Valentine's Day

I took the morning of Valentine's off so that I could go to Madison's school party. I NEVER get to take the kids to school in the morning so it was fun to be home with them, get them ready, feed them breakfast and then take them to school. Although, I admit...I DID NOT like taking Cooper to daycare. He looked so sad at the fact that I was leaving him. I'm glad I don't have to witness that everyday.


Before we left, I tried to get a few pictures of the kids. None of them turned out great. This was the best I could get.

Madison's party was fun. They played several games and ate lots of food!



one of the games was musical chairs and each child had to have a parent play with them. Trent let me play :)



Matt's dad is a football coach and they go to our church so Matt and Madison are around each other a lot!



These are the gifts our sweet babies made us for Valentines Day:

Cooper brought this home from daycare


He brought this home from church


Madison made this for us at school!

Trent and I celebrated this past weekend. The kids spent the night with his parents and we went out to eat and to a movie! The next morning we slept until 8:00 and felt like we had slept in :) We watched a movie (at home) and then had lunch before going to get the kids. It was nice to just be together. It's not often that we leave our kids. I can probably count the times. But, I will have to admit, it's nice to do it every once in awhile!

A Valentine package...

A Valentine package arrived for the kids a few days before Valentines. It was from their Grammy and Papa.

Everyone (including the two dogs) was curious as to what was inside...

They got shirts, nail polish and nail stickers, paper airplanes, movies, candy and fudge! (I have no idea what's all over Madison's face. We had just gotten home from school)


They started eating the fudge right away and Madison didn't stop talking about her polish and flower stickers until I finally painted her nails and put the flowers on. I think Grammy has started something now. :)

Thanks Grammy and Papa. You made two kids very happy!!

The snow days come to an end...

with a BIG mess!

Madison and Cooper had gone into her room to play on Saturday afternoon. The door was shut but they shut it a lot so I didn't think much of it. After awhile I decided I should just go check on them. This was the mess I found. She was tearing her boa apart and throwing the feathers in the air. Cooper was loving it. He was picking them up and throwing them too! Who knew a boa could be so fun?!? Apparently when you tear it apart it's tons of fun. Since it was already a mess I just let them continue. They played for several more minutes before deciding they were finished with that!

She had been playing dress up and was in between outfits, that's why she's naked. He is still in his pajamas. Don't judge us. We pretty much never got out of our pajamas this week! :)

Later that day they went down for their naps. Cooper woke up before Madison did so we enjoyed a snack together at their table!


We sure did enjoy our days at home. It's back to reality tomorrow! :(

Mr. Personality

Our little boy is growing up so fast! He's definitely not a baby anymore. I haven't blogged about him since before his 1st birthday. He has grown so much since then. He is definitely Mr. Personality. He's not shy! He's a HUGE music lover. He loves to dance. If music is playing he is moving. He loves, loves, loves his sister. He also loves to hit his sister. He just recently starting going to time out for hitting. He did surprisingly well. The first time, he tried to get up once but then sat the remainder of the time. I think he's been back twice since then and just sits there. It's almost like he doesn't care, which is a little scary. :) He's got a tender heart. He gets his feelings hurt really easily. He still loves all things with wheels. He can throw a ball...hard! He loves to read. Animal books are his favorite. He can understand almost everything we say to him. He's a climber and a jumper. We have to keep a close eye on him.
He climbed to the top of our swing set by going up the slide at 13 months. There went the days of letting the kids go play out back by themselves while I cooked dinner.
At 14 months he could say mama, dada, thank you, i love you, and Ma (Madison). At 15 months: He knew sign language: please, thank you, eat and more. He didn't naturally use them. He naturally whined. :) He was wearing 18 month clothes. He LOVED Christmas lights. He especially loved the blow up decorations. He would literally yell in excitement at them. He recognizes songs from TV shows he watches. He has been doing this for a long time. He would pop up to the Barney song when he was only a few weeks old. It was scary. He copies things we do. Claps. Moos like a cow and barks like a dog. He does an elephant impression and makes a sound to go along with it. He had almost all of his teeth but has 2 more coming in. His mouth is full!
AT 16 months: This is when his personality started shinning through. He 'talks' a lot more. He will come up to me a say what sounds like several sentences and it's all gibber gabber. He'll know what he's saying. He'll point and have me follow him to whatever he wants. He says Ra-co (Rosco). He calls for him a lot. It's cute. He copies a lot of words we say. He doesn't always say them correctly but they have the correct sounds. HE'S A LIPSYNCER. It's hilarious. When the kids songs are on in the car he moves his mouth and pretends to be singing with us. It might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. He throws fits. He loves riding in his sisters gator. He colors on everything--walls, furniture, booths at restaurants. We aren't used to this. His sister was little miss perfect. He moves chairs all around the house to crawl onto things. He makes bunny sound and growls now. He loves to be outside. He doesn't like for his hands to be dirty while he's eating. It's actually quiet ridiculous how many times I have to wipe his hands off. He doesn't like to sit in highchairs at restaurants anymore. We have to ask for a booth so he can stand next to us. He makes silly faces all the time. He gives hugs and they are oh so sweet! There is nothing better than having his little arms wrapped around my neck.
He's a super happy baby as long as he has his sleep. If he's tired, he's pretty miserable. He's learning to share. He loves his sister and his dogs. He gets easily frustrated and screams (when a toy gets stuck etc). He LOVES his bear blanket. He carries it everywhere. Trent calls him Linus. He minds really well (most of the time). He's a very special boy. He brings so much joy and laughter to our family. We love you sweet boy! I can't believe we are so close to the year and a half mark!

Trouble

This little man got a hold of his sister's markers. Apparently the blue one looked tasty.

He was ticked when his Daddy took it away from him!

Snow Days 2011

We have thoroughly enjoyed our snow days at home together. It's been nice to be forced to slow down and spend quality time together at home. It seems like life has us on the go the majority of the time. The snow/ice allowed us to stay home and be together. When your the parents of toddlers your snow days are not spent relaxing on the couch. They are spent playing Candy Land & chutes and ladders, watching Fresh Beats, having tea parties, coloring, teaching a 3 year old and a 1 year old how to share, dancing, listening to giggles from the bedroom, and cuddling on the couch. I wouldn't have it any other way!

one day Madison decided we all needed stickers and we needed them all over us!


Trent was reading his Bible one night so Madison went and got her two Bibles to read with him. It was so cute.


Trent had a doctor's appointment on Thursday afternoon. While he was gone Madison asked if she could paint. I told her that she had to wait until her Dad got home because I needed him to help with Cooper. She crawled up into the chair to wait on him and she ended up falling asleep.


My sweet, sweet boy!


Trent ended up being gone for almost 5 hours so I let her paint when she woke up. BIG MISTAKE. I pulled up a chair for Cooper to watch and he did so for a minute. Then he was grabbing paint brushes, touching her picture, she was touching her picture and moving her hair back, he had paint on his head and his feet, she had paint on her hands, head and face. It was a mess! I WAS STRESSED. There will be no more painting while I'm alone, unless Cooper is down for a nap. :) When Trent got home we decided to take the kids to McDonalds to eat dinner and to let them play. It was nice to get out for a little bit.

Friday we finally let them out to play in the snow. It was the first day that you didn't feel like you were going to get frost bite the minute you stepped outside. Madison was so excited. Cooper thought he was until the was out in it. It took him awhile to warm up to the idea. He had a hard time walking in the snow and the back patio was still mostly ice. After awhile he finally warmed up and had a good time.



He did not want her holding his hand but it was the only way I could get him to stay still for a picture.


She's ready for a snowball fight and he slipped on the ice. He was not happy about it.


snow ball fights!




She jumped on her trampoline for a little bit


Her and Trent decided to run through the snow and slide into it! Too bad I don't have a picture of Trent doing it.



Then she slid down the slide and brought all the snow down with her.






He loved watching all the action from the swing!


And this is what happens when we all came inside!