The Cooper Family: December 2013

11 Months - Brooklyn Louise

Eleven months....where oh where has 2013 gone?! This has been the fastest year of our life thus far, but also the most blessed! Brooklyn you are a joy to have in our family. Your smile and laughter always warm our hearts and your notorious "scrunchy face" always brings a smile to our face! You love your big brother like no other and always want to watch him and follow him around. Brayden is really enjoying playing the big brother role these days and picking you up to move you if you are getting into trouble, haha. You also love your Daddy to pieces and always smile when you see his face. He has a way of making you laugh like no other. Brooklyn, you and Daddy have a special bond that is wonderful to see and you love to "dance" in his arms. You are a Mommy's girl at heart though and love to spend time with me no matter what I am doing. You especially cling to Momma when it is feeding time and bed time, and I love it! You are babbling more and more these days. Your favorite is still saying "dada", but you have also been known to say "nana", "gaga", and "baba" (for Brayden). Still no "mama" though.

You pretty much eat all "finger foods" now, but still love to be fed yogurt and the baby food pouches (which you eat on your own). You are doing really well drinking water from a straw cup too. Brooklyn, thus far you are great at playing with toys and entertaining yourself. You are very curious and love to pull things out of draws, boxes, bins, and off shelves. You crawl all over the place and enjoy pulling yourself up on anything you can find. This month you have started to "cruise" a bit on the furniture and will let go with one hand. You are not able to stand on your own yet, but are getting a little better at walking while holding onto our hands. We had to invest in a few more baby gates this month too, because you have learned how to climb up the stairs. Brooklyn, you also learned to wave this month and do "so big" when holding onto our hands. You also still give high five's and love, love, love to dance!

Brooklyn sweet pea, baby girl, we love you and can't wait to see what the next month and 2014 brings!

Playing with brother's trains.

Little scrunchy face.

Standing up, finding toys (aka pulling them off the shelf).

Two teeth!

First Snow

We had our first snow fall (well actually several different days of snow) at the beginning of December! Brayden was so excited to play in the snow this year and is loving every second of it! Believe it or not, I am also enjoying bundling up and playing outside in the snow with him this year too! However, this was Brooklyn first snow experience and she was not too thrilled - partially because she can barely sit up when all bundled up in her snow suit, haha. But I thought she just looked too cute!

Sick Baby Girl

So as I mentioned back in our Thanksgiving post, both kids have been sick off and on for a few weeks. Typically Brayden gets sick first and then as soon as he is starting to feel better, Brooklyn gets sick, and then if it is really bad, Dan and I get sick too. This makes for a long process before we are all feeling better! Anyway, so they had colds, then a virus, but Brooklyn just wasn't seeming to get better. After riding it out for awhile, we finally decided to take Brooklyn to the doctor and it turns out that her virus had settled into a sinus infection. The doctor put her on Amoxicillin (first time on antibiotic) and we started her first dose that evening at dinner. Well to say we had a rough night was an understatement....Brooklyn had an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin and broke out in a rash and hives all over. We took Brooklyn back to the doctor first thing in the morning when they opened and are so grateful that the allergic reaction did not affect her breathing. Praise God! So after monitoring her for a little while, we headed back home with a new antibiotic and Zyrtec for the allergic reaction.

Sick baby girl being a trooper. Watery eyes from her sinus infection.

Back at the doctor to monitor her reaction to the Amoxicillin - worn out!

Getting some fresh air.

Sunday at Nana and Pa's

From time to time we will head over to Nana and Pa's after church on Sunday's to hang out for the afternoon. Here is a picture of "the boys" (and Brooklyn) playing and watching football.

Brayden takes naps on an air mattress in Nana and Pa's closet - Nana's blanket and pillow are a must have for his nap!

Nana teaching Brayden to sew.

Christmas Pictures

So I thought it was tough to get a "good" family picture last year, well forget it now that we have two kids. To get both kids to look at the camera and smile is challenging enough, then you add Dan and I into the mix (who both are notorious for blinking) and its game over. So I have accepted the fact that if we want a decent family picture - and I mean just all four of us looking in the general direction of the camera with eyes open - then we must plan to have several photo shoots! Anyway, here are some funny pictures from our Christmas photo shoot, as well as a few pictures that we ended up using too! Although not perfect, we had a great time taking pictures and lots of laughs too. Wonderful memories attached to each picture that we will always cherish.

Smile.

The "Brooklyn face". Scrunchy nose.

Brayden: "She is trying to eat me..."

"Ahhh"

Loving on KO

Our handsome Brayden!

Decorating for Christmas

Thanksgiving weekend we got out the Christmas decorations and Christmas tree and started decorating! Daniel always puts up the Christmas tree, while I get out the other decoration. Brayden had a lot of fun looking at all of "his" Christmas ornaments and helping us decorate this year.

Each year, Santa sends the kids a surprise package around the beginning of December with a new ornament. This year, Brayden received a Mater ornament.

We decided to use ice cream cones this year to make individual gingerbread houses. Brayden had a blast decorating his "house" and of course eating some of the candy too.

Preschool holiday party and surprise appearance from Mr. and Mrs. Clause. :)

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a relaxing Thanksgiving morning at home playing, getting ready, and packing up to head to MomMom and PopPop's house for the afternoon and Thanksgiving dinner. So after lunches, we loaded the kids in the car to head over to their house. Both kids took naps on the way down, which worked out great (especially since Brayden was not feeling too well and typically doesn't nap much in the car anymore).

We had a wonderful visit and time at MomMom's and PopPop's house and both kids did great even though that were not feeling the greatest. More on that later.

Happy Thanksgiving!