Amelia is 9!!!

Today my little darlin' turned 9 years old! I can't believe she's almost in the double digits, even though her attitude sometimes convinces me! :-)

Amelia is a good little --ahem, sorry, not little anymore-- good girl who is always ready to help out or be kind to her brother and others. She is always drawing pictures for Cooper or writing me notes. She loves her cousins so much and loves to play and take care of them. I feel so blessed and privileged to be her mom, and I am lucky she picked me!

She is a good student, a great ballerina, a fabulous sister, a wonderful daughter, and I'm excited to see what she can do in year 9! LOVE THIS GIRL!

2004, 3 months old!

2005, 13 months old!

2008, 4 years old!

2009, 5 years old!

2010, 6 years old!

2011, 7 years old!

2012, 8 years old!

2013, 9 years old!

Warm(ish) Day!

We hit a balmy 43 degrees last weekend, so I pumped up bike tires, dug out helmets and off we went to the park! We were all so happy to get outside for a bit, and I was especially happy at bedtime when the kids went to sleep immediately.

Ready to ride. Yes, Cooper's bike is too small for him....guess what's he's getting for his birthday in three weeks?

This picture is significant because last summer Cooper couldn't even reach the monkey bars.

This picture is significant because it makes my Worried Mommy heart stop every time Amelia hangs without hands.....even though I taught her how to do it. (It seemed fun at the time).

They stopped playing long enough to grace me with a picture.

In other news, Cooper had his first school report last week, and he chose to do it on U.S. Holidays, so he could talk about National Superhero Day. For all of you dying to put on your Thor, Spiderman and Catwoman costumes, the day is April 28th.

Amelia's classroom adopted three guinea pigs and named them Oreo, FuzzBall, and Bossy Bessy. She's informed me that each student can sign up to bring them home over a weekend. Thank you, Amelia. Oh, and you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for your turn. She also started the countdown to her birthday this week for anyone who would listen. It's exactly one week from today. Turning 9 is a big deal you know!

As for me....um,......well....it's hard to top my news from last week! I have two more weeks of school to get through, and then a nice long break until August and a 17 credit load.

Can An Almost-Six-Year-Old Be Sacrilegious?

Maybe...

Cooper was saying family prayer tonight, and had been upset all day that he didn’t catch a leprechaun on St.Patrick's Day:, and Amelia's trap at school hadn't caught one either. Here's part of his heart-felt and sincere prayer:

“Please bless I will go on my mission to Ireland and use the power of the priesthood to catch a leprechaun and keep him in a box with lots of tough tape until I get home so we can all see a leprechaun.” 

Super happy the age of accountability is 8!

Also, since Amelia has her own blog I feel like I don't ever post pictures of her on MY blog because she tells me, "Mom, people don't want to see the same pictures on my blog and YOUR blog." I asked her what about the people who read my blog and DON'T read her blog? In all seriousness she looked at me and said, "Like there's anyone like that."

GREAT NEWS!

 I'm sure you've heard about my GREAT NEWS, but if not, keeping reading!

I'll start off with a recap of our week:

Last weekend we drove to Blackfoot so I could have a lovely lunch with my friends and attend Judy and Marty's 50th Anniversary shindig. They don't look a day over 30! It was so much fun to see cousins I don't get to see very often, and eat lots of cake! I didn't take a lot of pictures because things were a little crazy. Here are a few I did take:

In case you're looking at this picture and thinking, "Whaaaat....?" Yes, Cooper has his hand down his pants. He'd been playing in the snow, and his bum was cold. So he put his hand down his pants to "warm up my bum." He was dancing in this picture, but didn't want to have his bum get cold again, so he danced AND warmed his bum at the same time. He's such a multi-tasker.

Outside the Jackman's party. Cooper loved the cake (2 pieces and a cookie), and Amelia loved the babies everywhere.

Unfortunately, after our fun weekend, the week went downhill. Amelia caught as nasty bug that kept her home from school three days. She was miserable, I was miserable, and Cooper was very helpful. In addition to Amelia's sickness, I had to teach at school with my professor observing me, which was nerve racking. It was my second observation, but I was nervous because I'd scored high on my first observation, so there was much more room to go down, then up! I'll let you know how it went after I meet with her. By Thursday, we were all in much better spirits. In fact, Thursday and Friday turned out to be flat-out amazing......
 
So, onto my EXCITING AND FABULOUS news, I WON TICKETS FRIDAY TO A BON JOVI CONCERT! I'm still in a bit of shock, really, but not enough to stop smiling and jumping up and down a little bit. When I told Amelia and Cooper, both of them said, "Yay, Mom! When do we go?" Oh my sweet, sweet children, Mommy's going solo on this one. I'm really excited; it'll be my first concert EVER, and it's gonna be BON JOVI!!!!

Cooper's Latest Accomplishment

                          Tying his shoes!

A Random Cooper-ism:

Cooper: Mom, I need to talk to my doctor about Lipitor.
Me: Wait, what?
Cooper: I need to talk to my doctor about Lipitor. It can help with the plaque build up in my heart that accumulates over time.

No more TV for Coop.

Snowmobiling....FINALLY!

Since the first snowflake fell from the sky, Amelia and Cooper have been asking, begging, pleading, whining and wailing to go snowmobiling. Between sickness, wrecking cars, and our busy schedules we hadn't been able to swing it. FINALLY last Saturday the planets aligned, the universe smiled, and we were able to go snowmobiling for a few hours. It was a beautiful day, with a high of 38, so it was nice and warm.

Cooper happy as can be in the snow.

Amelia and her favorite cousin watching TV. Lynnli hung out with us for a bit before we went snowmobiling. She's always a charmer!

Lynnli and Amelia in the sled.

Cooper and Amelia pulled behind the snow machine by Joey. They flipped over once, but before I could run out to them they flipped BACK over without falling out. No harm done, except my heart missed a few beats.

Did I mention Cooper was happy to be outside in the snow?

We did have one small incident. Cooper was riding with Ben on a machine and didn't brace himself when Ben braked. His nose never bled, and he quickly stopped crying so he could scoop up some snow and throw it at Amelia and I as Ben drove past us. 

Thanks to Ben, Joey, Jojo, and Jojo's dad for a fun couple hours. My children no longer beg, whine and plead to go snowmobiling.....now they want to go to the park.

February highlights

As sloooooooow as January was, February zipped right through. March and April tend to get crazy with Amelia and Cooper's birthdays. and my semester ending and a new one beginning. Before we know it, it'll be summer with lots of trips, bike riding, camping and running out energy at the park. Hmmm, that ALMOST sounds like I'm looking forward to summer. I'd better stop before anyone gets the wrong impression!

Here are a few things we did:

Cooper's "thinking about it" pose. Whenever he needs to mull something over, this is what he looks like.

We saw Lynnli so much this month; it was a lot of fun. She and Amelia were watching "Tangled" while she texted on my phone.

Cooper's beloved Avengers shield popped, so I finally had some time to stuff it with batting and resurrect it so Cooper can fight off the bad guys (aka Amelia). She's taken more than one hit to the head.

This picture is on Amelia's blog, too, so some of you will get to see it twice. She has hit the age of being fashion conscious, and simply HAD to have colored jeans and a scarf to tie it all together. I wrapped the scarf first, but she told me it was wrong and re-did it. I'm super happy I have an almost-9-year-old to help me when I have a fashion dilemma!

Lynnli likes Frostys. She did not like that no one would feed it to her fast enough.

Not much is happening. I'm hitting midterm week and scrambling to stay on top of my classes, church calling, the kids activities and school projects and anything else that just happens to come along. Luckily, the kids and I are relatively healthy and looking forward to staying that way for the next ten months!