I give up!

So, for the past several weeks, I have been trying and failing to upload pictures to Blogger.  Well I don't know if it is our computer, my camera, our internet, or what, but I can't get them to upload.  So I give up!  I had several posts all planned for your enjoyment, but it looks like it won't be happening.  :(  If you are here for pictures then you need to friend me on Facebook.  If you are a grandparent who doesn't have Facebook, then it looks like you need to get one, because NO MORE PICTURES!!  Seriously I was spending HOURS trying to get them uploaded.  It's just not worth it!  I will try again later on, but right now, you are going to just have to read.  Yep that's right.  We don't do that a whole lot on my blog because I hate writing.  I guess this is one way to bring out the writer in me!

So here is a recap of everything that has been going on lately!

Tuesday December 20, 2011 - We went in for our BIG ultrasound!  We didn't tell anyone we were going in because we wanted to surprise our families during Christmas.  Since we didn't tell anyone, we took Cooper with us.  We got there right before appointment time to shorten our wait.  Surprisingly he did wonderful out in the waiting room.  There is a fish tank and he basically ran around the whole thing while we waited.  When the ultrasound tec called us back, I thought he would do so well.  And it's not as if he did awful, but I thought he would love looking at the screen to see the baby.  Well the room was dark, so he couldn't really see to color or play, and he just wasn't all the interested.  Poor Matt.  He wrestled with him long enough to hear that the baby is healthy and that it's a BOY!!  I'm sure most of you know that by now through Facebook, but for those of you who might have missed it, there it is!  :)  We are super excited!  I had a very strong feeling that it was going to be a boy, but Matt really thought it was a girl.  I know Cooper will love having a little brother to play with and at least I don't have to learn new things this time!  The baby's name is Levi Matthew.  I'm already so in love with little Levi!  He is constantly moving inside of me which I don't remember feeling with Cooper this early.  Feels like he is going to be just as active as Coop!

Also on this day, we celebrated our family Christmas.  I've already posted about this (with pictures!), so you can read more.  But it was so much fun!  I will remember it for a while!

December 21, 2011 - We had our first VBS 2012 meeting!!  Yes, I know it is early, but 3 of the 4 directors are pregnant and due before VBS, so we decided we needed to get an early start.  It sounds like it is going to be awesome again this year.  Now, I just have to get my tail in gear and get everything prepared before Levi gets here.  Since Levi is due June 1st and VBS starts June 13th, there won't be any VBS planning once Levi makes his arrival!!

December 22, 2011 - Headed to Lebanon, TN to start our Christmas vacation.  Cooper started to get snotty, but otherwise acted ok.

December 23, 2011 - Matt, Cooper, and I went to Opryland Hotel in Nashville to see their Christmas lights.  If you ever have the opportunity to go to the Opryland Hotel, you should take it up!  It is an amazing place.  Hopefully one day I can go stay there overnight!  Cooper loved seeing all the lights and people.  I do think he was overwhelmed when we first walked in though.  It was really loud because they were putting on a Shrek musical performance in that part of the hotel.  He didn't want to get down and run.  But eventually when we made it to other parts of the hotel, he got out of his stroller and ran around.  I gave him his goldfish container to snack on, and he carried it the whole way around the hotel until we got in the car!  I thought he wouldn't eat dinner from the amount of goldfish he consumed!  When we got back to Nana and Poppa Tom's house, we headed to see some more Christmas lights at a house in Lebanon.  There were a line of cars waiting to get in to the person's house.  You drive through the person's yard and look at a ton of lights.  There is a charge, so you know it's gonna be good.  We got Cooper out of his car seat and put him in Nana's lap to see better.  He talked the whole time about everything he was seeing.  They had a nativity scene that had real animals, and they had a "real" Santa and Mrs. Claus rocking on one of their porches.  It took about 20 or 30 minutes to go through, so it was worth it!  After the lights we made our way to Chili's.  I thought we were going to have a hard time with Cooper since he ate his weight in goldfish, but he did surprisingly well.  He ate the whole time we were eating and was in a great mood!  Yay!

December 24, 2011 - We had the BIG Tignor Christmas at Nana and Poppa Tom's house.  All the cousins and kids and grandparents came to eat and open presents.  Cooper really enjoyed playing with his little cousin Ean.  Ean is not that much younger than Cooper, so they did great playing together.  Of course Cooper always wanted every toy that Ean had, but it was a great place to learn to share.  We had a ton of food!  I was stuffed!!  Then it was present time!  We were so blessed with presents this year.  We weren't sure we were going to get them all home!  Coop got some building cups, a book, Weebles car, race cars, balls, and much more from Matt's extended family.  He was so excited to play with all of those toys.  They kept him occupied for quite some time.  After all the family left, we had our Christmas with Nana and Poppa Tom.  Daniel and Julie couldn't be with us this year!  We really missed them, but they are doing God's work so that's what's most important!  Once again Cooper got so much from Nana and Poppa.  I know I'm going to miss some of the toys that he got, but here are the ones that are on my brain right now:  a Toy Story tent and tunnel, a Radio Flyer tricycle, lots of movies, finger paints, play dough and much more!  Coop loved climbing through his tent and played hard on his tricycle.  His legs are still too short to reach the pedals, but that didn't keep him from playing on it!

December 25, 2011 - We had to leave Lebanon and head to the Memphis area to party with my family.  Cooper was not the best on this car ride because he didn't get the best sleep, so I was nervous to see how he would do the rest of the day.  I knew that once we got to my parents house, he would not be interested in napping.  He would rather play with his cousins than sleep!  So I knew that if he didn't nap on the car ride to Memphis, we would be in big trouble.  Well, praise God (and believe me I did a lot of praying to get that boy to go to sleep!!), he fell asleep 30 minutes before we got there.  I know that doesn't sound like a long time, but that's about all he sleeps normally in the car, so I knew that was as good as it was gonna get!  But it didn't matter because Cooper did beautifully!  He was so excited to see his cousins!  They played so well together.  There was no biting this time, and only one pushing incident the whole time.  We had lunch around 1:00 which was delish!  Mom really outdid herself this time!  When lunch was over, the kids were so excited to open presents.  But before we opened presents, we sang a song.  Yes, we sang a song.  This used to be a tradition at my Grandma Rose's house every Christmas.  We would sing the "12 Days of Christmas" and each day would be designated to a different family.  Well since our family is much smaller, it was a little interesting, but I thought it was a lot of fun!  Only Remle really understood that she was supposed to say her line when it came her turn, but the other kids had fun dancing to our singing!  We the song was done, Santa (Matt!!) passed out all the presents.  We voted just to get presents for the kids this year which was fine by me!  So we had the kids go one-by-one to open presents.  Cooper opened his first present and was good for the rest of the time!  :)  It just so happened that his first present was a set of Wheelie cars which he loved!!  I had a hard time getting him to open anything else.  Now that doesn't mean he didn't like his other presents, it was just hard for him to realize there was more good stuff to open!  Here is what I can remember right off the top of my head what Cooper got:  a kitchen and play food, a basketball goal, a four-wheeler, clothes, cars, books, movies, a drum set, a doctor's kit, and much more!  Levi also got a couple of presents!  Oh I forgot to tell you that we surprised our parents with the news that we were having another boy!  They were surprised and excited!  And I think they really loved the name too!  They couldn't believe that we kept the ultrasound a secret.  :)

The next couple of days were spent playing with cousins, shopping with mom, making Daily's birthday cake, and lots of food!  Cooper misses his cousins SO MUCH!!  I think he came home and forgot how to play by himself!  But thankfully he has plenty of new toys to keep him occupied!

That about sums up things for 2011!!  I know 2012 is going to be crazy with adding another boy to the mix, but I have loved crazy so far!  :)