Random Thoughts at 21 Months

Yes, we are still here...long time, no post, huh?  We had a busy and fun week back in Kansas and I just put blogging on hold.  Well, here's what happens when I do that...I have so many photos to go thru that I just keep putting it off!  I will fill you in on our fabulous week later, for now, here are some notes on our 21 month old!

* talking non-stop, will repeat just about anything you ask him to or not ask him to!  We really have to watch our choice of words these days...enough said!  starting to talk in phrases.

* first sign of Texas accent??  When asking where someone/thing is, Coop answers, "right theeerrree."  Don't know how to type out a Texas twang, but it is so there and hilarious...will try to get it on video soon!

*napping 2-3 hours in afternoon, going to bed 8:30-9 at night and getting up 7:30-9 in the morning.

*still loving Toy Story and is often randomly naming all the characters

*the love of sports continues as well, we spend countless hours a day with balls- kicking, shooting, passing, and even dribbling now.

*enjoys watching Dancing with the Stars :)

*definitely knows about the baby and often kisses my belly, if you ask him what we are naming it, he says, "Chuckieeeeee."  (We can thank Aunt Alli for that one:))

*When waking up in the morning and from naps, usually refuses to get out of bed, wants books in bed with him, as evidenced in the picture below

I feel like I say this every month, but this is such a fun age!  He is learning so much everyday and if we all could view the world from his angle, pretty sure it would be a much happier place :).

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all you moms had a fabulous Mother's Day, I did!  Yesterday, I got the gift of freedom...all morning long alone to do whatever!  I went shopping and then realized it's not all that fun when pregnant :).  The styles were definitely more pregnancy friendly when I was pregnant with Coop, everything seems so short...dresses, shirts, shorts, is it just me?  Anyway, not attractive!!!

Last night Adam and I went out with the Dieckhaus' to celebrate Amanda's birthday, the Fimmens were sweet enough to watch and keep Coop overnight!!!  So, I woke up childless on Mother's Day, but picked him up bright and early so poor Carolyn wasn't spending all Mother's Day morning with an extra kid!  Dad made pancakes for us, we went to church and Fuzzy's for lunch...so good!!!!!  We spent the afternoon around the house and playing outside, which was so nice.  I am in the in middle of Breaking Dawn from the Twilight series and had a hard time putting it down today!

Happy Mother's Day to our Moms!  Adam and I think we are the luckiest people to have grown up with our moms, they taught us so much and are the best Grandmas to Cooper!  Same goes for our Grandmas who we are fortunate enough to still have in our lives! 

I feel so lucky to be a Mom to this sweet boy...can't wait to see if next Mother's Day I am a mom to 2 boys or one of each!!!

Finger Painting and Cinco de Mayo

The only thing these two things have in common is that we happened to finger paint on Cinco de Mayo...

I realized today that we hadn't sent cards to Coop's Great Grandmas for Mother's Day.  So, after nap out came the finger paints.  We haven't tried them since here and then he really had no interest, kind of had to force him to do it.  Fast forward 5 months later and he has accepted the messiness of finger painting a little more.

 Obviously stripped down to diaper for this!

 In the end he wasn't too messy besides his hands.  We used the Crayola Washable Finger Paints and they work great!  So easy to clean up afterwards!!!

The finished product!  He even let me do his handprint!  These cards are in the mail to Great Grandmas...as neither of our Grandmas are surfing the web in their free time, I am pretty sure I'm safe to post this before they receive their cards ;).

So, for some crazy reason this photo won't rotate???  Never had this problem before!  Anyway, Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I made homemade guacamole and nachos for dinner...delicious!  Just doesn't seem right to have a water next to my plate, man, a margarita was sounding sooo good today!!!  

Stella and Dot Sale

I think this is a perfect Mother's Day gift!

What a unique necklace and only $22!  

This is like 3 necklaces in 1 because the 3 charms are removeable!  You can wear one, two or all three!

To order, visit my website at www.stelladot.com/ashleyjones.  Contact me at ash4545@hotmail.com if you have any questions!!!

Weekend Fun

Dad was out of town for work over the weekend, and while he was definitely missed, Coop and I still had lots of fun!  The best part was that he surprised us by showing up Sunday morning, we didn't expect him home until Monday!

Friday night we watched a few of the sweet girls I used to teach play volleyball.  Coop was still in the womb when I taught them.  Cooper loved watching them, very intrigued by the games.  He sat on my lap the whole time watching and eating his Happy Meal.  Afterwards, we stayed to chat and sweet McKendry played ball (more like chased the ball he kept throwing) with him.  He was all smiles and gave her lots of kisses before we left.

Saturday morning we headed to Keller Fest, just minutes from our house.  It is a big, outdoor event with lots of booths, live entertainment, and carnival rides.  The morning was beautiful and we soaked it all in!

 Hard to believe that is my sensitive child in a bounce house and he climbed in all by himself!  However, he didn't move from this position the whole time :).  There were big kids jumping and he wasn't quite sure what to think!

 Lovin' the bubble machine!

 Of course, had to stop to play some soccer.  Still need to work on that idea that you don't use your hands in this sport :).

 This petting zoo experience was night and day from here a couple months ago.  He was super excited to get him and pet the animals all by himself.   He was even trying to feed the llama!

 He kept saying, "pat, pat, pat, goat."

After a long nap, we headed over to the Fimmens for dinner and to play.  Tom, Meghan, and Cooper all eating dinner outside...they spent a lot of time 'shooing the flies' away. :)   After dinner we went on a walk to the Sno-Cone stand, it was Cooper's first and he loved it!  He was completely silent, refused to share and wanted no help eating it.

After sno-cones the kids were a sticky mess, so Carolyn was gracious enough to let me stick Coop in the tub with her kids and loan us jammies for the night!  After bath, the kids were busy playing Elefun.  Here they are with their nets, trying to catch the butterflies flying out of the Elephant's nose!  A perfect game for this age!!!

A busy couple of days before the downfall of rain the last 24 hours!  

A loooong flight home

We had a crazy trip back home after a fun weekend in STL.  Our original flight was scheduled to get us home late Sunday evening, that changed Friday night after a tornado hit the STL airport and caused major damage.  We got moved to a flight leaving Monday morning, still to have us home before noon so Adam could make at least 1/2 day of work.  Well, the weather wasn't in our favor again.

We boarded our flight at 9:15 Monday morning, ready for the short flight back to DFW.  In fact, as usual we were running late.  Coop ate breakfast in the backseat on the way to the airport and Adam and I just planned on an early lunch at DFW, ha!  The pilot had to detour around storms, circled DFW for a while due to weather and then headed to Austin to fuel up where we joined lots of other planes doing the same.  Sat on plane in Austin for over 2 hours before trying to make it back to DFW.  It is mid-afternoon at this point and no meal in our systems yet.  We were blessed to be bumped up to first class after our first flight was cancelled so we did get snacks, Goldfish, Granola Bars, Pretzels.  We were back at DFW but couldn't land due to bad weather, so a u-turn was made back to Austin.   We arrived about 5:00 where they got us to a gate so that we could get off to eat.  We got off the plane and headed to the nearest restaurant!  We had just set down to  eat when they started re-boarding again...ugh.  So, off we went with dinner in our hands to eat on the plane.  Fast forward 2 hours later and we finally landed in DFW at 7:15, make that 10 hours from the time we originally boarded the plane that morning!!!!

As awful as it sounds, it really wasn't that bad because Cooper was so awesome!!!!!!!!!  He napped a couple hours on the plane, didn't have any poopy diapers :), stayed contently in our seats and was pretty quiet most of the time.  Not sure what we did over the 10 hours as I didn't have any toys packed, thinking we were going to have a short flight home.  We did watch parts of Toy Story a couple times and Cooper read all the inflight magazines.  I got a few pics to document your trip.    

 Snacking on a granola bar.  It was hard to get good pictures considering we all were about 6 inches from each other. :)  

 Coop in my seat, thank God for blanket, on one of my many bathroom trips.

 The disaster at our feet included Goldfish, granola bar, magazines, a onesie we had taken off Coop...mess!

The stickers from Mamaw and Papaw kept us busy for quite a while!

Easter Weekend

Seems like we have been celebrating Easter for weeks!  It was good build-up to a great weekend with family.  However, we were missing Braeden and Ava-Grace :(.  Here are some more pictures from the weekend...enjoy!

Yes, that is a hammock in Adam's bedroom at his parents house :) and Coop seemed to be the only one not enjoying it and yes, still in his pjs.  He was a late sleeper over the weekend which is why we love Adam's old bedroom.  It is the unfinished part of the basement with no windows, so it always feels like the middle of the night=good sleep for us!

Awww, feel the love from Aunt Tanya!

Grandma and Grandpa were missing their Cooper and drove 3 1/2 hours one way to spend the morning with him, then turned around and drove back home.  It was great to have them visit, even for the short time.

 Dad and Coop searching for Easter eggs.

Adam got a special gift from a bird on his sleeve during the egg hunt...I told him to look on the bright side-people say it means good luck!

After the egg hunt, Mawmaw and Pawpaw's Easter Bunny had left toys for the kids.  Coop was pretty excited about his new Toy Story book and figurines!

The Easter Bunny brought Kellen the same tee ball set that he/she brought Coop and he recognized it immediately!  I don't think he even let Kellen get the first swing!!  This kid loves his sports.

How funny that the 3 boys had the exact same polo from Gap!!???  We didn't even plan it!  Here they are sharing M&M's.

With Ava-Grace missing, Emily was the only girl.  Good thing she can hold her own, but those boys are starting to really pester her!  Who knows, maybe this baby I am carrying around will be her saving grace :).  Em thinks it's a girl and we should name her Sophi.

Of course, matching shirts means picture time!  This cracks me up, Coop and Cash pulling on Kellen, like - "c'mon man, sit down."

Man, these 3 are going to be trouble, cute trouble that is!

Night-night...storytime with Uncle Aaron