Steph's New Baby

Stephanie and Jess welcomed baby number 6 on Saturday December 20th. William Jess weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds 2 ounces. We braved the winter storm to go and visit Steph in the hospital. She is recovering well and feels that she has received the greatest Christmas present.

Let it Snow!!

Even though we live in Oregon, we do occasionally get a white Christmas, and this year is definitely it! Dylan and Courtney were so excited they ran outside in their pajamas the first morning we woke up to snow. And today we actually made a snowman! It has been fun despite the fact that it has been going on for about a week and we are all getting a little stir crazy from being stuck at home. On the plus side I now have all my presents wrapped and am getting caught up on the laundry.

As you can tell from the picture, Paige and I were in Temple Square last weekend. We were there for my cousin's wedding. Lindsay and I were roommates as well when we were in college and I promised myself I would make it to her wedding when the time came, so I went. It was great to see her again although you never get to visit with the bride too much, as they are so busy. But she was beautiful and the wedding itself was very emotional--I cried like a baby. The whole weekend was great. I got to see so much of my dad's family that live so far away I rarely get to see them. Paige was a very good baby despite being out of her schedule. Mason and Laura were there with their girls and it was so good to see them, I can't believe it has been a year! It was fun to get their little Audrey together with Paige since they are so close in age. I always leave trips like this with a head full of regrets for the things I didn't remember to say and the saddness of not knowing when we will get to see each other again. But I am grateful I went. Mom and Dad were there with me and took such good care of me. I felt like a kid again traveling with them. It reminded me of all the family vacations we took to Utah as kids. Mark and Kati were kind enough to let us stay with them as usual and I have Kati to thank for the pictures. These kind of trips also remind me just how blessed I am to have an amazing group of family and friends. This has been a great start to my holiday season.

Happy Halloween!

Well Paige wouldn't sit still for a picture and then fell asleep so this is her on Halloween. I'm not sure if you can see it, but she is wearing black cat ears. We decided she was catwoman to go with our superhero theme. The kids thought this was a great idea and had fun helping me to keep the ears on her head all night.

The justice league returns! Dylan is continuing his obsession with superheros and is batman this year. Courtney decided she wanted to be part of saving the day and not always be the one who is saved, so she wanted to be wonder woman. We went door to door trick-or-treating for the first time as well as the trunk-or-treat. They were exhausted, but they loved it.

New Pictures!!

Here are some new pictures of the kids. I just love getting pictures taken.

I can't believe Paige has enough hair for pigtails at only 7 months! She is sitting up now as you can see. She is really a very good-natured baby and stays happy most of the time although we couldn't get her to smile that day. She is eating food now and even though she is my smallest baby she is making up for it by being such a good eater!
Dylan is looking so grown-up in these pictures. He thinks he is grown up too and wants to do everything himself! If only his independent streak extended to wanting to go potty himself. Ah well--someday.
Here is Courtney in her first official school picture. We tried to put curls in her hair that day and it only partly worked. She was happy with it though so I guess that is what counts. She is loving school and feels like such a big girl.

It's pumpkin patch time!

Ok so this is my favorite time of year. Some other ladies in the ward and I decided to take a trip to EZ Orchards so that the kids could pick out a pumpkin. It was so much fun! I know I look ridiculous in this picture but it is the only one with Paige in it and the kids look good anyway. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. They were allowed to pick any pumpkin they could lift by themselves. It was a muddy day, but it never rained!Dylan LOVED the tractor. Then we went out to the apple orchard to pick an apple--they were huge! After that we went through the corn maze. There was a slide in the middle and all the kids got dirty sliding down. They had a few farm animals for the kids to see at the end. Courtney even enjoyed looking at the animals there since they had baby piglets. In her mind only baby animals are not to be feared. She thought they looked just like Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. We were given hot cider and a donut to finish things off. It was difficult to get them to leave so we could make it back home for Courtney's bus. Later we drew pictures on our pumpkins. Courtney's is a princess of course and Dylan's is Batman. Please excuse my lack of artistic skill.

Courtney Starts Kindergarten!

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. My stomach was tied in knots but Courtney seemed fine. I worried that she would be scared or overwhelmed. In the end, when we walked her to her class she seemed shy but excited. We gave her a hug and I was the one holding back tears. Later, we walked out to her bus stop to wait for her to come home. When I saw her coming off the bus safe and sound I almost started crying again. I'm sure it will get easier at least I hope so!

Clint's new shed!

Hooray for Clint! He is quite proud of his newly finished project. It is the result of so much hard labor I guess it is fitting that he finished it on Labor Day. It seemed like there were always things going on to keep him from it. I guess that is just life. It has been a pretty big undertaking for us and the kids thought it was super fun to play in and on it during the many stages. I am sure Clint would have had an easier time also if he'd had a more capable helper than me. I probably made things more difficult because sadly I am so weak! Anyway here are some pictures of the various stages.

Paige is 5 months!

Here are Paige's new pictures. I'm trying to get as many pictures of her as the other two, but it is getting to be more of a challenge the more kids we have to keep up! She is five months now and I am trying to start feeding her rice cereal, but she hasn't much interest. She can roll and grab her toes. In fact she is quite the busy little thing. Her favorite thing is to be held and she knows how to get what she wants. She loves toys and watching Courtney and Dylan play really makes her laugh. Life is crazier around here and Clint and I don't get as much sleep, but we don't know what we would do without her!

Family fun!

Ahh! It's been a while since I have sat down and posted some pictures so here are some of the best of the summer. We took the kids out to Silver falls for a little hike one Saturday. We couldn't believe it was the first time we'd gone since Courtney was a baby. They loved the falls especially the one you can walk behind. But I still think the most memorable part for them was the squirrel we fed grapes to, during lunch, while sitting the back of the van!



Here is Clint with the girls during the parade on the 4th of July. This is the 2nd year we have gone to the parade in Mt. Angel. I know my family thinks I am a traitor for not going to St. Paul, but we have really come to love this little parade. We've already got our own little corner that we claim as our own.








I hadn't been to the Enchanted forest since I was a kid. Of course Clint had never been, so I got him to use a vacation day so we could take the kids. We saw all the old stuff I remembered from when I was a kid and there was a lot of things that were new to me. We didn't go in the haunted house, but the kids loved all the rides. Clint and I took turns holding Paige while the other went with Courtney and Dylan on the Bobsled ride. Courtney, our little shy girl, was laughing through the whole thing and ready for more. Dylan, the brave one, was a little afraid of all the speed, but enjoyed it as well. We panned for gold and saw a little play--it was a full day.

Dylan's Quilt

Hooray! I finally finished his quilt. I ended up having to handstitch the binding and that took me a while, but I actually put it on his bed this morning. This quilt is the biggest and most complex I have ever done. It had a lot of little pieces and there was definitely some learning experiences along the way. The most recent was that the top ended up being too big for the batting and so I had to scale back some of the border pieces. Thank goodness for mom she gives great advice. Also thanks to her for lending me the pattern.

Family Pictures

Here's our new family picture. We also did some individual pictures of Paige in her blessing dress. She did such a great job posing. I was so grateful to have Clint there to help me keep everyone where they needed to be. It also helped that we had the first appointment in the morning. We didn't have to wait around as much. And we had a great person doing the pictures. She was so patient with the kids and wasn't in their face so much as to intimidate them. I have to thank Clint for sacrificing his Saturday to do this for me. It was part of my Mother's day gift to get this done. I remember going to get family pictures done as a family for mother's day a lot when we were kids, so I guess I am keeping up the tradition.

Sister's Weekend & Paige's Blessing

This last weekend my sisters, mom, and I went to the beach for our annual sister's weekend. We were gone Thursday and Friday nights. We rented a little house in Lincoln City and it was perfect for us. Thanks to Ericka for taking the initiative to do the planning as usual. We had a blast. I think we made use of every minute we were there. We watched girly movies and highlighted each other's hair. We ate junk food and took turns preparing the meals which were very healthy to offset our not so healthy snacks. We talked and talked and didn't get much sleep. On Friday we went on a hike in the mountains, but mostly we shopped and shopped like you can only do when you have no husbands or children. Paige was the only baby along for the ride and she did pretty well. She spent most of the time in the front pack. I think it'll take me a week to recover from the lack of sleep, but I wouldn't have missed it. The only downside to the trip was that Emily and Laura weren't there. We hope to have them next time.

Then we came home and the next day was Paige's baby blessing. I had to feed her just before the meeting and of course she chose that moment to get her diaper overflowing. Luckily I caught it before it got on her dress but I had to rush to clean her up in time for the meeting to start. Then when Clint went to do the blessing she starting screaming and didn't quit until the blessing was over. I had left the binky in the mother's lounge on accident and she just wanted to go to sleep, poor thing. Ah well, we made it. I was so happy to see all my family there--or at least all of us that are here in Oregon. Afterward we went to mom and dad's to eat and hang out. We are getting to be such a big group!

We plan to get some family pictures taken this weekend. I'll be sure to post them when I get them back.

The Cooper Family has had a busy spring. Our newest family member, Paige Louise Cooper was born on February 28. I actually went into labor on my own and she was born at about 8:00pm that night. I was grateful that she avoided having a birthday on leap year, Feb 29. She was 7lbs. 6oz. and just 19 inches long. She is my smallest baby so far. I guess the third time is the charm. She is seven weeks old now and growing fast. Courtney and Dylan love taking turns holding her and Courtney is constantly reminding her just how cute she is! It's a little hard to tell who she looks more like at this point, but I see a real similarity with Courtney. The most unique thing about her, other than how small she is, is her dark hair. Unfortunately it sticks right up in the back, which gives her a rather surprised look at all times. She is already beginning to sleep most of the night which is a real relief to me. A couple nights this last week I only had to get up once to feed her. She is definitely not as easygoing a baby as Dylan was, but we don't seem to mind much. I almost forgot how much fun it is to have a little baby around. I just want to hold her all the time. It already seems like she has always been a part of us.

Courtney turned five years old in March. Her birthday had a princess theme complete with a princess cake. Right now she is busy preparing for kindergarten in the fall. She likes practicing to write her name and knows nearly all her letters. We took her to the elementary school to sign her up. She was able to look around at the classrooms and even take a little ride on the school bus. I am almost afraid I was more nervous than she was. This will be a new adventure having a kid in school.

Dylan just turned three years old in April. His cake was my best imitation of Thomas the Tank Engine. Well, it tasted pretty good anyway, although we all ended up with blue teeth from the frosting. Dylan's latest project is learning to go on the potty. We are thinking this will be a slow process, but we are doing our best not to force the issue. He did the funniest thing when he was first learning to flush; he'd wave into the toilet and yell "bye-bye."

Clint and I are doing our best to keep up with all the changes our family is going through. Clint just finished the fence in the backyard and his summer project is building a shed. I am just getting back to exercising and trying to feel like myself again. I am in the middle of a quilt project for Dylan's bed and hope I can find the time and energy to get it finished.
Having a blog is a new thing for us but we hope to be able to keep in touch with our family and friends better this way. I hope to hear what people think of our first efforts.