Mother's Day 2010.

Mother's Day for us is all about home projects.  This weekend Sharon worked on building an under deck storage area by creating a dry deck system.  She was able to get the gutter up and some panels to test it out, it works and is awesome!  We are looking forward to having storage under the deck this winter.  While she was busy with that project I was busy weeding the yard, planting seeds in the garden and groundcover by Sharon's office.  Yesterday I had more energy, today I was zapped.  I set up the hammock for all of us to take a break.  It was such a beautiful day to be outside today and yesterday. 

This morning we bought some donuts and then started working.  Cooper enjoys being outside and helping his Mama with projects.  He also enjoys helping Mommy in the garden, including watering plants and finding wormies.  He doesn't like weeding!  He also played with his many trucks and bikes and Riley.

Happy Mother's Day to us!

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Tractor Riding

Here is a video of Cooper and his friend Teo riding the tractor and the truck on the driveway.  I will work on getting some Skuut video soon, I just realized I don't have any. Cooper is getting really good at balancing and he loves going down big hills.

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Cooper's Sayings

Today we were doing errands and Cooper really wanted to go to the "choo choo train store".  It's a toy store called the Learning Palace next to one of the libraries we go to often.  I was telling him we were going to the bike store first, REI and he kept asking me where we were going.  So finally I said in a harsh tone, "we are going to REI first."  Cooper's response was, "I don't want to fight with you, Mommy."  I couldn't believe he said that, so I immediately apologized to him for being short and told him I didn't want to fight either. 

He was extra chatty and very good today during our errands and we did go to the train store finally.  I bought him a cool race car that he's been talking about since Sunday when his friend Teo came over with them.  They are wooden cars and you can take them apart and put them together by Automoblox.  We came upon a construction site in the car and Cooper had the window down (his preferred way of driving now).  There was a flagger guy standing on the sidewalk eating a sandwich and Cooper waved hello.  The guy started talking to Cooper about his yellow car, Cooper showed him the wheel coming off before we had to move on.  It was very cute. 

Cooper enjoys saying hi to all people he comes across while on a walk and especially in the car.  He says, "hi guy" or "hi people", it is hilarious.

 

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Pizza Time

Cooper and Teo making pizza

We had our friends Maria and Erin and their son Teo over for dinner Sunday night and we made pizzas.  The boys were big helpers and made their own cheese pizza.  Cooper likes eating the raw dough and cheese the most.  Neither one of them ate the pizza when it was cooked. Teo ate a salad and Cooper had a few cucumbers and carrots. 

More Cheese!

 

 

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Video

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Favorite Activity

Cooper's favorite activity right now is to ride either his tractor or Skuut bike down the sidewalk at our house.  He is getting really good and because we are on a hill it's a lot of fun.  Here is a video from earlier today.

 

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Bella Beach

Teo and Cooper

We had a great time at the beach last week.  We spent 3 nights at Bella Beach near Depoe Bay with another couple Maria and Erin and their son Mateo.  Cooper and Mateo play great together and we all had a fantastic time.  We hit the Newport Aquarium and made it to the beach for about an hour.  Cooper did a lot of bike riding on his Skuut and we picked up some coffee beans at Pirate's Coffee (Mom remember that place?).

Doing the fist bump on the rocks

Sharon, Cooper, Maria and Teo

Cooper and Mama

Amanda

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Easter

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We had a great Easter at Grandma Lindsay's and Grandpa Don's house.  The day started with Cooper eating an entire chocolate bunny at home during his easter egg hunt.  We went to Grandma's in the afternoon to color easter eggs.  After the egg coloring, Cooper took a nap and I hid all the eggs.  He found all sixteen eggs, had a little more chocolate (no dinner really) and was pooped from the day.

 

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The happenings this winter

Portland is having a very mild spring and it is nice to not have to be indoors everyday.  Cooper and I are enjoying taking hikes with Riley, going to parks, playing with friends, and visiting the zoo. Our indoor activities include swimming, indoor playgyms, and bouncy house play areas.  I joined a parenting group through www.meetup.com and it has been great to check out new places and meet new parents with kids Cooper's age.  We do activities with them once a week or so.  We also have set playdates on Tuesday with Talia and Thursday with Teo.  It is nice to have a routine and Cooper looks forward to seeing his friends.

I started playing in an orchestra, we meet Tuesday nights.  I am still in the concert band and marching band starts up in April.  Sharon started a Karate class two nights a week and she is enjoying the challenge.  She is showing us her moves and Cooper is copying her which is very cute (I am trying to get him on video doing it but he's not cooperating).  The other day I was dropping off Cooper at Sharon's class and switching cars and as I was putting my stuff into the truck Cooper said, "bye bye Mommy."  As though he were going to go find Mama by himself.  I had a flash forward to when he is 10 and it freaked me out. 

Cooper does not like to take the freeway and is becoming quite the backseat driver.  The other day we all were in the car and he saw we were headed to the freeway.  He said, "No take freeway Mama."  When asked why he said, "Freeway makes Cooper crazy."  We all cracked up and then he kept saying it because we found it so funny.

His third person talking is dwindling down which is great and also sad, he is growing up so fast.  I am trying to post a video or two of his tractor riding but I am having technical difficulties so I will post a few pics in the meantime.

Too brigh

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Holiday Express Train

We took the Holiday Express Train yesterday with Aunt Janet.  The train ride was 45 minutes and Santa was on it. 

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Cooper Updates

Here are some recent pictures of Cooper.  We went to Fresno the week before Thanksgiving.  We had a great trip, it was fun to see Cooper's cousins, Noah, Chloe and Alexander.  We hope to go back to Fresno in the beginning of the year.  We had a nice Thanksgiving at Holly's house and are enjoying the holidays.

Chloe and Cooper

Sharon, Cooper and Alexander

Cooper and Mama

Thanksgiving 2009

Tunnel

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Japan

I am back from Japan.  I had a fantastic trip.  Had so much fun with Jeff, Chikako and Mom.  The first weekend we went to Hongu (Southern Wakayama).  We had excellent weather, visited a Shrine and World Heritage Center, spent the evening in a hotel at Kawayu Onsen and went hiking the next day.  This particular Onsen is a river that is a natural hotspring.  It was a full moon the evening we went to the Onsen and we saw it crest over the mountains.  Beautiful!

Kawayu Onsen

Houser Clan Hiking

Mom, Jeff and I went to Kyoto for two days.  Kyoto has many temples to see and we did a blend of temple visits and power shopping.  I liked the history of Kyoto and the temples, I did not like the loads of people that were there. 

Ryozen Kwan-On Temple

On Thursday, Jeff drove us up to Koyasan and Mom and I spent the night in a Buddhist Temple.  We ate the traditional Monk food (vegetarian) for dinner and breakfast.  We also attended the Monk service in the morning.  Koyasan is a magical place, we had a tour of the cemetary where the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kobo Daishi is said to be in eternal meditation.  I would have liked about a half day more of Koyasan but we had a Taiko drum show to attend in Kudoyama. 

Girls night at the temple

 

Mom and Amanda

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were crazy days full of eating and preparing for the wedding party.  Jeff's friends, Andy and Tracy, from Wisconsin arrived Friday afternoon.  It was nice to have people to speak English with.  We spent Saturday together for lunch and then did a little shopping. 

Lunch

Family/Friends Dinner night before Party

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Sunday night was the party and it was elegant and awesome.  Chikako looked stunning and Jeffrey as handsome as ever.  The party turned out perfectly and great blend of English and Japanese.  There was an after party at a local bar with a Karaoke machine.  A small crowd gathered there and we all took turns singing (Mom and I partied it up)!

Bride and Groom

Table #1 with Couple

Jeff's Family Table Picture

Chikako and Mom Karaoke

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Walk to the park

Sharon is out of town this weekend so Cooper and I walked to the park this afternoon.  We had a nice walk, it did not rain on us.  Cooper found several puddles and rocks to throw in them.  He had clean jeans on the way there and by the end had muddy knees.

Smelling/Eating flowers

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Mommy and Cooper

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Then and Now

Here is Xander 4 months, Elliot 5 months and Cooper 6 months in January 2008.

The Baby Lineup

Here are the kids in May 2008 getting ready for a walk (no one was walking yet).

Babies May 2008

Here they are one year ago, all walking.

Kid parade

And here they are now: running, jumping, exploring and talking!

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Cooper's Adventures

A lot has been going on since Cooper turned 2.  Cooper is constantly trying new words these days.  He will say almost every word we say now.  When asked a question he will answer with a word now, example, A: "do you want to go inside or outside" C: "outside".  It is great to be able to communicate with him more and more.  He loves to jump and run.  He loves to take Riley on walks and ride bikes (which means he likes to ride behind Mommy on her bike). 

The end.

We went peach picking on Sunday, we picked 73 pounds of peaches.  I proceeded to can them and now have 15 jars of peaches for the winter!  Cooper had a great time helping pick the peaches, he also helped me can them this morning.

Picking peaches

We finished Cooper's first swim class last Friday.  He was in the Starfish class and next year will be in the Goldfish class.  He was not thrilled with the structure of the class, he prefers to splash around on his own and go down the monster slide about a zillion times.  During the class the slide is turned off and he does not appreciate that.  The last class, however, they turned on the slide for the last 10 minutes and Cooper got to ride down the slide with Mama (Sharon) five times.  He is crazy in the water, just loves it!

He continues to scrape his knees this summer.  Here's a picture of him with two boo boos. 

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Cooper is enjoying longer periods of alone play.  He likes to play with his train sets and his cars.  He will play with them on his own for about 1/2 hour, it's fun to watch him.  He's also starting to randomly talk and sing throughout the day.
TWO is so much fun!  Mommy and Mama are having a blast watching him grow and explore his world. 

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Cooper's 2nd Birthday!

Cooper celebrated his 2nd birthday on Saturday, July 18th with friends and family.  It was a beautiful day in Portland and Aunt Janet hosted the party.  We had a pool for the kids to play in and that kept them occupied for most of the time.  The theme was Cars (his favorite movie). 

Smiling

  

Kiddos in the pool

Cars birthday cake

Cake

Lightening McQueen

Sheriff

Happy Boy

Presents

Holly and Nona

Playing with Aunt Janet

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