Upward Basketball

Cooper was on an Upward Basketball Team this winter season.  He absolutely loved it!  He embraced the sport wholeheartedly, and loved every minute of it.  Cooper has some great qualities that allow him to make and reach his goals.  He is determined to succeed if it is something special to him and nothing will stop him!  This is the attitude he took with him onto the basketball court.  

He already was an expert dribbler.  Being on the team helped him learn how to pass, block, run hard, and how to tell the difference between offense and defense.  His team name was The Rattlers and he had some great coaches.  

Cooper's strength is definitely defense.  They help the kids by giving one boy from each opposing team a color.  Then, the kids with the matching color are to block one another at appropriate times during the game.  Cooper went above and beyond just "blocking" his opponent.  He would not let him go anywhere.  He followed that boy around the court with his arms outstretched around and around.  Even during offense, Cooper often would continue to block his opponent till his coach would remind him to stop blocking and put his arms out for a pass from his teammate.  He was not tall enough to ever make a basket for his team, but he could prevent the other team from passing and making baskets simply by blocking the opposing team's best players.  It was awesome!

The team was great because it really taught the kids how to play a team sport.  They practiced on Thursday nights and often would practice passing the ball to a teammate who then would make the point.  Of course this helps little boys realize that they don't have to make the basket themselves, but  by passing to one another they could work together to make points.  The Upward League is a Christian based league.  During half time the kids would have a little meeting with the coaches on a gospel subject, like loving one another and trying to be like Jesus.  While this was taking place, there would be a Christian speaker that would speak to all the adults and families on the bleachers.  Often they were stories of conversion and talks about how Christ has influenced and changed their lives in some way or another.  It was very uplifting.  It was really neat to see other Christian people, not of the LDS faith, but of other Christian denominations, to share their stories about how they felt the spirit and were led to do certain things in their lives.  It made me more grateful for the Savior, that He has influence over everyone around us.  It was very neat to see.

It was a great basketball season.  We will definitely be doing it again next winter.  Cooper had a blast!!

Preschool Highlights

Cooper has thoroughly enjoyed preschool this year in Mrs. Kruse's class.  She is an absolutely wonderful teacher!!  He has learned so much this year.  He is beginning to read, and can do simple math.  He is coming out of his shy shell and is spunky and excited to learn.  His favorite little friend in school is Hunter.  Here are some fun highlights about preschool this school year:

At Thanksgivingtime, Cooper's class put on a Thanksgiving performance of songs and rhymes on stage for all the parents at their Thanksgiving Feast.  Cooper was not one bit frightened this time around.  He stood up on stage proud as ever with his head high, and he sung those songs!  It was an honor to join him for that Thanksgiving feast!

On Cooper's snack day, the kids were learning about dinosaurs.  Soooo, we searched pinterest for a fun dinosaur snack to go along with the theme.  We found one!  It was made out of a watermelon, carved to look like a T-Rex's jaw with spiky teeth.  That was a lot of fun!

Cooper's school has "Daddy's Night" which they kids and dads seemed to have loved!!!!  They got to go together all by themselves, and they had an enjoyable time together. I'm grateful that Nate can work around his work schedule so he could do this with Cooper!!

Cooper's Valentine Party at school was a fun event that I got to help out with!  I helped to make a healthy valentines snack of heart shaped ham and cheese sandwiches.  We let the kids cut a heart out of the cheese by themselves to add to their ham and cheese sandwiches.  I cut carrots into heart shapes, and we had pretzels that were kind of heart shaped as well.  They made candy necklaces, played Valentine's Bingo, and read a Curious George Valentine's story.  Cooper got to write out valentines for each of the kids in his class.  

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Kindergarten Valentine's Party

Jaxton's Kindergarten class had their Valentine's Day party.  I got to be involved in planning and organizing it.  It was super fun!!  The kids did lots of fun activities.  And we had lots of moms to help out.  It's always fun to get to know other moms of kids in Jaxton's class.  We broke the kids up into 4 stations and they rotated around the room.  The kids put together I "heart" You Keychains to give to a parent or friend for Valentine's Day.  

There was a story corner where a mom read a Valentine's story about Splat the Cat.  At this station, the kids secretly put together a big giant heart valentine for their teacher Mrs. Hensch.  They each got to sign a little heart and glue it on the big valentine.  At the end, we presented Mrs. Hensch her Valentine and she was very grateful!

At the snack station, the kids had cup cakes in ice cream cones, which they loved!!  They also got to write down an estimate for how many conversation hearts they guessed were in the conversation heart jar.  

Well, believe it or not, guess who won that contest at the end of the party?  Jaxton did!!  He guessed 419 and there were 5 hundred and something, so he was the closest guesser!!  

The kids got to play Valentine's Bingo at another station with conversation hearts.  I think they really enjoyed this one!

It was a great party!  I had a ton of fun planning it, the kids had a ton of fun enjoying it, and all us moms had a ton of fun spending time together!!

Cooper's Birthday Party

Cooper couldn't decide which superhero he wanted for his birthday party theme.  So, we settled on doing a Superhero Party that encompassed all of them!  We gathered up all the superhero costumes we could find and came up with: Iron Man, Batman, Black Spiderman, Blue Spiderman, Thor, Wolverine Man, and Captain Rex (who is not really a superhero, but according to Cooper, still fell in the same category).  He was excited to have all his friends dress up into a costume for his party.  

The most exciting part was to dress up.  The kids all put on a costume and instantly began acting very powerful, running around the house.  It was fun!  Even Kaylee decided to wear the Batman costume!  She was just "one of the boys!"  I warned them all that there was a villain that had been sneaking around, and that they needed to be on alert if they saw him.  Meanwhile, we played some fun superhero games.  First, they tested their superhero senses by feeling in a bag without using their eyes to figure out what was inside the bag.  After that, the villain did appear!  He threw black balloon "bombs" from the upstairs banister.  The superheros had to stop those bombs before they could blow up the city!  So they stomped on those balloons like mad!  Next, the villain threw out some kryptonite (crumpled foil painted green).  This substance hurts superhero powers, so the only way they could get rid of it was by picking it up with spatulas, tongs, and other big kitchen utensils.  This they performed very well.  I don't think one little boy (or girl) actually touched the kryptonite rocks!  

Next, the kids had cake.  Cooper and I found this cake on Pinterest and this is the one he had to have!  I am up for making unique cakes, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  And it turned out great!!  

While the kids were finishing up their cake, all of a sudden, the villain appeared!  He had a nerf gun, pantyhose over his face to conceal his identity, and was angry and mad!  The kids picked up the rolls of toilet paper and began tying the villain up to stop him!  Finally he was confined to a chair and the squad of superheros had succeeded!  

Lastly, we opened presents and played for the last few minutes before parents came to pick up their superhero kids.  It was a lot of fun!  Happy Birthday Coop!!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOPER!  Cooper is 5!  Now I can't hardly believe that either!!  He is growing up so fast too!!  Here are some fun things about Cooper at 5 years old:

1.  Cooper is learning to read!  He has started our lesson book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and he is already halfway through that thing.  He is grasping the concepts, the rules, the sounds and he is sounding out words!  It amazes me to watch a child grasp how to sound out words and actually read.  It's so much fun for me as a mom to see that!  In his reading lesson, he is so comical!  He will carefully sound out a word, and when he figures out what that word is, he often will either make a sentence out of it to clarify what the word was, or he will jump up and act out the word.  For example, the other day, one of his words was COPS.  He slowly sounded out each sound and when he figured out the word, he jumped up and ran around the room in circles yelling "The cops are coming, they're going to get me and take me to jail....ahhhhh...the cops are coming....!"  Then he runs back to his spot, sits down and goes on to the next word.  Its awfully cute.  He is so animated!!

2. Cooper is very very organized and prefers things to be clean.  His clothes drawers are immaculate.  He makes sure that every item of clothes is folded neatly in piles in each drawer.  He gets very upset if I go through his drawer looking for something and mess up a folded shirt.  He puts away his own laundry but takes his time doing so to make sure everything is folded and put in the right place.  He loves his room to be clean and tidy, and often will take on Jaxton's half of the room just so it can be clean.  Picking up toys and cleaning up are some of Cooper's strengths.  He is so good at it and he prefers things that way!  Cute boy!  That trait will be a great one to have throughout his life!

3. Cooper's favorite food these days is Chicken Noodle Soup, of all things!  He would eat chicken noodle soup for every meal, every day, if I would make it for him.  He loves it!  He will eat everything in it, including the celery, carrots, and he drinks the broth.  He loves rice krispies and honey nut cheerios for breakfast, and he loves velveeta cheese mixed into his eggs.  Of course he has a sweet tooth and loves to eat any and all kinds of chocolate!!

4. Cooper's favorite activity lately is playing the Wii.  He gets very limited time to play it at our house.  Usually playing the wii is a privilege the kids earn once every task on their charts have been completed.  It is a great motivator for him to complete all his responsibilities.  Cooper has passion about things he loves.  When he gets into a game on the wii, he gets so very passionate.  I will see him playing and see his little cheeks turning rosy red.  Sometimes he starts to sweat, and his cheeks get redder.  He gets soooo passionate and into his game that its almost scary!  Another reason we limit their play time!  Its pretty funny to see him so passionate about winning or earning points!  I'm glad he likes his gift from Santa!

5. We started the boys having "jobs" at Simplx.  They have different tasks that they are responsible for in the Simplx office.  Cooper's job is to break down boxes that come with equipment in them.  He pulls the tape off, breaks them down, and takes them up to the recoiling bin.  It's hard work for a little guy, ut again, he does this with passion.  He loves to feel needed and be given responsibility.  And he does a phenomenal job at what he is assigned.

6. Cooper has  a very complex mind.  He has questions sometimes that are so deep and complex and adult!  One time he asked me why Adam and Eve ate the fruit when Heavenly Father had told them not to.  That's a deep question for a 5 year old.  Another time, he asked about death, about what it would be like after we die and what kinds of things we would have.   Such deep thoughts!

7.  Cooper is also a very thoughtful boy.  He is always thinking about others and offering to share.  When he took a field trip the Country Kitchen and made a bunch of fun yummy treats, he quickly divided them up so everyone in our family could have one of his treats, leaving him with only one.  He is always so thoughtful and kind.

8. Cooper has recently started on a basketball league.  If you've ever seen a kid hustle, Cooper is a hustler.  He is darting up and down the court following that ball, getting right into the action.  He is little, and can't quite make a basket yet since the baskets are so high, but he has more energy and excitement than the whole team combined!! It is so fun to see his passion come through...the same passion for ball that he had at less than 1 years old!  

9. Cooper is doing Tae Kwon Do.  He is really good at it.  He shows power and strength in each of his self defense moves he performs.  And he has memorized several choreographed sequences of moves.  His "Hiyyyyaaa!" is powerful and loud.  He really has become great at Tae Kwon Do.

10. Cooper's good friends these days are Cameron Stump and Gabe Gregory.  He also talks about the kids in his preschool class.  He claims his favorite girl-friend is Chayla, an 8 year old girl from primary who he just absolutely adores.  It's awfully cute.  He says that she is the one he will marry one day!  

We love you Cooper!  We are so excited that you are five!!

Grandma in Utah sent him a marble set, Grandma in Kendallville gave him a race track and a cool spiderman cake.  And from us, he asked for 2 costumes: the Black Spiderman & the Blue Spiderman!

Tae Kwon Do

Jaxton & Cooper are now yellow belts!  They have really enjoyed Tae Kwon Do and have really excelled at it.  They have learned different forms, moves, and self defense, and they also have been taught values and respect.  It has been a great sport for them to learn.  I am very proud of them!

Dawson is 4 Months Old!

Dawson is 4 months old!  He is changing every day!  He is rolling from side to side.  Sometimes I will lay him down on his back, turn my head for a minute, and find him on his belly!  He does "sit ups" sometimes as he is trying to sit up from laying on his back.  When I sit him up, he really has good balance.  He falls over still, but it won't be long before he's sitting on his own!  Dawson loves his Hippy mat and loves to bat at all his toys hanging down toward him.  This week he even got to sit in his excersaucer, and he loved it!!  He loved that he could stand up and there are so many different toys to touch that make different noises.  It was fun to watch him so interested in that thing!  He also loves his brothers and sister.  He watches their every move.  He talks to them when they talk to him.  And he loves it when they hover over him and talk in baby talk language that they made up!  He reaches his little hands out to touch your face when you talk to him.  And a few times now he has reached his little arms up to me to get picked up.  Oh, such sweet moments!  I love him so very very much!

Dawson was really struggling one evening.  The kids were all in bed, and it was getting late, almost towards midnight.  He was just screaming.  He was obviously so very uncomfortable but everything we did just didn't help him.  He just cried and cried.  This was very unusual for our happy little baby.  I was getting frustrated because I could not help him.  He wouldn't latch on to nurse, he wouldn't fall asleep.  He didn't want to be bounced, he didn't want to be held...nothing!  Finally, Nate suggested that he give him a blessing.  I usually think blessings are reserved for much more challenging moments, like a severely sick child or a very hard challenge.  So it had not even crossed my mind to give him a blessing.  I said "OK."  So as Dawson is screaming, Nate lays his hands on his head and gives him a simple blessing.  When he told Dawson to "Be Still" I felt a kind of shock.  I immediately recognized his power.  The power of the Lord's priesthood.  It was real and it was almost tangible.  My faith was strengthened.  After the blessing, Nate went out to the kitchen and I tried to help Dawson yet again.  Just about a minute after the closing of the blessing, Dawson had the biggest bowel movement we have seen yet.  It was clear that he was uncomfortable as his little tummy was trying to digest through his little body and it was probably hurting his belly.  As soon as it was all out, I changed his diaper, swaddled him up, and he went to sleep.  A little midnight miracle that strengthened my own faith.

Kaylee's Birthday Party

We had a little family birthday party and invited Carter's family to come celebrate too.  She loves Hello Kitty, though instead she calls it "Kitty Cat."  So I made a Kitty Cat cake for her out of confetti cake and fondant.  She was thrilled!  She opened up a big kitchen for her birthday, complete with all sorts of play food.  Now she can warm up her own "ready set go milk" in her own little microwave!  Happy Birthday Angel!  We love you so much!

Happy Birthday Kaylee

Kaylee is 2!! I can't believe how fast time has flown!! Here are some fun things about Kaylee at 2 years old:

1. Her favorite foods these days are her "ready-set-go-milk," granola for cereal, her smoooovie (smoothie), cottage cheese of course, and she loves oatmeal of all things!  

2. Kaylee got a baby doll for Christmas that she named "Baby Lauren."  I'm not sure why she chose that name, other than the fact that she got to know her cousin Lauren over Christmas time.  She has another older baby doll that looks almost the same.  She can tell the difference though, and it is so funny!  I can cover up both babies in blankies with only their head sticking out, and she can tell me which baby is Baby Lauren, and which one is Baby.  At night and at naps she will hold each baby doll in one arm and fall asleep that way.  When she is upset or sad, she always asks for Baby Lauren.  It is sweet to see that she finds comfort in her baby doll, as if it is real.  She finds comfort in something humanlike.  

3. Kaylee has been experimenting with going potty.  She will go potty on demand really well.  She can't tell me, though, that she has to go yet.  That will take time.  But if I know she probably needs to go, I can plop her on her little potty and she will do it.  She gets all excited when she does, and wants to participate in dumping it into the big potty and flushing it away.  One time, she actually went poop in the potty.  She stood up to look at her results and exclaimed, "Ice Cream!"  She thought her poop looked like a scoop of chocolate ice cream.  That was the funniest thing I had ever heard from my kids learning to go potty!  I won't forget that one!!

4. Kaylee loves to read.  Her favorite book these days is Bob the Builder: Happy Birthday Bob.  She will read this book over and over and over again!  She loves how Wendy bakes a cake for Bob and then they all surprise him after he's done at work.  And she loves to sing the birthday song to Bob!  Another of her favorites lately is "the doctor book."  This is an Usbourne First Experiences book that has a story about going to the doctor.  We read it over a few times before I had to take her in to see the doctor, just to prepare her for the stethoscope and the otoscope, etc.  She still hated the doctor when we went, but now she just loves reading about the doctor in the book.  I think the book came to life for her when we went to see a real doctor, and the doctor did the same things to her as he did in the book.  I think she thought that was neat.  So we read "the doctor book" over and over too!

5. Kaylee loves to sing.  She is a great little singer that stays in tune too.  Her favorite songs these days are "Give Said the Little Stream," "Twinkle, Twinkle," and "I am a Child of God. I would not be surprised if one day she really did learn to sing well.

6. Kaylee is really funny about medicine.  We've been sick a lot the last month and she's had to have ibuprofen, tylenol, and some antibiotics for ear infections.  She would put up the biggest, most horrific fight over taking these medicines, that we were blown away!  We tried to trick her by sneaking them into her smoothie, ice cream, milk, chocolate milk, yogurt, etc...etc....She could sense that it tasted different and would say "no like it."  We even tried chewables and told her they were candy.  It was horrible to have to force her to take them!  We tried playing games, everything!! Finally after several days of this, she realized that whether she liked it or not, she would have to take the medicine.  So we got her to take them by alternating a tiny sip of medicine with a big sip of chocolate milk, over and over again till the meds were down.  What a stinker!! 

7. Kaylee loves Baby Dawson.  She loves him to pieces.  She smothers him with her love.  She brings him toys.  She undoes his buttons and takes off his diaper to change him.  She feeds her baby dolls on the couch next to me while I am feeding her brother.  She adores him.  It is really sweet to see her love him so very much and want to take care of him.  I'm so glad she was not jealous or bitter towards him, but rather, she loves him like he is her own baby doll!!

8.  Kaylee loves storytime at the library!  She loves the stories, the books, the songs, the bubbles, the scarfs, the shakers, the wheels on the bus, the puppets, and the toys.  It is a great story time.  Her little friends that she enjoys it with are Ari and Rhett, and Carter.  

We love you Kay Kay!! You are our joy!  Happy Birthday to You!!

Christmas Day 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  The kids woke up Christmas morning to big red santa bags.  Inside they found Wii games and baby dolls!  This is exactly what they had asked for and they were all thrilled that Santa listened!  They found Mario Kart and Outdoor Adventure and UDraw and a couple others.  Kaylee found a baby doll that came with clothes.  She fell in love with it and named it Baby Lauren.   She is such a little mother.  Dawson found a nice Baby Gap winter coat.  It fit him perfect! The kids also got Christmas Eve jammies that they are all wearing: Cooper got batman, Jaxton got star wars, and Kaylee got penguin ones, and Dawson got firetruck jammies.  

Cooper's favorite present from Mom & Dad was his Spiderman web shooter.  It came with real web fluid (similar to silly string) and also a water container that can be reused and shoot water from his wrist.  Its a fun contraption!  

Kaylee's favorite toy from Mom & Dad was her phone.  She loves to play with daddy's and mommy's phones.  So now she has her own.  And she loves it!  Some days she will look around and ask us (just the same way that we do ) "Where's Kaylee's phone?"  I ask that about my own phone at least 3 or 4 times a day.  Its cute that she treats her phone with just as much ownership as we do with ours.

Jaxton's favorite toy from Mom & Dad was his new lego set.  He will never tire of getting lego sets.  So after presents and breakfast he disappeared upstairs in the toy room till he had finished yet another untouchable masterpiece.  Once those lego sets are built, he says they are off limits.  No one can touch them or play with them.  He puts them on display for everyone to see.  He is always so proud of what he builds!

It was a nice relaxing Christmas Day, enjoying our presents.  That evening, we began something that I hope will remain a tradition for future Christmases.  We had a Christmas CD and printed off lyrics to the songs on the CD. Then, we gathered with 2 other families at a retirement home and sang Christmas carols in the hallways and at residents' doors.  It was a lot of fun and I know we brought Christmas cheer to individuals that were alone on the evening of Christmas Day.  Even the kids enjoyed it and sang along.  What a great tradition!

Christmas Eve in Lafayette

We spent Christmas Eve in Lafayette at Nate brother's house.  The whole family was there (including Nick & Carissa via Skype :-)  We drove down on Christmas Eve Eve and stayed the night till Christmas Eve Day.  It was great fun for all the kids.  They really had a blast.  Christmas Eve we had a big dinner at noon with all the family.  After dinner, we held a family testimony meeting, where even the kids were able to share their simple testimonies.  Jaxton's hand went up right away.  He had something to share.  His simple testimony spoke of choosing the right and being honest.  It must be something on his mind, something he knows to be true.  What a treasure!  After our testimony meeting was presents time.  The cousins each got to pick a cousin's name from a hat a while back and went shopping for that cousin.  It was always fun to find out who got you a present, and to find the cousin that you got a present for.  Kaylee got her first dress up Princess dress from Cousin Jared.  

Cooper got a Thor Avengers costume from Jordan

Jaxton got a lego set from Jack

All the Routsong couples pitched in to get Bill & Linda a beautiful painting of the Washington D.C. Temple where they were sealed.  It was personalized with their name, their sealing date, and the name of the temple.  They loved it!  

After presents, we had a fun white elephant gift exchange amongst the adults using "our favorite things."  Everyone brought wrapped up their favorite thing to give.  Nick and Carissa joined the exchanged via Skype!  That was pretty fun.  We will mail their gifts to them!  We had a great Christmas Eve with family!