Walk to the Park

A couple of days ago my friend Amy and I took the babies on a walk to the park. There are a ton of parks all over in the neighborhoods where I live. It will be a lot of fun when Cooper gets a little older and can actually play on the parks. Cooper loves when we go on walks out with our jog stroller. This particular day Cooper hadn't napped really well so I was sure he would fall asleep on our walk. I was wrong. He is very much like his daddy in the fact that if something is going on he wants to stay awake to take it all in. This makes it hard because it is impossible to get him to sleep in public. He will only fall asleep in his crib or in his car seat. This means that we have to lug around the car seat whenever he is going to be needing a nap (ex. at church). When we got to the park and he was still awake I thought we would swing and go down the slide. Cooper was taking it all in. When he gets really tired, like he was this day, he gets very mellow and quite. He loved swinging. He totally relaxed and just laid on me and looked at everything going on around us. I will have to take him again when he is a little more awake and can get excited about it.

Ward Talent Show :)

Our ward had its annual ward talent show tonight. The bishop had asked each auxiliary to participate in the talent show. **The Young Men and Primary however got out of it somehow** Therefore since I am in the Young Women I was volunteered to participate. Last year we had to participate and it was just embarrassing being up there. So this year we came up with a fantastic plan where we wouldn't be recognized during our performance. This took lots of planning and practicing but it was fun to put together. We kept it a total secret and NO ONE knew what we were going to be doing. I even managed to keep Brad in the dark and he had no idea what we had planned. I was really excited and hoped that it would come together and be a success. Brad recorded the performance so ENJOY!!! I hear it looked lots better in person but oh well.

p.s. I am the retard on the left who messed up right in the beginning.

I Can Use These Teeth to My Advantage???

Well now that Cooper has his 2 bottom and 2 top teeth he has discovered biting. The other night when I was burping him before bed he bit my shoulder and made me bleed. But even when he's not biting he loves having stuff in his mouth and chewing on it. It doesn't matter if it's a toy, blanket, or his binky. He will bite/chew anything that he can get his little mouth on. He puts toys in his mouth and then crawls around with them. I need to catch some pictures of him doing this still. He does like giving kisses but he goes in for those with his mouth open just the same as when he's getting ready to bite. Before we moved his mattress down he had put bite marks and scratched the paint with his little teeth off his crib where his mouth was when he was standing. Side note: I had a really hard time when we moved the mattress down. I LOVED going in to see him standing there smiling ready for me to get him after his naps. I have a hard time adjusting with the fact that he's getting bigger :(

Well the other day I look over and he's standing at one of the kitchen chairs. And of course he's biting it and rubbing his little teeth into. I had to stop and laugh. Once I caught him he just found it funny and kept doing it then looking at me to make sure I was still watching. Then he would go back to biting the chair. I like that he's leaving his mark around the house. Then when I look back I can remember the funny things he used to do when he was little.

I'm Coming

Every time I get on the ground this is what happens.
He zooms right over and gets so excited! I love it!

March Ensign Highlights

I completed my ward's Relief Society challenge again this month. I get such a feeling of accomplishment when I finish an issue of the Ensign. It is a spiritual boost that I enjoy gaining. I feel as if each issue has a few articles that deal with something that I have been thinking about or needing help with. When I flip back threw the pages to find some highlights I feel like I have highlighted almost the entire Ensign. It really is hard to find just a few items that I want to share. So bare with me if there is a lot that I am quoting or sharing.

Looking For The Good

by: President Uchtdorf

This was the first article in the magazine. As you can tell they start right off with amazing teachings. Here President Uchtdorf says "Those who look for the good will find a kind and compassionate people-a people who love the Lord and desire to serve Him and bless the lives of their fellowman. But it is also true that those who look for the bad will certainly find things that are not so ideal." This is something that I feel I need help with. Sometimes I am so critical and judgmental of people and don't really give them a chance. I jump to conclusions and it's hard to sway my thinking after that. I don't take the time of getting to know who they really are, I kind of just make assumptions from my first impressions. Next he says "The word of God admonishes the followers of Christ to be pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." I need to work better on not being such a hypocrite and show more mercy. I judge people on situations that I haven't had to deal with and assume that I would handle a situation differently. We all have the choice of seeing the good or bad in others. I need to remember to give others the benefit of the doubt that I would want from them. I'm not perfect by any means so I need to not expect everyone else to be.

Teaching the Doctrine of the Family
by: Julie B. Beck

There was a ton in this article that I loved. My focus in life seems to be on my family since I have had Cooper. I want our family to do the things we should and be prepared to teach Cooper and our other children the things we should about life and the gospel. We need to get prepared now and start habits that we want our children to have. This article states "Without the family, there is no plan: there is no reason for mortal life." I really take this to heart. I feel like everything I am doing now is for my little family. My goals and actions are really centered on my family and future children. I truly feel that my path in life was to be a mom. Yes, I got my college degree but I didn't do it for myself or for a career goal. I did it so I have something to fall back on and to be able to support my family incase anything every happened to Brad and also to show my kids how important education is. I didn't want to give them an excuse to not go to college. I know that college isn't for everyone but I wanted to be the best example I knew how for my children.

Raising children is not going to be easy. Especially if I want to teach them the gospel and show them how to be the kind of person the Lord wants. As Sister Beck says "Bearing children is a faith based work." I know that I am going to need help teaching my children and there is great comfort knowing that I can turn to the Lord for guidance. A part of this is teaching my children the true doctrine of the family. In order to do this we need to "Live in our homes, in our families, in our marriages so that youth will develop hope for eternal life from watching you." I know this is important for my own children to see but also for the youth in my ward. Serving in the Young Women has given me a new perspective on how the life I live is being seen. Every action or word spoken needs to show my own children as well as my Young Women that I believe in this gospel and eternal families. I know that I can't be perfect all the time and it gets really overwhelming when I think about all the things I could/should be doing better. It really helps to remember what Sister Beck says "Think in terms of precision not perfection." I need to work on one thing at a time and be precise with that habit before I move on to something new. We aren't expected to be perfect but we are to strive to be the best possible.

We hear all the time about how much harder the world has gotten and is still getting. We see all these things happening around us and it is really scary. It scares me for my own children and thinking about how the world is going to look when they are older. "This generation will be called upon to defend the doctrine of the family as never before. If they don't know it, they can't defend it." That is why it is so important for me to show my children how an eternal family can look and should act. I want them to know they are supported and loved. "The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us."

There is so much more from this article that I could share. But instead I would encourage you to read them yourself!

Where's Coop???

The other day I was sitting at the kitchen table and couldn't find Cooper. I turned around and this is what I found. I guess his nickname (one of many)- Coop Dog- actually fits. He didn't want to come out. He just laid in there and opened and shut the door with his feet and was completely content.

The Big 29

Last Wednesday, March 30th, was Brad's 29th birthday. I like to tease him that he's getting "old" but I like that he's older than me. I love that he's further along in his career and because of that can provide for us and allow me to be a stay at home mom, own our house, have reliable cars to drive, and really have money to do or get anything we need and usually want. I am so lucky that I have been able to spend the majority of his 20's with him (22-29). It has been amazing to see him grow as a person as well as in our relationship. I have been able to see him become an amazing husband and even more of an amazing daddy. Cooper absolutely loves his daddy. I love watching him light up every day when Brad get's home from work or walks into the room. Brad really isn't the "normal" husband. He loves to cook (even more so bake), enjoys shopping, helps with dishes, cleaning, laundry, with Cooper, and really anything that I need. I sometimes feel like I need to tell him to stop helping because he's been at work all day and once he's home needs to relax. But I love and I am so blessed that he's willing to help out with everything.




Brad and I have an issue with being able to keep presents a secret until the occasion. Because of this we always end up getting our presents before our birthdays or whatever they are for. I got Brad a 2tb external portable hard drive, but he got it at the beginning of March. I hated him not having anything to open on his birthday so I went and got him some more practical things that he's been talking about (but still opened them the night before his birthday). He got some work out equipment, 2 pairs of shoes (which he picked out), and a new wallet. The thing that I was most excited about was dinner. I wanted to take him to Last Samurai. It's a Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar. It's somewhere different that we haven't been to in awhile and I thought Cooper would enjoy it as well. Because it is more expensive than a normal place, I didn't want to invite a ton of people and make them feel required to come. So it ended up just being Brad, Cooper, me and our friends Danny and Alex. Dinner was a blast. We all enjoyed ourselves and like always the food was DELICIOUS.