Working Hard Around the House!

 

Our last few weeks since returning from FL have been busy as usual. We have been working on projects around the house including getting the spare bedroom upstairs ready for the new baby, due in April, and working on the shower in the master bedroom. Dean has been hard at work tiling, which involves lots of heavy lifting and lots of cutting with the tile saw, which also includes a lot of trips up and down the stairs. Needless to say, he is getting a workout! But we both can't wait until the shower is finished and then getting ready for the baby will be high priority!

The Last 3 Months or So!!

OK - No doubt about it! I am behind once again! I have found that "life" has interfered with updating the blog about my life!!

We all had a great fall! Cooper played MCAA soccer and had a great time! We jumped right into winter here and have been enjoying the snow and trying to get out sledding and playing as much as we can. Cooper also turned 8 (I can't believe it some days!) in November!

Cooper at 1

Cooper at 8

He is growing like a weed. He had a small sleepover with a few friends as his birthday party and they had a blast just watching movies, playing video games and riding Cooper's four wheeler.

Aside from Cooper's birthday, November brought us our family trip to hunting camp in Pittsburg, NH and Thanksgiving. Both were great. Dean is always great about taking time out of his day of hunting to walk around with us and show us some nature. We saw some great moose tracks and Cooper got to use Dean's deer call. he thought that was pretty fun!

Cooper was with his Dad for Thanksgiving and we missed him, as we always do when he is gone, but we spent some time with my family in MA before the Canter Girl's Black Friday Shopping Trip!!

December 1st brought us the great news that we are expecting another girl this April! Once we learned that all looked happy and healthy in the womb, we couldn't have been happier!

The holidays were pretty quiet. We spent a nice afternoon at Nana and Papa's for Hanukkah and enjoyed the company, as always! Christmas came and we decided to take a short trip to North Conway, to see Auntie Beth, Uncle Todd, Bella, and Ava, and to get Dean out on the slopes! It was Natalie's first time staying in a hotel, she did great and had a great time!!

And just yesterday we got back from a great trip to Florida. Nana and Nonee decided to spend a few weeks in the warm weather and invited us to join them for a few days! We were worried how Natalie would do, as she isn't always the best traveler, but she did great!

We Spent 2 great days at Seaworld, where the animals and shows are so fantastic and impressive!

We also spent 2 days at Disney. One at The Magic Kingdom and one at The Animal Kingdom. We had a good time at both, Cooper is at a great age where he loves to ride the rides! He rode just about every ride at Animal Kingdom. We also had Nonee along that day and we all loved the Safari ride that took us on a mini-African Safari! Other than that our time was spent in the pool!!

A Little Bit of Fall

So, here we are, a month into fall and there has already been snow! It has seemed nearly impossible to get good fall shots of the kids with the camera since the season has flown by.

Cooper is playing soccer with MCAA. While Dean and I freeze on the sidelines Cooper is having the time of his life.

We helped pick pumpkins this year for the pumpkin festival. the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I use the term "helped" loosely as I'm not sure how much help we really were!

Molly and Shilo

The Young Crew

Cooper and BrodyArianna - workin hard!
Cooper and his pumpkin
Natalie
Dean and Nads
Cooper and Andrea

Natalie is into and onto just about everything in sight. Her personality has really started to show itself the last month or two. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

Dean and I, as always, are enjoying each other as well as being in the new house together. We are still working a lot on the house. I am refinishing a dining room table (the first coat of paint is drying as I type) and Dean always has a project going, from wainscoting to making a bench for the mudroom!!

We found out in August that I am expecting another baby, sometime in April. We, right now, are about 13 weeks along. We are beyond excited to have a new baby and a new member of the family. Cooper seems thrilled. Natalie probably won't be when the baby comes! In a few months our project will be getting the upstairs bedroom ready for a new little one!!

First Day of 2nd Grade and few others!

Here are a few pictures of Cooper's first day of school. This first one is before he put in his hair gel. I don't have many of him post-hair gel but I think Sally got one - so I will try to find that.

This is down at the bus stop. This year there are two other kids at his stop so he won't have to wait alone. Natalie was happy to chat away while we waited for the bus.

She also spent some time up in a tree while waiting for the bus. With Daddy's help of course!

This is last week when Dean was outside working with Cooper on shooting his bow.

Natalie's new hobby in the bathtub is eating bubbles and drinking water. It makes bathtime very short in our house.

I Can't Belive My Baby is 1!!!!

August 12th was Natalie's 1st birthday! We are all amazed at how fast the year went by. We have a little girl who laughs and walks and points and says a few words. It's just amazing. We had a small birthday party and all enjoyed cupcakes. Natalie got some great gifts including a four wheeler (toy), a handmade quilt, bath toys, books and clothes. She wasn't as impressed with being sung to and her party hat as she was by the cupcake itself, but she had a great birthday and party nonetheless.

Mom and Natalie

Not too impressed with the singing!

Loved the cupcakes!

Nonee holding baby Arianna

Oh Jeez!

Ok - so I missed a few months.

We are doing great in the new house. We love living so close to Grety and Pappas and have enjoyed our new home and yard as much as we can. Cooper has spent a lot of time fishing and catching stuff in the pond by our house. Natalie likes to fish with Dean while in the front carrier pack.

Cooper finished off his school year in June and then we didn't do too much because of all the rain. Natalie and I spent the 4th of July in North Conway with my family and as a nice addition, Mamie, Jobe and the Kids joined us. Dean was in Florida fishing and Cooper was with his Dad. Natalie also took that time to take her first steps - which is mostly boring for everyone else but pretty exciting for us. She also got a front tooth -which seems to be changing the entire look of her face.

Dean and I decided to participate in the Fresh Air Fund this year and we volunteered to host a little boy from NYC to experience the country. So on July 7th - Salomon came to visit us for 2 weeks. He is a sweet and helpful little boy (when he wants to be). We were able to take a nice trip to the beach and up to camp. he and Cooper fight one minute and play for a few hours together then next. Who knows if they even like each other or not - but Salomon says he would like to come back next year!

All the rest!

This is just a mish mash of pictures of the last month or so. Some just around the house. We have also done the fishing derby as well as Cooper's spring show at the elementary school.

Natalie - Happy in the Morning!

Not the best picture of Cooper - but we were towards the back of the gym!

Natalie on the swings at Cooper's MCAA baseball game (more pictures of that to come)
Cooper and the Miles kids enjoying the outdoors!
surfing down a loam pile!

Dean and Natalie getting ready to enjoy Cooper's Show

Dean and Cooper at the Fishing Derby. (They didn't catch anything)

Natalie at the fishing Derby

We also ran into Jim Young, his son Quinn and a friend of his so we took a spot near them. It was a very "manly" day. Natalie and I hung back!!