Fun with Friends

Mason, Cooper and I decided to join our friends for a morning at the Como Zoo. It is amazing how our group have friends have grown so quickly throughout the years. With 4 moms and 6 kids, we made it though the zoo and got in a picnic lunch before the rain started. I think this was a great way to spend a day off of work!

Mason (4 - not sure what this face is about), Henry (3), Addie (2), Jack (see back stroller - 6 weeks),

Ava (almost 2 - 23 months) and Cooper (almost 1 - 7 days before his big birthday)

Our Little Fishy Grows Up

Mason has been in a pool since he was 9 months old (thanks mostly to Grandma Geralyn and Grandpa Mike having a pool),

Mason's First Swim 05.26.06

but we as his parents have failed to ever get him into formal swimming lessons...until now. Mason started his first swim lessons at the Wise Swim School in Apple Valley. He was very excited to start as a Mini Dolphin and had an excellent first lesson. We are very much looking forward to seeing his swimming skills grow over the next twelve weeks.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cooper's First Haircut

After about a month of talking about it, I finally broke down and made an appointment at Kid's Hair (it's no Cool Cuts 4 Kids (shameless Regis plug), but was my only comparable option) for Cooper. I do not know why it was so hard for me to get his haircut, Mason had had 3 haircuts by the time he was Cooper's age, and he was definitely ready for a cut!

He did an amazing job for his first haircut and sat very nice most of the time. There were a couple tears with the razor and blow dryer, but besides that he was as content as can be. The finished product is...

Hawaiian Shirt Day

It was a beach week at Anna's Bananas that ended in Hawaiian Shirt Day. Luckily my mom had shirts in both the boys' sizes so I didn't even have to buy anything, which I would have, to participate in a fun day.

Love this Smile

My Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day my Little Cupids! Lots of love from Mommy and Daddy:)

Welcome Samantha!

The boys are happy to welcome their cousin Samantha MacKenzie into the Voth family. It is nice to add a girl into the mix with these two boys. We are very much looking forward to watching her grow and the fun memories to come.

Cooper "Edward" Voth

Strangely, both of Cooper's top incisors came in before his front two teeth leaving him vampire teeth for almost 2 months. I find this amusing since his mother was obsessed with the Twilight series while pregnant with him. A coincidence? I wish I had a picture of this to share, but funny how a 9 month old won't hold still and open his mouth long enough for his mom to get such picture.

Cooper's 9 Month Stats

Height: 28 1/2" (50th percentile)

Weight: 22 lbs 1 oz (69th percentile)

Head: 18 1/2" (87th percentile)

Likes: Food, Mason, remotes, standing up

Dislikes: Having to go to sleep when Mason is still awake

When I'm 18...

For sometime now, Mason has had a life plan, which goes a little something like this: "When I am 18, I am going to play for the Gophers, then, I am going to play for the Canadians," which later turned into the Washington Capitals. Mason is missing one big step to becoming a future hockey player...skating.

So we signed Mason up for group skating lessons through Farmington Park and Rec. We had tried skating the previous year on our own and got a lot of "it is too hard." We banked on him being more willing to try with a group of his peers. We were wrong. Unfortunately, Mason was the only one in the group who couldn't skate, so he was kind of left behind and very discouraged. So after only a couple of lessons, we gave up on this format, but will continue working with him on our own. It is sad to have quit something he is so passionate about, but we know he will get the hang of it eventually, it is Mason after all.

Happy 2010

We spent our New Year's Eve at the Wineberg's in honor of both New Year's and (most importantly :) ) Mandy's 30th Birthday. We had a great night with our friends and our friends' kids, who have grown in number over the years. On this New Year's, Mason is the oldest in our group and Cooper the youngest. Henry, Addie and Ava have filled in between them. In 2010, our group will welcome two new additions, which will make for an exciting spring.

Mason and Henry made it until midnight with ease and Cooper awoke just in time to join us for the ball drop.

Best wishes for the happiest 2010 from The Voths.

Merry Christmas Mason & Cooper

Mason & Cooper were thoroughly spoiled this Christmas during the six, count them six, holiday celebrations we had with all of our families. From our travels from Sartell to Red Wing, we were quite busy from the 19th to 25th of December. Despite being exhausted, it was very merry to have Cooper be able to spend his first Christmas with all sides of his family and extended family too. Mason, the seasoned pro at Christmas, had fun as well.

Cooper discovered his tongue again the day before Christmas, resulting in most of our holiday photos with his tongue out.

The result of six holiday celebrations is an obscene amount of presents my children received. It may be next Christmas before I find homes for all of these toys.

Holiday Treats from Anna's Bananas

Some of my favorite gifts have been the ones creative teachers have helped my children make over the years, and our first holiday season at Anna's Bananas was no different. I loved all the fun things the boys/teachers made for us.

Family Photo Fun

After too much thought and stress over our holiday card this year, I defaulted back to Target Portrait Studio for a family portrait session. Here is a sample of our photos:

"I be rockin' them beats, yup, yup"

Thank you to the Black Eyed Peas for a little song called "I've Got A Feeling" as it sparked Mason's interest in music again. Mason and I anxiously awaited their performance on the American Music Awards hoping they would play his favorite song. Instead, they played "Meet Me Halfway" and "Boom Boom Pow." While Mason was slightly disappointed in the lack of "I've Got A Feeling," he quickly recovered and found love for "Boom Boom Pow." It turned into a small obsession, which included watching the not so great AMA performance over 100 times before it was not so accidently deleted from TiVo (see pictures below of Mason watching Fergie & the Black Eyed Peas with his microphone) and many of his own performances at home and at school, yes school.

I swore I would never post this video, but I think it represents the kind of rock star I hope he does NOT become (i.e. playing guitar in his underwear). It is also the only video of I have of him singing this song, and it is a poor representation of his performances we got to witness, but he gets quite shy when we take out the camera.

Good Run of Bad Luck

November was a rough month for the Voth family. Sickness hit November 1 on the dot and lingered into December. Of course our boys decided not to be sick at the same time and traded weeks they were sick while Corey and I traded days/hours we were home with them.

We made our first trip to the ER with a sick Cooper on November 13 after coming home from school with labored breathing. It was reasonably determined that he had croup, post X-Ray that is (which I can say was one of my saddest moments as a parent seeing my baby strapped down for this process...yuck!).

We made our second trip to the ER the following week, yes 2 trips in one week. This one occurred in a more traumatic fashion, for me at least. I am using this blog as therapy for the incident because it was so awful. I was home from work with two sick kids, who saw their pediatrician earlier in the day and given the all clear to go back to school. I was doing some laundry that afternoon and carrying sheets in one arm, Cooper in the other. As we were approaching the laundry room, Cooper literally jumped out of my arms. In a slow motion sequence that replays over and over in my head, he falls to the floor without me being able to catch him and lands flat on his back. Sheer panic sets in which included a hysterical call to Corey and a trip to the ER. After a quick check by the doctor and being told that babies are resilient to these things, we went home with a smily Cooper and a wreck of a Megan. I hope no one ever asks us later in life in fun if Cooper was ever dropped on his head as a baby, because I would sadly have to answer yes.

We hope that our luck with change and we can move on to more happy and healthy times.

Happy Thanksgiving

As many of you know, we attend 2 Thanksgiving celebrations every year. Yes, we indulge in 2 Thanksgiving meals. We begin in Red Wing with the Holden family and end the day at my parents house celebrating with the Wadleys.

Since Cooper had started eating solids, he got to enjoy Thanksgiving squash and a Turkey with Gravy dinner by Chef Gerber for Thanksgiving.

Mason on the other hand, being the world's pickiest eater that he is, did not enjoy any of the great foods Thanksgiving has to offer. Instead, he enjoyed a very large bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.

Warm Days of Fall

We were lucky to take advantage of being outside into November this year. Since Cooper had mastered sitting up, we decided to try out the wagon, which Cooper LOVED. We are definitely looking forward to lots of wagon rides this Spring.

Santa 2009

Mac McGoon invites Santa to make a special trip down from the North Pole early in November to take pictures at their studio. We decided to take advantage of this trip and schedule some time with Santa to take a special picture with Mason and Cooper.

Mason talked big all week about telling Santa what toys/games he wanted for Christmas, but when we arrived at the studio for the picture, the panic started. Luckily the studio had had a number of years of practice and asked before it was our turn whether anyone was afraid. We opted for the "scared child" option where Santa would just peak at the boys from behind the chair rather than the boys sitting on his help. Thank you Mac McGoon. Unfortunately, the only picture that turned out well was the one before Santa came out. Thankfully, the photographer offered to Photoshop Santa into the picture, so we still have a photo memory, even though the images weren't necessarily in sync.

After the pictures were complete, we made the mistake of trying to have Mason talk to Santa, which resulted in a screaming child. It may have been too close to the Halloween incident to tackle Santa...oops.

Regardless, we walked away with a great pictures of the boys.