Monkey Joe's

It's become a weekly thing to go to the local Monkey Joe's playplace. It's one of the greatest places for Coop. He can run, jump, climb, and slide to his little heart's desire without any worrying about him breaking something. We go every Tuesday morning with Daddy and he just loves it! (So do we, it's a great workout chasing him around!)

Indy State Fair

Coop has a thing for trains. We will go to Toys R Us and he will play with the display for a full hour. (No, I will not buy him a matchbox size train for $15 so we will continue to go to Toys R Us every week.) So when he found out we were riding the train to get to the Fair, he was beyond excited.

They had a kids area that was so cute. They all put on aprons and had baskets and they'd walk around and pretend to be farmers. Coop was in heaven!

Collecting eggs

Milking the cow

Then theyb brought all their "produce" to the market and they got fake money to buy a treat. It was super cute!

Of course Coop could not get enough of the animals! He thought it was super fun to feed them.

First place Hog!

The picture just doesn't do it justice, this guy was humongous!

My little champ, snoozin away in the heat.

Good ole fair food. Yes this ice cream costs $6 ;-)

The highlight of the whole thing were the Peking Acrobats. They truly were amazing! I just kept thinking how incredibly strong these girls had to be. I mean look at what they are doing!

I have a hard time doing a hand stand on the ground and these girls were doing handstands, 20 feet up, for 5 minutes, on chair backs.

I mean, really?!?

And here is my good friend Brooke who left this past week. We did everything together and unfortunately, she left and I still have 6 more weeks left...we already miss her terribly!

5 Little Monkeys

This is the most words he'll say in a row without a break :-)

Boulder Family Reunion

What a fun family reunion this was! My brother, Jason got married this past week which gave our family an excuse to get together.

14 of the 18 grandkids

All 18

Our fun "Plan B" hike. The first one turned out to be a little too hard for all the little kiddos so we opted for a different one that turned out to have an awesome stream to play in at the end!

Water World

A long day for the kids (hence the sleeping pictures) but a super fun place. I'd love to go there without any kids so we could go on all the rides!

No family reunion would be complete without the Gundy Olympics

(Balloon toss, cheers, 3-legged races, frisbee toss, etc.)

Babies, babies, and more babies

The coolest reception ever, held on the Boulder Resevoir...

...complete with Dunk Tank (which I dare say was a big hit for everyone!)

And of course, the happy couple, Jason & Alexa!

On a side note, for their actual wedding Jason & Alexa climbed up (white dress & all) to a lake in the mountains and said their vows to each other. Nobody but the 2 of them alone with nature. The pictures they took of the place were gorgeous. It just fit them perfectly that that's how they did it!

6 Months Old

Wish I could tell you all the specs but we haven't hit up the doctors office yet so for now these will have to do:

Height: Long, take into consideration his dad.

Head: Big, its like an orange on a toothpick.

Weight: Very Big, he has more rolls than a baker. (HA, that was cheesy!)

Cooper Can

My big boy Cooper seems to be growing by leaps and bounds everyday so I wanted to document some of those precious/funny moments in a 2.5 year old's life.

Coop can count to 10 and sometimes even farther

He knows his shapes

He has a hard time with colors for some reason but we're working on it.

He loves to sing in the car (the last word of every phrase)

He's very observant, for better or for worse.

He loves to "Call somebody" on the phone

He loves to play Bubble Breaker on my phone and gets really excited every time he pops a bubble.

His favorite songs rotate between, "Ah-Ah (Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray), "Low, Low" (rap song), and "Singing in the Rain" (quite the variety!)

He LOVES library time (rhymes, stories, & crafts)

He fights a nap every day but most times still falls asleep.

He LOVES movies (Nemo, Incredibles, Backyardigans).

He loves to do the rhyme "5 Little Monkeys" (It's one of the few songs that he sings every word)

He loves to take the trash out with Daddy.

He loves to play with his pennies.

He console us when we get hurt by saying, "You otay Daddy, you otay!"

He loves to play Tackle with Daddy (football)

He'll play in the bathtub for hours if he as a bottle to fill up and pour out.

He's a BIG eater (and unfortunately still allergic to peanuts)

He's a little too smart sometimes (i.e. he figured out that if he peed while in timeout, he'd be able to get out of timeout)

He loves Thomas the Train!

He can sing the whole first stanza of the song Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat just from listening to it in the car.

If there is more than one of something he says, "Oo, lots em', lots em'!" (lots em' sounds like one word.)

He's really good at playing with my hair, very soft and gentle.

He loves to do push-ups and show his muscles after.

Funny Moments

• When Carter's crying, he'll start singing the Alphabet Song to him (skipping all letters from Q-V) and when Carter stops immediately he says, "I make Carter happy!"
• When asked if he wants more food but he's full, he puts up his hand and says, "I'm dood (good) Mommy, I'm dood."
• When Coop wakes up from a nap, he tip toes out of his room and the minute he sees me he yells, "Mommy! I miss you." like he's been gone for years.
• Any time someone asks his name he says "Pooper", the poor kid can't say his "C's"...not good for our family ;-)
• When he says prayer, he always blesses Pooper that he'll have "dood dreams", and "wake up happy" no matter what time of day it is.
• Asking Daddy as we are getting out of the pool, "Mommy have big booty?" I say, "What?!" and Daddy says, "No, its a small one." (Good answer Caleb!)

He can be a real handful at times and the sweetest boy ever too. No matter what he chooses to be that day, we sure do love him!

JessicaSprague.com

For those of you interested in digital scrapbooking, editing photos, or anything to do with being crafty on the computer jessicasprague.com is for you. I just finished my 3rd class from her site and loved every minute of it! They are so helpful and easy to follow. I thought I'd show some of the things I created with her help from this last class.

(Oh, and I went out and had a special photoshoot with the boys too so that I would have some fun pictures to use for it as well :-)

That just Bites!

What is it with Caleb and dogs, pit bulls to be precise? It seems they have banded together to make life difficult for him while knocking doors, or at least make sitting down difficult. Yes, that's right, Caleb got bit by a dog...again! Last summer it was on the arm, this summer it was right smack dab on the bum. As for a story, Caleb was just doing his job knocking doors when he heard the menacing growl. He immediately turned tail and sprinted for the gate but just as he reached it he got a sharp bite in the rear. Luckily he managed to slam the dog back into its fenced area before it could manage anymore damage (possibly to the other cheek). His right buttocks received some cuts and bruises and his shorts have a pretty good tear but he's recovering well.*

I'll spare you all the picture of the actual bite and just make do with the shorts.

*Recovery gifts are welcomed...especially the chocolate kind ;-)

My First Photo Shoot

So my good looking friends so graciously let me take their pictures this past weekend. This place we took them at is AMAZING! We call it the gardens and we've gone there to have picnics the past two Sundays. The place is huge and its just full of flowered pathways, fountains, ponds, and big open areas of grass. It sure helps out your pictures when the scenery is so pretty!

This is my good friend Brooke, her husband Chase, and little Ady. They are such a cute family! And I just love the colors they were wearing! Makes for very vibrant pictures.

One of my all-time favorites right here!

And these are our other good friends Kate & Jeremy (actually, the brother of Chase above). They are a gorgeous couple. I have to say that not one of the pictures I took of them looked bad...such photogenic people!