The Park

Ok-this post is going to be short and sweet.  I have to be up in less than 5 hours to catch a flight with 2 kids...and a husband, thank God.  

The fall weather has been fabulous!  We have been spending lots of time on walks and playing outside.  Adam recently aerated (?) and reseeded the backyard so our playset has been off limits, leading us to the park most days.  

 I sent Adam this picture and his text back had me laughing out loud.  It said, "I see that the one shoe wonder and the colorful sock kid are having a blast."  so true.

While playing here, a little girl joined us.  Cooper says to her, "this is my sister.  she's a baby so be sweet to her."  I mean really, sweetest thing that has come out of his mouth in a while.  I had to write it down to remember and remind him when they are tearing each other's hair out :).

A Day with Dad

Cooper has reached that independent age where he can hang with the big boys!  Last week he and Adam spent a day with a friend out at his land.  The goal of the day was to pull up some tree stumps across the land and have a little fun.  Cooper was ecstatic to go!  We packed him lots of snacks, a couple movies, his blankie for naptime in the back of my car, a few toys and his own chair to rest and watch the big guys. 

They were gone all day, 9-7.  Cooper walked in the door with a huge smile and was so excited to tell me all about it.  He got to drive my car, run all over, watch the guys pull trees out of the ground with a jeep, go fishing, ride in a paddleboat, watch a movie in the car, and even take a nap in the car! 

 Life on the land...no seatbelts :)

 Love this and imagining what those 2 were discussing out there.

What did Laney and I do all day?  The gym, cleaning, lots of shopping...I am on a hunt for the perfect royal blue skinny jeans...need them for KU basketball season!  Any ideas for me?  Adam said this is probably our future, the boys doing their thing and us girls doing ours.  I said, hello, have you met our daughter?  My bet is she is going to be right out there with those boys, leaving her mother with some occasional peace and quiet.   :)

Western Day

Cooper couldn't have been more excited about western day at preschool, especially since he loves to wear his cowboy boots now.  

 Ok-not so much cowboy, more like disheveled hillbilly.  I really can't believe I sent him to school looking like this.

 If this picture doesn't exude happiness, I don't know what does!

 So happy!

 The Penguin class, minus a few.  All the girls looked so super cute!

 Laney was impressed and in her stroller...again.

 Literally running after the goats to pet them and then...

 kiss them.  He was just loving all the animals.

 I love that they let the kids use brushes, Cooper totally felt like he was doing a real job :).

See last year's Western Day, here. 

Pumpkin Patch - round 1

The kids and I headed to a pumpkin patch with our playgroup last week.  When we left the house it was warm and overcast...30 minutes later at the pumpkin patch it was chilly, windy and misted the entire time we were there!  Total bummer especially since I don't really deal with the cold, my kids were not bothered one bit-I was counting down the minutes until we could leave :).  

I adore this pumpkin patch, it's the same one we visited last year.  You can see it here.  I can.not.believe  how tiny my babies were.  Cooper looks so petite and babyish and Laney with that irrestible hair standing straight up!

 Ugh, that dang cheesy smile.

 Super excited to see Scooby Doo but the most excited to see Spiderman on the hayride.

 Giving her funny face-as usual.  

 A miracle-a picture of them together, both looking and kind of smiling!!!

 I had to bribe him off the bounce house with a trip to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  

Doodles just taking it all in, enjoying some Goldfish.

Crazy Doodles!

This girl most definitely keeps us on our toes...

 Yep, my gate plan has been foiled.  This was one night while I was trying to make dinner.

 She's becoming so advanced that she does puzzles with her eyes closed.

 She loves to climb!  Here she was wanting on the bed and I wouldn't put her up...she was determined.

 The park and its slides are her favorite.  She goes up and down, repeat.

 That hair kind of matches her personality.

 She has never been a paci or thumb baby.  This day she was totally digging her baby's paci.

 Oh the funny face...

Oh my gosh Laney Faith Jones, we love you so.  It's so fun to watch you grow into your personality!

Smile Fridays - week 20

20 weeks of Smile Fridays??!!  It all started here.  

On a side note, can you believe it is the middle of October??  I swear time is going by faster and faster!

 

Adam's mom gave me this wallet for Christmas at least 7 years ago.  How do I remember?  See that KU sticker?  I put it on at the Final Four in San Antonio in 2008.  I have loved it and it clearly has served me well.  However, it was time to move on...

The only real reason I changed was because of the new wallets Stella and Dot debuted this month.  I just couldn't resist!  I love the snakeskin, the hot pink piping, the hot pink inside and the set up inside.  See more details on it, here.  

Yum!  I stumbled upon an old recipe from a good friend-it's her Grandma's homemade frozen fruit cups!  So good, easy and perfect snacks for the kids.  And yes, I tried all new recipes this week but I can't really remember them, so clearly they aren't worth making again.  Oh yeah, I did make these stuffed peppers  I found on Pinterest.  Doodles and I loved them, the boys did not.

Tonight marked the beginning of Kansas Basketball 2012-2013-it was Late Night in the Phog.  I have the best memories going there with my Dad back when practice actually started at midnight.  Man, oh man, I hope someday I can take my kids to create the same memories.  Maybe we will even let Grandpa join us :).

 Oh Uncle Bill, we can't wait to see the team you have put together for this season.  Uncle Bill just got an awesome award, see it here.  And yes, we only refer to him as Uncle Bill in this house :).

This really makes me smile but my smile fades a little when I realize I graduated almost 10 years ago!!  What?  Surely not...it feels like yesterday.  All this basketball talk has me thinking I need to go research where I am going to watch them play this year...that is besides the Final Four...we already have our tickets to that...Hotlanta 2013!!!!!!

Oktoberfest 2012

Last Friday night we headed out to Southlake Town Square for their Oktoberfest.  We took the kids so we basically spent all of our time in the kids zone but Adam made a run to the beer tent for us :).  It was a beautiful day but in the couple hours we were there it dropped over 15 degrees and got cold!! Ok-not really cold, but it was a drastic change from when we arrived.  

 This kid was loving the bounce houses.  This is a big step for him.  In the past he has had zero desire to play on these things.  Here, he was in heaven!  Like those long socks??  Yep, he was rocking his cowboy boots with those shorts :).

 This was an obstacle course and he probably did it over 30 times.  As soon as he came down the slide, he ran past us smiling and got right back in line.  Do you see him staring at the girl volunteer overseeing  things?  He would stare at her everytime he was climbing up until she watched him...creeper!

 We pried him off the obstacle course and he begged for this ride before we left.

 And this is where Laney sat the whole time :(.  I hate this.  I feel so bad for her, just stuck watching.  Definitely a downside to not walking.  There were so many people there, I couldn't just let her out to crawl around.  I kept her entertained with food and she kind of liked watching the kids.