Take my picture!

Karis had discovered how much fun it is to have her picture taken. If she does anything she thinks is worthy of note, she asks to have her picture taken so she can see it. This block tower was worthy of note and hence worthy of a photo. The reason is that Joshua is to block towers as an earthquake is to a 200 year old building on the San Andreas Fault. This particular tower she made and it actually stood for a few moments.

Under the weather

This was a first for Joshua - falling asleep on the couch. Last week Joshua battled an ear infection/cold, and he was pretty miserable for a few days. One day in particular, he didn't nap. For an 18 month old, this is tragic! My goal the rest of the afternoon became keep Joshua awake until 7PM. I knew that unless I did, he would be up very late! At 6:30 I couldn't find Joshua and almost missed him curled up on the couch. This sweet little pile was precious to see! He is thankfully feeling much better.

Girls Outing

Recently I was able to take Karis and two of her girlfriends on a girlie outing. It was a fun morning and a treat for me. Jenny watched the two boys (Philip and Joshua) while I took Karis, Madie and Reagan to Barnes and Noble. The girls read stories, played with the train table, drank hot chocolate and then put on a puppet show on the little stage they have in the children's area. Karis talked about this activity for days, and according to Reagan's mom - she had so much fun that she slept until 5 PM during her nap!

Too Tired to Color

Joshua was coloring the other morning and decided that it is hard work for a little guy to color and decided to try it laying down. I was thinking he might actually fall alseep, but he never did.

Biltmore

Two weeks ago Craig and I had a wonderful Saturday with a few friends of ours. Jonathan and Melanie Oldacre were kind enough to invite us to join them for a Saturday away. Fun would be an understatement! We laughed so hard all day long with the Plewniaks, Hancocks, and Oldacres. It was a beautiful day and the Vanderbilts were hospitable as usual.

I have a lot of photos to post as we haven't been able to post for the past two weeks... More to come.

Rock City

A few days after Christmas, all three Cooper brothers and their families met in Chattanooga for some welcome holiday celebrations. We spent the evening at Rock City which was a highlight for the children! The beautiful rock formations were lit with beautiful lighting and there were lots of Christmas lights which our children happen to love. We ended the evening with a wild meal at IHOP... I think we have a new tradition!



L-R:Niki, Tyson, Laura, Craig (Joshus is on his back - you can't see him, but he is there!), Jenny and Stuart. Front: Jordan, McCade, Karis, Madie and Philip

This was such a fun night. Craig and I drove back talking about how thankful we are for our family and how much we love them! The next morning Karis begged us to call our Cousins and have them all over to play at our house!

Christmas at the Cooper Home

Chistmas at the Cooper's 2006...

Karis on Christmas morning
Craig reading the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2 before celebrating His birth with giving each other presents

Joshua and Philip playing together after Christmas dinner. They actually threw a ball together for the first time tonight... or should I say at each other?

Jenny made a birthday cake for the girls to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. This was a big hit with the girls and they both got in trouble for sticking their fingers into the cake before dessert! I wish we had a picture of the cake with little girl finger swipes taken out of it!

Joshua in his big boy hat that our friend Breanne gave him.

We had a wonderful holiday and so treasured the time that we had together as a family. This Christmas we were blessed to make sweet memories with the children that we will always cherish. We are very thankful for these times and marvel at the grace of God poured out on us that we would be so blessed with times like today.

Thank you all for praying for Larry (Craig's dad). We received word tonight that he had hopefully his last surgery tonight and the doctor closed his stomach tonight. We are all praying for a full recovery and a sweet homecoming in the future.

Merry Christmas from the Coopers

Care Group Christmas Party

Last night we had our annual CG Christmas Party. What a fun group of people! We enjoyed spending time together and a cookie decorating contest. W e drew names out of a hat and decorated a cookie to look like the name drawn. It was hillarious to see another person's cookie rendition of yourself! We are very blessed to have such a wonderful Care Group

Tradition

We enjoy traditions in the Cooper household. Enjoy is putting it mildly. We are thrilled to have traditions to share as a family in hopes that we are building lasting memories with our children.

One of our favorite traditions is picking our our Christmas Tree with the Sanders! I think this is the 4th year that we have done this together. Each year we pick out our trees and then enjoy a meal together to celebrate the coming Christmas holiday. This year was no different. Here are a few photos of the evening...

Karis and Griffin enjoyed shouting into the tree wrapping machine which they thought was a giant megaphone!

The Sanders Family

Our family

Is it too soon to arrange a marriage? Just kidding!

Kitchen Renovations

For all the out of town family, here are a few photos of the newly renovated kitchen. I love my new kitchen! We were able to knock down a wall between the kitchen and breakfast room, and make one large farm style kitchen.

Raking Leaves

This afternoon I took the children outside for some fresh air and to make a small dent in our overwhelming amount of leaves. The children love to be outside and they are enjoying the new game of playing in the leaves. Speaking of leaves - we have a plethora of leaves and a large group from our care group came over and helped us rake last saturday. We are so grateful for our care group and were so thankful for the help we received. What was so funny was that after everyone left, we had a downpour and there were just as many leaves on the ground after the rain as there were before everyone came to help!

October Photos

I don't know why I didn't post these photos last month, but here are a few photos from Halloween night with the Cooper family. We were planning on going to a local fall festival, but with the threat of rain, we changed our plans. We picked a "costume" out of our dress up box and visited a few of our neighbors. Karis had a blast and really enjoyed seeing her neighbors friends - not to mention the 12 or so pieces of candy she collected in her sand pail.

I love the photo of Joshua trying to bite his sister's wings!

Fall Snack/Picnic

Karis has been asking to go on a picnic and pretending to picnic for several days. So, on a recent warm day, we had a "picnic" in our backyard. Karis packed the picnic in her Dora lunchbox (bananas, graham crackers and raisins) and the children ate on their new childsize picnic table that I got for $2 at a garage sale.

Karis was thrilled and hasn't asked to picnic since. I guess she was satisfied.

I love that girl. She is a joy and delight!

Joshua's Buddy Andy

Here is a recent photo of Joshua and his buddy Andy.

Andy is 6 days younger than Joshua (born the same day as Philip) and the son of our good friends Dave and Krista Sagraves. They are expecting their second child in a little more than a month. So far, their second baby looks to be perfectly healthy - an answer to prayer. Andy is doing well, and we are all excited to see what the Lord has for him in the future. (Check out his story at www. sagraves.blogspot.com)
Last weekend, Dave and Krista spontaneously joined us for dinner and then helped us clean out our garage. We're very blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Breakfast Boy

Our little boy loves breakfast. He wakes up ready to eat and sits for a long period of time eating - or should I say storing up! He doesn't eat much the rest of the day, but he packs it away at the break of day. On the morning of these photos, Joshua ate a banana, a cereal bar, yogurt, and cheerios. What is funny is that I turned around to make breakfast for Karis and heard him laughing loudly. Joshua usually chuckles, but rarely laughs loudly. I turned to him to see what he was laughing at only to discover he was dropping handfuls of cheerios (with milk of course) onto Charlie's back as he (the fat beagle) was gobbling them up as fast as they were being dumped.

Fall Activity

Last weekend, Karis and I invited Rylee Ridner and Madie over for a girl's fall activity. We made gingerbread cookies and applesauce. The girls loved mixing the cookie dough. It was a fun and chaotic morning with 6 children 3 yrs old and under!

Joshua and Philip enjoy fruit of the girl's fun!

Fun Family Night

Sorry about the layout of these photos... I couldn't figure why it was doing this.

We had a fun family night tonight. Craig suprised the family with a night out begining at Chick-Fil-A and ending at the Family Bowl. Karis loves bowling, which I think is quite humorous. She picks up her 7lb ball, carries it to the line, leans over and rolls it down the alley. The she jumps up and down and cheers on her ball - "Go ball go! Knock em down!" (Her cheerleader Dad must have taught her that one!!) Then, three minutes later when her ball reaches the pins, a few topple over only to hear more cheers from our excited one.

Joshua had fun too, but couldn't understand why he couldn't pick up the balls. They were too heavy for his little muscles, but he loved being chased as he would try to run to the alley.

I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband who plans fun family activities like these. Karis will remember times like tonight.