A Long Time.

I can't say there has been a ton going on in our lives, but enough to keep me busy and away from our blog. The boys are doing great! Cooper has recently been going to the library on Thursday mornings with my Mom to story time and then they dance and play with instruments afterward. He is really enjoying it and it's great for his shy personality. He's so like me in so many ways and sometimes I wish he weren't. My sister and Maggie go along as well and Jenna said you can just see him take it all in at first and then when he feels comfortable enough, he'll go up and get an instrument and participate. She also said that when something new is introduced, he's very reluctant to try. So much like me. I wish he weren't in that aspect. :(

Tucker is growing like a weed. He had his 18 month check-up last Friday and he's 34 inches, 32 lbs 6 oz. I think he definitely takes after Jason's side of the family as he's got these massive hands and feet. The one thing, among many great things about his Grandpa Miller, that I remember is that he had huge hands. :) Tucker is fearless. He will walk/jump right off the couch, climb on the back of the couch, and he'll stand on their toy buckets after he dumps every single toy out. He's an instigator with his brother and the moment Cooper will try to knock his hand away, he cries and wants to get Cooper in trouble. He's super naughty, but we love him like no other.  :)

Jason's been doing quite a bit of traveling. Some of it is for work, the other part was personal. At the end of May, his good friend Mike and him, went camping in northern MN. Then in June, he traveled to Lake Geneva for his annual meeting. After that he drove up to Minocqua to help his Dad and Mary move out of their Minocqua house and into the Mercer house. They have recently sold the Minocqua house and are going to stay in Mercer full-time now. After moving them, he drove over to Green Bay to play in a golf outing with his friend, Adam. After he got home from that on a Sunday, he traveled to NYC on Tuesday. He's currently in Kansas City but will be home tonight. I'm so thankful.

I've just been busy with the boys and work. Nothing too crazy. House projects are still at the top of our list and Jason is super close to finishing the kitchen floor. He tore out the old banister in the kitchen and we purchased new rot-iron rungs (or whatever they're called). I think the next project before summer is over and after we get the floor done, is to cut down the huge blue spruce in the backyard and make a nice seating/fire pit area. The tree is very pretty, but it's right in the way and animals get underneath of it and Sadie goes crazy. Time for it to go. Then this winter, we're going to start tearing out the doorway and some walls in our upstairs bathroom and make it larger. It's pretty small the way it currently is and it would be nice to open it up.

All in all, we've been busy with our normal daily lives and just taking care of things at home. We'll finally be able to have some down time in about a month when we can sit back and finally relax. :)

WI Visit

Last Saturday, we drove up to De Pere, WI to visit with the Schmidt's! It was so cute to watch the kiddos reunite with each other. They had such a great time and it was nice to see them all again. We haven't seen them in person since last fall when they moved away. The area was great and their house was beautiful! We went to Cabela's, which was about maybe 10 minutes from their house (so jealous) and the kids had a blast looking at the animals as well as the fish. They were so cute walking around the store holding hands. So, so cute. Cooper and Morgan really missed each other and it was a little sad to hear their conversations telling each other they're going to be friends forever and how much they missed each other. We'll definitely have to visit again. It was a great time and we really enjoyed our short trip! Next time it will have to be for a little longer though. :)

The photos are courtesy of Melissa, so thanks, Melissa!  :)

Fall

Cooper had a nice little fall on Sunday afternoon. We came home from running errands in town and we took Cooper out of the car and let him walk in the house like he does every single time he gets out of our vehicles. I don't think he was paying too close attention since he was playing with Jason's pop bottle, but he tripped over the mat right in front of the door to the house and fell on the small step right in front of the door. He cried and cried, we loved/comforted him, and he was put down a for a nap.  At that time, he looked completely normal. When he woke up 2 hours later, I went in to get him and the left side of his face and lip was swollen. I couldn't believe how different he looked from the time he went down for his nap until 2 hours later. I immediately called the emergency line for our dentist office and gave him some Tylenol. He didn't complain much and acted normal. I felt absolutely horrible and still do. I wanted to help him get better in the worst way, but there was nothing I could do. And dentist offices aren't open on Sunday's, so I knew it would be a day before I could even see if I could get him in. He slept fine that night and I called as soon as they opened on Monday. We were able to get an appt at 3:20 with his dentist. Jason brought him up and I met them. What we found out was that he has probably the worst dental injury you could have, which is an impacted tooth. Both of his front teeth and possibly another tooth were basically shoved up into his gums. The dentist said they may come back down, but we'll have to wait and see. He said x-rays wouldn't have helped him see if he's done permanent damage to his permanent teeth and we'll know that when his permanent teeth grow in. For now we are to watch him to make sure he doesn't get an infection and basically let his mouth heal on its own. He was such a trooper letting the dentist look at his bruised lip as well as touch his teeth. I was such a proud mama. I wish I could take the pain away and trade places with him.  I hate seeing my kiddos hurt!  His swelling is probably at the worst point and from here on out it should go down. Please say a prayer for my big guy that he heals quickly and we have no future issues with those teeth.

Deer & Turkey Expo

I never thought I'd be excited to go to a Deer & Turkey Expo, but I admit, I kind of am.  I will not be dressing up in camo attire to attend it, but I will dress my biggest little guy in it.  We are leaving Tucker with my parents because I honestly don't think he'd do well.  He's my trying child sometimes and I know it's just his age at the moment.  Cooper will be super excited to go.  He's told me numerous times how he wants to go shoot big bucks with Daddy when he gets bigger.  I know he'll enjoy seeing all the big bucks as well as all the other fun things he'll get to do at the expo.  We're leaving early on Saturday, April 5th to head up to Madison, WI and then we'll come home that evening.  Super excited to take a road trip with my boys!  Check it out!  Looks like a good time!  http://www.deerinfo.com/wisconsin

Hawaii

We spent the week of January 18-25 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.  It's the garden island and it's very lush and green.  We arrived Saturday, January 18th around 4:30pm.  We immediately went to the hotel, got checked-in, and went down to dinner at Duke's (restaurant on the hotel property).  The restaurant was right on the beach and no windows-all open.  It was a great way to start the vacation.

We did a lot of relaxing, which means we laid out a lot, but we also did a lot of sight seeing.  We drove to Waimea Falls, Waimea Canyon (which we didn't get to see since it was foggy), the coffee plantation, and up to the north shore. 

All of the sights were beautiful, but the one I enjoyed the most was the day we drove to the north shore.  They were having record breaking waves of 50ft high and we saw them!  I expected to see some surfers, but we didn't see a single one.  We got up there pretty early in the morning, so by the afternoon, the waves were more intense and they eventually closed down some of the roads up there.  I completely understand why since some of the roads are right along the ocean and I can only assume the waves were crashing over the roads. 

We also went to our first Luau and it was such a neat experience!  They showed us how they cook the pig in the sand and there was so much food.  And it was delicious.  :)  After dinner, we attended the show and it was very interesting to learn about the Hawaiian culture.  They performed many dances using many different instruments and performed all of it in the Hawaiian attire.

We had such a blast and it was so beautiful.  We are so thankful we were invited to go!

 

Waimea Falls

 

The North Shore and the waves.

 

The view at our hotel.

 

Another view from the pool.

 

Our group at Waimea Canyon....we are at the top and that is fog behind us.

 

Us at the resort.

 

This big guy had his 3 year check-up last week and he's growing like a weed!  Since Jason took him, I don't remember all of his stats.  He is in the 99th percentile for height and he weighs 39 lbs and some ounces.  Such a big boy!

 

And this little guy is my big eater.  :)  He had 2 pieces of pizza this night among many other things.  I think he's hitting a growth spurt because his shirts don't fit that well anymore and he's baring his midriff.  :)

 

Jason put up the first part of the back splash!  I love it and he's going to work on the rest this weekend.  It went up pretty quickly actually since the adhesive is really sticky and it held the tiles well.  Jason was nervous they'd fall down, but the adhesive worked great and there were no issues.  It was also pretty easy since the tiles are all connected and go up in one big piece, except for those little ones he had to be cut to fill in.  I can't wait for the rest to be put up and grouted so that my floors can go in!  And then it will be on to new carpeting for the entire rest of the house!  Yahoo!

Cooper = 3

My big boy turned 3!  Oh my goodness.  There is so much to say about this sweet boy.  He is so caring, smart, fun, hilarious, naughty at times ;), rambunctious...the list could go on and on.  We just love him to pieces and I can see each and every day how much older he's getting.  Yes, it makes me sad as I remember back to the day he was born and how quickly the past 3 years have gone, but I love him getting older and being able to experience so many new things.  This year will be the best yet and I can't wait for all the fun things we have planned for him!

We celebrated on Saturday at Happy Joe's with family and it was a success!  Lots of yummy pizza and cake was consumed and it's safe to say Cooper and Maggie had a blast in the game room.  I know Maggie was super pumped about Cooper's birthday party....she kept on telling her Mom the party was going to be awesome!  :)  Cooper received a ton of great gifts and won't put any of them down!

His actual birthday was yesterday, so we saved our gifts until then so he'd have something to open on the day of his birthday.  He got a bike, helmet, a baseball tee, baseballs, a bat, and a glove!  It was warm enough out yesterday, 46-47 degrees, that Daddy, Papa, and Cooper went outside to play baseball, ride bikes, and ride his tractor!  He had a blast and he was pretty good at hitting the ball off the tee!  I have a feeling I know what we'll be doing this summer.  ;)

We ended the day with dinner and cake, again.  We sang Happy Birthday to him and he loved blowing out the candles.  He's a special boy and we just love him more than words can describe.  Happy Birthday, Cooper!

Christmas and House Update

We had a few Christmas celebrations this year, so I'm probably thinking Cooper is pretty sure you get to open presents 4 different days.  ;)  We celebrated a few weeks ago with Jason's Mom and Dad and then we celebrated 1 week ago with Jason's Dad and Mary.  We had a wonderful time visiting with Gary and Mary and the we received some very nice presents!  Thank you for everything and we're looking forward to visiting in a few weeks!  Gary also retired from his job last week, so we celebrated that as well.  Congrats, Gary!

This past week on actual Christmas day, the boys and Jason and I celebrated at home by opening presents and then we went out to lunch with my parents.  The boys loved what Santa brought them!  This past weekend we celebrated with my side of the family and it was crazy. Lots of little ones running around and lots of wonderful presents.  Great food and great company as well! 

Last Sunday, Cooper was sleeping and sleeping.  It was finally 8:30 and I decided to actually go in his room instead of just opening his door to check on him and when I did, he was on fire.  His temp was 103-104 and I knew he didn't feel good.  He was offered cake and all sorts of yummy goodness and he would eat only a bite and then put it down.  We gave him Ibuprofen/Tylenol and it would help, but his fever would come back right away.  I decided that if he still had a fever during the night and when I got up for work the next morning, that I was going to stay home and take him to the doctor.  At 5am when my alarm went off Monday morning, I went in to check on him and he still had his fever.  I called the doctor at 8am and made an appt for 10:30am.  They did a rapid strep test and within a few minutes, they came back into say he had strep and called in a prescription.  He's on medicine for a few more days, but the medicine worked quickly and he was back to normal. 

Friday afternoon Jason decided to start putting in our wood laminate flooring in the entryway and completed it yesterday morning.  It looks great and what a change from the 1970's vinyl.  I love it!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Cooper showing his cookies and milk for Santa and his carrots for the reindeer.  :)

Before of the entryway with the beautiful wallpaper and flooring.

Another before of the entryway.

And the after of the entryway.  All wallpaper is off, new front door, and new flooring. It's coming along!