November

These beautiful fall days had me itching to capture some sweet pics of my little ones.  I am constantly amazed at how different their personalities are and yet how perfectly these two stinkers go together.  They love each other so much, and for that, I am so grateful.

The imagination this kid has is amazing.  He has so much energy to match that imagination, making every moment of every day quite entertaining.  He is so determined and hardworking and thrives on a challenge.  I can't wait to see what he accomplishes in his life.  I've said it so many times, but I know he can move mountains!

He's been getting into some trouble for talking back lately.  His behavior challenges me sometimes, and I fail more often than I would like, but he keeps me on my toes and makes me want to be a better person all the time.  He has a heart of gold though and loves with all of it.  He told me the other day I was his girlfriend.  That innocence and genuine love melts a mama's heart.  We hear a lot these days about what his favorite is and is not.  As in if I tell him to go put on his clothes I laid out, he'll tell me that shirt is not his favorite and he can't wear it.  Or I'll give him something to eat, and he'll tell me he doesn't want that because it's not his favorite.  Or he'll ask to have some candy for breakfast because that is his favorite.  We're having to explain that life doesn't always work out with all our favorites.  One thing is for sure though, he is one of two of my favorite little guys in the whole wide world.  

I love the way this little guy crawls.  He has definitely mastered the bear crawl!  Although he can walk, he still prefers to crawl or scoot.  For awhile, he preferred to walk when we weren't looking, and once he would see us watching him, he would smile and drop down and crawl!  He's walking more and more every day, and I know the days of his peg-legged crawl are coming to an end.  He also likes to put things in his mouth and then crawl as his way of moving them from one spot to the next...at least he's resourceful!

If you know me well, then I'm sure you've noticed I rub my eyelashes when I'm tired or concentrating.  When I was a little girl, my grandma would do this to put me to sleep at night when she was visiting.  At some point I started doing it myself and never stopped.  I don't know how I passed that down to Jake, but apparently I did.  When he's nursing and about to fall asleep, he'll start rubbing my eyelashes, and then he switches to his.  I just think it's so sweet to see him do that now too.  When he wakes up, I always give him a little time in his crib to let the grogginess wear off.  I get so tickled when I go in to get him because he normally has thrown his two stuffed animals that he sleeps with out of his crib.  I can't figure out why he does this, but he normally throws one in his dirty clothes basket (by his crib) and the other in front of his crib.  Actually, he throws everything, constantly.  He throws his food to Sadie, is constantly looking for a ball to throw, and will throw anything you give him.

He is our little lover.  He is always happy to snuggle, give a kiss or hug or love pat, cuddle with Sadie, and play with Cooper.  Bath time with Cooper is his favorite.  He also loves to play peek-a-boo, be chased, or get tickled.  He is so ticklish too.  I love his laugh and how happy he always is.  

He's nothing but a joy!

O Christmas Tree

My sweet little elves have been busy getting our house in the Christmas spirit!  Our tree is quite beautiful this year since Cooper and Jake were in charge of the ornaments.  The unique placements will most certainly bring a smile to your face!  

Getting to use the step ladder as proved to be a favorite.  I think they would both be happy to climb up and down it all day!  I'm so happy to have their help though.  Decorating is much more fun with little helpers!

Happy Halloween from the Wild West

~WANTED~

Cowboy Cooper

• Accused of growing up too fast despite warnings from his mama to stay little and sweet forever.
• Age: 4 Years Old
• Hair: Light Brown     Eyes: Blue
• Should be considered armed and dangerous with a big bucket loaded with candy.

Last Seen With His Trusty Steed Jake

• Accused of always being right by Cooper's side, especially when there's mischief to be done.
• Age: 1 Year Old
• Hair: Blond     Eyes: Blue
• Should be noted that this little one is sweeter than sugar itself.

These two should be considered especially dangerous when they are together.  They have been known to demand food and then refuse to eat it, destruct personal property, terrorize household pets, cause massive sleep deprivation for those around them during the night hours, and, most importantly, steal hearts.  

Yee-haw!  My little buddies had a rootin' tootin' time moseying around our neighborhood rounding up lots of candy on Halloween!  Cooper couldn't wait to get started trick-or-treating, and Jake was so happy to ride along in the wagon and pick out candy from his bucket.  Every time I looked at him, he was holding a different piece!  We weren't letting him open it, but he certainly tried.  I don't know how he knew that it was something yummy to get into, but he did!  Here are our pictures from a wonderful night!

 

Karl's 2014 Masterpiece

Little Cowboy ready to go

Jake was along for the ride

Happy Halloween!

Celebrating Our Little Pumpkin

I love first birthday parties, and I know and will admit that they are more for the parents than the babies, but the guest of honor is always so cute at a first birthday party!  There are so many accomplishments in that first year for both the little one and his/her parents, and in a way, it's like they're graduating from being that little baby to a big baby precious little pre-toddler!  

Jake made planning his first birthday so easy.  From the day I found out I was pregnant with him and counted nine months ahead, I knew we were having an October baby.  He was our little pumpkin from the very start, so what better way to celebrate his first birthday than with a pumpkin theme!  Out of all the parties I've planned (not that many honestly, but still enough for this statement to be somewhat meaningful), this was my favorite.  So, let's get going with the details!

First off, the invitation was adorable!  My friend Jesse made it for me.  You're going to have to take my word for the adorableness of it because I don't have a picture to post, but trust me when I say it was so cute!  The wording for it was "Load up the pumpkins and jump in the hay, it's time to celebrate Jake's first birthday!"

Now to the food...

I am kind of weird and like for my food to somewhat go along with the colors for the party, which were orange, green, and brown for this party (sounds pretty, huh?!).  I don't think I really even thought about the food colors going along with the theme this time until I'd already made the menu, strangely enough.  Karl and Cooper cleaned out the inside of two small/medium pumpkins for me to use as dip holders.  The first one had Ranch Dip (1 packet of Ranch dip mix and 16 oz of sour cream mixed together) in it, and we had celery and carrot sticks to go with it.  The other one had Pumpkin Fluff Dip in it, and we had cinnamon pita chips and green apples to go with it (I actually preferred the green apples with it, and I don't typically like green apples).  We also had a large chicken nugget tray from Chick Fil A, pretzels, and Cheez-Its to snack on.  For dessert, we had pumpkin-shaped cookies from Fresh Market and mini-pumpkin cupcakes with an orange cream cheese icing (which turned out really delicious, despite how odd it sounds; I tripled the icing recipe since I was piping it on the cupcakes).  To drink, we had juice boxes and sweet tea.  

Decorating with this theme was so easy and so fun.  Because of where I hung Jake's one year photo banner (a picture of him from each month this year), you can't see how cute it is, but once again, trust me.  I got pumpkin cut-outs from Hobby Lobby and strung them on thin twine.  Throw in small pumpkins, a couple hay stacks, and just the same ol' fall decorations I put out every year, and we were set!

We had the party from 11:00-12:30 on a Saturday, which is risky during football season.  Luckily the only game on that anyone cared about was the Georgia game, and we had that on the tv.  I was so proud of all the guys there because I didn't hear any grumbling about how this was taking away from their football day!  We opened presents while most of the children played on the deck or in the front yard.  Jake got some great little toys, but the little football he got was his definite favorite.  As I looked through pictures that night, I giggled at how he didn't let go of that football and wasn't interested in any other presents!

Everyone was already starting to nibble by the time we got done with gifts, so we moved on to the smash cake (the best part of a one year old party)!  I couldn't wait to see Jake's reaction because he has a major sweet tooth!  Cooper was hilarious with his smash cake and literally smashed his face right in when he realized he could eat it faster that way.  Jake, well, he didn't have that same reaction.

I learned that day that Jake doesn't like getting his hands dirty.  I made the mistake of kind of pushing his hand down in the icing some, and that really stressed him out.  He kept holding his hand out for me to clean.  And when I didn't, he started to cry.  The smash cake was a definite bust with Jake!

The part of the party I was most excited about was the hayride to our makeshift pumpkin patch!  Karl had borrowed a trailer from a friend and got hay to go around the edge for seating.  We got all the little ones and some parents loaded on, and Karl drove us around the neighborhood to the end of the street, which is just flat and grassy lots that haven't been built on yet.  We had put out pumpkins (smallish-medium sized) with Pumpkin Patch Pop-Rocks candy tied to the stems as the party favor.

When we got back to the house, everyone played and ate a little more.  It was such a fun day of celebrating out precious little pumpkin with so many wonderful friends.  It just warms your heart when everyone comes together to celebrate your child.

Donielle, Jennifer, and I lived together our senior year of college, and we all had a baby within the past year.  Actually, I had Jake in October, and then they both had their baby girls at the beginning of June, but it's still fun to have little ones close in age!