Snow Play

This week it has snowed. A lot.

We got more in one day than we did all of last year.  And it just keeps snowing. And it's not warming up so the snow is staying. Unlike last year when it snowed every weekend and melted by Monday or Tuesday.

Learning from my disaster of a first attempt last year, we waited until the snow stopped falling to take Cooper out this year.

The first thing he wanted to do was make a snow angel. We played, ran, and threw snow balls. Then we got out the old sled and went around the yard and driveway on it. 

It was the same sled we had when I was little.

I'm glad Cooper gets to have some fun with it, too.

Christmas 2012

Happiness and love filled my heart this Christmas.

At church I was reminded of how awesome God is to us. As service started that night, I got goosebumps. When some children ran up on the stage with their lights singing of Christmas, I got a little teary eyed. After the service I attended was over, I got Cooper and took him to see the beginning of the service. His eyes got big, he pointed out daddy on stage, and said "oh, wow!" a lot. When we left, Cooper said, "That was really great!" The service was awesome - from the pre-show, to the worship, to the speaking. How we have ended up at NewPointe I'll never really quite know, but I am so thankful that we are. Our family has been so blessed to be a part of the team at NewPointe. The friends we have made through the church are awesome. Ohio is becoming more like home to us, and a large part of that is due to the amazing people at NewPointe. 

When we got home we skyped with family, ate some dinner, and put Cooper to bed. As we watched A Christmas Story we went to work as Santa. It took much longer than anticipated to build a tool bench and scooter! 

Cooper wanted to leave the mild and cookies under the tree. We compromised with them on a chair next to the tree.

I was the first one up Christmas morning. I laid in bed for about 45 minutes trying to fall back asleep, when I decided to just go ahead and get up, turn the lights on, and make some coffee. I'm pretty sure Cooper heard me go down stairs because I hadn't even gotten the tree lights on before I heard him. We kept him upstairs until I had my camera ready to capture his reaction. I think he thought he was actually going to see Santa. He didn't quite understand that it was a fly by while he slept. 

Andrew and I sat with Cooper as he opened all his gifts and tried to convince him that it was best to wait until everything was opened before we played with his new toys. He ripped right through the paper, and got excited with everything he opened! My favorite moments were when Andrew and I would catch each other's eye and hold it there for a moment. Those moments said, "Look at how excited he is. He's funny. He's cute. He loves his gift.  and He is growing up" all at once. I can't believe it's already our 3rd Christmas with him. I also can't believe that one day I'll be saying I can't believe it's our 3rd Christmas with out him. Cause one day he will walk out of our home to a life of his own and make these same memories with his own family. And I hope he looks at his wife and relishes in the excitement of his children the way we did this year. It was a great Christmas - full of magic and great memories!

Apparently I was wrong in thinking he wouldn't have much to open Christmas morning. Look at his pile!

The rest of the day was spent in the kitchen or cleaning. I made waffles for breakfast, heated up some leftover soup for lunch, and we had a steak dinner with our friends Sarah and Bronson. Thanks to Mr. Sale's ocd, he was in clean and organize mode about 5 minutes after we had opened our gifts. Which translated to complete organization of our downstairs by the afternoon. And Cooper played so contentedly with his new stuff for the rest of the day...and every day since. 

Our blue birthday cake to Jesus.

A Birthday Cake

Bed time conversations are my favorite to have with Cooper.

A few weeks ago Cooper requested to wear his Santa pajamas to bed.  When we put them on we had quite the conversation.

Cooper: Where's Santa?

Me: At the North Pole. Making toys for you.

Cooper: He's making me a train?

Me: Maybe. Is that what you want for Christmas? Santa will bring you gifts on Christmas if you are a good boy. What would you like for Christmas?

Cooper: A train, a plane and smiley faces.

Me: Ok. Well, we will have to ask Santa. He will bring you gifts and leave them by the tree on Christmas Eve. 

Cooper: By my little Christmas tree?

Me: We will probably put up the big tree this year.

Cooper: Oh, that will be so big.

Me: Do you know why we celebrate Christmas?

Cooper: Why we celebrate Christmas?

Me: Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Cooper: We gonna make him a birthday cake?

Me: Sure, we can make Jesus a birthday cake for Jesus this Christmas.

Cooper: Oh, that going to be so fun!

This time of year is so exciting with a little one. Cooper has provided a spark and excitement to the holidays that we had been lacking before. 

We will make a birthday cake for Jesus this year. And he's right: it's going to be so fun!

Merry Christmas! Happy celebrating with your family!

All things Advent

Here are some other advent activities we've done.

Prayer painting

Snow Play

Felt Snowman

Things I didn't capture on picture: ornaments made of popsicle sticks, a Christmas tree scavenger hunt, Christmas movies, Christmas reading, and driving around to look at Christmas lights.

Cooper also got a letter back from Santa this week:

It's Christmas Eve!! Today is the last activity - Church! I'm excited to celebrate the birth of our savior with our NewPointe family today.

Christmas in the Kitchen

So much of the Christmas season is all about what happens in the kitchen. The food that we get to eat this time of year is delicious.

Cooper got to experience quite a bit in the kitchen this year.

We made salt-dough ornaments.

such concentration!

My favorite was the snowflake.

He decided to made the cooling rack into a slide for the ornaments.

We baked cupcakes for his friends and delivered them. I tried to tie it into Jesus birth. I told him that God gave us something he loved very much at Christmas - Jesus. Something the Cooper loves is cupcakes, so we gave something he loved to others. I'm not sure how much he "got it". But he loved making and delivering them. I didn't get any pics of the deliveries - sorry!

We made chocolate candies for his cousins. My grandma gave us some candy molds a few months back and Cooper has been asking to make some. We made some red and green candy as gifts. And he enjoyed the monkey mold.

We had home made hot chocolate. This was probably one of the cheesiest advent days. The card said. "let's warm up our bodies with hot cocoa and our hearts with Christmas carols." But it was one of his favorites. He loved it, and he loved singing, too.

Of course Monkey and Simba helped, too.

We skipped the gingerbread house and forged ahead with a gingerbread train.

We named the train the Cooper Line

This face = Love!

And we made some Christmas cut-outs. The dough I made didn't turn out that great. Out of the 2 dozen I made, I was only able to salvage about 12.

I know we promised Santa blue cookies - do blue eyes count??? 

So there you have it...Cooper's kitchen and cooking adventures this Christmas.