Rice Cereal

I forgot to tell you all that we started Cooper on Rice cereal a few weeks ago. He had all of a sudden slipped back into sleeping only 2 hours at a time at night, and he would wake up ravenously hungry. So, we started feeding him rice cereal before we put him to bed at night... now he sleeps long and deep! But the thing about the cereal is, he loves it! He gobbles it up and grunts for more every night! He dives after the spoon when he sees it and tries to shove it on his mouth. If I don't feed him fast enough, he starts his whiny "uh uh uh" for more.

Houston, TX

We recently returned from an adventure in Houston, where we visited Aunt Kat & Uncle Jerry and our wonderful cousins (Kristie!!!). Annie, Dave and Maddie Berry traveled with us and made the trip very entertaining. I can't believe Kat and Jerry willingly volunteered their home to house 6 extra guests!!! It's so big though, that it did not seem crowded at all. I suppose now that we are gone, they may feel that it is rather empty (or they just miss Cooper!). They certainly gave us the royal treatment and we felt completely welcome ( they also offered a 24 hour babysitting service for Cooper... ahhhh... relaxation!). They took us around to all the sights we had energy to see, including: The woodlands mall ( a beautiful, spacious mall in the middle of "The woodlands"), the biggest horse in the world (who, by the way, drinks 2o gallons of water a DAY!), and the Houston Temple (very beautiful and lush, I loved the fountains). They also showed us all the beautiful neighborhoods and houses that they are fortunate enough to live in the midst of. We are very tempted to move! We had no idea Texas was so green and beautiful, we thought it was enveloped in dust and tumbleweeds and cowboys. I am a little sad that we didn't see cowboys. We did, however, see real live long horned cattle!


We were very sad to leave, our hosts were wonderful to us, and the area was so relaxing and serene. Our vacation would have been near perfect, except for a minor glitch on the way home. We were flying with buddy passes graciously obtained for us by Dave Berry, and when there weren't enough seats on the connection from SLC to St. George, Annie and Dave gave them up to me and Jesse! We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family! They ended up getting a hotel room and coming home first thing in the morning.

Cash - - The Boy - - not the singer, or money

We are posting a picture to introduce to the world, our new nephew Cash Jerry Syphus, son of Ben and Tasha Syphus. This is the only good picture I have of him... all the others were blurry because of his wiggly nature (or my poor skills at camera holding). He was born August 4th at 4-something in the morning after an exhausting labor (can I get a HOO-HA for TASHA!!!), he weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 19 in. long. A short stocky boy just like his very thick daddy. That kind of build is good for wrestling, certain positions in football, and bulldozing siblings (believe me, I know!). Ben and Tasha seem to be settling in nicely to their new roles as mom and pop, it took Ben awhile after the delivery to realize that squirming slimy thing was his boy, but now I think he can tell which end is which. I don't think Cooper knows of his new cousin yet, though he's seen him several times. But then again, he doesn't even know of the existance of his own toes.... and sometimes he goes cross-eyed trying to figure out who's chubby hand is clasping his (his own of course). So a relationship between cousins will have to wait until they can conceptualize other beings besides themselves. And just to brighten things up, some cute pictures of Coop-a-tons! (nick-name courtesy of Chris Syphus)