"You're soooo smart!"

I forgot to mention that Kylie gave another talk in church last week. I told her that she needs to stop volunteering to give talks, because then Mommy has to do all the work of writing a talk and helping her read and memorize it. I told her next time to just volunteer to say the prayer or something easy. I'm horrible I know, but seriously, this was like the 4th talk she's had to give in the last year. Anyway, she gave a talk about Easter and blew everyone away when she got up and read it all by herself. I had some pictures for her to hold up to show some of the miracles around us that help us to remember the Resurrection of Jesus. The other day I overheard this "conversation" between my two kids (Kylie was using her pictures from her talk):
Kylie: Cooper, what is this? Tell me what this is. (Holding up picture of a cocoon).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: That's right! It's a cocoon. Now what is this? Tell me what this is. (Holding up a picture of a butterfly).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: Wow, that's right Cooper! What is this? (Holding up a picture of a nest with eggs).
Cooper: Da-da. (Points at picture).
Kylie: Wow! You are soooo smart Cooper! You're going to be smart just like me someday.
Kylie had used all of her pictures before she actually said the last line, so this was quite a extended conversation and one where Cooper was actually involved the entire time. I had to go into the other room and giggle quietly so I that didn't interrupt. Kylie is such a good big sis (most of the time). She certainly loves her little brother.
Kylie and Cooper reading books together.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. It was fun to go to church with the kids dressed in their new Easter duds. I got Kylie a blue Easter dress after my mom and I finally decided to get it after carrying it around Wal-Mart trying to decide whether to get that one or a pink one. I could only get a couple of pictures of her in it before she changed into her outrageous stripes outfit. (See pictures above). She really thought she matched because they were both stripes! I let her go outside and use her sidewalk chalk; Cooper enjoyed walking around outside. There's only been a few times where he's actually been outside walking on his own, so he loves being outside. He'll try to step outside every time the door opens, and if he doesn't make it out, he gets very sad.

Easter Egg Hunting

On Easter Saturday, we went to the South Jordan Community pool and the kids "dove" for Easter eggs. I was lucky to have Jill helping me. I don't think I would have gotten as many cute pictures because I spent most of the time trying to keep up with Cooper who wanted in and out of the pool. The kids enjoyed swimming in the warm water and got bags of Easter treats after the egg dive.

We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Russon's house in Lehi and had another egg hunt and Easter dinner with the fam

IcE cReAm!

We were at Harmon's the other day and they were giving out free ice cream cones. The lady insisted on giving Cooper his own and now he's hooked. He will have a fit if you try to take it away from him. He'll sit down, put his head on the floor, and start crying. It's really kind of cute...yeah, even his tantrums are cute.

Blog Readability

TV Reviews

I got this from my sis-in-law's blog. When I first did it, it said my blog was only at an elementary reading level; it kinda made me feel dumb, but then I realized I'm not exactly writing college level research papers on here...just everyday family stuff. I tried it again today and I got bumped up to a high school reading level. Whoo-hoo!

Disney On Ice

We went to Disney on Ice last night. It was uber fun! We went to dinner at Baxter's American at the Gateway Mall. It turned out that Scott knew two of the cooks that work there, a chef that helps out there, and one of their servers. It seems that once you've worked in the downtown restaurant business, you know EVERYBODY, or you find someone that knows the people you know. Scott definitely knows a network of people that work in the fine restaurant business. Hopefully, it will help him if he ever decides to venture into that world again.
After a very good dinner we went to the show. Kylie loved every minute of it. She says her favorite part was "The Little Mermaid." It was pretty amazing. There were lots of lighting effects, fun ice skating tricks, superb music and sound, and fire! The finale was cool. All of the pincesses came out with their princes, Tinkerbell came out in her cool little carriage, and Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy all came out at the end. Unfortuntely, I didn't get great pics. (I posted the best ones.) Kylie wanted us to buy her an overpriced princess toy, but I wasn't about to pay 12 bucks for a dinky princess cup, so she cried all the way back to the car. She finally settled down when we started talking about her favorite parts of the show. All in all, it was great to go out together as a family.

Daddy, Cooper, and Kylie. Aladdin and Jasmine: "Let me share this whole new world with you."Belle: "Little town; it's a quiet village; Every day like the one before."

"Be our guest; be our guest; put our service to the test."

"No one's gloomy or complaining; While the flatware's entertaining." Mickey and Goofy.Ariel: "When's it my turn?; wouldn't I love; love to explore that shore up above; out of the sea; wish I could be; part of that world." King Triton punishes Ariel. The finale. Sad Kylie. Prince Cooper is pooped.

Lazy Sunday

I love Sundays. I love that my family is together. I love that church is at 1:00 in the afternoon. I love eating Sunday dinner made by my wonderful husband. (Tonight, it was jambalaya. I'd give you all a recipe except there isn't one.) I love just lounging around, relaxing, reading, and talking.
I prepared an Easter family night lesson and we taught Kylie about the true reason why we celebrate Easter. It was funny because she really had no clue. I asked her if she knew why we celebrate Easter and she said, "So we can find Easter eggs." Now she knows about the Atonement and Resurrection. (She read and learned about two very big words!) It is such a fundamental part of our religion to know this story, but I love reviewing it and reminding myself that it is through our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we are even able to return to live with our Heavenly Father.
After the kids went to bed, we watched "Return with Honor," an LDS movie about a return missionary who dies, but is given 60 days to come back to earth and finish his work. It was pretty good; not as corny as so many of the other LDS movies out there.

It was a beautiful day. Dare I say that Spring is finally here? I took the kids outside and took pics of them out on the porch.

Banana Man

Cooper is one picky kid. I thought babies this age were supposed to be pretty much eating everything you put in front of them! Not so with Coop. You may be interested to know that this kid did NOT like any of the pureed foods we started trying to feed him at 6 months. Nope, he didn't want any of that. So, basically, he was exclusively breastfed for 12 months. Once that 1 year mark was up, though, I was done, DONE!!! He took to cow's milk okay. Though, we realized he was getting way too much milk after a couple of episodes of severe constipation. (I could talk about all of that in another blog post).
You would think the kid would like the sweet tasts of fruits, like applesauce, peaches, pears, etc. Nope, not really. He does like bananas, though (see pics below). He likes some weird stuff like scrambled eggs, refried beans, ice cream, and um, there's really not much else. Oh, he'll eat other things, but only like 1 or 2 bites. When I told our pediatrician about this, he told me I needed to stop giving him snacks in between meals. What? I thought we were supposed to give snacks between meals and the only reason I do it is because the kid does not eat when it IS meal time!
Cooper started out around the 75th percentile for both height and weight in his first 4 months of life, then he was a "text book baby" at 6 months when he was right on the 50th percentile for both height and weight. At his 1 year check-up he had dropped down to the 25th percentile for height and weight. I'm starting to think his picky eating habits are affecting his normal growth patterns. If any of you have any tips or comments about getting kids to eat, let me know!

Under Construction

Okay, so I'm having a difficult time deciding on the template of our blog. I've tried several templates and I really don't like any of them. Also, in the process of changing them, I discovered that my links and some of my pictures disappeared! If only I was smart enough to make up my own...Sarah, Lacie, how did you change yours? Anyway, until I get this all figured out, you'll have to deal with my almost daily blog changes.