ZooBoo and Halloween Party

Saturday was Zoo Boo, and my original plan of dressing up like Wreck it Ralph characters kind of didn't happen because of life's craziness so we borrowed my old dinosaur costume that my Mom sewed for me when I was about Coopy's size. It was perfect because he has been super into dinosaurs lately and told everyone he was a "sthegastharus" (a little lispy stegosaurus) and seriously so darling!! We went out to my parents to get the costume before we went to the zoo and he was SO excited, especially about the feet and tail, he would stomp around and "rawr" and would say "look ah my dine-saur tail" he wasn't too happy about the green face paint but he got over it really quick.

The weather was gorgeous; the zoo had different booths set up, pumpkin bowling, lots of little crafts, and stops along the way where they would ask you a question for a piece of candy, these were really the only ones Coop was interested in. He loved the little spook alley they had set up around the tree house, the lady said before we went in that "it was a little scary and the fun crafts were up the stairs" Coop walked right passed the stairs and through the spook alley. When we were done he said "do it again" and we had to walk through no less than five times, he would hear the scary sounds they had playing and gasp and say "wha wuz that?!" we practically had to drag him to the next area. He loved looking at all the animals and frequently would say "hold you" because his costume was pretty heavy and he was getting tired quickly. We ended at the new bear exhibit and then headed back to the truck so we could get him home for a good nap. During his nap time Ry and I got to hang out, a very rare thing for a Saturday, it was really nice.

That night we went to my parents' friends' Halloween party and had a blast. Ry was a bum and wouldn't dress up as Edgar Allan Poe to match my raven costume, so we just dug through my parents costume box and got a werewolf costume for him. Coop fell asleep on the way out there and stayed asleep while I helped my mom do her makeup and hair for the party. We had yummy food, which I wish I would have taken a picture of, peanut butter monster fingers, bloody glass filled cupcakes, gauc-ghoul-mole and pumpkin chips (my contribution), weenies, meatballs, candy corn pudding cups and lots more. We played some fun games and Ry ended up leaving around 10:00PM to get Coop to bed and meet his brothers and cousin at our house for a round of Call of Duty before Tyler got set apart for his mission.

The next day we went to Tyler's farewell, he did a great job and is excited to head to the Mexico MTC and then to serve in Fortworth, Texas. I had to go do my primary music time and then went back to Ry's parents afterward and hung out with his family for a while. It was fun to see all of his family that came up from Arizona, we rarely get to see them and they are a blast to be with!

Checking out Mae Mae and Boppa's "big skelton" and other porch decorations and thoroughly enjoying being dressed as a stegosaurus.

Seriously, I could die of this cuteness!

My little buddy all ready for Zoo Boo!

Cheeks!

Looking at the black bears that were seriously smaller than Nana.

"Cruncheeeee leaves!!!"

Getting tired and needed Daddy to carry him.

Found some dirt to dig in, no surprise there.

Checking out the new grizzly bear exhibit, he was napping in the water so Coop got a pretty good view.

He was getting tired, as you can see from his little face, "hold you Daddy" so he did the rest of the way out.

My sweet little stegosaurus!

At the Halloween party, he wasn't too sure about Ry's werewolf costume, but he wasn't really scared of it, what have we done? He's so desensitized from all the spooky Halloween stuff, maybe it will be good in the long run, he won't be scared or have nightmares.

The mad hatter and queen of hearts, (Steve and Karen) so awesome!!

Spider woman and her pet spider, (Mom and Dad), clever.

My werewolf husband and my raven costume.

 

Gladiators, (Paige and Nathan) very cute!

And I don't know how I didn't get a picture of Kendra and Kyler, and then Marilyn and her husband didn't dress up, I told them were not worthy of a picture, I know so mean.

28 Months Old

28 Month Old Facts:

• You are talking more and more every single day and your sentences are getting longer and your language is amazing, people don't believe me when I tell them you are two.
• Some phrases you use frequently: "cant bleeve it" (cant believe it) "ah don't bleeve it" (I don't believe it" "Cooper don like..." (whatever it is) "mommy/daddy look!" "ooo so pritty" (so pretty" "come on" "come here" "come look" "mommy watch" (as you run up and down the hall fifty three times)
• You love counting things and have started counting passed 2, I would say you're pretty solid until 5 and then the numbers are all over.
• You love singing and sing "rock a bye Cooper" or "rock a bye Mommy" I just love it. You also sing a song from Ice Age, that says "we are family!" and you always are singing "we are, we are" it's so dang cute, we just love it. You still sing "happy birthday to you" and you also sing a Halloween song, "this is Halloween" and you just sing the part that says "Halloween Halloween Halloween" we love listening to you sing.
• I've found you in your room a few times just reading books to yourself, it's probably one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.
• When you hear someone laugh sometimes you will fake a laugh "hehehe" it's hilarious!
• You are obsessed, just like me, with anything Halloween, if you see anything that looks remotely Halloweenish you yell "howoheeeeen!" you also say "ghostez" for the plural of ghosts. You love going to Mae Mae and Boppa's to see "big skelton" (a big grim reaper they have) and you love looking at all of their Halloween decorations and having someone turn them on for you, and are always saying "do it again". When you see a witch you yell "wiiitch" and then I ask you what a witch says and you cackle like a witch "he hahaha" in a higher than normal voice and you are obsessed with "skeltons" and any skull or bones that's what you yell out in excitement. You love pumpkins, and whenever we drive by grocery stores with them you gasp and say "aw look momma punkins" in the most excited voice you can muster.
• You have a big cardboard box that we turned into a little playhouse in your play room and you are always hiding in there saying "hurry! hide daddy's coming" you still love hide and seek.
• You are always excited to show people or tell people about your "new bed" you'll hold their hand and go show them and then show how you climb in all by yourself. You have done incredibly well with the transition from your crib, you have just loved it.
• You are in love with crunchy leaves and when we walk through you do what I did when I was little (and even now) swerve to walk through them, and all the while saying "cruncheee leaves, crunchee crunchee".
• You loved having "baby Drake" here and still ask "baby Drake go home?" "where is he?" it was so sweet to see how you were with a baby.
• You constantly ask in a really loud voice "watch a moomeee" (a movie) you love to snuggle up with Momma and Daddy for movie night and you also ask every time, without fail "pawcorn with butter and salt" (popcorn).
• You are such an amazing little man and I feel like you are just soaring through your development and you don't even seem like a toddler anymore, you are growing too fast into a little boy! We love you more than anything in the world buddy!

Friends Came to Visit!

My bestfriend, Randi and her son, Drake, who I was SOOO excited to meet got to come visit us for a long weekend (they came Friday and flew out Tuesday night). I left my house around 10:20PM to pick them up from the airport and was pulling out of the drive way and saw some antlers in the yard so I stopped and walked out to them, it was a dead deer head in our yard, I about threw up, so I ran inside to tell Ry before I headed to the airport so he would take care of it.

As I got there they were walking out, it was so great to see Randi and Drake was so happy, I couldn't believe he was so happy that late at night, just drunk on sleepiness, he was so dang cute! When we got back home we stayed up pretty late talking and catching up. I only have a couple friends that even when I don't see them for a while, sometimes a long while, we can start right where we left off, and Randi is one of them.

Saturday we had a nice slow, relaxing morning which I think we were both happy to have. Then a little before 11:00AM we headed down to ISU for the Harry Potter Muggle Magic, which was perfect for us because Randi and I both love anything Harry Potter. We were glad we were there early because we were about the fourth group in and we got to move through all the booths at a good pace which was nice with the two littles. They had different rooms with things from Harry Potter that they incorporated with the museum displays, it was very cute. The boys even got to make wands, i'm sure Drake still has gold glitter in his hair from Coop tapping him on the head with his wand. After that we went to visit my parents and then grabbed some art supplies for our Christmas craft. The boys took a long nap and we watched an entire movie together before they woke up! We had El Herradero for dinner, it was delicious as always and the boys were great. We started a movie but were both too tired to finish it, or maybe I was just too tired.

Sunday morning we had pumpkin waffles and buttermilk syrup, my favorite lately, I could probably eat it every single day and not get sick of it. Since we have such late church we hung out all morning and finished our movie. It was only my second Sunday as primary chorister so I didn't feel like I could leave early, so Randi stayed all three hours with me while Ry "went home to make brownies" for dinner at my parents' house since he prides himself on being the dessert king. When Randi and I got home, Ry said he improvised the eggs, since we were out, with cornstarch (something he read online) and the brownies looked like boiling goop. He baked them forever and they looked horrible when they came out, they were sliding all over the pan and by the time we got home from my parents they were set up as hard as concrete, it literally took me a week to clean the pan. We had yummy homemade alfredo at my parents and my family loves Randi and were so excited to be able to hang out with baby Drake.

Monday we did some unsuccessful shopping, there wasn't much we liked, and it is Pocatello. We did our Christmas craft when the boys were napping, we did white canvases with gold glitter, they all turned out SO cute. When the boys woke up from their naps we went out to Swore Farms to play at the pumpkin patch. Coop was in heaven, there were tractors, pumpkins, hay bale mazes, animals, and lots of dirt to play in. My mom met us out there since she hasn't been able to go this year and she loves going there. The boys rode together in a wagon when we walked out to the patch to find some pumpkins. We picked out a few pumpkins to buy and then decided we should head home so we could catch sunset, since it was her last night and we had missed it all the previous nights. Luckily we made it and it was a pretty good one, there weren't many clouds so it didn't have much to reflect off.

Coop was obsessed with Drake, the second he got up from bed, nap or bedtime, he would say "don't like baby Drake sleep" and when Drake fell asleep in the car he would start yelling that over and over again and then starting growling "like a dinosaur" trying to wake him up. He would tell Drake to "come here" or "come on" and had a hard time understand that he couldn't exactly play cars and dinosaurs how Coop wanted him to, he was really sweet with him and we only had a few incidents, like Coop throwing a car at his head or "beeping him" (he pokes and says beep) such an annoying thing he picked up from one of his friends; but really for the most part he was very loving with Drake and it was super sweet to see him cuddle and love him.

Tuesday came too fast, but Randi had to get home because Chad was having back surgery the next day super early in the morning. We let the boys have a chill morning before we threw them in the car for the long haul. On the way down we stopped in Layton and ate at Kneaders, which never ceases to amaze, Coop had to have a ghost cookie with his lunch, and pretty much just licked the frosting off. After our yummy lunch we headed over to Hobby Lobby, my new favorite store, I could have spent hours in there, but that's not really in the cards with a baby and a toddler. Coop hadn't napped yet and on the way to Salt Lake both boys fell asleep so we decided to swing by a cookie shop Randi introduced me to called, Ruby Snap, we got way more cookies than we should have and tasted them all. We sat in the car for a bit at City Creek to let the boys get as much shut eye as possible before we yanked them from their car seats for a little more shopping. We got some fun things at H&M and stopped at a few other stores, we watched the water show and looked at the pretty leaves. Before we left we hit up the Disney store, Coop was in heaven because they had an entire cars section. He picked out a cars figurine set and it entertained him on the way home until he fell asleep. Randi got Drake a new toy for the plane ride home and I think both boys were very happy with their new toys. We got to the airport and said our goodbyes, I kissed cute Drakes face. We had a great time and Coop definitely had "baby Drake" withdrawals. 

I called Ry on my way home to have Coop's bed converted to a toddler bed because for about a week now he has been saying "don't like Cooper's bed" we think it's because he say his friend's big boy bed. Anyway, we were a little nervous to see how it went but he was SO excited and had a perfect transition.

On our way to the Muggle Magic with our two little Harry Potters, Coop giving Drake lots of love and waiting at the platform 9 3/4.

The singing lady asking for the secret password, the mermaids (they were a little odd), the gryffidor, and the boys' favorite the wand shop.

Swore farms, it was such a beautiful day and we had so much fun.

Out in the pumpkin patch...

We found a few perfect ones!

Pure joy!

Coop is going to miss this little nugget,

and I'm really going to miss him,

and his cute Mom!

Coop enjoying his ghost cookie.

It's almost impossible to have all four of us looking at the camera.

We will take three out of four.

It was a gorgeous day, a perfect fall day!

Disney store heaven!

He's pretty pumped!

My baby is growing up!!!

October: My Favorite Month

October has and always be my favorite months, not just because the obvious, Halloween, but I love the changing leaves, the crisp change in the air, and I love conference. I always put my Halloween décor up the day after Ry's birthday, although I don't have much now, it was up before September ended and Coop has been so excited with it up. He yells out "hoowwohhweeeen!" and he names the skeletons, rats, spiders, and witches "Mae Mae" it's so cute! He loves to peel the ghosts and graveyard window stickers off of his window, he has chewed half of them, and will say "look momma, ghostez" (how Coop says plural ghosts). He also loves to take my black birds off the table and play with them saying "tweet tweet" and making them hop around, the feathers are getting a little haggard from his playing with them. He had to have some birds and rats for decoration in his room and sometimes asks to sleep with the rat. I think it's safe to say that he has inherited my love for Halloween.

I absolutely loved every talk in conference, I got Coop to watch most of it (when he wasn't napping,)with me by making popcorn and having treats while we watched it. I got a few Halloween crafts finished while I watched conference. Ry got to watch a little bit of it but had to drive to Wyoming for work on Sunday, and was hustling a little too fast on the way home and got a ticket in Wyoming.

I went on a day shopping trip with my girlfriend Lauren, Nic watched the kids and Mareesa picked Coop up when she was done with class so he could go nap at home. We had a great time together and got some fun stuff, you forget how fun shopping without kids is until you do it for a few hours, so relaxing! It was nice to get home to snuggle Coop though, I do miss that little nugget when I'm away from him.

Our leaves have been breathtaking, I could wander around outside all day and stare at them. We had a couple friends come use our yard for pictures. My friend Kortni is starting a photography business so took some of Cooper and her son, Aiden. My girlfriend, Lauren and I started a children's clothing business selling new and gently used cute clothes, so we also took pictures while the leaves were beautiful and they turned out great. That night I had a little pampered chef party that was really fun, everyone got to cook and use all the pampered chef gadgets and we had some yummy food.

I got my hair trimmed for the first time since maybe May, and got a demi color put in it just for a little change. I've never dyed my hair so I was really nervous and kept going back and forth but I love it, it's really perfect for fall/winter. The day after that (Sunday) I got called as primary chorister, I was super nervous because I haven't been in primary since I was actually a child in primary, so I went and sat in the primary to watch the chorister that was moving to see kind of how it goes. That same Sunday we had our fast break Oktoberfest at my parent's and had yummy food and played the goblin game while the rest of the clan watched Halloween movies!

We had a Halloween bunco party at my house and we all had a blast! Everyone dressed up, we had delicious food, half the time we were all busting up laughing so hard we didn't even know what number we were rolling. Love those girls!

 

He loves playing in the backyard...

and digging in the dirt...

and exploring this.

I watched his friend Kolty and they had a blast having snacks (both love this time of day).

They played very hard inside and out.

They loved hiking around the backyard,

and playing in the leaves. They threw them all over so much that they hit dirt,

hence, Coop's dirty little face.

We took pictures back there for our business header.

I'm going to miss morning views like this when all the leaves fall.

We had sushi way more than we should have this month, we introduced Marcus to this tastey world for the first time and he loved it.

A few days were cold enough for this and I LOVE it!!

Coop loves to snuggle up by the fire and read his bedtime stories.

He found a dark blue permanent sharpie, and when I came back downstairs he said "look momma, preeety" to which all I could reply was "yes, Cooper so pretty" while inside I was boiling. He drew on a bin and said "look momma, a horsey" after he went down for a nap I searched the rest of the downstairs for anymore of his lovely artwork and found it on three different walls, by the stairs, in his playroom and up and down the hall. It was easy to remove from the office chair and the couches, the walls took a little more skill; thanks to hand sanitizer, magic erasers, hairspray and alcohol I finally got it off everything but a wicker box

Watching conference together eating his Halloween cotton candy.

I was getting my oil changed and he found a COOPER tire and was rolling it around their shop having the time of his life.

Lauren and I before our wonderful day of shopping.

Lunch at the Blue Lemon, deeeelicious!

 

Pounding this bean burrito.

I'm a red head

and I love it!

Playing the goblin game after our Oktoberfest feast!

They boys playing in the "crunchyyyy leaves" and having a ball!

Enjoying the last few beautiful days before the snow comes! How did this boy grow so fast, he's such a big boy!

My blast of a bunco group!!!