Coop is Six!

Coop turned six back in November and I'm still trying to figure out where the past six years have gone. I still remember so clearly rocking him as a baby while he was crying and thinking it would never end, and now it has and then some. It's strange for me to have a little boy now that questions me. That decides I might not be the neatest mom ever and that since his friends aren't doing it, he obviously shouldn't have to either. I don't think I was quite prepared for this. I think that when you have your first, you aren't really prepared for them to hit each stage of life as they grow up. He was always my little shadow and quick to give me a smile. I always thought he would want to hang out with mom instead of playing with friends, but those days are quickly fading in my memory. I'm so proud of him for growing up to be such an independent kid, but I could do without the whining and eye rolling. Even with all that, I still think he is one of the cutest, sweetest kids I know. The night before his actual birthday my parents came down along with Michelle's family. Coop was in heaven with the cake that grandma brought and the early toys from everyone. He was so excited to open them and hang out with his cousins. I am so grateful my cute family took the time to drive down here and spend it with Coop. Coop's birthday breakfast consisted of the usual birthday waffles but first he had to open his presents. He was pretty excited about them all. Especially the Ninjago Legos. Ryker is almost as excited as Cooper because it's almost like his birthday too. They share all their toys and I remember it being the same way for me when my sister had her birthday when we were little. That night we got a babysitter for Ryker and Sawyer and took Coop to Texas Roadhouse. It was so neat to be able to focus all our attention on Cooper. You can tell that they love it when they are the only child there. Every year I promise Cooper a party and I always feel bad because it never happens! I feel like once Thanksgiving is over, I'm partied out and his birthday follows it right up. I told him we'd have a half-birthday party this year. It's more fun when you can have it when it's warm outside anyway!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving for our family was very bittersweet. It's always fun to get together with the family but this year we had received some very bad news two days before. My wonderful father-in-law had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. It was such a blow to our family. Bill has always been such a go-getter and he was now confined to such a small area because of his oxygen machine. The change was pretty drastic for all of us that knew him. The week started out with hoping we could all go on a family trip together in January, to realizing he was really sick and that probably wasn't going to happen. Even with the circumstances he still came out with the family and visited. I'm sure he was exhausted with all the kids running around, but it was so great to have him with us. We were going to head up to the cabin but since he'd been diagnosed we decided to stay in Logan and it was a FULL house. All eight of the siblings were there with their families. Thank goodness Diane lives close enough that some people can stay there. We had a great Thanksgiving feast like usual. The Rich family sure knows how to cook! That night we had a little visit from the Grinch! He likes to visit the kids and try and convince them to be naughty. It's pretty funny. This year the Grinch looked a lot like my nephew Hayden. He decided to be naughty himself and scare the daylights out of my niece Avery and poor little Sawyer. He liked to go right up to the little kids and go AAAA and poor Sawyer just got the biggest eyes and screamed. I guess I shouldn't find it funny when my child is terrified, but it was pretty funny. He still got on his lap and enjoyed his toy. Ryker was so tired that he fell asleep right on the couch with all the noise. My kids never do that so we thought it was pretty cute! That night Julie, Greg, Amy and I went to Walmart for the "early" black friday sale. I can't believe they start so early now. I didn't get much, but once again, it was an experience. Afterwards, Mike, Emily, Brad and I went to Skyfall. It was pretty good but I kept almost falling asleep. That never used to happen to me but I guess because I'm thirty it's starting. :) I wasn't very smart to go to the movie because I got up at FIVE AM to go with my mom and sis. I decided I don't love getting up so early. Not worth it to me but the Kneaders French Toast we had later was DEFINITELY worth it. Saturday was the Aggie football game. The football games were great this year because they were never that cold. It didn't snow and this season they were awesome so it was so much fun to go watch them. We had such a wonderful weekend. The kids are in heaven when their cousins are around and we all love spending time with the Rich fam.

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O Christmas Tree

Every year my family has a tradition of going up Strawberry Canyon in Idaho and finding a Christmas tree. We started this a few years back and have kept it up. Some years are definitely better then others. There are times when Brad is questioning why we do this, but he's always happy with our tree in the end. This year we went up the day before Thanksgiving. We left Sawyer with my sister-in-law Emily and headed up with my family. We stopped at our first stop because it looked promising but after hiking up in the mountains for a bit we decided to move on. We went up a little bit further up the canyon and stopped on the side of the road. We weren't sure about staying because you had to climb down a steep hill to get to the trees. Good thing we stayed because we all found trees that we were happy with. It was so pretty and silent while we were up there. We were the only ones making any noise and we didn't see anyone else up there. Eddie led the pack because he was determined to find the "prize" tree. I went up with my dad and Brad followed with my mom and the boys. We found a couple trees we thought were great and after quite a bit of thinking I finally picked the one we wanted. On our way out there was a huge, tall dead tree that Eddie kept trying to push over. The boys got it out of the ground but it was stuck at the top to another tree. After lifting it up and moving it back and forth they finally got it down. I have no idea why they wanted to do it. I guess it's a guy thing. :) Our family took back two trees. One for Mike & Emily and one for us. Ours ended up fitting almost perfectly in our house. Brad always swears that he isn't going to do it again, but every year the kids and I convince him. I can't wait for next year!

Snow!

My boys get so excited for the first couple snowstorms of the year. They can't wait to put on all their snow stuff and head out. Poor Sawyer didn't get to go out because I wasn't going to go out, but he loved watching his brothers out the window. Brad joined them after a bit to shovel and even though they looked like they were having fun, I wasn't about to go out there!

The next day Brad and Coop decided to head out and build a snowman. I'm so thankful Brad will go outside and play with his kids! They love it so much. I came out and took pics of the finished product. It was kind of an unconventional snowman! Coop built a baby to the right of it. Later that afternoon the poor snowman started leaning to the side. It was almost to a ninety degree angle before it finally collapsed. I even had a neighbor ask if we had a bar in it to keep it up. It sure tried to stay up for as long as possible. The funny thing was that the baby leaned just like the big one.

Davis Creek Hike

We were having such beautiful weather the first of November that we decided to go hiking. We have never hiked in Davis County and found the Davis Creek Hike on the internet. We packed the kids up and drove up to the trailhead. The leaves had already turned, but it was still a very pretty hike. There are waterfalls along the way and we decided to try and make it to the first one and then decide if we would go on. The first waterfall wasn't very far up the hill, but it was slow going with the short legs in the family. It was such a pretty waterfall. The mountains came together and the little creek ran right in between them and on down the mountain.

After spending a little bit of time at the first waterfall we decided to try and go on until we reached the Pretty Valley. It was going to be a couple miles and after a few switchbacks we realized that we weren't going to make it with Ryker and Sawyer. We did make it to the rock they call El Capitan and that's where we had our picnic and stopped to rest. The hike was really fun as a family and hopefully we will be able to finish it sometime soon.