4th of July Parade

We started off our 4th of July festivities by going with the Bushes to the parade in downtown Jeff. It was the first time any of us had been and it was very nice. Good close parking, not too crowded, able to find a good spot and just he right length for the parade. The kids (and adults too) all enjoyed themselves. We have already decided to make this an annual event. Before the parade even started Pierce was excited just to see a police car. How much better does that get? At the end of the parade a fire truck rode past and it scared Hope, so afterwards someone asked her if she enjoyed herself, her response was "I cried"... how sweet is that?

Here are a few pictures before the parade, I don't think Pierce was fond of the camera.

Hope giving me a big cheesy grin, She is actually say "cheese" in this picture.

Cooper after the bagpipes went by. He loved them! I turned around to look at him and he had the best smile on his face. I told Steve I love seeing his smile when it is unprovoked, just when he sees something he likes. I want to engrave it in my memory forever.

Here it is again, this time it was the fire truck....

and of course the dog.

I might me mistaken, but didn't Abraham Lincoln have a beard?

He really enjoyed his big boy sucker.

Thanks again Paul & Gretchen for joining us, we all had a blast.

Great Ending to a Rough Start

We had a rough start to the week, it all started on Monday when Cooper woke up at 6:00 am. Then I took him to the morning Jazzercise class and he would not let me leave him in the babysitting room. He has been doing so well the past few months when I leave him, this time he was crying, clinging to me, it was pitiful. After lunch while playing outside he took a rough fall and skinned his knees, there was blood and real tears. Then the evening rolled around, it was one of those nights that Steve and I just looked at each other and decided we were done, no more kids. I don't know what got into him that day, I guess it was that early morning wake up call.

The rest of the week was awesome, as mentioned we did the zoo on Tuesday and we went to the YMCA for swimming and lunch with Jess and her three boys. It wasn't just the fun activities either, Cooper was in an awesome mood and even cuddling a bit. We had a great time at the Y with Jess and the boys, thanks for getting us in! I didn't take any pictures since we were in the water but Cooper had a good time, even if I had to hold him the entire time. Jess's youngest, Carter is only a month older than Cooper. They couldn't be more different, besides their size, they are both pretty small for their age. Carter has dark hair and eyes, Cooper is blond and blue eyes, Carter has no fear, Cooper is scared of everything. I think it's the the two older brothers that brings it out in Carter. After lunch at Chick-fil-A Jess still had Carter in the stroller and one of the twins asked me why I wasn't using my stroller, I wanted to respond "because I'm not as blessed as your mommy to have the miracle of two fertilized eggs", but I left as I'm not as blessed as your mommy. Oh, I finally can tell them apart. Their names are Aaron and Aidan, Aidan looks like his dad, Adam. So it's AiDan, ADam.... get it?

Tonight we had some family time. Our plans were to go to Pizza King for dinner but Steve suggested we eat here and go out and get Cooper some new puzzles and a new DVD player for our bedroom. We were using the one my dad got me when I moved out after I graduated college. I don't even know or recognize the brand, he works at Jeff Boat and I'm pretty sure he bought it off some guy, you know the ones who show up with a truck load of random items. Anyway, it was never work right so we bought a $30 one at Target. We also went to Toys R Us, got two new puzzles and a plush Alpha Pig for Cooper. I still can't believe I spent money on that thing but he loves Alpha Pig. The funniest part of our week was at dinner tonight when we were talking about when to have another child, Steve then mentioned something about a third... not once but twice tonight. Monday we were done have kids and now we are having three? I told him, well if all nights were like tonight we could just become the next Duggar family. I think I may have started too late to be the Duggars, I'm pretty sure Michelle was early 20's. Here are some pictures from tonight.
I can't get enough of my two favorite guys relaxing.
It's awesome when they are still young enough they don't realize the ride turns on, they just like to sit in it and push buttons and turn the wheel.

Here he is playing with Alpha Pig in the car, if anything this may just make a good car toy.

Say No to Drugs

This is my PSA for saying no to drugs. It is a 911 call from a Michigan police officer who was helping himself to some confiscated drugs.

Pediatrician???

Anyone recommend a good pediatrician? As of today ours no longer accepts our insurance as in-network. I haven't called Anthem yet to determine what exactly this means, I think it means we would be responsible for the "discount" that the provider and insurance carrier have agreed on. This means we go from paying nothing to about $50 on well visits and maybe an additional $40-$50 on sick visits. This doesn't bother me too much because we love our pediatrician, however it is still a risk because Anthem could deny claims and not pay anything at all and there isn't anything we could do about it. So I think we need a back up plan. I still have hope something will be resolved, but until then I need someone else on stand by.

Why do I do these things?

Why did I think it was okay to let Cooper hold the bag of Fruity Cheerios this morning? I should have known.

Trip to Zoo

We made it to the zoo yesterday. I met up with a friend, Jill, and was able to walk around with her and some of her friends from work. I hadn't seen Jill in quite and while and hasn't met her new little boy yet, it was nice to catch up. It was a fun morning and awesome weather and we tried out the water park for the first time. Cooper loved it! He kept squealing every time the water hit him. He hates for water to get in his eyes but he kept going for me. At one time he ventured over to the big kids portion and got totally soaked. Pretty much like a bucket of water getting poured on his head. It was too cute, he was rubbing his eyes and spinning in circles. A few minutes later he tripped and fell and it was already close to nap time so that pretty much did him in. We were lucky, he had a nasty fall outside on Monday and this one didn't re-open any wounds. I'm already looking forward to our next trip.

Check out how close we got to the giraffe, I think this may be one of my favorite animal at the zoo. The other one (polar bears) are still under renovation.


I think Cooper is going to like the polar bears as well.

Neighbors

Last night Steve & I went to bed around 10:30. Somewhere in the next hour our neighbor's house, well garage actually, caught on fire. No one was home at the time but another neighbor noticed the fire and called the fire department while another was able to get in the house and get the dog out. No one was injured and the fire was contained to the garage, although there is smoke damage inside the house. You can smell it and he said although you cannot see anything, your shoes will turn black by walking in the house. At one time there were at least two fire trucks, an ambulance, some police cars and they had the road blocked off. Wanna here the crazy part? We both slept through all of this. We hadn't even been asleep an hour. I've always considered myself a lite sleeper, I never sleep through alarms, the telephone, anything. Yet somehow I managed to sleep through sirens and fire trucks. The most important thing of this story though is about the kindness of neighbors. I have always felt secure in our house, knowing that neighbors do watch out and keep an eye out for anything strange. Lucky for Mitch, someone noticed the smoke and called 911.

Totally off subject, I just used my spell check and had no mistakes, wow.. that is a miracle for me.