Surprise!

The most wonderful husband in the world has been hard at work for 5 months planning a huge surprise for my big 4-0. A few days ago, he pulled it off without a hitch. My aunt was here 'visiting' from Florida and my mom from Washington...or at least I thought it was just a visit! As I arrived at I was greeted by dear friends who drove up from Illinois for the event, followed by an enormous surprise entry by my brother and four of his children (who drove 30 hours each way to be here) and my sister and her daughter who flew in from Denver. It was all very well orchestrated with videos from friends around the country and a birthday girl who really didn't have a clue. Enormous thanks go out to John, Amanda, Anjenette, Mom, Judi, Mike, Lorrie and the rest of the secret keepers. Well done, my friends. Well done.

Sam Has Taken Over

MUAHAHAHA! The blog is mine! This is Sam speaking since my parents seem to lazy to update the blog. :P just kidding mom. The kids are doing well. Sophie is now referring to herself as "The Princess," or "The Ballerina," depending on the day. Jack is as cute and debonair (however you spell that), as always. Whenever we go to church now we have to slick it back and stick it to his head just because its so curly and fluffy. We all had a great summer. My friends and I had lots of sleepovers and I got to go to two weeks of girl's camp this year, one with my Illinois girls and one with my Wisconsin gals. I also experienced youth conference which was two days of service and a dance. It was sooooo fun! While I was at my dad's house for three weeks in August going to Disney, Mom and John and the crazy little monkeys all went to Illinois to visit some friends. Sadly summer is over and freshman year has begun. Its all lots of fun and its nice seeing all my school friends again. In two years I can walk with Sophie to school, she's growing up too fast! Thats pretty much all I have to update on so I'll talk to ya'lls next time :)

Independence

Here are Sophie and Jack chilling out on the Fourth. Too Cute. We really enjoyed the holiday this year, small town americana at it's very best. There were fireworks and a Sousa orchestra just a block away, lovely weather and good friends. Summer here is amazing, come visit!

he loves me

The other day out of the blue John walked in with these beauties. For no reason other than he knows peonies are my favorite. I love that man.

just dance

As I write this Sam is here

doing this

with a tall dark and handsome boy.  

And I only have evidence of it because my sweet neighbors (who were invited to the dance, unlike stodgy parents like me) smuggled in my camera and brought it to me on the way home. So thanks, Rodriguezes, now I feel like I was there too.

Grandmas, look quickly because these might be yanked at any moment by a camera shy 14 year old.

And by the way, when the heck did I get stodgy and how can I possibly have a teenager?

Let the fun begin.

Spring In Our Steps

Spring has finally sprung in the great frozen tundra.  It has been a looooong hard winter, the longest of my life.  Seven hard frigid windy months.  Yes, worse than Maine, Washington, Montana and Connecticut.  Maybe even worse than them combined.  But this week we finally have tulips springing up in random places in our yard, the sun is shining and the birds are singing.  Maybe too much of that last thing since one of our neighbors is bird crazy.  In the way that some unmarried older androgynous women are cat crazy, but in this case we get to participate in the fun.  She has no less than 12 birdfeeders in her tiny yard, half of them technically in our yard.  But, alas, she is a nice lady and throws the ball for Sadie (who is technically a bird dog!) whenever she wants. Which is a lot.   A lot more than I do, anyway.  

Easter was fun. The kids were very dapper and we got to eat most of their candy so it was a win win situation, really.John got to golf Blackwolf Run last weekend, Kohler actually has a couple of world class golf courses...the PGA Championship is here next year.  Here he is warming up with his protege.

The kids are growing so fast.  Sam is making lots of friends here, even the boy variety:).  So she's happy but we don't see much of her, hence no pictures of her in this post.  Jack is a learning sponge right now, he says at least two new words every day and has begun combining them into little sentences.  Sophie is hilarious and so cute and definitely keeps us on our toes. She's known as the little Shawn Johnson in her gymnastics class, soooo much fun to watch.  

We're going to enjoy the next several months here, the parks, the beach and the lake are fantastic and it's so nice to get out.  We'll get some pics of those places up soon!  Here is a look at an afternoon well spent until then.

Happy Birthday Jack Cooper!

Today is Jack's first birthday.  I can't believe how time has flown.  Sophie only has 4 pounds on him now.  He'll most certainly be caught up with her by 18 months.   We had a giant cupcake and let him get nice and dirty, he even got his candle in his mouth and it took two of us to pry it from his crazy powerful jaws.   I tried to put together his new car this morning- it's not really supposed to be a convertible- but I sadly lack the skills necessary to perform basic adult functions.  Thank heavens for daddy coming home from work early and finishing the job for me:) The cozy coupe is now fully operational and sometimes Sophie even allows Jack to drive it, after all it is his b-day.

Long time no blog...

I just got an email from my dear Aunt Judi wanting this blog updated.  She's right, it's been way too long!  We have been hibernating the winter away here in the frozen tundra, seems like it takes so much more effort to do anything right now, even blogging.  Anyway, today is our fourth wedding anniversary. Crazy how many life-altering things can happen in four years.  It has been a great ride so far and we're looking forward to another 40 or so.  The kids are growing so fast.  Jack turns one next week and has been walking for a 6 weeks or so.  His favorite words are "ball", "good", and "what's this".  Sophie cracks us up every day.  She has such a great personality and is just a delight.  Sam is doing well and making friends.  I think we are just all waiting for the weather to break at this point!