Woo Hoo!

Somebody slept in their bed all night long last night!!
And since this only happens about 3 times a year, it's a really big deal!!! See the heart sticker Coop got this morning for such a great feat.... I'd like to think this might be a pattern, but I'm not that optimistic. I'll take what I can get though! And, for the record, he goes to sleep in his own bed and I am so thankful for that so I probably should not complain!!

Testing the Limits

Cooper, Cooper, Cooper.... oh, my sweet little Cooper is really testing the waters these days!!! It's been one of those weeks with him. He has been coughing so I don't think that he feels 100% so maybe that has something to do with it. I can only hope this is not a behavior pattern that sticks...

Yesterday was church day so that's a longer day for us. We had some time to kill before dinner at church so we went into Stage to look around. Kam likes to look for clothes now, although she was very against going in last night. Cooper ran all over the place. Every time I would move towards him to grab him, he would take off running. I told Mark that I refused to chase him around the store looking like an idiot! And, I probably couldn't have caught him in my heels anyway! So he got a "talking to" about running away from me and someone grabbing him when we got to the car.
Then on to church for dinner.... he cried when we got in before I could get his plate. We had another talk. Then he wouldn't sit or be quiet in class. I took him out twice for yet another "talk." I had told him we would leave if he misbehaved but Saundra and I were the only ones there with 7 preschoolers so that was not an option.

Maybe it was the combination of the whole evening, but I had had it! I called Mark on the way home and told him to be waiting for us. I was tired of talking! We took Cooper to another room because Kamdyn is so nosey these days and tries to get him into trouble. She was pushing for him to get a spanking. I had a flashback to childhood of me laughing when Brian got a spanking one time (or several times I'm sure Brian would say). He still brings that up.

So with the door shut Mark and I talk to Cooper about his behavior not being acceptable, etc. Then Mark asks him, "did you run away from Mommy in the store?" and we hear Kam shout from outside the door, "yes, he did, Daddy. Mommy said he was getting a spanking for that." Mark seriously lost his focus on Cooper and just ducked his head to laugh.... we couldn't help it, which was probably to Cooper's advantage. Kam shouted the answers to a few more of Mark's questions for Coop before she finally got the message to mind her own business or she would be next!!And on another note, isn't Cooper just like my Dad? We've always thought he looked like my Dad, but he acts like him too! Cooper does nothing fast (sound familiar, Mom?). It takes him F-O-R-E-V-E-R to eat! Usually, when we are all done at a restaurant and ready to go, he will start eating.

He talks slow, but he has the cutest country accent and he substitutes "W" for several of his letters. It really cracks me up! A while back he told me at bedtime that he needed to "pway for Wicky because he wad a weck!" Mark has been calling him"Old Man River" and "Big Country" lately. It's definitely been a challenging few days with him but I wouldn't change a thing about him! There really is something special about Mommies and their little boys. And we all know that Cooper is a "Momma's boy!"

Was He Serious???

Today when I was checking out at Wal-Mart this man comes up to me (I think he was a few people ahead of me) and says, "I enjoyed how pretty you looked today." Huh???? Enjoyed it??? Well, I was having a good hair day despite the rain and I was wearing a Jodie-approved outfit. Hum... I said thanks but I'm sure I stared as he just turned and walked out of the store. I must admit though that his random act of kindness made my day!!

Birthday and Cheerleading

Last weekend, Kylie and Kamryn had a cheer competition in Hot Springs so Mom and the kids and I decided to go watch for a while. It was Mark's birthday and I thought a nice day at home to himself was the best present I could give him. Not really... although he did enjoy it! I did him so wrong at Christmas, if you recall, so I was determined to make up for it on his birthday.
Jodie and Kam waiting on the girls to come out....
Kamryn is the 4th girl in the middle, if you can see her....
Kam and Kami....
The gang.... Cooper wasn't too into the competition at first. He didn't like the music and kept telling me, "it scares me, Mommy," but he eventually got into it and wanted to go to the arena floor to get a closer look at the girls. There was actually one little boy who competed too.

The funniest thing..... When we were walking into TJ Maxx later that day, Mom asked Cooper if he wanted to be a cheerleader. He looked at her and said in his slow country drawl, "I not a girl, Mimi!" Good answer, Coop!
So I had been asking the kids for weeks what they wanted to get Mark and all they could come up with was a t-shirt. Cooper said it had to be a razorback shirt. So we picked out a razorback t-shirt. Kam picked out some new pj bottoms (I talked her out of the SpongeBob ones!). Cooper picked out a purple Polo pullover. I wasn't sure Mark would like the color so I asked Kam, hoping that she would pick out a different one. No such luck! Purple Polo it was.... I could tell Mark was a little iffy about it but when I told him the kids picked it out and there was no talking them out of it, he said he would wear it and love it. And, surprisingly, the color looked great when he tried it on!
I decided to get him Guitar Hero.... He was surprised and liked it, but I don't think he thought he would love it. Wrong! Guess who's rocking the house now?
Here they are trying to figure it out at first. Now he stands and bends and gyrates like he's a real rocker!
Mark requests an angel food cake with icing every year. Never knew anyone who liked icing on their angel food cake until I met him, but it is very good! As you can tell, this is a store bought one but it was yummy! And he only blew out 3 candles because we didn't have enough for his real age!

Sunday Afternoon Adventures

Updated: Mom corrected me this morning by telling me that Braxton threw 4, not 3, eggs on the floor. I know that makes a difference! And, Mark is not happy with me about the picture I posted of him walking with the kids. Apparently, he sees a spot that he didn't know was there! :)

One of the kids favorite things to do on the weekends now is to go 4-liter riding on Sunday afternoons. Kamdyn just expects it now, even though we've not gone in several weeks because of the weather. I took these pics about 3 weeks ago before the cold snap. I took my new camera and thought I would play around with the settings.
I love the way this picture turned out with Mark and Cooper blurry in the background. That's one of the things I wanted to figure out on the camera. Now I just wish I remembered which setting I had it on!

Mark is walking around checking out the land. I think I said earlier that we are looking for the perfect spot to build our house (hopefully sooner than later!) and I think we've found it!
Another shot of Kam... I think this would be cute if I photo shopped it some.... I'll add that to my list of things to do.
Let me take this time to point out that the kids picked out their own clothes; hence the reason they don't match! My only request was that they wear their rainboots because it had rained and was very wet.
Heading for the creek.... As kids, we always played in the creek. I've already told the kids lots of stories about swimming in the creek and catching crawdads with Jodie, Brett, and Jamie. Some of my best childhood memories....
We found a big tree that had fallen across the creek and I thought it would be a great place to take some more pics. I had to walk across the tree to the other side of the creek to take the pics because I didn't have my rainboots on!
Mark helping Cooper walk across to the middle for a few pics....
"Coop, don't move!"
So all the work in getting the kids to the middle of the creek was really for nothing because I didn't get one shot of them both looking at me at the same time.
Would someone please pull that girl's hair out of her face???????
Yes, Kam has on leopard pants and navy/pink apple boots. I'm picking my battles these days. The kids started out on the edge of the creek but gradually got in deeper and deeper.
And, yes, it was bound to happen. They fell in! Cooper managed to just get his pants wet but Kamdyn was wet from top to bottom.
So we ended up back at Mimi's to dry their wet clothes...
Mom had to find a t-shirt for Kam to wear because she was soaked! Don't you love the red teeth too?
Brian and JJ brought the kids down a while later and this is what usually happens when Braxton and Cooper are together. Boys wil be boys.... except it usually ends up violent!
They kept opening Mom's refrigerator and trying to get her eggs out, even after we repeatedly told them no. The next weekend when we were all there we heard Jamie go into the kitchen and shout, "Oh, no!" You guessed it.... Braxton had gotten into the refrigerator and threw 3 eggs onto the floor. Thank goodness, Cooper was in the other room and wasn't in on it! Otherwise, it wouldn't have been pretty!

The Great's Couch Picture

We attempted a couch picture of the "great's" again this year . I think Madison is the only one missing in this pic and she was there, just not in this pic. Don't they all look excited to have their play time interrupted for a picture? Cooper was sick this night and you can tell that he wasn't himself. Notice the three new itty bitty Efird's... Grace was 3 months in this pic, Kason was two weeks old, and Campbell was 3 days old!
For those of you who hear us talk about the cousins and "birthday season" all the time, now you know what I'm talking about. And, by the way, birthday season is upon us!

Thanksgiving and Indians (3 months late!)

So I'm just about 3 months late on this but I actually just snagged these pictures from another mom's FB page. In November, a Kiowa Indian named, Philip, visited Mrs. Mae's to visit with the kids. This is yet another reason that I just love Mae's.... the kids were totally fascinated with Philip.
Philip and some of the boys in Kam's class...
As you can see, he was dressed in his Indian duds from head to toe and he talked to the kids and answered their questions.
He played a beautiful song for them....

This was a great experience for the kids, especially since they had been learning all about the pilgrims and Indians in November. I remember one night that Kam was trying to tell me something about what she learned and she kept saying, "sandwiches, sandwiches!" Took me a few minutes to realize she was trying to say, "savages, savages!"