Clare and Jesse's Wedding

My cousin Clare got married got married to Jesse on June 26th. Cooper and I flew back from Colorado for the beautiful wedding. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to fly the whole family back so Tim stayed back with Carter.

Here is the beautiful couple!

Bev came to a bit of the reception to help out with Cooper! She got some good bonding time with him:)

He slept through most of the dance even though the music was LOUD!

Cooper and Sawyer

I love Shannon's laugh in the background and then Bud's comment..."Don't poke a hole in her soft spot"!

Sawyer June

We have been anxiously awaiting the birth of our first neice and cousin, Sawyer June! She graced the world with her presence on June 23rd and what a blessing that Cooper and I could meet her two days later.

She is a tiny, sweet little girl!!

How fun that our kids are so close in age. Cooper and Sawyer are less than 5 months apart:)

Proud parents...and sleepy parents!

The cousins are already starting to resemble each other:)

Nana and Papa are in baby heaven!

Melt My Heart

Cooper's smile is contagious! He loves when people smile at him and lately if you just smile back at him he will start to giggle. It is sooooo sweet!!

Old Town

One of our favorite things to do when we get a morning or afternoon off is to take the family to Old Town in Fort Collins. It is a fun little shopping district with lots of fountains, sculptures, shops and things to look at.

So hard to get him to sit still:)

Unless of course he is on a fish!

There is the coolest toy store where the kids can play with everything! The only bummer about it is that we eventually have to leave and Carter is never too happy about that:)

We do bring Cooper along on our adventures but he has just slept in the back of the double stroller-such a great baby!

Jekyll and Hyde

Our little Carty can be as sweet as ever one minute...

...and then throw a temper tantrum moments later. He does the all out belly to the ground, fist pounding, feet kicking tantrum. It's quite a site:) I don't have the best documentation...mostly because it seems inappropriate to film or photograph the event. But I think these pics give you a snapshot! Here's to being almost 2!!

Denver Zoo

We took the kids to the Denver Zoo on our day off yesterday. It was pretty fun walking around and watching Carter get excited about the animals (although he seemed to be more impressed with the rocks and leaves)!

Dad pointing out a big rhino

Carter and the monkees

Coops in the sleepy wrap, content as can be!!

A big smile after a fun day! Carter fell asleep with a chicken nugget in his hand 5 minutes after I took this picture:)

Animal Sounds

Carter loves making animal sounds...and we love encouraging him to make them!! It's so sweet:) I love the flair he adds to the rooster, horse and sheep!

Cooper and Mom

Cooper continues to woo us with his smiles and coos. He comes with me to all of our meetings and gets passed around a lot! We set up a pack n play at the project house so he can easily take naps when we are at meetings. He is putting on the weight and was called a "mini sumo wrestler" today!! We love you Cooper!

Oh My Gosh

The Colorado Project pays for childcare so that mom's can be involved in staff meetings, Bible studies and other events. It has been a lot of fun to be more involved in student ministry again! Knowing that the project was looking for childcare, Mandy asked her neices to fly out and join us for the summer. They help with Carter and Zoe (Mandy's 14 month old daughter). Apparently they have rubbed off on Carter because he keeps saying, "Oh My Gosh!". Those were actually the first 3 words out of his mouth the other day. He keeps us on our toes:)

Kisses from Carter

This is how it goes...
Cooper just sits quietly on the floor or couch (he crosses his feet a lot which is cute).

Carter sees his brother and moves towards him...

He then goes in for the kiss-often times for multiple kisses...

And then he normally smiles a proud smile for being such a great big brother!!

Carter, you are so good to your little brother!!

Fun at the Pool

The apartment complex we are staying at this summer has a pool which we are so grateful for!! We bought Carter a little swimsuit with a floatation vest. It's kind of cumbersome but he doesn't mind it too much. He is a bit hestitant in the water which we are actually thankful for (he is a maniac on land and it would make me nervous if he was so fearless in the water:)).


Here we are with our friends the Higginbothams! Zoe and Carter hang out every day and besides lots of fights over toys they really enjoy each other:)

Thai Restaurant

Tim and I got a babysitter for Carter and went out for Thai food (my favorite) a couple of nights ago! We brought Cooper along and after getting settled in our booth, a couple of Thai women came over and started clucking at Cooper in his carseat. They were so excited when he smiled back:) They didn't speak english but our waitress told us they would love to hold him. They proceeded to get him out of the carseat and walk him around the restaurant. A half an hour later they had him asleep and kept holding him! They seemed to enjoy it and we were blessed to get some time alone together:)

Carter at 22 Months

I wish I could remember all of the funny things that Carter says and does. Here is my best shot at remembering new things from the past month:

-He has started to get opinionated and will often say, "I don't like it"! He has said this about food, videos we've put on for him to watch, games we try to play etc.

-After watching Mickey Mouse with his friend Hadley, he started asking for it daily. We thought he might forget but he is quite persistant. We finally gave in and it is a new favorite.

-Our verbal boy still loves to repeat things we say. At different times (long after they were said), Carter has said, "Hi hon!", "Oh man!", and "Oh gosh!". Just the other day he walked in the room and said, "Hi Casey". That was a shocker!

-Last night Tim was reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear to Carter. When Tim got the end Carter said, "Teacher, teacher, what to you see?". Tim was shocked and paused for a minute to take in Carter's billiance:)! Then Carter says, "C is for cookie"!! Maybe we let him watch too many Sesame Street videos on youtube!

-The other day while driving I said, "I love you Carter". He replied, "me too!". So sweet:)

-When he gets excited he does this happy dance where he high steps it really fast.

-He still loves to jump. He'll be in the middle of playing with his blocks or books and just get up and start jumping for a while. Then he'll go back to whatever he was doing!

-Carter really likes group hugs with the whole family.

1st Post from Colorado 2010

We are in Fort Collins, CO this summer for the Athletes in Action (AIA) Summer Project. We arrived about a week ago and it has been crazy busy so far but lots of fun as well. We were so excited to find out we live in an apartment right above one of my best friends from college, Mandy Higginbotham, and her family!! Here are some pics and updates from our time:

Cooper turned 4 months on Monday and rolled over for the first time on Tuesday!!

Carter tripped while running and caught himself with his nose:( His upper lip was so swollen for a couple of days. Thankfully he has recoved well and is back to full speed! Watch out world!

We have learned that being flexible is very important with all of the traveling we do on staff. Being that our apartment doesn't have bathtubs, we had to get creative:) Carter doesn't seem to mind one bit!