Merry Christmas!

December 2010

Hello Family and Friends!

This year as I sit down to write this letter, it is hard to know where to begin! We have had a great year, and hope that you have too.

Cooper is doing just wonderfully. He is 2 ½ now and is just growing so very fast. He talks up a storm – there is not much that he can’t say, or do, for that matter. He started preschool two mornings a week this year at our church and really has enjoyed his class, teachers, and making new friends. It seems like he is such a little sponge at this age, learning something new every day. He can say and recognize all of his ABC’s, knows his colors, and can count to 10 consistently. We are working on cutting, counting to 20, and potty training right now – but not at the same time. He loves all things fireman and anything with wheels. He favorite times are driving trucks and playing football with his daddy, and coloring with mommy.

Sean is still working as a Nurse Practitioner at Forsyth Comprehensive Neurology and Christal has taken a part-time job at our Church as the Interim Director of Early Childhood Ministries. Christal’s office is right down the hall from Cooper’s preschool classroom and loves being able to keep up with his day while being able to use her degrees outside of the house.

Speaking of house, we bought a new house in June. Parker has thoroughly loved his new yard with new trees, smells, squirrels, and birds galore! We have really enjoyed our new place, living on a cul-de-sac instead of a busy street, having a playroom, and space to spread out.

We are going to need the space to spread out because our family is expanding once again! Yes, our family of three will become a family of four around June 8, 2011. We have just finished the first trimester of pregnancy and Christal is thankful that it has been a much easier first trimester than with Cooper. We are thrilled to welcome a new baby into our lives once again and are excited for Cooper to be a big brother.

We pray that you have time to remember the birth of our Savior this Christmas, enjoy time with the ones that you love, and that your 2011 is full of blessings.

Love and Merry Christmas,
Sean, Christal, and Cooper

Our Big Boy Doing Big Things

Like playing dress-up.... CONSTANTLY! This fireman costume is the overwhelming favorite - even wearing it for picture day at...

PRESCHOOL! Our big boy went into his new classroom carrying his backpack and with barely a glance back.

Cooper pee-peed in the potty for the first (and only) time! Hooray! Proud of this time but unfortunately wasn't motivation to continue using it... :/

To end this post the same way it started... (the same way we start and end our days)... with dress-up!

Happy September Everyone! Many prayers for a long and cool fall!

July

Well, we're in! It has been a very busy month since I've blogged last. The move was HOT but uneventful and for that we are thankful. We love, love, love our new place and feel so blessed to be here. We have finally begun to feel settled. Not a picture has been hung but other than that, everything is unpacked and put away. The rush and chaos of the move has begun to slow down. We took this past weekend just for ourselves and didn't do a single house thing. It was wonderful to have a sense of normalcy back.

Cooper now says, "We're home," when we pull into THIS driveway instead of the old one. We went by the old house last night and allowed him to go in for the first time since we moved. We weren't sure if the sight of the empty house would upset him or not. The emptiness didn't seem to affect him at all and he boldly proclaimed, "Home!" as we pulled back into our new house driveway. Whew!

He had trouble sleeping for a bit after we moved. Not the actual sleeping part but the going down part. It was taking 1-2 hours to just get him to go to sleep. He is a child who you just put in the crib fully awake at nap and bedtime and he will just go right to sleep - being a non-cuddler, he actually preferred it this way. Needless to say, this 1-2 hour business was a big switch for us! He didn't seem scared but I don't think he was completely comfortable either. Thankfully, he seems to have adjusted and can go down in 15 minutes now. He still needs more rocking/reading/singing than he ever has before but 15 minutes is totally doable and truth be told, I like my non-cuddly child to need some cuddling every once in a while!

He's also getting funnier as he gets older. Proof:

We are in the VERY beginning stages of potty training. We're in the just sitting out and hanging out on the potty stage. Cooper has never actually used the potty but gets the gist of what is supposed to go on there. After he woke up from his nap today with a dry diaper, I decided it would probably be an opportune time to sit on the potty and see if he could use it. After sitting there for about 15 minutes he says, "It's not working. Daddy will fix it!" Too funny that he thought Daddy could fix him going to the potty. Daddy has fixed a lot of things around here lately, but unfortunately Cooper's potty usage is not one of them! :)

Also, Sean has some old bleach stained pants. When he put them on today to go mow, Cooper said, "Ooooh! Daddy! Stars on your pants!" Hilarious!

Loving this funny stage!

The Other Side of the Story

So, I blogged this morning about our house/move/buy/sell and was in a fearful place. God has reminded me today though, through the wisdom of my wonderful husband, that there is another side to the story.

Yes, our current house has not sold yet but we are getting a REALLY GREAT house at a great price - and great interest rate.

On top of that, we are getting the tax credit since we have been in our current home for more than 5 years and have had a contract on the other home since April...

So - as Sean says - it's all in perspective. When I become fearful that this doesn't make sense because we haven't sold our current home, I've got to remember that I don't know the grand plan and God could be just setting us up for something better.

These make me Smile...

Watchin' a little TV at home in the floor (I love how he has his hands behind his head)

Riding a Train at the Train Museum in Spencer, NC. This museum was the highlight of his little two-year-old life.

Playing in the backyard with Daddy.

Piling everything he could get his hands on into the clothes basket and saying "cheese!" when I came into the room with a camera - silly boy!

Sleeplessness and a new house...

It is the crack of dawn here - literally - and I can't sleep. After spending some time in the Word this morning, I thought it would be the perfect time to catch up on the 'ole blog.

Funny revelation from sleeplessness: Right before daybreak, you would have thought that we lived in a house in the country rather than in the middle of a city with all of the bird chirping going on. They were singing - and loud! Who knew that we had a bird chorus outside our windows before dawn!?

Life has been busy around here as we prepare to move. Two weeks from today, actually. And, honestly, this is probably the cause of my lack of sleep. We have not actually sold our current home, so please pray for that! In this whole process we have desired to be good stewards with what God has given us - to make the right choices - for his wisdom. It is not our money, it is God's, and one of our greatest desires is to manage it well. We don't want to be frivolous or foolish and what we are doing doesn't make much sense - that is what is keeping me up at night.

Unbelievably, though, we have received confirmation after confirmation lately that we needed to go ahead and purchase the house that we have had a contract on (pending the sale of our current house). That leap of faith is so hard to take sometimes! Two different people have come to us, though, and said that they have specifically been praying for us and that they felt that God was asking us to do just that - take the leap of faith that he is going to work it all out. This is in addition to having the same urging from both of our sets of parents weeks ago. We have not taken this lightly - have covered it in prayer ourselves - and gave the go ahead to our realtor last Friday.

Let me be clear though - there is a peace about this situation in my soul - it's my brain that keeps struggling with the "what if's" and "this doesn't make sense" moments. So friends, please be in prayer for our current house to sell - we have another open house tomorrow! For me to trust God that he knows what he is doing even when it doesn't make much sense to my earthly brain, and for a smooth transition for all of us.

2 Year Stats

I forgot to update Cooper's stats for his 2 year check-up.
Head circumference is 18 1/4 in - 5th percentile
Length is 35 in. - 68th percentile
Weight is 24 lbs. - 8th percentile

Lia said that she is no longer worried about his weight - Hooray!. He is following the same curve visit after visit so she thinks he is just going to be tall and skinny - that's just how he is.

He is definitely saying two word sentences which is a milestone that he should have reached, saying at least 50 words (yep!), and throwing and kicking a ball (yep!) to name a few milestones. In other words, he's right on target.

Some cute things that he does now:
-Has always been a blankie kid but never attached to just one. Instead, he wants them ALL in his bed or to go places with him now.

-Tells me stories about things he remembers in his little few-word sentences.... eating potatoes at Aaron and Rachel's house (did he do this, y'all?), getting flowers at the farm (yes, we actually did this), and seeing Thomas at the park (our park has a real live engine that the kids can explore) He calls it "Amas Choo Train" as in Thomas the choo choo train or "Hercy Choo Train" as in Percy the choo choo train for those of you familiar with Thomas.

- He calls himself alternating Hooper and Pooper. Lovely. A nickname that we didn't even think about. Praying for other kids to never think of this one.

-Is very social and talks constantly. Our house is um... lively...and loud... and we wouldn't have it any other way!

-Is fairly neat. He is a great help putting his toys away. Eating though, not so much. Of course, I did find my sunglasses in Sean's shoes yesterday...

- He sings Jesus Loves Me with us at night and is so, so, so cute.

- He can correctly identify all but 9 of his letters. This is way early and honestly we haven't really worked on it that much. We have the Leap Frog fridge magnets and it sings the ABC song and says the letter every time he puts one in. It has been one of his favorite toys for a while - gets played with at least daily and we just piggy back off of this to point out letters where ever we go (The "E" on the Fed Ex truck, All of the letters on the "Waffle House" sign at the restaurant down the road, etc.)

-Colors are another story. He knows pink for sure and everything used to be blue but now everything is green, so we're still working on it.

-He can count to 10 pretty consistently. Not sure that he can associate the number 1 with one actual object but he likes to count. Hooray for number awareness, I say.

-Sean taught him to say, "You da man!" and thinks that it is his greatest trick ever. My dad thought it pretty much rocked too.

-He explores everything - has to check out every last square inch - over, under, around - wants to see it all. Curiosity is a great skill to have so we're going with it, but it sure keeps us on our toes.

-When you ask him how old he is, he proudly replies, "two"

-Can say, "Wove you" or "I you" ... Awww... melt my heart - I love you too, son.

Trippin'

In early April, Sean had a conference at the Grove Park Inn for work. It's close to home so we got some great extended time with our families and got to enjoy a place that where had always wanted to stay. Both of our parents chipped in and kept Cooper some so that we could have some time together, which was great. We only managed one picture the entire time we were there so see the first picture below of Cooper in front of the gigantic fire place.

We also visited Baa Moo Farm last week with our Trips for Tots group and had a fabulous hands-on time with the animals and just all around the farm. Such a great place to visit - highly recommend it! The way that they provide so many hands on experiences for kids from feeding a calf a bottle, feeding the chickens, gathering eggs from the hens, milking a cow, petting anything and everything, and taking a hay ride, were all totally appropriate for kids Cooper's age and he loved every minute of it!

Cooper Turns 2!

Firetrucks were the theme for the party this year. In our town the fire truck will come to a birthday party, etc. as part of their public service. Cooper LOVES fire trucks - well, any trucks really - so he was elated that a fire truck pulled up to his party.

We held the party at our church fellowship hall so we had access to the playground. Playground + Fire Truck = A Happy Boy. I think it was a near perfect day in his book!

I took some cues from these girls and had coordinating theme food with little sign descriptions:
Hot Dogs - The firehouse dogs
Chili - Fire Alarm Chili
Cheetos and Pretzels - Flames and Twisted Hoses
Fruits and Veggies - Fireman Treats
Drinks - Fire Extinguishers

We kept the decorations simple with balloons and streamers accented throughout the room and party favors of a balloon, fire hat, and a sticker fire station design sheet from Oriental Trading. The fire fighters also brought a coloring book and sticker badge for everyone. Sean's mom made a great fire truck cake and we all had a wonderful day. Happy 2nd Birthday, Cooper!!

Happy Belated Easter 2010

Family Time

We have had some sweet family time lately. A few weeks ago, we spent some time together at the Natural Science Center in Greensboro and had a great morning exploring together.

Birthday... Farm... and Chrysalis

March has ended on such a high note! After months of cold and snow, we are more than ready for the glorious springtime weather that we have been enjoying. We have also had some fun adventures during the last couple of weeks. First, Grandma came down so that we could celebrate her birthday.

Then, we had a great time at Woosley Farm with our Trips for Tots group. Daddy was actually off that day so he got to enjoy his first field trip with our group. Such a fun time! We got to pet all kinds of animals including a bee (that just stung our tour guide/farm owner -crazy?!), a rooster, bunnies, ponies, goats, and cows. We also got to smell all kinds of good spices from their garden, take a hay ride, and sample some home grown honey. They dressed up in old fashioned costumes and were so great with the kids - would expect nothing less from a couple of retired kindergarten teachers. It's so great to watch Cooper learn, interact, and just get into these trips now. He also talks about them in the car afterward and even a couple of days later. Ahhh... I just love learning moments!

The hayride...

Feeding the goats...


Loved the feeding - just had to keep Cooper from grabbing their horns!

We ended the month with a spectacular Chrysalis/Journey weekend full of amazing people praising God and loving on these high school and college boys. Sean was the lay director and mom and dad graciously kept Cooper several times throughout the weekend so I could get out to camp and spend some time. Sean and I have just been filled up - no way to even explain how good weekends like that are for the soul.

W-A-K-E

Since it's that crazy basketball time of year again...

and since our beloved Tarheels, well, um, they're not playing in the tournament this year...

our loyalties have shifted to...

our very own hometown team...

Go Wake!

Apparently, old loyalties die hard though - check out the Tarheel shirt Cooper is wearing. And contrary to the look on his face, he was incredibly overjoyed to meet the Deamon Deacon with lots of hugs and high-fives at an egg hunt just today. Of course he was also overjoyed to meet the Chic-fil-a cow... and the easter bunny.... so I can't rightly say if has anything to do with the actual team (wink, wink). There's always next year Tarheels!

The Catch-up Post

What have we been up to lately? Lots! Besides Valentine's Day where Sean and I got dinner AND a movie out and Cooper got some candy and a stuffed lion, we've been having great fun...

Courtesy of Triad Smarty Pants, I won 4 circus tickets for the Ringling Bros. Circus last week. Since we had an extra ticket, Addison got to come and spend 2 nights with us and go to the circus! She and Cooper had lots of fun playing with his toys and did pretty well at the circus! We did have to make several walking laps around the arena but Cooper's favorite part was the elephants and Addison's was the trapeze (or swinging and flying, as she called it). I think it was a success and we loved having her here and all to ourselves for a few days.

We've had a few sick days....

Made a few messes...

We went back to the doctor and Cooper has gained 4 pounds. He's back into the 9th percentile and his doctor, Lia, was happy with his progress. Hooray for beefing him up! I swear he eats well - anything and everything - but he's um.... ACTIVE! and we've just got to make sure he gets a lot of good healthy fats - peanut butter, ranch dressing on veggies, his absolute full dose of milk every day, etc. are what we've been doing to help him gain back to his healthy weight.

We've had a few snow days. Luckily, Daddy got to actually be home for some of them.

We also got to visit the Art Quest in Greensboro with our Trips for Tots group. The kids got to paint (check Cooper looking cute in his smock!), work with clay, cut, paste, glue, rubber stamp, create with blocks, puppets, and their velcro wall of shapes to design their own art. We had so much fun and Cooper's favorite by far was the painting station. We went back to it time and time again.

And of course, what's life with a toddler without many more messes?

Happy February everyone!

Jonah's EB Auction

Hi! Just wanted to draw your attention to something pretty cool. We don't actually know these people personally but they are friends of friends and we live in the same town. We have all sorts of crazy connections and have not yet met but I feel like I know them anyway. Their story always brings a tear to my eye.

Their son Jonah has a condition called EB and for his first birthday (a miracle!) they are celebrating by raising funds for the organization that is looking for a cure for his disease. If you want to know more about Jonah, his brother Gabe, and his parents, Matt and Patrice, you can check out their blog here. AND... Go check out Jonah's EB Auction here!

Late

So, it's been a while since I have blogged. It's just been crazy around here! We have put our house on the market, have had a chrysalis flight, and of course the Holidays. These past couple of months have been just nonstop.



The house has been a long time in the making. We've been sort of planning to do this for a couple of years now but all of the last minute details have really added up. I'm also being really picky about a new place. You know, good neighborhood, good schools, room to grow - all the things that come with having a family and in our price range too. We would appreciate prayers for our little house to sell and for a new one to be found. I already am just very anxious about this entire process. I'm not really good with change and have been in knots about doing all of this. We have a smaller home but it's cozy and I'm attached to it and our neighbors. We have absolutely no room to grow in this house and are just craving more space. It's amazing how much stuff one little person (ahem, Cooper) can accumulate! The unknown is just scary. I'm comforted to know though that God knows where we are going to live before we even see it. He's got this in His hands and it's really out of my control. It's a conscious effort that I'm making to remember this - and repeat it to myself often.

I'm attatching our Christmas pictures just so I can have them for this digital "scrapbook." I know, I know. It's February. Hence why the title of this post is, "Late."