Birthday Fun!

So, I must have followed the "norm" of breaking New Year's Resolutions as it has been two weeks since my last post.  I impressed myself the first few weeks in January with my weekly posts, but reality has set in... life gets busy.  These first few photos are foreign to me; it was just a few weeks ago where we enjoyed 40's and even 50 degree weather.  We had a lot of outside time, including a playdate with Lucy and Lily.  I was excited to give Lily a scenic tour of our yard and golf course on my Gator.

Meanwhile, Cooper and Lucy looked on, probably a bit jealous of us big kids on such a fun toy.  Cooper gets to ride along with me as a passenger.  He is probably tall enough to drive, but there is no.way.no.how he will take over my job.

Don't you love Cooper's Gophers hat!?!?!  That was compliments of Maggie (Grandpa Jamie's daughter, technically my step-aunt) who attends U of M and wants to make sure we have MN gear.

Since we didn't have snow a few weeks back, Laurie Jo and Mommy humored us with a grassy sledding trip around the yard.  Little did they know the weather would become winter and soon, plenty of snow and ice would fall for us to play and slide on.

Mommy's new addiction is a website called Pinterest.  She is busy creating several projects for home, school, and Valentine's Day.  This is her first attempt at a Pinterest idea...it was an antique window pane she bought a long time ago and used it for a dried flowers piece she made.  She took off the flowers (and her fingernails while she was at it), painted it with textured spray paint, added sports and painted drawer pulls, and then added scrapbook paper with some of her favorite pictures (which will be changed up periodically).  This now hangs in our hallway near the garage door and is a great place for backpacks and hats.  She is pretty proud of her first Pinterest creation.

Mommy's birthday was last week, so we started celebrating on Sunday with a family birthday party.  Auntie Karri, Uncle Jimmy and their baby were some of our guests that came that day.  I am AMAZED/INTRIGUED by baby.  Some of my questions and comments about my soon-to-be nephew include:  Me: "Where does the baby go when Karri showers so he doesn't fall out?"  Mommy's response: "It stays in her belly."  My response, "Oh yeah, in that bag."  While talking about baby I referred to it as a "she" but we have proof in a picture that it is a boy.  Mommy reminds me, "Caden, it's a boy, remember."  Me: "I remember, it has a penis in that picture on our fridge."  Finally.... I continue to ask about the "booby bag" because Mommy borrowed her breastpump to Auntie Karri.  I even had time to take some of the parts out, throw the "suction piece" towards Cooper and exclaim, "Cooper, the boob is ready for you!"  Mommy is quite sure she is not ready to have another baby until I am over this fascination with pregnancy and body parts.

While I groped Auntie Karri's growing body parts, Cooper played and cuddled with Grandpa Jamie.  Cooper was wearing his Packers shirt in hopes of a win.  One of Mommy's first birthday presents was a loss handed to one of her least favorite teams... sorry Packer fans.

Mommy's birthday was the following day after our family party.  We went to the library for storytime, made her a steak dinner, ate yummy desserts, and gave her a few presents even though Daddy told her the camera was her X-mas, birthday, anniversary, everything gift for a long time.  She was happy to receive a new coat and a sports watch.  Her other gift was seeing us boys wearing the sweaters that Great Grandma Woody made us for Christmas.  We had lots of nice compliments on them, especially from Grandmas at the library who understand how much work goes into making these.  Since Great- Grandma is a loyal blog follower of ours...thanks Great-Grandma....xoxoxoxoxo!

Who knew that Mommy was only 1 years old, just like Cooper!?!?!?  She wishes she was younger as time seems to fly, even more so with us boys in her life.  Heather, Mommy's job-share partner called her at home and had the entire class sing "Happy Birthday" to her.  How sweet is that!  Her class estimated her age to be between 20 (bonus for those kids) to 40 (uh-oh).  She is "about" half-way in between, give or take 4 years.  Mommy looks forward to this year, so age is just a minor factor in it all.

Cooper's Potty Update:  To our surprise, Cooper LOVES to use his toilet.  He often just sits, stands up and says "Ahhh Da" which means "All Done!"  He has gone poop and potty in the toilet on occasion which shocks the heck out of us.  It is merely by chance, but he gets what people do on the toilet as he often grabs a magazine and pretends to grunt.  We just go with it and celebrate and cheer each time he makes an attempt.

This past weekend, our parents went to a cabin with some friends to celebrate birthdays (Mommy and her friend share the same birthday).  While they went tubing (HEY!!!  I didn't know this!?!?!?) we stayed at Grammy's house.  My parents realized this was the first time they were both gone overnight since Jamaica 13 months ago.  We had a fun day and night at Grammy's baking, sledding on the lake, cuddling with her at 2:00 in the morning (thanks to Cooper who thought it was time to get up), and playing with the loads of toys (many from Daddy's childhood collection) and harassing Rudy and Sassy cats.

As you can tell, my parents were miserable without us this day.  I am sure it will be at least another 13 months until they leave us overnight again, right Mom and Dad????

To my dismay, our boat sold this week.  It has been for sale since last spring, but we haven't lowered the price that much considering we decided to "enjoy" it last summer.  Daddy lowered the price this past week and had many calls on it.  We know it is much too small for our family and we have the luxury of using Papa's pontoon and Grammy's pontoon and ski boat as well.  For now, we are going to be "boatless" and decide down the road if a pontoon is calling our name.  Bye boat :( .....

 Today, we had Parent Activity Day at preschool.  Mommy signed up to do an art project with the 10 kids from my class.  You would think she would have oodles of ideas being a Kindergarten teacher and all.  She quickly realized today what a huge jump Kindergarten is compared to preschool.  Some of the stations were Lego building, tinkertoys with marshmallows, books, obstacle course, cookie making/eating, music/mov't and Mommy's station... marshmallow snowmen faces.

 She was most amazed to see 3 year-olds praying, getting our own chairs and snacks out at the table, POURING water from a large pitcher into our glasses, and drinking... all without spilling.  Quite amazing!

 Since we were so busy at school, Daddy had to take this picture of us with my snowman creation from Mommy's station at home tonight.  It was a fun day at school and I was so proud to show Mommy everything I have been learning so far this year.  The best news.... Mommy had crazy fast fingers this morning as she had to speed dial the preschool  in hopes to sign me up for their program next fall and we GOT in again (whew).   I will stay at my preschool for their 4 year old program.  It is not considered 4K because it is a religious affiliated preschool program, but we LOVE it and know I will grow and grow while there.  We are so excited about this continued opportunity for me.

Well, without making any promises, I hope to post again in the next week.  We are excited for cousin Lexi's birthday this weekend and Cooper's 18 month (well, 19 month) photos with Kristin on Saturday.  We should have some fun photos to share with you soon!