What a Great 2008!

January: After living in our house for 4 1/2 years we finally got around to painting our bathroom.

February: This is the first snowman we built since we've lived in our house.

February: We had about 30 inches of snow. We couldn't even get into our driveway. We ended up parking at a nearby church and walking home.

February: Because of the huge storm we had we lost power for several hours . We didn't end up going to bed until 2am when the power finally came back on.

February: The snow on our front lawn was taller than Kelly.

February: Meeting of the tribes belly dance show. This has been one of Kelly's favorites so far.

March: Kelly found out that she was 7 weeks pregnant. What an exciting adventure this was.

March: Belly dance spring festival We were trying to pose in a heart shape.

March: The Ogden Nature Center cares for wild turkeys. Did you know they slept in trees? Who knew they could fly that high.

March: We were dog sitting for my friend Nina and her husband James. Gus is such a cute puppy. He had tons of energy and always wanted to play.

March: Paul received an award from work (division of wildlife resources) for aquatics section employee of the year.

April: Paul spent a day in the Pilot Mountains spawning a rare strain of cutthroat trout and looking at the after affects of a fire. The wind was blowing at about 45 mph all day...can you say cold?

April: We had quite a few different birds visit our back yard this year. This robin was drinking from our bird bath.

May: Arrowleaf Balsamroot is one of the earliest and most conspicuous wildflowers to bloom. The entire hillside east of Ogden was yellow from this bloom.

May: We received a visit from several black headed grossbeaks during the spring.

May: A closeup of arrowleaf balsamroot.

May: Our wildflower garden really took shape this spring with lupine and blue flax.

June: Kelly was 19 weeks along and just barely beginning to show.

June: We went to see STOMP in SLC. What an awesome show. Who knew listening to rhythmic banging would be so much fun.

June: 2008 was a spectacular year for the green gentian. This plant is said to live for up to 30 years and it only blooms once. Paul was lucky to witness a large bloom near the Uinta Mountains.

July: Kelly's parents along with Craig and Olga came for a visit.

July: The Pocatello fireworks for are the biggest and best around.

July: Craig and Olga's wedding reception

July: When hiking in Monte Cristo campground we found snow.

July: Kelly's 30th birthday

July: Weber State University Corps Encore, a semi-final competition

August: A western scrub jay visits our feeder.

August: Kelly 28 weeks

August: West Clinton special ed team baby shower for Brooke and Kelly

August: Basement office finally finished. What an awesome job Paul did.

August: Paul was lucky enough to catch some lightning during one of the few summer thunderstorms. How often can you catch a photo like this?

August: Visiting with my college friend Brandi in SLC

August: Anni-Birthary Celebration

September: We were lucky enough to catch photo of a broadtailed hummingbird.

September: Throughout the latter part of the summer Paul observed Mellisodes bees "sleeping" on sunflowers at night. Did you know bees sleep curled up on flowers?

September: Kelly's friend Annie came for a visit.

September: Baby shower given by Shannon and Amber

September: Cooper's room is finally done!

September: A very miserable Kelly!

October: Rachel and Paul threw a surprise virtual baby shower using Skype

October: Day before delivery

October 12: Cooper Edward Burnett, 5lb 10oz, 19 inches long, born at 6:52 pm.

October: The Burnett Family.

October: Cooper meets Uncle Craig and Aunt Olga

October: Cooper's first Halloween

November: Fall colors in our back yard.

November: Great Grandma Beulah and Cooper

November: Grammy Terry and Grandpa Ed visit Cooper

November: One of our creative sleep techniques to get Cooper to stay asleep

November: Daddy's first time alone with Cooper

December: A precious Cooper sleeping on the living room floor

December: A beautiful sunset after a day of snow

December: Cooper starting to talk and coo

December: Cooper's first Christmas

December: New Year's Eve with the Sandstrom Family

December: Sandstrom/Burnett Family photo



December: Cooper holding his head up

Christmas in January

I love the holiday season, especially when it happens 3 times in a row. Since Paul's parents were not able to make it for the actual Christmas they came this past weekend.
Here we are opening a few presents.

These are a bunch of snowmen ornaments. Lately I've been into decorating with snowmen. We even have a tree topper snowman. Someday I want to do an entire tree with snowmen ornaments. Paul is not too crazy about that idea.


Both Paul and his dad had fish themed presents. Paul received a really neat underwater picture of fish and his dad received a handmade fishing net.



Terry is holding a scrapbook full of Cooper photos. Now they can look at him all year round.



The family unit.

Cooper exercising his arms.

Cooper loves to look at faces.

Cooper is beginning to sit up when supported. He really enjoyed having Grammy read him books.

Cooper was so tired because he didn't sleep more then 30- 40 minutes at a time for his naps. He was so tired he was falling asleep while playing.

Thanks for a fun weekend Grammy and Grandpa Burnett!

Snot Sucker

Cooper has developed his first cold or so we think. His nose has been extremely stuffy and he sneezes and coughs a lot because the mucus is dripping down the back of his throat. This has made it quite difficult for him to eat and sleep. I have been trying to suck the mucus out of his nose every few hours or as needed to try and keep him clear. Those of you living in UT know how bad our air quality can become and we think this could be the cause. It could also be because he's been around many other snotty-nosed kids at daycare.

Surprisingly, Cooper is very very tolerant of having his nose sucked out. Thanks to my friend Brandi who suggested the idea, we asked for and received a battery powered nasal aspirator. It's the best invention in the world. I don't know what we would do without it. I can't believe the snot that comes out with this thing. I just turn it on and Cooper knows exactly what's going to happen. It's even stopped him from fussing a few times. Who knew.

So yesterday was Paul's first experience using the nasal aspirator. I'm usually the nose nazi.
I happened to catch a funny video of Paul and Cooper. Notice in the video how Cooper smiles when Paul stops in between nostrils. We are so lucky to have a very tolerant baby.





Here is a picture of me being the nose nazi. If you can, click on the picture and enlarge it. Notice the face on Grammy as I'm intently sucking out the snot.

Instruction Manual Please!

Cooper's first three days at daycare were very successful. I had been so worried that things wouldn't go well. He handled it much better than I did. When at daycare Cooper ate good including burping good and minimal spitting up, played hard with the other kids, and took 2 1/2 hour naps, even while other kids were screaming, running around, and banging on the piano. When I picked him up on Wednesday I had to wake him up. And surprisingly, since he hadn't eaten a third bottle, the ride home was very pleasant, no crying or fussing at all. Since I go back to work this coming Tuesday, I decided that I wanted to spend one last mommy day with Cooper. So Thursday was the day we stayed home and played. I thought since Cooper had a successful first week at daycare things would be just as good at home. Apparently, Cooper had other plans.

Cooper decided that during the day he didn't want to sleep at all. Every time I tried to put him down for a nap he would only sleep 1/2 hour at a time and then wake up fussing and crying. Now I know that Paul and I are rookie parents and Stephanie (daycare provider) has taken care of kids for over 15 years, but come on, only sleeping 1/2 hour?! And we have also had trouble getting him to burp. And if he does it usually includes a nice mixture of spit up. What's up with that Cooper?! Stephanie said that when it's time for Cooper to take his nap she wraps him up in a blanket, lays him in the crib, and that's that. Within 5 minutes he is asleep and stays asleep for a long time. At home it takes me at least 15 minutes just to get him to go to sleep. And forget about staying asleep. Exactly 1/2 hour after he has been placed in his crib he is wide awake. This his how it's been all weekend.

Today has been an especially frustrating day. I nursed him this morning at 6:00. Then at 8:00 he wanted to get up. So daddy got him up, and boy was he grumpy! While changing his diaper he screamed through the whole thing. This never happens with Cooper. He usually loves his diaper changed. Then Grammy and Grampy held him for a few minutes before he started crying in desperation because he was starving. After feeding him a bottle (which he didn't eat very much of) he fell asleep in Grammy's arms. Nap time! NOT! When I was wrapping Cooper up in his blanket he started laughing and smiling at me. Then Grammy tried to rock him to sleep and all he did was stare at her wide awake. We got him up and played with him for another 45 minutes. By then he had been awake for over 2 hours and had not had a morning nap. When I put him down for his second nap I gave him his pacifier and he was asleep in seconds! I thought this was a great sign that he was exhausted and would sleep for at least an hour. Boy was I completely wrong!! He only slept for 20 minutes. So we thought rocking him back to sleep would help.
NOT!

This is Cooper after 15 minutes of rocking! Does he look tired after only sleeping 20 minutes all morning? You'd never know he didn't sleep by the way he was acting.













So dad continued to rock him and a few minutes later we were here. ( see picture)












Still awake, but calm and not smiling.

Then a few minutes later we end up with this picture.











This is Paul giving a what-the-heck look as Cooper is pooping in his diaper. There goes another nap. After changing his diaper Cooper was wide awake, smiling and laughing for 10 minutes until again he started crying, dying to eat. During the bottle, he spit up so much that he went through 3 bibs. And most of it ended up on Paul! As far as we know he hardly ever spits up at daycare. What are we doing wrong! Oh it's so obvious that we are rookie parents. Especially since I blog in great detail about his entire day. Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated. I want to remember this so when he has kids some day I can look back laugh and say " it's payback time!" That's what our parents have done to us. I have to say one last thing. Even though Cooper doesn't sleep when at home, we have been blessed with a very happy child. Paul and I are so thankful for this.