One of my favorite things about 2011...

2011 has brought lots of fun things but one f my favorites is that it brought kelly back!!! Kelly and I have been friends since college(we even lived together for three years) and for past two years she and her husband had been traveling with his job and then they decided to move back!!! And I couldn't be happier about it....and it's not just because her husband sent on us a great birthday scavenger hunt....complete with a Kate spade purchase at crazy discount prices!












It might have a little to do with this sweet thing though.....

Her sweet daughter Harper. She already has a Thing for older boys....:)


I took these pics when we were keeping Harper one day and I needed a change of pants for her, wasn't sure what to do until I realized she wore the same size pants as Cohen(she's around 5.5 months in these pics!) So here they are, both in cohen's jeans!

Cohen's first day of School

It is extremely hard for me to believe that we actually got to this day...Cohen's first day of school!!

After years of "keeping him away" from germs, we're sending him off to a school full of little kids! Cohen turned three at the beginning of march so it marks the transition from Babynet( early intervention) services to school district provided services. A few months back we went in for his school district evaluation and IEP meeting. Now I've set through countless numbers of these in years past but I have to say it was very weird being on the other side of the table. Overall, we were extremely pleased with their evaluation and recommendations for Cohen. He qualified for preschool special education services due to his orthapedic impairment, related service needs( therapies), and his pretty severe speech delay/disorder. They recommended 5 days of 1/2 preschool in a classroom at a child development center and one each of the therapies( OT, PT, Speech).

We agreed to 3 days of 3 hours of school and each therapy. I would have even liked just 2 days but with the need for the therapies 3 days is really necessary and provides more consistency. I can't tell you how many times I said or thought..."I know as a teacher I would want him to do this, but as his mom I want that"....so weird to know and understand both sides. Hopefully everyone felt that our agreement worked best for all.

I visited the classroom before signing the IEP( which I highly recommend to anyone going through this). And We took cohen for about 30 minutes one day to ease him into it. After seeing the class, we had some concerns about his safety as he was really the only child with an orthopedic impairment. Apparently, so did they, because they provided another aide that was basically Cohen's one on one aid for safety. I can't tell you how much that meant to us. And how much we absolutely adored her!!


So, we took the plunge and here he was on his first day!!!! I didn't get any pictures in the classroom, just ones before we left the house( rushed because we were of course running late!!)



Checking out his bag he had to use that is bigger than him!!

Plasma!!

During one weekend with G-pop and Grandmommie, they discovered Cohen's love for riding.....one adorable video later, and we promptly ordered one for his birthday.

He loves this thing and I love that he can be independent on some wheels( still can't reach any pedals!)! The only draw back is that it really has to be used on a completely flat service( though the loves the hills) but he can steer it all by himself and the faster the better!

3

I don't feel like word can ever do justice to how I feel each year on Cohen's birthday. Emotions and memories from the day of his birth and the months leading up to can be extremely overwhelming. They of course are mixed with an incredible joy and awe of all that God has done in his and our lives. And never far from my mind, especially on days like this, are the women, the mothers, I've met who's little one's celebrate their birthdays in the lap of Jesus. And I hope I never spend one of Cohen's birthdays without those thoughts. Not because I want to remember sad things on his celebration day, but because I hope I never forget what a blessing each birthday, each day is with both of my children.

And what a cute little blessing this birthday boy is...




We were at my Mom's house for Cohen's birthday. We had traveled to the beach with some college friends the week before( such a fun time!!) and were in Columbia on the way back to celebrate Chris' grandmother's 90th birthday!!! Cohen's birthday was also on that Saturday so we had a birthday party for him at my Mom's house that morning before all the other festivities started!!

It took a good bit of preplanning to throw a party out of town, after being out of town the week before. But I love a good birthday party so we pulled it off!! Cohen loves Mickey Mouse so it was sort of a no brainer to pick his theme.

We were all sleeping in the same room so we had an early morning "Happy Birthday" wake up call!!


He got his door decorated even though we weren't at home:


The cake.... I have to say I would not be sad to never have to use black icing again....yuck, such a mess!!


Some of the food and decorations we made...






Cort's decorating contributions....

Each child got a pair of Mickey Mouse ears when they came in. A few actually wore them :)!
It was great weather so we moved much of the party outside. The kids ran around in the front yard, we played a mickey bean bag toss( which sort of reminded me of that old show Bozo the Clown, with the Bucket Bonanza game. Does that make me old?), and climbed trees!!






The kids also sat for longer than i expected they would at a little coloring and sticker table we set up.



Blowing out the candles..

and digging in...



Opening presents...

And who can resist a good kiss from a great grandmother (MeMe)..

Oh, I can't believe how much both of my boys are growing up... 5 and 3!!!!
I'm bummed that I didn't take picture of the birthday invitations we made!! I have an extra one somewhere but can't seem to find it. They were super cute ( in my opinion :))!!

Celebrating G.G. and introducing our new Neice!!

I've mentioned before how blessed we feel for our children to have or have known three full sets of GREAT grandparents!! Our little one's are incredibly loved!!

We celebrated Chris' grandmother's 90th birthday and it was a great time to celebrate and see lots of family we don't often see. Unfortunately I was chasing after 2 kiddos the whole time and hardly snapped any pictures!! I did manage this one :

I'm pretty sure he just figured the party was for him since it was on his birthday!! :)



And this one...

I'm glad I got the one above, because it can introduce you to our adorable niece, Sylvie.( who was just a little over one month old is this picture) We went to meet her in February and again, didn't take any pictures. I'm not sure what's wrong with me!! But we just love her to pieces and she is such a cutie pie. And speaking of, it's been too long, we're ready to see her(and her sister) again soon.

Around the House - February Catch up

Just a little February catch up...it was a pretty quiet month overall. I like those and we needed it to gear up for March because it was busy!!!!!! Plus we had the added bonus of getting away for a small group leader's retreat with our church. We always enjoy that time to rejuvinate and just be in community with a lot of great people and learn.

We are not big Valentine's celebrators! Chris and I don't celebrate it much, in fact, this year, we had a dinner with 2 other couples at someone's house. No one wore red. We didn't talk about how much we loved each other. But I did make a cake with some red in it. I tried out the Pioneer's woman strawberry shortcake Cake. It was super yummy but I did catch my mixer on fire in the process!! ( don't worry, nothing but the mixer was harmed!!)

For Breakfast I did break down and make the boys some yummy french toast with a heart cut out of the middle, revealing yummy strawberries!




And just some random pictures of us working on a craft....I think we working on the letter "A" and this was a craft we were doing with it.... and yes, those are Christmas jammies on Cort!!



I love the serious look of concentration on Cohen's face in this one....

Ain't Gonna Paint no more....

These pictures remind of the cutest little book that our friend gave Cohen for his 2nd birthday call, "Ain't Gonna Paint No More" It's a really cute book...if you've never read it, you should check it out.

Through an unfortunate refrigerator leak, all of our laminate hardwoods had to be replaced. In the long run we ended up with nicer hardwood floors and the boys got to do this.....













I should have hosed them off(except for the fact that it was the middle of the winter)...it took way too long to get all of the paint out of the bathtub!!!
Surely I get a mother of the year award right? Such a fun memory!!!! And a really fun surprise whenever a future homeowner decides to change out the floors!!!

RSV

Unfortunately, RSV entered our house this winter. You know the first winter we couldn't get Cohen the RSV shot anymore. It was scary for us for sure as this was Cohen first really bad respiratory infection and even though his oxygen levels dropped and took quite a while to get back to normal, overall, he handle it amazingly well. It just served as yet another reminder of how God is holding Cohen and continues to Sustain his little life!!

Cort ended up with it too so we had two very sick little boys in our house for much of January.

This was not an uncommon scene....