Chopper

Our baby's gummy smile is fading away (sniff, sniff). Cruz cut his first tooth a couple of weeks ago so there's no turning back now. Before you know it, the little guy will have a mouth full of teeth and I'll miss seeing his precious gummy grin. We're surrounded by drool, drool and more drool. Oy, I forgot just how much drool comes out of such a wee little thing. Now that his first chopper has poked through, he's back to being the happy little baby we once knew. Now we wait with anticipation for all the others to make an appearance.............Take your time teeth, REALLY...there's no need to rush things.

Whoomp (There it is)!

Coop thinks lizards (on the head) and hugs help soothe fussy babies.

Happy Heart Day

Sending lots of Valentine's Love to our Daddy while he's busy burning up South Carolina. Hey Dad, Cooper is learning how to say his full name. Well almost...he calls himself Cooper Jackson Donut. I think it just might be my new favorite Cooperism.

Cooper: "Hey Cwooz, let me tell you a little something about Love."

Cruz: "How about we skip that part and you hand over that piece of chocolate."

Happy Boy!

Huggy Boy!

The Centennial State

Watch out Colorado, here we come! It's official, we're moving from The Smokies to The Rockies. During our stay in Park City, Mark accepted a job at Rocky Mountain National Park. We're so excited to be making our way back out West and to be closer to our family and friends. Now it's time to make it all happen and hustle to sell our house. The plan of the minute (which could very well change) is for me and the boys to fly back to TN the first part of March. We'll try to organize things and gather what we think we might need for the next several months and hurry and list our house. Mark starts his new job on March 28th and Coop, Cruz and I have decided we are going to drive with him to CO. Not that many months ago, I opted to fly cross country with the boys rather than drive but now we've decided it will be a great opportunity to get to spend time together as a family. Nothing like driving 1500 miles in order to get a little family bonding in. Like the old saying says "a family that can survive 4days in a car together stays together." Okay, I might have just made that up.

Mark's busy fire season will now be during the summer months. Rather than sit at home alone in TN trying to sell our house or sit alone in CO while he's off fighting fires, we've decided to head back to St. George to spend more time with Gpa Pat and Gma Linda. Phew, I'm exhausted (and a little stressed) just typing all that out. Here's to a new adventure. Please send positive house selling mojo our way! I have a feeling we're going to need it.

Month #6

Little C is 6 months old on Superbowl Sunday! He hasn't filled us in on whether he's a Cheese Head or a Steelers fan yet. Honestly, I think he's all about the commercials and watching the Black Eyed Peas halftime show. Either way, this kid is destined to be football fan after spending bowl season/playoff season and the past couple of months leading up to Superbowl XLV with his Grandpa Pat. Are you ready for some football?

Rice Cereal

Little C has moved on to fooooood. Well kind of....he had his first taste of rice cereal and there's no turning back now. The kid was showing major signs of food interest and it was fun to let Grandma and Grandpa help with his first attempt at eating. Mark is back in Tennessee so I thought I'd post some pics and video so he'd feel like he was part of the dining experience as well.
Cooper wasn't interested in watching Cruz eat at all. Why would he when he isn't even into eating himself? He was more interested in playing with a Whoopee Cushion. If you hear a faint tooting noise in the background it isn't Cruz's reaction to the rice cereal. It's the Whoopee cushion (I swear). Way to let a loud toot noise overshadow a precious milestone, Cooper. Then again, toots are pretty funny.

Grandpa introduces Cruz to food.

Mmmmmmm...
Now it's Grandma's turn. Must. Have. More.

Untitled from A Mendonca on Vimeo.

Cousins

Boys, boys everywhere!!! We were lucky enough to get to spend several days with my brother's family; Aunt Jenny and cousins Pete and Charlie. We spent an evening with them before we went to Park City, Mark and the boys saw them a couple of times while I was at work and then we spent a day with them after the festival before driving back to St. George. Best of all, Jenny and the boys caravaned with us back to St. George and spent 4 days with us in Sounthern Utah. It was so much fun to spend time with with them and play with Grandma and Grandpa and all their grandsons. Peter and Cooper are 2 months apart and Cruz and Charlie are only 2 weeks apart so there was some serious bonding going on.

Fire Truck.

Dinosaur.
Babies.



Shark.


Cousins saying "cheese".
Grandpa time.

Aunt Jenny and the boys.

Grandma and sweet little Charlie.

Park City

It's February already! Where did January go? It got sucked up by Sundance that's where. The family survived another successful festival. It was a crazy couple of weeks and I truly appreciate all that my family did to make it happen. My Mom and Dad took care of the canine kiddos for us, Mark and the boys weathered the cold and hours in the condo for me and my fabulous friends and coworkers braved living with 2 crazy boys for almost 2 weeks. As tiring as it was, it was a great change of pace and insight into what Mark does on a a daily basis (works all day and then clicks into parenting mode the minute he walks in the door). There's nothing better than being greeted at the door by your kiddos after a long day at work. As fun as it was to mix things up, I still wouldn't want to trade places with Mark. I think I'll keep my "real" job.

Mark was amazing. He had one rough day out of 11 but what stay at home parent doesn't? After sending me a picture text of Cruz that read "it's a good thing this kid is so cute because I'm about ready to sell him on craigslist", Mark decided they needed to find things to do. And boy did he take that to the extreme. All kidding aside, Mark took on waaaaay more than I would have tackled. They went to a fabulous indoor play place called Monkey Mountain several times, visited my Sister in Law and her kiddos at a Dinosaur museum and ANOTHER play place called Monkey Island, went out to lunch, grocery shopped, visited our old house in SLC, showed the boys our old sail boat on the Great Salt Lake and played in the snow. More proof of what an amazing Dad Mark is. Cooper and Cruz had a great time with their Daddy and Mom had a great time with some dear friends. Thank-you, to my family for allowing me to switch things up a bit. Now I'm ready to flip back into Mommy Mode.

The view as you enter Park City.

View of my outdoor office.
My morning commute.


Little C kickin' it in the condo.

Visiting Mom at work.

Monkey Mountain.
(more specifically, Cooper interacting with a kid!!!!)

The Great Salt Lake marina. Ahhh, the memories.....

More memories...our first home.