Sunday, January 31, 2010

The First Snow

The first snowfall that was large enough to walk around in boots was in November. The kids were excited to walk in it! Especially Cooper. Last year, he was still a baby in my arms.

They made tracks all around the yard. In the front, on the side, in the back. They would look behind them as they walked to see the tracks they were making.
Cooper learned about pockets that day! He was proud!!!!

Cousins Forever

In the beginning of November, we drove to Grammy's house for the weekend. Cadence and Cooper are ALWAYS excited to go there. They love Grammy and they love when the cousins are there. This trip was no exception. Some of the cousins showed up for a day of fun! First, we raked A LOT of leaves in the backyard and played in them.
The pile was over my head!!! We could have played hide-n-go-seek in the pile of leaves!!!

Next, the kids built a "marble machine" out of tinker toys. With Grammy's large bucket of marbles, the kids would put them in on one end and watch them come out the other. Hours of fun!!!

In the evening, we played at the park. Cooper was enthralled by the big drainage system grate.


The other kids joined him in looking down it for a while.
Besides playing on the playground, Rolling down the hills and getting dizzy was also a blast. They thought is was so fun to stand up and walk crazy!
Lastly, climbing in the trees was a first, but definitely not a last for Cadence. Cole and Syd climbed higher than Cadence and Cooper, but they loved it! Many modeling poses were taken of the gang!


Even Grammy got in on a few! Such cute kids!
Cousins will forever be loved by Cadence and Cooper!

I had to include this picture of Chris and Cadence taking a nap together! SO cute!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Babysitting FUN

I started "babysitting" Zander and Parx back in October so their mom could go to school. It was 2 hrs every morning. Now I am watching them 3 hrs, 3 times a week and 2 hrs the other 2 days.

They eat breakfast at our house. I make german pancakes on Friday which the kids all love. The other days it is usually either cold cereal or pancakes. All four kids get along really well. They play together nicely and have so much fun. Hide-n-seek is probably their favorite game. We attempt to work on letters and sounds of the alphabet to help all the kids learn. Sometimes, they would rather play games.
Cooper really likes the boys. He calls them by name, gives them hugs, and returns the toys/blankets they bring to our house before they walk out the door. Being able to watch them is a huge blessing. I get to earn a little money while I play with my kids. What a relief! I actually wish I watched them 4 hours a day!!!
We have lots of fun together. I'm grateful for this opportunity. Cadence loves having them come over every morning. Somedays, she doesn't want to go to pre-school because she wants to play with them!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Carving Pumpkins

This is the first year we have carved pumpkins. Before this year, paint was our friend. Here are two pumpkins the kids pumpkins at the Bergjso's party. The rain had smeared the paint on part of the pumpkins and we decided to carve these.
Cooper was becoming one with his pumpkin! What a sweet face!!!Cadence loved her pumpkin!!!
With the child-safe knives I bought from the dollar store, we went to work carving the pumpkins. Both Cooper and Cadence liked the ooey, gooey insides!!!
Cadence HAD to cut, cut, cut the pumpkin pieces!!! Look at that concentration - Her tongue is sticking out!
"This hole is really cool. I like to lift the lid on and off."
By far the most awesome part of the night was when we put a candle in the pumpkins and they became "jack-o-laterns." The kids eyes lit up with excitement. They loved shining the flashlight down the pumpkins and watching the face lite up. This continued for many nights!!!

The finished product! We will definitely be carving pumpkins every Halloween now!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Halloween

When I asked Cadence what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said a spider. I think she said this because I found a spider costume at a garage sale for $1 and we play "Little Miss Muffet" and other spider games in it. I gave her some other ideas of things she could be, but she insisted on being a spider. Easy!!! Cooper had been given a gorilla costume with some hand-me-downs when he was born and he was the cutest little gorilla ever. ( He keeps wanting to wear the coat and pants outside and I let him. Nothing wrong with having fun in life.)
Chris grew an afro and then had me cut it into a mohawk. He was... Mr. T!!!

"Don't mess with the fool!"
Our ward party was Halloween night and I hadn't bothered to find a costume this year. Cadence said I had to be something so I grabbed the same chicken head as last year and was the crazy chicken. Cadence wanted her face painted to have 8 eyes and be red like her costume. This is our family picture.

The kids enjoyed painting, fishing, playing games, eating junk and eating the chili and cornbread for dinner.This is a cute picture of Chris and Cadence.
After the party, we headed out trick-or-tricking. It was relatively warm. Cadence was exhausted after about 30 minutes. She rode in the stroller and almost fell asleep. Cooper was downing the candy as fast as he could. What a fun holiday!!!

It's Raining Leaves

After stake conference, we walked through the nature park that is just down the street from the stake center. This bridge crosses the Logan River and there were a ton of leaves on it. We gathered them in our arms. Threw them up in the air!!!!And it rained leaves. (Ok! So you notice I'm not in the picture below, but am in the top two pictures. My mom was with us and took the first two pictures. She didn't capture the leaves in the air, so Chris and the kids did it and I got a picture!)
The kids enjoys putting leaves in Chris' afro! He kind of looked like a horned devil.
They also loved pushing the leaves off the bridge into the river below and watching them float away.
Chris made it rain for leaves! They thought it was hilarious!

Have I mentioned how much fun the leaves are during fall?

Modeling With Hair Not Combed!

Some morning, Cadence still doesn't like to get her hair combed. I try to get it out of her face and we still play! This is a day like that, but we were having so much fun exploring (in the neighbor's yard) that we took pictures. Cadence was doing her modeling poses.
I actually got Cooper to look at the camera a few times!!!
These two have so much fun together - Now that Cooper is older and more able to be silly!!!
Of course, Cadence had to take some pictures!
She got this cute one of Cooper. Look at those big, dreamy eyes!Big sticks are one of the favorite toys of these two. They can play with sticks/swords for hours!
They also like jumping on the tramp with leaves!
I like this one of the three of us!