mowing the snow

Last night while I was at zumba Joshua was sweeping some of the snow out of the driveway (yes, sweeping. We have a gravel drive so we sweep the extra away so we can walk). Cooper was helping daddy by pushing his lawn mower in the snow.

Right before they were headed in, Joshua helped Cooper make this snow angel. So cute, so tiny!!!

You can see how happy Cooper was that daddy made him do it! When I first saw this picture, I was guessing that he was upset they had to go in. Cooper has really loved being able to wear his snow boots the last couple of days. Josh said, "no, he was mad at me for making him make the snow angel." Look at the poor boys little hands!!!!!

Emporia Christmas parade

Last night was the annual Christmas parade in Emporia. This is Emporia's biggest parade of the year (lasts about an hour) and many many people come downtown to watch it. Joshua and I try to go every year, and now that Cooper is getting older, it is more fun.

Joshua and I decided to go park a vehicle downtown, then go eat, and head back for the parade that started at 7 pm. Well, at 5:15 when Joshua got down to Commercial St. (our Main st.) it was already full with cars in every parking spot. However, Joshua was able to park on the side street with the back of our van facing Commercial. There were people lined up in front of us, but we put Cooper on top of Daddy's shoulders and on top of the van to see. Emporia does not allow for people to throw candy and stuff so having a front row seat for Cooper was not necessary. It was nice to have everything (blankets, chairs, extra clothes, etc.) right there for us and not have to carry it from where ever we parked to our place to watch the parade.

Cooper really enjoyed himself. He watched very attentively and made sure to make sure mommy and daddy were seeing what he was seeing. "Daddy, you see motorcycle?" "Momma, that's a big balloon." When you would agree that you see it, he would say, "yeah, I like parade. Momma/daddy like parade too."

When we first go there, Cooper was very content just sitting in his chair in the back of the van (sitting contently never happens with this kid). He kept saying, "mommy, I scared." We are still not sure what he was scared of, but once Joshua put him on his shoulders and he could see everything, he was fine.


I know in this picture he doesn't match....we were still in the process of adding layers!!!! HA!

Cooper looks a little upset in this picture, but I can assure you, he wasn't. Maybe a little cold, but he really enjoyed himself and took everything in.

I was trying to get a picture of santa (he is always the last float in the parade), but as you can see my camera does not shoot that well from far away in the dark.....sorry!

Dr. appointment

I forgot to put my doctor update on when I updated the blog this weekend.

I went to the Dr. on Wed. the 26th. Just a normal routine check up: weight, BP, heart rate, do you have any questions, and done!

My blood pressure remains good (110/68) as it did when I was pregnant with Cooper. The baby's heart rate was exactly the same as last time, 152. So, do I have any questions.....YES!!!! I want to know why I am gaining so much weight this time. I have already gained 9 lbs. in 20 weeks. At this time with Cooper I had only gained 4. I told Dr. Kemp: I don't have a desk job this time, I am MUCH MORE conscious of what I eat, I do zumba twice a week and play volleyball once a week, and yet I am still putting weight on faster than I would like. He looked at my chart and I could tell by the look on his face he was shocked at the number. We talked for a little bit and he said, "well, it sounds like you are doing everything right, just some babies are different than others." I will just hope that this pregnancy I put the weight on early, but it will tail off towards the end. I don't think I can go threw gaining 40 lbs. again....that was tough!!!!

I have scheduled the sonogram for the 22nd of Dec. I could have done it earlier, but I asked if I could put it off until then since I will be out of school for Christmas break. Joshua and I have chosen once again not find out the sex of the baby. I am convinced (in case you wanted to know) that this one IS a girl.....however, we thought that last time!!!!

Thanksgiving Helper

Cooper was a good helper during Thanksgiving weekend. He started by helping grandma make the pumpkin pie on Thursday night (we had our dinner on Saturday). He was so excited when he got to eat it. He would say, "we did good Nama."

After dinner on Saturday, Cooper was right there in the kitchen helping grandpa with the dishes.

Stretching

Grandpa had some back problems a few months ago. The Dr. gave him some stretches to do every morning to help, and Cooper likes to join him.

Prayer

Several months ago, I started saying prayers with Cooper when he went to bed. I started by just holding his hands between mine and saying the prayer. We progressed to me saying, "Now I" Cooper would say, "Lay me." and so on. Then one night, I said, "Now I" and Cooper finished the whole thing by himself.

I think that when he says his prayers he is so adorable, so I wanted to share it with all of you. I was trying to hide the camera from him when I recorded, but as you will hear, he saw the red light was on. (You won't see anything because it is dark in the room, you can just hear him)

Gompaw's glasses

Cooper was wearing grandpa's glasses and I thought it was pretty cute. I was trying to get him to smile, but he just kept yelling "CHEESE" at me. You can see this in the second and third picture.

BIG big boy bed

Cooper has been sleeping in a "big boy bed" for at least 6 months now. This big boy bed has just been his crib modified to a bed. This summer I (almost) finished the room downstairs so that we could transition him to that room when we had another baby (little did we know we were already pregnant). Mom and dad had given us our, Cori and my, old bunk beds from when we were little. We thought that would work in the room for now. We will worry about a real bedroom set when we have a different house.

Joshua and I have been procrastinating moving him downstairs to the new room. We really don't have any good reasons for waiting, we just were. However, this weekend (starting Friday night) we tried it. Cooper has done a great job. We used the baby monitor for the first couple of nights, but has since quit. We call this new room/bed his "Big big boy bed".

The room down stairs has been his play room for awhile. I painted the walls this summer. The reason I say I almost finished the room is because I still have a few things left to do 1) paint the trim 2) hang curtains 3) rearrange the furniture. I need to get to some of that before the baby comes, but I really shouldn't be painting right now.

Fireworks

I know these pictures are not great due to lighting, but I had to put them on (thanks for taking them Meredith). We went to a wedding this weekend for a lady I used to work with at Farm Bureau. You can not go to any Kevin Ogle event and not expect to see some fireworks. At the wedding they also had sparklers for all the kids. These were not the tiny little sparklers that come 10 to a box. These were the big ones (2 ft. long). It looked really neat watching all the kids in the yard with them.

So, my point to putting these on here......if you look back at my fourth of July post you will see how much Cooper hated all the fireworks. He is crying in all the pictures. This time he LOVED it! I promise this is Cooper in the pictures holding the sparkler all by himself!!! He even sat on my lap threw the firework show. The only thing he ever said was, "momma, that loud." I was so excited that he was finally able to enjoy the fireworks.

Penguin for Halloween

Cooper did an EXCELLENT job this year for Halloween. He not only loved his costume, but he played the part well. If you asked him what a penguin says, he would reply and act with a, "waddle waddle waddle."

We started our Halloween on Thursday night with everyone at Grandma Gayle's for dinner. Gayle was going to be out of town so she had us all over so that she could see all the kids in costume.

I love Cooper's grin in this picture!

Friday night we got dressed up again, and I was able to get a couple of pictures of Cooper in his costume. We went out and hit a few of our friends houses. Cooper had so much fun, and even though he was excited about the candy, he did not let it consume his every thought for the night.

Natalie and Brandon gave Cooper some vampire teeth in his goodie bag. On Sunday I caught him in the bag and he was playing with the teeth. I helped him put them in and quickly snapped a couple shots. The pictures are not great....Cooper did not want the teeth in for too long. As you can see he was having trouble swallowing!