Happy 4th Birthday Samantha!

Shelbie loves her cousin Samantha. It is so nice for her and Miles to have a cousin that lives in the same town (only about a mile away actually). They always have so much fun together. Whenever they see each other they give big hugs and when ever they leave each other Shelbie says in her saddest voice, "Bye Sanampa, I miss you".
Today Aunt Alison threw a fun girl birthday party for Samantha's birthday. The 6 girls painted butterfly wings, played, ate, and had some water fun at the end. Below are a few pictures of the festivities.
Above is Samantha and Shelbie talking about the food that they picked out. Below is Coral chowing down with some cantaloupe in her mouth.
Here is Shelbie sliding down the slide. She was a little nervous at first to go, but I told her that it was fun and so she went. She then told me, "Mommy, you were right, it was really fun." I sure do love that girl!

Pink Nails!

Shelbie has been really into wearing dresses that twirl lately and asking me if she looks fancy. Sometimes I wonder wear she comes up with some of the stuff that she says and does. The other morning out of the blue she came up to me and told me that she wanted pink fingernails. She picked out not just pink, but hot pink and she preceded to show everyone that she came in contact with. It's so funny to me when she acts so girly cause the next minute she's playing around in the dirt.

Coral Update

Coral is our precious, silly, smiley, sweet handful. She's discovering that a lot of her day is consumed with being in the car going hear and there and every where, therefore, she doesn't always get to be home to have a specific nap time. She has started being really good at taking power naps, whether it be in the car, in her crib, or even on the floor. Today I caught her resting on the living room floor. Now take it she's not sleeping but for her any time that she is still for longer than 2 seconds is something to mention. Coral is geting really good at her walking skills and is walking about 50% of the time. Below she is looking for a snack, I guess, in the frig. I was getting something out and before I could close the door all the way Coral squeezes her way in and is very content to stay there. Her face says it all!

Arts and Crafts!

The kids have been really into making arts and crafts lately and I have been letting them go at it. They usually make these pictures with tons of pom poms on them and random other things. Miles, of course, usually comes up with some explanation of what it is that makes no sense. Then Shelbie just asks me if I like hers and either decides to give it to someone or keep it all to herself. Now I am left with all of these projects that I haven't a clue what to do with. They normally get piled up in the corner of the kitchen counter and then I slowly start disposing of them. However, I wish it were that easy cause just a soon as I dispose of them Miles or Shelbie will ask me were there so and so is - just my luck!
Below is a picture of there latest project, painting there own t-shirts. They did have a lot of fun with fabric paint and different sponges, but Miles now claims that the shirt is way to itchy to wear, oh dear.

"Oh, Miles, that's really interesting"

Miles came up with another one of his "inventions" today, but this time it included much larger objects. Shelbie pretty much goes along with whatever Miles says that it is. Hey, they had a blast and it kept them occupied for at least 30 minutes.

Eat Coral Eat!

My pediatrician once told me that a baby, or young child, will not over eat; when they are done they will let you know. I some times wonder if this statement is true when I watch Coral eat. She loves to eat and will pretty much eat anything that I put in front of her or put in her mouth. She grabs handfuls and stuffs it into her mouth and then goes for more(some times I feel like she's not even chewing). She will eventually start playing with her food or dropping it and then I know that she has had enough, however, this is after many many trays full of food.
Here Miss Coral is going to town with some cream cheese chicken and green beans.

Miles 1st Day At Kindergarten

Miles has been so excited to start kindergarten for over 6 months now and the day finally came when he got to go. The whole family went to walk him in on his first day and say our goodbyes. He was so grown up and showed no emotion about us leaving him. He helped me make his lunch this morning and was glad when I told him that I forgot to bring him a drink for lunch because that meant that I got to put money in his lunch box for him to buy some chocolate milk. I managed to get a few pictures, but he did say to me, "Mommy, I'm at school. no pictures."
Me and my big boy!
Coral is always so chill and goes with the flow.
Below is Shelbie in all of her sad and pouting glory. She was devastated when Miles got to go to school and she didn't. She is going to a joy school/preschool two days a week, but that doesn't start for a few weeks. It was an extra blow when we went to play group this morning after we dropped Miles off and her cousin Samantha wasn't their cause she started V-PK today. Sad Sad Shelbie. She even carried her backpack around with her most of the day.
When I picked Miles up here are a few of the details that I got about his day:
"That is the best school ever. My teacher is really nice. The PE teachers name is Ms. Coach. We did exercises in PE and got to play with a parachute. We made play dough and then got to play with it. I did an art project and left it at school. I played with marbles. I learned not to be naughty. We played on the playground, but not the one that I wanted to play on so I was upset. I ate lunch in a restaurant. I learned a song (and then he preceded to sing it to me). Shelbie you need to go to that school (thanks Miles, but that really doesn't help!) I love my school and it is totally awesome."
I guess you could say that he had a good day. Wish me luck dealing with Shelbie cause I have a feeling that she's going to be sad, or "not happy" as she would put it, for a while.

Playground meets approval!

Today we went to Miles' school to met his teacher and see his classroom. His teacher and teacher assistant were really nice and he was really excited. They had Popsicles for everyone and they showed the kids their garden for this year and how they're going to get to help plant plants in it. After Miles checked everything out he started to ask me about the schools playground. He kept asking me until I took him to go see it. I guess the playground is one of the most important things in Miles' mind and it definitely had his approval! Below are some pictures of the kids on the playground.
Coral did great throughout the whole journey and was content to be pushed around in the stroller, as long as she got some attention every now and then.

The Terrorizer!

Coral is quickly becoming our own personal terrorizer. She follows closely behind you where ever you go and as soon as she stops she starts terrorizing anything that is in her reach. She loves pulling apart the pantry, the cabinets, the tupperware drawers, the books that are on the book shelf, and anything else she can find. Here are some pictures of one of her favorite places to ransack, my sock bins. I really don't know why I have this many socks, maybe it's for this sole purpose of something else for Coral to mess up. She's just so darn cute that it's hard to get mad at that face.

Potters over to Play

Yesterday Grants oldest sister Lori came into town with her three kids for a short visit. We had everyone over to our house for a Sunday dinner. Miles and Shelbie just love their Potter cousins. Below are a few pictures of their fun.
Here is Shelbie and Lydia having a picnic. Lydia is so good with Shelbie and is such a good little mommy. I also found Shelbie walking around the house asking where her mommy went, not referring to me but to Lydia, so cute!
Dalton was so awesome to play with Miles and help him build this awesome lincoln log house. You can tell by the big smile on Miles' face how happy he is. Way to go boys!
When I made Coral her bottle Lydia immediately asked if she could feed it to her. She did a great job.

An Overdue Day of Diving.

Yesterday I was so excited to get back out on the water again for a whole day. It's really hard to get someone to watch the kids all day long so I'm not able to go diving very much. I really enjoy being under water and seeing a whole different world down there. Thanks to Grandma Cooper and my niece Morgan I was able to go with Grant and a few others. the kids had a blast and I don't think that they missed me for a second. I do get a little motion sick, but with some deep breathing and focusing on the horizon I can tough it out.
The picture below is a stringer, sorry that you can't see it that well, of 5 Hog fish. On one of the dives that I went down with Grant I borrowed one of the other guys spear gun and Grant helped point out which fish to shoot for and then let me go at it. It was a lot of fun having your own gun to hold and shoot at fish. I'm still not good at all the regulations about how big certain fish need to be before you can shoot them so lucky I had Grant there to help me out. Grant pretty much helped me all day long on the boat when I wasn't felling so well and I love him so much for taking care of me. We cooked up a few of the Hog fish today and it was so good, especially knowing that I shot it just 24 hours ago.

The sun was going down right when we were starting to head back in and it was so beautiful!

5 Steps!

Well, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I blogged about my baby Coral walking and here she is! Tonight Coral was up a little later than Miles and Shelbie (due to the long nap that she finally took) and she started letting go of the couch, or stroller, or wall and then preceded to take a few steps. Before long she had taken up to 5 steps at a time. She was so proud of herself and had this confused look on her face like she couldn't believe what she was doing.
She'll be 10 months old on Saturday and growing up so fast. Hopefully she takes the walking thing slowly, but it was fun to watch
her figure out that she could put her legs one in front of the other.
Way to go Coral, just take it slow for the sake of your mother, Please!

The Object Lesson of the Year!

Ok, all you need for this object lesson is a paper plate folded in half to make a crease, some pudding, and some toilet paper.

Lesson: if you have kids that are having trouble learning proper and clean bottom wiping skills then this lesson is for you. All you need to do is take the folded paper plate, place the pudding inside the plate and hold upside down at an angle. Then take the toilet paper and by example show the correct way to wipe your "bottom" or paper plate. Now you can give the toilet paper to your kids and let them give it a try.
There is a chant that goes along with this lesson to emphasize proper wiping technique and if goes like this:
"Pinch, pinch
wipe forward, wipe backward
scrub
poop check"

Seriously, I am not making this up. I guess Grant had had enough tonight with wiping issues cause I sat back and nearly busted a gut as I heard the whole object lesson come to pass. When it was all over, about 15 mintues later, he preceded to tell me that he was going to do it over and over again until they got it perfect. Then as I was putting Miles and Shelbie to bed they preceded to repeat the chant over and over again. Oh my goodness I really needed that laugh.

Playtime

We haven't been up to to much the last few days, except the normal errands, the gym, and playing. I decided to share a few pics of what goes on on a normal play day for the kids.
Usually Shelbie always has some sort of interesting outfit on. Lately it has been these butterfly wings. She also prefers to wear a dress.
It amazes me that Miles still, after 3 years, loves his trains. He asked me today to help him build a train track like Santa built him one year. He's referring to two years ago might I add. Some people say that kids don't remember much from when they are young, but Miles is definitely the exception to that statement. He's always bringing up stuff from the past and asking if we can go do that again, or build that again, or what ever it might be.
You might be wondering were Coral is in all this playing, well she's usually close by trying to keep up with her siblings. She's walking all along the wall now and some time soon I'll probably be posting about her walking for real, heaven help me, she's only going to be 10 months in a few days.

To Tired!

Coral missed her usual nap time yesterday because she decided to poop right after she fell asleep and then woke up within a few minutes so I changed her and then there was no going back to sleep. Around 4 pm I took the kids over to a neighbors to play with their friend and swim in his pool. I put Coral in the stroller for the short walk and gave her a juice bottle. By the time we got there she was passed out in the heat, you can see that she's sweating. She slept the whole that we were there and on the walk back home.

She actually did that same thing at nap time today, and I tried to put her in her stroller and walk her around, but it didn't work the second time, ah well it was worth a try.

Sunday Dinner, Cooper Style

Every Sunday we try and get together with Grants family and have a nice meal. It's always good to spend time with them and it truly is wonderful how well we all get along. Ever since Grant and his brother Todd have gotten into spearfishing we have really been living it up with some awesome meals! Lately we have experimented with Thai and Chinese food, we love going to the Chinese market. Tonight we decided to have a make your own sushi rolls dinner with all the accessories. We each got to make what ever kind we wanted and them eat it up. We also had homemade won-tons and dumplings. It was a lot of fun and really yummy! Below is a really goofy picture of me holding my beloved rolls that I made myself. I know that I made it, but I must say that it was good.