Backyard Grass

Every day Cole and I throw the ball with April (our JRT). She is a ball fanatic to say the least and Cole loves the outdoors. April continues to try and give Cole the ball so that he can throw it. Cole hasn't really grasped that concept yet and only wants to stick the ball in his mouth.

Today I tried blowing bubbles with Cole.

I thought he'd be excited but all he was interested in was the grass.

We have so much fun in our backyard.

I just love this little boy.

Traveling Home

This past week/weekend we got to visit with my family for a few days. It was a planned trip with an unexpected twist. I had been looking forward to seeing my folks for a few weeks.

We left at 5:30am on Thursday morning; we figured that Cole would sleep the whole time if we left after feeding him his morning bottle. We were wrong. Cole woke up about an hour before we were to arrive. Since it was almost his breakfast time we decided to pull into a gas station and feed our hungry guy. Pears in the back seat of my car was a first for us. It wasn't long before we got on the road again which made me happy because I was anxious to see my family. Cole endured the time spent traveling but was so excited when he finally saw his Grammy and Pa.

Thursday was the day we celebrated my uncle's eternal homecoming. You see, my Uncle Fran passed away at the young age of 58 and traveled home to be with his Lord and Savior; his Heavenly Father; his Eternal Family. I can only imagine the excitement he must have felt when he finally saw The Creator; The One who gave him life; The One who called him home.

The rest of the weekend was filled with family time. Cole had so much fun. (We all did.) He got to ride horses with me, drive Pa's truck and lawn mower, ride on Daddy's shoulders, go swimming, visited with his cousins, played like there was no tomorrow and cuddle in Grammy's arms. This weekend was full of moments that I will not soon forget.

An End and a New Beginning

Today was Cole's last day of school and my last day of working outside the home. It was bittersweet (more sweet than bitter but you know what I mean). I dropped Cole off at school this morning and it was like any other day. I drove to work (took me 1 hour and 45 minutes today), got a coffee and started my last day of work. My friend Carolyn took me to lunch with a few of our other co-working-friends. All was very normal and great. Until.....until I took my single box of "junk" from my cubical to my car. I slowly placed the box into my trunk and got into my car and all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks. My stomach felt queasy but I felt like dancing all at the same time. "What is wrong with me?", I thought. For a split second, I was nervous yet excited. I pulled out of the parking garage and headed for Cole's school to pick him up. The closer I got to the school the more the excitement drowned out the fear. (It's not like we didn't think this through. It's not like we won't make it financially (it will be tight but who doesn't live tight these days). It's not like we didn't pray about this decision. I know with all my being that this is the "right" thing to do right now and I know God will lead us through this too. ) I arrived at Cole's school and when I saw his smiling face, my heart melted and I was as giddy as a school-girl about my new "job"; Mama. I am looking forward to each new day and adventure with Cole.

Hangin' out with the boys.

Last night Cole got to hang out with his two friends, Samuel and Jonathan. We all had so much fun. The boys were great. Samuel was April's new best bud. He threw the ball and she chased him most of the evening. Cole and Jonathan found the whole thing pretty amusing. At one point, Donny and Samuel were playing "keep-away" with April in the middle of our living room floor while Cole and Jonathan sat on the side lines refereeing the game. It was so cute to watch the boys follow the ball as it flew through the air each time. I'm sure there will be many more fun adventures for Cole and his two friends.

All in a Mother's Day.

Mother's Day started off kind of rough. Okay, alot rough. As you know, Cole is eating cereal, fruits and veggies now. He has been eating sweet potatoes for the last three days. Little did I know that sweet potatoes may cause serious gas problems in babies. (You see where I'm headed don't you.) Cole rung in my very first (second if you count when he was in my womb) Mother's Day at 11:30pm with loud cries of pain. Nothing would soothe him except me holding and patting him. He'd sleep for 30 minutes and then it was pain again; and again; and again. Finally at 2am I gave him a bottle and some gas-drops. This seemed to help relieve some of the pressure in his little belly. (This is all probably way TMI; I apologize.) By this time I was in full communication with God. That is the only way I made it through the night. At 5am I woke My Love up and asked for help. He gladly woke up and jumped right in to rescue me. He was wonderful! At 6am I finally get to sleep. 8am Cole wakes up and I hit the ground running one more day. Poor little guy, I just felt so bad for him because I simply could not fix him (all of the belly rubbing, leg cycling, bouncing, rocking, patting, and walking just wasn't working).

Although we got off to a rocky start, Mother's Day is ending up pretty good. The whole family (My Love, Cole, April and myself) went on a walk this afternoon to our neighborhood lake. The weather was just gorgeous; perfect for an afternoon outing. While we were there we fed the ducks, fish and turtles. Cole had a blast. We all did.

The evening is still young and all is looking up. A mother's work is hard and trying at times but when you hold your little one in your arms it makes everything alright. Thank you Mom for all those times I know you gave everything you had to care for me. I love you.

An outing at the outlet.

I have been wanting to see what all the hype was about the new outdoor outlet so today Cole and I joined some of our friends to check it out. It was fun. There were tons of stores (most too expensive for my blood even as an outlet but they had a Carter's for Cole :) ), plenty of room to stroll and it was mostly shaded. This was the first event Cole and I have been able to attend since I have been back to work. Oh the fun we will have with our friends when I am no longer working outside of the home (two more weeks to go - Yay).

The boys and their Mama's.

Cole & Jasmine check out all the shops and people-watch.

Aaah, nap time.

Hey people-watching and shopping is hard work. Speaking of which, I'm zonked.

Something to Celebrate!

My wonderful husband is always impressing me whether it be his witt, humor, charm or vast knowledge of almost everything. He amazes me. For work, he sets his own personal sales goals each month and then continues to surpass them by leaps and bounds. I thought this trend would level out a few months here and there but they haven't. He just keeps raising the bar. I know he works very hard to do this. Since he did so well this past month we decided to celebrate by going to Pappadeaux's. (We had gift cards which made it all the better.) Keep up the great work My Love; I'm so proud of you!!!!!!!!

Cole had much to celebrate too. He is now rolling over all of the time and is raising his chest off the floor for extended periods of time while trying to get his knees under himself. I see crawling in his near future. He is also starting to sit pretty well on his own. He just gets stronger every day. He's so amazing.
I have lots to celebrate too. It is now official; I will be leaving my current job and becoming a domestic engineer (a.k.a. stay-at-home-mama). I am so excited to be able to stay at home with Cole. I have so many adventures in my head that I just can't wait for Cole and I to do. We will be starting our new adventure at the end of the month. :)