Memorial Day Weekend in Thatcher

What a fun time we had . . .

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Rainy Days

Don't you just love rainy days? They're the absolute best! Today has been wonderfully wet with thunder claps galore, so Cooper and I went out and enjoyed the rain while it's here. He tried to catch the raindrops in his hands and when that didn't work he went and played in the water that was running off the side of our house. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to have those huge monsoon storms in the summer when it would really pour. Our street used to flood up over the sidewalk and so my sisters and I would go out there in our bare feet and raincoats and splash in the water (which came to our knees!) We called it 'surf's up'. Good times.

Me and my shadow

I've been told many times how children's minds are like sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear. Everything. I knew that. I just never realized how closely your children watch you. It's very intimidating. Cooper is literally my little shadow. He follows me around the house while I'm cleaning and doing chores and bring his toys into whatever room I happen to be in at the time. He loves to read and he's always mimicking my hand gestures and sounds. I caught him today sitting in his high chair staring at me and trying to mimic the expression that was on my face. He loves to go into our bathroom and pretend he's shaving like his dad. It's so cute! He even uses q-tips to clean his ears like his father does. It's hilarious. The other day I was putting Cooper's toy golf clubs away and Randy said something that irked me so I started to poke him with one of the golf clubs. Well, Cooper was watching us and he came over with a golf club of his own and started poking Randy, too. Randy wasn't too happy with me after Cooper hit him in the face with his golf club. Sorry, honey! I feel like I'm playing that horribly annoying shadow game from grade school, only instead of it being annoying it's very enlightening. It's made me very aware of my actions to see my little one-year-old imitating them. Hopefully, he'll pick up more good things than bad!

A case of the grumps . . .

Today I have a bad case of the grumps. It started last night when I was watching the news and saw that we're already being given a heat advisory and are expected to hit the 100's in the next few days. Yuck. I was enjoying the weather so much! A couple nights this week it was even chilly! Then there were 2 days when the wind was blowing so bad that I thought my house was going to be sucked up into the land of Oz. Sounds odd, but I loved it. Now it's back to that good old Arizona heat. Again I say, yuck.

I also finished my book (Stephenie Meyer's The Host), which makes me sad. I really liked it, but now I have nothing to read. I just love a good book! I will stay up until 1:00 in the morning reading a book until I finish it. It's so much better than the crap they have on TV. Unfortunately, now I have to go find another book to read and I have a hard time picking one out. You never know what you're going to get. I'm always afraid I either won't like it or it will have something naughty in it. I usually end up re-reading my favorites (Harry Potter, Twilight and now The Host).

I was also disappointed in the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian movie. Randy and I went and saw it the other day. It was good, but it was quite a bit different from the book. I never like it when they differentiate from the book. Oh, well. It was still entertaining.

Good grief, I'm such a whiner. It might have something to do with a lack of sleep and an energetic 20 month old. I had to sub in the nursery again today, which always leaves my nerves feeling very frayed. My husband had to teach the gospel principles class, so he wasn't there. I'm disappointed I couldn't go listen to his lesson and support him, but your calling comes first I suppose. Anyway, we had 14 kids in our class. All 18 months old. We had a major poop accident (I literally had to carry the kid to sunday school by the wrists, looking for his parents, because he had pooped up the back of his clothes. I felt like everyone gave me the evil eye when I interrupted the lesson!) Then there was a bunch of hitting and crying (most of it done by my child). For some reason, Cooper was really attached to Randy today. Usually he's a mama's boy, but today he didn't want anything to do with me. The last half hour of nursery he sat at the door crying "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy, bye!"

Anyway, add it all up and you've got a nice case of the grumps. Luckily, I think my case is fairly mild and I should be back to normal by tomorrow. My symptoms are already starting to lessen. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I hope everyone had a marvelous day! Especially my mom and my mother-in-law. I love you guys! Thanks for all you love, support and advice. I had a pretty great mother's day myself. My husband bought me the new Stephenie Meyer book The Host. I just started reading it and so far so good. I was a little hesitant to read it because it has kind of an "aliens from another planet" theme, but so far it's pretty good. And I loved the Twilight series, so I'm betting this one will be pretty good, too. We spent Saturday shopping at the new Kohl's by our house and then went and had frozen yogurt with our friends at The Golden Spoon. Yum! On Sunday we went to our Sacrament meeting and then headed out to Glendale to spend the afternoon with my mom and the rest of my family. After a delicious roast dinner made by my mother we walked down the street to see the goats. Cooper had a blast feeding them leaves from the trees. I'm going to have to take him to the zoo one of these days before it gets too hot. He'd love it!

Anyway, I want to say 'I love you' to my mom and thank her for all that she does for me. I'm so happy to be a mother myself and I hope that I can be as good a mom to Cooper as she is to me and my sisters. Thanks for setting such a great example for me, mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Always & Forever

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May Day

I can't believe that it's May already! Holy cow! The weather has been so nice here in Arizona the past month or so, I guess I didn't realize how close to summer we are. Staying home makes me lose track of what day it is, too. All I know is that it's Monday if Dancing with the Stars is on and Tuesday if the results show is on. After that it's all kind of a blur. Not that my days aren't jam packed with fun and action. . . .

Here's Cooper sticking his mac & cheese in his nose. Don't ask me why!

While I was doing the dishes Cooper was shredding my brand new box of tissues. Good thing I got the Target special.

More of the tissue mess . . .

Cooper is getting really good at folding his arms. He even does it during prayers now!

Randy was made a ward missionary this past Sunday (thankfully, I was not). We're still in the Nursery, though. In fact, we had to substitute Cooper's class. I didn't realize how good we had it with the 2 1/2 - 3 year-olds. The 18-months are utter and complete chaos and my son was right in the thick of it. I tried to give the lesson we were assigned (it was on bugs and birds), but I think I got as far as "Our lesson today is on bugs--" before someone threw a toy and someone else screamed. It was all downhill from there. On a less chaotic note, I heard about the new temples they are going to be building in Gilbert and the Gila Valley and I'm so happy. I can't wait. Of course, this means that my husband is even more determined to move us to Thatcher. Sacrifices must be made, I guess! :) j/k.