The past few months...

As everyone pretty much knows, the past few months have been a little crazy for us, so I am behind on my blogging. Much has happened...Cooper turned 2, we battled rats, we got rid of rats, heard rat scuffling again, had a great Thanksgiving, are preparing for Christmas, and staying busy with Cooper, work, and life in general.

Cooper's 2nd birthday party was golf-themed and celebrated on October 8th:

Cooper and his friend Brody playing miniature golf.


Cupcakes


Highlight of the party- playing on the playground.

And then the rats struck fury on the house and we went through a lot of craziness. Five weeks of craziness to be exact. So much so that I *might* have pitched the smallest of fits and eventually, our kitchen looked like this:

Look closely and you will see 6 glue traps with peanut butter, 4 snap traps- some with peanut butter, and what you don't see is the abundance of poison in the attic, cabinets, and between the walls and refrigerator. And as of yet, we haven't caught anything that we know of. The house is supposedly sealed up (I say supposedly because we haven't had the best experience with our exterminator) and we are able to stay at home, but still hear noises occasionally.

Thankfully, our friends Andy and Leigh (Leigh of "Supermom" and now marathon runner fame!) invited us over for a cook-out and playdate for a break. It was so nice to just sit around and talk and their boys Runyan and Byler were so sweet to Cooper. Here are Cooper and Byler hanging out with their dog, Oscar:


Cooper has become very entertained by Sesame Street, with Cookie Monster being his favorite. It was only fitting that's who he went as for Halloween.

This is one of the only pictures we really got of Cooper in full costume. He would ask for the hat to be put on, then immediately say "Hat off!"

Cooper didn't stay still enough for me to get picture of him on Thanksgiving, but we had a great time. We really split up the holiday this year, celebrating with Jeff's mom's side of the family the Saturday before, both of my sides of the family on Thanksgiving, and Jeff's dad's side of the family on Friday. Jeff and Cooper went to the zoo Friday while I organized presents and got some things wrapped, then we took him to see The Muppets at the drive-in:

Enjoying a snack during the movie.

Cooper was happy to flip between the front and back seat and really could have cared less about the movies. Jeff and I enjoyed the movie, though!

The tree is up, some presents are wrapped, and we're really pushing the "Santa's watching!" way of improving our child's behavior. I'll give you 2 guesses as to whether or not it's working. The tree, as always, is a work in progress because I have this "IT HAS TO BE PERFECT!" mentality, but here's the first go-round:


We've already made the trek to see Santa and it wasn't a complete failure. Here are Cooper and Jeff talking with Santa:

We ended up with a family picture so Cooper stayed calm and our Santa was willing to hang out and talk for as long as we wanted. Success!

Now on to the craziness of the holildays, finishing up the semester, seeing Uncle Tada graduate from Memphis, and a million other things while chasing after Cooper and keeping up with his hilarious antics.