Some Things About Our Boys

It seems like its the little moments in life that really are what life is all about. So I really hope that I can journal more this year about all of the day to day things we are doing.

Here is a list I put together of some of the "little" things I wanted to remember about the boys.

Words to describe Cooper: Social, Smart, Observant, Inventive, Helpful, Dramatic, Polite, Forgiving, Clever, A Nurturer, Energetic, Friendly, Silly, Cuddly, Caring, Loving, Spiritual, Photogenic, Handsome & Imaginative.

Favorite Toys: Tools, Trucks, His Gator, Building Blocks, Kitchen.

His Interests: Truck Pulls, Monster Trucks, The Moon, Spiderman, Dinosaurs, 4 Wheeling, Temples, Semi's, Trains, Movies, Going for Walks, Listening to the Radio, His Nursery Class, Camping, All kinds of Trailers, getting to "help" at work, baseball, being outside.

Favorite Foods: Chicken, Pancakes, Sausage (For Breakfast & on his pizza), grapes, cheese, yogurt, chocolate, cake, juice, crackers.

As of NOW what I think he will be when he grows up: Entertainer/Performer, Train Conductor, A Daddy, A Missionary, Someone in charge of building the temples, A Vet, A Mechanic.

Little Tidbits about Cooper:

• He loves to play with other kids. When we are playing in a public play ground he will make friends instantly and come running to tell me that they are his best friend!!!



• His chores around the house are to put the dogs to bed at night and feed them. I also try to put him in charge of shutting the TV & lights off at night or when we leave.



• He loves to earn money or find loose change around the house for his piggy bank. But most of the time he ends up asking me to put it in a tithing envelope to contribute to the Temples being built. I was pretty impressed when he first came up with this idea all on his own!! (I really don't know where he learned it from.) We fill out the slip together and then seal it with a temple sticker. The best is when he gets to hand it in to the bishop...he sits in sacrament waiting intensely to get the chance to hand it in and tell him what it is for. (It is even funnier when the Bishop misses a Sunday & Cooper is super concerned about where he is at. Ha!)



• Cooper loves to go "trucking" with Lathan. (His part time job) Cooper will get up at any time of the day and strut his little walk to the semi carrying a back pack full of his snacks. He feels pretty proud about it. He just gets a little upset when he gets back home from SLC and realizes that they never went to the LAKE! oh boy!
  


• Cooper will find ANYTHING he can to rope or tie up together like it was a truck pulling a trailer. One day when we went to RC Willey to pick up our mattress we had to make a quick stop at Lowes after. Well, we couldn't just get out of the truck and walk in...Cooper had to walk around the entire trailer checking EVERY strap to make sure they were on tight for the mattress. WHAT A MAN!!
  


• Through out the past year we have been driving past the Brigham Temple while it has been under construction...this has been pretty impressive to Cooper. He will come home & through out the week he will take his building blocks and stack them really high and then tell me "Look Mommy, I built you the temple." :) Love this kid!!



• Cooper knows how to use my phone to make specific phone calls...especially to his Aunt Lacy. He loves it when she comes to our house and has sleep overs!
  


• His new best friend at the Flower Shop is Gabe (The Delivery Boy). He gets so excited to see Gabe and begs Gabe to give him any kind of work he can do to help out at the shop while he is there.



• He also loves to take a brick of wet Oasis at the Flower shop and use all of our tools to dig in it or take the stems & leaves off of the floor intending to make things grow again.-This could keep him entertained for hours!!



• His famous lines to use: "But Why Mommy?", "No-wa!", "I told you this", "I am sorry now", "Oh, Daddy can fix it."...we all find our selves saying these things and then right after thinking Now that was a Cooper thing to say. :)



• Our first Sunday after being sealed in the temple Cooper held the door open for a kid walking in and he said to them "Hey, we went to the temple! Do you wanna go?"In November Cooper (while still in Nursery) had his first part in a sacrament/primary program. He was suppose to tell about his temple experience. After the nursery kids went up to sing with their parents Cooper stayed sitting up front with the sunbeams...And when it was his turn to speak he made it to the microphone before me...I was a little nervous about what things he might think of saying with out me standing there to help him but all on his own he stepped up and said in to the microphone "I LOVE Jesus Christ!" (This was a special moment for me to realize how much he already felt about our Savior and that he wanted to share it with everyone. He already has a growing testimony!!)



• Cooper loves to watch Cake Boss & Gold Rush with Lathan and I. He will "make" me cakes out of his blocks and serve them to me or ask me what kind he should make for me. He is also really interested in helping learn how to cook or mix up the ingredients in a recipe. The other day when I caught some awesome winter/spring like weather I went outside to mess around in our "weed garden" and Cooper started playing with his tractors in the dirt. He told me he was "panning for dirt" like in Gold Rush. HA!



• Cooper gets a little worried or irritated when his Dad has been gone to work for too long. One day he called Lathan and said "Daddy it is time to come home now, you have been gone LONG enough! You have 3 more seconds to get back in this house or I am going to call the cops!" And when Lathan apologized saying he wouldn't be home just yet, Cooper handed the phone over to me and said, "Mom, call the cops!" Ha, Well on a different day he heard a train go by and with excitement he exclaimed "The train tracks are fixed! Now Daddy can come home!! I have to call him and tell him!" :)



• He loves to sing and dance. The best is when he puts his cowboy hat on and

Words to describe Tyke: Hungry, Curious, Tempermental, Smart, Cute, Giggly, Friendly, Forgiving, Rebellious, Sensitive, Charming, Tough, Kissable, Mischievous, Silly, Energetic, Dramatic, Loving, Determined, Stubborn, Sweet.

Favorite Toys: Any Truck big enough to push around the room, kitchen, Play House, Stuffed Animals, Anything Cooper has, His Chuck Trucks, The Rocking horse that talks and wags his tail, Corn Popper, Microphone, Piano & Stool, His pop up toy.

His Interests: Vacuuming, Digging in my make up bag, going for a walk in his beep beep, Kitty's, balloons, climbing, making messes & dumping the toy box out, 4-wheeling, eating, bath time & splashing all of the water out of it, music & dancing, being outside.

Favorite Foods: Just about everything that is edible and a few things that are not! He loves to feed himself & he is pretty determined about it. His favorites are bananas, grapes, cereal, crackers, french fries, ice cream, chocolate, cheese, & anything that is on YOUR plate.

As of NOW what I think he will be when he grows up: A Cowboy/Bull Rider, A Chef or Food Critic, A 4 Wheeler Tester, In Cooper's Band, A Daddy.

Little Tidbits about Tyke:

• He has the most killer facial expressions! His two most famous faces ones that he pulls are his "Oooh Oooh" Face (Where he puckers his lips tighter than you ever thought someone could. He does this when he sees something he likes or wants.) & His scowl (where he scrunches up his eye brows and darts his eyes at you...never thought a little boy could give such a mean look!)
  


• He absolutely loves sleeping in his crib. -This actually can make Lathan a little nuts that Tyke never wants to cuddle and take a nap with him. Tyke would rather sleep on the floor than have to sleep with someone. HA!



• He loves going to his baby sitter Sheri's house. Her and her family give him all of the attention he wants...and he eats it up!



• Tyke will never have to talk he can communicate so well with his noises & facial expressions & then tugging on you to pull you where ever he wants you to go. 95% of the time it is to the pantry or his high chair. HA!



• He can make me laugh all day long when he is running back and forth. He has the funniest run...He drags his feet because of how fast his legs are moving, it almost looks like his legs are going way faster than the rest of his body can keep up with, he even uses his arms to make him run faster!



• His nick name that Lathan & I have called him since he was a baby is Gus Gus. (Like the mouse on Cinderella.)



• He is so cute when he gets mad, that it makes me giggle...which only encourages him more. He will slap his hand down on a table or on your lap to show you his anger and then right after hold his hands dramatically to his mouth and start crying. Oh MY!



• For some reason he has an obsession with pulling the stuffing out of my couches...Makes me crazy! And he loves it...I swear the word "no" just encourages my kids to do it even more.
  


• All day long he will push my kitchen chairs around the room to crawl up on to things he wants...he will pull all of the magnets off of my fridge & pull pictures down, or run the water on my fridge till he makes a good sized puddle on the kitchen floor. Ugh!



• We finally put child locks on all of our cupboards & drawers to keep him from pulling everything out of them...well with in 20 mins of putting them in, he had figured a way around them...That little stinker!!



• He has given Lathan and I some of our most embarrassing stories in our lifetime... 1-The neighbor across the street came over one morning and was sitting down on the floor to talk to Tyke, minutes later he decided to run to the upstairs bathroom and dig through the trash bringing down a tampon to show the neighbor...YUP he shoved it right in her face!! 2-One day when Lathan was home alone with the kids he was sitting in the recliner watching TV, along comes Tyke whacking him in the head with something wet...THE TOILET BRUSH!! WOW, I wonder what things will come in year 2!