Cooper's 1st Christmas

two handsome brothers

Cooper trying to take down the Christmas tree.Carter and Bubba riding in Carter and Cooper's new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa

We had a mostly relaxing Christmas. We spent Christmas eve over at my parent's house to eat our traditional pizza and watch a movie (this year was Wall-e) after our church service. When we got home the boys got to open 1 present under the tree (which was their Christmas pj's) then it was time for bed. After sleeping in, we all got up and ate some yummy breakfast casserole that I made and opened presents and stockings. We don't really do a lot of presents, just a few stocking stuffers (candy of course) and 1 or 2 things to unwrap. We want the boys to think of Christmas as giving and not getting. We just want to follow the example that was given to us, by God giving us the most important thing of all, His only baby boy. Not that we have a problem with how any body else 'does' Christmas. And on top of all that, the kids don't really 'need' anything so the movies and little cars got the reaction we were looking for anyway.

So after all that, we decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year of sitting in the ER and watching 'the Christmas movie'. This is why I said at the beginning that is was a 'mostly relaxing Christmas. Matthew hadn't been feeling well and had been waking up the past 2 nights looking for some pain killers. On Christmas Eve I told him that I thought it was either strep or an ear infection, either way he needed some antibiotics and that he needed to find a walk in clinic somewhere to get it checked out. Well I guess it was more important to him for us to make it to our church for the service than to mess with all that. So...Christmas day I finally drug him to the ER where they confirmed that it was indeed an ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic and some pain meds. :)

We did make it back to my parents house for most of the festivities that evening. Now that all my sisters have significant others (married or engaged) we played kind of a newlywed game that was really fun. Some of the couples enrolled in some counseling after we were done though. ;)

Hope you had a peaceful Christmas and are ready for the new year!

Colorado 2008

Our trip was great (as usual). Well, it's kinda hard not to be great because, let's face it, everything in Colorado is awesome! The drive there was not as great. We drove through white-out conditions, but Matt did a great job of getting us through it alive. :) It was very cold the entire trip and inspite of all my 'extra padding' I couldn't go outside the hotel without every inch of myself covered. This was Cooper's 1st time to see Colorado.(unless you want to count being in my belly as the 1st time) My mom got to be the desiginated babysitter this trip, but other than that nothing really out of the ordinary happened. We skiied the same runs, ate at the same places, sat in the same hot springs, stopped at the same gas stations..... so I won't go on and on. ;)

so enjoy the few pics we took.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a good Thanksgiving with Matt's side of the family. We got to spend two days at the cabin with his mom and sister (and her family) then went to Silver Dollar City for one day and then got to celebrate the holiday with his dad.

I couldn't decide which pictures to post so hope you don't mind the slide show. :)

Halloween

Matt and I went to a murder mystery Halloween party (the 5th annual) at our friends Jeff and Jessica's. As usual we had a blast. So the theme was murder in MargaritaLand. Matt was the person who got killed so he got to also play the detective since we were short some people. Being the 'life of the party' type that he is, he decided to play the part as one of the Village People (if ya know what I mean). Never a dull moment!

We were at my parents house on actual Halloween day , helping decorate for a baby shower the next day, so we just brought the costumes and changed into them and pretended to trick-or-treat. The idea was to meet Matt at home and take the boys to the neighbor's houses, so they could get a taste of 'real' trick-or-treating. However, Carter fell asleep in-route and didn't want to wake up even with the prospect of candy. So Cooper and I just handed out treats to all the other neighborhood kids. Oh well, there is always next year. :)

BTW- Carter had the option of being something cool like a pirate, but he decided to stick with the Kangaroo. :) Cooper was a bear (a bear that really wanted some skittles!)

4 months

Cooper is now 4 months old and is quite possibly the best baby ever. He is always happy and loves to socialize. He is sleeping through the night (has been since he was 9 weeks old), loves rolling from his tummy onto his back, likes to grab at all the toys on both his play mat and his exersaucer, and LOVES it when his big brother entertains him. I still think he looks a lot like Carter but is really starting to develop a look of his own. He had his 4 month check up yesterday, which included shots. :( His pediatrician said things look great, and that he is staying in his own curve as far as growth and weight gain. He is almost 14 lbs. now and seems so chunky to me (compared to Carter).

Carter is 2 1/2 and is such a sweet-heart. Like most boys his age, he has his moments but for the most part he means well. He is starting to get the hang of potty training, but only if I think of it first. So I am not pushing it. He does really well if I ask him if he has to go, and is not busy doing something else. ;) He is also doing much better with his weight gain (thanks to some great tips from my expert sis-in-law). He had lost 2lbs. in about a 6 month time span, so we went back to whole milk with his Carnation instant breakfast, and also started giving him PediaSure any time he would take it. Since we started doing all that, he gained 4 lbs in a very short 2 months! Yeah! I think it is expanding his tummy more because he does seem to have a better appetite at meal times. Carter is such a big helper most of the time and loves to give Cooper lots of hugs and kisses. He is usually very sweet but there have been a couple of times that I have had to intervene on Cooper's behalf. Carter loves playing with his 'people' and cars, and loves to host his imaginary friends "Kaya" and "Tristian" any time they can come over.

I have been staying busy (duh, you already knew that) keeping up with all my boys and doing hair. I am booked every weekend for a wedding since the middle of September till the middle of November. I am also branching out and starting a wedding company of my own. Well, not only myself. I am partnering up with a makeup artist friend of mine who is basically the brains behind the whole thing. We will be getting a web site up and going hopefully sometime soon, so I will post a link to it once it is functional.

Matt never seems to know how to rest. On top of his regular work, he somehow found time to build an amazing fence in our back yard. It is almost done (he has been doing it in sections, mostly because of his ADHD I think) and I will be so excited to be able to let the boys go into the back yard and let out some energy without having to be out there with them. Wow, to think I could get so much stuff done! Of course it won't be complete with stairs coming off the deck and all until spring, but it will be great!
He has also been playing 'Mr. Dad' on the weekends when I am doing weddings and I think he is really starting to enjoy the little things like feeding Cooper and watching how both boys interact. I just wanted to brag on him a little because I don't feel like I do it as much as he deserves.

So now you are officially 'updated'. (until next week when something else cute happens and I think 'I should really update our blog', then 4 weeks go by just like that) :o)

Randomness

A lot has happened since I last posted (sorry for that).
Cooper has already rolled over and has been successfully sleeping through the night for about three weeks now. (praise the Lord!) So you would think that I could post more frequently with all the spare time I have on my hands now! Cooper has also been gaining weight very well. We go get him weighed every week just for my piece of mind. Carter on the other hand......well he has lost some weight since his 2year check up. We are trying whole milk again (in his Carnation Instant Breakfast) along with always asking him if he wants something to eat. We'll see what happens. Worst case scenario: we will ship him off to my sister-in-law who has successfully 'healthied up' (as opposed to 'fattened up') their son that they just adopted from Haiti who was very under weight/malnourished.

Matthew has been working a lot but has been making time to relax as well. He just went on a 'guys weekend' last week to the cabin and came back (thankfully) recuperated (and more appreciative of family life). :o)

I have reached another mile stone. I am now 26. We had a great date night on my birthday. Matt took me to a Thai place that I have been wanting to go to for a while, but he wasn't ever interested. We dropped the boys off at Grandma's house before hand and were able to just take our time and enjoy dinner. (I never take for granted the fact that we have family in town or the fact that they are willing to babysit!)

My baby sister got engaged at the first of the month (that is her fiance Seth in the picture with Cooper on his back), So I have been having fun talking wedding stuff with her. Congratulations Seth and Jillissa!

I can't think of anything else at the moment that is important that is interesting, but if I come up with anything, I will let you know. :)

the cabin

We got to go to the cabin last week for 10 days. It was vacation for me and work for Matthew. He was remodeling the bathroom there almost the whole time. I did help grout though (which gave me a whole new appreciation for Caleb-matt's helper) and I have the blisters on my hands to prove it!

My husband is such an amazing man. He totally gutted the bathroom and re-designed the layout of it. There used to be a window where the moose now is, a toilet where the shower is and a tiny, nasty shower insert where the toilet is now. He made/designed the counter for the sink and after all that creative work, he still had the creativity to tile it all! I don't know how he does it!

Matt's mom got to 'come to visit' on both weekends while we were there and his sister and nephew came for a day in the middle of the week. I don't know exactly which day because the days kinda run together when you don't leave the cabin for several days. It was a nice time to spend together as a family and for Carter to be daddy's helper. I loved being able to be on the same job as Matt (even if it I was on the couch). ;)

Cooper is getting very big very fast (compared to how Carter was). He decided to go ahead and roll over despite the fact that he was only 6 weeks old. I don't think he really knows what he is doing, but he has done it a handful of times already. He has started to laugh and smile at people when they hold him which is the cutest thing in the world.

Well, we are going camping this weekend with my family and I am sure I will have more pictures from that. The trick will be to actually post them sometime this year! ;)

Happy Father's day

I hope all the dads out there had a good father's day yesterday. Matt ended up having to work yesterday, but we took him out to dinner on Friday to celebrate. It was either work on Father's day or work next weekend and not see family that would be 'in town' from the east coast. So the choice was made for father's day. He did get to sleep in a while and just work the afternoon and evening. (that's better than nothing).
The boys and I went over to my parents to celebrate the day with my dad. All my sisters were able to make it for lunch (even my oldest non-adopted but adopted sister, tonya). They were also kind of selfish reasons that I went over there. I really didn't feel like being home 'by myself' all day and I knew I would have 4+ babysitters there all day. :)
So belated Happy Father's day to all our dads, grandpas, brothers (that includes in-laws), and my wonderful husband. I hope the day was special for you.





P.S. I wanted to put a picture of my dad on here too, but due to my mom's computer overheating and melting the insides, the great pictures that my sister took of him and his grand-boys were unavailable to e-mail to me. :) (gotta love computers!) I will post them once they are retrieved.

Cooper

Matt and I are both now on Facebook so I have kind of been neglecting our blog (if you couldn't tell). It is so much easier to just upload pictures on Facebook than it is to write an update for you guys on here. I know that really isn't a good excuse, and I am just being lazy, but whatever! :) So all that to say... if you have already seen my facebook pics, you won't be seeing anything new here.

Cooper came on May 26th (memorial day) and was almost an identical twin of his big brother. Everything went really well and I recovered pretty fast compared to last time. I still have days that I have no energy, but over all I feel almost back to normal. Cooper has his good nights and bad nights, and I can't wait until he is sleeping through the night!

Here are some of the pictures from the hospital.

Carter's new bed

Yay!!! Carter is finally in his new room! Well actually he has been for a few weeks now, but I can't ever make myself sit down and update this stinkin' blog. So we will just pretend it just happened yesterday. ;)
I kept looking on Craig's list for a bed and every time I would find one that we both liked, it had just been spoken for. So then we looked at a furniture store and didn't see anything we liked, so Matt just decided one night to make it. I knew he could make anything, but I wasn't about to ask him to knowing how many hours he usually works. So I'm really glad it was his idea. :)
As you can see, it is beautiful (and sturdy)and it only took him 3 or 4 evenings of working on it to get it done. He now thinks he wants to make furniture when he retires. So put your requests in now if you want to be on the list.
We don't really have any of the other things up on his wall yet, but at this point I am not really worried about it. All I really cared about was getting all his stuff in there so I could get all the baby stuff out.

I started packing for the hospital this week, but I can't afford to actually step through the doors until after midnight on Thursday morning. God has been giving me some reassurance though that He is in control and I just need to stop worrying about it. One of the major things is that the 2nd week I was checked, there was a big jump on how I was progressing (from 0% effaced to 70%). But...the 3rd week there was virtually no change from the week before! So I go in tomorrow for another appointment and hopefully they will say "he will probably come on Thursday". (wishful thinking)

I have stopped doing hair for now though (which I know is helping me not go into labor early) which I am enjoying except for having to tell people 'no' when they call for an appointment. I really am a people pleaser and it kills me to have to disappoint people, but I know that they all understand.

Matthew has been really good at helping around the house (I think he is more worried than I am that I will go early), he has done all the vacuuming and taking out the trash and even cleaned out the guest and storage rooms! Yay!
ok. I'm sure you have had enough of listening to me brag about what a great husband I have, and you are getting a little jealous. So I will stop writing now and get some other things done on my pre-baby 'to do' list.

Not much going on

So I guess I have turned into a once-a-month blogger. Oh well right? Not much is really going on here. The basement is about as finished as it was 2 months ago (at least there is carpet, and Carter's new room still isn't ready. Although Matt was able to put the first coat of mud on the walls (to patch all the holes from everything that he had hung on them)last night and said that he could sand and put the last coat on tonight when he gets home. But he wants to paint it with a suede (which takes 3 times longer than just rolling on a couple coats of semi-gloss)so that pushes my deadline back even further. Not like I am working against a clock here or anything. I am trying to not really stress about it though.

The weather has been getting really nice here. We actually got to go to the park last week and got to garage sale on the weekend. Oh yeah. There was some drama over the weekend. Maybe it happened because there wasn't enough drama in my pregnancy so far...but whatever the reason, here's what happened. We were garage-sailing (Carter, me, my friend Jill and her son Ryder) and at a house that had a driveway that sloped down to the street. The boys were having a great time playing with the toys for sale and all of a sudden, I see Carter running down the driveway into the street (there were no cars coming fortunately)so I take off after him. As soon as I catch up to him I tried to stop, but my knee buckled underneath me (due to the extra L.B.'s that come along with being preggo) and we both fell face-first into the street. I fell mostly on my knees and elbow but did fall right on my stomach. Carter was just scared mostly. I knew the baby was fine (he was moving and what-not) but Jill was really concerned, so after we were done I called my Dr's office. They wanted to check me out at the hospital so I went in. They took some blood and monitored the baby for about an hour, then confirmed what I already knew, no problems. So...now you know.

On a less dramatic note, a few of my friends threw me a 'non baby shower, Girls night in' party. We just sat around in p.j.'s, ate and chatted. It was nice and relaxing. I also got to see one of my friends that lives out of town that I don't get to see very often. So Thanks Girls for the great weekend!!!

Well I am off to the post office and the bank and if Carter isn't overly grumpy when we are done, we might go to the park. Yeah!!

Yes we are still alive

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. We have been out of town or with family for the last three weekends. Easter weekend though, we had a nice relaxing time, just the three of us at home. I feel like I am still playing catch-up though. So here's a run-down of my month (not asking for sympathy or anything like that, just filling you in): March 1st weekend, Carter's 'friend' birthday and Borlase side of the family party. Next weekend, Carter's cousin Hayden's baby dedication back in Matt's home town (we got to stay at the cabin the night before. It was really cold). Then I was trying to get things ready to go to Colorado -again- on Thursday with Matt's dad. We had a great time and Matt said the skiing was really good (it helps when you have a new pair of skis). We drove back on Monday night, I had 6 clients on Tuesday, 7 on Wed, library time on Thursday after which I run errands, Dr.s appointment on Friday and running errands again afterwords. So Saturday I was cleaning the house all day, doing laundry and getting ready for my youngest sister and her boyfriend to come over for dinner (and to get her hair done). Sunday we got to sleep in for a little while then went to church to help out in the nursery, came home, had Honey Baked Ham for lunch and just vegged all day. So.....I feel like my March has flown by and I am not ready for April yet (except for the weather that comes with)!

We still don't have a bed for Carter's new room yet and I am kind of in that 'nesting' stage and really would like to get him settled in before I have to think too much more about the baby. Who, by the way, I think we have a name for finally. Cooper. No ideas on a middle name yet, so the poles are still open. Cooper was on our list for a while, and I'm not quite sure why we vetoed it. I found out (actually my mom told me) that it was my great grandma's maiden name. So we will still be sticking with family names and the whole 'C' thing. :) (Disclaimer: I don't say the name is for sure until I have to write it on the paperwork. In case something else strikes my fancy. So no embroidered blankets or engraved trinkets please):)

Ok. I think this post is long enough to make up for the 20day spread in between, So I will leave you with some pictures from Hayden's baby dedication and then Colorado with Grandpa Gary. Enjoy!

Our big 2 year old!

Carter celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and I can't believe he is already 2!
We had a "friend" party (which was just his friend Ryder and cousin Jeffery aka:Bubba) on Saturday. Then had a Borlase family party on Sunday with his Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Gary, Aunt Sherri, Uncle Tim (aka PIM) and cousin Hayden. It was really cool because Kathy brought her laptop with her and Carter was able to open his present from his other Borlase cousins (that live in NC) while they watched and talked to him over the internet. I think Kaya was his favorite to talk to though because he kept saying "Hi Kaya!!!". So Carter got to see ALL of his cousins in the same weekend. Pretty cool.

Carter also had his 2year check up on Monday, and they said he was growing and gaining weight good (for him), so we can switch him to 2% milk soon if we wanted to. He is still only 24.4 lbs. but on his growth chart that is good.

I had a check up for Baby #2 on Tuesday and they said that he was growing well also. I had to do the glucose test this time (routine for all preggo's at my office) so I don't know how that is yet since they send the blood work out. The orange drink that I had to consume wasn't as bad as I remembered it being last time (which wasn't horrible) but I hate having to wait for an hour until they can draw my blood. I was good though and brought a book with me. (I know, some of you are having a heart attack --mom-- that I was actually reading a book, but desperate times call for desperate measures)

Tomorrow we are going to get Carter's birthday pictures taken, so if I buy enough to get the CD, I will try to post some of them for you.

Well Carter is down for a nap now so I should probably follow suit, or else I will feel compelled to clean or something. :)

Hmm....

Well, with a dad like this, our kid is doomed to be confused! We were over at my parents house a few weeks ago and Carter didn't want to share one of the two balls that he had with my cousin's girls, so Matt thought it would be funny to stick them up his shirt. Poor kid.

Sorry it has been a while, our internet has been acting up again and I didn't think I would even be able to post tonight. Someone is supposed to be coming out to look at it tomorrow, so hopefully we will have a steady connection again starting then. :)

Basement update

Even closer to being done! On Wednesday night we stayed up till 1am putting together the new office desk downstairs since the carpet is finally here. The desks went together great although I couldn't have done it by myself. The rolling file cart however, not so easy. I think that there were more parts to the little file cart than there were to the other 2 desks combined!!! Of course putting things together falls in my list of responsibilities since it frustrates Matt to have to read directions. I usually like doing it but this job was getting ridiculous! On top of about 47 parts to have to put together before actually getting to put the thing together, the directions/ diagram was backwards on a couple of things. Good thing I just went with my instincts or I would have been in big trouble in the end. So anyways I just decided to call it quits on account of the hour. I should probably get back to it sometime today or it will never get done.

We had a really nice valentine's day yesterday. We had a girl from church come over to watch Carter (since all my family has significant others now and I didn't want to interfere) and Matt took me to our now traditional V-day restaurant. They could only give us reservations at 5:30 so that left us with the opportunity to see a movie after dinner. We were right next to the Plaza so we watched Fool's Gold at the theater there. It was a good date movie.

Real baby update: Went to the doctor's yesterday and they said that everything looked good. I had to have another ultrasound since my placenta was a little low last time, but they said it had moved up and looked good. I have never had an u-sound this late in my pregnancy, and it was amazing how much more baby-like he actually looked this time. Instead of the 'scull and crossbones' look, I saw this cute little profile (which looked an awful lot like Carter). As of this week I am 25 weeks and my due date is May 28th. (sorry if I never said that before)

Well better get to that file cart from you know where!

Our Artist

Carter decided one day last week that the walls in his soon to be bedroom were too plain. So he made a nice picture for us with a sharpie and a pencil. I was able to remove the pencil part with a Magic Eraser (I love those things!!) but I guess the magic from the 'magic marker' was better than that of the 'magic eraser'. Oh well. Good thing we are going to repaint the room anyway. :)

Basement update: the carpet people finally called and they are supposed to be installing it tomorrow!!!! Yeah!!!! Then we can set up the office down there and hopefully get rid of the office up here to put Carter's stuff in.

Side note: If any one is interested in buying our current office desks, let me know. I am going to try to put them on Craig's list sometime this week or next.

Baby update: getting fat. ;)

My two Handymen

On Super Bowl Sunday I decided it was time to get a new kitchen faucet, so I broke our existing faucet after we got home from church. I knew that since this was Matthew's only day off of work he would be obligated to go buy a new one and fix it right away.

Ok, I didn't really intentionally break the faucet. It broke in my hand as I was swinging it over to the other side of the sink to rinse stuff off to put in the dishwasher. I was actually feeling bad that Matt couldn't enjoy his whole day off and just relax. And just to make things more interesting, we were having friends over in a matter of hours to watch the game and I hadn't started the soup yet. ! :)

So Matt went to Home Depot, or was it Lowes (I think we did end up purchasing the one at lowes Jeff) ;) and he bought not only a new faucet, but a new sink too. The guys at the store asked Matt, "you are going to install this yourself? In only 2 hours?!?!?". But little did they know that my husband (and his little helper,Carter) can do anything.

I love this picture because it shows that Matt is not quite a true plumber (you only see undies, not the iconic 'plumbers crack'). Hopefully he doesn't mind me posting this picture. :) I guess I will find out.
This is Carter trying to be a big helper and make sure all the hinges on the cabinet doors are nice and tight so daddy can do the important stuff. Yay!!! My new kitchen sink. Isn't it so beautiful? I think we will take it with us if we ever move. (?)