Cooper Family: More Fall photos

To celebrate the Fall we made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies. Both children really enjoy helping to make things in the kitchen. In fact, I asked Karis a few days ago what she wanted to learn in kindergarten and she said she wanted to learn how to climb a tree by herself and she wanted to learn how to cook with Mommy and "chop, chop, chop!"

Tasting is all a part of cooking, right?

Several weeks ago, Joshua and Craig went to the Father-Son Campout with 150 other fathers and sons from Cornerstone. They didn't spend the night, but stayed long enough to roast marshmellows and enjoy the campfire. Joshua made it all the way home from Cades Cove awake! I carried him up to bed and asked him what his favorite part was. He told me it was the "hot, hot". So, I put him to bed smelling like wood smoke from the hot hot fire that he enjoyed.

While the guys were at the campout, Karis and I enjoyed a girly time out. We went to Barnes and Noble to read books and have hot chocolate and I took her to get her hair cut and have her nails painted at the Kidz Cuts. She still talks about sitting in their salon chair and having her hair cut.

On Halloween, we took the children to a few of our neighbors to visit and get candy. I love the costumes - it brings back memories of trick-or-treating when I was a child!

I wore this costume when I was a child. Karis wore it two years ago, and now Joshua!

Thanks Mom for making this probably 30 years ago!

A few weeks ago, we found out that we are having a baby girl in March. For the third time in our journey as parents, we went to Krispie Kreme before finding out the gender of our new baby. Our theory is that if I have a doughnut, the sugar rush will make the baby move around so that we can find out what it is!! The children enjoyed the chance to have a hot doughnut!

Our niece Madie turned 4 a few days ago. She had a cowgirl party. It was a great idea. Stuart and Jenny threw her a "Birthday Breakfast Round-up". It was fun to get ready early in the morning to celebrate with Madie over breakfast.

The children had a doughnut eating race. They were supposed to eat their doughnut while it dangled from a string... but they all needed help from their hands!

And finally, we roasted marshmellows in our backyard a few weeks ago with our good friends the Sanders. This was a hit with the children. Karis was crazy about roasting the gooey treats, but didn't want to eat any of them after they had been roasted. She hasn't developed the appreciation for the fine culinary experience of blowing out your marshmellow and smooshing it between two graham cracker pieces!