Father-In-Law's 61st Birthday Party

My father-in-law, Vic Tanner, celebrated his 61st birthday tonight. We joined him, along with Gaya (grandma for those who don't know) Mary Ann Tanner, Kevin and Adrienne Rigney, and of course, my wonderful family.

It's about 1:30 long so enjoy Vic's 61st party.

Happy Birthday Vic. We hope you have many, many more.

Week 37 Pregnancy Update

We are a couple days late posting our weekly pregnancy blogpost because of Christmas. In this post, Angie talks about the lower back pain she's experiencing and how everybody is ready for "Baby Copee" to come into the world sooner rather than later.

A Copee Family Christmas 2008

The Copeland Family celebrated yet another Christmas together with friends and family. The above video is a montage of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It's hard to believe that Christmas 2008 has come and gone. Now the next gift we will receive will be our newborn son.

Christmas Now -- Anna Makes Cookies

In my last post, I shared a video of my daughter, Anna, recorded Christmas 2003. Now, here she is helping Angie make Christmas cookies as a 7 1/2 year old.

My how time flies.

I plan on sharing a current Aaron video soon, so be sure to watch the blog for updates.

Getting a little Nostalgic -- Christmas 5 years ago

Have you ever watched Chevy Chase in the Christmas Classic, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?"

There's one scene where Chase is trapped in the attic where he finds some old home movies stashed away in a cardboard box. He strolls down memory lane watching all the great family Christmases he had as a little boy.

That's kind of the way I was when I discovered a way to convert old analog video tapes to digital. I'm going through piles of old video tape and discovered this gem.

In this short scene filmed exactly 5 years ago, my daughter, Anna, is only 2 1/2 years old.

Where does the time go?

She was toddling and as you can hear, just beginning to speak.

Like Chevy Chase I cried when I watched this old home movie clip.

Week 36 Pregnancy Update Video

Here Angie gives a quick video update of what's going on during week 36 of the pregnancy. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Waiting for the little guy.

Pregnancy: Week 35 Update

Another week down, and we are all in a holding pattern on the homefront. Doc says if I make it to next week, then I am over the hump - anything after that point is considered a full-term pregnancy.

Nothing really new to report, just more of the same. Poor sleep, contractions, achy feet. I now release the emergency brake in the Expedition before I get in, because once I am sitting in the driver's seat I can't bend over to pull on the release lever.

My mother and sister Adrienne hosted a baby shower in my honor this weekend past at Mother's home. Anna and I attended and had a lovely time. It was wonderful seeing friends and family, and we received lots of nice gifts. Did I mention that the food was yummy, too?

I have become a nesting fool over the past two days. So much energy and don't know where to focus. Mother asked if I was washing windows yet? Forget the windows. I told Mike, when I start pricing rentals on a backhoe, that is the time to pack my hospital bag and get ready.

Other than a few odds and ends, the baby's room is finished. The nursery is decorated in a race car theme, primary colors, with the dominant color a fire-engine red. One of the gifts I received at my baby shower was a tiny red rocking chair that belonged to my father-in-law as a child. It goes so well with the colors in the nursery. A stuffed Dumbo is sitting in the chair, just waiting for someone to come play.

Hey it's me ... Anna

Hi .... My name is Anna Copeland and here is one of my cats, Bailey. I have two cats that do not get along well. The other cat's name is Velvet.

I wanted to let everybody know a little about me. I am 7-years-old and I have just gotten a new nickname this week. People now call me "Annatastic."

I am homeschooled and in the second grade. Today, I learned about doubles plus one (a math problem). This is 3rd grade math that I'm doing in 2nd grade. Pretty cool, huh?

I'm getting ready to be a big sister. Mommy has a baby in her tummy right now and he will be born very soon. I am really excited about being a big sister. I can't wait to babysit my baby brother.

Tonight we are going to look at Christmas lights at a really cool place near Grantville, GA.

My paw paw and gaya are over to eat dinner with us. We are having some very good ham. And paw paw and gaya are going with us to see Christmas lights.

One more thing ... my cat in the picture had a little bit of a procedure at the vet's office. So my mom gave him some medicine to put him to sleep ... that is why he is asleep in the picture.

Happy Kisses. Love, Anna and Bailey (the cat). THE END.

Pregnancy: Week 34 Update

Well, another week has gone by since our last update and Baby Boy Copeland is still baking in the oven, as you can see. December 15th is our "all's clear" date, so the closer we are to that goal the better off baby and I will be.

I feel good, though tired most of the time. Sleep is next to impossible at night. Poor Mike has to endure my restless tossing and turning. I can't make it through the day without taking a nap, and surely Mike is wishing he had the same opportunity.

In the meantime, Baby Boy is still showing impatience. Contractions are sometimes regular, sometimes not, but getting stronger. The worst so far was Thanksgiving, when I had to spend mealtime in bed with pains every 5 minutes. Two Advil and some R&R cured that. I was soon propped up on the couch, chatting with company and eating pumpkin pie (subsequently eating dessert first before my meal).

The nursery is coming along - still some cleaning, organizing and rearranging to do. I have been busy washing baby clothes and marveling over tiny little socks. I decided to make the diaper bag (which, ahem, hasn't been started yet) and a quilt for the crib (which is stretched out on a quilt frame in the living room). Unfortunately, the living room is also the location for the Copee Family Christmas Tree, which needs to go up sometime soon. This is a recipe for a logistical nightmare. Boy, am I glad I'm not the one in charge of decorating the house this year ;-)

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's all hands on deck in preparation for Baby Copee's arrival. We moved Anna's dresser drawers out of her room today. This dresser has the hardware on the back for the changing table. Look at all the stuff on Anna's bed. She has been the GREATEST!! She wants to help anyway she can. In the above photo, Anna is putting all the stuff back in her new dresser drawers. (the ones we swapped out of Aaron's room).

Constructing the Nursery II

Here my friend, James Williams, gets handy with a screwdriver as we work together to build the crib for Baby Copee. If you build it, he will come. Well he's coming whether we build it or not so it would make sense for us to get busy like we have been doing today. As you may recall from a previous blogpost, the baby doctor thinks Baby Copee might be here even before the end of December.

Constructing The Nursery

My friend, James Williams, gave up his rainy Saturday to come help me assemble the baby's crib. Thankfully, Angie was able to find the instructions because I would've hated to have to reverse engineer this thing. We are transforming Aaron's old room into the nursery. Lot's of movement going on at Copee House these days as we get ready for the new arrival.

Pregnancy: 33 Week Update

I'm having lots of contractions, and the baby has dropped considerably over the last 2 days. Doc says perhaps any day. If he comes tomorrow, she says he may be a little rare, but not expecting any complications. She would like to see him stay and bake at least another 2-3 weeks. In other words, we WON'T be making it to the Jan. 16th due date ;-)

Baby Copee is moving around quite a bit, or should I say wallowing, and having lengthy bouts of hiccups. I actually slept last night for the first time in a week. It felt so goooooooood!!

We have even less time than we thought, so we are in a mad rush to get the nursery assembled and everything ready!!!! Aaron has moved from his bedroom across the hall (which is now the nursery) to a new bedroom downstairs. It has been dubbed "The Man Cave". He is all excited. Our thanks to Pawpaw, the foreman!

Preparing for Baby Copee Arrival

Here we are at 31 weeks. Anna can't wait to meet her new baby brother. In this picture, she points out where he is right now. Our church, New Life Christian Fellowship, poured our so much love upon us tonight at Baby Copee's baby shower. We are declaring in faith that this baby is destined for greatness in God. This is such a blessing for all of us.

Thank you for sharing in our joy.

It's a Boy!

Here you can definitely see .... "it's a boy."

This ultrasound pic was taken a few weeks back at 20-weeks. Baby is much bigger now.

We're Expecting!!

We are now 30 weeks pregnant with a new little baby boy. Pictured here is Angie's pooch. We still don't have a name picked out for the child but are confident we'll agree upon one before the big day arrives.

Official due date: 1/16/09

If Angie holds true to form, she'll be about 2 weeks early.

Baby watch begins in earnest towards the end of December.