Silly Girl

Yesterday it was time for Madison's nap. She jokingly said, "I want to sleep in Cooper's crib". I think she thought I'd tell her no. But instead I said ok. She smiled and got her pillow & blanket and headed to his room. I put her in and left. I fully expected to hear her yelling for me within a few minutes to go back to her bed but she never did. I peeked in on her after about 30 minutes and she was still awake but she was quiet so I shut the door again. I checked on her a few minutes later and she was out. So she took her nap in his bed. She's such a silly girl.
When she woke up we all went in to get her. Cooper thought it was pretty funny that she was in his bed!

White Oak

"The Group"
(minus Scott & Alden who couldn't make it and Michelle who is in Africa for 2 years)

We had our annual reunion with our best friends from college last weekend! We started this tradition 6 years ago when we all graduated. We originally got together over New Years but as our families have grown it became harder and harder because it was so close to Christmas. 3 years ago we changed it to the summer and this year we added an extra night. For the past 6 years we have rotated between eachothers houses but we've decided White Oak will be home for our reunions from this point on. As long as David's parents are ok with it!

This is where we stayed! Looks like a resort huh? Nope, it's David's parents guest house! Yeah, that's right, guest house! It was David and Amy's turn to host this year. They are actually living here right now while their house is being built. They live in the apartment upstairs. We stayed downstairs with the Dane's. It was wonderful. They had their own bedroom and we had ours. Cooper slept in the workout room so that he would sleep. It was so nice to spread out and have our own rooms. Usually we are piled in our 'small' houses and it was getting harder and harder each year as we added kids. We had such a great time and loved getting to spend two nights with our dear friends!

This is the back of David's parents house

We arrived in White Oak on Thursday afternoon. David grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while we all visited. Right after dinner we headed straight out to the pool. We LOVED the pool. It has a beach walk in which was perfect for both of my kids. It has a very cool slide and a hot tub that got just as much use as the pool. The girls loved to go swimming in it.

THURSDAY NIGHT:




everyone visiting...


while Cooper sits alone eating a noodle...





The kids had a great time playing in the workout room too!

FRIDAY:
Friday we woke up and had breakfast. After breakfast we headed back out to the pool for several hours. We came in and had lunch and kids napped off and on throughout the day. It was so nice to just relax. Everyone kind of did what they wanted.



Cooper had fun going down the slide but Madison did not. She went down once with Trent and never wanted to go down again!

The Girls: Kate is 1 1/2, Madison is 3 and Kendall is 2 1/2


I LOVE how they are holding hands!



sweet, sweet friends!! Kendall is such a little swimmer. She had no fear in the water. She was going under water from the time we got there. Madison on the other hand took a long time to warm up. After watching Kendall for awhile she finally started putting her face in the water. By the end she was going under but only in the hot tub or on the beach part. She wanted to be able to reach at all times. I was proud of her though. She still didn't enjoy going out into the pool or going down the slide. I think our pool has ruined her.

Friday evening we got cleaned up and went out to eat for dinner!

Kendall wasn't in the picture taking mode. We never did get a picture of all 4 kids! :/

Group pictures, Family pictures and Bandit pictures before dinner:

David, Kate & Amy (with baby Mitchell #2), Our family, Ashley, Kendall (also with baby Dane #2) & Randy!

After dinner we drove around and looked at several of the houses David is building. We got to see where their new house will soon be. When we got home the kids played on the swing set and the girls jumped on the trampoline. Cooper and Kate went to bed shortly after that and Madison and Kendall swam until late that night.


We had such a great trip. We ate lots of good food, had lots of good talks, laughed a lot and stayed up way too late! We can't wait to do it all over next year. Then we'll have 6 little ones running around!!

My 3 dogs...

Sometimes I'll dump Cooper's leftover food on the ground for the dogs. He joins them in eating EVERY TIME.
I don't know what it is about the food on the ground but it's appealing to him.

Corndogs

Trent has been wanting to make homemade corn dogs all summer. He finally did it!

Madison helped put the sticks in and then Trent had to do the rest. So in the meantime these two played in the kitchen. He spends most of his time trying to catch her and hang on to the tricycle while she rides it. He LOVES anything with wheels!

Operation Cut Out Cooper's 2:30 Bottle: Night Two

Going to bed last night I thought to myself, 'ok this is going to be the night he lets us have it'!! Boy was I wrong. He went to bed around 8:30 last night and we didn't hear a peep out of him until 6:45 this morning!! We are so proud of our little guy. Trent said to me this morning, "Just think how much sleep we have lost because we didn't do this sooner". He is right! Oh well, I enjoyed that small amount of cuddle time I got with him in the middle of the night, without his big sister hovering over us. That time is gone now. Let's hope for a repeat of last night again and again!

Operation Cut Out Cooper's 2:30 Bottle: Night One

So Cooper started sleeping through the night at 2 months! We were thrilled. It took Madison much longer. He slept through the night for several months, until he started getting repeat ear infections. We started getting up with him. I just couldn't let him lay in bed and cry knowing his ears were aching. (I had an ear infection right at the beginning of all of his so I knew what it felt like. It was miserable) Needless to say, over the past 5 or so months he's been on a new schedule of waking up at 2:30 for a bottle. The other day we decided he is better, we are putting an end to this. He will be off the bottle within the next month and I refuse to get up to give him a cup of milk. I was nervous because I can't turn off his monitor and just let him cry. I knew I'd be awake the whole night...listening and wishing I could go in and hold him.
Night one went good. He woke up at 11:30 and cried for about 6 minutes or so. Not sure why he woke up then. I was dreading his 2:30 wake up call because that's when he expects that bottle. At 3:30 he woke up and cried for 15-20 minutes at most. Trent had turned his monitor really low at 11:30 so I found myself falling asleep but then waking up again to still hear him cry. He whined at 6:30, which is in his normal time range of waking up. But he was silent within seconds and slept until 8:15!!!!
Overall, it went better than I expected! Yay for Cooper!

FOR SALE

Our house is officially on the market! I had such mixed emotions about it. This is our first home. It is also the home that we've brought both of our kids home to. We love our house and we love our neighborhood but we are just outgrowing it FAST! It's amazing how much room you thought you had before kids and how much room you need after two kids!
We are trying not to get our hopes up. We still have a lot of new construction going on in our neighborhood but our builder has left, so no one could come in and build our exact house. Hopefully someone will come along and fall in love! Then we can move into something bigger and start making new memories!

As promised...

our matching braids! She thought this was the coolest thing ever.

Splash Park

We've lived by this splash park for almost 4 years and have never seen it. It is tucked in a neighborhood about 15 minutes from our house! We have been looking for houses so we drove through there the other night and found this! Madison has been talking about it ever since. We decided to take the kids for a little bit this afternoon.

The kids loved it! Cooper crawled right in. He loved it from the beginning. It took Madison a little while to warm up. It's so funny how different their personalities are. By the end they were both soaked and loving it! We definitely plan to visit this place several more times before the summer ends. We hope we can get her cousins to meet us here one day!

Fun Family Day

We only have a few weeks of summer left (with Trent) so we decided we needed to start doing some of the things that we've been wanting to do. Today we headed to The Dallas World Aquarium! We left around 11 and stopped for a quick lunch on the way.

The Aquarium:



in front of monkey island


They LOVED watching the otters! I wish I had my camera ready because at one point one of the otters swam up to Cooper and looked right at him for a few seconds. It was SO cute.


Trent and Madison looking at something while Cooper takes a break in the stroller!



There were huge sea animals in this tank! Cooper loved getting out to look when he could lean on the glass! Madison did not want her picture taken.



Shark tank!




Yep, she's licking the glass. That's my child. She got several gasps and ewws from the ladies next to me. Nice.



We didn't take the sit and stand so at one point they both rode in this stroller together. They had fun though. Most of the time I held Cooper and Madison rode in the stroller.

After we left the aquarium we headed to Vista Ridge Mall for ice cream and the playground!

she tried so hard to climb up this thing the whole time we were there but she never got it.


Cooper had a blast. He followed all the big kids around like he was one of them. He would get so mad if I ever took him back to where we were.


He took his first real steps here! The big kids ran for the tan slide and Cooper started after them. Trent went to grab him and realized what he was doing so he let go. He took about 4 steps and finally dropped to crawl the rest of the way! Later that night he did it several more times. 6 is the most he's been able to take before he falls or sits to crawl!

We had such a fun time together! It was truly a great family day. Tomorrow we are headed to the splash park!