Beautiful Sunshine, Awesome Snow

On Monday, David and I had the day off and were really fortunate to have some beautiful sun. It was pretty warm outside so we decided it was the perfect time to let Cooper try out his new bike outside. He's not quite strong enough to push the pedals on his own yet, but he loves to be on his bike and be pushed around.

 After riding on his own bike for a while, David and I decided to pull out our bikes and go for a ride to the park. Cooper had a blast both at the park and riding on David's bike with him. He was so funny encouraging David to go faster by yelling, "Go Daddy, Go!"

 It had rained Sunday night, so the park was a little wet. Cooper was running and tripped, landing face-first in the mud. He hates being dirty and was not happy at all.  Then he was running with his hands in his pockets and tripped again, and with no hands to catch himself, he landed face-first again. His nose got a little scratched up, but he handled it like a champ. A kiss from Mommy and he was all better. Some days he's just an accident waiting to happen!

All this sunshine got us really excited for summer. I had been doing a lot of research, looking for a beach house to rent for a couple days. We found an awesome house, right on the beach in Lincoln City. David, Cooper and I will be joined by my parents for a week long vacation at the end of June and early July. My sister and her family will be coming for a couple days as well. We are so excited for this trip and the memories that we will make. We think Cooper will really like the beach and we might drive down to the Oregon Coast Aquarium too.

On Saturday I went snowboarding with my friend Andrea at White Pass. To our surprise, we parked right next to some friends from high school! We did a couple runs with them and joined them for lunch in the lodge. It was so good to see them again. We also did a couple runs with some of David's good friends as well. We had perfect snow and awesome sunshine all day. We laughed non-stop and had so much fun! I can't wait to go again.

Quick Updates:
David is still having a blast student teaching. He's starting to do a little less observing and a little more teaching on his own. He did a couple lessons on his own last week and had a lot of fun. His love for teaching is confirming that he's made a good career choice. Now we just need to cross our fingers that he doesn't have a problem finding a job with all the budget cuts. Everyone vote "Yes" for the levies in Tri-Cities!

My birthday is on Friday - I'll be 25! Some kids on the chair lift at White Pass informed me that 25 is really old, but I don't think it is. I think 25 will be a good, fun age. I'm excited to see what 25 brings my way, besides a car insurance discount.

Cooper turns 2!

Last weekend we celebrated our nephew's birthday with a little fun in the pool. Cooper just can't get enough of the pool. He loved the water this last summer and we thought he'd really like to do swim lessons, so we enrolled in him in a "parent-tot" class at a local court club. We had class twice a week for 8 weeks, in October and November. We thought it would be something that he'd really enjoy and that would be a lot of fun for the 3 of us to do together. We'd get in the water about 10 minutes before class started and swim around with him. He'd be all smiles and laughes, kicking his feet and jumping into the water, but as soon as the class would start he'd cry and cry and cry. He didn't start liking the class until the last week, of course! He had a blast at this pool party though. Even though his fingers and toes were all pruny, we still couldn't get him out of the pool. He spent over an hour swimming with his Daddy and his cousins.

After skipping a nap and then swimming for so long, Cooper was exhausted! He was asleep in the car within seconds and he slept like a champ that night. Sometimes he likes to put all his blankets on the floor and sleeps down there instead of in his bed.

Cooper turned 2 on Monday! We are really liking this age. He's a little hard headed and can get himself extremely worked up over the smallest things sometimes, but for the most part he's so sweet and so much fun. Turning 2 meant a 2 year check-up with his wonderful doctor. Cooper really hates going to the doctor, as most kids his age do. The minute we walked in the door, he started crying and saying, "Bye Bye! Bye Bye!" The nurses were great and got him calmed down with a sucker, but as soon as they brought in the stuff for his shots, the sucker flew across the room and his tears were back. It took 2 of them and myself to hold him down for his shots. Poor kiddo! He's healthy as can be though and was given another sucker for the road.

Of course every 2 year old needs to have a birthday party! Cooper was so spoiled by all his family and friends yesterday. Our house was full of people and Cooper had a great time. Instead of doing a cake, my Mom and I made super cute cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzals.

Cooper is so lucky to be surrounded by a lot of family and friends that are very close in age. This was our best attempt at a group picture:

This is what Cooper's room looked like when the party was over:

Kisses for Becca! Cooper loves his cousins and gets so excited to see them. We wish we could see them more often.

Past, Present, and Future

So much has happened since we got married, so I decided to do a quick summary. The biggest thing that has happened was the birth of our beautiful baby boy, Cooper, although he's not much of a baby anymore.

He just turned two, and boy is he terrible sometimes! We absolutely love that kid. He's so much fun! He makes us laugh like no one else can and surprises us with new crazy things everyday.

Right after we had Cooper, David decided he didn't like the career path he was on so he went back to school to get his Masters Degree and become a teacher. While continuing to work full time, he's been going to school every Friday night and all day on Saturdays for the last year and a half. He just started student teaching and is so excited to be graduating soon. He's a great Daddy and a wonderful husband. 

I loved my job at the City of Prosser, but the commute was wearing on me so I took an accounting position for a school district close to home. My job is super boring, but I get to spend so much more time with Cooper and that makes it worth it. I'll be starting classes in August and should have my Bachelors in Elementary Education in less than 2 years. I'm so excited for David and I both to be teachers! It will be so amazing for us to be on the same schedule as our kids. I'll also be fortunate enough to be a stay at home Mommy for the time I'm in school. I can't wait! I've never been so excited for school in my life.

We were hoping to have added another member to our family by now, but are realizing that things don't always go as planned. We've had 2 miscarriages in the last 6 months which has been a big fat bummer, but we are still trying for another baby. We are so eager to add to our family and hope it happens soon.

David still bowls every week and I have a lot of fun doing a Zumba class on Thursdays. We are so lucky to be surrounded by amazing friends and family and we love to spend a lot of time with them. Everyone that lives far away, we miss you and wish we could see you more often!