Happy Birthday Addison!

I cannot believe my first born is already 5 years old...time has flown by.  We are so lucky to have such a sweet, loving, fun, adorable, wonderful girl in our family...our lives would not be the same without her. 

On her birthday morning, she wanted to open her presents.  We gave her a James Avery charm bracelet, a few charms, and some clothes. 

Since I took the day off on her birthday, we decided to have a donut birthday party at her school instead of the traditional cupcakes in the afternoon.  The kids all loved that idea! 

She was excited about her two tier donut with 5 candles on the top.

Her friends all made her a Happy Birthday sign!

Kevin was able to take the afternoon off and we asked what special activity she wanted to do with us.  She chose ice skating!  This was her first time and she had a great time.  All of us were laughing so hard at the beginning because of how uncoordinated we all looked.  Addi was slipping around and we were trying not to fall with her.  It was not easy getting used to the ice and holding onto a 40 lb girl that was all over the place!

By the end, she had improved a lot.  She was able to skate with only one of us holding her hands.  And for a very short distance, she would skate by herself.  We had a great time and I have a feeling someone will want to do it again soon!

We also let her choose where we should go for dinner.  She chose Chuck E. Cheese!  Who knew that place was so busy on a Tuesday night in December???  Cooper and Addison both loved it and could have stayed there all night.  But, Addi didn't want anything to do with Chuck E. Cheese...when she saw him come out, she hid under the table!  Cooper wanted to give him high fives...one of the many differences of the kids!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE GIRL!

WE LOVE YOU AS HIGH AS THE SKY AND DEEP AS THE OCEAN!

We look forward to your birthday party with friends and family this weekend!

Photo shoot flop

A few weeks ago, we went to Dallas to visit Kevin's parents and decided to try and get some cute pictures of the kids for our Christmas cards.  We took so many pictures and only came back with a handful of good ones.  Let's just say that taking pictures of a 2 1/2 year old and almost 5 year old is not easy!  At this point, I can't share the good ones, but I figured you might get a good laugh out of the not-so-good ones and the ones that will not show up on our Christmas card!

Don't ask me what Cooper is doing...



Taaaddaaaa!



Cooper is doing wall squats...



Addison is windblown and sleeping and Cooper is looking at the ground.



A bit windy that day...part of the problem...



Cooper's awesome "cheeeeese" smile.



Saw a little of this during the photo shoot...



And a LOT of this...



 Luckily we were able to get a few good ones, but it was tough!  :)

And at least we got to have a fun visit with these two!  Thanks again for a fun visit!
 

More details about the rest of the visit to be continued...

Cooper - Always, Sometimes, Never

Cooper 

ALWAYS:

Talks super loud

Has tons of energy

Wants to do everything with his big sister

Names all the letters of the alphabet without a problem

Very particular about what clothes he will / will not wear

Chooses Black Eyed Peas if asked what music he wants to hear

Loves to play with his guitar

Shouts out all his friends' names when the teacher holds up a sign with the name

Wants to read Backyardigans Sing Along book at bedtime and knows all characters and songs

Has a tan

Loves to go to school and talk about his teachers and friends

SOMETIMES:

Tries to talk over Addison while she is telling a story

Has wild hair

Is a very messy eater

Calls out "Mommy, Daddy, get me out!" when he wants out of bed in the morning

Says he wants to play soccer when he's 4 and football when he's 6

Repeats "Thank you God...." tons of times before naming what he is thankful for

Gets scared or spooked very easily

NEVER:

Cries when we drop him off at Sunday School if he has a donut

Turns down a chance to give hugs and kisses

Uses an "inside voice"

Picks out matching PJ's to wear when we let him choose

Acts up if we tell him there is a policeman nearby

You "ALWAYS" keeps us on our toes...

"SOMETIMES" you make us laugh out loud...

You will "NEVER" know how much we have prayed for you!



We love you, Cooper Ingrum Knott!

Addison - Always, Sometimes, Never

On one of the blogs that I read, I saw this and I thought it was a cute way of remembering the little things about the kids at certain points in time...

Addison

ALWAYS:

Says her brothers name "Coopahhhh"

Wants to have her back scratched

Wants to kiss and hug Cooper before leaving his classroom

Wants to listen to Taylor Swift or Hannah Montanna

Says the family blessing first

Tries to be a mommy to her little brother

Is the first one to start our "Thank you God" discussion at the dinner table

Wants to play "Big Bad Wolf"

Wants a treat after dinner

Likes ice in her glass of milk

Gets eaten alive by mosquitoes

SOMETIMES:

Asks me to sing Jesus Loves Me at bed

Sings Hannah Montana songs and perform for herself in the window

Tries new food, says it's good, and then changes her mind

Buckles her own seatbelt

Wants to take a shower instead of a bath

Doesn't want me to do her hair, only Ms. Kathy at school

Takes a nap over 3 hours long

NEVER:

Talks loudly in public

Wants to get out of the pool

Wants to throw any of her artwork away

 Gets in trouble at school
Wants to go to her room by herself at night

We are "ALWAYS" proud of you, Addi!
"SOMETIMES" we can't believe you are our beautiful daughter!
We will "NEVER" stop loving you!

The SpOOktacular Halloween party!

The Rentfros had us over for a little Halloween get together, mostly since the kids wouldn't be Trick-or-Treating together because of Halloween being on a Sunday.  We had a great time!  They decorated Halloween cupcakes, ate sandwiches shaped like ghosts, pumpkins, and cats, bounced on the bouncy house, played "Pin the face on the pumpkin", attempted to make candy apples, and decorated a some really cute pumpkins! 

Precious Parker - this was the first time we have seen him walking!



Reid making a tough Spiderman face





Addi and Coop's pumpkins




The girls - TTU cheerleader and Cinderella!



Will, Reid, Matt, Cooper, Cole, Rylee, Addison, and Parker



On Halloween 2006, we had our first celebration when each of us only had one baby.  Now we all have doubled that!  It's so fun to see all of these sweet "pumpkins" grow up!

I didn't take many pictures, but I am sure I will be borrowing some from the other families!

Thanks again to thwe Rentfros for being great hosts to all of us! 

Trick-or- Treating at BP

Addison's classroom gets to go Trick-or-treating at my offices around Halloween.  Since Cooper's class is too young to do that for adult/children ratio restrictions, I decided to take Cooper along with us. 



Texas Tech Red Raider cheerleader!



Addison's classmates and teachers



Addi and her BFF at school, Nyla

 

Cooper and Addy got to tag along with their older siblings



Our Rocker Pirate!




Cooper's classroom got to Trick-or-Treat around the schools to the other classrooms




This is the closest we could get to any pictures of Cooper with classmates and teachers - none of them wanted to partcipate.



Lake Somerville Camping trip

Last weekend, we went on our first family camping trip to Lake Somerville which is about 1.5 hours from Houston.  We went with the Rentfros and all had a great time.  The weather cooperated with us, except that it was a little warmer than I would have liked.  At least we only had one "rain drill" as we called it where we had to move all of our stuff  and take cover for 60 seconds while it rained on us!  Luckily it didn't last long at all! 



The kiddos - Cole had just wiped out on the concrete so he wasn't a "happy camper!"





The Knott's tent - glad we bought an 8 person tent the last time we camped (6 years ago)!



The Rentfro tent - 10 person tent with 2 rooms, porch, bathrooms, kitchen, family room...



We stayed on an Equestrian campsite which was fine and we had a great view of the horse who was at a neighboring campsite.  His name was George Jetson.  So many times during the evening, George seemed to let out his loud "Neighhhhhhhh" at just the right time and it seemed to always fit right into our conversation topic or scare us!  We got a laugh out of that!



The kids checking out George.  Reid would always run away from George with his hands over his ears b/c of the noises he would make!

This was suppose to be a stocked pond, but we never got one nibble during our visit...neither did anyone else that we saw.  Maybe it wasn't stocked afterall...



The little fishmen and woman!



Cooper relaxing by the campfire



Addison and Cooper had to teach Cole and Reid a thing or two - how to get their "Guns Up!"



Addison enjoying her smores!  Yummmmm!

I would call our first camping trip a success - it helps when you have 2 over planners like Ursula and me!  :)  The only downside was the amount of mosquito bites that Addison came home with - she had at least 25 on her face alone and probably over 100 on her little body!  We have been putting Cortizone cream on it and giving her a little Benadryl to help with the itching and swelling.  They are looking a lot better already!