Vranicar Family: Party of 5

Several weeks ago I was asked to be a guest speaker at my high school. I would be speaking to the 7 th and 8 th grade girls about self confidence, how to develop good self esteem and a strong sense of self, making good decisions and my experience being part of the Miss America Organization. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to this group of young women! I remember so well the feeling of being their age and not knowing exactly where I fit in the world. Of looking up to the older girls in school, of worrying about how I looked, what I wore and what others thought of me. I immediately began brainstorming what I would say. My notes started with thoughts of what I used to think being self confident meant; being boastful and conceited. And that thinking I was good at something and celebrating that equalled a self centered attitude. I wrote down notes about being your best self, about not giving into peer pressure and how your decisions now will impact your future. I took pages...

Cooper's vocabulary seems to be growing everyday. Thanks to our wonderful Jill he is signing a few words: Please Thank you More Eat All done And now he is speaking some new words as well. Some of the favorites include: Book Sock Car Ma Bath Da (dad) Mamamamamam (mom) Kacker (cracker) Up and once, we swear he said broccoli :)

Yesterday our wonderful little boy was returned to us after having gone missing for a week. Last Thursday Cooper came down with what we thought was a cold. I rushed home from work and spent the afternoon with my sick little boy. He had a temp, runny nose, cough, etc and seemed like he just had what everyone else has right now. He kept getting worse. He started waking up in the middle of the night coughing, hot and sweaty and just not comfortable . It was as if he was bouncing back and forth between feeling a little like himself and then like a totally different boy. And by different we mean whiney , stubborn, crying, screaming, not eating, won't let you put him down little boy. He cried and whined more in the last week then in his whole short little life added up! Kevin and I reminded ourselves how lucky we were that he was only like this while sick. We finally decided that after numerous calls to the doctor we just had to bring him in, even though they said we really didn't n...

It has been over a month since my last update so let's just do some bulleted points on what's been going on... * We celebrated Christmas in Lake Park where Cooper got to meet Santa up close and in person. As Santa's firetruck neared my dad's house Cooper's arms stared to fly! He could hardly believe his eyes as the larger than life fire truck pulled in front of the house and Santa Claus hopped down to meet him. The next morning, after Santa had left gifts under the tree, Cooper re-discovered the joy he had found at his birthday of opening gifts. * We had visitors! Mindi and Scott came to celebrate the bitter cold of winter with us (or actually they came to go to the Vikings game, but still...) we made our way to the HoliDazzle Parade! * Cooper is showing us more and more everyday that he is turning into a little boy and not so much a baby. With his adventurous ideas of scaling every piece of furniture in the house, including his crib, the couch, the chairs, the ...

Today is the day I have been looking forward to since I ordered this year's Christmas cards. This is the day they are all in their envelopes, sealed, stamped, addressed and on their way to their recipients, all 180+ of you. I should note that this is 20 less than last year. One hundred and eighty! The reason we have so many cards? - I am practically related to the entire northwestern area of Minnesota (seriously, Kevin now assumes that anyone we meet while visiting my dad must be a relative, and he's probably right.) - Kevin's side of the family may not be as extensive, but we are a very close group which means we can't bump anyone off the list. (If for no other reason than them finding out! ;) ) - We both know a lot of people. -We feel bad/guilty taking anyone off our list! We went over and over our list trying to cut down the number of cards to send. The only thing that made this easier or even possible is if the card we sent to them last year was returned and we stil...