Happy Birthday Cooper-man!

A week ago yesterday, April 19th to be exact, my baby boy turned FOUR! I can hardly get those words out of my mouth. How can it already be that we have had four years with this baby? It seems like just yesterday we were driving home and I was freaking out about every passing car that was going above 45 mph or driving too close to us. I remember thinking when we got home...is this it?! He's sleeping and I'm getting stuff done around the house, Daniel's mowing and everything is perfect...what's the big deal? HA! I know better now! He was a good baby and is still a great kid. He has his moments but he loves to make "good choices" as he calls it.

For weeks before his birthday, he asked if he could have balloons tied to his mailbox for his birthday. So, of course we said yes. He also asked if he could have a trumpet birthday party. Not sure what that would be like, so we asked for some other ideas. He simply wanted to spend time with his friends. He loves games so we thought we would choose four of his favorite games and have tons of fun at our neighborhood park. Every year before this we have had great weather. I guess asking for four years of warm weather and sunny skies was pressing our luck. We had rain, rain and more rain. So, we had everyone over and tried to play some of the games. We obiviously didn't get to do the 3 legged race or the golfing game but we managed to play duck, duck, goose and an egg game. The kids had fun so that's all that really matters, I guess.

We decided to have family over on his actual birthday also so the balloons once again were up on the mailbox. We made dinner, ate some cake & opened presents. We gave him a bike and helmet for his birthday...he has been wanting a bigger bike for a while now. He was pretty excited! Everyday he straps on his helmet and takes his bike for a spin. He had fun with entire family over and could hardly sleep that night he was so excited.

We are truly blessed to have so many family members and friends in our lives!

His birthday request!

Listening to instructions for the next game...

The rain stopped long enough to get this pic!

Tradition has been to get a cake with some sort of vehicle on it. I couldn't let him down!

Test drive #1. He loves his helmet with blinking lights.

Family pic! Poor AJ didn't want to be apart of it but Coop was determined that he needed to be in it.

Soccer!!

Cooper is all boy but he has never really shown that much interest in sports. However, this boy can RUN! We ran a 5k a couple of months back and he didn't stop but maybe once and it wasn't cause he was tired. So, when we heard that soccer was now accepting 3 year olds we decided to give it a shot. The season is only 5 games too so if he didn't like it, he could stick it out for 5 games. Not to worry though, he loves it. I'm proud to say he made the first two goals of the game. One for his team, one for the other! We taught him to be nice and share so I guess that's what he was doing. ;) He has a friend from school on the team and this kid is amazing. He did most of the hard work and let Cooper kick it in. After scoring his first goal, Cooper did some sort of victory dance. It was too cute for words! We are looking forward to the rest of this season. These kids are the cutest!!

Cooper and his buddy waiting to go back on the field. He chose his favorite number 7 for his jersey.

Easter

Easter was a little bitter sweet for me this year. Last year on Easter, April 12th to be exact, I lost my first grandparent...Papaw. I will never forget getting the phone call. We went to church that morning and were on our way to Scott & Pams house for a quick lunch and egg hunt so we could get to the hospice house as soon as possible. We made it as far the doorway when my phone rang and I knew it was my dad. He didn't have to say anything, we all knew. Needless to say, we kissed the kids goodbye and went right to the hospice center. It was tough. Definitely one of the hardest moments in my life. On one hand, he was no longer suffering but the days with Papaw's funny comments and sarcastic moments were no more. Watching my family that day was beautiful. We are close but we had never been through anything like that before and to see how we all were there for each other was incredible. That day was tough, but as we all sat down for dinner that night, we sat around the table laughing and crying and best of all remembering our Papaw. I will never forget that dinner!

This Easter the kids definitely were involved with the hunt. They could care less what was in the egg, they just wanted to find them! Poor Cate, her basket was pretty full towards the end so as she would put one egg in, at least one egg would fall out. The boys hid about 20 eggs for her but she ended up picking up about 100 eggs! Cooper was a boy on a mission! He loved looking everywhere for the eggs! After the hunt was over, we went inside for a few minutes to see what kind of treasures were in the eggs. I noticed Cooper went outside but I thought he was with someone. A few minutes later he comes in announcing to everyone that it's our turn to find "it". What was "it"? Most of the money he received in his eggs. We go outside to see a path of pennies laid on the road, in the backseat of a car, under trees, etc. Luckily, it was mostly pennies!

My silly boy before the hunt at Grammy & Papa's.

This is how she held the basket the entire time.

A basket full of eggs!

A tiny break after the hunt to stop and feed the chickens!