Cooper decided to take out the middle man (the gingerbread man) and went right for the candy and frosting! I made the gingerbread men a little thick so they ended up looking more like obese men that need to hit the treadmill ASAP! That's okay...more of them to love! Thanks guys for braving the storm so we could get your kids all hyped up on old halloween candy!
Well this year...the hardest part of my Thanksgiving dinner was setting the timer for 2 hours so all the food could reheat! We bought our dinner from a local grocery store...Hy-Vee which is also the account Brandon calls on. We had a huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, pumpkin pie and 12 dinner rolls (the package was for 8-10 people) for $50!!! What a deal! And it gave us time to spend with Mike and Denise who came to visit us! We had a GREAT time with them and Coop scored a new lawn mower out of the deal (you gotta start the boys early on the mower!). Thanks Mike and Denise for visiting and for changing all the diapers Brandon pawned off on you. With how easy this was I'm debating havind this be a tradition!
contractions stopped (I was having such a good time I may have forgotten to tell the nurse they stopped) she caught on and made me walk for awhile. Long story short I gave birth to basically the hottest Iowan ever at 1:09 in the afternoon! Though my doctor was like "wow this guy is huge, he must weigh 9 lbs." Chase Tanner was actually 8 pounds 6 ounces and 20.5 inches long. His older brother was 10 days early, 8 lbs 11 ounces and 21.5 inches. Chase has HUGE cheeks and literally didn't cry for the first 48 hours of his life. Apparently most babies don't cry much the first little while but I still think we've got a good one. So far my favorite face he makes is when he is really mad. He gets it if I don't pick him up fast enough or feed him fast enough and its hysterical. Cooper seems to be doing pretty good with the little guy and has tried to pick him up and carry him multiple times. He also is good at poking and prodding Chase mostly when he is asleep. He'll be a great older brother. 
Well I can let my great nurses know they made it onto my blog -- I told them I would absolutely tell the world how great their facility was. And it better be...it is where I brought someone pretty great into the world. 
And Cooper can grab that Reeses Peanut Butter Cup just as easy as that tootsie roll. So we tried to train Cooper in the ways of candy. I don't care what anyone says bigger IS always better! 
By the end of the night we had lots of delicious candy that we did not share with Cooper but we ate ourselves...until we felt sick! What a Halloween!!!
Okay I get that Coopers ACTUAL birthday was August 20th...so like 2 months ago but I would suck as a mom if I didn't have photos from Coop's big day! Coop had a water party complete with 2 kiddie pools, waterballoons, and a sprinkler ball.
We let Coop eat his own cake and as you can see by the pictures... he was a fan. We had lots of kids come play and help Coop eat his birthday cake. It took us forever to get this dude clean and his highchair was a disaster! Small price to pay to see your one-year-old in pure birthday cake bliss! Loved it! 
So our 14 month old Cooper is walking and speaks a little Russian/German/Chinese combo. He's self taught. I can't believe we are having another one when just thirty seconds ago we were strapping our sweet little Cooper in his infant carseat and heading home from the hospital. Cooper has been freakin' awesome from birth. I know that's usually what first time parents say and usually their kids are the worst but our's really is great! He giggles non-stop, sings songs to himself and has the cutest little walk. One of Cooper's favorite things is collecting flags...not just any flags but the flags the utility people put in your yard to show where gas lines are. So once he had a good handful of all the flags from our yard he ran to the neighbors and started collecting theirs. The next day their flags were back up so i'm pretty sure they hate us. Since we have only lived in our new house for a week we probably owe our neighbors like a super big loaf of bread or something. 
We live in Johnston Iowa now...for those of you who suck at geography...it's below Minnesota and next Nebraska. Brandon got transferred here about a month ago with General Mills. He works from home which is super great for Coop and I because we get to see him all the time and I don't have to iron any button up shirts...just keep his sweats clean! 
I am pregnant with my second baby boy and I'm due November 17! So our little boys will be 15 months apart! We will keep you posted with the new arrival of number two!
