Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Future Of Cooper’s Blog

Now that Cooper is ONE YEAR OLD, we’ve decided to make a few changes.

We started this blog when Cooper was born, as a way to share all of Cooper’s pictures and milestones with his grandparents – who lived far away from him.   It was important for us to let them be part of Cooper’s life, even though we lived far away from each other.   And when we moved home five months ago, we decided to continue the blog through Cooper’s first year, as a way to document and capture all the wonderful memories and moments of Cooper’s first year of life.  

Cooper’s first year of life has been a joy to document and we are so happy that we have all the memories to look back on in such a wonderful format.   But it has also been a time consuming project, and now that Cooper is so active, it’s hard to find the time to sit down and do it.   But since we’ve grown to enjoy documenting and capturing our son’s life on this blog, we have decided to continue the blog, just not as often.  It was our original intension to stop the blog completely when he turned one, but somehow that doesn’t feel right.

So for now, we’ve decided to update this blog twice a month.  Once on his monthly birthday (the 17th of each month) and once at the beginning of the month (Around the 1st).  At some point we may switch to only once a month, but for now we will start go with twice a month and see how that goes.

We love you so much Cooper!  Thank you for letting us document your first year of life here.  We hope you have fun reading it one day.

Love you mommy and daddy xoxo

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A Few Enhanced Cake Photos

Just because it’s a great effect for this…

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Monday, August 23, 2010

Cooper’s First Birthday Bash!

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Cooper had his very first birthday party yesterday – what a big milestone and special occasion. We had so much fun planning this party for Cooper, and tried to make everything extra special for him. And he loved it! He was so wound up, walking around the house with the other kids, playing, showing off, eating all kinds of food, and his crowning moment – smashing and eating his birthday cake! It was the perfect day and we’re so happy you enjoyed yourself Cooper. We love you so much and we had so much fun watching you with everyone on your big day!

Wow -- look at all the balloons!

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Here is some photos of the Pre-birthday decorations. We planned on having the party outside and started setting up all morning, but when the clouds kept getting darker and darker and the rain started coming down – we quickly moved everything inside and set up. It was a frantic switch, trying to come up with a new plan on where to set everything up and get everything in place – but we made the best of it and got it done just in the nick of time as the guests arrived!

Setting up outside before it started to rain….

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But it wasn’t meant to be, so we moved everything inside…

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The food table…

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Incredible Edible Fruit arrangements…

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The kids food was set up downstairs…

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Party Favors for all the kids….

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Some of the little details…

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Instead of presents, we asked that everyone do a random act of kindness instead, and to our delight, people did amazing and wonderful kind things….

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Lots of pictures of our little guy on display…

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There was lots of beer and coolers and wine and for the grown up… and juice and chocolate milk and pop and water for the littles….

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And of course the crowning detail…

COOPER’S FIRST BIRTHDAY CAKE!

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We had a special barnyard cake done up for Cooper – since he’s so obessed with farm animals.

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The cake was simply gorgeous!

And speaking of cake, Cooper got to have his very own birthday cake to smash and eat! Everyone sang to him as mommy set the cake down in front of him. At first, he wasn’t so sure – he’s such a neat little eater – that mommy had to help let him know it was okay to stick his hands all over it. After a few minutes he got into it and started to smash and eat his first birthday cake! It was the highlight of the party, as everyone crowded around to watch and Cooper loved every minute of it!

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He dug in right away, getting a little taste of the icing…

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Cooper cried for about a minute when mommy put the party hat on him. He REALLY didn’t like it. But mommy got it off, gave him a kiss, and all was well again. WHEW – that was a close one!

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All better, now that the hat is gone! It looks better on mommy anyway.

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Okay, I think I’ve got this thing figured out.

Let’s DIG IN!

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Big Bite!

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mmmmmmmmmmm……

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Sticky fingers….

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But then suddenly, Cooper started to make some sour faces (maybe it was a little too much sugar) and was ready for some water… ALL DONE!

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BOY THAT WAS FUN!!! I BIRTHDAY CAKES!

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Cooper took a bite from the horses nose…. he thought it was funny and yummy!

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Evidence of a cake well loved.

Cooper just loved seeing everyone at the party and had SOOO much fun with all his family and friends. I think he liked seeing the sea of people milling about his house.

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Hey nana – I’m ONE!

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Time for a little cuddle with my cousin Grace…

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Hey Mommy and Daddy – this is fun! You should have a party for me every day.

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Whassat?

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Styling in my jean diapers…

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Sugar high!

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Doing a little party dance… Shoes and balloons, what could be better?

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After everyone started to clear out, Cooper was on a sugar high and walked around the house enjoying the aftermath of his party…

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He played with the ball that his cousins gave him, and chattered happily (probably about all the fun he had today).

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But then he finally crashed in daddy’s arms. What a BIG day!

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Oh Cooper – we had such a fun time on your birthday. It was a great day for all of us and we love you soooooooo much! HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, SUPER DUPER TODDLER COOPER!

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