A day to be thankful

Dad and Ryan carving the bird

Mom & I--a rare photo I am happy Bonnie took for us



My beautiful children on Cooper's first thankgiving.

My family

It has been a wonderful year for our family with lots to be thankful for. We have been blessed with our first home and our second child. We have wonderful families and friends who helped us with the challenges we faced with another baby and remodeling over the summer. Overall; it has been a wonderful year for our family and we are thankful for all the good things that have came our way this year. 2010 has been a great year for us and we are very thankful.

Smiles

This is what I am blessed with seeing very frequently these days. Lots of smiles by my little guy. He wakes up and when he sees us he smiles and starts to coo. Its hard to be sad about 6 am with that much happiness radiating towards you.

A busy week

Cooper this morning helping me cook a little breakfast and being a big boy in his Bumbo chair.

Miss Paige and her Santa bubble beard. She's getting so excited for Christmas.





Sort of caught one of those smiles he's giving out lately.


Mighty deer hunter

The last week was a busy one for us; with some nice weather, a brief snowfall, and now more sunshine. The mighty deer hunter was successfull his first afternoon out. He says he was in the right place at the right time. It made me happy as I had a husband to hang out with all weekend and wasn't a 'deer hunting widow.' We used the time on Saturday to go over to Hettinger and visit some family we hardly see. We spent several hours with Bob and Jean; so they could meet Cooper and I could get the tour of their place. We had a great afternoon with some wonderful people.

The week brought about my first out of town meeting; and Ryan had to drop Paige and Cooper off. He remembered the milk so all went well! The down side of this week is Cooper is getting a stuffy nose and is congested. He's been sleeping pretty well, but we are still in the early stages of his cold I believe.

We are spending this weekend catching up on stuff. Pictures, laundry, dusting, all the fun stuff.

Cooper 2 months

November 2nd. Roughly about 12.5 pounds!

Here are the monthly horse pictures of Cooper. Paige and he are in the one together for comparisons sake! He is doing really well and is a good baby. He's starting to have great neck control and we've put him in the Bumbo chair a time or two and within a few weeks I think it will be his favorite new place to hang out. He can sit there now; but his neck gets tired and he starts to tilt! Cooper is sleeping so well I can't believe it. We've started swaddling him super tight and we've had countless all nighters because of it. I enjoy getting 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep and am getting spoiled! He is starting to be more alert and likes to 'sit up' and watch his surroundings. The biggest thing he's been doing is smiling. Of course I can't catch it very well with a picture; but he's starting to be very 'smiley' and reacts to our voices with huge smiles. He is starting to coo more and will sometimes 'talk' back to you. Overall, I feel he's phasing out of that newborn stage and starting to be a fun baby. He's starting to get his own little personality.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween--that's we had. Paige was primed for trick or treating and did a great job of saying it and thanking people. It was a beautiful night and we didn't have to wrestle with snowsuits! Plus, the reptiles liked to cuddle earlier in the day!

Trick or Treating Practice

Today at preschool, they were in costume and went trick or treating at the courthouse. Paige has been teetering between being a dragon and a princess. Thanks to the movie, "How to Train a Dragon" she thinks they are pretty cool. I was just excited to think we may not have a princess for a 3rd year in a row. Thanks to Kim we smuggled Kyler's dragon costume out of the house and can borrow it. The problem is her son can't know we have it as he doesn't want anyone else to wear it. That's understandable, however, they go to preschool together. So Paige was a princess today to eliminate any costume drama. She wasn't any old princess though. She was a rodeo-cowgirl-princess. Belle dress, black cowboy hat with tiara, black leggings and pink boots. Kim curled her hair before they left and gave her 'big' queen hair. I am told she was so excited that she kept saying, "I just can't stop smiling!". They did well trick or treating and she came home with a bag of goodies. She has declared she will be a dragon on Halloween though. Cooper is going to be Kermit the Frog; so I guess its a green Halloween for us!

Halloween prep

Paige and Gramma carving the pumpkin. Paige thought the insides were gross and funny--but she pulled out some seeds. She preferred to paint pumpkins.

The lovely Clarke ladies with Cooper and Paige. Would be a really nice picture if my daughter would cooperate taking a picture!

So we had a busy weekend following up my first week back to work. It started out on Saturday morning with Cooper sleeping through the night--he went from 10pm to 5:45am. I thought that was a great way to start the day. Then Gramma and Grampa came over with a bunch of pumpkins for us to paint and carve on Saturday afternoon. Paige and Gramma spent some time with them and did a good job. Cowboy said he'll even carve some later in the week. We have enough pumpkins we could spend each night this week working on some! After they left, Paige's surprise company came. Bobbi and the girls detoured through after Jensen's track meet in Jamestown so they could meet Cooper. Paige got the spend the night with them at Gramma Jane's and we all spent Sunday morning together. Cooper seemed to enjoy all the female attention as he slept through it all! Paige loved seeing her cousins and finished Sunday afternoon off with a 2+hour nap that she desperately needed. Our afternoon ended with friends over for supper and homemade knoephla soup. Not a bad weekend at all. Here is hoping for another good week!