a copeland story

Pinkalicious Tea Party

2012-01-27T19:19:00.000-08:00

Hayden turned three today! We celebrated this morning with a Pinkalicious Tea Party. It was pinkerific! Lots of pinktastic pictures.

the invitation

dressed to party

where's the food?

Pink, pink, pink!

these poms poms took every ounce of craftiness I could muster
thank you Martha Stewart

The menu: raspberry sorbet with raspberries, pink wafer cookies,
pink vanilla dipped strawberries and dipped marshmallows

love

tea time...or pink lemonade time

dramatic reading of Pinkalicious

My favorite line, "You get what you get and you don't get upset!"

a little crafting

decorating pink crowns

Pinkalicious has a brother named Peter so the brothers at the party decorated Peter hats

sweet Stella

Stella, Evie and Hayden

Evie playing dress-up

Pinkerific family

New clothes from Pops and Nana

gift from Momma Jo and Grandad - love the pajamas!

Magnadoodle from Mommy and Daddy

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Sandwich set from Drew. And Liam was trying to give her a picture he colored for her. Sweet brother.

Let's make cupcakes!

Pinkaboo

Pinkalicious

Happy Birthday to Hayden

Drew - a fellow Pinkalicious fan

The girls had fun playing with princess paper dolls that Stella gave Hayden.

party favors

the boys wore their pink with pride

Pinkerbelle

Yay! We survived!

3 years old!!

Thank you to Drew, Evie and Stella for celebrating Hayden's special day with her. We dedicate our tea party today to Mimi who introduced us to Pinkalicious! Thank you Mimi for your generous gifts and for always thinking of us!

big girl bed

2012-01-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

Hayden moved up to a big girl bed this weekend! She was super excited to be in a bed like Bubba's. She had been complaining that her covers were falling of her in her toddler bed. When she started waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me so, I decided she needed an upgrade.

Having a "sleepover"

Liam and Hayden sleep in twin beds that used to be Will and his brother's. Hayden looks so cute tucked in that big bed. She will be 3 years old this week! My sweet middle child. Most of the time she's scared to try new things but wants to do everything her brother does. Tonight Liam cheered her on as she cleaned his whole room. Bless her heart.

September 2011

November 2011

She has a deep love for shoes, juice, mac-n-cheese, lip gloss, and her mom. She's a pleaser, helper and whiner. She cries everyday when she doesn't get more juice and complains everyday that her underwear bothers her.

A little lip gloss
April 2011

Queen of taking her time
May 2011

She's very sensitive and intuitive. Yesterday she peed on the floor in her room. When I found it an hour or so later I was NOT happy. I was storming around the house to get paper towels to clean it up. She looks up at me with her giant brown eyes and says, "Mommy are you mad?" She does that all the time!! And the answer is "YES! I am mad. Quit peeing on the dang carpet!" But instead I said through clenched teeth, "Mommy is not happy with you right now." And right away she said, "I'm sorry Mommy." And then came the waves of guilt for being angry over a little pee on the carpet.

Killer brown eyes
June 2011

Hayden and Harper
July 2011

She's still working on her big sister skill with Harper. She loves her, but is surprisingly too rough with her. She's starting to get frustrated with Harper for picking up her toys or crawling into her space. Let the games begin.

Hayden talks alot but can be hard to understand. She struggles with consonants - mixes them up or just doesn't say them. Example: "mommy can I have a gink and a gack." would be her asking for a drink and a snack. We had her speech evaluated last month. The speech therapist said that she is above average in her vocabulary but barely in the average range for annunciation. She said we shouldn't worry too much yet but suggested trying to pick key words to work on especially when she's asking for things. Already in the past month we've noticed her annunciating more.

August 2011

Right now she's into coloring, doing puzzles, and reading Pinkalicious over and over and over. She loves to run errands and go shopping so most of the time she's my little sidekick. Love my Hayden Alisa. We are planning to have a little birthday celebration this week. I asked her who she wanted to invite. She thought about it and said "Liam." More to come...

November 2011

Update on Captain America: He was discovered under the couch. Spared the misfortune of Harper's diaper.

A Minnesota Christmas

2012-01-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

Truly sometimes I still think, "I can't believe we live in Minnesota." We celebrated our third Minnesota Christmas this year. Time flies...sorta.

We actually did not have a white Christmas this year! We've barely had snow so far this winter. These are pics from a dusting we got in early December that melted off shortly after.

I can't believe Hayden fits in this snowsuit. We bought this for Liam our first winter here.

Our tree. We went fake this year. No regrets.

Liam and Dad after Liam's pre-school Christmas program. He was the best one. And I'm not prejudice.

pretty girl

another pretty girl

Visit to Santa. Liam asked for a Spiderman Squinkie dispenser. Hayden asked for dolls like Ruby. She was so brave. And if there's a Santa, this dude is it.

tiny baby Jesus

Sisters exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve - Hayden gave Harper bath toys and Harper gave Hayden Pinkalicious dress-up shoes

Pops and Nana were here!! Liam had just opened his gift from Harper - super hero cape and mask. He liked it. :) This picture was taken right before we left for our Christmas Eve service at church. Let's just say Liam and candlelight services are not the best combo.

Decorating cookies for Santa

Hayden and Nana

Hanging stockings

Christmas morning

Santa pulled through

Baby's first Christmas

Harper's first stocking

the girls

Stockings for the grown-ups

Kinda crazy that we are the Mom and Dad at Christmas now. If I could choose between being the Mom or being the kid at Christmas I would choose.... I don't know...the kids have it pretty stinkin' good...ok fine... the Mom.

Harper's big gift from Santa

post Christmas tea party - thanks Mimi (Will's grandmother) for the tea set!

This was the year of electronics at our house. My parents gave us a Wii, and Will's parents gave Liam a Leapster. I should have saved my money. Liam thought the bucket of Legos we got him was totally lame. He was, however, totally stoked about the Angry Birds t-shirt we gave him. What is it with Angry Birds? Hayden's favorite gift was this little Hello Kitty bag with a necklace and two lip glosses that Will's parents gave her. She didn't like at all the totally awesome leg warmers I got her. :( But the Big Sister Dora doll we gave her was a hit. I got some leg warmers for Harper and she rocks them.

It really was a great Christmas. My top 3 favorite moments:

We celebrated advent as a family and I love those quiet moments of family time - talking, singing and reading scripture.

The kids and I made treats for our Bible class teachers and pre-school teachers, and I love the excitement on the kids' faces when they get to give someone else a gift.

And I love sitting back on Christmas morning and just taking it all in - the fruits of my labor! Totally worth all the work and preparation.

And this was the picture that was on our Christmas card that never got sent out. Oops! Merry Christmas from the Copeland family!!

9 months

2012-01-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

Nine months ago sweet Harper Claire entered this world. I'm telling you, this girl is precious.

And where in the world did she get those blue eyes? She stands alone in our family with those eyes. Someone asked the other day where her blue eyes came from and Liam said, "The mailman." We've got to stop telling that joke in front of him.

Here's a look back at my other babies' pictures from the same age.

Hayden at 9 months old (please excuse the hiney in the background)

Harper at 9 months old

Liam at 9 months (he's been intense from the day he was born)

Harper 9 months

Harper is an easy baby. Loves to nurse, loves to eat, loves to sleep, loves to play. She LOVES Liam and laughs at everything he does. Hayden tries to make her laugh but mainly just irritates her. Harper is crawling and pulling up on everything. She is busy busy, into everything and finds every little speck on the floor to put in her mouth (and there are lots of specks). Her favorite things to go for are Liam's Squinkies. If you don't know, Squinkies are these squooshy rubber action figures about the size of a baby's airway. Thanks for that gift Nini. Here's a perfect shot from today:

Harper has a radar for them and the minute Liam pulls them out she b-lines for them. Captain America has gone missing. Something tells me he'll show up in a diaper in the next 24 hours. I'll keep you posted...

I'm loving being at home with my kids. Three is a lot, I'm not gonna lie. Time to myself is close to zero. The house is mostly dirty and there's not enough of me to go around. Suddenly I feel sentimental about my days at home with them because my oldest baby is going to kindergarten in the fall! It can't be time already! Have I done enough? Will he be a good boy without me looking over his shoulder? Does he know that he's loved by his mom, dad, and God no matter what other kids say or what grades he gets? I told Will last night we better bring our A-game in parenting this summer. So that's the plan...

resolutions

2012-01-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! It's time to resolute.

1. Revive the Copeland story blog - check
(1b. keep blog alive...watch and see)

2. Read my Bible every day.
(no reading plan, just opening the Word and keeping it simple)

3. Consume less - meaning spend less, use less, waste less, and of course eat less.
(I know this is kind of vague. Therefore, no one will be able to hold me accountable to it.)

4. Let my parenting/wifeing be defined by LISTENING and LOVING.

(as opposed to tuning-out and being irritated - anyone else feeling me on this one?)

5. Organize my closets.

(This is one from last year that I'm rolling over.)

And I'll stop there.

We had a family New Years party this year.

The invite list:

Daddy
Mommy
Liam
Hayden
Harper
Lucy (dog)
Moses (cat)

Liam is all about some exclusive family time, like his dad. The kids chose dinner for the occasion so we had hotdogs and mac-n-cheese. We played a little Wii (the hot Christmas gift from my parents) and talked about our favorite memories from 2011.

Liam said his favorite memory was what we were doing that night - playing the Wii and eating popcorn.

Hayden said holding baby Jesus.

This was at a birthday party for Jesus that a friend of mine hosted at our church before Christmas. Harper tried to escape the manger.

I said Harper Claire's birth and bringing her home for the first time had to be my #1.

Will said his favorite memory was the same as mine. So typical.

We also all agreed that flying to Texas for Uncle Ellis (Will's brother) and Aunt Heather's wedding was on our fav list too. (Liam was the ring bearer and Hayden one of the flower girls.)

We toasted with sparkling grape juice at 9:00 (preschool midnight) and tucked most of the party guests in bed. Then Will and I partied it up til midnight. Actually, we watched a movie and then at 11:45 I washed my face so that I could get in bed right after the ball dropped.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2012!

Inspired by preschool

2011-09-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've returned to blogging, inspired by Liam's first day of preschool. My first-born started preschool today! Several people have asked me if I am teary or sentimental and, honestly, I'm not! We've been talking about him going to school all summer and he's been super excited about it. He's so independent and ready to jump right into everything with gusto. If you've met Liam even once, you know what I mean. So his gusto makes it easier to let him go. He is so ready. He is a social dude and also loves to learn. It will also be good time for me and the girls to be together. The days that Liam is in school will be good opportunity for Hayden to rule the roost a little bit. Under the queen's authority of course. :)

Liam will be in school all day Monday and half a day Wednesday. On Mondays he will go to school in the morning, stay for lunch and then Junior Gym in the afternoon. It will be a full day from 9 to 3. Then on Wednesdays he will just do school in the morning and come home at 11:30.

We took the token first-day-of-school picture before we left this morning and Liam squeezed in a bike ride. (He started riding on two-wheels a couple of weeks ago!) He's in a fleece because it was in the forties this mornig!!

I don't think I was fully prepared for the stress of getting to school on time. I felt like, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, we can't be late, we can't be late, we can't be late. If we are late the teacher will think I am a bad parent who can't even get her kid to school on time and then she will have negative feelings about my child and then his first day of school wont be perfect and if it's not perfect then he may not like school and if he doesn't like school then his learning will be stunted and I will never forgive myself for ruining his education just because I was late!!!!!!!!!" All the while, I am trying to act like I'm totally chill so that Liam will be relaxed about going to school too. Ahk! I really like his school but the parking lot and hallways are nuts in the morning. And they don't have drop-off so I have to cart H & H in with me. The school is only about 5 minutes away but I buffered about 15 extra minutes to be safe. Even with the extra time Liam walked in at 9:04 with one minute to spare before 9:05 circle time!! Ahk!

The kids were asked to bring their favorite stuffed animal this morning. Liam chose his ground hog that Pops gave him. He hung his back pack and jacket up and walked right into his classroom with his ground hog and all the confidence in the world. Love that boy. He's one in a million.

Here he is home from school. He was pumped about wearing his new tiger shirt to school.

Liam only had good things to say about his day so I think it was a great start! He told me about all the stuffed animals that the other kids had brought. He had crackers for a snack and played with his friend Lucas at recess. He came home with a handful of pictures that he had colored, "for his dad" he said. Very sweet but what about me? Didn't I walk through fire to get you to school this morning? :)

Cherishing these days...

the birth story

2011-04-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

Harper Claire Copeland made her appearance at 9:24 am on Saturday, April 9th, 2011! She is so precious and perfect! 7 lb. 15 oz., 20 3/4 inches.

I'm going to give the gorey labor details so skip this part if words like mucous plug gross you out.

On Friday, Will took me and the kids to Culver's for dinner and then headed to work for the night. The kids and I came home and did a little cleaning to get ready for Mom and Dad. They had left Little Rock that afternoon, planning to stop halfway in Kansas City for the night and drive on into Rochester Saturday morning. I was so excited to have them in town but part of me was thinking, "oh my word, what if they get here, stay a week and there's no baby!" I was praying that once they were in town this cervix of mine would just relax already.

I got the kids in bed, watched a little tv, piddled around the house a little more and then got ready for bed. When I went to the bathroom I saw that I had lost my mucous plug. I called Will and shared the happy news. He was ecstatic. (sarcasm) So in my mind I was thinking, "this is good. something's going to happen in the next couple of days."

I got in bed around 11:30, and about 12:30 I felt Harper move and thought I felt my water break. When I stood up I KNEW that my water had broken. I called Will and he got ready to head home. I called Mom too and let her know that we would definitely have a baby this week. What perfect timing! Thank you Lord!

After packing some last minute things for the hospital, I got back in bed to try to get some sleep. Will got home and got in bed, but I was starting to have contractions and couldn't sleep so I got up and walked around the house. My contractions weren't very regular - every 7 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes - but I was pretty uncomfortable, having to stop and focus to get through them. By 4:30 am, I told Will that I thought we should go to the hospital. He called Laura Shotts and she came over to stay with the kids. Thank you Laura!

We got to the hospital about 5:30 am. A nurse took us to triage first. She asked me if I wanted an epidural and I almost punched her. Will saw the wild look in my eyes and scrambled for the birth plan. (We had Liam and Hayden naturally, and that was the plan for Harper too. And I'll admit, I get a little crazy about any hospital person that messes with me.) The midwife came in, checked my cervix and I was 5 centimeters dilated. 5 centimeters! Crap, I was thinking. With Liam I checked in to the hospital at 8 centimeters and with Hayden I was 9 1/2 centimeters. Will said he was thinking the same thing. I thought I was having contractions harder than 5 centimeter contractions!

We were moved to a labor room with a tub and I labored for about 3 hours - 3 hard hours. At some point an anesthesiologist came in and wanted to check my airway. What?? Apparently it's standard procedure at Mayo for each patient to have their airway checked. I was probably about 7 centimeters dilated and in the throws of hard labor. I wasn't speaking but I was thinking, "stay the heck away from me and my airway." My hot labor coach/husband came to the rescue and said thanks but no thanks. The anesthesiologist insisted, but Will insisted more and finally appeased her with, "why don't you come back later." I love that man. He is my rock in labor - speaks for me, protects me, encourages me.

The last hour or so of labor I was in the tub. I hadn't labored in water with my first two so that was new. I'm not sure it helped that much with the pain but it was something to do to pass time. I started to feel like I wanted to push so I got out of the tub and Lisa, the midwife, checked my cervix again. She said I was almost 10 centimeters but had just a little rim of cervix left. She said getting on my hands and knees would help.

After a couple major contractions on my hands and knees I started pushing. I pushed on all fours for a little while with no progress. Lisa moved me to a squatting position - still not much progress. Then I leaned back in the traditional semi-reclining position. Harper was coming down some but just not staying down. Lisa suggested I lay on my side and pull my legs back. I have never moved around so much trying to push a baby out. The pain was outrageous. I'm a very quiet laborer, as in totally silent. But when I had to move around to push there was definitely some whimpering and crying. I told Will to pull it together and quit his crying. (ha ha) Lisa thought pushing on my side would help Harper get out from underneath my pelvis. She was right. Finally, at 9:24 am, after about an hour total of pushing, that sweet baby girl came out.

Come to find out, Harper was sunny-side up. Babies ideally come out face down, which allows their heads to mold to the birth canal. If they are face-up their heads can't really mold and it's harder to get them out. One of the midwives also told me that it can make labor more intense. I guess that's why I felt like my contractions were stronger than 5 centimeter contractions when we got to the hospital. Lisa said that when Harper crowned she was face up and then she turned her little head down on her own and came right out. So amazing! There is nothing like the feeling of that baby coming out and finally being in your arms. The pain is gone and some say their memory of the pain is gone, but I can't seem to shake that memory yet. Of the three, Harper's delivery was by far the hardest. But of course SO worth it.

In her daddy's arms for the first time

Harper nursed for about 45 minutes after she was born. I didn't have to have stitches this time around - which was awesome. Harper was weighed and measured and then wanted to nurse again. She's a nursing champ. We moved to our recovery room by noon, and Zeke and Laura brought the kids up to the hospital to meet their baby sister. Liam was so excited. Hayden was a little unsure. I think she prefers Happy Meals over baby sisters.

Laura played a major part in giving me peace of mind through it all. I knew my kids were in good hands. Thank you so much Zeke and Laura!

Mom and Dad were at the hospital by 1:30 that afternoon. I can't get over the perfect timing!

This is our wonderful midwife. I'm not sure I could have pushed Harper out without her guiding me through it. I had great nurses too. My experience at Mayo over all was really good.

Dressed for home

We were discharged Sunday morning and headed home to a full house. Home sweet home!

No shortage of love in this house! I'm so thankful to God for the blessing of Harper. To Him be the glory!

tender-hearted and hard-headed

2011-04-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

Liam is an amazing mix of his parents. I won't say which one of us gave him his tender heart and which the hard head. However, he has been blessed with both.

Yesterday morning Liam watched the movie Homeward Bound. It's an old movie that I remember watching as a kid. Towards the end of the movie, the golden retriever Shadow falls into a hole and can't get out. You don't know if he makes it out until the very end when he comes limping out of the woods and reunites with his little owner Peter. Well, after Shadow falls in the hole, next thing I know Liam's looking up at me with tears welling up in his eyes and pouring down his face. He cried all the way through the end and kept crying afterwards. It was the sweetest thing. And he didn't quite know what to do with how that movie made him feel. He'd never cried over a movie before. Then of course our dog Lucy was the great love of his life for the day. So much for me trying to get rid of her any time soon....

Here's Hayden singing a little number and at the end you can hear Liam asking for Lucy:

So we let Lucy inside to play and have a treat...

His face says it all

Oh Lucy we hope you never fall in a hole

a little treat - licking out a peanutbutter jar

Poor Liam followed his emotional morning with an emotional afternoon. Will gave him a haircut, and Liam HATES haircuts. He fights it and fights it and fights it somemore.

Many many tears, a very frustrated daddy, and over 2 HOURS later the haircut was complete.

Hayden was just strolling around in the midst of Liam's weeping and knashing of teeth.

FYI...I am still pregnant. Mom and Dad have decided to go ahead and come up on Saturday. YAY!!!! I've had major anxiety this week with Will being gone at night, having random contractions, waiting for labor to start so I can tell everyone to start making the drive from Arkansas. And it's just not like me to be so anxious! Now that I have a for sure day of Saturday to look towards I'm feeling more calm. So come on down Harper!

time flies when....

2011-04-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Yoo hoo....I'm back in the blogging world. A little recap of the past year - oh how time flies!

Time flies when you're...

ON VACATION!

June trip to beach in Galveston, TX with the Copelands

the Copeland crew

Will's wonderful grandparents

DAD IS IN REMISSION!

In July Mom and Dad came to visit and he was pretty sick. It was hard to see him like that. But in August we got the good news that he is cancer free and doing well! Praise God for healing!

As sick as Dad was in July, I was so glad he and mom made the trip. How I miss them!

PREGNANT!

August brought the big news of Copeland baby #3. I had great intentions of taking pictures every week but that didn't last long. This was the first and only, taken at 6 weeks.

In November we bought a surprise cookie cake for the kids and told them that blue icing meant boy and pink meant girl.

Liam had been saying all along that he wanted a girl. He got his wish!

And the preparation began for Harper Claire.

My friends from my Side By Side Bible study gave me a baby shower for Harper. Laura Shotts had this awesome cake made!

Matching outfits for Hayden and Harper. Hayden is SO excited to be a big sister.

I took this picture today. Harper at 39 weeks! Me plus 45 lbs. Yikes. Thinking about the exercise required to get back to my August body already makes me feel out of breath.

SURVIVING WINTER!

We got 60 inches of snow from December through February - half of that in December alone!

And we got our first snowblower right before a giant blizzard that brought nearly 20 inches in a day!

Needless to say we had a white Christmas. This was our 2nd annual Christmas Eve picnic under the tree.

Will's family came to our snowy house for the holidays.

KIDS ARE GROWING UP!

In February we took our second annual winter trip to Little Rock and celebrated Hayden's 2nd birthday with a big princess party.

Hayden is so precious and thus far has been EASY to raise!! She's happy, easy-going, and so loveable. And oh how she loves Liam. Every night when she prays, the first things she is thankful for is Bubba.

(this picture was taken today. we had snow less than two weeks ago, but it looks like spring is finally here!!)

The 20 month gap between them seems less and less as they get older. They play together so much more now than a year ago - with loving and fighting mixed in. They are so different from each other but Hayden tries to be just like Liam.

Buzz Light year and the Bumblebee Transformer

NEVER a dull moment with Liam. I wish I had kept up with blogging this year because the stories to tell about this boy are priceless and too many to remember. One of the latest...I let him go to the bathroom by himself at the public library. Trying to give him a little freedom. Next thing I know he's calling me to wipe him. And what do I find in the boy's bathroom? Liam had pooped in the urinal. Liam and freedom - a dangerous combination.

Hayden had her adenoids removed this past Wednesday. She was a big snorer and mouth breather with a constant drippy nose, giant tonsils and huge adenoids. We're waiting on the tonsils and want to see how she does with just her adenoids removed. The surgery went great and she was back to doing her thing the very next day.

The night before Hayden's surgery, Liam headed to his first sleepover at his friend Luke Fermin's house. He was super pumped and did great - after calling his momma at about 9:45 that night - and then he gave into sleep for the night. Bless Luke's mother.

SURVIVING 2ND YEAR OF NEUROSURGERY TRAINING!

These pictures were taken in January after we had made it through two quarters of Will being on the chief jr. service. It's hard to explain what it's been like, but the term "single parent" that was thrown at me before training began became much more of a reality. I think I can say that it's been the toughest year of my life. Blogging went by the way side and I've been in survival mode. There's alot to say about that... but now it's nearly 1 am, I am having some serious Braxton Hix contractions, Liam is crying downstairs about a rash that's bothering him and Will's working nights this week. AND A COPELAND STORY CONTINUES!!!

3 year old boy

2010-06-02T20:52:00.001-07:00

Liam turned three on Monday! I can't believe that I have a three year old! He has changed my life and I love that precious precious boy. We had a little party - a bicycle party. I told Liam he could invite 3 friends and he picked Parker (friend from church), Fletcher (buddy since we've moved) and Luke (Bible study friend). Liam's big present was a new bicycle of course. The bike was a surprise, but Liam had been asking for it and I'm pretty sure he had a sneaky suspicion that we were getting him one. So all of his friends brought their bikes over to ride. Will grilled hot dogs for lunch and then we opened presents and had cake.

love the smile on his face

Luke, Parker, Liam, Hayden and Aunt Pam (Will's aunt from LR happened to be working in Minneapolis this week and got to come to the party. so cool!)

Luke's mom Brooke and little bro Samuel

Fletcher and his mom Alexandra

Buzz Lightyear from Nini and Pa

M&M cake made by yours truly (and Betty Crocker)

can't have cake without ice cream

loves his daddy

Aunt Pam was Hayden's best bud at the party. Pam knew the way into her heart with cake and ice cream

garage party - the weather was perfect

We gave these little Buzz Lightyear water guns as party favors and they were a hit. Worth every dollar from the Dollar Tree.

Fletcher's bro Ferguson getting Liam good

Liam and Will got surrounded!

Hayden was cleaning the plates while everyone else played

family pic

It was a fun little party. Thank you friends for coming to celebrate Liam! He got some great gifts. A Duplo leggo truck, Memory game, a Slip-n-slide, stick horse and cowboy hat, art kit, new clothes, and I think the gift that takes the cake is Buzz Lightyear. Liam loves him some Buzz Lightyear.

Will and I have found ourselves saying more and more "Liam's such a good kid". And he is! A few months ago I was not saying that very much! But I think we've turned a corner. We've finally moved away from the phase of constant discipline, and it's no longer this endless battle for control. There are definitely still days that he tests me - like his birthday for example. He decided to throw all of his learned skills out the window - he was U-G-L-Y to his sister, talked back to his momma and peed his pants all day. BUT for the most part we're out of the trenches of the terrible twos.

The phase I'm finding that we're in now is me playing referee between the two kids. Liam picks and picks and picks at Hayden and she's beginning to fight back. Yeesh. I was a picker...or a pest as my mom called it. I know the thrill of pushing someones buttons and getting a rise out of them. As a matter of fact I still do that from time to time.

I'd like to quote Justin Timberlake at this time, "What goes around comes around goes around comes all the way back aroouuu-ou-ou-ound." My theme song for year 3.

the Copeland peas

2010-06-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

The Copeland family garden is producing a dozen gorgeous pea plants. I am so proud of those little green plants. No produce yet, but we look forward to the day. The lettuce and strawberries are barely hanging on. But at least we have our peas!

the peas

The weather in Rochester has made a major turn since we got back from Little Rock. It's in the 80s pretty much every day now - sometimes barely 90! My kind of temps! Had our first swim in the backyard pool last week. Just glad I didn't have to haul that sucker from Wal-Mart on top of my van this year!

notice Liam's studly summer hair do

I'll say this about our new little town - we may have wretched winters but summer is amazing. Not near the humidity that there is in Arkansas and just enough heat to put on a swimsuit and get a litte sun.

to the Rock and back

2010-06-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Holy cow a lot has happened lately. We went to Little Rock the second week in May and it was a much needed and wonderful trip "home". If you read my last blog, I was at a breaking point and just needed to get away! The kids and I flew by ourselves for the first time. On a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being enjoyable and 10 being totally wretched) I would say it was a 7. Not horrible but no where near fun. No one pooped their pants or vomitted so that in itself was a victory.

My parents picked us up from the airport. Dad's hair was falling out by the handful so literally the first thing we did was go home and shave his head. My sister and her fam were in town at the same time for HU graduation. And my brother drove down from Nashville. So we all got to be together. Doesn't happen very often these days!

before

after

Pa bought new hats for everyone!

We spent the week just hanging out and getting in some much needed family time. Dad had his second round of chemo in the middle of the week. I got to sit with him for a bit during his treatment. He had a rough day the following day and I was glad to be around to help however I could. I ache when I'm in Minnesota and he's in LR having a hard time. I know my parents have lots of friends to help them out, but I want to be the one to help take care of Dad when he's sick. He only had one rough day when we were there so that was good. One of the best parts of going home was being able to see him and see that he's ok. Chemo is the pits but he's going to be ok. I love him so much.

Dad suggested we go to Chic-fil-A for lunch the second day we were in town. And I said yes please.

my kids with Pa, Aunt Jenni and cousins Sam and Ruby

oh mom, could anything be better than this delicious chicken?

sister pic - Jenni preggo with #3 - Will and I better get movin'. I'm falling behind!

Ruby, Sam and Liam at the zoo - we've missed the LR zoo!

swimming with pops

love the look on Liam's face - pure joy

Hayden and Sandy getting some sun

This is pretty much how Hayden rolls - she's an observer, not a participater. I'm not used to that - Liam is the king participator...you could even say initiator.

pretty darn cute observer though

snuggling with Will's grandmother, MiMi

One day, Will's dad had a boys day with Liam. They went fishing in the morning and then went to an Arkansas Traveler's baseball game that night. Both firsts for Liam. He's still talking about it.

Liam, Pops and Uncle Ellis

They caught seven fish that day! You'd think that Liam would've man handled those fish, but he didn't want to even touch them. He was telling Will about the fishing trip over the phone, and Will asked Liam if he ate the fish. Liam got this completely disgusted look on his face and said "NO!" like he was totally appalled. I think he was imagining taking the flopping fish right off the hook and taking a bite. He couldn't believe that Will suggested that! Ha ha!

popping popcorn with Pa - it was so hilarious. liam had never seen popcorn popped on the stove top like this. the oil spit at him and he about jumped out of his skin.

Nini and Hayden playing at Pinnacle park

The last couple of days that we were in town I left the kiddos with my parents and took off to Camp Tahkodah to be a bridesmaid in my friend Rachel's wedding. What a fun weekend! It was SO fun to see some good college friends. Sometimes I need to not be a mommy and just revert back to my previous life. One of the bridesmaids was a new mom with a little 8 week old baby. She asked me, "is it so hard to leave your kids for the whole weekend?" Hmmmmm.....nope absolutely not. Sorry kids! I didn't have to worry about them one bit. They were living it up with Pa and Nini - Chuckie Cheese and the zoo! The wedding was beautiful and Rachel was stunning. I wish I had more pics to show.

some of the bridal party

Amanda Moore - oh my goodness i've missed this girl! - me and Kristen - got to spend some good time with Kristen. we had a little girls night just the two of us one night in LR. love love love her - life long friend

Kristen poofed my hair for the wedding. I looked like a Texan news anchor.

my dear friend Abby Smith and me - so many great memories with this sweet friend. She sang at the wedding and it was lovely. I just wish NYC was a little closer to the Roch.

Hayden getting crazy at Chuckie Cheese

At the zoo

I thought I would want to stay longer, but a week was really long enough. The last couple of days Liam was asking for his own bed, his toys, and his daddy. I think kids his age like to do fun and different things, but really rely on routine. Liam was great through the week though. He was just enjoyable to be around and I had to do very little disciplining. Lovin that! Don't think I'll be back in LR until the holidays. But my parents are planning to come visit in July and Will's family is planning to come in August. Love the summer!

so long April

2010-05-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

WARNING!! If you're looking for smiles and skipping through tulips - do not read this!

I thought April would NEVER end. The LONGEST most awful month since we have been here! For multiple reasons - for one, we had no visitors and took no trips. I was thinking back over the almost year that we've been in the Roch. We've either had visitors or gone to visit someone every month except September and April. I didn't blog in September, but I don't remember it feeling as eternal as April.

The recap:

June - Will's family

July - my parents

August - trip to Amarillo

September - nuttin

October - Will's parents

November - Kristen and Jonnathan

December - my family

January - Will's family

February - trip to Little Rock

March - the Shotts and Lexia and Gus

April - absolutely nothing

Secondly, Hayden and I had a virus for about a week mid-April - fever, sore throat, achiness. We were strugglin'. I think Liam might have had a little of the same bug with us, but he didn't slow down much. Shocker.

Hayden and I at our worst

Third, Hayden learned the word no. It's more like "neh!". Oh and it is U-G-L-Y. She usually accompanies "neh!" with a big fat swat at whomever's closest.

caught her in the act

This girl is warping into something I don't recognize. She turned 15 months old this past week and the only word to describe her right now is SASSY! Is there something magic about 15 months? I can't remember it being major for Liam.

15 months - bad lighting but funny girl

sassy

I took her to the dr. for her 15 month check up and she's doing great. 75th percentile for height and 10th percentile for weight - just barely 20 lb. She sits forward facing in her carseat now and thinks it's pretty awesome.

big girl in the car

her handsome brother

Hayden calls Liam "bubba". And I have to admit I kind of encouraged her. I call him that sometimes and she picked up on it because it's easy to say I guess. It's redneck, but I don't care. The kids are at each other most of the time, between Hayden's hitting and Liam's annihilation of everything in his path. They both love bathtime though.

Fourth reason April was the pits - and I hate to sound like a broken record but - Will has worked so much in April. And we went out with a bang yesterday on the last day of April. Last night I fed the kids, bathed them, put them to bed, ignored the mountain of laundry downstairs, drug myself upstairs, ignored the mountain of dishes upstairs and gorged on ice cream and popcorn while i watched a movie. For some reason I feel entitled to my husband on a Friday night, so when he's not there I start to feel REAL sorry for myself. Will rolled in at 10:30, got paged at 11:30 and went back in to work for the night. Oh my did I feel sorry for myself. Repeat story throughout April.

Fifth, we are broke as a joke. Overdrew 4 times in April. I'll take the blame for that. Dadgum.

Number 6 goes along with 5. We dropped our cable service this month. Heartbreaking. I'm serious. It's changed my world. I miss sitting down in front of the tv after the kids go to bed and turning my brain totally off. We get zero channels. And don't tell me to watch shows online. It's not the same.

Number 7, I got a speeding ticket. 61 in a 45. I didn't even know cops existed in Rochester! Apparently they do on county highways.

And the eighth reason takes the cake. My dad has cancer. He was diagnosed with lymphoma on Tuesday the 20th and had his first round of chemo two days later on Thursday. Talk about a punch in the gut - for him and us. It's stage 2 non-hodgkins lymphoma. Dad said it's aggressive but very treatable. So that's good news and Dad seems to be positive and in good spirits. I was a basket case the week he was diagnosed but this week has been better. I will be in Little Rock a week from today. I cannot wait!! So ready to be with my parents and see how they are really doing.

I have to say that I have great friends here who have really been there for me the past few weeks - helped me with the kids, called to check on me, came over to visit. God did not plant me here alone and for that I am so grateful.

We are trying to do fun and different things to keep ourselves sane. I took the kids to the public library for the first time last week. I don't know why we haven't gone earlier. Liam thougth it was so awesome. Books and movies! We went by the movie section and the first movie he laid eyes on was the Snowman movie. I mean, that sealed the deal. The library is officially the best place on earth.

Liam at the library

Last week the kids and I had a hankerin' for a treat (ok just me) so we swung through McDonalds down the street. Culver's is left for the rich folk these days. For $2.02 I can get two ice cream cones. I scraped most of the ice cream off of both into a cup for myself and gave the kids the cones. Perfect system. We sat in the parking lot while it rained and the kids were lovin it.

So hurray, it's May! Tonight Will got home at 5:45!!! We ate scrambled eggs and toast. We put Hayden to bed and then Will, Liam and I had a movie night. We went with a classic - the Jungle Book. We ate popcorn and M&Ms and seriously enjoyed being together.

our first garden

2010-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

The first ever Copeland family vegetable garden has been planted! Planting this little "garden" was our weekend project. I use the word garden VERY loosely. We have one little raised bed in our backyard that was here when we moved, and I decided that we better not let it go to waste. We are attempting to grow leaf lettuce, summer squash and peas. I'm also going to put a couple of tomato plants in pots. We are excited to see if anything will come of this little venture.

The bed before we started - overgrown with weeds and grass

the bed after - no weeds and fresh soil!

Liam had a good time digging through the dirt and finding worms

Hayden just wanted to crawl in the bed and sit in the dirt

so we put a fence up to keep hayden out...not really...the fence is to keep the dog out

I'm truly not a gardening type of gal. The one or two plants that I've had in my lifetime had a short and wilted existence. But I think it will be a fun experience for Liam to watch the vegetables grow and maybe learn a little something about God's earth and how to take care of plants. I'm keeping my expectations low. We'll see about this...

i heart spring

2010-04-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

oh my goodness, i think i can officially say that spring is here to stay in minnesota land. we have had GORGEOUS weather the past couple of weeks. 60s and 70s. and there is green popping up everywhere. i love spending my days with the windows open and the kids running around in the backyard. liam's already itching for summer though - dying to pull out the plastic pool and eat popsicles. the beautiful thing about minnesota is that there are 4 distinct season. and - all though one particular season is a little longer than it should be - spring, summer and fall are beautiful here!

sprouts that are showing themselves in the beds in front of our house

Easter weekend weather did not disappoint - mild and sunny. Will had to work but i was determined to make Easter traditions happen. So Saturday night the kiddos and I colored eggs.

hayden wanted so badly to be in on the egg coloring action

the look on liam's face says it all: are you seriously going to let her help with this?

The Easter bunny came the next morning and hid the kids' baskets full of treats. Liam was totally pumped about finding his basket and Hayden just liked watching him. (didn't really get a pic of the baskets becuase i was videoing for will to see later)

Hayden was content to shake an egg full of jelly beans and Liam ate every piece of candy he could get his hands on. I decided since it was a holiday I'd let him have at it.

Then we rallied and got ourselves ready for church. Getting out the door for church by myself with the kids is truly an act of God sometimes. We were a little tardy but still made it!

dressed and ready!

I picked Liam up from Bible class and he said, "Mom! (he's been calling me mom lately) Did you know Jesus died on the cross?! And then he went in a tomb?" I asked him what happened after that and he couldn't remember. Maybe next year he'll catch the end of the story. It's the best part.

After church our sweet friends the Grosses had us over for a delish lunch and an easter egg hunt. Thanks Beth!

Ellis and Miller Gross - checking out their loot from the egg hunt with the Copelands

Liam took this egg-hunting business seriously

his face after his second massive intake of candy

In the afternoon we went to yet another Easter egg hunt at the Fermins' house. Love them! Thank you Brooke! And Liam enjoyed a third round of Easter candy. Seriously, i cannot tell you how much candy that kid ate on Easter. I think I might get a red mark by my name in parenting class for that one.

hayden - overwhelmed with the Easter madness!

Luke, Hayden, Samuel and Liam

Happy Easter! We miss you daddy!

our family week-after-Easter pic that we took this past Sunday when Will was off (Will looks like a pirate)

The next couple days after Easter were cool, windy and drizzly. But Liam was determined to draw with the sidewalk chalk that the Easter bunny brought.

look closely and you can see a little tear on hayden's left cheek. the wind was crazy that day!

i think liam is immune to all weather elements - if he wants to do something outside, darn it, he's gonna do it, even if tears are running down his face from the wind

We've been packing away our winter gear and pulling out spring clothes. I like to find one great pair of shoes for the kids to wear through the spring and summer. This year i got Liam some Keens and Hayden some Crocs. Love them both - shoes and kids.

super model

the Keens

the Crocs

Hayden's wondering why i put shoes on her first thing in the morning. i ordered them online and was excited when they were delivered!

I had a sweet friend from my Bible study loan me a bunch of spring clothes for Hayden. a HUGE money saver! I feel like I'm shopping in Gymboree when I open her closet now. Here's a few of her latest:

new jacket

new dress (a little too "Little House on the Prairie" for Will)

pink overalls, presh

new suit that i bought her - but way to0 hard to get over her head so it's going back to the store. bummer cause she looks adorable. keeping the hat though!

i pulled out some of liam's old pj's that fit her now. so funny to see her wear things that he used to wear. Here's Liam, same age:

and here's liam sportin his new suit. he put his hat on backwards and said, "do i look like pops?" Will's dad wears his hat backwards sometimes i guess. funny what Liam picks up on.

Yesterday was so beautiful that the kids and I pulled a table onto the deck and ate supper - chicken and broccoli pizza was on the menu.

I'm so thankful that spring is here and the kids and I can get out of the house! I'm also thankful for my two babies and a husband that was home all weekend! I can't tell you how much I needed those two days with him! Some days are a struggle, but God is continuing to provide for us on this little journey to minnesota. Next project on the list...plant a vegetable garden. yeesh...i can't believe i just typed that...i'll let you know how that goes.

many faces of Hayden

2010-03-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures of Hayden last month. She's pretty precious these days. She's just at a fun age where she's really interactive, but can't really disobey and i don't have to discipline her yet. Boo on being a disciplinarian. Thumbs up on the rest of mommyhood.

i'm sweet

huh?

yeesh

yay life is awesome!

clapping my hands is my favorite trick

what are you looking at?

Regarding that last picture...a little sassiness is starting to emerge from this little angel. If I ask her to come to me she gets this twinkle in her eye like, "maybe i will or maybe i won't." She has major melt downs when her diaper has to be changed (kicking, thrashing, wailing) and once it's over she goes right back to her sweet self. When Liam strips her of a toy she attempts to defend herself and shreaks and whops him with her chubby little hands. Then Liam looks at me like aren't you going to do something about her behavior? She's so dramatic in the morning when she's waiting for me to get her cup of milk. She yells "EEEEEEEE! AHHHHHH! over and over and over.

Her hair is growing like crazy! A couple of pics:

see the little wings of hair by her ears? and yum to chocolate pie.

bed head

What's really going on right now...

Will's working A LOT. A resident in his department had to leave the program so Will was moved up to a second year spot for the next quarter (April through June). Second year residents are the junior to the chief of neurosurgery. They carry the pager for the chief's service 24 hours a day and get a break every other weekend.

His week so far: Monday he worked from 5:30 am to 7:00 pm with a couple of pages in the night. Tuesday he worked from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm. Today he worked from 5:30 am to 6:30 pm but just got a page at 10:30 and went back in for the night. So I'm at home right now thinking, ok we can do this. we signed up for this. we knew this was coming. it's only a season of life. don't cry.

Lexia and Gus

2010-03-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Our dear wonderful friends Lexia and Gus came all the way from Amarillo, TX to visit us this past weekend. It was wonderful! I didn't want it to be over. We laid pretty low in Rochester most of the weekend. Will watched the kids Saturday night and Lexia and I went out for dinner and a movie. In general Will doesn't just love to take care of other people's kids, but he said Saturday night with Gus was super easy. Gus is such a sweet sweet kid - big talker, gentle with Hayden, good sharer and just easy to be around. Oh and totally potty-trained. I was hoping that all of these qualities would rub off on my sweet son. The boys played really well together. Gus was totally game to wrestle with Liam and of course Liam loved it! Liam had his momets with sharing but overall he did good. We have missed them so much! Since we've moved, Liam still brings up Gus on a regular basis. They are such good buddies.

I met Lexia at a mom's Bible study that I joined in Little Rock shortly after I had Liam. We were in the same small group and realized that we lived in the same neighborhood - me on A St. and she on C St.

Lexia had moved from Amarillo for her hubby's residency and mentioned one day in small group that she had been lonely since they moved to LR. I thought she was super sweet and down to earth, and I was in the market for other mom friends so i jumped on that and asked her to come over for a playdate. At the time Liam was 5 months and Gus was 7 months so it was definitely more for our enjoyment than theirs.

We clicked from the beginning and got together at least once a week if not more from that day on. Nearly every weekday morning Liam and I would wake up and try to entertain ourselves at home, but just end up called Lexia and Gus to hang out. I have so many great memories from those almost 2 years that we spent in LR together - mornings at the zoo, lunches at chick-fil-a, girls-night-out at macaroni grill, both of our boys' 1st and 2nd birthdays, and having our baby girls. I actually got to be with Lexia when she gave birth to her daughter Nola.

Lexia's husband Blaine finished his residency at the same time that Will graduated from medical school. So in June she moved back home to Amarillo and I moved far from home to Minnesota. One of the biggest adjustments since the move has been living life without them in our weekly routine! We love them so so much and I know they will be lifelong friends.

Thank you to Blaine for sharing his wife and son for a few days! Thank you Lexia for taking the time and money to make the trek to the north - pregnant and all. You're the best!

raising a two year old

2010-03-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

Raising a two year old. Oh my. Every month parenting magazines show up in my mailbox. I resist hurling them across the room when they claim you can tame your two year old in 3 easy steps. I lay in bed at the end of most days questioning myself - "I should have been more consistent there" or "I was too hard on him then." Help me, Lord! Liam is energetic, physical, impulsive, daring, and smart. If I draw a line he wants to see how close he can get to it and what will happen if he crosses it.

Examples:

Me: Liam, please don't put your finger in Hayden's eye.

(pause)

Me: Liam, don't put your thumb in Hayden's eye either.

And just today:

Me: Liam, please don't bang the bowling pin on the window.

(bang, bang, bang)

Me: Liam, don't bang the bowling pin on the table either.

(tap, tap, tap)

Me: If you bang OR tap the bowling pin on anything again, I'll take it away.

(tap, tap, tap)

Me: Hand it over bubba.

I feel like I'm constantly correcting, disciplining, and telling him no. I have to really look for things to praise him on because I don't want him to feel like I'm just beatin' him down all day.

And then of course there's potty-training. Too many times I've thought, "i think he's finally got this potty thing down." The next day - poop in the pants. He will go an entire day without wetting his pants. Then the next day, he's wetting his pants every time I turn around. Wearing me out!

Speaking of pants...American Idol fans can appreciate this. A few weeks ago Liam stood up on the fire place (his "stage") to quote his memory verse. He stood there for a minute and then said "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin' like a fool with ya pants on the ground, gold in ya mouth, hat turned sideways." Not exactly the 23rd Psalm! He did it again at the grocery store. Hayden was kinda antsy and I asked Liam to sing her a song. So he breaks out in "Pants On the Ground" at the top of his lungs. Hilarious! I tried to keep a straight face and switch him to the "Jesus Loves Me" track.

No doubt he makes me crazy. One minute I want to cry because my sweet baby boy is dragging his sister down the stairs by her toes, and the next minute I'm laughing because he's running around the front yard in his underwear with sox on his hands - which he did today.

notice there is no snow! it melted away about two weeks ago. woo hoo!!! we survived our first minnesota winter!

I find myself repeating the same phrases over and over:

"Gentle hands Liam"

"Use a kind voice."

"Yes, please?"

"Hayden is more special than any toy."

"Don't pick Hayden up please."

"Are you dry?"

"Let's have a potty break"

"Yes, please?"

"Time for a potty break"

And the latest addition: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." (thanks mom!)

He has a MAJOR struggle with sharing. I keep thinking he should be growing out of this problem by now. This is where the line "Hayden is more special than any toy" comes in to play. I don't want him to share just because I tell him to. I want him to share because it's the right thing to do and the right way to treat others - because people are more important than things. He's not grasping that concept so much.

After Bible class or any kind of childcare time I will ask Liam, "how was class today?" Many times he says, "I hit kids and take toys away." Great. Awesome.

So I guess the moral of this story is...what goes around comes around. My deepest apologies to my mother. I know now what she endured to raise me!

The Snowman

2010-03-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

Last year my mom bought this wierd old kids' movie called The Snowman. It's about this boy who makes a snowman (with so much snow in his front yard he must live in Minnesota). The snowman comes to life and does all these fun things with the boy. It ends tragically. Sorry to ruin it for you but...the snowman melts. Anyway, Liam LOVES this movie and always wants to watch it when we go to my parents' house. Given his love for The Snowman, it was high time that he made one of his own. So today we made our first Minnesota snowman!

we named him Joseph

Liam, Joseph and Hayden - Liam was seriously so proud

liam's exact words "i yuhv him"

good times

Hayden watching us crazies

A week or so ago Will was home for the day so we had a snow day. We went sledding down our hill, buried each other in the snow, then came in, ate soup and made snow ice cream. I'd heard of snow cream from several people and decided to try my hand at making it. It's just snow, milk, sugar and vanilla. It was actually really delicious! We were going to end our day with ice skating, but ended up napping late instead - love it.

our first batch of snow cream

liam was a fan

It's really been warming up around here - 20s and 30s and supposed to hit the 40s a couple of days next week. But I've been told that this winter has been mild and to watch out because if the winter "comes in like a lamb" it will go "out like a lion". That little terminology must be a traditional saying around here because I've had a handful of people tell me that. So I'm told to brace myself for a big March snowstorm, and then winter, and our snowman, will finally melt away. And in our story that is a happy ending!

oh oh oh Little Rock

2010-02-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

We spent the first two weeks of February in Little Rock and it was glorious! EXCEPT....there was snow on the ground the whole time!!!! I mean really? I travel across the country to get away from the frozen tundra and LR has the gall to greet me with snow and ice! ahhh! i will say however, the temps were warmer in LR (30s)than in Minnesota (single digits) so we enjoyed that part. Will's fam had been at our house for a week so the kids and I flew down to LR with them. We stayed the first week with my parents and then Will drove down the second week and we stayed with his parents. It was so great to just hang out with family and friends, sleep in a little, not cook, and eat at you know where...CHICK-FIL-A!

chicken biscuits, oh how i've missed you

will dominating his chicken sandwich

we love chicken!

visiting my grandparents (my mom's parents)

visiting Will's grandparents (Will's dad's parents)

The first weekend we were in town I left the kiddos...as hard as it was (smirk)...and took a trip to Memphis with my bff Kristen Davis. Our dear friend Rachel is getting married in May and we were helping throw a lingerie shower for her. Also had an early bridesmaids luncheon. So fun to get away and hang out with close friends. And since I'm a bridesmaid in the wedding that means I will be making the trek back to the south in May! so excited to have another trip on the books!

me and rach

aren't these awesome? the place settings that rachel and her mom and sister made for the bridesmaids luncheon

kristen and I

rachel showing off some of her pretties

I also got to spend a couple of days with my roomies from college - Megan Terry, Leslie Baker and Jennifer Piccino. We had a little slumber party at Jen's house and then lunch and a movie the next day. I've missed them so much and was so excited that Megan and Leslie made the drive from Jonesboro. I love you girls!

There were two highlights of the trip for Liam that he's still talking about. One was going to Chuckie Cheese with my parents while i was gone to Memphis. Sadly i have no pics from that. And the second was riding Pops' four wheeler.

This he will NEVER forget!!

our best attempt at a family photo in the Rock

It was so good to finally come "home" to Little Rock since our big move, and i wasn't ready for our visit to be over! But it was also good for us to go back to Little Rock and realize that our home isn't there anymore. Our cute little house on A St. has been over taken by a bunch of single dudes - where there used to be my living room furniture there is now a ping pong table. Our precious friends on C St., the Hendersons, have moved away and our dear friends from medical school, the Shotts, aren't in LR anymore either. Things have changed and people have moved. And when we got in the van to come back to Rochester, it was the first time that I really felt like "ok, let's go back home", home being Rochester. We have a new life in Rochester - new house, new friends, new activities. It's such a good feeling for it to finally start to fit together and feel like home. Thanks be to God for his provision!

one year old girl

2010-01-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

One year ago today we were holding baby girl Hayden Alisa in our arms for the first time! A little reminiscing...we spent the day walking the mall to get contractions going after my water had broken that morning. Finally contractions started, and we checked into the hospital at 6:45 that night. Less than an hour later, at 7:33, with her daddy there to catch her, she was born! It was the best day! There's nothing like a a sweet baby girl.

And now one year later, we're so glad God gave her to us!!

She is an easy-going and snuggley little girl. She loves fruit and graham crackers and chomps them down with her 8 little teeth. She likes to play with her brother's cars and tools and has learned to be tough with a big brother like Liam. When her daddy and brother are wrestling she likes to walk right in the middle of the action. To balance out her toughness she's a little tiny peanut, short and small. She likes her baby dolls that she got for Christmas from her grandparents and can say "baby". Her other words are "momma" "daddy" "bow-wow-wow", and "uh-oh". She's pretty attached to her paci and is a great sleeper, 12-13 hours at night and two 1.5 to 2.5 hour naps a day. I said it when Liam turned one and i'm saying it again now: i don't want my baby to grow up yet! But i know it's inevitable and i'm just thankful that i get to witness it.

Both my babies at one year old:

Liam

Hayden

Will was on call today so we had a little celebration for Hayden last night. We ate pizza, watched a little picture video of Hayden's first year, opened presents (we got her a See-n-Say) and then dug into the birthday cake. Great little party!

Hayden in her party dress from Sandy and Pops

reading her card

new clothes from Uncle Ellis

tasting her strawberry cake with pink vanilla frosting

on a sugar high

Here's a few other pics from today.

having a morning tea party with her birthday tea set from Pops and Sandy

Liam bringing his southern charm to the tea party

Hayden saying "ahhhh" as she loves her baby...precious

supper with daddy at the hospital

Happy 1st Birthday Hayden Alisa! We love you SO much!

My mind is also on our dear friends Zeke and Laura who just had their first baby on Saturday. Welcome to the world little Evie Lynn! So much to look forward to!

Pops, Sandy and Ellis are here!

2010-01-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Will's parents and brother flew in yesterday to spend the week with us. We are SO happy to have them here! I love having things on my calendar to countdown to and we have been counting down to their arrival since the new year. Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at the Mall of America. Then today we celebrated Christmas together. I had kept out a small Christmas tree so it would still feel like Christmas. Pops and Sandy gave Liam a toy fishing pole and Hayden a baby doll. We ate a big meal and we also had birthday cake to celebrate Sandy's birthday from last week.

the fam

sandy, hayden and her baby doll

liam's fishing pole (and hayden trying to snag his fish)

happy bday sandy!

We're looking forward to a fun week with Billy, Sandy and Ellis. We are going to try to take them snowshoeing sometime if the weather cooperates. Then on Saturday the kids and I are flying back to Little Rock with them. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! My first trip home since we have moved! I made it 8 months. pretty good, right? I am so excited to see friends and fam and eat at Chic-fil-a!! There are people here in rochester who haven't even heard of chic-fil-a! crazy. ohhh i can just taste the chicken now...

girls go sledding

2010-01-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hayden and I had not been to the backyard yet to sled. So we finally bundled up a few days ago and trecked out there with the boys. Hayden wasn't a huge fan of the snow flying in her face when we went down the hill but I think she liked being outside with everybody.

Temps have warmed up in a major way - in the 20s and 30s. I'm told that we are in our "January thaw" but don't be fooled! Before long we'll return to the frozen tundra.

i thought i knew

2010-01-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

let me just say...i THOUGHT i knew what cold felt like. i've spent many a christmas in canada. but no one ever told me that the real coldness comes AFTER christmas. -15 degrees. note the minus sign before the 15. days where the high is zero. zero isn't a number! i go outside and breath in and i can literally feel the breathe crystalize on my nostril hairs. I'm not making this stuff up! it gets in the 20s here and people think it's a heat wave. seriously, they'll go outside without a coat!

i've had to shovel snow once so far. Will had shoveled the driveway the night before and left for work early in the morning. but by the time i got up a snow plow had come down our street and shoved a MASSIVE pile of snow at the end of my driveway. apparently that's normal, but i was in shock! i had to be somewhere that evening and will wasn't going to be home until the next day! so when the kids went down for their naps, i put all my winter gear on, including my furry hat, and headed out with a shovel. i slung some snow around and felt like i had no clue what i was doing. i kept looking around to see if any of the neighbors were watching me. and i just kept thinking, "where am i? is this my life?" it's times like these that i feel like i should be on a reality tv show where people are put in extreme situations.

however, to liam and hayden this life in the north is normal and they are two happy little kiddos!

Hayden is 11 months old and i think i can say she is officially walking. She's been cruising for a while and taking a couple of steps here and there, but yesterday something clicked for her and she was toddling all around the kitchen. She's still pretty timid. Not near the bull dozer that Liam was at her age. She also quit nursing about 3 weeks ago - turned her nose up at me and would NOT nurse. Actually the first few days she cried and pushed me away when i would try to nurse her and then she started looking at me like, "mom, why is your boob in my face". I tried and tried for about a week and then just had to let it go. I was completely crushed and emotional for a couple of days but I've moved on. She's on formula now, which she really didn't like at first, and i'm going to put her on cow's milk soon.

Liam is doing pretty good with potty training - still has bad days - but not as often. He loves to sing. He stands up on the fireplace like it's a stage and gives us a little show most nights before bedtime. His greatest hits right now are "I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy" and "The Farmer in the Dell". We get the biggest kick out of him singing "The Farmer in the Dell". He sings "The farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, hi-ho the dairy-o, the farmer takes a wife." then it's supposed to be "the wife takes a dog", then "the dog takes the cat", then "the cat takes the mouse", "the mouse takes the cheese", then "the cheese stands alone". what a dumb song by the way! the farmer takes a wife and the wife takes a dog??? what's that supposed to mean? is that some kind of absurd ranking of mammals? anyway, sometimes liam gets the verses mixed up and says "the wife takes the cheese". ha ha! i guess it's not that funny, but hilarious when liam's singing it.

We have made a New Year's resolution as a family this year. We are committing ourselves to memorizing scripture. We don't really have a set plan, but we're starting with Psalm 23. I think Liam's little brain will soak it up. And my prayer is that it will become second nature to store up God's Word and in our hearts and minds.

Happy 2010 everybody!

december in a nutshell

2010-01-13T21:41:00.001-08:00

speaking of nutshells...we had a bowl of uncracked nuts that sat out for people to munch on over the holidays. liam was fascinated. not sure i'll do it next year because multiple times everyday liam would say "let's crack nuts."

so this is what went down in december...

we bought these super cool minnesota-ish hats

and then got dumped on with snow!

the lovely driveway and sidewalk that Will shoveled - can't appreciate it til you've done it.

NOT an easy task!

going for a sled down the hill in our backyard

Will and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! We stayed at home with our sleeping kids, ate homemade cheesecake and watched the Survivor finale. This year we looked back and thought, wow, how far we've come! It's been a big year - had our second baby, graduated medical school, bought our first house, bought a mini-van, moved to minnesota and started a new job. And we both said if we could pick all over again we'd still pick each other!

Will was on call the 25th so on the 22nd we had an early little family christmas just the 4 of us. We had a picnic under the tree and then exchanged gifts.

We gave Liam a train table - which he was absolutely ecstatic about. (he found it by the way, hidden in Will's closet a couple weeks before christmas. i was in the kitchen and he came running in with this look on his face like he'd just seen the risen Lord. I told him that whatever he saw was a special surprise that he was going to have to wait for and surprisingly he settled for that answer.) Hayden got a pop-up toy and was preciously excited about it. Will and the kids got me a new watch, and me and the kids gave Will a pair of jeans and some grip strengthener thingys. Liam gave Hayden a new purse, and Hayden gave Liam a thomas train. It was a fun sweet little night. i love our little family and cherish memories like that.

Then the grand finale of December was all of my fam coming up to Rochester for the last week of December - my parents, my sister Jenni, and her hubby Nathan and two kids Sam and Ruby, and my brother Charles. We had fun and we also had some not-fun. My dad, Jenni, Sam, Ruby and Charles all got sick - puking and diarrhea. UGH! But in spite of that it was still so good to all be together!

reading with Nini

sledding with Pa

Sam and Liam

Hayden and Ruby
Jenni and Sam at Mall of America
Nathan, Charles and Willy

decorating christmas cookies

Pa and the girls

the whole gang

We had a white Christmas, took a day trip to the mall of america, ate a lot, played a lot, some people puked a lot, and rang in the new year together!

getting older and giving thanks

2010-01-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

so a couple of highlights from the last part of november...

i had a little birthday a few weeks ago. the big two-seven. will was on long (30 hour) call on my birthday but left me a sweet card and a delish cinnamon roll from the bakery that morning. and my sweet fellow arkansan friend, shea, made a yummy chocolate cake for me. she brought it over the night of my birthday and even stayed and helped me bathe the kids. shea, i didn't thank you enough! it meant so much to me!

Thanksgiving was non-traditional and i loved it! Will was working in the ICU and couldn't take vacation over the holidays. So we stayed here and our dear dear friends Jonnathan and Kristen made the treck to Rochester from Little Rock. I mean really... are they true friends or what?! They left both their families in LR and made the 12 hour drive to see us for 4 days in this super chilly town! Thank you Lord for friends like that!

And I cooked my first turkey...if you count Jenny O turkey-in-a-bag. I have a whole new appreciation for the woman in charge of the holiday meal. talk about alot of work! yikes...i think next year i might just show up somewhere to eat. I could not have done the cooking without Kristen though to give me orders. I had planned out the meal, done the shopping, had my recipes all ready, but on thanksgiving day i felt like my brain was scrambled eggs. i seriously needed kristen there to say, alisa, put the turkey in the oven. alisa, salt the potatoes. alisa, don't forget the salad. we had my good friend alexandra, her husband carl and their three boys over to eat our big meal with us. they are in rochester from new zealand for 2 years of training at mayo and have come to be great friends. alexandra's mom was also with us - in town from new zealand to help with her newest little grandson.

liam, ferguson, fletcher, and wee baby forrester

the crew

who would have thought last year that this group of people would all be under the same roof sharing a holiday together? it was a great time and great memories. i'm so thankful for the awesome friends we've had for years and the new friends we have made recently.

a copeland story continues...

2010-01-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

If anyone was wondering...we are alive and well!!!!

The blog was frozen in time along with the rest of Minnesota land but watch out because there is about to be a blizzard of posts...you might even skip American Idol to read...

my precious little peanut

2009-11-09T20:52:00.001-08:00

Hayden Alisa Maurine is my one and only and i can't believe she is already 9 months old! I took her to the doctor last week for her 9 month check-up. She's a healthy little peanut, but she's itty bitty. On the growth charts she is in the 13 percentile for height and the 10th percentile for weight. Each check-up she's dropped lower and lower - 75th, 50th, 25th and now 10th. So her doctor said that he thinks she's fine - she's eating well, pooping well, meeting her milestones - but if she's dropped more at her 1 year check-up it may be a cause for concern. I think she's just gonna be petite. The girl can eat too! She still nurses 4 times a day and her all time fav foods are bananas, applesauce and animal crackers. And i learned yesterday that she loves pop-tarts. i left the pantry open and next thing i knew she was chompin' on a pop-tart.

i took this pic and then confiscated the pop-tart

She gives a big thumbs down to green beans, green peas, squash and corn. She would live on fruit and crackers if I let her and she can put down the Gerber puffs in a serious way. She also eats lots of avocado, sweet potato, carrots and oatmeal. However, I think the only part of her that has gained weight in the past month is her belly button. The babe has an outie, which just cracks me up coming from a family of innies (not posting any pics of my innie though).

major outie

close-up of the outie

profile of the outie

Hayden makes this face when i tell her no-no.

I'm telling her not to touch the potty and she's like "who me?"

Her latest and greatest 9 month old move is standing on her own and she just looks way to tiny to do it. But she's a strong little booger.

Liam at 9 months when he was first standing alone

And Hayden loves Liam. She will laugh and laugh at him doing the silliest things. The other day Will and I heard the two of them just rolling with laughter in our bedroom. We went in there and they were both laying on top of some pillows on the floor just laughing at each other. Seriously the sweetest sound. Here's a video I took tonight of the two of them at bathtime. Not the greatest videography but still sweet.

I love hearing my kids laugh. And Hayden's little toothy grin totally melts me. I love watching her grow and change!

Potty-training update: We resolved the poop issue and Liam was on a roll with pooping and peeing in the potty with rare accidents. Unfortunately we've relapsed. He peed his pants twice yesterday. Then today we had a public incident. Sometimes when we are playing outside or at the park I let him pee in the grass. Well, today that backfired on me. I took him to open-gym at an indoor soccer field. I found him with his pants around his ankles saying "i go pee-pee in the grass". Soccer World was left with some soggy astro-turf.

Always a battle to keep clothes on this kid

I will post more about parenting my sweet 2 year old but let me say a few words. Right now it's exhausting, defeating, frustrating, dumbfounding and almost always hilarious...but only in hind site.

flash-or-treat

2009-10-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Flash-or-treating: Minnesota trick-or treating where all the kids have to wear their parkas and quickly flash their costumes so people will know what they are under all of their winter wear. I heard that from a local friend today and thought it was kinda funny. However, I dressed my presh little babies in big puffy pumpkin costumes so they stayed warm.

Hayden and the Cat in the Hat

(i pulled out this old hat that i had in highschool and Liam got a kick out of it)

neither kid really wanted to take this pic... but mom insisted :)

We had such a fun little halloween night - Hayden's first halloween and the first halloween that Liam really got into all the festivities. We grilled brats and and hot dogs for dinner. I think it might be our new halloween tradition. Liam loves to grill with Will. A little video that Will took:

Liam's a big talker, but sometimes he needs a translator. In the video when Will asks him what he's going to dress up as, Liam says (somewhere in there) that he's going to be a monkey for halloween. He started saying that yesterday out of the blue. I had been talking to him about his pumpkin costume and he's been playing with it for the past couple of weeks. I don't really know where the monkey idea came from but maybe we can make it happen next year.

After dinner we took the kids out trick-or-treating and it was a lot of fun. There are a bunch of kids on our street so there were lots of trick-or-treaters out. Liam thought it was AWESOME. He had this look on his face like, "are we actually going to ring everyone's doorbell and get candy?" - just a total novelty to him. He would get a little shy when the neighbor would open their door and he'd barely whisper "trick-or-treat". But when it came to getting the candy - not a shy bone his little pumpkin body. He kept snatching the candy from the neighbors before they had a chance to drop it in his bucket. We just went around our circle and then came home to greet trick-or-treaters. When we got home Liam stripped down as fast as he could and attacked his candy stash. We probably should have watched him a little closer because before we knew it he had torn through a tootsie pop, a blow pop and piece of double bubble. He's never even had gum before! Does it really take 7 years to digest? I guess that means it will be out of his system when we leave rochester.

Liam's a sucker for suckers. He had three suckers tonight along with the gum, 2 gummy candies, a piece of taffy, and a tootsie roll. The glory of no candy rules on halloween! Liam was sticky from head to toe. It's so fun to have all these kid experiences again with your kids. The first of many memorable holidays to be spent in Rochester!

snow fun

2009-10-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

The day after the big snow Liam and I woke up and decided that we better get out and try out his new snow boots. So we put all our winter gear on and trecked out to the back yard. We started to build our first Minnesota snow man, but our cute little Old Navy mittens just weren't cuttin' it so we gave it up and went inside for hot chocolate and rice krispie treats. That's the best part of cold weather anyway - going outside just long enough to get a chill so you can come in for a hot little treat. :)

Liam's new boots

Hayden's new boots

Liam's all about snowballs

Hayden wearing one of Liam's old snowsuits - not a fan of the suit or the snow

after-snow treats

sweet little snow bunny

The snow has all melted and the temps are back up in the 40s. But after a taste of the snow to come I realize that we are not prepared for the winter ahead! We've got to stock up on long underwear, better mittens, and THICK socks! And of course more hot chocolate!

is this a joke?

2009-10-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today is October 23rd. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Full out winter. Here's the view from my deck.

There is snow covering our pumpkins on the front porch. I've prayed today, "Is this a joke, Lord?" I know this is going to sound crazy, but I feel overwhelmed. I never thought I was the kind of person whose mood could be affected much by the weather. But we've been talking about the weather that we will face in Minnesota since we matched in March and now it's here. No more just talking about it. It is now my REALITY and I'm anxious. Winter. 6 months of winter - from now until March. Real winter where school will be cancelled for a few days in February, not because the roads aren't drivable but because kids could get frost bight if they walk to the bus stop, so I'm told. Frost bight? Doesn't that happen to people who climb Mt. Everest or live in Antarctica?

Will texted me today, "Isn't this awesome?" "Hmmmm...no," I thought, because I had just gotten in from Bible study and then lunch - carrying two bundled up kids back and forth through the parking lot in the snow. I'm slightly embarrassed too because if any Minnesotans read this they will think I'm a huge wimp. And I guess today really wasn't bad. It's just the anticipation of more and more and more to come. Tonight after dinner we took the kids to Target and bought them their first snow boots. Liam was so excited. And it gave me a little boost too. We are going to figure this winter thing out - how to dress, how to get around, fun things to do.

I know this: God has taken me out of my comfort zone. Couldn't we have matched in Florida? Doesn't He know I'm a beach, warm-weather kind of girl? And here I am in Minnesota for 7 years. No doubt, this will make me stronger. "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord..." Jeremiah 29:11

I came across these pictures that Will took about a month ago at our neighborhood park. We didn't realize it, but these were some of our last warm days for a while...

sweet Hayden, 8 months old

(by the way, she started cruising around her activity table this week and even stood alone for a few seconds!)

Potty training update:

We had lunch at a new friend's house from my Bible study. Liam took his pants and underwear off and pooped in the middle of the floor. I wonder if she'll invite us back...

At naptime today, it didn't help for me to leave the door from his bedroom into the bathroom open. He still pooped on the floor. So I went in there, cleaned up, put a pull-up on him and then put a pair of his footsy pajamas on him backwards. He couldn't get to the zipper on his back which meant no stripping down and no playing his favorite games - Human Sprinkler or Crazy Baboon. Oh boy, he did not like it. It's like his own personal straight jacket. He kept saying, "it's the wrong foot."

I do have to brag on him though. When it comes to peeing in the potty, Liam's got it down. I hardly have to remind him. He initiates consistently when he has to go potty. And when we went to Bible study today he stayed dry. He wouldn't pee with his teacher, but he held it in until I picked him up and then peed in the potty. Now if we can just figure out this poop thing...

potty training

2009-10-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Oh Liam Liam Liam. Part boy, part baboon. He's 28 months and as I've mentioned before, he's been taking his diaper off and basically slinging poop around his room (baboon). So I felt forced to begin the dreaded potty training. It's not that I don't WANT him to put his bodily waste down the toilet - i completely do - i just want to skip the whole training part. So last Friday I put Hayden in daycare and Liam and I had the BIG DAY. We put away the diapers and brought out the big boy underwear! No going back!

We spent the day learning how to use the potty. I bought the book "Potty training in one day" - Dr. Phil endorsed ya know - and pretty much followed it. Part of the plan is having a doll that drinks and pees so that your child can help you teach the doll how to go potty and then learn with the doll. Liam got totally into that.

His doll, Potty Scotty, would have a drink, pee in the potty and get an M&M. So then Liam would have a drink, pee in the potty, and get an M&M - piece of cake. Then Scotty had a drink and peed his pants and Liam quickly realized that it wasn't supposed to work that way. So we made Scotty practice going back and forth to the potty so he would remember next time to go pee in the potty, not in his underwear. Later on in the day Liam had an accident. I reminded him that, like Scotty, he needed to practice so that he would remember to pee in the potty next time. I made him practice ten times. The first couple of times he was like, la la la this is fun. Then by the third, fourth and fifth time he was really not happy and the last five times he was melting down because "i just want to pway (play)!" So during awake hours at home he has hardly had any accidents because he thinks all of that practicing is for the birds. But then naptime comes and my little baboon emerges.

The first day he laid down for his nap and woke up 2 hours later dry. I was thinking, wow my son is basically a prodigy - and thank you dr. phil for this oh so simple program. The next day he even had a big poop in the potty before nap time. Boy did we celebrate - first poop in the potty!! But the past few days have been down right dirty. I walk into his room greeted by turds and tread marks and Liam saying "look mommy look". yes, thank you, merry christmas to me.

See, when it's naptime or bedtime, he's closed in his room so he doesn't have access to a bathroom. So one day I decided to put his little blue potty down in his room so that he could use it if the earth moved during naptime. Nope, still took a big dump on the floor. I went in, cleaned it up, put him back in his bed (he hadn't actually gone to sleep yet). Went to check on him a few minutes later and he had then decided to pee in his little blue potty and then sit down next to it and stick his feet in the pee. Little blue potty in his room - bad idea.

So then today i tried and tried to get him to get everything out before he laid down for his nap. But he realizes that the more he says "i need to go pee pee" the longer it puts off his nap. little stinker. he wouldn't go so i just put him to bed. I go to check on him a few minutes later - he's standing there next to his poop on the floor holding up one finger - "i needa wash my hands", he says. Lord, grant me patience. Lord, grant me patience. Lord, grant me patience.

I've decided now that I need to try leaving the door from his room into the bathroom open. I think he needs the option to use the potty during naptime. It makes me nervous for Liam to have that kind of freedom. I’m envisioning a flooded bathroom and a sewage explosion. I'm sure more stories are ahead.

pumpkins, piercings, and honey crisp apples

2009-10-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome 5 days with Will's parents in Rochester and we were sad to say goodbye this morning. But I think the days we had with them here have been some of our best days in Minnesota so far. We went to the pumpkin patch, spent a day in the Twin Cities (or "the cities" as the locals call it), picked apples at an orchard, and enjoyed several family dinners and game nights together. AND...are you ready for this...WE HAD OUR FIRST SNOW!!!! We went to bed on Oct. 11th with flurries coming down and woke up the next morning to the ground covered in white! Beautiful and frightening all at the same time.

view from our deck

i have decided that i must and i will have a positive attitude about the weather. so this is me having a positive attitude.

my little pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

the fam

Pops and Sandy with their grandbabies

Liam scoping out the patch

in true Liam-style, he felt the need to gather ALL the pumpkins

When we went to the cities we spent the day at the Mall of America. Nickelodeon Universe is there and Liam loved riding the rides. And Hayden got her sweet little ears pierced! I have to admit... when I was holding her down for the girl to pierce her ears my heart was pounding and I had a moment of regret. But Hayden only cried for two seconds and her little earrings are completely adorable.

Liam driving a big rig

Sandy and Liam on the carousel

Billy, Will and Liam on the log ride (poor Liam was afraid for his life)

Before you die, you must come to Rochester, MN in the fall, go to an apple orchard and eat a honey crisp apple straight from the tree. There's nothing like it. And if you've got mad skills like me you'll go home and make pie too. By the way, I've learned not to underestimate the weight of apples. We didn't realize how many apples we had picked until we went to pay for them. We had picked almost 30 lbs. and it cost us $50!! But worth every penny.

making my first apple pie, i didn't know if i could pull it off, but it was actually pretty delish

We carved our pumpkins the same night we baked pie. Such a festive little evening.

Hayden taking it all in

Sandy and Pops' pumpkins

Will and Liam's pumpkins (Liam used markers instead of knives)

just a sweet pic from the week

It's still hard to believe that I live in Minnesota and this is my life. I was just saying to Will's parents this week that I still feel like I'm in college but I blinked and suddenly I'm a mom in a mini-van with two kids, a mortgage and my first grey hair (no really, i found my first grey hair last month). Sometimes I'm behind the wheel of the Odyssey and I look in the rear view mirror at my babies and it's almost an out of body experience. But THIS IS THE LIFE!! I can remember when I was feeling anxious about going to college my mom said to me, "these will be some of the best years of your life." And college was great - so much freedom, so little responsibility, going and doing what you want when you want. My life now is a stark contrast to that - little freedom and HUGE responsibility. But the path that God has led me down since college is RICH with blessings and I praise and honor Him for it. My main objective now is to be a servant for Him and to teach my kids the same.

Thanks Billy and Sandy for coming to visit. We love you so much!

I'm baaaaaaack...

2009-10-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

After a nearly 2 month furlough, I have returned to the blogging world. We took a trip to Amarillo, TX in August and it totally broke my blogging momentum. But I'm back and need the therapy of typing my life and emotions.

The camera is still broken. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to just take it in and get it fixed, but in my world that is so much easier said than done. It requires me loading up and hauling around two awesome little kids at some time when I can rely on both of them to be patient and happy while I wait for the Best Buy dude to inspect my bugger of a camera. And pretty much, I have a long list of such tasks that I will tackle...I'm not sure when. Actually...I will tackle it when my in-laws come to visit on Saturday! Will's parents will be here Sat. through Thur. and we are so excited! I love having visitors on my calendar to look forward to. And we are missing family!

Here's a few pics from our Amarillo trip in August (from Sandy's camera). We had an awesome time. Thank you Grandma and Grandad for having us!

The Copeland Boys - Billy, Will, Liam and Ellis

Cool chicks, Sandy and Hayden

no fear

little fish

grandmas loving on the grandkids

Our dear friends Lexia, Nola, and Gus - oh we miss them!!!

Liam is STILL talking about mowing grass with Grandad

Brothers changing diapers - i think it was Ellis' first diaper change

me and my girl

daddy and daughter

I was spurred on to pick blogging back up because Will has started taking over-night call - meaning he went in today at 6 am and gets off tomorrow at noon. So these long nights at home by myself is a perfect time to blog. Will is still really enjoying work and is doing a rotation in the ICU for the next 3 months. The schedule is actually really good. He goes in at 6 and is home for dinner at 5:30. Then he takes call every fifth night and gets a day off post call. So we are going to have him home way more through the holiday months. Love it!

Here's the scoop on our household right now: poop, poop, and more poop. Actually, I've had to clean up so much of it lately that I would rather use another word for poop. Liam Copeland will NOT keep his diaper on! When this saga began, I walked into his room one morning and and he was standing there buck naked with his full poopy diaper lying on the floor and tread marks of poop on his bed, his car chair, his carpet, his blanket. i mean, seriously? So I gave him a very serious lecture about not stripping, especially if he's shooey, as we like to call it. Next thing I know, 6 hours later at nap time the scenario repeats itself (this time just pee). But after a 2nd morning of poop from floor to ceiling we have resorted to wrapping him with duct tape. And so far it's working. When I tell Liam it's time to get ready for bed he says "I don't want tape". Sorry buddy.

Last night Will, Liam and I had a drawing contest. We all drew trucks - Daddy won. We all drew cats - Mommy won. We all drew flowers - it was a tie. So we drew pictures of Hayden to break the tie. Daddy won. He drew a little round head with tears running down her face and the word 'barf' coming out of her mouth. And that pretty much describes Hayden lately. She's been fussy and she spits up massively all the time. But she's still the sweetest baby girl in the world.

Story of the week: On Friday mornings I'm part of a medical spouses Bible study called Side By Side. This past Friday I was in charge of bringing breakfast for my small group. So I was rushing around the house trying to get the food ready, the kids dressed, my make-up on, etc. I ran out to the garage to let Lucy out to pee. Liam was fiddling around with the door and then followed me out. We turned around to go back inside and the door was locked! Hayden was inside in her exer-saucer, contained luckily, but it only took about 30 seconds for her to work up a real good cry. I grabbed Liam and ran across the street to the neighbors' house to call Will. The neighbors, by the way, had just moved in 2 days ago and I hadn't even met them yet, but they were the only people with cars in the driveway. I was in my tank top and pj pants (no undergarments might i add) and it was in the low 40s and sprinkling that morning. Glorious. Will was able to get away and got there in about 20 minutes. I was upset though and I told Liam not to ever mess with the locks on the doors again. He looked up at me and in the sweetest voice you ever heard said, "I'm sorry mommy".

And a Copeland story continues...

a friend for dragon and other stories

2009-08-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Liam has a book called "A Friend for Dragon". It's about a little blue dragon who lives alone and gets lonely so he goes out looking for a friend. Dragon meets several different animals and asks "will you be my friend?". He ends up becoming friends with an apple and the story goes on. It dawned on me today, I totally relate to dragon!! I feel like I'm walking around meeting people going "will you be my friend?, will YOU be my friend?" and i think right now i would even be friends with an apple. :)

My camera is having issues so I have no pictures. I will just tell a few little stories from this week.

FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

We were invited to our first birthday party last Thursday. One of the girls in my Bible study has a daughter that was turning one. It was a group of 5 families, all Mayo people. Will had to work so I braved it alone. Sadly I was the only one that showed with no husband. It was a little insane. Liam was running circles around the other kids and he kept wanting to play by the grill because there was a basketball goal mounted on the side of the garage by the grill. Hayden was starving so I was trying to feed her oatmeal which she was spewing out all over me. I literally had oatmeal dripping on my eyelashes, running after Liam who was running after the basketball that was bouncing towards the burning grill. Then I was nursing Hayden and Liam was grabbing whole bratwursts off of the food table with his greebie hands. Wow, so we had to eat cake and hit the road. A fun time had by all.

HEY Y'ALL

A couple days ago Liam was playing with his barrel of monkeys. He was lining up all the monkeys on the couch and talking to them, mostly jibber jabber, but I heard him say, "hi guys." I said "what did you say?" He said, "hi guys!" I said, "no, no baby. It's 'hey y'all. can you say 'hey y'all'?" "HEY Y'ALL!" he said. He WILL be southern!!!

LIAM, WHO DO YOU LOVE?

Yesterday Liam woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the bed. He was rolling around on the floor, fussing and whining about nothing, and so I was just trying to make conversation with him to get his mind off of his crabbiness. I asked him, "Do you love Mommy?" "No," he said, of course. This continued on. "Do you love Daddy?" "No." "Do you love Hayden?" "No." "Do you love Lucy?" "No." So then I asked, "Well then who do you love?" And Liam said, "umm...Grandad." (Grandad is what Liam calls Warlick, Will's mom's dad.) An apology to all of Liam's other grandparents.

PROTECTIVE BROTHER

We were at the park yesterday and there was a little boy, about 9 months old, sitting next to Hayden in the grass. The little boy was touching Hayden's arm and trying to crawl over her. When Liam saw him he went over there, moved the little boys hands and told him no. It was pretty cute. Big brother watching out for his sister.

CRAWLING BABY

Hayden is crawling!! She officially started on Monday, the 10th. She get's up on her hands and knees, moves one hand and knee forward, kinda pushes her body forward and goes back to her belly, then does it again. It's not a full out turbo speed crawl (like Liam did pretty much out of the womb) but she get's where she needs to go.

BYE BYE LION CHAIR

Liam's lion chair has seen it's last days. He had peed on it a number of times and Febreez was no longer masking the smell. I know, that's disgusting. I was feeling like a bad mom letting him sleep on it. Plus the stuffing was falling out. We bought the good ol' lion chair at a garage sale for $1 but the joy it brought to Liam was priceless. :) So today we went to Wal-Mart to find something cheap to replace it. We decided on this Lightning McQueen fold out chair. I ran downstairs and got a picture with Will's phone of Liam asleep on it. (yes that's Liam under the pillow.) I don't know why we even have the toddler bed anymore.

One of the semi-stressful parts of moving is finding a new person to do your hair! I know it's just hair, but I had Brenda cut my hair for 15 years in Little Rock! I'm getting it cut tomorrow with a new girl. First haircut in Minnesota. I hope it goes well...I'll post pictures of the cut...good or bad.

liam funnies

2009-08-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

I don't want to forget these funny little two-year-old things that Liam says...

We've been working on counting and if I really get him to concentrate he can count to ten (with a little help and guidance). Otherwise when he counts things on his own it's always "6, 7, 9, 6, 7, 9"...as he points to whatever he's counting with his big huge thumbs.

Since we've moved and made the transition to his toddler bed Liam has made his own transition from his toddler bed to his lion chair. Here's a pic of the beloved lion chair:

EVERY night I tuck Liam into his bed, turn on the fan, and turn out the lights. And EVERY night after I leave he immediately pops up, turns on the lights, turns off the fan and crawls up into his lion chair for the night. And surprisingly he sleeps great - 7:30pm to 8:00am (or later) and he's been taking 3 hour naps!! So I'm not messing with his system! When I come into his room in the mornings I say, "Did you sleep in your bed?" and he says very quietly "yes". Then I'll say "or did you sleep in your lion chair?" and he'll smile and say "ine chair".

Liam also has an obsession with fruit snacks or "c-kaks". Sometimes when he gets cranky at the dinner table and wants to get down he'll just start yelling, whining and not using his words. I'll say "Liam, look at Mommy and tell me what you want." And more times than not he'll look at me with a twinkle in his eye, like I just gave him an open invite to ask for anything in the world he wants, and he'll joyfully say "C-KAKS!"

Liam LOVES our dog Lucy or "Cee-dee". He goes in the backyard a couple times a day to "mow grass Cee-dee" (mow the grass with Lucy). And usually I'll go with him in the mornings to scoop the poop out of the backyard. Liam likes to run around with me and help me find the poop. "I FIND IT!", he hollers when he comes across a pile of poop.

Just a few funnies to remember and more to look forward to...

And here's a few pictures from the past week just hanging around the house:

chillin' with dad

Hayden trying out the activity table for the first time

haircut time, manageable when Liam's watching his all-time-fav show, Clifford the Big Red Dog

Hayden's so close to crawling!

Liam sits like I used to as a kid

Hayden's face after trying green peas for the first time...not her fav

Oh these funny kids! Make me laugh every day! :) And I have to announce that Hayden is officially sleeping through the night! 7pm to 7am! Yay Hayden!!! I love my life!

healthy babies

2009-07-29T18:55:00.001-07:00

Today Hayden had her 6 month check-up and she's healthy as a horse! Well, a miniature horse. She's in the 25th percentile for weight and height, weighing 14 lb. 8 oz. and measuring 25.4 inches. She's petite but the doctor said she's growing just fine. Physically she and Liam are totally different babies! At 6 months Liam was in the 90th percentile, weighed 17 lb. 11 oz., and measured 26.5 inches! I went back and looked at some of Liam's pics when he was Hayden's age. Kinda cool to look at both of them both side by side. Here's a few:

Liam, newborn

Hayden, newborn

Liam, 3 mon.

Hayden, 3 mon.

Liam, 6 mon.

Hayden, 6 mon.

I love these babies! They favor each other but they are definitely their own little people.

I really like the new pediatrician that we saw today. Our pediatrician back in Little Rock was a younger woman so with her it was like talking from one mom to another. I really liked her and was so sad to have to leave her. Our new pediatrician here is an older man and talking with him feels more like father/daughter. He's very gentle and personable, and I feel great about taking the kids to him. I went by myself with both kids this afternoon and it was a little wild! Liam had his two-year-old check-up before we moved so only Hayden was actually seeing the doctor today. I went armed with trail mix, milk and toys for Liam and he did pretty good while Hayden was being seen. And you can't ask for better health care than at Mayo Clinic! It is a well-oiled machine! I feel so fortunate to have this kind of care for our family for the next several years.

God has blessed us with two healthy babies and I will continue to thank and praise him for that! Here are few pics that we took this past week:

yea!! daddy was home half of saturday and all day sunday! we were lovin' life!!

we went to saturday night church and afterwards there was dinner and games for the kids

Liam of course was not scared of the big honkin' slide!

Hayden was totally zoned out. She's not really into partying past bedtime yet.

when i took this pic Liam was saying "tall like Sansom"

a typical afternoon lately - popsicles and sidewalk chalk

sweet little 6 mon. old girl

cheese

Hayden looks like she's been captured by the Mad-Laughing Liam - Yah ha ha ha ha!

little baller

where did he get his mad skills?

precious profile

Tonight Will got off early and took our little fam to Culver's for dinner. Culver's is famous for butter burgers and frozen custard concretes...yes please. It was D-licious. Will set his coke next to Hayden and she knocked it over everywhere. Liam dissected his corn-dog to find the "sausage" that was "hiding" then dumped his melted ice-cream on Will's shoes. And I ate a butter burger in record time so we could get the kids home to bed. I always feel like I'm in one of those ESPN eating contests when I go out to eat with my kids - stuffing my face as fast as I can, food and drinks flying everywhere as we all cheer each other on to EAT! These are glorious days!! Now I need to roll myself to bed!

ladies lunch kicked my tail

2009-07-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have been visiting a community church that is close to our house. A girl that I met there had a lunch at her house for several of the Mayo wives today. I think it was mainly an opportunity for me and another new girl to meet some other Mayo wives at the church. I really appreciated her reaching out to me, inviting me over, introducing me to some new people. But I have to say, once I got there I was ready for it to just be over!

It literally took me all morning long to prepare for the lunch. The lunch was at noon, right at Liam and Hayden's naptime, so I put Hayden down for her morning nap later in hopes that she would be able to take her noon nap later. Then I spent the morning making fruit dip and fruit kebabs for the lunch, getting myself showered and ready, getting the kids cleaned and dressed, packing a lunch for the kids, packing a diaper bag, writing down directions, nursing Hayden, and the constant task of occupying Liam while trying to do all of this. And even though I was working towards getting out the door on time all morning long I was still late.

So when I finally got there at 12:15 and hauled the kids, the diaper bag, the food and Hayden's bumbo in the door, I was drained. And I was the only one late! Someone told me that Minnesotans are on-time people. I'm at serious risk of having no friends if that is the case. There were a couple of older kids that were going to watch the younger kids while the moms ate. So I got Liam and Hayden settled eating lunch with the other kids and finally sat down with the other moms, who were already half way done with their lunch. Did I mention that I had worked up a major sweat from all the hard labor? Yep it was really cute.

Speaking of cute, I was slightly over-dressed. I was thinking, ok a ladies lunch, i will get out of my every-day mom clothes and try to look cute, not dressed up, but cute. I had on jeans, a cute shirt, heals, a little bit of jewelry. Pretty much everyone else was in capri pants and flip flops. Not that big of a deal I guess, but makes you a little self-conscious in a group of new people. And it was one of those days when I just felt off. I couldn't think of interesting things to make conversation about! I was going, come on alisa, talk about something besides the weather! I don't know, I just couldn't pull it together today.

On the positive side, the kids did great. There were no meltdowns and we were able to stay for the whole lunch. We headed home around 1:30 (with my fruit kebabs that no one really ate). I got the kids in their beds and they both slept for 2 hours. And I sat on my new couch thinking...those ladies probably think that I'm a socially-awkward resident's wife with a sweat problem who shows up late to things because i'm too busy picking out what high heals to wear. Oh well, I guess. Just one of those days.

As much work as my two precious kiddos are, I love them more than I can describe, and I look forward to my days with them. Here's a sweet pic I took of Hayden today. I can't believe she's almost 6 months old!

Tomorrow I'm going over to a girl's house from my Tuesday Bible study for a playdate. She lives close by and has two boys that are 3 and 1. Should be a much easier morning!

Nini, Pa and a new couch

2009-07-19T20:04:00.001-07:00

My parents have officially been introduced to Rochester, Minnesota! (remember, that's where i live.) We had such a great time with them here! We had a couple of days with temps in the 50s. Memo to Minnesota...it's JULY!

Mom and Dad standing in front of Mayo Clinic with the kids

Mom was here for the whole week, and Dad drove in on Thursday for a long weekend. Liam took full advantage of them both! "Nini read", "Nini play toys", "Nini popsicle". Then "Pa read", "Pa play toys", "Pa mow grass", etc., etc., etc. And that started about 5:45 every morning. I don't know what the deal was, but he was waking up so early while they were here! The guest room is downstairs near Liam's room so Mom would get up with him when she heard him hollering for her. Mom, very concerned, asked me "Oh, who's going to get him at 5:45 in the morning when I'm not here?" and I said, "uh, pretty much, no one." Tomorrow morning, I will get Liam at 7. It's back to the real world with his mean ol' momma! Here's some photos of our week together:

at the pool on one of the few warm days we had this week

Will was post-call and got to come with us!

sharing trail mix with daddy, Liam's not a fan of the peanuts

Yeah, Pa is here! Reading the story of Samson or "Sansom" for the 100th time

picnic at park on Pa's first day in town

Hayden sitting up so big! 5 1/2 months - officially mastered sitting up

Liam climbing the ladder all by himself

Pa loves this baby girl

beautiful day at the park

Thursdays on 1st, walking around downtown

family pic, waiting for the band to play

Liam bustin' a sweet dance move

a little sidewalk chalk action on our driveway

Liam showing me his chalky hands

Hayden trying to avoid the cold July winds...i think that's an oxymoron

mowing grass with Pa

Pa and Nini, we had so much fun! Mom, despite what you may think I was NOT worn out when you left! I loved cooking for you and spending my days with you...even if we didn't actually "accomplish" much! (We had plans to do great things on the house but did a lot more playing than accomplishing!) We miss you already and love you so much!

In other news, we bought a new couch and it was delivered on Friday! Woo hoo! It's awesome! It is our first big furniture purchase since we've been married. And it's actually a sectional with an ottoman.

Will looks like he's modeling his legs, but he's actually just studying

my cute new Pier One pillows...and my cute husband

And I have to show this picture, mostly for my mother-in-law. I know Sandy wants to picture what her doctor son looks like when he's at work everyday so here he is!

I told Will to pose. I guess this is his super doctor pose. You know he is an official doctor because he's wearing a LONG white coat. Medical students wear short white coats. Also, you know he's a first year resident because he has a neuro-surgery handbook in his right pocket. I tease him about telling his patients to hold on a minute while he looks up their symptoms in his handbook (he doesn't actually do that...i don't think). But I think he looks pretty official and definitely good-looking. Hands off nurses!!! Dr. Copeland is a one-woman man!!

I talked to my dear dear friend Lexia on the phone for a while today. I miss her so much! I told Will on our date last week that one of the hardest parts of moving away has been leaving her. We spent almost everyday together in LR! I don't know if I will find another friend like her here. And our boys loved each other too. Yesterday after dinner we went to get ice-cream and I asked Liam who he wanted to come with us. He said Gus. I wish he could have! We are planning to see them in Amarillo around Thanksgiving. Seems a long way off...

sleeping with a man

2009-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

There's a man in my life. He's completely handsome and totally in love with me. He comes to my house late at night. We sleep together and he's gone in the morning before I wake up. Sounds mysteriously romantic doesn't it. Well...the man is Will. And this is a completely accurate description of our interaction with each other this week. He's working so hard and he actually got to do almost a whole brain surgery this week! It's so crazy that he's doing this! He made the incision, drilled through the bone, cut all the way through the tissue and brain down to the tumor. Then the other dr. with him actually removed the tumor and Will closed up the incision. I mean seriously?! Will is doing this!! I wish I could see him do it!

The kids and I have had a really good week! I joined a Bible study for residents' wives that are new to Rochester, and it started this week. It's Tuesday mornings and there is childcare - oh yes. I'm really excited about it and I think there are definitely some girls in there that I can be friends with. On Wednesday we met a resident's wife and her little girl at a toy store that has weekly story time. The important thing to Liam is that they hand out balloons at the end of story time - can't beat that! Then we went with them to McDonalds for lunch. It was a fun morning. On Thursday we packed a picnic and went downtown to Kutzky park to meet up with a play group that meets every Thursday called Toddler Time. It's a bunch of resident spouses and their kids. I think we are going to try to meet up with them weekly. So I feel like we're starting to get things on our calendar that will give us a rhythm to our week, things to get up and get ready for and get us out of the house. Hallelujah thank you Jesus! Here's some pics of the kiddos hanging around the house:

just a normal day - wearing floaties, singing a song

This weed eater is Liam's prize 2nd b-day gift. Lucy chewed it up shortly after we moved (see how it's broken in half...can't stand that dog) but he still drags it around and cuts the weeds. Nothing will keep him from his precious weed eater.

big girl standing up

don't have a pic of it, but this week Hayden has been rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. Liam crawled at 5 1/2 months and I think she may keep up with him!

Then finally Thursday evening the time had come...MY MOM ARRIVED !!!! We were so excited to pick her up from the airport! On our way home we swung by Chipotle and got big honkin' burritos for dinner. Yes please. Love me some Chipotle. Then we put the kids to bed and sat on the couch and visited. We had a few windows open and Mom couldn't believe how cool it was in July! The evenings really are nice and cool here right now.

Friday morning we just hung out with Nini at home, showing her all the things we like to do around the house - read books, watched Clifford, played with daddy's golf balls, mowed the grass - the usual. Then in the afternoon we met up with a new friend of mine, Mary Beth Hoover, and her son at a park. Mary Beth's husband is a resident with Will and we've hung out with them a few times. Friday night mom and I took the kids out for ice cream at Culver's - an awesome frozen custard place entirely too close to my house. Will and I have been hooked since we got here and I think Mom has joined the club.

Saturday morning, Mom and I packed a picnic lunch and took the kids out to a park. There are so many great parks here and I'm trying to take Mom to several of them. Saturday night Mom kept the kids and Will and I had a hot date. It had been too long! It was so great. We had dinner at a restaurant on a lake, walked around the mall, had coffee and dessert, went to Wal-Mart. The main thing was that we spent time together and just talked! We talked about his job and my days at home with the kids and how we're feeling about Rochester and our house and looking for a church. The consensus is that we're happy here and this is going to be a great 7 years for our family! We love our house, Will is feeling more and more confident at work, my days with the kids are getting better and better and the hunt for a church home continues.

Will was home all day today! WOO HOO! We went to church, took naps, grilled chicken and pineapple for dinner, and played outside with the neighbor kids before bedtime. Will is at the hospital all night taking call for the first time. I guess I won't be sleeping with a man tonight...

fog

2009-07-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this post by saying...I'm not going to make a habit of throwing myself a pity party on my blog. But I do want to document my thoughts from this week so that 7 years from now I can look back on this and see how far we've come.

I survived. My first full week by myself with Will at work...I survived it. After Monday, my first day, I thought, "These are going to be 7 of the hardest years of my life!" I feel like I'm in a fog. The best way I can describe it...you know the feeling you have after you've had your first baby? You bring him home and your whole world changes. You're exhausted, overwhelmed, not really sure what you're doing. Your days start to run together, you can never seem to get out of your pajamas and you feel like you're in a fog. That's exactly how I feel! And I'm trying to remind myself that this will be my new norm. I will get used to it and get a system down, just like I did when my world was changed by my first baby.

On Monday Will went to work at 5 am. The kids and I spent the day at home because it was grand central station at our house. The deck guy, the garage door guy, the water heater guy and the bug man were all scheduled to come by. Liam loved having all the handymen in and out of the house and watched closely everything they were doing. The garage door guy came in the morning and, in true Rochester fashion, was very chit chatty and friendly. He asked me what brought us to Rochester and I told him Mayo. Then he asked me if my husband was a doctor. I looked at him for a second and almost said no but then realized, yes my husband is a doctor! It was kind of a cool feeling to say that for the first time. And I felt proud because I knew the hard work that Will put in to earn the title. And I'm beginning to see the harder work that he has ahead of him. That evening I made a new mexican chicken recipe and dressed the kids in Mayo Clinic t-shirts to welcome daddy home from his first big day in the OR.

mayo babies

But Will didn't come home until 10 pm. A 17 hour day! The crazy thing is he walked in the door tired from being on his feet, but totally energized by what he had been doing all day. He said his day had gone by quickly and definitely didn't seem like 17 hours. I really am SO glad that he loves his job! And I love my job too, however I would not describe myself as 'energized' at the end of the day. Wake-up to bedtime by myself is a lot of work. Hayden is big time teething right now and has had a couple of rough patches, Monday night being one of them. She usually goes to bed at the same time as Liam, around 7, but didn't settle until 9:45 that night. But this morning I discovered her second tooth! Hopefully she'll have a few days of relief now that it's broken through. A few more pics:

when Liam wears his Mayo shirt he points at it and says "daddy works"

Hayden giving Liam a taste of his own medicine

Liam's new crocs for his extra wide foot. aren't they cool? size 8-9!

Hayden (5 mon.) if you look really close you can see her little first tooth nub

So Will got home Monday night, went straight to bed and was gone again in the morning before we woke up. Tuesday and Wednesday night he didn't make it home for dinner either, but was home around 6:30 to see the kids before bedtime. However, Wednesday night he said that he felt like he'd been rushing his patient notes at the end of the day in an effort to be home before bedtime, and he can't keep doing that. I understand that, and I want him to do his best work.

I took this picture on Wednesday, July 1st:

Why are my kids wearing long sleeves in July you ask? Because in Minnesota there are cold days in July!!! It makes me a little crazy. I feel like there's a monster named Winter that's chasing me. It's inevitable that it will catch up to me and in a few short months it will swallow me whole.

During the summertime in downtown Rochester they have "Thursdays on 1st". First Street is one of the main streets downtown and every Thursday they block it off and a bunch of vendors set up booths with food and things to buy. There is also usually a stage set up for a local band. So on Thursday I called one of the other resident's wives that's new to Rochester, and we went downtown together with the kids to check it out. It just so happened that both of our husbands got off work a little early because of the holiday weekend coming up. They met us for dinner and we sat and listened to the band that was playing that night. So fun!

hanging out on 1st St.

new friends, Grant and Kristin Mallory

There are 4 residents in Will's class: Will, Josiah, Grant and Wendy. Grant is the only other resident that's married and his wife, Kristin, and I are becoming friends. She's really sweet and I enjoy hanging out with her. They just moved from Washington D.C.

Friday Will thought he would have most of the day off because of the holiday weekend. I was SO excited to have some extra time with him. He went to the hospital in the morning and we were expecting him back in the afternoon. But I'm learning not to expect him back at a certain time, even if he gives me a time. He thought it'd be around 2. So around 2 the kids and I went to Kutzky park down close to the hospital to play until he got off. (While we were there we met a girl with a little boy named Liam and her husband's name was Will. How crazy!) After a couple hours of playing we gave up on Will meeting us and went home for supper. I'm not gonna lie...it's very frustrating...to look forward to having some family time and then he can't come! It's funny though, when Will called me to say that he didn't know when he'd be off he said, "I've got to stay. We've got a patient that's really sick." I thought, what? really sick? isn't everyone you see really sick? i'm thinking that anyone who has to see a neurosurgeon is pretty sick. Anyway, Will ended up coming home at 5:30. I went to my friend Shea's house to watch a movie and Will did bedtime with the kiddos - a nice little breather. Thank you husband! Here's a few pics from around the house:

Liam trying to be the baby

I was trying to get Hayden to show me her teeth

Liam willingly showed me his teeth

Hayden REALLY sitting up for the first time! Yeah Hayden!

We were all able to catch our breath over the weekend and Will was off Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Yeah!! For July 4th we went over to B.J. and Shea Deimel's house for bbq and smores. There was another resident's wife there with her 3 kids. The youngest was a little boy Liam's age named Diego. They had fun playing together. Liam of course showed Diego how to wrestle and took him down in the grass. He tried to show Diego's sister Ava how to wrestle too but she was NOT going for it - Liam's first time being rejected by a girl. It was also Liam's first experience with fire works. Oh, and he loved it. I don't know but I'm not totally sure that Liam and fire is a very good combo...

playing with new friends...notice Liam doesn't really "sit and play" like the other kids :)

first sparkler!

does this look safe?

Liam, Madison, Ava, and Diego

Today we went to the neuro surgery chairman's house for a pool party. Everyone actually swam too, not just the kids. It's kind of awkward shmoozing in your swimsuit with a bunch of brainy neuro people. But we had a good time and met some more people. I have a playdate with one of the resident's wives and her kids on Wednesday.

Mom will be here in 4 days!! Woo hoo!!! I'm thinking about potty training Liam while she's here. I was thinking it might be a good time to potty train while I have help. Mom could take care of Hayden and I could totally focus my attention on Liam. I am getting a little weary of double diaper duty. I'm not 100% sure that either of us is ready for potty training though. And these babies are pretty cute in their diapers!

Another week awaits me. Bring it on!

firsts

2009-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in my kitchen eating a vanilla ice cream cone while everyone else in my house is sleeping. Ahhhhhhh...a quiet house. This has been a week of several firsts. Will's first day at Mayo was Monday. He had orientation Monday through Friday and then Saturday was his first day of real work at the hospital - Dr. Copeland, Will Copeland M.D., McDreamy. I really do think he's pretty freakin' awesome. I got up early with him on Monday morning so I could take a picture of him all dressed and ready for his first day. All this picture needs is a jansport backpack and a spiderman lunch box. His week of orientation went well and he found out that he will be spending his first three months with the chairman of the neurosurgery department, meaning he will round on the chairman's patients in the morning, go to clinic with the chairman, assist him with his surgeries and other stuff that I don't really know about. All that to say, it's a pretty nerve racking place to start, definitely jumping in with both feet. He seemed nervous at first, but on Friday night when he was getting ready for the next morning he seemed really excited and confident. I still can't believe that he's going to be cutting on people's brains for a living. Pretty amazing. On Monday night we got a babysitter for the kids for the first time and went to our first neuro surgery event.

Dr. and Mrs. Copeland dressed to go out :)

There is another couple from UAMS that moved to Rochester, B.J. and Shea Deimel. We have gotten to be friends with them and really enjoy hanging out with them. They came over to watch the kids and we went to a dinner that was in honor of the graduating neuro surgery residents. It was the first event that the new residents got to attend so Will and the other three newbies were introduced along with their significant others. Let's just say...there's something a little intimidating about walking into a room filled with a bunch of neuro surgeons. Especially when neither Will or I really knew anyone to chit chat with. But we ended up sitting at a table with a couple of residents and their wives that were really friendly. We exchanged numbers and have already had a play date this week. SO great!

I also had my first crazy experience out and about alone with the kids. On Monday morning we went to the park. It was actually in the 80s and we were sweatin' like crazy. So we headed to Wal-Mart to buy a plastic pool. After I bought it, I realized that it wasn't going to fit into the back of my hot little mini-van so there was a Wal-Mart dude who said he would just tie it on top of my van for me. That sounded like a good idea...until I pulled out on the main road and it flew off! So I pulled over to the shoulder (with my two screaming kids in the car because it was lunch time by now and I had stayed out way too long), grabbed the pool, heaved it back on top of my car, rolled my window down and held the pool on top of my car the rest of the way home. I'm sure I looked like a redneck. "Hay ya'll! Just gihtin' my baebies a pool for the backyard." But it was worth it because the pool has been a great source of entertainment this week. Here's a few pics out in the yard.

Hayden had a first this week too - first tooth! I spotted it on Monday morning, bottom middle right. I keep trying to get a picture but can't quite get her to cooperate yet.

My greatest challenge right now is keeping Liam occupied during the day. He asks to watch television ALL DAY LONG! He's just kinda started that. Really loves Barney, Clifford, and Sesame Street. But I don't want him to sit in front of the tv all day! I try to stick to an hour a day, but it seems like lately we've been pushing two hours. I feel like a bad mom when I let him watch that much tv. So one thing we've been doing that he likes is putting on music and dancing around the house. His favorite tunes right now are Hickory Dickory Doc and Muffin Man. Liam is hilarious! When he realizes that I'm putting music on, he runs to his closet to get a hat because he MUST wear a hat while he dances.

bustin' a move

posing for a quick pic before bustin' another move

dancin' and lovin' life

hanging out in Hayden's room

floor time with daddy after work

Will actually had most of the weekend off, only had to work Saturday morning. So we took the kids to Soldiers Field Park to one of the community pools on Saturday afternoon. And Hayden had her first swim! She didn't care for it too much. Minnesota pool waters are chilly willy!

Liam got his first bad haircut this weekend. Will cut it and let me tell you it is SHORT. He's been buzzing Liam's head for the past couple of months but this time he decided to use the shortest blade on his clippers. Now Liam looks like a little sick kid from the clinic.

whoa

told you it was short!

still a babe

There are a couple of churches here that have Saturday night services and last night we tried one out for the first time. 5:30 in the evening is definitely an easy time for the kids. We fed them an early dinner then went to church. We picked up a pizza for ourselves on our way home and got home in time for bedtime. It was kinda weird though, doing church on Saturday and then not getting up and going on Sunday. I don't know what our routine will end up being, but it's nice to have the option of Saturday night if Will has to work on a Sunday. Today we just took it easy. Liam and I played in the sprinkler in the back yard and Will busted out the new grill he got for Father's day.

Life in Rochester is good. However, I am on the countdown til my mom and dad come to visit! 11 more days!