Cooper's 15 Month Check up

Cooper had his 15 month check up was yesterday. He weighs 27lbs. 1oz. and is 33 inches tall. He is above the 100 percentile in both weight and height for his age. Cooper also had to have four shots, which he did not like one bit. He cried more getting those shots than I have ever seen him cry when getting shots. Poor little guy.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

I think this is the first year that we have actually gotten our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We always plan to, but the day is usually filled with so many other activities that we don't get around to it. In fact one year we didn't get our tree up until about two weeks before Christmas and we still had it up on my birthday (Jan. 10). Jeff's Grandpa and Grandma Long came over that year on my birthday to give me my birthday card. Grandpa Long asked me if we celebrate Christmas on a different day in our religion. I told him no, and that we had just gotten our tree up two weeks before Christmas and we were not ready to take it down yet.

We will never be able to have a real tree, because of Jeff and Mason's allergies, so every year we are stuck with a fake one. The tree we have had for the past four years leaned REALLY bad, so last night we went out and got a better tree.

When we got to the store to buy a tree, Cooper was asleep, so Jeff stayed in the car and Mason and I went in and picked out a tree, he was so good and helpful that I let him buy some skittles. And let me tell you, it was a sight to see, me trying to lift a 7 1/2 foot tree into a cart all by myself. That was fun!

For the past two years Mason has helped Jeff decorate the tree while I took pictures (and last year took care of Cooper). We thought it would be fun to let Cooper help, but he wanted nothing to do with the tree, so we put him to bed and then decorated.

I thought it was pretty fun that Cooper didn't like the tree, so I just had to get some video of it.

Mason helping Jeff put the skirt around the tree.

Pretty. All we have to do now, is to buy a new star to go on top. (I don't like the one we have.)

Mason was so excited to have the tree up!

This morning Cooper still wouldn't go near the tree, unless I was holding him, but even then he wouldn't get more than a foot from it. I hope he stays leery of it all season. We didn't put any ornaments on the bottom branches just in case he does start to like it.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my parents house. Most of my siblings were also able to be there, it was great to spend Thanksgiving with all of them. I apparently was a little spacey and forgot my camera, so thanks to Jared and Michelle, who remembered theirs, I stole these pictures from their blog. Thanks for letting me steal some pictures!

Most of us. (That's my arm in the bottom left corner)

Cooper and Benjamin enjoying their Thanksgiving meal.

Mason, Connor, Ethan, and Zachary

Can you see why I married him? What a handsome devil.

After we spent time with my family, we went to Jeff's Grandma Borders' house. And of course I didn't have my camera, so sorry no pictures. When we got home, Cooper went right to bed, and Jeff, Mason, and I watched The Polar Express. Watching a Christmas movie Thanksgiving night is something Jeff and I want to do as a tradition.

We had a great Thanksgiving, the only thing I wish I had, were some of the leftovers. I guess I'm going to have to start making our own Thanksgiving meal.

Quirks

I have never done one of these tags before. I am not sure if I have even ever been tagged, if I had, I just ignored it. I was tagged by Corrine and now I have to share six quirks about me and then tag two more people.

1.) My left eye is really lazy, so lazy in fact that my brain does not register what is sees, so as a result of that, I only wear one contact in my right eye.

2.) The top of my right ear is folded over.

3.) I talk to myself all the time. I'm sure when I talk to myself in the car, other drivers look at me like I am crazy.

4.) I am obsessive compulsive regarding clutter. If our house is cluttered with mail, papers, books, magazines, toys, clothes, etc. I will stay up until it is all cleaned up, even if I am dead tired.

5.) I LOVE to organize things and get rid of non-essential items.

6.) Anytime someone starts singing a song, I get it stuck in my head and sing it all day long.

The two people I tag are: DeAnne and Michelle

When I grow up...

"I want to drive a front loader, a back hoe, and a dump truck!" Mason is absolutely obsessed with heavy machinery. He loves to watch them in Acton. Anytime we drive by one, he insists that we stop to watch them. This morning Mason got to see one up close and personal! Two men brought a front loader and dump truck and cleared away a ton of broken up concrete and rocks from the lot right next to us. They drove pretty close to our house which Mason LOVED, but Cooper felt safer watching from my arms.

Sounds of Pain

Yesterday afternoon I heard Cooper in the pantry making a noise that sounded like something had fallen on him and he was crying out for help. I went into the pantry expecting to find a case of soup cans on top of Cooper. Instead I found Cooper trying desperately to get a water bottle out of a case of water. He tried and tried, but no matter what he did, he just couldn't figure out how to get one.

Before I got the camera out, the noises he was making we ten times as loud.

Twilight Night!

After my sisters, sister-in-law, and I had our Sister's Retreat, we thought it would be nice to continue having these nice evenings together. All of us, except one, have read the Twilight Saga, and thought it would be nice to go see the movie all together.

Last night, I hosted the dinner portion of our evening at my house. Michelle offered to take care of all the decor, which turned out beautiful! Thanks again Michelle for all your help!

Michelle took her inspiration for the decorations from the cover of the book.

The bent Fork - Forks, WA
The black sparkly apple- Edward
(he is the forbidden fruit, he is dark & he sparkles).

DeAnne, Michelle, Debbie, Julia, Britany, Me, Alura, Laura, Jenny

I made breakfast for dinner, because that is something Bella made for her Dad all the time.



We played games -Britany did a "Who said it" game.

I found a really good questionnaire. When I found the questionnaire a few months ago, I thought it was going to be too easy, but even Britany, who has read Twilight five times this year missed a couple.

After dinner and the games, we went to see the movie together. I enjoyed it and will probably be going back with Jeff this Friday, so he can see the movie.

Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer

New Developments

Cooper has had some new developments for the last week and a half or so. His sixth tooth came in on the 12th of this month. He now shakes his head"no" and "yes". The biggest development, and the one Jeff is probably the most proud of, is Cooper says "basketball", of course it comes out
"ba-ba-ball", but hey close enough, right? He still is not walking, but is getting closer and closer everyday. Each day he gets more daring and takes a few more steps before going down on all fours to crawl. Anytime now would be great, kiddo, I am tired of lugging you around everywhere we go!

Take a Picture!

Yesterday, I watched my niece, Katelyn for a few hours. Mason and Katelyn were sitting on the couch together, so I sat Cooper next to them, secretly hoping he would stay there for awhile so I could get some things ready for our Twilight Night. After sitting Cooper down, I turned to leave the room, and Mason called after me saying, "take a picture Mom!"

Midnight music

Last night around 12:30am, Cooper woke up, after trying to feed him some baby food (which he didn't want anything to do with) I sat with him in his rocking chair and sang some Primary songs to him. Although I do not enjoy hearing my oh so beautiful singing voice at this hour, or being up at this hour, I realized last night that these days of being up with Cooper are definitely coming to an end. I sometimes get frustrated because in my opinion, these days of being up with Cooper in the middle of the night should have come to an end about eight months ago, but they have not. I realized that I should be grateful for these quiet moments alone with Cooper, cuddling and singing to him. I know that he will be all grown up sooner than I want him to be, and that when he is all grown up he will not want to cuddle with me. I decided to make more of an effort to be grateful for those quiet moments with my children.

Ball popper

Every Birthday and Christmas I feel like the boys get far too many toys, so instead of taking them out of their packages all at once and causing sensory overload in the boys, I store some of the toys away and get one out every once in awhile. It's like having two or three Birthdays and Christmas' every year and I feel like they are able to enjoy each present more this way, because they are not over-whelmed by all the toys and have a hard time choosing what to play with. I still have two or three presents from Cooper's birthday (in August) that I have not taken out of the packages. This ball popper was one of Cooper's presents. I just took got it out for him a few days ago, and now it is the only toy Cooper and Mason want to play with. We literally have to pull them away from it at night and it's the first thing the do in the morning.

Laughter...isn't it great?

For some reason, Mason thought it would be funny to put a dish towel on his head at march around the house. As for Cooper, he found it just as funny (or maybe even funnier).

You know...

...your kids are up to no good when it gets really quiet in the house, right?

Not this time...

I guess he just needed to take a breather, curl up in a comfy chair, and catch up on some reading.

***Cooper's newest word: Ball

This is Cooper's first word, besides Mamma, Dadda, and Papa

Caught green handed....

I am beginning to worry about my plants dieing. It's bad enough that I never remember to water my plants, but now I have to worry about Benjamin pulling all the leaves off them!

Seriously, last week he was just rolling, now he is practically crawling... I walked away from Benjamin for a few minutes, when I came back in the room I found him pulling the leaves off this plant. Then a little while later, I forgot that Benjamin was crawling around on the floor. I had just finished getting lunch on the table for the other four boys, when I suddenly remembered that Benjamin was somewhere crawling around. I came into the living room and found my big plant knocked over with dirt and leaves all over the floor. And not to mention, dirt in and around Benjamin's mouth. (Sorry Julia and Bill)

I was really irritated at Benjamin for knocking over the plant, but then I realized that I should have been irritated at myself for not watching him more closely. So, needless to say, I made a mental note of that.

Pizza!

Last night our friend Corrine ate dinner with us. (Her husband, Kevin was at school) I made a pizza for the adults (and Cooper) and let Mason and Allen make their own pizzas. They had fun putting on their own toppings. Yummy!

He's so dang cute!

Cooper's fifth tooth!

Cooper's fifth tooth finally broke through yesterday. I was beginning to wonder if he was going to be stuck with his four "chicklets" forever! Just to give you an idea of how long he has had just the four teeth, his 2nd tooth came in on May 11th, his third tooth came in on May 13th, and his fourth tooth came in on May 14th. (I can't find where I wrote down the date that his first tooth came in, but I know it was around the time that the others came in.

First snowfall of the season!

Snow fell for the fist time of the season on Wednesday, which I am not too happy about. We have found that the climate is completely different here on Five Mile. It was snow up here, but I think that once the flakes reached the bottom of the hill, it turned into rain.

Double fistin' it

Wednesday I spent all day at my sister Jenny's house, helping her organize her house. ***On a bit of a side note, I think I should start charging people to organize their houses, I constantly have people asking me to help them, so hey, maybe I should get paid for all that time (and energy) away from my family. Anyways, back to the topic. I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so I stopped at Taco Bell on the way home. Once I got home and got Cooper in his highchair, he was really ready to eat! Jeff gave him a taco. Cooper did not think one was enough, so he grabbed the one Jeff was eating. Cooper switched back and forth taking a bite of each one. Yeah, he thought he was pretty cool with two tacos. (The banging sound in the video is Cooper kicking his highchair)

Have you voted yet?

*Warning: While reading this post, you may think you landed on Jeff's crazy opinion blog by accident, but you really did land on Crystyne's blog.

I am not one to push my political views on anyone, although being married to Jeff, I am becoming more out-spoken about them than I ever used to be. I usually leave the rantings, ravings, and other crazy opinions that Jeff and I share for Jeff to blog about and take the heat for when someone doesn't agree with what he has said.

I feel like this is a very important election. Not only at the national level, but also at the local level, especially here in Washington. For those of you who live in Washington, do you remember the governors election four years ago? Dino Rossi won, Christine Gregiore disagreed with the results. There were (I think) three re-counts, in which Dino Rossi won all but the last re-count. He lost the last re-count by something like 145 votes. Outrageous I know, and to top it all off, us, the tax payers were stuck with the bill for all those re-counts.

Anyways, PLEASE VOTE! Every vote DOES count. Besides, if you don't vote, you can't complain about how the government is being run.

The (day after) Halloween Party

Jeff and I just came from a Halloween party at some friends of ours, Rob and Katie Leale. The Leale's are in our ward. We had a great time, and as we are new in the ward, we didn't know some of the couples very well, so it was great to get to know a few more of the couples in our new ward! I don't have any pictures from the party, I forgot to take our camera, as I ALWAYS do, so the only pictures I have are of us before we left for the party.

We went as Jasper and Alice from the Twilight Saga. I don't think anyone knew who we were, until someone (Jill Rippy) was brave enough to ask who I was. All I had to say was that I was Alice and it was like there was a light bulb went off for everyone in the room.

Jasper

Alice

Here is a shot of the back of my hair, I got my hair cut like this just for the costume.

Halloween

Yeah, I know, a pile of black yard-trash bags is NOT what you expected to see, right? Well, let me explain. My sister (and her family) moved to Richland today, and so last night we pawned our two boys off on family, and Jeff and I went up to Newport (where they moved from) to help DeAnne and Justin pack their U-Haul. We got to their house and were greeted by a yard full of leaves. Justin asked us (expecting us to say no) if we wanted to rack up their leaves. So, as you can see, Jeff and I set out to get all the leaves racked and bagged up before dark. We bagged up a total of 16 bags, and the two Maple trees still have about half their leaves on their branches. Racking and bagging all those leaves helped me come to the conclusion that I never want huge Maple trees.

Our cute Firefighter went trick-or-treating with Jared, Michelle, Ethan, Britany, and Michelle's family. Thanks again for letting Mason tag along!

Mason, Ethan, Kimber, Khloe, & Kelsey

Our cowardly Lion helped Grandpa and Grandma Borders hand out candy to their trick-or-treaters. Cooper also spent the night with his grandparents, he did really well and he even slept through the night. Which if you know Cooper, you know that is a rare occurrence, although it is one that is happening more. Thank goodness.

Here are our cute little guys together.

When we returned from Newport, we went to Jared and Michelle's to pick up Mason. We stayed for a while and ate some yummy home-made caramel popcorn and played "Clue". Britany won the game. It was Miss White, in the Conservatory, with the rope. I was way off!!!