We can't believe the Christmas season is already behind us again. We always get so excited and have so much fun and then it's over as quickly as it started! This year we got to spend a couple of days with both our families and it was just wonderful to see everybody. Christmas Eve Day we had a brunch with Ryan's family and followed that up with dinner at my grandparents' house in Ahwatukee. There was a lot of driving but it was all worth it. Christmas morning was awesome with great gifts and good food. It's always nice when Santa stops by.

We got home on Sunday where Ryan and I got to have our own Christmas. There were a couple of presents under the tree for Cooper, but let's be honest, mostly it was all about us! After spending four days opening tons of new toys for Cooper, he proceeded to spend all of Sunday evening... playing with old toys that he hadn't played with in months... We kept trying to get his new stuff out but it was hilarious watching him play with his old toys as if they didn't exist until that night! By the next day though, he had all his new blocks and other toys strewn about. Ryan and I got a bunch of vacuums for Christmas, three to be exact! We couldn't tell if our family thought our house was REALLY messy or if they just thought we needed a better vacuum (it's the latter of the two, I'm sure of it). The other night, Ryan got one of them out and used it in the kitchen; you'd have thought we got a new video game or something. He was saying, 'Cool! It's just a battery! Look at all the hair it sucked up from Charlie!' I think he used it three more times that night. It seems odd to be excited about vacuums, but I really am! It's the little things in life right?!?!

On to the next month and a new year! Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

~Ahna

Last weekend, we went up to Utah for a tree hunting trip. I've had the experience of cutting down a Christmas tree with my family every year and it is always so fun. We got up really early Saturday morning and headed to Cedar City, UT and the Dixie National Forest. For whatever reason, we never think Utah will have snow on the ground in December so we typically end up unprepared... this year was no different. We were in snow up to our mid-calf for most of the morning. At least this year, we wore knee length socks!

Despite a tiny bit of hypothermia we found a great tree and got it back home safely. We were talking about how fun it will be in a few years when we can make a whole day of it. Cooper really liked the snow but wanted to keep putting his hands in it and then every time he touched it, he would start to whine because his hands were too cold! It's so funny, all the things they have to learn on their own.

PS, Cooper ate with a shovel the other day. We couldn't take it away, we were laughing too hard... but we did get some fun pictures!!

This year, my family came up to Vegas for Thanksgiving. Ryan was so excited to cook the dinner this year, he started planning weeks in advance. He cooked everything and I was his prep cook! It was lots of fun.

The weekend started out pretty touch-and-go as Cooper was winding down a fever he had been fighting for a few days. On Tuesday, I called the doctor and left him a message letting him know about Cooper's fever. You see, a few months ago, I told the doctor that their 'non emergency medical help line' was neither A) non-emergency nor B) medical help. When you call in with your symptoms, they make you feel like it's a medical emergency and make an appointment right away, only for the doctor to tell you to give your child Motrin or Tylenol and be on your way. It tends to be waste of a few hours. The doctor laughed and told me to just call him and he would call me back within the business day. Well, IT WAS A THANKGSIVING MIRACLE!!! The doctor actually called back on Tuesday afternoon. He said I should bring Cooper in just in case because we were going into the long weekend and it sounded like he had some sort of throat thing. Cooper is really good when he's not feeling well, just a bit more easily aggravated. IE, if you don't hold him as long as he wants to be held, he will immediately scream. This is not to be confused with his other screaming, the one he does when he's not getting his way. It's a hard life, being 1-1/2.

On Thursday, everyone was eating by noon, napping by one, and taking a walk by two. We had our dessert at four-ish and then proceeded to play a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit... for FIVE HOURS. I mean really. It was a wonderful day and was only the beginning of the weekend! On Friday, we took the family out to Red Rock and did some hiking and then made our traditional Christmas cookies that afternoon. We got to see two GREAT Christmas-y things. There was a tree lighting on Friday night... and a whole bunch of Christmas lights on Sunday night! Cooper was in awe of all the lights, and now says 'reindeer', 'snowman', and 'light', which sound more like 'rayeer', 'momah', and 'ligghhh'.

It still amazes me that the little things Cooper does make us both laugh so much. Nobody tells you how hard parenting is and even if they tried, most people wouldn't really understand it; but the one time your child gives you that perfect look, it makes all of it worth it. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes that look won't come for 9 or 10 months, but when it does... it's definitely the best thing in the world. He did that for us all weekend long, smiling and laughing... and then this.

It was a wonderful start to our holiday season and we are really excited!

Well, we didn't take Cooper trick-or-treating; but we did stop by his new friend Owen's house. Owen was born a week earlier on October 23rd. When we showed up for our visit, Ryan... the other Ryan, it's confusing. Recently, there were about 6 of us hanging out and 50% of the people there were named Ryan... I digress. So Ryan asked 'what is Cooper dressed as?' (At the time Cooper wasn't wearing his hood). We said, 'a giraffe!', thanks Colette! Well, it turns out Owen was a giraffe, too! He was a sleepy giraffe and spent most of the evening napping, so Cooper kept him company. At one point, Cooper thought the car seat might be for him, so he walked right up to it, turned around and tried to sit in it!

We tried to get home in time to get some trick-or-treaters of our own... but only 8 kids showed up (and 6 of the 8 showed up in one big group). Ryan and I ended up taking way too much candy to work on Monday. Happy Halloween!

~Ahna

It's a song by Tim McGraw. Last year when we were in Mexico, the hotel played it EVERYDAY during the midday water aerobics activity. I loved it, but they only played part of the song. I started remembering the song again a few weeks before we left for the trip. That song always makes me smile and think of our trips to Puerto Penasco. We were lucky enough to accompany my parents and and Aunt and Uncle (and another couple, Gail and Gary!) down to the beach yet again this year. We look forward to this trip every year now and get excited when we get close to it. This year was going to be especially exciting because Cooper was walking and could really have fun at the beach... or so we thought.

On Friday when we drove down there, Cooper was battling a high fever. He spent the next three days doing his best to feel well, but still high on Motrin! Once the fever subsided, this new, odd and not at all fun thing happened. Cooper decided to learn how to exert his independence. He just thought it would be awesome if he threw what's called a temper tantrum in the middle of the pool where everyone was relaxing and enjoying the sun. The TT was unlike anything either one of us had ever experienced before. It's not like we thought Cooper wouldn't ever have one, it's just that we had never thought about it AT ALL. Then about four days into this trip, I took Cooper out of the pool to put a dry diaper on him. What's confusing here is that he had a diaper that was FULL OF WATER, why would he not want it off you ask? I asked the same question when he started wriggling all over the bed, screaming and trying to crawl away from me as if he were possessed. All I could think to myself was, 'Really?!?! You chose the pool in front of an audience for your first TT? Awesome.'

One night, some clouds were rolling in and we went down to the beach for sunset. Cooper started the walk out there like this, fully clothed. Seconds later, he looked like this. Let me preface this by saying earlier in the day, I could not, under any circumstances get Cooper to go into the ocean without crying. So, we get down to the beach and Cooper becomes enthralled with the holes in the sand, something Nonna had shown him earlier. Within a few minutes, I took off his sweater, just in case he got wet and didn't have anything dry to wear. Auntie walked with him into the water a bit but let him know that if he wasn't careful he would get wet; then because I knew Auntie was right, I gently guided him to a more dry area. Then this happened. So, he ended up looking like this. By the look on his face, you'd think he did that all on purpose!

It was a trip full of changes and new things. Cooper started eating chips and crackers whole, he decided he would rather eat from the adult plates and drink from the adult cups and do whatever the adults were doing. He said different words that were new like moon and beach. He started out the trip eating almost nothing (due to the fever most likely) and ended the trip eating more in one sitting than we've ever seen him eat! He has a voracious appetite for anything mexican; guacamole, salsa, quesadillas, anything.

We of course had a great time and learned alot. We're crossing our fingers that the TT's are over, that's not too much to ask right?

It wasn't Cooper's wedding! He just found a friend to play with and she just might have happened to fall in love with him within a few hours. Many people do, so it was no surprise to me. We got to watch Cassandra get married, finally! She and her husband had a long and frustrating journey, but they made it. It was unseasonably warm, which is not unbelievable; it hit the 100's, what!??! Who doesn't love 100 degree weather in October? I tried not to let it bother me seeing as how we were going to be on the beach in a few short days. The wedding was at the Walker's house and it was beautiful. Cassie's Dad, Dan performed the ceremony and he did a wonderful job which I'm sure wasn't easy.

We didn't plan on staying all night but enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, dancing through the evening. We were glad to be a part of their night and hope they both enjoy each other as much as possible.

We were also lucky enough to spend our Saturday with Brody. It is so much fun to watch him and Cooper play together. They mostly played a game called 'Chase me', which is tiring but fun for all parties. We took a few (and I use that term loosely) pictures of them together.

~Ahna

A couple of weekends ago, we took Cooper to the park for a picnic and photo shoot. He was kind enough to model for free and we (and by we, I mean Ryan) took copious quantities of pictures. Luckily, Cooper is an easy target. I got into a few as well. One thing that made for a difficult photo shoot was that Cooper likes to take most pictures on the run and it is ridiculously hard to stay in front of him, so many of the shots were side profiles or just the back of his head, and what a nice head it is. We were also lucky enough to encounter gale force winds which wasn't a huge problem for Cooper seeing as how he's still perfecting the art of growing hair, but it did make picture taking for me a little more problematic.

It is so fun to watch him watch things and learn about things. He says 'doggie' and 'outside' and 'bubbles' and essentially any word that comes out of our mouths; yes, we are working on our vocabulary daily.

This past weekend, Colette and Jake came up for a quick trip and we got to watch Cooper and Waylon play around. They enjoyed some quality time together while us moms had some margaritas out on the patio. This morning I was thinking how we had a bunch of pictures from the weekend but none of the two of us, then I read Colette's blog and she had the same sentiment! Before the boys were born, I remember entire weekends where we ended up with ONLY pictures of us... hopefully, we log that away and take pictures of us next time!

We really love our weekends. I am already excited for Friday!

~Ahna & Ryan

I'm about a weekend behind. Last weekend we decided to get out early and go to Red Rock Canyon for a hike. The weather has continued to cool (which is what happens when entering into the winter, I'm aware it's not a new phenomenon), so we got excited for a hike. Then we saw it was still supposed to be in the 100's. Oh well, the hike was on.

Red Rock Canyon is about 45 minutes away and consists of a 13 mile loop. You can stop quite a few times along the way. We got there a little later than expected and were nearly killed by an out of towner who thought the road was A) actually a 65 mile per hr speed limit and B) designed to pass on the left (in actuality, it's a 25 mile per hr speed limit and just one big lane). We drove almost all the way through the canyon before we got to the hike I've been wanting to do for some time. It says it goes through Ponderosa Pines and there is water and I always love hikes where I can find water. I didn't want anything too strenuous as Charlie was with us and we are still learning just what he can do physically. We threw Cooper in the backpack and were on our way. About 30 minutes in, we came across a meadow... that's right, in the middle of the desert, a meadow that was full of green grass and trees. Right on the other side of the meadow was the promised water. Charlie was thoroughly pleased as he enjoys my affinity for anything water related and promptly found his way into the pool, laid down and stared at us, like, 'Are you guys comin' in or what?'

We had a great time, aside from the hiker on the way back up the trail who made a comment about Charlie's age... 'speaking of 68, that dog LOOKS 68'. He's 49, thank you very much. Sheesh...

We are enjoying our last weekend at home for the foreseeable future. I mean really, who doesn't love travelling with a 17 month old?!?!

~Ahna & Ryan

Last weekend we took Cooper on his first camping trip. Much like the beach, he was dirty within seconds. There is a certain theme to the pictures you'll see...eating. Eating rocks, eating sticks, eating plants, eating the camping chair. The only thing we didn't take pictures of was Cooper actually eating food.

It was a quick one night trip to get Cooper accustomed to camping and to get us out of the heat. We had a great time. We saw actual stars, amazing I know. After living in Las Vegas for a few years, one can forget that the sky actually fills up with them at night; all we get to see are the lights on the strip!

On Saturday morning, we went up to the top of the mountain and took a quick hike. Charlie went with us and let us know when he was done by lying down in the middle of the trail and giving us the evil eye. We had a great time and are very excited for Cooper's next camping trip!

~Ryan and Ahna

While I was pregnant with Cooper, Ryan got me a sweet ride so we could take Marly out at night for exercise. Most nights we would go out bike riding with Marly for a few miles and get her good and exhausted. Shortly after receiving my shiny new bike, the baby doctor told me I shouldn't be riding bicycles anymore... for fear of losing my balance and falling three feet overboard. I'm not still upset about it or anything.

After Cooper was born, I was excited because now we could go on bike rides with him! I'm pretty sure when we were kids, Moms and Dads just put us right up on the handlebars and we had to hold on. But nowadays, that's looked down upon, so we waited until we had a proper seat and helmet for Cooper. For his birthday, Nonna and Papa and Auntie and Uncs gave him this awesome helmet! It's adjustable so he will be able to wear it more than once before his huge head grows out of it. Tonight was THE night! It has been too hot all summer to go out but Ryan got the bikes out today and got them ready.

We tried to put the helmet on Cooper before we put him in his seat, but he was not happy with that option. Once we got him settled and the helmet in place, we took off! He smiled and laughed for most of the trip!

~Ryan and Ahna

Oh joy! Our friends Blake and Charity let us come visit this weekend for a quick trip to the beach! They were having a heat wave as well, but it was only in the upper 80's. The good news is that the water was the PERFECT temperature so we were able to swim and dive in the waves and have an all around great time!

Cooper loved being on the sand, this is what he looked like about three seconds into our day. This time we got to go to the Stone Brewery for dinner which was pretty nice. Cooper was in rare form so I spent most of my time letting him walk barefoot all over the place. I'm sure some of the looks I got were due to mothers wondering where his shoes were. To be totally honest, we only have one pair that actually fits, it's a flip flop type shoe and he has trouble walking in them so I just leave him barefoot most of the time. This wasn't a problem until this last weekend where he decided he was a marathon walker and that was all he wanted to do.

It was a great weekend with friends and so much fun at the beach!

A few weeks ago we had the chance to leave this horrid weather and travel a couple hours north to Zion. We got to stay in a great hotel that we stayed in a few years ago and just hung out. They happened to be having the 'hottest day of the year' there, which was of course delightful seeing as how that's what we were trying to get away from. But Ryan had to work so Cooper and I hung out in the pool. The next morning we went to a Farmer's Market and let Cooper play in some grass. It could have been the highlight of his life thus far considering he had just started walking and was able to touch grass! Can you imagine?? We can't because there isn't much grass in Vegas. We have a two by two foot patch of it in our front yard, but I'm fairly certain that doesn't count.

That same weekend, we had a baby shower for our friend Julie and her husband Ryan. They are due in October! It was great to have people over and talk about fun things like babies and labor and the sheer joy of those first few months, HA!

The very next weekend we drove down to Phoenix for KARA's 30th birthday! She looked gorgeous and Ryan and I had a great time hanging out with her and some other friends. We spent our day in the pool with Auntie and Uncs. Cooper really seems to enjoy the water. He's a little too fearless with his stepping off the pool bench into nothingness. I guess he just trusts that someone will be there to catch him! He's gone under a few times but knows how to put his arms up and cough out all the water! It was so much fun spending the day with Auntie and Uncs and the great news was that Cooper loves Uncs again! Last time he saw Uncs it was touch and go but Cooper totally redeemed himself that weekend and even laughed at Uncs in the pool. Here are some photos.

Cooper continues to develop his passion for household chores. When I was sweeping the kitchen the other day, he grabbed the Swiffer and started to mop for me. I can't say this upsets me and hopefully in a few years he will find this activity equally as exciting.




~Ahna

We've been away for awhile. We have nothing to show for it but some pictures...

Cooper has been hilarious and below you can see his new tricks! He says fun things like 'Wubby' (Love you). He also gives me back rubs when I'm sitting on the floor with him. He'll crawl around behind me, stand up and then start patting my back. It's fun and I'm going to gently coerce him into doing that as often as possible.

Here's a couple videos for your enjoyment.


~Ahna

We just got back from a week long trip through AZ. Last Friday, we headed to Phoenix to visit the family and go to the lake with the Pickards (you can check out our good Party Night times here). We hung out in the pool with Mom and Dad on Sunday and left that afternoon for wonderful Pinetop. Pinetop is definitely one of our favorite places to be. We enjoyed five whole days of gorgeous weather and relaxing... it was glorious.

We stayed with Ryan's grandmother at her house in the White Mountains. It's rainy there every day so during Cooper's afternoon nap, we just sat out on the porch and watched it rain. It depends what kind of vacationer one is, but for us, this was the greatest. We got massages and facials, we played in the spa, we went hiking in Greer, I read three books. We cannot thank Ryan's grandma enough for having us all week. She and Cooper got to play together and spend quality GG/great grandson time. It is such a joy to spend time with her.

I could say more, but you know what they say about pictures!

We spent our 4th of July weekend in California with a few friends. We stayed at a friends' house a few miles from the beach and got to spend all day Friday there!! Cooper was hilarious. At first he wouldn't get anywhere near the seaweed, going so far as to lift his knees off the sand and crab crawl around it. That only lasted for a few minutes, then he decided to start putting it on his head. Ryan and I got to hone our skills playing beach volleyball while Cooper frolicked about on the sand.

We really enjoy Encinitas and definitely did not want to be driving back to the 100 degree Las Vegas weather on Sunday.

~Ahna & Ryan

We've had Charlie now for a few months and Tatum is still unsure of the purpose of another dog. She mostly stays away from the kitchen where Charlie is most of the time (and also where her food and litter box reside, but that's a story for another day). After much deliberation and thoughtful consideration... I decided it would be best to just put Tatum in the same spot as Charlie and let Charlie sniff and lick away. He is a horribly lovable dog and never goes after Tatum. I think he would prefer it most if she just cuddled up next to him while he napped... but instead, we get a lot of hissing and long, drawn out meows that make it sound like she is dying inside. I decided it would be best to document the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.



I mean, she doesn't look THAT mad. For the first time tonight, she approached the kitchen entrance and sniffed around. But Charlie got excited and sniffed louder; it's a half sneeze, half sniff. She ran away. They'll get over it.

~Ahna

The other day I got to wake Cooper up in the morning and take him to daycare because Ryan had to be at work early. This is a rare occurrence as Ryan is typically the one to take him. We have resorted to putting Cooper to bed in a few select onesies or t-shirts that he doesn't wear during the day as opposed to buying him new PJ's. I do it, why can't he??? So, that night he was wearing an over sized t-shirt. I went in to wake him up and get him changed and out the door. When I got into his room and peeked into his crib, I was met with the sight of his bare butt up in the air. Cooper likes the 'stink bug' pose (I'm under the impression most babies like to sleep this way, with their knees up by their stomach so their butts are in the air). It took me at least 4 seconds to register the fact that his butt was without a diaper and that we do not put him to bed sans diapers. I looked up at the corner of his crib and saw what you see above. It took everything in me not to burst out laughing. I snuck out of his room, ran for the camera, and went back for it. He woke up half naked with a crooked smile on his face. The child figured out how to get his own diaper off in the middle of the night... so that explained the random laughing I heard at 1 o'clock the night before... Hmmm...

Father's Day 2009. We celebrated over two weekends, our first was down in Phoenix. We had a 30th birthday party for Colette-y and a Father's Day brunch on Sunday. It was great to see everybody and enjoy ourselves. Ryan worked on the shop with Dad and Uncs, it's almost done! I got to hang out with Brody a lot and I loved it. I always feel like I only get a few minutes with him when I do get to see him and it's never enough. He was so awesome with Cooper. He would RUN really fast past Cooper and Cooper would laugh out loud and then crawl after him. It was their version of hide and seek which was really more of an 'I'm gonna run to the other side of the room and wait for you to catch up with me.' Pretty soon, they'll be chasing each other everywhere. I've never seen Cooper interact with other kids that way, it was just adorable.

We hung out by the pool and just relaxed for most of the weekend... it's just never quite long enough.

On the weekends when the weather is nice as it has been for the past few weeks, I like to drink my coffee outside on the patio and enjoy the morning. Last weekend, I did just that. Cooper was up already so we had some breakfast and then headed outside. I was wondering how I would contain him seeing as how he crawls and whatnot and I came up with a brilliant idea. Some family friends gave us a few things a couple months ago and one of them was a plastic fence type thing that can be made into a playpen of sorts. So, I ran to the garage and got that set up outside and put a bunch of blankets and toys in and then plopped Cooper down and started reading and enjoying my coffee. Cooper was enjoying himself for awhile (and by 'awhile' I mean one minute tops), figuring out how to get his shapes into his sippy cup. He started to get restless.







I stopped reading my book and got up to try and get him resettled. After I sat in his playpen with him for a few minutes, he was fine again and I snuck out and back to my book and coffee. I began re-reading the paragraph I was in because I was interrupted. About 45 seconds later, he started to whine.







At this point I figured my reading time was as good as over and I grabbed the camera. His retort to my picture taking was to look sad and dejected and as cute as possible.







Then he got really mad, spit out his binkie and looked up to the sky as if to say 'why are you keeping me in this prison?'







He won, I took him out. I put him in his swing and sat behind him reading, drinking my coffee, and pushing him every once in awhile. We made it at least 30 minutes out there, but I didn't get much reading done. The whole point was to enjoy my coffee out on the patio, but I worked for it. One day, I'll look back on this and laugh... right?!?!

~Ahna

I realize this isn't the most flattering picture of Cooper and years from now he may take up some issue with that but that's beside the point. On Friday night we went to a friend's house for Game Night. It's been a long time since we had a game night and we were ready for some fun! Cooper came with us, of course, and we put him down there. He sometimes has trouble going down in new places and because we put him to sleep on a bed we had to make sure he was really asleep before we started our games. Well, the mark on his nose comes from his battle with the bed. We were ready to leave after Cooper had been sleeping for some time and I went to get him.

When I walked in the room, the bed was empty and there was no baby to be found. I heard whimpering and ran to the other side of the bed. It was as if he had scaled down the night stand to the floor and then got down on his stomach to crawl under the bed to get to the door. I could only see his diapered butt sticking up in the air. I grabbed him and hugged him for a minute as I figured this was a bit traumatizing to him. It was only after I looked at his face did I see the copious amount of blood trickling down his nose. Traumatizing wasn't the word for it! I ran him into the bathroom and threw on the light which only delighted him further and threw a towel over his face. This was clearly more painful for me than it was for him because he had zero tears. The bloody nose was quickly healed but the cuts and scratches remain. We actually thought we would wake up to his first black eye but luckily we came through with his gorgeous face still in tact.

I went to bed that night wondering exactly how the next years of his life will go. Ryan handled his bloody nose much better than I did, what will happen when he breaks an arm falling off the monkey bars, or dislocates his knee in soccer?!?!? I guess I'll have all these little episodes prepare me.

~Ahna

Our sweet little Dyl Pickle has graduated high school. When I met Dyl Dyl (I bet he loves all my nicknames) he was 10! At that time, he wanted to follow in his oldest brother's (Ryan) footsteps and go to NAU. He taught me to play some awesome songs on the guitar and in a few years, maybe he'll do the same for Cooper. We headed to Tucson on Wednesday to watch him graduate (middle brother Tyler is missing from the above picture, he had to take his baby girl home to get some sleep). A bunch of the family was there to watch him walk across the stage and get his diploma and we all cheered VERY loudly. We did all kind of wish that his last name started with a B instead of a W, but you take the hand you're dealt.

We spent the rest of our time with Ryan's mom and brothers. She got lots of Cooper time and I think we talked her in to coming to visit soon! It was cloudy when we got there and proceeded to rain for two days; I was in heaven. It's so rare to be able to sleep with the doors and windows open in May in Tucson. We got to see all the brothers and future sisters-in-laws, and we got to spend a bunch of time with Tyler and Vanessa's little girl, our niece, Jalyn. It was so cute to watch her and Cooper together. We'll see them again in November and they'll both be walking, I can't imagine the kind of trouble they'll get themselves into then!

We are very proud of Dylan and we are really proud of his Mom, Laura. She raised five beautiful boys by herself and got them all out the door (well, Dylan will be moving in August). She did an incredible job, now she can go have some FUN (right Laura??).

Hope everybody is having a happy Memorial Day weekend!

And he is a bundle... all 80-ish pounds of him. Meet Charlie, our new Golden Retriever rescue dog. He is full of sweetness. He is seven years old and he spent the last year and a half living outside with no human contact. He did have a sister (the other one we fostered for a few days) but she was quite mean to him and we didn't think they should stay together. It's possible he'll need a doggie friend to keep him company...

He does really well with Cooper, he loves to lick his whole head until it's wet. He also loves the water. I bought him a baby pool so he could get in that instead of our pond and the first time I filled it up, he walked right into it and laid down. It was great. He has been a great addition to the family.

Cooper celebrated his birthday on May 7, 2009. He was battling a cold and what I can only assume was teething all at one time. That's a lot to deal with for a one year old. On Saturday, we had some lovely friends over for a birthday celebration, he was a little overwhelmed but he did alright. He was the typical 1 year old, enjoying the bags and the wrapping paper more than what was inside, but I enjoyed it for him. He got his first soccer ball! It's full size, so chances are good Ryan and I will have fun with it for a few years first.

Mom, Dad, Auntie and Uncs were in town for the weekend. We went to see Love on Friday night. This show comes highly recommended in the Ward household for those of you that may come to Las Vegas for a weekend. On Mother's Day we had a wonderful brunch before Auntie and Uncs left and then Mom and I went shopping while the boys went to see Star Trek.

Enjoy pics from Cooper's weekend!

Cooper lost his beloved Marly last August... okay, okay, we lost our Marly, Cooper wasn't old enough to remember. We originally thought we would go without a dog until we had a bigger back yard. But we wanted Cooper to have a dog now! So, for some time, we've been teetering on the brink. We filled out applications for a few different rescue organizations about a month ago and have been going through the process ever since. That's right, it is nearly as difficult to adopt a child as it is to adopt a dog. We were actually DENIED at our first choice organization, the Weimaraner rescue. We know Weims and Dalmatians have the same demeanor and personalities and we thought we'd be a good match for them. However, the Weim people felt like we were not worthy of rescuing a weim because we were not either A) independently wealthy or B) retired; so they did not feel we would be home for enough hours of the day to hang out with the dog.

While that was a massive blow to my ego, I figure everything happens for a reason (only after much convincing from Ryan that it was going to be okay) and we went to our second but equally as impressive choice, Golden Retrievers... good family dogs. So, on Saturday we got THE call. They told us they had a brother/sister set and would we be willing to take two? We decided to give it a try, but think we might go crazy before our seven day 'fostering' period is up. Cooper has already lost one rubber binkie down the gullet of Daisy (she swallowed it practically whole, yuck). Here a picture of the duo, Daisy and Dante.

Last weekend, we walked in our fourth annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K. We had a great time and raised just over $1700 as a team! Cooper came with us even though he was battling a fever. He was a champ.

More updates will follow soon as Cooper has his FIRST birthday on Thursday!

~Ahna

Cooper is becoming sneaky in his old age. In the evenings before his dinner but while Ryan is cooking ours, he sometimes has what we call 'chill out time'. This is when we put him in his swing to hang out and listen to music while we do adult things in the kitchen. A couple weeks ago, I did just that and admired him from afar while he made singing type noises. I walked into the kitchen to get his food ready and noticed after what seemed like five minutes but was probably only seconds that the noises had stopped. Upon peeking around the corner... I see Cooper, out of his swing, standing up against the ottoman, throwing the blanket on the floor (he's a neat freak like his Dad so any area that he is standing by must be completely free of clutter/anything at all). This is all amazingly brilliant, of course. You may be asking yourself, how did the child who cannot walk somehow get/fall out of the swing and end up standing perfectly straight two feet away from the swing? Or at least, that's what I was asking myself.

Ever since that day, I've been watching, waiting, hoping for him to pull off such a feat again. This weekend was my chance. We had some friends over for dinner and I put him in his swing, it was time. A few minutes later, while we were talking to each other I was watching Cooper with one eyeball. I watched him roll onto his belly (in the tiny, tiny swing), scootch his mid section close to the edge of the swing, and casually drape his legs over the side until they hit bottom. Let me just interject here to point out that the swing is on full speed this whole time! I'm laughing as I write this, so I may have a typo... It was one of the funniest things EVER. We almost thought we should put him back in the swing just to watch him do it again, but thought some people wouldn't see the humor in that.

While I was doing laundry this weekend, I threw the clean clothes back into the laundry basket and put them on the floor so I could get the next load started. When I came back to the clothes, I saw this. Apparently Cooper wants his chores to include laundry. As soon as he has more control of his opposable thumbs, I'll look into teaching him about folding.

After work today, we took advantage of the nice weather and walked to the park. By park, I mean the ridiculously tiny 12x30 foot piece of grass that they threw in on the corner of two streets because they couldn't get the city to approve another house there. It's more of a grassy knoll, but good for children who are discovering grass for the first time... and for discovering LADYBUGS. There just so happened to be tons of them, so we found as many as we could and put them all over Cooper to see what he would do! He immediately took one between his forefinger and thumb and went straight for his mouth. I know, shocking. He seems to enjoy putting everything in his mouth except his actual dinner. It's like when Cooper's characteristics were being decided, my Dad got his two cents in and said, 'give Cooper the same eating habits as his mother, that will show her! HA! HA!' (Sorry Dad!) Needless to say, the last few days of meal time have been a battle and once again I'll blame it on teething. I mean really, the child is almost one, he must be close to a tooth by now?!?!?

~Ahna

Yeah, it was a tiring weekend. But it was fun! Cooper did a little crawling to his Easter basket. He took out the first thing he could grab and promptly put it in his mouth. It made for a delicious snack, even though it was just a bottle of bubbles and he was sucking on the bottom of it! He got to paint his first egg. He saw a whole bunch of family including Uncle Kyle, Uncle Dylan, AND Grandma Ward! It's hard to believe that a year ago at Easter, Cooper looked like this and now he looks like this.

I posted just a few pictures of Easter, it turns out we didn't take many. Apparently we were more interested in finding eggs!

One of the pics in this series is of Cooper by our sliding door. He so closely resembled this picture that I couldn't help myself... Marly used to love hiding in the curtains... come to think of it, so does Tatum!

Ryan went on a hike this past weekend with a friend of ours, who also happens to be Ryan. It was an all day hike, but they got some great pictures!

Hope everybody has a great rest of their week!

We spent last weekend in Sedona with my parents. We went for a wedding of a college friend, met my parents there on Thursday, and spent Friday celebrating (yeah, we celebrate a lot!) our anniversary with a train ride through Verde Valley. Sedona is such a gorgeous place. We took a hike through Red Rock State Park on Saturday morning and then went to eat at a local brewery there in town. The wedding was Saturday night on a hilltop in Sedona, which couldn't be more beautiful!

Click here for pictures of the trip and Cooper pictures (as always!).

Today we celebrated five years of marriage. After a wonderful dinner, we decided to watch our wedding video. Maybe in the future, we will not be so compelled to reminisce (we fast-forward to the good parts -- like the speeches). After watching those speeches, we just wanted to say a few words...

Colette,
You were right. The best part of being married is being together.

Dad,
You were right. The most important thing in a marriage is the ability to listen to one another, and to work as a team.

Kyle,
You were right. Ryan is irreplaceable.

Ryan,
You were right. Ahna is the most gorgeous woman alive and is definitely capable of inducing speechlessness.

It has been a wonderful (although VERY fast) five years. We feel lucky to have shared them with each other, and look forward to the rest of our lives together.

Other things we have learned from the video and from our wedding:
-A good DJ (or iPod full of your own tunes) is worth paying for.
-The party is the best part.
-If you have to - pay extra for digital copies of your photos (otherwise, you will have to make one up - as seen in the photo at the top of this post).

And that's it for now. We love you all.

Ahna and Ryan

Talk about good times... The die hards took half days and made it to the bar early. The good thing about that is I was also home and in bed by 8! Not much to say about St. Patty's Day except that it was AWESOME. Not to mention the fact that we ended not paying any cover charges! Green beer was flowing and green flare was in abundance. Man I H-E-A-R-T St. Patrick's Day.

Our little man has learned the fine art of crawling. It's less of an art and more of a work in progress right now, but he'll fine tune it. He enjoys crawling to things that aren't toys... the cat, the remote control, a cell phone, the stereo receiver, anything that lights up (the only toy we can get him to work for). He does not enjoy crawling for any other reason and when you put him on his hands and knees and try to get him to crawl for entertainment purposes only, he looks up at you like you're nuts with a face that says, 'Look people, I have already showed you that I'm perfectly capable of this crawling thing and I have no intention of doing it again.' Then, he lunges to his belly, rolls over to his back and pushes himself up to a sitting position. It's quite comical.

He certainly enjoys walking more, so we put him up to our coffee table and he has races against the clock to see how fast he can get around it. His daycare provider lets him do the same thing at her house; we've had a pretty tired baby the last couple of days.

The weather has been perfect the last few days so we've been taking Cooper for lots of walks. I get so excited for new-ish things, so I took along the camera on one of our first walks. He's a pretty easy target for pictures! Stay tuned, I'll be posting St. Patty's Day in a moment...

Sometimes... you just have to do what they say. I had been away from Cooper all day on Thursday (not unlike a normal work day) and when I came home, instead of playing with him and cuddling with him... I had to get the house in shape. Mom and Dad were coming for the weekend. So, instead of letting him cry it out... I threw him in the Baby Bjorn. In his defense... he's teething (although I've been using that excuse for a good 6 months now and nothing has popped through!). Anyway, I threw him in there and went about cleaning the house and of course he seemed perfectly normal. He barely even inhaled all the cleaning stuff I sprayed around! HA!

We had a great weekend with my parents. Mom and I did some shopping on Saturday while Dad and Ryan worked on the pond. We got some little fishies out there! I've been wanting those for a long time! Then on Sunday, we found a great little art festival in Henderson. We stopped by there after we had a great breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Green Valley Ranch. Usually I get annoyed with that place because it always seems packed with people and you are lucky if you get everything you need service wise. But they recently moved into a bigger space and we just so happened to get one of the best servers in Las Vegas! My Dad pegged him for an education student right away. We ended up over at Border's for a little while before they left. It was really a wonderful weekend.

I can't believe it's already the middle of March!

5. Tag 6 people to do the same



















I'm not gonna lie... I had to count 6 file folders of 'family only' because otherwise there would have been a picture from 2004 with a bunch of people we don't even talk to anymore! This was taken Easter 2005 after we had our fill of searching for eggs and baskets. Marly was tired! Anyway... I tag Colette-y, Court-y, Heather, Mom, Erin, and Tiffany!! If you'll notice... you are the only people I know that blog and read this blog!!

Enjoy!

~Ahna

I enjoy March for several reasons, two of which I'll divulge here. It's my birthday month, and it's the host of the greatest holiday ever... St. Patrick's Day.

Last night a group of us went to Fado's for Happy Hour. Our mission was to find out exactly how we were going to enjoy the St. Patty's Day festivities without paying a ridiculous cover. We thought if we got there when they opened up Tuesday the 17th at 8:00 am that we'd be able to be there all day without cover. We were told though that once they start charging a cover at noon, anyone already there would have to pay that cover in order to continue drinking... Whatever. Either way, we made friends with the manager, Terry and the general manager, Ian and in the end they told us we could enjoy ourselves for half off the cover. I think once the day rolls around though, we'll be able to be taken care of for free. So, we somewhat accomplished our mission. For some of the people there, it was their first time meeting Cooper and most of them commented that he was a really good baby. We know this, of course! While we were enjoying ourselves, I gave Cooper my cell phone to play with (it's the one I use for work and it's pink which should tell you how much I loathe it, so I didn't mind if it got a little drool on it). He opened it up to see the fun lights and then started 'drunk dialing'. You know what I'm talking about. He dials the one and only Pretty BP. I noticed what he was doing and was able to say hi to Brandon for a minute and let him know that Cooper was very excited to be able to call him.

As promised... pictures of Cooper eating those horrible puffs, which he now loves. Also, I've attached some pictures of him in his new swing! Good times. Thanks Nonna and Papa... He pulled himself up the other night but by the time we got the camera to catch the standing up in action, he decided he was frustrated with the maneuver and wanted someone to do it for him. Clever kid.

~Ahna

Recently I have learned that once your baby is about six months old, people start asking if he is crawling yet. I would say that nine out of ten people ask that as their follow-up question to "how's the baby?"

Now, I have absolutely no problem with the fact that Cooper doesn't crawl yet. First off, I have always known that whatever offspring my wife bore would be woefully behind the curve, just as I was all throughout my childhood (and some would say a bit into adulthood as well). The truth is, at this point I would probably prefer a relatively immobile baby as opposed to one who is able to just amble around on his own accord. Right now, we can leave Cooper on the floor and leave the room for five minutes and return to find that he hasn't really moved from where we left him.

So, I would say that if we were to speed up Cooper's crawling training, I would probably need a little bit more incentive. I mean, if I am going to teach my baby a skill that will make him more difficult to look after, I should get something out of it as well, right?

Well, during some routine web-surfing the other day, I came across what might help out with the situation. Please click here for the fantasticness...

-Ryan

I will be having a man-conversation with Cooper and I will remember back to the time when Ahna told me she wanted to change the blog template...

"One day, when you were very young, your mother came to me and told me that she wanted a new blog template..."

And then I will have to go on to explain about how we used to have to go to a machine with a keyboard and push these little keys to get the words on the internet machine. Cooper will undoubtedly have some sort of realization about how difficult it must have been to deal with such primitive technology, and then he will retreat to his Minority Report-type interactive computer where he will have some virtual conversation with his friends about how lame his dad used to be.

When I was younger, I had a similar conversation with my mother. It was something like this...

"Your father and I used to have to buy our music on vinyl discs. So, when we wanted to hear the new Bee Gees album, we would have to take a big piece of vinyl and put it on that faux-wood paneled odd machine that has been collecting dust since before you were born..."

Man I remember thinking about how ridiculous it seemed that there was something bigger than a CD that was used for music. And so, like sand through the hourglass, these are the technological advances that separate generation from generation...

Anyway, I really had no point in telling that story other than to say that we have a new blog template! I won't say exactly who brought this on but lets just say that Ahna spoke and I took the hint - then after a couple of days of fiddling with things it seems that we are up and running!

-Ryan

Cooper has spent a few hours getting acquainted with mirrors lately. While we were in Phoenix this weekend, my Dad got a bunch of pictures of him enjoying his reflection. Ahh kids, what will we do when mirrors don't entertain them anymore!??!

We had a wonderful, fantastic weekend down in Phoenix over Valentine's Day. We actually went to get our taxes done... on Valentine's Day... talk about romantic! But we still made the best of the weekend. Cooper got to see some of his best friends... Waylon Pickard, Joe and Jake Cash, and his cousin Brody!

We just started giving Cooper some cereal type pieces of food (the little ones that dissolve in your mouth. You could call them a more expensive, baby version of Cheerios). When we saw Laura this weekend, she said they were the best so we tried them out for Cooper. I'll have to see if Ryan can get a picture of his face when he finally gets one in his mouth. It's hard to explain the hilarity of it and I think only a picture will suffice. Check back soon for one of those... but until then, enjoy some pics from the weekend!

This is what we woke up to Sunday morning in Flagstaff! If only it had done this on Friday night, our snowboarding trip would have involved fewer rocks on our rides down the mountain! We met my aunt and uncle in Flag for the weekend. Uncs and Ryan and I went up to the mountain Saturday morning and Auntie stayed at the hotel with Cooper all day! We hadn't been able to go snowboarding for two years due to Cooper being strategically placed in my belly last winter so we were both nervous about our abilities! Turns out it's just like riding a bike, so we did just fine. Uncs got some new bindings for his board at Christmas so he couldn't wait to test them out. We had a great time hanging out with them and hope we can do it again!

Ryan and I were so excited about boarding that we hope to make one more trip before the end of the season. Brianhead in Utah is a little bit closer than Flag, so maybe we can make it up there!

We absolutely love Flagstaff and love spending time there. It has some sentimental value of course, seeing as how we met there. If I only knew back on that August day that I was meeting the person I would spend forever with... I probably would have paid more attention to what I was wearing! I can't imagine a day in my life without Ryan, I am so lucky to have found him. I love that we both laugh so much and I love that Cooper laughs with us now too. He clearly doesn't always know what he's laughing at but these things take time!

We had Cooper's nine month checkup today, he was 27 inches long and weighed in at a hefty 16.6 pounds! Hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day!

There isn't really any reason I titled this post in Spanish. I guess I just really wanted to grease the proverbial wheels on the section of my brain where my two years of High School Spanish are stored. Seems to me I haven't forgotten a thing :) Time for another trip to the Mexican beach!

But seriously the Burros de Las Vegas were encountered on a recent hiking trip we took through Red Rock Canyon which is just outside of Las Vegas. These are probably the hippest burros in the southwest, considering they have a pretty sweet view of the Las Vegas Strip just over that ridge in the picture. Other Burros are probably jealous of these guys. Anyway, wow, I have been talking about Burros de Las Vegas for far too long. I came here to update the blog. Duh...

Sorry for the short delay in updates. We've been keeping busy with the young one and the like. Over the last few weeks we have been keeping it pretty low-key. We got to try out our cool new Cooper backpack carrier contraption on the hike through Red Rock. He seemed to really like it - especially when he realizes he has his own "reigns" which I call the hair that sticks out of my head. But hey, if it gives Cooper a laugh then I guess it's worth a couple of infant-sized handfuls of hair missing from my head.

So, we posted some pictures from the hike as well as a few other random shots of Cooper (he seems to be a running theme nowadays) for your perusal.

Well, not quite sure if he knows what he's saying, but he certainly has that "follow the leader" thing down. Or maybe it's more of a "monkey see, monkey do" sort of thing.

Cooper and Brody will be great friends in no time. Just don't tell Brody, he's not too sure about that just yet. We had a wonderful Christmas with the family. Cooper got tons of toys. We will need to put an addition on the house just to make room for all of them! Ryan and I got a Christmas present to the Phoenix Botanical Gardens where there was a Chihuly exhibit, he's one of our favorite artists. We did that on Friday morning and headed back home on Saturday.

We spent New Years' here in Las Vegas with Ryan's family! His grandma and aunt and uncle were here with our cousins, Ashlyn and Jim (J3). We had a great time with them and hope they come back to visit soon. We are really enjoying watching Ash and J3 grow up. They are great kids.

Cooper is waving at everything now and we are doing a new sign with him, 'all done'. He likes to take steps when we hold his hands but he's not nearly as excited about crawling.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year!