Keeping Up in the Summer......What a Joke!!!

So is it just me or does Summer make keeping up with the house really hard. I find myself out at my pool everyday rather than cleaning or cooking. I plan on doing something before the pool but it just never seems to happen. I get lunch made and us ready to go swimming. Then after swimming I am having to shower both me and baby and get ready for the day. By that time Brad is home. Dinner???? That has been a joke. Since being a stay-at-home mom I have made an effort to have the groceries and have dinners planned. But these past few weeks it just hasn't worked out. Even if I have known what I was going to make for dinner, by the time I get back home and showered it is dinner time and nothing is made. I feel so bad for Brad. He would never admit it and would probably argue with it but it can't be pleasant coming home to a house that the Cooper Tornado has been thru and to me not having stuff ready for dinner. Don't get me wrong Brad is usually home by 4:30 so dinner is never ready when he gets home. But I usually have it started or have given myself time to get dinner fixed. He offers to help with dinner but I just don't find it fair. He has worked all day long while I have just "played". He can't come home and work some more.

Today I had to take a break from swimming and get my house under control. It was making me crazy having it so chaotic and out of order. Luckily my mom came over and took Cooper swimming so I was able to clean. I got everything straightened up, laundry finally finished (working on it since Monday), our closest organized and straightened, mopped, vacuumed, and got dessert for a Young Women's activity made. I can't vacuum with him because he attacks the vacuum the whole time and I can't do it when he is sleeping because I worry it will wake him up. So it was nice that my mom took him.

Father's Day

(Banner that I did for Brad)

I kind of failed as a wife this year for Father's Day. I had all these big plans to get everything done last Friday but it just didn't happen. Then Brad was off work early so I couldn't do anything with him home. So we kind of changed Father's Day to Monday. I know it is AWFUL especially when you consider this was Brad's 1st Father's Day. I feel so horrible about it. I did get him a book that he got on Father's Day.

We had celebrated Father's Day on June 12th with my extended family because my grandma and grandpa were going to be out of town on Father's Day. My family came over on Father's Day at noon. We did lunch because my brother had to get to work by 2 and I had to go teach Young Womens. So I wanted Brad to have his own day :) That is what I keep telling myself to make me not feel so bad! I didn't want to just buy Brad something for Father's Day. I wanted to do something special. So this is what I did

Decorated the Dews....he drinks one everyday at work
(The ties match the Father's Day banner)

Found this idea on some blog and I LOVED it!!!
I haven't decided where to hang this in our house.

Cooper held perfectly still and let me trace his hand.

Brad needed something new to put on his desk at work.
Cooper didn't do so great with the hand print but you get the idea.

(The writing "For Dad's desk at work" isn't on the frame.
It ended up looking that way but I don't want to re-edit the picture.)

Brad is seriously the best dad that Cooper could ask for. Cooper absolutely loves his daddy. He knows dad is the FUN one and always has a buddy in him to play with. Cooper is all boy so I am glad I have someone so amazing that can show him all the things little boys do. I have loved watching Brad grow into the role of being a dad. He is so helpful and has tackled all the challenges amazingly! I love him even more after watching how amazing of a dad he is. He works so hard to provide the life we have where I can stay home with our baby. He is such a hands on dad and is willing to do whatever I ask or is needed.

We love you Brad! Happy Father's Day........even if it was a day late :)

11 Months

Holy cow I cannot believe that in 4 short weeks my baby is going to be turning ONE!!!!! I absolutely hate it. I don't want my baby to grow up. I want him to stay little! I really am having the hardest time with him getting older. Everyone always says that I can just have another baby but it isn't the same. I would be fine with just Cooper if he would stay little :) I have to admit that with each milestone he just gets more and more fun. But I still love him as a cuddly, can't do anything on his own, tiny, little guy. As an 11 month old he:

• Has 5 teeth (2 bottom, 3 top- middle and one to his left)....this 5th tooth was the hardest yet!
  
• Walks around with his walker
• Crawls like a maniac
• Cruises the furniture but has been for months now
• Stairs are no obstacle. He only likes going up, has no interest in going down.
• Eats anything and everything. Bran muffins, bananas, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, gold fish, yogurt, watermelon, graham crackers, ANYTHING sweet and bad for you.
• Attacks at the site of anything sweet (candy, ice cream, cake, etc.)
• Only likes to sleep in his crib :(
• Still nursing........LOVE IT!!!
• Knows where he isn't supposed to get into but loves doing it anyways.
• Shakes his head NO when you say "No" or when he doesn't want something.
  
• Gives high fives
• Plays the "AH" game. When you say "Ahhh" he will lay his head down. He finds it hilarious!
  
• Waves (finally) This took me months of working on but he finally got it about a month ago.
• Hates getting water poured on his head. Washing his hair in the bath results in deafening screams!
• Balls are his absolute favorite....he will play with any ball he sees. He rolls it back and forth, plays catch, and will crawl around while pushing it (kind of like a soccer ball).
  
• Wants to brush his own teeth but doesn't like getting his teeth brushed by mom or dad.
• LOVES books! He will read books on his own. He talks while he reads them. It is adorable! It is like he is trying to read the book.
• Talks up a storm. You have no clue what he is saying and when he does say words he doesn't know what he is saying. But he babbles all day long.
• Has got rhythm. You turn on music and he starts dancing like it is nobody's business. He will even bounce to the beat.
  
• Still is a mama's boy............wouldn't change that for anything!
• Loves his sippy cup.
  
• Has actually started drinking out of a bottle. We have started giving him whole milk when I can't be home to nurse or put him to bed. He has only had it a handful of times, but actually likes it. It is soooo nice because he hasn't taken a bottle since he was 4 months old so I have been tied and limited on where and when I can go places without him.
• Had a rough go with teething and being sick but is back to sleeping thru the night.
• Waves good bye when going upstairs for a nap or bedtime....adorable!
• Still loves his binky....but only gets it in bed or in the car seat if we are out and he is tired and fussy.
• Hates shoes and socks. Can't keep them on for anything!
• ALWAYS crosses his feet.

"AHHH"

Here is a video of Cooper doing his "Ahhhh" game.

Best Buds

Cooper and Indiana really are best buds. I catch them playing together all day long. They chase each other around the house. Indiana will lay next to Cooper. Indiana drops his toys on Cooper for him to throw, but that doesn't really work out because Cooper just takes off crawling with it. Indiana is always by Cooper's side watching every move he makes. Indiana will race up to Cooper's door when he hears he is awake and can't wait to get in and see him. He whines if you aren't really quick at getting up the stairs to get Cooper. They really just have so much fun together. I always had a dog growing up so I wanted to provide my kids with the same opportunity. Cooper is much more entertained with not just having me to play with all day. Besides I have a built in vacuum. Everything that Cooper throws from his high chair is immediately eaten and picked up by Indiana. Makes life great!

I finally caught them the other day on camera. Every time they are playing and I get up to get the camera. Both of them notice and proceed to follow me.

This is what Cooper has learned happens when he
drops his food. So now it has become a game :)

I love both of my boys!

Cedar City Trip DISASTER!!!

Well this weekend was supposed to be a fun little trip. Brad's brother turns 40 this week so his wife was throwing him a "Surprise" birthday bbq. She had invited us so we thought what the heck, we can take a little trip down to Cedar city for the weekend. Yeah right! Well the trip started off good. Cooper did awesome on the drive down there. He slept for probably a good hour and a half. Then woke up with about an hour left. I crawled in the back seat and just played with him and read books and what not. We got into town and checked into the hotel. We got settled and headed over to Brad's brother's house. My sister-in-law had already spilled the beans about his bbq so we didn't have to make up an excuse for being in town. We went to dinner and then headed back to their house to hang out. Cooper had an amazing time crawling around and playing outside with his cousin Abel who is 18 months old. Cooper started to get a little fussy so we headed back to the hotel a little before ten. We got Cooper ready for bed and thought we could get to bed ourselves. YEAH RIGHT! Cooper would not go to bed. I tried putting him in his pack n' play. He would just stand up and scream. He is tall enough he can see right over the top. There really wasn't anywhere we could put the pack n' play where he couldn't see us. I tried turning the lights out and having him lay in bed with us. He was just all over the place and fussy. We really tried everything. Finally he fell asleep around midnight. We went straight to sleep too. I woke up at 3:00 am and was wide awake. Then Cooper woke up at 4:00 am and was up for the day. I tried feeding him, rocking him, bringing him to bed, etc. Nothing worked and he was so grumpy. He woke Brad up at 4:30. Then at 5:00 am we went and drove around for 30 min and he still wouldn't fall asleep. We got back to the hotel at 6:00 and decided to head to the continental breakfast since there was nothing else working. We were both exhausted!

We had made plans to go hiking with Brad's brother, wife Jamie, and Abel. We knew with the night we had that wouldn't be a good idea. I was soooo bummed. We had bought a hiking backpack and had planned it all out. The bbq was at 6:00 pm and we were going to have to be driving home after it. I had forgotten my sister was speaking in sacrament so we needed to be back to church at 9:00 am. We decided that with how tired we were it wasn't going to be smart driving home late that night in the dark. Cooper was grumpy and we knew he wasn't going to be getting any good naps. So we just decided the smart thing to do was head home. We didn't even get to do any of the things that were the whole reason for us going down there.

We were out of Cedar City by 7:00 am. That means that total we drove 7 hours (3 1/2 each way) for a short 12 hour stay in Cedar. I was sure Cooper would nap most of the way home. At least that is what I hoped because I needed to nap. Remember I was going on 3 hours of sleep and he had only slept 4 hours to his usual 12-13 hours. Well Cooper slept for 40 min and then was wide awake. He was okay for the first part of the trip. Then we hit Provo. He SCREAMED bloody murder all the way home from Provo. That is about an hour of constant screaming. I was in the back trying to comfort him but nothing worked. He just kept reaching out for me to grab him. It broke my heart. But we had to get home because we were all exhausted and needed our beds. We got home and finally after about an hour Cooper laid down and took a 4 1/2 hour nap. This allowed Brad and I to get a few hour nap in. Needless to say it was the biggest waste of time and money (hotel, gas, food) for a disaster of a trip. I am really nervous because in a few weeks we have Brad's family reunion and Cooper will be sleeping in the pack n' play again. I am going to start putting him down for naps in the pack n' play and hopefully he gets used to it. Otherwise I don't know what we will do at the reunion.

It might not sound like that bad of a night, but believe me Brad and I were exhausted, stressed, on edge from all the crying, and just flat out worn out! And to add to things......I left my phone charger at the hotel.

This is where he went when I tried to lay him on the bed

REAL Salt Lake Game

Last weekend (June 4th) we went to the Real Salt Lake game with some of our friends. Brad has been to quite a few games with a buddy. Our friends Nikki and Tim have season tickets so when the Nikki can't go Tim takes Brad. Cooper and I had never been to a game at Rio Tinto stadium so I was super excited. Since Nikki and Tim have season tickets they have the option to buy other tickets earlier than the public. So they were able to get us awesome seats right next to them and for really cheap too! We had such a fun time. Cooper loved all the people and watching the game. He made friends with the little girl behind us. He really is quite the friendly little kid when it comes to other kids. He loves kids and babies. He also flirts with women but men he has to be in the mood or he just gets scared or nervous. Real won the game so that made it even better. I love that he is awesome at going to sporting events because Brad and I really enjoy them. I love little outings like this where we can take Cooper with us but still be out doing something fun.