Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!

We have loved the start of warmer weather and are really looking forward to summer! Coop loves being outside, he has started to blow things (like the lights in the house, that's how we turn them off, he blows the trees, flowers, grass, etc.) it's the cutest thing!

One of his favorite treats is watermelon, he saw some at my parents and ate about four of them. His other favorite fruits right now are mandarin oranges, literally any time he sees them he wants them, kiwi, he must share his parents love of sour things because he downs these like Ry downs sour patch kids. He loves feeding himself, so i've been trying to find any fruit and veggie filled recipes that I can make into finger foods. He loves cottage cheese pancakes and sweet potato pancakes, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, broccoli and apple sauce.

Coop had his first encounter with bubbles last month and it was quite traumatic to say the least. I thought that because he loved blowing things and that he likes balloons and balls that he would love bubbles, but boy was I wrong! I bought a bubble machine at Costco and couldn't wait to try it. So once Coop got up from a nap I got it all set up and turned it on, he started to shake, his little lip came out, and he started to scream. I hurried to turn it off and picked him up to comfort him and he wouldn't take his eyes off the bubble machine that entire day he was utterly terrified. I felt so bad. Ry and I slowly introduced the bubbles to him over the next week and now he loves them.

 This is Ry showing him that they are okay to touch and pop he did not love them at this point.

This is one of the first times I set him down to play with them by himself, as you can see he was still a bit apprehensive, but shortly after this he started chasing them, making "oooooing" sounds and blowing at them.

Coop and his best friend Kolt sharing their snacks and sippy cups, they really are the cutest, I think the only time they pay attention to each other is when there is food around.

Coop is SO animated and makes the funniest faces. Ry was letting him stand in his crib while bouncing him and playing with him, I just love this little face!

 Another one of his silly faces, he's got his wooden hammer he got for Easter and he thinks he is such a big kid on the block. Every morning when he wakes up Toby and Missy Rae are usually in the window in our bedroom and he says "kee ka" or kitty cat, and it's SO dang cute.

 Such a little ham!

Some of his favorite toys are kitchen tools, spoons, bowls, pans etc, sometimes I really wonder why I even bother buying him toys.

Fun Times and Easter

Coop absolutely loves swings he could swing for hours if I would let him.

For the month of April the library didn't do Book Babies, so in place of that we met our buddies at Brooklyn's Playground. This was great for the kids and us mom's, nap time was longer and the kids had a blast!

 Love this face, can't you just hear his little giggle?

EASTER 2012

The Easter Bunny brought Coop some fun toys, his first Book of Mormon stories, and some other books and his Easter outfit.

 We had a nice easter, we went to our church and taught our Sunday school class and then went to the Wood's church becuase Marcus Wood go the Aaronic priesthood. After that we went to their house for a little Easter brunch.

 Coop's great grandma and grandpa Miller gave him this cute little duck that talks and makes sounds, it kept him quite entertained.

Happy Easter!!!

Jazz Game and Nine Months

 I can't believe Coop is already nine months old!!! (This update is much later than planned, our external hard drive, where I keep all of my pictures, shut down and it took quite a bit to recover, but luckily all my photos and videos were recovered. I'm in the process of double and triple backing everything up so that doesn't happen again.) He weighed 18 pounds 4 ounces at his check up, 16th percentile weight, 28" long, 44th percentile in height, and 65th percentile head circumference. He gets more fun every day and has the sweetest personality. He wakes up smiling every day and is such a joy to be around. He is moving ALL over the place, he scoots on his bum, like a side winder snake, my Dad calls him "the butt-walker". He's into everything, he scoots to all the outlets and removes the "child safe" covers and loves to find cupboards and drawers to open and close.

 Here are a couple of his nine month pictures my girlfriend, Jen, took, they turned out SO good and Coop was a little champ the entire time, even though it was a bit cold.

 I'm obsessed with this one!!! I love his cheesy little grin, his personality really shines through when he sees a camera.

Ry and I were listening to the radio while driving back from Twin Falls at the end of March and tried all day to win tickets to the Jazz vs. Kings game. We won two sets of tickets!! Mareesa had a volleyball tournament down in utah that weekend so Ry ended up buying us a set of tickets so my parents, Mareesa and her friend could all go. We love Jimmer and were super excited to wear our Jimmer jerseys.

 Coop was so great during the game, he watched most of it, ate some snacks, played with Ry's face...

 and was out by the fourth quarter, it was SO funny. I couldn't believe he was completely out with all the noise.

We had such a fun weekend from the game to Mareesa's volleyball tournament...

 to checking out the new City Creek Center, which was absolutely amazing! We didn't even make it through half of it so I will definitely have to schedule a shopping trip down there soon.

We went to one of our favorites, PFChang's, for lunch, it was Coop's first experience with chopsticks, and he LOVED them!!!

The Last of the Firsts

After we put Coop to bed the other night we were talking about how fast time is going and that all of Cooper's "firsts" are quickly coming to an end, which makes me so sad.

Cooper all ready for church; I swear he is better behaved than our 12-14 year old Sunday School class!

Coop's first time pulling himself up from sitting to standing. He loves holding on to the slats on his crib and going back and forth.

COOPER'S FIRST HAIR CUT

3.15.2012

Coop's little mohawk was starting to get a bit long and started to fall over, and since Ry kept threatening to cut it himself I caved and just took him into the girl that has cut my hair since highschool. This face: really Mom?

I vibrate my sonicare on Coop's toothbrush while I brush my teeth, so he liked the vibration of the clippers.

I also spray his hair with a spray bottle everyday to do his hair, so that wasn't bad...

The only thing that he hated was when she pulled his hair to get a straight cut, but after that he was great!

The after shot, isn't he darling?!!!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

 I had a mini photo shoot with Coop for his first St. Patrick's day...

 Love his toes and silly faces!!

 Mom, what did you stick to me?

 Love this little leprechaun, and I'm so glad he lets me do these silly things with him, despite what Daddy says!!!

Coop's "indoor sandbox" made with cornmeal, he will play with this for hours, it's super messy, but he has a blast and that's what a vacuum is for right?

March Madness

We have had quite a busy March, surprise surprise. One of my bestfriends from highschool Megan, had her baby. Here is Coop and cute little Madilynn, she's so sweet, i'm looking forward to seeing Megan and little Madilynn more!

Daddy is starting Coop out early with balls, mainly basketball and golf, Ry's two other loves in life. When Ry watches Coop while I workout he let's him watch the basketball games and golf channel, the only television Coop gets to watch or really shows any interest in. The other day while I was putting Cooper's clothes away he scooted all the way passed all of his toys and books to the closet where Ry has a box of golf balls, and took out each ball examining them all, it was SO funny.

Ry's recovery is slowly but surely on the up and up, he has physical therapy three times a week. I was working with him since our insurance doesn't cover PT, which was quite taxing on our relationship, to be honest, so i'm grateful I don't have that role anymore. As he got visiting with the physical therapist they decided they're going to do a trade with Ry's business, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that things will continue working out.

Coop has SO many hilarious faces and sounds lately, I was lucky enough to capture this one, I just love this little nugget!!!

We've had  a few sporadic days of nice weather, so last weekend we met up with our friends, Lyndsey, Justin and their baby, Maddux, for a playdate at the park. It's so fun to see the boys interact with each other, i'm really looking forward to watching these two grow up together. This was Coopy's first time on a swing and he absolutely loved it!!!

Coop feeling Madd's gummies... since Coop has turned into a little pirahna, he's got four teeth now, he must miss that gummie feeling, I know I do.

His first time down the slide, I don't think he loved it, he wasn't sure what to think.

Aren't they SO cute?!

Daddy tossing Coop, he laughs uncontrollably. It was so nice to finally get outside and for it to be nice weather. We are all definitely looking forward to the warmer days so we can have more fun days like these!

We were up at Ry's parents the other night and Kaleb was begging to hold Coop, here's the best shot I got of the two little cousins.

Fabulous February

I have no clue where February went, but I feel like I missed it! We had such a busy month and I can't believe March is upon us. Ry and I trade of every year for Valentines, and this year I was in charge. I'm always sad when holidays fall in the middle of the week when Ry has to be at work because I feel like I don't get to celebrate to the full extent as I would like. Ry left for work at his usual 5:30AM, Coop and I slept in until about 6:30, I fed Coop his breakfast and then we made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream to take Ry for his Valentine breakfast. We also had a little Valentine photo shoot with some of the things I had given Ry, (I did the fourteen days of Valentines for him with little treats and cute sayings). After we visited Ry at his work for a bit we came home for Cooper's nap and while Coop napped I packed Ry's bag for Girl's State basketball, because he was leaving the next day. After nap time we made Coop's Valentines for his great-grandparents and grandparents, this turned out to be a bit messier than I had planned. As soon as I put the paint on his feet he started wiggling his chubby toes, reaching for them and moving his foot all over and the hands proved to be even more difficult, I had a death grip on them so he wouldn't have a bright red mouth and face. The Valentines turned out SUPER cute, we delivered all of the Valentines to everyone and then came home to start Valentine dinner, ceasar salad, french bread and chicken alfredo. Ry brought home some flowers for me along with a card from him and one from Coop, SO darling!

I took Ry up to Highland the next afternoon so he could ride the bus up to Boise with the other coaches and the girls. Coop and I headed up Thursday morning for the first game. One of their starters tore her ACL in the first quarter, it was SO sad. They won their first game, lost their last two and ended up taking fourth. While we were in Boise we did a little shopping and had some much needed R and R together.

Ry had surgery last week, the 22nd, to repair is ACL and menisici. I got next to no sleep the night of his surgery, the wind was super bad and I was a little anxious. I had all of Ry's stuff packed and two bags full of things to keep Cooper entertained while we were at the hospital. We checked in at 5:30AM and they took him right back to get started on the pre-op, they shaved his leg, started an IV and got another medical history. Coop and I were able to hang out with him until they wisked him away for surgery. Right before they were taking him back they had me run down to the truck to bring up his CryoCuff so as soon as surgery was finished they could put that on him; one of the nurses said he would hold Coop while I did that, when I got back the room was empty and Coop was just chilling at the nurses station with all the nurses. I was sad that I didn't really get to say bye to Ry before they took him away. I gathered up the four bags of Ry's stuff and Coop's stuff, and Cooper and I waited in the waiting area until we heard from the doctor. The surgery was finished by 8:30AM, Dr. Newhouse came out to visit with me to let me know that the procedure went well, but while he was in there saw that both menisci were completely torn, originally the MRI showed a partial tear of one and complete tear of the other, so since the MRI the partially torn meniscus had finished itself off. He proceded to tell me that he couldn't save Ry's medial meniscus and cut out the entire thing, ouch, but was able to salvage the lateral meniscus with three pins. He gave me the video of his surgery, some images from the surgery, a couple prescriptions and told me Ry was still in recovery and the nurses would come get me in about half an hour so we could go back and see him. An hour and a half went by...no one came to get us, so I went down to eat some breakfast with my Mom and came back and a few minutes after that the nurse came out to talk with me. She had a worried look on her face and told me that Ry wasn't doing too well, that they had to put him back under because they couldn't get his pain under control, she told me I should leave for an hour or two and by then I should be able to go back. I was beginning to get very worried, but decided to get my mind off of it and calm myself down I would take a load to the truck, get his RX's filled, get some groceries and stop at home to make sure everything was ready for Ry. While I was carrying groceries in the nurse from recovery called me and said he was slowly waking up and that I would be able to come back, so we rushed back up to the hospital and went back to recovery with Ry, by this time it was almost noon. Ry was green when we saw him and was not in a good mood, he was still in lots of pain and got nauseous every time he moved. They pumped in full of morphine and gave him percocet to try to help with pain, neither was helping him much. The nurses were wonderful and absolutely adored Cooper. We stayed in the recovery area until about 2:30PM and then the nurse started to give Ry post-op instruction, he was mildly coherent and told the nurse to just talk to me since I would be taking care of him when we got home. We were discharged, and had to take my Mom's car since Ry realized he wouldn't be able to get up into the truck, so I drove my Mom's car and Marcus drove Coop home in the truck.

This past week has been extremely hard, we struggled getting Ry's pain under control. He had the drains removed the day after surgery and had a session of physical therapy which completely drained him. Despite his exhaustion he got a grand total of about 3 hours of sleep in 4 days due to the pain. I was giving him the max dose every 4 hours, keeping ice on and off as instructed, keeping him elevated, literally doing everything right and nothing was helping and none of us, including Coop, were getting any rest. The second night I finally called the on call service at about midnight, but they were unable to get a hold of our doctor and the on call doc said "take RX as prescribed and call back in the morning"...wow, thanks for the help. I really don't know that I have ever been so tired and I felt SO bad for Ry. Dr. Newhouse called us the next morning before they opened apologizing that he missed the calls from the on call service, and asked what we needed. I told him what was going on and he said he would be in that morning if Ry felt up to getting checked, but after PT he still didn't feel like going out, so he said try rotating ibuprofen with the pain meds, even though it's not recommended for ligament healing, he said to try it, so we did and there wasn't much of a change. We have continued with the PT exercises, his CPM machine, R.I.C.E and the pain has yet to subside, so the doctor said for him to cancel his PT for this week and wait until he sees him at his follow up next Tuesday. We finally got to sleep through the night two nights ago and it was the best night's sleep I've had. Ry has started to go back to work for a couple hours this week, which as also been a challenge, trying to fit exercises and ice in, and he is still unable to drive. Mareesa has been awesome and come over so I can have an hour or two of me time while she takes care of the boys. 

Cooper'f first Valentines!

 Happy Valentines Day!!!

 Watching LOTS of basketball together, thank goodness for the Boon spoon and a baby who will watch basketball!

 Aw, seriously just adore this little guy!

 Daddy tickling Coop in the hotel up at Girls' State...

 Soooo sleepy...too much basketball.

Finally hanging out with Dad after a long day at the hospital.

Cooper's newest face (I used to make this face and sound when I was a baby too, must be genetic,) it's hilarious, he sniffs and occasionally makes an "oink" sound, and he knows it's funny!