My Funny Cutie Pies!

All of my girls are so precious! I just love to listen to the funny things they come up with and do! They never cease to amuse me. Chloe's new amusing act is to constantly undress herself. Almost every day for the last week she has undressed herself no matter where we are. Her favorite place to undress is when we are shopping. One minute she has her clothes on and when I turn around to reach for the box of cake mix, or the juice or the eggs or the bag of chips, she is undressed down to her diaper again. It is very funny, although after the 10th time of wrestling with her to get her dressed, it starts to get a little frustrating. It is a good thing she is so cute, because as soon as she turns on that big mischievous grin, I have to laugh again. Almost every morning we have found her naked and as cold as an icicle, so tonight Ryan came up with a solution. We put one of those zipper p.j.s on and her safety pinned it so she could not get it down. She was pretty frustrated before going to bed because she could do her normal 10 strip downs before we put her into her bed, but she finally settled down. We are crossing our fingers that she doesn't figure out how to open the safety pin.

Kassidy is always so outspoken and she says some of the cutest things. That girl is like Jeckel and Hyde. One minute she is clowning around and flashing her dimpled grin and the next she is crying crocodile tears. Again thank goodness she is so cute and gives the best puppy dog eyes you ever saw to get her out of trouble. Tonight she mischievously got into Candy's room, which by the way is the ultimate tragedy as far as Candy is concerned. Kassidy stole her deodorant and put some on. Afterwards she cam into the bathroom, and lifted up her arm and told daddy to smell her ornament under her arm. Ryan and I died laughing and of course Candy was horrified that Kassidy had touched Candy's deodorant to her armpit. So it goes in the Cotten household! Poor daddy so outnumbered by all the girly drama.

Old McDonald's Farm

I have been reprimanded by more than one person for not keeping up with my blog. I should be doing notes right now, but I just didn't quite feel like it. I decided to start trying to catch up with my blogging, so here it goes!

I was so excited to take the kids to Old McDonald Farm today. We had so much fun! Our fun was cut a little short by the rain, but while we were there we packed in the good times.

This was Chloe's favorite activity. I had to peel her away from the horses. She loved this white one in particular.

My mom and Landon also came with us. Here is my mom with the girls feeding the deer that walk right up to you in the park.


Kassidy loved feeding all the animals! She had been asking to go to Old McDonald Farm for weeks, so I am glad we were finally able to go.

I thought this shot of Landon and the girls was so funny. Landon loved to climb on the concrete weights that help keep the doors shut and hang on them. He was so cute doing it.

Hanging with the piggies!

Mrs. Personality up to no good! She loved to get the feed and then when she thought we weren't looking just throw it on the ground. I thought it was so cute!

The goats sometimes liked to eat the bags more than the feed.

Another favorite activity for Chloe was playing in the dirt! We all came home with tons of it everywhere!

Chloe's B-Day

I can hardly believe my baby is turning 2 years old. It seems like just yesterday we had everyone over to trick-or-treat from our house two days after she was born. She has really grown a lot over these two years of her little life. What a blessing she has been in our life. Her personality has really grown. When she was born, she was very sick a lot and had acid reflux. She was a very fussy baby, and never seemed to be consoled. We spent many a day and night bouncing her on an exercise ball just to keep her from screaming. Look at her now with her bright smile and all of her giggles. For the most part she is now a typical toddler with her ups and her downs, but now she has more ups than downs. Chloe really has come a long way! We all love her so!
These pictures are from a family b-day party for Chloe along with her Great Grandmother Dorothy, and David. She really loved the cupcakes and her new clothes. She is definitely a clothes girl! Her favorite part of the dinner was the pizza that her aunt Jenny brought, and of course the cupcakes!

First Day of Pre-school

The girls had a pretty smooth transition to pre-school. Chloe did have a hard time taking a nap at school on her nap mat, and she still seems to struggle with it some days. Overall, she does very well in school, and she seems to love her teachers and going to school like big sissy Kass.

Kassidy's only issue has been with one of her classmates having a milk and peanut allergy. This has severely limited what we can pack for Kassidy in her lunch. The school is very strict about not allowing anything with any of those products in the class room. We have really been thinking outside the box for her lunches. We have been sending wish sandwiches, because Kassidy does not like meat in her sandwiches or the soy peanut butter that was approved. We send a lot of fruit and veggies, but she sometimes won't eat them. Sometimes she just eats when she gets home if she doesn't like her lunch.

The girls go to a Creative Learning Center at the Atascocita Presbyterian Church. They both go on Tues. and Thurs. It has been hard for me this year, because I never get to see them at school, because Ryan drops them off and my mom or sister Kelly picks them up. I work on the days they go to school, but at least it seems from what everyone says they are enjoying it.

Chloe takes to her new teacher easily!

Kassidy already playing with her best friend from the previous year Marley.



Chloe loves to carry her own gear everywhere. She is now very attached to her nap mat.

Aren't they they so cute in their matching shirts? What would we do without Children's Place?

Garner State Park

So we went on a family vacation to Garner State Park for the weekend back in July this year. I have never posted the pictures, so here they are. Its been a while since our trip, so I don't remember much, but we did have a great time! The water was low this year, so we ended up walking much of the way down the Frio River instead of floating. The kids didn't seem to care too much though. This was the first year we had gone since Candy was a baby. It was fun to hang out with all of the family. My mom always organizes a trip every year for her and any of her kids that want to come. We were all there this year for part of the trip. I remember my mom getting teary eyed that we were all there. Here is a picture of us hanging out in our inner-tubes waiting to go float and walk the river.

Concert with Candy

Candy and I went on a mother daughter date to a Demi Lovato and David Archuleta concert! We had a great time together, although at times Candy thought she might die of embarrassment when mommy decided to get up and dance with the rest of the kids in the stands. She immediately ordered me to sit down and hid her face for while until she got too excited about the concert to care anymore. Candy is not used to staying up so late, so when it was all over I had to practically drag her on the long walk back to the car.

All in all we had a pretty fun time, at least I did anyways!

Quirky Chloe!

Chloe is not a baby any more! She is getting so particular about everything she does! She seems to enjoy life so much more now that she can communicate exactly what she wants. Sometimes it takes us a few guesses to get her exactly what she wants, but she is learning new words and phrases every day.

I really get a kick out of all the different things that she gets attached to. She does not have any one thing that she likes all of the time, but she almost always has something that she is attached to for the moment. For nap time today Chloe was attached to a towel that was laying around the house after being used at the pool and a particular sippy cup that leaked everywhere. Needless to say I let her go down for her nap with the semi-damp towel, but I took away the leaky sippy cup. She of course took extra time to get her to nap, because I took it away. This evening Chloe threw a tantrum to wear Kassidy's size 5 pants as her PJ's, so we rolled them at the top 3 times and put her nightgown over the pants. Then she insisted on wearing the new sandals that dad bought her today to bed too. Oh and last but not least the singing barbie doll that she clutched to with all her might also accompanied her to bed. I'm sure by tomorrow morning she will be attached to some other random thing.

I love how my children always help keep life interesting!

Kassidy and Bedtime Stories

I had a crazy day today! It was one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong at the same time! I won't bore anyone with those details. Needless to say, I was dragging by the time to put the kids to bed. Of course in line with the rest of the day, Kassidy had an extra hard time tonight choosing her bed time story. She finally settled on a book about a bear who had bees stuck in his ears, and the bear couldn't hear anyone speak because of the bees buzzing so loudly. Anyways, Kassidy made up a cute song about the bees go buzz, buzz, buzz, and the bear can't hear. It was so cute! We both started singing it and laughing with each other at our silliness. There is nothing like the cutest 4 year old alive to help melt away the stress of the day! Thank goodness for little children! What a blessing they are. I love my kiddos for all the smiles and happiness they bring into my life!

Matching Cuties

Thank goodness for Childrens Place! Such cute outfits. We rarely were able to find matching outfits for Candy and Kassidy because there is 5 years between them. Luckily with Kassidy and Chloe we can get them matching outfits! Plus it gives an excuse for Krissy to make the awesomest matching hair bows.

I just grabbed the camera and started shooting. They did the rest!

Daddy Daughter Carnival

Sooooo, I thought I had officially handed the reigns of the family blog over to Krissy, but not so fast my friend. I guess if Krissy doesn't go to an event, she doesn't really know what to write as captions for the pictures......ha ha ha.

On July 3rd, Krissy and Candy took off to a David Archuletta/Demi Lovato concert....whew, got out of that one....so my date was with Kassidy and Chloe out in the 100 degree evening at our community's July 4th event.


The main event was a movie out on the soccer fields, but there was no way I was keeping the little girls out that late.

So we took in the "booths" and other "rides:"

For some reason Kassidy was FREAKED out by the little carousel on a trailer...this is the two seconds that Chloe lasted.

The one thing that they did enjoy was the trackless train, because it was moving, and air was flowing.

I am usually the photographer, but since I was by myself I made do with the self snapshot. At least I got the girls to smile. They were so sad because the Culvers Custard I got them literally melted in the 20 seconds it took to get from the Culvers booth to the picnic bench.....sheesh!

Overall good times with the little girls. They are my sweet angels and love to be with me! And I guess I like them too! HA HA HA

Zoo June 09

I went to the zoo with all of my kids, my mom, her husband David, and David's daughter Emily and her two daughters. We also met up with Rachel Turner and her kids. We left early to try to beat the heat, but by 11 am we were already dying in the Texas summer heat. We saw what animals we could and then retreated to the splash pad. We were out of there by 1:30 pm and everyone slept on the way home from being exhausted by the heat!

Chloe and big sissy Candy at one of the Ape exhibits!

Here is Kassidy sitting with our friends Rachel and two of her kids Aubrey and Nathan.

Chloe is crouching tiger hidden water baby! She had so much fun at the zoo splash pad!

Here is a shot of all three of my bathing beauties! Kassidy about scared my mother and I to death when she took off with a little friend that she made at the splash pad to play hide and seek over at a different part of the children's zoo. Luckily I noticed her absence quickly, and was able to locate her with in a few minutes of her escape. When I asked her what she was thinking, she said that she just wanted to play hide and seek with her friend. As I returned with Kassidy and her friend back to the splash pad the friends mother had just discovered the girls absence and had started to look around frantically for her. She and I were both relieved together at them being found.

Candy's GS Day Camp 2009

So we have had a very busy summer with lots of activities. Our first part of the summer seemed to be dominated with swim team. Next was this GS Day camp that was for a week up in Conroe. These are some pictures that I took the day I went to volunteer. Kassidy got to come with me, because she was old enough to join the youngest girls there.

This is a picture of the girls when they first arrived at the camp for the day. It was crazy hat day, so Candy is sporting two hats.

Here is a picture of Candy and her friend Emily and the potato pig planters that they made.

Here is Kassidy ready to get going at the beginning of the day! You can see that she has already discarded her hat! Mommy knew that would happen. She does not like to wear hats!

Cowgirl Boots!

Kassidy and Chloe both have a common love, and that is shoes! They love to dress up in different pairs of shoes! Here they sporting their favorite pairs of cowgirl boots of course raided from big sis' closet! They are partners in crime! I can't wait to see how much mischief they will make together the older Chloe gets!

Candy's GS Bridging Cerimony 2009

This was Candy's 2nd year doing girl scouts! They have had so much fun! I took over as the Troop leader half way through the year, because our leader at the time was feeling a little overwhelmed. Needless to say it has definitely been a learning experience! I think this next year will hopefully be a lot smoother, because I will actually know what I am doing as the leader. These pictures are taken from our troop bridging ceremony/end of the year party! Our little girls are moving from Brownies to Juniors! We had a lot of fun at this party held once again, you guessed it at Jumpin Joey's! The girls jumped for an hour, and then we all ate pizza and had this really cute cake that Wal-mart came up with. The girls did great with all of their parts, and had a lot of fun crossing over our make-shift bridge. The bridge was made out of an overturned card table that we attached streamers running from the legs down to the floor to make it look more like a bridge. It was the best we could do for a portable bridge. The girls earned 9 patches this year. We were pretty excited about that considering that we only really started meeting at Christmas Time.

From left to right: Brooke, Madilyn, JaNay, Candy, Reese, and Emily. In the back are me and Jamie Kieffer who is now the co-leader. Aren't they a good looking group of girls?

This is all of the girls participating in our ending ceremony of the friendship circle.

Close-up of our own GS cutest ever Candy Cotten!

Kassidy's 4th B-Day

So I am definitely behind in my blogging! I am going to try to catch up before I go back to work! Here are some cute pictures of Kassidy's 4th B-day party at Jumpin Joey's! Ya we did Jumpin Joey's again. We loved it for Candy's party we thought we would do it over again!

I'm not sure we really needed to go to all of the trouble of having a B-Day party for Kassidy, because we couldn't peel her away from one of her friend Marley's baby sister Camryn! We should have just borrowed Camryn for the day. Kassidy refused to jump for the majority of the party, because she wanted to sit and play with Camryn. Who could blame her with a cutie pie like that! Kassidy is such a baby magnet she tells me everyday, that she wishes we had lots of babies at our home. I always tell her that we will have to borrow other people's babies for now, because we have our hands full already!

Jumpin Joey himself was a huge hit with all of the kids except for Kassidy of course. She was still content to sit and play with Camryn. Here is a picture of Chloe and Kade admiring him from a distance.

When we got to the party room Kassidy finally started enjoying her party and hanging out with her friends! Here she is chowing on some pizza!

Kassidy loved her Fairytopia Cake!

Mommy photoshopped an invitation to match the theme!

Looks like Kassidy is getting brain freeze from her ice cream and cake!

Of course Chloe always enjoys her cake too!

Kassidy got lots of presents that she liked, but this pink, princess, pillow pig was her favorite. Try saying that 10 times fast!