best friends

Now that Cooper is mobile these two boys have become coconspirators in making the hugest messes, daily. Cooper's crawling and pulling himself up on everything and then pulls toys out and tosses em...... i wonder where he learned that from.

Wil loves to read books to cooper too. and they sit and laugh with eachother, Wil plays peek-a-boo with coop and then they both laugh and roll and laugh, i really hope they stay best friends lol, they are too cute

Halloween

My mom and lil sis came up for halloween like they did last year, i think its a fun tradition we will have to keep up! it was great to have her here, i really really miss em

We had alot of fun with Wil this year, he loved picking out his own costume and talked about trick-or-treating for weeks!!

Nick pulled this super sweet costume together last minute, i had some face paint and right before trick-or-treating time he was doin his face up and it looked awesome, the pictures do not do it justice

Then there was Coopy the pirate, lol, he kept the mustache on all night, didnt smear it or anything

we are so precious! We had a pizza party before we went then lasted a whole 2 or 3 blocks before it got dark and cold and we headed back lol. really fun tho

Dangnabit

Ok, so this time for real i promise to not post only once a month!!! I've had way to much real life crap happening, nothing fun and sparkly and blog worthy lol. I'm thinkin we will be making a trip to the pumpkin patch saturday so i can post warm fluffies about that!

cute pics of the kids:

I got this car for Wil at a mom 2 mom sale for $10, and it was the best $10 ive ever spent, he spent an entire week in that thing! He ate in it, he watched tv in it, he ran over his brother in it, he packed whatever he could pack in it.

Coop is not quite crawling, he can go from laying to sitting like a pro, he get on all fours all the time, just cant go forward, he bounces on his bum while sitting in a forward motion and thats how he gets to something in front of him, hes a riot, and constantly getting stuck under things

I took a crack at homemade bread......... looked really good when i stuck it in the oven. I didnt take an after picture... it looked pretty much like that.... :( oh well, try try again, dumb bread

This is my hazmat outfit for when we cleaned out the house in lansing that we used to live in. The bank took it back last year after we moved and couldnt sell it, or rent it.. or anything, and after we applied for every sort of helpful anything granhlom grant etc. tried to short sell it and was declined for that.. bah anyways! over the summer we got a letter from the bank saying that they are giving us the house back.... it said here ya go, keep the house, we are going to put the 90,000 (after penalties and taxes and fees) you owe us into collections. so you still have to pay us back but u can have the crappy house. Ugh we said... then in september we got a letter from the collection agency saying that we can settle the 90,000 debt for 12,000 and call it even, we get to keep the house, sell it, burn it down, whatever cuz we own it, there will be nothing on our credit and the house is ours..... Needless to say we couldnt refuse the offer. Sooooooo now we have to go back to the house that we gave back to the bank and left it full of garbage and crap (yes we are those kind of people) So the hazmat suit i have on in the above pic was to clean out the maggot filled refrigerator. and take all the rotted and composting food that has been sitting in a vacant house with no power for the last year rotting.... i took lots of pics but cant post them due to the fact that they are way too disgusting, and i cant believe it was left like that.... anyways cant dwel on the past.

We filled the dumpster in no time and still have some crap that could prolly fill at least half of another one of those. This house was nick's house before we were married, he lived there for a while with lots of different roommates that came and went and left lots of crap behind, furniture, couches, broken tables, just tons and tons of crap.....

Now we are fixing the front picture window that had a brick thrown through it (gosh downtown lansing is wonderful.....) and putting in a new front door and selling it for super cheap..... hopefully not moving back into it cuz i would cry. its like that 1408 movie, where the room kept sucking him back in. I was out!!! I was out!!!!!!!! lol dumb house, dumb bread, sigh, and thats the month of september and half of oct in my life.

poor neglected blog!!

Where to begin.... well lots has happened in the month of August!!!!

First off I turned 25!!! (and let my 2 year old use the camera!! we have tons TONS of dorky pics like this one!)
Cooper had his 6 month!! photo shoot and checkup, He is the size of a one year old!!!

stats:

height: 29 1/2in (105th percentile)

weight: 21.5 lbs!! (105th percentile)

He is my chunker!!! and i LOVE it !!!

We went to Nauvoo to be there when my little bro Todd got married!!!!

Wil helped with the driving, it was so much easier with 3 drivers for the long road trip :)

We played tourists in Nauvoo for a day! Road on a wagon, pulled by Oxen, learned how to make bread, candles, and rope! it was really fun

This is us learning how to make the rope, my bro is turning the wheel.

Here is the gorgeous bride, my new sis in law, and her proud hubby!! the pink tie and cumberbun were so awesome!!!

(and whoever did the brides hair did an amazing job cuz man is it pretty!) oh wait... that was me :D

It was a perfect wedding! they are soo cute together and im totally stoked to have her in my fam!! We had an awesome time at the wedding and saw tons of people we hadnt seen in forever! Ate great food and had a hard time leaving! (well some of us did i.e. Wil and I)

Wil is still asking to go on a trip to see gramma O.

I let Wil be incharge of the camera at the reception so we have some awesome shots of people's chins but people take pictures more willingly when a cute little kid toddles up and says

"Say Cheeeeessseee"

hence the above photo!

I know im missing alot from august but there is just way too much to catch up on, i promise i will do a better job of keeping this updated from here on out!!

Feedback

Hey all my blog friends! I am going to try to get Coop on formula in the next few weeks and i was wondering about different brands. Is there a huge difference for baby between the off brand and the name brand?? I can get the meijer brand formula for $11 and the same size name brand costs $22ish, if not more...... thats half ...... im sure he will drink it and be fine but im also feeling guilty because i nursed wil till he was about 10 months, he was barely on formula, then to stop earlier with this kid and give him generic formula for 6 months is he going to be at a disadvantage? lol silly thing to worry about i know just humor me and tell me whatcha think?? :)

Cheese State and Hair cuts!

We got to spend almost 2 weeks in Wisconsin with my mom n dad, when i say we i mean Wil, Coop n I. We went up there... over there...?... to see my lil bro jake off on his mission!
There was a big party after church after jake's "farewell" They dont usually do big farewells anymore for missionaries but in their ward which is really really small they wanted to make a big deal of it for their young men, so they had my parents talk and jake talk and then the primary kids sang I hope they call me on a mission (which my little Wil could sing along to) Jake teaches the young boys of the ward, there is one class for the like 7-12 year olds i think, mom correct me if im wrong, but those kids really looked up to jake and they were all up there singing, all the kids and jake, Wil wanders up there by my mom who was playing the piano, its a really small building, then jake walks over while singing and grabs Wil and they all sing i hope they call me on a mission, Thats when i lost it. My lil bro all grown up and leaving standin up there in his suit and holding my lil one singin that song. All i could see is doing that one day with Wil..... oh man there i go again, hormones are mean.... Aaaaanyway moving on :)

We took jake to the airport in madison and said adios!

After Jake left we stayed a few extra days to enjoy the sites of Wisconsin Dells and so that we could see my other brother Todd who was headed home during break from BYUI, the next time i see him will be the weekend he is getting married!! but we went to the most awesomest wildlife park in the dells and got to feed all sorts of awesome animals!! the giraffes were by far the coolest!!! you walked up a few flights of stairs to the deck and were right by their heads!!! and seriously their tongues were the size of an arm it was awesome

I have lots more pictures but dont want to make this post too long, we got to feed a little zebra, a baby yak, a camel, a llama.... lots more that i dont remember. And before we went through the park they had a wildlife show where we got to pet a huge turtle, a porcupine, a monkey, a skunk, a fox, and they brought a baby tiger out on the stage! it was really really cool

When we got home i finally broke down and cut Coop's hair.... it was really hard, hes getting too big too fast lol, but it was really scraggily, i didnt realize how bad it was until it was all gone, he looks alot better, poor kid lol and it was only long right on top of his head and on both sides above his ears cuz it all fell out in the back.... it really was time, and now hes a big boy!

Crazy summer!

This summer is going to fly by faster than i know what to do! My lil sis has been here for the last week and we had a blast! my parents came up for the 4th of july weekend and left her here for a week longer, she is headed home tomorrow morning with my bro jake's girlfriend.

We had sooooo much fun with her here, my kids love her, she fits right in with them! yesterday we went to potter park zoo and saw all the animals and ran around till we were too tired to stand!

We petted (if thats a word, i dont think it is ) lots of smelly animals!

Cooper the lion!! RRRaaaawwwrrrrrr!

Wil conquered his fear of slides!!! We couldnt get him to go home!

he has always been to scaredy to go on slides, even with me, he just crys and we go anyways. but yesterday he got really brave

Smushy Coopy face, love love love it!

Wednesday me n the kiddos are headed up to wisconsin to see my lil bro jake off for 2 years! he is heading to arizona to serve a mission for the church and is totally excited and ridiculously nervous. I'm nervous for the 8 hour drive with my 2 babies by myself. we will be headed home on the 24th then nick is headed to texas on the 25th for the weekend, and then its august already! i'm going to be really sad and lonely for my hubbs but hopefully it will go real fast for us.

My cousin Aubrey and her hubby live in utah and are expecting a baby boy in a few weeks, they havent been out there for very long at all and had a shower but didnt get a whole lot, so she wanted to have a shower here in michigan too in her home ward but couldnt make it back before baby comes. So her mom hosted a shower for her anyway and we Skyped her in! lol it was awesome really, she was sittin in her livingroom in utah and participated the whole time! She got to see the presents being opened and see all she got and everyone got to talk to her. it was pretty awesome, almost like she was really there and not a million miles away!

On Saturday we all went down to Balloonfest! it was a blast, nothing better than food thats awful for u and rides that spin all over, i must be getting old because just walkin onto the grounds i got queasy lol

We were walking around deciding what we wanted to eat when we saw a sign for Deep fried Twinkies!!! lol, i couldnt believe my eyes, did i really want a $7 twinkie for dinner? no, not really, could i pass it up?? def not, i mean honestly, how often in ur lifetime are u going to get offered a twinkie wrapped in batter, deep fried to perfection, doused in powdered sugar and chocolate syrup?? lol

It was FABULOUS!!! im not even kidding, kind of like a doughnut, but..... better!!! i thought about googling how many calories was in that bad boy but i decided id rather not know..... :D

4 month check up

4 mo Well baby check

Weight - 18lbs! 100th percentile :)

Height - 27.25 inches 110th percentile (thats off the charts)

Head - 17.1 inches 75th percentile

She said that my 4 month old is about the same size as the average 9 month old...

LOL i love it!!! he is my lil cabbage patch doll :D

Coop sits in the bouncer chair with both legs sprawled over the bar and play and sucks on his toes all the time, this kid cracks me up, hes got monkey legs and toes, plays with the toys with his toes as much as he does with his hands lol

I am in such a funk right now! I cant wait to get my family here to get my mind off all the nonsense that is going on! But my mom and dad are coming for the 4th which will be tons of fun, apparently there are fireworks that go off over the lake that will be awesome, then then middle of next month my baby brother is leaving on a mission for the chuch, so i will be taking the kiddos up to wisconsin for a week to see him off, then at the end of august todd my other bro is getting married! n my bday is in there somewhere, im going to be 25!!! to quote jessica simpson Thats mid twenties which is almost late twenties which is almost 30s!!! aaahhh lol this summer is going to go real fast, but im achin for it to start!

Potty training!

Day three is today, and wil is doing awesome!! i can hardly believe how easy it is for him!!! He has slept in undies for 2 nights now, night number one he woke up dry and sat on the potty and went right away!! then later that morning he came in and i asked him if he had to go and he said "yes" so after sitting there for a while i was going to make him get up, went back in to see how he was doing and he says "i did it!!" i looked and there was a hugeantic #2~!!!!! holy cow this kid can do this!!! then he had a few little accidents yesterday but can stop himself and make it to the potty. Last night he woke up crying at about 130, he was dry so i asked him if he needed to go and he said yes again, and went alot!!! that was why he was crying! then went back to bed and woke up this morning dry again....... im so impressed, and no accidents yet today at all, we went to the library and i had him in a pullup just to be safe but when we got home it was still dry!!!! he has gone 3 times today, i think hes got it...... no wait hes deff got it!! This kid has made all this stuff way too easy on me :D
The pic of Coop is just cuz hes cute and his cheeks crack me up! :)

This IS going to happen!

Status as of right now..... no potty in the chair..... we got potty on the floor of the bathroom, have gone through 2 pairs of undies..... its soooo close..... now we are watchin Bolt. this IS going to happen!!!!!
maybe...... if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow...... then I will eat the entire bag of m&m's and we will pick up in a few weeks.... lol

Beach!

Last week my in-laws had a beach put in the backyard!!! it was the coolest thing to watch. the back yard is sort of tyred so they dug up all the grass on the bottom tyre and put sand all in there then laid the tarp in the water and blasted truck loads of sand on top of it.

It took em a couple days to get all the dirt outta there you can see where all the water is in a puddle above the wall, thats all sand now, and the lake used to just drop off from the seawall and there would be immediately like 3 feet of water, now there is actually a beach, they brought in 4 semi trucks with 2 trailers each of sand that they blasted into the water, it was awesome. so i dont have to worry so much about wil falling off the sea wall and into the water, its shallow enough that he will just bonk his head. makes me feel better.

The day after it was sunny all afternoon until wil woke up from his nap, then the stupid clouds came in and it got a little chilly again. michigan is so dumb, but we wanted to go walk along the beach, well wil "accidentally" fell into the water...... so i just let him sit there and play till he turned blue and got the body shivers, then i pulled him out, he woulda stayed in there all day though , he doesnt care if he cant feel his fingers.....

im pretty sure thats how he got croup again this weekend, but whatever he had fun lol. If it ever gets warm here we might be able to break out the swim suits, but i doubt that will happen,..... stinkin michigan.....

anyways im totally stoked, we will be spending every day at the beach!!!!!! so if anyone needs me thats where ill be, no need to ever leave the property lol. feel free to come visit!!!! theres a beach in the backyard!!!!

I keep trying to tell him that makeup is for girls
he doesnt care, i caught him like this and he says "i hansome mommy"

Coop has recently discovered toys, can't quite get em in his mouth , and i dunno if i've bragged enough about how well this kid sleeps!!! its freakin ridiculous!!! like 10 hours a night!!!, he wakes up when nick's alarm goes off in the morning!!! i <3>

photo shoot

I did Wil n Coop's photo shoot this week, or last week really it has been a week long thing, i've been tryin to catch em in good moods n what not, i set up a make shift studio in the corner behind the pool table and just left it up and kept goin back every few days to see if the kids were wanting to be cooperative. Wil took a few really good ones, i need to go back and get a few more of Cooper, he still doesnt want to push his head up for a pic, stinkin lazy boy, hes getting stronger though., Wil didnt push his head up till a little after he was 3 months too tho.

This is the look he gives me all the time, like im retarded.... so i had to post one up there, i cant imagine what hes thinking, and maybe i dont wanna know lol

Wil got bribed with a cookie, his pictures turned out better than Coop's because the light was able to hit just him and not the backdrop, i need to get some sort of thing to put coop on so that the background will stay dark... Im not a professional photographer by any means but im pretending lol, i think some of em turned out real cute!