Celebrating the Fourth

We spent out Fourth of July with Grandma & Grandpa.

There was swimming...

and playing at the park.

Dexter was a little confused. He crawled into the room with the dogs when my mom called them for dinner, & even crawled over to my dad for his "turn" to be petted like the dogs. Weirdo.

We went to a nearby lake for the fireworks display, but the bugs were so bad we had to move into the van to watch it.

(P.S. There are more photos of Dexter, but I promise I haven't forgotten about Cooper. He's just become much more difficult to photograph & even runs from the camera now. Unless it's a modeling job, & then he's a complete ham.)

Christmas crafts

I had lots & lots of crafting to do for Christmas so I had to put Cooper to work. He painted birdhouses for Grandpa & Papa, & frame mats for both Grandma's & Daddy (and we framed a picture of Dexter & Cooper of course).




I made cloth doll diapers for my friend Joslyn's daughter (so she'd stop stealing her sister's disposable diapers),


a towel wrap for my dad,


a laptop case for John's sister's laptop,


a t-shirt for Pat (our future brother-in-law), who loves his van,


and a family tree wall hanging for my mom.


And since I know you've been holding your breath to see what this was (or you've completely forgotten about it), I made a card table felt playhouse for Cooper. There's felt mail for the mailbox & the fruit, vegetables, & birds are all attached with velcro so they can be moved around. (It's a really impressive idea that I completely stole from here.)

Christmas

We had a crazy-busy Christmas (does anyone have a relaxing Christmas? I don't think so). Christmas Eve started with a quick stop at Uncle Michael's house for the extended family, then we were off to see Granny Smith & Papa Fred & John's family.

Dexter got to chill with Auntie Anna. (Anna didn't even know what was coming! But more on that in another post...)

Cooper loved his new guitar from Auntie Anna & "Uncle" Pat. (It just made everyone else in the room feel old because the toy guitar plays instrumental versions of Wild Thing by the Troggs, Message in a Bottle by the Police, Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen, Love Shack by the B52's and All Star by Smashmouth.)

Christmas morning was spent at home. Even though we left out cookies & egg nog for Santa & talked about him all day Christmas Eve, Cooper still wasn't expecting him. He slept 'til 8:30 & didn't really get what was going on at first.

Cooper was very excited about his stocking.

And judging by this picture, Cooper would have been happy if Santa stopped at just the stocking. (But what fun is that?)

Dexter, as you can see, was equally thrilled with his stocking loot.

Hmm.. I bet you're wonder what this is...

Dexter is intrigued too... but you'll have to wait for another post.

Cooper and his Thomas train, the one thing he asked for from Santa.

Dexter was tuckered out from all the excitement.

Then it was on to Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Things were mostly a little crazy. Not surprising considering there were 5 kids 3 years & under and (only) 6 adults. Why do we still feel outnumbered? (Gift opening was particularly crazy, which is why I don't really have any pictures of that.)

But there were a few calm, relaxing moments.

Dexter & Lynzee checking each other out.

Since Adam couldn't be with us for Christmas, we tried to get a good picture of all 5 kids together.

We quickly decided it didn't have to be "good", they just all had to be in it, even if they all look like deer in headlights. (I swear, no children were drugged in the taking of this picture.)

This is seconds later.

Dexter, once again, tuckered out. (He was actual awake when John sat him up, but sitting on Daddy was just too relaxing & he fell asleep.)

Dexter's first trip to the zoo

And our first zoo trip with Grandma & Grandpa! Everyone had a lot of fun, & Dexter had a long snuggly nap in his car seat.

Garage sale weekend

We've been needing to clear out a lot of stuff lately so I decided to have a garage sale. My mom suggested I bring all my stuff to her house because they have a town-wide garage sale weekend. Sounded good to me! No cleaning our garage, no advertising, I got all the stuff out of the house (& unlike if I had in my garage, nothing stayed - since I had to pack everything in the car anyway it went straight to the Salvation Army), & great babysitters!

Cooper helped to "test" some of the merchandise. He also claimed two hideous Homer Simpson dolls that talk & sing & dubbed them his "guys". He couldn't be separated from them all weekend or most of the next week. Luckily, I was able to hide them away eventually & there has been no mention of them for a while.

There was obviously a lot of pricing to do...

But, there was a little goofing off too.

Okay, maybe a lot.

And by the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted.

Too little, too late

Forgive me. I've been a completely negligent blogger. I would like to promise I'll be better, but I'm now 8 months pregnant, we're trying to sell our house & move, I'm planning Cooper's 2nd birthday (which will be a very small affair considering I'm due on his birthday) & the crafts projects are piling up (not that that's a bad thing, it just keeps me busy).

Cooper & I babysat my parents' 5 dogs & cat at their house while they went to visit my brother for his family day at Army training in Minnesota. We hung out at the house a lot, but managed to get out for some ice cream & the park.

"I like it!"

Cousin Karen came to visit & we stayed for a bit after my Mom & Dad got home. We did some crafting & visited the quilt shop.

Back at home, Cooper discovered stickers.

Future blackmail picture

Me & Cooper cuddling on the couch with our "blankets"