Cooper (For Mary)

Well, I have a goal for 2013 to post to my blog more often.  (Once a week? Yeah we'll see if that actually happens. :) ) Honestly, I felt a little guilted into blogging again, but it's a good kind of guilt. 

Any who, Mary requested more photos of Cooper, so this is for you Mary! <3

  

This is Cooper at 4 days old.  And Sam the Lamb.  (Sam has a long and involved history which is not appropriate for this post,)

Here is Cooper at 2 1/2 weeks.  He has grow a little.  Sam looks like he has put on a little weight too.

And again at one month, somebody pudged out!

This is the notes from our doctors visit at 2 weeks.  (I really thought his head would be in a higher percentile.  Only 17%?) 

Cooper with the sibs.  Wow he looks teeny tiny.

This is Cooper in his carseat for his first excursion.  Not that you can tell that he is in the carseat from this close up shot.  Mostly I wanted a picture of the hat, that is for a 6 month old, and is too small already. (17% yeah right.)

I don't have a snarky comment for this one, just cute.

More cute.

So, nursing has been a bit frustrating, so we started him on solids a little early.  The only down side so far is that he is a little messy.

 He has already learned the half smile....

.... that drives the girls crazy. 

He started dressing fancy, he is just growing up so fast.

Oh yeah, there was the time I dropped him down the stairs.  I was trying to multi task and juggling the baby and the toilet paper didn't work out so good this day.

I think maybe he has hit puberty already.  In retrospect, maybe we started solids too early.

Then he and Halle decided to run away and join a biker gang.

 

He came back but he had sold Halle for a monkey!  Needless to say he is grounded from solid food, for at least a couple more months.

Pre-School

Halle has been going to Pre-School (or sometimes we call it Joy School) this year.  I think of it as pre-pre-school.  It is fun, we rotate taking turns teaching once a week.  We focus on one letter each week.   This is the first week that it was my turn to teach since Cooper was born.  I was a little anxious  about having to hold Cooper the whole time while teaching four 3-year-olds

This is Halle and her friend making L  L  Lion pudding snacks.

Cooper was an angel and fell asleep 15 minutes before school started and slept the whole time!

December 2012

December for us was all about the new baby and Christmas.  It was a little tricky, with an itsy bits baby,  to get out and do all the Christmas activities we would have liked to, like going to see the lights at Temple Square, or going to the Festival of Trees.  But we made our own Christmas fun that didn't require leaving the house {much.}

(I have forgotten how to blog, so the following pictures are in random order :) )

Cooper, about 2 weeks with Sam the lamb for perspective.

 Moey making Gingerbread Houses.

 Moey with her new monster hat.  We all got new monster hats from Nana.  They are pretty awesome.

 Ethan spent his Christmas break reading and playing the computer.

 Gavin, our little dare-devil, snowboarded all the way across the yard.  Winter, pretty much the only time the hilly yard is awesome. Notice Dave's orange monster hat, it just about glows in the dark.

 Silly Gavin is nearly skewered by icicles.  We have some amazing icicles in the snowy cold.

 This is actually the first snow we had, it was perfect for making snow men.  The weird alien snowman was as tall as Dave.

 Making a giant snowball.

 Crazy Halle in her monster hat.

 I really wanted to get an Elf on the Shelf this year, but I didn't want to pay the $30 for it.  So I just made my own 'Elf' (More Elf photos coming soon.)

 Mustaches in stocking = lots of fun pictures.

We ended the month on a high note. We blessed Cooper and wintessed Grandma and Grandpa B. Mission setting apart.

Adventures in cooking

I made some yummy Alfredo sauce tonight. I am ashamed to admit that this is the first time I have ever made it. I now understand why it is so tasty, it is made with fat, and fat and more fat, oh and then some cheese. :)

I also made breadsticks, I typed in breadsticks on google and used the first recipe I found. They were very yummy too. (Dinner was a little high in carbs tonight.)

Here is the recipe for the breadsticks. Although I had to add at least 1/4 cup more water. and I used a whole egg and skipped putting the egg white on the formed dough. Then, before I cooked them I covered them in melted butter and shook garlic powder and parmesan cheese over them. The kids especially liked the bread sticks because I formed them in the first letter in their names.

ITALIAN BREAD STICKS

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

2 to 2 1/4 c. flour
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. warm water

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Combine warm water, oil, and egg yolk. Add to large bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer until blended. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth. Shape into a ball; cover and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours or overnight. Divide into 16 equal parts. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Roll each piece of dough to form rope 14 inches long.

Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Add 1 tablespoon water to egg whites; beat until frothy. Brush over dough. Let rise in warm place (45 to 60 minutes). Brush again with egg mixture; sprinkle coarse salt. Bake 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 16.

Week 2

Monday and Tuesday the kids played with friends
Wednesday we made it to Nana's house in the afternoon, then that evening we went to the Oquirrh Temple open house.
Thursday and Friday the kids played with friends, Friday evening we went up to the Burrow with Nana and Grandpa.
Saturday - WE HAD A BABY SISTER! Five weeks early!

SUMMER! Week One

Woo Hoo!! It's Summer!

Monday
We decided what summer chores we would have to do before friends or TV or Video Games.
1 Make Bed
2 Clean Room
3 Brain Activity (reading, math, handwriting.)
4 Big Project (help mom with a big project)
After we did or chores the kids played with their friends for the rest of the day.

Tuesday
We drove all the way up to Ogden to go to the Children's Treehouse Museum. Aunt Mary and Aunt Niesha and cousins came too.

Gavin loved the fire truck, and dressing up in the hat and fire jacket.
Moey and Drew took off, this is one of the only times I saw them. I asked Moey what her favorite part was, she said there were too many things that she couldn't pick just one that was her favorite. She really liked playing with Drew, she said she had more fun then at Boondocks.
Ethan mostly played chess with Kel. There wasn't much at the Museum that held his interest. They did have computer games, but they only had preschool games. We did find him for a few minutes and he helped Gavin do this puzzle.
There was a mid-evil area, with the giant chess board, and dress ups, and puppet shows. Gavin and Piper thougth that they were the the show!
There was an area of little houses from different countrys. This was the England room. Gavin was kind enough to play here for about 30 minutes while I sat in the little pink chair with the wizzard. It was definatly the most comfortable chair there!
Gavin and I made it up to the Mid-evil room to play Giant chess, but Ethan wasn't there.

Wednesday
Stayed home, and played with friends

Thursday
We went up with Nana and Aunt Karina to Liberty Park. We thought that there was a Hill Air Force mini museum. But we think we got the wrong park. We decided that it must have been at Pioneer Park, and that Pioneer park was to scary for us, even if it was filled with Millitary personel.
We walk around and found some big trees, Nana told up that Great Grandpa Rufus Johnson was probably planted most of the big old trees. We all thought this tree looked like it had a nose. If this picture looks like Nana is trying to pick it nose, that's she was, and then she flicked it at the kids, and they all said "Ew, gross."
The wishing fountain. Does your wish still count if you pick up coins from the fountain and throw them back in??
We found some cute little rides, we think that they could be 100 years old. The kids all wanted to ride, but there was only one ride that Ethan wanted to ride, and no one else wanted to go on it with him. So we said you could go one one ride or get an Ice Cream. Ethan quickly opted for the ice cream, so did Moey and Katie. Aly and Gavin wanted to ride the airplanes. I think when they were done, they were wishing they had gone with the ice cream.
We walked down the path a little ways to Tracy Aviary. But it was past lunch time, and it was a little stinky. So we thought that would be more fun a different day.
We went to Mcdonalds for lunch, and stopped at Grandpa's shop to talk to grandpa, and so Karina could show me where to park cars for Bee's parking that night.
We went back to Nana's and played out back.

Friday
We got ready for Fathers and Son's and played with friends.
Dad, Ethan and Gavin, went to Fathers and Son's camp out up American Fork Canyon.
Moey and I went to Mcdonald's to play on the play place -it was super busy.

Saturday
The boys came home about 1 o'clock. We hurried and put stuff away so that we go up to Nana's, so I could go to my cousins wedding. Dave took the kids to Grandma B's house. Ethan was excited to play Warcraft 3 or his game that he made up, Duel of Doom. But his uncles were playing a computer game until it was time for them to go. Ethan was pretty bummed. We could have gone to a Buchanan "reunion" (I hate, hate, hate that word bty) But they called it a reunion so I was opposed and Dave was exhausted after the camping trip, so we just headed home to watch Wipeout. Why is it so funny to watch people fall down?

St. George

It was spring break for the kids, so we headed down to St. George for a couple of days of sun. We left on Thursday, after it had snowed 6 inches! We had hoped that St. George would be much warmer, but it was still pretty chilly on Friday, but the sun came out on Saturday, so we were able to finally warm up!

First we hiked to Red Cliffs, it is probably on of my most favorite hikes. It was very sad, there is a picnic area at the trailhead, the are several cottonwood trees, giving the picnic area some much needed shade. The trees were covered in tent caterpillars. I have never seen so many tent caterpillars in my life. The caterpillars were crawling everywhere, all over the cars, grease spots all over the road. No one would use the picnic tables because they were covered in caterpillars. And even if you brushed them off the table, there would probably be just as many as you got rid of, fall out of the trees before you were done. We told the kids we couldn't eat there because we didn't want caterpillar sandwiches. The worst of it, is that it wasn't very hard to see how the caterpillars were killing the trees.
See how the kids are wearing jackets! It was just a little chilly.
But Dave had to take his annual polar bear plunge. Burrrr! Last time we came to Red Cliffs we had the 'bottle incident' where Brayden tossed his empty bottle in the pool of water. And in mad, frenzed, brainless attempts to retrive the bottle, and quell the kids panic that we might leave the bottle, Katie slipped in the water, Dave, being the dutiful uncle, and only adult male, promptly jumped in to save her, forgetting that he had Brayden in the backpack. Fortunaly, they were still in the shallow area, and that no one drowned, and thay Dave had the forthought to leave his iphone in the car.
So remembering the last time we were there, the kids were a little panicy as we neared the big pools. Moey kept saying she was ready to go back. And when Dave's glasses felling into the water, she about jumped out of her skin. Dave didn't get as much swiming time as he would have liked, because the kids were ready to go.
After the hike, and wanting to avoid caterpillar sandwiches, we drove over to Quail Creek Resevoir for lunch. Dave, Ethan and Moey walked down to the 'beach' and threw skipping rocks (Gavy was asleep in the car.) It was pretty windy, I thought it would have been perfect for a kite. Then it really started to blow! The whole lake was covered in white caps. So we decided to head back to the condo to see if it was warm enough to swim there. Nana and Grandpa arrived at the condo just a few minutes after we did. So Dave took the kids swimming, but it was to cold for Ethan, Moey braved the cold, for a little while. I don't know how they would stand it, it was just barely warm enough not being wet.

After swimming, we talked Nana and Grandpa into going to Pirate Island Pizza. It's a restaurant that is a cross between Chuck E. Cheese and the Mayan, only with good food, and Pirates! We played arcade games while we waited to be seated. The kids earned tickets for prizes. It was a litttle to crowed for me. Friday night on spring break might not have been the best choice of nights.


Karina and her family come shortly after we got back to the condo. We rode scooters, played on the playground, played clue, and watched Phinias and Ferb.
Saturday, we played on the playground, rode scooters and played mini golf at the condo (note to self: get some putters from DI to leave at the condo.)
Then we packed up the kids and lunch and drove to Snow Canyon to play on the sand dunes. It sure was busy! I'm thinking that with the down turned econnomy that people are opting for less expencive vacations. So St. George instead of Disneyland. We ate lunch and walked out to the dunes. We flew Nana's tiny pocket kites, and build sand castles. Gavin got sand in his eyes, we we headed back to the cars. Then we went back to the condo for more swimming, only this time it was warm enough to swim, in the very crowded swimming pool.
Nana and Grandpa needed to get going to they headed home, we stayed a little be longer, they went to dinner with Karina and Paul and kids. (Note to self: Don't go to Applebees in St. George)
After dinner to drove home, and made it back just before mindnight.
All in all, it was a great trip!