Christmas 2013

What a blast we had celebrating Christmas. I can't believe its all over with already. This year was so much fun with Cooper he's at the age where he had a blast and that's what it's all about. He loved opening presents and had to help everyone open there presents too.

Our first Christmas celebration was Sunday the 22nd. Tom and Linda hosted Tom's dad's brother and sisters for Christmas. Of course Cooper got a few things and one of his favorites was a new John Deere tractor. He pushes it all over the house.

Later that evening we all stayed and our little Christmas with Tom and Linda. Everyone of use was spoiled!

Cooper helping Grandma and Grandpa open their present from him - a new photo coffee mug!

Christmas eve we celebrated at our house with Tom's family, the Barrett clan (Tom's mom's family). We've hosted this now for 4 years and we love it!

Cooper got all dressed up in his new/used Santa outfit. This was a steal on Facebook, someone was selling it for $3 and Linda found it and said "Cooper needs this" at first I didn't know but I'm so glad I got it, too cute. And yes that's his real belly!! He's just standing in a way that really makes his belly stick out, or he just got done eating!

Loved playing in the boxes too...

and opening the White Elephant gifts!

Taking a break to get a drink out of his snowman cup.

Chillin with Grammy!

Just a few presents around the tree.

Grandpa John enjoying his time opening his presents.

It was a cold and snowy Christmas eve. We got about 3-4 inches of snow while everyone was here. here are just a few of everyone around the house. I did not get hardly any pictures and there weren't any family ones. I know Tom and Micayla took a few but they didn't send them to me, I'll have to put those on later.

Tom's cousin, Missy, is expecting her first child sometime in May I think. Christmas Eve was her 20 week ultrasound and it was so cute the way she told us what she's having! It was a scratch-off ticket that revealed "IT'S A BOY" I thought forsure he was having a girl but it's going to be so much fun getting together with her and her new baby and our new baby this summer!

The next day was Christmas! SANTA CAME!! (here is a video but not sure if you can open it)

 

Anyway, Santa brought Hug Me Elmo and a Kitchen set, again not many pictures but he loved everything!!

After that we cooked some breakfast, Stephanie's famous Sausage Balls, popped those in the oven, we made up the day before, Tom and Linda came up to watch us open presents again Cooper was opening them all.

Cooper loved his new sleeping back from Steph and Luke! He's going to grow right into this, it's so warm and fuzzy, I just want to curl up in it sometimes.

A new "Dyson" from KK

Cooper again was spoiled by his big brother and sister - KK got him new John Deere boots too and Brandon and Alyssa got him an Elmo shirt, vest, jeans and PJ's! They sure do love him!

We cleaned up and headed up to Mom's, unfortunately I only got a few pictures from there. Shoot!!

He received a shopping cart from Chris, Kristi and the boys, he loved to 'push' it around. Kristi put Elmo it in and now he has to have Elmo in it all the time. Too cute!

Not quite sure what he's in here, I think it's his box from his legos he got.

And mom opening her present from all of us - a year long subscription to the TH - she loved it!!

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 After we were done opening presents, the rest of the gang came up. 

We did our White Elephant game, everyone I think, except mom, came away with something they wanted!

Again, no family pictures this year. It was a hard this year without dad and Bill, but we know they were both looking down on us and enjoying seeing all of us smiling and enjoying each others company. Next year is going to be another exciting one with 2 new babies joining the family, we can't wait!!

 

Christmas at the Moose

Saturday we spent the afternoon at The Moose Lodge for the children's Christmas party. We had a blast, the only bad thing was, it was during nap time! The adults who plan this don't think of the "little" kids, but Cooper did great!

The fish pond! Cooper loved to 'fish'

He received a little John Deere tractor

Then off to face painting we went

He was so proud of his little snowman, however, he was tired so he laid his head down and it went all over mommy, so it was a smudged snowman..

Lunch time! Walking taco's....not very kind friendly but all was good. Cooper didn't mind using his hands one bit. Grandma Pat joined us for lunch.

And Grandma Linda and Grandpa Tom joined us after lunch. Grandma took Cooper over to the craft station and he had a blast. We got some new ornaments for the Christmas tree.

And off to decorate cookies with daddy.

He was more interested in the plain cookies than a decorated one..LOL

Next up, we had a very special visitor, who we had to wait in line for.

Climbing on 'baby brother' LOL

Cheese!

Almost there - we would ask "what does Santa say" and he'd say "ho ho", too cute!

Santa!! Cooper didn't really know what to think of all his hair but he didn't cry!

Bye Santa!

By this time, all the kiddos were exhausted, but we had to throw in a few pictures of an old friend, Greenlee. She's a friend from my Breastfeeding days! Cooper and Greenlee look so tired!

It's so fun watching and playing with Cooper this time of year. I can't wait for Christmas day to see his reaction to what Santa brings. He loves his elf "Fred" and gets up to look for him every morning, it's just so much fun.

25 Weeks!

How Far Along:  25 weeks - Due date is March 12th, 2014

Size of Baby:  13 1/2 inches and about 1 1/2 pounds, about the size of a rutabaga.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: About 8 pounds

Heartbeat:  150ish at my appointment on Nov. 18th

Maternity Clothes:  YES! And I'm starting to feel like a whale! The holidays are not going to help, because I know I'll be stuffing myself!

Gender:  We are having a BOY!!

Movement:  Starting to feel a lot more lately. Still can't feel anything on the outside, any day though!!

Sleep:  Sleep is great!

What I Miss: My energy!

Cravings:  Nothing really, but I have been craving beer! NA is just not cutting it.

Symptoms: My hands and feet are starting to swell. I can see my sock lines and my fingers feel like sausages most days.

Best Moment This Week:  Finding out I'm going to have a new Niece!!

Looking Forward To: Thanksgiving and all the great food. I have so much to be thankful for and I'm so happy to be spending it with my family!

24 Weeks

How Far Along:  24 weeks - Due date is March 12th, 2014

Size of Baby:  1 1/3 pound, he's about the size of an ear of corn.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: as of my last appointment this past Monday, I was up about 8 pounds.

Heartbeat:  150ish at my appointment on Nov. 18th

Maternity Clothes:  YES! I feel like I popped out a lot sooner than I did with Cooper. I did not have to buy any new clothes since I'll be having this baby around the same time as Cooper.

Gender:  We are having a BOY!!

Movement:  Starting to feel a lot more lately. Ready to be able to have Tom and Cooper feel them. He had the  hiccups the other night!

Sleep:  Sleep is good, but once I get up to go to the bathroom, if I think about anything it will take me at least an hour to get back to sleep, so I try not to think about anything, which is hard sometimes but I try.

What I Miss: Being about to Jazzercise at high impact! I can really tell when I'm overdoing it, so I have to tell myself to calm down and just get through the class. I'm trying to make it to my December 16th Glucose test! I do not want Gestational Diabetes and I'm hoping exercising will help.

Cravings:  No cravings - I really like my ice cream though and Cooper is loving that I love it too!

Symptoms: Nothing, just getting big and not being able to move as much.

Best Moment This Week:  Starting to get the big boy room started, we moved toys in there, that's as far as we got and boy does our living room look a lot bigger. Also getting to hear the baby's heartbeat!

Looking Forward To: Feeling more kicks and hiccups.

I hate the way I look in these pictures but, it's not about me, its about the baby and how my belly is growing! Boy, do I look tired or what??

Lots of things happening...

Can you believe we are almost a week away from Thanksgiving?? I sure can't! We have had lots going on and I thought I'd share a few things.

Micayla moved into a house down the road with her friend, Megan, which means we have a room for the new baby! Actually her room is going to be Cooper's room, we've decided to keep the nursery a nursery so when we redo Micayla's room, we'll call it the big room, we will just put a full/queen size bed in there. I'm hoping to nurse the new baby like I did with Cooper and he slept with me until he was bout 4 months, until he outgrew the bassinet, so by that time, Cooper will be about 2 1/2 so we'll transition him then. However, we started this weekend, we took off the front rail of Cooper baby bed and put a safety shield so he can get used to crawling in and out of bed. He loves it and he slept just as good last night, we'll see how the next few nights go.

Cooper loves climbing in and playing in his bed.

And here he's sound asleep.

The last two nights have been good, I don't think he realizes that he can get out when he wakes up, he just sits in there and waits until someone comes and gets him and all this blankets.

Anther big thing we got this weekend was a new potty. We bought a 3-n-1 so he has a step stool as well as a potty. We were going to just go with a seat to put on the toilet but then thought he's going to need something to step up onto the toilet and I thought this would just be best. He loves to step on it to turn out the light, his new favorite thing, and he sat on it once, cloths on, but that's as far as we got. I"m not going to push it too hard yet, heck he's only 20 months (today) and I don't want my baby growing up just yet!
 

So that's what we do with the "potty" right now! I may need to move my towels because they are ending up on the floor every time he tries to "lite" (turn out the light, his new favorite thing).

And I got an early Christmas present

LOVE IT!! Tom's first text was "spoiled brat" LOL Love you honey! Now I just have to figure it out, any helpful hints, please share! Us Cellular finally got them in and it was perfect timing because my line was up for an upgrade, not that I needed it, but come on, why not??