ChRiStMaS jAmMiEs & JoY...

We decided to start a new tradition this year, and that is on Christmas Eve we will all get to open one present from each other, jammies! Pj's is not a word allowed in our house according to the little ones. I called them Pj's once and was quickly scorned by Adam and Wyatt, "They are jammies Mom!"
So we all got to open a pair, and we wore them all day on Christmas day. I'm not even ashamed to say that, we just sat around all day, opening presents, watching movies, and playing games. It was so nice to hang out with our little family all day.
Little Wyatt's jammies had sock monkeys and snow flakes on them! He looked so cute!


Adam's jammies were Bakugon. He loved them and in this photo he is doing a Bakugon pose (or at least he says he is, I don't really know.)





Ben's amazing jammies have smurfs! Yes, I said smurfs. I really wanted to get him Superman ones but I couldn't find any in his size. But smurfs are awesome in my book!


And then there are mine. They are super comfy and have little white and red snowflakes on them from VS. I think I should win the prize for best pose, I don't know, Adam may be a little cooler than me :)


Christmas overall was a lot of fun. We did a lot of relaxing, playing, and singing. Wyatt has refused to go to sleep the last week or so unless I sing him some sort of Christmas song. His favorites have been Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. What cuties these little guys are, Christmas is so much more fun as a parent, I love seeing their smiling faces!

Busy, Busy...

Let's face it, my kids are pretty darn cute. Of course they drive me crazy sometimes, but they make me laugh more often than not.
Does something seem a little off here? Don't worry, that is a clean pull-up, but you have got to love his enthusiasm for potty training!

Well like I said last week, Wyatt and I have gotten to spend some extra time together just us. We have been running around, dancing through the house, and have been busy, busy, busy. So yesterday I thought we would have a quiet morning at home before heading out for the day. (You can see from the above picture how quiet of a morning it was!)

So around 11am I thought we would run a few errands before meeting a group of friends for lunch. We made it about 5 minutes in the car on the way to the bank and this happened...
I guess he was pretty worn out. Poor kid. Now you have to understand that he NEVER falls asleep in the car, even when he was a baby, he has always hated it. So since he was sleeping and I knew we were going to be out for a while, I decided not to wake him. I drove us over to Target, and parked, and played games on my phone, while he slept in the backseat. I did have to wake him up at 12pm so we could get our shopping done, but I was grateful that he took his little cat nap. He was delightful at lunch with the girls, flirting with all of them, and not making much of a fuss.

All I Want for Christmas is...

Oh I love how excited my boys get when they see Santa! They just loved sitting with him and couldn't wait to tell the Jolly ole man what they wanted for Christmas this year. Adam was quick to tell Santa that he wanted a "Cricket Rifle". (He is his dad's son for sure!) I'm sure this was influenced by Ben, just a little :) When Santa asked Wyatt what he wanted, he pointed to the girl taking the pictures! (He also takes after his dad's flirtatious side!) While it was very cute and I am glad we didn't have any meltdowns, I was able to snap a good picture and the boys each walked away with smiles and candy canes. Happy Holidays everyone!

WyAtT cOnTiNuEd: DaNcInG mAcHiNe...

This isn't something we have discovered in the past couple days, Wyatt has always been attracted to music. When he was younger (around 18 months) we were sitting at dinner and found him bopping along to the rhythm of our dishwasher!

This was taken around Thanksgiving time. "So You Think You Can Dance" should make a kid version because Wyatt is a clear shoe in! Sorry it is sideways :) I couldn't figure our how to rotate it. Enjoy!

WyAtT, oNe On OnE

Now that I am finished with my semester of school, and Adam still has another week left, I have gotten to spend some quality alone time with Wyatt. He just makes me laugh and I forget how nice it is to have that special time together. Here are a few things we have done and learned from each other the past few days.

He is OBSESSED with my head bands and hair ties! I can't count how many times I have gone to change his clothes and he has some sort of hair tie either on an arm or leg, or both!

Whenever he has seen any sort of holiday decoration or twinkling lights, he starts screaming "Christmas mom!" while jumping up and down and screaming from excitement.

He is quite the chatter box, and whenever I may not have heard him he yells "Mom! I am talking to you!" with so much attitude. (Usually while I am driving!)


He likes to growl at, well everything. Which only confirms that the roaring dinosaur that from Toy Story that I got him for Christmas was a good buy.

He loves giving hugs and kisses, which I love getting them. I've always known this, but just thought I would share. It really has been fun hanging out with my little guy. It is so rare that we get to spend time together like this. I only hope that he enjoys it as much as I do!

ThIs Is WhAt ScHoOl DoEs To Me!!!

Well it popped into my head, while I was avoiding my textbooks, that I hadn't updated the blog in, well forever! This is what school does to me! I forget things, I feel overwhelmed, I forget things...did I already say that? You get my point. So here are a few things that have gone on since the last update! We had a lovely Thanksgiving with mostly Ben's family here in Idaho, and some extended family as well. My parents were able to tag along, as well as my sister-in-law's sister and a friend of the family. It was just a ton of people that had a great time, or at least we did :). A big group of us went shopping on Black Friday too!
This is from us all waiting in line for Target to open. It is just prior to 4 am here. My mom and sister-in-law Jenny went to Toys R Us earlier and lets just say we will never be doing that again! But overall we had a lot of fun and made some fun memories! My family can really make me laugh sometimes!
I am almost finished with this semester! Yay! I have two finals to take tomorrow and then I am home free until January. This seemed like a really long semester to me for some reason, but it was a good one! I passed my Math class that has just been such a downer the past 2 semesters, and all my other classes went great. But I am so glad it is over. Next semester shouldn't be such a heavy load. I also took my Praxis 1 exam and passed with flying colors. It is a test you have to take to be a teacher. I will take the Praxis 2 just before I do my student teaching.
Adam and Wyatt are so excited for Christmas! I thought I would have to worry about Wyatt opening the presents, you know because he is the youngest. But once again my children surprised me and Adam was the one doing the unwrapping way ahead of schedule. I understand how hard it is to wait for gifts, so I think Grandma Cooper was reading their minds and decided to send some Christmas fun their way a little early!
These are some super fun glasses that when wearing them, the boys would see Santa's face in Christmas lights. They had so much fun with them I thought they would go blind from just staring at the lights so much and so closely!



This year we were feeling very fortunate for the things we have during the Holiday season so we decided to do something different in terms of gifts. We got a few things for each of the boys, but other than that, we didn't really do anything. Instead we decided to adopt a few Angels from the Salvation Army Angel trees. We chose two, a five year old boy and a 14 month old boy. It was really fun to talk about what we were doing, and it actually got more people to join in on the gift giving. It just makes us thankful every day for the things we have, and we were glad to give back this year.

LiKe A cHaNgEd WoMaN...

The past few months I have been feeling sort of sluggish, and looking it! So yesterday I decided to make a change, and chop off my hair.
This is a before picture taken in August. My hair is curly here so add a couple inches to that length and you get the idea.
This obviously is the AFTER! We chopped at least 6 inches off. It is an A-line cut (Shorter in the back, gradually gets longer towards the front.) I have been wanting a change for a while now and it feels so good!

Now that the hair is new, it is time a get back into shape and get a new body to fit the new hair. I am setting myself a goal to lose 25 pounds by May 2011. I did this about a year and a half ago, but getting back into school I kind of lost my schedule and haven't gotten back to the gym as often as I would have liked. As a family I feel as though we have already changed our diets to eat healthier thanks to a little Co-op called Bountiful Baskets. (It's full of great fruits and veggies). Now I just need to get a good exercise schedule down and I should be well on my way to a healthier, and happier me! I am really excited to get started, and I will be updating my progress often. So here goes nothing... :)