J Cooper Photography

1.  Today in a nutshell:  drove the neighborhood carpool, had a phone conference with the girls’ violin teacher, took S-man to go see his new preschool (more on that to follow), went to Home Depot to purchase some renovation supplies, went to Sherwin Williams to try to coax them into taking paint back that Mr. P bought (they didn’t buy the “my husband bought the wrong color story” even though he did), went to the post office to mail off some client orders, drove the littles through Sonic as a treat for being my errand running buddies all morning, had the furnace serviced, put a coat of paint on my new craft room, did some soul searching on the computer…then got overwhelmed and blog surfed for a bit, spoke on the phone with our adoption case worker, took the kids to the grocery store, made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, watched the kids play Elefun, put another coat of paint on the craft room while the girls practiced their violins, bedtime snuggles, rolled out the floor underlayment for our new flooring, took a shower.   Anyone else tired?

2.  J had her preschool program yesterday and I tried out the video feature on my D90.  I could tell from the audience that something wasn’t quite right with her.  Her eyes were swollen and her face looked really splotchy (even from 20″ away).  She followed along doing the motions and singing but wasn’t her usual chipper self.  After the program, I went up to congratulate her and she fell into my arms sobbing.  That’s when her teacher came over.  Apparently, she had had a little run in with the corner of a large wooden bookcase.  Poor thing.  Here I thought she was coming down with hives…no…she had bashed that cute little face into a large wooden object.  She was SO pathetically cute though.  And she used that little wimper of hers for the REST OF THE DAY.  Can you blame her?

{I’d love to post the nauseatingly shaky video so you can all see my extremely rad videography skillz…but I can’t figure out how to load it into a wordpress blog.  Anyone in blog land want to help me with that?  I got it loaded but couldn’t keep it from starting automatically as soon as my page loaded….}

3.  Our little man loves him some cupcakes.

Come on…could you resist this face?

4.  It has been SO FREAKISHLY cold here.  I am not meant to live in cold weather.  My body is not set up to tolerate the cold.  I am an ENORMOUS cold wimp.  I spend the winter hibernating in my slippers with my portable space heater.  But DESPITE the cold yesterday we felt the need to share a bit of merriment.  So we baked some cookies…frosted and decorated them…then slipped them in some little goodie bags and played my FAVORITE game…DING AND DITCH!  We delivered the cookies to several friend’s doorsteps…rang the doorbell…and ran for our lives.  Ok.  I say “we”.  But really I was nestled comfortably in the comfort of my warm heat blasting car while the girls ran through the frozen tundra squealing.  SO. MUCH. FUN!

{ok.  Before you nominate me for the Mom of the Year award.  We used the slice and dice cookies and canned frosting (Jorie I know you are cringing here).  The sprinkles were real legitimate sprinkles though.  If there are such a thing.  But do I get extra points for cute kids?  Please tell me I do }

{oh.  And I was taking the above pic of the girls when little man ran over to get in the photo action with his girls.  And his beloved blankie too of course!}

5.  Mr. P had a birthday over the weekend.  This photo totally cracks me up.  It is SO our family.  I just wanted ONE sweet photo of my hubby and cute kids together.  And what do I get?  J picking Mr. P’s nose, Little man shrieking “CHEESE, CHEESE” for the camera, and Ms. A “aka scaredy pants” too afraid of the dumb candles to even get in the picture.   By the way…I made that cake.  It was even a double decker (ok. ok. I used a mix)  But I did have to negotiate the layering of those 9″ round cakes…and frost them…so give me a little credit.  The idea to put the wisk and measuring spoons on top was much cuter in my head than it was executed.  But Mr. P liked it just the same.  I got him a date night to the KC Culinary School for “Tapas for Two” in January!  Maybe I’ll learn to cook something (yeah, right.)

6.  THIS seller on Etsy is helping me out with a little project for Christmas.  Her shop is SO DIVINE!  I want to live there amidst all those lovely quilts.  I’ll share our project once Santa has come   If this quilt doesn’t make your shabby little heart flutter…nothing will.

7.  The girls are performing this weekend in their Suzuki Christmas program.  They are going to nail their pieces…can’t wait to gush over them after they play

8.  We have added a few animal noises to Little Man’s vocabulary.  He now knows what a puppy, kitty, lion, duck, owl, and elephant says.  His speech has improved quite a bit over the last month.  He is talking CONSTANTLY.  We just don’t have a clue what he is saying most of the time.  Except for these phrases:  “WOW…look at that!”, “more more” (he signs with this one), and “HIYA!” (which might mean hello or goodbye).  Some words come out VERY clear on occassion.  But usually it is a jumble of craziness spewing from his lips.  But boy does he like to TALK!

9.  In January Little Man will be starting “school” one day a week.  I’m a mix of “yippee…a day alone with my 5 year old!” and “what was I thinking enrolling my baby in school?”  He’ll go every Tuesday to play, eat, and take a nap with Ms. Jane.  I HEART MS. JANE.  Both of the girls had her multiple times throughout preschool and LOVED her.  And while he is at school…J and I will go to her violin lesson, eat lunch out, and then go to ballet.  It will be my LAST semester with her.  And I’m looking forward to having a few months to focus on her for a day (if I can keep my mind off my baby!)

10.  I can’t believe Christmas is a week away.  I know some of Santa’s helpers that need to GET BUSY at the Cooper house!