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

Happy Birthday to Jonathon!!

My Jonathon's birthday was on Thursday. It makes me feel young knowing that even though I'm in my 30's, my husband is still in his twenties. :)

I can remember the very first time that I saw Jonathon. We were both missionaries in Houston. Both of us were training a new missionary so we happened to be at the mission office at the same time. I remember looking across the parking lot and seeing an elder wearing black cargo pants (with his shirt and tie) and doing some kind of skateboarding trick. Huh, that's pretty cool, I thought. I had no idea just how cool he really was.

Boy was I lucky to get to find out.

So here are some things that impress and fascinate me about that cargo pant wearing Elder:

-His brain is CHOCK full of facts. He can EASILY answer questions like, What are the names Jesse's twins boys on the show "Full House"? or Who are the original members of the band "No Doubt"? or How many yards penalty is given for a personal foul in football?

-He's extremely polite.

-He is the fastest reader I have EVER known. I'm not kidding. We were watching a show and at the end there was a paragraph to read concerning the future of the main character. I literally JUST finished the first sentence and he was done with the paragraph. I didn't believe him at first so I quizzed him on what he just read and sure enough, he'd read it. amazing. Every time he speed reads through something I'm still a little dumbfounded.

-He has so much care and compassion for the people he loves. (And even those he doesn't.)

-His determination is mind blowing.

-He thrives on people telling him he "can't" do it.

-He remembers every date and detail of our relationship. (Wish I could say the same for me.)

-He can figure out how to master any game out there. Board game, card game, sport, video game...you name it...give him just a couple rounds and then he will have the game or opponent beat. I'm not gonna lie, it's a tad bit annoying but totally awesome when we play on the same team.

-He's right 95% of the time. No, I'm not kidding. This is a little annoying too but I've just come to accept it and thrive on it.

-I'm still in awe over this one...His first and foremost priority is little old me. It's true. It's taken me a while to even believe that it was true but in fact, it is. If Katie ain't happy, Jonny ain't happy. So he literally does everything in his power to make my life amazing. See, I told you I was lucky.

-He is an amazing Dad. He loves Maddie and Lyndon so much. He so sweet to them. He's a good teacher for them. And an incredible example to them. They're blessed to have him for a Dad.

I made him his favorite breakfast... full of non-breakfast foods. Any nothing says "Jonathon" more than a skull or two. Happy to oblige.

Happy Birthday sweetheart. I love you.

The two musketeers

Maddie had all of her toys (but she calls it her "junk") lined up on the couch. Out of no where here comes Lyndon jumping up on the couch destroying her perfectly situated treasures. Disgustingly she said to him, "Lyndon, you're really kind of ruining my life right now." His reply? "Sawree, Mawee."

Last night as we were all sitting in the living room, out of no where, Lyndon looked at us and happily announced, "I kick. I kick wall." And then proceeded to do just that. He ran full speed ahead and kicked the wall. And repeating the action at least 5 more times. No idea. none whatsoever.

During lunch Maddie asks me, "Mom, do you know how you can tell if a cloud is sad? It rains." Clever, I thought. But her words of wisdom didn't end there. "Do you know who you can tell that a cloud is angry? It has thunder." And probably my favorite of all, "Do you know how you can tell if a cloud is happy? It doesn't rain or have thunder." She's very wise.

Much to our relief, Lyndon is finally gravitating toward more masculine things. But he still likes to keep one foot in girly stuff. As evidenced by his impersonation of a robot. But not just any robot. A BUTTERFLY robot. That's our boy.

Maddie is 100% sold by commercials. I'll be cooking and she'll start screaming, "MOM!! MOM!!! Come here. Hurry, Hurry. I WANT that. PLEASE!? PLEASE!!?? It's usually for a Barbie, bend-a-roos, my little ponies you know the normal stuff. But lately she has been going gaga (and even knows the catchy songs) for products such as these: The "touch-n-brush (which is a tooth brush dispenser that attaches to your wall. big. ugly.), Shoes Under (a box that is designed to store and easily fit in the unused space under your bed.) and wonder hangers (which are hangers designed to maximize and organize closet space). She knows all the catch phrases and begs me to buy them for her. If she only knew all the useless infomercials that are on late night TV. She'd be in heaven.

While I was doing the dishes Maddie comes up to me. "Mom, do you want me to show you how to play the "Nothing" game?" I agreed. Then she proceeded to just stand there very still and stare at me. Seriously. Does she think of this stuff on her own?

This is Lyndon's "scary" face. The more scared I act, the happier he is.

I noticed Jonathon reading a story to Lyndon and had to take a picture...

The two hooligans using up the last of their energy before bedtime. (yeah, right. the energy source is never dry.) Ben, (our new brother-in-law) bought this cool, but kind of creepy, monkey for Lyndon at the zoo while we were in Omaha.

We did a little craft project. I like walking through Micheal's and letting them pick out something they want to do. Maddie's tastes usually leans toward the more expensive do-it-yourself projects but I can gently nudge her in a new direction pretty easily. And Lyndon just likes to do whatever Maddie is doing. This time they each picked out a box and a piece of paper and decoupaged the paper on the box. Easy and fun.

Are you curious as to what the heck Maddie is doing to her doll? I was. I asked. "Mom, I'm blowing up her water wings." duh. It's so obvious now.

Again with the scary faces...