Goodbye to 2020

 It is time to say goodbye to the fastest slowest year of my life.  I know people have a lot of feelings about 2020 and how ready they are for 2021.  I thought it'd be good to take a minute to look back on 2020 and all that it brought us.

I was listening to a podcast recently where they talked about how they think of 2020 as starting in March, that it's hard to even remember the things that happened in January/February as part of this year.  And it's so true, but here's a few things that made up our pre-pandemic 2020...

*We found out we were having a BOY toward the beginning of the year and got to work getting ready to meet him

*We took Cooper bowling-- he had talked about this and asked about this for a long time.  And I'm really glad we did this before COVID.

*I went on a weekend getaway with Erin for her birthday.  We rented a house by the lake and enjoyed a couple of days of reading, chatting, resting, and not discipling kids.  Another thing that in hindsight I didn't realize would be as important as it was since it was one of our last extended times together before the pandemic and before she moved across the country!

*We went to Oklahoma for David's cousin's wedding at the end of February.  So thankful for a chance to see so much family at that time.

We decided to do one last family of 3 trip to go to the Big 12 Basketball tournament and see both of our teams play.  I will never forget stopping for lunch on our way to Kansas City and being at Chick fil A reading the news that COVID19 (did I even know that's what it was called then?) was now being classified as a pandemic.  We kind of shrugged and said "okay" and kept driving.  As we drove into town we started hearing word that other games were being cancelled.  Then we heard that the Big 12 tournament wouldn't be allowing fans at the games.  We spent our first night of the pandemic in a hotel unsure of what was going on or what we were even doing.  We got up the next morning to drive back home, not knowing that was where we'd spend the rest of 2020 ;)

The rest of 2020 brought a whole lot of family time.  Including...

*David working from home for the past 10 months.  Breakfasts and lunches and dinners together.  Slower mornings together.  His job continuing to provide for everything we needed in this crazy year.

*Lots of playtime for Cooper.  I've said it before, but it has been amazing to see his imagination at work now that he has so much time to just play at home.  I always thought we needed lots of activities (playdates, MOPS, Bible Study, etc.) to keep both of us sane, but it turns out he's thrived being home.  We've had some rough patches of course, but he really enjoys slow days where we don't leave the house.

*Splashing, bike riding, hiking, sitting, and exploring outside.  So much outside time.  In September I started tracking our hours outside as part of the 1000 hours outside movement and we hit 100 hours right before Christmas.

*A new sweet baby boy.  Miles is just the center of all of our affection.  Watching him and Cooper love each other is one of my favorite things.  And as much as this year didn't look anything like I thought it would, I am so thankful for the surprise of getting to spend so much time at home with him enjoying his newborn days instead of constantly being on the go.

*School at home.  Cooper and I had a lot of fun with Superhero School and Christmas school this Fall.   It's been fun watching him learn memory verses and new skills.  I gave him a choice and we decided to take a break from "school" in January, but it was a fun memory of 2020.

*COOPER IS POTTY TRAINED.  I really didn't know if this would happen.  We started potty training right after last Christmas and gave up in March right before Cooper turned 3 when it was a battle every day.  We decided to wait until after baby brother was born and over the summer Cooper started doing a lot of it on his own and then with a little structure from us it all clicked.  

*A trip to Colorado.  It was such a refreshing thing to be able to get out of town together and social distance in the mountains.  

And so much more that I'm sure I'm forgetting about.  

It has definitely been a year to remember and I'm hopeful that looking back I will remember all of the sweet times we had with our family staying home.  Goodbye 2020 and all that you taught us, here's to 2021 and more days staying at home ;)

Christmas Fun

Despite all of the things that are different about this year, we still had a great time celebrating a month of Christmas.  Here's a few glimpses of our month. 

My friend gave us this baby Santa hat and Cooper found some antlers, so he decided Miles should be in the bassinet for Santa's sleigh and he pushed him all over the living room.

The boys wore lots of Christmas pajamas, including this matching set of "Ninjabread Men" from Grandma.

We went to the Arboretum at night with my family to celebrate my birthday and took this little reindeer along.

Cooper's favorite part is the "pa rum pum pum pums."  He could watch the 12 drummers all day long.  He had his drum with him to drum along.

Here are our homemade pajamas.  Cooper is wearing his brother shirt that I made him last year and Miles is wearing the "little" shirt Cooper wore 2 years ago!

We celebrated Saint Nicholas day by making gifts for our neighbors.  We decided to forego food gifts this year and we made some stovetop potpourri kits.  Cooper ran them up to the doors and had fun delivering them.

We also decided to do stocking gifts on Saint Nicholas Day.  I'd seen that idea on a blog I follow and thought it was a fun way to spread out the gifts this year.

We found some Christmas decorations to walk around and take pictures.

We celebrated Grinch day.  Cooper is still very into the Grinch, he loves reading the book and listening to the Boris Karloff version on Amazon music.  We also watched the old cartoon as well as the newer cartoon movie this year.  On Grinch Day we had some counting, letter, and science activities that related to the Grinch story.  We also had grinch muffins

All dressed up for Christmas Eve.  Our old church, Woodcreek, hosted their Christmas Eve services outside so we decided to take the boys.  It was only Miles' 2nd church service, which seems really weird considering how often we were at church a year ago.  We were grateful for an opportunity to worship in person on Christmas Eve in a setting that felt pretty safe to us.

Christmas morning.  We got Cooper a set of wooden train tracks and he enjoyed adding to it and driving the trains on it.

Miles' big gift was this recycled jumper that brother used as a baby.  Miles is a big fan!

Our church's kids ministry provided free Jesse Tree kits and a devotional book this year and we really enjoyed going through it every night at dinner.  We put the last ornament on over Christmas breakfast.

The pure joy on M's face cracks me up.  We love our bapron bibs!

So thankful for this month with our family!

Months of Miles: 7 Months

 Diaper Size: 5

Clothes size: Some 9 months, some 12 months

Things you love: your brother, being talked or sung to, peek-a-boo, eating, teething toys, your thumb, being outside, rolling all around the room, sitting up, talking.

Things you don't love: being put down alone, waiting to eat in the mornings (if I try to change your diaper first you lose it!), 

Milestones:  You are sitting for long stretches of time now and seem so proud of yourself.  You still roll all around and you do well on tummy time.  You don't seem to have any interest in trying to move forward on your tummy or arms, but I'm fine with that and I know it will come soon enough!  You are also eating a ton-- still some purees and I've started giving you various steamed fruits and vegetables and you gobble them all up!  You've also been babbling a lot more this month--especially the "m" sound!

Miles, you light up our life!  All of us would do anything to make you smile or laugh and you reward us with big smiles and giggles frequently!  You love your brother and watch him intently.  You also still only have eyes for mama a lot of the time.  It's been so fun watching you play more and more this month and also watching how much you love all the food you're trying!  We're so thankful for you and the brightness you've brought to our 2020.  I love you my little Miles-a-moo!

November iPhone Rewind

Cooper decided he wanted to go on a pretend camping trip.  So he packed up all his blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals and pretended to sleep on the back patio one morning while we played.

Tummy time outside!

My mom and I took the boys to check out Little Elm Beach.  It was cool outside but Cooper still wanted to play in the water.  It was a great activity for social distancing because in November there aren't many people at the beach.

COOPER IS DONE WITH PACIS (that deserved all caps).  After 3.5 years of being attached (**addicted**) to his pacifiers, he traded them all in for a surprise-- a Paw Patrol Lookout Tower which is getting lots of playtime.

Our friend Mrs Anne led "corn school" for our little preschool co-op and the kids got to paint with corn cobs.

We walked to the park about a mile from us and had the playground all to ourselves! Cooper has only been on a playground once or twice since March, so this was a huge treat.

Cooper got all decked out in his OU jersey (on the right) and I pulled up the picture of the first time he wore it last Christmas--he's grown so much!

Cooper's thankful tree complete with Daddy, Twisty Roads, Tape, Bibleman, Monkeys, and toilet paper.  Miles, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles eventually made the list.  I never did, but he did tell me he's thankful for me (when I shamelessly asked him about not being on the tree he acted like it was a give he was thankful for me and said "Well you're the one who does everything for me, mommy!")

Miles is loving trying out some solid foods!

We spent an afternoon at my brother's new Lakehouse.  Miles loved rolling around outside.

My Baylor boy.

We are so excited for Christmas Pajama Season!

2 little Thanksgiving Turkeys

The day after Thanksgiving we finished up our 12 weeks of Superhero School.  Cooper named all of the traits on his badges and recited all of his verses.  Now we'll do a few weeks of "Christmas School" and then see what January brings.

Added Miles to our snowman family.

Sweet boy on a walk.

Months of Miles: 6 Months

 

Weight: 20 lbs 10.5 oz

Diaper Size: 4 (but about to move up to size 5!)

Clothes size: Mostly 6-9/9 months now.

Things you love: your brother, being talked or sung to, peek-a-boo, eating, teething toys, your thumb, being outside, rolling all around the room

Things you don't love: being put down alone, waiting to eat in the mornings (if I try to change your diaper first you lose it!), us telling you to say "Ahh!" while eating (this immediately triggers big tears)

Milestones: You started eating some pureed foods in the past week!  You're rolling all over and can now sit up for a short amount of time without toppling over.  You are chewing on all kinds of toys and foods.  You are still growing like crazy.

My sweet little Miles-a-moo you are just so much fun.  You laugh and smile so big and it melts me.  I love rocking you for naps and bedtime and just watching you smile so big at me to get out of going to sleep (although you usually fall asleep pretty quickly!).  I love watching you and your brother-- he loves to entertain you and you think he is just the funniest.  I can't believe we're halfway through your first year (and what a year this one is!).  I am treasuring all of our time at home together and just soaking up my days with you my sweet baby boy.

Colorado Adventures

We spent a week in Colorado earlier this month and had a great time.  Here's a bit of a look at our week. 

Day 1 on the road.  I grossly overestimated how long Miles would sleep in the car.  Each time we got going he slept for 30 minutes or less and then just fussed until the next stop.  So I spent a lot of time in the back with him to try to keep him happy.  We made it to Dalhart, Texas our first night and all slept well!

Our first stop in New Mexico.  Before we got on the highway we stopped so I could feed Miles.  While I fed him David and Cooper explored a little.  Cooper was determined that he was going to the top of the mountain in the background of this picture, but alas he did not ;). We made it to Denver Saturday evening and spent a little time at the home of our friends Lucas and Yali eating dinner and catching up.  When we decided to try to go to Colorado we knew we wanted to see them since we hadn't seen them since they moved last summer.

Sunday morning we met up with Lucas and Yali and the kids for a hike.  It was so fun exploring in Colorado!

Cooper and Leon. 

After our hike, they headed home and we went back to our hotel for nap time.  Cooper stayed up but it was good for Miles to get a good nap in that day after 2 days in the car!  We joined them for dinner again that night.  

Monday morning we met up to explore the Red Rock Amphitheater together.

I had to include this picture, because this was what it was like getting a family picture.  Cooper did not want to take pictures with us.  So he decided he wanted to go stand up 2 rows away from us.

Luckily Lucas snapped this one before Cooper moved away.  After this activity we parted ways with our friends.  It was so good to get to see them for a few days and catch up on life.  But then they headed home and we headed out to Breckenridge.  The views on the way to Breckenridge were amazing.  At one point you go through a tunnel and come out surrounded by snowcapped mountains... this was all of our reaction:

We stopped for lunch in Frisco when we got off the highway.  I had to snap this picture eating lunch with mountains in the background.  When we got to Breckenridge we got settled in our VRBO and I headed out to buy groceries.  We stayed in for the evening.

The next day we stayed close to our rented home.  Luckily there was a bunch of snow right outside our house!  So Cooper and David headed out to play while Miles napped.

Then after nap we all went out together.  Miles' first time seeing snow!

There was a pond behind our house and it had frozen on top so Cooper enjoyed checking it out.  

We also spent a little time walking around downtown and buying some Breckenridge souvenirs.  The rest of the day was spent resting after a few days of traveling and hiking.  David went to grab dinner and I snapped this picture of Cooper watching a show and Miles napping.

The next morning was one of our big family hikes.  We struggled a bit with the high altitude and honestly everyone was feeling a little under the weather, but we took it slow and steady and enjoyed the hike.

Just moments before I snapped this picture, Cooper was upside down laying on the side of this hill, but I just missed capturing it.  We had gotten off the trail and were trying to get back on it, but overestimated our ability to climb this slope to get there.  Luckily we caught up with the trail not far ahead of this.

The whole hike Cooper just wanted to head back to the water.  Even though it was cold, he wanted to play in the stream.  So we figured we'd let him right before we headed home so he could get warm/dry clothes after.  He didn't last long but was glad to be with the water.

After lunch we decided to drive up the Boreas Pass to the Continental Divide.  It is listed as one of the most scenic drives around Breckenridge.  Honestly at the beginning I was not sure I would make it because we were on the edge of a cliff with no railing and not enough room for 2 cars in some places, but after the first little bit the road widened and the drop off wasn't as steep.  And we were glad we checked it out!

It's hard to tell, but this is a picture of a Moose outside our house.  While he was eating breakfast on Thursday Cooper said "I just saw a Moose!" so I went and looked and sure enough one had walked right by us.

A family picture in our new Breckenridge shirts.

Sweetest brothers.

Then we headed out to hike around Lake Dillon.  This trail was a perfect hike for us and had beautiful views

Cooper wanted to get off the path to explore a bit and he did great.

Hiking with his Daddy!  We had several rough behavior moments on our trip, but we are still so glad we went on this trip together.  It was fun seeing Cooper explore in such a different setting than he was used to.  

On our way home we decided to make a stop at the Royal Gorge.  Cooper loved looking down between the slats in the bridge.

One last family picture before we left Colorado.  

We stayed another night in Dalhart on our way home and got home late Saturday evening.   It was a great time away together.  And it was a perfect trip for COVID days because we were able to spend most of it outside and away from crowds.  Thankful for the opportunity to check out a new state together!