The love of a family is life's greatest blessing.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Cooper is Five


A birthday visit to the zoo!!!



What???  We have a five-year-old!?!?!?  

Cooper's year has flown by, and he is such an amazing little boy.  We can't believe how much he's grown over the past year. 

Aside from eating us out of house and home, he has matured before our eyes.

Cooper loves preschool.  He lives for preschool. Every morning of school, he literally jumps out of bed.  No arguments, just sleepy excitement.  

This past year, he has learned so much.  He has been practicing his math skills and he's excited that he can almost count to 100.  He loves to add and subtract.  He even likes to do a little skip counting :)

We are thrilled Cooper likes to write his name now, and he's starting to try writing other words too.  He's starting to sound out short words and he loves reading and loves books.  I think he would listen to stories all day long!  He loves to read about animals--especially snakes, dinosaurs, gators, and lions.  

This boy has a sweet heart.  He loves to help with and play with Carson, and he usually plays well with Izzy, too.  Although, of course, they have their moments!  He likes to do 'chores' for me, like putting away Carson's milk, getting diapers and wipes (but I have to count how long it takes him!!!).  He gets the BEST giggles out of Carson.  If I need help getting Carson distracted, I can always count on Cooper :). I love how he wakes up his little brother... "Hi sunshine!" And "How was your nap?"  All in a sweet high sing-song voice.

Cooper loves to steal hugs and kisses from us, and I love when he just randomly says, "Mom, I really love you."

Coop's an active little guy.  He loves to play ball, roughhouse, wrestle, run around, throw things and do all things active.  He likes to get dirty, play hard, and be active.  

We love you, Cooper!!  This year is going be another great one!!








Thursday, January 7, 2016

Interview with my 3-year-old

I have been wanting to do this since her birthday, and finally got her in the right mood to sit and be recorded for a while... although a little long, this is Izzy at age 3 :)


(I think she really got a kick out of watching herself while I was recording.  You can tell by the way she looks at herself!!)

Christmas 2015

We had the most wonderful Christmas!!  Here it is... In pictures:

1st stop, G & G Kalal's.


Carson was loving his first try at paper, ribbons, boxes, and bows!

Izzy loved all her 'girl' presents.

Cooper was thrilled about his garbage truck!

Lots of laughs, plenty of special presents, and a great way to start the celebrations!

Christmas Eve... We spent the day together, just the five of us.  And after naps it was off to Cooper's first Christmas Eve children's program.
 Although we don't have photos from the program itself, Cooper did a great job with his lines and songs (especially Go Tell It on the Mountain!)!  And for a four-year-old, he sat really well in front of the entire congregation for a whole hour!

Once we got home, Cooper insisted we could not watch a movie (our tradition) because we all needed to go to bed so Santa could come :)
But the kids had enough time to go out and sprinkle the reindeer food.  Look at those excited faces!

Christmas morning... The big kids got just what they asked for!  Cooper got a Hulk car and Izzy got a Barbie horse.  As well as stockings full of fun goodies!


Carson received his one love... Music and noise and crazy spinning all in one!

One last quick pic before we head to church!

That evening, we went to G & G Jabs's house for another fun celebration.

Izzy and Grandpa shared some giggles.

Cooper gave lots of love.

Izzy played beauty shop...

And Carson shared lots of snuggles!

Baby's First Christmas

Grandma Dawn and Kevin's house was a crazy and smiley night of fun!  

Our little munchkins... Christmas 2015

Izzy decided Santa wasn't so bad after all!

Carson loved the big guy!

And even Cooper let his guard down long enough to hang out with Mr. Claus!

A room full of presents!


Happy guy!

Christmas is just so awesome with little ones.  We had so much fun watching their smiles and hearing their giggles over the entire week.  I hope the kids always have fun memories of our Christmases!!


And because it wouldn't fit up with the rest of the pics, Izzy got to her delerius stage and had us all laughing after present time at Grandma Dawn's house!