Adoption Day 2009

Today is Cooper's Adoption Day! One year ago the judge made our family official and forever! We're blessed every day to be Cooper's mom and dad. He is a delight and soooo much fun!

Enjoy the videos below.

Cooper gets a little obsessed about things, sports in particular. Tonight he was running around the house playing Baseball, Basketball and Air Hockey. He can identify baseball, basketball, football and soccer ball. What a character!

Every night when Chad gets home, Coop pulls him down to the basement. He used to beg Chad to play "Ha Ha" but now he says Hockey! Here he is playing a game of hockey with Chad. Sometimes it's hard to believe that he's only 19 months.




He's been talking a lot about Basketball lately. So, we ordered him a hoop. (He saw the box last weekend in the basement store room and about had a breakdown shaking, spinning circles and yelling Baa-et-Ball!) We surprised him tonight with his new Baa-et-Ball hoop for his Adoption Day present. I ran into the basement ahead of him to get this video and his reaction is priceless!




May you all have as much in your lives to be thankful for as we do, Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
The Hills

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Halloween 2009 has passed with the usual excitement at the Hill House!
This year was a Wizard of Oz theme!

Here are the Mayor of Munchkin Land and Dorothy.


We had the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion.


But, our Scarecrow disappeared like the Wicked Witch of the West!


The rest of the family was all dressed up and ready to go. But, when we put on his costume, Cooper had a total melt-down! Crying, throw-himself-on-the-floor, snot out the nose, melt-down! So, instead of Trick-Or-Treating he took a 2-1/2 hour nap.

I was WAY more disappointed than he was. Cooper couldn't have cared less! He woke up in plenty of time to play with all of his friends who came over to say hi and had a great night! Hopefully we can turn this costume aversion around before Halloween next year!

Hope you only got your favorite treats for your tricks!
-Dorothy

First Baseball Pictures

Chad's mom surprised us and took Cooper to have his first baseball pictures taken. Then she's getting them framed to put on the bases in his baseball bedroom. He's so cute!

Erin Stoll is SO talented. Thank you both!

Chicks dig guys with black eyes!

We went to Aegerter's Cattle Sale last night and Cooper had a fight with the bleachers. The bleachers won.

Black eye and a funny face!


He has a nice shiner! We keep telling him that chicks dig guys with black eyes and scars!
He's still the cutest thing ever!


Just to prove I'm not the worst mommy ever (since I have a kid with a black eye.) Here's a picture of Coop playing at the Children's Museum last week. He really likes playing on the stage, and loves making the audience clap for him. I just don't know where he gets it... :-)

Cooper's Mini Cooper

Grandpa Lyle and Grandma Sue found a Mini Cooper for the Mini-Cooper! Dad said if he ever found a ride-on car in Mini Cooper he'd buy it, and here it is. This was Cooper's housewarming present! It arrived right before we moved and we've been SO busy that we've just now gotten it assembled. He LOVES it.

He couldn't even wait until the wheels were on. He crawled in the minute I pulled it out of the box.Here he was "helping" daddy put his car together.

He runs around the garage yelling "CAR! CAR!"


We still need to work with him to get the hang of how to make it run. Here's one of the first attempts! Enjoy, we thought it was very funny and if you listen close, you can hear him laughing too!




This one was kind of cute too! Not as good as the first, but you can still get a glimpse at what a character he is!



Watch out Augusta -- Cooper's got a Cooper!

A couple quick house pics

Here are a couple of pictures of the new house.
This one's a little dark, but Chad's getting Coop some milk for dinner.

Here's the living/dining/kitchen.


The view from our back deck - quintessential Nebraska! We LOVE it!


Cooper's baseball bedroom.



We're so blessed. We still walk into the house and can't believe that we live here!

Football Fan

Go Big Red!!

Football season is here in Huskerland! Here are some pics of our cute little sports star! We're still working on Go Big Red! He says TOUCHDOWN (when he wants to.) And "football" sounds more like "sitball". But he's getting the hang of it!

It's a long story, but we have this actual Missouri football helmet around the house that is signed by Gary Pinkle. We keep meaning to put it on E-Bay, but now Cooper likes it too much and loves wearing it around. But, it is VERY heavy and he sort of staggers around running into things. Which of course, we think is hilarious! :-) Here's Chad helping him get the helmet off so he can have some dinner.

Totally the wrong sports season, but baseball is his true love! You can see him throwing here. Normally he throws w/ his left, but that hand was busy holding the bat.

The Huskers play Mizzou next week. Let's hope the Huskers come out on top!

Enjoy football season!
AND -- GO BIG RED!

Funny Little Things

I want to remember so many of the cute things that Cooper does....So, I've decided to do a few random blog posts that do not include photos because I can do them so much faster! Here are three fun little tid-bits!

Ways he says Mama:
1. For several weeks I have been "Baseball." When I would say, "Cooper who am I?" He would respond, "Baseball!" When I would say, "I'm not Baseball, I'm Mommy! Call me Mama." He would laugh and shake his head NO and say "Baseball!"

2. Apparently when I was correcting him by saying, "Call me mama." I must have been pointing at myself. Because now he says "Mama" but he has to pound his hands on his own chest when he says it!

Some of his favorite words/sayings:
Mama, Dada, Baseball, safe, out, (the last 2 complete with the appropriate umpire hand signals), Go Royals, outside, shoes, "No, no, no, bad dog", more, please, thank you.....there's more I know, just can't remember them now! AND, we're working on Go Huskers, Go Big Red and Touchdown! It'll be a full week just working on those before the first game of the season. :)

Floor Cleanup:

Today Cooper took a bottle of syrup out of the cupboard and squeezed it all over the floor. Mickie and Morgan had it cleaned up in no time!! What do people with kids do if they have no dogs???

Bess Oooo

Our Cooper did the sweetest thing today. The babysitter sneezed, and he said "Bess Ooo". His attempt at "Bless You." They tested him a couple of times throughout the day with fake sneezes and he said it every time....

I love that he's so sweet and smart! What a wonderful little boy, how did we get so lucky?

Cooper Update

Quick Cooper Update

Here's the cute little guy! Snuck into my jewelry box the other day and decided to wear my necklace on his head. What a goof!

We made a quick trip to North Platte a couple of weekends ago. Here is a picture of Kim with Ashley and Dylan, Cooper and me and Kacey and Ryan. The kids had so much fun playing together. I wish we could get together more often!
Coop was outside playing with sidewalk chalk and bubbles. He's getting SO big!

Cooper's 1 Year Professional Pics

Here are pictures from Cooper's most recent session with Erin. I LOVE them!
Enjoy!
Kiersten

Cooper Hill Photos - Erin Stoll Photography

Royals and Solo Sliding

Last week Chad and his folks took Cooper on vacation to Branson. They had a great time!
I on the other-hand stayed home with the dogs and my job. But, I did drive down to Kansas City and meet them on Saturday to take in a very wet and soggy Royals game (Over an hour rain delay). Although the Royals lost, we had a great time. He ran around the whole park with his little Royals bat.


Coop found the Merry-Go-Round too late to buy any more tokens so, he just stood on the railing, watched it go round and pointed at all the other kids. It was cute, but kinda sad. Next time we'll know -- buy tokens early!

Tonight he was playing on his slide. See the video below and you can watch him go down the slide all by himself. He's getting to be such a big boy! Anyway, I thought this pic of Chad and Coop playing with the slide was just too cute.


What a joy! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
The Hills

Visit to Sunken Gardens

Chad and I were taking Cooper to the Lincoln Children's Zoo today, but when we got there, the zoo had closed early. So we walked through the Sunken Gardens and played in the grass. Still a great day!

Cooper Feeding Mickie

Tonight was Ladies Golf League. While I was at golf, Chad hung out with Cooper and they cleaned up the house for another showing tomorrow. (Keep your fingers crossed! If you haven't heard, our house is for sale and we're building a new one on the golf course here in Seward. See pictures below.)

Anyway - Chad and Cooper were home tonight and Chad picked up a piece of dog food off the floor and fed it to the dog. Cooper took it from there and the sweet video follows. Cooper and his puppy are the best of friends. Tonight they were playing ball, Cooper throws it - Mickie fetches and brings it back to him. As our friend Jessica says, "they're litter-mates!"

Every day we're amazed by our blessings, we can think of no better life than this!

Love,
The Hills

Quick Cooper

Here are a couple of quick pictures of Cooper!

We went to the Husker Baseball game on Mother's Day. Cooper was outside the ballpark trying to push these great big baseballs.


My 2nd Mother's Day - so amazing!


Here we are with our Godparent group from church. The kids are so great, we'll miss them this summer. Pastor called Cooper the group mascot! They love him and he loves them!

We've tried a few different hairstyles with Coop's new shorter 'doo! This was a sort of mohawk, looks more like a shark fin! :)

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend.

Love,
The Hills

Cooper Clears His Crib

Cooper was "taking a nap" on Friday. He started to fuss a little so I went to check on him. Here's what I found!




By the way, after he got the blanket and binkie back, he took a 2 hour nap!

Chocolate Bunny

We started our Easter weekend with our friends Ann and Maddie at the Easter Egg Hunt at the Governor's Residence. We had a great time and Cooper loved his eggs!


Then on Easter morning we were greeters for a wonderful service our church holds at the Fairgrounds. Cooper was a wonderful greeter and loved watching all of the kids.

When church was over, the Easter bunny brought Cooper a bucket full of fun bath toys, a couple of new Husker shirts, some Wonderpets and a Wonderpets DVD and a new bowl and spoon set!


We went out for lunch with Chad's mom and dad. After a long nap, Cooper had his first Chocolate Bunny. There's a cute little video at the end of the post so you can see him enjoying his treat!

We hope that you all enjoyed your Easter Day as much as Cooper!
Love,
The Hills

Happy April Fools Day

What a difference a year makes!

One year ago today. Our first family picture....


Here we are this past Sunday celebrating Cooper's first birthday!
One of our first pictures of sweet baby Cooper.....What a difference a year makes!

Thank you all for your love and support over the past year. What an amazing and wonderful year! We are blessed beyond measure and our cups runneth over!