Blessing Day!

Phoebe is growing fast. I took her to the doctor two weeks ago and she was already up to 8 lbs 12 oz. Not sure how much she weighs now, but she is changing everyday. We were able to have Phoebe blessed on Sunday. It was great to have so much of our family there with us. I think I really take it for granted that we live close enough together to make these events a real family affair. But it struck me on Sunday just how lucky I am and I wanted to make a point of thanking everyone for coming and being so supportive. What an amazing circle of men who stood around Phoebe to bless her. Thanks again to all of you for being such a great example to me and my family. We wish you all the best of the Holiday season!

Introducing Phoebe Anne Cooper

Phoebe was born on Thursday November 11th right around dinner time. I was induced early that morning and it was slow going until right at the end when everything seemed to happen at once. After three times of having a wonderful experience with the epidural I ran out of luck this time. About 45 min before she was born it just started wearing off. And that was when everything picked up speed. The anesthesiologist wasn't able to come back and fix things in time and so I delivered her the old fashioned way. Luckily she was not my biggest baby. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 10 ounces.
Mom was watching Courtney, Dylan, and Paige for me and so Clint went to get them just before bedtime so they could say hello to their new baby sister. They came in their jammies and the nurse was nice enough to take a few pictures for us. They are thrilled with her and are constantly begging to hold her. They have decided that she is the cutest baby in the world.
Clint and I are sleep deprived and the house is in upheaval, but this to be expected. Our little house is feeling a little full. But we are happy Clint is taking some time off work to help us all adjust. We are just so glad to have her here. We feel blessed. Thanks to all our family and friends who have offered support.

School Pictures!

So here is Courtney's second grade picture. She finally lost her first tooth and was very proud to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy, then she promptly forgot to smile with her teeth for her school picture. Luckily we got a great shot of the missing tooth right when it first came out. She is our grown up little girl these days. She is continuing with ballet and still loving it. She still draws pictures all the time and tells us she wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.


Dylan is adjusting to school well this year. He had a few days of being unsure in the beginning, but now he is an old pro. He keeps telling Courtney not to walk into school with him, that he can do it all himself. He loves singing the alphabet song and tries to see just how fast he can get it out.

His class went on a trip to the pumpkin patch and I was able to go with his class. We had a lot of fun watching them make cider, going for a hayride and picking out a pumpkin.


Of course we had to make a second trip to the pumpkin patch so that Courtney and Paige could pick out a pumpkin too! Here are all the finished pumpkins, after we carved them for FHE! Happy Halloween everybody.

Here's our little soccer player. He really enjoys being on a team and getting to play outside no matter the weather. He played his second game on Saturday and he showed a lot of improvement in just one week. Each of the players on his team are such characters, it has been fun to get to know them. I think that Clint has been enjoying the challenge of coaching, despite being nervous in the beginning. I never played soccer either, but having Dylan involved sure brings back memories of doing sports at a young age for me. Dylan is selling candy bars for a fundraiser and I swear they are exactly the same brand that we sold every year for T-ball.

1st Day of School!

Courtney actually started last week, but Dylan started today so I decided to wait to post after they had both started. Sending kids to a new class is never easy for me. I still had a hard time when I left Courtney each day this last week. But today was harder because I had never left Dylan before. He was getting cold feet about going all morning. He just kept saying he wanted me to stay with him. But I promised him he would get to play the Wii if he went to school so he decided that he could do it. I was feeling fine all the way up to giving him his hug and kiss goodbye. It was at this point that he was fine and not worried at all that I was leaving. But I got all emotional and had to hurry out of the room before he saw me starting to cry.

Dylan also started soccer for the first time a few weeks ago. I videotaped his game, which was pretty fun, despite the last minute time change. I will get pictures next time. He really likes going, especially since Clint ended up volunteering to coach his team. It's been great for them to get to spend so much time together going to practice and talking about how to play. Courtney starts up ballet next week. Its been a pretty busy time getting all ready for the start of school, I'm just glad we are finally in the swing of things. I had another doctor appointment today and the baby is right on schedule. Look out November here we come!

Family Vacation

Last week Clint took a few days off and we headed to the beach. We stayed in Seaside at a resort where were were in a cabin that luckily had a bathroom and kitchen. The kids loved it. I wasn't sure if we would get any sleep, but luckily they got so tired out everyday that the kids actually went to bed fairly easily. That is, after we took away the flashlights!
From there we were able to go and check out Fort Clatsop and all the Lewis and Clark info. Another day we went over to Fort Stevens to see the former military camp. This was a highlight for Clint and Dylan. What is more exciting than a bunch of large guns? For Courtney and Paige, I think it was the fun in the pool. But we all enjoyed running around downtown Seaside. Clint took the kids on the bumper cars and the carousel. We got ice cream cones and salt water taffy. We even had to stop in the arcade. It was pretty overcast while we were there so we didn't spend much time on the actual beach, but we still had fun!

IT'S A GIRL!

Well, it looks like my intuition is finally correct. I felt like it was going to be a girl pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant. And I was sure until about three months along and then I started doubting myself. I've never been right in the past. So either I have learned something or I just got lucky. Doctor says she is developing normally in every way, so that is an added blessing. It was so fun to see her squirming around in there. It really helps to make it all seem real. The due date is still November 17 despite the fact that she was a little on the small side. But that seems to be the norm for my kids so I am not worried. In fact, I am excited to see her in person.

Summer is HERE!

Well, at least I hope it is. We've had a few sunny days and it makes me feel energized and like I can jump back into getting caught up with things. I am way behind on this blog. So here are a few things I missed.
Courtney's class did a musical program full of songs about animals and the theme was, "Going to the Zoo!" Her class were the zebras, as you can tell from the picture. Courtney is right in the middle.
The next week the whole first grade class went to the zoo for a field trip. I was able to go and we had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of her with a few of her friends.
In May the Haycock girls continued the tradition of the sister's weekend. We went to Seaside this year. Although we were a little crammed in the house we rented we still had fun! I still came home sleep deprived and a little sick from too much snacking. I wouldn't miss it.

Here you can see us eating the chocolate covered strawberries that Laura brought. So glad to have her there with us. I didn't get a good shot of her, just her baby. Sorry! Em was also able to make it at the last minute and that was a great surprise. So that way I got this great shot of baby Hannah and baby Hyrum. They were quite curious about each other and it was so much fun to watch.

Last week Courtney had her end of the year ballet performance. I thought the girls made a huge improvement from last year. It is so fun to watch them progress. Whew! I think that gets me caught up. This week I should be posting again to add the results of my ultrasound. We can't wait to find out if we are expecting a girl or a boy!

Oregon Zoo!

On Monday morning Mason called me and Steph and convinced us it was a good day to go to the zoo. I'm not so great about being spontaneous like that so its good we have him around. It was overcast but really not too cold. In fact I decided it was a good day for the animals. I've never seen them so active and awake. I guess I always go when its a hot day in summer. The kids are standing in front of the tiger enclosure here. This was probably the only animal who was asleep so its not a good shot of him. But I thought it was a perfect chance to get most of the cousins in a shot all lined up.

Paige was very excited about the animals that she could see, like the hippo in this picture. She wasn't afraid at all like Courtney was when she was little. However, if the animals had any kind of camouflage she completely missed them. A few times she would be looking right at them and kept saying "I don't see it!" It was pretty funny.

Dylan liked the lion statues better than the animals themselves. I really liked this new exhibit. I don't remember the lions being there the last time I was. We don't go there often enough. I get too intimidated by driving in Portland and all the crowds. Mason was kind enough to drive my car on the way up and really there were no crowds that day. Courtney was in school and so she missed the trip. But I didn't feel too bad because her school is making a trip to the zoo in a couple weeks. I'll be going as a chaperon so I should be posting zoo pictures again soon.

Courtney's big news this week was that she won a drawing contest at her school. She came home on Monday with her prizes, a blue jump rope and two candy bars. She was so excited it was the first thing she said as I picked her up from the bus. It was a real boost for her self-esteem and her obsession with drawing pictures has only been reinforced.

How our garden does grow!

I recently took a trip to the Tulip Festival. I took Dylan and Paige, while Courtney was in school, and my good friend Lindsay came with two of her kids as well. She is an amazing photographer and willingly took some pictures of my kids. I really needed a good 2 year old shot of Paige, but she took some good ones of Dylan as well.
It was really muddy that day and luckily you can't see Dylan's lower half, because he was covered in it. He fell a few times. I kept Paige in the stroller, so she stayed pretty clean.
There was a field of grass nearby and Lindsay felt inspired to use it as a backdrop for pictures too. I really liked how they turned out.

Our garden is growing in more ways than one. My kids certainly do grow faster than ever, but it also looks like we will be growing in numbers as well. Yes, that means I am pregnant, for those of you who don't already know. I went to the doctor today for the first time and heard the heartbeat. That's always the way I feel that what is happening is real. I have been sick but I am getting through it. I am 10 weeks along and my due date is November 17th.

Superman returns!

This weekend was Dylan's superman themed birthday. But as you can tell from the picture he likes all superheros about the same. I really tried to get him excited about a different theme for the party, but he was determined that only a superman cake would do. So I found the idea for this cake online and I ended up having a lot of fun with it.



I looked everywhere for a superman toy that was unbreakable. We don't have a great track record with the action figures. They always end up broken. I found this plush superman online and he loves it already.
The main attraction for Dylan's party was going bowling. He really enjoyed it even though he and the girls all had to use this frame to get the ball going. Mason brought his girls and mom came too. We were all a little rusty. Mason easily had the best score. It was so much fun we all felt like we needed to go again soon.Here's the kids in their outfits that the Easter bunny brought. We wore them a week late because of General conference. It was a crazy morning getting everyone ready. I think they all stayed up too late for Dylan's party. At least the picture turned out.

Cake decorating!

I guess anyone who knows me is now aware that I have become a little obsessed with cakes. I just finished my first cake decorating class and this picture shows my final cake. I have to say that although we were only doing the basics that I had a lot of fun. I don't usually think of myself as a creative person. But making cakes helps me feel like I could be. If I can just get past worrying about messing up. My teacher in the class had to keep encouraging me not to worry about getting it wrong. She would basically tell me not to be afraid of it--its only icing.

Courtney turns 7!

Happy Birthday Courtney! She has been counting down the days to her birthday for weeks. We started things off early by bringing a treat to her class on Friday and her whole class sang to her. Saturday was the official day and we had a great day. First she got to take Leanne and Chantel with her to see "Alice in Wonderland." Grandma Haycock and Great-Grandma Leder were able to join us at the movie as well. The girls all loved the movie. I was a little worried when the Jabberwocky came out that they might get scared, but they had no problem. Then we came back to the house where they got to decorate some paper dolls, while I cooked up some pizza. Then the rest of the family showed up. We had a houseful and it was fun. I let Courtney pick out what cake she wanted and she picked a castle. It was quite an adventure to make and put together, but I gotta say that it was so much fun too! Of course now that I have done it once I know exactly how I would do it better, but oh well. We were so glad that all went smoothly and hope that everyone who came had a great time. Many thanks for all the gifts.

Paige turns 2!

Happy Birthday to Paige! We let her take a long nap right before the party, because I was hard at work on the cake and I wanted her to be nice and cheerful. Well, I guess we let her sleep a little too long because we could hardly wake her up. She still looks a little sleepy in the pictures. Oh well, we still had fun. She still hasn't figured out the candles and needed help blowing them out. But she perked up when it was time to open presents and LOVED the cake and ice cream. Our little house was bursting with cousins and grandparents etc. It was great to have everyone there to help us celebrate. We sure are lucky to live so close to family.

Paige is really developing her personality. She is taking after her big sister in wanting to dress up in pretty dresses as much as possible. I often find her jeans thrown aside in favor of some play dress she dug out of the laundry or dress-up box. She may be little, but she is determined and she knows her mind. Paige often insists on trying to do things herself. "I do it" she tells me. She is a great little helper in whatever I may be doing from laundry to dishes or cooking. She never wants to be left out.