10 weeks!

Cooper is now 10 weeks old! We took him for his 2 month appointment last week. He now weighs 11 lbs 8 oz and is 23.5 inches tall! He did pretty well for his shots, they took him by surprise but he settled down pretty quickly. He had a fever that night and the next day, but overall he was a champ!

He is much more smiley and can even roll over! He rolled over for the first time when he was 8 weeks and 2 days old.

Sometimes we can't even keep him on his tummy!

Since just before 8 weeks, he has been sleeping for about 10 hours each night, which makes us very happy!

Here are some random pictures of our little man!

He loves his cousins!

Cooper brings so much joy into our home! We love him more and more everyday!

6 weeks!

This is what happens when there is a blizzard outside and the dog needs to go out and the baby is crying and I'm the only one home:

A snow covered dog.
Obviously the baby gets first priority and the dog gets put outside to do her business until I can let her back in.

We've been having so much fun with Cooper! He is now 6 1/2 weeks old...crazy how fast time is flying. It sure didn't fly this fast when we were waiting for him to come!


At 5 weeks Daddy got to feed him his first bottle! Priceless!

He gets cuter and cuter everyday and is growing like a weed! He's also starting to get a little smiley (even though it isn't evident in these pictures)!



Jake is an AMAZING dad! He's changed just as many diapers as I have and has been a huge help around the house cleaning and fixing meals. He's great to jump up in the middle of the night when Cooper cries and is always willing to help put him to sleep. I honestly don't know what I would do without him. I don't know how I got so lucky to have these 2 in my life!



Cooper had his first experience being man of the house last night and today! Jake went on a short biking trip to St. George. I can't lie, I was a little nervous about the whole being home alone for that long....sounds ridiculous I know, it's just a little nerve-racking knowing you don't have any back up reinforcements. Luckily we had a great night! Cooper has been sleeping very good, only waking up usually one time a night. Overall he is a really good baby.


Unfortunately, in a week from today I have to go back to work. I'm dreading the day. It has been the best thing in the world to be home with Cooper. I thought at first I might go a little stir crazy, but it wasn't like that at all. I've loved every second of it and have appreciated the time I've had to spend with Cooper. I absolutely LOVE being a mom!


I do believe in love at first sight, because that's exactly what happened when we saw Cooper for the first time. Everyday we love him more and more. We are just trying to cherish every minute because he is growing and changing so fast! We are so blessed to have Cooper in our home!

GRADUATION!!!

This post is long overdue, but it is a HUGE event, so it is better to post late than never!!!

On Friday, December 10, 2010
Jake graduated with honors from Weber State University
with a BS degree in Geography Education and a dual minor in physical education and coaching!!! He is also getting his teaching license.



I am so PROUD of Jake for all his hard work. He put in so much time and effort into doing his best in school, and it showed. He received several different scholarships throughout the years and even got a 4.0 his last semester!



I know he is extremely glad to be done with school, student teaching, and homework! He does however have future plans to go back to school someday to get his masters. For now he will just enjoy the time being done with his degree and not paying tuition (YAY!!!).



Cooper and I were still in the hospital the day of graduation (it was the day after Cooper was born) and so I felt bad I couldn't go show my support to Jake. Luckily we have AMAZING family that came down to support Jake at the ceremony (Thanks Susan for the pictures!). Jake had a hard time staying awake through it all, since we had very little sleep, (if ANY!!!) Wednesday and Thursday night, but I'm glad he was able to attend. It is a HUGE accomplishment and I didn't want him to miss out on it!



As for now, he is just waiting for a job to open up so he can apply! He is planning to substitute teach, continue to work at the Bike Shoppe, and help take care of our little man on the days that I am working.

I can't say enough of how proud I am of Jake! He is going to be such an AMAZING teacher who many students look up to! He's going to make a big difference in this world just by being who he is!

Congrats babe...way to go! All your HARD work FINALLY paid off! I love you so much!

Holiday update

Happy New Year!!!

We tried to keep the hustle and bustle of the holidays very low key this year. It was very different, but in a good way! We missed being so involved with extended family, but it was nice to be home and to be able to focus on each other and our Savior. As always, we were spoiled by everyone!




We've been trying to adjust to the new life of being a threesome. There have been many more late nights with no sleep and LOTS of diapers changed. It's a challenging new life, but a great one! Here are a few recent pictures of our little man who we just absolutely adore!!!




2010 was an AMAZING year...Let's hope 2011 is just as great!!!!

Meet Cooper Jacob Balls!!!

On Thursday December 9th, 2010 Cooper Jacob Balls came into this world at 9:30 AM.
He weighed 7.7 pounds and 20 inches long.

Our little miracle


I had started having contractions at 9:00 Wednesday night. We went to the hospital at 3:00 in the morning, got an epideral at 4:00 and it was smooth sailing from here!

We are so blessed that everything went so smoothly. We feel so lucky to have our little guy.

Jake is already an AMAZING daddy! He's been so much help, made my life soooo much easier!




We've already had plenty of dirty diapers and late nights but bring on the many more to come!
It's very challenging to be new parents, but we are making the most of it as we figure things out with our new little man! Lots of question, but luckily we have lots of help!
We couldn't be happier to have our little man home!!!

BIG changes SOON to come!

We've had lots of fun things going on lately and a LOT of big changes SOON to come!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving with all our family! We have so much to be grateful for and are so blessed! We LOVE all the yummy food, but love the chance to be reminded of all that we have even more.

Jake's had the chance to go hunting and has even been able to take Koda out a little bit. They've both LOVED it!!!

Our friends Kamille and John got married and gave us a good excuse to all get together! Congrats to the happy couple! We love you guys!


Jake finished his student teaching at Mt. Ogden Junior High and is just awaiting GRADUATION!!! This Friday is the BIG DAY!!! I'm so proud of him!!! Wrestling is also in full swing and they start their tournaments and duals this coming week! In addition to the high school wrestling, Jake also started a little league program this season which allowed him to work with boys kindergarten through 6th grade. I'm not kidding when I say he's been busy!!!

We've also been spoiled with several baby showers!!! Thanks to all our great friends and family who have supported us and helped us to get ready for our new little one! You are all GREAT and we couldn't have done it without you!

We are hoping to make it through Jake's graduation without going into labor. After that if he doesn't come the Dr. wants to induce us this coming weekend.

It's so crazy to think that we're going to be parents in such a short amount of time. It's seemed like forever ago that we found out I was pregnant and now it's hard to believe he's almost here!

It's going to be weird making the plunge into the next stage of life... we've tried to prepare for it, but we know there are going to be lots of surprises and hard times. Hopefully we'll have some help in figuring out how to be parents!
We are getting extremely anxious to meet our little man!!!! The countdown is on!