Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Our two little monsters racked up on Halloween goodies this year!
And that's a good thing for Mommy and Daddy. :)

Funny story - we stopped at a neighbors house down the road and apparently he didn't have any candy yet. Instead of just telling the kids he didn't have any candy, he ran to his kitchen and grabbed two root beers and two packs of pudding. Yeap, you totally read that right. I laughed so hard I was literally in tears. The kids thought it was awesome. I have no idea who he is, but he is my new hero. Of course, by the time we got back up the street, he had the door closed and the light off! Ha!!!

My kids are awesome!

Olivia made STRAIGHT A's!!!!! We are ssooo proud of her! Especially after the tough year she had last year, I couldn't have asked for a better teacher than Mrs Jenner! Thank you Mrs J for helping my daughter love school again!

Cooper also got a GREAT report! He doesn't get a report card but he did get an "assessment" sheet and did WONDERFUL. I can't even begin to tell you the difference in him from last year to this year. He has a few things he still needs to work on but that's ok and to be expected.

We are so proud of our kiddos!

Boo at the Zoo

Boo at the Zoo is AWESOME!!!!

Al and I took the kids over to Riverbanks Zoo yesterday evening for their very first Boo at the Zoo. We had the best time ever. They got lots of candy, goodies, we made s'mores, danced in a street party, and saw some of the cutest costumes EVER. We even ran into my friend Tommi Lynn and her kids. And the absolute BEST part? The kids were knocked out on the ride home - thank you Boo at the Zoo!!!

Can you find the kids? :)

Lugi and a giant spider.

Olivia aka Vampire Panda/Princess Peach. Oh, one of the Zoo workers actually recognized O's costume as Princess Peach. She was sooooo happy. Of course, nobody else had a clue....but no "I told you so" from Mommy. :)

Family photo!

Me and my two super heroes on our way to the zoo. Aren't they the cutest EVER? Yeah, I think so too.

Two people

These two beautiful, perfect, people were created (or invented as O would say)........

...by these two imperfect people! And with that, made us perfect for each other. :)

What is Daddy thinking?

This is how the kids look when Daddy is on duty. :) I find them to be super cute Rag-a-Muffins, don't you?

O's outfit is incomplete in this picture - she absolutely HAS to pick out her own clothes, and well, she has her own style. I'm a blue jeans, tee shirt kind of girl - O LOVES dresses, skirts, anything sparkly, etc. So she had picked out this outfit. I fought - told her it didn't match.....but in her little world, it was *perfect* - so I gave in and let her. She wore her new metallic pink cowboy boots too. She was rocking it out for sure! Hey, if she's happy, then it keeps all of us happy. :)

I'm pretty sure that's chocolate icing on Cooper's face - although I'm not sure where his other sock is....and come to think of it, I still haven't found it! I'm sure it'll turn up somewhere outside - Molly will find it for me! LOL

Monkey

How stinking cute is this cake I did tonight? ADORABLE! I sure hope Chance likes it on Saturday when he turns the big ONE years old. :)

10-10-10

Happy 10-10-10!!!!

Something about this day is making my kids act like wild monkeys though.

Sally Loves Joey

Have I mentioned lately that O has a wild imagination? Today she wanted to play pretend "Sisters" so she was my little sister, Bella and I was the older sister, Sally. Cooper wasn't really interested in our game so he didn't play. Ha ha! Al wasn't my husband - Sally is only 18 after all! - so he was my boyfriend Joey. And I was taking care of my little sister while our parents were on vacation for 2 weeks. This little game of O's lasted about 2 hours. NO LIE. My girl does not break character in the land of pretend.

Sally's declaration of love for her man, Joey (pronounced like JOOOOEEEYYY).

Bella

Those are new jeans folks - and now they are covered in dirt and side walk chalk. UGH.....little boys are killer!

Red 40 Update

I thought I'd give a quick update on how the whole Red 40 diet has been going.

It's been going WONDERFULLY!!!!! I can not believe how easy it is to actually purge this stuff from our diets - there's so many options out there, it's unreal. Of course, I can't keep Cooper from eating ALL foods with Red 40 in it, but I think we've done a great job at eliminating as much as we can. And believe it or not, most of the stuff I find isn't organic or any more expensive than what we normally eat.

Can we tell a difference? YES, YES, and YES!!! Even Cooper's teachers have told me how great he's doing this year in school. It just amazes me on what this kid is retaining these days - such a difference from last year. He started a hip hop class a few weeks ago too and I promise you - HE remembers more of what he's learned in class that day than Olivia does! Of course, I don't know if eliminating Red 40 has been the only thing that has helped our boy....the fact that he's a little older could be a factor too.

I definitely think we've done a job though - and I most definitely think my Lil' Man is reaping the benefits. Way to go Cooper!!!!