Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! It was an awesome christmas thats for sure :) Santa came and boy did he not disappoint!!!

Wil got his Skylanders game!!! It is really fun to play with him, he loves the guys and know all their names and elements, we have to get a couple more for sure, but google them if you don't know what they are, they are going to be a big deal

This is Wil and his starter Skylanders, its a game for the PS3, or really it think it comes on all the systems. He loves it.

Cooper got his Buzz! Its all he asked for, not all he got but for sure the biggest deal gift from daddy, I didn't want to get him one.... he has one, its not my fault that its a hand me down from grandma and its 15 years old so now it doesn't work..... he still has one lol... He kept asking for one that worked and talked and had a working laser, So daddy and amazon pulled through last minute and Coop got his favorite gift :)

Rachel and Grandma O came a few days after Christmas and stayed a while, We made a gingerbread train with Rachel.... she got more frosting on the kids , and in their tummies, than on the train....

Coop was literally running in circles for a good 45 minutes after she just poured frosting down their throats.. lol, someday, when she has kids, she will get some payback..... laugh it up now chuckles

Wil and Cooper have been saving money in their piggy bank for months, if not even a whole year of more... actually prolly more than a year, well Wil decided that he wanted to cash in his coins and see if he had enough money for them to go to Build-a-bear workshop. So Yesterday we went to kroger, and sure enough these two kids saved $75!!!!!! holy cow, i was floored..... Sooo off to Build-a-bear we went today :) Daddy gave Wil his very own wallet to keep his money safe in. That is what they are holding in the picture.

They picked some cute ones. Got the bears some awesome outfits, Coop's got a Buzz lightyear suit, and Wil's is a Jedi, with a light saber and all :)

Worth every penny, they loved it :) we will never be able to take 3 kids to build-a-bear..... wow what a money pit.... but boy are they happy, and that makes it worth it. I am proud of them that they were able to work so hard and save and save and save up for over a year. There were times when Wil wanted to take a couple "moneys" out and get candy at the store, but always changed his mind and left it there so he could have enough for a bear.

Remember

I just wanted to write this down so i can look back and remember. I was talking to my mom about how much harder this pregnancy has been, that my feet are so swollen at the end of the day even though i have to wear compression stockings all day everyday since like 14 weeks lol, but apparently she remembers going shopping with me while i was pregnant with Wil and i was falling apart by the 3rd store cuz my feet were swollen and was walking too much and sore. also my ring is getting nice and tight and leaving a mark on my finger, i can almost not get it off anymore, might have to take it off for the last few months, although i dont remember if i did that last time or not, cuz i didnt write anything like that down.

December

We have had an exciting month! Its almost christmas and there has been a lot of stuff happening! I should mention that for thanksgiving we took a trip to Iowa to see my mom and dads new digs.... I did not take one picture..... not one...... lol It was a quick trip but still a lot of fun and Nick was able to come with us! which made the 8 hour car ride better! I have been having serious issues with my legs this pregnancy so it was awesomely awesome for him to be able to drive and me to be able to sit with my feet up and watch movies with the kids :)

We made a gingerbread house one night, it took us about 30 mins to put all the candy on it, the immediatley they wanted to eat it..... so i let them eat a bit of it..... it took 2 days then it looked like

this

We went out to the mall in Novi to see santa! waaay better than the okemos santa, which is where we usually go, they had an awesome polar bear exibit to look at while we were in the line.

Then just before we saw santa they had an awesome room that looked like a snow globe and had snow falling from the ceiling, it was sooooo cool, and the kids loooved to play in it. but the tiny little plastic pieces of snow got super stuck in the boys gelled hair, so when they saw santa they both had a ton of "snow" that we couldnt get off of them lol

It lasted aaaaalllll day long lol, Wil was helpin pick it outta coopers hair, like a monkey

I have decided that i am going to take pictures of all of the craft projects the kids do and pictures they draw so i dont have to keep all of the,, though this project will be a baby book keeper cuz i love it, but every time they draw something I have just been taking a picture of it. Some of them get to be stuck on the wall for a while, but after a week or so they come down and get thrown away.... i can keep them all, and i didnt just want to forget about them all, so I will probably have at least 50gigs of memory saved just for pictures of thier art but its smaller than a gigantic box lol

This picture cracked me up, Coop fell on something and busted his lip open, then Wil drew this of Cooper who is sad, with a little bit of red blood comin outta his lip lol his sad eyes and tears, lol i love it, i love the stage my kids are at, i want to remember it forever!!!!

We made christmas cookies, this is the kids unwrapping reeses cup to stick in the peanut butter cookies when they come outta the oven..... for every one coop opened he ate one.... lol, He has haad the grossest poop for the last few days, we should prolly eat some more salads!

I was getting them dressed for church and thought we could try to get a good picture of the two of them, they looked so hansome. of course they forget how to smile normally when i ask them to, When they actually have to think about smiling they cant seem to give me a normal smile, they make me crazy!!!

This is our santa picture this year! they did smile really good for this one. :)

halloween, halloween and more halloween!!!

We had soooo many halloween parties this year it made this holiday last forever!!!! I really was great though, we got our moneys worth out of our costumes!! I was going to make the boys' ninja costumes, but the fabric just sat on the table for a week or two, after i started it it wasnt looking as awesome as i wanted them to look but it would have worked just fine, Nick stopped at the halloween store one afternoon after class and called me and was like "These ninja costumes are the perfect colors.... they look really awesome" So im like "so your saying that my costumes suck and we should just buy them so the kids look cool??" lol

So i didnt end up making them at all, which is fine cuz they really liked the ones daddy got them, and the swords dad got them. Hes cooler than me and im okay with it!!!

Oue first activity was trunk or treat at church!! we played awesome games like making me a mummy as seen in the above picture, and trick or treated inside door to door since it was raining :) I got to debut my awesome skeleton shirt :) i bought the iron on decal online and put it on a t-shirt :) i kinda melted some of it, and prolly could of made one with freezer paper, but again my motivation for being crafty seems to be lacking since the baby ate my brain.

The next morning was our playgroup halloween party!!! which is always a big hit!!! they played more awesome games! like push the pumpkin races, and pumpkin bowling,

donuts on a string, cooper missed this one because he ws throwing a fit in the hallway,

Then the next day we went trick or treating at Bill's office down in detroit! Where they got sooooo much candy they both filled their pumpkins and were working on filling a walmart bag by the time we were done!! it was awesome, we will be eating candy forever.... My sister-in-law announced to her parents that she was expecting with a preggy skele shirt like mine, we were twinsies!!! Her mom was and is so stinking excited!!! This is Heather's 5th kid! and noone was expecting her to have anymore cuz her youngest is 8! so we are all awesomely excited!!!!! Its going to be awesome to have so many babies around :)

Then Monday started out with a preschool party! They had a parade through the kindergarten and first grade class rooms and Wil was just beaming through the whole parade, it was adorable!

Then that night, after some much needed afternoon naps we hit the road! Wil ran house to house, but coop had a hard time walking/seeing in his mask and was a little slower and fell an awful lot!! i think next year we will be able to just stay in the street while the boys run house to house :) prolly with a little butterfly or something equally adorable and girly in the stroller :D

Our favorite stop!! the donut house!!!! fresh homemade donuts and cider served out of the garage, perfect half way point :)

when we got home we dumped out all of the candy from the whole week. Coopers first instinct was to throw it up in the air like you do with leaves.... or money.... lol he wanted to roll in it also, then we ate and ate and ate as much as we could in 5 minutes )

I forgot to get pumpkins........ big deal, big stinkin deal, Nick is so busy and we always try to go to the pumpkin patch together to pick our pumpkins, he never really had time, then the saturday before i was grocery shopping and there was a mad rush at the front of the store for pumpkins, and my thought was "i should prolly grab some, theres no way they will run out though right?" oooooo so wrong!!! sunday on our way home we thought we would stop at kroger and grab some.... all gone, meijer, gone walmart, gone, patch on the cornor, gone. I was so emotional about not having pumpkins. I still am sad about it :(

then i thought that wil wouldnt remember, we hadnt talked to much about, but the whole time we were trick or treating he was telling everyone that we were going to go home and carve our pumpkins and that his will look just as awesome as all the pumpkins we saw at everyone's houses LOL sigh

epic parenting fail

we had a couple little pumpkins that we got a few weeks ago at our field trip to the patch, so we let the boys carve those. Wil kept asking where mommy and daddy's big pumpkins were :(
I dont think i have missed a halloween of carving pumpkins in my whole life.... my whole life... sigh

note to self: next year buy pumpkins the Week before halloween at least.... not the day before lol

live and learn

Baby Girl!

Here she is!!! the most beautiful baby girl in the whole world!!!!! I had a hard time believing the ultrasound lady, i really did. but she called her a girl from the beginning, i think she took a look before she told us about it at the end lol, Jan ( the ultrasound lady) said that baby was full of drama, her poses made her look dramatic! lol

She was looking for the gender for a while and baby had her legs crossed, so Jan was like "im thinking its deff a girl, but i cant get a good picture. sometimes you can catch just what you need to and get a picture of it" Then she dug around for a little bit to get a better shot, i was like "maybe isnt really good enough today" lol, then jan was like "oh there it is!! yupp its a girl"

I started crying, in disbelief really, i had myself all prepped to have another boy, i really did, also i would have been okay with anything as long as baby was healthy and growing and everything looked great in there, its really nerve racking, your staring making sure you see all the fingers and limbs and pretty little face, its amazing, and totally a miracle, every time i look at the pictures its hard to believe theres a little person in my tummy, I love it!!!

Wil and Cooper are super excited to have a "sister baby" before we knew what she was we were discussing names for the baby, and My three boys decided we would name the baby Ninja.... So when i asked what we should name the baby now that its a sister baby Wil looked at me all confused "i thought we were naming it Ninja?" his face was all like, duh mom.... lol, i dont think that will be okay with me though.

I went out the next day and got 3 outfits for her!! lol

I was standing in the baby dept at kohl's pretty much in tears lol, i never let myself get to excited about little girl things, i just didnt want to be disappointed to find out i was having a boy and then feel guilty about being disappointed, because a healthy baby is really the end goal here, and boy or girl if its healthy im happy, so it was just too much fun to let myself get excited and emotional in the middle of kohl's!!!

Had another baby appt yesterday and get to set my ultrasound date for Oct 25th! ugh so excited!Wil had school and was bummed that he missed it! I dont think i blogged about Wil starting school! He absolutaly loves it!!!!! He is having so much fun! His teachers name is Ms Kym, and she is wonderful! They are learning a lot! it seems that it is all things that he knows already, but in a fun new way, i know with all the play and different activities he isnt getting bored at all, yet!!! He knows some names of the kids in his class but not really, he says he has a best friend, and He points out which kids are the naughty ones lol, as long as hes not in that group im okay!!!

Wil got the very first OWL Helping Award in his class this year! Ms Kym said that it was a big deal because not everyone gets one and that they dont give them out too often but that Wil was such an awesome helper ALL the time that he got the first one! He was so excited and I was beaming :) makes me proud that he is a good listener and helper at school. He is such a great kid :) He is awesome at making his bed every morning before school, I love that he can do it on his own, with my growing weight problem it is getting harder and harder to climb onto that top bunk..... he might not get clean sheets for a while!!!

Coop is having fun with all his special mommy time!!! Well the last few weeks we have just spent it running errands, but Wednesday when its just him and me we head to the library for a story time, and try to hit the cool little coffee house for a hot chocolate before hand. Last friday we went out for breakfast, it was a lot of fun :) its nice to remember what it was like with just one little one :)

We have been working with Coop on how to spell his name... it is the funniest most frusteraating thing in the whole world, Wil's name was easy, he was spelling that at like 18 months lol But now when u ask cooper how you spell his name

he replies (in a loud loud voice) " B I L COOPER!!!!!1"

hhmmmm nope, lets break it down then say C O O

"C P O!!!"

nope, C O O

"C P O COOOOPER!!!!!" then he runs away

sigh...... maybe we will try again later

Baby appt this week went well! I am now 16 weeks! So far this pregnancy has been completely different from my other 2. which I hear people say but its wierd when it really is. I had to bring in a list of questions for the dr. I was super stressed out (already) of what will happen when i go into labor, Nick is going to 2 schools right now and working full time, he spends some mornings in East Lansing, and everyday down in Ypsi at Eastern, then works here in howell every evening. I had been looking at spring break to have this baby, assuming that both schools have the same spring break.... they dont!!! Nick isnt going to be able to take aaaany time off when baby comes... maybe a few days from work but none from school. 2. they no longer deliver babies here in Howell, I have to drive down to the St joes in Ann Arbor! which is a super nice hospital, but my labors have been getting shorter and rumor has it from my mom that she almost had her 4th one in the car on the way to the hospital 3. my mom is moving far away! instead of 3 hours she is now 8 hours, so she is going to need some sort of notice before she can get here. 4. there are 3 drs in my office, 2 of which i know and like a lot, the 3rd one i will meet next time but she sounds awesome. But this office now delivers at the hospital with 2 other drs who could be on call that i will never get the chance to meet!!! i dont like that idea at all!!! I really like my one dr who delivered Cooper and did my d&c for me, and was there through all of that, I would really like for him to deliver the baby, sooooooooo All of these reason i spewed onto my dr yesterday and he was like "yeah we can induce u thats fine, but we will talk about it when its closer" and i was like "both my babies were at least a week if not a week and a half early, so can we induce 2 weeks early do i dont go into labor?" buuuuuut they dont like to induce any earlier than 39 weeks..... soooo aall of my grief is sort of better but not really, unless i can get induced the day i am 39 weeks lol..... my biggest fear, going in to labor, having nick already be in ypsi and having to drive myself to the hospital, and my mom not getting here fast enough to help me while nick is going to class and not able to take the kids....... whew When i had coop it was like a week before she could get here...... not gonna be acceptable this time, its just not.

well i feel better having gotten all that out of my head and onto the blog!!! LOL

im sure i will look back on this craziness fondly.... or maybe laugh at myself, i hope i dont have this baby on the side of the highway stuck in the stupid traffic on 23 south to AA all alone cuz my hubby is already down there!!!!!

lol .....

but really.....

we've got a long way to go though!! im only 16 weeks!!! hahaha i AM crazy

Baby 3!

Had another appt today!!! was real nervous again but all is well!!!! I'm so excited, I got to have another ultrasound :) The little guy was crazy moving all over the place! It was awesome to get to watch for a little while :)

I was telling Wil this morning that he was going to go to aunt heather's while I went to the doctor to check on the baby. He was so sincere when he said "But mom, can I go too? I wanna check the baby and see the doctor too?" I told him we prolly wouldnt get to see the baby or get more pics ( i didnt know they would do an ultrasound today) and he was sure he said "mom i really want to hear the baby's heart beat please can i go with you?" and of course if Wil wants to do it then Coop wants to also. They were really great. Wil had an awesome time. He totally knew what he was looking at during the ultrasound, his face was the second best part. He said "That baby is freakin out in there" cuz it really was.

I feel so much more confident now about his baby and pregnancy, I am so excited! So are wil and Coop.

Wil says he wants a "sister baby" and coop says he wants a "sister baby" too. :)

I would love a sister baby, but i will also loooove another brother baby, cuz my other two brother babies are pretty stinkin awesome

Summer!!

Too busy havin fun to blog about every little thing so here are the highlights so far!!! I cant believe that august is almost over. its a little sad! we are buying school clothes and supplies and pulling out jeans and hoodies. :( Summer in michigan is absolutaly awesome, its green, not too hot, every day on the beach! the above picture is all the way back from 4th of July! My boys loved the poppers. u know those scary things that u throw on the ground and the pop, Wil got really good at just squeezing them and popping them in his fingers lol, also throwing them at people hard enough for them to pop on their backs. Talented... my boy is talented :)

We had a little bonfire in the backyard and watched the firworks over the lake. it was really nice!! We sat out on the dock and there were big fireworks that the people around the lake do so we kept having to turn our heads around, but it was perfectly great and nice and close ;)

My cuz Aubrey and her little fam were in town for 2 whole months this summer! They are going to school in utah but her husband got a good job here for the summer building stuff so we got to hang out all the time!!!

This is at a big truck event at the library! Rachel was in town for the last harry potter movie and so she got to stay for a whole week. it was the best, she is headed out to utah today to go to school this year :( i will miss her so much its stupid. Shes the funniest bestest craziest girl there is. She is gonna rock provo lol look out people!

We went and saw the final Harry Potter movie 7.2 in the Imax theater in lansing at midnight. It was awesome. I barely made it through the next day... but totally worth it :) Nick came with us, but his shirt didnt turn out as awesome as ours and so he wouldnt wear it :(

then a few weeks later we headed down to Inidana to welcome my littlest bro home from his mission! My other brother Todd and his wife Catie were able to fly in. but at ridiculous horrible hours..... Not holding a grudge Catie, but wow those tickets were crazy!! lol ur not aloud to buy tickets anymore, I'll book the flights for u! Cuz they flew into Indianapolis which is 2 hours away from my moms house. and i live 3 hours away in the opposite direction. Todd's flight got in at like 11:30 or 11, and Caties flight got in at 12:30, so by the time we had the luggae and were headed home it was 1am. so we got home after a stop for breakfast at mcdonalds at 3:30 lol then my kids were up at 7......... omg, im to old for that crap!!! it was fun looking back, we were a little nutty, and we let the 18 year old drive us all lol but we made it it one piece!!

Then the next night we headed fort wayne where Jake flew in, which is only 30 mins away from my moms house, and he flew in at a normal time lol, but we were chillin at the airport for a while waitin for my bro whom we hadnt seen for a few years.

We made some signs just in case he didnt recognize us

He gave everyone the biggest and best hugs, i really missed this kid. He is the nicest kid around! Missionaries are always a bit wierd when they come back. well Todd was wierd when he came back. Jake sorta was just the same...... Yellin at mom for runnin his truck into the ground while he was gone. pretending he was asleep when i asked him to help me bring the groceries inside lol. seriously? u just got home from ur mission, when i say jump ur supposed to jump!!!!

The weekend after he came home a buncha our family came down for rachel's graduation party where i did not take any pictures. like makybe 2. I have been a little sick and tired lately.... more like A LOT sick and tired, and that whole week i had to keep eating so as to not feel nautious... we are blaming this little guy

Here it is! this pic was at 8 weeks. i had another ultrasound at 6 weeks, I am now 10 weeks! everything seems to be great so far! this little guy has a heart beat, and is making me amazingly sick, which are all normal and good things so hopefully everything will work out past the first trimester, I only have 2 more weeks till trimester 2! i spent the last 3 weeks puking my guts out! the last few days i have been feeling better!! so lots of nervousness i dunno if that will go away this time tho, not for a while maybe.

Memorial day and Rachel's Graduation!

Soccer started before memorial day! Wil has been loving it and 4 year old soccer is just plain entertaining to watch! There are a couple little kids on his team that are really good though.

Wil is number 4! He got his number 4 jersey on his number 4 birthday :) it was a pretty big deal!

My mom and I took the kids to the Memorial Day parade, none of the other party poopers wanted to go. I really think it is important for my kids to understand why we celebrate holidays and this was an important holiday. We waved flags talked about our country and our freedoms and who fights for those freedoms for us. It was really nice, we had a great time!

When we got home we did some fishing with grandpa O and uncle Steve! The fish were biting like CRAZY!!!! the boys absolutally loved it! and Wil is still telling me about the HUGE fish uncle Steve caught...... apparently it was the size of tango... maybe bigger? lol

Coop and his fishin buddy grandpa O! this has got to be my favorite picture.

Wil sat out there with my dad and steve for at least an hour or longer before Cooper and I even got out there. He was having so much fun.

Aubrey and her fam came to visit and were able to come down to my parents for rachel's graduation!! I had no idea that they were coming to town, she tried to surprise me, and it really worked!!!! She calle dme on tuesday and we talked like we normally talk "hows ur day" "what did ur hubby do wrong today" kind of thing lol (just kidding hun we never talk like that :) then she was like "ok i gotta go i have an appt for eyelashes" and i thought nothing of it..... then like 10 minutes later we are sitting by the sandbox and aubrey just comes walkin down the stairs to the porch... my mind couldnt quite understand... i knew it was aubrey, but she was in utah? how could she be here?? it was crazy, once i realized it was her i jumped up and screamed lol.... totally surprised it was AWESOME!!!!!! i love having her here i wish they lived closer!!! someday... sigh

Cooper talking to uncle Todd... that i sthere whole relationship, he hasnt seen uncle todd since he was 6 months old lol!!!! but todd is coming to my moms at the end of july when Jake comes home from his mission!!! so all of my sibs will be in the same place!!! (if we can talk todd's wife into coming for the week of the party that would be perfect)

Nick and Wil at the graduation cerimony! It was super boring... and the valedictorian's speech was ridiculous.... something about a quilt..... it was hillarious

about 1/4 way through the name readings cooper could not take anymore, so we ran around in circles in the corner

ruuuuuuuun!

I still cant believe my baby sis is graduated and movin away in the fall!!! its crazy. She is beautiful and funny and i will miss her sooo much!!!!!!! im so very proud of her!