Brother and Sister

The kids have been pretty cute lately and I worry I am going to forget all this stuff about them. I really would like to have some sort of baby book made for them but so far this blog is the only record I have managed to keep.

Jill and Coop tend to have a love/hate relationship. The sibling rivalry is pretty intense. There is lots of pushing, shoving, hitting, biting, yelling "Mine" back and forth, arguing over whose Mama or daddy we are, etc. but they do have their loving moments too. A number of times lately we have caught them holding hands. They will cuddle under blankets to watch movies. They are capable of playing nicely together. Cooper will always try and comfort Jill when she is sad. We went to see the movie Brave and Jill got scared. Cooper kept patting her on the back saying "its ok Jill". If she starts to cry he runs over to alert us "Jill cry." (side note: jill is pronounced dill in Cooper speak)

Jill, in return, is protective and loving to him. She loves to teach him things and relishes being the big sister. A while back she was saying the night prayer and out of nowhere she said "please bless Cooper to chew good with his little extra tooth." We thought that was pretty funny.

We thought for sure Cooper would be lost without Jill when she went to Cousin Camp for a whole week last month. He did miss her but he also seemed to kind of enjoy being the center of attention. I swear he at least doubled his vocabulary while she was gone. He talks pretty well but he also makes up words for lots of things. Here are some of his best:

bubble= water, pool

bubble juice= water to drink

peez= please

chichi= baby, small animal, monkey

May travels

For some reason Tucker's school gives most of their vacation time in May. I took a vacation from work at that time and we did a little traveling. Mothers Day was right at the start and I had a nice one. Jill answered some questions about me for Mother's day at her preschool.

What is your Mom good at? Sleeping (Thanks Jill)
Why do you love your Mom? Because she loves me

We spend Mother's Day in Crystal Lake and then took off on our cross country trip. The kids did ok but it was still quite a stretch. Our first stop was in Kansas City. We went and admired the new temple they built there. Then the next day Tucker met with the dentist he used to work for there. We are exploring the possibility of an associate position there.

After that we made our way to Utah. It was really nice to see everyone even though hand, foot, and mouth disease was rampant. The kids had a great time getting to know Johnny at Aunt Georgia and Uncle Johns house. They loved hanging out with Simon and baby Carmen. They also got to meet their second cousins Seren, Finley, and Anders. Seren and Jill are kindred spirits. It was very cute to watch. We stayed with them one night and this dog they were dog-sitting chewed up our tooth brushes. Jill was so upset and started crying because "now we are going to get cavities." She has really been paying attention to Tuck's lessons.
We also saw my friend Breanne and her family. They took us to this cool bounce house play place in American Fork. We also stayed with Tuck's friend Keith one night. He has two dogs which Cooper was simultaneously obsessed with and scared of.
Tucker and I loved seeing everyone. It was great to visit our old haunts and eat lots of our favorite foods. We would love it if job opportunity would magically appear there but with Utah opening 2 (yes 2) dental schools things look even bleaker for Utah's dental employment opportunities.
We appreciate everyone that let us stay with them and took the time to hang out with us. It was so fun and we wish we could have spent more time with everyone. We are here by Kirtland for one more year if anyone wants to come visit!

Early May

I have gotten so behind on here. I have a bunch of fun videos of the kids but I cannot get them to go on here. Not sure what the problem is. Also, we have been having constant camera issues so Tuck's ipod is pretty much our camera now. Since I don't really know how to work it and it is always with Tucker it is not very easy to get any pictures to blog with. At long last though I have some.

To back up a ways here is some stuff that happened at the beginning of May. Jill had a dance recital.

Tucker and I took a little trip to Niagara. Thanks to a groupon deal and Martha being generous enough to babysit. We had a falls view which was awesome, ate a fantastic steak dinner that worked miracles on banishing any pregnancy queasiness that night, did the Maid of the Mist boat, and all around had a fun time. Thanks Martha!

Jill finished her first year of preschool at the beginning of May. One of the last days was Wacky Day. She's always a little wacky but here she is fully embracing it. Jill had such a fun year at school!