Pumpkin Patch 2012

We had a fun-filled fall weekend! It was going to be really cold here on the Saturday before Halloween--the one day this month we actually had time to go to the pumpkin patch. I refuse to miss out on the annual pumpkin patch visit, but I was seriously contemplating skipping it all together. But the weather finally cooperated.

We had a great time.

We always like to see how big the girls have gotten. They just grow so fast!

Last year, this little girl couldn't even stand on her own. A year later she's walking, talking, and carrying on like a little toddler.

Bug standing in the witches mouth.

This place has all sorts of fun things for the kids to do.

And the haystacks were quite plentiful.

They made perfect spots for being silly.

Even Brownie thought so.

And this silly little Boushka.

Always a headband on this sweet girl's head.

All of the Copeland daughters posing with their silly face.

And the one Copeland son posing with his sleepy face.

The train ride is always the favorite.

They enjoy it every year.

My mom bought the girls one little gummy thing of candy--this one chose the worm.

We also went through a corn maze. I made the ones who were in front of me pose for a picture.

And finally the others caught up!

We finished up the corn maze and came home.

Peach was very into getting the seeds and gunk out of the pumpkin. She did a great job.

And while all the festivities were going on, I made this pumpkin dump cake. Since I was asked, here is the recipe for this delicious dish.

Pumpkin Pie Crunch (I got this from my friend, Winter)

1 pkg Yellow Cake Mix

1 (16 oz.) can solid pack pumpkin

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 cup chopped pecans

3 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 cup melted butter

Grease 13x9 pan, combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, spice and salt in a large bowl. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans. Drizzle with the melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 min. or until golden brown. Cool slightly and serve. Refrigerate leftovers (if there are any!)

Boushka's Update

 And here's my little Boushka. This girl is officially 3 1/2 years old on Monday. Wow! She's a little smartie--always thinking a mile a minute. She has always been like that. She's been a talker since day one, and she continues to enlighten us multiple times a day with her thoughts. She also likes to ask questions--like a ton of them. She is always asking questions about the future--like what are we doing today. Where will we go? How will we get there? What time will we leave? What if it's raining when we leave? Will Grammy be there? What time is it in China? I can almost always follow her train of thought--but only ALMOST always (SMILE)!

 One of her biggest accomplishments recently was the fact that she is officially potty-trained. We've been working with her for quite some time, but she never really cared. But at about the same time little Scrunchie was interested, so was Boushka. I so badly wanted her using the toilet before Hunk got here, but that didn't quite happen. It was close. She was in the midst of it then. And for a couple weeks now, we have had no diapers for her. She's so big--potty trained six months to a year later than her big sisters, but still so awesome! And we are very proud of her!

 She loves many things--Mickey is still a favorite. And recently, she's taken an interest in Phineas and Ferb. This show happens to be on immediately following Mickey Mouse. She adores her preschool class. This is her first year in preschool, and she's doing so well. She loves playing in the kitchen, at recess, and working at the art table. Art is certainly something she loves to do at home as well. Cooking with me is also a favorite pastime. We make, bake, and cook all kinds of treats and meals together. She's such a sweet little helper.

Boushka is still pretty petitie. She always has been. But she's not afraid to take her stand. She stands her ground more often than any of the other sisters--well, acutally I think Scrunch may be learning a few tricks from Boushka on this one.  I've been told that at preschool she is starting to learn how to not be too nice. She's learning that she doesn't always have to hand over a highly-sought after toy that she's playing with. When I heard this form her teacher, it made me giggle because she is the opposite at home. But isn't that always how it goes?

 Boushka is still a little on the young side to be involved in activities. But she has told us that she plans to be in ballet, gymnastics and soccer just like her sisters. I think she'd do great at each of these activities--especially dancing. She tears up the living room floor when we have our Wii Just Dance game on.

If you ask Boushka what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you A mama! with a big smile on her face. She usually likes to tell me that she'll have even more kids than I do--at least seven. I just laugh because she says it so cutely. She does have a head start--she's been holding Hunk a lot lately. She is so precious with him--always kissing him and getting his blankets for him. And this girl still kisses in her sleep. I've heard of people singing, talking, walking, and screaming all while sleeping, but this little girl has always kissed in her sleep. It started when she crashed in our bed all the time about a year or so ago. She'd constantly knee us or kick us, and upon realizing her mistake she'd make kissing sounds and say sorry. She now sleeps in her bed way more often than not, so I'd kind of forgotten all about this. But the other night I went to check on her after she'd been asleep for a while, and I disturbed her just enough so that she tossed in bed for a second. And when she was turning over, she made her kissing sound. I just smiled and let her sleep.

She's an awesome girl who is quite independent but also just about the most affectionate little girl. She fills our days with lots chatter, smiles, artwork, and of course kisses!

Update on Scrunchie

The other day was a great day to snap some pictures of my sweet little girls. Scrunchie was more than happy to pose for a few short minutes. She had many smiles to share.  I played around with the editing on these photos--so they're not all great looking. But I was just trying something new.

Scrunchie is going to be 20 months old in a couple days. She's only four months away from being two. Two whole years! And boy can she act like a big girl these days.

For the last 8 weeks or so, she has been using the potty like a big girl. It's not 100% of the time, but she does it anywhere from once a day to several times a day. And there's a few days where she just skips it all together. But since she doesn't say a whole lot of words yet, she uses her own sign language to let us know. Well, she signs by pulling on her shirt, but she uses her voice too--she just kind of fusses. But as soon as we say, "do you need to go potty?" She smiles and shakes her head yes. It's so adorable! And we are quite proud of our little gal. None of our girls have used the potty like she has been, this young.

She is a lover of food--I'm  not sure if there's anything this kiddo won't eat. She eats whatever is on her plate, but she also eats anything that she can get her hands on on anybody else's  plate. If I sit down with a plate of food while she's not eating, she fusses for me to share. And this happens a lot since I usually don't get a chance to eat until she's already cleared her plate. It sure is nice to not have a picky eater for once (SMILE)! And I think she has some kind of allergy--to foods, maybe. Sometimes after she eats, she gets hives near or on her face. I can't find one food in particular that does this. I used to randomly see scratches all over one part of her body--like the back of her neck or her waistline--places I don't see by just looking at her, but places I'd see if I were giving her bath or not hurriedly changing her clothes. I always wondered why and how these got on her, but I just figured she got sweaty in the night and scratched. Well, recently her hives have been happening more frequently and in places like her cheeks--very visible places. She begins scratching the heck out of them, and before you know it she ends up with these scratch marks where the hives once were. So now I'm convinced that she is scratching hives I don't see, and then I just see the leftover scratches hours or days later. Needless to say, we need to find a good allergist in the area because I don't plan on Bennadryl being a life-long drug for my girl.

She became a big sister about six weeks ago. She loves to check on her "Bo-bo" all the time. If she hears him crying, she says "Bo-bo" in the cutest little girl voice. She is very concerned, relatively speaking of course, for her little Bo-bo. And when she comes in to the room where Bo-bo is, she runs up to him and hits him on the head. I can tell she means it as a love gesture--there's no malicious look on her face. She's just so excited to see him--and she's running up to him--and what she means to be a gentle pat turns into a light tap. I love that she loves him, but now I'm just trying to teach her what "gentle" means.

Speaking of Bo-bo, Scrunchie loves his binkies and babas. Whenever she can get her hands on either of these two things, she does. It's frustrating for me because that means I'm constantly heading to the sink to rinse nipples. But she also has a little habit of putting these things in her mouth. This child hasn't had a binky in her mouth for well over a year (none of my kids have been binky lovers once they reach the age of about 4 months), and now she's acting like it's her long lost friend. And as for the ba-ba-- she quit that about the time he was born. But she always finds a pumped bottle of milk and wants to claim it for herself. Such a stinker--a cute stinker at that!

And lately, this little gal has become such a lover. She's been a daddy's girl for a year now, but just recently she's gotten back into mommy. Whenever we're reunited after being apart for any amount of time, she'll run up to me and act all excited saying "MAMA" with a big smile on her face. If I pick her up, she lays her little head on my shoulder--and often times pats me on the shoulder while doing this. It's the cutest thing, and it just melts my heart.

She's a rough and tumble kind of girl who only recently took an interest in dolls. I don't know if it's her age/development, or if it's because she just got a new baby brother--but she finally has an interest in dolls. I tried to get her interested around her first birthday and all summer long, but she didn't seem to care. But since Bo-bo's been here, she's claimed two dolls (that were big sisters' dolls at some point) as her own. She doesn't "take care" of it like some of her older sisters did (Brownie used to constantly cover up baby dolls with tissues), but she does carry it around. I'm just glad there's no aggression shown towards these dolls.

I used to rock this little angel before bed every night. But as I was trying to heal from the c-section and take care of a newborn, our routine has certainly been interrupted. I hate that I switched up her routine and took away something that was so special for us, so I've been trying really hard lately to get back into a night routine with her. So if I can, I rock her and sing her the ABC's--I know the song makes for an odd lullaby, but she likes it. And if I have little to no time, I'll at least go in and cover her up and sing her the ABC's. She likes to play the hide-and-seek game where I cover up her head with a blanket and ask "Where's Scrunchie?" And then I'll pull the blanket off of her and say "There she is." And she just giggles--and then I laugh too!

Also, as I was rocking her the other night, I asked her what a ghost says. And she just stared at me. Then I yelled "Boo!" with a smile on my face, and oh my that girl let out a big chuckle. Judging by her laugh, she thought it was the funniest thing ever. So we did that over and over and over again!

Scrunchie is about 25 pounds, and I forget how tall she is. I do remember that she's in the upper percentiles for height. I'll have to look that up. She's wearing a size 2t or 24m in tops, bottoms and dresses. She's about to reach Boushka's shoe size--she's a 6-7. Her hair is getting very long-- in fact, it's going to be professionally trimmed soon. So I suppose I'll be posting more pictures of this cutie soon!

She loves Elmo, Mickey Mouse, and brushing her teeth. There have literally been screaming fits by this sweet child because it was time to put her tooth brush back in the holder. This is after 30 minutes of "brushing" her teeth. A future dentist... or just something else this kid loves to gnaw on? Honestly, I think it feels good on her gums--those I teeth will be coming soon!

I know I mentioned above that she doesn't have a lot of words, but the ones she does use I want to note--

~mama

~dada

~shoes

~dog

~baby

~Bo-bo (brother)

~ball

~baba

~"I want down" (she doesn't really use these words seperately, but in this phrase she does)

She'll also say "I want that."

~does "Uh-uh" count?

She points to everything. She sings all the time--especially in the car. She loves to dance. She still shakes her hips when you ask her where her booty is. She loves to do whatever big sisters are doing--she swears she's just as big as they are. We have a Just Dance Wii game. Whenever we turn it on, she stands right in front of the TV and dances just like the figures on the screen. She's pretty good at it, too! 

If you leave the house without her, she's incredibly upset by that (most, but not all of the time). She is curious, but also afraid, of cats. She wants to pet one, but as soon as the cat notices her she freaks out. When we go to the grocery store, she now knows that the "car" carts are totally awesome. For the past few months she'll run up to that section of carts and try to get into the car part. She loves blocks. She also likes to play doll house with her big sisters. And last but not least, she's really into "Twas the Night Before Christmas." She found a little cardboard version of this story, and she carries it around all the time. If you ask her to go get a book, she'll bring you this one. It's pretty cute!

She's a great girl who warms my heart. She's super ornery, very curious, a little silly, and she can be so cuddly. I love you, Scrunch!

The Hunk is Growing

So I took some random photos of my little Hunk today, and I think they turned out too cute not to share.

This is the first time I feel like he's really changed. Like, he looks older! And I hate and love it at the same time. I'd be completely devastated if he wasn't growing as he should be, but I'm so sad to know that as each day passes, so does a moment in time where he was a bit younger than he is now. And age isn't really the issue here--it's what comes with aging.

Of course I'm not talking about gray hair, saggy skin, or what have you. But as he ages, even in his first year of life, he is on the road to becoming more independent. And I know all kids are supposed to do that, but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy that part completely.

I look at him in these pictures and I see a baby who looks just a bit older today than he did yesterday. Before I was a mom, if somebody would've tried to to convince me that I could notice a change in his appearance from one day to the next, I'd never have believed it.

But here's the proof folks. Tell me you don't think he looks older than the pictures I just posted of him!

Love you Hunk! But now I need to get on with sharing about Boushka and Scrunchie. They haven't had their name in lights for quite some time. On the to-do list tomorrow:

-Give Brownie medicine all day long

-Read Junie B. Jones with Peach

-Put two loads of laundry away

-Check out pinterest for a chicken recipe

-Work on birth announcements

-Write thank you notes to a million dear friends

-MOP my kitchen

-Look for Halloween stuff to use at Brownie's school party

-Pump for and nurse a growing boy

-Pick out a book with Bug that she wants me to read to her class

-Declutter/Clean master bathroom

-TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES OF BOUSHKA AND SCRUNCHIE

-UPDATE THE BLOG WITH BOUSHKA AND SCRUNCHIE STATS

*-Totally making another pumpkin dump cake--no wait, scratch that--save it until Brownie isn't NPO

*The pumpkin dump cake will be number one on my list for our fall fun day this weekend!

Bug turned 5!

Look at this, I'm getting a birthday post done on time.

Today is THE fifth anniversary of the day I gave birth to our precious girl! She has a special place in my heart. She's so soft and tender--she keeps me in check. She helps me keep in mind that I'm dealing with little hearts and little minds that are so impressionable each and every day. She's total innocence. The kind of innocence that believes in the good of humanity, in Santa, and in the fact that her mama is the end all be all of hugs and kisses. A soft place to fall (literally, my stomach is so soft these days--and I'm not talking about my skin). A place to let her heart speak freely. To let her thoughts ramble off her tongue and to feel safe about it. I hope I can always remember to be her (and all my kids') soft spot (I'm going to work on the abs, but I'll always be the metaphorical soft place to fall).

I love this little girls so much. She's always been a cuddle bug (hence her nickname). I can seriously see her at 15 cuddled up on my lap to watch Max and Ruby (okay, the Max and Ruby part is me dreaming). When she was a newborn, I had a terrible knot in my right shoulder blade area. Why? Well, that'd be because I held her in the bend of my arm all night long in the same position. I did this for about 5 months. It was painful, but not as joyful as it was to hold her like she enjoyed--our foreheads and the tips of our noses touching. I hold those memories near and dear to me. They're tucked away in my heart forever.

Bug, you are beautiful inside and out--really. I know this is cliche, but you truly are. You have big brown eyes, a heart for helping, your daddy's lips, love for your siblings, and so much more. When you grow up, you tell me you want to be a mommy. You still love Dora! In fact, you want another Dora themed party (at a bowling alley). I think you've wanted a Dora party for about 3 years now. Why fix what isn't broke?

To celebrate your big day today, we actually started last night with your dinner. You picked homemade chicken strips (Daddy does great with these), homemade mac and cheese, green beans, and salad. And you requested homemade brownies for dessert. Yum! I love your choices--good taste!

Today we had your breakfast. You chose a sausage and egg casserole, strawberries and grapes, and donut holes (I was able to get powdered sugar and cinnamon and sugar). You also got your goodies bag at breakfast--the contents being a tiny Cinderella doll, a Max and Ruby Halloween book, a box of candy corn, and Tom and Jerry Nutcracker. You've already watched your movie, read your book, and played with your doll. Not bad (SMILE)! During this time you also got a Skype call from Auntie--all the way from Africa!

You celebrated at school with lemonade Popsicles. I got to sneak a peek for the last 15 minutes of your class to see everybody celebrate your birthday. Then you had a date with Gram and Boushka. You came home and got to watch your new movie and hang out with family. Grammy came over to give you your card and a present. Then we went to sissy's soccer party at a pizza joint. And finally we came home and opened up your last presents from us. You love flashlights--and so you got one. A Hello Kitty one--recently you've developed a HK like! You also got a HK purse. I'm not sure you liked it as much as the flashlight.

I hope you had an awesome birthday, sweet girl. You deserve it because you are special. We love you forever and always! Loves, hugs, and kisses,

~Mama~