So the past couple days have been big ones. We drove to Denver yesterday morning through snow, sun and terrible drivers. At one point we were driving in sunshine, could see the mountains around us, and in front of us was a huge wall of clouds. That's what we got to drive through. Made it safely though.
Had fabulous prime rib for Christmas dinner with 23 other starving people. Kale and Kate so badly wanted to open presents that Uncle Nate and Grandma Judy gave in a gave them a couple to tide them over.
We played Brown Bag Bingo and Mark almost won a huge bull ball sack. It even had a handle and you could put candy in it. They're really popular:) Dad stole it from him though so he walked away with a lovely couch arm kitty remote control holder. Boy are we lucky!
This morning was so fun with wrapping paper flying everywhere. Kale and Kate were very blessed with any imaginable toy - at least it felt that way. Two 5 foot "cities"!!!! Spiderman and Dora. Good thing we have that rocket ship. Oh, and a Spiderman bike and a ABC vacuum. Unbelievable. But they were in heaven.
Visited Target 2 times today. It's really a wonderful store. Didn't know it was that wonderful but it really is. When we got home the 2nd time Katie said that if we were interested in going again that she'd come along. Decided no thanks but it was tempting. We really need a Target in Durango.
Oh yeah, one more thing :) Found out that I'm pregnant again! Totally thrilled. It's in the plan but it's still a surprise and a blessing. Kale said he knew I was pregnant because my belly was so big. Uummmm...nice. Anyway he's very excited. He says Kate is getting a little sister and he is getting a little brother. I don't want twins... I'll leave that up to Seth and Maria thank you very much. Unfortunately I'll be 7 months blimpish for Meghan and Micah's wedding. Not to thrilling but I'm still happy. I'm due around September 7th. We're stoked.
Busy day tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas Morning (Christmas Eve)
It's "Christmas Morning" at our house. Since we are traveling to Denver tomorrow Santa made a special stop at the Durango Palmer's house early - just to bring his special toys to Kale and Kate. It was so fun - I hardly slept!
Kale woke up to his Optimus Prime. He came racing out of his room and almost immediately wanted dad to transform him back to a semi. I think Mark has transformed him a half a dozen times already and it's just after 10. Now Mark and Kale are racing around the house shooting toy guns and dying. I never thought I'd be okay with toy guns and dying but you really have to get over that if you have a boy. Anything is a gun or a weapon so you don't really have a choice. You just need to teach shooting responsibly. Like never hitting an unarmed person. Among other rules....
Kate got her dolly and is toting her around the house. Sometimes in the stroller, sometimes in the dolls car seat. She also has a diaper bag that transforms into a changing pad, bottles that look like they're emptying when you tip them up and a rattle. I think she loves being a mommy. She's very cute with her baby. She also got 64 crayons and a drawing pad. I think she'll love them but she couldn't get to the crayons easy enough so she dumped out the box. I think a ziplock will work much better.....
I'm still in jammies but need to get moving soon. It's just so nice to be sitting in my little house with my kids happily playing with their toys, my awesome and patient husband playing guns and Transformers and me listening to my iPod with 10 hours of Christmas music! (We did turn on Manheim Steamroller for the present madness. A tradition at the Cooper's.) I love Christmas - it's my favorite.
Tonight we head to church to listen to Mark sing his solo - O Holy Night. I can't wait!
Kale woke up to his Optimus Prime. He came racing out of his room and almost immediately wanted dad to transform him back to a semi. I think Mark has transformed him a half a dozen times already and it's just after 10. Now Mark and Kale are racing around the house shooting toy guns and dying. I never thought I'd be okay with toy guns and dying but you really have to get over that if you have a boy. Anything is a gun or a weapon so you don't really have a choice. You just need to teach shooting responsibly. Like never hitting an unarmed person. Among other rules....
Kate got her dolly and is toting her around the house. Sometimes in the stroller, sometimes in the dolls car seat. She also has a diaper bag that transforms into a changing pad, bottles that look like they're emptying when you tip them up and a rattle. I think she loves being a mommy. She's very cute with her baby. She also got 64 crayons and a drawing pad. I think she'll love them but she couldn't get to the crayons easy enough so she dumped out the box. I think a ziplock will work much better.....
I'm still in jammies but need to get moving soon. It's just so nice to be sitting in my little house with my kids happily playing with their toys, my awesome and patient husband playing guns and Transformers and me listening to my iPod with 10 hours of Christmas music! (We did turn on Manheim Steamroller for the present madness. A tradition at the Cooper's.) I love Christmas - it's my favorite.
Tonight we head to church to listen to Mark sing his solo - O Holy Night. I can't wait!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
1st time, Christmas cookies, My Jesus!
So I've been inspired by several friends in my life to document (or puke to whoever will listen) my life. If for no other reason then to make myself feel better. Unfortunately at this moment I don't have my own computer so I'm at the mercy of my husband for when I can post. For now, it will just have to do.
I have tried documenting things before and I had trouble sticking it out. Maybe because I thought I had to do it a certain way to be right. I so have to get over myself and just do and say whatever comes to mind - even if I think it's silly or dumb. But I really do have some funny stories of my children that I would love to document and remember forever because I know that time will steal them away from me. I already feel like I've forgotten what they were like when they were babies. Plus I have great mama stories of love, despair, overwhelmingness (I don't care if that isn't a word), and of course God's faithfulness, grace and love. I need to capture those moments that remind me of why I love being a mom so that in those moments when I'm wondering what in the heck I'm doing, I can read those reminders and love again.
One such moment, or moments, is with my daughter. My beautiful, adorable, silly daughter. She can be the world's biggest stinker and whiner and at the same time melt your heart with her smile, her laugh and her words. This Christmas we were given two nativity scenes - one from each set of grandparents. They are childproof, or child friendly I suppose. Nothing is child proof. Just let my kids test it out for you if you doubt. Anyway, within a week Gabriel's hand was broken off. He was waving. Now I'm not sure what he's doing. Thought about fixing it but then lost the hand. Oh well. Anyway, Kate's favorites are Jesus, Mary and Joseph. She carries them around with her everywhere and if she loses any of them she shouts "My Jesus! My Mary! My Joseph!" Kale can't touch them or she cries. She brings them to dinner so we all enjoy our meal with Mary staring at us. I'm not sure what she's going to do when we put our Christmas decorations away.
One night I caught her sitting at the table waiting for dinner (I was the one she was waiting on) playing with her big Jesus, Mary and Joseph and I think she had a shepherd and a wise man. Anyway, she was making them talk to each other. Saying things like "hello", "good", "loves you", "Bible tells us...obey!!!". Then two of them kissed. I would like to think that it was Mary and Joseph but it could very well have been a shepherd and a wise man. Either way it was so neat to see her use her imagination and play house :)
We attempted making cookies this year. I found these adorable reindeer cookies in a magazine and thought they'd be perfect to try with the kids and Mark. Well, the recipe forgot to mention that only anal parents with nothing better to do can make these cookies. They really are adorable but it was not the greatest Christmas moment. I had planned on doing them on a Friday when Mark was home. I am not crazy enough to attempt to do these by myself with my kids. So I gave the job of making antlers out of pretzel pieces to Mark. I thought it would be an easy job and something he could do with the kids running around. I was wrong. Just as I started making cookie dough and puting together all the toppings, the dog starts barking, the UPS man comes and the children are begging to eat the M&M's. I just kept working on my end while Mark "fixed" the problems. Needless to say, the antlers were not ready when the first batch of cookies came out of the oven. I thought, no problem. We'll work it out. Well you have to put the antlers (and everything else) on the cookies before they get too cold and hard. Not happening with two little ones. Kale was very excited to help but couldn't stop sneezing and coughing into his hands or on the candy. Gross! We made him wash his hands several times. Meanwhile Kate was sitting at her little corner of the table very quietly eating handfuls of "chocate" She had chocolate everywhere. Mark and I were still frantically trying to stick eyeballs, noses and antlers in the stupid cookies before they cooled too much. Not working.... So he and I started taking it out on each other and getting frustrated with how dumb our cookies looked, not to mention continuing to try and shield them from getting sneezed on. Then the buzzer rings - the next batch of cookies were ready to be taken out of the oven and have noses, eyeballs and antlers stuck on them. Our first batch wasn't even close to being done!!!! We did the best we could and then gave up. Not worth fighting over or worrying about. I think I'd like to try them again - Kale did the hang of it near the end - but not for another year....maybe.
We did the frantic search for Transformers. That's all Kale asked for for Christmas. It was almost like the Tickle Me Elmo time. Not a Transformer anywhere. Mark looked online for any - 7 different stores! - all of them sold out. This was weeks before Christmas. We finally had an afternoon to look at Walmart and were blessed to find the last Optimus Prime, or any Transformer for that matter, in the entire store. Got it home and decided to get it out of the box so it would save precious playing time for Kale. Mark discovers that it's a level 4 (level 5 is the hardest). It took Mark a half an hour to transform it to a semi! What in the heck is our 4 year old going to do? Not ask mom, that's what....I'm clueless. I'm amazed everyday at how much Kale knows about Transformers - their names and what they become. I know he'll love his present but he'll hate trying to transform it. i think he gets annoyed talking to me about something I know nothing about. I just know the song.
So this could be fun I think. Just typing and typing and not worrying about my handwriting:) I think this just might work. Thanks Jen!
I have tried documenting things before and I had trouble sticking it out. Maybe because I thought I had to do it a certain way to be right. I so have to get over myself and just do and say whatever comes to mind - even if I think it's silly or dumb. But I really do have some funny stories of my children that I would love to document and remember forever because I know that time will steal them away from me. I already feel like I've forgotten what they were like when they were babies. Plus I have great mama stories of love, despair, overwhelmingness (I don't care if that isn't a word), and of course God's faithfulness, grace and love. I need to capture those moments that remind me of why I love being a mom so that in those moments when I'm wondering what in the heck I'm doing, I can read those reminders and love again.
One such moment, or moments, is with my daughter. My beautiful, adorable, silly daughter. She can be the world's biggest stinker and whiner and at the same time melt your heart with her smile, her laugh and her words. This Christmas we were given two nativity scenes - one from each set of grandparents. They are childproof, or child friendly I suppose. Nothing is child proof. Just let my kids test it out for you if you doubt. Anyway, within a week Gabriel's hand was broken off. He was waving. Now I'm not sure what he's doing. Thought about fixing it but then lost the hand. Oh well. Anyway, Kate's favorites are Jesus, Mary and Joseph. She carries them around with her everywhere and if she loses any of them she shouts "My Jesus! My Mary! My Joseph!" Kale can't touch them or she cries. She brings them to dinner so we all enjoy our meal with Mary staring at us. I'm not sure what she's going to do when we put our Christmas decorations away.
One night I caught her sitting at the table waiting for dinner (I was the one she was waiting on) playing with her big Jesus, Mary and Joseph and I think she had a shepherd and a wise man. Anyway, she was making them talk to each other. Saying things like "hello", "good", "loves you", "Bible tells us...obey!!!". Then two of them kissed. I would like to think that it was Mary and Joseph but it could very well have been a shepherd and a wise man. Either way it was so neat to see her use her imagination and play house :)
We attempted making cookies this year. I found these adorable reindeer cookies in a magazine and thought they'd be perfect to try with the kids and Mark. Well, the recipe forgot to mention that only anal parents with nothing better to do can make these cookies. They really are adorable but it was not the greatest Christmas moment. I had planned on doing them on a Friday when Mark was home. I am not crazy enough to attempt to do these by myself with my kids. So I gave the job of making antlers out of pretzel pieces to Mark. I thought it would be an easy job and something he could do with the kids running around. I was wrong. Just as I started making cookie dough and puting together all the toppings, the dog starts barking, the UPS man comes and the children are begging to eat the M&M's. I just kept working on my end while Mark "fixed" the problems. Needless to say, the antlers were not ready when the first batch of cookies came out of the oven. I thought, no problem. We'll work it out. Well you have to put the antlers (and everything else) on the cookies before they get too cold and hard. Not happening with two little ones. Kale was very excited to help but couldn't stop sneezing and coughing into his hands or on the candy. Gross! We made him wash his hands several times. Meanwhile Kate was sitting at her little corner of the table very quietly eating handfuls of "chocate" She had chocolate everywhere. Mark and I were still frantically trying to stick eyeballs, noses and antlers in the stupid cookies before they cooled too much. Not working.... So he and I started taking it out on each other and getting frustrated with how dumb our cookies looked, not to mention continuing to try and shield them from getting sneezed on. Then the buzzer rings - the next batch of cookies were ready to be taken out of the oven and have noses, eyeballs and antlers stuck on them. Our first batch wasn't even close to being done!!!! We did the best we could and then gave up. Not worth fighting over or worrying about. I think I'd like to try them again - Kale did the hang of it near the end - but not for another year....maybe.
We did the frantic search for Transformers. That's all Kale asked for for Christmas. It was almost like the Tickle Me Elmo time. Not a Transformer anywhere. Mark looked online for any - 7 different stores! - all of them sold out. This was weeks before Christmas. We finally had an afternoon to look at Walmart and were blessed to find the last Optimus Prime, or any Transformer for that matter, in the entire store. Got it home and decided to get it out of the box so it would save precious playing time for Kale. Mark discovers that it's a level 4 (level 5 is the hardest). It took Mark a half an hour to transform it to a semi! What in the heck is our 4 year old going to do? Not ask mom, that's what....I'm clueless. I'm amazed everyday at how much Kale knows about Transformers - their names and what they become. I know he'll love his present but he'll hate trying to transform it. i think he gets annoyed talking to me about something I know nothing about. I just know the song.
So this could be fun I think. Just typing and typing and not worrying about my handwriting:) I think this just might work. Thanks Jen!
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