Happy Birthday Cooper!

I LOVE this kid! He is growing up so fast! The last few months Cooper has really changed. He just seems older, and can do more on his own. He has been such a happy kid and he keeps me laughing all day long. I love 4 year olds. They say the cutest things. Here's a list of my favorite things about Cooper:

1. His Passion for basketball. I used to think it would go away but now I know it will be a lifelong passion. Sure he goes through phases...his favorite lone peak basketball player used to be Bracken but it's changed to Haws in the last couple of weeks. He loves to watch Haws "jump and dunk it" and this boy LOVES to "jump and dunk it" too. He's literally hanging on everything like he's dunking a ball. He hangs on the counter, door knobs, car doors, my neck, yes, he is going to BREAK something! He has really turned into a cougar fan since Haws is now a cougar. He went to a cougars basketball game with Quinc the other night and was in HEAVEN! He loves basketball uniforms and wears one or more every day.

2. His conversations. Mostly with himself. This kid talks all the time! I hear him having full on two sided conversations all day long. It's so funny to hear him talking for two people and carrying on. I think he's got an invisible friend too, so I'm sure he's part of the conversing.

3. His smile. I love that smile of his. Oh so sweet and innocent but this is one tough, big kid! I think he weighs close to 45 pounds...he's gaining on Kodiak.

4. His love for learning. He is loving preschool. Loving friends. He recently figured out how to count to 20 and now to 30 and he is so proud of himself. He counts everything, and is obsessed with numbers. He loves numbers on clocks, on pages of books, on jerseys. He points out numbers all day and counts everything.

Some other favorite things of Coopers: Dionsaurs- he is in a real dinosaur phase and knows so much about them. He can identify so may of them....my boys know way more than I do about them. He picked the dinosaur museum for his birthday and got to invite 4 friends since he is turning 4. He also loves puzzles and is really good at putting them together. Favorite color is blue and says that he loves dad the most, and it is TRUE!!!

Happy Halloween....

from a cat, and a bat, and Kobe Bryant!

Cooper was done with halloween before it got here. Quincy had to do some magic to get him out the door on Saturday to do some trick-or-treating. He wouldn't pick a costume, but he finally said he was going to be Kobe(which he pretty much wears every single day) so we got some new wristbands, new headband, and he insisted that he needed a new basketball to make the costume complete, and a little different from the "everyday" Kobe look. All that for 10 bucks was worth it! I think he was just trying to work me for the new ball, whatever, it worked!

Fall Break

Oh, we love fall break! We went to the zoo on the most beautiful day, a truly perfect zoo day!

The baby elephant "Zuri" is ADORABLE! I could have watched her all day.

The merry-go-round is always a hit...especially for Maeve! but the boys love it too.

The baby giraffe is super cute too. Babies are my favorite.

This is what you get when you let your boys use your camera...you get all sorts of surprises, and in this case they take pictures of each other taking pictures...thanks for this one Kodiak and Chase!

We also had our 4th annual halloween parties during the break. Cooper had 7 boys and Kodiak had 8. I totally forgot to take a picture of Kodiaks group...darn. The costumes are always my favorite. We had a ton of fun!

Cooper thinks you wear the same halloween costume as last year so he's "Jerry" again. Fine by me, less costumes to buy!

Fall Colors

The mountains of Utah are breathtaking right now. My favorite thing to do in the fall is drive up the canyon and see the beautiful colors. I love that I live two minutes from the canyon and can go up a lot and watch the changes in the leaves. We also love going up in the middle of the week for a hot dog roast with family. Nobody is in the canyon on weeknights! Here are a few pics for my friends that have once lived here and miss the colors!

Farewell Forever Friend

This has been a big week for Maeve. She said good-bye to her best friend, her binki. It's been a rough three days but I think we turned the corner finally! She lost her last binki on Wednesday and I didn't try to find it. I had to lay by her on the guest bed for her to fall asleep that first night, oh, and the second night, and the third night I rocked her to sleep. Oh, and naps- well there wasn't a nap yesterday and today she fell asleep watching football with her dad on the bed. But tonight was different. We read books, sang our song, put her in the crib and she talked for a while, whined for a while, talked a lot more, and an hour later she went to sleep ALL BY HERSELF! This was miraculous! Hope we can keep it that way!

August

I'm almost caught up...and then it will be time to blog about September, which won't be much since we haven't done much. Anyway, August was great- here are the highlights!

1. Lewis family trip to Mammoth Creek- Ashley and Don drove down from Portland to spend the week with us at Quincy's parents house in mammoth creek. We had a great week down there. We went hiking at Bryce Canyon one day, the girls had a day of fun in Cedar City, the boys had a day of fishing, we all experienced a horseback trail ride adventure, and just loved playing around the house. I read "The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society" and LOVED it!

2. Chris and Polly's wedding- 14 years ago I worked in the Sierra mountains above Fresno California as a summer camp counselor. I had a great summer at Gold Arrow Camp and met a great friend named Chris. When I got home at the end of the summer I sent my friend Chris a Book of Mormon. Chris and I kept in touch over the years. I saw him a couple of times in San Diego where he lives when I was vacationing there. He came to Utah the summer Quincy and I were dating and we showed him all around Utah. We exchange Christmas cards. Two years ago Chris called me and told me that he had been baptized a member of the mormon church. He thanked me for the Book of Mormon I gave him 12 years previous. He still had it! After Chris joined the church he met Polly at a singles dance. They dated and were sealed in the San Diego temple in August. I was lucky enough to leave my family behind, hop on a plane, make it to the sealing in San Diego and get back home in a couple of days. I was so glad that I was able to go, and I am so happy for Chris and Polly. They are truly meant for each other. They are so happy!

3. School! I love back to school season! Kodiak is in first grade and loving it. Cooper started preschool and thinks he's pretty cool now that he goes to school too. They seem so grown up. I love getting back into the rhythm of a school schedule.


4. Happy Birthday to Me! I turned 35! I didn't think much about it until a couple of days before, but then I really didn't want to turn 35. It was harder than I thought. I had the best day - going to breakfast at Kneaders with my sisters and doing some shopping with them too. Quincy took me to dinner at Cheesecake factory. I love that place!

JULY

Highlights of July:

1. Quincy's birthday- he's creeping up to 40 pretty fast! It's always hard to have a big holiday and his birthday on the same day. I think we are going to start celebrating it the day before or the day after.

2. Freedom 5K- I ran this race for 10+ years in a row and finally gave it up last year since it got too difficult to do with Quincy's birthday. This year my best friend Nicole was in town and really wanted to run it so I took the kids to my mom's house the night before and she watched the kids while I ran the race and Quincy got to sleep in at home and have a house to himself for his bday! Nic and I had the best time running this race. I just love it!

3. Jones family fun!- After Nicole and her family spent a week in Utah they went up to Twin Falls to the in-laws for a few weeks. I flew up to Twin and spent the day with her and we planned to drive back to Utah the next day so she could pick up here husband at the airport. We planned to leave 4 of her kids in Twin with their grandma and just bring the baby, but when a flu bug started circulating with some other cousins there we decided to pack everyone up and bring the whole family down here for a couple of days. This was the best few days of my summer. I never get to spend time with Nicole and her family here and it was so great. My kids loved playing with her kids, we had fun at the swimming pool, and fun having dinner together...all 12 of us! Priceless memories that I won't forget. I'm so glad it all worked out that way, even though it wasn't what we had planned. I loved every minute the Jones family was with us!

4. Quincy's trip to Kentucky- It sounds like I missed another great summer basketball trip. It just gets too hard to leave all the kids. They had a great trip and played great ball too...way to go team!

5. Swimming lessons- Kodiak is swimming so good. I was so impressed with the progress he made in this second session. Cooper was difficult, but he made it through the two weeks and will do better next year hopefully.

6. Happy 9th Anniversary! We spent our anniversary taking our kids to the zoo and going out to lunch with the fam! We loved it and had fun spending this special day with the family. I love you Quinc and can't believe it's been 9 years....can't wait to see what the next 9 bring!