I left off at the beginning of February so let me back up to that point. It seems like a long time ago so hopefully I can remember some things. Let's see, I had a birthday. I turned 34 years old. I can remember when my Mom was 34 years old and I thought she was so old! Ha! We all went out for supper at TGI Fridays, along with my parents, and it was delicious. I opened some very nice pajamas, underwear, and money while we were there. We all admired the card and the pajamas but I did not hold up the underwear in the restaurant for all to see. Even though I am 34 I still like it when my Mom buys me new underwear. :) Jason's Mom fixed me a casserole that week so I didn't have to cook for a night. (Very thoughtful, she is.) I also received some money from them and from my brother and Nikki. I pooled all of my birthday together and bought myself something really cool... a professional nail kit!
No more nail salons for me baby! I am doing them at home now. See, I love to have my nails done with the Gel Nail Polish that stays on for like 3 weeks at a time. It makes my nails super hard and they don't break, chip, crack, nothin', for the longest time. I got tired of spending 30 bucks on it at least once a month (plus I felt guilty about it); plus it would take forever every time I went to the salon; plus I hated dragging the kids in there and it was hard to find time to go without the kids. Uggh. It had to end. I found out I could buy the UV drying light for $28 on Amazon and I was sold. I went to Sally Beauty Supply, got some advice, and a great starter kit. I ended up spending about $150 for everything and I am not planning on going back to the salon for anything other than an occasional summer pedicure.
A week or so after my birthday, we went to Harrisburg to my all-time favorite restaurant, Peking Palace, and had awesome Chinese food. Our friend Becky Stafford met us there and we had a nice visit. After that we drove over to Marion so that I could go to Target to take back a lamp. (Cute lamp, didn't work.) Here are some pics from our Harrisburg/Marion day:
Silas drove us down there. Just kidding! They were
waiting in the parking lot for me!
The kiddos by the fountain in the Marion mall.
Another February event: My friend Melissa Smith and her husband Adam had a baby boy. They named him Connor Levi. He is such a cute little baby. The girls couldn't wait to hold him and Melissa was nice enough to let them.
Maleah and baby Connor
Carissa and baby Connor
The girls both had eye exams in February. Carissa's was an ordeal, let me tell you. That girl can't stand anyone touching her eyes or even trying to touch her eye. She put up quite the fight, which was unfortunate because we thought she might need glasses so the dr had to really check them good. The end result? She is on the line for needing glasses. We held off and are hoping for two things at her next appointment. 1. That her eyes are better, not worse. 2. That she cooperates. Maleah's appointment went fine and her vision is great.
I think that about wraps it up for February, so moving on to March - also known as Birthday Month for the girls here. Maleah's is the 22nd and Carissa's is the 26th. Silas was due on the 22nd and I can't imagine trying to plan three birthdays this week! That would be crazy! I am glad it didn't work out like that. The girls have had a skating party for the past three years but this year they decided to do something a little different. Maleah decided to forego a party altogether if she could go to the American Girl Store with her friends. It was also her friend Dani's birthday too and that is what Dani wanted to do for her "party" as well. So last Saturday, Maleah, Dani, Dani's Mom Jenny, another friend Erica, and myself all went to St. Louis to the American Girl Store. It was a fun day. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, shopped till we dropped, rode a huge carousel, and the girls especially had a fabulous day! Maleah was so tired on Sunday.
Maleah had gotten an American Girl doll for Christmas so she went with us, as well as the other girls' dolls. They had a salon station in the store and the girls all had their dolls' hair done. They also bought them some new outfits. Here are some pics:
Our friend Erica Weidner getting her dolls hair fixed.
Maleah Rose and her doll, Mia.
Maleah, Erica, and Dani
Maleah at American Girl
This is the only two-story carousel that I have ever seen.
The girls rode it twice and would have liked to have
rode it all afternoon if we would've let them.
Carissa did not go with us to St. Louis and instead she is having a Rapunzel party. She is really into Rapunzel right now. We were going to have it at home but then Carissa discovered the new train room at the Depot in Flora. It has a huge train display in it that is really cool and is a smaller room than the big room upstairs. It is perfect for kids' parties. We have rented that instead and I guess now we will be having a Rapunzel/train party. Ha! She is going to love it! (Although, she did get confused and had a moment of panic and asked, "Wait! When are we going to skate?!") Here is a recent self-portrait of our funny little blonde:
Early in March I applied for a job. Yes, I know! Can you believe it? It's not really a job, per se, it's just something more or less for me to do for fun. The Baby Gizmo Company was looking for some writers and I applied. I sent in some of the stuff I have written, along with a review of a baby product. Baby Gizmo is a blog/online review website for baby products, kid's stuff, parenting information, recipes, crafts, etc. And guess what? They loved me! Okay, okay, they never used the word "love" but they were interested and I wrote a blog post for them and they are planning on publishing it soon. And I think I will get to keep writing for them and if it all works out and I want to write on a regular basis I will be considered a Senior Editor. Doesn't that sound impressive? Right now, I am doing it on a trial basis so we will just have to wait and see. So, because of my new "job" I needed to send them a photo of me to use with my online biography. But sadly, I did not have a good shot of myself, so I called my friend and my Dad's cousin, Dawn Cox and she took some pics of me. It was a beautiful snowy day out. Thank you Dawn for doing this for me! Now I can have a good picture of me to go online. :)
I don't always roll my jeans up, but when I do
it's muddy. (I didn't think my jeans would show, lol.)
Silas sat in the car, very very sleepy, while me and the girls
had our pictures taken in the snow by Dawn.
It was too cold for him...
In Silas news, he is doing awesome! He went to the doctor for his one year appointment (I missed the one in December and I finally ended up taking him in March. I can't help it. He's my 3rd kid. Suddenly, well-baby checks seem less important.) He was fine. (I already knew that.) He weighed 21 pounds! He was in the 14th percentile for weight now (beats 0 percentile) and he was in the 47th percentile for height. How about that? Another tall and skinny Mini Cooper? I believe so. He has been getting his RSV-prevention shots, Synagis, all winter, and has been one healthy little dude. We all had a bit of a cold one time but other than that my kids have been healthy. Maleah was puny with a fever-type thing one time but the rest of us didn't get it and I have the stomach flu a few weeks ago, but nobody else got it. My goal was to keep that baby healthy this winter and for him not to get anything respiratory-related and so far, so good.
He still is not walking but he is so close! He isn't even supposed to be one year old yet and I keep reminding myself of that. He will do it when he is ready so we are just waiting for him to be ready. I am just thankful that he doesn't have any disabilities preventing him from walking. And guess who loves lasagna? THIS guy!!!
I think that pretty much wraps up the Cooper News. I can't wait to post some pics of all of playing outside. We are so ready for Spring!! Soon, I hope...
