The Loveable Lawsons

Thanksgiving in the Boonies!

2011-12-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

We always try and see both sides of the family during the week of Thanksgiving. This year we headed down to southeast Oklahoma to hang out with my side of the family, then we went to Gainesville to see the Lawsons. I forgot my camera so I depended on everyone else to take pictures for me on this trip. I haven't gotten pictures from our time at the Lawsons yet, so I'll try and fit those in another post. Here are a few pictures from our time at my Meemaw's house...One of the big events of Thanksgiving week was Cohen getting to have his first hunting experience. He's finally old enough to walk quietly through the woods and be still while waiting for a deer, so we finally let him go. My Brother, Chaney, killed a deer the day before Thanksgiving. I think Cohen liked to pretened it was his deer... we let him pretend!

Grammy and Campbell enjoying the sunshine!

My Pepaw passed away last August. He was an important part of the community, so back in the Spring they named the baseball park in his namesake. We went to check it out. Here are the kids running the bases on EE Shelton Field.

Our whole family under the EE Shelton Field sign.

Campbell was excited to eat her first Thanksgiving meal!

A family photo where everyone is looking at the camera! This never happens!

Channing Turns 2!

2011-11-16T12:59:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Channing's Big Day with family and a few close friends. Here she is trying out several of her presents at once... the keyboard, the hat, the purse, and the mittens!

After the party, family stayed around and we played Just Dance 2 on the Wii up in the playroom... my hubby has some serious dance moves!

Trying to get a family pic with 3 kids ages 4 and under is a little tough! Here is our best attempt. Please ignore the laundry room door being open in the background.

Channing is still at the age where she needs a little help opening presents. So I plopped myself down on the floor to be her "assistant."

Playing with Daddy.

In case you haven't seen Campbell in a while... her face is permanently like this! I've never seen a baby who grins as much as she does!

This child loves carbs! I had to stop her after two BIG pieces of strawberry cake.

A banner made of pics from her last 2 years of life... Thanks Pinterest!

Can you believe this is a homemade cake?!?! My mom and I experimented the night before and came out with this...

Channing,

You are our Chan-Chan, and there is not another like you on the face of this earth! We love so many things about you…Your contagious laugh, the way you instantly make friends with a stranger just by flashing that gorgeous smile and giving a wave with your “hiiieeee," the way you sing and dance to sound of every song you hear, your independence, and your passion…who can forget your passion!?! Even as a 2-year old, you are one of the most passionate people we know! And although you’re a handful sometimes, we wouldn’t change a thing about you. You’re a leader and you know exactly what you want and how you want it.

Our prayer for you is that God uses that to mold you into an amazing woman who will take these incredible talents you’ve been given by God, to have a huge impact on this world and do BIG things for His kingdom!

We love you Chan-Chan! Thank you for 2 wonderful and entertaining years! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mama and Daddy

Another season come and gone....

2011-11-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

Another T-ball season has come and gone! When the season first started I told Cohen that his new team was the Dodgers! He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and said, "But we don't live in L.A." The funniest part was that he was dead serious! Bless his heart, I haven't told him yet that this wasn't Major League Baseball.

I managed to get a few pics of his last game.

Here he is high-fiving his coach. He actually threw a kid out at first! If you have ever watched 4-year-old baseball... that NEVER happens! But his team managed to actually get a few of these outs this season!

He's so cute I can hardly stand it! Check out how baggy his baseball pants are.... He takes after his father, not his mother ;-) No "junk in the trunk" for this boy!

Go Dodgers!

More please....

2011-11-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

Cohen got the Wii Super Mario Brothers game for his birthday back in September… since then it has turned into his favorite game! So it was only natural that our kids be Super Mario characters for Halloween. My sister, who always loves a good craft project and a good bargain, took on the task of making their costumes for less than $10 a piece. I'm not sure I thought it could be done... but she succeeded. As you can see in the pictures, Cohen was Mario, Channing was Princess Peach and Campbell was Toad.

About halfway through the night we noticed that Channing was lagging behind a little and her bag was a little heavy... she wouldn't let anyone else hold it so we decided we would empty it out and start over. It was when we began emptying it that we realized her entire bag was full! She had 3 times the amount of candy that the other kids had! How could that happen?!?! Then it occurred to us... Channing is getting better at her verbal skills but currently her favorite words are MORE PLEASE! As we watched her the rest of the night, each time we walked up to a house she would say, "Trick or treat... more please" She was so darn cute in her princess outfit that they continued to give her more. Then she would say "thank you, your welcome!" She has yet to figure out you don't say those two words at the same time. It is amazing how much candy that kid hauled in!
On another note... we definitely should have put a bow on Campbell's mushroom hat. She looked like a boy and after about 5 minutes of trick or treating I gave up on explaining to people when they called her a "he" or "him". I just smiled and we moved on.... my fault for putting my child in red and blue! Oops!

Overall it was such a fun night. Cohen is at the prime age to really enjoy trick or treating. He kept saying, "This is the best halloween ever!" Although I'm quite sure it is the only one he remembers!

Friday Night Lights...In a Suit!

2011-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, Cohen was asked to be the crown bearer for Pearce's homecoming football game. A couple of months ago he received a hand-me-down tux from a friend. As soon as he was asked, he told me, "I get to wear the bow tie suit". He was all excited about the idea so he ran up to his room and tried it on... the minute he came down the stairs I knew that unless tux capri pants are a new trend then his bow tie suit dreams would be crushed. I promised him that I would buy him a really fancy suit, and that I did. Thanks Ross ($11.99). I mean, seriously, doesn't my son look like a million bucks?

Above is a pic of the little girl Cohen walked with.. They had only met once before, but they decided to hold hands through the whole thing!

About 30 seconds after this pic was taken, everyone ran off the field in excitement. There stood Cohen and Ellie, all by themselves at the 50 yard line... still holding hands. I always wondered what it would be like to be in front of that many people on the field (this is TEXAS FOOTBALL!) Now I know... I did my best non-chalant sprint out on to the field in heels to retrieve my little boy and his date. I am certain that had I not saved the day they would still be standing there as the second half kicked off!
Cohen and the Pearce Mustang! I'm hoping when he grows up he aspires to be a mascot as opposed to a football player. Sorry Chad! I get all panicky at the idea of him on the football field... unless it's the kicker, of course! Surely he can't get hurt as the kicker! I've brainwashed him into thinking the kicker is the most important player on the field!
Doesn't he look so grown up in this pic?!?! It kinda makes me get teary!

My Big Boy is 4!

2011-08-28T19:59:00.001-07:00

Cohen turns four this week, and we celebrated on Saturday with his friends and family. It was really fun planning his party this year. He helped plan and make almost everything!

Here is the backyard before the guests arrived.
He was our special "sprinkler" when making the cake balls.

We made this white chocolate covered popcorn with sprinkles for the party favors.

These special drinks were one of his creations...

He colored the labels and put his name on each of the bottles with stickers. Then attached the individual packets of kool-aid so each kid could pick their own flavor.

Cohen and his friend Douglas enjoying the snacks!

Silly boys!

My pretty girl with cake all over her face!

Once again, Cousin Jake made it up for the party!

Our very special guests, Cohen's great-grandmother, Mom Barr. And, we can't forget Nana!

Anxiously waiting to eat his cake pop!

Blowing out candles.

FINALLY!!

Our slip-n-slide relays! Each kid had to go down the slip-n-slide, shoot a basket and come back. Then the next round they had to go down again, eat a marshmallow, then make it back.

Then we played with the parachute and water balloons.

Having some brother/sister time in the bounce house.

Baby pool at the end of the slide... genius!

Afterward, they all came upstairs for an exciting game of BINGO.

My sweet Cohen, you are so special to us. Our family would not be the same without you. Your nurturing, empathetic, and joyful spirit make you a great big brother and a wonderful son. We love you!

Summer

2011-08-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been very good at taking pictures this summer... Here are a couple of highlights that I did get on camera.

In July, Chad and I went on a cruise to celebrate his 30th birthday. With no cute kids tagging along with us, I really didn't have a reason to take the camera with me. Here are a few pictures that I did get...
We played some BINGO two or three times, but had no luck! Here is me with my losing pouty-face.
At our dinner table one evening. We made some really nice, new friends at our table.

A couple of weeks later, my mom, sister, and I went on a girls weekend trip to Fredericksburg for shopping, spa time, and some REALLY good food! We left the kids with Chad and my Dad.

Before we left, the girls had to get some Grammy time. Channing is always "loving" on her sister. This picture cracks me up. Campbell is like, "mom, are you going to do something about this?!?"

Silly girl!

This was our first night at dinner.

We made a stop in Luckenbach on Saturday night.

When Chandy and I walked out, we had almost the same outfit on... black outfits with turquoise jewelry. I guess sisters think alike!

An early morning breakfast stop at the bakery before heading to the spa.

Relaxing on the front porch.

The front porch of our cottage.

A great weekend with great memories!

Cereal Time in the Lawson House... again!

2011-05-15T19:57:00.001-07:00

One of our projects for this weekend was to get Campbell to have her first shot at Rice Cereal. It was a messy experience, but I think it always is with the first try. Click here to see the blog post from Cohen's first cereal experience and here to see the post from Channing's first experience.

Catch-Up!!!

2011-04-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Here are several pictures taken over the past month.... Here's Chad man-handling all 3 kids. He played this role a lot over the past 2 months while our Project Mom Spring Tour was going on.... Super Dad!! Cohen has his final soccer game tomorrow. He had a great first season and had a lot of fun, so I think we'll be doing soccer again soon!

Here's his #1 fans!

Channing and I had a little photo shoot one day in the backyard. You can tell by her attire that this was taken several weeks ago. My little munchkin turned 17 months this past week. Oh yes, I have to take this opportunity to write down a cute and funny story about Channing... She LOVES to dance and sing. This girl can find a beat in anything! Even a breast pump, yes, that's right! All you moms out there know that rhythmn a breast pump makes. Everytime I start pumping she comes in and sways to the beat. It is HILARIOUS!

Our little Campbell turned 3 months yesterday. She loves to smile, and Chad and I both say that already smiles and cackles way more at this age than our other two.

A story I don't want to forget...

2011-02-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

I had to write this down, because this is something I don't want to every forget.

Last night Cohen and I were reading his new Message Bible before bed. We were on the story about Judas betraying Jesus and being handed over to the Jews. When we got to the part where the Jews shouted, "Nail him to the cross!" this was our conversation....
Mommy: "Does that make you sad that they had Jesus nailed to the cross?"
Cohen: "Yes, but it's kind of happy too."
Mommy: "It is? Why is it happy?"
Cohen: "Because it made him save me from that bad stuff in my heart."
Mommy: "You're right. Who told you that? Did Daddy talk to you about that?"
Cohen: "No, I just know it."

I couldn't say anything because I was so choked up and began to cry.

Cohen: "why are you crying?"
Mommy: "because I'm so happy that you know it."

That's my son- 3 years, 5 months, and 8 days old- wise beyond his years! Thank you God!

Channing at one year!

2011-02-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks before Campbell was born we had our friend Shannon take Channing's one year pictures.
There is one word to describe Channing and that's EXTREME! She's either laughing or crying, there is no in between! She keeps us on our toes and there is never a dull moment at the dinner table. Oh yes, and this girl is a singer. She can't hear a note of music without dancing and "singing" along. She keeps us all laughing at her silly faces, crazy personality, and VERY loud voice. I can honestly say that my one year old is one of the funniest people I know!

Sweet Channing, you bring so much joy to our lives and I love you!

Announcing Campbell Reese Lawson

2011-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

On January 13th at 12:09 am, we welcomed our Campbell Reese into the world. She weighed 7 pounds even and was 18 3/4 inches long. The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind... If you've seen us on Facebook you know part of the story, but I thought I needed to put it down in the blog world since this is technically where I scrapbook about our family...
It started out when she was about 24 hours old, we found out she had jaundice. This didn't phase us much, as our other 2 had some jaundice as well and we know that a lot of babies have jaundice. Campbell had to stay at the hospital one extra day under the lights. I came home on Saturday morning and she came home on Sunday night. When we brought her home from the hospital, her bili level was at a 14.4, still a little bit high but the doctor said as long as she keeps eating well and pooping well she'll work it out. We made an appointment to go back in on Tuesday and we took our baby girl home. Monday was a great day at home, and I noticed she was yellow but thought it would start getting better. We put her in the light some.
On Tuesday morning I took Cohen to preschool at the church and then we headed to the doctors office. When we walked in the doctor and the nurse both commented on how yellow she looked. I guess I hadn't noticed that it had gotten any worse because I had been staring at her for the past 24 hours straight! :) (side note, I know this is my last baby, so I'm trying to soak in this newborn stage!) They took the Bili meter on her forhead and it wouldn't read. Hmmm... I thought it must just be broken. Turns out, if her level is over an 18 (off the chart) it doesn't read it. The doctor said it must be a little high and that they would have to do another blood draw (this was about the 10th one and she was 5 days old!) If it was an 18-19 they would send us home with phototherapy lights. We left the office, ran some errands, picked up Cohen at the church, and headed home. My mom was with me, so I decided to take advantage of the time and get some work done. As soon as I sat down at my desk the phone rang. It was Dr Capote. Her level was a 24!! And that was a few hours earlier at the blood draw, so it was probably even higher by this point. She said to get her to the hospital immediately. I called Chad (it was game night and he wasn't supposed to come home until late) to tell him. As soon as I heard his voice I started crying and couldn't talk, which isn't like me at all so he got really freaked out. My mom took the phone and talked for me. I quickly packed a bag for Campbell and me, told my other kiddos bye, and ran out the door. Chad met us at the hospital.

We ended up spending the next 4 days in the hospital, just praying from blood draw to blood draw that her numbers would be heading in the right direction. The scariest part of it all was that her levels had hit such a high number that the doctor was concerned about brain function loss and hearing loss. We think we've ruled out any damage done to her brain function, as she's doing great and not showing any of the signs. She passed her first of several hearing tests a few days ago, but we will continue to get them regularly through her first year of life as the hearing loss sometimes takes longer to manifest itself.

God has been so good to us through this whole process. One of the biggest miracles is that He's given both Chad and I this supernatural amount of strength and peace through all of this. Besides the one time on the phone, I'm not sure that I've shed one single tear in this entire process. I've just known deep down that our family is resting in His hands.

Also, I'll go ahead and do a shameless plug for my pediatrician right here... She has been amazing through this whole process. I felt completely informed and in "the know" through this entire process. She took so much time with Chad and I every day and explained every step. If anyone is looking for a pediatrician in the Frisco area, I HIGHLY recommend her.

Ok, enough of the storytelling, I know you just really want to see the pictures.

This was when she was about 3 or 4 hours old.

The next 2 pictures are in reverse order. This is right after they took her apgar, weighed her, etc, and then handed her back to me.

This is obviously right when she came into the world!

This is Grammy getting her first look...

And this is Nana getting her first look....

Here we are leaving the hospital with her (the first time)...

She looks just like Cohen!

Here's big brother. We haven't been successful in getting one of all 3 of them yet. Cohen is SO good with her. I've been super impressed! Part of it is because he's older this time around and the other part is because this is baby sister #2.

Here we are back at the hospital again, 6 days old.

I finally got around to getting a picture of her with her age. This is at 2 weeks.

Some of my dear friends had a Sip n See for Campbell this past Saturday. It was good to see old friends!

This is what Campbell did the whole time.

Very cute decorations! Good job Leigh Ann, Kristin, and Jamie!

Bilingual Kids

2011-01-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article that I just read on raising our kiddos to be bilingual. I thought some of you mommy readers might be interested...

Early Childhood Education –Bilingual Education
It goes without saying that a good education is one of the best ways to prepare that child for the future. This preparation begins from day one, before they even start school. In this diverse and competitive environment, it is necessary for our children to have a great deal of knowledge and a unique set of skills.

The Bilingual Future
A trend that has become certain is the existence of a diverse, global society. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States. By being multilingual in the world we live in today not only gives one a competitive advantage, but also helps to give an intercultural appreciation and sensitivity.

Getting Ready
Traditionally a second language is taught starting in middle school, or even high school in some cases. However research has shown that this teaching can and should begin at the early ages of 2 to 5. This can begin at home or some child care facilities have adopted it into their curriculum. Studies have clearly demonstrated that the optimal period in a child's life for multilingual education is during the preschool years – at exactly the same time they are learning their first language.
Dr. Fred Genessee, Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Montreal, believe it's actually just as easy for young children to learn two or three languages as it is for them to learn one.

Beginning The Process
While it is obviously possible to learn a second or third language later in life, it is more difficult. Studies have shown that it is easier for children to learn at a young age because this is when their brain is most flexible. When they are older they must work through an established first language system and learn new grammar rules of a second language. When they are young, they learn based on mimicking.
The best way for a child to learn a second language is by actually speaking it in a total immersed environment. This way they can observe and mimic what they see with those who speak the language fluently. They can also become involved in their culture which helps in their learning process. So as a parent get involved, have a cultural themed night with music and food of the language they're learning.
The cognitive benefits are outstanding. Those who were taught a second language at an early age had higher overall performances in basic skills such as problem solving, creativity, spatial relations and communication when they entered elementary school. Studies also so that multilingual use more of their brain than those who are monolingual.

Co-written by Emily Patterson and Kathleen Thomas
Emily and Kathleen are Communications Coordinators for the Austin child care facility, a member of the AdvancED® accredited family of Primrose Schools (located in 16 states throughout the U.S.) and part of the network of child care preschools delivering progressive, early childhood, Balanced Learning® curriculum.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd get one more blog post in before Campbell makes her arrival! This is a recap of Christmas 2010! Being on bedrest, everyone came to us for Christmas this year. We started out on the 23rd with just the 4 of us opening our presents with each other before everyone else arrived.
Here is Cohen and Channing eagerly awaiting Daddy to pass out their presents.
Here's Channing getting down to business on her first gift.

This was Cohen's favorite gift of the season (and the cheapest, I might add. Doesn't it always work out that way?) A new basketball!

Luckily I had people taking pictures for me throughout the holidays, or I don't think I would have a single thing to put on this blog post!

Here we are making cookies to leave out for Santa.

Here's the final product, cookies and milk left on the fireplace.

Cohen wearing most of his gifts all at once, as he plays on his new Wii Rockband drumset. Channing is trying to help. Love the new Ughs, Tia!

As I said above, he decided to wear his new bicycle helmet, cowboy belt, and cowboy boots all at once!

Channing says, "oooo, is this one for me?"

Channing is trying to tackle Grammy!

The Lawson family came and spent Christmas Day with us, but I don't have any pictures from their time here. Carla or Kellie, can you guys send me some pics so I can put them up on the blog? Cohen had so much fun playing with Jake!

On Christmas night Sheila, Neal, Paige and Holt came over. Channing got a new rocking horse!

The cousins relaxing on the couch.

Paige walked around the house and got pictures of my Christmas decorations

The big tree downstairs.

The baby tree upstairs... with babygate included!

Cohen and Chad up in the playroom trying out the new Diego Wii game!

Sheila and Chandy posing for the camera.
Overall we had a wonderful Christmas! It's so nice to have such supportive family to help us out during this crazy time of bedrest, basketball season, and a 3 yr old and 1 yr old! Spending time with all our family was the best part!

Catch up time!

2010-12-19T18:26:00.000-08:00

Oh goodness! I have some major catching up to do. Where to start??? Well, for one, I was put on "modified bedrest" about 3 weeks ago. I'm now 35 weeks and she's still holding strong. If I can make it 1 1/2 more weeks my Dr says he'll let me go back to my normal routine.

You would think with this modified bedrest that I would have plenty of blogging time. But I've actually been spending a lot of my down time getting ready for our Project Mom Spring Tour. If you're a mom (or even if you're not!) check it out, http://www.projmom.com/. We have 5 locations and dates in the Spring. We have a contest that just started last week called Post the Most, and we're giving away an Apple iPad! If you want an iPad, this is an easy way to get a free one!

The week of Thanksgiving the kids, me and their Nana went to get pictures taken with Santa. We also got a few pictures of me and the kids. You'll notice that Channing is pulling off her bow in both of these pictures. It drives me crazy! She won't keep one on for more than a minute.

We went up to my Meemaw's house on Thanksgiving. Cohen got some reading time with his big cousin Isaac.

Then we headed to Gainesville to spend time with the Lawsons. Here is Cohen, Channing, and Jake jumping on the trampoline with Nana.

Here is Cohen and Gavin. Gavin is Cohen's 2nd cousin, but you would think they are brothers!

Then, a couple of weeks ago Cohen had his Christmas program at school. Here he is with his class and his two great teachers, Mrs. Ann and Mrs. Stephanie.

A few days ago I realized that I have no pictures of this entire pregnancy. With Cohen I took weekly pictures of my progress. With Channing we took a picture at least every few weeks. But with Campbell I've been a total slacker. So Chad took a picture the other night before we headed out the door for my staff Christmas Party. This is 34 weeks.

My Big 3 year old!

2010-11-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Cohen over the past few weeks. When I see these, it makes me realize what a big boy he is becoming!
These pictures were from his end-of-season teeball party.
Yum cake!

I had been promising Cohen that we could make the turkey cookies that he saw on Nick Jr for days now. Chad has been out of town all week and my Dr. has told me to stay off my feet as much as possible (I'm 31 weeks), so it's been hard to find time. Finally on Friday, while Channing took her nap, we had some mommy and Cohen time. Here he is posing next to his freshly iced cookie. He said he wanted blue icing... I've never seen a blue turkey, but I just went with it.

I let him choose the toppings from the leftover Halloween candy in the pantry. Milkduds and M&Ms were the candy of choice!

Here he is about to take the first lick of his yummy creation.

"What are you laughing at, Mom?!?!"

Channing's 1st birthday party!

2010-11-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had a small family party at our new house for Channing's first birthday. I have a video of her eating her cake that I will upload later. I love this video because it totally shows her personality. It's so amazing how two kids can be from the same family and be raised in the same environment and be so different! For Cohen's first birthday we had to put his hand in his cake and almost force him to try it. But not Channing... she's our wild woman! She went right after it!

Cohen came home from his teeball game just in time for the party!

Cleaning up afterward...

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

Trick-or-Treat 2010

2010-11-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from Sunday night. I tried to get a few pictures while the kids had on their "accessories" to their costumes because I knew they wouldn't stay on for long, and I was right. Soon after these pictures were taken hats, headbands, and wings began to be pulled off!

Cohen decided he wanted to be a pirate this year. complete with earings and an eye patch. However, when we attached the clip on earings to his ears he complained the whole time about them hurting so we decided to attach them to his eye patch...

Ok, here's a disclaimer about my little bumble bee... she had a little "spill" a few days ago. So please ignore the bruised forehead and the cut on her lip.

Sheila, Neal, and Paige came over to trick-or-treat with us. Here's our fairy and bumble bee!

2010-10-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, this might be the longest I've ever gone on a blogging sabbatical. Sorry about that! The only faithful readers that I probably still have out there are the grandparents.

I realized today that I never posted a picture of the first day of school. So, here is Cohen in his new classroom with his new backpack.
Cohen was invited to a pumpkin patch for his friend's birthday party. So we loaded up the whole family and went up to Celina. He LOVED it. The petting zoo is always a hit!

I really think he was trying to see how far he could get his hand down this goat's mouth!

For Channing, the highlight was wrestling with the pumpkins... or at least she tried to wrestle them.

I was able to get her to sit still on one of the pumpkins for about 1/2 a second... just long enough to get a picture.

Me and my 2 girls... the 2nd girl is hiding in my belly!

So, Cohen got a little carried away with the red frosting cupcakes!

Please don't judge me for Cohen's haircut... or lack thereof. We're trying to grow it out to see if we can get some blonde curls going. So far we just have a shag going on. If it doesn't start doing something soon, I'll have to cut it... don' think I can handle this for Christmas pictures!

Tee-ball Time!

2010-09-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Cohen had his first ever tee-ball game on Saturday. I'm definitely taking my video camera to the next game. These pictures just don't do it justice! He was so excited to be on a real team!

Chad and I can't decide what our favorite part of the game was... it's a toss up between when Cohen was playing centerfield and when the ball was hit in the infield he ran to home plate to get the kid out at home (first time I've ever seen a centerfielder cover home) OR when he was standing at 1st, his teammate hit the ball, and instead of running to 2nd he fielded the ball (in his batting helmet!)

Huddle up boys!!

1-2-3, GO RiverDOGS!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my big boy!!

2010-08-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated Cohen's 3rd birthday. I felt like he was such a big boy! This was his first party where he has actually invited HIS friends, and not just mommy and daddy's friends. It was a lot of fun. We had a pretty simple celebration at our neighborhood pool and the kids swam. Oh yes, and of course, a party for Cohen wouldn't be complete without a game of baseball.

Here are his party cupcakes. I had to get some pictures of our little Chan. She loved playing in the pool with her Tia.

A quick family shot. Look at those good looking cousins and aunt!

Here's the game of pool baseball that the kids had going. Chad was the pitcher, of course!

Cohen blowing out his candle after everyone sang him Happy Birthday.

Yummy cupcake Mom!

What is a party without junk food!?!

Jake and Kellie were able to make a quick trip from Austin. Several people said that Jake looked like Cohen's little brother... nope, just his look-alike cousin!

This is what Channing did for most of the party... she slept in Grammy's arms.

It seems like this is how every kid's party ends up while opening presents. It's a lost cause to try and get everyone to sit. They all want to get up close and check out the new toys!
This is a silly picture, but a good one to end on. It shows just how much fun he had on his special day... blue cupcake mouth and all!

9 months and counting

2010-08-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

My sweet baby girl turned 9 months last week. Here are a few things I want to remember about this stage:

Height: 26.5 inches (between the 5th and 10th percentile)
Weight: 16 lbs and 9 ounces (between the 10th and 15th percentile)
Head: 18.75 inches (90th percentile)

The little Miss started crawling this past week, therefore we've had to re-babyproof our house.

A few weeks ago she started whistling. It is hilarious! At first she came about it on accident, but now whenever we whistle she mimicks us. It's more of a sucking in whistle than pushing the air out whistle.

She also started holding her own bottle this past month. She could hold it before but needed our help to guide it. Now she does it all by herself. What does she need mommy and daddy for!?! :(

She is really good at copying sounds. Whatever we say, she repeats... "mama", "dada", "bubba" (brother). Of course she has no idea what she's saying.

Her favorite person in the world is Cohen, BY FAR! It doesn't matter what he's doing, if he's in the room her eyes are on him. He can pretty much just be his goofy self and he has her rolling laughing. Not just a little giggle. He can get her going like no one else can!

I'm trying to cherish this baby stage while she's still in it. With #3 right behind her, I know that she won't be able to be the baby of the house for too long!

Ranger starting line-up

2010-08-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of Cohen announcing the Rangers starting line-up... this boy LOVES his Rangers!

Galveston

2010-08-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

We just spent the last 7 days at a beach house in Galveston. Very laid back and relaxing for this preggo mama, and the best part is that I didn't think about work one single time! We had a great time with my side of the family and made some great memories. This was Cohen's first time to the beach and he LOVED it! I would say he's definitely a beach kid. So appropriately, my first picture is of his first sand castle (made with the help of Chaney, daddy, and mommy.)

We tried to get some family pictures on the beach one night, but getting a picture of all of us looking at the camera at the same time is next to impossible.

Here's Cohen taking a snack break at the pool.

Here's Channing with her Tia (Chandy) enjoying her first time in the sand.

When not playing in the sand, here is what our little Chan-Chan did at the beach. My dad brought at little beach tent and she took some of her morning naps here.

Cohen and Chad stopped just long enough for me to get a quick picture. My fair complected Lawson boys have to wear shirts a lot of the time!

We went to downtown Galveston one night and ate at Fishermans Warf.

Grammy and Channing.

Uncle Chaney and Channing.

Channing had her toenails painted for the first time. Matching with mommy, of course!

Cohen relaxing in the pool with Papa.

Here's a picture of the back of our house. It was so nice to be beachfront. We could just go back and forth as we needed to which was great with the kiddos. The top balcony was from mine and Chad's room. Great for watching sunsets over the ocean!

Daddy feeding Channing a bottle and enjoying the view!

Thanks for a great trip Mom and Dad! We had fun.

4th of July and Lawson Family Vacation!

2010-07-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July week! All of Chad's side of the family came to Allen on Sunday the 4th and we went out to Craig Ranch for games and fireworks. Surprisingly the kids stayed awake for it all and didn't even fall asleep in the car on the way home.
Here is my sweet girl... love that crooked smile!
And here is my goofy...

crazy...

Wierd...

and handsome big boy!!

Chad and Jake decided to take a stroll and people watch.

I love the look on Jake's face in this picture. He's like, "These other Lawson kids are C-R-A-Z-Y!"

We also took a trip to the pool on Monday. Here is Jake showing Channing all the cool things you can do with pool toys.

The week wouldn't be complete without a Triple Lawson bath... Quadruple Lawson bath coming soon!

We also spent a couple of nights at Great Wolf Lodge compliments of Nana and Big T. This was Cohen's favorite thing in the whole park (in addition to the wave pool)... It's a jet ski that shoots water guns. He spent hours on these things!

And here is my water baby ready to head to the pool... yes, I know I need to cut that scraggly hair!

6 month pictures... just a little late!

2010-07-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned 8 months yesterday and I'm just now posting her 6 month pictures... actually, these pictures were taken the day after she turned 7 months...

"New York, New York!"

2010-07-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

I now have a new laptop and am back in touch with the world! I have a lot of blogging to catch-up on. I thought I would start with our trip to NYC...

A few weeks ago Chad and I got away for a week with just the 2 of us, it was wonderful! The trip was for my 30th birthday. I turned 30 over 6 months ago, but since I had just had a baby a few weeks prior to my birthday, we decided to wait until the summer time to take the trip. Little did we know when we planned it that I'd be right in the middle of another pregnancy! Had we known, we probably would have waited and scheduled the trip for a different time. I was mainly just tired. My nausea has let up over the past few weeks, so it wasn't too bad.

Chad had never been to NYC, so we did a lot of walking around the city. We stayed right in the middle of Time Square at the Hilton and we went to see 2 shows, "The Lion King" (which I had already seen a few times, but you can never see that one too many times) and "Promises, Promises" with Kristen Chenoweth and Shawn Hayes. We also took the train over into Brooklyn Heights and walked back across on the Brooklyn Bridge, went to a Yankees game, ate really great food, and went to a mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Here are some pictures...

I got to meet Johnnie Depp... not really, this is a wax figure, as you probably already figured out!

Here is Chad standing in Brooklyn with the Manhattan skyline behind him.

We stopped by Grand Central Station at 5:00 and got a picture in the middle of the madness!

Mine and Chad's first movie to see in the theatre together when we were dating was "Serendipity" and when he proposed to me he had the theme song from the movie playing in the background. So we couldn't take a trip to NYC and not visit the cafe where it all happened. Of course, we had to get some famous Serendipity dessert. Here I am with my HUGE chocolate sundae!

We also went to the Yankees game. As most everyone knows, Chad and I are big Rangers fans and despise the Yankees. But we still wanted to go and see some baseball history. However, we refused to wear Yankees gear, but Chad wouldn't let me wear anything Rangers.

We had a great time! Now I'm feeling a little pressure to plan an equally great trip for Chad's birthday... if anyone out there has a good idea, let me know!

laptop...grrrr!

2010-06-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

my laptop has some major issues and I have to wait for our tech guy at work to get back from vacation, so i'm posting from my phone. Chad and I had a great time away last week in NYC. I'll post pics as soon as my laptop is up next week. Also, we've got some great new pics of Channing that I can't wait to share!

On the pregnancy front, everything is going well... Just very sick and tired, which I guess is good news that the baby is healthy!

Long time, no blog!

2010-06-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well, here are a few of my excuses for being so negligent over the past month on my family blog...
First, I launched a new company a couple of months ago called Project Mom. It's a company that resources moms and provides events for moms to get away, refocus, refresh and brush-up on mom skills. If you're a mom that lives anywhere close to the metroplex, you should attend our first Summit in September. Check out the site. You can click on the blog tab and scroll back to one of the first entries to see how it all got started. It's a pretty exciting journey that God is bringing us through!

My second excuse for the lack of blogging is that we're pregnant, AGAIN! Yes, this was not part of "the plan." We were pretty shocked for a few days, but now we're just feeling super blessed that God has chosen to give us 3! We know that every baby is a miracle, but when you're taking extra measures to keep it from happening and it still happens, it just seems like even more of a miracle! Channing and this new "Baby C" will be 14 months apart. We'll have 3 kids, 3 and under, yikes! When Chad found out we were pregnant he said, "Even the Duggers wait longer to get pregnant than us!"
We're still trying to figure out how we're going to fit 3 car seats in the back of my Honda Accord!

On another note, we had Channing's 6 month appt and she's a healthy little girl, still on the small side though. I'm not sure if that's because she was a preemie or because she's my daughter. Her stats were...
Height: 24 1/2" (10th percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs, 11 oz (22nd percentile)
Head: 17 1/2" (92nd percentile)
Which means, if she didn't have her daddy's big head, she might would also be in the 10th percentile in weight! Hopefully it will all even out.

I have been SO sick the past 2 weeks (way more sick than with my other pregnancies), so I have taken very few pictures. I did manage to get a couple of cute ones the other night while Chad was giving Cohen boxing lessons. Please ignore all the baby gear in the background...

6 month photo shoot!

2010-05-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Channing did a little 6 month photo shoot in Aunt Lale's backyard this week... I could just eat her up!! Love this little girl!

SO proud!

2010-05-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late posting this... 2 weeks ago several of our family members met down in Cedar Hill to see my brother. He's the valedictorian of his graduating class at Northwood University and he was the keynote speaker for the convocation. We were all so proud of him. He spoke on what true prosperity really is (having an intimate relationship with the Lord.) He did such a great job that believers and non-believers were all engaged in what he had to say.
Love you Chaney! You're truly a man after God's own Heart... our present-day David!

Here's all the family that came to hear him speak.
Here's our family, minus the kids... yeah, right, did you really think I was going to take a baby and a 2-year old to a place where they would have to be quiet for an hour and a half!?!

Chitter Chatter!

2010-04-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl is 5 months old. Although she's not progressing as quickly as Cohen with the physical milestones, she's blowing him out of the water on the social milestones. It must be a girl thing! She loves to "talk"...actually, she never stops! My favorite thing in the world right now is to hear her cute little cackle. I'll have to get it on video and post it soon.

Here's what she thought of the paper. I guess this was her way of telling me we were finished with mommy's photo session.

Channing's first spoon experience

2010-04-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, Channing is almost 5 months old, so we decided it was about time to start her on some cereal. You can click here to see the blog post from Cohen's first cereal experience and compare. It's funny when I looked back, I have them both sitting in the exact same seat in the exact same spot in the kitchen! This must be where I instinctly feel like it's the best place to have a messy activity in our house because I did not do that on purpose.

Overall, it wasn't too bad of an experience. I never expect them to actually ingest anything on these first tries with solid food. We call it "spoon practice" around here!

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Wow... what a whirlwind of a weekend! Easter is always obviously a busy week at work, but thankfully we were able to fit lots of family time in as well.

I opened up the door to my office on Thursday morning to this...
My staff had found these big lawn blow-ups and put them in my office. This one was in my chair...

Here's Channing with her new 2nd cousin, Caleb. Here she is thinking, "Finally, I've met someone smaller than me!!"

Here is Cohen hunting Easter Eggs in Nana and Big T's backyard... one of 4 hunts for this kid!

On Friday night we had an 83rd birthday party for Mom Barr. Here she is with her 4 daughters and most (we were missing 2) of her great-grandkids.
This one is a little out of order, but here's what the Easter Bunny brought for Channing and Cohen. Cohen got a lot of fun stuff and Channing got practical things rice cereal, spoons, bowls, and a bottle brush. Sorry Chan-Chan!

Saturday afternoon we had our Easter Family Picnic and Egg Hunt at the church. God blessed us with great weather and almost 1,000 people. It was great!

Here is my crazy friend Amy doing the adult hula-hoop contest...

Here is my crazy staff testing out the "5-legged race"...

Kevin, Kellie, and Jake made the trip up for Easter weekend and joined in on the fun...

Here's my pretty girl in her very first Easter dress...

We tried to get a family pic, but this was the best we could do. I wonder what Cohen is thinking about right here...

Channing got a pic with her Uncle Chaney...

And Tia (my sister's aunt name)...

My cuzs (is that a word? You know what I'm trying to say...)

Me and my wonderful hubby. I couldn't make it with weeks at work like this if it weren't for him!!

We got a late start on Easter lunch today, so Cohen was in full-blown meltdown mode and desperately needed a nap by the time we were ready for the Easter Egg Hunt. So we put him down for a nap and he got to have his own personal egg hunt in the back yard with mommy, daddy and Channing this evening.

This is his fake smile... but still cute (or at least his mommy thinks so!)

Woo... that was a crazy weekend. A couple of us needed to stop and take a breather. The End...

Just because...

2010-03-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sheila (known as "Lale" by Cohen and Channing) bought these furry boots for Channing when she was born. They finally fit her and we put them on her with this weekend's cold snap!
My baby is growing up!

Love those big eyes!

My new love and this week's pics of the kids!

2010-03-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

This week I used a gift card I got from my Dad and bought a special new surprise for my kitchen. Can you guess what it is?
Let me zoom out just a little...

Does this tip you off?

Yes, here it is!! I finally splurged and got a new Kitchenaid Mixer. Many of you probably know that Red is the new hot color for this beloved mini-appliance. But I just couldn't bring myself to get the red. I don't have a single stitch of red in my kitchen, so I decided to go with the classic silver to match my fridge.

If you have any great recipes for cookies, breads, etc that I can try out with my new mixer, please leave them in my comments. I'm dying to try some new recipes!

So, the last time i did an entry without pictures of the kids, I got in trouble. Here's a few pictures from this weekend.

We took the kids to the new Purple Cow in Allen on Saturday night. Cohen made sure he told everyone in the restaurant, "This is where purple cows live!" Not sure how he came up with that?

It was finally good enough weather to get Channing out.

The other day I told Cohen, "Your sister is so cute, I could just eat her up!" He looked at me very seriously and said, "You can eat Channing up, but please don't eat me up!" I tried to hold a straight face.

Pictures of the week

2010-02-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

Love this picture! Like father, like son...
Mom Barr (Chad's grandmother) and Nana came and stayed with the kids on Tuesday night so that I could go to Chad's playoff game. Side note: They lost the game... bummer! But secretly (which, I guess it's not secretly since I'm putting it on my blog) I've never been so happy for basketball season to be over! Channing was born on the night of the first game of the season. We're ready to have daddy home. Ok, back from my side note... Here is Mom Barr with the kiddos.

We're still chuggin' away with Mr. Purple Dinosaur!

3 month

2010-02-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

Little Chan-Chan (that's her newest nickname) turned 3 months over a week ago, but unfortunately for her 3 month birthday gift she got RSV (and then gave it to her mommy). So, getting a 3 month picture has not been at the top of our priority list.
When we brought her home from the NICU we knew that we were going to have to be very careful with her. We tried to keep her out of the "elements" during cold and flu season, but the virus seemed to find it's way to her anyway. We've been doing a lot of breathing treatments and just trying to keep her out of the hospital. She's been a trooper. We've had a lot of help from my cousin Paige (thanks Paiger!) She's been a lifesaver.

Please ignore her outfit in this picture. Changing her clothes is not something I like to try and conquer right now. It's hard for her to breathe when she lays flat on her back so we try and only change her diaper when we absolutely have to and just leave her in her nightgown all day. We also have her sleep sitting up in her carseat so she can breathe. It's funny that she looks so chunky in this picture. She's still a little peanut and doesn't even weigh as much as her daddy did when he was born yet!

Look at that smile!

I thought it was only appropriate to get a picture with her new best friend, the purple dinosaur face mask that we use for breathing treatments!

Sweetheart Dinner

2010-02-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

Ever since Cohen was born I have wanted to do a Valentine dinner for my family. I decided to finally do it this year.

First, I have to show off my valentine that Cohen made for me. He worked on this all week at school. Isn't it beautiful!
One of my friends bought this for our family and I decided to break it out tonight at my Sweetheart Dinner. The idea is that you bring it out at dinner time each night and whichever person in the family has done something extra special that day gets to eat off it that night at dinner. Until Channing knows what is going on, I have a feeling Cohen will be eating off of it alot!

So, to the dinner part... I wanted to make valentine theme ice for my punch but i didn't have heart shaped ice trays. So, I decided to make pink colored water with food coloring (i know, it looks orange in this picture, but it was pink) and then I poured it into my mini-muffin pan. I stuck a raspberry into each cup and froze it in the freezer.

They turned out pretty good. Once again, this looks orange, but it was pink lemonade punch.

I made sugar cookies. For some reason I didn't get a finished picture but they turned out cute once I got them completely iced and put the red sprinkles on.

For an appetizer I made fillo cups with a cheese stuffing. I found these red fillo cups to go with the valentine theme.

Cheesecake!! Don't be too impressed, I went with the Sandra Lee Semi-Homeade style here. I bought the cheesecake at the bakery and then decorated it at home.

Ok, this might look disgusting, but this is a 2 yr olds Valentine dream... heart shaped chicken nuggets and heart shaped pizzas!!

I also cooked some pork and veggie kabobs and salad for Chad and I, but forgot to get a pic of those. Not nearly as exciting as the pizza and chicken nuggets, right?! :)

I had my camera on a wierd setting and didn't notice until later that it was fuzzy. This is a pic of the table decor.

I think he liked it! Please excuse the hair. This is what happens when you play in the snow and then take a nap!

Cohen is showing off his Valentine's Day gift from mommy... Sock Monkey houseshoes.

From the look on his face, I think my first annual Sweetheart Dinner was a success!!

Sleep

2010-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I've wished for that for so many nights. Last night my dream came true... Channing slept for 8 hours last night!! Hall-e-lu-yer!!

Pioneer Woman Wanna Be

2010-01-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday I got in a very domestic mood and decided to try my hand at a Pioneer Woman style blog. Most of my friends know that I love to cook, but taking pictures along the way proved to be a little bit challenging (i'm a messy cook!)
I decided to make up a new recipe for a homemade tomato soup. I took the idea from my new Pioneer Woman cookbook, but for those of you who know me well, you also know that I never follow a recipe. I like to change things up with ingredients that I know my family will like. So, here it goes...
1 medium white onion
1 stick butter
6 Tbsp sugar
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can chicken stock
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 Tbsp minced garlic

I started by chopping the onion. After God, Chad, and my kids, my Rachel Ray knife is the love of my life. I couldn't do life without it! We have a date every night around 5:00... chop, chop chop!

Then I melt 3/4 stick of butter in the bottom of my soup pot.

I add the onions to the bottom of the pot and cook until they are translucent.

I add 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Here is another love of my life. Although, it's much farther down the list than my knife. This is my Pampered Chef spoon. She's great for stirring soup!

Then, I gradually add one can of chicken broth. Ok, right here I'll go ahead and share my thoughts on "off brands." There are some things in life where you can buy the "off brand." Chicken broth (and any canned things for that matter) is one of those things where, in my opinion, you can save a little cash and get the "off brand." Toilet paper, electronics, and coffee are not!! Can I get an amen!?

Then I added 6 Tbsp of sugar. I added a little more than that and it ended up a little too sweet for my liking.

As it begins to simmer, I add one bouillon cube.

Here is my pepper. Up until a couple of years ago, I had always used regular pepper from a shaker. Then I was introduced to fresh ground pepper, and wow... there is a big difference! It has much more pop!

Here I add the pepper to taste. Chad loves black pepper so I use it liberally.

Then I add 2 cups of heavy cream. Don't look at me like that. I never said this was a low-fat soup!

Then I go back to my faithful wood cutting board and Rachel (my knife) and chop the fresh parsley. The Pioneer Woman puts basil in her soup, but my grocery store was out of fresh basil and I'm not a big fan of dried basil leaves so I just left it out.

Here I added the garlic. We love garlic at our house so I almost always have it on hand.

Then I add a little salt to taste.

I go ahead and add a little more pepper. Did I mention Chad likes pepper?

When I got to this point I decided it needed a little meat so I added some turkey bacon. I haven't tried it but I was also thinking chicken and artichoke hearts would be very yummy too!

Here's a little tip I picked up from Rachel Ray.... throw your trash in a big bowl as you go and then you don't have to keep walking back and forth to the trash can. You can just make one trip at the end.

So, here's the finished product. It turned out really good. Feel free to steal this recipe, or if it doesn't tickle your fancy feel free to throw it out. My thoughts on Pioneer Woman style cooking?? I love the cooking part, but I hate the stopping and taking pictures part. I think I'll just stick with the cooking...

Mommy's prayer...

2010-01-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

As I sat here and cried my eyes out for 2 straight hours watching George Clooney's Hope For Haiti tonight, a million things ran thru my mind. With Cohen asleep in his room and Channing dozing beside me on the couch, I couldn't help but think about the kind of man and woman I hope for them to be someday. So tonight i prayed this prayer over them and had a precious time with the Lord in the midst of it all. I don't want to forget tonight. I'm writing it down so that I can have it for years to come.

"My dear sweet Cohen and Channing...
I pray that you will walk initmately with the Lord all the days of your lives. And because you are walking with Him, I pray that you will bear his fruit.
That you will see others with His eyes, the way He sees them.
I pray that you will both fight for justice for those who can't fight for themselves.
I pray that you will be leaders among leaders and that you won't wait for someone else to take on a cause, but when the Lord asks you to go that you will be bold and go.
May you both be relentless in your fight for the hurting, the broken, and the poor.
Use every spiritual gift and talent He has given you to fight this fight, for I can already see that he's given you both so many.
Hang on to His promise that if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be filled. He never goes back on His promises!

Oh Heavenly Father, give Chad and I all the discernment and wisdom we need to raise children who are selfless, who put others before themselves and who serve others with the passionate joy of the Lord."

2 months already?!?!

2010-01-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

We had Channing's 2 month appt today. Here are the stats before I forget...
Weight: 9 lbs, 9 oz- 25th percentile
Length- 21 3/4 inches- 25th percentile
Head- 15 1/2 inches- 60th percentile

As you can see from these pictures, she's starting to get the baby chub around the neck... Oh, I could just eat that up!

Later that same day I walked into the living room to find this. "Hello sister, let me show you how to use this toy." I kidd you not. It was exactly like that! I had to grab my camera!

After he saw that I was in the room and listening into their brother/sister conversation, he stopped talking. I think he got embarrassed. I'm going to have to sneak up on him more often.

Just givin' a little lovin'!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

2009-12-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

If you would have asked me a month ago what we would have been doing on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning this year, I would never have guessed it... yes, it's official... my baby girl spent her first Christmas in a shelter!! Here's the story...
We spent the couple of days before Christmas in Gainesville with Chad's family. We had taken Chad's truck because we had a lot of gifts (and several big ones) and didn't think we could fit it all in the car. When we woke up Christmas Eve morning and saw that it was raining, Chad's parents graciously agreed to let us take their mini van to my family's house in Edmond since the weather was going to keep us from putting everything in the back of the truck. Having no idea that a snow storm was coming, we headed south on 35 about 20 miles to Krum so that we could have breakfast with Chad's extended family before heading north to Oklahoma City. We should have headed to Oklahoma right when we woke up, but none of us had been watching the weather (obviously)! Around 11:15 my parents called and said that there was a really bad blizzard coming and that we needed to pack water, blankets, and snacks, just in case, and to get on the road immediately. None of us knew that this was going to be the worst snow storm since 1914 or we would have stayed at that point. We got our stuff together quickly and headed out.
We were doing well and being very cautious, but I'll just go ahead and say it right here... what normally would be a 2 1/2 hour trip became a 22 hour trip. At 2:50 pm (mile marker 104) we came to a complete stop. Here is what we stared at thru our front window...
I know what most of you are thinking... how bad can it be? They have a newborn and a 2 year old. I'm sure they were sleeping. Right? Uh, no! I have a 2 year old who has never taken a nap in his car seat in his life, so we had about a 3 hour meltdown! (This was when I was naively under the impression that we were going to start moving so I wouldn't let him out of his car seat).

Since Cohen was screaming at the top of his lungs, there was no way that Channing was going to sleep...

Finally, after I realized that we were probably going to be stuck in this storm thru the night, I let him out of his seat to walk around. Channing was thankful for this too...

Thankfully I am breastfeeding or we would have been up a creek. We had no formula in the car! We started rationing food when we realized that this was serious. We wanted to have something for Cohen for dinner and breakfast, and I just had a little and kept drinking water so that I could feed Channing. Cohen was so sweet... he kept trying to feed Chad and Chad would say "I'm full, you eat it." I really did feel like I was in a movie.

We did make a lot of good memories in the car... how did we go to the bathroom you might ask? There was no way that I was going to get out in a blizzard to go pee. Luckily Cohen had about 6 sippy cups packed in his suitcase... let's just say I filled up 2 of them.

We also somehow made it out without a single book, so Chad and I took turns making up stories. That was pretty interesting.

We had an old tissue that we wadded up and used as a "ball" and found an ink pen that we used as a "bat" and played "baseball" for a good 30 minutes.

We also took turns saying what we were thankful for. Cohen said "I'm thankful for Jesus, and David, and Goliath" (his go to answers right now). Chad said "I'm thankful for our family and that we are all together on Christmas Eve, even if we're stuck in a snow storm." And I said, "I'm thankful for sippy cups." We all laughed... I don't think Cohen knew why, but he laughed anyway.

We also spent some time praying with Cohen. We asked God to help us get out of this storm and to keep us safe. I remember thinking, "God, I really hope you answer this so that Cohen can see how you work." Well, I didn't think it would be answered like He did... later that night we got a knock on the window. It was a guy from a church at mile marker 104 (right where we "happened" to be stuck) saying that the highway was going to be shut down for at least the rest of the night and that they were opening their church as a shelter. We were able to follow some trucks and slowly make it over to the church. We are so grateful for the Goldsby Baptist Church and the community of Goldsby. They truly showed Christ to us and hundreds of other people that night. People from the church somehow made it in to bring blankets so that we could sleep on the sanctuary floor. The pastor called the lady who owns the corner store and she opened it up so that they could feed everyone sandwiches. Several of the church members stayed there thru the night and cooked a hot breakfast for everyone around 5 am on Christmas morning. And the worship pastor and some of the singers came and sang Christmas carols to try and lift everyone's spirits while the pastor read the story of Christmas from the bible. I saw several people crying. I'm not sure if it's because they were frustrated with the cirmustances of being away from their friends and family on Christmas or because they were touched by the body of believers who came together to rescue us. Either way, the Lord worked that night.

Around 9 am on Christmas morning, we finally arrived at my parent's house. Since Santa couldn't come while we were asleep that night, he came while Cohen took his nap that afternoon. We also made Christmas cookies...

And played in the snow.... we had to put ziploc bags and duck tape on Cohen's feet since I didn't bring snow shoes (like i said... no idea!)

I love this picture of his cold face. That hat was my dad's when he was a little boy... he was a Colts fan even before the Manning days.

Playing with Chaney in the snow!

I had to wrap up Channing real quick and get a snow picture. Ignore me... still in my pj's!

Chandy, Chaney, Chad, and Cohen built a snowman.

Later that day we opened presents... I think he likes the new sunglasses

Channing and Chandy taking a break on the couch. All the present opening was a little too much for them.

Cohen playing his new guitar with Papa!

His new football helmet... it might be a little big.

The next Romo!

Going back a few days... Cohen and Jake had a lot of cousin time.

I love this picture of Jake...

They also got to play with their 2nd cousin, Gavin. Look at all that blond hair!

Checking out the new toys...

Jake wanted to be doing whatever Cohen was doing and playing with whatever Cohen was playing with. It was pretty cute!

Just had to stick this in there... this is a little piece of heaven!

We were able to get one family pic.

We celebrated with the Shelton side the weekend before and Cohen was the one following all the older cousins around this time. Here is being taught how to play dominoes by the older boys.

Love this pic!

And last but not least, my Meemaw holding her new great-grandbaby!

1 month

2009-12-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

Our baby girl is one month old today. We took her in for her weight check-up yesterday and here are her 1 month stats:
Weight: 7 lbs 15 ounces- 17th percentile
Height: 21 inches- 30th percentile
Head: can't remember how many inches, but she's in the 66th percentile (starting to catch-up with brother).

Here are a few pictures I took today...

Our sweet friend Aimee had this onesie made for her.

This picture cracks me up. It shows how tiny she still is.

The due date and bedrooms...

2009-12-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Channing's official due date. I was able to get a few pictures of her. It's so hard to get a good picture at this age (especially when I let big brother "help" me take the pictures!)

I realized that I never put pictures of the new bedrooms on my blog. Here is Channing's nursery. Since this could very likely be the only girl I ever have, I decided to go all out GIRLY on this room.

A few weeks before Channing arrived we moved Cohen into his big boy room. I got these bins with labels so that all his little toys have a home. The system isn't being followed exactly (which I didn't expect) but he's doing pretty good.

Since Cohen makes some kind of art project almost everyday, I put up this bulletin board in his room to display all of his work. My fridge is thanking me!

I framed all of these black and white sports pictures along the wall of his room.

And the focal point of the room is the bed that my dad made for Cohen. We talked about this for weeks. The fact that he got to sleep in a big boy bed that Papa built, made the transition much easier. So far he hasn't tried to get out of bed on his own... wonder how long that will last?

We are thankful...

2009-11-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

We are thankful for many, many things. But this Thanksgiving we are especially thankful that we were able to bring home a healthy Baby Girl on Saturday! Here are a few pictures from her first week at home....
First, I made gifts for our NICU nurses (who we are VERY thankful for)! These ladies were a big part of our life for the past 2 weeks. We trusted them with our little Channing every day and night and they were wonderful! I made them these gift boxes with puppy chow inside and then attached new monogrammed badge retracters for their hospital ids.

Here I am at the hospital taking off her final monitor wire. No more machines for this girl!!

Here we are right before taking her out the door of the hospital. She's saying, "get me out of this place!"

Later, at home, here is big brother getting his first look at little sister.

Thankfully, she loves her swing. Cohen never stayed in the swing more than 5 minutes in his whole life, so this is a big bonus!

We are also very thankful for our wonderful family who has given us so much help with Cohen and Channing while she was in the hospital and since we've been home. Everyone came to our house for Thanksgiving. Here we are with all the Stouts and the Legans.

My side of the fam....

And Chad's side of the fam....

Love this pic. My Dad cuddled up with her this morning in bed.

We fit 14 people at my dining table. It was a little tight, but we did it!

Making an Entrance

2009-11-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in the NICU watching my baby girl nap, so I thought I'd pull out the laptop and jot down her birth story before i forget it. This will be a lot of text and the purpose is for me to have it on record. Please don't feel obligated to read... Also, please DON'T read if you get grossed out easily!

Late afternoon on Thursday , November 5th, Cohen and I left the office around 5:00. As soon as I got in the car I started noticing some contractions that were 5-6 minutes apart. Instead of driving home, I drove down to Chad's school. He was a little concerned to see Cohen and I walking into the gym in the middle of his practice. I told him I was having some consistent contractions and that it probably wasn't a big deal but I just didn't want to be at home by myself. Since my Aunt Sheila lives right down the street from his school, he told me to go over to her house and relax while he took Cohen to get some dinner. So I did. By the time he got back to Sheila's house with Cohen the contractions were about 3 1/2 minutes apart. We called Dr Fong and he said to go ahead and come in to see if they were "doing anything." We left Cohen at Sheila's house to spend the night with them and we headed to the house to get our bag and then to the hospital. We got there around 8:00. After we got all settled in the nurse checked me and I was dialated to a 4! So, these contractions were doing something. Since i was only 36 weeks they gave me a shot to try and stop the labor. After 2 of the shots, the contractions slowed down and weren't nearly as intense. Around 11:30, dialated at a 4 1/2, they sent us home.
Friday and Saturday I took it easy. Then Sunday came and I tried to take it easy, but that's not so simple when you have 400 kids to manage on a Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon I went home and relaxed, but "lost my plug" later that afternoon. I went ahead and went to work Monday because I knew this baby was coming sooner rather than later and I had several loose ends to tie up at work before I could start my maternity leave. Monday afternoon Cohen and I left the office and went home. Sheila met us at the house because Chad had his first game of the season on Monday night in Denton and once again I didn't want to be by myself if I went into full blown labor. Sure enough, it happened....
I was in the mood for soup and Cohen wanted some chicken. So Cohen, Sheila and I went down the street to Mimi's Cafe. We had just ordered when I started having regular contrations. Since I knew that I had been walking around at a 4 1/2 for 4 days, I was nervous that my water would break right there in the restaurant. So Sheila asked the waiter to make our order to go. We got it all boxed up and left the restaurant. We dropped off Cohen (with his chicken in tow) at our friend Lyn's house, who lives down the street. Sheila and I went back to the house to continue timing the contractions. After about an hour and a half of contractions, I called Dr Fong. By this time it was about 7:00. Dr Fong told me to go ahead and come in and that if i was dialated even more they would just keep me there and not try and stop labor anymore. I called Chad as soon as I got off the phone with the doctor. Remember, he was in the middle of a game. He picked up immediately, to my surprise. I said, "We're going to the hospital. Meet us there!" Luckily, he had driven his own car to the game instead of riding with the team in anticipation that this very thing might happen. Sheila and I proceeded to pack up and she drove me to the hospital. Chad ended up getting there about 10 minutes after us. When the nurse checked me I was at a 5 1/2 and she said, "I think we're gonna have this baby tonight." Chad called our parents and told them the news. My parents jumped in the car immediately and made the 3 hour drive... FAST! Little did they know that they had some time....
I ended up stalling out at a 7, when I got my epidural. Which was fine with me. I got some rest for a couple of hours. When the nurse checked me at 6:45 am i was at an 8 and my water still hadn't broken. She said, "You have one of the strongest bags of water that I've ever seen. You must have eaten a lot of protein when you were pregnant." Now there's a fact I didn't know. Note to self... eat a lot of protein for a strong bag of water... Anyway, since shift change happens at 7:00 at I was still at an 8, Melissa, the nurse who had labored with me all night, said, "I guess I'm gonna go. You still have a little bit. I'll come back and see this baby in the nursery tonight. Dr. Fong is going to come in a little after 7:00 and break your water." BUT... I kidd not... the minute she left I started laboring hard! I told Chad, "I feel like I have to go to the bathroom." Then about 1 minute later I started throwing up. "Where is my new nurse? This baby is coming!" A few minutes later she walks in and checks me again and calmly says, "Ok Cassy, we're at a 10 so we're going to break your water and this baby is coming." I didn't even have time to respond to that before I started throwing up again. And with that "heave" (I'll leave out the gross details), I felt my water pop! I looked up to tell my nurse that it had popped and I saw Dr Fong walking thru the door. "Perfect timing," I said. He started getting all his delivery gear on and the nurse told me that I could start pushing. Well, I did... 3 times, and then she said, "Stop! Let's wait for Dr Fong to get over here." As Dr Fong sat down he said, "Ok, don't push." "And I said, I'm not she's just sliding out!" Sure enough, she slid right out about 5 seconds later, at 7:41 am, weighing in at 6 lbs. 7 oz.
As soon as they put her up on my tummy I knew something wasn't right. I asked them to take her right back and suction her some more. While Dr Fong took care of me I watched the other side of the room as it quickly filled with doctors and nurses surrounding Channing. I could also tell by the look on Chad's face that she wasn't doing good. They took her away quickly to the NICU. Later, on my way from labor and delivery to post partum, they wheeled me down to the NICU so that I could see her. The doctor explained to me that there was a combination of things that were leading to a rough start for her. Not only were her lungs not fully developed, but she had come thru the birth canal so quickly that she didn't get a good squeeze on the way out and she had aspirated some of the fluid.
So... here I sit in the NICU, 9 days later. The first few days were hard because she was so unstable that they didn't want us to hold her. On day 4 she got her CPAP off and they let me start nursing her twice a day. Today she is on all 8 nipple feeds and they say if she continues to do well, she will be coming home Saturday morning! Yay! God has been SO good to us thru all of this and not only kept our little baby girl protected in His hands, but He has also surrounded us with an incredible group of family and friends to support us and help us during this time. We are blessed!

1 week ago today...

2009-11-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

It's been 1 week since Miss Channing entered the world. It's been a whirlwind so I've been very neglectful in communicating. The little miss decided to come 3 1/2 weeks early so she has had a rough start. She's still in the NICU but is getting better everyday. We're hoping to bring her home by the end of the week

Hopefully in the next few days I'll get a chance to write out her birth story before I forget some of the details.

Since it's flu season, they don't let anyone in the nicu except mom and dad. So, no one but Chad and I have ever seen her or held her. It's killing the grandparents and has proved to be a little bit confusing to Cohen. It's not the easiest thing to explain to a 2 year old.

Here are a few pictures. You can see that she progressively looks better in each picture. She now has all her breathing tubes out and we're weaning her off the feeding tube.

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Cohen had his first trick-or-treat experience this year. Some of our friends from our small group came over and met at our house to let the kids trick-or-treat together. My parents were also in town for the weekend so they got to observe some of the action. We did early trick-or-treating because the OSU-Texas game started at 7:00... sadly, that game ended up NOT being the highlight of our night!

Cohen had to get a quick pic with Grammy!

Family picture

We had to get at least one picture of Baby Channing... she went as a pumpkin this year :)! Chad went as Dirk (in case you couldn't tell).

Here is Cohen with some of his friends. He loves hanging out with the older boys... It makes him feel big!

Daddy and Cohen

Checking out the loot...

Maternity pics and Cohen's 2 year pics!

2009-10-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed over to downtown Grapevine and had a photoshoot with Kristin Cook. She did Cohen's 1 year pictures last year and we were so impressed that we decided to use her again for his 2 year pictures... we also snuck some maternity pictures in there. Right on cue, Cohen started acting like a 2 year old during his 2 year photo shoot... how appropriate! I really am shocked that she got any good ones!

2 year stats

2009-10-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

I know that I've been really hit and miss with my blogging lately. I just realized that i never wrote down Cohen's stats from his 2 year appt (which was about a month ago). So, here they are:
Weight: 27 lbs= 25th-30th percentile
Height: 36 inches= 80th percentile
Head: 20 inches= 93rd percentile

Yes, everything about him continues to be just like his Daddy!

Lately we have been redecorating Cohen's big boy room and decorating the new baby nursery. More pics of those to come...

2009-09-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Watch these two videos! These are the kinds of things I'll be so glad I have on video 20 years from now.

What have we been doing lately?

2009-09-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, let me show you in pictures...

We went to Stillwater for the OSU game a couple of weekends ago. This was Cohen's first college football game.
Here he is shaking Daddy's keys to cheer on the Cowboys!

Family pic!

Ok, so Cohen has been doing really good at going "#1" in the potty, but "#2" has been a little bit of a challenge, until I discovered the secret weapon... a Sports Illustrated! Give the kid a magazine and he goes "#2" every time!

Last weekend I was cleaning out all of Cohen's toys and organizing them when he came across his long lost headband. He was so excited to find it that he would not take it off the entire day. We went to Target in it and he even took a nap in it!

Here are some pics from the first day of school. They are in reverse order. This first one is an after school pic (as you can see by the snack on his face!)

Ready to go mommy!

We also recently went and took our first visit to Downtown Grapevine to see the train station.

The end!!!

Guess who's 2!?!

2009-09-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Cohen turned 2 last Tuesday and we had a party last Saturday... I'm finally getting around to posting the pics. Like most friends and family know, Cohen LOVES the Texas Rangers. So, we thought it appropriate to have a Texas Rangers party for his 2nd birthday! We had it here at the house and invited our family and some of his friends from church.

We did Rangers tattoos on all the kids. Cohen had several. This is one of them.
We decorated in Rangers decor and a lot of the guests wore their Rangers gear! We served our favorite ballpark food... nachos, hot dogs, pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, (if you haven't had these at the Rangers ballpark, you have to get them the next time you go. They're delicious!), chips, and cokes.

The cake...

The Pinata....

Cohen loves to play any game that uses a bat or a ball, so taking slugs at the pinata was right down his ally.

We borrowed a bounce house from the church and put it up in the front yard. It was a big hit!

Cohen and Papa showing off their matching shirts!

Cohen and Cousin Paige!

Cousin Jake and Aunt Kellie!

Mexico '09!

2009-08-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Warning: There will be no Cohen pictures or stories in this blog entry because Chad and I spent last week in Playa Del Carmen, child free! Our friends, Craig and Nadine, were getting married so we decided to make a vacation of it and go for the week. Many of Chad's college friends were there as well, so we hung out with them a lot.

Mindi took this picture of us when we were preparing to pose for a picture... this one came out better than the posed pic. I spent a lot of time in the pool... the only place where I felt weightless!

This is a picture of where we stayed.

Ok, I have to explain this picture... if you'll notice, the guy doesn't have any pants on! He's sitting there in his whitey-tighties! We went to a show at the resort one night and the host had several ladies who were competing in a gameshow go out into the audience and collect a pair of men's trousers! So, just my luck, out of the 500 people sitting in there, it would be the man sitting right next to me who stands up and takes his pants off!

Chad and I at the rehearsal dinner.

There were several exotic animals at our resort, including flamingoes everywhere!

Still hanging out at the pool.

The guys played a lot of waterbasketball.

Here is Kelby showing off his mad dunking skills!

When I wasn't floating in the pool, we spent a lot of time here, under the umbrella on the beach.

Picture of us before the wedding.

Mindi and Me.

The wedding set-up.

If you ever want to get married on the beach, I highly suggest it. It is beautiful. But you have to be ready for the random people who decide they want to watch the wedding too!

The bride and groom!

Funny story... Chad's favorite rap song from his high school years came on at the reception and I kidd you not, he grabbed the mic from the dj and rapped the entire song in front of everyone! I don't know what cam over him! He hadn't even had any alcohol! In this picture he is rapping for Nadine (the bride). He was a hit!

Chad and I brought back a few moves from the college days!

A big thanks to Grammy, Papa, Nana, and Big T for keeping the little guy while we were gone. There will be no more traveling from this mama for a while. It's time to get geared up for baby #2!

Lakehouse with the Lawsons

2009-07-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

We took some vacation time last week and spent a few days at Sheila and Neal's lakehouse with the Lawson side of the family. It was a lot of fun! Thanks Sheila and Neal for letting us use your house! The first day we were there we spent some time at the pool. Since I'm preggo and can't do any lake sports, this is where I spent a lot of my time. If you'll notice I'm not in any of these pictures, but I promise I was there. I'm just always the picture taker.

The first night Chad grilled steak and shrimp and we ate out on the back porch.

I love this picture of Cohen and Jake. This picture might be too small to tell, but it shows off both of their big blue eyes!

Cohen had his first tubing experience on this trip. It was funny because he talked about it all day and then when we finally got him out there he was a little nervous and didn't quite know what to think of it. Good thing daddy rode with him and kept him safe!

We also celebrated Kellie's 30th birthday while we were there. Ignore the fact that her name is smudged... Cohen dropped his sippy cup on the cake!

What a fun getaway!

4th of July!

2009-07-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

We decided to stay in town and hang out at home with just the 3 1/2 of us. We started out the weekend by going to the outlet mall on Friday morning and doing some shopping. On Saturday we went to the pool and then had a lunch picnic. After naptime I let Cohen help me make a 4th of July pie. It's a great recipe to make with kids because it's really simple and anyone can do it. It's basically a key lime pie recipe, but if you don't have key lime juice around you can use lemonade concentrate. The filling is lemonade concentrate, eagle brand, and cool whip. Just buy a store bought graham cracker crust and pour in the filling. Then, let it chill for a couple of hours and add sliced strawberries and blueberries to the top.

Here is Cohen helping to decorate the top. More blueberries (or blue strawberries as he calls them) made it into his mouth than onto the pie.
Finished product... he is being very stubborn lately and has decided not to look at the camera when he knows you're taking his picture. Grrr!

That night we grilled out and then headed to the firework show right down the road from our house. They had a lot of blow ups and games for kiddos. Cohen tried out any game that involved a ball.

Then Cohen and I went on a quick train ride.

Here's an update on our other child... she's growing like a weed as you can see. This picture is at 18 weeks.

Potty Power!

2009-06-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

I want everyone to know how proud I am of our little boy! We started potty training this morning. It went fairly well for Day #1, but when we started the day I had no expectations of him actually pooping in the potty, but he sure did! I know that we're still a long way from being completely potty trained, but this was such a proud moment for me!

Here he is inspecting the damage!

Pouring it into the potty. This picture cracks me up (no pun intended) because if you look closely you can see the ring on his butt from sitting on the potty.

Here he is enjoying the sweet victory with a sucker!

Day at the Aquarium

2009-06-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

After a week of basketball camp, Chad had his first day of summer vacation on Monday. So I took a vacation day and we headed down to the Dallas World Aquarium.

We tried to get a good family picture but Cohen wasn't cooperating. Don't ask me what face he is making in this picture.
He was intrigued by the stingrays...

His favorite movie right now is "Happy Feet" so, of course, his favorite exhibit was the penguins! Chad bought Cohen a penguin at the gift shop. Here he is giving it a kiss!

Helping Daddy Around the House

2009-06-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Cohen has been helping out more and more around the house lately... in his own way, of course!

He's been raking the sidewalk...

And sweeping the grass...

And putting new knobs on all the doors in the house.

I promise my child wears pants, but if you can't tell, it's a little difficult to get the hat off of him.

Here are a few pictures from some more Rangers games we've been to this summer....

Lori and Micah invited us to their suite a couple of weeks ago. We had a lot of fun!

If you can't tell, Cohen loves going to Rangers games!

Wearing Daddy's hat...

An anniversary and an announcement!

2009-05-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

First, I will start with the announcement... we are expecting baby #2!! I am almost 13 weeks. A lot of you probably have already figured it out if you've read my facebook profile. Anyway, all is good and we're very excited. So, this brings me to our anniversary....

Yesterday Chad and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. It was such a special day! Each year we take turns planning our anniversary day and this year it was my turn. So Chad took off work and we started the day by going to our first trimester ultrascreen in hopes that we could find out the sex of the baby, and we did! Yes, that's right we're having a baby girl! And more importantly, we found out that she is developing perfectly! Next we went to lunch at Mi Cocina, ate our favorite nachos, and talked about how our lives are going to change with a baby girl in our lives. After that we headed off to an afternoon at the spa. It was so relaxing. We got a couple's massage and pedicures. I didn't want it to end. After we were completely relaxed we headed next door to our favorite kids shop and bought our first girly-girl outfit! I've already decided (even before I knew I was having a girl) that shopping for girls is WAY more fun! Ok, so where was I... oh yeah, then we headed home and got ready for the evening. After getting freshened up we went to Rick's Chophouse in Downtown McKinney. Wow, if you haven't ever been there, the food is EXCELLENT. I was extremely impressed. We will definitely be going back. Afterward we topped it off with some Paciugo, my favorite! What a day! It was so great to spend an entire day, just the two of us, with no distractions.

I love you Chad. Can't wait to see what the next 5 years bring!

Here are the flowers he brought home to me. They were so pretty that I thought they were fake at first!

Our dinner on the patio at Rick's Chophouse.

1st place, baby!!

2009-05-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made our way out to Arlington for the Rangers game. For those of you who don't know, Chad and I are big Rangers fans. Out of the 162 games of the season, we watch at least 100 of them. We started doing this the summer of 2004 after we got married and moved to Plano. We had no money so we would watch the Rangers (or the "strangers" as we call them) almost every night from the couch. If we really wanted to splurge we would drive out to Arlington and buy the $5 tickets then move down to the lower deck around the 3rd or 4th inning. It's a lot more difficult to make it out to the ballpark these days with a one year old who has an 8:00 bedtime so we watch almost all our 100 games from the couch, but yesterday was the perfect day. With the rain delay it was a 4:00 start time. Perfect to be able to get a full nap in and still get home for bedtime.

We're pretty excited about this season. I want everyone to know that I predicted 90 wins this season.... our "Strangers" are well on their way (we're in 1st place for those of you who don't follow baseball)!

Cohen spent more time turned around talking to mommy then he did watching the game! Please ignore his hair. We're growing it out. I have this dream of him having long wavy blond hair this summer.... so far it's just a stringy mess!

If you'll notice, he's wearing his Mavs hat. He insisted on wearing this one instead of his Rangers hat. I decided not to fight that battle.

My Boys!!

A letter to Pepaw

2009-05-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we received some sad news…. My grandfather (Pepaw) has received the diagnosis of inoperable cancer. The cancer is progressing rather quickly and without a miracle from the Lord, this cancer is terminal.

The night I found out I spent a lot of time crying. I don't think Cohen had ever seen me really cry. He was so sweet. He spent most of the night curled up in my lap, hugging me and playing with my hair. He never sits in my lap that long! Later that night we were looking at a picutre of Pepaw and I was reading him a letter that Memaw and Pepaw wrote him when we was born. Here was our conversation:
Me: "Pepaw is sick and he doesn't feel very good."
Cohen: "boo-boo"
Me: "Yes, it's kind of like he has a boo-boo."
Cohen then leans over and kisses the picture of Pepaw and says, "all better!"
It was so refreshing to see the pureness and innocence of his little heart. He truly thought that Pepaw was all better because of his kiss. Why not, right? His boo-boos are better after a kiss.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks on our entire family, but this time has allowed me to reflect on a lot of things. I’m grateful that I have some time while Pepaw is still on this earth to share these thoughts with him.

Dear Pepaw,

I know for all of us this news has been, in some ways, more difficult to bear than it has been for you. You are coming to the time that you lived your entire life for… you are going to the one place where you will feel no more pain…The place where you will meet our Glorious Father… and you will hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant.” I’m convinced that you will see faces of hundreds of men and women whom you have led to know Christ either through your example, your faithfulness, your generosity to the poor in your community, or your boldness to speak Truth.

As I look back on your past 29 ½ years of being a grandparent… here are some memories I have:

- My afternoons at the store…. Chandy and I would anxiously await the hour when Memaw would finally release us to go over to the store. We would look both ways before we crossed the street in case there were any crazy Haworth drivers coming, then we would dart across. If it was lunchtime, you would always make us two of your famous Redland Store sandwiches. Now these weren’t just any sandwiches. I can still taste them as I’m thinking about it. They had the softest white bread I had ever sank my teeth into (so soft it would stick to the roof of my mouth after each bite), slathered with Miracle Whip (for some reason this Miracle Whip was much better than what Mom had in our refrigerator at home), layered with your thinly sliced ham (you would never let me get close to the machine while you were shaving the ham), and a cold piece of American cheese. Then we would sit on the bench while Glenn Farley told us stories. Now looking back I don’t think any of them were true, but he definitely kept us listening. If we were good, you would let us come around behind the counter and roll pennies. And if we were really good you would let us each get a coke from the coke box and a candy. I would get a Snickers and Chandy would get Skittles. Now looking back it was so simple, but those were some of the days I looked forward to the most.

- Reading stories…. Remember when I would crawl up in your chair with you and you would read me a book. I didn’t know until later in my adult life that you weren’t reading the story that was on the pages. You were making up your own story. I guess that’s why story time seemed better when you were reading!

- I never got in trouble… that’s right. I only remember getting in trouble with you one time. That’s when I locked the one-and-only bathroom door from the inside so that no one could get in. (I have no idea why I did that.) You had to get a bobby pin and jimmy the door open. That’s the only time I remember getting in trouble…. You left most of that to Memaw.

- Your love for “42”… now that I’m older I wish I would have learned to play with you and Memaw. Even though you tried more times than I can count to teach me the rules, I just never had enough patience. Lucky for you guys I married a 42 player!

The one thing I will hold most dear to my heart is not a memory, but the legacy you have left with your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Because of your and Memaw’s decision to make Jesus the center of your life, I have a mother and father who raised me to have a relationship with Him, and because Chad and I have that personal relationship with Jesus, we will raise our children to know Him in hopes that someday they will not only know him as their Savior but live a life sold out to Him.

Thank you for following the Deuteronomy 6 commandment that God gave to Israel..

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

We’re all blessed to have a Pepaw like you!

I love you,

Cassy

Easter '09!

2009-04-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

It's taken me almost 2 weeks to blog about our Easter weekend, but I'm finally getting around to it. We had a great weekend with family. Saturday we had our all-church family picnic and easter egg hunt which my children's ministry team and I put on. It went really well but I was busy most of the day and didn't get to be with Cohen much. Chad was also helping out a lot so luckily Nana, Big T, Kellie, Kevin and Jake came and spent the day with Cohen, got him ready and brought him to the picnic. Here are a few pics...

Cohen didn't quite understand why he had to wait until I said "go" before he could start picking up eggs.

He also didn't understand that is was a race and he wanted to stop and open each egg as he picked it up, so he ended up with a total of 3 eggs... there were 6,322 eggs total... i guess he just wanted to leave plenty for the other kids :)

Still, just taking his time....

The Easter bunny showed up for some picture opps so Nana and Big T got one with the grandbabies...

I love this picture of Jake (my one and only nephew). This is the cutest outfit.

Daddy and Cohen taking a walk through the crowd.

These were in his Easter basket from Grammy. Now he puts them on and says, "ribbit, ribbit!"

Sunday we went over to the Legans for Easter lunch and an egg hunt. Cohen found a prize egg with money. From the look of his eyes in this picture, I think he's beginning to come down from his sugar high... plus it's two hours past nap time.

Swimming videos.

2009-04-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of videos from Cohen's most recent swim lessons. ISR lessons teach them what to do if they fall in the water. Which is to float on their back, flip, swim, and then if they can't find the edge of the pool or a steady object to grab on to, then to flip back over and float more. I didn't get much swimming action in these videos, but a lot of floating and flipping. Surprisingly the flipping is the hardest thing for them to learn to do because they have to use their ab muscles to get over. The swimming comes more naturally.

Funny Story...

2009-03-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Cohen woke up from a long nap and was very hungry. His stomach growled very loud, which we think was a first experience for him. After the growl, he pointed at his belly button and said "I tooted". Hmmm... yes, I guess you could look at it that way... a belly button toot. Oh, how I love looking at things through the eyes of an 18 month old!

Swim Time!

2009-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

What have we been doing for the past week? Swim lessons? Yes, after some debate we decided to start Cohen with ISR (infant swim resources) lessons. With the lakehouse and being at the pool almost everyday in the summer, I just really want him to know how to save himself if he accidently falls in the water when no one else is around. And after 3 lessons so far, I must say that I am happy with our decision. Yes, he cries some but he gets over it pretty fast! We go everyday (Mon-Fri) at 5:20. The lessons are 10 minutes each. If any of you have a one year old, you know why the lessons are only 10 minutes each! We will do this for 5-6 weeks and apparently at the end of this he will know how to roll over and float on his back if he falls in the water, hold his breath under water, and swim for short distances at a time. Day one he learned to hold his breathe underwater, it was amazing! However, I was so nervous that I forgot to take any pictures! Here are pictures from day two...
Here he is anxiously waiting his turn and for the baby in front of him to finish.
Swimming with his head under water. Yes, it was only for about 3 seconds but I was proud!

Kicking and holding his head under water.

Floating on his back... so far, he hates this and cries when she makes him do it. I think he gets water up his nose and it makes him mad.

If everything goes as planned and he is actually swimming in a few weeks, I will get some video footage and post it. I have been very pleased with the instructor and how professional she is and how well she works with toddlers.

That's all for now.

No excuses...

2009-02-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while hasn't it? I've had a bad habit lately of getting on the computer with every intention of blogging, but then I end of up reading all my friend's blogs and by the time I do that, the window of time I had available to blog is over! Like I said, I don't really have an excuse...

So, most of you all know that I use my blog as Cohen's scrapbook. It's where I try to put pictures and stories that I don't want to forget 20 years from now. So, here are a few cute things Cohen has done over the past couple of weeks that I don't want to forget....

- The other day I was helping him learn to count, or at least I thought I was the one helping him... I was counting "1...2...3...4..." and then Cohen piped up and yelled, "5!" Hmmm... I guess he didn't need my help.

- I usually have another mom that takes Cohen back to our house when he gets out of preschool at 2:00, and then I get home around 5:00. The other day her kiddos were sick, so he stayed and "helped" mommy at work when he was done at preschool. He was out playing with all the toys in our receptionist area and after a long perioed of quietness, he walks in my office holding his butt and says, "i poopy". This was the first time it's bothered him that he went to the bathroom in his pants. He usually has no problem hanging out with a dirty diaper.

- One of the perks of working in the same building where Cohen goes to preschool is that I get to go to all his class parties, take pictures of him in his class with friends all the time, and stick my head in and watch him whenever I want. This week the fire truck came to visit. If you'll notice, he's one of the smallest kids in the class. I got him into the preschool earlier than he was supposed to because I wanted him to be with me at the church, so he is almost an entire year younger than most of the other kids in the class.

Cohen says, "bye bye" to the firetruck.

Scary fireman!!

That's all for now... I can't believe my baby will be 18 months tomorrow!

We are the Champions!!

2009-02-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

We had a very FUN and exhausting weekend! On Saturday our church hosted a flag football tournament and our friends, Chris and Mindi, came in to stay with us for the weekend and play with us. I never remeber being this sore after our games in college, does that mean I'm out of shape? We played in 3 games and in the chamionship game we went into quadruple overtime...yeah, tell me about it! We were exhausted!! Here we are shortly after winning the tournament!

This picture shows how we really felt!

Here I am blocking... you do what you gotta do...

Here is Mindi running in a touchdown... I'm the cheerleader in the background.

Here's my studly hubby diving in for a touchdown!

Not sure what this face is, but it looks mean, right?

"Go Daddy, Go!!!"

You might ask how in the world the four of us played football all day with two 16 month olds running around. Thankfully Nana and Big T came to the tournament and helped us with the kids all day! Thank you Nana and Big T, we couldn't have made it through the day without you!

End of the day... mine and Mindi's hair might be just a little bit wind blown!

This is Cohen's favorite thing to do right now...shooting baskets on his basketball goal. At any one time there are about 50 balls in our backyard. Great Christmas gift Aunt Chandy!

Addison and Cohen learning how to share....

Too cool for school!

Thanks for coming Chris, Mindi, and Addison! We had so much fun!

What a wonderful Saturday

2009-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know about anyone else, but around here I feel like our Saturdays are always overtaken with practices, games, rehearsals, meetings, showers... and we only have one child right now! Chad and I were talking this morning and we were trying to remember when the last time was that we had an entire Saturday where we didn't have a single thing scheduled and we're pretty sure it dates all the way back to last summer. So today we were excited, to say the least, when we realized there was NOTHING on our calendar!
The day started out perfectly. Cohen slept until 8:45!! After we all slept in, ate breakfast, and played around the house, we decided to go down to our neighborhood park and throw the football around. Chad and I are in a flag football tournament in a couple of weeks and I decided that I needed some major practice. I haven't touched a football since my ACU intramural days.

We brought this little football so that Cohen could have something to throw around while Chad and I threw the big football, but he didn't want any part of it. Unfortunately it sat right here on the ground the entire time... he wanted to play with mom and dad.

After football it was time for the slide... It's amazing to me how he never gets tired of the slide. Over and over again he wants to go down it!

Then we walked down to the neighborhood pond. I love this picture.

Now we're back at the house watching 101 Dalmations and getting ready for nap time... nap time for everyone that is! I love this day.

Spaghetti Night at the Lawsons!

2009-01-07T20:09:00.001-08:00

You might be asking yourself..."How did the Spaghetti end up on the top of his head?" I have no idea why, but he decided to start showing off his sign language skills right in the middle of our spaghetti dinner tonight and for some reason he decided to start with the word "hat." If you don't already know, you can probably guess what the sign language is for hat by looking at this picture. The battery was low on my new camera, so I just grabbed my old one.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-01-05T18:47:00.001-08:00

Hallelujah! I got a new SLR camera for my birthday! Yay! I'm so excited to get some amazing pictures! I don't have time to post pictures on my blog right now, but I did just do a post for my sister-in-law and posted some pictures there. Read her blog for some exciting news! Click on "Kellie" in my "blogs I read" sections to the right.

Christmas Photo Shoot

2008-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how you guys out there who have multiple children EVER get a Christmas picture. We are at the squirmiest age right now! After three different times of holding him down to get his Christmas sweater on, and making three different trips to the Villages at Allen, and taking 106 pictures taken on my camera... we finally got ONE picture that was usable for the Christmas card. Yes, I said ONE! Here it is:

Here are just a few examples of what it took to get this one picture!

Next year I'm bringing in the professionals!!

On another note, I really do have some good excuses for not blogging over the past few weeks. One being that I started a new job a couple of months ago and I've been working really hard trying to balance my job and my mommy time. Which hasn't left much time for blogging. I'm hoping that over the holidays I will have more time and I can catch up.

One more thought... Is anyone out there watching the biggest loser finale right now? Holy Cow!! Michelle just popped out and I'm absolutely blown away!

Cohen's first day (again)

2008-11-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Cohen started a new school this week. Our nanny was taking him to school with her 3 days a week and she was his teacher. But she took a job in the school system (we have really been morning that because Cohen LOVES his Mrs. Chidi) so we had to make another plan. There is a preschool at our church where I work so he started there with me this week. Now he gets to come to work with mommy everyday! yay! Here we are on his first day!

Halloween '08

2008-11-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to the Fall Festival at Prestonwood. We met some of our friends there and Nana and Big T also drove down so that they could see Cohen in his doggy costume. He was pretty good about barking on cue ("Cohen, what does a doggy say?")

Here he is at the petting zoo.

I couldn't keep that blond hair tucked inside his costume. Surprisingly he kept the head piece on all night.

Most of the rides and games were too big for him. But when it came to the games with the balls, he could hang with the best of 'em. If you haven't seen the arm on this kid, I need to post a video of him throwing a ball. (Is that ok for me to brag on my son?)

I LOVE me some puppy dog kisses!!!!

There was too much going on. This was the best full body shot we could get of the costume.

Cohen got caught with his 'tail between his legs!'

This is Lainey... one of Cohen's best friends. We love her even if she is a sooner fan!

Family picture.

Cohen with Nana and Big T.

Cohen's 13th month!

2008-10-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Here are several pictures from the past month. It's been a while since I've done a post.

Cohen got his first haircut a few weeks ago. He did surprisingly well. Now the baby hair is gone and yes, I put products on my child's hair. I can't help it. He looks so handsome!
A few weeks ago we made a trip to Edmond to visit my family before basketball season gets started. The state fair was going on so we took Cohen on his first visit to the fair. I have so many fun memories from my growing up years at the fair, so it was fun to see Cohen there. Of course his favorite thing was the petting zoo!

This is nothing special. I just love this picture.

So, I have been in California all week at a conference for work. So Chad held down everything on the home front for the week. While I was gone Chad taught Cohen to eat with a spoon. So, when I got home tonight I cooked Chad's favorite meal. My Beef Stroganoff. I felt bad that he had lived on sandwiches and frozen pizza all week (he doesn't cook.) Cohen was excited to show off his new skill to mommy.

The Pah-Teh!!

2008-09-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've finally gotten around to posting pictures from Cohen's birthday party. We decided that the first birthday is SO important that we would just make an entire weekend of it. His birthday falls on Labor Day weekend so we packed up everything and headed out to the lakehouse to celebrate (thank you Sheila and Neal for being such a great host and hostess and making it a memorable first birthday!) We just had a small family party, but a LOT of fun!

We spent Saturday and Sunday out on the lake and had the party on Sunday night. We did have a family Fantasy Football league with my family and Chad's family combined, so we held the draft on Sunday afternoon. We had our kick-off weekend last weekend and what do you know... Chad and I got matched up. Who do you think won? I won't say, but her name starts with a "C" and ends with "assy."

Cohen got a new lifejacket for his birthday and surprisingly didn't mind wearing it all day long. Here we are enjoying the boat ride with Chandy....

Cohen loved riding on the boat and watching everyone wakeboard and kneeboard. He's a little too small to make it out this year, but we might try the tube next year.

Here's sneak peak of the party... I somehow got this picture out of order.

Cohen had fun swimming off the side of the dock and splashing in the water with Uncle Chaney.

Here is one of the perks of being the first grandbaby on both sides of the family and getting ALL the attention. All the cousins cheered for him as he danced on the table and showed his stuff. He LOVES being the center of attention... where in the world did he get that from!?!!

Here's the infamous cake... So, I ordered it in Allen where we live, and we drove straight to the lakehouse which is a little over an hour away. By the time we arrived at the lakehouse one side of the buttercream icing had melted and fallen off! We had to patch it up so it end up a little lop sided. Oh well, Cohen didn't seem to mind.

He thought that daddy needed some cake too!

He couldn't wait to try out his new toys!

Even though I was trying to keep everything low key, we did decorate just a little.

Paige caught the first fish of the weekend. Cohen didn't know what to think of that.

when we got there on Saturday morning I realized that I had dressed both Cohen and I in camo, so I had to get a little picture. What a great weekend! Cohen, I know you won't remember it years from now, but your family sure did make a lot of memories this weekend!

1 year pictures

2008-09-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure....

Sad day for Mommy

2008-09-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today was a monumental day. Cohen went to his first day of preschool. As I packed his lunch last night into his new baseball lunchbox with his name monogrammed adorably on the side, I thought to myself, "How can this be? It's all come too quickly. Wasn't I just lying in the hospital with him?" I took a picture of him this morning as he headed out the door... and then I cried my eyes out. How handsome is my little man!?!

To My Little Man

2008-08-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Cohen,

You'll never know how much you have changed your dad and I. This past year has been the best year of our lives (some days the most challenging, but definitely the best), and I know it will only get better from here. When you look up at me with those bright blue eyes, I melt everytime. You have no idea how hard it is to tell you "no" and discipline you when you look at me that way. Ahhh!

Sometimes I wonder how it was that God chose me to be your mommy and I can't help but feel humbled and honored. Like His grace, we have done nothing to deserve you but He gave you to us anyway. You're a precious little gift that He has entrusted to us for a short period of time. We can't say that we will always be the perfect parents because we won't. But I promise that we will ALWAYS love you unconditionally and we will do our best to raise you to be a Godly man. So, today on your very 1st birthday I want to tell you that I LOVE YOU LITTLE MAN!

Here are a couple of things that you are doing these days that I want to be sure to remember:

1) All cups, bottles, and sippy cups are "jiss" (juice)

2) You think it's very important to gather all the shoes out of our closet and hide them strategically throughout the house.

3) Anything and everything that is round is automatically a ball, or "bah" as you like to say.

4) You have 5 teeth, plus 2 more popping out at this very moment

5) You love to play on our bed and jump face first into the pillows. Then you look back at me hysterically laughing at yourself.

6) You hate to have your diaper changed and you absolutely hate to go down for a nap.

7) Your favorite toy right now is your big blue ball.

8) When I say "give me a kiss" you open your mouth as wide as possible, grab me by the cheeks and lay one on me. I love it!

9) You have recently discovered belly buttons and you love to raise up my shirt and stick your finger in my belly button. Then you do your cute little giggle!

10) You are a ball of energy! We can hardly keep up with you. And you are independent. Did I say that you have a lot of energy?

Not much here...

2008-08-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

We have been doing a lot of nothing around here. Just relaxing and enjoying a few last days of summer before Chad goes back to school. We've also been getting ready for the big day... Cohen's 1st birthday that is! Can you believe it's already been a year. That might be a multiple post event. We're just doing a small family party at the lakehouse next weekend, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of stories and pictures to share.

Here are some events from the past 2 weeks:

Cohen loves to "help" us fold laundry.

Last week we were at the Rangers game and we ran into the Ocheskeys so I was able to get a couple of pictures of Cohen and Camden.

Last weekend we had a birthday party at the Dickersons house. We did a family concert on Rockband. As you can tell by the look on Cohen's face, it was past bedtime.

This week my 2nd cousins came over to see Cohen. Yes, those are triplets. We have TRIPLETS in our genes!

To Grandma's We Will Go!

2008-08-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

The week before last Chad and I went to Camp with the youth at The Branch. I was the camp cook (note to self... never do that again! I loved being around the kids, but cooking 3 meals a day for 70 people was not the best vacation I've ever had) and Chad was a counselor. So, we left Cohen with the grandparents and headed off to Eastern Oklahoma for Camp Thr3e. He stayed with my parent's (Grammy and Papa) the first half of the week and he stayed with Chad's parents (Nana and Big T) the second half. I know Cohen had fun, but 8 days without my baby was a little too much for me. I asked both sets of grandparents for pictures from the trip so that I could blog about it, but neither one of them took pictures with themselves in them (I guess I need to be specific next time.) They were too busy taking pictures of him by himself.

Here he is playing with all of Nana's toys.

Grammy and Papa bought him a little frog swimming pool for their backyard. He's my little waterbug!

Soaking up the sun with Aunt Chandy.

Family Vaca

2008-07-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

It was way too short, but we had a very relaxing time on our long weekend to Canyon. Some of our family just bought a bed and breakfast in Canyon, so we went and visited last weekend. We met my Mom, Dad, brother and sister there. Chad, Cohen and I decided to fly because we didn't want to spend 14 hours round trip in the car with Cohen. Car seat riding is not his strength right now. I wish I would have gotten some picutres of his first flight, but you can imagine it with me... crawl on mom, look out the window, crawl on dad, look out the window, crawl on mom, look out the window, etc, etc...
We went to see Texas, the musical, while we were there. If you are ever looking for a weekend getaway, this is a great one. Here is a link to the bed and breakfast where we stayed. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the AMAZING breakfast!!

www.hudspethinn.com

Family pic
Grammy and Cohen

Cohen and Papa

Cohen says, "Thanks Grammy and Papa for a great vacation!"

Harry High Hands!

2008-07-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

That is what we call Cohen when he walks because he has to put them up in the air to keep his balance. Here is our Harry High Hands in action....

We have a walker!

2008-07-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should say "stepper." He will take 7-8 steps at a time and then plop down. He started doing it two days ago. He and I were at the Container Store and he was standing next to me holding on to my leg when all of a sudden he saw something that he wanted and just walked right over to it! (Of course I started freaking out!) And he's been doing it ever since. It was the day before he turned 10 months old so I asked Chad if we could say he started walking at 9 months. He said that was probably stretching it a little, so I am just being specific and saying it was 9 months and 29 days. I'll try to get video of it soon.

Lakehouse

2008-06-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics my sister just got to me. These are from a month or so ago. I just thought they were cute!

We're so excited to have a new lakehouse in the family! Sheila and Neal are building a lakehouse at Lake Bridgeport. It's going to be finished in just a few weeks. We took the boat and jet ski out on Friday. This was Cohen's first lake outing. As you can see, we had to pull out the paci. I don't like him to have it except when it's naptime or bedtime but you do what you gotta do sometimes. He wasn't a big fan of the life jacket. We're going to have to get hime one that fits a little better.

A sippy cup makes everything better!

It was a long day so he had to cuddle up with Aunt Sheila and get a nap.

Catch Up!

2008-06-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay.... so you ask what has been happening lately? WORK!!!! I worked nearly 80 hours last week. Since I do love my job, it was fun. But what wasn't fun was not getting to see Chad and Cohen. Well, we've made it through and I'm back in the mommy saddle again. If you are looking for a great church with a relevent and rich children's programming, you should stop by sometime. You can get a map to our campuses at http://www.thebranch.org/. If you see my picture on the website, please ignore it! I was HUGE pregnant when those pics were taken... I've GOT to get a re-do.

So, we went for our 9 month check-up. Cohen weighed in at 20 lbs. 10 oz (50th percentile), 28 3/4 inches long (75th percentile, once again he doesn't look anything like me, hence his tallness), and his head is still in the 90th percentile!! He's actually pretty skinny around the middle. It's that big ole' head that knocks him up to the 50th percentile in weight! I have included some pics of him getting his shots. Chad went with us to the pediatrician for the first time, so I finally got some pictures of the shot process because he was there to help the nurses hold Cohen down.

He's a strong little guy!