Look......No Training Wheels!

One of our goals for this summer was to teach Cooper to ride his bike! We can now say that goal has been accomplished!! Yay Cooper! We took him over to the sports center parking lot at FHU so he would have plenty of riding room. He DID NOT want to learn to ride his bike! I think he was just scared to learn to ride without the security of the training wheels. After an hour and a half, some scrapes, quite a few tears, and plenty of sweat he finally got the hang of it!! He's now a very happy boy  and is excited about being able to ride places with his brothers that he couldn't go before because of the training wheels. Cade and Chance took their bikes and scooters and rode around while we gave Cooper our undivided attention. They were great big brothers and encouraged Cooper while he learned! It was an emotional hour and a half but well worth it in the end!! Good Job Cooper! 

Happy Birthday Cooper

Today my baby turned 4. Wow! I truly can not believe that it has been 4 years since he entered this world. I mean where has the time gone?? He has been such a blessing to our lives. He's an awesome, funny, sweet kid! We love you Cooper and hope you had a great 4th birthday!!




Cooper requested this tiger cake. Thought it turned out pretty good, Cooper was pleased so I was happy with it.

A Chef...Maybe!

It will be interesting to see what jobs my boys choose to do when they get older. Will I have a preacher, teacher, accountant, NBA player (that's what Cade says he's going to be..ha), etc. Who knows what path they will choose. I will not at all be surprised if Chance chooses something that has him working with food! He loves to be in the kitchen and wants to help with just about everything I make. He walks around the kitchen smelling every ingredient I use.....seriously! I try to let him help with the cooking some because I know he loves it! Yes...I usually have a bigger mess because of it but that's okay! I think he must get this love of being in the kitchen and cooking from his Uncle Cody and Aunt Lauren! Who knows! Maybe one day he'll be a chef!!!

On the menu for tonight....Dumplings!



A little help from Cooper while cutting out the dumplings. Maybe I'll have 2 Chefs!

Cool!!

I'm in the kitchen making a list of all the things I need to make/do for the boys birthday party when Cooper comes in. I'm trying to write everything down before I forget something so I don't immediately acknowledge him! Here's what I hear!

Hey Mom!
Momma!
Hey mommy look at me!
mommy!

Now he's getting frustrated and says MOMMMMM- MA!!!

So I say, "What Cooper?"

To which he responds, "Don't I look cool?!?!"

Yes, you look VERY cool!!

He says, "Do you want to take my picture?"

of course I do!! Ha! He smiles, I take his picture, and he walks off! Funny kid!

Popcorn creation

With Thanksgiving just around the corner we have started enjoying some thanksgiving activities here at the house. Yesterday the kids made these pilgrim hats using popcorn. It was a fun activity for them and they got to eat the leftover popcorn which they enjoyed!

Sleepy Boys!

After being outside all day on Monday watching the cotton pickers at work these boys were exhausted. I let them skip naps because the cotton pickers were right by the back yard during that time. I didn't want them to miss the up close action! We had to pick Cassidy up from school so it was just easier to let them stay awake. They didn't make it long in the van before falling asleep. They looked so sweet laying on one another. Just couldn't help snapping a picture!

Cooper's birthday

My baby turned 3 today! When I look at him I have a hard time seeing a 3 year old....he's supposed to be the baby (I know he'll always be my baby but still) and a 3 year old is NOT a baby! I love that my boys are getting older and able to do more "big boy" things but at the same time I wish time would slow down just a little because they are getting big way too fast! We had a great celebrating Cooper!

Sarah and Paden stopped by Thursday night with an early birthday surprise for Cooper. They brought an ice cream cake (love those) and a present from Aunt Amanda, Uncle Scott and all the cousins! They couldn't be with us today at the birthday party but they wanted to celebrate Cooper turning 3 too. My boys love their cousins and would love to see them more than they do. Cooper loved the present (4 very cool airplanes)...actually they all loved Coopers present!




Cooper loved his Spiderman cake. He originally wanted an animal cake and then switched to a tractor cake, then to a dog and finally settled on Spiderman. I was pleased with how it turned out and I think Cooper was too!

Mr. Independent

For the past week or so Cooper has been all about dressing himself without ANY help! I've been very proud of him working so hard to get his clothes and shoes on. Tonight as I was getting ready for bible class He was in the den getting ready too...all by himself. I had no idea he was putting his clothes on until he came walking into our room fully dressed. Of course I smiled and told him how proud I was of him! He looked so cute!!

Could you have looked at this sweet boy all dressed up without smiling...I think not!!


I was truly impressed that he managed to get everything on completely backwards! Hilarious!

Ride a little horsey....

Cooper loves to play with his horses. Lately his favorite thing to do is make a corral out of lincoln logs and line all of his horses up inside using the small lincoln logs as their food! Well yesterday I walked in the room where he and Claire were playing and found them both "riding" their horses. It was a funny sight!

Cake Thief!

I was busy earlier tonight cleaning and getting ready to head to Chad's moms house to eat and hang out. I walked in the kitchen and found Cooper up on a stool having himself a little snack. We were just about to eat supper. Guess he was hungry and thought leftover birthday cake would be the perfect thing to eat! Sneaky! Just noticed when looking at these pictures that he came in from outside with grass all in his hair. I'm sure that got in the cake too! Yum!

I said, "Cooper Thompson, what are you doing?" He said, "I just wanted to eat some tate (cake)!" I see that!


Guilty!!

Right Way or Wrong Way?

Guess that depends on how you look at it!! I had a very hard time trying to convince Cooper that he was wearing the Hulk mask backwards. Actually I never could convince him! When I put it on the correct way he would take it off and say he wanted it the other way. I tried explaining that we couldn't tell who he was with it on that way. I guess when he had it on backwards he could see the Hulk face which made it seem right to him! Funny how little minds think!

One of his favorite things to do is..

play with cars! This keeps him happy for LONG periods of time!

Basketball goals......

are not only for shooting basketball!!


SEE!!!!

I was actually very impressed that Cooper was able to get them all hanging without them falling off. Boys!

I DID IT.......

I MADE A PUMTIN!!!!!



While Chance was at Preschol this morning Cooper had his own art time with mommy. He (with just a little asssitance from me) painted a pumpkin. Can you tell he's proud of it??

Cooper's First Haircut!

Today my baby got his first haircut! Actually all 3 boys got haircuts but it was Cooper's first so that was a big deal! He looks so much older now with his short cut!

Before picture..Cooper showed no emotion the whole time he was in the chair.

He was so still for Mrs. Shannon

Another before shot

Look at that big boy haircut!

I've been going through fall clothes for several days and finally got all of the boys things switched over. I now have tubs of summer clothes sitting in the boys rooms for those days when they still need shorts and t-shirts. The tubs are marked with sizes so I'll just wash and put clothes back in tubs for the time being. As soon as the cold weather is here to stay I can move those tubs straight to the attic. For now they will just have to clutter up the rooms a bit. It is a good feeling to know the boys closets and dressers are ready for fall and winter. Cooper helped me a lot by handing me hangers and taking his things to his room. I snapped this picture of him and just love it! He's such a sweet boy.


I haven't posted much lately but that doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything I just haven't managed to blog about everything. I also like to have pictures to go along with my post and I've taken very few pictures lately which is so unlike me! That's another reason I haven't posted anything. Fall is here and I love taking fall pictures so you can expect more frequent updates. I may have nothing to say but there will be pictures!! This past weekend Cade and Cooper had the stomach virus. They are both better now and the rest of us have escaped getting it for now. Cade had soccer and baseball games on Saturday. He scored 3 goals which is the most he's scored in a single game this season. He had 2 good baseball games according to Chad. I stayed at home with Cooper (who was sick) and Chance so I missed those games too. Cade did call me during one of the games to tell me he hit a home run! Chad says he had a great hit to center field and the boy on the other team held the ball a little too long which aided in Cade's home run....but a home run is a home run and Cade was one excited little boy!! That's about it for my update!

Cooper loves to sing

Cade and Chance are sleeping over at Rah Rah's house tonight. Cooper has not reached the point where he gets to sleepover with them yet...but it won't be long! He got to enjoy having the house to himself for a while tonight. While Chad and I cleaned house he sat at the table and played with play dough. He sat at the table for nearly an hour playing and singing. The child LOVES to sing. I know most kids at that age do but I really love listening to him. Tonight his song was "Happy Birthday". He sang it over and over and over again each time putting a different persons name in the song. He just had his birthday last week and Rah Rah's birthday is tomorrow so I guess that's why that song is on his mind. I looked over at one point to see him blowing candles (pencils) out. He used pencils and stuck them down in the play dough to make his cake. For someone who just turned 2 last week I thought that was pretty creative..I'm sure he saw one of the big boys do that!

Purple Monster!

This is what happens when you let my 20 month old paint all by himself!!! He was actually doing a great job and keeping the paint on the sponges and paper until I took my attention off of him for a few minutes to clean out some of the sponges. When I turned around this is what I saw! Thank goodness for washable and non-toxic paints!!! I love the picture of him staring at his hands like "how did this happen!"

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Hope it's great! This was Cooper after "painting" a shamrock! As you can tell by his face not much paint actually made it to the paper. He enjoyed doing what the big kids were doing though.

Doing Laundry!

Tonight while cleaning house Cooper helped with the laundry! Okay so maybe he wasn't actually HELPING but he was having a good time and he thought he was helping. We had some laundry going and a big pile on the floor waiting to be washed. He moved all of the dirty clothes from the floor to the dryer and back to the floor. He loves to help with the laundry. I'm really hoping his love of cleaning and doing laundry sticks with him as he gets older but for some reason I'm thinking it won't last!! If you ever need something to keep your little one busy just give him a pile of clothes and open the dryer door! It works at our house!!
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