tell me a story...

Mitchell in Time Out

Time outs have become more frequent at the Cooper house. I watched Ben put his monkey, Mitchell, in time out. He then proceeded to tell him why he was in time out and Mitchell had to say sorry, then got a hug and a kiss. It was a little crazy to watch him act it all out and be reminded at how much he really does understand and pay attention!

Allied...our big moving truck!

We were so blessed by the church who arranged our move for us. We were packed and moved by the church. We literally sat back and watched other people do all of the work. Ben LOVED the big truck. He did not like all of his stuff disappearing on it. When the truck delivered our things to South Bend, Benjamin got to sit in the cab of the truck and honk the horn. What an excited kid. Then to top it off the Ken, from our church, who works for Allied, brought Ben an exact replica of our moving truck. It is his FAVORITE toy and is played with all day.

Living in the Land of Notre Dame...

Thank you to our friends the Windles who made sure that Ben was ready for his move to South Bend. He officially has a Notre Dame football jersey and will be ready for football season this fall. Mom also used this as a photo opp. He was totally tired of the camera after a while.

And yes... even some of the fire hydrants in South Bend get dressed up in support of Notre Dame!

Mack - the BIG truck and Driving the Jeep

We had no idea that it would be so traumatic for Ben to see all of his things being loaded up on the truck, so I gave my friend Rachel a call and we headed to their house. Ben calmed down once he got to play with Mack the truck from the Cars movie.

While Ryan and I headed to our house to clean, Ben got to play with Justin and Jenna. When Ryan and I picked him up we weren't sure we were going to get him in our car. Not sure how he grew up so quickly, but he was driving Jenna around in the Jeep! Yikes...I think we should consider some driving lessons for him.

The Next Chapter...

Heading into the "snow belt"....Indiana here we come!

This was actually on one of our visits to South Bend.

We quickly learned how weather can change and what they mean by this area being called the snow belt!

The Evangelical Covenant Church of South Bend

The parsonage... our new home!

Many of you have been asking what is going on in the lives of the Cooper family, so I guess it is officially time for an update!

This past summer was our first set of changes. Ryan took a full time job downtown as the CRM Manager for Preferred Hotel Groups. This job allowed Sunni to become a stay-at-home Mom. These changes meant a lot of goodbyes. We all said goodbye to our church family of the past six years, Hope Covenant Church. We also said goodbye to our Oakdale Christian Academy family as Sunni left teaching after being there for six years. There were a lot of transitions, but we really felt like this is where we were supposed to be for the next couple of years, but God had other plans for our lives!

A few months ago, Ryan got a call from the Covenant Church in South Bend, Indiana. It has been amazing to watch as God has worked out all of the details. We have both felt like this was a good fit from the beginning. It just seemed like everything was falling into place. We spent a wonderful weekend candidating and the following week the church voted. Well, actually they voted Ben in and decided Ryan and I get to come along! So, the first week of March we packed up and moved to South Bend! Ryan is excited to be working in the local church as their pastor! Sunni and Ben are busy unpacking boxes and making the parsonage our new home.

We are in the process of finalizing the sale of our home in Lockport. We are currently living in a home the church owns. What a blessing it was to have a place to move into, while we sold our home. We will be here for a while as we get to know the area. It is nice to be close to the church for now! Ryan went from a hour and a half commute to literally walking across the parking lot! Ben and Mommy really enjoy seeing him more!

Kisses from Ben-Ben

Silly Ben

A Song from Ben

Train Ride to See Daddy Downtown

Waiting for the train to come...

SO excited to go see Daddy

Riding home on the train with Daddy

Didn't last long....so tired.

This was one of Ryan's last days working downtown. Ben and Mommy rode the train so we could see the building where Daddy works and meet some of his co-workers. The highlight for Ben was the train ride!