I just wanted to share what I get to look at during snack time each day.

Silly goose.

It’s been a chill week here at Casa Grande. We’ve had some down time, some sweet visitors, and a LOT of cleaning/organizing (which you will not see any pictures of. Disaster zone!!).

We had snow yesterday, and then went to the park today… Gotta love Lubbock weather!

Cooper excels in leg lifts. It’s one of his talents. You think he’s about to fall back, and then come to find out, he just wants to do a little core workout.

fun times with Nana & Athan

Mickey sharing his tunes with Coop

More leg lifts. Gosh I’ll be sad when those chunky legs are no more.

well helloooo 2012! I seriously can’t believe it’s a new year. Everyone says that, but still.

SO much happened in 2011. So many good things, a few hard things, but dang it was a good year.

I started writing a post about the new year a couple days ago, then got inspired by those amazing chicas from Lullaby Lubbock, and realized that pictures make everything better (doy). So here it is – 2011.

Baby McKenna started off everyone’s year perfectly. Followed by Evie & Thomas.

Allison, Jordan, and many other amazing, non-blogging friends, threw me the cutest, most thoughtful baby shower ever.

I got to witness firsthand how an amazing party theme is dreamed up, thought out, and executed… Haha. Let me tell ya, Just Dance was amazing. And so fun. And the whole time I was thinking that maybe if I danced hard enough, Cooper would go ahead and come into this world :)

Cooper came into our lives!! And now he makes crazy faces like the one below. Love that kid.

Then the Booths moved, and CasaGrande was a little lonely. But not for long, don’t worry.

Coop had his first flight – Papa flew us to south Texas for me to shoot a wedding. Then I shot another one the weekend after that. We couldn’t have done it without Nana & Papa!

We had a big family reunion in South Dakota. You know it’s a good time when we have USA flag shirts on.

Coop and I went to Florida for my cousin’s wedding.

We threw a couple’s shower for Lindi & Taylor

Then CasaGrande got filled up again!

Jordan’s brother, Layne, got married to sweet Laurie, and Aric + Casey took the coolest picture I’ve ever seen.

Lindi & Taylor got married. Everything about this wedding was perfect, and it was so fun to see friends from all over.

Lots of football. Amy made it possible for me and Coop to go to almost every game. She was my buddy, my extra hands, my laughing partner, and my pack mule. And then we got to stand with Mickey on senior day. So fun!

Our little family took a trip to Boston. Jordan had an interview at Harvard Business School (because he’s a bad a), and he got accepted!!! We haven’t officially committed yet, but chances are, we’ll be in Boston in the fall. So proud of him. We got to visit the Booths before we flew to Boston, and it was SO GOOD.

Coop was Charlie Brown, Jordan was Linus, and I was Woodstock

Jordan’s flag football team won the Championship. Way to go guys. Because I know ALL of you guys are reading my blog right now.. haha!

Thanksgiving – such sweet time with family!

The Remkes moved out, and Mickey moved in. And Mick graduated from college, too. Woohoo!

My family came to Lubbock for an early Christmas, and Aric + Casey took our family pictures. We’ll cherish them forever!

I think this blog post could have easily been 5 times as long, but all that goes to show is that God is so good. He’s blessed us with so many fun memories with friends and family, too many to fit into one blog post.  So many celebrations of new life, marriages, milestones and just every day fun stuff. I feel like 2012 will be a very different year, but all I know is that among the crazy changes and hard goodbyes, one thing remains the same. God is sovereign and God is so so so good.

Lucky us, we got to start celebrating Christmas at the beginning of December. My family came in town, and we did a whole lot of nothing – it was a beautiful thing. Lots of eating, playing games, catching up, and more eating.

Dude’s hat is Cooper’s most favorite thing

Our little family got to spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day at home, and it was wonderful! I didn’t think it could get any better, and then it started snowing… how perfect is that.

Then, we headed to Clovis. We had a lot of sweet time with family. Thanks to Laurie for taking this picture of Coop and Grandaddy!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!! See ya next year ;)

We have had SUCH a lovely Christmas… I know this is coming a couple days late, but what can ya do. There are more pictures coming from time spent with family and each other, but until then…

Last week, Jordan, Coop and I went on a little trip. We started out at Austin, then spent the weekend in Temple to visit the Booths, then headed to Boston for a couple days. All of it was so fun, and Cooper was a traveling champ, considering he decided to cut three teeth while we were traveling :)

Kenna and Coop were quite the kissing buds… I mean, over and over. So funny.

I really think we stayed in our PJ’s all weekend long… that’s when you know it’s a good weekend. And Coop loves Ella. I think she gave him about 8 “haircuts” while we were there.

We cheered on our Red Raiders Saturday morning while stuffing our faces with donuts, brisket and cookies (not all at the same time… well, maybe a little bit)

We squeezed in a little family session, too. The wind was a bit loco, but it was still a good time. I think this might be my most fav Booth family pic ever. Ella’s little smile makes me want to drive to Temple right now and hug her.

hehe

We peaced out eeeearly Sunday morning and headed to the airport for Boston. Here are a few pics on Harvard’s campus.

our self-timer skills weren’t the best… but what can ya do.

The thought of summing up Cooper’s first six months kind of made my head explode… almost. I started putting pictures in a folder for this blog post, and after I hit about picture number 30, I realized maybe I shouldn’t go that route. I took some pictures of Coop today and decided I’ll just share those, instead of my entire hard drive… :)

All I gotta say is that I love being a mom. It’s the best. And this little guy wins my heart over every day.

okay this is hilarious. this was one of Jordan’s outfits when he was a baby… HAHA!

Deuce still isn’t too sure what to think about Coop, but I think they’re starting to have a special little bond… ohhh whatever. Deuce just wants to eat his diaper.

Cooper’s i’m-making-some-craazzyy-noises face, and of course his little bum.

This weather has been awesome. Can I get an amen? I mean, seriously. It’s such a wonderful feeling to know that I can go outside for more than 5 minutes without possibly overheating my child.

So we thought we’d take advantage of that this past weekend. We went to the Apple Butter Festival at Apple Country Orchards, just outside of Lubbock. We’ve passed this place many a time on the way to Oklahoma, and every time, I say, “Ooooo we should go there sometime!” So now that I’ve lived in Lubbock for eight years, we finally went :) And we brought along some sweet friends of ours, which only made it more fun!

a cooper sized apple… actually, that would mean that the apple was quite large. Sooo how about an apple that Coop could hold :)

I don’t know much, but what I DO know is that I’m not a very good blogger these days. And now most of you are thinking, “well, at least she knows.” Yeah yeah…

Here’s the thing. I’m obviously not taking very many clients these days, but I still want to update the ol blog every now and again. Maybe someday I’ll put together a neato poll and get y’all’s opinions on that… Would you blogsters like to see more of our every day life here on this blog? Or should I keep the blog strictly photog? Feel free to comment on that. Or, like I said, you can just wait until the pollio (not the disease… you know, like poll-io. cool-io).

Moving on… My cousin got married last weekend in Florida, so Coop and I got to hang out with family on the beach for a weekend. SO fun!! Six flights later, I can say that it was SO worth it. Coop was a trooper, and just went along with the craziness of our weekend. We sure did miss Jordan though!

So here we are… Coop’s first time to stick his toes in the sand.

he spit up in my hair shortly after the photo on the right was taken… love being a momma :) thanks to my daddio for snapping these.

and speaking of daddio, lots of good times with Dude and Mimi!

and my sweet grandparents. i told pappy to tickle her :)

more family!

and then the reason why we were all there! justin and maggie got married on the beach, and it was beautiful!

so.much.fun.

We had a par-tay for Lindi and Taylor Sunday night. It was so fun to hang out and celebrate these two lovebirds.

I had a fun sewing project in these little pennants. Amy cut out fabric and I went to town on the ol sewing machine. I learned that this is my kind of project… straight lines… but not TOO straight :) Aaaand they’re still hanging in my backyard.

We did a little homemade photo booth, with a sheet we bought at Wal-Mart. A big thanks to Aric and Casey for letting us use their from props from 4 Frames Photobooth!

beverages, homemade ice cream, and a place for peeps to write to Lindi and Taylor

Grady Spencer graced us with his musical talent throughout the whole party! I bought his CD and can’t stop listening to it. So good.

All the married couples played a fun game where the wifeys run and grab balloons, then pop them in hubby’s lap. Pretty hilarious. Tracy won. She even went and put on tennis shoes… haha

wifeys and hubbies

hostesses!

some favorites from the photobooth