Things are changing and sickness is setting in.

Well I can't believe its been over 3 weeks since my last post. Blake is sleeping better now. Thanks for all your wonderful and helpful comments on the sleep issues.

Late last month I lost my absolutely wonderful Grandpa Griffin. He is my only living grandpa left. My moms dad. He was such a wonderful man. Truly as our family called him "A Saint". He was so supportive, loving and kind to each and every one of his 5 children and his 9 grand kids. He suffered from cancer and fought hard. He always had a way of bouncing back when he started to get sick. But a couple months ago he got very sick and just couldn't come out of it. My sweet grandma took the most amazing care of him. She was truly so wonderful, everything a wife should be in sickness and in health. My grandparents had a love that could only be explained as storybook. It was truly inspiring and I pray for her daily that she is with peace knowing my grandpa is in a better place.
I took Blakely with me to California for the funeral. She has never been on a plane. We had a 2 hour plane ride and a layover and then another 1-1/2 plane ride and she was an absolute angel the entire time. She truly is such a good baby. Everyone in our family just loved her. None of them have gotten to meet her yet since we live so far from them. The funeral was beautiful and such a great reminder of the celebration of his great life. It was so nice seeing my family, no matter what the reason was for going. I have such a wonderful family.
Cooper stayed with daddy for some special man time. He had a great time going to the park and tagging along wherever daddy went.
I didn't hardly take my camera out the entire time I was there. But I should have because all of my family on my moms side was together. There is a lot of us.
But I did take a few pictures one night while we were all at my uncles.

My cousin Amanda, Aunt Pattie, Aunt Valerie, Aunt Shirley.

My aunt Patti and Blake.
Aunt Laura, My mom and Blake
Blakely before the funeral.


The kids are doing good. For the most part at least. We have had quite a few sickly moments around our house lately. Cooper got Strep and Croup all in the same week and had to go to the children's hospital for some special medicine and breathing treatments due to a spasm in his air passage that was causing him to have troubles breathing. It was all brought on by the croup. Poor kid. I hate seeing him feel bad like that. That was a week ago and now he's finally on the mend, still stopped up but getting better. Blake has had a sore throat and could possibly be teething. She has been in a terrible mood for about 3 days now. She is normally the most easy tempered happy baby ever!

On another note, I have doing tons of fun little projects around the house. The colors I'm choosing haven't worked out quite the way I wanted so far but I'm learning to do these things and will make more the perfect color when I get it all down.
I've made some wreaths, a yarn wreath, a wooden wreath for the door with painted numbers on it, and some shelf decor for my room. I'm working on some other art projects right now but I'm not ready to share them yet.

Bad angle but here is the yarn wreath.
Some shelves we added to our room. I painted the C a bright color because the room needed it. The little heart below is on burlap and was so easy to make. I bought the tiny wreath from hobby lobby and made felt flowers and hot glued them on.


I made this wreath this past weekend. It didn't quite turn out like I wanted it to but I like it either way.
Cooper is talking like an adult with a tiny little kid voice. We carry on easy conversation these days. He makes me laugh constantly. His new big thing to say is "Oh my goodness". Its hilarious. He comes into the room while I'm changing Blake's dirty diaper and says "Uh oh mama, blakey poo poo." He'll walk closer to get a peak and say "Oh my goodness". Haha.
He tells me about his day and who he played with and what they did. He repeats shows like Dora. You never know what will come out of his little mouth.
He weighs a small 25 lbs and is tall for his age, I can't remember the actual inches but he was in the 70Th percentile for height. He still wears a tiny size 5 shoe and 2t clothes that are still a bit big.
Cooper is going to be Mickey for Halloween. :)


Blakely is getting so big. She is trying to sit up, with the help of mommy and daddy. She rolls everywhere and talks to us constantly. Its a loud funny AAAAHHHHHH. Blake is happy all the time, truly she is. She sleeps pretty good now for the most part. She loves watching her big brother.
She takes her paci out of her mouth and turns it sideways and gnaws on the ring around it ferociously. Its so funny. She shakes her head like she's going to tear it apart. Then suddenly she'll just put it back in her mouth. Now if only she could reach for it in her crib and stick it in her mouth.
Blake is 15 lbs and is also tall for her age. They didn't get it from me, I'm only 5' 2".
She is wearing size 3-6 months, closer to the 6 month size. Her pj's actual are almost 6-9 months. She is wearing size 2 shoes. But her feet are so thin they never stay on. Except for her little winter boots she has. Which it just started to get cold so we don't get to wear them much.
I've been trying to take an extra lot of pictures of her lately because I realized how many we have of Cooper up to 5 months and let me tell you. Its a lot! So we have some extra Blake shots on here.







All in all we are doing good. I hope and pray that this winter we don't have sickly kids a lot. Two is so different than one when you work full time and they aren't sick at the same time. Not to mention how horrible it is to have to be so helpless and watch them hurt.
Lately we joke that we should just move into the pediatricians office.

Oh and I never posted Cooper's birthday party pics. Wow this post is long with tons of pics. That's what happens when you miss 4 weeks. I posted a few of us the day of his birthday, then some of his party with his friends and some of our home party.

Advice

Ok ladies. I'm needing mommy advice.

Blakely was sleeping through the night great from about 9:00 until about 6:00 every night. But then she learned to roll over and the swaddle came off. Ever since we removed the swaddle she wakes up at 3:00 or around there and never goes back to sleep. We are exhausted and thought we were past the sleepless nights. Cooper had a positioner, this was before they were all recalled. So when we stopped swaddling him he was fine because he still felt something comforting around him. But with Blake our pediatrician told us not to put anything on her that constricts her legs including a sleep sack. So what do we do? Any ideas? We put her in long sleeve footsy sleepers so she's warm. No blankets or bumpers or anything in her crib. She takes a paci but nothing has changed as far as that goes. I'm lost for what to do. We thought it would be like this for a few weeks maybe at the most and we are going on a month. EXHAUSTED!!!! Help!

Happy 2nd birthday to one the of the greatest loves I will ever know!

Cooper! My sweet baby boy, or should I say my sweet toddler boy. Your two years old today.
My love for you is over the moon and I can't tell you how special you are to daddy and I.

Where to begin??

You are getting so tall, but still so small :) Your wearing size 2t.
You are so funny, you sing constantly. Twinkle twinkle little star, your ABC's, and just recently Old McDonald had a farm. Its so funny to hear you mix up the words with such confidence.
You are the sweetest little man ever, hugging and kissing all the time. Saying please and thank you without ever being told. You even say God Bless You when someone sneezes. Your so friendly and play great with other kids. Your best friend at school is Cameron, you also love Anniston and Braden. You are in love with your baby sister. You are so good with her and not rough like you were when we first brought her home. You now kiss her feet and say "Its ok baby" and try to help her when she cries. You call her your brother, no matter how often we correct you, its actually really funny. You hear me saying "Hi pretty girl" to her and you say, "Hi pretty budder". Its so cute.
You are ridiculously active and you scare me half to death. You fell at your babysitters this past week and got quite a nasty cut on your eye and had to go for stitches again. 3rd time in a year. We have an appointment with your pediatrician next week because I'm concerned about why your falling so often. You don't talk funny, you usually seem somewhat balanced for a two year old, you don't have ear infections but you also don't pay attention ever. So I think its just carelessness but we will see. I just want to make sure.
You weigh close to 24 lbs. Your still a little guy but healthy.
You love breakfast bars and chik fil a, you love to eat banana's and you are obsessed with milk. You are funny and goofy and everyone who meets you falls in love with you.

You are such a blessing sweet Cooper. We love you sooooooooooooooooooooo much!
Thank you God for our sweet Cooper. What a blessing!

I am adding to this post days after I posted it because today you were in the car and I started to pass by "whats my name" by Rihanna. You freaked out. You said "mama, mama noooooo i wat oh nana, i wat oh nana". You call it Oh nana because of the part where she goes Oh nana whats my name. You LOVE this song. Its hilarious. You think sh'es saying Oh nana, like your grandma. Adorable.
Also you sing all the time now. Twinkle twinkle little star is my fav because you say "Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky, twinkle twinkle little star, now I know my abc's". Ha ha adorable as well.

You are so funny. You are obsessed with your cousin Natalie, you count to ten you can tell us most anyone we have a picture of in our house, you are amazing. We love you!

4 months old

Blakey! Your 4 months already. Time is flying by so fast these days.

All I can say is you are an absolute light in our lives. You are the sweetest little girl I've ever known. Not just because your mine either. People can't comment enough about how easy going, cuddly, lovable and sweet you are. We are so blessed to have you :)

You are doing so much these days. Smiling and giggling a little funny giggle all the time. You talk all the time. A real low grunt, it cracks us up. You will just talk to yourself forever. You roll over, you stand while holding onto our hands. You hate when we are driving and we stop, that's the only time (and when your hungry) that you really cry. You smile constantly, love your big brother and your mommy and daddy. You are like a little puddle of comfort. You just form into whoever holds you. It melts our hearts.
You are getting big. Your tall and chunky :)
You weigh about 14-1/2 to 15 lbs I'll have a more exact weight next week. We take you to the doctor in 5 days. You are so tall, everyone comments on it. Your wearing size 6 months in clothes.
Sometimes when you look up at me and just smile that big gummy smile of yours your little blue eyes will sparkle like crazy. Your beautiful and special in every way and we are loving every little thing about you and each new thing you do and learn.

Happy 4 months angel baby. We love you more than words can even tell.

On your post I'm posting some pictures that my cousin Elizabeth took of us when she was here visiting. She is super talented and did such a good job. She got lots of good Mommy and Blakely shots too. All the pics she took were great. Here they are :)