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.