This will keep me busy

Cooper likes to "help" me in the kitchen when I am trying to get lunch or dinner made. His idea of helping me is trying to get into the refrigerator. His first obsession was to take all of the food out and lay it on the floor but then he found the button! The button that turns the light on and off when the door is open and shut. He also enjoys this button on the dryer. I think it has to do with his obsession with lights going on and off. In any room of the house he is pointing to the light switch and wants us to turn it off and on. We almost have the words on and off down. I will try to get some more videos of this :)

New Tractor

This is Cooper's new John Deere Tractor. I found it on craigslist and is by far the best $10 I have spent! He loves it and plays with it for hours. In fact it is one of the first things he goes for in the morning. As you can see he has also found it a fun new toy to climb on, which is his favorite past time right now.

Crazy Bath Fun

Bath time with Coop has become an experience for anyone in the room. He loves to splash and swim back and forth in the tub. I have not had to wash the floor of his bathroom yet because every night I am wiping it down from his bath time. We are still having issues with him wanting to stand in the tub, but he has been slowly getting better at it. He just loves his bath and the minute I get him out of his chair from dinner he is down the hall and standing by the tub with his arms up to get undressed and get in. Can't wait to see what will happen when I have both him and Caddie in the tub...oh no!

Architect?

So when Cooper gets quiet I get worried. But unlike most times this time he was playing quietly with his blocks. I was shocked that he had stacked them so high and so well. Maybe he has a future in building and design!

Yak Yak Yak

Cooper is always trying to get the phone. Today I was in the kitchen and I heard him just talking away. I looked up and he had the phone and was talking into it like he was having a full conversation with someone. It was so funny and his little arm movements were cracking me up. He was really telling whoever he was talking to a thing or two.

Happy Father's Day

Sunday was Rob's 2nd Father's Day and was also his only day off this week. We spent the majority of the day just relaxing and allowing him to unwind from the past week and get him ready for another long week.

We never need a day to tell him how thankful we are, but I feel so blessed and thankful that he is such a great Dad. He takes time each and everyday with both kids. Even with 16 and 17 hour days he still wakes up with Cooper at 6:30 and makes him breakfast. He comes home every night and the first thing he does is to go in and check on both of them. He is so loving and patience with them and they both love having him around. I could never had dreamed of a better Husband and Father. Thanks Rob for all you do and for loving us all so much! xoxoxo

Rob's Big Opening

A week ago was Rob's soft opening or like they referred to it as the VIP dinner. Cooper, Caddie, and I had the first reservation at 5pm. The restaurant looks amazing and the food was fantastic. I was so proud of Rob and how much work they all had got done in the short 2 months that we have been here. To go from the dirt floor empty space 2 months ago to the beautiful spotless space it is today was great to see.

The kids were a hit and both behaved themselves. We had a great dinner and like aways Cooper was a huge hit by all he will eat. I swear he is like Mikey....he will eat anything! No one would believe I was ordering him a piece of salmon and veggies for dinner everyone kept asking me if he would like chicken fingers instead...not a chance he likes the good stuff!

Rob is still pulling some pretty long days as the opening week has been getting busier as the days go on. He was sure they were going to do 400 covers tonight! YIKES! They have the highest check averagein the entire company at $65 per person which is much higher then the $37 company average! He is doing great and we could not be more proud! Now if we could just get back to 2 days off a week we will be doing GREAT :)

Just hanging out

Today was a lazy day for the kids and I. So I got out the camera and got some pretty cute shots of them both. You will notice bruises on Coop's face. This is due to an injury suffered at story time. He would not leave this cart alone in the room and it ended up knocking him in the face leaving a beautiful mark! He has learned to climb on everything now so I am sure we will see many many more bruises.

Caddie talking away

Caddie is getting her own little personality in the last couple of weeks. She is normally a pretty happy girl except when I try and put her in the carseat. She hates being in there and is not afraid to let me know about it. I took some video of her smiling and just being a happy girl and wanted to share them.

New Tricks

Cooper has been talking away for months...well really from birth, but nothing that we have really been able to understand. In the last couple of months he has been doing great at sounds and a few words. Here are a few of his most recent. Right now everything with wheels is a choo choo. He loves to watch Chugington on sprout and no matter where we are he finds the cars, trucks, and trains.

I was going to pick them up from daycare the other day after working out and from down the hall I could make out his little voice saying choo choo. Sure enough when I got to the room there he was sitting on the floor playing with the toy cars. He is totally all boy!

Fun at the Park

I took Cooper and Caddie to a local splash park for a playdate this week, only to find out that they were not turning it on that day. Though that did not stop Cooper. He found some kids playing in the outside shower area and that soon became the fun thing to do. The other kids were not too sure about it, but Cooper knew just what to do.

Popcorn

We have started a new Sunday tradition of going down to the local Farmer's Market. Rob and I love just being outside with the kids and we have begun to make some relationships with the different vendors. Our favorite is the dried fruit guy. He has fresh dried fruit and various selections of nuts. He is so friendly and funny and always give us a little more then we pay for, gotta love that. Our second favorite thing to do is head over to the kettle corn stand and get freshly made popcorn. At first I would bite off most of the seed part and then give it to Cooper, but as you will see in these videos that was not needed and as fast as he is eating them it took too much time to always bite off the seed. It amazes me daily how much he is able to eat and do.

Update

With Rob crazy at work the last couple of weeks I have been swamped at home with Cooper and Caddie. He has been leaving about 7am and we don't see him till 10 or 11pm every night. Cooper and Caddie are doing great and just working on getting bigger.

Cooper's big activities include learning new words and sounds. His newest thing is saying "toot-toot" whenever he sees anything that has wheels. Trains, cars, lawnmowers, trucks, and pretty much anything that moves he LOVES. Sitting in the car is a trip with him tooting and pointing at everything. He is beginning to recognize pictures and words and if in the mood will point out a ball, dog, ears, nose, mouth, feet, diaper, bellybutton, and duck in pictures. I can tell he is getting frustrated not being able to talk to me and tell me what he wants so Rob and I have been working with him on words! So hopefully soon he will have words to go along with the finger point.

Caddie is now smiling and trying to laugh. She loves to just look at you and smile away. She is still a little fussy but it is getting better day by day. I continue to take her out and let others watch her to try and get her use to other people. We are working on her taking a bottle and a paci, though she does not like either. The bottle is not so much a problem when she is really hungry. She is still sleeping very well which has been a HUGE blessing for both Rob and I!

Rob's new store opens up in the 14th. It is getting crazy and he continues to amaze his boss and the higher ups. I am so proud of how he has been manging his personal and professional life. The last couple of weeks have been hard but I am hoping with the opening approaching soon things will get back to normal. I do have to say in his defense he is still waking up with Cooper every morning and taking time to make him breakfast and spend at least an hour playing with him. It has been good for Cooper and has made the rest of the day easier on me. We are all excited for the opening and cannot wait to show everyone the new place when you come to visit.

I have been looking into going back to work 3-4 nights a week allowing me a chance to get out of the house and a little extra money to have fun with once Rob gets a few days off. I have the chance to transfer over to Flemings which would mean I could start working right away and make money from the start. We will see how that goes. I am working out about 2-3 times a week right now and would like to get back to 4-5 times. I am slowly loosing the baby weight and have about 20lbs to go to get back to where I was when I got pregnant with Cooper. So hopefully by Christmas I can get back into my pre baby jeans :)

Besides that all is well and we are just hanging tight!

Homemade Fort

When I was younger my brother, sister, and I would always make forts. Cooper has been loving getting into small spaces so I wanted to see how he would do with his own fort. We put up a blanket and he loved it. In and out he went all day. He thought it was the coolest thing to just sit under and have his own little space. I am sure we will see plenty more in the future.