10 Years

Tomorrow is our 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 YEARS! How can that be??? I still feel like we could both pop back on to the campus of Lincoln and go to class. Although, we would probably get quite a few stares with our three little people in tow!

It is amazing to me how much we have grown and learned and loved. What started as "just a friendship" has become my life. And i couldn't be happier. Has it always been smooth sailing? I would be lying if i said it has. We, like everyone else, have had challenges. But never have we been given more than we could handle. Kind of great how God does that, right??!!

We got married at the ripe old age of 20. We were the first of any of our friends and we really didn't know what we were doing when it came to wedding planning. I had no idea that, as i bride, i should be planning flowers and center pieces and favors. All i knew was i wanted to say "i do" and get on with things! I think that lack of knowledge actually made the whole wedding process a lot more enjoyable for us and a LOT less stress. And the whole thing turned out wonderfully! I have pictures and a video that suggest people enjoyed themselves!! But most importantly, we were now husband and wife! And we could start our lives together as such. Well....after we untangled our car from the string and toilet paper and emptied the 14 million packing peanuts from the inside (thank you Adam Coogle). All you who came after us in the big leap to wedded bliss just count your blessings that people learned how to be decent to the get away car!

The first 4 years were spent....well....i can't remember. I have vague memories of bubble baths every night and going to movies and sleeping in. Tom was in school and i was working. He finished school and we decided it was time to grow our family! And then began the next phase of our lives. Parenthood.

We have been blessed with 3 healthy and beautiful kids. They are so much fun! They are also the reason i can't recall much about the first 4 years! Having babies changes everything. Even the love you have for each other. Seeing these 3 little people that are part of each of us is completely amazing. Picking out traits and assigning who they came from is always amusing. Seeing Tom being a daddy to his kids is one of my favorite things in the world. It makes me love him that much more! He is an AWESOME dad. Which is no surprise because he is an awesome man. One of those people that you can really call "good people". He makes me a better person.

So folks, this is my tribute to our anniversary. I had big plans of posting pictures taking you on a journey through the years. However, i am not the computer savvy one in this duo and i can't remember how to put pictures on the blog. It is time for another lesson. Regardless of my lack of computer skills, it has been great adventure packed 10 years. There is no one i would rather be partnered with through this journey of life and i can't wait for the next 10 years and all the years after that.

I LOVE YOU TOM COOGLE!!!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

• family
• friends
• new toothbrushes
• cherry coke
• QVC during the holidays
• twice baked potatoes
  
• first sleeps on clean sheets
• girl's night
• "The Pumpkins Are Coming" sign
• Italian food
• Christmas music
• couch dates
  
• TCBY peanut butter delight hard yogurt
• HGTV
• Carrabbas curbside carry out
• TCBY shiver...choc yogurt, peanut butter sauce, reeses cups, brownies
• hair day
• slippers
• Christmas trees
• being pregnant
  
• walking on the beach
• cold cake with cream cheese and/or chocolate icing
  
• bubble baths
• the color green
• sweater weather
• fun socks
• Tom playing the piano
• being on a boat
• cheesy grits *emphasis on the cheese*
  

Attention Please

I would just like to announce that my laundry is done. All of it. If you had any idea how much "all of it" was you would do a little dance for me. I will spend the rest of the evening enjoying my empty laundry baskets and trying to forget the fact that as soon as we do baths and bedtime my status of "Laundry Complete" will be over.

Ending the Neglect

So, i have been awfully neglectful of my little blog here. So much in fact, that i just spent half an hour combing through my facebook profile to find a link to it. Sad. I know. I will try and do better.

Now for a quick "Where Are They Now" session to get everyone (or possibly just one) caught up...

*Me and my Tom: Counting down days until our 10 year anniversary trip. Not going far, but we are going alone!!

*Haylee- adjusted to first grade and doing well. Her thoughts on First Grade.."It is so much cooler than kindergarten".

*Brayden- still trying to get used to going to school EVERY day. It helps if he has a new monster hoodie or new shoes to show off. Or if there is talk of a birthday that might mean cupcakes. All other days are a struggle to get him in the class and me out.

*Nathan- oh Nathan. He seems to be fully focused on showing me the definition of "Terrible Twos" The good news....he shows signs of being really great at whatever he decides to do in life. He goes all out!! And we have no worries of him succumbing to peer pressure. Who cares if all his friends have really cool underwears and go pee-pee in the potty. He has really cool diapers.

That is all for today.

little boy BIG attitude

Nathan just had a birthday in June and is at the oh so wonderful age of 2! He is truly an awesome kid. He is so funny and will do anything to make you laugh. His favorite thing in the world is his "baby" (blanket). He has 2 that are the same other than the color. He will take the edge and rub it on his nose. Sometimes he will even hold it up and rub it on my nose which just melts my heart. Not sure how he became so attached. I had tried so hard with Haylee and Brayden to get them to love an animal or blanket. No luck. I didn't even try with him because i figured it would be pointless and the next thing i knew he was having meltdowns when i had to put it in the washer.The other night i put him to bed with an impostor blanket that is VERY close to his favorites. I covered him up and shut the door. I didn't get down the hall before i heard him yelling "mommy. Mommmmmy" So i go back in and he was standing in his crib holding the impostor blanket all rolled up saying "no baby. no baby" and pointing at the door for me to go get the real one. Can't fool this little man.

His second favorite thing in the world is singing. The boy has just recently decided he is going to give the english language a try, but has been singing for months. He just walks around singing "Old MacDonald", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Bob the Builder", "Farmer and the Dell" and "Ring Around the Rosie" to name a few. The actual words were irrelevant(until recently) to him but he had the notes and the rhythms down! You could definitely tell what song it was even without the words.

He loves playing with Haylee and Brayden and can't get enough of grabbing something of theirs and taking off running to get them to chase him. His smile will make your day and i could listen to his laugh all day long.



Wrapped up with all his awesomeness is one BIG attitude. He is a boy who knows what he wants and he wants it NOW!! The problem is he has very few words with which to tell you what that might be and even less patience to let you try and figure it out. When you tell him no about something or don't understand what he is trying to get you to do or give him he will let you know that he is NOT happy about it. This can be in any number of methods or a combination of all. the lip roll, the foot stomp, the "hmmph", the drop to the ground and become dead weight, the hitting whatever or whoever is closest (whether involved in the problem or not), or the screaming cry. I have never had a kid so skilled in these areas as he is. I think he takes pride in his ability to express his dislike of a situation. Some days, like today, i have to just turn away and laugh.Obviously i don't encourage this behavior but i have to admit that watching this 2 year old little boy stand with his lip rolled out to the floor stomping one foot at me over and over is kind of funny sometimes. Today he was terrorizing Brayden, who was trying to put a puzzle together, so i told him he had to go do something else before we had an all out war break loose. Well, this was not okay with him and he was going to let me know it. So he starts in with his hitting and stomping. I looked at him and said "If you are going to have a bad attitude you go to your room." I wasn't really expecting him to do this as it was really the first time i have ever said this to him but to my surprise off he went. He walked himself straight down the hallway and into his room and slammed the door behind him. Did I mention he is 2???? It was all i could do to contain my laughter so the big kids would not get any ideas as they have much more limited "tools" for expressing their dislikes and i would like to keep it that way!!!

So folks, this is just a taste of my littlest little man. He makes life so much fun and i wouldn't change him a bit!!

When ya gotta go ya gotta go.....

After a day of playing in our front yard water park it was time for naps. We got everyone inside and told them to get out of their swimsuits and get ready for nap. Not sure what I was doing when i hear Haylee yell from the bathroom..."he just peed on me!!" My first thought was she got too close to the toilet and got a little splash. Those of you with little boys know, you ALWAYS give a good 4 foot buffer between you and the little man and his little water gun. Or at least i think this happens to everyone. Brayden can be using the bathroom and get distracted and spray the whole room before he realizes it. He just doesn't have time to stand still that long!! Anyhow, Tom and I hurry to the bathroom to find Haylee now standing in front of the toilet dripping with...well pee. Brayden is also standing there looking torn between being proud of himself for his achievement and being worried that he was about to be in trouble. Wisely, he chose the second and immediately started his explanation which went a little something like..."i had to go sooo bad. I couldn't wait. It was an accident. blah blah blah". Turns out Haylee was actually using the bathroom when in comes Brayden with a full tank that just couldn't wait. I have to give her credit for handling the situation with MUCH more grace than i probably would have had i been in her shoes. After Tom finished threatening his life if he ever peed on someone again, we got everyone in bed and we had a nice little laugh about the whole scene! What else can you do???

Accidents Happen

Many of you know my 4 year old Brayden is a wild man. He is FULL of energy, curiosity, and determination. What you may not know is his daddy, the ever cool and calm Tom, was the same way as a child. So Brayden comes by this craziness naturally. Tom's mom fought this energy battle with a diet containing no sugar or red dye. I am told that Tom was so well trained that he would question the preschool as to whether the applesauce contained sugar before he would eat it. Obviously this diet worked for Tom as he is now about as calm as they come. So recently, with Brayden approaching pre-K where he will have to start being able to control all of this energy, we have been talking about going on a "less" sugar diet to see if it will help him. We started cutting way back. We have told Brayden and Haylee that we need to eat less sugar because it is not healthy to have so much. It has been funny to watch Brayden even try and embrace this "new way". He will ask if things have sugar, and even turn things down on his own on occasion. Have we cut it out completely???? Not even close. But we have put a major dent in the sugar consumption in this house. Well, early in this new little reduced sugar venture of ours, Haylee had her first sleepover. The kids stayed up REALLY late and to my surprise were still up by 7am. Everyone wanted something different for breakfast so we decided to go to a place that we knew would have something for everyone....Golden Coral..breakfast buffet. This IS NOT a frequent stop for us for a number of reasons but mainly because my husband HATES buffets unless it is Chinese and the food is really just not all that good. BUT, we decided it was just the ticket for this morning. Tom, took Brayden through the buffet and let him choose what he wanted on his pate. When i got to the table and saw his plate i couldn't help but laugh a little.




When i asked him if he wanted white milk or chocolate milk he answered "white milk. chocolate milk has too much sugar, right mom?" i said yes and gave him white milk. I told him it was a good choice because he already had a lot of sugar on his plate. He then looked at Tom and said..."Nana said not to eat sugar but i accidentally got some." Can't really argue with an accident, now can you?

Wishing On a Star

You know those parents out there that bribe their children to get something done?? Or promise a special treat just to get through a particular event? That's me! I realize that this may not be the best parenting technique out there but it sure does work in a pinch. So today, we put it in to action. Haylee had a little mole removed at the dermatologist today. I promised her a new toy after it was all done for being so brave. So when i got the boys down for nap Haylee and I headed to Toys'R'Us...her pick to find this new toy. I have to say that walking into the store i felt a little dread at the thought of just how many aisles of toys there are in that place and the knowledge that my children generally have to look at each and every one at least 3 times. But today, Toy Story 3 saved the day. She walked right up to the HUGE display of every kind of Toy Story toy you can imagine and picked up a Jesse doll. That was it, she made her decision. We never even got past the first display. As we were headed to the check out she said to me with a big smile on her face.."mommy, i wished on a star that i could have a Jesse doll with a hat that comes off like this"! At that moment she could have probably had anything in the store. Those are the moments that melt your heart. So heres to wishing on stars....it might just work!!!

I'm a blogger now!

So, i have decided i am going to give this whole blogging thing a try. I love reading other peoples blogs and I hope to live up to some of the greats out there! For my very first blog i have to take you back for a moment. As long as i can remember i have dreamed of being a mommy. In this dream i had the perfect kids and we had nothing but fun all day long. Six years ago, little miss Haylee entered our lives. She was, in fact, perfect! We loved her so much and had so much fun with her, we decided we HAD to have another one of these perfect creatures! Along came Brayden who was also perfect! Somehow....all the perfectness with our two precious babies started getting hard. But that didn't stop us. Nope. We decided one more would be just what we needed and perfect little Nathan was born. This is when all heck broke loose! My dreams of "nothing but fun all day long" became temper tantrums, diaper changes, potty training, never ending laundry, never the right food, waking up 14 dozen times a night, hitting, pushing, screaming...i think you get the picture. Hear me now, i love my kids with everything that i am but it is not always....well perfect. It is hard to try and balance the fun with the discipline and responsibility of raising these little people to be happy, healthy, secure people. Those of you who know me are probably very much aware that i am no stranger to Facebook. Yes, i probably spend way too much time on it but that is a blog for another day. Anyhow, I have often read the statuses of people talking about how much fun they had with their kids doing this or that and how great life is and sat thinking...."i barely made it through the day without dropping one of mine off on somebody's doorstep". I am just being real here. Having 3 kids all 2 years apart can be exhausting as i am sure many of you know. The early years demand a lot because these little people that have been entrusted to us are completely reliant on us. I have been thinking lately, though, how unfair of a judgment i have placed on myself because of nothing more than a glimpse into a single moment of someone else's life. I would bet that everyone else has some of the same struggles we just don't always see that side of people making us feel alone in our chaos. I have said all that to say this. We have recently hit an age in our kids where i am starting to see a light at the end of all the chaos. My kids are getting to the age where we can do some of the things i have always envisioned we would do but the reality of baby capabilities has limited for the last several years. They are becoming a little bit more self sufficient making more time for all that fun i was planning on having with them. And they are absolutely hilarious. I couldn't have handpicked their personalities any better. It fills my heart with such joy to watch them play and talk with them and hear the ways their little minds work. It makes all the chaos of "baby days" worth it. I am not saying i didn't have any fun until this point because that would be completely inaccurate. We had fun and love and laughter all mixed in with a bunch of work!! And i am not saying we wont have days ahead that are hard and full of work because i am smart enough to know that we will. Life is full of seasons and right now we have entered a great one where we can sit back and enjoy the ride for a while and that is what i plan to do.