Morgan

Well our lazy days of summer are over and we are back into the swing of things. Morgan has been at school for a month now and it is amazing to see the progress. She has Aced both of her spelling tests and the girl is reading like crazy... She is reading and spelling everything, which makes it really hard on parents who have always relied on spelling things out that they didn't want kids to know.

Lots of exciting things for Morgan lately: First grade is challenging, but fun and she adores her teacher. She started riding the school bus, and loves it most days. I love the time it gives me that I don't have to wait in line at the school. She has had her first sleepover, and her second also. She is playing soccer again, and getting better every time. My little girl is growing up so fast. In some ways I absolutely love it, and in others I miss my little girl. She just turned 6 (thank you Mama Sug & Papa, Aunt Stacie & Uncle Lee, Papa Ron & MamaSharon, Jake & Aunt Kim, and Emma Jean for such great presents.) and even had a birthday party in our neighborhood with a friend, Ben. Luckily we have a great group of neighbors, even if they aren't as great as all of our family and friends. And yes, I did make the cake. They wanted horses and tractors, that's the best I could do.

Cooper

And Cooper... what do you say about Cooper. Let's start with him learning how to unlock the front door. You add that to the fact that he can stand on toys and push the garage door openers and you have quite a crafty kid... But when you couple that with the fact that he can push the baby gate blocking his doorway at night and get out, and manage to get downstairs at 3am without his parents knowing it, you have got one huge mess. But don't worry, he didn't try to get outside, he just got stuck standing in his high chair screaming for a snack. Did I mention that it was 3 am?

He is one entertaining kid though. Charming as heck and cute as a button. He & I started PIT (Parent, Infant, Toddler) classes and he is really doing good. Well, except for storytime. He thinks that is just a warm up for snack time so he runs back in forth to the tables waiting for everyone else to finish their silly little story so we can eat. He also started Stay and Play at the daycare too. This means he stays & I get to go play! Yea! Other than that, he just follows his Daddy around like a shadow and loves pulling his sister's hair. The usual boy stuff.

1st day of 1st grade.

Boys grow into Daddies

Our last Hooray for the summer was having our friends, the Slaymakers, come for Labor Day. Cooper and Alex are getting as close as Morgan and Emma. Only the boys are taking up their dad's tradition of workaholics and even playing on kid laptops. Like fathers like sons.

Stephen among the jeep rally that terrorizes our neighborhood like it's Bike Week at Sturgis.

Cooper gave out and crashed on Mike's shoulder at Morgan's Party.