End of Summer!

I can't believe Summer is almost over! What a great summer we had, but we're ready for Fall and the fun that brings as well. Everything is more fun with Cooper! In a couple of weeks we are going to St. Petersburg, Florida for 6 days to visit Ryan Grable (Brad's brother) and have a family vacation. We are so ready and excited to take Cooper down there!

Our recent exciting news is that Brad has been transferred to the Duke Energy in Greencastle, which is about 2miles from our house! This has been 10 years in the making, so we are really excited about this change!

On 9/9/09, Cooper had tubes placed in both ears. Hopefully this will help with the chronic sickness we've been dealing with over the past several months. Dr. Curry says that flying will be a breeze now! Let's hope so!



Cooper found a new love this summer: Ice Cream! And the big guy can eat his own now!


Here are some veggies from the garden we had this year! What fun we had and what great food we'll have all winter!



Another love this year was corn on the cob. Cooper LOVED it, and we had it almost twice a week while it was blooming in our garden. I was even able to freeze some so we can have it later this year.



Cooper and Brad flying a kite... Brad's kite when he was younger. Cooper loved it!

Summer Highlight So Far

Finally! I am on partial vacation for the next two weeks so I finally got a chance to do this update. Let's see... Updates: Brad still works for Duke, and is busy in our garden this year. We planted corn, lettuce, pumpkins, watermelon, beans, onions, and cucumbers. It's been a lot of fun seeing our hard work pay off, and we can't wait to eat our hard work. I am teaching for Globe Education Network almost full time now, and love it! I also pick up some classes at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne. I also continue to serve as accreditation consultant and QI coordinator for HomeCare Advantage. I'm eager to see where God will lead me in this endeavor. Cooper - well, Cooper was hospitalized with pneumonia the last week of April so we didn't get to go to Ireland as we were to leave May 1. But we are so glad our little guy is better, and had no problems since. He's still on medications for his breathing (preventative maintenance) but since he was diagnosed with reactive ariways disease, it will probably continue for awhile. He got a haircut... nearly a buzzcut! But it's so much cooler for summertime and it'll grow back (keep telling yourself that, Heather).


In July we are heading to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky with the Adam's family (not the TV characters). Hopefully I'll post pictures of that trip before Cooper turns 2.



Cooper and Sterling Chase in the Rhino... they are buds!



New water table, provides hours of wet fun!



Swimming with cousin Jolie Foy in Grandma and Grandpa Lewis' pool



Yes, Cooper sporting my flip flops. :-) He loves to put on other people's shoes and try to walk in them.


Father's Day 2009 - Cooper helps Grandpa Gene and Grandma Kathy score in cornhole!


So one day Cooper was playing in his room, and suddenly he got really quiet. I yelled for him to come see me and was on my way to check on him, when he popped around the corner wearing one of my blouses from my closet. :-) He even smiled for the camera he was so proud of himself.

Pat Ummel took Cooper on his very first airplane ride. We went all the way to Raccoon Lake (20 minutes). Cooper chomped on puffs and looked out the window while I tried not to throwup in the Ummel's plane. Next time Dramamine is on the menu instead of puffs.


Water fun!


This is the ball pit that I thought was half this size. It takes up nearly our entire living room. I thought I'd have to put up with it for a couple of weeks. We are going on month 3. He loves this thing. He watches TV in it, plays with his trucks, and clearly chats on his cell phone. My patience is definitely wearing this having to vacuum around it but he has so much fun and it's a great way for me to get things done. :-)


Cooper and Brooke before Brooke's Senior prom (her real date)

Taking a Poll

Hello to everyone! Yes, it's June and I haven't posted since April.... but I'm not sure if anyone checks this blog anymore because most of you are on facebook. So, I am taking a poll. If you still look at this blog, could you email me and let me know? I'll keep it going if there are people out there interested in our lives. I don't see why you wouldn't be. We are fascinating people. :-)

Email: hgrable@airhop.com or heather.grable@gmail.com

Thanks!

Fire Engine Nebulizer!

We recently had a bought of illness in our house, which I have hopefully exercised with amoxicillin and Lysol. We had to take Cooper to the ER at Hendricks a couple weeks ago because he was wheezing and looked terrible. He had bronchiolitis and had to start taking neb treatments. We got our fire engine nebulizer with pacifier mouthpiece from HomeCare Advantage in Terre Haute, which is where I've been a consultant for almost a year now. I highly recommend this little setup! It took three of us to hold him down in the hospital to do his treatment, and with this he can't wait to sit on the counter and play with his fire truck. :-) Now he has an ear infection, so he's on antiobiotics. I hope he gets everything out of his system soon, because we leave for Ireland in two weeks!

Easter 2009

Here are some pictures from Easter. We spent Palm Sunday with Brad's family, and Easter Sunday with mine. It was a busy two weeks! Cooper made out like a bandit, of course.


Playing ball with Grandpa!


















Cooper opening his Easter basket from mom and dad. With a little help from Grandma Kathy, he sure did make a mess!


We had a pinata at Brad's parents, and this was the blindfold. Cooper thought it was a hat.

Oh how time flies....

Yes, I am a slacker, and haven't posted for almost 2 months. :-) In my defense, the blog is really slow at uploading pictures, and it takes almost 1 hour sometimes! Who has time for that? Just join facebook and you can see many many more!

Things are going very well here. Brad is still at Duke, and excited for warmer weather to be outside and have Cooper with him, who is almost 15 months old now. I am teaching online and still consulting 2 days per week. I love my time home, and love that I have a couple of days per week for adult time as well.

Cooper is.... busy, in a word. Walking, starting to talk, saying mama, dadda, bye-bye, juice, all done, banana (comes out nanana), and so much more. He really enjoys playing outside, picking up anything and usually tasting it before throwing it across the yard, hard for an OCD mom but I'm getting over that slowly but surely... at least where he's concerned.

We are very exctied that we are about 7 weeks away from our trip to Ireland! I hope it doesn't take me three months to get those pictures up! Say a little prayer for our very long journey with a 17 month old in tow, but he really is a good kid, and I haven't weaned the pacificer yet so I'm sure that will be a saving grace! The people around us will thank us for it, no doubt.

That's all for now, enjoy the pictures (IF THEY EVER LOAD).

Loves to play with my discarded junk mail!

Helping me unload the dishwasher.


First hair cut ( just the bangs, no one is touching my baby's curls for awhile).






Checking out Jerry Birt's cows.... not so sure about them...



So Cooper loves to help me clean. He follows me around when I vacuum carrying the cord, helps me dust with his own duster, watches me clean bathrooms, and grabs the mop or swiffer and mops/sweeps the floor... let's hope this just enhances with age!

Bath Time, Play Date

Just some random shots of Cooper in the bathtub... check out the shaggy hairdo! I just can't cut it, not yet.... maybe in the spring!

Below are pics of Cooper with his friend, Jacob. Jacob's mommy, Ryan, and I worked together at IU Med Center. They came down to bring Cooper's bday present and hang out.

First Birthday

What a great Birthday! Cooper got all kind of cool new toys (on top of Christmas!) and had a great time with family, friends, and cake. His favorite part were the balloons the next morning (see above) because they finally dropped to his level.

Sharing with Dad!

He was a bit tentative at first, but dove right in as you can see.

What a lucky guy to have so many people care about him and come to his party!

Great Grandma Marie was there, and Grandm Kathy too.

And Grandma Cheri, Great Grandpa Lawrence, and so many others!

Great Aunt Linda did such a great job on the cake, and it was delicious as always. Cooper has his own little cake with his name on it... and for the adults, not only cake, but chocolate fondu! YUM.