Halloween 2009!

31 Oct 2009

Today is a Spooooooooky Halloween ! I've been saving all my Halloween photos to share with you on this - my Spooooooooky Halloween post. The boys and I spent most of October decorating the house. We painted the little figures on the mantle, hung the creepy garland, made vampire cupcakes, and pumpkin cookies.

Here are the paper decorations that we made for our sidelight, the little Halloween figurines that we made out of Crayola Model Magic (that stuff is truly a wonder of modern technology) and the Frankenstein head that scared our dog silly every time someone opened the pantry door.

We also hung up skeletons in the dining room, put a big spider web in the living room and made cheesecloth ghosts. Tyler thought they were dumb until he realized that we were going to pop the balloon inside and that they would still stay standing up by themselves.

We got these costumes for the boys at Walmart. I know, I know, making your own costumes is a proud Cooper/James tradition, but come on! They were only $15 and they're so cute (I mean scary) and so easy. I just have to say that store bought costumes have really come a long way from the plastic bibs and ill fitting pajama costumes of my childhood.

Derek looking particularly ghoulish at the ward party.

Holly looking particularly busy (get it? busy bee?) atop Dad's shoulders at the ward party.

The kids on our front porch getting ready to go out trick-or-treating. Jared has been ducking under those "low flying" cobwebs for weeks now and he's probably glad that after tonight we can take them down.

This is a video that Jared took of the boys trick-or-treating. As he tells it, they would walk up to a door and while Tyler fumbled with his hood and searched for the doorbell, Derek would quickly lose patience and take matters into his own hands.

I stayed home to hand out candy and since our doorbell is broken (AGAIN!) I just left the door open so I could hear when the kids stepped on our screaming Halloween mat. Ralphie was SO EXCITED!! He stood there all night watching the kids go up and down the street. When they came to our door he'd put his paws up on the gate and lick their hands. He was such a good dog. He never even barked once. I think he really wanted to go out there and play with them.

When Tyler got back from trick-or-treating he showed me that he his tongue had mysteriously transformed into a piece of rainbow candy.

When Derek got back, he changed into his second costume - Ultimate Cage Fighter (who needs help opening his Whoppers.)

P.S. It turns out that Derek doesn't like Whoppers. But I do, so it all worked out well. Derek also doesn't like jawbreakers, Tootsie Rolls, bubble gum, bubble gum flavored Dum Dums, Now and Laters, or Laffy Taffy. He does eat regular sized peanut butter cups in one bite and loves Milk Duds. Weird.

Holly Ann Cooper - The Bumble Boogie Love Bug

22 Oct 2009

This post is dedicated to Holly. She is so adorable that I just can't stop taking pictures of her. Everywhere I go people are telling me how cute she is. Even some twenty-something, thugish, mexican gangsters stopped me in Walmart so that they could tickle her feet. Even better, she hammed it up the whole time with little giggles and smiles. What a flirt!

This is her posing at the Chick-Fil-A. Gotta love that indoor playground (notice that there are no boys in the picture.)

This is her showing off the panda bear she scored from a cute little girl at the Panda Express. I guess this mom bought each of her two daughters (ages 9 and 6) a panda bear toy. They liked the toys but the older girl gave hers to Holly because she thought she was so cute.

This is her thinking about coming to get my camera. Look at those eyes!!!

Here she is feverishly bumble-crawling across the kitchen to get me. I call it bumble-crawling because she lands on the right side with her knee and the left side with her foot and it makes her bum go up and down all bouncy and wonky like a bumble ball.

Here she is getting away with ripping up an entire box of tissues by pretending that she's just been sitting there playing with Legos the whole time. Earlier that morning she emptied a package of wipes to make a warm, wet nest for herself in her bed. She didn't make a sound and so I didn't check on her until she'd been sleeping in it for several hours.

Baby jokes are the best!

Mom, Holly Needs Some Toys!

20 Oct 2009

Holly was in the bathtub and Derek thought that she needed some toys. So he gave her some.

Look Dad, No Mullet!

15 Oct 2009

The kids' hair was getting really long. I kind of want them to have a style other than a military buzz cut but I don't know how to cut hair any other way. I kept hoping that if I just ignored it their hair would get better (somehow) but it only got worse. I finially broke down and took them to the "Buddy Cuts" down the street. Now they both look great. Whenever I cut their hair there are lots of tears, but when we go to the salon, they are just fine.

Birthday Money

14 Oct 2009

Last month my mom sent me $100 for my birthday and told me to get something just for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. There is this restaurant called the Chart House that is located at the top of the Tower of the Americas in downtown San Antonio. You ride an elevator up to the top and then the whole restaurant slowly spins around so that you can see the whole city while you eat. We got there right at sunset and the view was amazing. The food was really good too. I got some sort of salmon, sweet potato, jambalaya thing that sounded weird but is now on my short list of great tasting things to eat. We had a really great time. Thanks Mom!

This picture is fake. They take it at the bottom of the tower in front of a green screen and then put in the background.

Halloween Is Coming

10 Oct 2009

We spent the afternoon today making some Halloween decorations for our front porch. Tyler and I cut out the paper and taped the monsters together. Tyler added most of the spooky effects with a marker. I think that he did a really good job! Thanks Tyler.

Tyler and I tried to get Derek to help us with the project but he just wanted to do his own thing. He made this picture for Santa. He said, "I want to show it to Santa and he will love it and I made it. He will say 'Ho ho ho, thank you Derek'".

In other news, Tyler rode his bike from the mailbox to the neighbor's driveway (about 100 ft) twice today!!! Yay Tyler. It was more of coasting and less of riding but he didn't crash either time and he seemed way less scared the second time than the first. Derek tried out the big tricycle and hated it.

Fun at BYU

7 Oct 2009

After we went to the Bean Museum we walked down to the waterfall and duck pond on the hillside below the bell tower. The kids had tons of fun picking up all the meticulously placed landscaping rocks and trowing them in the pond. They also chased ducks and played on the waterfall - which is probably against the rules but whatever.

Tyler stopped all of us and made me set up the next two shots. It's kind of a comic strip of him barfing over the railing.
I thought it would be cute to get a sequence of the kids running down the hill. It was a good idea but Tyler went too fast for my camera to focus and so he's only in two of the pictures. Next time I'll tell them to run in slow motion.

These kids are the best! They are so cute.

BYU Bean Museum

4 Oct 2009

On our last day in Utah we went to the Bean Museum. It was way cooler than I remembered. Since we went on a weekday we pretty much had the place to ourselves and the kids had lots of fun running around and looking at all the animals. Tyler liked to try to pronounce the scientific name on every plaque he saw and Derek liked to make roaring sounds for every animal - even the birds and the fish. Holly just looked and smiled.

Tyler looks really bored in this picture next to the butterflies because I made him stand there and memorize the difference between a butterfly and a moth. He said it was really boring - but as far as I can tell everything in his life is "really boring" - except maybe eating cookies.

This Picture Cracks Me Up!

I found this picture of Caleb on Joseph and Amanda's blog a few days ago and I've been thinking about it ever since. I love it so much I used it as the background on my desktop.

My Boys Are So Boyish

3 Oct 2009

The boys were in the bathtub today while I was listening to conference. I came in and they both looked up grinning guiltily. I said, "You guys are so boyish!"

Tyler said, "Of course we're boyish. Why do you think that they call us boys?"

Then Derek said, "We're busy making poison to poison each other."

The Heber Valley Railroad (a.k.a. Heber Creeper)

2 Oct 2009

During our trip to Utah in September we took the opportunity to ride on The Heber Valley Railroad. Derek is in love with all things "trains" and I've wanted to ride on the Heber Creeper since 4th grade when our train ride field trip was cancelled. The train goes from Heber down to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and back. We all had a really great time. The pictures are pretty self explanatory and pretty cute.

Pirate Island Pizza

2 Oct 2009

More pictures from our trip to Utah. One of the days we were there, we went to eat at Pirate Island Pizza. The kids really loved it and the food was pretty good too - the service was great! We got to sit in a tiki hut and spent some time exploring the beach, the caves, and the castle. There is also an arcade on the island for some reason :) Anyway, we had a really good time and recommend it to all.

Boat outside the entrance.

Tyler boxing a pirate statue.

The kids doing their thing in the "cave of fun" (ie. cave to the arcade).

Tyler did pretty well at the shooting game. Derek did REALLY good. I knelt down and helped him aim the gun before he pulled the trigger. If you ever play this game, make sure you kneel down. We got 19 out of 20 shots and like 50 tickets.


Derek liked the train ride as much as any of the pirate stuff. He didn't want me to turn it on, he just wanted to sit in it while it stayed still.

On a side note - we are going to be able to get our moldy basement all fixed for less than $2,000 total. That might sound like a lot, but to us it's really nice to just have it taken care of. Phew.