My Cooper

I haven't done a post in awhile about some of the quirks of my boy, but I feel like now is the time.

I've got pictures here all the way back to Easter so we're going to start with some of those, here are a few ton of my boy.

At Nana's on Easter morning doing some aster egg hunting.

At Papa's hunting the day before Easter.

At our house with "The Easter Bunny".

Being the best big brother!

Here is my big guy coloring eggs for Easter.

I took Coop and Katy to the park one day this past spring and he wanted to swing in the baby swings just like his little sis, he had such a good time.

This is the day we visited the indoor park at a local church.  He had such a good time.  He asks me if we can go back all of the time.  I've got to find some time to take him back!!

Funny pose.....

Cooper played t-ball this spring, and the boy learned quite a bit.  He had fun too, and that's the main thing at this age, exposure to the sport, and having fun! Here are some t-ball pictures of Coop.  He played for the first time this year - and he absolutely loved it.  We had to take pictures of him with everyone who came to his first game.

Here are my guys out on the field.

The whole team.

Here are some random pictures of my boy.  He was obsessed with rolling his tongue for awhile.  He had just learned to do it so he did it constantly.

In his PJs on the way to school for PJ day!

Being a catcher, as usual.

Cooper driving his car.  He loves that thing.  The battery died and we have got to get another one!

I know I've talked about what a sports fanatic Cooper is, but he's also a little smarty pants too.  His school has this program called Express Kids where the kiddos who participate go out and learn songs to help them learn topics, this past weekend, he sang a Mr. Opposite song.  It was so neat to hear the song and him singing it and know the program is teaching him through fun activities! 

♪♫ Mr. Opposite has many friends, and many friends has Mr. Opposite.  ♪♫ 

♪♫ I am one of them and so are you, so let's just sing them now, ♪♫

♪♫ Down/up down/up, ♪♫

♪♫ over/under over/under, ♪♫

♪♫ in/out in/out, ♪♫

♪♫ on/off on/off. ♪♫

Cooper is such a trooper in everything - that is not to say that he doesn't throw the biggest fits - because he does, but, in general, the kid is happy, and hilarious.  He comes up with the funniest things to say, he picks up on things in peoples voices and he is just so observant about everything.  He mimics people when they say things in funny ways and it's one of the most hilarious things that I've ever heard.  

This summer, we got a dog, and we got him mostly for Cooper.  He loves that dog so much, and even though he's not quite sure how much work the dog is, nor how to really take care of and love him (sometimes Cooper is pretty rough, so we've got to calm him down about the dog), he is doing a great job with Snickers.  

Now that it's fall, we have Cooper signed up for soccer.  He's had two practices and one game so far and he is absolutely loving it.  

I feel like there is so much to talk about with Cooper - like the fact that he's obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even though he's never seen the movies and hasn't seen much of the "new" Nick show.  He loves the old theme song of TMNT from what I was a kid, and he loves saying cowabunga.  He even made a wish list for his birthday of all of the things that he wants.  He doesn't ever want to stop talking about the turtles and constantly wants to go buy more stuff.

the list....  with pictures even!

 Here he is showing off his new shirt....

I could go on and on, and I might in another post - but this has gotten fairly long, so I'll stop now.  Hopefully by unloading some of this stuff that's been on my mind for months, I'll get back into the routine and post more frequently!  Have a great weekend all!

Welcome to the World Rhys Lowell Bramlett!

Last night, at 9:08pm, my grandson was born.  Rhys Lowell Bramlett.  He was 21.5 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.  He is so precious and his mama did a wonderful job!!

Stephanie and Ryan had a long day yesterday getting ready for the birth of their son.  They were at the hospital bright and early at 6:00am.  She progressed pretty slowly throughout the day, and then after a second dosage of epidural she started progressing, then after the third dose and getting sick, she was ready! 

We were super excited to meet Mr. Rhys (it's Welsh, pronounced Reece) and visit with his mommy and daddy.  We didn't know his name before he was born, so that was another exciting part of our evening!  They waited to tell us until we were all in the room with them.  It was pretty special.  

Here are a few pictures.

Such a precious baby boy!!  Look at those cheeks and big eyes!!  He looks so much like his big sister!! :)

Welcome to the world Rhys, YOU are so loved!!!

Meal Plan Monday

Well, I've joined Weight Watchers again..... Which means that meal planning is again necessary, which means I will again try to post our meal plans for the week to keep myself accountable.

This week we went with easy meals that we know aren't too terrible for us - just to help get me back in the mindset for all of this food tracking that I have to start doing!

So, we're not really setting up which day we'll have what, but here are the meals that we decided on.... 

In no particular order:

• Pork & Veggie Stir Fry with white rice
• Chili (on one of the cooler days)
• Spaghetti
• Rosamarina Chicken

We're having stir fry tonight.  You'll notice that we only have 4 meals listed.  We are fairly certain we won't be home one of the nights this week for dinner and here is the reason.  We are about to have ourselves another grand-baby!  Stephanie is scheduled to be induced on Wednesday if she hasn't gone into labor on her own at that point.  We're looking forward to meeting the new little mister in our family.  

That's it, simple and sweet.  Meal Plan Monday.

Our Exciting Purchase.

As I've previously mentioned, we were working on something that would provide our family fun memories for lots of years.  We wanted to make a purchase that would give our family some much needed away time every once in awhile that didn't mean spending ridiculous amounts of money.  So, we invested a little bit into a small pop-up camper!  

Before we had Cooper, Tim and I had a massive travel trailer that had two slide outs and was completely unnecessary to our lives.  We had to store it at a location about 15 minutes from our house, and the inconvenience plus the cost of storage was a big deterrent from us even using the camper.  I think we only used it once or twice before we decided it would be best to sell it. 

But you see, the thing is, is that we like going camping.  I grew up going camping during the spring/summer/fall months with my family.  I think we had a travel trailer from about age 8-10 on.  I wanted my kids and our family to have this experience, and Tim agreed.  So, we searched Craigslist high and low and visited some and finally found one that was in great shape and also met our budget.  And it also had to have an air conditioner, I just find it difficult to sleep without one of those when the temps get higher than say 74 degrees........  We are storing the pop-up in our garage for now, which makes it super convenient and saves us the storage costs!!

My dad still has a camper, and my mom has one also. I remember those weekends when we'd go camping.  I just loved it.  Riding bikes around the campground with my brother, campfires where we roasted s'mores, hot dogs, and whatever else we could think of roasting, hiking with my parents, participating in the DNR programs, and much more.  My grandparents also had a camper, and I remember how fun it was to go camping with them, so I am happy that my kids will get to experience this as well.

So, we took her on a one night camping trip a couple of weekends ago, and it was a success.  We learned very quickly that we need to stock the camper up with many things that we did not think about, but we made due, and it was a good trip.  Only one issue on our way driving home, but all in all, a great test camping trip.  We are scheduled to go on a three night outing over Labor Day weekend and we couldn't be more excited!

Without further adieu, here is our new weekend fun mobile!

Do you ever go camping?  Is this something that you would ever consider?  I'm just tickled pink that we actually own this camper, it's perfect for our little family at this stage in our lives! :)