Kicking off the Christmas Season

It always feels like the Christmas season right after Thanksgiving and it wouldn't feel like Christmas without the official kick off events like the annual lights parade!! Usually my Dad has a float in it for the Water Dept. but he hasn't done one in two years now. I have mixed feelings about this; I love helping decorate the float and walk with it handing out candy canes but it was really nice to just watch the entire parade snuggled up with my little babe this year. It was very cold this year so I had about seven blankets, heat packs, hats, and gloves for my little nugget to stay warm. He absolutley loves Christmas lights!! He was mesmerized the entire parade and just sat on my lap watching all of the floats go by. Ry has been coaching freshmen basketball up at Highland again so was unable to make it to the parade. After the parade was over we went out to my parents for soup and hot chocolate.

 It has now become very difficult to get everyone together for family pictures, with Marcus working in another state, Mareesa being a busy teenager, my parents both super involved in work and church, and us with our busy lives, but luckily we got one one Sunday evening!

 Our little Coop is such a joy to have around, he brings such a happy spirit to our home and is continually making us laugh. He is growing WAY too fast and is such a smart little guy, he watches every move we make and reaches for everything we have in our hands. His newest thing is to grab our glass and suck on them, he loves the feel of glass, he thinks he's such a big boy already, which makes me a little nervous for the future. He doesn't really take a pacifier anymore unless Ry holds it in his mouth to make him go to sleep...something that I am not fond of.

Happy December!

 I know I give Cooper a lot more attention than I have been giving Ry so I decided to make a little Christmas surprise for Ry. I got the idea off of Pinterest, surprise surprise... they are little compliments or love notes, Christmas activities, and little surprises for each day, after a few hours of scrapbooking Ry's Christmas Countdown was complete and he LOVED it.

 I had a fabulous birthday this year, honestly it was the best one i've had since i've been married! Ry let me sleep in and he took care of Coop. We headed to go out to breakfast but decided against it when we saw the parking lot and decided on Starbucks. While we drank our drinks we wandered Fred Meyer and went to Hallmark to find our ornaments for this year and tried to find a "Baby's first Christmas" (which I have still yet to find one I love,) but we did find these cute little ornaments that are mugs with marshmellow mom, dad, and baby snowmen that says Mom, Dad, Son 2011. After our morning outing Ry had his girls practice, so I dropped him off and headed home to get ready for the day. I went to Ruby Tuesday with my Mom, Grandma and Cousin (Kirsten) for my birthday lunch, since Ry had his girls' practice.

The Festival of Trees always takes place on or around my birthday, so we picked Ry up and headed over there. Mareesa was dressed as an elf and my Dad was Santa, it was SO cute!!!

 My Mom and Santa...

Our first family Santa picture!

Coop LOVED Santa, and pulled on his beard...a lot!

 So precious!

 The only one I got with both of them looking at the camera.

 Coop loved looking at all the trees and tried to pull the ornaments off and probably would if I would have let him.

 After Festival of the trees Ry treated me to a shopping spree with my boys. While we were shopping Coop had a huge blowout and Ry wisked him away to change him while I continued shopping, another reason I love my birthday, I get to do anything I want and Ry does everything for me! I got two pairs of beautiful new boots, suede tan wedge boots and flat leather riding type boots. (I've had serious problems with purchasing too many boots this year, but let's be honest, is there such a thing?) I got a few other things and we went home to relax for a while before we headed to El Herradero for dinner and then it was out to my parents for more presents and tuxedo cake!

I've been wanting a thick gold band for a long time now and Ry surprised me with one, it was the perfect ending to my 26th birthday! Thanks Ry!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We usually spend Thanksgiving with Ry's family, but they went to Provo to be with Caz and Ashley, so we celebrated early (on Wednesday night) with his family.  And on Thursday we went out to my parents for football and LOTS of delicious food! We went around the table to talk about what we are most Thankful this year...and this little man was at the top of my list among many other things.

 I was reflecting on all the many blessings I have in my life and I am SO thankful to live in this amazing free country, to have the gospel in my life, to have such an amazing husband and baby, to have such a wonderful family (with a lot of them pretty close), good friends, for our health, our home, and all the other many luxuries we enjoy.

 I'm so grateful for such a wonderful, fun, and loving family, they truly are amazing!

 Our first Thanksgiving together!

Cooper was the first to drop off for his Thanksgiving nap, the rest of us followed suit shortly after. My Mom, Mareesa and I went out into the madness at 10PM for the start of Black Friday sales, while the boys watched football and Christmas movies. We started at Wal-Mart and it was actually INSANE, people were SO greedy and it was just utter chaos. My mom luckily got some of the things she was getting for people and Mareesa and I got a couple things but definitely were shoved, almost knocked to the ground, and squished to pieces; we hustled to checkout before the midnight wave of people came through and decided we would be done there. It was not worth risking our life for a good deal. And we were actually pretty disgusted my the behavior of a lot of the people out and about. It's so sad that we just finish this great holiday to remember all of the things we are thankful for and rush right into the greed and the mentality of more more more. We decided we were ending our shopping spree where we started, we really didn't need anything and we wanted to get out of the craziness, so we headed home to be with the boys. We played some games and had a relaxing evening together as a family.



My Beautiful Boy...

This little man keeps me very busy and I love every minute of it!!!

 Look at those beautiful, big blue eyes!!!

Coop started single grain organic oatmeal the beginning of November and LOVES it!!! We have had to take a little break in it because he was getting too backed up and upset and I haven't wanted to introduce anything new just yet. It's so convenient not having to worry about bringing his food with us that I am not in the habit of carrying it with me, ( I know that sounds so lazy, but one less thing to worry about when i'm running out the door is one less thing) so I think we'll wait until things slow down a bit and we are in a better staying at home in the evening type schedule to start up again. And no, he is not starving.

 We have been having fun with our friends the Hales, Coop and Kolt are SO cute together, the acknowledge each other, grab at each other's hats, clothes, toys or whatever is in reaching distance. We love watching them interact and look forward to watching them grow up together.

 He still loves his playmat but is getting so strong that he will pull it down on himself or he will kick the sides so that it falls all the way over and he looks like a giant burrito.

 Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING he touches goes straight to his little curious mouth. He loves those cute toes and it's SO funny... anytime he sees them or remembers that those are his little piggies he grabs on and pulls them up to his mouth.

 He is still a very relaxed baby and is pretty much up for anything we do, he loves hanging out with Dad, playing peek-a-boo, he laughs non-stop, (so much that I start laughing with/at him and can't stop), he loves looking at new things. We have our Christmas lights up and he just stares and talks to them, it is SO cute!!! Everytime I go to the store I get stopped by perfect strangers telling me how cute he is and what a beautiful, good baby I have. I know I am mildy biased, but I must agree with them, and I know I got super lucky to get such a wonderful baby!

We've had to make lots of fires lately as it's been SO cold, so he gets toasty warm and conks out. Look at those darling little cheeks, I love to gnaw on them, this is another thing that makes him laugh uncontrollably. Basically I am obsessed with him and more in love with this little human than I ever imagined was possible.

Family Pictures 2011

Getting ready for family pictures this year was a bit crazy. I spent hours figuring out which outfits for us to wear and finally narrowed it down to a choice I ended up being super happy with. It was very touch and go for pictures, it was the beginning of November and our typical Idaho weather would change daily, I just kept praying we would get a small window of good weather on the day of our pictures. Ry had a lesion on his lip that had been bugging him so he went to the dermatologist a couple weeks before pictures and had it biopsed and removed and of course, the week before pictures it came back, so he ended up having it cut and sautered the day before pictures. So he had a huge black spot on hit lip, it hurt to smile, he hates taking pictures, and to top it off we cancelled pictures due to weather and then uncancelled them, so he was not the happiest camper in the world. You wouldn't know it from the beautiful job Bobbi did on these pics, but it was freezing and windy this day and having a four month old out in it was not the easiest task. Cooper did great though, and he was super smiley most of the time...all things considered we got some gorgeous family pictures 

Addiction?

I don't know why I always feel the need to fill every second of my life with something, I swear I am ten times busier not working than I was working. Thanks to nap time and my addiction to Pinterest my never ending list of things to do/make/buy is growing at such a rapid pace i'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I know, that's SO ridiculous, right?! But I thoroughly enjoy all these new crafts and skills I am learning, see for yourself...

 This is a chair I stole from my parents basement for Coop's room...the before.

 And after...I spraypainted it lime green and then stained it with an ebony stain. My Bestafar (great-grandpa) was a professional painter, and after doing this chair I can see why he enjoyed it so much, I thought about him the whole time I was doing this. OH, and notice the entry way floor, I decided to redo that as well, it was a little harder than I had planned and still needs a couple more tiles fit it, but I've found I am no good when it comes to cutting that stuff!

 My other project took much longer, exhibit A, my ugly kitchen stools, I decided to reupholster, paint and distress these . After a few trips to JoAnn's and Lowe's, a few hours ripping out staples and nails, some sweat and a little blood, painting, sanding, and staining---I am quite satisfied with the outcome!

The finished product!

Happy Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween!! This was our first year of making the rounds to all of our family's houses to show off Cooper's costume and trick-or-treat. We started up at my grandparents' and they thought he was pretty cute, my grandpa thought that he was a lamb, I guess the green floppy ears?? After Ry enjoyed Cooper's candy bar for him we headed to Ry's parents and visited with them for a little while. Then we ended at the Halloween House of all Halloween Houses, my parents. 

 Baby Yoda and Great Grawma...

 Great Grawma and Grawpa...

Proud Grandma, she was glad we came out since Mareesa was out with friends, Marcus was in South Dakota and my Dad got called into work.

Out at my parents for the most festive nights of the year!!! Happy Halloween!!!