March's Ten Things

I don't think I've ever taken so few pictures in my life as I did this month.  I think there are a bunch on my phone, but I haven't even looked at them or taken a single one off for weeks.  What has happened to me?!?!?

It still was a good month.  I always have lots to smile about, I feel really blessed in that way.

Here are my Ten Things to Smile About for March

1.  I had a really great time at the Relief Society Birthday Party.
2.  We celebrated our three year anniversary of living in this house - the longest we've lived anywhere by far!
3.  My baby is half a year old!  Totally crazy!  And he started sleeping through the night all on his own, yeah he's that cool.
4.  Cooper's ear infections that lasted weeks and weeks and weeks finally went away.  Wu!
5.  We took an impromptu family trip to the State Capitol.
6.  There are actually TULIPS blooming in my yard now.  IT'S SPRING PEOPLE!
7.  Feeding Cooper all the new baby foods makes me smile.  He likes squash now too.  And he's tolerating the carrots.
8.  My new calling has made me smile all month!
9.  Todd and I went out on the 22nd, exactly ten years from our first date.  It was fun to think back on our first date.
10.  Celebrating Easter.  I know it hasn't happened yet, but I've been celebrating it all month by reading the four gospels and a book called The Infinite Atonement.  That has truly made me smile.  Plus, we are coloring easter eggs tonight or tomorrow and I have a whole lot of jelly beans and pastel m&ms and other goodies hiding in my closet for this weekend!

Yesterday

Yesterday was a really good day!  I was called to be a member of our new Relief Society Presidency as the Secretary!  This call came at such a perfect time for me.  My love of God and of The Relief Society is HUGE right now and I have always wanted to serve in that auxiliary, not to mention I was growing weary of my music chairman calling after almost three years.  And in a presidency...well, all I can say is how grateful I am for the sisters I'll be serving with.  They are incredible.  INCREDIBLE.

I love how sometimes The Lord chooses our friends for us.  Just like with visiting teaching.  I have found friendships I probably never would have initiated otherwise.  Talk about life-enriching!  I feel so blessed to get to work with these women and call them friends.  Now we get to hang out every week during meetings and go to visits together and work on projects and attend the temple together.  I'm humbled and excited.

A little overwhelmed too.

I have no idea what I'm doing.  But when the Bishop set me apart, his blessing put my mind at ease.  The Lord knew exactly what I needed to hear.  And in the end, I have a testimony of this gospel, a willing heart, and a supportive husband.

Yay!  

Some Updates

Cooper likes peas!  He hates carrots.  He also loves oatmeal and rice cereal.  I can't wait to feed him other flavors and see what he likes.

He's in the 40th percentile for weight, and 80th for height.  How come he's not off the charts like my other two were?!?!

Cooper has slept through the night EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since last Friday night.  I have NO CLUE why or what changed, but my goodness...I feel awesome, and Cooper wins the most amazing baby award!  We eventually made Ethan cry it out and Madeline was still waking up 7 times a night at 6 months...yeah, Cooper is my amazing baby!

My other two are really cute too.  They both like peas AND carrots!

And now to completely change the subject...

I am allergic to my wedding ring.  Like, EXTREMELY allergic.  I am also depressed given this situation.  I've known for several years that I was allergic to the nickel in the white gold, but the allergy has been getting worse each time the rhodium plating wares off.  This last time, my finger looked like I got a chemical burn.  Blistery painful patches...OUCH!!!  It's been like 6 weeks without my ring and my finger is still aggravated, itchy and blistery.  The cold dry weather along with the hot hot water I wash bottles in has made it nearly impossible to heal.

I love my ring.

I am very attached to it.  I hate not wearing it.  And I don't think I ever can again.

I think we'll eventually trade it in for platinum which is hypoallergenic.  When it can fit into our budget and when my finger isn't so aggravated by everything.  But I don't want some new fancy smancy platinum ring.  I don't care about that.  I just want my ring.  My setting is the prettiest.  (Sorry everyone else, it's true!).  There just aren't any platinum settings that compare to mine...

Boohoo!

That's my sob story.  But hey, at least I have a really cute baby who sleeps through the night.

Six Months Old

I seriously can't believe Cooper is already six months old.  It seems like he's growing up much faster than my other babies did.  Kinda crazy scary how fast it goes.  Today is also the three year anniversary of us moving into our house.  So with that excuse and Cooper's half-birthday, we decided to celebrate with cake!

 Cooper was lucky enough to watch us eat it, but only after his first try with baby food carrots.  A few gags, but mostly he ate it all.  I promise on his real birthday I'll let him have the cake instead of just veggies.

 We had a fun photo shoot this morning.  He enjoyed pulling faces:

 but wondered why I was pulling faces too... "you seriously think that's gonna make me smile mom?"

 Turns out Ethan can get him to smile better than me:

 Cooper...how are you getting so big?

 You have the sweetest face,

 and I love your teeth,

 and I love you.

Random Pictures and Happiness

I don't have much to say today.  Mostly just wanted to get that last blog post bumped.  I was looking through old pictures for fun yesterday and it just made me smile.  Cooper was in love with all the baby pictures of Ethan and Madeline too.  But these were three of my favorite snapshots.

June 2009

 June 2008

 July 2008

I love old pictures.

In other news, Cooper is doing SO much better.  And he's done really well with this antibiotic despite the doctor AND the pharmacist saying it would be the harshest drug for his system to take.  It's actually be the easiest for him!  I'm grateful for that and truly consider it a miracle.

I've been really happy the last three days.  Not my normal happy, but a deeper happy.  Can't explain.  But I'm sure grateful for my family today.

Boo

My baby is sick.  He's been sick for too long.  He is now on his third round of antibiotics.  The first was at the beginning of February, the second in the middle.  I don't think his ear infections ever really went away and then when he caught another cold it just made them worse again.  He's had a fever off and on for days.  He just sleeps a lot in the day and cries when he's awake and moans all night.  And antibiotics are sooooo hard on his system...

Ethan's best friend just got diagnosed with pneumonia.  Too bad they played together yesterday.  In my house.  Even if we somehow avoid getting it, now Ethan has no one to play with while he's off track.

Boo.

I wish I had a donut...or a blanket to put over my head.  Or both.  Secret treat-eating sounds fun!

Beautiful

The tulips Todd brought home last week have opened so big and have grown so much I can hardly breathe at the sight.  Have I mentioned my love for tulips?  And purple ones?  They have truly been a bright spot for me in the last few days.  So beautiful.  I think I would like to be rich enough one day to always have bouquets of them around my home.

Pretending it's Spring

Today I am going to pretend it is Spring.  I took the snow off my blog and made it more Springy.  Then, Madeline and I took down the snowflakes in the window too and made these cute little umbrellas to hang in their place.  Never mind the snow outside still...it's not THAT much.

It's Spring to us!