Brothers, Legos, and Storms

I need to start taking more pictures!  I have a tendency to get lazy about taking pictures but then when I do finally get my camera out, I end up taking a billion of a single moment.  Then I have so many pictures that I love from that one moment and can't choose which ones to share,...so naturally, I make a picasa collage.  And, yes, there were more where these (below) came from.  Anyway, here's a few random pictures from the past few days at home.

All of our baby spoons and small adult spoons were in the dishwasher that day, so I gave Cooper a big spoon.  There was something so cute about seeing a little baby, sitting at a big table, eating with a big spoon, enjoying some cereal with his big brother.  Also, Mr. Cooper just hates being in his high chair these days.  He will only sit there for a little bit and then starts standing up and throwing his food.  So most of the time he eats at the table, but it's sooo messy.  He does look cute though and he loves to feel like a big boy.  It seems like lately he is trying extra hard to be like his big brothers.  I can't get enough of his cuteness.  Having a little guy around is so much work, but it's so precious to watch him grow and learn and I have decided that I always want to have a little one around (for as long as I can)...then I hope to be surrounded by lots of grand babies (but that's a whole other post)!

While those two were doing that, Jonah was busy working on his Lego house. It really impressed us.  He was so proud.  I love him!!!

Today we had a storm come through.  Texas storms are loud and fun.  Here are my cute boys checking it out. 

And Cooper was especially surprised by the thunder...

Just kidding, this is the "funny face" that we have taught each of our boys to do as babies.  We told him to do it.  But he really was fascinated with the storm.  (and that green face of his is from his guacamole that he was eating minutes before:))

So not only do I need to start taking more pictures period (not on just one particular day) but I also need to take more pictures of my older boys!  I love them just as much, but there is something so fun about capturing baby expressions.  I'll do better though, I'm making it a new goal. 

Hope you are all having a great summer too!

Updates

I finally caught up on my blog.  Thank goodness for Picasa so I could whip together a ton of collages and save time! The first two posts below are new and if you scroll down several posts, you can see pictures from the zoo.  I wanted to put it in chronological order so it's down there a ways. Or you can click here. 

Julien's 7th Birthday

I don't know how it happened but my baby turned 7.  SEVEN.  It went by too fast.  We did a lot for his birthday this year.  Rich had a free night stay at a downtown Marriott for being such a great employee (employee of the month:)), so we thought it would be fun to use it for Julien's birthday!  We checked in at about 4 pm and then walked across the st. to eat at Denny's since it's the only thing close by that was affordable.  After that we walked back to the hotel and Daddy and Julien and Jonah headed off to the movie theaters to see Cars 2.  Ever since Julien heard that movie was coming out near his birthday, he had planned on doing that for his birthday.  I was bummed that I missed out but Cooper won't even watch movies at home (although he just recently got interested in Barney), so we knew he would most likely want to run around in the theater.  I stayed back with Coop and blew up balloons and decorated the hotel.  Cooper missed his nap that day and was so tired and cranky.  He kept trying to bite the balloons as I was blowing them up, so he had to go in his crib for a bit.  He wasn't happy about that.  See pictures...

After I got everything ready I was able to get Cooper to sleep.  He slept until they got back and things got noisy.

Here's the boys coming in the room.  They didn't know I had balloons......

Priceless expression from Julien.  My sister sent a present for him too, so one was from her and the other from us.

My sister got him the Toy story towel with his name embroidered on it and the matching swim trunks and glasses.  We got him a little Cars 2 coloring book, colored pencils, the Tangled sound tract (He really wanted it...so did I:)) and we got him the game Twister.  He was thrilled with everything he got, as you can tell on his face.

Our view of the city was great.  My camera couldn't capture it though....

And the it's neat in the day time too...

It was a crazy night.  I barely slept.  Cooper was not loving it at all and Rich was tossing and turning because he was hot and finally called to get a fan.  We had the A.C. on but he loves having a fan too.  Then Julien was tossing and turning.  The next day Cooper was so tired and so when the kids wanted to go swimming, I stayed home so Cooper could sleep and I took a long nap too!  After swimming we had the dinner of Julien's choice.  He wanted me to make Salmon, mashed potatoes and salad.  That I did, and then we ended the night by watching Tangled and eating the birthday dessert he picked out...

Happy Birthday Julien!  We love you so much! We are so proud of who you are becoming!  You are smart, confident, super friendly, loving, creative, spiritual, and passionate about life, people, and learning.  You set a great example for your brothers and your friends.  We're so happy you came into our family 7 years ago and we have loved you like crazy ever since!