A Tribute to Summer.....

I thought since we spent Summer's birthday weekend with her, she deserved a blog of her own. Saturday was Summer's 3rd birthday party. I'm pretty sure she had a blast with all her friends. Her theme this year was Tinkerbell. (purple and green are so pretty together!) Like always, her momma made her cake and did a great job. We grilled hot dogs, the kids swam, presents were opened, it was a great time.

Summer is such a funny kid and I do mean funny. Her sneaky little ways are just too much b/c you think.....she's only 3, how did she come up with that??? It's probably much more funny to me than her mommy and daddy. Example: Hiding food in her mouth to make mommy and daddy think she ate it (even though they actually know she didn't) and then going somewhere, somewhere that she thinks they can't see her, and then hiding her food. Classic. She has a sense of humor like no other. She'll make you smile and make you laugh. She's a mover and shaker. She's beautiful and fun loving.

At every birthday party, as I look around the room, I really begin to see how our kids our growing up. You look back at the last party and think, wow, look how tall he/she is now. Look how much he/she is talking now. As tough as it is to see them growing in to these little people, it's also an exciting thing. To think, these are our babies growing up right before our eyes, knowing all the while that no matter how old they get, they will always be our little ones.

Summer Kate, the Cowans love you and we thank you for letting us spend your birthday with you. We had so much fun at Chuckie Cheese. I'm thankful for your mom and dad as well. They love you to the moon and back and always will. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Isn't she beautiful?!?!

Our First College Reunion....A Trip to Remember

Last weekend, 16 adults and 7 kiddos (under the age of 3) headed to Turner Falls in Oklahoma for a good ole reunion. This was such an exciting weekend for us all. 1. We were taking a mini vacation before school starts back and well a mini vacay at anytime is great. 2. We were seeing some friends that we had seen in almost 3 years.

The great thing about this group of people is even though we don't see each other every day, every week, every month or even every year, we are still friends. Friends as if we did see each other every day. As we all said, that is a true friendship. Seeing someone you haven't seen in months or years and it's as if you just picked up right were you left off. To me, these are the best kind of friendships because I know our friendship is valued.

Another fun and interesting thing was having all of our kiddos under one roof. We rented a cabin that held all of us. 7 kids under 3 years of age can be challenging but it was soooo much fun. To go from friends, to husband and wives, to having kids, it really makes you look back and see the places you've been and where you've been brought too. These kids had so much fun running around the cabin, playing and swimming.

It was truly one of the greatest weekends. Even though we were missing some people, I hope they can make next year's trip. That's right.....next years trip is in the works. More people and more kiddos. It should be another trip to remember.

3 Random Thoughts......

Things are moving right along with the Cowans. We are now 34 weeks. 6 weeks! I just can't believe it. This weeks dr.'s appointment was good. General checkup, heartbeat was good. We go back in two weeks and he will start checking my cervix. And then....we start going every week!!! It is just moving sooooo fast. We put the crib up last night and put the sheet on it. I'm still waiting for the blanket to arrive to see which one I am going to use. I needed something in that room besides a stack of diapers and clothes and goodies. I loved seeing all that but it just didn't make it feel like the nursery was in progress. :) Malachi helped with the bed. He said he was putting Lawson's bed together. Can't wait to have those two boys together.

Here lately, I've been noticing Malachi wanting to do things more and more like Nick. I mean, he's always copied him and repeated him but now he's really watching him and taking in everything Nick does. The other night when we were eating dinner, Malachi started eating his food. When Nick sat down to eat, Malachi would cut his eyes at Nick to see what he was eating and he would eat the same thing. And he would eat it until Nick took a bite of something else. When he's watching sports, he'll look at Nick to see Nick's reaction and then do his own. He wants Nick to play with him all the time. (don't worry Jessica, he still comes to you when he needs comforting or is tired) :) So all that to say, when I noticed this, I really started pondering it and realizing that, Malachi has a dad he can look up too. He has a dad that is there for him, encourages him, disciplines him, takes time to show him attention, etc. I started realizing how lucky my boys actually are. Not every little boy has that dad in their life. I'm extremely blessed that Nick is who is and is there for all of us. I can't wait for Lawson to be here and to be able to experience the headaches and gray hairs, I mean, the fun and excitement that these three will bring to my life. :)

In other news: This past Saturday was my baby shower hosted by my amazing friends. It was wonderfully simple. I didn't have a cute cake again....I wanted pie! So, they made banana/blueberry pie and coconut creme pie. Both were so stinkin' good. Along with some strawberry shortcake and candies and cookies......I loved it! I am so thankful and blessed to all my friends who came and showered Lawson with gifts. I am a lucky girl I must say. You would understand if you knew all these people.

This was on vacation this year in Florida.

A couple of pictures from my shower.

Today I Cried.......

Ok, I didn't cry full blown tears but the more I sat on the bench in my bathroom the more my eyes filled with tears and the more red they got. But, I had to snap back to reality. Pull it together, you are about to go to work and.......... You are about to drop your son off at his new daycare!!! (insert snotty nose here) That's right, Malachi started his new "school" today. I thought I would take him to work with me this week because we are only there 3 days but I knew there was just no way I could. Especially coming off of vacation, knowing all the phone calls I would be dealing with. So, I swallowed the lump in my throat and started getting his bag together.

Getting his bag together was the easy part. Dismissing the thoughts in my head is a different story. What if no one plays with him? What if he doesn't eat enough? What if there not very comforting? blah blah blah It's finally time to leave. We get in the car and these thoughts come back and my eyes try to fill with tears again but I am not going to let that happen. Nope. I'm tough. I got this. You know that feeling, when you really just wanna let a big ole baby cry but don't want anyone to see you so you hold it back? Only then you get the feeling in your stomach, like your stomach is crying. Well, that's what I had. That feeling. And I didn't want him to see me cry because I didn't want him to think it was something bad and already have a bad perspective of his new "school."

We arrive. There it is, staring me right in the face. The place I'm about to leave my baby for the first time. (insert sweaty armpits and hot face here) We take him to his room and Nick distracts him with the play kitchen. He immediately starts playing. I'm trying to talk to the teacher and not cry. She's very reassuring that he'll have a good time. (Lady, I use to work in daycares, I know the make mom feel better speech). Btw.....Ms. Jessica and Ms. Shelby are both very nice. She told us that we could call anytime or come by and see how he was doing so that did take a little anxiety off my heart. We left.

I wanted so bad to run back in there and hug and kiss him and see what he was doing but I didn't. I knew it would not be good for either of us. Boy did this first day back to work go by slow. I didn't have my phone, the internet on my computer was down, and my baby was with strangers!!! The time just couldn't go by fast enough. When it finally came time to go pick him up I felt like we drove so slow. We finally made it. I tried not to run in. I mean, I didn't want to look like a dork or anything. I got to the door and when he saw me, he had the biggest smile on his face. He came running to me saying, mommy mommy. I picked him up. He squeezed me so tight and kissed my cheek, said mommy in the sweetest voice then hugged me so tight again. That was better than winning the lottery. Then what did he say, "Ryan's not nice." I'm thinking great. He already has had a run in with a bully. You better just watch out RYAN, this momma is on to you. ;)

They said he did good. There were a couple of times that he would ask for us then get sad and they would comfort him and he would be fine. He didn't want to eat his lunch like he normally does with new people. So Ms. Shelby had to feed him. lol He went potty all day long. PTL!!!! No accidents for the new people. And....he did good taking a nap on his mat. All in all, he probably had a much better day than mommy did with his first day of school. :)