Cowboys and Indians

We gave the boys one more day of recovery time before they go back to Lisa's, so we took shifts watching the boys while the other worked. I took part of the afternoon and was home when they woke up. Miles and I went in to get Cooper and it was clear he is feeling much better. Cooper started sharing his babies and they were giggling up on Cooper's bed. Then he said 'I wish Miles could talk. Then we could play Cowboys and Indians!' I have no idea how he knows about playing Cowboys and Indians, but we had a good laugh.

Here are a few new pics of the boys this afternoon.

To the Robins on our deck - Watch out for that snake!

We have two Robins trying to build a nest on our back porch light. They've been at it for several days and have made no progress (half becuase it's a bad spot and the other half because every chance we get we go tear down whatever progress they have made...). We've had this problem before and the back porch ends up covered in bird poop, grass, straw, sticks and whatever else they drop on the porch. It's not going to happen this year...at least we thought.

A friend recommended we buy a black snake, rubber of course, and lay it on top of the light. Great idea - snakes eat birds / eggs, they will be afraid, move on to another spot (like trees!). So, Carey picks up a snake at Wal-Mart and I put it on top of the light with hopes of great success. Within the first minute, this is what we found.






If you can't tell, that's a Robin, approaching, putting in some nest, then biting the snake. She must be very scared. I think we are going to need more 'tactical' measures...

The Plague

We returned from our extended Easter weekend on Monday - we had a big week. Despite taking a few days off, I had quarterly sales meetings for several days (and nights) which had me away from the family. It would have been okay had Cooper not come down with a wicked flu bug on Tuesday. Carey and I have cleaned up more puke (on the floor, bed, stuffed animals, us...) than ever before. Cooper has literally laid on the couch for days. It's all we can do to keep him hydrated. We are starting to see some smiles with Cooper, but now Miles has it! Lisa (our babysitter) also thinks one of her kids is coming down with it so it may be another long, long week.

Easter Weekend

We went to the big city of Enid, OK for Easter weekend with the Bethell family. Hanna and Jeremiah hosted our family as well as Mom, Dad, Wade and Lauren. Mom and Dad pulled the 5th-wheel down so it was very nice to each have some space at Hanna's. We had great weather and spent a lot of time outside on the 4Wheelers, fishing, feeding calves, etc. Cooper had so much fun, especially on the ATVs. The constant phrase was 'Dad, let's go faster'! Here are some pics of the weekend.

Weekend Project

It's been a few days, okay weeks, since our last post. However, much has been going on! I've traveled to the west coast and Canada several times, Miles is crawling like a crazy man, we're putting up a new fence and built a swingset over the weekend!! I'm not sure we knew what we were in for when we started the swingset - there were only two small boxes...

Before and After:

Miles on the move!

Today Nana sent Cooper a new sweat suit and he really likes it. After putting it on by himself, he informed us that he "looks sharp!" He also commented on soft it is - he was very cuddly tonight!




As the entry title indicates, Miles is officially on the move. He's been crawling one stride at a time for about a week, but he's starting to really go!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with green food this year. It was really fun (and a little gross!) all at the same time!

For breakfast, Cooper had a doughnut with green sprinkles, Nate had pancakes with green butter, Miles had green Cheerios, and I had green oatmeal. YUMMY!

For lunch, we had green mac and cheese (this would be the gross part), limes, green grapes, green pepper, and broccoli. YUMMY!

Beware the Ides of March!

It was a big day in the Bethell house! Given the tradition of the infamous Ides of March, I had another birthday - the 28th time I've been around for the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Other historical happenings on this day include: 1776 - South Carolina being the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain, 1916 - President Wilson sends 12,000 troops to pursue Poncho Villa, 1985 - the first Internet domain name is registered and the birthdays of President Andrew Jackson and Mike Love.

We had a casual Sunday morning - the boys and I made Blueberry pancakes for breakfast and Carey made two coffee cakes for FBC's The Encounter. The afternoon was spent working in the yard, burning leaves and preparing the garden for spring planting. This year we'll have blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, yellow squash, and a few others. In the midst of the yard work, we took two fun breaks. The first is pretty well summed up in the following picture - Carey did not like the fact that I love to play with these guys...













The second break was much more fun. We decided, based on viewing a few pictures of Miles, that he was in desperate need of a hair cut. He had a number of 'clumps' of long hair reaching to his eyes and over his ears. Despite Carey's desire to follow tradition, we decided it was time Miles had a trim...at the ripe old age of 9.5 months. Here are a couple pics.
Before:












After:

Kung Fu Miles / Bedtime Stories

Kung Fu Miles








Lately, Cooper has been creative in finding ways to delay bed time. He starts telling lots of stories that don't end, and as you attempt to close the door while saying "Good night Cooper," he sucks you back in by saying "Daddy, wait, I need to tell you something." So last night, we were going through the good night routine:

Nate: Good night Tiger.
Cooper (thinking for a moment): Good night Lion! Daddy, I called you Lion (laugh, laugh)
Nate: Yes, you are silly. Good night!! (closing the door)
Cooper: What should I call mommy? I think I'm going to call her Sandwich! Good night Sandwich!
Nate: Yes, you can call her Sandwich...good night! (still closing the door - don't ask me where he came up with sandwich)
Cooper: I think I'm going to call Humphry (a little dog he sleeps with) M&M - Good night M&M! And Hank (another anamal he sleeps with)......
Door closed.

Later that night...delay tactic number seven for the night: Cooper has Thomas the Train sheets and pillow cases on his bed. After he had been in bed for a while, he started calling out for me to come in. I went in and Cooper said, pointing to the trains on his pillow - "Dad, can you turn on my heater? Percy is hot, but Thomas and James are so cold..."

Heater on, door closed.

Miles is 9 Months!

Miles is 9 Months! I can't believe this little Miracle Miles has been in our lives for 9 months! (Okay - he's been in our lives OUTSIDE of the womb for 9 months, but he was making an impression on me way before that...)

He had his 9 month checkup with Dr. Harris on Monday, and all is well. For you numbers people, he was 20 lbs, 12 oz (70th percentile) and 29.25 inches (75th percentile).

Here's a picture of the little guy pushing up. He isn't crawling yet, but he is really close! Any day now...