Cooper's 1st Birthday Party

The big day finally came ~ Cooper's 1st birthday party. We celebrated with a cupcake theme. We had many guests for his big day - Gigi, Papaw; Mamaw, Papaw & Keira; Kim & Byrd; Ginger & Alan; Beth, Anah & Sera; Ronnie & Shawn (Happy Birthday to you too!); Carly & Isabella. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated this milestone with us!

Cooper's Cupcake Cake (individual cupcakes) Signs of Cooper's party were everywhere

Balloons on the mailbox

Cooper's "smash cake" ~ which he thoroughly enjoyed

Reagan and Cooper having a good time at the party

Wanting to come outside and grill with daddy

Isabella, Anah, Keira, Reagan & Sera

Dig In!

Mr Ronnie and Daddy grilling hamburgers and hot dogs

Opening gifts

Cooper couldn't sit still, so I ended up opening his gifts and then showing them to him!

Playing with the police car from Carly and Isabella

Sera helping him play the drumReady for cake!

Not so sure about this

Is this how I eat it?

This is so fun!

Woo Hoo ~ why have you kept this from me?

Finger licking good!

I have a couple of videos of him playing in his cake, but for some reason, they won't upload. I'll try them again later!

Success

Who wants a bite of cake?

Bath time after cake eating

Reagan loved the purple icing on the cupcakes ~ she kept going back for more

All clean and ready to play

Thanksgiving Friday with Family

It's been our tradition since we moved to Hickory to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We have the traditional meal of steak, shrimp, scallops, baked potato and salad. This year Gigi, Papaw, Mamaw, Papaw, Keira, Kim and Byrd all came to eat lunch with us and share what we were thankful for.

The day began with Reagan and Cooper playing at the sand and water table

Howard, the neighbor Will's dog, came for a visit and Cooper was more than ready to pet him. Reagan is in the arms of Gigi on the other side of the yard!
Back to playing at the sand table since Howard has moved on!

I spent the morning "slaving" in the kitchen

Coloring place mats with Keira, Mamaw & Byrd

The Kids' Table Rules!

Let's eat!

After lunch, Reagan and Keira were ready to party

They served all the women and entertained us for hours

Reagan bringing a plate full of cookies

Much needed rest ~ listening to the ipod

We went on a walk around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights through these cool 3D glasses. They made all the lights look as if they had snowmen around them

Later that night, we made crafts ~ here is a picture of Reagan's Christmas tree

Thanksgiving Day 2008

At least 4 of our previous Thanksgivings have been spent with Brian & Carmen Lowery. We went to West Park Baptist Church with them when we lived in Knoxville. Now that they live in Greensboro, you'd think we'd get together more often, but life has a way of getting in the way...so we don't get together like we would like or hoped we would. We hadn't seen each other since Thanksgiving 2006 (2007 ~ I was just too pregnant to even think about a 2 hour drive!).

Reagan and Cooper on the ride over (he slept for about 20 minutes of the 2 hour car ride)

Reagan was a little out-numbered by boys ~ 6 to 1
Cooper had to come see what all the excitement was about

Eating dessert with Rylen

Reagan playing hoops with the boys

Reagan loved jumping on the trampoline when the boys weren't there ~ she said "they jumped me too fast!" She didn't like the leaves on the trampoline and couldn't jump for needing to be dusted off! She's all girl!

Cooper and Hudson on the couch

Cooper LOVED the toy room with all boy toys - no pink in sight!

L to R: Keenan, Malachi, Reagan, Cooper, Hudson, Jaden, Rylen

After lunch, an intense game of Scrabble began

Brian, Carmen, Tara, Greg

Reagan & Keenan getting into Malachi's way

I'm sure they would love to have a toy room like this at home

Thanks to the Lowery's for letting us spend yet another Thanksgiving Day with them. We had a great time and want to spend time together again soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

From our house to yours!

Artwork by Reagan

Gobble, gobble

Reagan's Turkey Story

My turkey is a girl. She likes to eat carrotts. She lives in a cave. Cooper and Reagan play with her sometimes, if mommy lets us. She sleeps in the cave.

Big Boy Hair

Finally! We took Cooper to get his hair cut Wednesday afternoon. Robin did a great job with a squirmy 11 month, 26 day old boy! You wouldn't believe how much hair he had cut off ~ amazing! He has an official style to his hair now!

Profile shot

So cute!
Stylin' and profilin'

Elephant Ears

Last week at school, Reagan's class learned about zoo animals. Here is a picture of her in her elephant ears

Her teacher is so creative ~ that must be where Reagan gets it from!

Sharing

There are very few days when I think Reagan understands the sharing principle. Luckily, today was one of those days.

Sharing diner with her baby ~ she said the baby had to eat 1st, then she could eat

Sharing her ice cream with Cooper ~ although she didn't share quickly enough for him!

Wanted...Haircut

If Cooper doesn't get a haircut by a professional (because it we all know what it looked like when I tried to do it myself) soon....

He may start wearing hairbows like his sister!

He thought it was funny for awhile ~ daddy, not so much!

At least it kept the food out of his hair for this meal (poor thing, he even had to borrow his sister's "girl bib", can't the boy have anything manly?)

What Happened...

...to this little boy? Seems like only yesterday we brought him home.

Today, I found out that he will be moving up to the next class at school beginning in January ~ this means sleeping on a cot, eating table food at a table and chairs (no highchair), making new friends and having to fend for himself, which I don't think will be a problem!

Where does the time go?

The Weekend

Reagan and I made purple biscuits for breakfast Saturday morning. She had a great time mixing and putting the biscuits on the baking sheet.

Hard at work mixing the purple biscuits

Wouldn't you like purple biscuits too?
Enjoying her work!

Cooper enjoyed the biscuits too, although he probably would have preferred blue biscuits ~ maybe next time

Ready for church Sunday morning ~ doesn't he look so big?

The Clean Up

Reagan was enjoying cooking soup in her kitchen, until Cooper decided he would like to join her.

She said she was cleaning up, but we all know she was keeping Cooper from playing with "her stuff". She put everything on top of the kitchen so Cooper couldn't reach it!

Let's Hope...

...this is not what his future holds!