My 3 Boys

Joey 8 yrs, Andy 4 yrs, Cooper 8 months

I wanted to get a picture on of all 3 boys.  I think they look like brothers, but they each definitely have their own unique look.  Joey looks just like me.  Put pigtails on him, and he could have been my twin at that age.  Andy, we are not sure who he looks like.  He actually resembles my Aunt Mary's (my dad's sister) son, Kyle, a lot.  Which is odd.  Then Cooper is a spitting image of my husband, big ears and all!!

Meet Cooper

Cooper Baby.  The name just puts a smile on my face!  Cooper Malek Lujan was born on July 18, 2011.  Steve and I knew we wanted a 3rd child, but were actually planning on just having the baby now....but Jeremiah 29:11....God had a different plan for us!  Cooper came a year sooner than we had thought...remember, I am fertile myrtle....and I ended up with a July baby.  With being a kindergarten teacher, I never really wanted to make the decision on whether or not I would send my child to school at age 5 or 6, now I have to make that decision.  For those of you who care, as of now, Cooper will be 6 when he goes!  I can post about that decision later.

I will admit, I had some major anxiety on naming Cooper.  Joey and Andy just flows so nicely together.  Joseph and Andrew are strong Christian names.  I needed the perfect name, but what would it be.  I came upon a website, where I was able to put in that I wanted the name to end in y and have 2 syllables.  Perfect!  Not so perfect.  Over 1000 names came up and I didn't care for any of them.  My stomach was turning.  My baby wasn't going to have a name!

I was doodling baby names everywhere.  Nothing I came up with sounded good with Joey and Andy.  I even gave my kindergartners an assignment to think of 3 boys names for me!  They came up with some good ones.  And, I believe, it was Kaylin who brought me Cooper.  I had thought of this name prior to reading it on her sheet, and liked it.  I through it out there for Steve, my husband, to think about.  He liked it.  We were getting somewhere now.  BUT, we also liked CJ.  Just CJ, not short for anything.  I knew I wanted to use Malek, my maiden name, for the middle name.  With all boys, I couldn't use Molly or Faye on them, so that left my maiden name....plus I think it is cool!

There was a problem.  Everything I heard the name Cooper, I thought pooper.  Ugh.  If I think it, you know mean, bully type kids will think it.  I don't want him to be called Cooper the Pooper Scooper!!!  I just didn't know if I could go with that name.

Cooper was born.  He was unnamed for over an hour, which isn't a long time...but people were waiting to hear his name!  We were going back and forth between Cooper and CJ.  What were we going to do?  Finally, we just made the decision, and Cooper Malek it was!  I will admit, it took awhile to get used to calling him Cooper.  Grandma even called one day and asked how Carter was.  "Mom, do you mean Cooper?"  I told her that I forgot his name a couple of times too...I am hoping that is a common thing with new babies!!  Now Cooper is Cooper.  I couldn't imagine him being anyone else!  It is cute though, Andy likes to call him Coops.  And it just sounds so cute when he says it!!  I call him Coop a lot.

Cooper, who looks just like his daddy, at 10 months old

Not a lot to report on Cooper, except he is the easiest baby ever!!  He sleeps from 7:30 pm to 7:00 am.  He never cries.  He is happy all the time.  He just goes with the flow.  It will be interesting to see how that changes in time, but right now and I enjoying my little Cooper Baby!!!

Cooper is my only baby who has the BLUE eyes I prayed for!!

Meet Andy

Andrew John Lujan.  Our middle child.  Our spirited child.  We love him so much, but man does he make me work for the title of mommy!!  I can tell he is mellowing out as we get into year 4 with him, but I am sure I will continue to blog about many fun, interesting, adventures he put us on!  The only proper way to introduce Andy, is by sharing this particular day in December 2010, when he was 2 years old.  Hold on to your hats, friends, you are about to embark on a bumpy ride!!

Andrew John-4 years old

"Here is the story I promised:  It was Saturday, December 4.  I had just gotten out of the shower, and you were playing cars outside the bathroom.  I went into the closet, for about 3 minutes, and when I came out, you had decided that you needed to wash your Mack truck with daddy's Old Spice body wash, which is blue.  There was BLUE everywhere!  Big puddles of BLUE on the floor and up the stairs.  I had no idea what to do!  Luckily, your dad is a smart man and got the shop-vac out.  He poured hot water and shop-vacced it up.  No more BLUE!  

About 4 hours later, Joey yells at me that you had put my pink stuff all over the bathroom.  I went up to the bathroom to find you sitting in the bathroom sink with half a bottle of my Mary Kay 3-in-1 Cleanser ALL OVER the counter and spread all over the mirror.  I said I would clean it up when I got back from the neighbors.  When I got back, your dad, a saint, had already cleaned it and put you in your room.  

I decided I was going to take a nap with you, but then you decided you wanted nothing to do with a nap.  So, I left and shut the door, hoping you would fall asleep.I didn't hear you for 30 minutes and figured you had gone to sleep.  Was I ever wrong!  Your dad heard you and went up to your room.  When he opened the door, I heard, "ANDREW!" in a voice I had never heard before.  Then he yelled for me to come up.  As I started walking up the stairs, I could smell it.  Before I got to the top step, I saw it.  S*** everywhere.  It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen and all I could do was laugh.  The trail of poop lead my eyes to your bed, which you had taken off the pooped sheets, and had more poop on the mattress cover.  You were sitting butt naked on your bed covered in poop.  Poop on your arms, poop on your hands, poop on your legs, poop on your FACE, and poop in your HAIR!  It was so GROSS!!!  There was poop smeared on your wall and on the back of your door.  There was so much poop that we didn't even know where it all came from.  I took you straight to the bathroom and rubbed your body raw to get all the disgusting poop off of you.  I asked you if you ate it, and you opened your mouth to show me.  Luckily, it didn't look like you had.  Once I had cleaned you up, I went back up to your room to help your dad clean.  He had already opened up your window as wide as it could go (remember it is in the middle of winter!) to air out the poop smell.  I went through so many cleaning wipes to disinfect your whole room.  

Andy and I at Buffalo Wild Wings-99 cent kids meals on Wed. nights!

All I could do was laugh.  I just couldn't believe that you were capable of doing these 3 things all in one day.  I will say this much, Andy, there is NOTHING that I won't think you can't do.  You are, one day, going to do something amazing....and your dad and I will bring up this story, just to remind you of what a little S*** you once were!  We love you to pieces!!"

Why Was I Crying?

I can't believe I was crying.  Well, I can, because I tend to cry at everything....but still, I can't believe I was crying!  Joey had his dance rehearsal tonight at the high school.  With Steve being out of town, I carted all three boys from lacrosse to dance.  Once we got to the auditorium, which was a challenge, since it is on the 2nd level...so I had to find an elevator, since I had Cooper in a stroller.  Which I found out, when I got back to the van, that I had left the trunk of the van open the whole time we were gone!  Luckily, none of Joey's lacrosse equipment had been taken!

Where was I?  Oh yes, I was crying.  So, right before Joey's dance, the Dad and Dolls Competition dance performed.  If you have never seen this before, it is awesome!  And, if we had a girl, Steve would be up there.  If you asked him, he would say, "No way!", but I would make him!  Anyway, I was crying.  Yes, literally crying!  I had so many emotions going through me while I watched those girls dance on stage with their dads.  The dads, dressed in t-shirts and jeans, trying their best to dance with their daughters.  I thought about my dad, and how fun it would have been to dance with him at some point during my 10 years of dance lessons.  I thought about the fact that we have 3 boys, and Steve won't get to do a dance with anyone....but hey, they should have a moms and son dance class......I might have to bring that up!

Most of all, I just felt like we were missing out on something.  Those dads and daughters were having an amazing experience, that my family will never have.  It just makes me really sad.  I know, I know...I am so grateful for everything God has given my family, but it still made me sad.

My sadness stems from so much more, which I will post about later.  Sitting here writing about it, just makes me cry.  It is hard to explain.  On a happy note though, Joey did an awesome job!  He told me he was a little stage fright, but when he got out there, he had a lot of fun.  Two girls even gave him a high five!! He told me he wants to take dance again next year! 

Joey dancing to Party Rock!

I didn't get many good pictures, but it is something!

Meet Joey

Joseph Michael is our oldest.  8 years old, to be exact.  Steve and I were married on May 10, 2003.  When it came to having children, we told ourselves we would just "let things happen."  We didn't want to be a couple who waited until we were "ready" to have a child, just to find out it would take us years to conceive.  Well, lets just say I am fertile myrtle.  At the end of August, we found out we were expecting our first baby.  2 weeks before our 1st anniversary, I gave birth to Joey.

Joey has always been a Joey.  Not Joe, not Joseph (well, only when he is in trouble or I REALLY need his attention!).  Sometimes JoJo.  Do you remember the cartoon, JoJo's Circus, on Disney?  That cartoon was popular when Joey was a baby.  I would have it on the tv while he was hanging out on the floor playing.  I started calling him JoJo, and it just stuck!  Actually, a couple of weeks ago, I had to go to Joey's class to tell him something.  I tried to get his attention by calling him JoJo.  He looked right at me and mouthed these words, "Don't call me JoJo."  In that moment, my heart broke a little.

Joey and I went to the Twins game on his 8th birthday.

Joey is going to be my artistic child.  He loves to draw, especially cartoons, monsters, anything along those lines.  Everyday he comes into my classroom and creates something with whatever he can get his hands on.  Paper plates, construction paper, pipe cleaners, anything!  He loves tape and staples.  He also takes Boys Jazz Funk, and has really become a good dancer.  I think when a man has the quality of dancing, they are doing good!  Joey enjoys music and would like to learn to play the drums.  He does stay active by playing lacrosse and basketball.  The week after school, he is going to go to grandma's for the week and attend the golf camp I attended as a child.  He is very excited about this new adventure!

Joey has 8 days of 2nd grade left, and then I can officially say I have a 3rd grader!  I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone.  This past year, I have watched Joey mature into a young man.  He is so loving and caring towards his baby brother, Cooper.  He still loves his mama, and still wants to cuddle with me.  I will continue to cherish these moments, as I know they may end soon!

Latest Joey moment:
Joey:  Tanner is going to spy camp.  I want to go.  Can I go?
Me:  I don't even know about spy camp.  I don't know where it is.
Joey:  I bet if you sign me up for it, they will tell you where it is.
Me:  I don't know how to sign you up for it.
Joey:  I don't know.  I bet you could go to spy.com.
Right.  Spy. com.  That will solve everything!  The best part was that I posted this on facebook, and Tanner's mom commented on how she didn't know about this!  Come to find our he had asked her husband, and he said he was "down with that."  Too bad there are no spy camps in MN!!

Because I Said So

Because I Said So.....title of an awesome movie (which I watched with my 2 sisters and our mom), something my mom ALWAYS said to us, and NOW what I find myself saying to my 3 boys!  Well, 2 oldest boys, as Cooper Baby doesn't do anything to deserve a "because I said so!"  This statement came to my mind, because you may be wondering why I have a blog about my 3 boys, but the blog is decked out in pink and butterflies, right?  BECAUSE I SAID SO, that is why!  My world does not consist of pink and purple.  There are no frilly dresses or cute flower headbands in my home.  No dolls or Barbies.  Nothing.  Just cars, Legos, and more cars.  Boring clothes, jeans with holes in them, dirt and mud.  Boy stuff.  So, this is my blog and I am going to decorate it the way I want.....BECAUSE I SAID SO!