Cooper's 3rd Birthday Party

In October Cooper turned three years old.  Most of all of our family was able to come down to UT to celebrate Cooper's 3rd birthday.  Grammy Rachel was thoughtful enough to make Cooper a Mickey Mouse costume for Halloween.

 

We found a Mickey Mouse balloon that was perfect for the party.

 

Friday morning all the boys went fishing.  This was Cooper's idea of fishing, eating chips and throwing rocks.

I am so thankful that the weather was beautiful outside.   Cooper has been riding his bike a lot and finally learned to pedal on his own!

 Cooper has recently discovered Frisbee throwing.  He needs a little more practice at throwing.

 Erin and I decorating Cooper's Mickey Mouse cake. 

 Not quite sure what Grammy Terry is doing here.  I think Cooper is wondering the same thing.

 Mickey Mouse!  Turned out pretty cute!

 Gotta lick the frosting!  It's the best part.

 

Auntie Erin holding naked boy.  

Before the party Cooper decided he wanted to play some football.  Everyone had so much fun!

 Cooper almost caught the ball.

 What a great smile!

 And of course, he had to drive around in Monroe's jeep.  It was so nice of her to let him drive.

 Opening presents.  Cooper was so excited. We should have saved this present for last because it's all he wanted to play with.


Loves his Mickey Mouse rocket!

 He's not too sure about the books, but mom and dad enjoyed reading them.

 New big boy underwear on his head!  At least it's getting some use and staying clean.

 For Cooper's birthday dinner we decided to make sushi.  Cooper loves sushi!  Making sushi takes a long time but apparently it's worth the wait.

 The master sushi maker cutting the roles.

 Cooper was so very excited that Papi and Loretta came to eat dinner with us and have cake.

 Cooper is so silly playing with his chopsticks.

 Yummy!

 Here we are eating our sushi and steak for those of us who aren't crazy about sushi.  Although, I do have to say I did eat a few pieces and actually enjoyed them.

 More fun playing with his chopsticks!

 Yay!  Time to eat cake.  I think we sang and blew out the candles at least three times. 

 

Blowing out the candles is Cooper's favorite part.

 Cooper enjoyed playing on my iPad and making funny faces.

 Later that weekend my family went to Black Island Farms to pick pumpkins.  Cooper enjoyed the hayride, as did Mickey Mouse. 

 He wasn't quite sure what about getting a pumpkin.

 Cooper wanted to pick one that he could hold all by himself.  And he could, at least while sitting down.

 The family posing for a picture.

 What cute pumpkins we all make.

 These are some scary looking pumpkin faces!

Cooper loved going down the slide.  He even wanted to go down the big tunnel slide but  mom and dad were a little scared so, maybe next year.

 Watch out daddy and Cooper for the attack of Uncle Craig!

 Sliding down backwards is the best.  Cooper only did this because he saw other kids doing it.

 Well this looks like fun.  I think Aunt Olga needs a little help getting down.

 Cooper loved riding the train.  I think we rode it about three times.

 He also loved playing the drums and singing the ABC's.  I'm sure someday he will start his own band.

 After, we went to MacCools (Irish pub house) for dinner.  We'd never been there before and what a great place it is.  I'm glad they have one in Ogden too.  Can't wait to go there again.
 

What a cute picture of Craig and Olga.

 Cooper was a well behaved little boy.
At the end of our evening Paul discovered that the harmonic balancer (crank shaft pulley) was broken on our Subaru had come loose and was wobbling.  Luckily once he figured out what was wrong it only took a few minutes the next day to fix it.  I'm so glad that Paul is a very handy guy!  He's a very talented man and can do just about anything!    

To end our birthday weekend we took a family picture with all of our pumpkins.  We had forgotten to take a picture with the Burnett family before they left but maybe there is a way Paul could photo shop them in.  Thanks everyone for traveling to UT to celebrate Cooper's birthday.

Happy 3rd Birthday Cooper!

October 12, 2008 was the day my life changed forever!  This little 5 lb 10 oz little bundle of joy has turned into a 27 lb fun, energetic, independent, very curious, and almost always happy little boy.  He has been very excited about his birthday ever since we celebrated birthdays all summer long.  I have been trying to convince him to stay 2 years old and a little boy, but alas, he tells me " Mommy I'm 3. I'm big."

Cooper's Likes:  heavy construction equipment, fire trucks, sushi, oatmeal, Mickey Mouse obsession!, computers, pushing any and all buttons, being "naked boy" and sleeping without clothes on, playing outside, riding and pedaling his bike all by himself, LOVES his daddy, playing in cars, listening to music loudly and jumping on his big boy bed, drawing in daddy's notebook (aka Cooper's patio), visiting our neighbor Papi, singing songs, playing with daddy's camera, talking to older girls (10-12), playing basket ball inside the house with the huge therapy ball,  playing at the park, playing his guitar, trains, playing with automatic doors, going to school (most days), playing with his friends at school (especially April) doing EVERYTHING HIMSELF and did I mention he obsesses over his daddy (wait make that "doddy")

Cooper's Dislikes:

Going potty on the toilet, brushing his teeth, being told it's time to eat or go to bed, getting out of the car, taking naps, having his favorite blankets come off at night (if we don't fix it fast, disaster!)

Cooper's Abilities: 

Counting to 17, knows all his colors, knows how to change setting on mommy's laptop, climbing ladders at the park, pedal his big boy bike (with training wheels of course), make a basket in his toy basket ball hoop, walk up and down the stairs on the right side holding on to the railing (a big accomplishment since he has right sided weakness), take off his own clothes, open mommy's car door all by himself, take a picture with daddy's camera all by himself

For his birthday today Cooper ate one of his favorite breakfasts; oatmeal. He brought Rice Krispy treats to school and loved to share them with his friends.  When I went to pick him up he was having the best time running around, playing a game, all while holding the hands of two different girls. What a ladies man! His teacher made him a birthday hat with 3 bears on the front.   When we got home he opened some presents. 

 What a handsome 3 year old in his birthday hat.  He's never really understood that wrapping paper is for tearing open.  I couldn't believe he actually needed help to open the present.  I thought he'd be all over the tearing, ripping and shredding. 

 Look at that, a Mickey Mouse book, awesome! This was one of the only pictures where he was actually looking at the camera.   

 This was his favorite toy, a tow truck, which he calls a crane.  He had seen this truck at Target several weeks ago and wanted to take it home.  Luckily I was able to get the last one.  As he was taking the truck out of the bag he kept saying "thank you, thank you so much!"  And then when we were on our way to the store he brought his truck in the car and yelled thank you several more times.  So sweet!   

What an awesome truck!  It has lights, and sounds and a moving 'crane' that hook up to monster trucks.

Cooper is the best little "monster" ever and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.  He can't wait until next weekend to have all his family come and celebrate his birthday!  Happy Birthday Super Duper Cooper Monster!

Cooper's First Fishing Trip

I always look forward to Labor Day weekend.  It's like there is one small mini vacation left before summer is over and I have to go back to work.  This weekend we decided to take Cooper fishing since daddy went last weekend and Cooper wasn't invited.  I was a little nervous about how all of this was going to work out. So Sunday morning we headed out to Mantua reservoir.  I was a little skeptical about going all the way to Mantua because it's 1/2 hour drive.  I was afraid that we would drive all the way out there and we would only end up staying a few minutes.  I always seem to think the worst in new situations and I really need to stop doing that.  When we arrived there was hardly any one around.  That's the nice thing about going out on a Sunday in UT.  We found a small spot to stand down by the water and got all set up.  Since I didn't have a fishing license I wasn't able to touch the fishing poles.  

Since Cooper is still little and his pole was twice his size he had trouble keeping it up while reeling it in.  I found this a little frustrating but managed to help him out if he'd let me.  When ever he was holding the pole no one else was allowed to help him out.  " No, I do it all by myself" was all he would say. 

These are the fish we saw swimming right in front of us.  I swear they were mocking us because they didn't bite our line all morning. 

This was one of the few times Cooper let Paul help him.

Cooper got a little tired of fishing and enjoyed throwing rocks more.  I of course didn't like this because I thought he was scaring all the fish away. 

This is a moment I can say makes my heart melt.  I love seeing Cooper and daddy doing things together. My little boy is growing up so fast and wants to be just like his daddy.

Cooper loved the tackle box.  No matter how many times we asked him to say out of it he thought all the colorful pieces of bait were fun to play with.  He kept asking daddy to use the pink one.

About 11:00 it was getting warm and we hadn't caught any fish.  Not even a nibble.  I think Cooper was getting bored with fishing because all he wanted to do was throw rocks.  I kept asking him to stop and because he didn't we ended up leaving abruptly.  What a disaster!  He screamed all the way home and didn't even take a nap when we got home!  I felt a little bad because Paul didn't seem to think that throwing rocks was such a big deal. And I kept yelling at Cooper for throwing rocks, as well as climbing on the rocks.  No permanent damage was done and once we were at the park Cooper forgot all about the rocks and fishing.  He was just happy he wasn't taking a nap.  Well, even though the day wasn't exactly like I pictured we decided to try again Monday.

On Monday we tried to leave earlier but man, Cooper is JUST. SO. SLOW!  Getting dressed and brushing his teeth are brutal!  We eventually mad it out the door a little before nine and were on our way.  This time when we arrived there were many people fishing.  I was worried that we wouldn't find a good safe spot for Cooper to fish.  Much of the shore is rocky and Cooper being only two with difficulty balancing wasn't a good combination.  Paul finally found a spot that to me was a little rocky and didn't leave much room for Cooper to stand.  Later, we found out this spot wasn't so bad because it kept Cooper contained and not climbing all over.  Cooper was so cute trying to do it 'all by himself'.

This was our first fishing spot. 

The perfect spot to catch a fish! A bluegill fish that I am so proud to say I caught.  Cooper was pretty proud of me too.

He thought it was so cool to touch it.  He's definitely not afraid like his mommy.  Yeah, that's me, I like to fish but I won't touch the worm or the fish.  That's for the boys.

Cooper loved the fish.  It was so cute to see how excited he got.  By the end of the day he was my little cheer leader hoping I'd catch another fish.

Shortly after I caught the fish I found a flatter spot that had a little more room to stand that I thought would be better for Cooper.  I was so worried about Cooper falling and getting hurt on the rocks.  That's me, an always worrying mom.  So we moved and Cooper decided he wanted to throw rocks again.  This time Paul and I decided we would let him throw rocks as long as he didn't throw the rocks at us.  Cooper being a boy, couldn't help but continue to throw rocks, which was ok except for the few times he threw them at me.  Not on purpose of course.  He just wasn't watching where he was throwing, something that happens to all two year old's right?

Cooper is a daddy's boy.  So when daddy sat down to fish, Cooper had to sit on his lap. Paul was thankful that didn't last too long.

Daddy got up but Cooper still wanted to sit down and hold his fishing pole all by himself.

Cooper decided he would let mommy sit next to him for a minute before he got up and started to climb on the rocks again.

                                       

Did I mention that Cooper thought climbing on the rocks was much more fun than fishing?

That is the face of mischief!

Finally, about half an hour before we were going to go the fish started biting again.  It all had to do with the sun going behind the clouds and the wind picking up.  This was the end result.  Paul caught a small largemouth bass.

Cooper, of course, had to get up close and personal with the fish.

And even touch it!

 Cooper then decided he was hungry and there he sat until we were ready to go.  Eating and eating. 

And the trip wasn't complete until we took our family photo.

 

I can't wait to go fishing again!