Swimming Lessons

Cooper started swimming lessons last week and really enjoys it! We have it every morning for two weeks, so we're almost finished with them. He's learning how to float, do arm pulls, put his face in and blow air out, etc... The best part of the lessons is we know almost everyone taking them! Ben is taking them, and our friends Josh, Annabelle, and Bailey. Makes it nice for me to have people to sit and talk to!

Here are most of the kids (don't know the first boy, Bailey, Josh, Ben, and Cooper) This is the first day listening to the teacher.

Josh, Ben, and Cooper. He does not want to wear goggles for some reason!

about to swim with the teacher!

brave boy!

all done with the first lesson! Yesterday at lessons we had a bit of a drama. He stepped on a bee and it stung him on the foot. Apparently that hurts really bad because you could tell he was in a lot of pain. I had to carry him around most of the day. Poor baby. He's better today though!

Hopefully by the end he'll be able to swim by himself! (not likely but I can always dream, right? :)

Playdate (and my bendy boys)

This doesn't really go with my post but I just had to put a picture here of Jackson's "curls." After a bath if I fluff his hair it looks curly! I don't know if this really counts as curly but I love it :).

This past week Laura had a playdate at her house. We had a great time, and so did the kids!

Here are some of the kids playing in Elizabeth's room (Drew, Cooper, Josh, Elizabeth, Ashlynn, and Jane)

Lunch time!

The moms: Me, Joanne, Allison (holding Jena- Joanne's new baby girl), Dana (holding Jackson), Janet, and Laura

And now my flexible boys. Cooper thought it was so fun doing a headstand while I was reading to him before bed.

and Jackson! He now can move from sitting to tummy fairly easily-mostly by doing this, then moving one leg behind him (into the splits) then moving the other leg. I love watching kids figure that stuff out!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day Weekend we drove up to Kansas to see family and a few friends. Ryan's brother B.J. and sister-in-law Jodi were in town so we made sure to come into town the same time they did!

We had a great time seeing family. The boys LOVED seeing their uncles! (Cooper, BJ, Jackson, Ryan, and Chris)

Grandpa S took Cooper on a ride on the lawnmower.

We also went to a park! There were some fun things to play on.

Oops, these pictures aren't in great order! A family photo of "the kids" Jackson was yelling because he was really hungry!

There was also a fun carousel at the park.

and, since it was KS, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Lion were there! (Lucky Chris got to be Dorothy...I forced him :))

I had to take a picture of the boys in their matching outfits!

There was also a fun train at the park that we rode. Cooper loved it!

Back at the house we had a good time blowing up two play pools that G & G got for the boys. We tried to blow up the actual pool but it was taking forever so we finally borrowed an air pump.

and the boys got right in the pools! Cooper loved this one with the slide.

and Jackson loved his baby pool.

We took a four generation picture

and then another brother picture.

Cooper's getting a little wild here, can you tell?

Jackson liked playing with his Uncle Chris!

and enjoyed playing with Great-Gma S

But I think the water guns were the hit of the trip for Cooper. He wanted to play with them the entire trip!

One day we made it up to KC to see a few of our friends. This trip we tried to see some friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. We met Ryan's long time friend Bill and his wife at this fun outdoor shopping area. I don't have pictures of the adults, but I have a picture of Cooper enjoying the water fountains! Can you see him? He's the fully-dressed kid in the middle with a hat on. The only child with a hat on. My poor child, I would put permanent sunblock on him if I could! :) We didn't know about this fun water fountain or I would have brought a suit for him.

But being fully dressed didn't bother him one bit!

We had a BBQ that evening at my friend Nichole's house. We went to high school together and I hadn't seen her (or our other friend Shannon) in probably 4 years! We hadn't met eachothers' kids before. So we had a wonderful time catching up, just like old times!

Nichole's daughter Samantha (who is only a few weeks older than Cooper)Cooper playing in the water

I didn't have a picture of Shannon's son Payton by himself, but you can see him at the table. They had a yummy BBQ and then played in a bounce house and sprinklers.

The kids are all ready to play!

The last person we saw while in KC was my friend Jamie who I went to grad school with. She has a son Kaiden who is 4, and her daughter Jaelyn is 6 months.

Cooper and Kaiden played a dancing game on the WI. Aren't they so cute playing it together?

We had such a great time in KS and are looking forward to driving up again in a few weeks!

Fun Times in May

Well, I woke up in a much better mood the next day, yay!

For Memorial Day weekend we went to KS to visit family and a few friends, but before I post those pictures I need to get caught up for May!

A week or two ago we decided to brave the heat and meet some friends at the zoo. It was very hot but the kids had fun. Here's our group eating lunch before we left.
The kids checking out some animals.

We are growing a few vegetables and herbs this year. Our first time ever,and the tomato plant is actually producing some tomatos! I'm amazed. Here is Cooper picking our first ever tomato.

Yum yum yum!

A few weekends ago we went to our friends Darrin and LaRae's house and had dinner with them and their son Hudson. Here are Jackson and Hudson together. Hudson turned one not too long ago, so he's a few months older than Jackson.

All three boys.

My mom and dad got a really cute playhouse for their backyard. My dad built it, didn't he do a great job?!? The kids LOVE playing in it. Here they are waving to me in it.

Inside there is a table and area set up like a kitchen complete with a little sink. The kids love playing in here. Once I walked up to check on them and Cooper was laying down flat on the ground with his eyes closed. Ben told me he was sleeping.

Ryan and Tom keeping an eye on the kids while they play.

Walking up the path to the house.

Jackson finds me hilarious :)

My friend Emily and her kids Nikolas and Nathan came over to play a few weeks ago. Here are Cooper and Nikolas eating lunch. For some reason I forgot to take a picture of Nathan and Jackson!

We also recently attended Elizabeth's preschool graduation! Doesn't she look so grown-up? Can't believe she'll be a kindergartener next year!Watching Daddy mow the lawn.

Next post will be our trip!

It's Been One of Those Days

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something because I've been kind of crabby all day. It's just one of those days. Then a few more things have contributed to being one of THOSE days...



I was making Cooper a smoothy today and had trouble putting the lid on it. It slipped off the bar counter (making it an extra-far fall) and splattered everywhere.

The spray extended over our entire kitchen, on all the chairs, vacuum, cabinets, wall, etc... Did I mention this happened at 4:30, probably the hardest time of the day? Cooper started crying because he wanted his smoothy, and Jackson started crying because he wanted to be held. So I had to listen to 2 crying boys while I cleaned up this mess for half an hour!



Jackson has been a little spoiled lately and cries, no actually, yells whenever he wants me. Which today was quite a bit! I thought this picture was funny. He "crawled" (caterpillar scooted) underneath his toy and then got stuck.

Lastly, Cooper and I took a long time today to wash both of our cars. Mine hadn't been washed in months. I even took the time to dry it! Then tonight it rained for about 5 minutes, just enough to make it look like it hadn't been washed. Of course. My neighbor even said I was asking for rain while I was washing the car. I guess I was!

Here's hoping I wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow! :)