Bedtime Kisses

Bedtime has been a struggle for the past few months to say the least. It has been coupled with my taking on new job that also requires me to do notes late many nights. Sometimes I am able to put aside the call of my notes to enjoy the hour or more that it takes to get the girls settled down, often I get irritated by the request to read the same book again for the 10th time. Tonight I had plenty of notes calling me, but I really enjoyed my time with the girls this evening. Ryan went to the store for groceries, and I volunteered to put the kids down. Chloe and Kassidy both wanted back rubs at the same time, but Chloe got upset that I would not lay down while doing this. She did not seem to understand that although I am flexible, my arms are not made of rubber, and it is almost impossible to rub two backs at a time while laying down. Finally I distracted her by smothering her with kisses. Chloe and Kassidy then decided to have a battle to see who could give mom more kisses. I could play that game all night. I can never get enough of their sweet kisses. Finally we had to settle down, but both my girls held on to me tightly as they fell asleep in my arms. What precious moments that I hope to remember forever!

Kassidy's First Sleepover

Kassidy got invited to her best friend Marley's sleepover. She was so excited, and she asked us about it everyday after we got the invite. Aren't the girls cute in their cowgirl hats! They are all cute rodeo princesses!

Saved by....YouTube?

I am on Little Mermaid overload. Kudos to the Disney marketing department for getting young girls addicted to Disney princesses. The flavor of recent weeks has been Aerial. Aerial this, Little Mermaid that. PJ's have to have Aerial. Pillow cases, blankets, sippy cups....even pull ups have to have Aerial on them. Unfortunately Huggies doesn't make "Aerial Only" pull ups. Only multiple princesses and Cinderalla only. So if anyone has any multiple princesses pull ups that they want to trade for Cinderella only one's let me know. I digress.

I was put in a pickle by this Aerial Obsession the other night. Chloe's only book that she wants to read for bedtime is of course, "The Little Mermaid." Krissy had read it to her before and she loved it. Now it was my turn. So we got to the end and I said, "The End." I began to close the book and Chloe freaked out. I tried to figure out what she wanted as she continued to point to the picture of Aerial on the last page. She finally squeaked out some sounds which I took as the famous "Ah - Ah - Ah" of Aerials voice. So in my highest pitch I tried to sing what words of "Part of Your World" I knew, which wasn't very much. Butchered it, but got through it and Chloe went to bed.

I talked to Krissy about it and she confirmed that she had been singing "Part of Your World" to Chloe after she reads. Uh oh. My turn again. So thanks to modern technology I googled Little Mermaid Lyrics on my iphone while rocking Chloe. I was SAVED...by YOUTUBE of all sites. The first link that came up was the Little Mermaid sing along found below. So now every night she wants the sing along video, and she tolerates my singing along with it.

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!