The life of my 1 year old

I can't believe my baby is a big 1 year old! Cooper has made this past year such a joy for both Brad and I. From the moment I knew we were having Cooper I fell in love with him. The first time I saw him I knew he was ours and I loved him even more. I have loved getting the opportunity to watch him grow and to take care of him. I loved being the one getting up at nights with him, holding him when he was sick or hurt, being there to experience everything new with him, watching Brad and Cooper bond and become buds, watching Cooper and Indiana interact, seeing his little mind grow and figure out new things, watching his face as he took everything in, feeling how much he loved me, knowing I was the only one that could make things better. I've loved seeing his smile every morning, every poopy diaper I had to change, watching him make messes that I got to clean up, hearing the first time he talked, hearing his little cry, seeing his first smile, hearing his first laugh. I honestly have loved every moment I have been able to spend with Cooper. I love that I get to be a stay-at-home mom and spend every moment with him. I am content never leaving him. He has given me patience, filled me with more love then I could have ever imagined and just made me so happy. He has made the transition into being a parent so easy. He was such a good baby. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect child to be blessed with! I am so thankful that I was lucky enough to be blessed with my Cooper. I wouldn't trade this past year for anything!!!


Coop had his 12 month check-up on the 19th. Cooper is right on track developmentally and is nice and healthy. Everything looked perfect! Luckily we still haven't had to take him in for an ear infection or for being sick. Knock on wood! The only concern is his bottom teeth. The lateral incisors are farther back and not lined up with his central incisors. His pediatrician recommended that I take him to a pediatric dentist just to get them checked out. Not that there is anything they can do now or that it is going to affect him by any means. But just to take any precautions necessary. Cooper's 12 month stats:

Weight: 19 lbs 14 oz - 10%
length: - 30 in - 50%
head:- 46 cm - 40%

• loves putting on and taking off lids....so cute to watch his little mind work on trying to figure things out

• loves stairs
• obsessed with opening and shutting doors

• skipped the bottle (only had it a handful of times once he started taking it again) and just takes a sippy
• talks all day long....says dadda, mamma, ball, no, up
• He has the deep serious voice he uses when he is trying to get after Indiana for something...it's hilarious because he had to learn it from us getting after Indiana
  
• the best at making messes
  

• entertained so easily with Indiana
• only gets his binky in the crib.....but only for a little while longer
  
• an all around happy baby

• throws blanket and binky out of crib when he is ready to get up
  
• sleeping thru the night (8:00 pm-8:00 am), usually takes 2 good long naps but have been venturing toward the one long nap
  

• loves all food......we don't really feed him baby food anymore
• favorite foods are macaroni & cheese, cheese, bananas, strawberries, grapes, hot dogs, oatmeal, nilla wafers, graham crackers, gold fish, yogurt, toast, steamed veggies, chicken, turkey/ham sandwiches, ANY candy/ice cream/cake/sweets!!!

• Balls and trucks/cars are favorite toys right now
• Loves putting in and taking out objects from things
• Has 8 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom)
  
• busy body....he is constantly moving and never stops
• has taken a few steps here and there when we are practicing but isn't walking yet
  
• pushes everything around

• loves giving kisses to anyone and anything (caught him at the pool today kissing a baby doll)
• will actually hand you something if you ask for it.....specifically things he isn't supposed to have so that is lucky
• has become quite the little fish.......but still doesn't like his face wet

• has started to love to cuddle.........my favorite!!!!!
  
• blows kisses
• learned to turn around and back down the stairs, off the bed, off the couch, down the curb, etc. rather then diving head first

• loves "Baby Signing Time"
• knows how to sign "more", "eat", "all done" but we are working on lots more

Pizza, Ice Cream, and Fireworks

On Saturday one of Brad's co-workers invited us over for dinner and to do fireworks.

His co-worker is Russ and his wife Janice and their 2 kids-Sarah(12) and Mason(10).

Janice made homemade pizza that was delicious.

Cooper fell asleep on the way over their.

He hadn't had a good nap all day so we left him in the car.

We left it running so he had air.

We sat in the front yard and ate and hung out so we could see Cooper sleeping.

Once Cooper woke up we went and bought all of our fireworks.




We just hung out until it got dark.




While we waited we made homemade ice cream.




We were excited to do the aerials that are legal this year in Utah.

The show was probably 20 min total.

That included all the little guys.

Not long but ended up being perfect because Cooper was getting tired.





Thanks Hunts for having us over!

The 17 Day Diet

Brad and I have started The 17 Day Diet. It isn't really a diet per say. Well I guess depending on your definition of a diet. It really is to get us eating healthier and back on track. You could call it a lifestyle change. Between vacations, family reunions, birthdays, holidays, summer bbq, busy summer days of me not getting around to cooking, etc. we have been eating like crap. Our house is just full of junk food and candy. Brad came across this diet plan and we decided we were going to do it. It goes in four 17 day cycles so you don't get bored or discouraged. The first cycle is really to get your body cleansed and your metabolism going again. I haven't been working out since I had Cooper. But since I am almost done with nursing I need to get in the habit of working out because I won't be burning those extra 500 calories a day from nursing. Brad has always been awesome at working out but he just feels as if he has hit a plateau. This diet benefits both of our issues.

We started the first cycle on Monday. Cycle 1 has the main purpose of triggering weight loss by mobilizing fat stores and flushing water and toxins from your system. This cycle gets you eating lots of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and probiotics. You limit your carb intake by initially cutting out white bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, chocolate, sugary desserts, and sweets. Don't worry these are gone forever. After cycle 1 (17 days) we slowly start reintroducing these things. Cycle 1 is definitely the most strict and limiting of the 4 cycles. It says you could lose 10-12 pounds in the first 17 days. We are a little bit more realistic and know that probably won't happen but anything will be good! We could choose our meals but it has a meal plan that you can follow so it is easier. I opted to follow the meal plan rather than have to come up with ideas on my own. Brad would be okay just eating fish and steamed veggies for every dinner but I can't do that. I get burned out and wouldn't make it the 17 days without a variety of meals.

The other guidelines are to drink at least 64 oz of water a day, work out at least 17 each day (two 17 min workouts is preferable), don't eat fruit after 2:00 pm since fruit is a carb, and eat slowly and only until full (I usually inhale my food). The book goes in to detail about a lot of the foods but I won't bore you with that info. One of the requirements is to drink green tea with each meal. Green tea is a fat burner which will help kick start your metabolism. Brad and I opted for green tea capsules instead of drinking it. We can still drink diet sodas so I still get my Diet Coke and Brad still gets his Mt. Dew :)

To prepare for starting the diet we went grocery shopping to Costco and Harmons on Saturday. We bought all the ingredients for the first 9 days. Our shopping list consisted of (from what I remember off the top of my head):

• apples
• carrots
• celery
• strawberries
• plums
• asparagus
• romaine lettuce
• baby spinach
• bananas
• cucumbers
• bell peppers
• ground turkey
• turkey burgers
• green tea tablets
• frozen fruit
• greek yogurt
• cottage cheese
• broccoli
• sugar free jam (to flavor the greek yogurt)
• salmon
• talapia
• chicken
• artichoke
• fresh green beans
• onions
• tomatoes
• cabbage
• egg plant
• low carb marinara
• reduced fat cheddar cheese
• kefir (for smoothies)
  

Our fridge is packed with healthy foods. I am putting my tons of Tupperware fridgesmart containers to good use!!! They will keep all of this produce fresh longer. It is nice because Cooper LOVES fruit and eats thru it so quickly so I love having a variety I can feed to him. It's nice knowing that we will all have healthy foods to eat. I am blogging about this to hopefully keep me motivated and hold me to eating healthy. Brad always tells me I am like a child with the foods, candy, snacks and everything I choose to eat. So this is not going to be easy!!!! Wish us luck!

Ball Pit Funnys

My parents got Cooper this awesome football ball pit for his birthday. He loves it! It is right up his ally considering he is OBSESSED with balls. This is right where he goes the second he gets upstairs. He will stay in it and play forever. Indiana is obsessed with all the balls but surprisingly has only chewed one and it was the very first day we got it. The other day I was upstairs and I heard him giggling hysterically and I went in to his room and found this.

Cooper's 1st Birthday

The day has finally come that my baby turned ONE!!! I honestly can't believe that this day came so quickly. I seems like we just barely had Cooper or just found out that I was pregnant! It is crazy how fast time flies.

Well since Cooper is my first and it was his first birthday we had to make a big deal out of it. It just so happened that Brad's whole family was in town for the reunion so they could all be at his birthday party. I knew there was no way everyone was going to fit at my house so I decided to do the party at a park. Every park that I wanted to have it at you couldn't reserve the pavilion. So I decided to have the party at the pavilion at my church. There is a huge field so we would have a ton of room.

Since the reunion was the week of his birthday I knew I had to get all the planning and shopping finished before the reunion. I worked really hard to have everything in order and everything figured out in advance so I wasn't a basket case and totally stressed on his birthday. I knew I wanted to do a monkey theme considering we call him monkey and he really acts like a little monkey. It was just to perfect!

(Invite that I made and mailed out)

I bought monkey plates, napkins, party hats, table cloths, ordered balloons (yellow, green, brown, and a silver #1), made a banner that said "Cooper's 1st Birthday", printed water bottle labels, found the monkey cupcakes I was going to make. I had wanted to make Cooper's cake but knew I wouldn't have time so I paid someone to make it for me. There were a few more things that I had wanted to do but just didn't have time.

( I didn't get pictures of everything but here is what we did get pics of)

Making 6 dozen monkey cupcakes Thursday night

We had invited some of our closest friends and all of our family. We had a really good turn out. It was so nice seeing all the people that love Cooper and who support us.

Here are the kids we got pictures of.
There were even more that we missed.

At the party we had some games set up for people to play and a slip n' slide for the kids. We had lots of food and just hung out. Everyone seemed to keep busy and have a good time. Brad was at the grill for most of the party until we did presents and cake. I felt like I was running around doing things the whole party I never really sat down to eat or relax. If I were to do it again I would take more time to enjoy it and not worry about everything so much. I just had the way I wanted things pictured in my head and things just weren't turning out the way I had pictured. Oh well!

Cooper was very spoiled this year. He got tons of awesome cars/dump trucks, some chairs, books, push lawn mower, helicopter, clothes and hat, sprinkler toy, bath toys, football ball pit, Mr. Potato head, sippy cups, music cd, dvd, blocks, drawing pad, and lots and lots of BALLS! He has loved it all. Our friends and family really knew what he would like.

Cooper loved his cake. I had forgotten to grab the candles so Cooper didn't have anything to blow out :) I had gotten the cake made with butter cream frosting instead of fondant so that he could dig into it. Good thing because he loved digging in to the cake. He sat there for probably 30 minutes and would just grab cake and eat it. He got his face completely covered but didn't really make a huge mess. We even changed him into a 2nd birthday shirt just so he could get all messy! My mom had bought him 2 adorable birthday shirts!

I didn't get pictures of everything that I would have liked. And some pictures are missing, my camera was being weird and created 2 folders then a folder got deleted :( Also our photographer (aka Jason) had to leave early and I didn't get to talk with him about everything I wanted before he left! All in all Cooper's first birthday was a success. Cooper was happy the entire time and loved spending time with so many people.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY COOPER!!!
Mom and Dad Love you SOOOO much!

Reunion Week- Beware Long Post!

Two weeks ago (July 11-14) we had Brad's family reunion at the Cub River Ranch right outside of Preston Idaho. It all started the week prior with all of his family coming into town. None of his siblings or his mom live here so it is always exciting when we are all in the same place. The Fosters (Mike, Karrin, Quinton, Triston, Kelton, Peyton) live in Arizona. The Richeys (Tyler, Julie, Michael, Jack, Bennett) live in Washington. The Harlines (Rich, Jamie, Abel) live in Cedar City. And Brad's mom (Grandma Sheeba) lives in Georgia. Every other year Brad's mom's side of the family (The Clarks) have a family reunion. It is a HUGE ordeal. It is only with his grandma, aunts and uncles, and then their kids. So immediate relatives. The family is huge. Brad's mom is from a family of 12 and then all of the 12 had a lot of kids and so on. We had over 140 people attend the reunion this year if that gives you an idea. They rotate with the location across the country since there is so much family and they are spread out everywhere. The last reunion was in Indiana and it was awesome because I got to see where Brad grew up.

Saturday started off with a feather extension party at my house. Brad's sister Julie sells feathers so she brought them all up and we had a party. It was a lot fun. I had a lot of neighbors and friends come and get feathers. I got some and so did Indiana.


While everyone was together we had 3 birthdays in the family. Michael (6)-July 9, Karrin-July 11, and Cooper (1)-July 15. After the feather party we were off to the park to celebrate Michael's birthday. Tyler (Michael's dad) had a ton of family in town too so both sides got together. It was fun seeing everyone and letting all the cousins from both sides play together.



The next adventure was hiking to the Mt. Timanogos caves. This was actually the thing I was most excited about. But just my luck I wasn't able to go. I woke up at 7 am with a horrible migraine. I was so sick. Brad took off and went hiking with all of his family. Normally if I sleep for a bit the migraine will go away. Not that day. I was so lucky and Cooper went down for a nap when Brad left so I could get more sleep in. I woke up at 11 and still had the migraine. I called my mom to come over because I was sure Cooper would be up soon and I was in no condition to get up with him. Cooper didn't wake up until 12:30 so it was a good thing Brad didn't take him because he needed rest. He was drained from getting to bed late the past few nights. Luckily my mom was able to come over and help. I ended up throwing up 6 times and finally got rid of the migraine at 1:30. I was so bummed I missed out on the caves but everyone else had a blast. This makes the 2nd failed attempt at taking Cooper hiking (the 1st being the Cedar City Trip disaster). So I missed out on the hike with Cooper and the Richey's left Bennett behind with Tyler's mom.

The whole gang that went on the hike minus 3 foster boys (Quinton, Kelton, Triston) and Jack
(not sure where they were). But this is the best picture we have.

Top:Karrin
2nd row: Grandma Sheeba, Julie, Peyton, Michael
3rd row:Rich, Abel, Jamie, Brad, Mike, Tyler

Hmmm.....I guess this is what happens with Brad when I am not around.

All of Cooper's Cousins:
(Yes, NINE boys and no girls)

Here are all the Foster boys and their side kicks the Richey boys.
Michael and Jack absolutely adore the Foster boys!

Monday was the day we were heading up to the reunion. But it was Karrin's birthday so the girls all went and got pedicures before we headed up. I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get any pictures. After the pedicures we all met up and went to Walmart and Costco to get all the groceries and things we needed for the week. Then we were off. The reunion was such a blast. It was so fun getting together with all of Brad's cousins and seeing ones I haven't seen in awhile and ones that I hadn't even met before. There were so many people that sleeping arrangements were difficult. The past 2 reunions all of Brad's siblings and mom have been in the same room. But since the family is so much bigger this year (Cooper, Bennett, Abel, Fosters (Mike, Quinton, Triston, Kelton, and Peyton) we had to split up. The first night we were in a tiny little cabin with Karrin and Mike. Cooper wouldn't sleep in there. He isn't used to sleeping with anyone else in his room. So Brad and I ended up in the car with Cooper. The next night we moved into the room with the Richeys and Cooper did amazing! We were able to plug the sound machine in this room and it was a lot quieter. The 3rd night Cooper woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep so I ended up back out in the car with him but I let Brad sleep this night since he was going to be driving home. Both times I took him to the car and put him in his car seat he was out. Other than the sleeping issues we had a blast. Cooper napped well during the day when no one else was in his room and we just had a fun time. Cooper loved being around so many kids! There was horseback riding, 4-wheelers, swimming, hot tubing, roasting marshmallows, the Wii, karaoke, talent shows, feather extensions, crafts, devotionals, family meetings, etc. You name it, it happens at a Clark reunion. The reunions are most infamous for the late game nights. Once all the kids are in bed the adults stay up and plays games until the wee hours of the morning. We didn't stay up as late this year however because of Cooper. But we still got in quite a few hours of games! Yes I kicked butt the first night and won Liars dice with 8 of my original 10 dice left!!!!


We got home from the reunion Thursday and we got busy getting ready for Cooper's birthday party that was on Friday. The details from that will be in a different post.

Friday morning we got up bright and early to make it to the Timanogos Temple by 8:30 am. Brad's cousin Erika was taking out her endowments so a lot of the family went to the temple.

Saturday was our last day all together. Brad and I went and saw Harry Potter with the Richeys and Foster boys. While Karrin and Grandma Sheeba stayed back at our house and watched Cooper and the Richey boys. After the movie we did sparklers as our last hoorah! Everyone headed back to where they were staying because they were all taking off to leave bright and early Sunday morning.

I love when we get together will all of Brad's family. It is a lot of fun. It seems like it takes forever to get here and then it passes so quickly. The cousins are all getting so big and growing so fast. I just wish we all lived closer together so that we could see each other more often. It will be amazing to see how much bigger the family grows by the next reunion in 2 years. Brad's mom is in charge of the next reunion so I am sure we are going to be involved heavily with the planning. So exciting!

Coop's Balloon

I was at the party store today getting stuff for Cooper's birthday party. A worker asked if he wanted a balloon so I said sure. Cooper LOVES the balloon. I put it on his wrist and he played with it all day in the car. It kept him very entertained. Don't worry I have a mirror in the back so I could see him the whole time to make sure he wasn't getting it wrapped around his neck or anything. Then we got home and brought it inside. He crawled around and played with it all night. He even learned how to pull it down by the string so he could hold the balloon. He's such a smarty!

4th of July

I hope that everyone had an awesome 4th of July! I know we did. It all started on Saturday. We had a BBQ and had a bunch of friends over. It was a blast! In total we had 16 adults and 7 kids/babies. It was so much fun. We grilled and just stuffed ourselves full. We played Mexican horseshoes and then did fireworks. I had a lot of fun getting ready for the BBQ. I wanted to be really festive this year. Since I have had Cooper I have wanted to make every holiday fun and start new traditions. I really want us to have 4th of July shirts. I looked around and just couldn't find any that I loved. So I decided why not make them. I really love how they turned out! I made mine a little more girly than the boys.

Next I really wanted our house to be cute for the 4th. I made a few crafts because I didn't have anything. The HOME was from a craft group I did, the star and firecrackers are from a craft day my neighbor had, and the rest I just did (stole some ideas from blogs). I even made the food festive for the occasion.


I was so happy with the turn out we had. It made for a really fun night! We stayed up late doing fireworks. I was worried my neighbors were going to hate me. But we had 3 other couples who live in my neighborhood so we could share the blame if someone complained :) Even Cooper got to stay up for fireworks. One of our friends babies was sleeping in his room so I couldn't lay him down. He actually really liked watching the fireworks. Indiana even got to join in on the excitement. They both ended up on my lap and I was perfectly fine with that. Brad and one other guy were in charge of the firework show. Everyone brought fireworks so we had a lot to do. We splurged and bought one of the huge pack of fireworks. I about died when Brad said we were spending so much on fireworks because I am good with just pop-its and sparklers. But the show was fun! One of our neighbors was doing the huge ones in the sky so we got to enjoy their show too!




On the actual 4th we didn't do much. We tried running some errands but a lot of places that we needed to go were closed. I had us wear our matching shirts out for the day. Brad informed me we were "That" family. He made fun of me and couldn't believe I was okay with us matching. But he didn't complain and wore his shirt happily :) We had decided just to stay home and relax. We made homemade ice cream in a ball and invited my brother Chase, his girl friend Kaitlin and my adorable nephew Holden over. We grilled and played basketball. Then once it got dark we went out with our neighbors and enjoyed more fireworks. It was a fun 4th!

My ADORABLE nephew

Made ice cream in this ball....it was fun and delicious!!!

4 Year Anniversary

Wednesday (June 29th) was our 4 year wedding anniversary. It is crazy to me that we have been married 4 years. Time has really flown by. Our first anniversary we had just moved into our house, 2nd year we went downtown and stayed at Little America (where we stayed for our honeymoon), 3rd year I was about ready to pop with Cooper and we were patiently awaiting his arrival, and then there is this year. We have an almost one year old and we are so content with our life.

Technically this was Brad's year to plan our anniversary because I surprised him with our 2nd year anniversary and since we didn't really do anything for our 1st since we had just bought our house and 2nd we were getting ready to have a baby. But I came across an idea that I didn't think he could top so I took over. Brad didn't mind one bit. He hates planning this kind of thing. But next year is all him :)

For our big anniversary surprise I planned for us to go on a helicopter ride. I came across a City Deals coupon and jumped right on it. I kept it a complete secret from Brad for over a month. But I was getting too excited so I told him the Thursday before our ride. He was glad because he wanted a little notice once he found out what we were doing. He was so surprised and excited to ride in a helicopter. He had tried figuring out the surprise but never even considered a helicopter ride.

We celebrated our anniversary last Saturday since our anniversary was in the middle of the week. We started out with dinner at The Garden at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Then we headed up to Woods Cross for the helicopter ride. I had planned it for 8:00 pm so we could fly around sunset but still be able to have light to see. I got so nervous right before we took off. It was a lot smaller then I had expected. It was just a one row and a little 3 seater. They asked who wanted to sit on the edge and I volunteered. I figured I would be able to see better rather than having to look over Brad from the middle. There were no doors on the helicopter so I was practically hanging out. I had to scoot my butt so it was almost hanging over the edge so the pilot had room. There is a 400 pound weight limit for the 2 passengers so they weigh you before and everything just to make sure. We even got to wear the awesome headsets like you see on the tv shows or movies. Right as we took off the nervousness went away. It was actually quite relaxing and amazing. The views are incredible. A couple times he tipped the helicopter so I could look practically straight down and was kind of just hanging there. It was awesome! We started over City Creek, then over the Capitol, the edge of downtown Salt Lake, over Rice Eccles Stadium, Immigration canyon, the pipeline and back. It really was so cool!!!

After the helicopter ride we decided to go to a movie. We used to go to movies about every weekend but don't go very often anymore. I figured since Cooper was already in bed we might as well. (Thankfully he drinks milk out of bottle finally!!!) We went and saw Green Lantern. It was a fun movie. Then headed home. We were out way later then we have been in a long time. We were both dead tired!

On our real anniversary we didn't do much. Brad worked all day and I went to lunch with some friends. Brad surprised me with a bouquet of flowers when he got home. I was so surprised. He never buys flowers (he thinks I kill them really fast but I've tried telling him flowers die quick anyways). I made dinner and was supposed to go play in a water polo game but I didn't feel well so skipped the game. But we had to renew our temple recommends before Friday because Brad's cousin got married and our recommends expired on Thursday.....lame!!! So we spent a lot of the night getting that taken care of. It was cool however seeing a sealing the same week and the same place that we got married. It brought back a ton of memories! I would say we had a good, very memorable 4 year anniversary.

Brad and I in the helicopter

All the amazing views
(click on the pictures to make bigger)

My beautiful bouquet (it is still fully alive and pretty)
The bouquet was called "How We Grow".....so sentimental :)

Happy Anniversary Brad!!!! Thanks for an amazing 4 years!
I LOVE YOU!!!!