Meeting Mrs. Claus (and all things Christmas)

So we decided not to meet the big guy quite yet this year.  Don't think Coop would quite get it, and since since Santa's #1 Fan (aka Andy) didn't seem to mind, we will wait until next year for the big introduction!  That didn't stop us from stopping over at our neighbors to meet the sweet (and free) Mrs. Claus! 

Not so sure at first.....

(she wanted him to sit on her lap while she read a story, but all we could get him to do was snap this quick picture and he was done)

But after she revealed some bells and a fun hat to wear, he is was all about this Mrs. Claus thing!

 

We have been doing some other fun Christmas things around here as well.  Yesterday I decided Coop and I were going to have Christmas-palooza, so I fit in as many things Christmas as I could!  Some activities went better than others.  Let's just say when Andy got home that night I had 4 different "projects" that were left unfinished (and a mess).  Guess I got a little ambitious and expected a little too much from a 20 month old!  Here are a few pictures of the moments, plus a few other fun shots from the last couple weeks!

Pre-Heating the oven for the cookies. 

Although little does he know it is actually locked (we started locking the gas as he has figured out how to turn it on and we don't want him blowing up the house-and "no" doesn't seem to stop him these days).

"Organizing" the toppings

Mixing the cookies he is making for his Daycare Teachers.  He didn't last long with the mixing part.  "Help, mom!" were his exact words.

 

Checking out the first big blizzard and deciding if he should venture out or not.  It took me about 15 minutes to get the kid dressed in this get-up, only to realize once outside we forgot gloves!

Luckily he didn't mind.  Here he is cracking up at the neighbors having a snowball fight.

Coop loves the Christmas tree, especially when the lights are on.  He was doing pretty good about not touching it for the first week or so, but recently he likes to rip the ornaments off, and hit the brances.

Babysitter Aunt Kristel came over all festive the other night, complete with Santa hat and fun movies for Coop!  It's like she is straight out of the Babysitter's Club Books. Remember those??

We got to travel to Elkhart, Indiana a few weekends ago to celebrate this beautiful bride's special day.  My dear friend Amanda is a pledge sister from college, and I was honored to be part of her day!  Congrats Mrs. Roberts!

 

We also got to make a stop at the Eccleston house in Montgomery, Illinois for their festive Bows and Bowties party!

Despite the madness of the Christmas shopping I tried to do last Saturday morning, we found some time for Coop to play in the mall playground.  I know, most moms think these things are gross, with a million kids and germs all over.  I think Aunt Kristel would agree, as when she went inside the play area to check on Coop, she almost got pushed over by a 4 year old!  However it was our saving grace for a few minutes.

Had to sneak one pic in, for all those baby bump picture lovers! 

Here I am at 17 weeks (I am now almost 19!)

Here is Coop checking out the snow pouring down. 

 It was beautiful, although caused lots of school closings and havoc on the roads.  Coop even had a snow day too the next day, as his daycare was closed!  He got to hang out with Aunt Cindy and Max in the morning, then came home and our favorite neighborhood sitter Rachel came over.

Here we are on a "Christmas Light" walk through the neighborhood.  I think Coop really enjoyed it ;)

 

Trying the "2 kids" thing out.  Here we are babysitting Cousin Josie!  Wasn't too bad, wasn't too good either.  About two seconds after this pictue was taken, Coop decided to go crazy splashing everywhere, and Jos was not to happy about that.  But she is such a sweetie and only cried once the whole night.  And who can blame her if someone is biting her toe!  (If you hadn't guessed, that someone was Cooper).  All in all I think we are excited to take on the challenge of a new little lovebug around here.  I am glad we are a team of two though, and my heart goes out to all the single momas out there.  I don't know how you do it!

 

Merry Christmas to everyone!

  What a wonderful time of year as we celebrate our Savior's birth and spend precious moments with our loved ones.  Remember to hold everyone you love a little tighter this year, as we never know when it is our time to go "home".

 

 

 

 

 

Lots to be Thankful For

This year (similiar to year's past) we got to spend the holiday with BOTH families together at Grand Beach!  We are so lucky that our families are so close and that they both enjoy sharing Thanksgiving dinner together.  This way we are not forced to choose between them.  We truly have a unique situation in that our parents are best friends and live 10 minutes apart in Naperville and 5 minutes apart in Grand Beach.  We try not to take it for granted, as we recognize this is very rare.  We spent 4 lovely days at the lake relaxing, golfing, eating, watching football and movies, and just soaking up all the family time we could.  Coop loved spending time with his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.  He truly thrives on being the center of attention, especially with my family since he is the only little one running around.  At one point there were 7 grown adults just staring and laughing at his every move, he is such a little entertainer!  All I can say is that it might be a "adjustment" (to say the least) when his little brother or sister arrives in May!

Reuniting with "papa"

 A little outdoor adventure with Uncle Bryan and Daddy

An attempt (failed) for a cousin picture

Loved getting to know this little sweetheart better.  Our niece Crosbi Lu is such a little doll and will someday hold her own with these boys.

Coop's favorite face these days.  He loves making this at his Aunt Heather the best!

 

I know I have more pictures than this from Thanksgiving but can't seem to find them all right now and I am tired.  So there might be more to come at some point, but for now good night!

A Few of our Favorite Things

Thought I would share with you a few of my favorite things these days......love Coop

 

Celebrating the Holidays.  Thanks to cousin Sawyer I got to be this awesome dog this year, and experiened my first trick or treating!

Helping mommy clean (or at least pretending to)

Technology!  Notice I am typing on my laptop with my Iphone nearby.

And more technology.  I love listening to any kind of music, especially with dad's earphones!

Ice Cream!  (why use a spoon when you can drink it?) 

This day I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic I was taking for an ear infection, so mom got to get out of work early to pick me up from daycare because I was covered in a rash.  After my dr. appt she took me for ice cream, great idea mom!

Bathtime hair do's  (this one is compliments of dad).  The picture is so small because there were some parts of me mom didn't want exposing to everyone.  Just keep your eyes focused up top at my hair please!

Cousins!  Happy Surprise 30th Andrea!

Watching Husker Football with my dad.  Go Big Red!

Good Friends and a Baby Bump (already!) 

Mom calls it her baby bump but I think it might be because she seems to be ordering food a lot while in her car.  Her favorite is this place called McDonald's.  At least I get some fries (and a few sips of diet coke) out of the deal!

Trying to share with my friend Jayla (mom says I am not very good at this yet, I don't know what she is talking about, I did let her have one small ice cube)

Cheering on the Huskers with friends!

Mom's makeup drawer.

Usually I like to take out all the qtips from the jar on the counter and try to clean the mirror with them, but sometimes I get a hold of a makeup brush and I run that over the mirror too.  Mom puts it on her face then, which I think is weird (and not very sanitary since she probably doesn't realize I just cleaned the mirror, counter, and bathroom floor with it!)

Watching Dad work outside.  If I could just figure out how to get out there.......

Organizing my diapers.  Here I am trying to do "diaper art" on the floor.  No one seemed to really appreciate it much though......

This must be one of mom's favorite things these days, because she always has this bag out and also carries little bags of these in her purse and car.  She is ALWAYS eating them.  A lot of time she hangs out with her head in the toilet, which I think is funny but she doesn't seem to be smiling.  Don't quite get that one yet.

 

Well that's it for my favorite things these days.  What are some of yours?

Coop loves Candy!

Although I normally don't let him actually eat it, he somehow ends up carrying it around the house.  This morning he insisted on carrying around 3 tootsie pops, banging them on everything.  We are ready for some trick or treating I guess!

Sampling the candy, yep tastes good, wrapper and all!

The itsy bitsy spider.......is on my head!  ahh!

 

Trying on some costumes at a friends house.  Squeak squeak.

 Helping dad with some yard work.  Precious.

Matching Shirt Jackets

Thought I would leave you with a picture of our little bat from last year!  Be expecting a dog or a monkey this year.......still TBD.  (both compliments of his cousins, Grif and Sawyer!)

Blessings from Above

So the real reason I have not been blogging lately isn't because Cooper started walking (although that does keep me busy), but actually because I have not been feeling well lately.  It's been about a month now. A pretty looong month too.  Some nausea, some vomiting....but before I give it away I promised Coop he could do the announcing, so...

Baby Richard #2 is due to join the family May 18th!!!!!!

We are overjoyed for our little family of 3 to be growing, and have been waiting to share the news now for several weeks.  I am about 10 weeks now, and finally got to see the Dr. today and hear the heartbeat!  She assured me it probably wasn't twins (for some reason I thought it might be?!) and that everything looked great.  Andy and Coop got to come with and hear the baby's heartbeat too, so it was a special moment for us all.  However we decided after Coop threw several urine specimen cups on the floor, attempted to "help" mommy collect her urine sample, was pulling out the stirrups, and blowing snot bubbles on the mirror in the exam room, that this was probably his first and last dr.'s appointment with mommy.  Will be looking for sitters in the future......anyone??  We are already trying to prep Coop for his little brother/sister's arrival, and he has learned to say "bebe".  Occasionally he will lift up my shirt and point to my belly and say it, however this is usually followed with a nice little slap to mom's belly. Oh boy.  If this is a foreshadowing of what's to come, we are in trouble.  Nonetheless, we could not be more excited for Coop to be a big brother!

Even though we have been trying to lay low with me not feeling so well, that's not very easy for this family, and we still had a few exciting events in the past weeks that are blog worthy!

We became zoo members and bought our first zoo pass!  Here are the boys with the kiddos on a nice little Sunday afternoon.

Future Husker player.  Just need to make sure the helmet fits first.

Girls weekend for me!  Celebrating a dear friend's bachelorette party in Grand Beach with the Chi O's..  We can't wait for the wedding Bowser!  Coop got to stay home with Dad for the weekend.......

Coop with is daddy.......enough said.  They are truly 2 peas in the same pod!

Luckily Auntie Heather was there to hang out with Coop too!

Coop eating his first turkey leg with the Aunt's at the pumpkin patch

 And last weekend we got to road trip to our favorite city and experience the first Nebraska v. Northwestern game!  Luckily Nebraska pulled out the 29-28 win, which made for many happy husbands.  Thanks to the Wolski's for hosting us all!  (and don't worry, I am NOT holding a drink in this picture)

 We had a great tailgate to hang out at before with 500 of our closest friends and family.  The Richard's and Bailin's were both there, along with some of Andy's cousins from Nebraska and a great group of our friends.  It could not have been a more perfect day with the sun shining and a Husker Win.  Thanks babe for all your hard work getting tickets and helping organize the tailgate!

And finally here is Coop doing a little reading at the library.  We like to go for storytime on Wednesday mornings whenever we can, and afterwards he likes to wander through the rows of books.  Today he spotted this little table and decided it was perfect for him to pull up a chair and have a little read.  Love this kid!