7 Random Things about ME

I was tagged awhile ago by my friend, Stefanie and I need to tell 7 random things about me. (I was tagged on Facebook and have to come up with 25:)

Here it goes:



1) Gary and I dated for a few months, broke up for 18 months, hooked back up together and the rest is history -- 12 years and counting.... He is my soul mate.

2) My first flight was a month long vacation to Greece to visit my sister. I was VERY air sick.

3) My pet peeve is public bathroom stalls without coat hooks. Do they want you to drop your coat and purse on the floor?

4) I have a passion for balancing checkbooks and numbers. I guess I have the right job. :)

5) I am a democrat and voted for Obama. We have a ton of Republican friends, so we kind of kept it a secret. We are so excited to have a new president and pray for him daily. We need change in this country and we hope to see it begin.

6) I really HATE snow and no, it is not really that pretty..... it is cold, wet, muddy, slushy, nasty.

7) I LOVE being a mom and filling up those love buckets everyday with hugs, kisses and stories.


I tag my friends that read my blog if you have not yet been tagged! You know who you are:)

Happy 6th Birthday Grant!

Today is Grant's 6th birthday! Our brown hair, brown eyed baby boy.

It has been an incredible journey for this mom and dad to be parents to these kids. We can remember anxiously waiting for the call from the adoption agency back in January 2003. Many of you remember it too. (Yes, Abby & Scott we remember our last childless dinner, not knowing how our lives would change:) We had a few times when we were picked for a child and then it fell through. It was heartbreaking, so we tried not to get our hopes up and almost took our names off the list. Then we received the call about Grant on 1/21/03. We were home that evening and couldn't believe a baby boy was born that day and would we consider it? We, of course, said YES. I can never describe the feeling of not being pregnant and then being an instant mom. Let's just say it is VERY emotional. Grant stayed in the hospital until we could bring him home on Valentine's Day. The 3 weeks before we brought him home were crazy at the Cooper house. We had 3 emotional baby showers- neighbors, work and family. Our house in NW Portland filled up with baby stuff. Folks dropping stuff off at the door, high chairs, cribs, carseats, oh my. We kept thinking we need all this for a little bitty baby?

We had many visits to Washington to see him and the first time Gary held him, he knew this was it! It scared me, but we both knew that this son had grown in our hearts. What a special child Grant has been to us. He was a little fussy baby, but we didn't know any better being our first child, so we went with it. Lots of our friends would come over and take turns holding him and singing to him trying to quiet him down. :)

Grant has a great smile and loves to make people laugh. When you give our boys pictures to color Ian will always color everything black ( we hope he is not going to be gothic or need therapy:) and Grant will color in pink, orange, purple, yellow... He loves art and music. He is getting a guitar for his birthday today. (shh) He also loves swimming and bike riding.

We are so thankful to God for this child that started our parenthood journey.

Happy Birthday Grant! WE LOVE YOU!

Emma and Ethan -- Then and Now

Emma and Ethan have been two of our boys forever friends. Here is a picture of them at Christmas with there matching jammies with drop bottoms. :) Also, a recent shot sent to us this year. Gayle, Rob, Ann, Gary and I went to Mazatlan in October 2002. Gayle was pregnant with Emma, but was a trooper in the long, hot days of Mexico. It was a great trip we will never forget the beach, fishing, jungle trip, shopping, etc. We got back and in January 2003 Grant was born, then Emma, the little brothers followed the next couple of years.... DiDi, my sister, was happy being the nanny to these 4 active babies. She was (and still is) the angel we needed.

The adults would try and figure out all this parenting stuff and were so supportive of us. The Spencers moved to Indiana and boy, do we miss them!!! They are with family now, but we often remember the good old days... before and after kids. We are so thankful to have had them in our lives when we so much needed the support of not knowing what to do with screaming or sick infants. What a blessing! God has prefect timing and we needed them when we had them.

Thank the Lord for those around you and appreciate them!

Grant's 2008-2009 Kindergarten Class

Grant has loved every minute of Kindergarten. Here are a couple shots of his classmates. His teacher is on the guitar. Her name is Mrs. Custer. (He fondly calls her Mrs. Buster) It is a rhyming thing. The class took a trip to the pumpkin patch and had a Winter program before the snow started. I didn't know it would be such a production, but it was for classes K-4th grade. The gym was maxed out.

A "Different" Christmas

I titled this a 'different" Christmas, because so many people I talked to after Christmas said they had a good Christmas, but it was different. It was different for us too. We were stuck much of the 2 weeks in mega snow. I haven't posted this Christmas post because last night we finally celebrated our last Christmas get together with our dear friend, Ann. All of Ian's birthday plans, our plans with friends, family and work were cancelled this year. We spent the time with the four of us and Sadie, our new pup. Dianne & Lindsay and I risked our lives on Christmas eve to meet to get the bikes from Santa. Whew! It was close and the boys were so excited. They were probably the only 5 year olds without bikes. (according to their stories) They rode around the house Christmas day and now they can ride pretty confidently on the sidewalks and driveway. We have yet to take them to the park to really wear them in.

We have since got together with our family and friends to celebrate. It seemed like a very looong Christmas. We kicked in the New Year with Gary's siblings and Grant made it until 11:50pm. Ian was still swinging at 1:00am. We have many things to be thankful for and try not to take our days for granted. God has blessed us with so much.

Favorite Games Anyone Anyone?

We received some new games for Christmas. We love our new DVD Disney Bingo game that calls out the numbers and letters for you. It also has pictures for the young ones to help them along. :) We hate the MOUSETRAP game with all those nasty pieces and it is not much fun. I bought it at Fred Meyer's buy one, get one free, so I decided it was my free one. Sadie chewed on the main wheels that make it go, so now it is going on our burn pile. :) --10 days after Christmas. Don't waste your $money.
We are trying to incorporate a family game night weekly or every other week.
Any other games folks received for Christmas you could recommend? We don't have the $funds now, but how about the wii or Playstations? Anyone have any games they really like on those that are 5 year old friendly?

We have boys...

We hear much giggling, hooting and laughter in the back yard. The boys are out for their daily winter wonderland adventure. Gary checks on them and comes to get me shaking his head, saying "You have to see this. We have boys...." Oh my, they were sliding very fast down our deck stairs which are very steep, going at least 100mph.... Hooting it up!!!

We think they were practicing for the Luge in the Olympics.

Heaven help us --- we do have boys!