Birthdays/Celebrations

The first week of July is a crazy celebration week in our home. The 2nd is my birthday, the 4th is Tyson's, and the 8th is our anniversary. Not to mention the actual 4th of July celebrations and fireworks that go on. I think it is a tie between Christmas in excitement for me. I LOVE it! Sorry there are hardly any pictures, I haven't been great about taking them.

So first off, my birthday was a lot of fun. Tyson was super nice to make it a great day. I was super moody and grouchy for some bizarre reason, but it was a great day. The boys (Josh really) picked out these beautiful orange daisies to get me (the picture is below) and Tyson got me EL Fudges, my favorite currently. He took me and the boys to McDonald's for breakfast. It is a weird thing for me, I love the hot cake breakfast. My Mom and Dad used to take us as a special treat when we were kids. There were so many of us it was expensive so we didn't get to go very often, but I love those memories. So Tyson always takes me for special times because I still love it. Then, adorable husband that he is, threw a surprise party for me. The Davis's were awesome and were waiting in our house for us. The rest of our friends couldn't come because they were either out of town or just had a baby (which also, was a totally cool birthday present). Tyson made me a brownie cheesecake, super yummy and took him forever, it was super complicated. Then he made me homemade ice cream and we played battleship and Yahtzee that night. It was basically a party day, I loved it. Tons of people called me and wished me a happy birthday, it was so nice, everyone made me feel so loved.

Okay, then on the 4th was Tyson's birthday. I guess I will kind of go backwards explaining it, since that is how the pictures are. We went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner which was way yummy and the boys were amazingly really well behaved. It was almost eerie. Hehe Right before that, we decided to go to VMI where there were hot air balloons and a big fair type thing with booths and food, stuff like that. Well, we get out of the car and it starts to rain a little bit. We walk just a little ways and it starts pouring. So we hung ran to shelter and the boys watched the rain. It was fun. Then when it stopped raining hard, we kept on going, only to get caught in an even harder downpour, completely soaking all of us. So we ran for shelter again but the boys loved playing in the rain. Finally when it let up, the entire fair ground was pretty much deserted with the vendors packing up. The air balloons were grounded and deflated, so poor Tyson, there wasn't much excitement left. The boys however, loved it. We got some kettle corn and the guy selling it gave the boys each their own bag which they loved eating and slowly walking around with splashing in puddles. It was really relaxing and fun.

Tyson wanted a checkerboard cake for his birthday, so I did my best. It wasn't perfect, but it turned out kind of cool and it was fun to learn how to do something new. It tasted pretty good and that's what matters right? :)

My handsome hubby.

Josh helped me make it and boy was he a great helper, as you can see!

Sadly, I have no pictures from our anniversary, but that was my favorite day. Tyson had to work, but when he got back Mary and Ben came over to watch the boys (whom they both fell in love with). We drove to Charlottesville to the Melting Pot. It was so much fun to eat there! The cheese and the chocolate fondues were so yummy and our waiter was really nice. I told Tyson I knew I was getting old, because Kenni and I used to always check out our waiters, now my first thought was "I hope my boys turn out as nice as him." Hehe. Tyson was darling and made me feel like a queen and super loved of course. He found out that the fifth anniversary is the one to give the gift of wood, whatever that means. So he bought me a Willow tree figures of a couple and the caption that came with it (the reason he got the one he did) says "For those who have found their true partner in love and life." How romantic is he huh? So cute and I love Willow tree, so I was really happy. He made me bring in the big FedEx box to restaurant to open it, so cute. When we got home I gave him a game I made, "Monogamy." A twist off of Monopoly. It was pretty funny and fun to make. So we played the game and then stayed up late watching the cheesiest chick flick ever. It was ridiculous that neither of us could fall asleep. Hehe.

But it was a great day and a great week. I love having so many fun memories together. I can't believe the summer is only half over and I feel like we have done more than we ever have. Ah, summertime...

Blue's Clues Birthday Bash

Dear Joshua,

I know your birthday was last week, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. Sorry munchkin. So, you LOVE Blue's Clues. I am okay with that because Blue is pretty cute and you learn stuff. You talk a lot about your thinking chair and finding clues and talking about the weather and going on nature walks. So I wanted to make a cake that looked like Blue. I kind of threw a party together, but all your friends and their parents are awesome and we had a full house. Tommy, Jack, Ethnie, Leo, Eleanore, and Zuri all came (and of course their parents), and Uncle Chanson, Aunt Cassie, and Adopted Aunt Tori. Not to mention Grandparents on the phone and such. Everyone loves you my little three year old. I sure do. Thanks for being my little buddy and keeping me company for the past 3 years and 9 months. :) You are crazy and dramatic and talk ALL the time until other people are around and then you will only make animal noises. Needless to say, you are crazy. But with your genetics, you didn't have much hope at being normal, sorry about that. :) I love you kiddo, I love you more than I can begin to explain. Happy 3rd Birthday!

Love,

Mama

10-10-2010, a day to celebrate

I LOVE birthdays. I have a really hard time getting excited about them when I am not around the person for some reason, but when they live near, I feel like it is my birthday. I'm not sure why.

But as of 42 minutes ago, it is Caleb's birthday. I can't believe it was an entire year ago that I was laying in a hospital bed, so thankful for epidurals and watching my mom almost freeze as she slept sitting up and Tyson laying on such an uncomfortable couchish thing. I kept thinking about Josh and wondering if he missed me, worried that he would feel lonely or hurt that I wasn't there and wondering who the little creature was when I brought the other kid home. I was so worried about having another c-section, just thinking thinking thinking, and not sleeping like I should have.

But that little guy came, and we were both fine, and of course Josh didn't even notice I was gone he was having so much fun with his Grandma and Aunts and of course, Kelso. And now my little boys are just getting bigger which means I am older which I don't feel that way. Maybe someday it will catch up, but I hope not. Caleb is not a baby anymore. He is a toddler, with lots of little teeth, and a happy grin, and he plays peek-a-boo and eats all kinds of foods, and loves to dance, mimic words and watch Josh do whatever he is doing at that given moment.

I love that song "Don't Blink," I think it is called. It is true, you blink and you might miss something huge like a first step or rolling over, or falling off the couch or the bed or drawing on the couch or on the bed. :) I love my kids.

I am so excited that in a few hours I will wake up and "wake up" Caleb, although I know he will already be awake, poopy and crying because Josh is throwing toys on him or screaming in his ear or something horrible. I am still so excited. I can't wait to celebrate the little guy all day. I am so grateful he made it here, that he came to my little family, that he shares his little grin with me everyday. I am so thankful for birthdays. It is a day that says, "I pick this day to celebrate all the days of this year that I got to spend with you and gotten to know you and I just want you to know, I'm glad you are here for this birthday."

Happy Birthday My Little Boy!

My Darling Josh,
How are you two years old already? Yesterday was your birthday and it was a lot of fun. You were so tired all morning and really grouchy. We kept trying to tell you it was your birthday so it was a "happy" day. I don't think you really cared, you just wanted your "elmo happy cake." So after church, we opened your presents, talked to your Cooper grandparents on Webcam, ate piggies in a blanket, then had Aunt Cassie, Aunt Kenni and Uncle Chris, "Nommy" and his mom and dad, Ethnie and "Bebba" over for cake. It was so cute watching you try to blow out your candles. Sadly, you didn't even want your cake by then, you had way too much fun playing with Tommy. :) You are so sweet and adorable, and so much fun. You love to talk and make tons of noise. You love Elmo and Fish and your little brother. You get so excited when Daddy comes home and you just love people in general (unless you are tired, and then you are up and down). :) We love you so much! Happy birthday!
Love, Mama and Daddy and K-K-Bebe

Happy Birthday Avid Blogger Fan!

Mom Cooper, Happy Birthday! I hope today is a great day for you and that you know how much we all love you! Sorry I stole your son, grandson(s) and now your daughter away from you. I guess you will just have to move out here. :) Thanks for being my biggest blog fan and I love you lots! Josh and Tyson say they love you lots too!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! Sorry it is a day late, but I wanted you to know that I love you and that I so enjoy my many memories of you. You are such a happy, crazy person that I can't help but love you. Thank you for the many trips to Baskin and Robbins to get those double chocolate milkshakes. Thank you for all those late night talks, for coming to check on me in the middle of the night when I was up doing homework. Thank you for being so excited when I told you I was getting married and for being such a great Dad. Thank you for being MY Dad.

Happy Belated Birthdays!

Okay, so I have always been pretty convinced that I have a split personality. Half of my life I am really clean, organized, funny, social, and the other half I am lazy, slobish, clutzy, anit-social, and completely forgetful. Lately I have been the latter, especially the forgetful and slobish part. Well, and the clutzy too, but it has only hightened since I got pregnant. When I was pregnant with Josh, I tripped ALL the time. When I was 7 months along I fell down an entire flight of stairs at work completely embarresing myself and bruising every part of my body. Luckily Josh was pretty padded. That was only once, stuff like that happened the whole 9 months. Now I am back at it again. Like just now, I was talking to Kenni on the phone and I dropped the phone, so in trying to pick the phone up and put it to my ear, I somehow shoved it into my eye. It was hilarious, and I felt pretty dumb.

But alas, I digress, what I wanted to write is that I have been forgetful and haven't wished a great many people happy birthday on my blog, these people especially:

-My Mama

-Kristen

-Katie

MY MAMA

Her birthday was the 21st of February. She is gorgeous and funny and everything wonderful. I wish more and more lately that we lived not so far apart. 3,000 miles makes it hard for me to follow her around the house while she cleans like I used to do. Luckily, I know for sure she is coming out in October, so that makes me happy. One of my favorite things about her is that she is the greatest nuturer I have ever known. She knows just how to comfort, correct, and love. She used to stroke my head whenever I was sad, tired, or sick. I miss that so much sometimes, so I told Tyson about it so he strokes my head now which makes me so happy. Moms are just the greatest, the Lord really made miracles when He made mothers.

KRISTEN

Her birthday was the 25th of February. I first met her when I moved to Provo at the age of 6. We hated each other. :) Until our freshman year of high school when we were both in the same English class and got together to help each other with an essay we had to write. We didn't do much homework, but we talked about boys and made fun of people's laughs until we started laughing like them. It was so much fun. Those next four years were some of the best of my life. We met and started hanging out with Heather, and then Kirsten and Marissa and Kip. We had our ups and downs, but it was a lot of fun. I will never forget how forgiving Kristen always was to me. I was not the best friend, but she kept on loving me and taught me to be a better person. I was so excited when she told me she was getting married and then when I met Nate, I was so happy that she found someone so perfect for her.

KATIE

Katie's birthday was yesterday, she is Tyson's little sister. The first time I heard about her was my first Valentine's Day with Tyson. We were snuggling at my house after our freezing picnic, watching some old movie that neither of us remember (not because we were kissing, we were talking). I was losing my voice for some reason, and so I would ask Tyson a question and he would answer it. So I asked him to tell me about his family. He told me about Katie first. I don't remember much of what he told me except that she was so funny, that she and I were the only people in the world that could make him laugh when he was trying to be serious. That she sang like an angel. I called Katie that March 5 to wish her a happy birthday. I don't know if she had any idea who I was, because I wasn't with Tyson, I was at home with my family in California for spring break, but she laughed and was very nice to me. Ever since then, she laughs at me but it still nice. She sang at our wedding reception, and she does sing like an angel. I hope you had a great birthday Katie!

If there are any I have forgotten, I am so sorry! Have a very merry un-birthday everyone!

Butter Making and Birthday Celebrating

So this past few weeks have been crazy busy, and looking at our calander and the thousands of Christmas parties we have, it is only going to get busier. I'm glad, as much as I'm a home person, I love to be with other people, especially to celebrate something like Christmas. Well, so we had a great Thanksgiving. We didn't have food poisoning (Tyson and mine first Thanksgiving experience together), and I wasn't 9 months pregnant like last year, plus we got to eat with Kenni and Chris and Chris's cousin, Whitney. Bunk and I divided up the cooking and so not only was it fun, I had it easy. Tyson and Josh made butter together, and it was so cute. Josh is really loving being with Tyson and it is so cute to see the change and the love deepen in our little family over the past year. Then, this past Saturday, little Josh had his first birthday. True, he probably had no idea what we were all excited about, but he loved it. Kenni made him a cupcake cake that looked like "Swampy" the alligator, and it looked soooo cute! Josh dug into that thing before we even started singing. He absolutly loved the frosting, as you can tell by his face. Oh, and he loves to glare at people. Tyson taught him to, and everyone keeps encouraging him, which isn't always great because now he glares at random people, especially at church. Well, I don't know how to undo that, especially since it is so funny. But I love having a one year old. He sure is crazy and so much fun!

Happiness!

So Happy Halloween to you all! All morning I was playing dress up and absolutely loving it. It reminded me of the time Kristen, Heath and me all dressed up in the weirdest outfits, just laying dress up clothes on, and driving around town and then crashing Stephen's party. Good ol' times. I don't think I will ever grow up. But anyways, what I really wanted to say is Happy Birthday to my little brother, Chanson. Happy Birthday Buddy! Thanks for letting us call Josh "puggles," I knwo that is what we called you. :) I can't believe you are 17, all to soon you will be leaving home and going on a mission and living your own life, probably somewhere in Europe. Hehe, especially since you speak German, or Russian, or Latin, or maybe all three. :) Chanson, you have always amazed me. You are not afraid of anything it seems and you have always been so smart and good. Thanks for always being my friend. I still feel so bad for all the years I was just a mean big sister and beat you up all the time. I hope you always know that I love you and I think about you all the time. I'm so glad little Joshua loves you and your hair. :) I love you tons and tons! I hope you have a great day and remember a little family out in Virginia loves you very much...well, two little families including Bunk and Chris...and if you include your little slew of women out here that adore you as well, the list could get pretty big. Hehe. I love you!

Happy Birthday Hannah (Goofus)!

Hannah,

Wow, you are 13, I can't believe it. You have grown up so much in the 2 years that I have known you. You are so fun and sweet. Thank you for all the omelettes you have made me and for making me feel so welcome in your family when I was such a new addition to it. Thanks for helping take care of Joshua while we were out there, that was so nice of you. We love you so much and are so thankful for the wonderful person you are!

Sorry this is a day late...

Happy Birthday Bubby!

To my dear little sister Carmel, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It is so weird that you are already so old. I remember the day you came home from the hospital and I walked you around in Mom and Dad's room and sang "Silent Night" to you because I couldn't think of any other song. You were adorable then and now you are so much older and gorgeous and so much fun. Thanks for always taking care of me when I come to visit, for sharing your room and helping me with Josh. You are such an angel to me. Don't ever lose that wonderful kindness of yours!! I love you!

Happy Birthday Feather!

Wow, how long I have known you Heather! I can't believe that it was almost 10 years ago that I met you! I hope you are having the best of days celebrating all your happy birthdayness. :) I miss you tons and tons. I was having a hard debating on what memory I should share on my blog in memory of you. And this is the one I came up with:

I'm pretty sure we were seniors, we got a box of oatmeal creme pies, and a 2 liter thing of soda with two pretty glasses. We sat in your yard and eat and drank and spoke the entire conversation in British accents and pretended it was years from then and that we were married and had kids. It was so much fun. I always loved that about you, when I am around you anything is possible, even if it is completely pretends. You always believed I could do anything, and you always believed in me and supported the decisions I made, even when no one else would. Thank you Heather, I miss you I'm wishing you a great birthday!!! I wish I was with you!

Happy Birthday Marissa! (Late, sorry)

So sorry, I have been in another world for so long, I kind of forgot about everything but being home with Tyson and trying to finish up my next writing assignment on time. So Marissa, I hope it was a great day and you did something utterly fantastic that lets you never forget it. So, one of my favorite memories of you is:

Well, one time, me and I think Kirsten, Heather and Kristen (maybe not all three, but some of them) went to your house and you opened the door with a towel around your hair and you were freaking out. You said something to the affect of, "Okay, so I was trying to dye my hair, but it went awful (something about the dye being auburn, but totally not working or maybe it was blonde, I don't know). My hair is orange, not even kidding, orange." So we all laughed, you took us to the bathroom and took off the towel and I about died, because your hair truly was flaming orange. I will never forget that face with your eyebrows raised and your lips pursed and you just furius and your hair a very Timpview patriot color. Just so you know, even if you hadn't redyed your hair that night, I still think you are so pretty you could have pulled it off no problem. :)

Thanks for being so much fun!

Week of Celebration

June and July are crazy for celebrating in our home. Let me tell you why:
June 18: Zach's (my bro-in-law) birthday
June 23: Adryan's (my nephew) birthday
June 30: KJ's (my brother) birthday and Tyson's parents anniversary
July 1: My Grandma's birthday
July 2: My birthday
July 4: Tyson's birthday and 4th of July
July 8: Tyson and my anniversary and Kirsten's birthday
July 12: Papo's (my grandpa) birthday
July 21: Kate's (my friend) birthday
July 22: Cassie's (my sis-in-law) birthday
July 26: Ammon's (my little brother) birthday

Not to mention that KJ and Court are getting married on the 17th of July. And I probably forgot something important on there. Isn't that crazy? I love it though! So this week has basically felt like a party, and it has only just begun. Good thing I love to party, eh?