Where Oh Where Have We Gone?

Wow.  Can you believe 2012 is rapidly coming to a close?  I am torn with this, yes, it seems right that it's the end of December, but how in the world has the year sped by so quickly?  I have completely neglected our blog due to so many things, mainly, the lack of time! 

What has happened since our last post?  Halloween.  My birthday.  Cooper's birthday.  Thanksgiving.  The Apple Cup.  Eli's birthday.  Christmas.  Wow.  That is almost embarrassing.  Let's see how well I can do a "quick" recap.  Hold on to your britches, because here we go....

COOPER TURNED ONE!

WHAT?!?  How is that even possible?  It sure doesn't seem like it's been that long.  I can't even begin to describe what he has done to our family.  We are all enamored with this little guy.  Cooper is definitely our family clown.  He is a miniature comedian. He loves to laugh and loves to make other people laugh.  He is the most ticklish little guy I have ever met.  His belly, arms, armpits, neck, cheeks, thighs, feet.  You name it.  

He is learning so much every day.  He started walking right around his birthday and hasn't stopped.  He copies his big brother and would do anything he did (better watch that one....).  He truly looks up to his big brother, lighting up whenever he comes around.  He has a smallish vocabulary, but continues to add to his repertoire daily.  He has Momma and Dadda, HO HO HO, and points to LOTS of things to communicate his needs and wants. 

THANKSGIVING

Definitely a year of thanks, however Thanksgiving brought change this year.  After my parents moved to sunny Arizona we didn't have our traditional Thanksgiving dinner plans.  We spent the holiday with our fabulous friends, the Lundes, and celebrated with their family.  The meal was great and we had a very enjoyable time - even took some pictures of the four of us.  That RARELY happens.  

APPLE CUP

For the second day in a row, we ventured to the Lundes and watched the Apple Cup with our friends.  It was the craziest game of all time.  The only thing I have left to say is that we had a COUGAR VICTORY.  Oh, and that Eli loved singing the Cougar Fight Song.  Atta boy!

ELI TURNED SIX!!!!

I still don't know how six years have flown by since my baby was born.  He has grown into the most amazing little boy I could ask for.  He loves his baby brother and really watches out for him.  He loves school (kindergarten) and is doing really well socially and academically.  He loves sports, especially soccer, t-ball, swimming, and riding his scooter.  He always seems to amaze me with the vocabulary he uses when talking...most of the time.  HAHA  He also has a love for the Cougars already.  Not sure where that came from.  ;)  He knows the Fight Song, and does not like the colors purple or yellow.  One day he actually told me that his middle finger was his bad finger, his HUSKY finger.  The rest are Cougars.  HAHAHAHA  Where he gets this stuff, I don't know, but it completely cracks me up.  Eli even got his birthday wish: SNOW on his birthday.  This is the only snow we've gotten this year, too. 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas was really fun this year, despite a very cranky one-year-old.  Cooper has a mouthful of teeth coming in (seriously, I think he's got between four and six teeth coming in right now).  It has not been a very delightful week.  Poor kid can't sleep for more than a few hours at a time, his nose is running like crazy, and touching his gums?  You might as well go ahead and forget about that right now.  That is a serious no-no.  I have never seen more pitiful expressions of agony than when we try to alleviate some of that pain with a coating of Orajel.  None-the-less, we made the most of it and celebrated in style! 

We opened our Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.  Nana Winkey sent Eli Cougar pajama pants and Cooper got jammies of the same material.  Aren't they just the cutest?!?  

haha - doesn't that look like a face that cares?

Christmas morning brought the rest of the gifts and SANTA came too!!! With our non-sleeping child, we were finished, yes FINISHED opening presents by 7:00.  We played and relaxed all day.  This was our pajama day.  We finally showered and changed for dinner - which was again very low key.  We usually have Christmas dinner at my parents house but the drive was quite a bit longer this year.  It was a bit strange not having Christmas with my family for the first time in thirty-woshdieksl years, but with Mr. Fever-Cranky-Pants, even if they were here, we probably wouldn't have seen them anyway.  We forge ahead and are now making our own full on holiday traditions.

Too exhausted to continue....

Pumpkin Patch

I know....I know.  It's been a while.  Things have been B.U.S.Y. to say the least.

A couple weeks ago we ventured to the Pumpkin Patch with the boys.  It was the first fall day so there was wind. There was rain.  There were smiles and giggles.  And there were tears.  

Can you believe how big Mr. Cooper is getting?!

Then there's Eli.  He amazes us every day.

From school to soccer to being such a great big brother!

Cheese!

Eli and our neighbor Amelia.  Cooper wouldn't sit with them.

Mr. Smiles!

He LOVED the pumpkins

Absolute Love.

I can hear his laugh from this picture.

The most fabulous guys ever.

Hunting for the perfect pumpkin.

After finding his pumpkin, he went searching for one for his little brother.  

FOUND IT!

Then he roped himself.  Again.  HAHA

Look!  We were all there! 

Awesomely adorable.

He's ready to go!

It's time for Kindergarten

I still can't believe Eli started Kindergarten today.  He was so excited for today he could barely contain himself.  He loves his teacher, she's pretty awesome, AND she has Hot Wheels at one of the stations during center time.  What more could my little man ask for?

After seeing everything posted on Pinterest, I had the brilliant idea to use a small chalkboard and do something for his first day of kindergarten.  Before I knew it, it was the eve of his first day and I still hadn't found anything. Luckily, I remembered his easel! Out it came, and I spent a good hour making it perfect.  If you didn't know, I'm a little O.C. with this kind of thing.  I has to be just right.  Perfect.  I finally got it so it was at least decent and I left it for morning.  This morning Eli came downstairs, looked at it, and asked where the chalk was. Without thinking he was going to write all over it, I told him.  Next thing I knew there was a self portrait (which I have to admit is pretty cute), then a BIG GIANT X through the whole thing.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?  His response was simply, and very matter of fact,  "I wanted an x through it."  Alrighty then sir.  That's what you get!  He is still pretty cute.

 After taking a picture with his sign, since he was dressed up rather handsomely, I wanted some individual shots too.  Someone smiles just like his Daddy.  Makes my heart melt!!!  He's so stinkin' big!

After a few serious pictures, I told him to make a silly face.  Is it sad that this is one of my favorites?!  

I love it.  Such a nut!  

Our Trip to Montana Part Two

On Monday, August 13 we ventured forth and drove from Spokane to Butte, with a quick stop in Missoula to visit an old family friend.  Elsie is amazing.  I have so many memories at her house from when we lived in Missoula and Whitefish, it all came flooding back when we drove up to her house.  Even though she's 95 years young, she still takes care of her garden, cooks, attends to the needs of her house, and welcomes so many people into her home with open arms.  It had been 10 years since I had last seen her, it was great to catch up, even though it was a quick trip.

We had reservations in Bozeman for the night, but once we hit Anaconda (which is where we lived when I was born!) we decided it would be crazy to drive another hundred miles and we would all be going crazy by the time we got there.  The littlest of our guys was already stir crazy in his carseat and there was nothing that was going to calm him for another hour and half driving.  So we decided to stay in Butte instead.

Butte.  Oh Butte.  What a great place to be able to say you're from.  I was born in Butte.  It was very clear as we stayed two nights there, one night travelling in each direction, that I am a city girl and truly do not fit in in Butte.  Why you ask?  There are so many reasons, but that is just not my place to live.  We'll leave it with that.  We did have a great time visiting though!

Although it was already four o'clock when we pulled in, we decided to venture to the Berkeley Pit - the old mining pit in Butte that has since closed its doors - they are mining not too far away in another spot in Butte instead.  

 A trolley from yesteryear, outside the Berkeley Pit.

Trying to see if you could see in from outside.

Heading in the tunnel!

The 533 foot tunnel into the pit

Our Trip to Montana Part One

I don't know how long it's going to take me to post our trip to Montana!  At this rate, we will have come back from visiting my parents in Arizona before I finish this one.  Yikes...

Anyway, the first leg of our trip began on Friday, August 10th.  We ventured across the state and spent a couple days with Jess's family in good 'ol Spokane.  Partway across the state I had to ride in the back of the car because Cooper wasn't thrilled about being strapped in the car for such a long period of time and it was his dinner time.  We weren't anywhere to take a pit stop and feed him, so I sat between the boys and finished the drive squished between Cooper and Eli.  Over the course of the entire trip, I think I was probably in the backseat for half of it, so only about 850 miles.

We finally got to meet our darling (at the time) 12 week old niece.  She sure is a cute little princess!  I loved the shirt Sarah put her in too.  Auntie Christel was very happy to snuggle with the little one!  I had forgotten how little they are and how little they do when they're this age.  HAHA  It wasn't that long ago that Cooper was in the same boat!

Our own little Mozart had his first piano experience.  He LOVED plucking on the keys. 

 The kids all piled on Uncle Ryan. 

The Super Heroes at Grandpa Glenn and Grandma Cheryle's house.

Brooklynn and Eli played.  A lot.

Cam was the only one to get Cooper to take a nap.

Great Grandma Murthe got to meet Cooper!!!!

Cooper and Uncle Ryan got to hang out. 

On Sunday, Sarah and I took the kids to one of the spray parks out in the Valley.  It was so nice!  The weather was super hot so we didn't stay too long, but the kids had a great time.  I wish there was something like this near/in Maple Valley...you know, for our two months of summer.  So neat!!!  

Cooper even had his first watermelon!  He LOVED it!