Wendy Visits Austin for Her Birthday

Wendy and the girls at Whole Foods the day after her birthday. Happy Birthday Wendy!!! I hope Charlston is treating you well. We love and miss you!!!

Feet First 20 Year Anniversary Cruise

Grandma Cooper watched the girls while we went on a 3-day Ensenada cruise celebrating Feet First's 20 Year Anniversary. Kevin and Dave Cloutier's company of putting on parties and events was now 20 years old. We got to hang out with some of the funnest and craziest people I've ever met. They took over the karaoke stage, and any other ship event they could and were hilarious - not to mention amazingly talented dancers and performers. Congrats to Kevin and Dave on 20 years!!!

Dave, Dave, me, and Jhe; Minnie and Nick: Sharon and Kevin; Captain and Tenille - oops! I mean Kevin and Dave. ;)

Sharon, Kevin, and "The Children"

Craziness at a table: Shawn, Nisa, Poetri, and Juren.

Three generations of Coopers!!! Easter Sunday and Madison's first snow. Thanks for having us and sharing it with us Grandma!!!

Easter Day in Utah, 2008. We were outside Grandma Cooper's church building in South Jordan, Utah. Thanks for taking this picture, Grandma. It's hard to get us all in one. Next is family party time!

All the Coopers met at Marilyn's house for Easter dinner. Doug and Suzanne and their kids, Debbie, Jessie, Molly and Hyrum, Linda and Rory. It was a housefull! As you can tell, Mackenzie loved playing with her cousins. She still asks when we're going to see them again! Great food, great company. We went through the 12 eggs of Easter and reminded ourselves of Christ's sacrifice for us and what Easter is truly about. Mackenzie apparently knew more than I thought and piped up when someone got the egg with a nail in it. She explained to all of us what it meant. Both Dave and I were surprised she knew the whole story. She has great teachers at church and her Christian pre-school and apparently they taught her well.

It even snowed while we were there! What a nice surprise. It was all snowy white when we woke up one morning. Mackenzie was ecstatic! We all raced outside (after putting on 12 layers, of course) and made a snowman. Later on that day all the snow was melted, so we were extra glad we'd taken advantage of it that morning.

It's almost Easter in Texas! The Easter Bunny came early so we could travel to Utah and not miss him. Fun toys, yummy candy - and early to boot!

Madison is Growing Up...

Madison has done several things lately that I don't want to forget. Keep in mind she just turned 2 on January 19th of this year, 2008. First, we used to go to the gym and it would be a nightmare to drop her off at the daycare. She would cry and cry and then I would often get paged to come get her sometime later because she couldn't settle down. Early this April I dropped her off and she said brightly, "Bye, Mommy!". As I looked at her, stunned, she said, "Wait" (which actually sounds more like 'whey') and as my heart dropped momentarily she came back to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She then trotted off without a look back. It was so sweet I teared up right there. And she's been easy to drop off at the gym daycare ever since. Who knew? Second, she will sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the car almost perfectly all by herself. And then she recites her ABCs and numbers up to fifteen and claps for herself (along with me, of course, the proud mom that I am). I keep telling Dave we have to get that on tape sometime but we never have the camcorder in the car when she does it. Third, the other day at Canyon Creek preschool Madison was walking off towards the road. I yelled, "Wait!" not expecting her to react to me (as she does most of the time because she doesn't understand me) and she actually STOPPED AND WAITED! I couldn't believe it! A major breakthrough has occured. The glimmer at the end of the tunnel of toddlerhood has begun to glow. Will life get exponentially easier from here? Only time will tell, but things are looking up! Next on the roster, goodbye diapers. Wish me luck on that one...

Mackenzie's 5th Birthday party! Grandma Linda was visiting from Arkansas and we were so glad she was with us. We had a small blowout over what Mackenzie was going to wear. The leopard print dress was very cute but not with the 'Unicorns and Fairies' theme. Dave solved the problem by suggesting the Princesses nightgown outfit aunt Suzanne had given Mackenzie. Yes - a compromise!

When everyone arrived, the girls got to decorate their own fairy crowns and scenes using foam stickers. Those things are awesome. Then I read the girls a book about a little girl and her ride on a unicorn. Then we played pin the horn on the unicorn, followed by a hunt for the tooth fairy's lost coins. Madison loved that one!

We set up the camcorder to connect to the tv and show the girls on tv while they danced with fairy outfits on. Next we opened presents. Mackenzie really loved all her gifts.

My friend and neighbor, Lisa Lannan, told me about this awesome 'cake lady' who makes amazing 3D cakes. Sooooo, I got one. Isn't it adorable? She matched it to Mackenzie's party decorations from birthday express. Mackenzie blew (almost) all the candles out by herself and then everyone got to choose between chocolate unicorn cake or cookie cake. Just before cake time we had lunch: sandwhiches, fruit, salad, and chips. We didn't want the girls to bounce off the walls on sugar highs. ;)

On a separate note, the next day Wendy, Dave and I ran the Austin AT&T Half Marathon. Wendy had flown out from Charleston for it. Wendy and I had started training together with Rogue the September before but then she moved in January. The airlines lost her bag and she was such a trooper! She borrowed my extra shoes, bought new clothes and ran it anyway. I was totally impressed. I ran it in 2:06:13 which was 7 minutes faster than last year. WOOHOO!