Stripling Style

Christmas Day & Beyond

2012-01-31T17:58:00.000-06:00

Santa was so good to us this year! Here is a picture of what we woke up to Christmas morning...

Cooper was super excited about her yellow mini cooper! Santa purposely put all her other presents into the seat of her car so that she had to open those first.

During the month of December, we asked Cooper several times what she wanted Santa to bring her. She would look around and request the first thing she saw..."I want a magazine or I want a pencil". She knew who Santa was and I think she understood that he was going to bring presents to her house, but I don't think she quite understood that she could make a list of specific requests.

A new Christmas tradition that we started this year was the Elf on the Shelf. Cooper named our new friend Barney! He came to stay with us at the beginning of December and brought us lots of entertainment. Cooper woke up every morning excited to find Barney and to see what he had gotten in to. I don't think Cooper really understood that Barney reported back to Santa each night because we threatened he with it a couple time and she didn't seem to be too concerned!

After spending Christmas morning together, we drove down to Tuscaloosa for the weekend. Lunch at Nanny's has been a Christmas tradition since I was little. Now the kitchen table is filled with another generation of girls!

We tried to get a picture of Nanny and the great grandchildren but Cooper decided to throw a big temper tantrum right about the same time. After lunch we went over to the Stripling's to spend some time with Wes's family.

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas break and got to spend lots of time with our family and friends! I am so thankful for the time we were able to be together.

Courtney & Cameron had us over to the Tidmore farm for dinner after Christmas. We used to get together all the time but it is a rare treat these days! Of course, both the adults and kids had a great time together!

Family Christmas

2012-01-21T19:09:00.003-06:00

The timing of all our family Christmas gatherings worked out suprisingly well this year. After last year, Wes & I said we wanted to slow down and be able to enjoy time with family on Christmas day instead of running from house to house. Well, we didn't really plan for it, but that ended up happening this year.

The weekend before Christmas, Jack & Diane kept Meredith & Evan. They stopped by our house on the way back to Dothan so the cousins got to open presents together!

Christmas Eve we went down to Bebe and Papa John's house for dinner. Our family was there along with Susan & Rick and Grandmaw. We opened presents after dinner. Cooper helped pass out gifts. She was able to recognize the first letters of the names on the gifts and pass them out accordingly!

Papa John refinished this desk for Cooper. It stays in the kitchen so she can sit and color or draw while we are cooking or just hanging out in the kitchen.

Cooper and Gram! Great picture! A little gift that Grandmaw got Cooper seemed to be her favorite of the night. It was a small pink car that winds up and rollls across the floor. Who knew??!!

Throwing in a random of me & mom!

Cooper helping Papa John open his gift. She loved to help everyone open their gifts!

Cooper and Bebe. She changed into the pajamas that Bebe & Papa John got her. She and bitty baby have matching PJs.

It is somewhat of a Thomas family tradition to ice cookies, so after dinner we sat down at the kitchen table and iced the cookies that Cooper & I made earlier that day.

We came back to Birmingham after so that we could spend Christmas morning at home. Cooper was ready for Santa to come!

ThE BiG 30

2012-01-21T12:42:00.003-06:00

It's official...I'm old! I turned 30 on December 18th. Really, I don't feel much different. I tell people all the time that I started feeling old after I had Cooper ( I was 26). That's when our lives really changed from always being out & about to staying home enjoying our time together as a family. It's funny that it still feels like just yesterday when I graduated from high school, started college, and got married...that was 12 years ago! I totally believe that you are as young as you feel/act so I'm sure I will continue to think of myself as "young" for years to come.

Insert photo from high school, college & wedding here (they have to be scanned in)

My bestest friends Courtney & Lauren, with the help of my mom & Wes, threw a wonderful birthday party for me! (Love that I remember saying this exact same thing when I scrapbooked my 21st). They know me so well that they knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do...Mexican, margaritas, small group, just chill.

We had dinner at Margarita Grill. Courtney & Lauren made the cutest centerpieces that had pictures from my 1st Christmas to my wedding day. My closest friends, including several girls from the neighborhood, came for dinner & drinks. It was so much fun! There are a few other long time friends that I would have loved to share this time with me (Leslie, Karin, Alye) but unfortunately they live too far away. They were there in spirit though because those girls were on my mind!

After dinner Courtney, Cameron, Wes & I went to Ross Bridge for the night. Thanks Mom! Again...it was so much fun to spend some adult time with my bestest! I wish we could do that more (and we should make the time to do it!)

I am so blessed with a wonderful family and fantastic friends and I can't wait to find out what God has planned for my 30's!

3 year old pictures

2011-11-29T14:46:00.000-06:00

Our favorite photographer Carly came to take pictures a couple weekends ago. I have to say that this year's pictures are my absolute favorites and the best ones yet! There were so many good ones that it is really hard to narrow down my favorites, but here are a few.

Carly is doing our Christmas card this year too and I can't wait to send them out!

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

2011-11-29T14:35:00.001-06:00

When thinking about a theme for Cooper's 3rd birthday, I immediately thought about her favorite TV show...the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Cooper still isn't really into watching movies or TV shows (although she now loves Monsters, Inc.) but the one show she will watch and loves is Mickey Mouse.

Cooper's party was at the Cahaba Lilly Park in Helena. We invited family and a few close friends. I scaled the party decor way down this year. Just a few balloons and table decorations.

Instead of a cake, we had cookies from Sugar City Sweets. Not only were they super cute, they were delicious too! And, super easy to serve to the kids.

Each of the picnic tables had a Mickey head.

Bebe made this cookie cake for the adults.

This was the first year that Cooper actually realized the party was for her and she loved it! She was so excited that all her family and friends were coming to see HER and she felt so special. The park ended up being a perfect location for the party. Cooper and the other kids ran all over the playground!

Here are a couple pictures from snack time and opening gifts.

And a few family pictures...

And the besties!

Monster Mash

2011-11-29T12:31:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween! I have to say that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because I love to dress up and challenge myself to get creative! We had a fun Halloween this year that started a little early. Courtney had us over to her house for a Halloween party. We let the kiddies decorate cupcakes and then dress up in their costumes. Cooper liked decorating the cupcakes, but liked eating the icing better!

Ha, ha...I love this picture!!

Our cupcake masterpieces. Can you tell which ones the kids decorated?

Cooper was a mermaid, Addy was a fairy, Tucker was Captain America and Talon was a sweet pea. These have to be the absolute cutest kids in the world.

We had a neighborhood Halloween party this year, hosted by the Adams Family! Wes & I dressed up as Brandon & Andy from the Goonies!! It was fun to see everyone in their costumes.

Sunday night we went to the church Trunk or Treat. Cooper thought she was such a big girl because she got to get her face painted!

Halloween was on Monday night, so our neighborhood did trick or treating that night. Bebe and Papa John came up to go with us! Cooper loved knocking on doors and having people answer with candy. After walking around the neighborhood, we came back home to hand out our candy. Cooper seemed to like handing out candy the best! She kept making Bebe and Papa John go outside and ring the door bell so she could answer and give them candy!

The days following Halloween Cooper asked for candy all the time. The first thing she would say when she woke up in the morning was, "Can I have some candy?". Thankfully that only lasted a few days and then she forgot all about it.

August & September in Photos

2011-11-06T22:10:00.000-06:00

This summer was so much fun and we hated to see it come to an end (we are looking forward to the cooler weather though)!

Cooper's favorite thing to do this summer was go to the swimming pool. We will miss the pool until next year! Real swimming lessons are in our future.

Loving on blankie after a day at the pool.

We went to Santa Rosa Beach over Labor Day weekend for Tiffany & Jason's wedding. Tropical Storm Lee decided to join us. Although we didn't get to enjoy the beach, we had a great time with the family & friends.

Cousins at Summer's birthday party in August. I think Summer & Cooper look so much alike in this picture...could it be the hair?!

Bebe & I took Cooper to the zoo in September. Ever since Nanna & Aunt Barbara took her in the Spring, she hasn't stoped talking about the zoo. Mostly the gorilla...for some reason she thougth the gorilla looked sad. Cooper wanted to give him a kiss to make him happy!

Roll Tide...football season has started!

During the first week in August, Wes & I went on vacation to Boston & the coast of Maine. Cooper stayed with Nanna & Papa Jack this time. We were trying to stuff her in our suitcase so she could come too!

The coast of Maine was beautiful! One of my all time favorite trips!

Sending a message from the coast of Maine back home to Cooper! We love you!!

Unity Grove Camp Meeting

2011-11-06T20:35:00.001-06:00

Another marathon blogging session tonight...it's been a while. Today was Cooper's third birthday party, so I am finally downloading all the photos from our camera and updating the blog for the last 3 months!

In July we went to visit Nanny & Papa at campground. Unity Grove Camp Meeting is held in Palmetto, Alabama and is one of the oldest camp meetings in the state. The campground tradition and church services date all the way back to 1847. There are 3 church services a day that are held in an open air tabernacle type building.

As a child, I went to campground with Nanny & Papa every year starting at 5 years old. I have so many memories of my time there...homemade ice cream night, ghost stories in the graveyard at night, bath houses, and best of all being spoiled by my grandparents. Nanny & Papa own one of the 14 tents that circle the tabernacle.

You can't really see details in this picture, but Nanny & Papa have the best decorated tent on the grounds. There are curtains in the "windows", rugs on the wooden bedroom floors, pictures hanging in the bedrooms, live plants and the "Smith" sign that identifies their home for the week. I am so glad Cooper has had the chance to experience campground and hope there are several more years ahead for Nanny & Papa to be able to go. They both love it and now love the chance to show off their great grandchildren.

It was SO HOT this year. Of course, there is no air conditioning and it was almost 100 degrees. We wet Cooper's hair to cool her off!

BIG girl room

2011-07-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

I've been working on Cooper's BIG girl room for longer than I am willing to admit now. It is so close to being finished but just lacks the detail to pull everything together. Here is a little preview...hopefully I can reveal the completed project soon!

It all started with the bed. This was my inspiration...

And this is what I found! After weeks and weeks of searching on Craig's List, I finally found this bed! We had it painted green and it turned out better than I was expecting.

This is Cooper's bedding and I love, love, love it! Thanks Michelle S. for helping find it.

My first post tax season project was repainting this dresser. It was one of the very first pieces of furniture my grandparent's, Nanny & Papaw, bought when they got married. I think that it is so neat that they kept it and that now Cooper gets to use it in her room. There is also a matching vanity that Wes is working on restoring. I am hoping to get it painted and into the room too!

Here are the fabulous curtains. I bought white panels at Target and then had our neighbor, Angel, sew the rosettes on the bottom. They also turned out way better than I was imagining! Notice that it coordinates with the ruffles on the bedding!

Our latest project was the crown molding. Wes put it up all on his own (I was so proud of him and very pleased with how it turned out) and it adds so much to the room.

All I need to do now is decide on artwork, paint the night stand & vanity and find a light fixture and the room will be complete!

4th of July Part II

2011-07-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, we went down to Courtney's dad's house on the river. They had a fantastic party as always! Most everyone was in the water when we got there. I thought Cooper would jump right in because it was water and well, she LOVES water! But, she was a little unsure of the river. After sitting on the side and watching us float around for a while, she finally got in.

We had a delicious dinner and then sat around and just enjoyed being together while the kids played!

On Monday, which was the 4th, we stayed around the house and had a relaxing day. We went to the pool in the morning, napped and then got ready to go down to Tuscaloosa. We went with Bebe & Papa John to the Pradat's house for dinner and then went out to watch the fireworks show.

4th of July

2011-07-10T21:31:00.000-05:00

We had a fun filled, action packed 4th of July weekend! It started with a neighborhood party on Saturday night. Courtney & Keith McDonald were nice enough to host the party at their house. We grilled out for dinner, played some games and then went up to the top of the neighborhood to watch fireworks. We also blocked off a side street by the McDonald house and set up a bounce house. Cooper stayed in it the whole night!

This picture of Cooper & Dillan is pretty terrible, but I thought it was hilarious!

Here are a few pictures of all the neighborhood kids.

We had a great view of the Helena fireworks from the top of our neighborhood. I was a little nervous about how Cooper would react to the loud noises, but she loved it! She kept yelling..."that's my favorite"...over and over again!

After the fireworks show, we went back down to the McDonald's house to let the kids do sparklers. Check out Cooper's face in this picture. It was way past her bedtime and she was so tired. She burned her finger on a sparkler but insisted on continuing on.

4th of July photo with Mommy

And 4th of July photo with Daddy!

Babyland

2011-07-10T20:36:00.001-05:00

Griffin came for a visit for a whole week in June. Bebe picked up Cooper and took her back to Tuscaloosa so she could visit with Griffin for a few days. They played, visited with Grandma and went to swim at the UA pool. One of Griffin & Cooper's favorite games to play was hide and seek!

When Griffin's visit was over Mom, Cooper & I took him to meet Martha & Alan in Georgia. Since we were so close to Cleveland, GA we decided to go to Cabbage Patch Babyland!! (I forgot my camera so the pictures below are a combo of Internet images & pictures I took with my phone)

The baby hospital is almost unbelievable. It is a southern looking mansion out in the middle of nowhere. When you walk in, there is a nurse to greet you at the front desk. She signs you into the hospital and directs you on where to go. Down the first hallway is the baby nursery that holds all the newborn babies.

Then the hospital opens up into a huge room with cabbage patch babies everywhere and a big tree in the middle where all the babies are born!

Cooper was overwhelmed to say the least! There was a baby being born when we go there, so we ran up to the big tree and got to see the end of the big production. Cooper just ran from baby to baby and wanted to pick up every single one! We finally got her to focus on choosing a baby to take home. We named her Priscilla Kate.

Cooper LOVES Priscilla! Her favorite things to do with baby Priscilla are change her diaper and change her clothes. Cooper sleeps with Priscilla at night and she rides to school with us almost everyday.

Doggy Days

2011-07-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

Cooper's cousin Anna turned 3 in May. The party was doggy themed and at the playground in Riverchase. All the details were super cute! There were dog ears & dog collars for the kids to wear and they ate their party snacks out of doggie bowls! The party was super cute...I wish I could plan parties for a living!

Amy made these doggie cupcakes...she is so talented! They tasted just as good as they looked!

Cooper loves playing with her cousins and had so much fun at the park!

Cooper, Summer, Anna, Erin

We love our Nanny & Papa!

Memorial Day

2011-07-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

We decided to take a last minute trip to Gulf Shores over the Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, we found a fantastic condo at Edgewater West! Bebe came with us and made a great playmate for Cooper. We spent the mornings at the beach and pool. Cooper LOVES the water. She ran in and out of the water and wanted to play in the ocean jumping waves.

We met the Achterhof family for dinner at Sea-n-Suds and then went down to the beach for a few family pictures.

Cooper, Cassie, Ella, Millie & Anna Grace

We tried to catch the early bird special every night because the beach was so crowded. Our last night we went over to the marina.

Hippity Hoppity

2011-04-30T16:41:00.000-05:00

Our Easter celebration started on Thursday with Cooper's class party. Things are always a bit hectic during class parties and I really wasn't sure if Cooper would make it to the afternoon in her bunny outfit (no more diapers), I took a few pictures when I dropped her off at school that morning.

When I got to school that afternoon the class was already eating their snacks. Parents brought in all kinds of different food...Cooper had pizza, chicken nuggets, cheese, gummy bears and cheese puffs on her plate!

We volunteered to bring eggs for the kids to hunt. I got some plastic eggs and filled them with peeps, bunny shaped marshmallows and jelly beans. While the class was eating, some of the parents went outside and hid the eggs around their playground.

The kids found all the eggs really fast and then all sat down to eat the candy inside!

Friday morning we got dressed and then went out into the neighborhood for a photo shoot. Here a a few of my favorite pictures.

We spent the night with the Striplings on Saturday night and went to church with them at Chapel Hill on Sunday morning. The Easter Bunny came to visit Cooper and brought lots of prizes for her basket.

We paused for some quick family pictures as we were headed out for church.

After church we went over to Grandma's for lunch with my family. We played outside for a while and hunted eggs with Cooper in the back yard.

Cooper loves her Bebe! We had a great weekend with our family!

Big Girl Panties

2011-04-30T14:18:00.000-05:00

She's not a baby anymore! Cooper started wearing her big girl panties about two weeks ago. She has had lots of potty practice at school and her teachers thought it was time to start wearing panties! I took Cooper to Target and let her pick out the panties she wanted...she picked Minnie Mouse! I also got her some of the training panties (they are thicker) but she doesn't like those as much. Every morning as we are getting ready for school, she wants to pick out the panties she will wear and she always picks the Minnie Mouse kind. Cooper has only had one peepee accident so far. But, she isn't doing as well with the poopoo. We started off giving her an M&M each time she went to the potty. I told her yesterday that she now only gets an M&M when she goes poopoo in the potty... hopefully that will give her some motivation!

Mini Family Vaca in ATL

2011-04-29T14:27:00.000-05:00

On Good Friday we packed our bags and headed to Atlanta for a quick trip. We left our house about noon and got to Atlanta late afternoon. After we checked into our hotel, we walked over to Olympic Park and around downtown Atlanta.

It was cold in Atlanta, only about 62 degrees, so we didn't get into the water! After walking around the park we went to dinner at No Mas Cantina and then back to the hotel to meet up with Brian, Barbara, Evan & Meredith.

Saturday morning we all got up, rush down to eat breakfast, and then walked across the street to the Georgia Aquarium.

Cooper loves her cousins Evan & MerMer. She thinks she is so big when she is hanging with them!

Me, Cooper & a penguin.

After the leaving the aquarium we walked over to Olympic Park for lunch at Googie Burger. We ate lunch in the park and then played frisbee for a while. It turned out to be warm enough on Saturday to play in the fountain and all the kids had so much fun!

I love this picture of Cooper & Wes!

It was a quick trip, but we all had so much fun!

Catching up...

2011-04-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

It's been a few months. What can I saw other than...tax season. I spent so much time on the computer at work, I could not even think about picking up the computer again at night. So, now I will attempt to give a brief overview of January, February & March!!

Talon Cross Tidmore was born on January 14th. This is a picture from the first time Cooper met Talon. He was about one week old. Cooper loves babies so she thought she was so big when she got to hold baby Talon.

I am adding a recent picture from Facebook to show what Talon looks like now...he is getting so big!!

We watched the Superbowl with some neighborhood firends. Here is a picture of all the girls! This was the first time we really got to hang out with Courtney, Dillan & Elliet.

Now we are big buds!

Mid February we went down to Tuscaloosa for the weekend to visit with family and go to a Mardi Gras party with our friends Courtney & Lauren. Nana got Cooper a leotard to go with her pink tu tu skirt and she loved wearing them. She looked just like a ballerina and went through a phase of wanting to wear that same outfit day after day!

Wes & I enjoyed a night out with friends. Before the party we went to dinner at Five. It is a new restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. Neither of us had been there and it is always fun to go somewhere new. The restaurant's menu consists of 5 appetizers, 5 entres', 5 wines, etc. The Mardi Gras party was at the Old Train Station. We had a great time at the part and got to catch up with some good friends we hadn't seen in a while.

Happy Valentine's Day!! We went to Ruth's Chris for our Valentine's date this year and it was delicious. Cooper had a class party where they made Valentine's for the parents and swaped cards with the other kids.

Random cute picture from March. Wes took a few pictures of Cooper before we went over to the McDonald's house for dinner. The white bow was too big...Dad didn't notice. It is a cute picture so I posted it anyway!

In mid March we started swim class. This is the second year we participated and Cooper absolutely loves it. She is such a good little swimmer. Really...she isn't swimming yet, but almost!

Just to compare...this is a picture of Cooper & I at swim class our first year. She loved it last year and loved it again this year.

We repeated many of the same activities this year like kicking her feet, floating on her back, blowing bubbles & jumping in from the side of the pool. Not to brag, but Cooper was a superstar on day one. She was jumping in the water all by herself and putting together the kicking, arms & bubbles. In one of our last classes, the teacher told us Cooper should participate in the pre-school swim lessons next year. In the last class, Cooper was dunking herself under the water & going down to the touch the bottom of the pool. We are looking forward to our neighboorhood pool opening and spending tons of time there this summer!

Now I'm almost caught up. I'm trying to do one post each night this week.

The rest of 2010...

2011-01-10T20:48:00.000-06:00

The day after Christmas I was supposed to go shopping with some neighborhood friends to look for discounted Christmas decorations, but when we woke up it was snowing! I decided it wasn't worth risking my life to buy decorations, so we didn't go. Instead, we spent the day playing with new toys, cleaning up our Christmas mess and putting our gifts away. We had cardboard boxes and bags of torn up wrapping paper stacked to the ceiling!

It snowed on and off all day long! And we staying in our house all warm and cozy all day long! One of the projects on my to do list was to clean out Cooper's closet. There were so many boxes of clothes in her closet that there was no room for much else. She has also decided that she doesn't want to sit on her changing table anymore, so we were going to move all the boxes of baby clothes and baby supplies out of her closet and move the changing table in so that we could use it for storage. We are also in the process of updating Cooper's room from a nursery to a toddler room. I'm so excited to see what Michelle is putting together!

Since we had a few days at home to play, we decided to put together the tent Cooper got for her birthday. She had fun playing in the tent with Daddy and even ate her afternoon snack in there.

Wes and I both had the rest of the week off work and we spent most of that time going back and forth to Tuscaloosa visiting family. Here is a recap of the rest of the week...

Monday we went to Tuscaloosa to take some updated family pictures. Thanks Barefeet Photography!

Tuesday night we went to the Alabama basketball game courtsey of Santa!

I thought the game would be pretty boring, but turns out it wasn't! We had a lot of fun! Wes & I both agreed that season tickets to the basketball games would be something fun to do.

Wednesday morning we went over to my parents house to bake cookies. Cooper & Griffin had fun with the colored cookie dough!

Thursday was the "sprinkle" for Talon. We had SO much fun at Downtown Baby making custom outfits for Talon. He is going to be one stylish baby boy!!

Downtown Baby is by far the best baby store in Tuscaloosa and Crystal, the store owner, is so sweet! I would love to own a store like that one day!

Friday was New Year's Eve. We spent the morning at the Stripling's and then went by Nanny & Papa's on our way home.

Nanny had a haircut appointment that afternoon, so Cooper & I took her to the beauty salon. She was so proud to show Cooper off...she is the sweetest lady there ever was! Here is Cooper and Nanny playing the piano.

I think this wraps up 2010! We are looking forward to what 2011 brings!

Christmas Day 2010

2011-01-02T19:40:00.000-06:00

Christmas day went by so fast! We had a lot to do in a very short amount of time! This year, we stayed at our house on Christmas Eve. Since Cooper is starting to understand about Santa, we wanted to be at our house and it got to be somewhat cumbersome last year taking all our gifts down to Tuscaloosa and then bringing them back plus all the gifts we got from our family. There just wouldn't be room in the car!

We got up Christmas morning about 7:30 and got Cooper out of bed. We walked into the den and Cooper was in just awe of all the wrapped presents! Wes & I pointed out the half eaten cookies and empty milk glass. Santa & the reindeer enjoyed their snacks!

Cooper could recognize Santa this year and knew who he was, but I don't think she got the whole Santa comes to my house and brings me toys thing. And, I don't think she really cared how they got there at that point, all she wanted to do was rip open the packaging! She had so much fun tearing off the paper and didn't really want to stop to see what was actually inside the boxes.

Santa brought Cooper an Elmo, finger paint, coloring book and cute coloring case that was painted with her name, a Fur Real kitty cat (that i thought she would LOVE, but she hasn't played with at all), Elmo DVDs, medical kit, a big girl potty book, pearl bracelet and bug glove puppets. Mommy & Daddy gave her some play makeup from Mini Play Makeup that she absolutely loves!

I had high hopes of making a big breakfast on Christmas morning, but there was no time for that. Luckily, I had made some sausage balls earlier in the week, so we warmed those in the microwave and ate them in the car on the way down to Tuscaloosa! We had to be at Grandma's by 10:00! The Thomas family has gotten so big over the last several years, we barely fit in Grandma's living room!

Showing Papa John her bracelet

Cooper, David & Griffin

Brian & Cooper

Playing with her favorite toy

After opening presents and eating Amish pastries at Grandmas, we rushed over to Nanny & Papa's house. Again, the family has gotten so big over the last several years, we really don't fit in Nanny's house! And, the whole family wasn't even there. Cooper loves her cousins Summer, Anna & Erin and had so much fun playing with them on Christmas Day. Mostly is was a lot of squealing!

Cooper & Summer

All the family

Nanny & Papa

We stayed and visited at Nanny & Papa's a few hours, but by 3:00, Cooper was getting very ill. It was 3 hours past her regular nap time. After Cooper threw a nice fit for everyone, we decided it was time to go! We still had to go back to my Mom & Dads to do our Christmas together. Cooper fell asleep in the car and we tried to get her to go back to sleep at Bebe & Papa Johns, but we had no luck. So, she ended up napping for a whole 15 minutes on Christmas day! After laying in the bed with me and just resting for a while, we got up and opened more presents! She did really well the rest of the day considering she had basically no nap.

Although Cooper was behaving well, we couldn't get her to take a picture with her grandparents. About 7:00 we packed up Wes's truck and headed back to Birmingham. We had such a fun Christmas! On the way home, Wes made the comment that he felt like we spent more time in the car driving from house to house than we did actually being with our families. We may need to revisit our Christmas routine and find a way to slow down and be able to spend more time with our families. Maybe we need to stretch out Christmas for a whole week!

Christmas with the Striplings

2011-01-01T22:48:00.000-06:00

Since Wes & I married, 5 years ago, our Christmas routine has been to spend Christmas Eve with his family and then Christmas day with mine. It really worked out well how we were able to blend both our family traditions into one! This year Brian, Barbara, Evan & Meredith stayed in Dothan, so it was just us, Jack & Diane. Since it was just the 5 of us, we invited Jack & Diane up to our house for dinner.

Cooper was just waking up from her nap when they got to our house, but when she saw all the presents, so couldn't wait to open them...literally! I was in the kitchen finishing dinner and Wes was outside with the fryer and Nanna & Papa Jack could not keep her from opening presents. So, before we ate dinner, we opened our gifts!

Notice Cooper is not in her Christmas outfit, but she wanted to pick out her clothes that day and this is what she picked! I decided this was not a battle worth fighting! Anyway, she is cute in whatever she wears!! Nanna & Papa Jack were way to generous as they usually are! Cooper got blocks, pjs, cute pink outfit with her monogram, beautiful pearl necklace, sock monkey, baby doll and movies for the portable DVD player that Wes got! I think that Cooper opened every present that night! I got some great makeup that Cooper & I had fun with!

Our dinner was thrown together relatively quickly, but it was still good! Wes fried a whole chicken in the fryer he got for his birthday. Personally, I like the fried chicken better than the fried turkey. I got to use my Christmas china for the first time and I was super pumped about it!

We had a Santa birthday cake for dessert and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Cooper got to blow the candles out and she got a kick out of singing! I liked the idea of making a birthday cake for Jesus and thought it was a fun tradition that I wanted to start for our family. I think it is a great way to remind us the Reason for the Season!

After dinner we all went outside to spread our reindeer food! Cooper & Papa Jack had fun throwing out the reindeer food.

It was getting late so Nanna & Papa Jack needed to get back to Tuscaloosa. Cooper put on her Christmas pjs and then set out some milk & cookies for Santa!

Zoo Light Safari

2011-01-01T21:58:00.000-06:00

On the Thursday night before Christmas, we met some of our extended family at the Birmingham Zoo to see the Zoo Light Safari and it was FREEZING. The temperature was forcasted to be in the mid 40s, which I didn't think was that cold, but I was wrong! Here is how we kept Cooper warm...

She stayed zipped in Wes's jacket most of the night! OK, complaining about the cold aside, we really did have fun! There were tons of lights, lights everywhere! We found Santa and attempted a group picture.

They also had an Alabama and an Auburn backdrop for photos, so we had to stop there too! Alabama of course!

While Griffin & David were riding the carousel, we took Cooper to the barn to see the animals. There were sheep, pigs, chickens, and a lama. She loved seeing them! Griffin rode the roller racers so Cooper wanted to do it too! She really did good wiggling back and forth! And Brian, Mom & I reminisced about how we had one as kids.

Afterwards, Mom, Brian, Wes, Cooper, & I took Alan and Martha to eat at Pablo's. It was delicious! Martha brought Cooper a late birthday gift...the Little People's Nativity. We had a good time at the dinner table teaching Cooper the names of all the nativity characters. Another fun night with family!

To kick off Christmas Vacation

2010-12-26T12:45:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas vacation officially started today!! I am uberly excited to spend the next 10 days with my family! Martha, Alan & Griffin stopped in Birmingham on their way to Tuscaloosa today. I picked Cooper up from school after her nap and we met Bebe, Martha, Alan, Griffin, Linda, Anna Grace and Millie at the McWayne Center. This was Cooper's first time to go and she had tons of fun! She ran around with Anna Grace and Millie and thought she was such a big girl!

One of her favorite things was the indoor play place. She went down the slide over and over again all by herself!

There was a winter wonderland exhibit where we were able to play in "snow".

And make Christmas cookies.

And drive Santa's sleigh!

We also dug for dinosaur bones.

Played in the water.

Pretended to be a reporter.

And stood in a wind tunnel!

We had so much fun at the McWayne Center and it was a great way to start our Chrsitmas vacation!

My birthday...the last year of my twenties

2010-12-19T21:55:00.000-06:00

My 29th birthday was Saturday and I had a great birthday weekend! It started on Friday night with dinner at Iguana Grill. Mindy, Joel, Hudson, Kristen, Cameron & Caroline met us for dinner. Cameron brought Hudson and Cooper a Christmas gift!

The kids were really good at dinner. They kinda just looked at each other at first, but then they ended up sharing stickers & colors & chips! Dinner was so yummy and so were the DreamCakes cupcakes that Caroline brought!

Saturday morning we woke up and went to La Reunion for coffee & pancakes. Afterwards, I went to the spa for a facial... my birthday gift from Wes. It was nice to be pampered and to have some me time! We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house. Which is what I love to do! Be lazy at home and spend time with my hubby and baby girl! We finally got dressed for the day about 5:00 pm and went to Margarita Grill for dinner. I guess I forgot to mention...I love Mexican!

Sunday afternoon we went down to Tuscaloosa for a family birthday dinner at my parents. Jack, Diane, Brian, Grandma, Mom & Dad were there. Cooper loved all the attention! She helped me blow out candles and open gifts!

Christmas with Tucker & Addy

2010-12-19T21:27:00.000-06:00

Courtney, Lauren, Tucker and Addy came to our house for our Christmas/birthday swap this year! I was so glad to have them over. It was a Friday afternoon and of course, I was busier at work that morning than I had been all week, so I was running a little behind. Courtney offered to pick up lunch, which was so great. She got Zoe's chicken salad, pimento cheese and potato salad. We made sandwiches for ourselves and the kids ate stuff we already had around the house. After lunch, we opened presents!

Tucker in his superhero cape

Then Cooper had to put it on

Then Addy

The kids had so much fun opening their gifts...and the moms did too! Tucker is really sweet to Cooper & Addy and is so gentle and loving when he is around them. Addy and Cooper spent most of the afternoon running around the house chasing each other! They all had fun running and squealing. This is pretty cheesy, but life has really come full circle when I spend the afternoon with my best friends and our kids. In about a month, there will be one more kiddo!

We attempted a group picture and here is what we got...

A pretty good picture of Cooper & Tucker...minus the shadow problem again. We tried to get all 3 kids to stand together by the tree, but that wasn't happening...so Lauren had a great idea to put Addy in a chair to keep her contained!

And we got a good picture!! We were so busy worrying about getting a group picture of the kids, we didn't get a group picture of the moms. Oh well, what I really want is a picture of the moms and kids together...that is my goal over the holidays. I am looking forward to seeing the Tidmores and the LeCroys again at Christmas!

Putting up the tree & Helena's Christmas parade

2010-12-19T20:41:00.000-06:00

We still put up a live tree at our house, which I love! I really wanted to take Cooper to a tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree (because that is what my family always did), but there weren't any tree farms near by. One more reason to love Tuscaloosa...there was a tree farm about 15 minutes from our house growing up. So, we settled for The Home Depot. It was freezing, but Wes did a fantastic job of picking out our tree...it was the first one he picked up! Here is the bare tree before any decorations. Plus a shadow on the right hand corner of the picture...this has happened to me a lot lately and I can't figure out why??

And here is the tree after...

And, check out the cute pjs that Addy gave Cooper for Christmas! We got a lime green monogram on the shirt and are planning on wearing them Christmas morning! Somewhat surprisingly, Cooper has done great with the tree and presents this year. From time to time, she will walk over to the tree and point out the ornaments. She wants you to tell her what they are. She also points at the gifts and says, "Cooper presents". We point to all the gifts and tell her who they are going to.

We also went to the Helena Christmas parade this year. Wes and I were joking before the parade that it would probably be all of 2 cars, but it ended up being HUGE!! We drove to the top of the neighborhood and walked down the trail, passed the elementary school and down to the street to see the parade.

There were bands and dance teams and twirlers and Christmas music and everyone was throwing candy! We stayed for about an hour, but it was way past Cooper's nap time, so we ended up leaving before the parade was even over!

We found the May's, our across the street neighbors, a few minutes before we decided to leave. They were doing the same thing we were...going home to take a nap! Cooper LOVES Kate and was so excited to see her. They held hands all the way home!

Breakfast with Santa

2010-12-19T13:30:00.000-06:00

HA!

This is the third year we've done breakfast with Santa at our church, Riverchase Methodist. The men in the church cook a hot breakfast and the price of admission is a new toy for Toys for Tots. There is a great Santa set up and usually some type of craft for the kids. This year we made Reindeer Food to set out Christmas Eve. Cooper was so excited to see Santa...she ate a few bites and was ready to go stand in line to sit on Santa's lap. Bebe stood in line with Cooper while Wes & I finished our breakfast. She watched as the other kids sat on Santa's lap and it seemed like this was going to be no big deal! Lots of other kids her age are terrified of Santa. Well, when we actually got up close, she wasn't so sure. I had to sit with her while Wes took the pictures. Cooper never cried, but there was no way she was going to smile! She just kept looking at Santa like she really wasn't sure about him. So, not the perfect picture this year, but oh well!

Bebe and Cooper in front of the Christmas tree. Cooper got a candy cane from Santa and she was happy!

The first year, Cooper was only a month old! It is so funny to look back at pictures from her first Christmas...she didn't have any hair and looked like an old man! Still the cutest baby I've ever seen though!

Tacky Christmas compliments of our moms...

2010-12-19T13:07:00.000-06:00

The SRHW Christmas party was the first weekend in December this year at Ted's Garage. And, the theme was TaCkY ChRiStMaS!! I was pretty pumped because it was going to be a change from the more formal, cocktail type parties of the last few years. I started thinking about what to wear over Thanksgiving and happened to mention to my mother in law that I was in need of some tacky Christmas clothes. She disappeared for a few minutes and then came back with a ton of options. Luckily, she kept most of her Christmas attire from the early 90s! I didn't want to pressure Wes to dress up, so I left it up to him to decide what to wear. On Thursday night, he still hadn't decided. My brother was going to a tacky Christmas party that night and he wore one of Mom's old sweatshirts, so Wes decided he would wear the Santa sweatshirt too. Mom had lots of extremely tacky/90s elementary school teacher jewelry for me that went great with the poinsettia sweater. I wore silver/gold angel earrings, a moon shaped Santa necklace, a snowman watch and 3 beautifully tacky broaches. Ta da...here is a picture of the tacky couple.

Plus one extremely cute kid!

We definitely weren't going for the big prize of the tackiest couple, but I believe we fit the theme! It was fun to see all the preppy, uptight accountants let loose and have fun! The food was catered from The Fish Market and it was delicious! Here are a few pictures from the party.

Ashleigh, Mindy & Me

Jennifer, Korey, Ryan, Me, Mandy & Wes

Winners of the tackiest couple...Jill & Paul!

Overall, tacky Christmas was so much fun! Good idea Kristen!! Wonder what we'll do next year??

Gobble, gobble, cough, cough...

2010-11-28T22:30:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving 2010 was eventful, but not in the tradition, yummy food, family fun kind of way! Cooper started getting a cold last weekend and it just got worse. By Wednesday she was feeling pretty bad, so I stayed home with her. That afternoon as she was waking up from her nap, she had another seizure. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Children's Hospital getting her checked out. Thankfully she was fine. The next few nights were not fun. She was coughing so much that she couldn't sleep. Wes and I took turns sleeping with her so that she could get some rest. He slept with her in the chair in her room because she seemed to do ok as long as she was propped up. I slept in the bed with her but she kept thinking it was play time in the middle of the night! After 3 nights of being up for 3-4 hours (which gave me flash backs of having a newborn) we were all a little moody and ready for a good nights rest!

Cooper still had a fever on Thanksgiving day, so we stayed at home. It was pretty sad not to spend the day with our families. Wes, Cooper & I watched the beginning of the Macy's parade together and then Cooper was ready for a nap. Nanny & Papa were in Georgia with the Sides', so we weren't going to be able to see them anyway. Nanny did make me some of her famous dressing! This was the first Thanksgiving I can remember that we weren't able to be together and I did not like it at all! Mom, Dad & Brian did come up to our house for dinner. We put together a pretty fantastic last minute dinner! This was the first time we had ever done the turkey. I tried to tell Wes before hand that you have to pull the nasty stuff out from inside the turkey, but he didn't believe me until he saw it for himself!

After the turkey was prepped, Wes used his new inferred frier to cook it up! The fried turkey was delicious! We also had Nanny's dressing, mom's shoe peg corn casserole, my mash potatoes and Sister Shubert's rolls. For desert, we had mom's yummy pumpkin cheesecake. Cooper was feeling better and dinner was fantastic! It had finally started to feel like Thanksgiving.

Cooper's fever finally subsided by Saturday so we went down to Tuscaloosa to visit with Brian, Barbara, Evan, Meredith, Nanna & Papa Jack! Cooper had so much fun playing with Evan & Meredith. She is really in a copy cat phase, so she would do anything that Meredith & Nanna did. I forgot the camera, so we didn't get any pictures from our visit. We had a great day and we were all glad to be out of the house! I also got some super fabulous things from Nanna to wear to the SRHW tacky Christmas party next weekend!

Today we spent most of the day decorating the outside of our house for Christmas. We added a new touch this year...lights in the trees in our front yard. We only had two trees to do, but it took a while! Wes just kept saying he was glad that we were doing the decorating early so that we could enjoy the lights for a whole month! We are hoping to get our tree and the other inside decorations done next weekend.

Woops, no post last weekend...

2010-11-28T21:23:00.001-06:00

I forgot to post last week! The last couple weekends were quiet and low key. We just stayed around the house and enjoyed our time together. Last Sunday I hosted a Stella & Dot jewelry party at our house while Cooper & Wes went to Tuscaloosa for Dalton's birthday party. Sunday morning I was cleaning house and Cooper was such a good helper!

Doing laundry

Cleaning the floor

I enjoyed the Sunday afternoon drinking apple cider and eating cookies with good friends! Oh, and the jewelry is gorgeous! I LOVE Stella & Dot and I can't wait to get my new earrings in. I used most of the jewelry credit I earned on Christmas gifts, but I did get myself a pair of fabulous earrings that I have had my eye on for a while now!

Here is a picture Wes took at Dalton's party. He said Cooper loved going down the slide!

One of Cooper's favorite games right now is Ring Around The Rosie. She loves to fall down in the floor and thinks it is hilarious! I can only play a few times with her because it makes me SO dizzy to spin around, but Wes is always willing to play!

Princess slippers Cooper got for her bday...she adores them and usually sleeps in them!

Ride a horsey on Jacey

24 Month Checkup

2010-11-11T21:57:00.001-06:00

Today was Cooper's 24 month appointment with Dr. Dudgeon. She weighed 25 lbs, 11 oz and was 35in long. That puts her in the 40th percentile for weight and 92nd percentile for height. She is still in the 10 percentile for head circumference...Mommy & Daddy have small heads! She is using 2-3 word sentences and has started trying to repeat everything we say. Other milestones at this age are using a spoon and fork, running, walking up stairs, kicking a ball and scribbling with a crayon. She also had to get 2 shots. She was such a big girl...she held my hands and only cried for a second. Dr. Dudgeon was pleased with her development and we won't have to go back until she is 3. I did find out that we need to schedule a dentist appointment, which I am dreading. I can't image her laying in a dental chair letting someone work onher mouth!

A couple random pictures...

Cooper wanted a pony tail because I had one in my hair!

At Jill and Paul's for the AL vs. LSU game. Cooper had a mouth full of crackers but she said cheese on command!

One more thing I wanted to add...Cooper started sleeping in her "big girl" bed. Okay, kinda but not really. She has a convertible crib so we morphed her crib into the "toddler" bed. Which really just means that the front part of the crib was removed and there is now a little railing half way across the front of the bed. Cooper can get in and out herself! She had done great about staying in bed too. My tactict was not to make a big deal about it, so we didn't. As far as we know, she stays in bed at night. In the mornings she will stay in bed and call for one of us (usually Daddy) until we come into her room. Then she usually hops out!

Bubble Birthday

2010-11-11T21:36:00.000-06:00

This post is a little late...I was exhausted after the party on Sunday! Cooper's actual birthday was last Friday. I woke her up that morning by singing "Happy Birthday" and she had NO idea what was going on! She just kept looking at me like "what are you doing Mommy"! Our friend Deanna made her this super cute "2" shirt for her to wear (notice it matched the color theme of her party)! I tried taking her picture before we left for school, but she really wasn't in the mood and this is the best that I could get! That is a pretty evil face!

Mom came up Friday afternoon and brought yellow flower cookies from Celebrations for Cooper's class. Everyone enjoyed the yummy cookies! The class sang "Happy Birthday" to Cooper but she still wasn't quite sure about it.

Cooper didn't want to leave BeBe's arms

After the party at her school, Mom and I took Cooper to Build a Bear at the Galleria. She picked out a shaggy dog to build. She stepped on the pedal to shoot stuffing into the dog and then picked out a heart to put inside. We also picked out a red sweater for the dog to wear and we named him Shaggy! Cooper had fun making him, but I think she had more fun watching the group of older girls who were there for a birthday party! She would just stare at them and at one point she tried to sit down in their circle and join their party! We came home afterward and Cooper got to open a present from BeBe. It was a fish puzzle and you have to match each fish to their color. Cooper has mastered the puzzle...she is great at matching.

Sunday was the big party day! We woke up early Sunday morning thanks to the time change, but it was good because we needed to get ready for our pictures. Grethel Van Epps took round 2 of Cooper's 2 year old pictures. We met her in downtown Helena and walked around to several different spots. Cooper was in a horrible mood and that doesn't happen very much. After the pictures, we needed to kill time before church, so we went to McDonald's for breakfast. Turns out she was just hungry because she ate and ate!!

Cooper's bubble birthday party was at our neighborhood clubhouse. Everything turned out great! Here are a few pictures of the decor.

Food table

We had pizza, fruit, pretzels, candy and cake at the party! It was super easy to just order pizza...I think I will do that every year! I made the fabric pendant banners hanging above the table and I love them. I wish I could find somewhere to hang them in the house!

Party favors

I found the little sand pails at Party City and they were a perfect size for party favors. I painted each child's name on the bucket and then filled them with bubbles, gum and marshmallow lollipops.

Bubble gum topiary

Mom made this fantastic bubble gum topiary. It was the hit of the party. We played a game where we had everyone guess how many pieces of gum were on the ball...584!

Cake

The birthday cake was from Crazy Lady Cakes in Helena and it was delicious! I had a brief panic attach Saturday afternoon when I went to pick up the cake and there was no one at the store. But thankfully the crazy cake lady called me a couple hours later!

We had tons of fun at the party and I really felt like I took the time to enjoy it more this year than last year. We also rented a bubble machine and the kids though it was great. It made bubbles galore!

We also had a baby pool filled with bubble solution that turned out to be a bigger mess than I thought! It was fun for a while and the kids liked playing in the bubbles, but then people started getting wet and the wands turned into mini swords, so we took the pool away!

Cooper got some great birthday gifts. We haven't gotten them all out yet because I need to get storage bins and put away some of her "baby" toys. Nanny & Papa gave Cooper a baby grand piano and she loves playing it! She also loves the American Girl high chair that Bebe & Papa John gave her. Tonight we got out the vacuum that Hudson gave her and she knew exactly what to do! It was too cute! I can't wait to get out all the other gifts!

Farm Fun and the Strawberry...

2010-10-31T22:37:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a blast! Friday we ate dinner at The Depot and laid low. I spent most of the night reading blogs...mostly decorating & crafting. Tonight I actually made a flower headband that I found a tutorial for on Jones Design Company. It was super easy and super fun! I want to post a picture, but I had already downloaded weekend pics from the camera and was too lazy to do it again! Maybe next week.

Oh, I forgot! I wanted to start this week's post with Cooper's Halloween party at school. She started a new school at the beginning of the month and we are loving it! Her teachers, Ms. Kathy & Ms. Angela tell me everyday how great she is doing and what a good job she did adjusting. They said she is so well behaved (what, really?) and that she fit right in with all the other kids in the class! I am so thankful that the transition went so well. She is bringing home art every week and learning a new letter every week. They feed the kids breakfast & lunch (which is much easier on Mom & Dad). I am amazed at what she eats everyday. She is eating fruits & vegetables that she would never eat at home! She is also starting potty training. She sits on the potty at every diaper change. Sometimes she goes and sometimes she doesn't. I try to remember to ask her at home, but she doesn't seem to be too interested in the potty at home. I'm not going to push it yet, because I know she won't do it until she decides she is ready. Daddy was late with the camera (and I wasn't mad at all!), but here are a few pictures from the party.

Cooper wore her jack-o-lantern dress to school on Friday. Here is a picture I snapped before we left on Friday morning.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Oak Mountain farm/petting zoo. It was a great activity for a fall Saturday. Cooper loved seeing the animals and wanted to pet all of them! I think she kinda scared some away because she would get so excited. It somewhat smelled and there was poop all over the ground, but it was fun!!

Saturday afternoon Bebe & Papa John came up to go trick or treating with us! Cooper put on her costume and was excited about going outside and walking down the street. When she figured out we got to stop at every house on the street and get candy she was thrilled! She wanted to knock on the door until the people answered and eat every piece of candy right away. We convinced her to put the candy in her bucket as we went along. Her favorite were the lollipops, but I think she would have eaten every piece if I let her. We had so much fun around the neighborhood.

Nosey...wonder where she gets that from?!

This is our neighbor, Kate. Cooper & Kate play outside together in the afternoons. Cooper loves seeing her!

After the blue sucker.

2 Year Pictures...Round One

2010-10-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

Carly is phenominal! I met her this afternoon to get the pictures that she took on Sunday. I love our new friend Carly and I love all the pictures! I can't stop looking at them....here are a few of my favorites. I am so glad we met carlyJphotography!!

Pumpkin Weekend

2010-10-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

The weekend started early for Cooper & Mommy! I took off work Friday just to hang out with Cooper. We slept in and then ran errands most of the morning. Her birthday party is in a couple weeks, so most of our errands were to get ready for the party. We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and then came home so Cooper could nap. Since she started at The Odyssey, her naps have moved up to noon. On the weekends, we try to keep her on schedule, but she usually doesn't go down until about 1:00. After nap, we met some neighborhood friends at the park to play! Even though we didn't do much, I still just love being with Cooper and would take that over going to work most days!!

After Daddy got home, we carved our pumpkin. Since Cooper is really into cats lately (I think it all started with her Halloween cat toy), Wes carved a cat into our pumpkin. It looks great! Cooper wasn't really into getting the yucky stuff out, so she mostly just watched and played around the yard.

On Saturday morning, we went down to La Reunion and ate pancakes for breakfast! Yum! We ran into our neighbors, The Davenports and The Cobbs so Cooper ended up playing more than eating! After breakfast, we headed down to The Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch. While we were there, we took a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin and walked around the farm. There was a sunflower field (that I loved and though would be a great photo op) and Indian teepee's. Cooper seemed to be afraid of the sunflowers, I don't know if it was that they were so big or what! And about that time she started getting hungry and on the verge of a meltdown! We got our pumpkin & our pictures, so we were out of there!

We watched the Alabama game at home in our pj's and had tons of fun! Much more enjoyable game than the last two weeks! Sunday morning we got up and got ready for pictures. Cooper had her two year old portraits done today. We went to a really cool little farm. It was just someones house and they let our photographer come take pictures there. They have a red barn, horses, a pond, blueberries and just overall beautiful land. I can't wait to see the pictures!! And, I love our new friend Carly. Check out her FB page at CarlyJphotography. I also started on a birthday party decor project today. I was a little intimidated at first, but I think things will turn out well. I am attempting to make some fabric pennant banners for the party. I will post the results soon! Overall, we had a fabulous weekend!!

Please ignore the terrible blog background...I need help! Mindy, I hope you are at work tomorrow.

Try, try, try again!!

2010-10-24T13:16:00.000-05:00

Here we go...I'm giving blogging another try! I love reading and looking at pictures on other people's blogs. All the searching i've been doing lately for birthday party ideas a got me going! Plus, I started working on a photo book of Cooper's firt year and realized how upset I was at myself for never writing anything down. We did a pretty good job of taking pictures, but we never did anything with them. So here we go...

Been a little busy...

2009-05-22T07:54:00.004-05:00

Haven't updated in 3 months! I started back to work in April and have been unbelievably busy. At first, it was so hard to come back to work and leave Cooper at daycare, but things have gotten much better. When I dropped her off this morning and she saw her teacher, Mrs. Fran, she got so excited! They take really good care of her and I think she likes going (that's what I tell myself anyway)!

We took a family trip to the beach at the end of April and it was fabulous! Beach trips are much different with a little baby. We had a great time. It was really windy, so Cooper didn't go out to the beach much, but she loved going to the pool! We also caught some early bird dinner specials!

Cooper turned 6 months on May 5th! I love her at this age. She is so much fun! I think I say that every months though :) She finally decided to roll over last week. The day after her 6 month doctor appointment where we got a little talking to from the doctor. I guess she is going to be one of those kids who is late doing everything. She can almost sit up, so hopefully it won't be too much longer...we need to get back on track!

May 10th was my first Mother's Day! Wes and Cooper made it so special for me! Wes surprised me with a trip to Fincher & Ozment and let me pick out a necklace. I had been wanting a necklace with Cooper's birthstone and he knew I had seen one there that I liked. Now I keep trying to think of something to do for him for Father's Day...how can I top that?!

Mom and I went to Portrait Innovations last Friday to get Cooper's 6 month pictures taken. They turned out well. We were able to get a TON of pictures for so cheap! I have tried to get everyone a picture that I thought would want one. We still have a ton left, so if you want one let me know!

3 Months

2009-02-08T19:46:00.008-06:00

Our baby turned 3 months old last Thursday! She is getting so big!! She started reaching for toys last week. Wes and I were in the kitchen...I was making dinner and he was studying. Cooper was sitting in her bouncy seat and I just happened to look over and she was reaching for the snail above her head! It is such a rewarding feeling to see her do something new! I can only imagine how exciting it is going to be when she takes her first steps...they better not be at daycare...if they are, I don't want to know!

Cooper had her 3 month pictures taken this weekend at Wes's parent's house. We got a sneak peak of the pictures on the photographer's blog and they are amazing!! Go to http://www.barefeet-photography.blogspot.com/ to see. She is sending us a CD with all the photos. I can't wait to get them printed! I am planning on getting one of the pictures blown up at American Shutterbug and printed on canvas or as a "watercolor". Please give me your opinion on which one! I can't decide and I haven't even seen all the pictures yet! I am leaning toward one in the moses basket, but I like the close up of her face too...

Cooper's baptism is going to be on March 29th at Riverchase United Methodist. I am so looking forward to that Sunday! Her great-grandmother (Nanny) is making her baptism dress and it is going to be beautiful. It is really special to me to have Nanny make her gown. She has made me tons of beautiful things in the past 27 years and it is so cool that she is now sewing for my daughter!

10 Weeks

2009-01-22T18:57:00.010-06:00

Cooper is almost 3 months old! She weighed 10lbs and 12ozs at the LLL meeting today. She is smiling and cooing and loves to play! It is so much fun to make her smile and to interact with her. She has her hands in her mouth constantly...eventually I think she will find her fingers or thumbs.

Tax season has officially started and I am SO glad to be at home with her instead of working! The decision to stay home with her for 5 months instead of 3 months was the smartest thing I have done lately! She is starting to develop a personality and I am getting to know her more and more every day.

I scheduled Cooper's 3 month pictures with a photographer in Tuscaloosa, Jennifer Ray (http://www.barefeetphotography.net/). She is coming to my mom's house to take the pictures. Wes and I are planning on getting in on the photo action and taking some family pics!

2009-01-19T12:17:00.005-06:00

Cooper was born on November 5th at 1:06pm and weighed 6lbs 9ozs. Labor and delivery was a lot easier than I was expecting...I was induced at 6:00 that morning and got my epidural a couple hours later and in a couple more hours it was time to start pushing. I pushed for 30 minutes and she was here (thank God because I don't think I could have pushed a minute more...it was tiring)! We stayed in the hospital until Friday and got home just in time for the Alabama vs. LSU game. Now looking back I realize that things were a lot crazier the first few weeks than I realized. Luckily, Wes was a tremendous help and having my mom there was comforting. It is really hard to function with so little sleep...

I think I will start blogging...

2009-01-19T11:02:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Mindy...I decided to try blogging. It seems like a great way for family and friends to keep up with what is going on in our lives! I will try to do a weekly post, but will post more often if there is something super exciting happening with our family! Here it goes...