Cooper's 2nd Christmas!

We had 3 wonderful Christmas celebrations this year . . . check it out in picture form:

Celebrating Christmas with the Martens' on 12.21.13
The best family picture we could get that day!

Santa Cooper handing out everyones gifts - he did such a great job with knowing who was who.

Opening presents with the Martens'!

Look at my new truck and gas pump!!

Loving life in his new truck, similar to Papa's truck!

Trying hard to get a family picture {again} after Christmas Eve church service @ Hope-Ankeny

As good as it gets - after about 10 takes {seriously}

Christmas Eve Tradition
- Christmas PJs
-Christmas Book
-Christmas Movie
-Popcorn

Helping Dad out in the kitchen!

Yeah still "helping"

Hey there Daddy's twin!

Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and having popcorn for the first time!

OhMiGosh - Santa stopped at our house!

Yay!

The cool Santa gift - we all wanted this thing so bad - it's fun!
Fisher Price Little People Stand and Play Rampway

Moving on to his stocking. . .

Ok now the presents!

Started out strong on opening . . . 

Was getting tired of it a few presents in . . . still only a couple left!

Zella and Cooper gassing up the truck!

Zella opening her gifts!

Opening gifts with the Hitsman Family!
Celebrated Christmas on 12.28.13

Playing with Cooper's new drum/music set!

Loving his new drum!

Oh hey Zella . . . I love anything that resembles a phone or tablet, so let me have that.

Ohhhh what are you looking at?

So cute . . . loving on his cousin Zella.

She was so good with sharing and being nice.

7:30p.m. - will not take his new shoes off and is eating rolls - shocker!

Concentrating . . .

Cooper's Favorite Christmas Gifts:

1. Fisher Price Stand n Play Rampway
2. Little Tikes Cozy Truck
3. Nike Boys' Free Run 4 Sneakers
4. B. Parum Pum Pum Drum
5. VTech Go! Go! Smart Wheels Garage

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday celebrating with family + friends!  

{15-18 Months} Cooper's Favorite's!

1.  Mudpuppy My Frist Words Flashcards : I purchased these from a super cute boutique called Pacifier while visiting my sister in September.  I always try and get to this boutique whenever I'm in MN - just the cutest kid stuff.  Anyways . . . when I purchased these Cooper and Weston would sit and flip thru together.  Weston would say the words and Cooper would giggle.  Now Cooper loves going thru the deck of cards and any other word books to say the words!  We always have them handy in the living room.

2.  Aurora Flopsie White & Black Terrier Dog : It says on the link that his name is Tippy, but we call him Woof Woof.  So creative we are . . . we also call Cooper's cow lovie, Moo or Moo Moo.  Cooper received this dog as a gift from my cousin, Paula's, family when he was staying at Blank Children's Hospital in February 2014.  He has since fallen in love with Woof Woof and sleeps with him every night, along with Moo Moo.  He also enjoys going thru all of his stuffed animals in his bedroom and making their animal sounds.  

3.  Spalding Basketball : I think most times a little toddler's first word is BALL, but it wasn't Cooper's.  I don't even know what # of word it ended up being, but he went thru a phase over the last 3 months where every time he saw a ball he would scream, BALL!!!  He especially loves playing with this basketball in the morning before we get ready for work - we have one in our bedroom.  Not sure why . . . it's not like you can use that to defend yourself if someone broke in, like you could use a baseball bat.  ;)  Another favorite ball of Cooper's is his Halloween themed Send a ball from Aunt Cari!

4.  Fisher-Price Little People Lil' Movers Airplane : Really anything little people that plays a few tunes is Cooper's favorite, but this is one that we have and he enjoys putting all of his different little people inside.  He likes to dance to the tunes as well - he gets low low low and he's started to swing his arms.  Pretty cute to watch little kids get their dance on!

5.  Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton : This is Cooper's all time favorite book and we must read it every single night before bed or bed time cannot happen.  We actually don't read it, we sing it.  Sandra Boynton books rock and Santa is actually delivering more for Christmas.  Cooper loves this book, but he really loves all books . . . and that is why there is a 2nd Favorite List on this post. . .

Cooper's Top 5 Favorite Books:

1. Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

2. Trains Go by Steve Light

3.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

4.  First 100 Words by Roger Priddy

5.  Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt 

Breakfast with Santa!

Yesterday, Cooper and I met up with some friends, Justine and Tre, at the Science Center of Iowa to have Breakfast with Santa!!  Nick was so bummed to miss out, but he had grad school class all day Saturday.  

We didn't take Cooper to visit Santa last December (regret of mine) and so this year I had some high hopes for him to really like the big guy!  Santa visited all of the children while they were eating breakfast at their tables first and while he was at ours Cooper turned his back to him and kept eating.  So Santa told me if we wait in line to sit on his lap and Cooper doesn't want to, do not force it . . . basically the result will be a screaming child on Santa's lap -- like the majority of photos you see at this time of year.  So, we wait in line with Tre and Justine . . . Tre hops on Santa's lap, no big deal.  Cooper gets up, takes one look and runs away with a stinky grin on his face.  So, I didn't force it . . . just like Santa wished for.  So . . . year 2 of Christmases for Cooper and still no Santa photo.

grabbing food before i could get it all cut up for him!

1st sign that should've told me he had zero interest in this Santa guy

cooper + tre by the choo choo train

waiting for Santa - but not really, cooper just wanted to trick me into thinking he was interested

tre with Santa - he did awesome!

the stink smile i got when cooper ran from Santa - he knows I wanted that picture so bad

After breakfast we walked around to all the rooms at the Science Center for the boys to unleash some energy and play.  There were some things for little kids, but nothing like an actual Children's Museum.  I do wish we had one of those in DSM.  Enjoy some photos from the day!

cooper that clearly states not to climb on the display . . . jeesh

train table!

a pretty cool ball wall deal

ha look at that chunk face - pretty proud of himself!

legos . . . shortly after this he dumped that entire thing

bubbles with tre

these two goofs!  tre was such a big help with cooper!