Coopers Yo Gabba Gabba Party

We have had an excellent week! Our little guy turned two on Wednesday. We spent the day enjoying time together. I had a doctors appointment and afterwards we went to Chic-Fil-A for some breakfast and ice cream. Afterwards we thought it would be fun to take Cooper to Target and let him pick out a toy. We spent about 45 minutes in the toy isles as he picked toy after toy, he didn't hold interest in any one in particular for very long. Right now he is most drawn to Disney Cars toys and the Leap Frog computers. We ended up picking out a Sit and Spin for him, I thought he would love it if he knew what it did, well he is still trying to figure it out but for now he thinks it makes a nice stool.
On Friday we had lots of friends over for a Yo Gabba Gabba Birtday Party! Yo Gabba is a pretty weird show but we love it. Cooper is very interactive when he watches the show, he dances, makes faces and mimicks the characters. Every morning he says to me "me mant babba momma" which translates to I want to watch Yo Gabba mom. So in deciding to do the Gabba party I decided to make a Pinata in the shape of pink Foofa's head, do a pin the eye on Muno game and make DJ Lance cupcakes, Chocolate with and orange frosting hat and yellow star. I had a few other games to tie in Brobie, TooDee and Plex but I was too tired to go through with those games so I borrowed a bounce house from my friend and it was a blast. We had about 20 kids and 12 adults, we thought it could be a crying chaotic mess but everyone had lots of fun and the kids all played well together! One of my favorite parts of the party was watching Cooper try to pin the eye on Muno and the Pinata was fun because since I made it and made it a little thick it was tough to break, the kids were able to dent it a little but in the end Kev had to stomp on it to crack it open.
After the party we relaxed a little then went to launch a rocket with some friends by the church. The rocket landed on the roof of the church and when Kevin was boosting our friend onto the roof to get it some guy got mad at them so we retrieved the rocket and decided to do the rest of the launches another day. We ended the party night by blowing up the bounce house again and playing with Coop. It's been a fun time!

Cooper Man

Cooper is turning into a little boy so fast. I can't believe that in 5 weeks there will be a little baby girl and Cooper won't be my baby any more. He is so fun right now but he is also so naughty sometimes! He loves to take baths now and several times a day will come up to me with all his bath cars in hand and say mommy bath? Bath? As soon as we get him dressed for the day he runs into the bathroom saying Hair, Hair? He loves getting the pomade in his hair and sometimes when we aren't careful he gets into it himself and tries to do his own hair. I just wish he was as excited about having his hair cut as he is about having it styled. He hates to have his diaper changed and runs away and wiggles and squirms, it's often a two man job now that he is bigger and so am I, I have just been so grateful Kev has had so much time off to help me keep up with him. He loves to yell and sing and dance and can get pretty wild on the dance floor. His vocabulary is exploding right now and it is so nice to be able to communicate though there is still quite a bit of mystery language going on. He seems to be starting early with the tantrums and will lay flat on the ground when he doesn't get his way, we are learning how to best deal with this problem. He isn't a big eater but has his favorites, milk being the first still. He does like eggs, noodles, steak, popcorn, edamame, oranges, yogurt and cheese most of the time. Occasionally corn dogs and chicken nuggets will float his boat. He doesn't like chocolate milk or chocolate candies which I think is awesome except for when he does eat it and then spits out a slimy chocolaty drooly blob on my carpet. He does enjoy helping me in the kitchen and though it often makes us nervous or makes a bigger mess it is fun to have a cooking buddy.
We sure are having fun with this little monster, and even though I can't wait for our little girl to be here I sure am enjoying my time with Cooper, most the time...

Christmas Festivities

We have had a fabulous week of Christmas celebrations. We started out the week by going to Six Flags and Sea World with some friends. We have loved having passes and living so close to these amusement parks. Kev loved all the roller coasters, Coop loved to dance during all the Christmas musical shows and I loved all the lights and the hot chocolate at Six Flags. On Friday we had some friends over for a Christmas party we had delicious food and a fun white elephant but the highlight was a snowball fight using wadded up pieces of paper. Originally I thought it would be five minutes of fun for the kids,but the grown ups got into it and for about 15 minutes there was screaming and laughing and wads of paper whizzing through the air non stop. It was a hit!
We had a lovely relaxing Christmas Eve, enjoyed some Mexican food and light seeing with some good friends and then we headed home to get Cooper to bed and set up the presents. It was fun staying up with Kevin and getting Christmas ready for Cooper. We got him a train table and we couldn't wait to see his face Christmas morning.
Christmas morning I woke up early with excitement and had to wait nearly an hour for Cooper to get up. Once he did we changed him and got him ready to see his gift. He was very confused and cautious as he approached the train table and mini chair. He stared at it for a little bit before he started to grab trains. He was great though, once he realized there were fun toys under the wrapping paper and that all this stuff was for him he was loving it. He would come open a present, then say help me and we would open it for him, he'd admire it for a minute or two and then go back to the train table or sit in his chair and look at a book. All presents were opened within an hour and then we had a delicious breakfast. I loved being able to go to church on Christmas Day. We had a wonderful Sacrament meeting and came home to relax a little before Kate and Jed joined us for dinner and some Wii Sports.
It was a lovely day, I wish I had taken more pictures throughout the week but I know that it will still be a memorable Christmas forever.

Most Delicious Easy Fudge

A few years ago I made some extra delicious old fashioned fudge. It was amazing and though it was a lot of work, it was worth it and I was proud. I took it home to my family and several of them said oh it's good but have you had Collynn's fudge!? I was a little offended but then I had Collynn's fudge and wowzers, it was awesome. So I now save myself the hassle of old fashioned fudge and I make my sisters super easy fudge recipe.

Easy Fudge
4 Symphony bars, I like to use the toffee and almond kind
2 sticks butter
1 can evaporated milk
4 cups sugar

Break up the chocolate bars and cut the butter into smaller pieces and dump into you mixer.
Bring sugar and evaporated milk to a boil in a large sauce pan on medium high heat, it bubbles up a lot. Stir constantly and boil for 10 minutes, it will turn a light brown color.
Pour boiling mixture into mixer over chocolate and butter and mix till smooth.
If you want to add a couple handfuls of marshmallows that's cool.
Pour into a sheet pan lined with parchment or pipe into individual mini cupcake wrappers.
Chill for a few hours. YUM

Utah Fun

After 7 weeks in Utah we have returned to San Antonio. We had a great time in Utah, I think we will miss all the cousins the most. It was so fun to see Cooper play with all his cousins.

My Sister Leann and her boys Max and Scout. For a few days we a full house with 3 of my sisters and 5 kids and my parents upstairs and Kev Coop and I downstairs.

Sometimes it was hard to get Cooper to pose for pictures



But he loved being with cousins, especially Ruthie who is 3 every morning they would be so excited to see each other it was so cute.



My little sister Collynn got married on Saturday. It was awesome to be there for it. Her and Owen are so happy and they can all live together now with all the kids. I made the cake and cupcakes. It was disastrous because I didn't have enough fondant or energy to make it look proper so we covered it in flowers and it turned out quite nice!

Just a little update...

We love how fun Coop has been lately, he is talking so much more and he is usually happy and fun to be around. He is having so much fun in Utah being around grandparents and cousins. We are staying at my parents house and my sister and her 3 kids are here too. Ruthie is 3 and she and Cooper have so much fun. He loves to imitate all her actions and they just giggle and have lots of fun together. I think its good for him to be around cousins because it toughens him up and teaches him to share. He is an all star dancer and busts out some of the silliest moves. He is super into cars and loves Cars 2. He has collected so many little cars for him to line up and play with.
We are having fun in Utah. We got sick the first part but are feeling good now. I am a little homesick for my house and friends in SA but we have some fun things planned for this trip. Kev is having a good time at the University of Utah but I can not wait for him to be done so we can relax and have fun.

Halloween 2011

We had a blast this weekend. My family had the annual Halloween party on Saturday. My mom treated us with the Viva Las Vegas dance from Just Dance on the wii. She was an excellent Bandito. Kev pulled together a last minute costume, and we had a great time all dressed up. Sunday we carved some pumpkins and Coop got right in there to help out. Halloween was a little sad because Kevin was on call and so he couldn't come trick or treating with us. Cooper loved it though, he would stand right up to the door and knock until they answered and then carefully pick out a treat. He kept his dragon tail and hood on the whole time and sometimes did jumping tricks for the the treats. He is cute and fun. I like it a lot.