Life in General

It has been HOT here!  Summer has truly begun.  We bought an outdoor canopy for the backyard because we don't have a covered patio yet.  The kids and dog greatly appreciate it.  Although, it is so sweltering that even in the shade, you melt.  Sara (the dog) has taken to sitting in our patio chairs.  I guess she is too good for the ground.  I find her in them daily.  She's still a really good dog, I just wish I had waited until we started the new school year before we got her.  I am pretty much stuck here because she can't be left alone for long periods of time.  Plus, we crate her at night and if I were to go out of town, no one would be there to take her to go potty in the middle of the night and if Richard were to get held over at work...it would be trouble.  There go my big plans of beaching and relaxing, oh well....

This picture wasn't staged, I found them like this.  Too funny.

Miss Dakota has reached a whole new level of crazy and I am scrambling to figure out what to do with my little girl.  Needless to say, nap and bedtimes have been horrific so I decided that we would do away with her one nap so she would easily konk out at night.  Unfortunately, she would be so tired that her behavior problems would peak at her normal nap time and them she would crash later in the day making her less tired for bedtime.  Thus, we have reinstated nap time and I just have to deal with the bedtime battle 2 times per day.  I know you will say she will grow out of this, but I am skeptical!

She is definitely a sleeping beauty.

Potty training Dakota has been a breeze.  I completely underestimated the kid and thought this would be a 6 month frustrating ordeal.  It had been about a week and she is 100% potty trained.  She is very proud and loves to congratulate Taylor and I when we go potty as well.  Taylor thinks this is hysterical, after all she is an old pro at the whole potty thing, but she plays along anyways.

Oh yes, more Dakota adventures.  She has discovered my makeup bag and is sneaky and quick like a fox.  If I leave my bedroom door open ever, she will discover this, make her way into my bathroom, and I will find her like this:

The Cooper man got a much needed haircut and looks even more studly than before.  I love when he gets a cut, he looks like such a little man afterwards.  He is very good for his stylist and sits pretty still.

Gotta love that face, I seriously could gobble him up!

Cooper is also working on the whole walking thing.  He likes to push around his toy and gets SO excited that sometimes I think that he is going to hyperventilate.  He's getting faster and faster, but still shows little interest in doing it on his own.

We had some friends over the other day to try out our new $8 slip-n-slide.  The kids had a great time and the yard had a nice, long mud puddle through the middle of it by the time we were through.  I tried it out once and realize that it wasn't as exciting, or as long, as I remembered.  Cooper looked so cute in his new swim attire so I was taking some pics.  Taylor wanted to jump in on the action and I got a great shot:

Taylor is bored out of her mind and we are all looking forward to a new school year of mental stimulation.  It is difficult to take my little pack of monkeys places due to a certain child's impulses.  You should see the looks I get when I have all 3 at the grocery store.  I have Coop in a front pack (which he is quickly growing out of, plus he weighs a ton!), Dakota in the cart seat usually screaming or singing at the top of her lungs, and Taylor running laps around the cart as I try to push it through the store.  So, yeah, we don't get out much.  We will be able to take the puppy on walks as soon as she gets her last Parvo vaccination in about 2 weeks.  After that, I plan on throwing the littlest ones in the stroller and Taylor on a bike and going for walks in the morning before it gets too hot.  As I write this, I realize I should be doing this now with or without the dog.  Hmmmmm...I guess I'd better get on that.  We'll see how the morning goes tomorrow :)