Fun in the Sun

This winter has been the most depressing winter in the history of Kami winters.  I'm not kidding.  We have had an inversion in Boise since about Christmas.

NO SUN.

Also, Boise is supposed to have very mild winters.  We have been in the single digits almost everyday since Christmas.  As a HIGH!  We have also had snow that has stuck around since Christmas.

Last night the inversion left.  AND today it is, like, 32 degrees!  It's like summer!  In light of this summer day, we went to the park.  It snowed all night last night and left us with about 5 inches of fresh, wet snow.  We pulled out the wagon and drug it around the subdivision.

 

As per our pictures, we enjoyed ourselves.  We needed to get out of the house.  I think we were all going to kill each other.

Yeah for our bright, sunny day!

Sunday

Sundays are sure getting exciting around here.  With church at 1:30 we have quite a bit of time to burn, but it always seems that things come up at 12:30.  With Stephen's new calling, he is gone a lot more.  Particularly on Sundays.  He had a meeting at 9am and another meeting at 12:30pm. 

During Stephen's 9am meeting, Cooper and I wrestled on the bathroom floor as I struggled to cut his hair.  It was SO long.

As Stephen was walking out the door to his meeting at 12:30 he announced that he forgot he was teaching the Young Men and needed me to copy off a talk for him.  He kissed me and ran out the door.

I found the talk and printed it off.  Check.

I finished getting Maycee ready.  Check.

I finished getting Cooper ready.  Check.

Everyone in the car.

At the church house I pulled Cooper out of his car seat and carried him around to Maycee's side where I pulled her out of her car seat.  Since we have church at 1:30, the wards who start earlier have the close parking spaces, so we parked in the boonies.

I held Cooper and then grabbed Maycee's hand to walk across the huge puddles of water in the parking lot to get to the church house.  As we got to the sidewalk around the church, Maycee started to drag her feet and whine.  I looked down and noticed that Maycee had kicked off her shoes at the car.  No doubt to walk in the puddles barefoot.

I sat Cooper on the sidewalk next to Maycee and ran back to get Maycee's shoes.

Shoes on.  Check.

We walked up to the doors as Maycee ran ahead of me to catch the door that was just closing.  It closed right on her fingers.  She screamed bloody murder.  I put Cooper down in the entry way and tried to console her.  No amount of consoling would stop her tirade.  A gentlemen in our ward came up to me and offered to hold Cooper.  Maycee was still screaming.

Holding a screaming Maycee, I ran around the church house to try and find Stephen or Krystal.  Stephen was on the stand to pass the sacrament, so Krystal, who was sitting on our bench, won the lottery,  "Krystal!"  I whispered, loudly.  "Will you go get Cooper?"

Maycee wailed for another 10 minutes.  She was traumatized.  And church had just started.  Unbeknownst to her, she would not be attending nursery due to her nasty, hacking cough.

During the third hour of church Stephen was teaching the Young Men, so Krystal had Maycee in Relief Society and I had Cooper while playing the piano in primary.

Cooper wanted to play the piano so bad.  He was able to reach the keys a few times.  I felt like I was wrestling a monkey.  Much like that morning when I was cutting his hair.

Church finally ended.

I really do enjoy going to church, but it seems to get crazier and crazier the older the kids get.  Church is only going to get more exciting.

Grossed out...

Stephen just put away dinner.

I watched him.

I kinda wished I hadn't.

He put the spaghetti in a bowl that was a smidge to small.  So he put his hand on top of the spaghetti and "smooshed" it into the bowl.

My response, "THAT IS SO GROSS!!"

Stephen, "No it's not."

Me, "Yes, it is.  That is gross."

Stephen, "No, it's not.  I'll just eat the top half of the spaghetti."

....

Not five minutes later, Stephen begins to make us milkshakes.  He gets out the ice cream and begins to spoon it into the blender.  Maycee, in an effort to dig out some ice cream, puts her fingers all over the top layer of ice cream.

Stephen pulls Maycee's hand out of the ice cream and exclaims, I'm not joking, "Maycee stop, that is gross!"

I gave Stephen 'the look'.  Even after I explained the irony, he simply said, "She was touching my food.  I wasn't touching her food."

Weekend of Relaxation

Stephen and I needed a break.

A much needed break.

Our 5 year anniversary was on January 11th.  Stephen was planning a secret romantic get away for the same weekend and life happened.  We had to postpone for the 18th and 19th.

My parents came up to stay the night with the kids and we were off.  Stephen even bought me my favorite potato chips and cookies.

I had every intention in the world to take a ton of pictures.  I even remembered the camera, but I still came home picture-less.

Stephen booked us a night at the Hotel McCall.  It was perfect and beautiful.  He got us a dinner reservation at The Mill.  He bought me a beautiful set of earrings and a necklace.

My husband is learning the art of romance.

And I love him for it.

Thank you, Stephen, for loving me.  And doing everything you could to make me comfortable.

Here's to the next 5 years!

Like mother, like son.

So...when we were at my parents' house for Christmas, Charisse found this picture.

I know, it's really old and kind of beat up.  LOOK AT IT!!!  This is a picture of me and my cousin, Brigitte, when we were babies.  Brigitte left, Kami right.

And here is Cooper.

I cannot believe how much Cooper looks like me!

No offense Coop, you are definitely a more manly version, but still, you are my son.

Funny Kids

Funny #1: Any time that Maycee agrees to a "direct order", which is very rare (she is 2 after all), she says, "Nokay!"  That is an affirmative answer.  A negative is just "no".

Funny #2: We still have the Bumbo out.  I think that it has turned into a Maycee toy.  She loves to sit in it.  Last week her imagination created another way to play with the Bumbo.  It's now her turtle shell.

Funny #3: I finally got a picture of Cooper doing his nose thing.  It's so cute.

 

Funny #4: One of the very numerous things that we do to try and keep Maycee quiet during sacrament meeting is we very quietly sing "The Chapel Doors" from the primary book.  Maycee is trying to rub lotion on my hands and arms.  When I move she gets very frustrated and says, "SSSHHHHH BE STILL!!!"

Not me.

Yesterday Maycee was doing her kitty's hair.  When she does Kitty's hair, Maycee squirts Kitty with a ton of water and tries to comb out the fluff.  When she is 'done' the kitty is soaking wet.

While doing Kitty's hair, Maycee let the biggest fart.

Personally, I think all disgusting bodily functions are hilarious.  I know, I'm like a ten-year-old boy.  So I was trying to hide my laugh as much as possible.

Maycee looked at my and said, "Whoa, kitty stinks!"

I could not contain my laughter.

My cute little man

So....Cooper is the cutest little boy ever.

I mean, seriously!  Check out these pictures.

Last week we took Cooper in to the doctor for his 9 month check up.

Yeah, we're about a month behind.

Here are the stats:

20 lbs - 27th  Percentile

27.5 in - 13th Percentile

I have been reassured that Cooper will be taller than me.

At least we have hope in that.

Cooper and I have started to play ball together.  He LOVES it!  It is so cute to watch him get  so excited when I throw the ball in his lap.

 

Cooper picks up the ball and holds it over his head, like so, and throws it.

Check out the tongue action.

I finally got out the high chair.  I don't know why it has taken me so long.  He loves that thing.  He loves to bang on the tray.  I put some of his baby finger food on the tray and he just picks them up and holds them.  He's so funny.

Cooper now claps.

And says 'Mama' and 'Dada' on command.

He is also starting to pull himself up on things.

He is still not crawling around, but is trying to figure it out.  He kind of scoots on his bottom.  If he's on the kitchen floor.  Carpet is a little more difficult.

Keep on truckin' Coop!

Better

My patience has been running a little thin the last couple of days.

Maycee and my stubbornness has been clashing.

Today has been a Maycee day.  I think she needed a little attention.  It has helped immensely.

During Cooper's nap we went on a walk in the snow.  The snow has been crazy!  It snowed almost all day yesterday and a little bit this morning.  There was even left over snow from two weeks ago.  Not a normal Boise winter, but Maycee loves it.

She went outside and threw the snow in the air.  It was super cute.

We went on a walk to go and get the mail.  Maycee tried to climb on any big pile that was made from people shoveling their walks.  I had to pull her from a lot of those.

We also finally got out her clay that she got for Christmas.  We made a snowman together.  After I made the three initial balls Maycee said we needed to add arms.  I put on one side and she put on the other.  She then said we needed to add feet.  And another head.

We had fun.

Change

I have never been good with change.

I know that it helps us grow and mature and become better, but there are things that seriously test my limits.

One such change began today.

I thought I was actually doing really well!  It was announced a few weeks ago that our ward would be split.  Two weeks ago they told us of our new boundaries.  Stephen said that I handled it surprisingly well.  I know, I'm getting "mature"! :)  We are now in a new ward.  Honestly though, I am handling it well.  The thing I am not handling well is Maycee.

Our ward now begins at 1:30pm.

I know.

You can all groan with me.

Smack dab in the middle of nap time.

Maycee was awful.  That is even putting it nicely.  I felt that we had made progress with Maycee and she was being really good in church.

Everything has now changed.

Maycee was taken out of sacrament meeting FIVE TIMES.  Before today, I think I'd only taken her out twice.  Four of those times was because she had to go pee.  She only peed one of those four times.  The fifth time was because she was screaming bloody murder during the sacrament prayer.

...

Oh, I was really hot under the collar at that point in time.

I hope today was the worst and it only gets better from here.

I can hope, can't I?

Yesterday

Yesterday was really of no consequence, but I decided to take pictures.  So here is a little teeny, tiny bit or what happened yesterday.

Here is a picnic that Maycee and Cooper were having while waiting for Mommy to make breakfast.

Yes.

They are still wearing their pajamas.

Maycee requested to wear Backpack while she watched the recycling truck pick up the bins.  Definitely one of her favorite pastimes.

And yes.

Maycee is STILL in her pjs.

Around lunch time Maycee found her package of stickers that was to help bribe her to use the toilet.

Worthless $1 that I ever spent.

She did find a use for them, however.

She stuck them all over Cooper.

She would stick one on him and them rip it off.  Stick another one on him and then rip it off....etc. etc. etc.

I think we have the makings of a new tattoo fairy on our hands.

 

Paradox

How is it that at one moment I can think my child is the cutest thing ever and the next moment want to wring her neck?  Sometimes I feel like I am going through menopause just because I can get "hot" really fast around that girl...

This afternoon Maycee yelled from the bathroom, "MOM, COME!"

She is totally the oldest child.  Bossy.  I can say that because I am one.

Maycee walked into Cooper's bedroom where I was eating my lunch while watching Cooper play with cars.  She continued, "Mom, I have a special surprise I want to show you!"  Noticing her blanket on the ground she changed gears.  "Mom, are you freezin'?  Are your feet freezin'?"

She apparently knows that I am always cold.

Maycee put her blanket over my feet.  She the looked over at Cooper and said, "Cooper, are you freezin'?"

Yes, she now FINALLY calls him Cooper.

Maycee proceeded to put her blanket over Cooper's legs and feet.  Not feeling that was adequate enough, Maycee pulled the blanket up over his head.

Then she pushed him over onto a pile of cars.

And put all of her weight possible on him to squeeze the air that was left in his lungs, out.

When I told her to get off of Cooper and take her blanket off of his head, she looked at with with the most innocent of eyes.  Then came "the look".  Her mischievous look. The look that I read as, "I totally got away with that AND you were looking."

Poor Cooper.

In the bathroom Maycee's special surprise was a little sticker page she made for me.

Paradox.