Super Cooper is 7!!

My charming, mischievous, witty, and personality-packed little guy turns 7 today! Cooper Flynn woke up at 5:24am ready to open presents, and has been singing, dancing, and proclaiming his "best birthday ever!" since. He is such a fun addition to our family. He keeps things interesting for Amelia and I and there's rarely a dull moment. He is a wonderful brother, a fabulous son, and a pretty all-around awesome boy. We love Cooper Flynn so much and look forward to lots more birthdays!

IT. IS. DONE!!!!

After a grueling 8 months, I have finally completed my first year of full-time semesters!! WHOOOEEEE!!!!! The last few weeks were especially hard with Amelia and Cooper each taking a turn at being sick, and then I took a turn for the worse with a lung infection which resulted in a horrendous cough. However, I powered through with the help from friends, family, and---I'm not getting churchy here, just truthful--divine intervention, and completed my last assignments today!!! The hardest was my mile run for my health class I had to do this morning. As I mentioned, I haven't felt well, and still had a lingering cough and zero energy.

To receive full points, I had to improve my push-ups by six, and my mile-run time by a minute. The push-ups weren't a problem, hauling my children and sixteen pounds textbooks around took care of that. I was more worried about The Run. Before I got sick, I had been exercising regularly and my best time was still ten seconds short of the minute. So, I was understandably worried after not exercising for almost three weeks. I lined up telling myself at the very worst I'd get a B+ in this class, and hopefully all my other grades would pull my GPA up enough to keep my academic scholarship.

The coach started us off, and right away I could tell my endurance had suffered during the three weeks of sickness. I turned the volume up on my music and pushed through. One lap later, I had to drop to a walk in fear I'd hyper-ventilate because I couldn't get enough oxygen. For the next four laps I ran as much as possible, only walking when little black dots began to dance merrily in my vision. Finally, on the last stretch, I knew I was close with the time.

I knew what I had to do. I switched my song to the Rocky theme and sprinted over the finish line, arms outstretched, fists pumping the air while my entire class cheered for me.

Just kidding. Although that would've been awesome.

I actually switched off my music, so I could hear the times being called out for my classmates finishing in front of me.  To pass the run, I had to come in with a time of 9:31 or better. I could hear the times echoing in the gym, "9:15, 9:17, 9:20....". I pushed with the absolute last vestige of energy and sprinted, hoping I'd make it over the finish line before I passed out. I vaguely hear the coach say, "Come on, Jill!" as I shot over the line. I slowed down, sucking in air and wondering if I was going to throw up or faint. Or both.

When I was sure I  wasn't going to do either, I walked back to the TA and looked down at my time, almost scared to know. Next to my name I saw the numbers. I had run that mile down in 9:29. One minute and two seconds faster than my original time. I was elated as possible while trying to breathe, my lungs feeling as though they had been ripped out, and my legs barely supporting my weight. This is a bit how I looked:

However, now, ten hours later, I feel more like this:

 Oh, I still hurt. I will probably hurt worse tomorrow. But I am officially DONE with this semester, and have four glorious months until the next craziness ensues. That knowledge, and the plan for an evening of watching TV while eating ice cream, ibprofen, and Nyquil almost makes up for The Run From Hell.

The Many Moments of Amelia's Party Weekend!

This girl can P A R T Y!!!! We had a fun weekend, which started with bringing treats to her class, then a play date, then her party with friends, then her party with family, ending with her actual birthday complete with gifts and a day committed to her every wish and whim!

We walked into Fat Cats, and here's what was standing there to greet everyone that came in! (The huge pin proclaiming Amelia's birthday, not her.)

Amelia with her friend Mady.

Eating pizza while bowling! Due to it being Spring Break, two of Amelia's friends couldn't make it to the party, but believe me, there was enough squealing, maniacal laughter and craziness with those that made it.

Amelia, Taylor and Mady golfing. The sugar content in their bodies was quite high by then, and it showed.

To make an awesome day even better, Amelia hit the "500 tickets" jackpot on one of the games!

Cooper held his own with the girls through miniature golf, the ball-shooting game, and bowling.

   
 Cooper ended up winning the second bowling game. He was thrilled he beat all the girls, and I think it's because of his fabulous bowling routine:

                             
 Sunday morning was Amelia's actual birthday. By this time, we were ALL partied out, but had a great day with church, choosing what to eat at every meal, and watching "Frozen" over and over. And over. And over.

I love this girl so much! I have a hard time believing she is getting so old, but I am enjoying every minute I spend with her....even the slightly tween-y ones!  LOVE YOU AMELIA!!!

Amelia Hits Double Digits!

My little darlin' has officially left childhood! She turned 10 years old today, and is beginning her "tween" years. She is just a complete sweetheart and always wants to help and be in the thick of things. She has such a happy and optimistic personality. She's a talented dancer, loving daughter, patient sister, and we are so happy to have her in our family! Happy birthday, Amelia! We love you!

Out and About!

We finally got out and about over the weekend! Can you believe it?! Neither could Amelia and Cooper, they were pretty wound up about it. We've been having nice weather (47-52 degrees) so they spent some time outside, just chillin' (I was inside trying to bring our home up to minimum health standards):

On Saturday the weather was really nice, so we headed to the park with the rest of Rexburg. Cooper made it across the big monkey bars by himself for the first time. He was pretty proud of himself:

And the BEST part of the day was when we went to see "Frozen". It took forever to come to the cheap theater, and Amelia was sure she was the absolute last person in Rexburg to see it. I told her she wasn't--I hadn't seen it either. Or Cooper. So there. We went to the first showing, and thanks to free passes from our friends, the kids got popcorn and drinks.

I would like to add that we are going BACK next Saturday to watch "Frozen Sing Along" because Amelia and Cooper love the songs so much. I would also like to thank the writers of "Frozen" for teaching my children the word "fractals"; I've been lucky to hear it ALL. WEEK. LONG.

 Another exciting event that happened over the weekend was Cooper lost ANOTHER tooth, one of his front ones. The Tooth Fairy is going broke paying out on all the teeth this kid is losing!

He looks like he's been in a fight, and has the cutest little lisp now. He'll be explaining something to me, and I'll start giggling because he sounds so  cute. Oh, excuse me, awesome. (I was edited by Cooper as he read this over my shoulder--when kids learn to read is does have some down sides! :-)  )

Speaking of school, Amelia and Cooper's second trimester closed last week, and both did very well. Cooper got 2 free kid buffets from Pizza Pie Cafe for no absences, so guess where we ate to finish off this epic day?

In me news: three more weeks of school! It's getting a little insane. Cooper ended up being really sick last night, so we've spent the day home. I tried to tell him to wait to be sick until the semester ended, but he just wouldn't listen. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top 'o the morning to ya! St. Patrick's Day was full of lots of green fun! It started out with green milk with breakfast, cleaning up the living room from a mischievous leprechaun, and racing to get dressed in green clothes so the pinching would stop. Off to school they went to have Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Greeny parties, fun Irish activities, and lots and lots of green everywhere. Me? I went to class and dreamed of being somewhere else all day!

Dinner time was traditional Irish food for me, with lovely Celtic music playing the the background. Some day, I will celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland!                            
                              

Finally!

We finally did something this last weekend! First off, Cooper lost his 4th tooth. All four on the bottom have come out, but his two front teeth are holding strong. He was born without enamel on them, so he had to get fillings when he was 18 months old. At least I'm getting my money's worth, right? He lost them Sunday morning when he and Amelia were playing while I was making breakfast. I heard Amelia say, "Uh-oh, I'll find it!" Then she told me Cooper's tooth had popped out when she accidentally punched his mouth. She redeemed herself by finding his tooth for him. Cooper was calmly rinsing out his mouth in the bathroom, so I went back to the pancakes.  Anyway, here's the proud kid:

We also made a quick trip to Blackfoot this weekend. My mom taught me how to conduct, and Amelia and Cooper played with Lynnli in the sunshine. Five more weeks is all I have left.....if I make it. Who knew Elementary Music Methods would be such a killer class?

Cooper photo-bombing Amelia and Lynnli's shot.

So they waited until he was far, far away.

Mischievous little guy, isn't he?

Now we're back to the grindstone. I went back to school yesterday to have my professors pile more assignments on top of the final projects, papers, and tests I already have. Sigh. This will all be worth it someday, right? RIGHT?!