Clovis -From early December

We are in Clovis, CA this week visiting Sharon's family. Grandma Barbara passed away the week of Thanksgiving and Papa had her service last Saturday. It was definitely a celebration of life service. While
We are here we are getting in lots of cousin time. Chloe and Noah are staying at Oma's house, where we are, so we see them daily. Cooper loves cousin Noah and looks forward to seeing him after school. We are also playing with Cousins Alexander and Adam. We took them to play-place this morning and going to an inflatable play-place tomorrow.
We visited Uncle Silly Billy today with the three boys and they played with all of Bill's toys (bicycles and ATV rides). Cooper took a ride on a go-cart too.












We took all the cousins to zoo lights this weekend. Sharon, Sonya and Kris took Chloe and Noah and Cooper rollerskating on Sunday too.
Tonight we walked some streets with Adam and Alexander to see Christmas lights.

Special Friends Brunch

This year Cooper invited Uncle Jeff to his preschool Special Friends Brunch. I was a parent helper that day and was able to enjoy the festivities too.
It was a fun day, we made rice bowls again this year, party hats and the kids made necklaces for their special friends.












Jeff took Cooper home after the brunch so I could clean up, it was fast because we had an extra parent helper. Cooper also showed Jeff around the classroom after they ate. He had a lot of fun.

Year in Review 2012:

What a year. Let's review:

* Sharon got a new job!
* The upstairs project was completed.
* Family trip to Manzanita before Sharon's new job started.
* April started our camping season with a trip to Bend.
* We took our annual camping trip to Lake Almanor.
* Cooper turned 5!
* Jeff and Chikako moved in!
* Sharon turned 50!
* Our last camping trip was to Pacific Beach for Sharon's bday.
* Nonna visited 3 times, twice with Bob.
* Cooper began his last year of preschool.
* Grandma Barbara passed away.
* We took a trip to Fresno for Barbara's service and had quality extended family time.
* The Rosey's stayed with us for Christmas.

What a great year full of milestones and change!

2013 is off to a great start and will ramp up in April when concerts and trips commence!

Making lunch

Cooper loves making his own food. Today he made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Rockin in the New Year!

Our New Years Eve was filled with a little volunteering for me to start. During the day I helped a local Japanese organization put together traditional bento boxes for the new year. They sell these boxes of Japanese American food as a fundraiser for their organization at $130 a box. In Japan these boxes sell for $1200 dollars. I spent 4 hours at the Oregon Buddhist Temple with Jeffrey and Chikako making food. My favorite part was making the sushi rolls, I had a great teacher and am excited to try it at home!

After our shift we stopped for much needed coffee then home to start making pizzas. We had our neighbors William and Jean over and our dear friend Connie. After eating we went to William and Jean's for dessert and jam session. Sharon and William jam occasionally (hopefully once a week starting this year) and we got Jeff to play the drums! We jammed until midnight then popped champagne and watched some neighborhood fireworks. Cooper was able to fall asleep during the jam session, after trying out the drums with Uncle Jeff, around 10:30.

We had a great night, we are all a bit tired today though.
Pictures of the jam session.

Christmas

This Christmas our good friends Rosey and Rosario spent 5 days with us. We had a great time and ate extremely well. Saturday was Rosey's italian pasta night, Sunday was authentic Mexican tacos by Rosario. Monday was the homemade pizza night with Janet, Holly and Angie and Tuesday was prime rib dinner with friends at Janet's.

Christmas Day, Cooper woke up (at 7:45 am) and said, "Mama, let's let Mommy sleep and go build my planes." (He got some wooden planes from Holly and Angie Christmas Eve and didn't have a chance to put them together yet. When I heard him whisper that to Mama I said, "Cooper, do you know what day it is?" He said yes and then we got out of bed and headed to the living room. When he saw the packages from Santa he started running around the table and tore into his presents!!

His present he asked for from Santa, The Terrain Twister.

Jeff and Chikako opening gifts.

Rosario and Rosey opening gifts.

We took a break and made some fried bread around 9am. Then Cooper opened more gifts. The gift opening ended about 10:30am.

Sharon opening presents.

Jeff, Sharon and Cooper with remote race cars.

The Whirley Pop!

Homemade Gingerbread House

Santa

Cooper had a nice visit with Santa at Santaland.






Cooper and Mama

Fun with Fur, Snow and Skating

We had our first snowfall this week on Tuesday, the same morning as Cooper's fur camp at Tryon Creek State Park.



Cooper's camp included making a fur costume, hiking in the forest and crafts and stories. Cooper had a summer camp at Tryon Creek last year and this fall he and I took a 4-week class on spiders, bats, coyotes and owls. He was a little nervous before we got there but adjusted well once it started.
Here is his costume, the bobcat.



He wouldn't look at the camera.

While he had camp I decided to get my haircut and catch up on some reading. My hair was in need of a trim, it feels much better now.



This morning we went to preschool skate at the local roller skating park, Oaks Park. Last time we went was 2 or more years ago. Since we roller skated in Fresno last week, Cooper was excited to keep practicing. We had a nice time, Cooper improved from last week and had great balance. They do a short lesson during the preschool skate and also have the teacher help kids that are having trouble. We will definitely be back, probably next week.

Quote

Mommy: "Close your eyes Cooper."
Cooper: "I will close them when I am ready to close them."

Weekend

We had an excellent, mellow Thanksgiving this year. We had dinner at our house with just a few friends and our family of 5. This is the first year I ate turkey since having Cooper. Most of you know the turkey story. The short version is my morning sickness came in full affect during Thanksgiving and ever since I was pregnant I could not eat/smell/stand turkey. This year, I ate it not only for Thanksgiving but the four days after as leftovers.
We had lots of fun family time over Thanksgiving weekend, we hit an open gym playtime, watched the Civil War and took Cooper and a friend to PDX Playdate, a fun indoor play park.








We spent 4 hours there, we picked up Cooper's friend on the way there and then his mom ran some errands and met us there after 2 hours. The boys had a blast and we got to visit as a couple and with our friend.
We have a trip to California coming up in early December. Grandma Barbara passed away the week of Thanksgiving and we are going to the ceremony and to visit family.

Gymnastics

Cooper's new gymnastics class, his first day.

Halloween

We went trick-or-treating at Holly and Angie's this year. Cooper was Batman, Uncle Jeff was Super Elvis and Angie was Spa Lady. It was a lot of fun! Cooper had a blast and enjoyed handing out candy at their house almost as much as the trick-or-treating.

Field Trip

Cooper went to the Fire Station today with his preschool class. They went to the station down the street from our house. Cooper loved seeing the firefighter in all their gear, he also liked spraying the water hose and touring the station.









When we were back at school Cooper and his friend Graham played firefighters and dressed in the jacket and hats.






Cooper is learning so much these days. It's true what they say, kids are sponges. They soak up so much information and remember it. I am blown away at the things he knows sometimes.

Mud puddles

Fun in the bath

Pictures from the Weekend

We had a fun weekend with lots of activity. We had date night with our good friends on Friday night, Saturday morning we hit Cadillac Cafe (a fave) for breakfast with Aunt Janet. Saturday afternoon/evening we watched Cooper's BFF Graham and went to an apple pressing party. The boys carved pumpkins, helped press apples and played with their goody bags. We stayed for some good music too. I had Graham for 6 hours and it was great, they played really well together and had one meltdown each toward the end of the night.



Wormy eyes



Cooper did the car, Graham the rocket.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast made by our roomies before heading out to Gales Creek Farm to get our pumpkins with Cooper's preschool friends. The rain stayed away during the farm trip too. Once home, Cooper and Mama set to work on pumpkin carving.