Christmas 2010

We started Christmas Eve early in the morning making pancakes with grandpa Doug. Cooper was so excited to wear his new apron.

We lounged around most of the day. While Cooper and Maylea were taking a nap Santa found his way to grandma's house. Cooper was so excited to look and see what Santa left him in his stocking. Grandma let him open them, but we had to wait for everything else until Uncle Luke got off work.

I tried to get a picture of Maylea and Aunt Cori, but the were busy snacking :)

I did however, get a good one of Uncle Luke, Cooper, and Leni.

Opening presents from Aunt Cori, Uncle Luke, and Leni.

Maylea opening her chair and ottoman.

That night after the children's program at dad's church, we packed up and headed home. We had to be there in the morning to see what Santa was going to bring the kids. I think both of them were very satisfied with what they got.

Opening their first present of the day from Aunt Cori, Uncle Luke, and Leni. Then I have a video of Cooper opening his new "travel bag" from grandma and grandpa. I wouldn't have put this video on here except for that I loved Cooper's reaction to what it was.

This last video is when Cooper wakes up and sees what Santa has left for him. We actually had to send Maylea in to wake him up. We were all in the living room waiting for him. PLEASE EXCUSE the messy house....I am by no means a good house keeper, however, this time we had just gotten home at 10:30 the night before, dropped everything in the living room just to turn around and repack it again!

Dancing Snowman

You may remember Cooper dancing with the snowman a year or so ago....I still find him funny! Grandma Gayle has 4 or 5 Christmas decorations similar to this one. He likes to push them all and drive us nuts.

Maylea's 1st haircut

On Saturday (Dec. 18th), Joshua, Cooper, and myself all went in to get our hair cut/colored before the holidays. While we were there Evy, hair dresser, said, "oh, we need to cut off her little ends and even the hair out. It will look like a cute little bob."

Joshua and I had no problem with this if she was willing to squeeze her in. I told Evy that if she was going to fight getting in the chair we would just forget it, but lets give it a shot. Maylea, unlike my son, has stranger anxiety. She does not do very well around "new" people.

I tried to get a before picture of her hair, but you can hardly see the thin ends hanging down (Maylea hates the camera). Much to our surprise when we asked Maylea if she wanted to get her hair cut she started clapping, ran straight to the chair and climbed right in!!!! She did awesome....and her hair now is a cute little bob cut. Her hair looks so much fuller now....I hope it contiunes to grow.

Love it!!!!

Halloween 2010

Around 6:30 Sunday night we meet up with some friends and let the kids ride around town on a "hay rack ride". We would drop them off at one end of a well lit street (meaning lots of porch lights on) and pick them up at the end. Cooper had a blast and did a great job keeping up with the "big kids". We will have to practice a little with him for next year because SO many times he was hopping off the trailer without his pumpkin bag. I would have to remind him to take it with him....he was just too excited. Another time he was running back to get on and he didn't have it. I hollered at him and he had to run back up to the porch and get it. Doesn't he know that's got all his candy in it???? Why on earth would he even think about putting it down? Maylea hit 1 out of every 5 houses with the kids. As long as she was getting off that trailer with all the other kids she didn't care. She was MAD if all the other kids got off and we didn't.

One house down the street from us goes ALL out every Halloween. They even do a little haunted house in their basement. Many of the kids wanted to go through it. Cooper was all excited to go until it got closer to his turn, then he decided it was scary. Maylea and I hung out in the "grave yard" while we waited for the other kids. Someone walked over to us (kinda creeped me out at first) when I realized it was my niece, Claire. Surprisingly with all the stuff around Maylea did not get scared.

We did request to make one stop at grandma Pat's and grandpa's house. We didn't get there earlier in the evening so we stopped with the trailer. All the kids hopped off and hit another house first, so we had Maylea go up "by herself". When Pat opened the door, Maylea walked right in and straight to the candy bowl. Cooper and his friends we close behind!!!!

For the last 2 weeks, we have randomly had to drive by grandma and grandpa's house to see if grandma Pat had her ghost out yet. I knew that she didn't put it out until Halloween night, but Cooper kept wanting to look for it. He was SOOOO excited when it was out last night. We take a picture next to it every year. This year I had a hard time getting Cooper to stand still long enough b/c all his friends were piling into his grandma's house and getting candy without him.

Pumpkin Patch

Joshua had been gone on another road trip and this time it was HARD to have him gone. It made for a LONG week for the kids and myself. Not exactly sure what was so different this time, but it was. While on the phone with Joshua, I had told him that when he got home we were doing something as a family. It was a beautiful day outside and so the pumpkin patch it was!!!!

Cooper was so funny. He ran from pumpkin to pumpkin saying, "oooohhhh mommy, this one looks good" and then he was off to another one. Maylea on the other hand was content in the wagon.

We did get her out to pick a pumpkin of her own, but as soon as she felt the stem poke her, she was done with that and back to the waggon she went.

This is my FAVORITE!!!!!

We let the kids play for a little while before we went home.

Trunk or Treat - Oct. 30th

While we were in Wichita for the weekend mom wanted to take the kids to dad's church for their "Truck or Treat". We went to Windfield to watch Cori's afternoon volleyball game and hit the church during the trip home. Great-grandma Meyer even got to go with us to see the kids in their costumes.



When we first started Maylea was not a very happy camper. She did not want to stand for the picture.....I took one anyway. Then as we started walking towards the "trunk" area she seemed okay and ready to go. However, at the first stop there is a child with a mask on that scares the HECK out of our peacock.....she was done. We had to carry her a majority of the time.



Cooper did really well. As we walked to each vehicle he would say "Happy Trick or Treating." Then he did a really good job of saying thank you after they gave him the candy.

After we hit all the trunks we walked over to the "pumpkin patch" that they had set up. I wanted to get a couple of pictures with the kids and mom and dad needed to buy some pumpkins. Maylea again, DID NOT want her picture taken, so I got one of Cooper.

Cooper pulled Maylea around in a wagon just like he did when we took them to the real pumpkin patch. She was completely content getting to ride around.

Maylea didn't want to keep her hood on and Cooper felt she needed to keep it on.

While pulling his sister he had to stop and call for back-up. He pulled out his walkie-talked, said a few words and we were on our way again.

In the gym they had a couple little games set up for the kids to play. While Cooper played a few of them everyone else sat and ate some dinner. They had nachos, chili, hotdogs, etc. to purchase.

After we ate, we went back outside so that the kids could ride the "train" before we left. They decided they wanted to sit together. When they got back we had a hard time getting Maylea out.....we finally did something that she really enjoyed!

After we were done, we dropped G-gma Meyer off at her house and make one last stop at our friend Terri's house. Cooper was very excited to show her his "construction guy" costume. So excited that he couldn't wait for his sister to ring the doorbell. She had a couple special treats for the kids, we looked around at their new house, and decided to head home for the night. We assumed we would be putting the kids to bed, but we were WRONG......my children and a couple pieces of candy made for a bit of a late night!!!!!