Gobble, gobble, cough, cough...

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...

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

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

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!