Young Parents

It's great to be able to try new things and make mistakes.

The video seemed too long to post in its entirety, but there wasn't a good place to clip it either. After speeding it up, I was going to mute the sound, but then I liked the way it turned out after all. No one got hurt; we were just being silly.

We have a problem

Just a few facts to gain some pity (especially from you Utahns):

Last year was the hottest June on record in Austin.
This year June is in the top five.
Temperatures will be above 100 for the rest of the month.
Yesterday was 105 degrees, a new record.
Heat advisory active through Saturday (heat indicies up to 110)
12 of the last 13 days have been over 100.
Average number of days over 100 during a typical Austin summer: 12

Why is it that as soon as we move here this happens?
The summer of 2007 had only ONE day over 100.

I bet Minot is starting to look pretty good, huh, Suzie?

My Dad

I don't think I've talked about my dad on this blog very much. In fact, the post about Caleb's blessing was probably the first time I've even put his picture up. He is a cool guy though. Probably cooler than I am. He's a Ph.D-holding, motorcycle-riding, marathon-running, garden-growing, scuba-diving, rock-climbing, mountaineering, bicycle-racing kind of dad. All while somehow managing to work full time and raise five children on his own (well, for four years).
And this year he went sky diving for father's day! Probably not on Father's day, but that was his big present. What kind of a dad does that? A pretty crazy hip one, I say! I love you, Dad! Thanks for always supporting us!

The latest picture with Dad and all the kids (5/02/2009). We've changed a lot, no?

Top picture taken probably sometime in 1995 in front of the Washington D.C. temple.

Caleb's Blessing

Flashback to May.
Remember our "quick jaunt" to Utah? Well, this one-day turbo trip ended up being an important event in Baby Caleb's life, because he received his baby blessing, surrounded by friends and family. Since we were leaving a little too early to do it in church, Joseph's parents kindly rearranged their dining room/kitchen to accommodate close to thirty people on Saturday evening.
I am still amazed that things worked out for my entire family (except for my mother, who lives in New York) to be there. What are the chances that my brother and his family would be in town from Arizona the weekend we were there? I was excited that he was able to stand in the circle, along with my father, grandfather, several members of Joseph's family, and the bishop.
The San Antonio Coopers were able to be there, along with three of Joseph's other brothers. The only Coopers missing wereJoseph's sister and brother-in-law, who were at a wedding.

Caleb received a sweet, inspired blessing and we all had a good time eating delicious food (provided by my parents - thanks!) and talking after the blessing.

Joseph, Caleb, and Joseph's older brother Jared.

Beat Up

No, we are not abusive parents. This is what happens when most of your playmates are two-year-old boys and you run everywhere but are not super steady on your feet.
She is going to hate me for posting this picture when she's older.

PS - sorry about all the snippets I've been posting lately. I will do a real blog post soon.

Summer Fun

Do you remember when you were little and could run around all day in a swimming suit totally un-self-consciously? The simple pleasures in life, like cold water on a hot summer's day, were all you needed to be totally content. And having a good buddy along for the ride always makes a good thing even better.

My Baby Boy

My new favorite picture of Caleb:
Isn't he getting cute?

And, I just wanted to take a second to brag about my latest find. I went to Target to find some church clothes for Caleb and they didn't have any. And can I just say, I never realized when I only had a baby girl to shop for just how little there is to choose from for baby boys. Target had probably twenty racks of girl clothes and five racks of boy clothes. Anyway... they didn't have any church clothes at all. It was all baby skater stuff, pajamas, or swim trunks. So I went to the clearance rack and I found this!
And there was only one and it was only $1.24.

Terrible Yellow Eyes

So, this one time I had a dream. It was more of a nightmare, really. Little Caleb was about a month old and in my dream he was walking! I suppose this could be a happy event, but for me it was horrifying. One-month-old babies are not supposed to walk. They are not built for it. He was just hobbling around on his malformed legs and really freaking me out. And then he turned his head to look at me and his eyes turned yellow! That was when I woke up and had to laugh at myself despite the lingering feelings of uneasiness. Good news though! My baby is not a mutant and he still has blue/gray eyes.
This story does have a point. It is the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this blog, which is fantastic. It is a tribute to Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. A "visual love letter," if you will. Go take a look!

A few more pics

Ebony and ivory :)
The monkey in the middle. There are three people in the picture, but he knows who the star is.


Little mommy in the making (and her guinea pig)

Trials and Bad Pictures

So, Joseph, Nathan, Stephanie, and I all had to face a pretty rough trial last night - the power went out for about an hour and a half and we were left without air conditioning! It sure makes you appreciate the luxury of electricity.

It was a pretty violent storm that hit last night around 9 pm. Normal people would have run for cover, those Cooper boys decided to go outside and check it out. Stephanie and I joined them and I have to admit it was pretty cool.
But check this out!














That brown car is ours and I have no idea how that branch landed where it did without hitting it (not that we would have been able to notice extra dents). Nice, huh?

Don't mind the poor quality of the pictures. One was taken through a window screen and the other has a pink sky because our camera is taking its dying breaths.