New Years Eve

Two days before New Years Eve Kaid played in the Poky alumni tournament, of course we had to go support, their team did great, but I don't remember if they won the whole thing or not, it was way too long ago.

We had such a cold few weeks in December and between the sub zero temperature and the never ending stream of sick we didn't get to go sledding much. On New Years Eve we borrowed some sleds from Ry's fam and made a few runs before the sun went down and it was way too cold to continue. When we were done Coop was shivering and between shivers saying "nahnin" (again) over and over but we were all too cold to keep going.

 

Coop enjoyed his New Years Eve breakfast on his new slide, he seriously loves that thing.

To start off our New Years celebration we went to Pine Bowl; they do a whole glow bowl, with pizza, prizes and music. My mom got us a couple lanes and we stayed there for a few hours before we went up to my grandparents for more food and games. Coop was loving the lights and i'm pretty sure that his uncles snuck him sips of soda. Our lane got called for one of the prizes so we let Cooper pick the prize and he picked a rubbery ring that flashed different colors of lights. He carried that thing around all night staring at the lights and showing everyone, he was quite proud. I think that bowling on NYE may become a new tradition, especially with Ry's new found love for bowling, he has purchased two or three balls in the past few months and has got McKaid almost as addicted as he is.

 

Ringing in the New Year with the best people!

After the bowling alley we went up to my grandparents for delicious hors d'oeuvres ringing in the New Year with sparkling cider and family. We played a few games and of course ended with a family favorite, ROOK. Coop fell asleep with Marky on the couch, I don't think they even made it to 11:00PM. Happy New Year, I hope 2013 brings some wonderful things!!!

Christmas Day 2012

We got up Christmas morning and Coop just wanted to snuggle and read in his room with me, so while I did that Ry started a roaring fire. Coop still wasn't feeling super great on Christmas morning so Ry carried him in to see what "thanta" had brought the night before. All he wanted was his milk at first, so we let him have that and gave him his antibiotic and then he started to show lots of interest in the slide that Santa brought.

He was a little nervous at first to go down by himself but it only took a few times and he was in love. He loved unpacking his stocking and examining each thing, he got lots of cars, bath letters, bath markers, puzzles, hats, and mittens and I think the cars were definitely the biggest hit. He loves to line all of his cars up on the edge of his slide and push them down one by one and say "weeee".

We had our little family Christmas morning with Coop, he loved opening his presents but I think it was all a bit overwhelming for him. We keep saying that every holiday or birthday we are going to get one or two things so he doesn't get so overwhelmed and honestly he doesn't need anymore than that; we keep failing that rule, maybe next year we will remember the madness and that we do not have the room for anymore toys.

 

After we had our morning at our house we went up to Ryan's parents'. I helped Wendy and Ashley make abelskever and we had  breakfast before we opened gifts. Usually it's pretty systematic when we open gifts up there because Ry's grandpa writes everything down, but this year Caz and Ashley had to hurry down to his house, so it was kind of a free for all present frenzy. I think Jeffery loved that. Coop was having a great time with the little race hill that Ry's family gave him and could have played with it all day. After we hung out up there for a while Coop was getting tired so we took him home and let him nap before heading out to my parents house.

 

I had Kaid's name this year and was SO estatic to give him his gift, I may have rigged the name drawing this year so I could have his name. Before he got back from his mission I was visiting the BYU bookstore with one of my best friends, Randi, and I found this painting of Jesus carrying a little African child and thought of Kaid when I saw it and just fell in love with it. I think he really liked it, Ry got Mareesa a kindle which she was very excited about. Marcus wrote notes on everyone's gifts that were seriously so thoughtful and cute. Coop got some more puzzles and an old school top which he loves. We played a little Just Dance 4 and had a nice afternoon out there before we went shooting, Ry stayed at my parents with Coop since it was pretty cold.

The place where we usually go shoot was gated so we went up Scout Mountain and shot for a while before heading up to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's for dinner. Marcus trying out his new Christmas present to himself, Mareesa and I shoot one of our Dad's old 22s, Marcus and Andrea, and Me trying out Marcus' new gun.

We had a great time together and shot until the sun went down and then went up to Gma and Gpa's for some yummy dinner.

 

Since Coop didn't get to go up there for Christmas Eve he got to open his presents Christmas Day eve. My Grandma knit him the cutest hat and sweater I will treasure them forever, they really are so special, and Coop loves them. Marcus was read Coop the train story by President Monson a few times, Coop says "choo choo" always a planes, trains and automobiles kind of child.

 

When we got home from my grandparents he played with his new cars on his slide for a while and then we read Christmas stories and he played with Ry in his crib, over all it was a fabulous Christmas, fingers crossed that next year no sickness will plaguw the Ray household.

Coop showing off all of his presents and finally feeling more like himself.

Christmas Eve

Cooper got another double ear infection two days before Christmas Eve so we got strong antibiotics hoping he would at least feel better by Christmas. He felt good for a few hours after we gave him his antibiotics and then he would crash fast, so on Christmas Eve we gave him his second daily dose right before we left to start the progessive dinner at my parents' house. He did great for a while...

 

Coop hanging out with Great Grandma while the gift exchange started.

I love Christmas Eve, I like it even better than Christmas Day, it's always been a magical night and this year was great minus Coop being sick. We had delicious appetizers, wassail, and egg nog at my parents and then headed to Wood's for salad and soup, but it was a lot more than that, it was like a while other round of appetizers. We hadn't been there long and I could tell Cooper was dropping quick and his fever started to spike again so we took him home and got him ready for bed and gave him some motrin.

 

 Coop opening some cars and trucks from Uncle Kaid, he still knows exactly which cars McKaid gave him and says "Kaaaai!!" everytime he plays with them.

 

My parents had Uncle Scott's name for Christmas, Scott with his goods.

 

Uncle David had my Mom and gave her the cutest stuff, her favorite thing was a Danish milk-maid now proudly on display in her living room.

 

One of Coop's favorite things was the bubble wrap that some of the gifts came with, he sat with Ry for a could twenty minutes and popped it, he kept saying "Whoa, whoa!!" so cute.

 

Coop has always been a love but has become more and more lovey lately, and I won't complain, I LOVE it!!! He loves kissing us; and Ry and I let him, slobber and all, not everyone loves the Coop slobber, it almost trumps Nana slobber, which is a lot but we love it.

I'm glad we got a few pictures while Coop was still feeling alright, isn't he just a doll?

 

When we got home from Heidi's Cooper just wanted me to snuggle him, so we turned on Frosty for him and I just held him until he fell asleep. Ry volunteered to stay home with him so he could sleep while we finished our Christmas Eve traditions up at my Grandma and Grandpa's, luckily they live close.

 

So fun to be together!!!

 

Grandma and Grandpa's house is always so nice and cozy, we had a great night spending time with family and visiting with everyone. Grandpa read the Christmas story, we sang songs,

had yummy bolle soup, red cabbage, and ris ala mande. I didn't end up leaving until close to midnight which was much later than I had planned since Ry was waiting up for me to set up the rest of Coop's Christmas. When I got home Ry was watching White Christmas and we put everything together and had a quick sleep before Christmas morning.

18 Months Old

18 Month Facts:

• You love going to Daddy's girls' basketball games, cheering, yelling "shoot" and having me chase you up and down the bleachers.
• We are progressing with potty training, you are almost there!
• You absolutely LOVE Christmas lights, you are always saying "Light, light, light" it sounds like "nut" with a rolled "l" at the front.
• We have been taking lots of night time drives for you so you can look at the Christmas lights.
• Since you have been sick so often lately, you have been introduced to a couple Christmas movies and your favories are Frosty the Snowman (you call in "no mah") and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer (you call this one "thanta").
• You love the snow; we got you some snow boots and you LOVE them and wear them, your underwear and a hat around the house all day, this is your favorite outfit as of late.
• You have had three ear infections since Thanksgiving and Dr. Fulks said if you have too many more we are going to have to get tubes in your ears, so you better stop getting them!
• You love to be in the kitchen with me, you help me cook, you pretend to cook and mix, and pull all the different utinsels out of the drawers.
• You've started to throw huge fits when your food breaks; I was pretty concerned because this was so unlike you, but your Dr. assured me it's normal, that you are just figuring out all the natural laws and that you'll get over it.
• You are an absolute joy in my life and Daddy's, we love you more than you'll ever know, keep being our little sunshine love!
   

Christmas Book Babies and Attempted Christmas Craft

Our December was so insanely busy, I think we literally had something going on almost every single day. For Book Babies the week before Christmas they read Christmas stories and had Santa come. As you can see, Coop was pretty excited that he knew who it was; he stood up there during story time and kept whispering "thanta thanta" and pointing to him.

 

When it came time to get a candy cane from Santa all of the sudden he was terrified and had a monkey death grip on me. He also averted his eyes to everywhere but the Santa, he reluctantly took the candy can and then went and sat a good distance from him so he good be an observer from a far.

 

Giving "thanta" the stare down...

Cooper and his bestfriend Kolt enjoying their candy canes together.

 

Coop's candy cane broke and this was the calm before the storm. Holy cow, you thought the world was coming to an end after it broke, he kept saying "broke, broke, caheee cay, broke momma" it was quite pathetic, I had to just throw the whole thing away and divert his attention else where so he wasn't so focused on his broken candy cane.

 

Last year I made salt dough hand print ornaments for all the grandparents with him. This year I thought we would just use paint and do handprints on the ornaments. It sounds much easier than it actually is, needless to say not a single ornament turned out the way I wanted and you couldn't even tell on half of them what it was. Coop had fun and I guess that's all that matters.

 

He was covered in paint from head to toe, maybe Christmas crafting will get easier next year.

 

 

December So Far

Since Thanksgiving Coop has been getting sick every single time he gets better and then he passes it to me, it's a vicious cycle; so between that and Ry being gone for work we had to cancel our professional family pictures and make do on our own. Finding time when Coop wasn't sick, Ry was in town and the weather was decent was basically impossible. I love my new camera and thought maybe my Dad would be able to get a few good shots of us for our Christmas cards while we were out at their house. Coop was still feeling a bit yucky so we tried to make it as quick as possible.

 

Of course we didn't get a single shot where all of us were looking and smiling.

Everyone looking but Ry...

Since Ry was super busy in December and since Coop was really sick the day my Grandma brought out gingerbread houses we did them much later than usual.

Coop loved sticking gum drops on the roof and around the house, he kept picking them up and putting them in different places, so by the end of it he had frosting everywhere.

My little architect...

These are just some fun shots I got of him having breakfast, it's hard to practice with my camera when he is always running around, so when he's eating I take full advantage.

I can't believe how big he's getting...

 

Lunch time...

 

Seriously obsessed with these little feet.

 

Ry took a couple classes at the University of Utah for his certification to become an authorized OSHA trainer for his work; so Coop and I went along for the ride so we could get some shopping and temple lights in, since this would probably be our only opportunity this busy season.

 

The lights were beautiful but it was pretty chilly and rainy so we had to make it through pretty quick. Excuse the phone pics, I didn't want to take my camera out in the rain.

 Coop loves lights and kept saying "light light" in a super excited voice and pointing and running. Mr. Independent wanted to walk instead of letting us hold him. I'm afraid with the two parents he's got he is going to be one head strong and stubborn child.

My boys at City Creek

Such a perfect night

 I took one of the conference center while we were at a stop light. It was a quick trip but such a nice evening together.

 

My Dad's buddy, Mike, has been coming to visit as Santa since the year I was born, 27 years, yes that's crazy! I love our little tradition.

 

Cooper was pretty apprehensive about Santa, it took a bit of coaxing for him to actually sit on his lap.

 

Still a bit unsure...what's this in your hand?

 

He was pumped about his candy cane, can you tell?

 

We all took a turn sitting on his lap...

I don't think you are ever too old to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what you are wishing for that year.

Mckaid and Santa

(Marcus missed it this year because of his work)

Showing Uncle Kaid his candy cane, he could not be more excited!

Mareesa on Santa's lap, maybe she wished for early graduation, this girl has got the worst case of senioritis i've ever seen!

 

Buddies!

Mom and Santa.

 

My beautiful little sister...

 

Family shot, minus Marcus, until next year!