Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Ballerina

Karis loves her ballet class. Ann Lamachia teaches 3 ballet classes to different age groups at our church. She is very excited to have her end of the year ballet recital on May 6th. Here she is in her recital attire. Ballet has been very good for Karis. She has learned more than just how to do "tiny runs", "the flamingo posse", "toe taps", and the "cat and mouse". She has learned more about taking turns, remaining quiet in a class setting, controling her body, and participating in group activities.

Karis loves Ms. Ann. She makes ballet artwork for her weekly.

Thank you Ann for all that you teach these little ladies! They are learning more from you than you would imagine! Although the Lord gave you a house full of boys, your delicate nature is teaching my little one and the others as well. Thank you for your investment into their lives and the impression that you are leaving with them. A moment that makes me smile happened the other night as I was putting Karis to bed. She sat up and told me that she was learning a dance to a song that she recognized at church. She told me that it was for the recital and she thought it was supposed to be a suprise. She didn't even notice that if it was a suprise - she ruined it!! But what I loved about that moment was that Karis could sing the song to me and she told me that it was all about Jesus! Thank you Ann.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Tough Guy Joshua

This is Joshua's tough guy move! He is really becoming a tough little boy. He still wants to wear fairy wings from his sister's dress up collection - but less frequently! Actually, he hasn't wanted to in weeks and instead he has been playing with his army men collection and climbing on anything he can. Recently he climbed on our swing set as high as he could go and tried to jump off! Good thing his second mother, Karis was there to shout at him not to - and I of course was close behind to remove him from the high place!
"Who me? What did I do?"

Here's my sweet guy! His horid haircut is finally starting to grow out!


Here is the jumping maniac!

Worms

I don't know how it started...but our two older children are very interested in finding worms. They turn over every rock in our backyard looking for them. A few days ago it rained, and when the sun came out I sent them out in their rainboots (a favorite in and of itself). I didn't expect them to find as many worms as they did. With the recent rain there were a ton of worms close to the surface of the ground! They got a bucket and started collecting them.


I know, it is gross to me too. But I am trying not to pass on my aversion to bugs! My mother would scold me if I did!

The worm's fate is as expected...either death by crushing from the not so gentle Joshua, or burried alive in the sand box by Karis - who prides herself on being gentle to them! Too bad we weren't going fishing that afternoon - we would have had plenty of bait!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Few Funnies

Karis has been saying a lot of funny things lately. Her vocabulary is amazing to me. To think that she didn't talk until 2 1/2 years old... now she doesn't stop! Here are a few of the funny things she has said recently:

"Mommy, I know you are allergic to real kitties...but are you allergic to pretend ones too?"

At the breakfast table: "Mommy, I know why they call this oatmeal! It is because it is made of oats and we eat it as a meal!" Once I tried to explain to her what meal is and how they roll out the oats she laughed and said, "Roll out oats... that is so funny Mommy"

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Sweet Baby

Here are a few new photos of our sweet little one. She is so sweet. Being 6 weeks old, she is beginning to smile a lot and coo a little too. Karis gets a lot of smiles from Charlotte. It has been amazing to me how great of a big sister Karis is. She is really helpful with Charlotte.



It is hard to catch her smiles on camera because they come and go so quickly and eratically, but here is a blurry shot of the end of one of her smiles. It melts my heart!

This was too funny for me to not post. Charlotte sneezed right as I took a photo!


I took this photo on Monday - and I want to take it again when the light is better. But I still thought it was sweet.

We are thankful for the mercy of God on our lives. There has been so much grace with the addition of our third child. I am continually amazed and humbled as I contemplate the steadfast love of God to an undeserving mom like me!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mommy's Make-up

This is NOT a black eye! Joshua disappeared upstairs for a few minutes - and when we went to go find him - this is what we saw!

Seatbelt Lessons

Since we broke into the backseat of our van with the addition of our third child, we began to teach Karis how to buckle her own seat belt. I didn't want to have to climb into the back of the van to buckle Karis every time we went somewhere, so we made a family activity out of seatbelt lessons.
Joshua cheered Karis on as Craig tried to teach her how to buckle. Honestly, I thought it would be a process of her figuring it out, but Craig is such a patient instructor, and she got it quickly! I asked Craig what other little tasks we could teach her!!



Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A few More Photos of Charlotte

Finally, a few more photos! I haven't beeen able to upload photos for a few days - for some reason the server was down...

A big thanks to Melanie Oldacre who took photos of Charlotte and us the night that she was born and posted them here the next day.


Craig and our three children!!


Our new family of 5!


Charlotte - 2 days old
Karis holding her little sister the day we came home from the hospital. The children love to hold their baby sister!


Monday, March 03, 2008

Charlotte Elyse born today March 3, 2008

Welcome Charlotte Elyse!
Baby Charlotte was born today, March 3 at 11:38 a.m.
7 pounds 14 ounces
21 inches

Laura said this was her best delivery yet! What an answer to prayer! Thank you Lord for your kindness and the gift that Charlotte is to the Cooper family.










Saturday, February 16, 2008

Valentine's Day Tradition

Sadly, we did Valentine's Day without Daddy this year, but we still had a fun day. This year Karis came downstairs and opened the door into the kitchen and shouted her arrival with a VERY loud, "Happy Valentine's Day!" She loves holidays and gets very excited about them. It is sweet to me that she is beginning to remember the traditions too. She asked if we were going to have heart shaped pancakes and treats in the valentines mailboxes. That meant a lot to me - that she remembered what we did the last two Valentine's Day.

Karis and her heart pancake
Joshua and his heart pancake

Our Valentine's Day mailboxes. This year they had Pez candies, M&M's and a sucker. My sister said I sounded red-neck to say sucker!!! But, that is what they call them down here - no one says lollypop! Isn't that funny?


Karis and I made mini cupcakes the day before Valentine's Day.

She took her job of putting the heart candies on the top of the cupcakes very seriously, and wanted to make sure that we had a photo of just the cupcakes so that we would remember the heart candies on top!

Daddy is home!!

We're thrilled that Daddy is home from a 4 day trip to the Sovereign Grace Pastor's College... but we are not thrilled that he has the flu! Somehow, Craig picked up the flu virus while he was traveling, and we are being EXTRA cautious with him at home. He is quarantined to Karis' room and the guest bathroom, and Karis and I are sleeping together in my bed. With two weeks and two days until the due date of our third child, we are praying that the flu virus will end in the Cooper home with Craig!

Craig had a great time at the Pastor's College - seeing friends that he hasn't seen in many years, and receiving great teaching from Mike Bullmore, Jeff Purswell, and CJ Mahaney. Who wouldn't have a great time! Craig said that one session Mike Bullmore preached a normal message, and then the next session he taught on why he did the things he did in the message. I know this week will be very helpful to Craig. I am so glad this little girl didn't decide to come early so that Craig could attend the conference.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Ballet

Tuesday's are Ballet Day and a favorite for the children! Joshua loves to run around in the lobby while Karis takes her ballet class. Ann Lamachia is very kind to teach the young girls in our church beginning ballet classes at an affordable price. And she does a GREAT job! Karis is often making Ms. Ann cards telling her how much she loves her!







Warm February Day

Today was so beautiful - after a few really rainy days, we enjoyed an afternoon outside!



Superbowl in the Cooper Home

The superbowl in our house was spent in PJ's eating chili and drinking root beer. Well, we were all in our PJ's except Karis - who came dressed for the ball. She would live in her Cinderella dress up costume if we let her!

Joshua was so excited to cheer with Craig! Anytime that Craig cheered, he would shake his fist and scream Go! Go!


Friday, February 01, 2008

Little Guitarist

Joshua has always enjoyed playing his mini guitar. For a few months he hasn't even picked it up. We are back to him playing it nearly every day! And he has developed his volume over the last few months! This new baby will be able to sleep anywhere with a big brother like Joshua!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Big Boy Bed

Recently we switched Joshua to a toddler sized bed. He loves his "big boy bed". I thought that it would be so hard to switch him from a crib to a bed, but he took to it right away. I am thankful for the easy transition as we will be needing the crib for his new sister soon!


Karis was very eager to help put Joshua's bed together. Here she is tightening all the screws.
Joshua helped too by "holding" the headboard for Karis!

We tip toed into the little guy's room after he was asleep to take a photo. It was so sweet to see him all stretched out with room to spare!

Turkey Puppets

Joshua occasionally puts on a puppet show with these little finger puppets that Craig's parents gave the children around Thanksgiving. Sometimes the puppets are dolls, or even my oven mits! He has figured out that you don't want your body to be seen - it is really cute. Of course, when he is acting out the puppets, you can't understand a word he says.

Puppets as seen from the audience


Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More Holiday Photos

Craig and Joshua snuggled up for a little Christmas Eve snooze


Playing with the newest car additions. Joshua loves playing with cars.

This is so funny to me. This is our nativity scene that we put out every Christmas. I kept finding it set up like this. I would fix it the way I thought it should be, and sure enough, within the day, this is how I would find it. I finally asked Karis if she kept changing it. She said, "Yes, because it was set up wrong! When Jesus was born, they all gathered AROUND him." In her mind, it should be as it really was, not set up like a stage - I guess. I also thought that it was funny the way that she put the animals.

We had Joshua "give" Karis a dress up outfit.

Karis playing with a new playdough set