Christmas in Oregon

Christmas in Oregon was especially fun this year because as my family grows and changes I think we miss them more and more, and it becomes more and more fun to watch our kids interact with their Aunts and Uncles and Cousins.  It's also a treasured time of watching them participate in some of the same traditions that I did growing up.  Which by the way, I never realized how much work went into all of the baking and preparation until recently.  So thank you Mom for all the work you did to make Christmas and childhood so much fun, and for now doing that for your grandkids. 

 

Here are a few of our favorite things:

 

1. Decorating the Gingerbread House!

 

2. Silly Sweet Cousins!

 

I'm telling you, everything is silly with these two.  Poor Wyatt didn't know what to do with them.

 

3. Opening Presents

 

4. Tea Parties With Grammy

 

5. Reaching Milestones

 

6. The Moos

7. Helping Uncle Robert and Uncle Ryan

 

8. Being Outside With Daddy

 

9. The Quad

 

 

This trip Wyatt's love for the moos may have outstaged his love for the quad, but not by much.  He would have happily spent the entire day, everyday, outside with Daddy or one of his Uncles.  Every morning he'd come in hands and cheeks red and puffy from the cold and begging for someone else to go back outside with him by insistantly saying, "moo, moo, moo."  It'll be a lot of fun to see him run around out there next time when the weather is a little warmer.

 

10. Flying Home, Tired From All The Fun

 On our way to Oregon Sadie and Wyatt were extremely wiggly and so excited, but the flight home was a somewhat different story.  We still had some wiggly moments but we also had some amazing peaceful moments as all 3 selpt and watched movies.  It seemed a fitting ending to a fun and busy Christmas season.  I'm always a little tired at the end of it too, and yet sad to see it go, and I think the kids felt the same way.

Christmas 2012

This year's Christmas post is being delivered in parts since that is how it was celebrated and late because so much happened and there is so little time these days. 

 

 

First we celebrated at home!



Our 3 little monkeys



3 weeks old



They were very excited about their new helmet

 

and Sadie's new big girl bike!



Actually they were pretty excited in general.  Doesn't take much to entertain these two.
 

And Mommy and Daddy were just as excited as Wyatt about his new mower.  This boy has been pushing pink things for way to long.

 

Welcome Cooper!

Cooper joined our family about a month and a half ago and it's been a bit of a whirlwind to say the least. I'm not sure why that surprises me. Grandma came down the Tuesday before Cooper arrived, which was great. We spent two days finishing up a few projects and doing my last bit of Christmas shopping, and by Friday I was feeling ready to meet our newest addition. I'd had some contractions over the couple weeks prior but nothing significant.

So, Friday we got busy walking and by 4:00 I was having consistent contractions. We headed to the hospital 12 hours later and found out a few hours after that that our little one was breech, much to my dismay. My Dr. attempted to manually flip him but when that didn't work we headed in for a c-section.  I will admit that I was a bit hysterical over the whole situation, but I blame that on my hormones.  My Dr. was wonderful, reminding me that I was going to have my baby in my arms soon, and sure enough a few minutes later Cooper was born at 8:49AM. He was 21 inches and 8.4 pounds. We took him home on Sunday where he was greeted by his very excited big brother and sister. They'd been to the hospital a few times to visit but were very excited to have us all at home together. It seemed they just couldn't get enough kisses that first day, which was sweet, although a bit overwhelming for Mommy and Cooper at times.

Grandma stayed an extra week to help with the kids while I recovered which was a huge blessing to us, and although I couldn't imagine feeling up to being on my own after just a week and a half by the time she headed home I wouldn't say I was up to it, but I'd say we felt like we could at least survive the week until we headed up to Oregon for Christmas and where once again we'd have a lot of extra hands.

 Cooper Robert

We were proud to give him my Dad's name "Robert" who we miss very much!

Although these are never great pictures, they are one of my favorite moments with each of my kids.

 Meeting Cooper for the first time.

 Daddy and his clan.

 Can't believe how blessed I am!

 Our new family.

Sadie holding Cooper for the first time.

 Sadie is so excited to be a big sister!

 Thank you Grandma for all your help and support.

 Brothers

Just Born

1 week

Dr. Williams

My good friend Andrea came over a few days after Cooper was born to take some pictures for me.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Big Sister

Well Cooper isn't here yet but we've been talking about it a lot with the kids.  Today we took them to the hospital to see where he was going to be born and we've been reading these stories each night called I'm a Big Sister and I'm a Big Brother.  Sadie had the book when we were preparing for Wyatt too and has read it so many times that she now has it memorized and reads it to us each night.

Come Follow Me

Our church had their annual Thanksgiving Feast last weekend and we were excited that Sadie was not only old enough to get up and sing with the kids but she was brave enough as well.  She happily got on stage, but as you can see wasn't so sure about singing until she finally found us in the crowd, which I must admit made us smile.