So much fun!

This Saturday, my Uncle Joe and Aunt Donna held their first "annual" (Donna, did you know it's an annual thing now?) fall party. It was so much fun! It was the perfect day to spend in her beautiful backyard on the patio! Before the pumpkins were carved, we decided to create our own pumpkin patch for pictures! It is not an easy task getting this many kids to all look at the right camera at the same time and SMILE!

I took a quick picture of Cooper and Chloe first since they were both smiling!

McKenzie and Lily are to the left. They are my cousin Shay's daughters. Addison and Aiden are Tinker Bell and the Police Officer. They are Shauna's children. Shauna's mom, Stacy, is my aunt's best friend. Last, Princess Jasmine (Lindsey) is my Uncle Bart's and Aunt Stacy's little girl.

This picture includes Shay's youngest daughter, Bella.

Where did everyone go, Cooper?

Bella's first picture with the Pumpkins!

Mamaw's Room....

Mamaw is my great grandmother who passed away. We miss her dearly and I often think about how much she would enjoy seeing her great great grandchildren. We have MANY memories to share but I have a few favorites of my own. Many of us talk about her pot roast dinners and how the smell of pot roast today still reminds us of her. When we spent the night with her, we would wake up to her cooking in the kitchen. Or, how she loved ice cream. She was also a talker and wouldn't hold back the truth (ugly or not)! She loved to take us shopping and loved to see us excited over our purchases. When we were trying on the clothes she would talk the sales clerk ear off bragging about all of her children/grandchildren/great grandchildren/great great grandchildren. She was so proud of her family. She also had a fierce love for Jesus!

My personal favorite memory happened in the year before she died. I hadn't gotten married yet and I was driving her to a family gathering. She decided to give me tips for dating! My 93 (I believe that was her age at the time, maybe 92) great grandmother was giving me dating advice! She went on and on about how girls don't dress up anymore and she didn't understand why we wore baseball caps with ponytails. She told me that I needed to dress nicely and stand out from the rest. She also told me to always wear my rouge. She told me to put my best dress on, put my rouge on, and head to the dancing hall. She told me to NOT stand with my friends because a gentleman would not want to approach me if I was standing in a group. She actually told me to stand by myself. By this point in Mamaw's life, she had shrunken in size and was quite smaller. I just remember her sitting in my passenger seat smiling up at me. On that drive, she told me that I would have a husband soon! She passed away soon after that and soon after that I met Todd. I met him at church, not the dancing hall, but I did put my rouge on and dressed my best! I can say that I probably can count on one hand how many times I've worn a baseball cap since! I wore the baseball caps quite often as a single gal! Anyway...the reason for this trip down memory lane was this...

Aunt Donna was given Mamaw's bedroom furniture and has decorated her guest bedroom very pretty and girly (so Mamaw) and calls this room, Mamaw's room. We all call it that. Shay bought the three little ones these adorable outfits and we went to Mamaw's room to change them. We were pondering over where to take this photo shoot and when we walked in, we immediately said, "In here!" The only really cooperative one was the youngest, Bella!

Lily!

We were trying to bribe her with candy but she wouldn't crack!

Still adorable!

Bella! Bella is 7 months old and the happiest little baby!

This is the only one I got on my camera of all three. Chloe would NOT sit still! By the time I would place her on the bed to take a picture she would take off again!

Let's try again...

Nope!

She prefers to do her own thing...

On my way home last night, I couldn't stop thinking about how tickled Mamaw would have been to see her great great grandchildren all dolled up on her bed! Another favorite memory of mine, the twinkle in her eye when she smiled!

Time to join the party again....

Chloe was giving Lily some ultimate lovins! Everytime Lily would get in arms reach, Chloe would reach out and hug her. It was sooooo precious!

Mom and her pumpkin!

The night ended with a pumpkin carving contest. There is some background information that I must share on this...

When the Donna's boys were young, they asked me to help them carve a pumpkin for a contest at the Deer Park Fall Festival. They asked me to do a Dallas Cowboy pumpkin. I created the smile with the word Cowboys as the teeth and the eyes were stars. The pumpkin won third place and a trophy, which Donna still had. You know, you will do pretty much anything for three little cute boys. Even carve something so rediculous. So, naturally now that they are older and more smelly (hehe), I had to right the wrongs of the past....

Here is a picture of all the pumpkins that were carved...

We had soooo much fun and can't wait for next year to do it again! Thanks Joe and Donna for a fun night! To make things even better, the babies slept in this morning until 7:15!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Yesterday was Nana's Birthday. She came over for dinner and to spend time with her grandchildren. We hope you had a wonderful birthday Nana!

Chloe's first steps!

Chloe surprised us today and walked two steps on her own. She was holding on to the table then let go and walked to Big Sis! Unfortunately, no camera available. I think this means I need to attach it to my hip! :) Big day for Little Miss.

Pics of Chloe standing on her own...

Don't forget to read the previous post from this morning for more updates on the kiddos!

Cooper and Chloe at 10 Months and the Jr. Higher...

On Oct. 8th, Cooper and Chloe turned 10 months. I ran out of time when I posted their pics, the bed was calling my name! So, now I wanted to update you on a few changes since the 9 month post, as well, as what's up with Maddie (or Madi).

Sweet Chloe:

• Stands for a few seconds on her own. Claps while standing on her own too! Do you think she's proud of herself?
• Totally into Reba. She pulls at her hair, ears, etc. She has even laid on her. Reba is totally into her too. I believe Chloe has become Reba's favorite. When Todd is tickling Chloe on the floor, Reba growls at him. No longer Daddy's girl! (Reba that is!)
• Plays with Cooper. She will lay on him and smile. When she is standing up by him, she pats his head and squeels!
• Loves music and dancing. (Uh oh, future Drill Teamer!)
• She is wearing 9 month clothing perfectly. I do sometimes put 12 months on her and her little booty doesn't seem to hold her pants up.
• Only has 2 teeth still!  

Super Duper Cooper:

• Makes a sound that really sounds like "ma ma" or "mum mum"...at times he really does seem like he's calling me but that might be my wishful thinking!
• Plays with Chloe (this includes taking her toys away from her-she just laughs and gets another one).
• Walking along the furniture. He holds on with one hand and walks. Funny how he's not standing too much on his own but doing the walking. Chloe stands more and then when she wants to move she sits down and crawls.
• Likes "rough housing". He loves to be flipped upside down, rolled along the floor, etc.
• Likes peek-a-boo.
• Only 4 teeth still!
• Has discovered his shadow. When he sees it, he reaches for it and pats at it.
• I don't know why this totally impresses me, but it does. If a ball rolls under the couch, he will lay down on his belly and reach for it. He lays his head flat on the floor so he can see where it is. That's a pretty smart thing for him to do at this age, right!?

Both Cooper and Chloe:

• Wake each other up! No longer can we run into the room and grab the one that is awake to prevent the other one from waking. They pretty much sleep together and are awake together.
• Love taking a bath. They take one together and absolutely love it.
• Meal Schedule:
• 6:00 AM - 8 ounce bottle (just recently started drinking this much)
• 8:00 AM - oatmeal and jar of fruit
• 10:00 AM - 6 ounce bottle
• 12:30 PM - sampler platter - 1 jar of veggies, 1 jar of fruit, and 1 jar of something starchy like mac and cheese or sweet potatoes
• 3:00 PM - 5 to 6 ounce bottle
• 5:00 PM - 1 jar of something meaty and 1 jar of veggie
• 7:00 PM - 7 to 8 ounce bottle
• We have tried table food. They love tortillas, little pieces of chicken, lunch meat, pasta and bread. Tonight, I'm trying cubed steamed sweet potatoes. I try to give them something to grasp to eat once a day. They are getting pretty good so we will probably be adjusting their meals soon.
• Nap Schedule: One can't really post about a nap schedule when they don't take more than one nap a day, right? Doesn't it have to happen more than one time to consider it a schedule? Anyhow, they typically take about a 2 1/2 hour nap once a day. For Ms. Shelley, it seems to happen around 12:30 (after lunch). For me on the weekend, it seems to happen in the morning after breakfast.
• They both wake around 5:30 and are asleep no later than 7:00. You do not want to be at our house around 6:30 PM. And yes, preferrably we need two sets of hands at that time. If it's left up to one, it can get pretty tricky but it's doable. It's getting easier or we are just getting used to it.

Update on Madison (the Jr. Higher!):

• She made the club volleyball team. Practices start in November and tournaments begin in December. Right now, she is participating in the Power League that is being offered until Club begins. The competition will be kicked up a notch and her practices will get harder. She's doing great! She was asked to play in an exhibition game (truly KVA's way to advertise what they can do with the girls over a period of time...prepare them to make the volleyball team in jr. high...yada yada), but we were proud of her. She played great with girls who had more years of experience. She claims she wasn't nervous. :) I would have been if I was asked to play in front of that many people watching me. They are what the club considers the best! They hand picked the girls to participate in that game! No pressure.
• Maddie is participating in a Life Group with our church. This is a group of girls her age, I believe 12 girls, that get together to study God's Word on Sunday evenings. Her participating in this group has been totally her doing. She has homework she completes weekly which when she is over at our house she does completely on her own. We haven't had to remind her at all. She even listened to the sermon that she missed on the internet so that she could take her sermon notes. Before Jr. High, the kids would go to a Kid's worship and then to Sunday school. Now, the kids attend their Sunday school class and are asked to go to "big worship" and sit together in a section. We meet her outside the sanctuary when it's over. One of the Life Group assignments is to take sermon notes.
• She told us last weekend that she wanted to spell her name Madi. I told her that would be a hard habit for us to break. We'll see how that goes!
• Is as sweet as can be! :)

Ten Months Old Today!

I can't believe they are already 10 months old!

Happy Fall Y'all!

There are so many reasons to love this time of the year. The colors are beautiful, the weather changes (slightly in Houston), football season is in full swing, craft show season, fall festivals, the holidays being right around the corner, good food (yum!), family time and pumpkin patches...

Chloe was not into looking at the camera!

My little man being so serious!

We brought out the halloween costumes for a sneak preview.

Here is the scarecrow (minus the hat...he does not like the hat at all!)

Giving the hat a try anyway...

A few weeks ago, we made plans with the Richardson's and Caraway's to take

pictures of all the babies in their Halloween costumes.

As you can see, the babies weren't as much into it as the parents!

First it was Chloe...

Then, Cooper...he was not digging the grass.

For a brief moment, all babies were okay!

I had to zoom in on the mine while they were both okay. No smiles though!

Carly, Zachary, Chloe, Cooper and Nathaniel

Then, Zachary and Cooper...

Back at the house, we had more fun pictures in the costumes.

Pics of the Rag Doll, Dorothy and Scarecrow...

A little better with the hat. He was till trying to pull it off.

We are much happier with Cheerios!

We have so many fun plans for the month of October. There will be LOTS of pictures to come!