A Christmas Miracle!

IT'S SNOWING!!! It has been snowing in Houston since around 4 o'clock and it is still coming down right now. Yesterday it was seriously 80 degrees and we had the A/C cranking. Today it is freezing and snowing! Only in Houston! We drove to church tonight in the snow and it was so beautiful! I told Tyler this afternoon that it was snowing and I got him all excited about it, but I don't think he really understood why it was so exciting! I'm sure by tomorrow it will all be melted away and the A/C will be back on, but tonight we are going to enjoy the snow!

Thanksgiving Part 2

On Thursday morning we packed up the kids and all of our junk and made the 7 hour drive to Oakville to spend Thanksgiving with Travis' family. We were all glad to get out of the car once we arrived. Most of our family knows my great love for Oakville, for all of you others I will share the story. The first year we were married we spent Thanksgiving with Travis' family. They always go to Oakville and spent the long weekend at a house that has been in my mother-in-law's family for many years. Travis' grandmother lived there as a young girl and the house has remained in the family, but no one currently lives there. Over the course of the long weekend there are up to 50-60 people that come and hang out. Most people camp out in tents on the land or find a spot in the house to sleep. One other thing- only one bathroom!!! Remember 50-60 people come and hang out. Since then they built another bathroom on the outside of the house. So back to our first year of marriage. My in-laws had pity on me and rented a hotel room for the girls in Travis' immediate family, but the last night there weren't enough people sleeping in the house to justify spending that last night in the hotel. So I slept on an aero bed in the living room of the house. Let me insert something here: During the day we had seen several mice running around the living room floor, so some mouse traps were set. The house also has wood floors. Back to the story: So that night while trying to fall asleep I hear SNAP (the mouse trap) and beating against the wood floor (the mouse trying to get out of the trap). Well, later that night I feel something move across my neck. Of course I totally freaked out!!! I swear that it was a mouse, but of course Travis and everyone else likes to give me a hard time and try to convince me otherwise. Since that time everyone gives me a hard time and everyone in my family wants to see pictures of the house and where we stay. So here you go!

The boys absolutely loved every minute they were there! They had so much attention and they could just run wild outside. They rode four wheelers and Tyler went hunting with the guys (he rode in the truck). Tyler was so upset when we told him we had to go home. The boys were completely exhasuted from the week. They slept most of the ride home and then Tyler asked to go bed at about 6:30 last night! Unfortunately we got some sad news when we got home. Travis' grandfather passed away yesterday afternoon. It wasn't totally unexpected, but it was still hard to hear all the same. So we will be back on the road tomorrow afternoon to attend the funeral. His grandfather was a wonderful man and we will be celebrating his life.

The infamous living room!!!

The other side of the living room

And the other part of the living room.

The side of the house

Front part of the house

Cooper sitting for a moment

Papa Pappy riding the four wheeler

Everyone brings chairs to sit around the porch and campfire. We were all sitting around one day and Tyler found a chair just his size and pulled it in the circle!

Daddy and his boys going for a ride.

Kevin was practically begging to make the blog! Are you happy now, Kevin?

Papa Pappy and two of his #1 fans!

Cooper ready for bed!

Shelby- one of the boys cousins.

Thanksgiving Part 1

We are back from our whirlwind trip of Texas. On Monday morning we headed up to Tyler to visit my family. Christine and Kyle had driven from Virginia so we decided to head up there to visit them before we headed to Oakville for Thanksgiving. We all had a great time and it was really good to see the Hoovers. The boys loved playing with their cousins and getting spoiled by Gram and Papa. We played outside a lot, ate good food, played games, and topped it off with a trip to Chuck E. Cheeses for Reese's birthday!

Daddy and Cooper

Cooper is getting so big!

We threw all 5 boys in the bathtub together! It was total chaos!

Gram and Baby Luke

Luke playing in the leaves.

Trying to get a picture of all 5 boys in the leaves. Cooper was not happy about this!

Cooper riding the tricycle.

Sweet Cooper

Gram and Luke

Cooper riding the choo-choo train at Chuck E. Cheese

Gotta play this game when you go

Will in the Safari Jeep

Tyler riding the clock ride.

Racing the horse.

Papa and Cooper driving

Christine and me playing Dance Dance Revolution! We were HORRIBLE!!! Notice how we are stepping with the opposite leg. We were supposed to be in sync!

Totally out of breath at this point!

Cooper HATED this ride! Am I a bad mom for laughing and taking his picture instead of getting him down?

Tyler in the playground area

Reese loved playing air hockey!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Tonight I got the boys dressed in their costumes and headed to the park with some friends for our neighborhoods "trick or trunk" party. They had about 15 trucks decorated in the parking lot and the kids would trick or treat out of the trucks. They had games and activities for the kiddos. The boys had a great time and especially enjoyed the "treats"! Here are some pictures from the night!

Flounder

Flounder and the Shark!

Getting ready to go to the park!

Our friend Minnie Mouse

All the kids ready to go!

Waiting to get some treats!

Hudson the monkey!

Back on the Market

Yes, you read the title right! Our house is back on the market. We got a call from our realtor today and he let us know that the people who had signed the contract to lease our house for 18 months have decided that aren't going to lease it after all. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? The reason was that they wanted to put their 14 year old daughter in private school and just couldn't afford to do that and pay the rent on the house. I have so many words that I want to use to describe these people, but I think I will refrain because this is a family friendly blog. I just cannot believe that this is happening and that they are such idiots and didn't think about this before they signed a contract and put a security deposit down. The only consolation to us is that we get to keep their security deposit. Whatever, I would rather not have the money and have my house taken care of. I AM SO MAD!!! Travis and I are just so furious and so confused. I mean seriously, can anything go right with this whole move? I think most of all I am so mad that people are going to start calling again to see the house. I'm not going to lie, my housekeeping skills have gone down hill since we signed the contract and haven't had people coming to see the house! I'm off to go scrub toilets and mop floors. Yippee.

Snaggletooth

Cooper's teeth have not come through in the "normal" order and therefore he has a hilarious smile right now. I've been trying to get it on camera for awhile and this is the best I've gotten. Click on the picture to zoom in and you can get a great look at his smile!

Painting Pumpkins at the Park!

Last night a few of my friends all got together with our kiddos at the park to eat pizza and paint pumpkins while our husbands were at Bible Study. The kids had a great time and it was nice to get together with some of my favorite girls!

The kids getting ready to paint!

Look at that concentration!

Cooper getting some lovin' from Candice.

Whit concentrating on his pumpkin.

Oops!!!

All boy, all the time!

Precious Cargo

15 Months!

My baby is 15 months! I can hardly believe it and he is really more of a toddler now than a baby. I took him to the doctor today and he is doing great! He weighs 25 lb. 8 oz. (75%) and is a little over 32 inches (75%). He is almost exactly where Tyler was at this age. The biggest news this past week is that we took his pacifier away! If you have been around Cooper for even a small amount of time you know that he was completely addicted to his paci and had even named it already! Yikes!!! The first night we decided to take it away he was in his room looking under the bed for it and asking for it by name. He called it "nana". We just said all gone and he was not happy about it! But since that night he has done great without it. He talks a little bit more at nap time and bed time, but that is okay. He did manage to find some throughout the house and car and would surprise me by having one in his mouth when I would see him, but I think I have confiscated all of them by now.

Tyler and Cooper are really starting to play more and more with each other. Tyler always asks where Cooper is if he is not around and I think expects him to be by his side. Tyler can still be mean or too rough with him sometimes, but we are working on that. Cooper has also started to get an attitude when Tyler does something mean and usually grunts at him and swats his hand in the air like he is trying to hit him. It's pretty funny, but also something we are going to have to work on.

I'm so proud of Cooper and how far he has come. All of the nursery workers at church are telling me that he is doing great and that he seems much happier now that he can walk and keep up with the other kids. He is also turning into more of a Daddy's boy. He definitely still likes mom, but he LOVES when Daddy is around! We love you, Cooper!

Good News!

We got some good news this week! We have a contract on our house to lease it for 18 months! Travis and I are both really happy with everything, especially with selling our house looking more grim after all of this crazy financial mess of failing banks and crappy stock market! After the hurricane we had actually decided to postpone the move until the end of the year,
because Travis was able to get some extra jobs due to all of the damage to help pay the bills. Today was his last day to work for Zac, but we looked at all of the jobs he has contracted and it is more than enough to pay our bills through the end of the year. God has totally provided for us and His timing is perfect! The renters have a temporary lease that ends in January and therefore want to move January 15! Absolutely perfect timing!!! So, we will be moving the first week of January. The renters also expressed some interest in potentially buying the house after the lease ends. They were transferred here and I'm not sure if they know how long they will be living in the area. We are just going to trust God with whatever He wants to do. We are just so thankful for His provision and now we just have to trust Him with the future.

It's Time for VeggieTales!

Tyler loves VeggieTales right now and he has started singing along with the song in the beginning. Here is a clip of the big finale. I think he might have gotten his singing ability from his mother!

Look Who's Walking!

Cooper started walking! He really started getting good while we were in Tyler for our "hurrication". He is doing fabulous and is even standing up on his own. Walking has really helped in the whining too! He is much happier now that he can keep up with everyone. He is such a sweet boy and is doing terrific. The past two times I dropped him off in the nursery there was not one tear! He usually throws his big bottom lip out and has a good cry. They have said he has done great this past week in the nursery! Yippee!!! He is also really trying to talk. He can say (at least we can tell what he is saying) Mama, Daddy, Ball, Duck, Tyler, Elmo, Dog and a few others. He is growing so fast- almost 15 months old! I can't believe it. I'm falling more in love with him everyday! By the way, can you tell by his shirt that he is teething???