A Few More Beach Photos

A few more photos of our week at the beach. I am late in getting to posting. Lightening hit near our house and destroyed our home PC, garage door opener, phone line, answering machine and the thermostat on the fridge! So, I am faced with waiting for a chance to use Craig's computer in the evenings until we can fix our home one. No problem, just slower in making posts

Isn't this boy cute? He loves his lion and blanket that we call the Blanket of Many Colors

Annual Family Photo at the Beach Top (L-R) my Sister Katie, nephew Aaron, brother-in-law Derek, our family. Bottom: Doris, my Mom and Grandfather

No matter what we used to try and blockade the stairs, Joshua found a way to climb on or over it!

More Non-Beach photos to come soon...

Fenwick Island 06

What a week! What a Beach! What a vacation! What a family!

I LOVE our family! That was one of my favorite phrases from our family's annual trip to Fenwick Island. Craig said that to me while walking to get ice cream one night. I actually find it hard to write a little about the week. I feel like I did in college trying to get the first paragraph written on a paper. I don't even know where to begin!

We arrived in Fenwick to beautiful weather. We had several wonderful beach days at the beginning of the week. Karis couldn't get enough of the waves. She loved jumping the waves! Joshua was fickle. He would love the beach and water for ten minutes, then he couldn't handle it any more!! He would be laughing while walking and playing in the sand, and then cry if he had to touch it any more! We couldn't figure it out.

We took many walks down to the local Dairy Queen - a family favorite. Or really, a Daddy favorite! We actually surprised Karis one night and after putting the children to bed, got just her back up and went down to Dairy Queen. She was so surprised and a little confused too. I was skeptical that she would go to bed for the second time (especially after Ice Cream!), but my husband's plan was wonderful and she went to bed without complaint.

We had a lot of fun times with the extended family. Karis and her cousin Aaron got along very well for small children. Joshua thought everything belonged to him and claimed ownership of Aaron's popper push toy for the week. Aaron shared the toy very willingly for a 20 month old! Aaron figured out the art of annoying little girls - and he is not even two yet! He walked around right behind Karis trying to touch her. This drove Karis CRAZY! And we would hear her squawk and shriek in annoyance. It was rather humorous for all the rest of the adults.

More photos to come soon...

The Little Gym

Once a week, we go to The Little Gym for a tumbling class. Karis loves it and the class has really helped her grow in many ways. Mainly, I have notice that she is not as timid to try new things. A few months ago, she would hardly walk across the balance beam. This week, she was walking across the beam and jumping off herself!

Birthday Boy!

It's hard to believe, but our baby boy is one year old today. What a fun day we had celebrating his birthday. We began the day with our family tradition - birthday breakfast at IHOP. Joshua enjoyed his birthday pancakes very much.
Later in the day we celebrated more with good friends and family. In standard nautical theme, Craig and I made a sailboat cake for Joshua. We had so much fun staying up making the cake and decorating it - only to undergo demolition in a matter of seconds!
Joshua in his birthday hat - waiting for his cake
Pure Joy!! Birthday cake for the first time! He smashed into it and after a few moments he raised his cake filled hands and squealed in excitement!

Barber Shop Boy

Recently, Joshua had his first haircut. His hair had gotten scraggly so we took him to the barber shop. He did great! He sat in the chair and let the hair dresser cut his hair. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the sucker he had while his hairs were cut!

More Fun Fest Photos

Here are a few more photos from the Fun Fest weekend. As I mentioned in an earlier post - we took the children to the Hands On museum in Johnson City. Here are a few photos from that time.
Karis and Anna having 3 year old conversations

Karis and Anna playing in the "grocery store" - a big hit for our children

Joshua especially loved steering this old tractor - it didn't actually drive, but he liked it anyhow

Found Cord and Long Awaited Photos!

Thanks to Breanne Graap - we discovered a way to download our photos without our (missing) Canon cord...Finally, photos from two weekends ago!

Actually, waiting to post them now was even more fun for me. Looking at these again and deciding which ones to post brought back the fun memories from the Fun Fest weekend.

The Cooper Family and Trump Family

Karis peeking out from behind a banister in Johnson City - she called it her castle

What a bunch of crazies! What I think is especially funny about this photo is how Karis and Anna have the same "funny face"!

Craig and the girls at Bay's Mountain

Misssing Cord

WELL... I would like to have posted more photos from last weekend. Alas, we can not find the cord for our camera to download the photos. Is it at the hotel? Could it be in the van? We've searched everywhere and are ready to bite the Canon Bullet and order another one online. Photos coming soon....

Family Fun Fest

This past weekend we went to Kingsport and Joshnson City for part of the weekend with our good friends - the Trump family. Karis and Anna Trump were born 11 days apart and are wonderful playmates.

The weekend started out early with a car trip to Kingsport - 5 children (Karis is the oldest!) and two moms in one van! The children played at the hotel before naps and then we all splashed in the hotel pool for a while before dinner. The dads joined us later that evening. Once the children were in bed, we re-inacted adult fellowship "Celebration style" - in the hallway while the children were asleep in the rooms.

The next morning we woke the children up at 6 AM to see the Fun Fest Balloon race. The funny thing is - once we arrived in downtown Kingsport, we realized that the balloon race had been canceled due to poor weather conditions! Regroup... a few times - and we ended up playing all afternoon in the "Hands - On" museum in Johnson City. But not before getting rained out of a state park and turned away from their museum/gift shop that wasn't open yet. The Hands On museum is a great children's museum. Photos waiting to be posted tomorrow will show Karis and Anna playing in a child's life-size grocery store. There was also a Nascar play area, a coal mine area, pretend bank, art area, tractors, planes, water play, and many other things the children had a blast exploring!

We ended the day with a meal from the world famous Pal's "restaurant". At least it is world famous if you're from Kingsport. We thought there sauce burger, chipped ham sandwich and frenchie fries were pretty tasty. Karis actually asked to get another sandwich on the way home.
The best part of the meal was sitting on the lawn of the ETSU campus eating with the Trumps.

Our family had so much fun with the Trumps and hope this becomes an annual tradition. The Trump family is so refreshing to be with.

More photos from the weekend will come soon - they haven't been downloaded yet from our camera.

I love Daddy

Joshua thinks he has the best Daddy in the world. I could not agree more! Joshua crawls as fast as he can to Craig when he comes home from work in the evening. He can't wait to be picked up by his Daddy!

More July 4th Photos

Preston and Reagan Ruth

Jonathan and Melanie Oldacre

Pool Fun

Philip

July 4th Celebration

In honor of Independence Day, Stuart and Jenny had a July 4th Party at their house. We celebrated the holiday with Stuart and Jenny, The Ruth Family, and Jonathan and Melanie Oldacre. What a fun evening. At one point, all the children were so happy playing, that all the adults were able to talk together. One of my favorite moments from the evening was when Jonathan impersonated Craig and Stuart! We are very rich with friends.

Jenny made a sugar cookie dessert that Michelle and I agreed we needed a photo of!

The four older children - Preston and Reagan Ruth and Madie and Karis Cooper

Joshua

Summer Reading Program

This summer we participated in the Knox County Library's Summer Reading Program. We read 20 books together and the children received a prize pack with coupons to play putt-putt, go bowling, ride the Three River's Rambler train and other prizes. Of course Joshua is too young to enjoy these prizes, but we have enjoyed going to the library weekly to get new books.

At the Library, Joshua and Philip enjoy crawling around and pulling books down off the shelves. There is a little nook where they have conquered crawling up and down the two steps. Karis and Madie thoroughly enjoy picking out new stories and coloring an activity sheet that they library gives them. It only takes a day or two to read the 15 books that we take home, but the regular trip will hopefully build memories that these children will love to look back on.

My buddy Andy

This is Joshua's buddy Andy. They were born the same week almost a year ago. They share the same love for soothie pacifiers and lots of attention. They are sweet babies and we hope that Joshua and Andy are life long friends - even though right now they wrestle over the same ball!

Andy is a miracle baby. He was born with a heart defect and look at him! God has been merciful to his family and miraculously he is doing well! He has survived major heart surgery and many other procedures. His parent have walked through more seemingly uncertain moments than we have in our whole life, but their faith and trust in God is unwavering. You can check out his story at www.sagraves.blogspot.com

Our family loves the Sagraves family. We feel so lucky to have them as our friends. They are such a joy to be with.

Where's Karis?

One afternoon, I couldn't find Karis...she wasn't in her bed in her room with a contraband paci - she was on a "bed" on her floor with a contraband paci - asleep!

Three years old and still in love with the pacifier!