The faces of Cooper

Here are some pictures today from our trip to Central Market, and a couple from home. He's pretty cute!

Who else wants it?

If I can find it for under 100 dollars somewhere, I'm getting it:

The DVD set that overshadows all other DVD sets.

Advice?

Hello everyone reading this blog. I need some advice: Cooper and I do the same thing, all of the time. Same routine, same places, same everything. I know routine is good, and it's probably mostly me who's bored.

Can anyone let me know of any fun thing they do, either in Central Texas, or just fun ideas that you have for your toddlers, either learning or playing? I feel like there's no where else to visit in our little town, I don't want him watching much TV, and I don't want to drive 20 mins every day to do something. We hang with friends when we can, but we can't do that all of the time. Help! Any ideas would be awesome.

Add a link, please?

Hey all. Most of you know that I work with Sara Watterson on a site called Photo Card Cafe' where we create, print and ship some pretty awesome photo cards. We do birth announcements, Christmas cards, birthday party invitations, wedding save-the-dates, and more. We would LOVE it if everyone who reads this would consider putting Photo Card Cafe' up as a link on the right under the "favorite links" area. This would REALLY help us increase our search engine optimization, so we can come up organically on the first page of Google, Yahoo, etc. Thanks for listening to my schpeel!

We're starting to record the news so we can watch the weather.

Yes, we're officially old, because Luke actually did this last night. Way to go honey.

Here's the Coop, wearing the essential hat the children of alums must have.


The news: We've paid off both of our cars in the past four months! I know this sounds no fun, but we did it, so we have no card payments for now. It's nice. Here are the two beauties, all shined up so we can feel good about our purchases.


Here's cute Luke, touch-up-painting the Benz. Very attentive to details.


Here's the dog, that I don't blog about much. He's a good one, but you can tell he's getting old. Our little Joey is around eight years old - we got him when he was two.


I took some pretty pictures while I made some clam chowder last week. I don't know why I was so proud of this, but they are HOMEMADE croutons, and the cans are pretty for the clams. It was so good, too. Let me know if you want the recipe.



Not much is new around here. We're just working, hanging out with Cooper, trying to stay warm in this crazy cold weather, and eating a lot of soup. And, we're eating a lot in general. This wintertime thing makes us really hungry for some reason, so I hope it warms up soon! Cooper likes the gym playroom and the nice sitters, so we go there a little more now. It's a little bit of a relief to be able to go during the days that we don't do anything. Life is good!

Proof he is our son.

Here's a conversation between Dad and son getting into the car at Wal-Mart:

"Cooper, you are so good at getting into the car seat yourself. When I grow up, I want to be just like you."

"You've got to be kidding me, Dad."

100% accurate, I promise.

Also, congrats to Leslie on her THIRD baby girl - Claire Elizabeth. She's gorgeous!

Once

I read a post not too long ago on Heather Armstrong's blog about a movie called Once that she believed to be really good. I saw it at Blockbuster, so I rented it and watched it with Luke and Kelley. It was SO amazing. If you love music and want to watch something that pulls you in and you're not really sure why, and can get past some of the cursing, WATCH this movie. I just bought the soundtrack on iTunes. Highly recommended. That's all.

Me and Rhett

Yes, it is me and Rhett Miller of the Old 97s. Just look at how giddy I am. Can't even keep my shoulders down. Thanks Emily!

Christmas recap

Just a few pictures of the holiday - it was a good one!

Cooper's preschool Christmas party.

These boys are pals. Gotta love the cuz.

My tree.

At Central Market on the cool playground.


Aunt Kelley and the kids making cookies.


Proud of his decorating talents.

Cookies for Santa.

A Billy Joel in the making. Thanks Santa!

Mom and her new "Smoothie" bike. Just like a kid at Christmas!


Rachel passing out presents. She's the best at this.

"I promise I won't beat on it ALL of the time!"

I AM cool.

Yes, THIS is how close we were to the Old 97s concert last night at La Zona Rosa (picture with Luke's phone).

It was HEAVEN. We went with Randal and his girlfriend Emily to the concert, and basically became best friends with Rhett Miller. Not really. But, we did go to Frank & Angie's pizza (not far from the venue) to eat before hand. We were worried about getting to the concert in time, when behold: Rhett and his band were TWO TABLES AWAY FROM US. I got my picture taken with Rhett, and I thought I was going to pass out I was so nervous. The teenage Sara was out in full effect - he's pretty rock-star dreamy, with the swooping hair and great jeans. Whew, anyway. I WILL post the AWESOME picture as soon as I get it off of Emily's camera. I promise, it's cool.

One of the best concerts I've ever been to. If you get the chance to see these guys, you have to go.

Merry Chrimmis!

Hope everyone had a great day!

A day in the life of Photo Card Cafe'.

Thought you guys might want to see what Sara and I have been doing this holiday. Only recently has it started to slow down, but last week was a doozie.

Here's how it starts, pictures all divided out.


The Wal-Mart trash. They love us there.


All wrapped up and ready to pack.


What I eat while doing this.


The MAJOR amount of boxes, envelopes and packing slips, ready to label.


Going to the poor mailman that comes to my door to pick all of these up. What a ride! It was a good Christmas season for cards!


Oh, and here's a better Santa picture of Cooper. We went to this Pflugerville Old Town Festival last weekend and got some better pictures. Notice Cooper is in shorts. This Texas weather is out of control. Merry Christmas!!!

My best/worst Christmas music list part one

We've been listening to Christmas music since before Thanksgiving, so much so that Cooper now does the radio jingle "Magic ninety-five point FIIIIIVE" all of the time. I like it though.

We've heard a few great artists sing some holiday songs, and some REAAAALLLY bad ones. Thought I'd share some that you might be surprised about.

A hard one, "O Holy Night"
Best - Celine Dion, of course
Worst - Brandy (seriously)
Close second-to-worst - Kelly Mitchell and Destiny's Child

"I Wish I Had a River"
Best - the original, Joni Mitchell
Worst, and I'm not kidding - Barry Manilow

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Best - Brenda Lee
Worst - Lee Ann Rimes

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
Best - Bare Naked Ladies
Worst - well, can't think of a worst, Bare Naked Ladies are just the best.

"Silent Night"
Best - Burl Ives
Worst - Stevie Nicks (I know, I like her, but she sounds like a man)

"So This is Christmas"
Best - John Lennon
Worst - Celine Dion

Here are my three favorite Christmas songs, and their best singers:
"Celebrate Me Home" - Kenny Loggins
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Judy Garland
"Another Auld Lang Syne" - Dan Fogelberg (yeah, yeah, I know)

Honorable mention: "The Angels Cried" - Alan Jackson and Alison Krauss (I have to mention her somewhere, as the best artist on earth.)

There you have it. I'm sure I'll think of more. Merry Christmas! Expect a nice post on all of the card shipping I've been doing lately ... whew!

Santa rulz.

Here are Cooper's recent Santa pictures. We had a free, take-your-own-pictures Santa experience at the Kaleidoscope toys in Round Rock. The lighting was not good, and Santa could have picked a better recliner, but who's worried about that?

He did so wonderfully. Walked right up to Santa and sat in his lap. We'd talked it up a lot - how great Santa was, etc., etc. So, it helped!





Mmmm ... I'll do anything for a candy cane.



Still a little scared of this guy, but I didn't cry!



Even though he did GREAT with Santa, he did NOT like the Chick-Fil-A cow.

My camera.

I have officially fallen in love with my camera. Or, he's just really cute.

This can't be happening.

Cooper is on day two of NO NAP AT ALL. His naps cannot be over already, can they? We got up at the same time, etc. Had to go to bed really early last night because of no nap. He slept a lot last night, and now another no-nap day.

I really don't know if I can give up on naps. I think I'll have a nervous breakdown!

Proud smile

Coolest thing

See the link below. This is a couple from church's house, friends of ours, and he happens to own a Christmas lighting company. You just have to see it - SO COOL. Christmas is almost here!

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4aYbMVYn34

The newer, new camera.

Yes, we took back the Nikon Coolpix and splurged on the Nikon D40x SLR. We LOVE it so far - the pictures are FAR superior to anything we've ever had, but we haven't had a chance to take any really fast pictures yet. I will have Cooper run later and we will try. It's pretty big, and doesn't have a video feature, but the child setting and continuous shutter are worth it.

If you know Cooper, this is one of his many famous faces.



And another classic.





At the park today with Victoria and Kelsey (sorry Vic, I didn't get a pic of them together!)

Ice, Ice, Baby

I went to spin class this afternoon, and behold ... The entire Austin Icebats hockey team was there, spinning with me. I was the only girl, besides the instructor. It was pretty motivating, since I was pretty slow comparatively. Made for a fun class though, when normally, it's the worst/hardest workout ever. *wink*

The new camera.

Well, the old Canon elph broke, so we purchased a Nikon Coolpix with WIRELESS I tell you. WIRELESS! It's pretty nice to have. Takes great pictures too, for a small camera. I highly recommend. Here's a few from yesterday and today.

Happy Halloween!

I thought this picture looked funny because it looks so posed, but it's not at all. :)

I'll add one of the costume soon. Have fun trick-or-treating!

The next Michael Jordan

Cooper went to his two-year well check yesterday, although he wasn't really well. he has a sinus infection and bronchitis, bothf or which we got some good meds. Other than those things, he's "very, very smart" says the doctor. He "puts sentences together extremely well" and "is healthy, and did I mention smart?" Yeah, yeah. He's a genius.

We've learned that not only is he tall, HE IS THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF A THREE YEAR-OLD. Stats:

Height: 37.5 inches (110th percentile)
Weight: 30.6 lbs. (75th-95th percentile, because of his height)

His head is normal, and his body mass index (BMI) was on the low part of the average side. "He's perfect, and will definitely be tall," she says, but I think she's just trying to make me feel good. It's working. :)

This just about sums it up.

We had a whirlwind weekend in Abilene for ACU Homecoming. It was a lot of fun seeing some friends who live there, and others who had come into town for the festivities. Starting to feel a little old, since the "Coming Home Queens" were seniors when we were freshman. Whoa.

Cooper loved the parade, carnival (go bouncy house thingie), hanging out with Nonnie, Poppie, Rachel and Uncle George, and the really hot football game. Also, I highly recommend not going to club breakfast. I've never felt so rested at a homecoming!

We went to see the musical "Aida" performed by ACU Theater. Let me say, it was amazing (shout out to cousin Lindsey as well). The lead actor and actress were perfect. I was incredibly impressed. Well, I've never really not been impressed with ACU Theater. It was GREAT!

Cooper threw up five times last night - it was wonderful. He's had a fever and coughing here and there, and I'm not sure where the throw up came from, but he's much better today, and still sleeping. We're supposed to go for his two year well checkup tomorrow, but that might turn into a sick checkup. Details to come!

TWO!

Coop,

Sometimes I sit back and wonder about my life. I wonder how the past has affected the way I am now and what I do, and how the future is going to be. I wonder if I'm a good wife and mother, if we're putting money in the right places, if I look older or younger than I am, how your future is going to turn out, where you'll go, what you'll do. Occasionally I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach because of my brain telling me that I've forgotten something when it comes to teaching you words, manners, social skills, numbers, books of the Bible, anything. Your dad and I stress about dumb things like money and work, and I pray that doesn't roll over into your daily life (we are not good examples when it comes to stress). And I wonder if that stress will ever end. The list goes on.

What I do not wonder about is this: The past two years have been the best years of my life. This I know.

You are a total joy to everyone you encounter. Your smile and happy demeanor light up a room. You can have entire conversations with most anyone about anything at all, because you speak so clearly and logically. Everyone loves you. It is for these reasons that we sometimes wonder whether or not you are our child - not just the blue eyes and blonde hair. Most kids want to be just like mommy or daddy. I want to be more like you.

We are proud to be your parents. I am proud to be the mother of a boy who is going to go so far in life doing whatever it is he wants to do (pilot/doctor/hint). You have a strong will, overflowing energy, a "doers" attitude, and a stubborn confidence. Each and every day is an adventure with you, even though you are a boy who loves routine, and phones (so obsessively you are a cell phone for Halloween because that's all you love). And, I get to be a part of this daily adventure. I'm so lucky to get to spend each and every day with you, and can honestly say that I've made the best decision for our family to do so. We are all so happy.

Cooper Hejl, happy second birthday. May you be richly blessed by God and everyone you come in contact with. You are the best son, and we love you. And as you would say, "My eyes are leaking!"

Mom