play hard

fourth of july weekend

over the fourth of july, evie and i drove up to south dakota for the cooper family reunion! we had a wonderful weekend. evie got to go to storybook land for the first time. i have so many memories there. every summer when we went to visit my grandparents, they would take us to storybook land. and now that we go there to visit my parents, it was only natural that we take evie! she just stared at all the storybook characters and took it all in.

evie LOVED the ponies!

and her time with papa!!

not only did we get to spend time with mimi & papa...we spent a wonderful day with all of my extended family on my mom's side for the reunion. here we all are sporting our blue cooper shirts!

wouldn't be a party without bubbles!

my mother inspires me to be a better person. if you have ever been lucky enough to meet her, you know exactly what i mean. times are always precious when i get to spend time with her. what makes our time even sweeter is when we get to spend time with my grandma. just like my mom, my grandma makes me want to be kinder, more loving, and more understanding. i learn to love harder and deeper every time i interact with her.

i watched my grandma (evie's namesake) dance with my daughter this weekend. that was, by far, my most treasured moment of the entire weekend home with my family.

eighteen months old

i know that i am partial - but we have the sweetest & cutest 18 month old i have ever laid eyes on. she is so smart and loves to learn new things! but after she understands (or thinks she understands) she likes to do it all on her own. little miss independent for sure.

she's becoming such a big girl. we can tell she understands almost everything we say to her...even though at times she does the exact opposite of what we say. ha! i am loving her age! even though i've said that at every age...this really is the best. we love to dance around and be silly together! her laugh literally brightens our day.

• evie is now 21 lbs 2.5 ounces and 31 inches long (5-10th percentile)

• she is STILL wearing size 2 diapers but we are ready for 3's after this pack runs out! she's such a peanut!

• evie spent her first week away from mommy & daddy this month...but had a full week of mimi & papa!

• she LOVES to read, especially on the iPad

• evie has 10 teeth & 4 about to appear

• she likes to stack blocks, blow bubbles, color with crayons & draw with sidewalk chalk

• evie really loves listening to music & singing (praise the LORD!)

• she sleeps 8pm til 8am

• her vocabulary continues to explode every month! some of the words she can say: NO! (usually spoken forcefully), book, milk, more, happy, hug, nigh nigh (goodnight), please, out (usually mocking mommy when told to get out of the bathroom, bedroom, cabinets), ouchie, peeeyeww (poopy), button, awwwduuh (all done), hot, hiya, bu-bye, bah bah (ball), cheese, baby, choooo (shoe), cah-cah (car), chuck (truck) and many many more.

la la la

evie loves to sing!

ipad - toddler generation

evie really loves reading. she constantly is climbing in our laps with a book in hand. erik recently downloaded a couple sandra boynton book's on the ipad. they are super fun and interactive and she loves them. erik sent me this picture today while i was at work with the following message: "Came around the corner to find this. She turned it on, unlocked it and sure enough, what was she doing? Reading her sandra boynton book"

eeeeeee

this is the sound we hear when the hustad cousins are together. eeeeeee!!! aaaaaaaaaa!!!! evie was not letting the boys push her around tonight! :)

father's day

after a week away on vacation - erik and i soaked in some quality time with evie over the weekend. an even sweeter deal was to be able to celebrate father's day with evie's aunt kinsey & uncle jase! we hit up the saltdogs baseball game and enjoyed fun in the sun!

erik, i am so thankful for you. watching you with our sweet baby girl melts my heart. you love her so hard and so well. she's so lucky...and so am i. i know you will always take care of us. thank you for being a man of integrity, a husband who chases his wife, and a daddy who loves his little girl unconditionally.