Silly Cooper

This is Cooper's usual audience. Though most of the time she's more animated, Mickie watches him with all of his antics and they are best buddies! Tonight I found him laying on the floor curled up to her with his little hands petting her fur.

Even in the middle of winter, the baby's mind is consumed with BASEBALL! Though here it's baseball in his snow boots.


This cool dump truck (from Kenton and Christy for Christmas) is great for hauling things around the house and running into the walls and doors. But, most of all he likes to sit in it!


Getting ready for a big night of coloring. But must have wanted to be incognito, hence the sunglasses. Even if they're upside down. Oh yes, and Cooper thinks Funyuns (or really any kind of chips) are their own food group.


As you can imagine, he entertains us EVERY day! He's such a delight with a great sense of humor and sweet disposition. Saturday night Chad and I sat in his room while he gave us a concert that lasted at least 20 minutes. His bed was the stage, he played the guitar or drums and wore a variety of silly hats. We understood every few words and laughed until we cried. Happy Happy Happy tears!

White Christmas 2009

We had an Amazing Christmas! Cooper was so much fun. He loved opening presents and was such a trooper going to visit everyone and entertain us all.

We left for North Platte a day early to make sure we'd beat the bad weather. Didn't realize that the weather was going to be bad both going to NP and coming home! We had a great visit with Kim and her family. Spent some good times with Dad and Sue, Molly and Brandon and Jeff and Denise. Cooper was spoiled!!!!!

Then we went to First Lutheran Church for Christmas Eve and out to LeeAnn's to open presents and eat (too much)! It was chaos, but so fun to be with everyone who made it back. We were going to come back to Seward on Christmas Day, but an EPIC snow storm kept us in the Holiday Inn Express in NP. Christmas Day we got to see LeeAnn and her family again to have Christmas dinner. I-80 stayed closed through the 26th, and we could not have gotten our truck through the snow drifts and down the street to our house anyway. So we ate, played cards, watched movies and hung out in the hotel. It was an unconventional Christmas, but definitely memorable.

We celebrated with Chet and Diane as soon as we got home. That celebration was late, but still so much fun.

Here are a few pics of Coop's Christmas and the snow:
Cooper got a golf cart from Nana and Papa. Here he's wearing Nana's new pink boots to go golfing.
Cooper loves French Fries and sharing. A day or two after we got back home, still in his PJ's, feeding french fries to Elmo. Chet and Diane got him this Elmo it knows his name and talks to him about all of his favorite things - including French Fries!

This is Chad and I (in our new hats) standing in front of the snow drift on our back patio when we got home from NP. I don't ever remember seeing drifts like this!

You can see the drifts over the fence on BOTH sides of our backyard.


We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas that was filled with the same kind of joy and wonder as ours was!

Merry Aegerter Christmas

Our friends Jeff and Darla Aegerter have a Christmas party every year. Santa comes to visit and brings gifts for all the good girls and boys. Not sure how Chad ended up on the list, but he got a very nice Box of Rocks! Thanks, Santa!


Further proof that poor Coop takes after Chad - here he is promoting "No Pants Saturday" at the end of the party. It's an Evergreen St. tradition in Seward. We start 'em young!

Coop and Santa 2009

Seward Country Club is the perfect place to visit Santa! It's warm, not much of a wait, very few snotty, screaming kids and they have yummy treats. Cooper wasn't so sure what to think about Santa. He's very into Santa, likes to talk about him and watch him on TV etc. But, he would only shake Santa's hand and give High-5's. There was no lap sitting!


Pretty sure he thought the cookies were the BEST part!


Santa was AWESOME! He grabbed a set of kid's clubs from the Pro-Shop and brought them into the area where we were eating. Cooper still wouldn't sit on his lap, but he thought that it was OK to look at these cool golf clubs with Santa. (FYI - he already has a set just like these at home.)
FYI - there was also a GREAT guy playing guitar and signing songs during Santa's visit. Cooper thought his guitar and microphone were AWESOME! When the man asked Cooper if he wanted to sing, his eyes lit up. I held him up to the mic and he started to kind of babble. He realized it was his voice and everyone clapped. He didn't miss a beat.... he got his mouth on the mic and said, "E-I-E-I-O"! Then everyone clapped and laughed. He did it again, and a couple people clapped. When he tried "E-I-O" for the third time, no one clapped....so he looked at the table up front and said, "E-I-O, YAY!!!" and started clapping for himself. Of course, they all joined in. We may have a future performer or karaoke star on our hands.

I just don't know where he gets it....Must be from Chad. :-)

Thanksgiving 2009

We have so much to be Thankful for, here are a couple of pictures to show how we celebrated our Thanksgiving 2009.

Football and a beautiful Turkey = Great Day!


Here is Coop all ready to eat! He LOVED the Mac & Cheese, wasn't so sure about everything else. But, we all ate more than enough to make up for it! We enjoyed a relaxing day with Chad's Mom and Dad and his cousin Mark. After dinner we napped and had a marathon Wii Bowling Tournament!

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