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!

Farm Fun and the Strawberry...

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

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

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!!

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...