copper's and reese's goldie and bear birthday party

Being away from home for both birthdays was a challenge this year. We've struggled with how to do birthday parties for the cubs since we moved. Our favorite way to celebrate with a party is to have family and close friends come to our home, and to try and make the birthday kid feel loved and special. But without family, and still getting to know people in WV it's been hard to know what the right move is. For Reese's 4th and Copper's 1st, we wanted to still do something festive, but it took a little thinking to figure out what might work.

Reese's favorite show over this year has been Goldie and Bear, which is on Disney Jr. It is so fitting since she's one of our little blondies, we refer to the kids as the bear cubs, and over the last year the youngest two have had their own little adventures while the bigs are at school. I even started referring to them as Goldie and Bear. It just made sense, if we were going to do a party to do something combined, and we used this show as the theme.

Breakfast foods were on the menu because they fit perfectly with so many characters:
Humpty Dumpty eggs and "Wall"ffels
3 Little Pigs Hash Brown Casserole (hash browns for straw, ham cubes for bricks, and bacon strips for sticks)
Just Right Porridge (and as Todd told everybody, "it's really oatmeal!")
Straw"bear"ies
Jack & Jill's Pail of Water Bottles

The cakes were decorated with Honey and Chocolate Teddy Grahams to represent Goldie and Bear. We did a separate singing and candle blowing for each. Copper dug into his cake like a champ! Seems like babies usually smash the cake on their 1st birthday, but he just picked up the whole thing and acted like he knew what to do.

We even found a cute dress for Reese with colors like Goldie's dress, and we found a cute shirt for Copper that says "Grandma's house this way, Big Bad Wolf that way."

We pulled lots of different chairs from around Mayfair to represent the Goldie trying to find the perfect chair, and played musical chairs.

We set out toothpicks, pretzels, marshmallows, and legos, and challenged the kids to make a house for the 3 Little Pigs. At the end "Big Bad" the blow dryer wolf would try and blow their house down, and see whose was still standing.

We also had Humpty Dumpty egg balloons and cardboard blocks, and a little play house area with teddy bears and puppets for story time.

The kids all got to go home with a book, and Little Red Riding Hood Goodies.

This also gave us the perfect opportunity to meet up with some of our OK people we hadn't gotten a chance to visit with all in one place. It was so heartwarming to have so many people we have missed over the last year to be together. We even had so much help cleaning up, it really did feel like being back in a familiar place.

Reese said she had a great time at her party, which was really the ultimate goal for me. Copper loved having the freedom to roam all over the gym, so I think it was a win for him too. Just wish I had gotten better photos.

copper drew @ 2 weeks

Copper Drew, 2 weeks old
You have been a really good baby to us among a lot of crazy! You had your first Sunday and Wednesday at church this week. You're having more alert times, and like to look at the lights. We've seen a few hints of a smile too! 

1st Star Spangled Fried Chicken Dinner

1st time Brennon and Tam got to meet Copper!

Todd was so excited to having matching frog jammies!

And again matching stripe jammies!

Our bookends!

copper drew, @ 1 week old

Copper Drew, 1 week old
You are a wonderful blessing to our family! Your brother and sisters love to hold you and talk to you. So far your favorites are eating, sleeping, and being outside.

These next several posts are my attempt at catching up on Copper's posts. These were posts I made on social media because it's all I could keep up with at the time.

copper's birth story

I am so behind on posting so many things. And poor Copper doesn't have near enough posts about just him. Get ready for a barrage of blog posts updating about Copper's first year milestones. But first, his birth story.

Copper Drew
6/17/17
8lbs 13 oz
21.5 inches
He's perfect and loved so much already!


Copper was a sweet surprise from the very beginning. Todd prayed for a brother long before we even knew he was on the way. I really believe God heard his prayer. And, thankfully, mine before we went to the ultrasound and found out Copper was indeed a boy.

Even though I was technically a geriatric mother (why do we use this term?!), aside from some reflux in the first trimester, everything during the pregnancy went very well.

Copper was actually due June 19th. My OB scheduled a induction for that day again because of the age thing, but I suspected he'd come early because his siblings had started a pattern of coming earlier and earlier. Elle was 1 week late exactly, Todd was 5 days late, Reese was born on her due date, so it just seemed fitting that Copper would get here before his due date.

And yes, Copper came two days early! Labor had started Friday, but was so sporadic it was hard to tell what was going on. Saturday morning though things picked up. I had called my mom to come stay with the cubs thinking we had plenty of time, but around 9:30 or 10 I think Chris called up our wonderful friends the Mitchells and asked if they could take the kids. A little before 11 I was still telling Chris I thought we still had time, even though the contractions were getting more regular and intense. He was yelling at me to get in the car though, and he was right.

We checked in around 11:30. By the time I got in a room, they had wanted me to hang out for about half an hour so and then they'd decide if I was far enough along in labor to stay. The OB on call came in around 12:30 and decided to break my water. This sped things up a lot. Over the next hour things became more intense.

After all these babies, Chris and I have one labor plan. When it's time to push, I push and somebody better be there to catch. Even though my OB (who couldn't be there that day) knew I had a history of rapid delivery it didn't transfer to the nurses and OB on call. At 1:30 it was pretty evident Copper was ready, and the nurse had called for the OB. Chris told the nurse that I couldn't wait, and she was gracious to listen. It took about 15 minutes, and he was there! I think his official time of birth was 1:58 pm. Now you immediately do skin to skin contact, and I fed him not long after he was born because of the bonding process. (No one can doubt now that Copper is definitely a momma's boy!) They waited to clean him up, and when they finally weighed him we were all shocked at how big he was. Our biggest baby! They got him dressed and swaddled and we spent the rest of the day loving on him, introducing him, to Elle, Todd, and Reese, and other family and friends.

Chris of course was so supportive throughout the whole thing. He's always been good to hold my hand, and say, or not say, the right things. It was really special to have a baby the day before Father's day, and celebrate that with him while in the hospital with a new baby. At 4 am that morning Copper got his first bath. For some reason they wait a while now.

They say you forget about childbirth pain. That. is. a. LIE! I was terrified leading up to labor because I knew what was coming. I don't know if that's because I didn't get the epidural with Todd, Reese, or Copper, or not, but so many things stay with you. The nurses being so encouraging. The first time to hold that precious baby. Chris' face once he was born. The other cubs excitement to meet their new sibling. Friends and family coming in. I hope I never forget, even if I have to remember the pain too.

I'm so thankful for my mom and sister coming to Edmond and helping with the big kids. The Mitchells for letting us basically throw the big kids at them. All the love and support we got that day from near and far. Including, my brother-in-law picking Chris up when he had left to get dinner, and the Volvo broke down.

I do have to mention, for memory's sake, that Chris and I were discussing the move to West Virginia during the whole labor. He had gotten an unofficial email the day before or that morning saying OVU was going to offer the job the next week. It was so surreal being in labor and discussing moving our family clear across the country. Some of that got pushed aside though once Copper arrived.

I really do believe God has been with us through it all though. It started with Todd's prayer, and we have our precious Copper.