Pictures!!!

Here are some recent pics of the kids. Yesterday I put Brooklyn in the cutest little dress that my sister Meagon made for her. Even the little booties to go with it were so adorable!!! So many people stopped me to look at it and couldn't believe how pretty it was and that someone made it. So thank you to my sis!!! Carter is keeping us busy and never stops talking. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and it's not too freezing cold!!! All of you bloggers make sure to take tons of pics so we can see. Love to all.

The end to "NO POOP"

OK.....so Brooklyn is pooping all on her own multiple times during the day, every day!!!!! YEAH!!!! I'm pretty sure the cause was gripe water. I feel like such a terrible mom! When Carter was a few months old we gave him some and he did fine and it helped him lots when he got a belly ache so I didn't think twice when I gave it to Brook. But I should have done some research. We never gave her more than recommended and actually only dipped her suckie in it and if she was screaming for hours on end we'd give her a couple of mls. The ingredients are oil of fennel and sodium bicarbonate. Which there's tons of gripe waters out there and they are actually good if they don't have the sodium bicarbonate! I was reading about sod. bicarobonate and it can cause intestinal problems in young children. It is supposed to balance the PH in the stomach but it can over balance it and cause problems. So caution to EVERYONE!!! I don't want to cause a panic to those of you who have or are using it. Every baby is different and the acidity in every baby's tummy is different, so some can tolerate it and it does no harm while in others it causes problems. SO just know that there is that possibility. As for me we will not be using anymore gripe water ever!!! I wish I would have been more proactive and looked up all ingredients before using them. At least we know now and brook is now back to her normal self. I'm so glad it was something simple like stopping gripe water rather than a kink in her intestine or something else. I'm thankful for the prayers and the holy ghost and for people listening to those promptings. So now that she is pooping I've had to become more prepared like making sure I've got plenty of diapers and an extraset of clothes that fit!!! No more trying to pack light!

Carter playing around

SO here's a clip of Carter. Don't mind me in the background singing.......Just listen to Carter as this gives you a little taste of what I get all day long. He then began to get more hyper as I tried getting more clips of him. When he sees the camera he automatically wants to put on a show and goes CRAZY!!! Here are some pics of Carter from the weekend I drove to Twin for Saturday since I was getting quite bored and lonely. My mom and I pulled out some Halloween masks and some scary hands. Carter was a little scared at first but then amazingly he decided they were fun and put them on with the help of Grandpa. So maybe Halloween won't be so so scary for him. He also let me put on his dinosaur costume. I originally bought him a Nemo costume but he would never let me put it on him. He just liked to feed it and kiss it but hated the idea of it going on him.....so I took it back. I probably should have given him a little bit more time to warm up to it. Oh well, this year he can be a roaring dinosaur!

update

Where to start....Brent just got back from a nice business trip of 5 days in Anaheim California. We all missed him like crazy and are so glad he's home! Brooklyn is still battling with pooping. It seems to make her quite upset when she needs to go. So she screams!!! Other than that she's a charm! She doesn't like to be cuddled or held too close when she's tired she likes to be put down. NICE. but of course that is when she doesn't have a belly ache. I've even tried sleeping with her but if I try cuddling her she'll keep fidgeting until I put her in her own space. At least we won't have another Carter on our hands. I must say though the last few nights he's stayed in his bed until 6 am. so yeah for now. Brook is loving to talk to us. She smiles oh so big and lets out some squeels. She's still trying to find that voice of hers and I think sometimes it shocks her when she actually makes sound. I am of course loving dressing her up. It's so fun although she'd tell you different if she could talk. She hates being messed with and hates anytime I go for the hair. I just keep telling her she's a girl and that's what we do....we play dress up.
We took her to the Dr. last Wednesday to just make sure everything is ok. and she weighed in at 11 pounds and is almost 23 inches long. I broke out Carter's charts of when he was 2 months and he weighed 13 lbs. and 5 ounces so she is smaller than Carter. She fell in the 50th percentile for height and weight and her head circum. just under 50%. So I guess you could say I have a perfectly normal average size baby. The dr. did another rectal to make sure things felt good and did a complete exam and Dr. Schaeffer said she looked and felt so good. She did refer me to a special pediatric gastroenterologist to get a second opinion. I am debating whether or not to take her right away or to just wait a few weeks and see how she does. I've been praying about this little girl since she was inside of me and I truely feel that she is really ok and normal so for now I think I will just wait a couple of weeks.
Carter, oh my sweet Carter! He is getting so big!!!! These past few nights he's been pretending to be a little dog. I pretend with him and give him orders like bark and sit and touch your toes and your nose. I almost had him as I went through the list I then added OK little doggie go get in bed! He started going and smiling and then soon came right back looking at me like MOM you tricked me. I guess he's smarter than that. Brent and I have really had to start watching what we talk about around him because he listens so well. If we are talking about a car accident or something serious he can tell by our tones and he starts saying no no car! STOP! And if we are talking about treats or ice cream or anything yummy he begs and begs for it right then. So now the spelling to eachother has started. Of course Carter thinks he can spell too, he says A, E, I , C. and repeats it thinking he's spelled something. Much to our amazement he actually does know how to spell his name. "C, A, R, E, R, CARTER" he says. (so he forgets the T but I think that's pretty good) His vocabulary is growing everyday. I don't know where he learns everything. He also has stunned Brent and I by counting to 10. I'm trying so hard to get him to do these things on Camera but once I pull out the camera he starts acting and gets hyper and can't focus. He keeps saying "Chees" waiting for it to click. He definately loves Brooklyn he makes sure we don't forget her any time we're getting ready to leave.
His new favorite word right now is "Awesome" He says it so cute with lots of excitement. I'll post some random pics of the kids. I better go, this is quite long. Sorry!!!! Love to all.

Ashlyn, Tiana, and Brook on Conference weekend


Ashlyn loved taking care of Brookie.....she'll be a great big sister!

Alyssa and Brook conference weekend


Family photo at the pumkin patch. Brook is in the sling...I'm not just wearing something weird.

Bath time

Grandma Thueson and Little Brook

"Monsters.....scared"

Last night we woke up to Carter screaming at the top if his lungs. Brent went in to check on him and Carter was so upset and not all the way awake we didn't know what to do. So after lots of screaming and kicking carter finally woke up and looked at me and said "monsters.......scared." So I had to go into his room turn on the lights show him there were no monsters and that he was okay and Brent and I gave him loves. He then cuddled up to Brent and went to sleep. I think our little shopping trips to Target and to Fred Meyers with going through the halloween section and trying on masks might be effecting him. Poor little guy, I can still remember some of my bad dreams when I was little and they seemed so real and so extremely scary. I'm glad that he can now tell us what he's thinking and feeling. It's so nice he can say "light on" or I'm scared, or mad! He's learned real well the scared and mad emotions.

Blessing

The dress!





Carter loves Jurnee!!! She is so cute and fun!











Jurnee isn't she a cutie pie!!!


The boys playing, giving eachother horsey rides.


Brooklyn was blessed this last Sunday. We had an extremely fun weekend! Sonia Ryan and the kids came from Vegas and Brent's parents came from Canada. My sister April was able to come with Ashlyn and then my parents were able to come also. It was so much fun getting to see everyone. The weekend went by so fast that I had a little bit of a hard time Sunday evening with everyone gone. Thankfully April and Ashlyn have been with me these last few days. The blessing and dinner afterwards turned out great and the dress Brooklyn wore was absolutely beautiful! I need to send a special Thanks to Brent's mom for making the dress. She is so talented and the dress was perfect....the only thing is we had to move the buttons over because my babies grow FAST and get chubby.
Thanks to all of you who made the trip for just a couple of days. And thank you Sonia and Ryan for staying up LATE and fitting in some cards and some great chit-chat. And I must say thank you to Ryan for the great "entertainment" (wink wink). I'll remember to bring some bells for you next time.
Brent is staying busy with work and is going to be gone this weekend so I'll be traveling with April and Ashlyn to Twin to see more family and enjoy the conference weekend!
I have been trying to adjust to the everyday life of having 2 kids. Trying to get laundry, cleaning, cooking, running errands and a good schedule down for the kids. Brooklyn has become more fussy since her pooping habit is so WEIRD. Although these past few days have been great. She's pooped on her own 2 days in a row and has been so good. Now if she could just keep that up. I can certainly tell when she is uncomfortable and can't poop. On Sunday evening she was having such a hard time so we tried just some rectal stimulation and of course didn't work so we gave the suppository and boom within 5 minutes it was done. So the suppository didn't even have time dissolve. We are just going with the flow. If she doesn't go within 2 to 3 days and is uncomfortable she gets the suppository, and if she goes on her own great! She'll get it down sometime. She is smiling so much and trying to start cooing!! It's so funny to watch her as she tries to get out something. She smiles and if I stick out my tongue her tongue comes out too.
Carter is growing like crazy and talking so much. He understands so much and is memorizing how to spell his name and now can count to 10. I din't know he could count that high until we were counting and he would say the next number before I could say it. He got a little stumped at 9 and then shouted 10! He has learned that I am mom but that my name is "Amer" and that dad is "Bent" so he switches back and forth between calling us by our names. He keeps me on my toes and keeps me laughing or completely flustered as how to figure him out.
Well I better head off to bed as both kids are sleeping and I have a dr's appt. at 8:30. I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks since I had Brooklyn. Love to all!

Diaper rash cream....good for the scalp and hair

SO today was quite the crazy day. We started off to a pretty good morning. No fits and Carter was being really good as was the baby. I went into our living room to change Brooklyn and Carter started following me but stopped as he was watching "Little Einsteins". So I continued changing Brooklyn and talking to her and then decide to go get Carter and get him changed and ready for the day. When I go into the kitchen there he is with the diaper rash cream all over our floor and all over his head. He is rubbing it on his hair so good. I was so shocked I couldn't yell at him and as my mind started running as this is going to be hell to clean up I saw the camera on the bar and took a deep breath and like some of you decided to capture the moment. The camera was Carter's saving grace.....I didn't yell once. I quickly took some photos and then took him into the bathroom realizing he had a nice present in his diaper for me I layed him down on a towel changed his pants and he got a glimpse of himself in the mirror and thought he was so funny! I put him in the bath and started to look at his head. I soon became so flustered as I had no clue how to get this out. Water was the worst thing to put on it as it repels (just doing it's job and creating a barrier) I soon had a little boy with dreadlocks. I called my mom because when we were little she had to deal with some little girls rubbing vaseline all over the walls and floor and eachother I thought she'd know what to do. Well she used baby powder and a dry towel to get it out. Baby powder didn't really work for this it just made his locks even worse. So I thought when I use the cream I wipe it off with wet wipes and it comes off. So I tried it. It did a little something so I continued. THREE hours and many suckers later I was able to recognize my little boys hair. I never could have imagined that diaper cream would have been that tough to get off his scalp and hair. He was so thankful when I was done. He kept saying in the sweetest voice "all DONE mom, all done!!!" By then it was lunch time and then he went down so quickly for his nap and stayed asleep for a couple of hours. The whole ordeal must have tuckered him out. Seeing his mom fret to get his hair clean. And just a side note it was Arbonne's Diaper Rash cream...not cheap stuff and incredibly good stuff!!!! So I highly recommend it for the bum not head!




After several attempts....this is what he still looked like!!!



Finally looking so much better....still feels really weird!


I thought I'd put some of Brooklyn on here too.

Check out my Slide Show!

Carter and Brooklyn

Lately Carter has really wanted to hold Brooklyn a lot! He'll sit by me or come find me and say "baby lap" and pat his knees. So I decided today I'd get some pics of it.


Carter was talking to her in his english/giberish language.



Carter loves Brookie's binki. I'll find her binkis hidden in his little car that he rides.


I was telling Carter to give her a kiss, instead he opted to blow her a kiss.

sick days

My two kiddies are down for naps and so I thought I'd try to post a little something quickly as I have lots of other things to do, but it's nice to sometimes sit down take a breather and write about our past few days. Carter has seemed to catch a cold. I think it's a combination of teething and a cold so he's been a little grumpy lately. Brent has been hard at work with a seminar they've been doing this weekend and so he's been gone a lot making it even harder for Carter. So yesterday I decided to make some play-doh, since I didn't want to brave it going out to the store. Carter loved helping make the play-doh, I think more than he liked playing with it. Since I didn't go to the store his toys were limited with the play-doh. The cookie cutters and tupperware only lasted so long. I was in the bathroom cleaning when I hear him yelling "ooray, ready, set, GO.......ooray!" I peeked around the corner to see him rolling up little balls of play-doh and throwing them as far as his arm could throw. Being that they were balls and it was entertaining and I was getting some cleaning done I continued to just let him go for it, and not see me so that he didn't know that I was ok with it.
Today he had a real hard morning, so after helping him through lots of fits, I figured we just needed to get out of the house. So we ventured to "donalds" (McDonalds) for some "icken nuggets" and "milt". Then we were off to the park. For any of you moms or soon to be moms I highly recommend Hotslings, and the sit-and stand stroller. If you have one baby the hotslings is awesome. Brooklyn loves being in it and it keeps her completely out of the sun and allows me to help Carter, plus as she gets bigger she can stay in it for up to 30 lbs (no way I'd be packing around a 30lb kid though). As for the stoller Brooklyn's carseat just snaps right in the front or when she gets bigger she can just go right in and in the back Carter can sit or stand. I can even buckle him in if I want. He loves this!!! He totally thinks it's the coolest thing and begs to go for a "ride"! So now we are home and I'm enjoying a nice quiet afternoon.
Brooklyn is a great baby and is growing so much. She loves eating, sleeping and wetting her diaper. She's not too keen about pooping. Crazy girl....I know she knows how as she pooped inside me and then pooped like crazy her first week alive. Now she's stopped and no, she's not constipated as that means hard stools. They are soft and completely normal she just won't push them out. Our pediatrician did a rectal to make sure everything was normal and it is.....so we just have to give her a suppository every 48 hours and for the next 2 weeks keep a record of her poops and then we'll re-evaluate and see if there is something else we can do. So I just pray that she'll get it back together and start pooping on her own. Never in my life did I think I'd be so happy to see a ton of yellow mustard up my baby's back. She is actually smiling at us. Really she is...it's not gas. When I talk in a high pitched voice and she is wide awake and alert she'll give me some good smiles. It's amazing what little smiles can do for someone. Carter is wanting to hold her lots and tickle her toes and every time she sneezes or toots he says "cuse you baby.....ewe"
Well I better be going this is getting way too long. I'll try to post some recent pix of the kids a little later. Love to all.

Weekend in McCall

Last weekend we went up to McCall and spent time with my parents and Brent's parents. It was a nice to get a way and see some pretty sites. Although I have to say the drive up was so twisty and I totally forgot how twisty it was and so I had a little breakdown as I am still very emotional (dang hormones) and didn't want anything to happen to any of us on such a crazy road. Thank goodness I have such a good husband who is so patient, understanding, and can turn me crying into laughing like that.
In McCall we were able to go to the little beach and take some nice walks and eat some good food. It was nice spending time with family and Carter enjoyed his time so much. He definately is growing and talking more. My little boy is getting so BIG! It seems like just yesterday that I had him. I look at Brooklyn and realize how fast this time goes by.
We enjoyed our time with Jim and Helen! It was nice to have them here for the week. They helped out so much!!! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Carter is adjusting much better this week. He loves Brooklyn and loves to touch her. He also lets me know when he needs some attention by telling me that the baby needs to go "nigh, nigh, in bed". Brooklyn is so good and sleeps so much that this makes it nice. Then when I get her settled and come to play with Carter he asks "baby????, C'mon" taking my hand to go get her. Silly boy. Last night Brent had a work party and so we all went and Brent took Carter out to the car and he looked at the carseat and said "baby, baby" making sure Brent wouldn't forget her.
A shout out to Maddux who just turned 4 years old.....wow I can't believe it!!! Happy birthday. Good luck to Sonia and Ryan in running the 1/2 marathon at Disneyland. I'll be thinking of you!
I better get going as I have tons to do. Love to all!!!

BROOKLYN RAE COPPIETERS

We are so happy to say that we now are a family of four. This little baby decided to come early Sunday morning Aug. 19th. I was having contractions pretty much all day Saturday, I just needed them to get harder. My parents came Friday and Brent's parents got in town Saturday evening. So I was really praying that nature would take it's course and I'd really go into labor. We all stayed up talking and then decided to go to bed. I didn't really want to go to bed as most of my good contractions stop once I would sleep. I realized that I did need sleep and rest for the days to come so once we all got into bed and adjusted.....I was all propped up on my pillows, pillows between my legs and all set for sleep. Still having contractions and as soon as Brent pulled out his book to do some light night reading, well my contractions immediately got hard and soon became 3 to 5 minutes apart. Soon of course the tears came as i realized these are what it takes to get this baby here. I had an overwhelming feeling of leaving my baby and him waking up feeling abandoned. At that point the hormones kicked in I completely lost all sense of logic and told Brent that we'd just not have the baby that night and stay there. Brent being so good said no, let's just take Carter with us. Hearing him say that made no sense and I got it together. We gave Carter some benedryl.....and put him in our bed and off we were to the hospital.
I was extremely nervous as we drove there thinking that this really couldn't be happening...all my prayers answered and things were working out perfectly. I didn't want to get my hopes up and be sent home. But oh the pain. When we got there the nurse checked me and I was at a 3 1/2 to 4 and she wanted to make sure I was dialating so she said instead of having you walk lets jacuzzi it up and let you relax and let your body do the work. I thought that for sure the contractions would stop once I relaxed and then be sent home with no baby......but much to my amazement the jacuzzi totally took my contraction pain down and I dialated. I couldn't believe the nurse when she said you're a way good 5 and lets book you and get you jacuzzi-ing more. I thought she's being so nice. So I decided since I was completely relaxed and doing good with the pain lets just keep the meds away for now and not hinder anything. I kept dialating and by the time I hit 7 I was starting to think maybe I needed the epideral.....not sure if I actually wanted to feel the baby come out. With tons of encouragement as I was doing great with the contractions I fully decided not to get anything. Brent called and woke up my parents in the motel and had the come as I wanted them there for the birth, for me and for Brent. They made it there and from then everything progressed and I'll spare you all the gory details......
Brooklyn weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. (length exact as Carter). She just like Carter was a miconium baby so she had to be suctioned.....let me say that's the worst when you can feel everything and have to wait to push as you have half the baby out. But extremely vital as they have to suction her before she takes a breath. A little stressful at first as we had to have the respitory team there and get the dr. there before she came. It all happened so fast! Needless to say we are so glad that is over and we are all doing great.
I came home from the hospital on Monday and seriously feel so good. Carter loves the baby and is so happy to see her. He is a little clingy of mom and dad and wants us and Brooklyn all right there together. He hasn't ever gotten mad at her or wanted me to put her down he loves to us all together. Thanks to Jim and Helen for being here and being such great help!!! Thanks mom and dad for being there for the birth and being my saving grace during some stressful moments!!! I seriously have so much love for the savior and for the gospel. It all makes so much sense and I know that without my Heavenly Father I would have not made it through. We do have a higher power helping us along the way whether we know it or not. I feel so blessed to have two healthy wonderful kids and a great husband who is such a great father and takes care of me so well! I better go before I start bawling as hormones run high. Love to all and I hope everyone is doing well.