Crayons and Spraypaint

How much trouble can a 2 1/2 year old little boy honestly get into? Well....if that little boy happens to be our Cooper - LOTS! Cooper is a very sweet and loving child, but behind those beautiful baby blues and crooked grin lays a wild man! I don't know what Al and I are going to do when this kid gets older!

This is Cooper showing me where he colored on the wall in the living room. He was proud of his art work. Mom not so much.

In Cooper's defense here, I did tell Al to get the spray paint and put it up high enough so Cooper couldn't reach it. I had already took it from him a couple of times but he kept sneaking around me and kept getting it. Cooper saw a perfect opportunity when Al was distracted with Olivia and decided he wanted to paint himself. It took me a good 15 minutes of scrubbing with warm, soapy water to get this mess off him! You can't really tell it from this picture but his calf and all was COVERED.

Olivia is standing behind him here saying "Cooper, you put permanent paint on yourself, it'll never come off" and he was whining about it. How hard core does he look with it on his face though? LOL That was actually the easiest part to get off for some reason - thank goodness!

Wild man, I tell ya, he's a wild one!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I have had a GREAT Mother's Day - I am very thankful for my two beautiful babies and my awesome hubby!

Olivia's school has a Mother's Day program that 3K - 5K put on every year. The theme this year was something like "Under the Sea"....all the kids had to dress up as some sort of fish. Olivia, of course, had to be a mermaid. Luckily for me, she wasn't the only mermaid in the group! =) The kids did really well and Olivia was so excited to have me and her Daddy there. She wouldn't allow us to bring Cooper, or invite anyone else. I thought it was sweet though, she's looking out for her mom! Here's some pics from the program.

Me with my most favorite mermaid in the whole wide world. I even got her to *almost* smile!

Olivia walking by after the program so all the parents and visitors could see how the kids were dressed. She was walking pretty fast!

Olivia's class on stage. Notice she's sitting beside her BFF Raeva. Those two little girls love each other to death!

Olivia and her class getting ready for the program to start.

Al and the kids have really made this Mother's Day special for me. Olivia got me 3 wind chimes, Al got me a new picnic table, and then surprised me this morning with some hanging flowers for the porch. I love my family - even when those two kids drive me bonkers!

Have a great day to all my mommy friends!

Sluggers

Al's mom bought the cutest shirts for Al and Cooper - they say Lil Slugger and Big Slugger. How cute is that? =) Al hates that they match and didn't want to wear them out but I insisted and he gave in (after I made him feel guilty by saying Cooper would remember this one day and think his daddy didn't love him - ha) and I made them pose for this picture. Too stinking cute!

You can't really see the writing on the shirts from this picture. I still tease Al by calling him "Big Slugger" - ha!

This is just a really cute picture of Cooper Thomas! I guess I take A LOT of pictures of the kids because now he will say "cheese" and try to smile. =)

Olivia - the only girl Slugger in the family - this was at her last softball game. She did really well, hit the ball TWICE! She got out both times though because she doesn't run right away when she hits the ball. It's very funny.

Coach trying to help Olivia get ready to hit. The helmets are way too BIG for Olivia and when she moves her head, the helmet falls down in her eyes. Poor kid! Olivia loves Coach though, when you ask her who her friends are on her team, she always says COACH!

Before and After

Al's truck has needed a new paint job since we bought it. I was going to surprise him for his birthday, but we found a guy that would paint it for a lot less than where I had planned on taking it, so I went ahead and took the money I saved up to paint his truck. The first picture is the "before paint job" - the pin stripe was torn off in places, etc. The second picture is the "after paint job" - we opted for no pin stripe and painted the area over the tires (whatever that is called) white like the rest of the truck - Al wanted it that way because the newer Rangers are painted that way. Of course, Al already has bought some new FX stickers to put back on the rear area and we still need to install the bed liner and the tool box. We are STOKED though....it looks great!

Before
After

"Mama Wuvs Me"

At the mexican restaurant in Hartsville on Sunday Cooper hugged me and said "Mama wuvs me, Mama wuvs me" and planted a big ole kiss on my check. He is sssoooo sweet and loving! My kids ROCK.

You can't really tell from this pic, but Cooper was climbing up the wall at the skating rink on Saturday afternoon.
Olivia and Cooper were invited to Landon's birthday party on Saturday at the skating rink and Cooper actually got on skates and "walked" around for a little while.

And you know what? Cooper has been accident free for almost a week! Go Cooper!

My Sweet Kiddos

My kids look out for their Mommy. =) Nana took Olivia to Wal-Mart the other day and Olivia INSISTED that Nana buy me not one, but THREE different colored wind chimes. It really was a nice gesture - I just don't think Nana wanted to buy THREE. Ha! Here are some pictures of them....one is a nice multi-colored one, one is pink (of course one had to be if Olivia is alive and breathing) and the last one is purple. =) Oh, and I was supposed to get these on Mother's Day but since Olivia can't keep a secret to save her life, she told me what she and Nana had bought me on Friday so Nana went ahead and let me take them home! =)

Pretty isn't it? =)
Here is the pink and purple one.....Olivia insisted that I needed a purple one too because and I quote "Purple is my Mommy's favorite color" - awwwww!!!!

Should I also mention that I already had two wind chimes on my porch so now I have FIVE wind chimes on hanging on my porch....we're going to be known as the crazy people in the neighborhood with all the wind chimes....LOL!

Gone Fishing.....Be back later

Olivia has wanted to go fishing for awhile now. I'm not sure where the whole fishing desire has come from, but she's been nagging us to go FOREVER. So, Michele invited us to come fishing at her parents house this morning. Olivia was ssssoooo excited and I think they had a really good time. Of course, they made me *extremely* nervous getting near the edge of the water. And to my happiness, no kids fell in the water BUT (not to my happiness!) my really nice Canon digital camera fell right in the water. UGH!!! So, I got an early Mother's Day gift and went and got me another. And to my daughter's delight - it's pink and we love it. =) Here are the pictures I managed to save on my memory card.....

Olivia, Cooper and Hunter ......Hunter was giving them a quick lesson on how to fish.
Olivia with her own fishing pole......
Michele trying to help Cooper fish.....notice how Olivia looks like a pro! =)
She caught a fish!!! One of only two that were caught while we were there!!! Go Olivia!
Daddy and Cooper fishing. Cooper was scared of the fish and would point and say "eeeewww". LOL

We had a blast - thanks Michele for having us! We definitely plan on taking the kids back over there (maybe later in the evening when it's not ssssooo hot) and catch enough fish to have a big, nice fish fry!

Roars.....

Cooper is so funny. You don't have to be around him long to realize that he's a little clown and loves to make people laugh. He's definitely more laid back than his Sissy. Cooper LOVES dinosaurs - the more he has, the better - but he calls them "roars" instead of dinosaurs. It's very cute! Especially when he deepens his voice and says "RRROOOAAAARRRR" - I have to get it on video and upload it for everyone to see.

Discovery Kids

Olivia and Cooper LOVE this cartoon, "Grossology" that comes on the Discovery Kids channel. And yeah, the concept of the cartoon is about GROSS things. Ha! For example, the episode tonight is about Abby having IBS (which I think Michele will find hilarious when she reads this since she knows me) so now Olivia is asking me to look up IBS on the computer (how does she know you can do that?) so I can tell her about it. Hmmmm.....no thanks Baby Girl!

Seriously, this cartoon grosses me out. Pun intended. =)

http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/grossology/grossology.html

Trip to the Beach

I had a bad day Thursday.....I mean, a REALLY, REALLY bad day so I decided Friday afternoon that I wanted to go to the beach and have a nice, fun weekend to get me out of my funk. And it WORKED. Al and I had ssssooo much fun with the kids this weekend. We left on Saturday afternoon and went down to the beach and stayed at the Landmark Restort on the Blvd. It's an older hotel, but it has tons of indoor pool things for the kids to do. We walked down on the beach a few times, but the water was ssssoooo cold that we spent 99% of the time in the hotel pools. Olivia and Cooper LOVE the beach and really didn't want to leave!

I'm glad we went down - it really put things back into perspective for me.....things go wrong, but there's always someone out there in worst shape than you. So my advice - I highly recommend BEACH THERAPY. =) It worked for me. Ha! Here's some pictures from the weekend.

Olivia on the beach - she was so happy to be there....she now says she wants to live at the beach this summer. Uh oh!

I LOVE this pic of Olivia.....

Olivia insisted on sitting in the elevator......every single time we went on it. Which was a lot and trust me, it got annoying when Cooper started doing it too. LOL

Cooper in the lazy river with Daddy. He loved the water just as much as his Sissy.

Cooper aka Beach Baby 2008

Olivia playing with Daddy in the pool at the hotel.

Olivia in the lazy river.

My three favorite people in the whole wide world......

My two beach bums......

Cooper and Daddy playing in the pool.

Cooper kept getting out the pool to dry off and then would jump back in the pool....don't ask, I have no idea!

It was a really nice quick trip - our friends Michele and Chris came down with their crew too so it was a lot of fun. I wish we had went down on Friday night and stayed longer! We don't normally do trips like this, but it was well worth it! I definitely want to do it again SOON!

Bragging Post.....

And I sure hope I don't jinx things but Cooper is doing WONDERFULLY with potty training! He had NO accidents yesterday! He still hasn't gone more than a day or two without accidents, but he's so close. He's pretty much averaging one accident a day now. =) Al and I are sssooo proud of our little guy!

Makes me want to run up to the doctor's office and tell that good-for-nothing-young-newbie doctor "Ha, in your face! I told you there was nothing wrong with my son!" =)

Skating and the Park

Wow what a day we've had! We got up bright and early and went to Shoney's for breakfast. Man, that place was CROWDED, but the buffet was good. Then, we headed out to Lawton Park to let the kids play. Lawton Park was just renovated and it looks sssooo nice - new playground equipment, a new deck overlooking Prestwood Lake and the Big White House was remodeled as well. I've been waiting for it to be re-opened to let the kids play out there. I use to love going there as a kid. =)

Cooper in deep thought on the swings.

Olivia swinging on the "big kids" swings. =)

Cooper loved the slide!

Olivia loved the slide too!

Cooper enjoyed the new pier too. He cried when I told him we needed to leave. He made me nervous though, I had to keep telling him to stop running on the pier!

Olivia's friend at school, Tiffany, had a skating party the other weekend. Olivia had SO MUCH fun. She told me and Al that she wants her party there next year. Geez, didn't she JUST have a birthday party? =)

She insisted that Al walk beside her to keep her from falling.

Cooper even put skates on - he didn't care for them too much though. He preferred the "turtle" thingies there that he could roll around on.

It took her a few minutes but she got the hang of it pretty quick.

Olivia and Daddy on the pier at Prestwood. Isn't it a sweet pic? =)

Right now my babies are in the bath and have been outside playing all day long.....they should sleep really good tonight. =)

The things she says.....

You only have to use a word once for Olivia Grace to pick up on it!

Apparently Mrs. Chure has told Olivia that she is "impulsive" at times because the other night when Olivia and I were making *Mrs. Chure* (notice how it's not Mommy!) a necklace out of a bead set she got for her birthday, she blurted out "Mommy, you sure are impulsive tonight!" I WISH I had the memory on me that this kid has! She remembers things that happened a year or longer ago....she forgets NOTHING. Which usually ends up biting me in the butt. =) BTW, I was ssssooo not being impulsive....she just wanted to show off a new word. Ha!

Oh, and she insisted that I post this pic on the blog so everyone out there can see that was indeed a Queen for a day! So here you go Olivia!

In Cooper news - he is doing very well with potty training. He's in undies at the daycare now and has very few accidents. Al and I are very proud of our little guy! I think in a few more weeks, he'll really have the hang of it. Potty training this kid has definitely been an experience. Boys are definitely harder in my opinion!

The weather is warming up and we're spending a ton of time outside so hopefully I'll have some cute pictures to post soon!

Guilty Pleasures

What really defines a guilty pleasure? Something that makes you happy and you don't always want to admit it? I have a few of those! =)

Guilty Pleasure #1

I LOVE Olivia and Cooper's Laurie B. (I can't think of her last name) CD. The songs are so catchy and upbeat that I find myself jamming out to them in the minivan. =) Our favorite song to sing is "Who's That" - if you have kids, I highly recommend any of her CD's.

Guilty Pleasure #2

I know my son and daughter should be sleeping alone, but I LOVE that I get to cuddle with Cooper at night. He's my baby and I just want to hold on to that just a little longer. I love how Olivia wants her Daddy to sleep with her until she falls asleep at night too. I think it's ssssooo sweet. It's probably a bad habit that we've started but hey, they are only kids ONCE.

Guilty Pleasure #3

Someone has to eat that one chicken nugget left right? I mean, we shouldn't let food go to waste now should we? =)

Guilty Pleasure #4

Dressing Olivia up in girlie, foo-foo clothes and putting giant, twirly bows in her hair. Even if they don't stay in there very long! =)

I'm sure I have more, but those are my top ones. Oh, and here's a random thought. Have you ever noticed that no matter what time of day it is, you will ALWAYS find a re-run of America's Funniest Home Videos on some channel?

Too Cute Not to Share....

I just wanted to share these pics....they are cute and you know I love to show off my cute kids. =)

Poppy and Cooper at FunDayGo. He wanted Poppy to get in and jump ssssssooo bad.

Olivia and her new ink. Oh yeah, she's hard core baby. =)

When I grow up....

I love asking little kids what they are going to be when they grow up - you never know what kind of answer you will get. Especially when that kid is one of mine. =)

Yesterday when Nana picked Olivia up from THA they had this conversation:

O: What do you do?

Nana: I'm a nurse.

O: Why?

Nana: Because I wanted too.

*O in deep thought and a few minutes pass*

Nana: What do you want to be when you grow up?

O: Mermaid!

Nana said it was so funny because Olivia didn't miss a beat. She said she tried to explain to Olivia that mermaid weren't real but Olivia just doesn't believe her because she sees Ariel on TV all the time. =)

Oh, and someone tell me that potty training will get easier!!!

Words to Live By

My friend Beth posted a few days what her philosophy on life was and tagged a few of her friends to give theirs. I wasn't one of those peeps *mean look in Beth's direction* but I'll give mine anyways. =)

Life is how you live it.

I came to conclusion a long time ago that I wasn't going to try to have the biggest house, the newest car, and all the top of the line gadgets. Al and I live in a comfy, modest home, have decent cars (although Al's is borderline on the decent scale these days), great jobs, and two happy, healthy kids. We may not be rich, but the memories we make with our kids (even the ones we DON'T want to make like dinner at Pizza Hut when both kids are on the verge of having spontaneous meltdowns) that make us fill like the richest people in the world!!!!

Ok, so let me hear yours. =)