Cooper's First Birthday Party

Tonight we had Cooper's First Birthday Party. Both my parents and Jeff's parents offered to have Cooper's birthday at their house. We, well, I, figured that since we had Mason's birthday party at Jeff's parents house, we would have Cooper's birthday party at my parents. So first thank you to both sets of parents for offering your homes. Thank you to my parents for allowing us to bombard your back yard! And thank you to all of you who were able to be there to celebrate Cooper's birthday with us!

Opening Presents

My Dad

Steve, Tricia, Megan, Hannah and Papa Borders

Digging In!

Not only did Cooper have his First Birthday today, but he also had two other firsts today. One, he crawled in grass for the first time. When ever we would try to get even his toes to touch grass he would do everything in his power to say away from the grass.

OK so I took this video sideways and I can't figure out how to rotate it, but it is really cute anyways. So just turn your head. Cooper found a piece of ice in the grass and kept trying to pick it up to eat it.

Here was his other first. He climbed up in this chair all by himself! I guess he just needed to kick back for a bit after having to keep up with the demanding schedule that a birthday boy must keep.

Crystyne

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Happy First Birthday Cooper! Well I can safely say that I know exactly what I was doing one year ago, at this exact time. I had woken up at 3:45am, why? Well of course, being 81-2 months pregnant, I had to use the bathroom, so I got up and used the bathroom and was not having any contractions or anything. So I went back to bed but I was having a hard time falling back to sleep. At 4:00am my water broke. Jeff insanely became a nervous wreck. Really, I couldn't get him to focus on anything. But he did manage to call a good friend of ours who lived a few blocks away, she came over to be with Mason and we were off to the hospital. So by 10:00am I had been in labor for six hours and was less than one hour away from delivering Cooper. Around 10:40am I began to push, I pushed three times and Cooper was born!

I remember the first time I saw Cooper... the first thing I thought was how chubby his cheeks were, little did we know that they would stay that way and get even chubbier. The second thing I noticed was how fat him umbilical cord was, there is a picture at the bottom of this post of his fat cord, look at it, it really was a fat one! The next thing I did was check out his genitals- just to make sure he really was a boy. :)

I love this little guy so much! I am amazed sometimes at just how much I love him. Definitely a blessing from our Heavenly Father.

just born! (at 10:44am)

Cooper weighed 7lbs 10ozs and was 20" long

Check out the fat cord. See I wasn't joking, it was really fat!

Crystyne

Skyfest 2008

Today we went to skyfest 2008. We went with Jeff's Dad, Curtis and Jeff's cousin, Tyler. Mason was so excited last night when we told him we were going to go see some airplanes and be so close to them that he would be able to touch them. Mason told his Grandpa Borders that he could hold Mason up so he could touch them in the sky. I guess he thinks his Papa is REALLY tall. Once we got there Mason was a little unsure and re-thinking wanting to touch the planes.

I love this picture. Mason is "riding high" and showing the world that he is a big boy who wears underwear.

B-52

Inside the C-130

Once we got closer to where the stunt planes were flying and the sonic boom got louder, Mason wanted to go home.

Cooper cried after the first loud sonic boom, so he kept one ear pressed in me and I held his other ear during all the booms.

Cooper sat in the Sheriff's helicopter

But Mason decided he would rather not, he like looking at it from a distance

Jeff finally bought Mason some ear plugs so he could watch the blue angels and the F-22 Raptor without plugging his ears burring his head

Blue Angels

F-15 and F-22

Stunt Plane

Crystyne

Hash brown pizza?

Today I made pizza for dinner for both us and Jeff's parents. Well, I made two different pizzas. One pepperoni and black olive. The other a chicken, bacon, ranch-yummy you really need to try it. Anyways, when my friend Nicole moved to Utah a month ago, she gave me some food that she had in her freezer. As she was going through the freezer, she pulled out each item, if it was not something she thought she would use in the next few days before they moved, she would tell me what it was and if it was something I thought I would use, she put it in a bag for me to take home. Anyways... she got to two bags of what looked like shredded mozzarella cheese, she asked if I wanted it, and of course I knew I would use it on my home-made pizzas.

So while I was making the dough, I remembered I had the two bags of mozzarella cheese in the freezer. So I got out the two bags and set them out to thaw. Once it came time to put the cheese on the pizza I used one and a half bags on the pepperoni and black olive and then used the other half (as well as some of my own mozzarella cheese) on the chicken, bacon, ranch pizza.

OK so once we got to Jeff's parents house, I put the pepperoni pizza in the oven, after fifteen minutes in the oven, I noticed that the cheese was not melting like it should, so I turned on the broiler and after a few minutes it still was not melting. I took out the pizza and let it sit while I put the chicken, bacon, ranch in to cook. Well the chicken pizza came out just fine. I was baffled as to why the cheese on the pepperoni pizza was not melting. I wondered if it could have been because the cheese was frozen and then thawed out. This made no sense. So I picked up a piece of the cheese and ate it. Turns out that the shredded cheese, was actually shredded hash browns!

I was so disappointed and embarrassed. I felt really bad for mainly Jeff. Jeff's parents and I really like the chicken, bacon, ranch pizza so I knew we would be fine, but Jeff does not like that pizza. There were a few, really maybe only two pieces that did not have hash browns on them.

So to you Nicole, thank you for the hash browns they were yummy.

Crystyne

All is done, except for carpet

The house is almost done! Yeah! The only thing left to be installed is the carpet. Then it is on to cleaning up house so it will be sparkling for us to move in.

A view of the Formal living room. The rest of the trim was put in. And the light fixtures, light switches, and outlets were also installed.

Here is the half bath on the main floor.

The kitchen. I still have an issue with the full tile back splash. The full tile back splash was not one of the standard upgrades for us to choose. We asked specifically for that to be done. Now that the vent hood has been installed, we are wondering if when we asked for a full back splash, if the builders thought we did not want it extended all the way up. So we now have sent an email to our realtor for him to straighten out.

Here is the kitchen sink, I know exciting huh? Jeff says I was in his way when he took the picture so that is why the picture is not centered.

Main bathroom upstairs

Master bathroom shower

Master bathroom vanity area. We opted not to upgrade to the double sink vanity. I actually would rather have more counter space than two sinks.

Well, next week may be the last post with house updates. And even at that, all we will have to show will be the carpet. It will be strange when we won't have any need to go up and see our house. This has been our tradition every Friday for 13 weeks now. Usually I pick Jeff up from work at 4:30pm (and we leave his car at his work), we go look at our house, and take pictures. Then we go over to Jeff's parents house and eat dinner with them and every week we take turns cooking dinner. This has been a really fun tradition, the only thing I will miss is not having to drive so far to get to either of our parents house. (Jeff's parents house is about ten blocks away and my parents house is about a five minute drive)

Crystyne

Waiting for number four

I just finished "Eclipse". It took me longer to read this one because I decided to read it a bit slower. I read "Twilight" and "New Moon" in one week and I had neglected a lot of other things I needed to get done. Now I am waiting for someone in my family to finish "Breaking Dawn" so I can borrow it.

Cooper's Allergies

At around 12:15 today I gave Cooper a small piece of the peanut butter and Jelly sandwich I was eating. (I literally gave him less than a normal bit size piece) After he ate that he puked up some mucus stuff. I didn't think much of it because he does this when he has a runny nose accompanied with mucus draining down the back of his throat. He chokes on the mucus and when he coughs to clear the mucus he pukes up the contents of his stomach.

So I went on with my normal routine not thinking there was anything major wrong with Cooper. Once I got Cooper out of his high chair I noticed he was really slimy so I put him in the tub for a quick bath before nap. After his bath I got him dressed and took him in his room to nurse him and put him down for his nap. After nursing him he puked once again. This time he managed to puke up everything he had in his stomach. It got ALL over him, me, the rocking chair, and the floor.

Once he puked he started freaking out and nothing I did seemed to comfort him. I got Cooper out of his nasty clothes and took Cooper to my room with me so I could change my clothes. Once I was in better light I could see that Cooper had hives all over and his skin was BRIGHT RED, and his face was swollen. (This was around 1:45pm)

I put some hydrocortisone cream on him and that didn't seem to calm him down any, so I also gave him some tylenol. After about ten minutes of no improvements I called Jeff, crying. I told him to go buy some benadryl and come home now! He said ok and I hung up with out really saying good bye. I can't remember with all the stress if I even told Jeff what was wrong.

Once Jeff got home around 2:30pm we gave him some benadryl and finally about an hour after that the hives started to go away. All this time we monitored his breathing to make sure he was not having a hard time breathing. Cooper was able to catch a little nap laying on me and when he woke up the swelling in his face had gone down a bit.

Before putting him to bed at 6:30pm we gave him another dose of benadryl. The hives were gone, except a few on his legs and the swelling in his face had gone down all the way, his skin was still blotchy and pink.

Also, Cooper was diagnosed with eczema a few months ago, but now we are thinking that maybe he is allergic to peanuts and when I eat peanuts or peanut butter, and then nurse him that he is getting a small amount of the peanuts and that is what is causing him to break out in (minor) hives that looks like eczema.

So I guess I won't be feeding him anything with peanuts in it for a while.

Crystyne

Mason's lunch date

Aren't they just so cute! I have joked ever since Abby was born that she is my future daughter-in-law. And Mason is beginning fill that husbandly duty already, he just had to sit RIGHT NEXT to Abby as they ate their lunch. Today my friend Amber had a bridal shower to go to so she asked me to watch her little girl, Abby. In some ways it was a welcomed break having a girl in the house. I'm not so out numbered. In other ways girls are much more emotional. Abby stubbed her toe on the bath room door and you would have thought the whole world was crashing down on her. I know she is not the only girl who acts like this. My brother-in-law, Steven's oldest girl gets really emotional when she gets hurt, she will go on, and on, and on as long as her little vocal cords will last.

It's just more reinforcement of why I'm not sure I would ever want a girl. Yeah, part of me does want to have that mother/daughter relationship, but hey I can always have that type of relationship once Mason and Cooper get married.

Crystyne

We're going green, we have a tree!

Alright Al Gore! This ones for you, you big green machine. Our tree.

We have a sprinkler system. The sprinkler heads are where the little green flags are.

Ah.... look at how the kitchen has changed in just one weeks time. If you remember all we had last week was the second layer of sub-floor. Now we have a vinyl floor, cabinet, counter tops, and our tile back splash. The fridge will go on the right, the dishwasher will go on the inside of the eating nook, and the stove will go in the middle. We asked for a full tile back splash. The area where the vent (over the stove) was also suppose to be tiled, but is not. I'm not sure if the tile workers were not done or if they think we are having them put in a space saving microwave, which we are not, because it will be half the price if we do it ourselves. So if the tile work is not finished by next week, I will let our realtor know, so he can have that corrected before we move in. The counter tops look almost black in the pictures, but they are actually a dark brown.

Another view of the kitchen and "eating nook". We will actually be using our "formal dinning room" for our office. So we will be putting our dinning room table in this area. (This strange character is our realtor, Larry)

Along with all the other work that has been done this week, all the interior doors we put in and the trim around those doors as well. This is the coat closet.

The pantry

Main bathroom. It is hard to tell from the picture, but we chose a charkle gray counter top for this bathroom. This vinyl is also in the laundry room, and furnace/hot water tank room.

Master bathroom. We chose kind of a redish/orange color scheme for the counter top, tile, and flooring in this bathroom.

Tile work around spa tub in master.

Mason was about to jump when Jeff took this picture.

Crystyne

Oh fearless one

I don't know what it is about Cooper, but he is fearless. I don't know if he watches Mason and wants to do everything Mason does, or if it is just his personality. The one thing I do know is that he is going to give me a heart attack!

Last night we cut Mason's and Cooper's hair. After cutting their hair I started a bath for them while Jeff cut his own hair. I left the room for a minute (while Jeff was still in the bathroom cutting his hair). I came back to see Cooper lifting his face out of the water. My heart began to pound, my body temp. shot up a few degrees and Cooper just looked at me with a big grin on his face.

Cooper also has no fear about laying face down in the tub while the water is almost covering his face. He seems to really enjoy this. Maybe he can see the fear in my eyes and that is what he enjoys about it.

Cooper just after having his entire face under the water.

When Cooper decided he was done in the bath, he flung his head and one of his legs over the side of the tub, causing the rest of his body to follow behind. This all happened in one second, I was sitting right next to the tub and I was unable to catch his slippery body, so he hit his face on the floor. When he got himself up he had a look on his face like "WOW look what I just did!".

One thing Cooper is afraid of is the vacuum. But last night after Jeff used the vacuum to clean up all the hair, Cooper took the opportunity to become acquainted with it.

Look at his cute little bum!

Crystyne

Doctor appointment

Our Doctor (Dr. Osmun) that we had for the last year moved to Portland in June, so we had to switch to a different practice. We were really sad to see him go. Mason LOVED him. Mason talked about him all the time. If we were on our way somewhere and we passed by his office. Mason would get really excited thinking that we were going to go see him. When we didn't stop at the office Mason would get sad and tell me to go back.

Mason had his three year well child check up yesterday. I tried to explain to Mason that Dr. Osmun moved and that we have a new Doctor now. As we were getting ready for his appointment he kept telling me that he did not want to go. On the way to the appointment the protesting continued. Once we got there he realized that we were not at Dr. Osmun's office. When the nurse called us back, Mason stood behind me and would not walk. I had to coax him to come. Mason would not get on the scale or stand in front of the ruler for the nurse.

I felt really bad for Mason, he doesn't understand why Dr. Osmun moved or why we were at a new office.

By the end of the appointment Mason had warmed up a little bit. He allowed to Doctor to exam him, but he would not talk to her, he would only whisper in my ear for me interpret for him.

Mason finally got on the scale and stood in front of the ruler. He weighed 36 1/2 pounds and was 3 feet 4 inches tall.

Crystyne

New closing date

If you have been paying attention to the countdown of when we close on our house, you would know that earlier today the countdown was still at one month, four weeks, and six days (or something like that).

A few days ago, I was talking with our realtor, Larry, he mentioned how exciting it was that our house only had a few weeks left worth of work to be done and then we would be able to move into our house a few weeks after that. I reminded him that we still had two months until we closed.

He said that he didn't see why we couldn't get the closing date moved up a little bit. Larry said he would look into that for us.

Today Larry sent us an email telling us that he did speak with Viking Construction and they confirmed that they are running between two and three weeks ahead of schedule and so that means we should be able to close on the house two to three weeks sooner than originally planned.

Larry was not able to give us our new closing date at this time, but I am going to go ahead and put our new closing date at two weeks sooner, so that would make it September 11th. That way if it ends up being three weeks sooner (Sept. 4th) I will be that much more excited that it becomes sooner than I anticipated.

Why I married Jeff

Yup this is why. Look at that adorable face. Who could resist? Really? No, I actually married him because he is crazier than me. (If you can belive that)

One thing I didn't know about Jeff before we got married, but I am well aware of now is his strong political views. Basically he thinks that he is right, if you don't agree with him, you are wrong. And even though he has strong political views he tends to add a sense of humor to his views. Just take a look at his TWO blogs and you will see what I mean. (Yes I did say two blogs, one apparently wasn't enough for him)

http://jeffscrazyopinion.blogspot.com

http://bordyforpres.blogspot.com

Crystyne

And now on to number three...

I finished "new moon" and am now about to dive into "Eclipse".

Maybe I will finish just in time for "Breaking Dawn" to be out.

Crystyne