Another Moab Easter =)

Another great year in Moab! We love our annual Jeep Safari trip it's always so much fun and now Coop is actually easier camping because he's so occupied and everything is new and cool. The Jeeps are also a hit with him, as long as they don't get too close or he starts to get nervous and say, "Mama, get me?"

Every year they do a big Easter egg hunt in a park down there so this year we went and checked it out. Coop thought it was cool and loved the Easter bunny. We couldn't find him after to get a picture though.

We also did a little Easter egg hunt for him and he didn't get off his bike for the whole thing. Good present Grandma! He even learned to ride with both feet on the pedals while we were there

That's how he puts his hat on by himself. Snicker, snicker

Love him! Chillin' by the campfire

He got some ideas from the Jeepers

Coop and uncle Devin. He was always saying, "Demin come on!" or "Demin this way!" Good thing Dev is such a good sport!

The Gang

Back: Cooper, me, Justin, Kristin, Vance, Derick, Jeff, Kyle, Matt, Devin, Andrew, Sarah

Front: Petra, Poli

April Showers bring...

Baby carrots! (hopefully)

I thought it might be fun to plant a thing or two to teach coop how it works and he loved it. He did really good only putting 1 0r 2 seeds in each hole until the end and then he dumped a whole handful so we'll see what happens! Maybe this will get him to eat his veggies

That's Coop's cheese

Watering our little seeds

We planted some pear tomatoes to and they are actually growing. Yeah! We'll see if the baby carrots can withstand being snowed on a few times. Where is summer?

28 weeks and counting!

I had my 28wk follow up with our new doctor a little while ago and things went great! Except for the scale but I guess that's a whole other story-ugh. First off Ava is doing well, her heart beat was normal and she's growing great which is always comforting. I love to hear the heart beat. And I really like the new doctor to. When I brought up going all nat-ur-al he was like,"yeah whatever you want to do, we do that all the time." That's much better than, "Maybe you should just tell your husband to get another job to pay for the epidural" or "anybody can have a baby without an epidural-you just lock them in a room" like the other doctor. So, I'm so glad that I switched! I'm down to 2 wk appointments which makes it start going so fast. Crazy! Now only 10 more weeks to go.

Coop bein' crazy-Justin had his sunglasses on his head like this so he had to do the same thing. Seriously-I really do have a mini Justin! FYI it was BBQ/karaoke at our friends house, we don't usually listen to Johnny Cash just for fun =)

Cooper and his girlfriend

Cooper's first love? You never know! He thinks Baby Kate is the cutest thing ever. He loves to hold her and even shared his dancing bunny. Who knows, we might actually be related to Mike and Becky someday!

A visit from...

Great Grandma Olsen!

Uncle Dave, Cindy, Cooper, Grandma Olsen

Awesome rocking motorcycles at the Harley store. He's a natural

My grandma, uncle, and his wife came from Oregon to visit. It was so fun! Cooper has never met them and we haven't seen them since I was prego with Coop. They only stayed 2 days and completely missed the 75 degree weather =( but we still had a good time. Cooper loved having everyone at our house. He has been asking to see Grandma Olsen and wondering where they went since they left. Poor kid is stuck with just me now and I think he gets a little bored! We went to the Harley Davidson store, Justin took Dave and Cindy shooting in the mountains (pretty much what Dave came for. He has an elephant gun that gave even Justin a bruise!), Sundance, and just got to hang out. Cooper has 7 Grandma's and this was the only one he hadn't met yet. We wish they were closer but hope they will come again soon. Love you guys!

Baby Update

I had my 6mo (holy moly it's gone by so fast!) appt last week and thought I'd give you an update on what's going on with our baby. I guess really nothing new, the dr said it should be just a normal delivery and he doesn't expect any complications due to the birth defects. We actually canceled the appt with the perinatologist (specialist) because we didn't feel that he was going to tell us anything we didn't already know and he said it was pretty much optional to come in. I really wanted to get another ultrasound just to see but since our maternity co-pay is $7500 we couldn't really justify it just for curiosity sake. So, everything else is good. She's growing normally and will hopefully come on time! Cooper was 2 weeks late so we'll see but we are going to Bear Lake 2 weeks after she's due so she better not be too late!

I also decided to switch doctors after my last appt. I have really liked him up until that appt and then I brought up wanting to do a natural delivery (scary! anybody who has advice feel free to give it!) and he acted like it would be a real inconvenience for him and he just kind of blew it off. He's really nice, I just think we want my delivery to go 2 completely separate ways. He wants convenient and fast and I want as little medication, forcepts, c-section etc as possible. I promise I'm not one of those crazy have my kids at home kind of people! I wanted to wait as long as I could for an epidural with Cooper to. We'll see how it goes! I just can't wait until she gets here. Sometimes I want her here so bad it hurts ya know? But on the other hand it has gone by so dang fast and we still have so much to do! All in time I guess

Typical Big Brother

So, last night Cooper ran into our closet to hide (this happens a lot at bedtime and he thinks it's so funny!) and this was the conversation...

Me: "Who's hiding?"

Cooper: "Ava!"

Poor girl isn't even here yet and he's already blaming stuff on her! I have a feeling that won't be the last time it happens...

2 year Pics

I really can't believe he's TWO! It has gone by so fast and he is learning so many things. He really does make us laugh everyday with all the things that he says. Today I told him the birds pooped on our truck and he insisted on seeing it and kept saying over and over, "Birds pooped truck. wash it" And then he'd laugh and say, "No, no birds!" I heard about it all day long and I don't think I'll hear the end of it until I wash it off! The mind of a 2yr old...I love it!

He looked pretty innocent in these pics but don't let him fool you. That poor bear got tossed around more in the 20 min we were there than it probably has been in its whole life!

Pay It Forward

{The Rules}

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me~something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will 'Pay It Forward,' creating a handmade gift~anything, for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts.

♥ ♥ ♥

I have found this on a few of my friends blogs (and I've been lucky enough to leave a comment on all of them!) so I figured I better get it on my blog. I don't know what it will be, if you leave a comment and have a request-feel free otherwise it's a free for all! Have Fun!

LiOnS, and TiGeRs, and BeArS- OH MY!

Alright, it was just lions but still pretty cool right? Justin had to go to Vegas for work so Coop and I decided to hitch a ride since we always miss Justin and we needed a break from the snow. While we were there Justin went to somebody's house who worked with the lions at the MGM, he actually got attacked a few weeks ago-yeah, while people were watching! Scary! But anyway, he told us that they feed them at 8pm every night and to go because that's the only time they do anything, otherwise they sleep. So, we took Coop and went. He loved it! The crew throws balls of ground meat at the glass right in front of the kids so the lions lick it off and they get to see them. He thought it was pretty funny. Sticking a meat soaked hand in a lions mouth wouldn't exactly be my dream job but it was pretty cool to watch and no one was attacked while we were there!

This is supposed to be a video of them feeding the lion but I'm not what you would call 'computer savvy' so I guess it will just be a pic (Jackie I will probably be giving you a call!)

We also made a few trips to the park while Justin was working. Not exactly warm, but so nice ot get some sun and be outside! Thanks Todd and Kim for lettin us crash at your house. Don't you love how Coop goes down the slide? He puts the skids on if he gets going too fast! =)

2 year check up

Length: 36" 85th percentile

Weight: 24.4 lbs 10th percentile

Head Circ: 47.2cm 10th percentile

He's still tall and skinny! Where that gene came from nobody knows but hopefully it will stay with him. He got one shot and didn't cry, not one tear! I couldn't believe it! So he got to pick a sucker and I'm pretty sure that erased all the bad feelings about the doctors office. Kids...

Look Who's

TWO!

~Not even 24 hrs old!~

~About 4mos~

~One year~

~Crazy at 2!~

~They grow up so fast!~

We had cake and ice cream at our house for Coop's birthday and it was a blast. He loved all the presents, especially his Cars Laptop, and we had fun with all our family and friends. Thanks everyone! We can't believe he is already 2. I swear he was just born yesterday.

IT'S A...

GIRL!

Our cute little girl's profile

We had our 20wk ultrasound yesterday and found out that we are going to be having a little girl! We are so excited and I do know what we are going to name her but I will let that be a surprise for when she is born.

During the ultrasound we also found out that our precious little girl is going to have some very tough times ahead of her. Hopefully I will be able to write all of this and still see the computer screen! The ultrasound went fine and when she was about finished she asked if there was anything she hadn't looked at that we wanted to see. I couldn't think of anything and was ready to jump up but Justin asked about her arms. It hadn't occured to me that we hadn't yet seen them. I just figured it was because of how she was laying. When she looked around for a little bit she said, "Ok Lindy, let me just explain some of the things I saw" I knew something was wrong. Apparently her arms have not developed normally. She has one arm that goes to her elbow with 2 fingers on it. The other arm is shorter, they are not sure by how much but it looks like about half the size and it was too hard to see whether or not she will have fingers on that arm. She called over to the hospital and got us in with a specialist and a second ultrasound to verify what she had seen. She just said she hoped that she had made a mistake but I knew she hadn't.

The Specialist looked at the second x-ray and then did one of his own and explained again what he saw to us. They don't know what the cause is or why it happened. Justin's brother actually, from what we can see on the ultrasound, has about exactly the same thing. It is very rare and they don't think that it is genetic but Justin and I have a feeling genes might have something to do with it. I know I hadn't taken any medication since being pregnant but I was teriffied it was because I hadn't taken prenatal pills all that great but he assured us that definitley wasn't it. Wee are thankful that everything else looks ok. It's comforting to have Justin's brother in the family because he can do everything so that helps us know that she probably will be able to also.

I don't think all of the tears are necessarily dried, although today has been much easier than yesterday. Thanks to our family and friends who are so supportive and loving. We know that this is Heavenly Father's plan and are just thankful for the opportunity to have this sweet little girl come into our lives. It's hard for me to ask for things but I will ask for your prayers in behalf of our baby. We are ok but we are just praying that she will have the strength of spirit and character to get through all of the struggles we know she will inevitably endure. Again thanks to those who are constantly lifting us up. We love you all

Thankful

I was reading a friend's blog who is an adoptive mother and I just have to recognize how thankful I am for the kid(s) that I have. I never knew before having Cooper how much you could really love somebody. I love my family and I love my husband but nothing is like the love that a parent has for their child. Even now when Cooper reaches out to hug or kiss me it almost makes me cry. How blessed am I to have been entrusted, even for just a little while, with this precious little spirit. How blessed to know that I get to teach and take care of him. Even with all the stresses and messes it is the best thing that I have ever been able to do. I feel my Heavenly Father's love more because I have him. How sad for those people who think their careers and personal aspirations are more important than their children. They will never know the joy that they could have no matter how much money or fame they acquire. Thanks to those who constantly remind me of this.