Playing at the mall

It's still pretty hot in Arizona. It stays warm well into October, and some years November. I don't mean nice, comfortable warm ... I mean dripping, miserable hot. It's a little odd to celebrate Halloween when you feel like you should be at the beach. But I'll take Arizona's heat over snow and cold any day.  

When the weather is warm like this we often find ourselves looking for places indoors to entertain the kiddos. There are two malls in town that have great play areas that both Cooper and Shelby love. When we get to one of these places, Shelby turns into a a little mama and watches over her brother like a hawk. No big kid is going to rough him up, at least not while his sissy is around!

I'll let the pictures tell the whole story. I have been taking a lot more pictures now that I have a good camera and I am so happy with the results.  

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So what's new with these adorable children of ours?

Shelby is back in the swing of things with school. Each week she likes first grade a little more. She still loves math and her reading class ranks at the top of her list along with art and music. After each reading class, Shelby id often thrilled to report that she was complimented multiple times by her teachers. She has a huge vocabulary and often knows the meanings of words that the other kids don't' She can also use these "big" words in sentences and even better, she uses them correctly. She loves words, which doesn't surprise me one bit. We are sort of word family! I'm still looking for a dance class that fits in our schedule. Shelby is really into dancing right now and puts on ballets for us. She's quite the little performer. For Halloween, Shelby has decided she is going to be a pumpkin. She's also decided Coop is going to be a pumpkin too. At first she wanted him to be the candle inside the pumpkin, but now she wants all of us to be pumpkins so we're a pumpkin patch.

Cooper is growing way to fast for me. He's repeating all sorts of words we say, like thank you, sister and no, no. He follows me around and is often not content if he's not wrapped up in my arms. But I don't mind. I love, love this baby. He's even more attached than ever to his blankie. He takes it every where with him and when he's ready to go to bed he snuggles his blankie up to his cheek and puts his thumb in his mouth. SO adorable. Cooper will pretty much eat anything. He's big on fruit right now, especially peaches and strawberries. He can devourer a piece a pizza in record time. And he know can very clearly single to us when he wants more to drink.

The other day when I was dropping Shelby off at school, when she was walking away from the car Cooper said "Sister," in a very sad voice and his bottom lip started to quiver. He was sad to see his sissy leave for the day. Those two have so much love for each other. It's beyond precious and makes my heart ache. I hope there is never a time where they don't love each other like they do now.