June Beach Trip

We took a family beach trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast a few weeks ago.  Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Cooper loved playing in the sand this year!

 Trying on Mama's sunglasses - ha!

In a hurry to get to the sand!

Our little beach bum!  He couldn't get enough of it!

He and his Daddy were trying to build a sandcastle.  That didn't go so great.  Seems like we are all a little weak in our "sandcastle building skills."  :)

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The water was absolutely beautiful!  Reminded me of the Caribbean.  I don't ever remember it being so pretty!

Summer is Officially Here (or at least it is for the Richards Family)! :)

Cooper's first sno-cone of the summer!  We had to chase the Ice Cream Truck down for this one! ;)

 

Birmingham Botanical Gardens Photos

We had some family photographs taken on Saturday, April 28, 2012.  The weather was gorgeous and it couldn't have been a better day for pictures!  We met up with a new photographer named Sherry Griffin at the Botanical Gardens and we are so pleased with the photographs!  I just love how she makes the color "pop"!  I was worried about getting and good pictures of Cooper since he was more interested in playing than having his photo taken, but Sherry got some really great photos!  You can find other samples of her work on her website www.sherrygriffinphotography.com.

Our little cutie!  Oh, how I love this child! :)

 I love this picture of him and his cute little grin!

 Sherry would tell him to give me "sugar" and this is what we got!  Ha!  He's all boy! :)

 Ditto for Daddy!

 Just the 2 of us!

 Family pic!

 I'm a sucker for black and white photos!

 Love this pic!

 Our little monkey!

 Sweet boy!

 Love this family photo of us!

 This was the last picture that was taken.  You can tell by the expression on his face that he was ready to go!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's! I am so behind in blogging! We had so much going on in the Fall and then, right before Christmas, we all caught a horrible cold that we passed around for a month. We are finally getting over that so things have gotten back to normal! I'm going to try to get Christmas photos on here soon, but until then, here are a few things that I am totally loving right now and thought I'd share!

First, I would just like to share that I have the most sensitive skin in the world....seriously, it's ridiculous! I have to be SO careful with new laundry detergents, makeup, etc. because most everything irritates my skin. Over the Christmas season I discovered this...

...and I am IN LOVE! This is the most wonderful facial moisturizer! It has SPF 15, so you have a little protection from the sun, and is so soothing! It has really transformed my skin and I couldn't be more happy! Usually, after wearing makeup all day, my skin would be really irritated at night. Now, I use this at night after I take my makeup off and I wake up with the softest, smoothest skin! I also put in on under my makeup in the morning and I don't have the irritation at the end of the day that I did before I discovered this!

Second, I don't know how many of you are fans of the TV show "Friends" but it has always been one of my favorites. Last year, I happened to catch a new show on ABC and it is one of the most hilarious shows that I have ever watched! It's like a modern day version of "Friends" but I actually think that it's funnier! It's titled "Happy Endings" and if you haven't seen it yet, you should!

Third, I'm one of those people who struggle with deciding what to cook for my family each night. I feel like I cook the same thing over and over had really gotten to the point that I grown really bored with cooking, which I have always loved doing. Then I discovered E-Mealz (http://www.e-mealz.com/). I had heard of it before but never really thought about trying it until there was a Groupon for 50% off for a 1-year subscription so I thought I would give it a try. Well, I absolutely love it! Along with easy (and tasty!) recipes for each night of the week, it also gives you a complete shopping list. Anyone with an active 2-year old like myself will appreciate that!

Lastly, I have been a faithful reader of http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ for a few years. I mean, come on, you can't NOT love Ree! Now she has her own cooking show on Food Network. If you have ever read her blog then you will love her show! A new season starts this Saturday!

I just thought I would share some things that I'm loving at the moment! :)

Pumpkin Patch Express - Part 2

Cooper and his Daddy in front of the HUGE pumpkin!

Decisions, decisions! Which one should I choose?

Having fun in the corn maze!

Pumpkin Patch Express - Part 1

Cooper is currently in love with anything to do with trains so we thought it would be a good idea to take him to ride the "Pumpkin Patch Express." It was a huge hit! We got to ride a train to a field that was setup as a pumpkin patch. They also had tons of kids activities there also! And they were all for kids Cooper's age so he had a blast!

Here's a picture of our "ride" - ha!

We rode in an interior car on the way there. Here's a picture of Coop waiting for the ride to begin.

Family picture taken by the train conductor.

Coop met a buddy on the train! He and this cute little guy talked and played the whole way to the Pumpkin Patch.

More pictures to come in Part 2!

The Joys of Raising Boys

Cooper has been attending a Mother's Day Out program since July and he LOVES it! I have never gotten a bad behavior report from his teachers. That is...I haven't ever gotten one until today. When my mom went to pick him up from MDO both of his teachers brought him out and asked my mom if we were letting him watch wrestling at home. Wrestling?!?! Neither myself or my husband have EVER watched wrestling. College football, yes, but not wrestling! Turns out Cooper has been going up to his classmates, grabbing them around the waist and body slamming them to the floor. He's also trying it on his teachers, who are two of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet. I was mortified! My little angel did that?!?!?! I started thinking about where he could have learned this. The only TV shows he watches are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Wonder Pets, Sesame Street, Bob the Builder and Thomas...and I've never seen Mickey and Donald performing wrestling moves on each other. But, I do kind of zone out when it's on, so I guess that could be a possibility, right? Nah...probably not. Could he be picking it up from college football? We do tend to cheer (loudly) when our team makes a tackle. Also, my husband will throw Cooper on our bed (which he LOVES)...could that be it? Or could it just be from being a rough-and-tumble little boy? I really don't know, probably the latter of the three. Maybe he is wanting to be the "Hulk Hogan" of his generation, I don't know. I just know that the wrestling is going to have to stop! We can't have him terrorizing everyone with the threat of being thrown to the ground. Besides, I have much bigger aspirations for him. Cooper, let's stick to careers like becoming the scientist that cures cancer or President of the United States, ok? ;)

Oh, the joys of raising a boy - it's the BEST job and I wouldn't trade it for the world! :)