Field Trip to the Farm!

A few weeks ago we took a field trip to Wheeler Farm! We started out by feeding the ducks!

Scooter throwing some bread to the ducks! He loves to feed the ducks!
And he loved the big tractor of course!
I love these pictures! They're so cute!



Playing in the little tree house!

Cooper fell asleep!
I'm not sure he loved his hat - but we didn't want him to get sun burned!
When we were looking at the pigs, Ryan saw a HUGE rat - but we didn't get a picture of it... too bad! haha!

Four Months Old!

We can't believe that Cooper J. is already 4 months old! He had his 4 month check up, and he is now 26 1/2 inches tall and he weighs 15.11 lbs. I always think it is fun to compare how big Scooter was at the same age! At 4 months, Derek was 27 inches tall and weighed 18.4 lbs!

I thought this was so cute - both boys sitting on Daddy's lap! They both just adore their Daddy!
Some fun pictures of the boys!


Derek wanted Cooper to sit on his lap for a picture!

Derek's Birthday!

We can't believe Derek is 4 years old! ...Well, unless you ask him! He keeps saying that he is turning 3 again!

Derek helped me bake his cake the day before his birthday, and when this happened - boy was I glad that Ryan had bought 2 cake mixes! haha! (...and I can't even blame this on anyone, haha! It was totally my fault that this first cake literally fell apart! Luckily we had that 2nd cake mix! And even luckier that this hit my funny bone instead of my go crazy-stressed ballistic bone! haha!)
Big helper! Derek helped me decorate the cake- and we had a lot of fun! He's such a great kiddo - so full of energy and always wanting to help! We sure love him!
Happy Birthday Kiddo!
Aaaarrgg Matey's! Scooter has been really into "pirates" lately - so one of the things he got for his birthday was a treasure chest with an eye patch, gold coins and a bandanna!

Oh my goodness- we just LOVE these two sweet boys! I don't know how we got so lucky to have them in our family, but we are SO glad that they are ours!!
Opening presents! ...and boy, were there a lot of presents! Scooter sure is lucky to have such amazing grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who love him so much and gave him such fun stuff for his birthday!! Thank you everyone!! :)

The (second) cake!
Playing in his new sandbox! This boy would play outside in the dirt all day if he could! We have this little patch of dirt next to the patio and he was always digging in it - so we got this little sandbox for him. I think he had a really fun birthday - and we're so grateful that we could spend the day (in person & on webcam!) with so many of our AMAZING family members!!
Another really fun thing that happened at Derek's party was that Mauri lost her first tooth!! She was super brave & let Papa pull it out with pliers! What a cutie!!
And while we're talking about Mauri, I have to share the cutest thing she said a few weeks ago! She said to Lins: "Mom, I had a thought... What if Amber & Ryan didn't want another kid, and we got Cooper!!" haha! When Lindsay told me that I laughed so hard! She's so cute & funny! (I told Lins to make sure & tell her that we definitely want Cooper though!!)

Future Chef

Derek LOVES to help us in the kitchen! We all have a lot of fun cooking together! A couple weekends ago we made these yummy triple chocolate cookies, and Scooter was a big help of course!
Scooter and Daddy!
Helping pour the flour into the bowl!
Mixing!

The hardest part = testing the dough!
Not only does Derek like to help us cook, but he is always coming up with these crazy concoctions! For example, a few weeks ago he told me he wanted some water, chocolate milk and regular milk all together in a cup. I told him no - that was gross! But he insisted, so I said ok- go ahead and try it, thinking that if he tried it he would see that it wasn't good! But of course he loved it and has asked for it several times since then! I think the other 2 food inventions I remember the most are when he mixed fruit loops and feta cheese together (he liked that one!) and American cheese and junior mints (this one was spit out in the garbage!). What a fun, funny and creative kiddo!

Eggs, eggs and more eggs!!

Hunting for Easter eggs is one of Scooter's all time favorite things to do! He was looking forward to the Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's SO much!! He and Mauri had a blast, and both of them had a TON of eggs by the end of the day!!


He would shake each egg when he found it, and then put it in his bucket! He's such a cute kid, and he's so great at just enjoying the moment- whatever the moment is! He really helps me to take time and just enjoy whatever it is we're doing!!


Zoe in her snuggy- so she wouldn't get cold outside! haha!
Easter Morning! The night before, Scooter asked us to hide more Easter eggs- so we hid the eggs he found at Nana & Papa's. He was SO excited when we told him that we hid more eggs! He looked and looked for the eggs before he even noticed the Easter baskets!!
Looking for Easter eggs... or as Scooter calls them "Easter Hunt Eggs!" Oh boy, we love this kid!
Opening (or...re-opening!) his eggs and checking out his Easter basket!
Ready for church! Cooper had an Easter outfit too- he's just not wearing it in this picture!
After church we colored hard boiled eggs. This was the first time we did this with Scooter and he Loved it! (of course!) He did really great too! He followed all the instructions we gave him & we didn't have any spills or major messes or anything! Fun times!!

And just in case he didn't get enough sugar yet, here he is eating a yummy Easter cupcake that our cute neighbor brought to us! :)
We had a really fun Easter - and a great time leading up to Easter too, with all of our activities and lessons! We talked about Easter for a few weeks in family home evening, and we were so happy because after we told Derek the story about how Jesus was resurrected, he repeated the story back to us! I'm so grateful that we can teach our sweet kiddos the things that are so important!! They learn so quickly and are such great examples to us! And I'm so grateful for Jesus and that He was resurrected. I'm so thankful that because of Him we can have hope and happiness!!

Easter Egg Cookies!!

I saw this idea on-line somewhere for Easter egg cookies! You divide the cookie dough into 4 or 5 pieces & then add a different color to each one - then mix them together and you get tie dyed cookies. I didn't know if it would really work, but i thought we would have fun making them!

My big helper!

I thought the dough looked so cool! It really looked like tie dyed dough - i thought it might just turn a boring gray color - like what happens when you mix play-doh together!
Derek wanted to add sprinkles, of course!
They turned out pretty cool!

We had so much fun doing Easter stuff! We also made these bunny puppets & sang the little bunny foo foo song!! Scooter wanted to sing the song over and over!!