And now for the rest...

His rather shy look from the previous photo didn't last too long....

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

We got up Saturday and headed north to Loveland to get some playground time in and run some errands. We found an empty playground on the edge of town to frolic about on while Jill and Lauren watched the boys play.

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Lauren wanted to play on the rocking horses too...

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

On to the slide

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

A brief stop to point out the "Choo Choo" that was passing by

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Cooper has less fumbles (and moronic quotes) than Adrian Peterson this year

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Lauren soaking up the gorgeous day and working on growing into her hat

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Proposing that Daddy comes down the slide too (of course I obliged)

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Quick feeding of Lauren before the other three of us went to our feeding

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Later in the day, an aerial photo of Cooper helping Lauren play on her activity mat

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

The two admiring their view in the mirror

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Just an easy going kid

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Working on her "surprised" look

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

Then once we got Cooper down for the night, we got Lauren and gave her a bath. She wasn't overly thrilled about the process, but kids seem to learn to love them eventually.

From Cooper at Loveland Playground

To be a kid again.

Lots of other pics and video coming, but when I stumbled across this photo I felt it deserved a post of its own. Cooper loves playing baseball in the house, and is quite adamant that you do everything correctly (like have the glove on, his batting stance, etc). The other day he told Jill he wanted a catcher's mask, then promptly went and found something that would do for the time being....

This picture just symbolizes so much about Cooper to me when I look at it, instantly one of my favorites.

Lauren's First Hike

We've had a nice run of outstanding weather lately, so today we decided to take advantage of it and get the whole family out for a bit this morning. Cooper is a bit like a working dog, he needs to be run every now and then to get out his excess energy. With a wild fire burning very near Heil Ranch our normal family hiking spot, we went a little further north today to Hall Ranch.

Setting off on our hike

From Lauren's First Hike

Lauren bundled up and ready for the trail

From Lauren's First Hike

Cooper and his trusty stick. The stick resides in the back of our CR-V and Cooper takes it with him every time we go hiking

From Lauren's First Hike

From Lauren's First Hike

Today he tried to use his magical stick as binoculars

From Lauren's First Hike

From Lauren's First Hike

We got about to our turnaround spot and Cooper had gone far enough on his own power, so he hitched a ride. We were on the hiking only trail and he kept spotting the bikes on the shared use trail.

From Lauren's First Hike

As we made our way back to the car, we happened upon a pack of 6 - 8 mule deer, some tiny babies in the bunch. We stood quietly (yes even Cooper) and watched them for a couple minutes before letting them continue their Saturday morning meal.

From Lauren's First Hike

More pics of the two kiddos

This week I've gone back to work, so Jill has been on dual kid duty most of the week. We took Lauren to her two week checkup, and she is doing real well. Still measured 21" but weighed 7lbs 13oz, and was 75% in head size, 80% in height and 30% for weight.

Here are some random pics over the last week of the family

Big arms

From Cooper & Lauren

Playing with the OSU football that plays the fight song

From Cooper & Lauren

Aunt Sarah takes a turn

From Cooper & Lauren

The ham

From Cooper & Lauren

Sleeping baby

From Cooper & Lauren

From Cooper & Lauren

From Cooper & Lauren

Tuckered out

From Cooper & Lauren

From Cooper & Lauren

Cooper came over to give Lauren a kiss. Terrible photo, but wonderful moment

From Cooper & Lauren

From Cooper & Lauren

From Cooper & Lauren

Mrs. The Punisher brought us a wonderful meal the other night. Stuffed pork chops, even better than they look. They also brought us a bundle of breakfast burritos and a big dessert too. I'd post some pics up of those, but they didn't last long....

From Cooper & Lauren

Bringing Lauren Home

When we brought Lauren home, we were able to capture a bit of Cooper's reaction and his um...energy. He is just bursting with enthusiasm, he gets so excited that his mouth can't keep up with his mind. Glad we were able to get some video of him yelling "We mad a baby!"..

Quality Time

The week after getting released from the hospital with Lauren has been all about just spending lots of time interacting with both kids. While Cooper never seems to stop, Lauren tends to sleep all day most days. She has been an incredible kid so far. We ventured out of the house a couple of times, and she has been a champ every time we've been out.

Sleeping on the bed...

From Lauren Sleeping

More sleeping

From Lauren Sleeping

From Lauren Sleeping

And now we're awake and taking in some playtime at the park

From Lauren Sleeping

From Lauren Sleeping

Cooper made it up the spiraling staircase on the playground by himself many times today (a first), but I still wanted to spot him just to be sure

From Lauren Sleeping

And down the big twirly slide

From Lauren Sleeping

Cooper has been really interested in Lauren. He is very helpful and always inquisitive about her. He kept asking to hold her, so with some assistance from Jill we let him hold Lauren and snapped a few pics. You can just see his excitement about her in these photos, something we are so thankful for.

From Lauren Sleeping

From Lauren Sleeping

From Lauren Sleeping

Settling in to our new "normal"

We got Lauren home from the hospital on Sunday and started our new "normal" lives with the six of us (yes the two dogs count). Lauren was cranky for the first couple of days and basically couldn't be put down without crying, but since we've gotten her home she has settled in to a ridiculously easy kid. She is either a) asleep b) eating c) just hanging out looking around.

Her first night at home, after feeding around 2am she wasn't happy being put down in the crib. I picked her up, swaddled her up and was walking around the room. She started to get sleepy, but so was I. I laid down in bed with her on my chest. 4.5 hours later I woke up with her still sleeping peacefully. She has continued to just be an awesome baby since, usually only crying when she is hungry.

While Jill has been busy with keeping baby Lauren fed and happy, Cooper and I have been doing lots and lots of playing. We've spent several afternoons at the parks and playgrounds around, gone on walks and bike rides and even bought a new video game (Wii Sports Resort) to play together.

 Cooper wanted to take his new caterpillar (from the Eric Carle book "The Hungry Caterpillar") along to the playground 

Then the whole family made our first public outing together, to pick up some stuff at Target. Cooper and I then went to the toys / sporting goods where Cooper got himself outfitted with some baseball gear.

Cooper has been an incredible big brother so far, always wanting to help out. We put Lauren in the swing, and Cooper decided to go get her bouncer chair and sit with her. Cooper seems little to us until you see him next to tiny little Lauren.

The dogs were much more agreeable to Lauren arriving than they were Cooper. Baloo didn't ignore me for a week like he did when I brought Cooper home. Baloo has really grown to like Cooper, probably because Cooper supplements Baloo's diet with a variety of food items every day.

All in all our family has settled in really well. We're a complete unit now and are just enjoying our new baby girl. Jill can revel in the fact that she'll never have to be pregnant again too, and can enjoy some of Colorado's finest microbrews again....