Cooper's Blessing Outfit

It seriously took me forever to do these pictures.

Actually, Maycee never even got pretty pictures in her dress.  So there you go.  Second child got something the first child did not.  ...In the way of pictures.

No...we did not bless him with the hat on.  But it is so stinkin' cute!

I can not get this picture to turn the right way.  Ggrrrr.  But, I love it so it is going to stay.  It's like Cooper is saying, "Are we done yet?"  ...Kinda reminds me of my brother...

Here's one of my cute Cooper smiles!

Hand Foot Mouth WHA?!

We found a new illness this week.

Maybe "illness" isn't the right term...I should say disease.

Last Friday Maycee wouldn't eat breakfast.  Which was really weird.  I made scrambled eggs.  I've never seen her not eat eggs.  So...I brought them with us on our errands for the day.  Eye Doctor.  Winco.  Maycee did eat her cottage cheese for lunch and so I didn't think much of her not eating breakfast.

When I put Maycee down for her nap that day she felt a little warm, so I checked her temperature.  She was hovering between the high 99's and the low 100's.  I didn't think it was bad enough to do anything.

On Saturday Maycee didn't take a nap, she wouldn't.  We finally gave up trying and decided to look forward to bed time.  Stephen and I thought that she would go down great that night.  We put her to bed at the normal time of 8pm.  She bawled.  A lot.  Maycee never cries when she goes to bed.  She's really a champ.

We took turns rocking and singing to her to get her to go to sleep.

That didn't happen until 1am, when Maycee and Stephen fell asleep on the couch watching Justice League.

Sunday Maycee woke up great.  When Stephen was changing her to go to church he found a ton of bumps all over her bottom.

...I know...this sounds really bad when you look at it all together, but in my defense Maycee is a really great "sick kid".  She doesn't really get cranky.  I guess I didn't see the picture together.

Anyway, I tried to call my mom to see if I should take her to church.  She wasn't home.  Apparently Relief Society Presidents have very early Sundays.  I tried to call Krystal, our officially graduated nurse, but her phone was turned off.  I finally called a friend in the ward and she said to bring her to church.

At church I started noticing more bumps.  Some around her mouth.  Some on her hands.

Crap.

I asked another friend at church.  She grabbed another nurse in the ward.

After one look she said, "Yeah, that is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease."

...What the?!  I had never even heard of that.  She asked if Maycee hadn't been eating and had a fever...Now I felt like a bad mom.  I replied in the affirmative and she said that it was really contagious.

I really don't want to even mention that fact that Maycee was sharing crackers with a few kids in the bench in front of us.  One kid happened to also be a part of a new family who had just moved in.  It was their first Sunday...Stephen immediately took Maycee home and I confessed to the other moms what had happened.  ...Welcome to the ward.

I feel awful.

After reading a ton of things online I have now learned that Maycee is contagious for 3 weeks.

Seriously!?

Not only have we canceled our Utah trip because of it, but there will be no going to the park for weeks.  Wow.  Maycee is going to be one cranky little girl by the end of this illness.

As an interesting little side note...other that the spots, you can't even tell she is sick.  She is a happy little camper.  That can't go to the park.  And can't play with Cooper.  We're hoping to minimize the damage.

Diaper Duty

On Thursday I loaded up the kids and drove to Stephen's work to take him out to lunch.

When we got there, Cooper needed his diaper changed.

I picked him up and grabbed his little diaper pouch only to realize that I had forgotten to fill it up after I used the last one.  So...I grabbed Maycee's diaper pouch instead.

Maycee's diapers fit Cooper better than they fit Maycee.

He's a tank.

Distractions

This is how I was able to clean the bathroom today.

A bathtub full of bubbles.

It was awesome.

 This is Maycee's "say cheese" face.

Distractions are my new favorite.

New Calling

Last Sunday I was called to be the Assistant Compassionate Service Leader.

This means that I will be making a lot of phone calls.

When I say a lot I mean millions.

I hate calling people on the phone.  I think I have a phobia or something.

Yesterday Linda called me and asked me to set up dinners for a sister who just had her baby.

I kept telling myself that it was no big deal and that I could do it.

...

I am here to tell you that I did it.

I only had to make 10 phone calls, but I did it.  I got her 3 dinner appointments.

Go me!

Sleeping

Aren't sleeping kids the cutest thing in the world?!

For the last three nights when Stephen and I go in to check on Maycee this is where she has been sleeping.

Her toy box.

It is so funny!  I can't believe that she sleeps in there.  She throws a ton of her toys out of the toy box and then lays down her blanket and sleeps on it.  What even makes it better is the fact that she is sleeping on top of some of her "noise making" toys.  They are being activated the entire time she is sleeping on them so we hear them when we come check on her.

I wonder if Maycee is missing her crib?

Mother's Day

I cannot even put into words how I felt today.

Our church starts at 9am and it was my week to play the organ.  About 9 months ago the Bishop called 6 pianists to learn to play the organ.  It's been a little rough, but I'm still alive.

Stephen stood up with Cooper and walked to the front, at the appointed time, to give him his blessing.  I walked down from the organ so that I could take notes during the blessing.  I could tell right after Stephen started the blessing that he was choked up.  Cooper was quiet the whole time.

This morning I told Cooper that his dad was going to give him a blessing from Heavenly Father.  I told him that he needed to be quiet and listen to what his dad was going to tell him.  It really felt like he did.  The things that were said to Cooper were so beautiful.  I could tell that Stephen was listening very carefully to say the right things.  He is such a good priesthood holder.

After the blessing, I walked back up to the organ to play the sacrament hymn.  I was very overwhelmed by what had been said.  I played the hymn pretty well, but when the song ended I continued to play so that the boys could finish preparing the sacrament.  As I leaned forward to turn the music down to play softer, my hand bumped one of the button settings for the organ.  It happened to be the 10th setting designed for VERY loud pieces.  I normally play with the 3rd setting.

It was loud.

I actually handled the glitch very smoothly, if I do say so myself, but it was a very uncomfortable minute or two.  My family said the look on my face was priceless when I did it.

All in all it was a very peaceful day.

I don't have pictures of Cooper in his blessing outfit yet, but I'll post them soon.

We had fun with the camera tonight.

P.S. As a side note...because I totally have to remember this...Charisse almost left Buster in Boise. Maycee is the one who saw her and got Stephen to see that they had left her. Good job Maycee!

Weekend in Boise

This weekend was cram packed with stuff.

My parents and siblings came up to celebrate Krystal's graduation from nursing school.  And Cooper's blessing.  Just as a little side note...it took Krystal 6 years to graduation with a 4 year degree.  ...I'm just sayin'.

Everything began on Friday promptly at 2:30pm at Tocanos.  The problem was that 3/4's of the party wasn't at Tocanos.  Mom and Dad with their 6 person crew was stuck in traffic an hour away and Stephen and I were in Payette, ID just over an hour away.

Just as a very fun side note.  The reason that we were in Payette was because we were getting this:

A 2008 GMC Acadia.  And yes.  It is red.

After a very long time of scrimping and saving, Stephen and I bought the car we have been lusting over for a year.  To say that I love it would be an understatement.

We were in Payette at the DMV taking care of trading in Stephen's car.  We were there for an hour.  Aaahhhhhh!!  We were not supposed to be that long!

Back to Tocanos.

We rolled in to Boise and 3:30 and ate deliciousness on sticks that were being wheeled around the restaurant by their impressive waiters.  Love that place.

That night we were required (by Krystal) to be at her nurses pinning ceremony in our Sunday best.  Krystal waited until the last minute to tell us that it was Sunday dress and then didn't tell us that it would last 2 hours.  Only Krystal.  She then made us sit through hundreds of pictures.  It was like her wedding all over again.  Minus the white dress.

These are only a handful of pictures that were taken.

Stephen is hot.

Maycee is seriously teething.  80% of the time this is where her fingers are with a huge pile of drool running down her chin and pooling on whatever is underneath...

Yeah.  Check out these family photos.  I really don't even know what to say.

Grandma was dying.  After all of the chaos of the pinning ceremony, she did not want to walk back to the pickup.  Dad stole a wheelchair front the event and pushed Grandma to the pickup.  We ended up using it the next day as well before Dad brought it back.

The wheelchair gave Grandma a reason to steal Maycee.

These pictures are so cute.

I really wish I could have gotten Maycee to smile though.

On Saturday we were again herded down to Boise State for the actual graduation ceremony.  Krystal threatened us with our lives if she did not hear us yelling after they called her name to pick up her diploma.

Honestly I have to say that those Boise State people were very efficient in handing out the diplomas.  They had two people calling out names and neither one of them stumbled on a name once.  I really thought they were going to have issues with some of the crazy Asian names, but they never even batted an eye.

After Krystal walked we had a BBQ at Shane and Krystal's and then headed out to play tennis.  I LOVE tennis, but I really stink at it.  I played with Charisse.  She made me run from one end of the court to the other.  Man am I out of shape.   To give her credit, it was Charisse's first time playing.  We had fun.

Thanks Krys, for giving us another reason to get together.

Cheesecake

Since my entire family will be in Boise for Mother's Day, Stephen decided to give me my Mother's Day gift early.

Stephen made me cheesecake.

Not just any cheesecake, but a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

From scratch.

This picture doesn't even do it justice.

It was delectable.

Cheesecake is my favorite thing in the entire world.

White chocolate raspberry cheesecake is my favorite kind of cheesecake.

Let me paint a better picture for you...

Stephen started preparing this cheesecake at 7pm on Friday night.  It wasn't finished until 11:30pm that night.  We couldn't eat it until it was properly cooled on Saturday afternoon.

I am in love with Stephen.

Maycee Share

When Maycee, Cooper, and I walked in the door this afternoon from our outing, I needed a potty break.

Maycee was yelling for her milk.

I put Cooper next to the piano in his car seat, gave Maycee her milk, and beelined it for the bathroom.  After my 30 second break from the kiddos I walked into the living room to find Maycee sharing her milk with Cooper.  I freaked out in my head and then pulled the sippy cup away from Cooper and thanked Maycee for sharing with brother.  "Maycee, don't feed Cooper any more.  Okay?"

I cleaned up the milk that was covering Cooper's face and again realized that I always need to keep Cooper out of Maycee's reach when I am not present.

Hopefully I'll remember this time.

Cooper: 2 month stats

Shots.

It wasn't as bad as the first time with Maycee.

I didn't even cry!  AND I went by myself.  I didn't ask Stephen to come and hold my hand.

Well...Cooper is definitely growing.

Stats:
12.6 lbs - 75th Percentile
23 in - 50th Percentile

Chicken Nuggets are good.

Krystal and I took Maycee and Cooper to McDonald's today.  She loves french fries.  That was all she ate.  I was really trying to get her to eat her chicken nuggets, but it wasn't happening.  Another little kid noticed the problem and came to help.

5 year old boy: "What will her not eat?"

Kami: "She's not eating her chicken nuggets."

Boy: "I love chicken nuggets because they have chicken in 'em."

Kami: "You should tell her that.  She won't eat them."

Boy, to Maycee: "Chicken nuggets are good.  They have chicken in 'em."

Boy, to his dad as he runs across the room: "DAD!  Get me some chicken nuggets!"

Maycee wasn't convinced.

We're A Team

Last night Stephen and I were watching our obsession.

Star Trek: Voyager.

Yes.  We are nerds.

We finished watching an episode at 9:30pm and Stephen leaned over and asked, "Do you want to watch another episode?"

I replied, "No, that's okay.  You can go to bed if you want."

S: "What time do you need to feed Cooper again?"

K: "I'll feed him at 10 and then be in bed by 10:30."

S: "We can watch another episode.  Don't worry.  I'll stay up with you.  We're a team!"

K: "What about at 4am?  Are you getting up with me then?"

S: "Nope...you're on your own then.  I'm not getting up at 4."

I knew it.  Stephen's a fraud.  He just wanted to watch another episode of Voyager.

Seriously.

Who could not love this little face?