We had some really yucky winter weather with freezing rain, sleet, and snow on Monday and Tuesday, so we've been staying in the last few days. Dennis has ventured just to our shop and back. Today, you still can't even see where to road is in most places. Tomorrow is expected to be warmer, so maybe the roads will be good to get out of the house on Friday. Cooper is out of school tomorrow so another day of hanging out. Here's what we've been up to-


Hellloooooo! We've had lots of fun in Cooper's "cave", reading books and snacking.



Cooper is fascinated with the computer, so here he is with Daddy watching funny YouTube videos.


Here is what our building looks like now. We're waiting on heat/air to be put in and then we can continue with the rest of the house part of it.

Toddler Times

Well, we officially have a toddler on our hands these days. Cooper is walking! (at least 85% of the time) This is, of course, a major milestone and one that we've looked forward to (and dreaded a bit) for some time. He's into EVERYTHING he can get his hands on. He's 16 months, so we've just been waiting. We've also had fun with him working on his molars, thank the Lord for ibuprofen!!
Cooper has finally decided that he's okay with the "upgrade" of his sippy cup from the little one with the soft spout to the bigger one with hard spout and no handles. This makes me very happy since the bigger one is insulated and a littler easier to clean the spout. (Just FYI, in case it's helpful, we like the Gerber cups, they are no spill, you can get extra valves, and they are easy to clean, and different sizes and styles)
We've also discovered that Cooper has a fascination with make-believe. He pretends he's cooking, stirring with a big spoon in his mega blocks and trying to give us a "bite". When I picked him up from school today, he as pretending to bake cookies in the little kids' kitchen in the gym. He also pretends that everything is a phone, holding it up to his ear and "talking" on it and insisting that it's a call for you, too. I guess he sees me cooking or on the phone a lot. And, of course, all the trucks he has have to have their own special Cooper-made noise. I have a feeling the next thing we know, he'll be talking full sentences instead of just a few words and grunts!
Okay, but one weird thing he does is try to eat every bit of fuzz he finds on blankets, carpet, anything. What's up with that????
Oh, the joys of toddlerhood! Every day is a new adventure in the Rains household!

Cooper's Second Haircut

Dennis had recently bought himself some clippers to cut his own hair (so he doesn't wait so long and get really wooly), so we decided it was time to give Cooper a haircut like Daddy's since it was all shaggy and in his eyes. So, we proceeded to put him in his chair and give him a trim. Dennis did the clipping with the longest guard on it and you still should've seen all the hair! I had to hold his head still for parts of it, but he did great. He got a little fussy at the end, but we managed to finish and by the time we got to the bath tub to give him a bath, he was over it. He was so funny after bath, he was playing in the living room shaking his head to see if the hair would fall in his eyes and rubbing his head with his hands,laughing. He looks like such a big boy, now!!

Stuff

Okay, so I forgot my camera again when I went to our building yesterday, but things are starting to really take shape. Our rough in electric is done, my dad ran phone lines yesterday (thanks again, Dad!), today the heat and air people and plumbers are supposed to come out and start doing their thing. It'd actually be pretty hard to tell in pictures right now what has happened in there, but when you walk in from one week to the next, you can really see changes. After this week, we hope to be able to start putting up sheetrock, floors, fixtures, all that kind of good stuff-yay! Maybe it will be my birthday present to be able to move in!
Since I forgot to get new shop pics, here are some random pics of cuteness for you to brighten your day!



It was really, really cold on this day. Cooper thinks it's funny when we both bundle up and I happened to have my camera closeby. Doesn't he remind you of the little kid on the "Christmas Story" movie??

I had to get a pic of Cooper in his new Harley hoodie that my cousin, Rosie, sent all the way from Hollywood, CA! Thanks, Rosie!


Cooper loves to play with hats. This one happens to be one Dennis gave Papaw with the MTTS (Dennis's business) logo on it. What a cute advertisement, huh!?!

Building Updates

Well, a lot of progress has been made at our building recently!! The metal building is finally finished, the framing of the apartment is done, too. The electric wiring is almost complete, we have a septic tank, and we have a driveway in front of our building instead of a big mud hole now. All of this has been done since last weekend! It's really starting to come along and we're getting so excited for it to be ready to move in! I don't have any recent pictures at the moment, but will post some of the inside and out soon.

Finally..... Real Progress!

We are finally seeing some good progress on our building this week. Turns out that the supervisor for our job was not so great (obviously) and there is a new one that is getting it done now-yay! I took this picture this morning, but I understand, the entire roof is up as of this evening. The other one is just Cooper playing around today, had to share it, he loves his little pop-up tent and tunnels!

Christmas #2, #3 & #4

Wow! What a busy few days with all the family gatherings!! I can't wait til next year, when we will have room for everyone to come to us!
We did our Rains family thing last night with Dennis's parents and his brother and his family. Dennis has been sick, so he really hasn't gotten to enjoy the festivities much. Cooper and I went to Mamaw & Papaw's this afternoon to visit them and left Dennis to sleep off his stomach bug. When we came home this evening, the three of us exchanged gifts. I don't think Cooper knows quite what to think about all the chaos, but he sure loves the little pieces of wrapping paper and any box he can bang on. We just enjoyed his reactions to what was going on so much, that we even forgot that we had gifts, too! There's nothing like a little kid at Christmas, it's the best!
I hope you've had a very blessed and Merry Christmas! Let's not forget that Christ is first in Christmas and let the spirit of Christmas stay with us all year!