The Boys

Yesterday, while Jacks was at school, this is what I found sitting in the hallway. He had gathered all of his stuffed animals and lined them in a row and then was talking to them in his "sweet baby voice". It was so cute!! If he was a girl he would play with babydolls all day long! I am sure of it! But, since we don't have any, his animals serve as his babies and he will put diapers on them, take them for rides in the stroller, wrap them in his blankie, and love them.

My boys are obsessed with shorts!!! I don't get it! Every morning, pretty soon after they wake up, they ask if they can put on their shorts and run around in them. It is a sad day if I ever say no! In fact, it is the ultimate punishment to make him put pants back on :). I just took this picture this morning right after they woke up and right now as I'm typing this they are running up and down and being crazy!! They have so much energy and are definitely all boy!!!

Cooper's Birthday

This is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures because there were so many cute ones that I couldn't pass up! OK, here goes....

Cooper's 3rd Birthday was on Jan 19, but he really got to celebrate it for 3 days! (Hopefully he won't remember that next year and expect it again!) On Sunday, the 17th, we had birthday dinner with the Keele's and Cooper opened presents and ate cake.


Grandma Keele gave his Pete's Dragon which he was really excited about.

The next day we celebrated with my family. That morning Erin and Becky came over to help me finish up the cake. Bert and I had dyed and baked 6 different layers the day before, which was a process but not as bad as I thought it would be. So they came over early, with kids in tow, and we made Cooper a "Red Hi-Ho Cake" (That is exactly what he said when I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted!!).

So here is what it looked like right before we frosted it. Cool, huh?

This is the final product and the happy birthday boy that got exactly what he wanted!!

Cooper and all his loot. He got a lot of stuff.

Cooper loves to play with his cousins stroller and so I have been wanting to get him one for a long time, but everywhere I looked they only came in pink. I happened to be in the baby Gap at Christmas time and saw this stroller. It's perfect because it's blue and green and totally masculine :)!!

So then the next day was finally Cooper's actual birthday. Bert had a basketball game that night so I took the boys to that, which they loved, and then we went bowling afterward. Casey and Peggy came with us.

After bowling we grabbed some ice cream and then made our way home. When we got there this is what we found in Cooper's room...

Nana, Papa, Tiff, and Tessa had come by to decorate his room with balloons. The boys loved it and didn't waste any time getting all tangled up in the balloons. It was a fun few days!

Candyland

Santa brought Candyland for Christmas and the boys cannot get enough! We play it about 5 times a day! They have so much fun with it!

These pictures are kinda blurry but I wanted to post them because they were laughing so hard. They think it's hilarious to bonk the other person when you are passing them. I'm getting pretty sick of the game so if anyone has been having Candyland withdrawals you can get your fix over at our house...5 times over!! :)

School

A couple of weeks ago one of Bert's nieces, Stephanie, called and said she needed to take a 3-5 year old with her to class and she asked if she could take on of our boys. Jacks had school that day so I told her she could have Cooper. Jacks was very jealous and wanted to skip school and go with Steph instead. They both have a big crush on her and love to spend time with her.

Cooper was so excited for the chance to "go to school". He felt like such a big boy and had the biggest grin on his face when I got him out of the car and walked him over to Steph. It only lasted about an hour but it was a nice break for me without any kids!

This is Jacks and his pre-school teacher Mrs. Young. She is so great! We really love her! My sister knows her and hooked me up with her phone number last summer and we got Jacks on her list. He is really liking school. He has a hard time if I have to wake him up to go...but he always has a good time while he's there. He is always coming home with cute pictures or projects and is so proud to show them off. Pre-school has done so much for him in helping to get him out of his shell. He has always been an extremely shy boy but I think he is really starting to open up.

Playing in the Snow

Before Christmas we got a ton of snow and so the boys of course wanted to go out and play in it! It worked out great for me that it was a Saturday morning so Bert was home to go out there with them! Lucky me!

Apparently it was really bright outside because I tried twice to get a picture of Cooper and they both turned out like this.

Jacks made this snowman all by himself!! Isn't it so cute?

Cooper got cold so he went inside to watch while...

Bert and Jacks had a snowball fight. Cooper gets mad if anyone throws snow at him. It's totally fine if he is the one doing the throwing but it's not okay if he gets hit by the snowball. I'm ready for it to snow again! It has been a while and now it is just the yucky, dirty leftover stuff and I love how beautiful and clean everything is right after a snowfall (as long as I don't have to drive anywhere that day ;)!

Crazy Kids!

My friend came over the other day to interview me for an assignment she was working on. She brought her little girl who is a couple months older than Cooper. The kids all get along great and were playing really well together! After a while I commented that I hadn't heard anything from them (which is odd because when other people come over my kids think they have to show off by playing as LOUDLY as they can!) So I got up to look for them and this is what I found...

They had brought almost every toy we own and put it in the kitchen!! I could not stop laughing!

This is our toy room and this bookshelf is usually full of toys! They had emptied it out completely!!

Apparently they were getting ready for a football game...whatever that means! That's the only explanation I could get out of all three of them. It was sooo funny!

Birthday Trip

My birthday was last Friday and I knew that Bert was planning a getaway for us. But that's all I knew! It was all a big surprise (which I love!) So I assumed that we were probably just going to head up to Park City or Salt Lake or something close by. Boy was I shocked when he got on the freeway and started heading south! So then I decided we were probably going to St. George. Which we did. We got off to eat at the Texas Roadhouse (which I also love!) and then I was waiting for him to find the hotel and all of a sudden there's a giant sign on the side of the freeway that says "Welcome to Arizona"! So, our final destination, after soooo much driving (I am totally impatient on roadtrips!) was Las Vegas!

Bert did a great job with all the planning! We got there late Friday night and checked into the Venetian. We had a beautiful room! It was the only thing that I got pictures of from that whole weekend! I'm weird about asking strangers to take a picture for me. I know, it's really dumb!

They had us up on the 30th floor so it had an amazing view! I know it's all blurry but you can get the idea!So we really only had one day to spend in Vegas but it was packed full of stuff so it felt like a full trip instead of just one day! We went to a spa and were able to see The Phantom of the Opera and the Blue Man Group. In between we ate some very yummy food and we did that all in our hotel! The shows and the restaurants and the spa were all in the Venetian so we never really had to leave and drive around!

It was a very fun trip and much needed too! I love my kids but I also love some time away to just relax and be with Bert! Thanks to my mom and dad for watching them over the weekend! The boys loved sleeping over at Nana and Papa's and they keep asking to go back again!