Know What's Great? Cooper's 8!

Cooper turned 8 years old today. He is full of charm, mischief, and outright fun. He is such a happy, thoughtful boy and I can't imagine life without him. There is never a dull moment around him and I love him more than words can say! He's been a charmer since birth, loves to never wear pants, and has a smile that is contagious. Happy birthday, Coop!

 

Amelia's Birthday and DARE Graduation

Amelia got to celebrate an entire day of getting whats she wanted. It started off with dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe. Luckily, Cooper had earned a free buffet so it wasn't too expensive:

Then we came home and had cake and ice cream (you'd think we couldn't fit anything else in after all that pizza, pasta, and dessert pizza--but we did)! Notice in this picture Amelia has her left hand on something.....

It's her new camera she got for her birthday! It came complete with a little tripod, so she took a picture of herself blowing out her candles. She's already taken about 100 pictures. I'll have to download them and post a few. Or fifty.

A few weeks ago she had her DARE graduation. It's a bigger deal than I thought, they had the student march in while a drum line was playing, the whole Rexburg police department, a few councilmen, etc. I really like the program and what it teaches students. Here Amelia is with her friend Mady:

With her certificate:

This is the guest speaker. He's a football player for the Philadelphia Falcons (?). He's a local, and signed autographs and took pictures for an hour and a half after the graduation was over. And we were the third to last in line. Yes, I love my daughter a great deal.

The rodeo queens MC'ed the whole thing. They were the bling-i-est rodeo anything I've ever seen.

It's been a fun, crazy few weeks and it won't be slowing down....Cooper's day to shine is coming up soon!

Amelia is 11!?!

I truly don't know where I lost eleven years and my sweet daughter went from this:

To this:

She is growing up so fast, and is such a blessing to our family. Even through the "tweeny" moments, she is kind, sweet, caring and we couldn't imagine our lives without her. LOVE YOU, AMELIA!! Happy 11th birthday!

Here she is over the years:

St. Patrick's Day and the Great Call Clean-up!

This month has just flown by. For St. Patrick's Day we celebrated as any good Irishman would---we ate pizza! Cooper's school had a fundraiser so we supported his school and took care of dinner all at once! Here's my little leprechauns:

Last Saturday we all converged on my parent's house to help with some yard work, clean-out, and general chores that had been neglected in the fall because of my dad's stroke. It was a fun day with cousins and whipping the yard and house into shape!

Happy cousins!

Happy man!

How many Call boys does it take to cut up a snowmobile rack?

Awww......

Amelia's first photo bomb.

Once Conagher realized his parents weren't going to leave him, he was much more social.

Amelia--baby whisperer.

Amelia had her D.A.R.E. graduation this week, so I'll post pictures of that next. Then we are onto birthdays!!

Random pictures and videos

Some random pictures:

He may never learn to walk.......

Cooper at Amelia's program.

Amelia with her friends at the program. I love this picture for many reasons, but mostly because Amelia didn't know any of these girls at the beginning of the year---she's made so many new friends! And yes, she's still the shortest compared to all of them. :-)

"Moooooom! We're booooored!"

These videos are either the kiddos doing something, or because they made me laugh. This one is Amelia doing a back handspring:

This one is when the kids had my phone while we were driving:

President's day Weekend

We had the last long weekend until Memorial Day last week! Four whole days off, and we packed a lot of stuff into those hours! We've been having more of a spring than winter this February, so Cooper and Amelia did a lot of this:

We also went shopping in Idaho Falls. Amelia found mustache sheets she simply couldn't pass by, so now she sleeps among facial hair:

Valentine's day was spent at home, recovering from the sugar high of the previous day's parties and valentine giving. How did we combat this sugar high? Give them more, of course! Don't worry, we off-set it with milk. That totally cuts the sugar content, right?

Their glasses light up, too. It's like drinking from a strobe light!

Finally, with our tiny tax return we went on a rare "eating out" night. Amelia and Cooper loved it, and were very polite to our waitress. Cooper even managed to get her to slice the apple for him before she brought it, and Amelia got extra whipped cream on her pie. The one she didn't share. Even a bite.
  

Now, back to the grindstone. We don't have another day off until spring break sometime in April. Not to worry, we have more than enough to keep us busy until then! (Like birthdays, a few holidays, and a couple parties!)

Shopping trip

In case you didn't know, shopping means different things for a boy and a girl.

A girl will look at every single rack of clothing available, even if it's not in her size. She will call, text, and send pictures of cute clothes to everyone she knows before she'll finally try something on herself. Usually, after many different outfits, she chooses one and plans every outing she'll wear it to for the next two months, complete with accessories and hairdos. Finally, she'll bask in the happiness of her new acquisition. A pictural explanation might look like this:

Then, there's the boys view of shopping. Grumbling with every shirt his mother holds up to him, and not committing to anything that doesn't have a crude saying on it, or a toy attached. When he finally goes to the dressing room to try it on, this is what it looks like:

He gets distracted by the full-length mirror and spends ten minutes flexing in front of it until his mother finally checks to see what's taking him so long. With exasperation, his mother grabs the shirts, decides she'll MAKE them work whether they fit or not and leaves the store.

Until next month.