Look What I Can Do

Early this week while I was surfing the net, I mean working in my office, Drew came in and said "Mommy, you have to come see what Cooper is doing." So being the good mother that I am, so course I rushed right in. This is what I found.

Up until this point Cooper had never even attempted to get up the stairs. Which, to be honest, while a little troubling, has also pretty nice. Most babies head straight for the stairs, but we made it 13.5 months without even an attempt. Now he is climbing the stairs. He got this far today without me even hearing him. The other night, with all of us cheering him on he climbed all the way to the top. Gone are the days for not worrying about what he is doing.

He is always so proud of himself.

Drew has been a great coach for the stair climbing. He is such a sweet big brother.

Not only is he climbing stairs now, but he is pulling up to his knees to play with stuff. I found him like this today. He loves playing with the doors to the DVD cabinet. Now he can actually pull upon the drawer and use it to pull up to play with what is inside.

Maybe I should put some of his toys in there instead of DVDs

I just love the look on his face.

So our little one is making progress. ECI was here yesterday and they were very happy with his new skills. He still has a ways to go to catch up to his peers, but he is getting there. I never thought I would be so happy to have to keep a kid off the stairs, but this time I am so happy about it.

Carving the Pumpkin

So the after we went to the pumpkin patch, we of course had to carve the pumpkin. We had such a busy week last week that even though we bought it on Tuesday, the pumpkin remained uncarved until Friday night. Drew wanted so badly to help, so we let him to some of the yucky clean out part, but what he really wanted to do was the actual carving. No, we didn't let our 41 year old play with the knife, so he just had to sit and watch for most of it. But he loved the finished product. Of course he had to have it carved like Darth Vader! So you can see the final version of our Darth Pumpkin below.

The Pumpkin Patch

Last week the weather finally got nice enough to take Drew and Cooper to a pumpkin patch. Drew really just wanted to pick the pumpkin we were going to carve, and Cooper could have cared less, but they did humor me for a few pictures.

Cooper Turns One

Last Sunday we had Cooper's 1st birthday party. We had both of our families over to the house for pizza and cake to celebrate our youngest member's birthday (Cooper is the 8th of 8 grandchildren in the Milliorn family.) We had such a wonderful time getting everyone together.

This card is from Drew. Drew loves to pick out cards for people, and Cooper pretty much loves anything Drew does.

A super sweet friend of the our family made this cake for us. She does such a good job every year and even makes a small one for the birthday boy.

Cooper really enjoyed having people sing to him. He loves to hear music and bounce along.

Mmmmmm, a fist full of cake.

Cooper is such a sweet boy. Andy and I have felt so blessed to have him in our lives this year. He is a little ray of light, that brightens up every day. He is smiley, and happy the majority of the time, talks non stop when he is excited (a lot like his big brother), rolls all over the place, eats whatever is put in front of him, sleeps like a champ, and is even army crawling now. He loves to watch Drew, and Drew loves to play with Cooper. One of the sweetest things this year has been watching Drew and Cooper together. I think they will be great friends one day.

Happy Birthday Cooper! We love you SOOOOOO much.

Labor Day

September is always a busy month in the Milliorn house. We have 5 family birthdays, not even counting Cooper's (yes, he will be a year old next week). So we got together at the ranch over the Labor Day weekend to celebrate 4 of them at the same time. It was a great time as usual. Drew and Cooper love getting to play with their cousins, spending time at the "Tree Tops", and this year Granny and Grandad made it especially fun by renting a bounce house! Here are just a few pictures from the weekend.

This was Cooper's first time on the slide. He mostly just sat on it, but he loved it all the same.

My happy boy, just chillin' at the bottom of the slide.

Andy teaching Ryan and Drew how to play horseshoes.

The bounce house. What a great way to wear kids out.

A Clean Room, A Happy Heart

Today Drew and I embarked on a task that I have been neglecting for a LONG time. We cleaned the game room! I don't often have to see this room, so we don't clean it much. For those of you have been to our house for play dates, you know what the room looks like when you get here. But today, we cleaned it, and boy do I feel better.

I tried to get Drew to purge some toys, but that didn't go as well as I had planned. He was willing to part with a small bag of stuffed animals (that have been in a plastic box for a year). But that was about it. I think when school starts things might magically start to disappear.

I knew I had to document this occasion, because it happens so rarely, and because before the end of the weekend it will look like normal again. But for now, it is CLEAN!

Just Another Day

I snapped these on Thursday just before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house. Drew wanted to hold Cooper before we left. They were both clean and happy, so I thought I would break out the camera.