The Gussenhoven Family

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. How do I manage to get so far behind?! Here's what we've been up to:
It's a BOY!

Glad I didn't keep all of Cooper's old clothes for no reason :-)

Cooper has been insisting all along that it's a boy and he says his name is Wilson. We are pretty set on Carter for a first name, and now we are probably going to go with Wilson as a middle name.

We are so excited! February can't get here soon enough.

My sister came into town for the weekend to help us get the baby room ready. I know, I'm a little crazy because I'm 22 weeks and the baby room is pretty much completely ready now, but these next 18 weeks are full of holidays and birthdays and I'm so glad it's ready before all that madness begins.

{ My boys sleeping }

We moved Rocky's bed out of the babies room and his new chosen spot to sleep is in Cooper's room. They are so cute together. Whenever Cooper goes in to go to sleep, Rocky follows him.

While my sister's family was in town, we all made a trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a rainy day and the kids looked so cute in their rain jackets.

A couple weeks ago Cooper came down with an awful stomach flu. I was such a proud Mommy because he is at an age where he knows to throw up in a bowl. Even in the car he reached for it when he needed it and didn't miss. For anyone who has had their kids barf in the carseat, you know how awesome it is when your kid throws up in a bowl in the car. What a relief! We kept a bowl within arms reach all day long and he never missed. That sure made my life easier because the last time he had the stomach flu my entire house stank like barf and I'm pretty sure we went through all our towels and sheets and ended up shampooing the carpets multiple times. It was just a 24 hour bug and he was feeling back to normal the next day.

Then it was my turn to get sick. After spending a little bit of time with Becca Boo, we all found out she had strep throat. Poor girl. Then I woke up the next day with a sore throat. Dang it! It was just perfect timing as we were all set to go to Vegas in a couple days, so I went straight to the doctor and got antibiotics. Thankfully I was feeling much better in time for our trip.

David turned 30 last weekend (he's an old man!) so we went to Vegas to celebrate with some friends and family. We had such a great time, but we really missed our little man. We ended up getting to see a Cirque Du Soleil show, which was awesome! And we came home with an iPad that we can't stop playing with.

{ We made M&Ms that say "Grammy & Bumpa" and "COOPER" }

{ We bought a back massager and Cooper thinks it's the greatest. }

Pictures by Tara Tallman Photography:

She was babysitting Cooper yesterday and took him out for some pictures. They are just too cute!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've done an update!

Here's what we've been up to lately:

David got a position at a local middle school teaching 7th and 8th grade Language Arts/History.
YAH!
He only had a couple days to prepare before school started so he was pretty stressed out for a little while and it didn't help him out any that the day he started working was also the day that I started school. Poor David... while being a brand new teacher and having a ton of work to do, he hasn't been able to stay and work later at school because he has to go get Cooper, come home and make a quick dinner and then spend the evening entertaining Cooper because when I got off work I have about 15 minutes to scarf down a quick bite then grab my school stuff and run off to classes for the night. David doesn't get to start his "homework" until I get home from class, which is usually sometime between 8:30 and 9:30. There's been a lot of late nights and 6am comes way too early. We hadn't used our coffee pot in forever, but it's been brewing nice and early for us lately.

Before David got hired on, I decided that I couldn't go to work all day, then school every night, on top of being pregnant, and somehow remain sane. Something was going to have to give and it wasn't going to be the time that I spend with Cooper. I didn't care if David was working or not, there was no way I was going to keep working full time and miss out on priceless Cooper/Mommy time. So I talked to my boss and she was more accomadating than I could have ever imagined. She told me I could change my hours to whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. She was just glad I wasn't quitting. I decided that we would be just fine financially if I work 3 days a week. That would also allow us to keep our health insurance (really important for a pregnant lady). So I got all the neccessary paperwork done at work and everything was all set for me to start working part time and then David got the call that he got the job. We had been planning that I would quit and stay at home and just focus on Cooper and school when David got a teaching job, but we talked about it and decided that I would stay working 3 days a week until we have the baby, then I'll quit. This works out cheaper for insurance reasons and it's nice having the extra money. So our lives are crazy hectic right now, but we've gotten into a routine and it seems to be working for us. Thankfully my homework load hasn't been too brutal yet, so I've been able to get it all done during Cooper's naps. Our housework on the other hand... well it's definately been slacking! Anyone know a free maid? We finally caught up with our laundry the other day. That was quite the chore.

Back in July we flew down to southern CA with my parents. We all had such a great time, although the trip was much too short.

Cooper did soooooo good on the airplane! He loved it!

In the short amount of time that we were there, we sure managed to do a lot! Here's some of the highlights:

We went for a walk one evening in my Grandparent's neighborhood and saw a ton of wild bunnies. Cooper had a blast chasing them all away.

We drove down to Oceanside and spent the day at the beach with my good friend, Marge. It was so good to see her!

We went to Carlsbad to spend an evening at my Uncle Doug's house. I really wish we could have spent more time with them. We had a great dinner and a great overall visit with them. Megan and Karlie came back to my Grandparent's house with us that night and stayed the next 2 nights. It was soooo good to get to see them. Man we miss all 4 of them! Those girls were so good with Cooper. He loves hanging out with them. Still to this day if you ask Cooper, "Who loves you?" sometimes he'll reply, "Uncle Doug!"

We went to Newport and took the ferry across to Balboa Island. Cooper was in quite the mood that morning and had a couple totally embarrassing, awful fits. The first one came when we had to get off the ferry. He really didn't want to get off the boat. Fit #2 was when it came time to get off the carousel and fit #3 was a complete throw yourself down in the middle of the walkway and scream and cry for no reason at all. It's so hard for me to keep my sanity when he's acting like that, so thankfully we got some balboa bars and enjoyed our ice cream while he cried it out. We left shortly after that and he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

After lunch and a nap for me and Cooper while everyone else played games, we all went to Donnie's new, amazingly beautiful new house. We spent the day in the pool and visiting with family that we don't get to see hardly enough. I did not want to leave! I had so much fun spending time with everyone. Cooper quickly fell in love with Donnie and Ruth's kids, Kelsey, Coleman, and Garrison. He didn't even notice that he'd left his ducky back at my Grandparent's house. This is absolutely amazing as he never goes anywhere without his ducky. We seriously almost turned around to get it when we were already on the road for 20 minutes because we just knew he'd be heartbroken and would have a complete meltdown without it. Coleman even gave him a stuffed tiger for the ride home because he thought that's when he'd notice that his ducky was gone. Such a sweetheart! Cooper made it all the way back without noticing and he loves his new tiger. He still doesn't go anywhere without his ducky, but he doesn't leave his new tiger for long either.

It was such a great trip. Next time it will have to be longer for sure.

After getting over a stomach flu this summer and some morning/all day sickness before that, this pregnancy has been going really quickly and easily. We have an ultrasound next week and we'll get to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl. Cooper told me this morning that it's a boy and his name is Wilson. I asked him what name he had come up with if it's a girl and he said, with attitude, "It's not a girl Mommy! It's a boy!" He is so excited and is constantly rubbing, hugging, and kissing my belly.

Some other pictures from this summer:

Cooper's new favorite thing to do is finger paint.