we LOVE life: January 2010

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Happy 5th Birthday Super Duper Cooper!!!

Chloe excited to help blow out Cooper's candles!

Loving the slide with his friends!!

Nothing like a little boxing with some friends!!

Friday the 15th was Cooper's 5th birthday! This little boy was born at 11:38pm after many hours of pushing and with a huge cone head he decided to finally enter this world! He was such an easy baby and over the years we had our fun times and hard times but I think he has grown up to be so much fun, intelligent, loving, and a great big brother to his younger sisters!!

Friday night we hung out at our house with our friends the Forman's for a Wii Party and treats ... It went great with the girls hanging out and all the boys playing Wii and the kids on sugar highs!!

Saturday we got up and headed to Jump-a-lot which is a warehouse place with lots of blow-up jumping things for the kids! We had a private party with 12 other kids, Chloe and Reese...It was a lot of fun! After 30 minutes the kids were sweating! The kids were able to play for 90 minutes jumping, sliding and running around and then we headed up to a party room! We got Pizza Hut and fed the kids and then the cake! Cooper picked out a dinosaur cake from Costco and it was a pretty big hit! Opening presents was crazy so I didn't get any pictures of that as we were just trying to figure out what came from who because they were all so excited for Cooper to open the present they brought!!

There was such a great group of kids and some of them had never been there before so I hope the parents don't shoot for me getting their kids addicted to Jump-a-lot!

Cooper your Mom and Dad love you very much and I hope that after years have passed you read this and think of how much you are loved and have many friends and family that love you! You are a very smart boy who loves to help others, play Wii and Leapster 2, learn how to solve problems, help with your sisters, play and wrestle!

The toddler play area is loved by all ages!

Chloe trying to show this handsome boy how strong she is :)

Reese LOVED the slide and with help from Daddy she went on her butt!!

Yummy chocolate cake!

Cooper, Chloe and their cousin Preston enjoying the slide...not waiting in line today!!

Thanks to everyone for coming and for the gifts...I am not into buying Cooper light sabers or guns and he made out like a bandit today with those toys and much more! I guess I need to get over how much of a boy he really is :) Love you Cooper!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Years Eve

I guess we usually don't do anything for New Year's Eve but we have some friends we go to church with and we just click! So we got together at their house since it is bigger .. until he helps us finish our basement :) Then we can have parties down there all the time!! We just bought a bunch of snack food and since Keith likes to cook he made some hot wings and littles smokies and we just ate and played games...Well really we just played Sequence...Ryan and I don't play games much but are getting better at trying to do it more and we ended up playing that since someone kept losing :( We had to leave a little early since my papers come early on holidays and I like to go early (11pm) and get home and sleep straight through the night!

Our kids played really well and since they have an older daughter who is great with babies and little ones she watches ours so we can play or just hang out! I think we ate too much but it was yummy and when do we really do that!

As for New Year's Resolutions we really don't have any....Okay I, Carrie, have one to not make resolutions...I take one day at a time and try to plan and be organized but with 3 kids that is hard! I would like to be more organized but you never know what life is going to throw at you or your bank account! On New Year's Eve Ryan had to buy a new hot water heater for our duplex and spent hours with our friend Keith installing it...

As for the being grateful during Christmas Ryan and I are thankful for our many blessings each day...We have a house to live in, cars to drive, healthy kids, jobs, family and friends, and most importantly Jesus Christ in our lives and can teach that to our children...We love our life and couldn't ask for anything more...Well maybe a million dollars ...Just kidding :) We are so blessed!!!!!

Christmas...No pictures :(

Christmas just snuck right up on me this year! Usually we go to my parents house for Christmas Eve and this year the weather was even good for traveling but my dad had his 2nd back surgery for the year (2009) on the 23rd so he was still in the hospital...I didn't dare take 3 kids, ages 4 and under to the hospital to see him...So we are still waiting to Christmas with them but I think it is fun to do it a month later!

Christmas Eve Ryan braved taking our two oldest to the Alvin and The Chipmunks movie and they were SUPER excited! We had no idea that movies were so popular around Christmas time! The first time was sold out but 20 minutes later they got into the movie and LOVED it! I must say I am thankful the kids did really good for Ryan! He even bought them treats which is big for him to do since we all know they are way over priced! The kids still talk about the "girl chipmunks" and want to go see it again! I want to see it now and we will be renting it for sure!

During this time I wrapped presents for 3 hours...I wasn't even done when Ryan called and said the movie was over so he took the kids to the Kroc center to play for the last hour they were open! They loved it and love every time we go there...It is free and like a McDonald's playland but better and cleaner! We do have a membership and take the kids swimming but have just been too busy lately...Need to get back to that!

Christmas day was awesome because our kids slept in til 7:45...Ryan had to wake them up! We surprised Chloe with a new Tinkerbell comforter on her when she woke up...I put it on her before I went on my paper route that night and we told her Santa put it on her :) Hopefully that didn't freak her out that Santa was in her room! They loved all their presents and I didn't take pictures but they got a lot of necessities this year and each got one big present...I didn't want to get Reese a toy since we have too many so she got Play-doh for her to share with her brother and sister :) Since the oldest have birthdays right after Christmas we divided up their presents between birthday and Christmas! Our kids are soo good and would have been fine with 2 presents!

We headed to Pinehurst to Ryan's parents house with the whole Frank family for presents and dinner! It was a lot of fun and as hectic as usual! There are now 12 grandchildren and 12 adults but keeping the kids' presents straight as they wandered with them or tried to steal their cousins present was fun too! We always eat and hang out for a couple hours which is nice after all the craziness of the whole day! We then headed home and just hung out snacking!

Ryan went out snowmobiling the day after Christmas so I didn't go shopping but really I didn't think there were any deals I had to have! The day after Thanksgiving was much better and I am sure I will be shopping that day from here on out for good deals! I saved a lot of money and got everything I had on my list....plus more :)

Kids Bowling

The day after Thanksgiving 2009 we were going to take the kids roller skating but decided that might be a bit much with two falling all the time and one chasing Reese! So we checked out bowling and it is expensive! I remember when it was $5 for an hour for the lane and shoes!! Now it is $30 for 2 kids for one lane for one hour! We decided on Triple Play since it is down the street a half mile and non-smoking...We went around 6pm and it was busy but the kids had a lot of fun!

Ryan was completely stressed because we did the lane with the metal bumpers and the 3 lbs. balls and our kids were definitely not throwing them hard enough to hit the pins and trigger the ball to come back so sometimes we had 3 balls down by the pins half the time! Ryan and I would take turns asking a worker to push them through and they just laughed...I am sure we aren't the first or the last that this happened too!

The kids had a ton of fun and keep asking to go back but we need to wait for some kind of deal because that was an expensive activity for the kids! Maybe we could do an annual date for bowling but not monthly! Here are just some pictures from our adventure!