Whew, what a month

Wow, where has January gone?  Its been a busy month and I found only a few pictures on my camera.  Here's the big stuff. . .

Bison victory--we were all decked out in our finest for the big game.

 

 Ryan's birthday--with the cake Miss Paige helped bake and frost.

 Cooper and Gramma Jane sharing some birthday cake--where there is chocolate,

Cooper isn't far behind.

Last weekend was spent in Williston, we got to see the basket ball star in action. 

Cooper testing out Aunt Bobbi's new bathtub--Mom was jealous!

Cooper

Mr. Cooper sporting his Disneyworld shirt he got for Christmas, and riding his new rocking bull.  He thinks he's pretty big stuff!  Note the shaggy hair; he had his 3rd haircut last night night at the salon and did sooo well--no tears or hassle.  Probably due to the sucker.  He drooled so much it ran off his cape and made a puddle on the floor amongt the hair clippings.  I left a big tip :)

New Year filled with . . .pirate ships?

I was going to a do a post with a beautiful picture of my kids and great prophecies of the upcoming new year this weekend.  However, my children are so thoroughly entertained right now I don't dare even speak to them for fear of interrupting their great time.  I provided the bed sheet and pinned it to the large curtain rod in the living room on one corner.  The other two sides are tucked into various things, and voila--the greatest pirate ship ever!  Fueled by a little Peter Pan, Miss Paige has turned the living room upside down; but there are tons of giggles by Cooper as he happily tries to destroy and play 'big' with his sister.  I am in the kitchen listening to their giggles, "Cooper Ryan, don't touch that!", and oodles of pirate jabber.  Its a good thing Cooper doesn't mind being bossed around at this point.  Here's to a good 3 day weekend coming to a close and a new year to fill with more memories.

Happy New Year!

Things we learned this Christmas. . .

In no particular order, here are a few bits of wisdom we will remember for future years Christmas.

• Santa shouldn't have the same wrapping paper that Mom & Dad have on their presents at home.  Paige noticed this and commented, "Santa has the same paper that we have at home!"  Mental note that he needs his own role of paper next year.
• Elf on the Shelf costs $29.99 and is worth WAY more than that in behavior modification around the holidays.  He disappeared until next year and managed to move each night.
• Separate the children when sleeping at Gramma's house on Christmas Eve--that way when Paige has to blind us with the bathroom light; she won't wake up Cooper at the crack of dawn--or 6:30am
• Get Christmas cards mailed out before Christmas so I don't have to cross out Christmas and put Happy New Years on them like the last dozen I just did tonight!  We ran out of cards and had to make some more.
• Make sure the Wii remotes are charged; as that sucker will be on every night after Christmas since Cowboy feels the urge to master the new games he got.
• Everyone in the world is on the internet on Christmas morning; and Skyping didn't work as well as we hoped.
• Next year--start the prep earlier so this tired out Mom isn't as frazzled as she was this year!  Everything went very well and we had a great time seeing our families; but there was a lot of last minute things going on that I can definitely avoid in the future.  I think I'll aim to have my shopping done by Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas, and here is hoping by New Year's that the presents, food, etc. all clean themselves up and find a home.

Christmas

 Cooper Christmas morning with his rocking bull.

 Cooper & Daddy opening up some presents at Gramma Shelly's

 Christmas morning--very early!!!!

Christmas Eve playing with a few toys before bed.

Christmas is a 'coming

So Christmas is a week away and the to do list is pretty big yet.  I am a procrastinator for some reason with the 'tasks' of the season.  So we devoted today to holiday baking and making a HUGE mess in teh kitchen.  Cooper helped for a while.  Paige worked on the ornaments we were swirling paint in and decorating.  I forgot to get glaze; so they are one solid color since the silver didn't work.  But a 5 year old's creativity with stickers made up for it.  We have one excited household anxiously counting down the days and one Mom wishing there were more hours in the day!

Our Elf

We finally got our elf.  Thanks to Jackie and Noel for helping us get our new elf, Chester, in time to enjoy him for a few days before Christmas.  I figured getting him for a few days was better than no elf at all.  Paige is at the perfect age for such things; and was SO excited to see him.  We jointly came up with his name and she wrote it in the book he came with.  She spent that first night talking to him and worrying about how he would get out of the box.  Cooper just poked at him behind the plastic sleeve.  Paige had me untie his neck--there was a twist tie holding him in the box.  I convinced her he could until the one around his waist by himself; sort of like a seatbelt.  She found him immediately the next morning on the coat hooks.  He's made it to a different spot each night; but I have heard that sometime there are storms at the north pole and he may be in the same spot.
Cooper was testing us the other night by sort of swatting at the tree ornaments; and Paige just wheeled around and looked at him with huge eyes and scolded, "Cooper--the elf is watching!"  I love the power of the elf.  If only he could stay all year round.