Oh My Cute!

Some of these pics compliments of Keaton :) I can't get enough of them... what a little love!

Recent Cooperisms...

With Taron and Keaton earlier in the month- he literally spends the entire time they are here in hyper excited mode!

Cooper (while playing beside me on the kitchen table): "Mom, can Nephi come over to play?"
Me: "Nephi? Like from 'Journey to the Promised Land'?"
Cooper: "Ya, Nephi. I think he would just like to play with me."

Just the other day, Cooper was playing around on his bed at the same time Ryder was laying there as I was working around the room and into the hallway. I told him to make sure and be careful with Ryder on the bed too. He replied, palms and shoulders up, "I won't break him. Cuz then there would be no more Ryder's."

Not too long ago, Coop came in to the house after being outside with Stephen and, once the coat and hat and etc. were off, pulled up his pant leg to show me an owie on his knee
(invisible I might add) and says, "Mom, I just felled off my motorbike (what he calls his little trike) and got dis owie. I need a rubberband." I replied, "You mean a band-aid?" :) Yep.

:)

Christmas Advent Calendars

I'm thinking there is a small window in a kid's life wherein Christmas is truly magical. And this year, we are there! I've always loved Christmastime and this year am extra excited to make it special around our house. This last weekend my friend and I made advent calendars!

I really like how this one turned out! It's made out of mini matchboxs that you can buy in sets of ten at the dollar store! To see where I got this idea and get the tutorial, go here.

I thought I was going to like this one better, but confess that I think the top one is my favorite :) I'm just not quite sure this one looks finished, ya know? Anyhow, it's made out of a mini muffin pan and magnetic paper! These papers are so pretty- can you see the glitter? Inside this one I'm going to put pieces of paper with a Christmas activity Cooper can do that day. For a great list of ideas, visit here. And to see where I got the idea, click here :)

'tis the Season!

We're Gonna Miss This...

Creative Energy

Lately I've been feeling creatively pent up, as though I just can't even stand not to make the ideas and thoughts in my head become reality. One night last week Stephen shot down all my excuses in a hurry and told me to get after it. So... I did.

And the feeling of uplift that seemed to happen automatically as I spread patterned papers and ribbons across the living room floor had me convinced... I need to create. It is part of my well being. I can be a better Mom, better wife, better sister and friend, a better ME when I do something creative each day. I feel invigorated by planning and producing things that are unique to our life. I have lots of reasons to be happy and using my talents is my happiness frosting. And life is just better with frosting, ya know? :)

So, this cute Thanksgiving garland is Exhibit A :) This is what the spread of paper and ribbon was all about.

And today's bit of frosting are these caramel apples. I was hoping to replicate Rocky Road and Apple Pie varieties from Rocky Mountain Choclate Factory. Somehow in my head these are a great kids treat- apples, you know :) Plus Coop enjoyed helping, so there was no battle for my attention or burning the midnight oil to make it happen. Yummy...

in the market for a little boy or two?

These two are taken.

(click here to see where I copied this title from) :)

Skeletons and Pumpkins!

Our pumpkin boys! Doesn't Coop look dazed and confused? :) He loved his green hair and was pretty darn excited the whole night. We had to convince him to keep his costume on at first, but he quickly forgot that it was bugging him ;) He got lots of cute comments all night long! And I wore little Ryder around as he slept in his fuzzy "Little Pumpkin" outfit.

We had Garnder's over for a mini-party before we went trick or treating together. Coop loves playing with balloons- love this pic. Below are our fun cupcakes that we delivered to neighbors as we trick or treated.

We played a fun skeleton scavenger hunt game- I hid bones of a skeleton decoration around the house and the boys had to find them and re-assemble onto the outline, which I traced onto Christmas wrapping paper :). Turned out really fun!

Thanks to our great friends fora really fun Halloween! I think it's fun times like this that make childhood magical...

Hunting Success

Stephen returned from flying on Saturday with a hen pheasant that his bird caught in the field just across from our house! He had actually sent up a bagged pheasant for it to catch, but when he went over to retrieve the bird, found it had actually killed a different one that had been hiding in that spot!

Moments Captured as they Grow Too Fast

Had enough of the day, it's bedtime...

Dad bounced him to sleep on his knee, just like his Grandpa Reynolds did to him...

Teasing me, knowing I want a picture of his funny hat, which he wore silly all the way to where we were going...

Backpack on, having just announced that he's going to Grandpas...