Student of the Month

I have ever mentioned that my Cooper is super sweet, awesome and just an all-around good kid! Well, he is. This month he was chosen to be the Student of the Month out of his class. Each teacher in the school, picks a student to be the Student of the Month out of their class. Each month they have a different value, this month it was Integrity. I think his teacher made a pretty good choice.

Here is Coop getting his award. Doesn't he look so excited to get it? This picture just doesn't show how excited he really was. :)

I am so proud of Cooper and the integrity he shows. He is very honest and always tries his best to make the right choice. Good job Cooper, I am super proud of you!

Bode turns 6!

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated Bode's 6th birthday...6! Holy cow! I can't believe he is 6!

I have never had a birthday party for Bode with friends, etc...I never thought he would like it or didn't understand that when you have a birthday you have a big party with all of your friends. Or maybe it is that he really didn't have anyone that he would want to invite to a party. Well the last year he really started liking his cousins, Coop's friends, basically older kids. He loved to be with them and play with them. And he was getting a little better with kids his age as well.

I decided that I was going to throw him his very first friend birthday party! Well because he had never had a party before, I went a little overboard and invited about 20 something kids, yes 20 something. Almost half of them were cousins and then a few were Coop's friends, and then some of the friends that are his age. I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, Bode doesn't really like crowds too much, and this was going to be a crowd.

I decided that we would do a Toy Story party, Bode loves Buzz and Woody!

We made the invitations that Bode absolutely loved! He carried it around for a couple days and he hand delivered each one (the walking distance ones).

If you notice on the bottom of the invitation, there is a disclaimer...I was trying to be silly, but I guess a little serious too. I wanted Bode to have all the attention, and I thought this may keep him in the room for a little longer than 20 minutes...it worked, kind of. :)

The kids arrived and Bode was having a blast with all of them downstairs. More and more came and he was still pretty good. We started to play games and he did pretty good, until he decided, "Whatever...I am going to my room and watching my own movie all by myself..it is my birthday, I will do what I want top." And that is what happened. Bode marched himself upstairs and turned on a movie and chilled. I think the thought of coming downstairs was a little terrifying at this point.

The party took place at Pizza Planet, so were were going to have pizza. Try feeding 23 hungry kids pizza...well it is possible if you have some help. Thanks Mom, Collin, Stacy and Hollie...I could have not done it without you! The kiddos were fabulous and Bode ate his yummy pizza upstairs in front of his TV, just how he likes it. :)

After dinner we did presents, I thought this would get Bode to come downstairs. I sure did.

Everyone was so excited to give him their present and we was so excited to open all of them. I was so great with each present, so happy! He received so many nice things!

After the presents we did a pinata (sp??) he loved that too. Too bad that we weren't even able to get through all the kids with it not breaking, that was with only one swing per kid.

After that we came up and did cupcakes, we sang Happy Birthday to Bode, he blew out the candles and then he was outta there!

The party turned out pretty great I think, Bode was pretty good for most of it and I think he did have a pretty good time.

We are so lucky to be surrounded by so many neat people that treat Bode so well. He is like any other kid to them. I think it was my little niece Emma that told her mom, "We are so lucky to have Bode as our cousin, it is so awesome!" (something to that extent) They accept him just like he is. Drew another cousin loves Bode and loves to play with Bode. One time my sister Hollie was tending and she was talking to Bode and asking him a question, and Drew told her "Mom, Bode doesn't talk." Like duh, mom...he isn't going to answer you. I love it, he knows he isn't going to talk but that is okay. The other day I was watching him and I caught him talking to Bode saying, "Bode, can you say patience?" Not sure where patience came from but he kept repeating it hoping that Bode would respond, an me also hoping that Bode would respond. :)

But thank you to all of you that make our little Bode's life better by being a part of it and accepting him and just being his friend. We are so grateful and he is too.

Happy 6th Birthday Bode boy! We love you!

October Fun

Did October fly by? I think it did, it is probably one of my favorite months of the year and it went way to fast! Although it went fast, we still had a great time.

The Halloween festivities started out by going to the pumpkin patch with Grandma Holly and cousins. The kids were able to pick out a pumpkin to take home and of course have fun running around (Bode).

Coop deciding what pumpkin would be the best.

Peiton pushing the wheel barrel

I think Bode may have found the perfect pumpkin.

All the grandkids, minus Lexie. Notice it is always the Richards kids that are not looking at the camera.

All the kiddos with Grandma Holly

When we were almost done, Bode decided that he wanted to take every small pumpkin and put it in his wagon, he had a blast, and I had a blast putting them away. :)

The next Halloween activity was going to the Richards Halloween Party. The kids always look forward to this (so do the adults). Grandma Holly makes her yummy cheesy potato soup and always has fun things planned for the kids.

Here are the kids with the grandparents. We had a super cute Cinderella dress for Peiton to wear, she would not touch the think. She wanted to be a dragon or a "Ragon" is what she called it. I was really surprised that Bode put on the Power Ranger costume. It is usually on his terms, and this wasn't on his terms. Of course, Coop looked great in the Clown costume, perfect for him because he acts like a clown a lot of the time. :)

The whole gang

Uncle Mat and Bode

Bode tackling Daddy

We were given a Haunted Halloween gingerbread house to decorate, Cooper had a great time doing this.

At the end of the party, Grandma had her annual treasure hunt that the kids got to do to find their Halloween gift. They had to go from place to place to find the clues at the end they found a sack full of Halloween toys, treats and money.

The next activity was my Annual Witch Party, how I love the witch party. Halloween wouldn't be the same without the witch party. This year I decided not to do a road rally, which ended up really good because it was a rainy night. I am kind of burnt out with preparing the road rally's at the moment. But I think it was a little more fun because everyone was able to just be together, we weren't separated (well we were still put into teams) but we still enjoyed each other.

Bare with me with all the pictures, there are a few...we had about 40 witches this year, and it was a blast!

My cute sisters

Cute Haws

Hot stuff Jack-wee!

Stacy and Heather

Marcy, Rach, Ashley

Shanae & Emily

Raye Ann, Heidi and Lou Lou

Lou Lou and Bonnie

Tiffany

More cute sisters...Kelly, Nicky and Courtney.

Nicky won for the best dressed witch. I am lame and didn't get a full shot of her outfit, she made it herself of course and looked darling!

Jenny, Camilee, Desiree & Stephanie

Heidi and Teresa

The one and only Lou Lou! This is her 3rd year of wearing the same costume and it seems to get better every year!

Another cute sista...Rachelle

Cute sister Alisha, well that mole on her face wasn't so cute. :)

Fabulous friends...Lou Lou, Rach, Me and Marcy

Rach, Nat, Marcy

Shelley

Hot stuff Alicia and Rach

One of the games was a doughnut eating contest, I love this picture of Marcy. Although she is scarfing down a doughnut, she still looks super pretty...sorry Marcy for posting. :)

Here is poor Stacy, who won this last time, this year she just couldn't keep up. She lost her doughnut of the string and had to eat if off the ground. :)

Alisha and Lou Lou stretching to get ready for another game.

Me with my cute sisters...I decided that I really didn't like my costume this year. It was put together like 1 hour before the party and I thought I would be a rocker witch...not so cute. Although I know you all want my pleather jumper...call me and you can borrow it. :)

This is the winning team...

Jaci, Michelle, Amy and Jacki (missing Alisha)

Jaci and Michelle, my cute high school friends!

Well that was it for the Witch Party...until next year you Wacky Witches...:)

The Thursday before Halloween I decided that we should probably carve our pumpkins. We had a little Halloween party just with the fam. I bought one of those pumpkin shaped pizzas at Papa Murphy's for dinner. We then carved our pumpkins.

Cooper did his pretty much all by himself this year, he did a great job.

Bode thought this was pretty awesome! Isn't this the best smile...so stinkin cute!

This is how Peiton enjoyed the evening...who is her mother? She doesn't have any clothes on, her face is a mess and her hair looks like a tornado just went through...seriously!

After the pumpkin carving we made caramel apples...yummy!

I always seem to forget that wax paper does NOT work for caramel apples. It just sticks to the caramel so basically when you eat the apple, you are eating the wax paper as well.

Here are two of the scary pumpkins.

Hummm...not sure.

Cooper devouring his doughnut, he gets his obsession for food from me...well his obsession for junk food that is.

On Friday the kids had Halloween parades at school that we were able to go to.

Coopers was first.

Cooper in his Halloween Parade

Bode in his parade, his parade only lasted about 2 minutes. Pretty quick.

Notice he is not a Power Ranger this time. Soccer player, that is the only thing I could secretly get him into so that he was somewhat dressed up. :) He looked pretty good.

After the parade we went to his classroom for their Halloween party. It was so much fun to see how he interacted with all of the kids. He loved that we were there and actually didn't want us to leave so he ended up cutting the day short and coming home.

Later that day we went to Wheeler Farm for their Halloween activities, it was pretty fun. The Myers and Pecks joined us which made it a lot more fun. They had a corn/hay maze that the kids played in for about 30 minutes while the mommies sat and chatted.

We then went and checked out all the animals at Wheeler farm. So we came upon the cows and this is what we see, I am realizing that this picture does not do it justice. Look at the middle cow, I think he may need to be milked, not sure but just a guess. :) I sure would hate to be that cow. OUCH!

We then went on a hay ride around the farm...pretty exciting. :)

We now have the Annual Van Wagoner Halloween Party at the Catmull home. We always look forward to this too! Everyone has to come in costume and we get some pretty good ones each year. Here they all are....

Collin and I were Raggedy Ann and Andy, Collin is posing as a tough doll Andy. :) And of course Bode and Peiton wouldn't come get their picture taken.

Mom and Dad were sweet hippies and Grandma was her cute self.

Eric was Chris Farley from one of his skits on SNL and Jacki was Mrs. Swan from MAD TV.

Hollie was a plastic surgeon and Russ was her patient....Oh...lala!

Hollie made Drew this awesome robot costume, I didn't realize he was turned around in this picture so you can't see it. It was so awesome. Leave it to Haws to make a fabulous costume.

This was so CUTE! Casey and Rachelle were chefs and cute Cru was a lobster...darling!

Alisha was a witch with that nasty mole again and Corey was sick and not able to make it. :(

The Catmulls were a family of Hawks...Alta Hawks that is...go Hawks!

Bode found Kendyll's horse (that we got to take home and he sleeps with it every night) and thought it would be pretty awesome to ride.

Well the next night was Trick or treating time and lame-o me didn't take one shot! I guess by the end of October you are burnt out from taking pictures. The kids had a fun time going around the block to get some candy but then the wind and rain came which didn't make is so much fun. Home they came. It was kind of nice not to have a bunch of candy around the house.

That is the basic outline of what happened this Halloween in the Richards home.