My baby is one!!!

I can't believe my sweet baby has been a part of my life for a year. It has been the best year ever! Matt and I couldn't have imagined parenting bringing such great joy into our lives. He is such a sweet baby and we are so blessed to have him in our lives for eternity. He is taking about 10 steps and then sits down. He can get around so much faster crawling so he turns to that after walking for a few steps. He is saying mom, dada, dad, daddy, apple, and he had an entire day of saying a-oh, and then decided he never wanted to say it again. I am pretty sure he doesn't know what he is saying when he says those words other than dad. He rolls it (from patty cake), and pulls the funniest faces you could ever imagine. Some of his favorite things to do are crawl up the stairs (the monkey can go up the stairs way faster than I can), banging things, singing songs, and reading books. His one year stats are height 30" which is the 58th % and weight is 21 pounds which is 24th%.



I wish we could have invited everyone to his one year party but our house is too small and couldn't fit everyone. So, we had a family party and boy was Cooper excited. He sat and sqealed for around an hour after everyone got to our house. He was thrilled to have a party and be the center of attention. He kept all of us laughing.



Matt did such a great job decorating.



Bet you can't guess how Cooper felt about his birthday hat. Needless to say he never wore it.



I think Cooper was a little confused when everyone started singing to him, what do you think?



He sure did have fun digging into his cake.



Someones mouth is full.



What a cutie!



This is what it looked like right before I took it away from him. He had way too much sugar and I am mad at everyone that said we were going to have a fun night. It was the worst night ever!!! He had the worst tummy ache from eating so much sugar and didn't sleep at all. That was a rough night but what a fun day. I am so grateful for my Cooper!!!!

Week Update

So, most of you know Cooper has a hard time eating, because of that I have been so worried about what to do for his birthday cake. I found the answer. I made banana bread the other day and Cooper ate almost a whole loaf by himself. He LOVES it!!! I put some on his high chair tray the other day and let him go at it. It was so funny. He made the biggest mess but loved every second of it. Needless to say, Coopers birthday cake will be a banana bread loaf with some cream cheese frosting.



At Matt's parents house on Sunday we celebrated Jordan, Brooklyn, and Cooper's birthday. Jordan's eyes are fixed on the candles. He almost blew them out before we were done singing.



Matt and Cooper having fun. Cooper is into pulling this half smile. He just squints his eyes. It is so cute.



Matt had Cooper in his Colts get up.



Matt watching the Superbowl and eating delicious food with his little buddy. Matt sure was sad his Colts lost but we still had a lot of fun.



Someone loves chocolate!



Man I love that little boy!



Cooper is such a big boy. I can't wait until he can ride in this. Cooper loves his seat and will sit in it forever. Cooper is also into pulling an O face. So cute!

Warning...long post

A picture I will treasure FOREVER!!!!



This is Cooper with my sweet Grandma Linford 6 days before she passed away. Cooper loved cuddling in bed with her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer about 6 months ago. She had a full mastectomy and went through months of radiation. The whole time she was so positive and brave. She is so tough. The day (Monday last week) we took this picture of Cooper and Grandma, she was complaining of a pain in her right side. My family members called an in home nurse to come look at her. The nurse came the next day and found a tumor the size of a soft ball. This started two days worth of testing starting on Wednesday. Friday they asked grandma and some family members to go to the hospital for the results. She was told she had cancer in her liver and in her bones and gave her 6 to 8 weeks to live. 36 hours later she passed away.



I am so grateful I was able to spend so much time with her the week she passed. On Saturday night we got a call that she probably wouldn't make it through the night so my entire family (cousins, aunts and uncles) all surround her bed and made sure she felt how much love our family had for her during her last few hours with us. I am so grateful for my testimony of the gospel and that I know without a doubt she is in heaven reunited with so family of her children, husband and loved ones who passed before her. She was such a righteous woman and I will forever strive to follow her example.



Here we are at the dinner following all of the services. I am so grateful for my sweet husband who gave me so much comfort during such a sad time. Cooper sure looks happy to be there...NOT :)



My cute sister who is due in a month and a half. She is having a boy which will be the 9th grandson of my moms. YEAH!!!!!



This is my cousin who is also one of my best friends. I love her so much!



What a stud!!!! We went to the specialist for Cooper's ears and tonsils a couple of weeks ago. It went really well. She said that his tubes look great and are working fine. Earlier in the week before we took Cooper to his appointment, his tubes drained twice. We were so excited. She said since they drained there is no need to worry. She said his ped is probably calling a red ear an ear infection and in that case his ear wouldn't drain because there wouldn't be a full infection. We were excited to hear that. Then she looked at his tonsils and said they definitely aren't big enough to be removed before he is two. She doesn't think they would be causing him to gag and throw up. She said to just go back to stage one and two food and slowing introduce food to him, one thing at a time for two weeks. I did the whole, "But every kid I know his age and younger is eating food." She told me the worse thing I can do is compare and I needed to hear that. I am grateful he doesn't need surgery anytime soon.

I have to tell one cute story. The other morning Cooper was laying in bed with us and he sat straight up while Matt and I were still laying down, looked at Matt and as clear as ever said, "DAD!" It was soooo cute. We laugh forever. Man are we lucky to have him in our family.



For Christmas Matt got us a stay in a hotel. I was so excited. When we got there they told us we were the only tenants and asked if we wanted to upgrade to the kings lodge for no price change. Of course we said yes. This room was awesome! It was a little over 1000 sq ft.



I loved the bed. It was fancy. You would think a night away from Cooper we would have gotten a good nights rest and felt refreshed...didn't happen. Neither of us could sleep the whole night. We literally both got about 3 hours of sleep, and no its not because we were busy ;) By the time we picked Cooper up we were so exhausted! I am so lucky to have such a sweet husband!!!



My mom was watching Cooper for me the other day and when I went down to check on them, this is what I saw. She is probably not going to be happy I posted this but I thought it was precious!



Matt is mastering the yoga moves on Wii fit. He is going to have to challenge Kevin!!! :)

Lots of updates!

First of all, a sad update about my poor little guy. Some of you probably know that we have been having a hard time getting Cooper to eat real food. He does fine with baby food, puffs, bread and baby biscuits, but anything else he usually gags on and throws up. His doctor thought he had a texture problem and would need to be placed in speech therapy to help him with textures. Well I took him to the doctors yesterday and had her look in his throat to make sure everything was fine back there because he will put anything in his mouth he just throws it up as soon as he goes to swollow. Guess what...his tonsils are huge!!! She said no wonder he can't swollow. She said everything is getting caught which then causes him to gag and then throw up. So, my poor little guy is going to have to get his tonsils removed. On top of that, his tubes aren't working. He is still getting ear infection after ear infection and they aren't draining. His ears are acting like they don't even have the tubes in. He will most likely have to get them replaced as well. My poor little baby. He is such a good little guy for how much pain he is always in. On a happier note...



Cooper's first Christmas was so much fun! He was so cute to watch. He didn't really get it yet but he sure did think all of the paper was fun!



Every Christmas morning my whole family comes over for a big Christmas breakfast. This is us after eating breakfast, trying to let some of the food settle. We totally over ate!!! :)



This is Cooper and Tripp reading stories with Charlee. They are so much fun to watch together. I can't wait until they are a little bigger and can start playing.



This is an outfit (Matt is going to be mad that I called it an outfit, "because he is a boy!") that Matt's parents got Cooper for Christmas. It might be my favorite. I love it!!!



Every Christmas Eve we spend with Matt's parents. They always throw the greatest party. This year they bought a Wii and Band Hero for the family. It was definitely a hit. This is me and Jordan rockin it on the drums.



This is all of grandchildren on Matt's side of the family. Matt's dad had just finished reading about the birth of Christ while all the children put up the pictures.



This was Cooper's favorite part of the night. Grammy and Papa (Matt's parents) bought a little kid roller coaster. Cooper thinks this is the greatest thing ever.



This is him going down. He would laugh and laugh!!!



I sure do love my family!



We had our annual friend Christmas party at our house this year. This is Cooper and I playing with some glow sticks after winning them in a game of tape ball.



If you haven't ever played tape ball you are missing out. It is an intense game where a bunch of prizes are all taped together with packing tape making a huge ball. You roll dice and when you get a 7, 11 or doubles you get to steal the ball and try to get a present. This is Jo trying to steal from me.



Here are the boys anxiously waiting to steal the ball from either Jo or me.



This is cute Evan. He is Matt's best friends little boy. He is so stinkin cute. I love him!!!



My sweet Cooper! If you are wondering what happened to his nose, he got rammed by a little kid stroller. It was so sad. It was his first time bleeding.



This is sweet Molly! She is so much fun. She is 100% girl and the sweetest thing ever. I just love her. She is Matt's other best friends little girl.



Matt and Cooper being goofy like always!!!



Matt was reading to all of the kids.



This was Coopers second present he has ever opened. He was still trying to figure it out. He got some awesome NFL Colt onesies from Evan. Thanks!!!



Cooper loves Cheetos. One of the things we can get him to eat.



Matt and Cooper watching some football.



Cooper hated having this bow on his head. It was pretty funny!

YEAH!!!!!

So, my life time dream of being a stay at home mom has come true!!!! My sweet husband is working so hard so that I can be at home with Cooper. He is so amazing and I am so grateful for him. I don't think he will ever understand how much this means to me. I get to devote all of my time to sweet baby. I have been at home now for two weeks. You would think since I am at home, I would have been able to post, but being a stay at home mom keeps me busy. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Thanks babe for everything you do for me and Cooper! We are so lucky to have you in our lives for eternity. LOVE YOU!!!!



This is the only way I have found I can fold laundry and not have Cooper unfold the cloths right after I fold them. I dump all of the cloths out of the basket, put him in the basket and dump all of the cloths on top of him. He thinks it is the greatest and I actually get the cloths folded.



This is what it is like at our house as soon as Matt gets home. Cooper misses him so much while he is gone but Matt makes up for lost time. They wrestle and play for at least an hour before Cooper goes to bed. Cooper sure does love his dad.



Cooper loves forts! Anything that he can crawl under and sit, he thinks is the greatest thing ever. This is him under our end table. This is his favorite spot in the while house.






Cooper and Santa!!! He did so good. I think he was more confused by the overbearing beard than anything else.



So, I had a compulsive moment on Tuesday. I woke up that morning and thought, "I want to cut my hair." So I called my friend Elise and by that night my hair was gone. She cut off over 9 inches so I was able to donate my hair which made me feel good. I needed a change and am grateful Elise did such a good job. Thanks Elise!!!