I hope that all of the Mothers had a wonderful day of celebration! Not only was this my very first Mother’s day, but it was also the day that I graduated from college!

I got to spend the day with some of the people I love, and I got to close the chapter on my undergraduate college days.

It’s been a long 6.5 years, but I’m finally finished! I began college in 2006 at Denison University, my top choice among colleges. After a rough freshman year, my sophomore and junior years were some of the greatest years of my life! I couldn’t return to Denison due to financial issues following my parents’ divorce in 2009, so I attended the University of Kentucky part time from Fall 2009-Summer 2012.

I was blessed to have been able to transfer my coursework back to Denison, and I am still amazed that I was able to earn my Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from the school that I fell in love with many years ago. Although I graduated 3 years later than the rest of my freshman class, I am extremely proud to say that I am now a Denison Alumni.

We spent Mother’s Day at a chilly graduation ceremony, and Daniel won a daddy-of-the-year award for taking Adeline duty on Sunday.

They are adorable and I love them. I think I was trying to say “brrrrr” in the picture below.

Mothers and babies on Mother’s Day. I am so thankful that my mom was able to celebrate with us!

With my mom and my brother Matthew. If my mom and I hadn’t been wearing heels, Matthew would surely tower over us! P.S. Matthew graduates from middle school soon! I can’t believe it!

My “Happy Graduation/Mother’s Day” gift from Daniel- Jeni’s Salty Caramel. It is worth every penny. We had plans to visit Whit’s frozen custard when we were in Granville, but being in 45 degree weather for a few hours kind of makes you not want ice cream anymore.

Sunday was quite a special day indeed. Hope all of the mommies out there had a wonderful celebration! Just a few more pictures, mainly because a baby in a graduation cap is too darn cute!

Did you go to college? Did you graduate in four years? How was your Mother’s Day?

Well, today is my 25th birthday. I have a few minutes to type while the babe is sleeping, and I wanted to try to capture my feelings on my quarter of a century birthday. There aren’t any pictures in this post (Adeline’s 3 month post is coming on Monday, get ready to be smothered with cute-ness), and please excuse my introspective ramblings…

I would never have imagined that I would have gotten married at 22 and that I would have a baby right before I turned 25. God works in some special ways, I can attest to that. This year has been full of ups and downs. The biggest surprise of this past year was definitely find out that we were expecting a baby, and the rest of the year was filled with preparing for the little one. In some ways, I kind of felt like this past year wasn’t really mine. I suppose part of that feeling comes from being pregnant for 40 weeks (aka a LONG time), and now, even though Adeline is here, I still don’t feel like my “old” self.

I suppose I never will be my “old” self again- I’m a mother now.

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.
-Rajneesh

As smooth as this transition to motherhood has been, and as much as I love my daughter- a part of me is still grieving the loss of the days as just being “me”. Life will never be the same as it was before Adeline came into the world, BUT, I wouldn’t trade my life now for anything in the world. I have a husband who loves and supports me (who makes me laugh, who comforts me when I cry, etc.) I have a beautiful, happy and healthy baby girl, and God has surrounded our family with the love of friends and family.

I think it’s pretty natural to get sentimental at this time of the year- as we say “goodbye” to the holiday season and start preparing for a “New Year, New You”. I’m taking some time today to look back on this past year and to say THANK YOU to God for bringing me through this journey. I’m waving goodbye to my “early twenties” with a smile. I’m constantly trying to give up my struggles, insecurities and anxieties about my past and my future to God so that I can be present in the now.

So, I’m entering into my 25th year as a “new” me. I’m embracing the changes that have come into my life. I’m a mom. But, I’m still a Child of God, a Wife, a Friend, a Daughter (and more).

Thank you so much for all of the texts, Facebook messages and in-person Happy Birthday wishes. Here’s to twenty-five FANTASTIC years, and cheers to many more!

Hard to believe that Adeline has been in our lives for 3 WEEKS now! It feels a lot longer than that and the weekdays are flying by! My dad and sister flew in from California to meet our little girl this week:

We don’t have a scale, but we think she’s at (if not more than) 8lbs! Adeline is eating like a champ, but this momma is doing a trial run of life without dairy to clear up some “green poo” issues. I have never wanted to eat ice cream or cheese as much as I want to now, So far… the “green poo” issue is getting MUCH better, so I’ll stay away from dairy as long as the little one’s tummy needs me to!

Our sweet babe has also blessed us with pretty good sleep during the night! She’s usually up 4 hours after I put her down after a feeding. Those 4 hours of sleep are GREAT! She’s also only eating for 20-30 minutes at night, so from wake up till my head hits the pillow is under an hour. Momma likes that.

I’m feeling great, for being only 3 weeks post-partum, I’m really surprised at how quickly my body has gotten back to normal! I’m still taking it easy, we get out on a few short walks during the week and lifting a babe up and down all the time has any arm strengthening covered!

This weekend was full of fun! In addition to a visit from my dad, Catherine and Matthew (complete with an awesome dinner that the baby slept through at Lemongrass Thai Restaurant here in Oakley), we also went to a beautiful wedding of our friends, the Payne’s!

Adeline slept soundly through the ceremony AND most of the reception!!! And she slept well that night too (halleluia!) Daniel and I really enjoyed getting dressed up, and it was pretty fun to have people asking “Is that a REAL baby?!?” at the wedding.

We capped off the weekend with church and a walk around town. Daniel chose some craft beers at Dutch’s Larder and then we had a nursing session in the park on a beautiful fall Sunday.

Questions

If you have any topic ideas (I’ve got a post about our first few weeks of breastfeeding in the works) or any questions about ANYTHING (recovery, body after baby, a day in the life of a newborn, meals we’re eating, a post about how my dog is shedding ALL OVER THE PLACE), let me know in the comments or in a Facebook post or something!

Also, I am now on Instagram!!! Follow me @hollyccoop

My sweet cousin asked my sister Maggie and myself to photograph her wedding this coming August! This is the spark I’ve been needing to light the fire under my butt to learn more about photography and how to use my camera!

I’ve been following this 31 Days to a Better Photo blog series, and I’ve gotten more comfortable with using the various manual settings on my camera! I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos, but I want to begin with high quality photos so that editing will enhance the photos (instead of “fixing” them).

I’m working on fine-tuning my still life photography so that I feel super comfortable with using the manual settings, but I really need to get some real life people to practice with! Does anyone want a free photo shoot? Seriously, if you do, let me know, I’d love to spend a few hours snapping away with you!

Here are some pictures of the Peas and Thank You Chocolate Chip Zee Bars that I made (again) this weekend! These pictures have had minimal editing. The only thing I tweaked was the white-balance. That’s still something I’ve gotta learn how to tweak while I’m shooting… The pictures below were all taken when I was messing with the aperture of my camera- I wanted to nail that “blurry background” look that I love so much!

And here are a few more pictures, I just love my husband and my dog!

Good Wednesday to you all!

I have a huge favor to ask, will you visit the Seki Japanese Restaurant page on Facebook  and “Like” some photos for us? Just go to their “Photos” page and look for the photos that I posted!

The first place winner of the photo contest wins $50 to Seki! We did a post about a date night visit to Seki here- Date Night at Seki! Seki is Lexington’s BEST Sushi Restaurant, be sure to check them out if you have the chance!

Seki Japanese Restaurant

1093 South Broadway

Lexington, KY 40504

Hours

• Mon-Friday: 11:30 – 2:30 and 5:30 – 9:30
• Saturday: 5:30 – 9:30
• Sunday: Closed

Be sure to click the “Like!” button!

December is one of my FAVORITE months! Want to know all of the wonderful things that are happening this December?

• The Semester Ending!!!!!!
• My Birthday (the 28th)
• Work Christmas Party
• Friends Christmas Party
• My Birthday
• Christmas
• Jesus’ Birthday
• Matthew (the brother) comes to stay with us!
• Visiting Family and Friends
• Opening our 99 cent Advent Calendars from Trader Joe’s
• Seeing Christmas Lights on a run
• My Birthday
• Christmas Service at Church
• Wrapping gifts (I actually loathewrapping, but, it’s a once-a-year kind of thing)
• Putting up the tree!
• Edited to add: David and Ashley welcoming their baby girl sometime this month!!!

Obviously, this list could go on and on and on…. I’m actually a little bit ashamed that we don’t have our tree up yet, but these next few weeks are just a little bit crazy around the Cooper household. Silas and I took a walk the other day to gather some festive ‘décor’ from none other than mother nature, take a look!

I also hung up our homemade stockings, so at least the family room feels a little bit more merry!

Happy December everybody and Goodbye from Pico, the Christmas cat.

Yes, Salted Caramel Apple Pie. The husband baked this pie, and it turned out DELICIOUS (although I could only sneak a tiny bite of the filling, I’m going to force him to make it gluten-free next year!)

Daniel used the “Rich Tart Crust” recipe from the Essentials of Baking cookbook.

Chillin' in the fridge

The caramel sauce in action:

Completed Salted Caramel Sauce

Silas always keeps a watchful eye when we’re in the kitchen…

YUM

After drooling over the pie pictures, it’s time for a quick Thanksgiving recap: Thanksgiving was a blast! It was quite busy, but I’m VERY thankful that both of our families still live in Louisville (although my dad and sister live out in Cali, and my other sister is in NC…) Louisville is a good meeting place for everyone!

We ran the annual Northeast YMCA Turkey Trot, I think this was my 5th year participating! I love getting out for a run on Thanksgiving morning, and having family and friends who also participate is always a blast! ALL of Daniel’s siblings and their spouses came out to run!

My right leg has been bothering me for a little while, if you follow me on “DailyMile“, I found out that I tweaked my right hamstring somehow. During the race on Thursday, I was aiming to go sub 7:45/mile, which is what I did. However, I did have to stop twice during the race to stretch out the “weird” feeling in my right hamstring. Anyways- I finished in 45 minutes (my watch time) and ended up placing 4th in my age group! Good way to start off a Thanksgiving celebration!

Anyways- as I posted in Trial Thanksgiving- I did make some changes to the sweet potato casserole and it turned out quite delicious- although I was told that it was a little too “sweet and spiced” for a sweet potato casserole. Oh well, it still tasted good to me!

OK, now go make this Salted Caramel Apple Pie.

Yesterday was a dreary and rainy day. We’ve talked about moving to Washington or Oregon, but I keep hearing that they’re rainy, grey places. I’m not someone who ALWAYS needs bright and sunny days, but I just don’t really care to be wet. Plus, rain+cold makes it impossible for me to get warm. I am thankful that today was a rainy day because I got to do a trial run of a few Thanksgiving recipes!

We only have “3 Thanksgivings” this year. The past two years, I think we’ve had at least 4 Thanksgiving celebrations to go to, so we’re happy to have one less! (We’re not having our “big family” Thanksgiving this year with my mom’s side of the family, we do it every other year!)

2009:

2010:

We decided to bring a veggie side dish to the Cooper Thanksgiving, and for some reason, I’ve had Brussels Sprouts on my mind.I found this recipe for Lemon-Roasted Brussels Sprouts and decided to give it a try. I went to three grocery stores yesterday to find fresh Brussels Sprouts (I found them at Meijer!)They turned out to be quite delicious! I made a half-pound for Daniel and I to share over lunch today. We both agreed that extra parmesan cheese was required! If you decide to use this recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts, be sure to add extra lemon, a healthy amount of parmesan and extra salt and pepper before serving!

I also found this recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole that I’m bringing to Thanksgiving at my mom’s house. The only substitutions I made was using buckwheat flour in place of the wheat flour in the streusel to make the casserole gluten-free. For my “trial” version, I ended up using a splash of regular milk, and I used less sugar.

When I make this on Thanksgiving, I may actually increase the amount of evaporated milk in the recipe as the trial turned out a little dry. I’m also going to add in some spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, a pinch of clove) to the potatoes. And, as you can tell by the burnt pecans, I’ll try to keep a better eye on the casserole when it’s under the broiler  Daniel is also planning on making a dessert. A couple of years ago, he made an upside-down Pecan-Caramel cake thing, and a little while back, he made a Tres-Leches cake that was STELLAR! The boy can bake. I’m excited to see what he decides to make this year!

Want to work on your fitness? Start now. Start today. Begin making small changes towards a healthier lifestyle! Don’t know where to start?MyBodyStructure.com is a new community and website focused on the “Knowledge to Build a Better Body”. I have worked at Body Structure for nearly a year, and the trainers know their stuff. Now, Body Structure is giving EVERYONE (all over the world!) FREE, unlimited access to MyBodyStructure.com to anyone who signs up by January 31st. At the beginning of February, there will be a drawing and 5 people will receive unlimited access to MyBodyStructure.com for an entire year.

What does MyBodyStructure.com have to offer?

• An ENORMOUS video library of exercises
• A HUGE library of workouts
• Workout Programs
• A fantastic blog written by trainers, therapists and doctors
• An online community “The Water Fountain”
• and more!!

Basically, MyBodyStructure.com is an all-inclusive tool to helping you create a healthy lifestyle.

So TODAY- take a step in the right direction and sign up for FREE access through January 31st! I have one shameless favor to ask if you DO sign up (and I suggest that you do!)- please, please put my name in the “How Did You Hear about MyBodyStructure.com” field of the sign-up form!

Last weekend, Mom Central Consulting gave me the opportunity to get a dress for a special occasion. If you know me at all, I really don’t like wearing dresses. I think part of my dislike for dresses comes from not being able to find dresses that fit properly. David’s Bridal is well known for their affordable Bridal gowns and Bridal party attire. Did you know that David’s Bridal also has a FANTASTIC selection of dresses for other Special Occasions- check it out (http://www.davidsbridal.com/Browse_Special-Occasions).

Daniel and I took a trip to our local David’s Bridal store, and I got to try on LOTS of dresses!

And shoes!

There were dressed I liked…

Some were a little strange for my tastes…

And others just didn’t work…

I ended up choosing this Charmeuse Print Dress, and I LOVE it! Daniel gave it the thumbs up too:

Now is when I’m pretending that this post doesn’t have enough pictures already… so I’m adding MORE!

Thank you Daniel for being an excellent photographer, thank you to Mom Central Consulting for providing this wonderful opportunity, and thank you David’s Bridal for your wonderful Special Occasion Dresses!

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting (www.momcentral.com/mcc) on behalf of David’s Bridal and received a gift certificate to facilitate my review.