Too Much Fun!

We have had a lot of fun doing not a whole lot this week! Tuesday night we had some friends over for dinner, and I decided to make Easter eggs with their initials on them for placeholders. So after I picked Kendall up from school that day we came home and dyed eggs! I've decided that dying eggs with kids is really just a whole lot of "wait, let me do that - you watch." and "Hey, watch how it's getting darker! Don't touch - just keep your eyes on it!" I'm a little paranoid about dye spilling everywhere. The girls had fun anyway! I had written the initials on the eggs with white crayon, so Kendall thought it was pretty fun to watch for them to show up. And they looked pretty cute in their aprons! :)

 Tonight before bed the girls found the laundry basket and decided they wanted to go for a ride. Good thing Randy was home! They got their babies and jumped in!

Cute girls! We have a lot of fun with them!

Spring Yard Work!

We've been doing a lot of yard work around here! Last weekend we spent all day Friday and Saturday getting the yard cleaned up for Spring. Cooper and Kendall enjoyed helping us pick out flowers - both for the front of the house and for the window boxes of their little house!

And here is the finished product! The backyard looks great!

We don't typically take pictures after we do yard work. :) Part of our requirement for our home study was that we submit pictures of our house and of the front and back yards where our children play. So we waited to do that until after we had worked so hard to make them pretty!

 Our cute little cottage! I just love our house and am so thankful for it. Now we are ready to enjoy some time playing outside before the mosquitoes get too crazy!

A Piece of Our Puzzle

If you haven't seen our new blog yet about all things adoption, come check it out at www.secureinhope.blogspot.com.

We would love for you to be a piece of our puzzle!

Bee-Bee!!

We had a scary night Friday night. We got a call from our friend and neighbor's daughter Nicole that her mom was having a seizure. She had a stroke 5 years ago, and we thought that was what was going on. Randy ran over there to wait with Frannie while the ambulance was on it's way. Her husband Bud was working nights so she was by herself when it happened. They ended up taking her to Houston and Bud and Nicole went up to see her once Bud could get here from work. The next day, we offered to watch Nicole's little boy Colby so she could go back up to the hospital for awhile while her husband was at work.

Colby is about 3 months old and he is precious! The girls had so much fun with the "bee-bee" as Cooper called him. Kendall was totally a little mother and Cooper was so interested in helping take care of him and giving him his sass. When it was naptime, Kendall could hardly sleep because she was worried he would be gone when she got up. :)

When Nicole dropped Colby off and then started walking out the door without him, Cooper was standing next to Colby and she started pointing at Nicole saying "Bee-bee!! Bee-bee!" Like - "You're walking out without your baby! Don't foget him!" I had to tell her that the "bee-bee" was going to stay with us for awhile. So cute!! These two girls love taking care of babies!!

Moody Gardens!

Randy has been helping lead a mission trip our students took to Galveston this week. They went to Aaron and Holly's church to help with block parties and publicity. The girls and I decided to drive over and see him yesterday, and go to Moody Gardens while we were there! For Christmas, Pops and Kiki gave us a year's membership to Moody Gardens and this is the first chance we've had to go. Kendall was very excited!

I only brought the big stroller, so the girls took turns riding in it. A few times, Kendall held Cooper on her lap! They both thought that was pretty fun.

Trying to get them to both look at the camera... 

 ...and I got the classic Cooper face. She cracks us up!

 We explored the rainforest pyramid of Moody Gardens - next time we go we'll have to check out the aquarium pyramid. The rainforest was so neat! You start at the top and work your way down. There are lots of beautiful plants and all kinds of animals, butterflies, fish, and alligators, lizards, and monkeys! This picture of Kendall was in with the butterflies. She loved it!

I was trying to take Cooper's picture with Randy but she couldn't stop showing me the birds and butterflies flying around. Pretty cool!

This was on a little wall right in front of the area where they had the big parrots. They were so beautiful!

Check out Cooper trying to get where Kendall was. This was the story of the day - Cooper followed Kendall anywhere and everywhere she tried to go!

Checking out the colorful fish!

We had so much fun at Moody Gardens and look forward to going back lots this year! After that, we  went back to the church for the block party, and then while some of the adults got dinner ready for the students, the rest of us and all the students went to ride the Bolivar Ferry! It's a ferry that goes from Galveston to the Bolivar peninsula, and it's free. Kendall was very excited about a boat ride. We all just walked on, but sometime we'll have to take our car on - I think she would like that!

Kendall had so much fun playing with Annie and Shelby. Annie is one of her sitters on Sunday nights while we have small group, and she was so sweet to play with her!

We brought old bread to feed to the seagulls. Both of the girls loved that! Cooper kept handing me bread to hold up for the birds.

And here is Kendall and Shelby. Shelby is in high school and has kept Kendall several times at church. Kendall told us she was excited to play with Shelby because she is her "very best friend." I'm so thankful for sweet friends that love our girls!

After the ferry ride was over, we went back to the church for dinner and then drove home. We are looking forward to having Randy back home tonight! We've missed him!

Pig-tails!

Cooper let us put pig-tails in her hair a few nights ago! It's getting so long!

I think it makes her look so big. And so cute! 

I love that sweet face!

Sweet Sunday Girls

The girls looked so cute this morning that I had to take their pictures before we left for church!

So serious! 

 It was raining, so Kendall jumped on the chance to get to wear her rain boots to church. :)

 Kiss!! Cooper's hair is growing out a little and it's curly in the back!

We're loving these sweet girls! Happy Spring Break!

Open House

Tuesday night was open house at Kendall's school! We went to see some of the things they have been working on and to visit the class she will be in next year. I can't believe next year will be her last year at Wee Place - how is she that old already?!

We have been so pleased with her teacher, Ms Shiloh, this year and she has learned a lot. This is what we saw on the floor when we came in - they were set up in a circle like they sit for circle time. Can you find Kendall? :)

 Ms Shiloh had some activities sitting out for the kids to play with while we looked around.

 Cooper had fun at school, too! She doesn't have it on in this picture, but she had to wear one of Kendall's backpacks because we were going to school. Anytime we walk out the door and say we're going to Kendall's school, she runs back to her room and says "backpack, backpack!" She has to get it and wear it, even when we're just dropping Kendall off. She's so cute.

 Kendall's best buddy - Emma! These two love each other so much! We went to Chili's to eat dinner after this and walked in and saw Emma's family! The girls had fun sitting in back-to-back booths, playing Iphone games and talking. Sweet friends!

Mardi Gras in Galveston!

We got to celebrate Mardi Gras in Galveston this year with Gigi and Peeps! A couple of weeks ago, Peeps was helping out with Aaron and Holly's church, Coastal Community in Galveston. We drove over to meet them on a Tuesday night, and it turned out it was Fat Tuesday! Galveston had lots of parades, but this was the first one we were able to go to and we had so much fun!

People kept handing Kendall and Cooper beads! It didn't take long for them to be covered with necklaces - they were loving it! 

 The floats were pretty impressive! We were standing on the Strand and loved watching the bands, cheerleaders, and floats.

We enjoyed our first Galveston Mardis Gras experience! After the parade we walked over to Jan and Kevin's apartment and then went to eat with the Sanders at a seafood restaurant. Fun night!

Cooper's faces

Lately I've been able to get a few pictures of the faces Cooper gives us...a lot...every day. She doesn't talk very much, but she tells us a lot with her face and her expressions. She has strong opinions and she doesn't hesitate to show those to us...a lot.

Most of these pictures probably started with, "Cooper, say cheese. Let me take your picture." And then she made this face and said, "Mo."

Pajama Time!

Today was pajama day at school! Kendall has been so excited about it ever since her teacher told her on Tuesday.

She even got to take her baby bear and blanket. When I picked her up, she told me that now she can make her bed all by herself - that she learned how in school today. :) She also took one of her favorite books, Pajama Time, and Ms Shiloh read it to the class. Fun day!

18 months old!

Cooper Elyse turned 18 months old last week!! We can't believe she is a year and a half already. She is just so sweet and makes us laugh every day. I wanted to do a little update on what she has been up to lately.

We went to see Dr. B on Thursday. He said that Cooper looked great! She did not enjoy this check-up as much as she has in the past. I think she is starting to remember what happens at the end of each check-up. She is 32.5 inches long, which is in the 75th percentile and she is 24 lbs, which is in the 25-50th percentile. Just to compare to when Kendall was 18 months old, she was 34 inches long and 30 lbs! But check out this belly!! 

 She only had to have one shot, but she was pretty upset about it. Dr. B said she has some teeth about to come through - right now she has 11 teeth. Her ears, eyes, and nose all looked great, and he watched her walk and said she was doing well. He did say it's time to cut back and then eventually get rid of her sass, so since Thursday we have been leaving it in the crib and only using it at bedtime. She has been doing great with that and enjoys throwing her sass back in her bed when I get her up. She was even at church for 3 hours today without it!

These girls love each other SO SO much. I just can't even say how happy it makes us and how much we love watching them play together. Cooper wants to do everything Kendall does, so Kendall and I have a lot of conversations about only doing things we want Cooper to do. :) She is happiest when she's with Kendall and thinks everything she does is funny. And almost always Kendall enjoys her too and loves to play with her too. She gets frustrated with her every once in awhile, but it is rare and most of the time she does everything she can to play with Cooper and make her happy. I love when she takes initiative to do something nice for Cooper without me or Randy asking. Cooper was sitting in her high chair today waiting for me to have her lunch ready and Kendall went all on her own and got books to read out loud to Cooper that she thought she might like. It kept Coop calm and patient while I was working and I loved hearing Kendall's stories!

These pictures of them eating at their little table are from breakfast Friday morning. We had used the table this week when we had some friends over for  dinner, so they were still in the kitchen. Kendall sat down there to eat her pancakes, so Cooper decided she wanted to eat there, too. Then she went and got her puppy and her owl pillow and brought them in, sitting them each in their own chair. It was so cute!

And, I just can't believe she's already big enough to sit in a chair and eat her breakfast instead of sitting in her high chair. She still eats in her high chair most of the time, but if the little table is set up, she likes to eat there like her big sister.  

She still doesn't talk very much! She totally knows what we are saying and understands what we ask her to do, and she can also get us to do anything she wants by pointing and grunting. :) She can say momma, daddy, spoon, ball, puppy, Molly, moo, boo, Pops, Beeps (Peeps), book, hi, bye, nose, eyes, ice, ears, hair, bow, backpack, breab (bread) and that's about it! She loves to read and brings us books and gets in our laps all the time. She eats most things we offer her, but loves bananas, grapes, peanut butter and jelly and strawberries. She loves playing in Kendall's room, especially playing with her dollhouse and the puzzles.  She can point to her head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, hands, feet, toes, cheek, chin, arms, belly, and bottom. One of the things she does right now that I think is so funny is that she goes to the pantry, opens the door, pulls out the box of Fruit Loops, goes to the drawer and gets her snack trap. Sometimes she tries to pour the cereal in by herself, but usually by this time I've clued in and can "help" her get the cereal in her cup. She cracks us up.

We just love our Cooper Elyse so much and are so thankful for the gift she is to our family. Our prayer for her is that she continues to grow and learn and her sweet little personality doesn't change. We look forward to seeing what the other half of this year holds!