Valentine's Day

I've been slow to blog lately but didn't want to let February slip away without thanking our sweet family who sent the kiddos valentines! Our Valentine's was fairly low key- just some family togetherness time. 

All of the kids had Valentine's Day parties at school. The boys chose to bring Fun Dip Valentine's and Coco chose Doc McStuffins.

Thanks for the box of treats, Grandma!!!

The paddleballs were the kids favorite... or at least the boys! Coco liked the candy best. 

Thank you Grammy & Grampy! The kids loved the notes with the things you love about them.

Coco loved her Shopkins and the boys loved the cards! 

Thanks to everyone for loving on our kids! They felt so special.

Cape Coral Weekend & Misc.

Grandpa and Deona rented a house down in Cape Coral, FL for three weeks. They drove their boat down from Illinois and we were lucky enough to spend the weekend with them last weekend. We drove down Friday night. Linda, Melinda, Pete, Petey and Stevie were there for the weekend too! We had the best time. Thank you Grandpa and Deona!

Morning games with Grandpa

and snuggles with Daddy.

Grandpa and Deona brought Valentine's surprises for the kids!

The kids were so ready to get going but we had to wait for the rest of the group to arrive so they enjoyed poking around the boat.

The tiny bathroom was the favorite part.

We docked at a beach for lunch and Roger, Petey, Rowan, Cruz & Cora took some time to build a big sandcastle. 

Happy kids with Grandpa! 

Fishing with Stevie

Coco loves Stevie. She followed him around everywhere and chatted his ear off.

The boys have such a fun time playing with Petey and Stevie! Both big boys are so kind and sweet with our kids. 

I have a few other miscellaneous photos to dump here from the last few weeks.

Rowan had his first official baseball tryouts. He was trying out for the Minor Leagues. If he didn't make it, he would play another year of Machine Pitch with Cruz which wouldn't be all that bad since that means they would have games on the same night. Much to Rowan's excitement though, he made the Minors and has his first practice tonight. 

For a family not big on cats, we have sure come to love this little guy. Elsa is seriously the sweetest kitten ever. He loves to be around us. He is the biggest snuggler. He enjoys being brushed, he loves to eat and his favorite activity is playing in his water dish.

100 year old Coco for the 100th Day of School

I took turns picking the boys up at school at lunch time and taking them out on a special one on one lunch. Cruzy Bear chose Culvers.

Row chose Mc Donalds. I asked Rowan if it was okay with him to miss recess while we were at lunch and he goes, "Lunch with you is 100 times better than recess!" Love my sweet boys.

Continuing our travel theme for 2017, I flew to AZ the last weekend in January to celebrate my friend Angie turning 40. My friends & I pulled off a huge surprise as she didn't know I was coming. It was absolutely wonderful. In the last two weeks, Roger has logged work trips to Illinois, Texas and Orlando. We've been in crazy, survival mode the last couple of weeks! 

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Cooper Jackson is 10 years old today. He's a whole decade. Two whole paws. I figured that surviving ten years in this crazy house is worth his very own blog post. 

Cooper is such a sweet and loyal dog. He loves his family, especially his mom. If you're not his family, he's probably not a huge fan of you with the exception of a few. Cooper loves to eat more than anything else in the world. He loves to nap, lick his paws and snuggle. He also does this weird thing where he likes to suck on his special pillow.

Cooper started out as top dog ten years ago and expertly adapted to three human siblings and one kitten sibling. He's been such a trooper through three moves, one across the country! Some of my favorite Cooper memories are him sleeping under the baby swings, kissing any sort of food residue off of baby faces, the time he swallowed a whole pair of tube socks, the way he tore up magazines as a puppy, sleeping on the floor in the office with him after he was neutered and wouldn't sleep with the cone on, doggy daycare and so much more. 

Happy 10th birthday to a dog who is adored by his kids and cautiously adored by his kitten. Love you Cooper Jack! 

Favorite Cooper Memories:

Rowan: My favorite memory is when Cooper got in the pantry and ripped open a bag of flour. His spit and the flour got super sticky and stuck to the floor everywhere. He also got flour footprints all over house.

Cruz: My favorite memory is when Cooper lays on the ground by Elsa. He does that really a lot. And I love his brown eyes because they match my eyes. 

Cora: I love when Cooper brings me his toys to play with. I like to keep petting him and give him kisses. I don't like to leave him alone.