Little Mommy

Maycee is so cute with Cooper.

Today Cooper was a little fussy and I asked Maycee to entertain him.  I told her to read him a book.  The closest one to her was one of her favorites, Another Monster at the End of this Book.  Starring Grover and Elmo.  This is how Maycee read the book to Cooper:

Maycee: "Elmo (gibberish) (page turn)
ELMO!! (gibberish) (page turn)
EEELMOOO!! (gibberish) (page turn)
...
...
AAAAIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!
Elmo (gibberish) (page turn)
Be En!"

Seriously, the cutest thing ever.

ALSO while I was making dinner, Cooper was in the bouncer and Maycee was coloring.  Every time that Cooper would fuss, Maycee would get up from her coloring, walk over to Cooper, and pull the little pull string that played music for 15 seconds.  It would keep Cooper entertained for 15 seconds.

When the music started Maycee would walk back to her coloring.

When the music finished and Cooper would fuss again, Maycee would get up and pull the pull string again.

She is so funny!

Picture Hog Hair Cut

Cooper received his first haircut last night.

Maycee refused to let me take a picture of Cooper without her.  It was really funny.  Every time I would pull the camera out and bring it up on Cooper, she would run over and put her arms around Cooper for a "cheese" picture.  It was hilarious.  I tried a few times without success.

I'm warning you now.  There are a ton of pictures.
Here are Cooper's (and Maycee) before:

It really didn't take me long to cut.  Stephen laid Cooper on his lap over the garbage can and I cut it with a pair of scissors.  At first Stephen would hold his head still and Cooper fought him the whole way.  The instant Stephen let go he just sat still and relaxed.  No biggie.

Here are Cooper's after pictures.  I can't believe that it took me so long to cut his hair.  He looks so handsome!  I thought it might look a little funny, but he is so good looking.  Go Cooper!

And of course, the picture I like the best will not turn the right way.  Gggrrrrr.

Birthday Week

Stephen and I are 6 days apart.  He is 6 days older than I am.  From Stephen's birthday, June 18th, to mine, June 24th, I consider it birthday week.
This year we decided to both get scriptures and then spend about $20 on each other for a surprise gift.  Stephen blew our whole budget out of wack when he surprised me with these:

Stephen had my brother, Kory, build me some night stands.

They.

Are.

Awesome.

My brother is amazing!  I have been looking for night stands for years.  I am not exaggerating when I say years.  I was cleaning out my e-mail the other day and I finally deleted an e-mail from 2010 that I had sent to Stephen to show him some "possibilities" for night stands on craigslist.

THANK YOU STEPHEN AND KORY!!!  ...You are both my favorite people right now.

Stephen surprised me with the night stands a couple of weeks before my birthday at my parents' house while we were visiting with Kory and Charisse.  It was awesome.

I was kind of a slacker wife this year with Stephen's birthday.  I ordered his gift a little late this year off of amazon.  In my defense, his birthday totally snuck up on me this year...

I bought him Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk on blue ray.  And since they were not in the mailbox in time for Stephen's birthday, I drew him 2 perfect replica's of the DVD covers.  Actually they were as close to the real thing as I could come.  I am an awful artist, BUT I do think I made them pretty funny.

That day Maycee, Cooper, and I took Stephen on a picnic lunch for his lunch break at work.  At night we took him to Buffalo Wild Wings.  I'm kind of sad that it wasn't as good as I hoped.  I don't think that I would go there again.  Sorry Stephen!

My birthday was on a Sunday this year.  I had completely forgotten, until Stephen reminded me 30 minutes before church, that I was supposed to play the organ.  That stressed me out.  I was also substitute teaching in primary.  I didn't get all the things finished for my lesson because we had to rush to church.

After a stressful church meeting, Stephen made me dinner.  I love that man.  AND he made me another cheesecake!  ...I really love that man!

Well...here's to next year.

The Big 3-0.

Heads up!

It is now official.

Cooper can hold his head up for tummy time.

My boy is growing up so fast!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

First Swim

This afternoon we went with Stephen's sisters and their families to a little subdivision's pool.  It was the first swim of the season.  Yeah for summer!  We borrowed some floaties for Maycee and doubled her up.  She was all ready to get in the water.

When we first got to the pool there were some other people there.  Maycee was a little reticent to try the "swimming" thing and just kept looking at the other pool residents that she didn't know.

As soon as she was in the pool by herself and her daddy she started to kick!  It was so amazing to watch her catch on to swimming.  She realized that in order to go somewhere else in the pool she would have to kick.  Of course all of her floaties wouldn't let her go under...even a little bit.

She loved her Dora and Boots floaties.  We just got lucky on those.  We borrowed them from a neighbor.

If you look at her left knee you can see that she crashed while trying to walk in the pool.  There was a little lip that she wasn't expecting and she crashed.  She didn't even cry.  That's my strong girl!

Here is Cooper, just happy as can be.  He sat in that floaty for probably 15 to 20 minutes.  He was just chomping on his hand as happy as a clam.

I love that little boy!

We had so much fun at the pool!

I have no idea.

Yesterday I was sweeping and mopping the floor.

I also washed Maycee's cover for her highchair...and wiped the entire thing down.  It was gross.

I was getting gung-ho.

I pulled the highchair and all of the chairs onto the carpet in the living room to sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

Maycee was being strangely "unclingy" as I was sweeping.  I turned around to find this picture.

I had no idea how she got up there!  I have never seen her do that trick.

I pulled her out of the highchair and watched her out of the corner of my eye.  She climbed that thing like a little monkey!  It was hilarious to watch.  We'll just have to wait to see what she will scale next.

Daddy and Cooper

Aren't these the cutest!?

I love my Stephen and Cooper.

Yes, he is totally wearing his church outfit without the pants.

Farm Weekend

We went to the farm this weekend to go to my cousin's reception.

These are just fun pictures of our two day get-away.

As a side note, Maycee is a farm girl through and through.  ...Way more than I ever was.  She loves trucks, tractors, pickups, motorcycles, water, and dirt.  Especially dirt.  I love it when she comes up to me and says, "Grampa motokykle, Grampa motokykle."  Seriously the cutest thing.  She loves riding motorcycles with Grandpa.

Being Mom is Hard

I've been thinking a lot lately about my job as "mom".

Counting being pregnant, I've only been a mom for two and a half years.  That is nothing compared to what my mom's got on me...or even either of my grandma's.

When I was first pregnant with Maycee everything changed.

The very first thing that changed and was surprisingly very emotional for me, was my body.  I didn't realize how much "being skinny" was a part of who I was until I got big.  Very big.  I cried almost every time that I went maternity clothes shopping.  That very first time I went with Krystal.  I think she thought I was going crazy.  It was so hard to give my body 24/7 to someone else.

I learned to share.  I eventually learned to cope with being big and I got pregnant again.  The second time was a breeze.

I never had to deal with being sick for nine months.  I was very blessed that way.  I think Heavenly Father knew that if I was sick I wouldn't get pregnant again...

When Maycee finally came I had to deal with postpartum depression.  Only for two weeks, but that was the hardest two weeks of my life.  I also had to learn to cope with very little sleep.  As most people know, newborns don't sleep when normal people sleep.  It took at least 6 weeks for me to feel semi-normal again.  I don't think I went to the grocery store by myself until Maycee was 9 months old.  Stephen and Krystal are probably very grateful that I gained my independence back.

Life is starting a whole new "hard".

Ever since Cooper was born, Maycee has come into a new phase.  This is the phase that requires discipline.

I feel so unsure of myself all over again.  It really is true that when you finally feel like you've gotten everything figured out, it changes.  This, however, is a whole lot different then learning to deal with lack of sleep or giving up my body.  These decisions will affect the rest of Maycee's life.  How we teach her will be her foundation.  I feel this intese pressure that I did not expect.

I really want to do what is right for her.

My little Cooper

who isn't so little.

He's so cute.