Spring Break Adventures

My husband just told me that I haven't posted in over a week and that I should get on it.... Kamdyn keeps asking me for a new "blog story" for her to read each night. I've got to do better! I'll try to play catch up this week.

Bird Boy

Last week was Spring Break. Our original plan was to go to Branson for a few days, but the weather got cold and nasty and we decided to just stay home. We took the kids to the zoo one day and had a great time. I have many more pictures to post, but I don't want to overwhelm everyone at once!

So our first stop at the zoo was the loriket cage. The kids were excited and both said they wanted to go in, which was a little surprising to me. Cooper did his "Twinkletoes" dance, which you'll see below. He does this dance anytime his feet hit the floor. I'm hoping the boy will learn some boundaries one day because he is getting too big for me to carry!


Mark paid $1 to get the juice to feed the birds and Cooper told him he wanted to feed them too. By the way, this bird actually bit Mark's finger... I told him that's what you get for sticking your finger up there like that.

Cooper was a little skiddish at first when the bird first landed on the cup...
But then he decided it was very cool!
I'm not sure I can even accurately describe what happened next. Cooper was standing beside me still feeding the bird when another bird came and landed on his head. It took me by surprise and I would give anything to have a picture of the look on Cooper's face when he realized there was a bird dancing on his head. I was a little panicked at first, but then I looked at Mark, who was trying to get a good picture of him feeding the bird and screamed, "take a picture!" But it was just too funny.... Cooper started screaming, the bird flew off, the bird came back and landed on his head again... I think I picked him up at this point and we ducked (see picture below) while the bird swooped by us.
Needless to say, everyone was laughing--except Kamdyn and Cooper. Poor Cooper was traumatized. We got out of the cage quickly and went on our way. We had to leave the inside bird exhibit later because the kids got so freaked out. Cooper wanted nothing to do with anything that looked like a bird--flamingo, crane, you name it.

About 3 hours later, we went to the carnival next door to the zoo to let the kids ride some rides. Kamdyn loved this slide.... While Cooper and I were waiting on them to come down, this lady walks up to us and says, "oh, it's the bird boy!"


Kam has since had a blast telling the story about how the bird "flewed" on Cooper's head. She told everyone at church yesterday and couldn't wait to go tell Ms. Kylie today at school. Cooper laughs now... Yesterday my Papaw walked up to him, put his hand on top of his head and said, "Cooper, there's a bird on your head" and Cooper took off running like a streak of lightning! Ahh... good times!

The Week in Pictures

I've been a bad blogger lately! I've had too much going on at work the last few weeks... so I'll just recap the last week with a few pictures I've taken. I think you'll notice a theme...

We didn't leave the house last weekend except to go to church on Sunday and to Mom's for lunch. We stayed in our pj's all day long on Saturday. It was wonderful!

Cooper's into hugging these days. He throws his arms open wide and says "hug" while coming at Kamdyn. It's so cute. It starts out like this:
and progresses to this:We love "Dancing With the Stars" and we missed it Monday night. Lucky for us (we are the only family in America who doesn't have DVR), they showed it again on Saturday night. Here's a little video I got of the kids dancing... notice Cooper's hugs (and saggy diaper). I have no clue why Kam has no clothes on...bath time, maybe?



Here are the boys after lunch on Sunday playing with the big wheel... we always strip them down to eat!After lunch, I went home to fold laundry (my most dreaded chore!), but I just couldn't keep my eyes open... I took a 2-hour nap on the couch, which is something I NEVER do! Apparently, Cooper crawled up next to me and went to sleep too. Mark took this picture, which explains the blurriness of it.
Kamdyn got this super cool dollhouse from Santa. Guess who plays with it the most?
Cooper's not afraid to show his feminine side... here he is fixing Ariel's hair.
Kamdyn loves to play dress up... this dress up outfit actually matches. You should see some of the things she puts on. I'm hoping that her fashion sense will improve with age!
This is Cooper's scared face... I'm not sure what Mark was watching but, obviously it scared Cooper. He told me in his sweet voice, "I scared."

I made broccoli for dinner last night and surprisingly, Cooper loved it! He said, "mmmm, delicious" at least twice during the meal. Go figure!

And finally, another hug picture progression. Kam has a ring pop in her mouth....This is how they always end up.... a little hair pulling...
a little wrestling.... see the pattern?
And why does Cooper never have pants on in any of my pictures? :)

You're Welcome...

I've been trying to work with Cooper on his manners lately now that he's talking a lot more. He has the cutest little voice when he talks (when he's not hollering) and I just love to hear him. Anytime someone gives him something and I ask him what he's supposed to say, he ignores me. So then I say, "Cooper, say thank you" and EVERY TIME he replies back, "you're welcome!" in that cute voice. He did it to me this morning in the car and it cracks me up every time he says it. Maybe one day he will actually say "thank you" but, for now, he's got "you're welcome" down pat.

No pics to post today because I forgoy my camera and we haven't had very many photo ops this week anyway. I'll try to take some this weekend. We have absolutely no plans and I'm looking so forward to it!

One of those days...

It seems like I either have way too much to post or nothing at all. It's one of those days where I want to stay in bed under the covers! Not a lot happening at our house... Kamdyn has been a holy terror and I really don't know what to do with her these days. Sybil has resurrected! I'm not sure I'll ever survive the teenage years with her if this is any indication of what's to come!

Softball, Shopping and Birthday Season, Round 5

It was a very busy weekend for us. I think I need to come back to work to recover... We went to dinner at Outback with my family on Friday night. Mark was ready for steak after working out for a full week! :)

Saturday I was able to have lunch with my friends while Mom, JJ, and Kamdyn shopped for a few hours in LR. It's been a while since we've gotten together and it was nice to visit, even though I didn't get to spend the whole day shopping with them. Here are Kamdyn and Braxton in the car when we left Saturday morning. Little did they know what kind of day they were in for!
The Magnet Cove girls were in the championship game of the Bauxite FCA tournament so I reconnected with Mom, JJ, and the kids to go. It was the first game that Kam's been to this year and she cracked us up the whole time. She yelled for Brian while he coached third base shouting, "go bubby, you can do it!" and at one point she shouted, "bubby, you can' t catch that; you're too old!" When Carly stepped up to bat and Kamdyn shouted, "Go, Carlotta!" I thought Mom might fall off the bleachers.

We sat with Deana, Chase, and Katelyn so Kam had a blast with them. We don't get to be around them much, but Kam's seen Katelyn the last two Saturdays and she's really taken with her. I loved listening to their conversations during the game.
Here is a pic of the Magnet Cove girls after they won the tournament! We were excited for them! My mom took these game pictures, which explains why they are so far away and off center! lol!
Kamdyn and Braxton after the game... we headed to NLR to kill some time before Braden's birthday party. Much to Kam's dismay, we got in an hour or so of shopping before the party. Kam only asked us about 100x that day if we were ever going to go to Chuck E. Cheese's...
So we ended the day at Braden's party at Chuck E. Cheese's that night. The kids had a blast! Let me just say that I would have to be medicated to work at that place!!! I wanted to do a slideshow of the pics, but I'm not that good yet!

Let's Get Physical

I think I mentioned earlier that Mark had started a new workout program this week. Yesterday was yoga day. Cooper got up very early so he watched Mark work out. At one point, I walked in the room and saw them both in the "downward dog" position. It was a perfect Kodak moment but, of course, I didn't have my camera and Cooper never resumed that position again. I did get this picture of him trying to help Mark get into position though. And before anyone asks... Mark knows this picture of him is being posted!

Zippity Do Da!

We took a group of students to Camp Winnamocka yesterday and they were able to do the high ropes and zip line after lunch. I'm not going to lie... I was scared to death to do this and really had no intentions of doing it. I was the leader and didn't want to make a fool of myself by wetting my pants or crying.... I had to climb a tree house and walk across a log to get to the actual zip line. That was the scariest part but I did it and it was really fun! Not at all what I thought it would be like!

Advice, please!

Yesterday when I picked Kamdyn up from Mae's, there was a note from her teacher saying that she had been "fussy" all day long. She kept saying that she was "having a bad morning" (she said this at 4:00 in the afternoon) and that she was afraid to go to Kindergarten. This is not the first time she's talked about being scared of Kindergarten and every time I ask her who told her about it she says her cousin Cahl, which I know is not true.

So I go home trying to rack my brain figuring out if this is normal behavior or if I have done something to make her fearful.... she seems to be scared of everything lately. Is this normal for a 4-year old?

I talked to her teacher again this morning and she told me she heard Kam's BFF, who is going to Kindergarten next year, talking on the playground about Kindergarten and how she is very scared about going... So at least now I know where that's coming from. But I'm still worried that I'm going to have an anxious child on my hands in the future! Wonder where she gets this from? :)

Sick Day and PIG

So a few days ago I showed Kamdyn the video I posted last week of her and Cooper in her bed and they absolutely loved it! They watch it over and over and just laugh hysterically at themselves. Kamdyn keeps asking me to tell her the story about her and Cooper at bedtime. She's also asking me to write a new story for her... an author I am not! I don't know what she's thinking.... Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast, Kam was rambling on (she talks to herself a lot so we overlook it most of the time) but I realized that she was repeating the conversation on the video word for word. Typical Kamdyn behavior!

Cooper woke up with fever on Friday so we stayed home and had a sick day. Here is Kam playing her computer (gotta love the hair!) while Cooper watches on. Don't they look enthused?
Later that day we ventured out to Target for a few things. It came a monsoon just as we were leaving.... had I known this was going to happen I never would have attempted this outing. Cooper found Kam's Hello Kitty umbrella in the car and rode all the way to Target like this. It was so funny that I didn't even bother with making him put it up.
We got drenched going into Target, even with the umbrella. Kam stood in the front of the store and cried because she can't stand for any of her clothes to be wet. We should have just stayed at home!

Saturday, mom, Kam, JJ, Braxton, and I went to a wedding shower and then back to Bryant to do a little shopping. It was sooooo cold outside and even snowed on us on the way home. Here is Kam trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue. She has no shoes on so I'm glad you can't see her feet because it was freezing!
The kids are really into playing with their basketball goal the last few days... so Saturday night we began a friendly little game of PIG. Kam really gets into it and, of course, we let her shoot from wherever she wants. Already she can't stand to lose so she whines the whole time about wanting to be the winner. She does this with Candy Land or any game we play. She gets that from Mark!
So here is a pic of Mark trying to be fancy with his shots because he thinks I will miss, which I didn't. I actually beat him at PIG!! I still don't think he's gotten over the shock!
And, last but not least, I threatened to put a pic of Mark working out this morning with his new P90X DVD's on here. He's been telling me that he was going to start getting up at 5 a.m. to do this. It's not that I didn't think he'd work out, but I never believed that he would get up at 5 a.m. to do so. But I found him working out hard at 5:20 this morning so I'm really proud of him! Maybe one day I'll get motivated to join him!!!