What they say

Isabelle: Mom

Mom: What

Isabelle: Mom I just heard a new "v" word, Vegas, Vyzs but I don't know what it means

Mom: That's not how you spell it, laughing.

Happy 1st Birthday Cooper

Today my baby is no longer a baby or infant. He is officially a toddler. Never mind that he has been walking for a month, and getting into everything he can get his hands on, all which would make him seem like a toddler already. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday with friends and family. I figured the grandparents would want to be able to share in our joy of his wonderful boy, so we got together a little early.


He was very excited to have all the attention and spend time with some of his favorite people. Great Grandma Libby, Oma and Grandpa Don all came up from San Antonio. While Grandpa Bernie and Grandma Susie came in from Sulphur Springs, plus we had wonderful friends who live close by, Angie and Gene and their two kids came to play. Along with my college roommate, Paige and her son, and you can not forget Auntie Penny. It was a perfect amount of kids and guest for the little guy.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and welcomed Cooper into the world of being one. He was too cute with his cake; he really just wanted to eat the frosting and only really got into the cake when we cut it open for him. He did not really focus on any one present but checked them all briefly out and moved on to the next one.

I cannot really say what his goals will be for the next phase of his life, but you can be sure it will be walking and then running (since he already tries that). And in the summer swimming and enjoying life outside since what kid does not want to play outside. I think there will be facial features, colors and shapes on the menu as well.

So here is a very Happy Birthday to Cooper Finn! You are such a joy to have in our lives.

Teamwork Baby

My kids make me laugh everyday, multiple times a day. I was folding laundry today and I look out the window to check on the kids and they are pushing each other up into the tree to try to get a bucket. Or who knows what but it was so funny to see them “helping” each other in this way that I just had to take a picture. They are very creative and have wonderful imaginations; I hope they keep that up all their lives.

Window

In the continuing adventures of an almost one year old, today I thought I would open the windows. I was working on the lap top because something mysteriously happened to the mouse on the big computer. And after I was done I decided to check things out at the big computer. I forgot to move the stool under the table so Cooper would not climb on it. Well the next thing I hear is a big crash, bang. I run into the living room and don’t see Cooper but I can hear him crying, it is kind of muffled, I figure he’s between the couch and the wall. Well no, Bear informs me that he fell out the window. Yup that’s right he climbed up on the stool, onto the table and thought he would check things out by going out the screen. I’m sure it was a pretty scary two foot fall for a little guy. Fortunately he is just fine two little scrapes on his head but nothing else wrong. I’m sure it won’t be the last time this kid falls down. After I picked him up and made sure he was fine a gave a little chuckle, it's kind of funny. And this is the reason why I don't open the windows up stairs unless I'm there with them, and sometimes not even then.

Skate Away

Isabelle has started her extra social circuit of birthday parties for friends from school at last. She is the oldest in her class and now all of her classmates are starting to have their birthday celebrations. One of the first parties she has gone to was an ice skating party. She could hardly wait! We got there and the first thing out of her mouth was, Mom when are we going to skate. Never mind that other party stuff, I want to have fun and skate. Unfortunately we did have to do that other party stuff first before hitting the ice. She was so excited about skating that she did not even have any cake. I know a kid who does not eat cake at a party. I had to eat her piece. (I even thought about an extra one, but passed).

Once she as on the rink she stayed pretty close to the wall but did venture out some. It was pretty fun to watch and be close. Last time I had to stay on the side lines and just watch. I think she did pretty well; I wanted to get a picture of her and Milee (the birthday girl) together but never quite got the chance on the ice. Oh well I’m sure there will be other parties.

Except for being a little shy and not wanting to show off her Vikings jersey she had a great time. I was sad she did not show off her jersey since the Vikings really put it to the “Cowgirls.” Oh well maybe next year Romo.

Toilet Paper the great debate

I was watching TV at some point very recently, as I have been known to do on occasion, and this ad comes up for toilet paper. Now I do not usually pay too much attention to ads, why give the advertisers the satisfaction, after all they are pretty much a waste of time. Cottonelle is currently running an ad that is encouraging people to go out and vote for which way their rolls go. Now I prefer them to go over, easy of use and everything. While I do not think Ben puts any thought into it and just places the roll. So I can always tell when he has put one on because it will be facing the wrong way. It amazes me that something so simple could intrigue that many people to go out and vote. Or that it would be worthy enough to produce a commercial for in the first place. Oh well, I guess I'm blogging about it too, so what does that say. Which way do your rolls go and are you going to vote?

The Gander and Hwy 360

Happy New Year, I hope everyone had a fun, safe and relaxing New Years Eve. We had a great time with a few close couples and their kids. Now on to my interesting story:

One time as a kid, when we were living in California our family was driving along the road and we saw a Red Tailed Hawk attempting to fly but unable to get in the air. So being the caring, compassionate people that my parents are we stopped and rescued the hawk. It turned out that the hawk had a broken wing in three places, which explains why it was unable to fly. Once he was in the car, we took him to an animal hospital that fixed him and then they released him back into the wild. Let me just tell you, seeing that magnificent wild bird up close and personal was amazing. It is not like the zoo at all, I would like to say that we were just a couple of feet away from my Dad while he was holding him in the back seat of the car. So cool!
Anyway, on my way home this morning from picking up our produce Co-Op I spotted a Gander wandering along the road, with a definite limp. Now not as amazing as a Red Tailed Hawk but still a wounded animal in need of help, I rushed home and got Ben and the kids. Since the bird was on the side of a very busy street where it could one get hit by a car or eaten by a coyote, I figured moving it to a park with a pond would be a very nice thing to do. As Ben and I are trying to coral the bird to wrap up in the blanket we brought along, he actually flies away. I told Ben I wanted to go check on it and make sure it was ok so we turned around and found him on a not so busy street in someone’s yard. Fortunately they did not have fence and we moved right in. It was actually helpful since, we used some of their bushes and fence line to coral him and wrap him up. It took a couple of tries and Ben was finally able to grab his neck and then pick him up in the blanket to carry in the car. I’m just gratefully that the people were either asleep, saw what we were doing and did not say anything, or just did not notice us being on their property. After all we do live in Texas, where everyone has a gun, (except us).


Once we had Gandlof (to use one of my childhood gooses names) wrapped up we got in the car and made our way to the park with a pond. He did pretty well on the ride and only moved around his head a little bit, we kept him covered so that he would not freak out and try to snap at Ben or “fly” around the car. We got to the park and the other geese immediately see us and come across the pond to see if we have any food, they only made it half way once they noticed we were releasing another gander. He seemed to be accepted into the flock without too much trouble, no other goose pecked at him so hopefully he will enjoy his new home. We decided that his foot would be fine and would not need medical attention; I hope we are right, since he swam pretty well. I’m sure being off of his foot and in the water helped a lot.