EASTER, BRIDAL SHOWER & NASHVILLE by rc

Easter was a fun day this year with all the babies to be held!!! Uncle Ben said he had never held Colby so that is my first picture. He couldn't believe how light she was!!!

Great-Aunt Gail (GAG) holding Amelia (Christy's mom/Devin's mother-in-law, Debbie, is in the background holding a sleeping Sophia.) Amelia was not in a particularly good mood because of teething, but we did feel two bottom teeth that had come through!!

Colby asleep on Grandpa Cooper's lap before they left for home.

This was at Rachel's bridal shower in Mahomet (at the "moosedom" at Fran's -- her house is full of "mooses" and one room is the "blue bird room")!!!!! (Okay, Karen told me there is no such word as "mooses" but I think there should be!) Great-Aunt Stacy (GAS) holding Colby and Grandma Gail (aka GAG) holding Henry.

The many faces (mostly smiling) of Colby!!!

Mark and I went to Nashville right before Easter and went on a bus tour of the country music singers' homes.
This is Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's home.

Ronnie Dunn's home

Alan Jackson's home

The lane to Amy Grant's former home.

A fuzzy picture of Amy Grant's former home. I'm sure this is where she and Gary Chapman raised their Red Poll cattle!!!

Kix Brooks' home

Trace Adkins' truck

Trace Adkins' home

The rest of Trace Adkins' home!



Dolly Parton's home

Martina McBride's home

Martina McBride's home

TIME WITH THE GRANDDAUGHTERS by rc

Emma, Anna and Ella spent this past weekend with us while their parents spent Valentine's weekend away. The girls played school, we baked cookies, we watched movies and they spent time on the computer, learning how to go from one blog to another. Anna found these stickers and came upstairs to show us what she did with them!!!!


They also dressed up, well, Ella did, and we had to take a picture of her. This is her High School Musical dress that she got for her birthday, along with some jewelry that Grandpa picked up at a garage sale (I cleaned and disinfected it before letting the girls play with it, which will probably surprise my girls!). They love to try on the clip-on earrings and Ella is modeling hers. (She wanted the earrings off as soon as I was done taking her pictures -- I wonder if the ones they sell now feel any better on the ears than the old ones do?) Sorry Emma, no picture of you, I think you were on the computer!!!!



Last week, Great-Grandma Budke, Great-Aunt Dana and I headed south to visit Colby and Kelly. Colby didn't think much of the picture-taking, as you can see from the next picture! (She obviously doesn't take after her dad in that aspect, thinking back to the pictures of him wearing his college-day clothes that Kelly was trying to pitch!!!! Will never forget those pictures!)
She did wave "Hi" to me, though!!!
We got this reaction from her while we were talking about the election results!!!
She got a little crabby, so Aunt Dana laid her across her leg and Colby promptly fell asleep. No harm was done to her, "G-A-G" (that stands for Great-Aunt Gail)!!!


A couple weeks ago, Grandpa and I ventured up to Kori and Ben's to spend the weekend. We got to see Amelia, or "A.K." as Grandpa likes to call her, play in her new exersaucer (is that what they are really called?). She loves it and especially loves the yellow flower, but it's really hard to get a good picture of her with all the playthings attached. And she wants you to position her so she can still watch her Veggie Tales and Baby Einstein movies!! Notice that she was wearing her very favorite sleeper for her pictures!! What a happy little girl she is!





This next picture I find hysterical!!! Look at this little girl's eyebrows!! How can a person do that, I wonder?!?!?!? Kind of scary, I think!

Hope you people way up Nort' enjoy!!!! Can't wait to see you in a couple weeks!!!
Grandma Cooper

COLBY, ELLA AND AMELIA by Grandma Cooper

It takes me quite awhile to get pictures and text together to post on the blogs (Mark would say that I struggle), but I did want to share these pictures with you!! And I worked really hard at getting each girl's pictures together!! These first few of Colby are the day she was born and maybe the next day.

I had to get front and back pictures of her head so you could see her hair!!

Grandpa and I went down this past weekend and he held Colby for awhile. I don't know if I should tell you this or not, but they call her "Frog" because, well, you can probably tell why when you look at the pictures!! That's her knee up by her elbow!!!

Ella had a birthday last Thursday and she had a family party Friday evening. This was her birthday cake!!!! What little girl wouldn't want a cake like this?!?! One of Karen's friends did this, to Karen's surprise (she had just ordered a sheet cake)!!!!

Ella got several dress-up outfits and this was the Mermaid one.

She also got a High School Musical dress (a red-sequined, spaghetti-strapped formal) and this black wig came with it!!!

While Kori and Amelia were in town, I got to watch Amelia while her mom and Anna ran to the store. I put her in the recliner and turned PBS on and she was into the program!! She does do a lot of talking while she's watching TV, though!!!

Sooo cute!!!