they keep coming up with new material...I love it.

I hid around a corner just waiting for Lyndon to come...(gimme a break, he loves it, I swear.) As he flew around the corner I jumped out and said, "grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!" To which he squealed, flung his hands over his heart and said, "Oh! You scared my heart!"

Maddie is just as imaginative as ever. During a recent rainstorm we were driving in the car and she exclaimed, "I love my little friends on the car window!" After a couple seconds I realized it was the raindrops who were her friends...

Yesterday I gave Lyndon a piece of candy and he promptly said, "Oh tanks, Mom! Eura best!" (Oh, thanks, Mom! you're the best!)

When it comes to bedtime Maddie and Lyndon see it more as playtime, much to our dismay. But I do love how they interact. It's still fascinates me. So a couple nights ago, as they are supposed to be in bed, I hear Maddie say to Lyndon, "You stay here this time, I'm gonna go." And then she proceeds to come into my office making up some pathetic excuse for getting up. (Lately, don't ask me where in the world she got this, but she's been saying "Mom, I need to get up, my bum is sour." again, don't ask. I don't have a clue of it's origins or it's meaning.) So here she is searching for an excuse but I quickly send her packing. As she is leaving I decide to follow her to her room. When I got there, Lyndon was already planning his escape, but instead, he was scared to see me standing there. I say a quick, "Go to bed!" and as I leave only hear Lyndon in a super excited voice exclaim, "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!"

Their all-time favorite song is "You Belong To Me" by Taylor Swift. I let them watch the music video on Youtube with me and now they ask for it over and over. They both know the words and sing it on a regular basis. A couple nights ago Lyndon was like a broken record singing one line over and over and over and over again. "...I wear T-shirts, she wear short skurts."

Lyndon has a green baseball hat that he calls his "gay hat". ...yeah, not a clue.

I finally went through the pictures I've taken recently so we're going to have a random photo log...

Lyndon likes to put Jonathon's hat but he likes to fasten the straps under his neck like a bonnet.

Oh, this is a fun one. Compliments of Madaline. I kinda had flash backs to when she cut her own hair. It's looks all too familiar...check it out.

Making cookies spiders... 'tis the season.

Lyndon actually loves to help me clean. Too bad he's no help yet.

We went to a really fun birthday party for Maddie's friend, Sarah. She had a clown who did a magic show, painted the kids faces and made balloon animals. Pretty cool.

Wanna know what Maddie is building?

It's a cage for all her "Bat" friends. I couldn't see them but she and Lyndon could.

Lyndon getting his face painted for our ward Halloween party.

"oooooh, scarrrrrey."

a very beautiful witch. a princess witch, if you will...

lyndon, lyndon, lyndon...

In the last 24 hours Lyndon has:

a) drawn a mural on the playroom floor with a crayola black marker.

b) after I SCOURED the house and banished ALL writing utensils, he, by some miraculous detective work, found a green PERMANENT marker and wrote all over the carpet in my office.

c) while he was "in bed" he filled up a toy that looks (and acts as) a huge bowl, using the bathroom sink and proceeded to dump the warm water in the hall...several times. Incidentally, Maddie, trying to clean-up the mess, pulled out EVERY SINGLE TOWEL AND SHEET from the hall closet and began sopping up the mess.

d) found an old pen that no longer worked and SOMEHOW managed to extract the ink from inside the pen and "tattoo" himself. (see the above pictures..ink on his leg and on his hand.)

I know what you're thinking,..."Katie, why don't you WATCH that kid?

if you only knew.

if you only knew.

P.S. Even though I wanted to strangle the kid every time I discovered his devilish acts, I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I was typing this. especially as I pictured him filling up that HUGE bowl with water and carry it down the hall, spill it and start all over. I wonder what his goal was?

so much love in Moreland, Idaho.

2 days ago I walked into our pantry and was instantly lost in a whirlwind of cozy, sentimental memories...

As is turns out when you mix the smell of laundry soap, a bag of potatoes and various canned goods it produces this magical concoction that takes me right back to my Gramma and Grampa Coopers house. (that's how we pronounce it.) I stood there taking deep breaths and dreaming about some of the best times of my life.

My gramma and grampa didn't have much but what they did have was nothing less than perfect looking through my eyes as a child. There was always Sunny Delight in the fridge, cough drops in grammas bottom drawer (that we would sneak), our "special" mug that hung on the hook with our name on it that we never got to use, yellow shag carpet that I got to go around and trim the snags, the "twin beds" that always had matching comforters on them, the bread drawer with a never-ending supply of wonder bread, half and half along with white sugar to drown our cream of wheat in, grammas silky nightgowns that she would let us wear to bed, the picture of a little stream surrounded by trees hanging at the end of the hall that would light up, the little wood tractors that grampa made, that shampoo that had a picture of wheat on it (what brand was that anyway?), the hot tub which, let's face it, was practically a full size swimming pool in our eyes, and grampa's special hot cakes that were the size of your plate.

I sure to miss those two.

I hope I never forget how it feels to have grampa nuzzle his whiskery face in my neck or have gramma carefully apply her red lipstick to my lips.

...I guess I'll be sure to keep laundry soap, potatoes and canned goods close at hand.

just call me Neil.

I was ready to leave for the store so I went upstairs looking for Lyndon. Hummm, not in his usual spot, the playroom. So I kept walking. He emerges from my office like this. As he approached me he says, "I astronaut. heheh. I astronaut." Pretty clever kid.

I astronaut too.

Maddie is pretty much always in some type of pretend play. It doesn't matter where we are or who we are with. At the park this week she was a princess (of course) and Lyndon was a cowboy. Maddie wanted him to be a prince but he put his foot down and insisted on being a cowboy. so proud. I was a puppy. So every time Maddie, uh I mean princess, asked me a question and I would answer her, she would immediately prompt me to bark instead. I gotta say, it wasn't my favorite game. I was a tad bit self-conscious. Every time I would "ruff-ruff" I'd get several other parents staring at me. oh well. I like to play along. She looked at me at one point and said with the sweetest voice you've ever heard, "Mom, um, can you please bow to me?" then proceeded to bat her eyelashes. Well, she IS the princess and I'm just the dog so I oblige and give her a little curtsy. She accepted the gesture but then showed me how she would REALLY like it and demonstrated with a grand swooping bow, head down and all. Can anyone say over dramatic? Okay, it's true, I thought it was hilarious. Both Maddie and Lyndon are pretty good little comedians. Case in point: As I'm typing this, Lyndon, who is supposed to be in bed just came running into my office...with a pair of Maddie's panties on his head. He stood right in front of me without saying a word. I just stared at him for a while until he broke the silence by saying, "It's me, Lyndon." Did he think he had me fooled with the whole panty thing on his head? who knows...

the sad truth...

Dear Famous Dave's Bread Pudding with caramel sauce,

I think about you every day. Why must you haunt my thoughts with your sweet moist breading and your gooey caramely sauce? Why must you be located too far from my home? Why do you have probably close to a million calories? I tried, but I can't be mad at you. I love you too much.

I'll never forget you,
Katie