Monday, April 30, 2012

Our little man turned 1!

You mean to tell me I am one?!?!
Coop and I are both shocked at how fast this year went.  Happy Birthday little man, God has blessed us with such a special addition to our family.  Dad and I love every minute we spend with you, you have brought so much happiness and laughter to our lives.









Thanks to all our Chicago family who helped us celebrate the little man's big day.  The village that is helping us raise him is more wonderful than we could have ever asked for.  Thank you for being a part of his life and ours.  We love you! And special thanks to Grandma Gayle for a beautiful evening that included jello jigglers and mac and cheese for the kids, a little monkey cake all for Coop, and adult beverages for the rest of the group!  (After all your hard work I ended up with no picture of you and Coop on my camera ;( .....but I know you got some so you could pass them along, please?)

A few more pictures to share from the weekend......

 Coop very curious about his new cousin Crosbi (either that or he is wondering why I am holding someone else...)  He kept wanting to touch her face, so sweet.
 The gang all together.  Coop couldn't be happier to be posing with his cousins in this "Pj pic".  Crosbi has no idea what she is in for with these three boys......it's only going to get wilder from here!



We love celebrating you Cooper! 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Easter Eggs and Thursday Nights

As I sit here eating leftover Robin Egg candy that I shouldn't be eating, thought I should give you a little update on our Easter.  Only appropriate to eat Easter candy while doing so, don't you agree?  We spent our Easter weekend here in Omaha which was quite relaxing for a change, since we are used to running and traveling.  We started out the weekend with a Good Friday service with Kristel and then celebrated Andy's bday that night with a fish fry and friends.  Since we are not Catholic, it was my first official fish fry. 

The next morning, despite the rain and wind, Coop got to experience his first Easter Egg........can you sense his excitement?

He did get 4 eggs though, and quickly decided blue was his favorite. 

It was a fun neighborhood hunt that happened to be right across the street from where we live, so we just walked over to it. Despite the whole neighborhood being there, I decided to show up looking like this.....


Fortunately I pulled myself together a little more for Easter Sunday morning.  After a beautiful service to celebrate our Risen Lord, we headed out to Ashland to join the Sapp family for lunch (and of course some games and another Easter Egg hunt organized by the Aunts!).



Now on to the Thursday nights section...........just wanted to give you an idea of our fun little Thursday night out last week.......just another look into the everyday life of the A. Richard family.  We loaded up Coop and headed out to Texas Roadhouse, which was, by the way, the most family friendly and upbeat restaurant on this Thursday.

There were especially tasty dinner rolls, buckets full of peanuts, people handing out toys to kids, an organized Cotton I Joe dance, and......................

 Andy the Armadilo! He was not so sure about him, just kind of stare at him, although wherever he went Coop twisted and turned in his chair to get a glimpse of him.  Look how happy both Andy's are in this picture!
And then we headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a little pillow shopping.. exhilirating, I know. Andy was literally going around to every pillow and doing this.

 Finally ended the night with Coop's favorite thing, his Baby Genius videos.  This is what he looks like when he watches them, totally entranced......just like his father watching TV.  Love just having a little family night with my two boys, couldn't get better than this, love you two!

Finally Coop wanted to make a big announcement.............

He has a brand new cousin!! Crosbi Lucille Eccleston joined the group on Tuesday, April 10th.  We are thrilled to have a girl amongst these three wild Richard boy cousins, and we cannot wait to meet our precious niece next weekend. 
We love you so much sweet angel!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

What we've been up to these days......


In case you can't tell from the pics, we've been pretty busy.........we turned 11 months, visited a Nebraska winery with the girls, been out enjoying the good weather, and......
Went out on my first real date. Look at the pretty girl I found to go out with me ;)

Adult Chaperoned of course......



I have also been starting to really crawl, both inside the bath and out!
Celebrated the Cubbies opening day

Went to my first Poker Night, look at all these chips I "won"!
Hanging with Amy and Meg (don't worry I did have clothes on most of the night, and no it's not strip poker)

Cooper and Bruce meeting for the first time (Bruce's is our friend's adorable bulldog)

And finally, somehow Coop managed to steal another kids diaper at the gym.  When I was changing him at home after our trip to the gym, I took off his pants and saw this written on his diaper.......

  You mean to tell me I am wearing Hunter's diaper? (he was just as shocked as I was)


Going to leave you with a little video footage of Jayla and Coop on their first date together, if this doesn't make you laugh, I am not sure what will!