A WILD Time!

We celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday just over a month ago with what other than... A Jungle Themed Party {featuring Elephants, of course!}  We decided to keep it pretty small because we weren't sure how many people would fit in our rental house.  Luckily it was a really nice day and we were able to be outside.

My little safari guide!

So many of my serving dishes and pitchers are still packed, but we managed to make do and enjoyed a nice brunch for all of the kids.

Most of the decorations came from things we had around the house.  Believe it or not, we had quite few!

I decided to make a cake at the very last minute and threw it together the night before.  I used a marshmallow fondant recipe that I found here and did my best at creating an elephant.  None the less, he loved it!

I also made the inside have a zebra look to it.  It was surprisingly easy and the kids loved taking turns pouring the batter in!

What does a jungle party need??  A life-sized baby elephant!!  I had really wanted this to be out front to greet all of the guests, but it was just a little too windy.

Caroline insisted on a flamingo shirt.

It was a wonderful day!

PROGRESS!!

We have a house!!!  Well... Sort of!  The foundation of our house was poured at the beginning of March and since then a lot has been done!  They were making good progress and then about a week and a half ago, I drove by while they were putting in the windows. Well, they were the wrong color!  After freaking out a bit and calling Josh, he made me call the builders. We got it all settled it, but getting the right ones meant re-ordering them and having them remade. So, it set us back about 3 weeks. But in the whole scheme of things, we have to remember that this will definitely be worth it!

Since we are now only about a mile away, it has been fun to drive by and see the progress. Okay, I have to admit that I probably go by just about every day. There's lots to be seen!  :). But we have been going over in the weekends and walking the house. It isn't the kids idea of the most fun anymore, but they love talking about where their rooms are going to be and they love running around.   It's nice that there are now walls on the sides of the house to keep them from falling!

The soon to be front door!

I absolutely LOVE going over to the house and seeing all of our hard work over the past year coming to life!  It is really neat to see our ideas and designs and be able to walk through all of our soon to be rooms.  I do feel so blessed to be able to do this and can not wait to actually move in and make it ours!!

March 15th, 2013...

My  little guy turned 2!!

We started out the day by having to wake Cooper up!  He slept in and we wanted to get to the zoo first thing because it was the Friday of Spring Break.  Of course Caroline offered to help get him up!

Josh stayed home late and spent the morning with us.  We had birthday pancakes and let him open a couple presents.

Then we headed to the ZOO!!  Cooper was SO excited!!  We got there pretty early so it wasn't that crowded until we were leaving.

First stop... the ELEPHANTS of course!

We saw elephants of ALL kinds!

The kids had a great time together and Caroline was so cute about celebrating Cooper on "his" day!

"Yep, that's an elephant RIGHT behind me!"

We ended our trip with a ride on the Merry Go Round.  Caroline picked the Okapi and Cooper {Of course!} went for the elephant!  We had a wonderful day celebrating the last 2 years!!  It sure has FLOWN by!

2 YEARS!!

On March 15th, the cutest and sweetest little boy that I know turned 2 years old!!  We could never imagine life with out him and I can't believe how quickly these past 2 years have flown!  To say this little guy loves elephants is an UNDERstatement!  His favorite place is the Zoo and he wants to go immediately whenever we mention it.  You can hardly see any free space in his crib because he has to sleep with EVERY animal that he owns.  He loves hard and has such a sweet heart.
 We couldn't love him anymore!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Coop Man!

30!!

That's right!  I turned 30 on March 8th!  I'm not sure where all the years went!  I read a quote that said "I still feel like I'm 18... that is until I see 18 year olds!"  This is exactly how I feel!  At times it seems like just yesterday I was a teenager or in college and then at other times, those moments feel so far away!  I have to say that I am very happy to be where I am and am so thankful for my wonderful little family!  Josh surprised me the weekend before my birthday with my mom showing up at our front door!  She came into town to come and stay with the kids while we went away for the weekend!!  A very nice and needed surprise!!

We celebrated a little early a day early with everyone at home...

And then we got on an airplane for sunshine and beach to beautiful Playa del Carmen!

The room was amazing!!

We were greeted with this on the first day.

Every room had individual hammocks on the balconies.  Pure heaven!

The pool was amazing!

We each finished an entire book!  I can't remember the last time I was able to say that!

There was a pedestrian street market just steps from our hotel where we spent a lot of time walking and shopping.  It was really neat to see all of the people out and about.

The best part of the trip was probably going to sleep early and sleeping ALL night!  Much much needed!

It was SO hard to say goodbye!!

Definitely an unforgettable way to enter into a new decade!
Thank you to an amazing husband!!

A Colorful World!

While Josh and Caroline were on their Daddy and Daughter date, Cooper and I had a night to ourselves!  We went out to eat at a restaurant we had never been to, Mooyah, and enjoyed hamburgers and shakes.  On the wall next to the booth where we sat, there were big cow pictures.  Cooper LOVED them and kept pointing to them.  While we were talking, I started asking him what color each cow was.  Mind you, this kid really hasn't said many words before, but he blurted out the right answers on every one of them!  He really keeps things in and waits until he gets them perfectly right to show us he can do something!  Since then he talks non-stop and has quite the vocabulary!  Who knows what else is going on in that little head of his?!  :)  Just yesterday I was asking Caroline what the opposite of short was.  She was rattling off the "wrong" answers, thinking she was funny, and Cooper answered  so matter of factly - "tall"!  My little smarty pants!