Honk if you love Starbucks!

Hello to you, it's me again, bringing you the news on this lovely spring day! How in the heck have you been? We are really great here and I have to say we are all especially enjoying this beautiful weather. We sure hope you are too. If you get a second, be sure to check out the Battler Babies Blog. You will find a link on this page near the bottom. We can't believe how the triplets are growing! We are so excited to see them and everyone else at the annual 4th of July extravaganza! You would certainly be amazed if you could see what I've been up to. I LOVE to read! My current favorite book is called Secret Seahorse from my aunt Helen and m&d read it to me no less than 10 times daily. I love to point the seahorse out on each page and I give kisses to the fish. I am quite the kisser these days. Tuesday at daycare, I kissed my friend Lily 5 times and then Wed morning, I tried to plant one on Tatum. The past few mornings mom has come to get me up and found me kissing the various animals on my quilt Nanny made me. In fact, I wouldn't get out of bed until all the kissing was finished. It really makes mom and dad laugh. Another amusing feat lately has been my vast and quickly growing vocabulary. For instance, you know I told you how much I love the word shoes, right? Well, now I have more faves to include UP!, truck, whee, no way, please (only for chocolate), wa (for water), and most importantly, uh-oh shit! In fact, this last phrase has been the phrase of the week, much to m&d's chagrin. Mom is trying to blame dad, but we all know it is totally her fault. She was afraid we'd get kicked out of daycare for some reason or another. I am not sure what all of the fuss is about, I say it appropriately every time. For example, when I fall off my zebra or drop my pacifier, uh-oh, shit. Sounds right to you doesn't it? Anywho, mom keeps trying to substitute some word, shoot, every time I try out my new word. First they want me to repeat every word they tell me and then they try to change my favorite one, I am so confused! As you probably know, this upcoming weekend is dad's crossfit certification. We know we will miss him, but we are so excited for him as he already got offered a gig from the park rangers down where he teaches his land navigation class. Very exciting. Today I have my 15 month old well visit with a new doctor. Mom is a nervous wreck about the whole deal, you know I have to get some shots and a blood draw today. Needless to say, she is beside herself. We are planning some weekend visiting as soon as we get a chance. We'd like to go to the Baltimore aquarium, the National Zoo, and mom especially wants to visit her favorite landmark, you've all probably heard of it, the Dulles Town Center. Doesn't sound historic to me, how about you? We also want very much to pay a visit to Clarksburg and all of our friends as well as stops at our families. Keep your fingers crossed we can squeeze it all in! Of course, if you want to help us out with the driving, come on down our way if you get the chance. We had a wonderful but brief visit from aunt Amber and uncle Jim last Saturday. We did lunch, mom and aunt Amber shopped at the UB general store, and of course, we had some fabulous cold stone ice cream. What a great day! This is what you can look forward to as well anytime you are in the neighborhood! Well, I better run, I am busily napping (call me multitalented) and mom has to get a shower since we got so muddy playing in the yard this morning. Dad will have quite a surprise to come home to as mom decided to do some gardening on her own. What a mess! Hopefully he won't yell at her too much for destroying his beautiful grass and giving him MORE obstacles to mow around. I'll let you know how that one turns out! Until next time, keep us in your hearts and prayers and we'll do the same for you. Lots of love to you, Cooper B.

Almost 15 months old!!

Hello there! How are you folks in blogland doing? OK here, busy as a bee as usual. Mom and I are having breakfast together as we speak and I thought I would shout out a quick howdy do! You wouldn't believe how much I am talking! I repeat about anything I am asked and I LOVE to sing. I will try to attach a video file of my latest hit. I am sure I'll be going platinum! Good news...Dad is likely getting a new job! Isn't it exciting?! He sure deserves it but mom is beginning to think Uncle Bart was right when he said da-da was born with a silver spoon up his toukas! Haha, just kidding, and you know he didn't use the word toukas! Don't worry, I try to keep it G rated for my adoring audience. The work will be more along the lines of what dad used to do and we are all so happy and excited for him. We are now simply waiting for the contract to be accepted by the customer and he will likely start within a month. As for mom, she is also a little happy for herself; she may be able to cut back on her working hours after we get the ball rolling with dad. You can all guess what that means for me, possibly one more day with mom. She wants it so bad but is not yet allowing herself to get excited in case it doesn't work out. We have faith whatever is meant to be will be. More good news, Grammy J is feeling a little better. She is out of the hospital for 11 days now and actually returned to work for a few hours today. She was very tired this evening but sounding much better each day. I feel a bit sorry for her since mom has been badgering her sometimes twice daily. She has had quite a battle with this pneumonia and we sure have been worried about her, especially mom. She says it is so hard to do what she does but then be helpless in these situations. Speaking of what mom does, she has a potential new job in the works. Again ,you say...fickle may be her middle name, haha. More on that later. We missed some very important bdays too, cousin Stephanie and our friend, Jen Duval, both shared the 11th for their big day. If you see them, be sure to wish them a very happy belated. Today would have been 33 years for Papaw Bill and Grammy J had they not moved on to greener pastures. Aunt Dawn is celebrating on April 20th and our friend Curtis B's is tomorrow. What else you say? Well, I am recently saying Shell (for Ms. Michele), Lord knows she has earned it keeping up with yours truly. Gram and Gramps B got their house "jacked up" and in this case, we hear that's a good thing. We also can't wait to see the new paint job; we know with Gramma B's touch the colonial blue will be bea-u-ti-ful! Dad's big seminar is coming up next weekend for Crossfit and mom's upcoming big weekend involves working this Saturday and walking around with that crazy phone in her pocket, YUCK. As for myself, every weekend is landmark hanging out with mom and dad. We'll soon be planting our garden so you'll have to drop by this summer and enjoy some of our home grown veggies. That is if the rabbit doesn't eat them first because you know mom won't let dad shoot it! Until then, we'll be watching for you and wishing you the best. Please keep us in your thoughts and hearts as we do for you. Take care of and love one another. Above all, love me because I sure love you too, thanks for tuning in, Cooper B.

Get Well Grammy J!

Hi to all of you faithful fans and my apologies first and foremost for the delay in posting! I hope you can forgive us for the gap in the news, you know life barrels on at quite a dizzying pace! For those of you who don't know, I'll get right down to the nitty gritty. My grammy J is in the hospital with pneumonia and we are praying like crazy she'll be out by the weekend. She has had quite a battle with this nasty infection and we only wish we could be there with her to cheer her on. She sounded much better today but has a few months of recovery and hard work ahead of her. We don't doubt for one second if anyone can kick it in the rear, Grammy J can! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy return to good health. I have many updates, Happy Belated Easter first of all, and boy, did you miss one heck of a bday bash for dad turning 32! Whoowee! There was a HUGE cake, but funny, now that I think of it, I didn't get a single bite! The nerve! I guess I can't be too angry, m&d did take me to the beach. And what a great time was had by all! We celebrated Easter together with a delicious ham dinner and we even hunted Easter eggs on the beach, a first for our little family. We all colored and decorated the eggs together. We also went to a pig pickn for Uncle Bart's homecoming. You should have seen what a party animal I was! The park people all had their golf carts surrounding yours truly and I was showing off my moves to some serious soul music. The food was delicious and I guess the beer was too from the looks of the Bryant/Costello gang! Of course, they cut me off after one, talk about your party poopers! We also went to the NC aquarium. That was the BEST! I saw lots of fishes, an alligator, seahorses, stingrays to name a few. I will try to post some of the pics with this entry or very soon. I also went to Chucky Cheese for the very first time (m&d's too). You should see me play skee ball! Once I get the ball on the actual machine I will be unstoppable! Dad, mom and me had a picnic in the park and I did some swinging and slicky sliding. The most awesome part of all was spending time with my family. It was great to see them all and we miss them already. We hope Gram and Gramps B are busy planning our next get together, of course we are keeping our fingers crossed that it is somewhere in the southern region of the US. Big news here in UB, dad's crossfit certification is coming up at the end of this month. Mom and I are REALLY excited for him and know he will have a blast. Gramma B announced today more wonderful news...she is getting hearing aids! WHOOPEE! We are very excited for her as well; although mom is a bit worried, she made a comment that Gramma B might tell her friends...love that daughter in law, but BOY, is she LOUD!! April fool's came and went without a hitch around here, I'll tell you time flies and most days mom doesn't even know what month it is! She and I are a little under the weather right now with head colds and snot, but we are both thankful that dad is finally feeling better. In fact, he's right back at it in the gym. Poor mom keeps suffering setbacks but she is keeping the faith. We got some new rubber matting for our gym floor and you should see it. Dad is willing to do anything to keep mom out there with him! No news yet on the house, unfortunately, but keep your fingers crossed for us...m&d say it doesn't look good. We are reassured that whatever is meant to be will be. We missed alot of birthdays in our time off and we'd like to mention a happy belated to Marcie, Leah, Marisa, Gary, cousin Kelley, uncle Bob, Mason Halfin, Brady Swiger (the big 1), cousin Connor, & Wyatt McClintock (also 1). This Friday cousin Matt, aunt Glenna, and cousin Katie Sayre (ONE : ), also celebrate so if you see them, tell them Happy Birthday. We are sure looking forward to the weekend here in UB. Dad has big plans for a vegetable garden and the seedlings are poking out of the topsoil. He is looking forward to the rotatiller and getting those babies into the ground. We are also admiring our very green (read higher than everyone in the neighborhood's) grass due to some fabulous weed and feeding by my dad last fall. Needless to say we'll be the first on the block to mow this spring. So please, if you are in the neighborhood, take the opportunity to come by and take a gander at our grass! We'll be looking for you and in the meanwhile, please remember ma-ma's MAMA and keep her in your prayers. Take care of yourselves and those you love...we miss you and love you back. Hugs and kisses, Cooper B.

PS: I have 15 going on 16 teeth now and I am repeating lots of words. I said sleeves today! How about that? I am also feeding myself with a spoon and helping put on my own shoes (while I say "shoes")! I have also added the twist and some serious head nodding to my dance repertoire, next stop, dancing with the stars!