come to realize that my ex-boyfriend... all of them.... were a part of my life so that I could learn and grow into the woman and wife I am today.
2. I am listening to..... my boys talk themselves to sleep (it's nap time!)
3. I talk..... all the time.
4. I love...my family.
5. My best friends...are always there for me.
6. I lost..... my first child through a miscarriage.
7. I hate it when people.....drive slow when I'm in a hurry.
8. Love is..... multi-faceted- it varies among the people in your life.
9. Marriage is....work. It's great but you must put forth effort.
10. Somewhere, someone is thinking...that I must have a lot of time on my hands for filling this out.
11. I’ll always be.... a Christian.
12. I have a crush on..... my 2 sons.
13. The last time I cried was because.....I saw something sad on TV
14. My cell phone..... is usually at the bottom of my purse.
15. When I wake up in the morning.....I'm ready to go! I'm a morning person and Jason says that I sprout wings and fly around the room.
16. Before I go to sleep at night..... I say a prayer.
17. Right now I am thinking...about how I really need to be cleaning my house since our small group is coming over on Sunday night for Bible Study.
18. Babies are...a blessing.
19. I get on MySpace...NEVER... well, not true. I got on last week when a good friend sent me her address. I think it's very overwhelming and too much is going on the page. Blogs are MUCH better!
20. Today .....I took the boys to get pictures with the Easter bunny.
21. Last Night .... we played outside for nearly 2 hours.
22. Tomorrow .....Hudson goes to school and I will hang out with Cooper.
23. I really want...... to be able to eat whatever I want and still lose 2o pounds.

24. It really excites me....when I have things that are full- like a full tank of gas, a drawer full of clean underwe*r, etc....

25. As a child I..... dreamed of being Annie one day.

26. The best day of my life.....getting married.

27. The worst day of my life.....on the phone with my mom while she had her car accident and hearing it all and not knowing if she was alive or not.

Spring Cleaning

I did some unintended spring cleaning today in the boys' closets. I was doing some laundry and hanging some things up when I decided to take the much needed plunge of organizing the closets. I decided to put away the old and make room for the new. I started in Cooper's closet. I took everything from the fall and winter season off the hangers and sorted those. I had a "give away" bag and also a bag set aside to sell. I have had great luck selling the nicer Gymboree clothes on Ebay so I put all those in a bag and labeled them so that I would remember to get them out, take pictures and post them towards the end of the summer. The others will be taken to a storehouse nearby that helps the surrounding community. Next, I went into Hudson's room and got down all of his fall/winter clothes and began to neatly fold those and place them into a bucket. I labeled the bucket and stored it in the hall closet for Cooper. It's so nice having boys that are in the same season. Mine are 3 years and 8 days apart and both so far are measuring about the same. My babies start out small but they sure take off and get big. Both are in the 90% for height. It has been so great to pull out a bucket and have a whole season of clothes ready for Cooper. Yes, we have bought him some new things along the way but for the most part he is using everything that Hudson wore. I guess all the headaches that come with washing and laying everything out to dry has really paid off. I can tell the clothes that were washed and dried over and over because when I pull those out they look really worn and those have been tossed. I just don't feel right putting Cooper in something that looks raggedy. So, now I pretty much wash and lay everything out- which makes for a HUGE to-be-ironed pile. Does anyone else have this? I have a large laundry basket that is my to-be-ironed pile and it never ends. I can spend an hour or so ironing and getting pretty caught up and within a few days the pile is high again. Does anyone have tricks on how to manage this? I can't imagine how those of you with 3 and 4 kids do it. This laundry can be a full time job in itself. Here are a couple of pictures. It looks great now but like most projects- it has to get really ugly before it gets good.

I also had some toys that Hudson had outgrown but were still too small for Cooper tucked away so I was able to get those out for Cooper to play with. He was so excited.

I am SOOO glad it finally rained. I can't believe I'm actually saying those words but it has been overcast and cloudy for a week now. I've had a dull headache for several days and I think it's because of the pressure outside. I feel like such an Eyore lately!

Just Coop and Me

Once again, it's just Cooper and me at the house. My mom came over on Wednesday to spend some time with us and Hudson wanted to go to her house. I said no because he had preschool the next day and I didn't want him to miss that. I figure if I'm paying for it, he needs to be there. Plus, he learns some really neat things there. Up until this point, I know that most of what he knows has come from Jason and me. The basic things like colors, numbers, and shapes are pretty easy to teach your kids. A couple of weeks ago, I picked Hudson up from school and he was in the back talking about quarter notes and a half rest and that put the biggest smile on my face because I know nothing about music and I'm starting to see him learn from so many people other than us. Back to my story- he was kind of upset about that so mom and I worked it out for him to come over after school. Thursday morning we got up and on our way to school I told him that if he did good at school with no time-outs that his reward would be a trip to Grammy's house. His teacher said he did awesome! So, I took him over right after school and he spent the night last night. I'm going to pick him back up in a bit so this morning Cooper and I have just been hanging out. Before you judge me for shipping my kids off each week to their grandparents house...let me tell you that first of all- they don't go as often as you think. It just so happened that Spring Break was last week and Hudson went to stay with his Mimi. We often have a couple of months in between his overnight visits. Next, I was thinking the other day about the fact that Hudson has one more year (next year) of preschool and then he starts Kindergarten so these during-the-week slumber parties will have to come to an end. (Don't tell Hudson, he will be crushed) Finally, there will come a day when spending the night with your grandparents is far from cool and the desire will be gone. I figure I'll let him now while he can and still wants to.

Here are some pictures from this morning and a couple from last night.

I don't know if you can read his shirt or not but it says "Super Duper Cooper"

Where is brother? Cooper and Rudy have all the bases covered- Rudy is looking towards the front door and Cooper is looking towards the laundry room/garage door.....still no Hudson in sight!

See my teeth? I've got 6 in all and I swear more are coming in

He is so excited to have the b*th all to himself

Look at these curls. It's hard to see in the picture but he has these little ringlets in the back.

His poor feet are getting carpet burns from all the crawling that he is doing.

Hello World

Nothing like a good bowl to chew on

Well, I'm off to get Cooper from his nap, feed him some lunch and head over to get Hudson.

Hello Spring

Spring actually started yesterday and for some reason it doesn't feel like the beginning of spring to me. I guess it's because it's been so cloudy and overcast the past few days. When I think about spring, I think about sunny days, beautiful flowers, a light breeze, or the sound of birds. I have yet to witness any of these things this week. I'm bummed because I had some neat things planned for Hudson and I to do together so that we could talk about this new season but I had a hard time getting motivated. Funny how the weather can really have an impact on our mood. I've pushed those activities to next week and hopefully the weather will be nice so that we can get outside and have a good time.

On a different note, I'd like to ask for prayers for my friend Megann. You can read more about her story by clicking on her name under my links. I won't go into all the details but basically she has a rare form of ovarian cancer (she's only 32) She and her husband left on Tuesday for San Antonio to meet with a team of doctors to see if there are any experimental drugs that she can take. I am praying that there is something out there that can shrink her tumors and allow her to be cancer-free. Please pray for that and also for a safe trip back.

Leapin' Frogs

Do you ever have those days where you feel like at one minute you have everything under control and then the next it is complete chaos? After school today, Hudson wanted to go outside and play. I know that the forcast predicts rain this week so I figured I'd let him play today since the next few days may be really wet. We got into some play clothes and headed outside. I left Cooper in because he's still not walking and I was going to run out really quick, rinse out Hudson's water table, fill it up, and head back in. His table was sandy and dirty from yesterday's adventures so it really needed to be cleaned out. I turned it over to rinse it out and underneath the table sat this huge frog. Okay, maybe not huge but he was big to me! I kind of jumped and that made Rudy (our dog) come over to see what was going on. He immediately became interested in this little creature. He stuck his nose really close and the frog jumped...so did Rudy. Hudson starts cracking up really loud. I'm scared that Rudy will try to eat him so I'm trying to shoo him away (with the hose in my hand, not paying attention) Rudy is running circles around me so that I can't catch him, the frog is hopping all over the yard to get away from Rudy, Hudson is laughing hysterically now, Cooper is screaming at the top of his lungs while his body is pressed against our back door/window because he wants outside, and I still can't catch Rudy. I put the hose down and finally scoop him up. He's muddy so I'm holding him a certain way so that I don't completely trash my clothes. I run to the back door but I can't get inside because Cooper is leaning up against it and I'll knock him over if I open it. Rudy is growling at me like he wants to take my arm off so that he can get down and find Kermit and in my head I'm thinking that there must be a TV crew around the corner. Have you had those days? I felt like I was on Candid Camera or an act from a 3 ring circus. It was crazy. I finally opened the door enough to tell Cooper to back up and after several minutes I was able to get inside and put Rudy in his house so that my kitchen floor wasn't destroyed. Yep, it was one of those days. I wonder if this is just a glimpse of what my life will be like with boys. No dull moments at our house!

Now that it's been a few hours and I am sitting here retelling my story I can see that it was quite funny. I know one day I will miss crazy days like this when the boys are grown up and no longer in the house.

Here is a picture of Cooper from this morning. I tried to get a shot so that you could see his cute shirt. Thanks Laura and family for the precious onesie for Cooper! I love his initials on it.

Happy Birthday Cooper

Wow, this year has really flown by. I know that everyone feels this way- it just seems that these birthdays come so fast. As a little kid, I used to always hear grown-ups say that in a blink of an eye you are an adult or that your kids will be walking across the stage before you know it. I now see what they were talking about. It really does go fast. We've been so blessed this year since Cooper has joined our family. He is so sweet and such a great baby. I know that I've given Hudson the greatest gift of all, a brother. Here are some pictures from his party. We kept it simple. We had a party at my mom's house with family.

We had a Baby Einstein party because Cooper loves them so much

Cooper had his own little Einstein cake. He didn't hold back- he dug right in. In fact, he needed a major bath after he was finished. He ate almost the entire cake.

His smile melts my heart!

He wasn't really sure about all the presents

Hudson and mom

Thank you so much for coming to Cooper's party. We had a great time!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

We started celebrating St. Patrick's Day last night and some of today. Unfortunately, this holiday will always be overshadowed by Cooper's birthday so I'm not sure how much attention it will get each year. I just tell myself that we can start doing some small things and build on each year. Yesterday, we started looking at books and I began to tell Hudson about Leprechauns. He sat there, wide eyed, and listened to every word I said. I must admit that I felt a little funny as I was just going along telling "the story of the leprechauns" (not sure what that story is, but I just went with it) I think he's still too small to really understand the true facts behind the holiday so for now we are going to concentrate on the easy things- green, rainbows, shamrocks, etc..... We headed down to Party City to find some stickers for our leprechaun trap. Yep, you read that right.....we are trying to catch a leprechaun. Hudson picked out some shiny green shamrock stickers and I allowed him one fun item and he chose a shamrock key chain with a flash light. Here he is with it.
We got back home and Hudson started to decorate the trap.

Cooper even got in on the action. I put a shamrock sticker on his nose and he kept it there for the longest time. It was so funny!

Now he is happy with the way it looks. I tried to encourage him to place stickers all over the box but he decided to keep them close- some were even carefully placed right on top of each other. I didn't say much. I certainly didn't want our fun craft to turn into a time that I criticized him. I just remind myself that he's 4 and it won't be perfect. Later that night, after dad got home, we set the trap out. As the story goes, you must place the trap near a window so that the light of the moon will help them find their way. Our good ole' Tinker Toys helped us hold the box up. Hudson decided that he thought leprechauns would like to eat cheese so we set some cheese out as our bait. We headed to bed in hopes that we could catch one.

This morning, Hudson woke up and was excited to see what we caught. (don't ask about the jammies....he leaked out of his pull-ups again so he grabbed the nearest thing in his drawer)

We went to our trap and found that the box had been turned over and there was no leprechaun in sight. He did leave a green sparkly trail and golden chocolate coins for us. Hudson we really excited that he left chocolate at our house but was less impressed that he "made a big mess" at our house. He was a bit upset that the trail going out our front door was scattered all over our tile and carpet.

Next, we started our morning with a bowl of Lucky Charms. Hudson absolutely loved them. He has never had them and he thought he was in heaven! Growing up as a kid, I was never allowed to have really sweet cereals. We could have Cheerios and occasionally Fruit Loops or Frosted Flakes but mom was really concerned with them being too sugary. I guess I've adopted her ways because mine don't get them either. ( I can hear my mom now...."I told you so!" )

I know, you probably think I'm weird for attempting to catch little green men that don't exist. My mom even laughed at me and said that my kids will be freaks because they will grow up thinking they are real. How is it any different then believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc....? In the end, we had a ton of smiles and laughs at our house and that was the goal. We'll break the news to the boys once they are older.(smile) In the meantime, we'll try to catch that leprechaun again next year..........

A day with friends

Hudson came back today from a nice stay with his Mimi and Papa Jim. He was going to come back last night, but they had a fun day at the park and his nap ran a bit late into the evening. By the time he got up and ate dinner, Mimi decided to just wait and bring him today. Of course, he was thrilled that he got another night with them. I can't say that I blame him--- one-on-one time, eating popsicles and ice cream, sleeping in bed with them,etc......I'd want to stay forever too. Unfortunately, all things do come to an end and Mimi had some things she needed to do before school starts back next week. Thanks so much Mimi and Papa Jim for being amazing grandparents to our boys!!!

The transition to our house was a rather easy one considering when he got home, our house was full of friends. My 2 really good friends from ACU came over today with their kids so that we could get some much needed girl time and also to allow our kids to hang out. (Fischer, we missed you!!) Our friend, Jennifer, just had her baby a couple of weeks ago so they didn't get to come. I can't wait until we can all get together again soon......especially our upcoming scrapbook weekend at the ranch.

We had a great day catching up. I am often reminded how lucky I am to have such great friends and the fact that we all still make it a priority to remain close. Although I don't see them nearly enough, we are always able to pick right back up where we left off. I know we will be friends for the rest of our lives.

For Christmas, Hudson got a bounce house and we have yet to get it out. Lately, the weather has been nice but it's been during the day when Jason was at work and I was insecure about getting it out by myself. So, today we decided to tackle the bounce house so that the kids could play outside. Laura stayed inside to man the kids while Robyn and I assembled this thing. I must say that I was quite impressed that we did this without any men around. Jason and Cody will be so proud of us!

Here are a few pics from today. It was absolutely beautiful outside.

Robyn and I unboxed it, laid it out, hooked up the blower, and staked it down. We had the kids stay inside so that we could read the directions and get it figured out without interruptions. This is the cutest picture of them all lined up on the couch watching us get it ready.

It's all ready!!

Ty, Jace, Halle, and Hudson

Laura and Cooper

Sweet Ty

Buddy, I'm so glad to have you back home!!

Our house is quiet

Well, not totally quiet but compared to normal- it's pretty quiet. Hudson went to his Mimi's house after his nap yesterday and will be there until tomorrow. Although he's having a blast and I've had a ton of fun today with just Cooper, it's still hard to have him gone. In fact, I keep his door closed when he's gone. I know he's having a great time because last night I called to check on him and he said "mom, I'm at Mimi's...........and I'm not leavin'........." It was so cute! Ever since he was little we have allowed him to stay with our parents. I believe it's good for him and good for us. I'm not the kind of mom that has to be with my kids 100% of the time. I don't need him to need me in order to feel good about myself as a mom. My mother-in-law used to feel bad when Hudson didn't want to come home or would get upset when we went to pick him up. I'm really okay with that. That's why we have allowed him to do it from an early age- so that he wouldn't get homesick or sad the day we did decide to take him to grandma's house. I want my boys to be independent. I am confident with my relationship with them and I know at the end of the day or when they are sick, they want me. So, I'm thrilled that he wants to go, hates to leave,etc........ that just means that he has a great relationship with his grandparents. And he should.

So, let's see what Mr. Cooper has been up to today.

I knew it was a matter of time before Cooper figured out that he could crawl under Rudy's gate. We leave it up a little bit so that Rudy and come and go inside his house or eat/drink as he needs to. I had the same issues with Hudson. After many redirects Hudson finally got the idea that he shouldn't be in Rudy's bowl. By the time I put my camera down, I had to fish food out of Cooper's mouth and remove 2 pieces from each hand. This boy is quick. My little buddy is really learning to feed himself. Today he ate almost a whole banana, some cheese and half of his pasta pick-ups. I wonder if I'm sending him the message that before we eat, we need to strip down all of our clothes? Poor kid practically gets a sponge bath after every meal. I'm learning to let it go, I promise! I'm really surprised that Cooper is not walking yet. He's cruising around the furniture but I thought by now he'd be on his own. He's been crawling forever (which is great) but I have to say that I'm ready for him to walk. He's a chunk and my poor arm/shoulder gets really sore at the end of the day. It will also be so much easier when we go outside or to the park- cant' let him crawl around on wood chips now can I? I finally found time to make myself some lunch. I turned around and headed into the living room and I found Cooper just hanging out on the ottoman.....just watching Blue's Clues like it was no big deal.

For those of you that knew us when Hudson was this old, you know that I didn't have these issues with him. He was so laid back- in fact he wasn't even crawling at this age so this is a whole new world for me!

Here he is trying to get behind the chair. I have to push the ottoman up against Hudson's blue chair so that Cooper can't get back here. There are a few cords and plugs that I don't want him to get into. He has also figured out that he can just lean over this chair and easily land himself behind the chair. He's becoming a pretty smart guy.

So, did I say our house was quiet? Now that I'm posting these pictures I'm not really sure why I gave this post that title. It may not be as loud but it's been a pretty busy day so far. Cooper is napping while I'm enjoying the sound of the rain and the few moments that I don't have to do anything. Ahhhhh.......