Why We Are Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! It is that time of the year where we remember the many reasons we should be thankful. This blog post is dedicated to the many reasons we are blessed. Mommy's number one blessing this year is that she has three wonderful boys in her life who she loves tremendously and who love her back. Cooper's arrival in June was one of the happiest moments in her and our lives. Mommy worried about having enough love in her heart for another baby (she admits that I was hard to match), but having another little boy to love "completes" her. For this reason, Cooper, we are thankful for you this year!

Here are Mommy's boys on Thanksgiving morning watching the Macy's Day parade. I loved the turkey float the most and did my best gobbling when I saw it on TV.

We went to Grandma Carla's and Grandpa Jamie's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We were thankful for all of the yummy food, especially the turkey cookies that Grandma made just for the grandkids!

Cooper is thankful for sweet potatoes and "real" food. He has a passion for eating and it definitely shows all over his face and clothes.

My parents are thankful for their goddaughter, Lexi. She is especially helpful with both Cooper and I and they wish she lived next door or in our house for that matter.

Cooper is thankful for Daddy because he is super silly with us. Mommy is glad when Daddy gets home because she knows that means Daddy will play hard with us boys and tire us out for bedtime. It also means that Mommy can brush her teeth and if she is real lucky, she might even take a shower.

We are thankful for Grandma Carla and Grandpa Jamie. Cooper loves to hear Grandpa whistle and sing silly songs to him. I ask to see Grandma and Grandpa almost daily and love our frequent visits with them. We are blessed.

We are thankful that Uncle Jimmy finally pulled the trigger and asked Karri to marry him this year. The big event will take place on July 16th next year. Karri is "Auntie Karri" to me and our family welcomes her with open arms. It's a good thing Jimmy proposed b/c my Mom and auntie had plans to adopt her otherwise :)

Mommy is thankful that her job-share partner Heather heard a strong heartbeat this week. Finley will be a big brother to either a sister or brother on June 9th next year. Mommy will be even more thankful if Heather can teach the rest of the school year (she is due on the LAST day of school!) Congrats to Heather, Patrick and Finley!

We are thankful for Grammy, Matt (not pictured), "Auntie Jill", Ben, Erin, Kyra, and Bennett. Ben and family will be moving to MN within a few months as he had a promotion and will be returning to the midwest! We are very thankful for that. We are excited that Matt also pulled the trigger this year and is marrying Auntie Jill in just 29 more days! The big wedding will be in Jamaica, and no, my parents are not taking us kids, sniff :( The above picture was taken this past weekend when Mommy hosted a bridal shower for Jill. They had a great turnout and they had lots of fun. Mommy is thankful that she finished making 35 pairs of flip-flop cookies (Nutter Butters dipped in chocolate) for the shower. The theme was tropical, of course! She is even more thankful for the treadmill that she has been running on to work off these little devils.

We are thankful for new friends and "old" friends. We went to Rachel's house for a playdate. Rachel and her boys are new friends of ours; Mommy and Rachel are teachers in the same building and her boys, Carter and Owen are similar in age to Cooper and I. We had a blast playing in their toy room! By the way, Owen is 3 1/2 months older than Cooper and they are the same size!

We met up with our "old" friends, Laurie Jo, Lily and Lucy. We are thankful for baby Lucy as she was just born in October. We love hanging out with the girls and the sports center is always a great place to be in the cold winter months!

I am EXTREMELY thankful for this new 4-wheeler toy that the Sports Center bought recently. It broke my heart having to wait my turn to ride it, but I did get a few turns and they were amazing.

Daddy is thankful for the deer hunt. Both Daddy and Uncle Matt shot a doe this year. Daddy also shot a buck but couldn't locate it after it was hit; he felt bad about that. I am excited for the deer because I LOVE to eat venison sausage.

Mommy was extremely happy when she saw me petting the deer while saying, "That's sad!" She thinks maybe I will not be a deer hunter when I grow up, which is not an option if you ask my Dad. Mommy feels bad for the deer and refuses to eat venison to this day. She does appreciate thinning the population to keep the deer off the grill of her SUV though.

Mommy's teacher friend, Deanne (wearing a red shirt above), is thankful for Oprah's Ultimate Give Away! She was one of the very few people in this country selected to be on the show. Deanne had a party with friends to watch the episode. She won a diamond watch, 3D flat screen, an awesome digital camera, a huge closet system, Ralph Lauren clothing, candles, cookware, and lots more. The best gift she received... a 7 day Royal Caribbean Cruise! Mommy is so jealous but is so happy for Deanne as she deserves the many wonderful gifts that she received.

Finally, we are thankful for football.... Mommy is thankful that Brad Childress was fired last week and the Vikings now have a GOOD head coach. They even pulled off a win on Sunday against the Redskins!

Mommy and Daddy were thankful for Papa's generosity as he gave them his tickets for the Vikings/Packers game a few weeks ago. They always have fun going to this game at the Dome. Mommy's favorite part is seeing the silly Viking guy (above photo) who does the dances with the Vikings Cheerleaders... hysterical!

My parents attempted to get a family photo before they headed out to the game. Grandma and Grandpa watched us boys so they could go with Uncle Jimmy and Karri. I was not a happy camper in the above picture. Mommy reminded me that I would be happier without the Packers hat on.

We have come to the realization that we will never have a "normal" photo of the four of us for at least another 5 years or so.

Daddy is most thankful (besides his family) that the Packers creamed the Vikings for the second time this year. He didn't rub it in too much, which Mommy is thankful for as well.

As you can see, we have so many reasons to count our blessings this year. We know that in the year ahead, we will have many more celebrations and reasons to stop and remind ourselves how fortunate we are. We are most thankful for our family and friends~ blessings to you all!

Firsts

We had our first official snow on Saturday! I was so excited when I looked outside that I immediately exclaimed, "Snowmobile!" Little did I know that snowmobiles need a lot more snow than this. I have already dropped hints that I would like Santa to bring me a mixer (I love our kitchen-aid), candy, and a snowmobile. My parents think this is quite the variety of requests! Mommy "risked her life" in her words as she traveled to the cities to go bridesmaid dress shopping with Karri. Luckily, she made it there safely, unlike the dozens of cars that were in the ditch thanks to the snow and ice. While Mommy shopped with the girls (yes, they did pick out the bridesmaid dresses), Daddy, Cooper, Liberty and I played outside in the fresh, white stuff.

The snow sure didn't last long. By the next day, we only had clumps of snow here and there in the yard. In the cities, they had over 6 inches of snow, so maybe I should have gone with Mommy so that I could have played with the big stuff! I am excited to get more snow in the months ahead.

Another first.... Cooper is sitting up! He now sits up all by himself which is great news. He sometimes will plop over, but he is a pretty sturdy little guy. Mommy likes that she can set toys around him and make a mad dash to get the dishes, laundry or some other little chore done. Lately, Cooper wants nothing to do with his Jumperoo, exersaucer, bouncy seat, and activity mat. This makes it a huge challenge to accomplish anything with an 18 pounder in Mommy's arms all day. On the bright side, Mommy doesn't feel that she needs to bicep curls as part of her workout.

Here is my "plea" face for a trip to the mall. My favorite places to go are the library, mall, and to friends' houses. Daddy thinks that Mommy has ruined me as I ask to go to the mall daily. I mostly want to go on the little 75 cent rides there, but Mommy sees it as an opportunity to have a little retail therapy :) With the colder weather, we have been taking weekly trips to the library for their storytime. We also try to do a playdate each week with other Mommies who job-share or stay home. It is nice to get out of the house and do something fun. It is getting easier with Cooper's predictable schedule.

My favorite ride is the helicopter. I am convinced that I am truly flying this to Florida every time I drop the quarters into the slot. Sadly, we never make it to the beach but I sure drive it like a determined pilot should.

I decided to give this "train" a chance too. My Mom is trying to convince me that this is a hot dog bus, but that seems ridiculous to me. Why would a bus sell hot dogs?!?!

Although Cooper is sitting up on his own and he also stands with locked legs for a good amount of time, he is still not rolling over. My parents think it might take a lot for him to get his 18 lb body to roll. He will be 5 months old this upcoming weekend and the average age for rolling over is in the 4 month range, so he is just fine. We keep thinking he will get mad at us one of these times when we put him on his tummy that he might just flip over like a pancake. I would have been mad if I were him in these pictures. Mommy put a silly hat on him that Daddy wore when he was a baby. If I were a nice brother, I would have taken the hat off myself, but I stood and watched the whole thing unfold.

Cooper LOVES to eat. He is happiest in his Bumbo seat or the space saver high chair. He gets silly excited because he knows that food is on its way. His favorite treat is fresh bananas in this little fresh food pacifier net thing. He devours almost an entire banana. It's quite amazing.

Cooper eats rice cereal at least once a day, sometimes twice. Daddy is a good rice cereal tester... just ask him. Last night he tested the cereal to make sure that it wasn't too hot. He seemed to forget that Mommy uses breastmilk in the cereal to thin it out. We laughed so hard at him that we nearly peed our pants, which wouldn't have been a big deal for me since I am still wearing diapers (but am doing quite well in the potty training department).

Cooper's first vegetable was sweet potatoes. He was kicking his arms and legs he was so happy about them. My parents made sure to point out that Cooper is already a better eater than me. You couldn't pay me enough to eat sweet potatoes. Apparently I ate them a lot as a baby too. With the rice cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes, Cooper now only nurses about 6 times a day. He wakes up once in the middle of the night because he is asleep at 7 p.m. and it is too long of a stretch to wait until morning for him to eat. Cooper usually wakes up around 3:00 for his night feeding.

Two weeks ago, we spent a long weekend at Grandma's as Daddy went to the hunting shack in hopes for the "tirdy" point buck. They were skunked again this year (not literally, but no one shot a deer). At Grandma's house, we had playdates with auntie, uncle Bruce, Lexi and Sam. We also had a playdate with Meggen, Pete, Lauren and Abby. We had fun playing with toys and visiting. Mommy snuck away one night to scrapbook with Karri. One of the evenings, I discovered Grandma's Ugg boots and came out wearing them. Everyone thought this was funny. I thought it was hysterical and became "slap happy" in no time at all.

Mommy says this look above is clearly a sign that it was time for bed.

Auntie loves cuddle time with Cooper. As she was cuddling him, we noticed that his right eye looked awfully pink. Next thing you know, it was oozing crud. Mommy knew it meant one thing, pinkeye. The dreaded pinkeye hit Cooper and then me. It was a good thing we were heading home the next day. Everyone had to wash their hands a billion times after handling Cooper and playing with me in hopes that they didn't get it too.

The next morning, Lexi and Sam came to Grandma's to have breakfast with us before they headed to school. Sam is in Kindergarten and Lexi is in 3rd grade. I can't wait to go to school, just like them!

This is what Cooper's eye looked like the morning we went home. Mommy made a doctor's appointment which confirmed that he had pinkeye. It was a good thing that our doctor wrote a prescription enough for two... I had pinkeye the day after. Mommy had to capture this photo below because Cooper decided he should scream and cry the last 45 minutes of our drive. When she turned around she saw this. She thinks this is actually good problem solving for a 2 1/2 year old!

We met up with Lauren and Abby while we were in the cities too. I love their play kitchen area and their many fun toys.

Meggen and Mommy have been friends since the 3rd grade. She thinks it is so much fun to have a friend for life. She is excited to have Cooper and I grow up with Abby and Lauren. Lauren and Cooper even look like they could be siblings! Meggen is tackling Law School right now, but we are glad she could sneak some play time into her busy schedule.

I decided to help Pete out in the yard. My parents really miss their first house (well, not the house, but the yard) because of the huge trees. Meggen and Pete have huge trees although they do not appreciate the leaves. I loved the little kid rake they had and I did my best to share it with the girls.

I remembered the horse from our summer BBQ, so I asked Pete if I could ride the horse. Pete was nice enough to go get it down from their garage. This reminds Mommy of the horse she named, 'Good Ol' Boy' when she was a kid. She remembers many squished fingers in the springs too.

Hint to Grandma...this is the cute Little Tykes seesaw that Lauren and I rode on. We sure think it would be a fun Christmas gift for Cooper and I.

We went to a local park by Abby and Lauren's house. Apparently, it is allowed and a trend to have chickens in your backyard. We stopped by to see the chickens down the road and they had a super silly one with whacky hair. I loved this little wheelbarrow so I decided I needed to push it all around their neighborhood on our walk to the park.

The little park we went to had a nice playground area for kids. It was gorgeous outside... obviously the last nice fall day of this year.

As I ran towards Abby and Lauren at the park, Mommy had a realization of how big I am. I am not a baby or toddler in her eyes. Maybe it is having Cooper around that makes me seem so big. My face is starting to look like a little boys, my sentences are becoming much longer and more understandable, and my coordination is better too. It makes her sad at times to see this change in me, but I promised her that I will always be a Momma's boy. We had many firsts these past few weeks... first foods, first sitting up, first snow, first pinkeyes :) These are times when my parents remember it is the little things, such as these "firsts" that brighten our lives.