Friday, July 20, 2012

Happy Birthday, Cooper!

Tuesday was Cooper's 5th Birthday and he decided he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for the day so we headed out early Tuesday morning after opening presents at home.  We got there right after it opened and we had the place to ourselves.  We had a great time and we really hit the jackpot.  The workers were testing and cleaning all of the games to make sure they were all working properly, so after they would play a game they would leave all the tickets in the games for us to come around and pick up.  We probably got 300 tickets from just picking their tickets from the games.  The boys thought it was awesome!  

After Chuck E. Cheese's we headed to eat lunch at Chick-fil-a for lunch and then to Target where Cooper spent some of the birthday money he had received.  He had the best time picking out some new toys.  Then, we headed to pick up some cupcakes for later that evening.  Since we were in Mcallen, I decided to go to a bakery called RGV Cupcake Factory.  Last week I heard about them because they were recently on Cupcake Wars and won!  So I thought it would be a fun treat to try some out.  They were great and a special treat!  That night Cooper chose to go have Pizza with the family and Grandpa, Kelsey and her girls joined us.  We had a great day celebrating Cooper!


 Opening presents from Mom & Dad!


 Angry Birds!  We are a bit obsessed at the moment!


 He loved his shirt and wore it that day.


His very own Boogie Board for when we go to the beach!



 Tyler wanted to take a picture of the Angry Birds boogieing!


Claire riding the carousel.  I can't even handle her pig tails, they are so cute!  


She just started wearing pig tails!  I can't quite get all of her hair in them, but they are still just precious!


The boys playing air hockey!






Sunday, July 15, 2012

Cooper's Kitchen

Cooper will be 5 on Tuesday and this weekend we celebrated with a Chef's party!  It was so much fun and I think the kids enjoyed creating all of their masterpieces.  We started off by making individual pizzas.  Papa Murphy's has boxed kits for kids to build their own pizzas, so we bought those for each of the kids which made it super easy on us!  Then while the pizzas were baking we played a game where we blindfolded the kids and we gave them something to eat and they had to guess what it was.  One of the little boys was awesome at guessing the correct item.  Then the kids made fruit skewers for appetizers and we finished off with the kids decorating cookie cakes for dessert.  We finally had to just take the icing away from them!  Some of the little girls were just sitting there eating sprinkles the whole time!  It was hilarious!  I think they really had fun decorating their cakes!




Chef Cooper waiting on his guests to arrive! 


Grandma and the Top Chef 


 Me and the littlest chef


 Cooper and Claire ready to create yummy treats


 The table


 Claire working hard on her pizza


 Callie spreading her sauce


 The boys working hard


 Chef Tyler


 Love this picture of Jackson


 The boys enjoying their pizzas


 BEAU!


 Brooklynn and Callie enjoying their delicious pizzas


 Time for ICING!!!


 The girls were a little more delicate in their use of icing.  You can see Callie on the left with her hand in the sprinkles getting her a bite of pure sugar!


 One of the finished products!  None of the parents were brave enough to try it!  I can't imagine why?


 Cooper blowing out his birthday candle


Claire decided she needed to be part of the mustache club!


We had so much fun celebrating Cooper!  It's hard to believe he is 5!  I love this sweet, little boy.  He is kind and compassionate and just easy to be around.  We love you, buddy!!!

Daddy's Girl!

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Turks and Caicos

Travis and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on June 8.  Earlier this year we decided to celebrate in a big way and we booked a trip to Turks and Caicos.  We stayed 8 nights and it did not disappoint.  We had a VERY relaxing time.  The beach was definitely one of the best and most beautiful beaches I've ever been to.  Two of our favorite people, Tim and Ashley Ming, met up with us a couple days after we arrived.  Most mornings the boys would get up early to go fishing and Ashley and I would ride bikes down to a little French bakery for breakfast.  Then we would meet up with the boys at the beach.  We really didn't do much other than relax on the beach and it could not have been more perfect.  I read several books and my speed reading husband read at least 8 books!  Travis also marked something off of his bucket list- he caught his first bonefish.  Of course his bucket list consists of catching certain fish!   Here are some pictures from the week...


Upon arriving and departure we used the truck stairs to get on and off the airplane.  We had to get a picture for all of our "Arrested Development" loving family members.  Watch out for hop ons! 


 Sarah in my daily position on the beach.  They had some small white plastic chairs that sat very low to the ground and Ashley and I would drag them down to the water and sit and read while the water washed over our legs.  It was perfection!



Travis and Tim's daily position on the beach- under their umbrellas!  Somehow, Travis still managed to get burned one day!


 The beautiful turquoise water!


It doesn't get much better than this!


 So beautiful!  And that is about how crowded our beach was!


 Tim and Ashley at dinner


 10 years and going strong!


 One night at dinner, this guy played live music.  It was hilarious.  He sang many different types of songs, but our favorites were the ones he had written himself.


Our view at lunch from the resort restaurant 


This was our beach looking from the resort 


 Travis and I enjoying drinks at the Manager's Cocktail Party


 A look at our resort


 We rented a car to get around because the taxi fares are quite expensive.  This was our awesome ride for the week- our Suzuki Swift!  They drive on the left hand side on the island they don't have any stop lights- they only have roundabouts.  I was a little nervous at first about us driving on the left hand side.  For the first couple of days we would constantly say, "To the Left" and "Give way" to help us remember where we needed to be!


Cruising in the Swift! 


Beach side dinner 


Enjoying a beautiful sunset 


Travis and his first bonefish 


Travis was super excited about his fish!



Crammed in the Swift heading back to the airport!


We had such a wonderful week and we couldn't have done it without the help of my Mom and Dad!  They kept the kids the whole time and spoiled them rotten.  The kids didn't even ask about us, if that tells you how much fun they were having.  

It was extremely hard to come back to real life.  I think we are starting to get back into the swing of things, but my backyard is no comparison to the view I had last week!






2012

It's time for our recap of 2012!  This year has brought some major answer to prayers and we have seen the hand of God move in incredible...