Way to Go Haydo!

Who knew when we stopped off at Wake Forest in 2009 we would be sending one of our kids there years later to grad school?

 2009

 2018

He will walk in the graduation ceremony in 2019 but he was officially finished in Dec 2018.

It's so exciting to watch our kids finish up their goals and make their way in life. Hayden has worked really hard to make this happen. He finished #2 in his program cohort. Lots of work and lots of dedication by hm and Megan both.

Miss Shay's Dress

I was working on a little project for Shayla for Christmas. Years and years ago Carolyn made me a dress. She sewed the dress but she also hand ribbon embroidered on the bodice. It hadn't been in style for years but I couldn't see just giving it to DI. It was a special handmade gift. So I finally figured out a solution. I repurposed it for Shay. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the dress before I cut it up to remake it. What was I thinking? The little dress turned out so cute and Shay loved it.

Cooper's Baptism

December 1st was a big day for our family. Cooper had his baptism. It's hard to believe he's old enough already to be baptized but he is. We are all so proud of him. It was a great day. He was baptized by his dad Benjy.

 Isn't he just the cutest!

 Right after the baptism we all headed to his house for dinner. It's always so fun to get together.

Thanksgiving 2018

We had a big family Thanksgiving this year with all the Coopers at our house for dessert. We enjoy hosting and it turned out great. We missed Hayden and Jeff's families.

We put on a puzzle to keep us all entertained:

 It was great fun!

We had a house full for sure.

 Doling out some turkey skin to the grandkids!

 It was so great to see everyone for Thanksgiving.

Family Birthday Dinner

We all got together for a family birthday dinner to celebrate all the November birthdays we have.

It's always fun watching the boys open their gifts because it's getting harder and harder to shop for them! We may resort to giving them money soon lol.

Veteran's Day Parade

We met up with Ashley's family for the parade again this year.

This year we put an entry in for InVision but luckily I didn't have to be in the actual parade. I just ordered the stuff. I even had to make an emergency trip to Mesquite to get the last minute banner done.

Tate Bowman Cooper is Here!!

Back on a plane Oct 25 but this time I was headed to Washington DC. The baby was supposed to be there before I got there but that didn't exactly go according to plan. The night before I flew out Rachel went to the hospital to be induced. By the time I got there...

 In fact it was another long night. 

Jeff and I had a fabulous dinner at the hospital because we didn't want to leave.

So it was also a long day the next day too!

 and early evening Oct 26 we had a baby!

 Tate Bowman Cooper was finally here.

 So adorable.

 They spent the next full day in the hospital and we took them home Oct 28 in the early evening.

 I took the night shift while I was there so Rachel could sleep as best she could. 

She would wake up early for Tate and then I'd sleep for a bit.

 We had such fun dressing him up and even just looking at him.

 And there was the mandatory photo shoot. Now that was fun!

Jeff went to work while I was there to help Rachel. Some days he came home early. 

One day we all went for a walk in the neighborhood.

 I got to stay until Nov 3. I really hated to leave that little guy. Oh and Jeff & Rachel too of course. The good news is I got to upgrade to first class for $35. So that was awesome. I could tear myself away knowing we would be back in January for Tate's blessing.

Fall Colors

Mendis and I took a much needed break and went to Cedar Mountain to see the fall colors and just check out of life for a day. It was just what we needed.

 We went to the ice caves to peek in. We hadn't been there before so it was cool to see one of them.

We were just really surprised to see all the snow up on Cedar Mountain. In fact the road over to Panguitch was even closed. It was fun to just drive around and see it though.

It was a beautiful day. We just love seeing the Fall colors and in this case the Winter colors too!

Back to Canada Again

So Mom wasn't doing any better at all. In fact she was bad enough that they gave us no hope and said it was time to find a home for her. She needed more care than dad was going to be able to give her. So this time Beth met me in Calgary and we were there Oct 2-9. 

 We flew in during a blizzard so we spent the night at a hotel in Calgary and drove straight to Redcliff the next morning. We dropped our stuff off at home and went straight to the hospital.

We tried to do pretty much the same routine again but this time we had to spend afternoons looking at the options for homes for mom. Dad wanted our opinion on them. He had to put the available ones in order and we felt like he did it just right. She would get upset every time he left. That was hard. 

Then it was just a waiting game for the first one to open. 

Meanwhile we did our daily visit to the ZB for lunch.

Again it kept us sane while we were there. After two months of this dad was loosing any patience he might have had and had a very short fuse. I asked the nurse to have mom checked for gluten intolerance because her symptoms were so much like that. He was not happy but finally went along with just trying it. I understand that he felt like I was wrong and didn't want to take away her food options but we had to do something. Same with lactose intolerance. They needed to try something because she was not getting better at all and was in constant pain. 

Her problems had been going on for years and she wouldn't listen to me before so I figured it was just time to check. Something had to give. 

The good news is those things did help. She has remained pretty much gf since and it has helped her tremendously. Thank goodness. She couldn't go home until the bathroom issues were resolved. Low and behold a month later it was so much better she was able to go home. She said it was like she woke up from a dream in November. She had been in the hospital 100 days and they had given us no hope even with her calcium levels back to normal. Luckily she has no memory of what she went through because it was terrible and it wouldn't help her to know how bad it really was.

 Don't let the smiles fool you. We thought we were saying goodbye for good...again.

We left after six days and spent the night in Calgary so we could catch early flights the next day. I am so glad Beth could go with me. It will be awhile before I can go back.