4th of July

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!