Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was extra special this year! Luke and his family came in from California to join in the festivities. We love every minute they are here with us. We have lots to be thankful for and one of them is our amazing family.

Cooper wore his Thanksgiving jammies! I love the little butt.

 

Yes, he's climbing up the couch! This boy is in to everything.

We started the morning, while waiting for momma to get ready, with a little fun at the Hillebrands! Tom decided to put Cooper in the little Red Wagon that he got from his cousin Lane's first birthday party. He fit just perfectly!

 

Around noon-time we headed to Tom's aunt Shari's house.  Tom's whole family was there and of course, lots of food, everything was so good and I left feeling like a stuffed turkey.

Cooper found the Wissing's entertainment center! What is it about things that they shouldn't get in to but they do?? I know it's only just begun!

Cooper had a good nap, even amongst all the noise, he was in the corner by the couch and the chair where Grandpa John is. Where Coops at now, on Uncle Bob and Danny's lap, is where he ended up after his nap. Uncle Bob picked him up and he was as happy as can be.

Then he was down playing with Aunt Barb and the dog, Buddy

It was such a gorgous day out that Tom, his dad and cousin all ate outside. (That's probably the first)

 After we were all done eating and looking at the Black Friday Ads, no I didn't go out, we headed out to my Aunt Andy's house. Again, lots of yummy food! 

Cooper and Gavin playing with Matt, these 2 boys are going to be big buddies one day!

Time for dinner! He even had a turkey dinner, jar food of course, but he loved it.

And a picture before the jammies came on!  They are only 2 1/2 months apart and weigh the same. When Lane got there, we all decided we have 3 boys all different ages but weigh the same at 19 pounds! LOL

Our phones, because we forgot the good camera, must have died because we didn't get any pictures of when Luke and them arrived! They got out there around 8:00 and everyone was so happy to see them! Especially Dad, I think being around his family is the best thing for him right now! We love him so much.

And last but not least, Cooper was one tuckered out little boy!

Girls Shopping Trip

Two weekends ago, the weekend after we found out about dad, we were all scheduled to go on a shopping trip. With dad's news, we thought about canceling but dad insisted we go! So we did, it's just what we needed. When I say us, I mean ALL the girls and Cooper.

So Friday morning, I met up at mom and dad's because we were taking the van of course, and we headed out to pick up Andy and Erica. The 5 of us drove to Schaumburg, there is LOTS of shopping, the mall is huge! We ended up taking a very scenic route which was OK because he had lots to talk about, not that we tried to so the scenic route, but we did. We got into town around 1:00 and decided to eat lunch at California Kitchen Pizza, I think that's what it's called. It was so good! Cooper ate some sweet potatoes or something while we ate our lunch.

Meanwhile, Nikki, Lexi and Grandma were all on there way, they took the quick way, it's about a 3 hour drive, our drive took 4 hours...They met us at Home Goods, we don't have one of these around, this one is actually the closest one, so we had to hit that store. Then we went to The Container Store, same thing, not a store near us. We got some pretty good deals, but it seems so long ago I can't ever remember what we got. After those few stores we decided to go to the hotel and check in.

Once we got all settled in, the girls didn't really want to go out and about so we left Cooper with the adults and Erica, Lexi and myself went to do a little shopping. We found some good bargains at Kohls and Erica got a great deal on winter coats and boots for her kids at Younkers, actually it was Carson, but they are same. Before we left we decide we all were going to to The Weber Grill for dinner, they all took a shuttle and met us there. They had Cooper and they said he was the best. I feel awful for not getting hardly any pictures. Anyway, dinner was excellent, I had a steak and it was so good. We got back to the hotel and decided to stay in for the night, we thought about going to Toys R' Us but decided just to stay back and get some rest because Saturday was the big shopping day.

We had two rooms at the hotel, they were joining and in one room me, Erica (we shared a bed) and Andy and of course Cooper, he had a pack and play. The other room held everyone else. Erica and I were up pretty early as Cooper was our alarm clock. We got ready and whoever was ready, not Nick and Lex, but Mom and Andy were so the 5 of us took off to the mall, Grandma stayed back with Nick and Lexi, they met us later at the mall. Mom really wanted to get to Macy's, they had a big sale.

So we spent the day at the mall, here are few, or a lot, of pictures.

This was at Home Goods on Friday, I just fed Cooper and the stroller was buried in the van underneath all our stuff, thank God for the Bjourn..

He loved it, it was like he was driving the cart! I got lots of smiles from him and everyone else around as well.

I took advantage of the big mirror at Home Goods to get a picture of him an I. 

Then at The Container store, he got to ride in the big cart! 

This was Saturday when we all met up at the mall. Erica ran to get a wheelchair, I think she got one of the last one, note..there were 15 buses there! It was crazy! This mall however, is not wheelchair friendly so it was a good shopping day for Andy and Grandma, but they enjoyed themselves.

And a quick picture of Cooper and Grandma

I put him in his Santa's Little Helper outfit, he's probably be too big for it come Christmas!

Here we're at H&M waiting for Erica and I'm trying on a scarf.

My sweet boy enjoying his first shopping trip.

Between the carseat and the stroller and the BJourn, we, Erica and I, went to the Van to stretch Cooper's legs and feed him and change him, then when we went back in we had him facing out in the stroller, so everything worked out great.

He loved putting his feet up!

Mommy's being silly and trying to get some pictures.

Erica and I were pooped, so was Cooper! We were at the mall ALL day and we finally got a call from the others back at the hotel, they left earlier because they wanted a drink and no place in the mall could seat them, it was that busy. So they headed back to the hotel. They called and said Nikki and Lexi wanted to go to The Outback for dinner, hello, Erica and I had steak last night at The Weber Grill, so we didn't want that. We ended up picking up a pizza (ha funny story to tell there) and taking it back to the hotel. Nikki and Lexi were the only ones who went to The Outback. 

So we ordered Pizza from Pizzaria Uno's, we called ahead and ordered, Chicago pizza is so much different, they don't have green olives and they always use fresh mushrooms, which is fine by me, but Erica and Andy don't like them, so it was a challenge finding the the right pizza. Well, everything was ordered and we pulled up to what we thought was the pizza place, Erica went in to get it and comes out empty handed! I thought, "oh great, we ordered from the wrong place or something" here we were at the wrong restaurant, the pizza place was right next door. We pulled right into the take out parking not even thinking about it. I'm sure glad Erica went in to get "the pizza" it was so funny, I had tears rolling down my eyes as she's telling me the story, because she didn't just walk in and walk out, she was in there for a while. I just assumed she was waiting for the pizza, here she was explaining who she was to the hostess and he/she was very confused saying "the person I talked to was very hard to understand but there is not an order for Erica, the only order we have is for so and so and he ordered Chicken" Erica's like "I ordered Pizza" and the hostess said "we don't sell pizza" Erica looked around and about died! She was at Chevy's!! So when she got back to the van I lost it, I laughed so hard and couldn't stop laughing, it felt really good! So we pulled out and just next door was the pizza place! Too funny!!!

Sunday morning, we loaded up and headed home! We stopped in Hutley, IL at an outlet mall. We hit The Children's Store, Carter's and Gap. I also seen Jazzercise!! 

 

It was super windy Sunday, the rest of the weekend was beautiful, but we had to bundle up on Sunday.

The trip was so much fun, it was well needed after hearing the bombshell about dad. He had a good weekend too! I am proud to say I got some Christmas shopping done! I think that's the first!

Eight Months Old!

I can't believe my little man is 8 months (this past Sunday) already! 

Here are few things I want to remember about Cooper's 8 months of life!

• You are wearing size 3 diapers - we prefer Pampers Swaddlers
• You're wearing 9 to 12 month clothes.
• No teeth yet! We sure are waiting though..we make the excuse when you're crabby that you must be teething.
• You are still one of the happiest baby's I've ever known. There is not much you don't like.
• You are still exclusively breastfed, however it's not as easy as it was in the past. Only when you're starving do you just lay there and eat, most times you pop on and off, look around, smile then hop back on. This makes mommy very tired and sore! You are almost biting mommy, but really you're just playing, but mommy doesn't like it one bit. It hurts!
• We have a crawler! You have finally figured out how to get moving and you haven't stopped.
• You love to pull yourself up, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. We were in Grandma's van stretching our legs on our shopping weekend and all of a sudden there you were standing right next to me. Crazy!! And you've been doing it non-stop! See pics below, this was taken yesterday.

This was on his actually day, the 18th!

• One other thing you do that just cracks me up, when you pout or get mad at something, and I wish I could get a picture, but you will sit with your head tilted down, then look up to see if we are looking, then take your arms up and down along with your head. I know I'm not explaining it good, but it's so darn cute. We will sit there and watch you pout and cry and start laughing, then you just get more mad at us. Sorry sweet boy!
• Your hair is so crazy! I think you're starting to get curls, it's so darn cute, but there's really no point in combing it, but you love to have your hair combed. After bath, I will comb it and you'll stop whatever it is your doing and just sit there for momma, it's so sweet.
• Speaking of baths - you love your bath. We really need to get you some bath toys, we have one rubber duck that tells us if the water is too hot and a few little frogs from Aunt Stephanie's parents, that's it. You'll get a wash cloth to play with and you seem content with just that. You love splashing and lately, all you want to do is swim, heck you wanted to be on your belly the other day. This scares momma! One other thing while in the tub, when I pour water over your head to get your hair wet, you love watching the water drip over your face, you don't mind the water running over your face at all, it's so cute watching your little eyelashed get wet!
• You are eating at least twice a day, breakfast and dinner. Plus breast milk at least 5 times a day. There is nothing we have given you that don't like, maybe carrots, but you still ate them. You can't really figure out who to pick up Puffs, you'll get it in your hand and just play with them, they all usually end up in your lap or on the floor. You even love table food. Aunt Kristi fed you green beans and mashed potatoes the other night and she said you couldn't get enough of the green beans. You  must take after momma because I love green beans.

• Recently, you've been crying for me when I leave you at school. This makes momma so so sad but I know you're in good hands and you always seem happy when I come up to feed you at lunch time. I usually do this twice a week, it's so special to me and I think you love it too. The other day you were sleeping when I got there and I picked you up and you just cuddled right up on me because you knew it was me. So so sweet.
• You love to snuggle but not at much as you used to, you'd rather be moving, or doing something else, unless you're tired then you don't mind.
• You don't like going to bed awake, I need to change this, but I love just the two of us in your room listening to your lullaby's and watching you look around, it's so sweet and its something I look forward to every night. I love watching your eyes get heavy and I love when your hands start exploring my face, you love sticking your fingers up my nose, this drives momma crazy, but I love it too!
• When you are eating, you grab my boob like it's a bottle, thank God it doesn't hurt because I can see your fingers grabbing at my skin, but again it's so sweet.
• You still take about 3 naps a day, when you don't have an afternoon nap, you're usually in bed by 7:30 otherwise your normal bed time is usually around 8 to 8:30. You usually wake up once in the middle of the night for your pacifier then drift off back to sleep, then you're up at 430 to eat! This is my favorite time because I bring you in bed with me to snuggle. I think we both love this and that's why you always wake up at this time. Thankfully you go back to sleep. But again, you're usually up by 6am!
• You love your brother and sister, you just light up every time you see them.
• You love your daddy too, he just says you don't. He picks you up from school then takes you home and plays with you until I get home. Once I get home, you start whining for me to come play with you.
• You are definitely a momma's boy!
• You love playing with cords and getting into things you shouldn't, you are beginning to know what the word "NO" means and you don't like it. We yell at you all the time when you're trying to get to the speakers and the TV equipment.
• Changing you has become somewhat of a challenge, holy cow. I have to make you play with your butt lotion or something to keep your mind of what I'm doing because all you want to do is flip over and start crawling right off your changing table. I usually have to wrestle you to get lotion on and your diaper after bath time. Once I get that on, we do to the floor to put your clothes or jammies on. 
• You have started to play the game - dropsies, not really a game but while changing you, you'll drop whatever I gave you so you can flip around, but I've caught on....LOL
• Your Grandparents and Great-Grandparents love you so so much, you are one spoiled boy!

I did not get near as many pictures this month as I would have liked but these will have to do. And I know there is so much more to document but this will have to do for today.

Cooper, you are just the best boy in the whole wide world, I just love every minute of every day when I'm with you. I can't wait to see what the next month holds in store for us, we have Thanksgiving coming up and you can't wait to spend time with your cousin's.

My Amazing Father!

It's seem like forever, actually it's been forever since I've blogged and I feel like I am missing out because now that I've finally printed my blog from the very first day in 2009 up until 2011, I know want to document everything and I feel like I've been slacking. There has just been so much going on in my life right now and by the time I have time to sit down and blog I'm exhausted and ready for bed.

So, what's been going on, well the one thing that I never ever thought would happen to anyone in my family... CANCER!!! I absolutely hate that word and every time I think of it, it makes me want to puke. I have never really known anyone who has had cancer, maybe one person, but no one really close and I don't really know how to feel and I think that's one of the reason's I'm so scared and yet I don't even know how to react to it. I sit here with me laptop on my lap and I have so much going on in my mind yet I can't find the words to describe what I'm feeling. So I'm just going to get to the point....

My dad, my amazing dad, has lung cancer. He went to the doctor because he was having pain in his back, he thought he might have gotten pneumonia or something so he went in and the doctor said he had fluid built up in his lung and that he saw a suspicious spot in his lung, so they scheduled a time to drain the fluid and hoping the "spot" would find its way out along with the fluid, well it didn't. Dad had to go back for a CAT scan and the results came back as the spot on his lung was cancer. And that its inoperable because the cancer is not contained to just the lung it's in the lymph nodes as well, meaning they can't operate.

With those few words, my world just came crashing down, thinking "what's going to happen to my dad?", "is he going to be sick?" There are just so many questions and that I just don't know what's going to happen and I think that's the most scariest part of this whole thing. I keep thinking it's a dream, a nightmare actually, and that I'm going to wake up and everything is going to be fine, but it's not, its real and it's something I'm going to have to live with and fight for everyday. My dad is so strong and he has SO many people praying for him and we are truly blessed to be a part of that family. My brother and his family are coming home for Thanksgiving to spend time with dad and for his kids to visit with Grandpoo, he can't wait to see them. My cousin, Sara, Dad's Goddaughter, has set up a special prayer service for dad at Sinsinawa Mound for next Saturday and all his sister's and their families will be there as well. They do a prayer chain and it's suppose to send special prayers or healing powers to dad to help him heal or something like that, I really need to look into this more. OK a quick Google search is all I needed. WOW, this is amazing, check it out here. So next Saturday will be a prayer service day for the Hendricks family, we sure hope it works!

Dad had his first chemo appointment this past Thursday, he goes again in 3 weeks, they will do another scan after the second treatment to make sure it's working, we pray to God it's working, then we'll go from there. But he said it wasn't too bad. Friday when I called him, I thought for sure he'd be home, but he was out taste testing at Sam's Club with mom. I was shocked! But so happy to hear he was out and about. Saturday night they went to the Moose then to the casino but at the casino he said his legs were starting to bother him, which is a side effect of the chemo, so they went home and he took some pain pills and went to bed. Sunday morning he didn't go to church because he still wasn't feeling the best so he rested. When mom got home they went down to the Shot Tower to visit an old friend then to Knickers for the Race Pool Party. (They sure still get around, don't they?) LOL anyway we invited them up for supper tonight along with Chris and Kristi but since dad wasn't feeling good, dad was going to stay home, we just decided to load everything up and go up to mom and dad's. They were so happy to see us! We had everything ready in it's pot and/or pan so it was nothing, super easy. Tom cooked the T-bones on the Weber and everything else was simple. It was a great night and dad was very happy to see us. He looked great as usual.

That's the funny thing, no one would ever know it by looking at him. And that's one of the hardest things for me because he doesn't look sick and God help me he never does. I'm really having a hard time writing this because every time I think of him I start to cry and I keep telling myself, it's going to be OK. I'm in such denial that I can't even begin to think about the future. I can't think of life without him. He has been my rock for so long, we have so many memories and we are going to make many more. So for now this is where I'm leaving it...

And just a quick picture of Cooper and Dad this past Saturday! We stopped up to say hi and got a quick picture.

Random weekend update

This past weekend we had planned on "baby proofing" our house, but again got too busy and didn't get any of that done other than outlet covers put on, that was easy!

Friday I worked from home so Cooper and I could catch up on my time away from him, it was so much fun! I fed him breakfast, some rice cereal and gave him the rest of his bottle. I thought, hey daycare said he's holding his own bottle and I hardly ever see him drinking out of a bottle, so I propped him up on the bobby and gave him the rest of the milk that was left over from the cereal. He had it gone in no time. I mean I literally did a little work and turned back to see how he was doing and he was off, bottle empty!

Here is where I found him, after the Cubs Gnome and anything other than his toys.

That afternoon I was off to get a haircut and color. I took Cooper up to mom and dad's and while Grandma was working, Grandpa watched Cooper. They had so much fun together, no pictures of course, but I can tell by looking at this picture I took when I got back he had lots of fun. 

Saturday morning, I taught Jazzercise! Mom came to class too and her and I went out for breakfast after, then I met Tom and Cooper at his Grandparent's house. I came into the house and Cooper was eating some bananas, he loved them!!

Then that afternoon we went for lunch/dinner at Champps then just went home and cleaned! I was in the cleaning mood again. We finally got all the storage tubs from Grandma's garage and organized our basement closets. Its long overdue these tubs have been in Grandma's garage since we started our basement.

And Sunday afternoon, after church (I have a lot to pray for these days) we went to Champps again because the Bears game was not on regular TV. I bet 100% next year Tom will not let this happen, this has happened twice already this year and it's not even half over with. Last time we went and watched it at my brothers house, this weekend he was not feeling good so we settled for Champps. We first went to Buffalo Wild Wings but they didn't have any seating so we settled and waited 20 minutes for a seat at Champps.

Cooper was patiently waiting for his mashed potatoes, one of his favorites. Grandpa Tom came out to join us as well. We had wings and french fries.

And of course, Daylight Savings Time ended so it was dark at 5:30! I thought for sure we'd have a rough start to the week but I can gladly say, and knock on wood, that Cooper is still sleeping through the night, but is still tired at 7:00 which would normally have been 8:00 and sleep until 4:30! Please keep this up Cooper!!!

Family pictures tonight! Can't wait to get our Christmas cards this year!!!