Goodbye 2014!

2014 was a great year for our family!  Cooper has made great strides and has worked hard.  My hubby and I are stronger than ever...I look forward to 2015 with a grateful and hopeful heart!

So, here are just various cute pics of Super Cooper :)

Christmas 2014

 We had a very laidback Christmas and that was exactly the way that I like it.  I'm a very simple person as far as material possession goes and we're trying to teach the same principle to Cooper.  I mentioned previously that we do the 4 gift rule for Cooper but he still racked up between gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles!

Nana and Papa bought him his first bike!

Coop was most fascinated by this huge mud puddle in my parents' yard...

 

It was a full time job keeping him from diving into it. Actually, we would've let  him if he hadn't been wearing his good Levi's...

Coop and my parents :) 

Christmas dinner at Waffle House...this is going to be a new family tradition :) 

We got him a tent for his room for him to take sensory breaks...

Fishies!

My brother and sister-in-law gave Cooper a little aquarium so we went last weekend to get him two little fishies.  We started with two, Curious George (orange) and Bubble Puppy (black) but now we only have one...

RIP, Curious George (the fish) December 27th 2014-December 29th, 2014

Handprints

We did a monthly handprint craft which was a lot of fun, for me mostly, lol.  He's a very gracious handprint model ;)  I don't know how I missed May and June which was a bummer...

The Whale Sharks are always mesmerizing!

The diver cleaning the glass was jawdropping, haha!

 The Christmas tree outside the aquarium :)

Oh, Christmas tree!

Coop has just loved the Christmas tree this month!  He often will take his snacks and eat them beside the tree or take his toys to play beside it.  We have a smaller tree that I keep in the foyer so I'm going to keep that one out as a holiday tree. I figure the holiday tree will be a fun place to keep all of our various holiday crafts. 

Those spiderman rainboots were a gift from his gram and grandpap so he loves to wear them around the house...

This is actually Christmas morning! He woke up at 3 am (excited, much?) and he fell asleep while playing...

Let's go on a sleigh ride!

We went for lunch a few weekends ago and they had a little train with a sleigh riding around the plaza so we paid the extra dollar to ride in style on the sleigh. Cooper had the best time and we had an amazing time because of his excitement!

Coop's new word is "ho ho ho" so that's what he's doing in this pic, haha!

Beware...

Beware because the cute meter is about to go off the charts with Cooper in a kilt! I bought this kilt for him last year at the Renaissance festival and I take any liberty to put him in it.  My bestfriend (of 28 years) came over for an Outlander marathon so I couldn't waste the opportunity to put him in it :) 

Christmas lights!

This has been our best December yet as far as Cooper wanting to participate AND being an active participant with activities.  Sure, I've dragged him to plenty of activities over the years (haha!) but this is our first year where he's really, really getting into things!  It's magical watching him get excited about the world around him :)

Lily the elf!

Lily the elf joined us again the Saturday after Thanksgiving!  We don't do a traditional elf on the shelf and Lily is a kindness elf!  I've already discussed my views on Santa so it didn't make sense for me to say that the elf is watching him and reporting things back to Santa.  Lily the kindness elf likes to do crafts and storytime with Cooper but she also loves to do random acts of kindness!  So far, Coop and Lily have made Christmas cards with candy canes to put on strangers cars, they've put money on drink machines and (my favorite) is that they're giving a gift tomorrow to a friend that Coop has made at school. This little boy is not in Coop's class but is in the first grade and I recently found out that he's staying at a homeless shelter.  This little boy is so sweet and comes into the classroom every morning to see Coop and to give him a hug.  Oh, and one morning, he was trying to tickle Cooper under his chin and told me "I love his little laugh".  He's just such a little blessing to Cooper! 

I'm weeks behind in posting but will be posting soon on Cooper and Lily's acts of kindness soon!

 Lily was waiting for Coop to have a special Christmas breakfast!  They made family ornaments, too :)

Lily brought Coop a new Christmas cup and plate!

Coop fed a powdered doughnut to Lily, lol 

 

Cooper checking out the Christmas tree in his new boots!