Baby girl is getting taller!

I do plan to blog more about Christmas.... I promise! Today I brought Lauramae to the doctor for her second flu shot. While we were there, I asked the nurse to check her height. She was moving up the charts last time and we don't have to see the endocrinologist next week but I was still curious. Drum roll please.... she grew 7/8" in the past 2 months! She's 10%!!!!! I promise I haven't been worried about her. This is just "normal" for my kids but I'm still going to celebrate her being as "normal" as her siblings. It's sad when the nurse knows about the doctors trying to figure out what on earth is up with their growth charts. They've all grown a good bit (weight first then height) between 1 & 2 and little miss is no exception! I also have to say that I figured she had gotten taller because she's climbing more things now.... including her high chair.

The stockings were hung.....

We've had a whirlwind week of visiting family. We spent Monday at Chrissy & Jeff's. Tuesday we headed to Lake Charles to celebrate our anniversary. It's always fun to be at my happy place.... my Aunt Laura's. We got to visit, the kids had a blast painting scrap wood (and themselves). Mom & Bubba brought the kids back with them while we stayed in a hotel for the night. More visiting Aunt Laura on Wednesday to see Joseph & Emily. Picked up the kids, went to Dee & Na Na's. Thursday more time with Dee & Na Na and then we dropped the kids off at Mom's again. Had dinner with a friend from high school and saw Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. Christmas at Mom's this AM and now we're home. It's always good to be home. The presents/luggage are semi-organized. The stockings are done. Things are assembled and now it's time to sleep! I'll probably be the first one up tomorrow morning and will be anxiously awaiting the little ones waking up. They're beat from late nights and no naps so they may sleep in. We'll see.

Lauramae

She is just the sweetest thing. She's laid back and easy going but she'll let you know if she's offended. She's a talker like Coralee was. We're constantly saying, "Did she say what I think she said?" Her new favorite word is "Mine!" She's a picky eater but not in the typical kid way. She doesn't like bread.... at all. Occasionally she'll steal part of my sandwich but for the most part she waves it away. Now, she'll eat Grandma's yeast rolls or similar ones but no bread. We've started getting her soup - broccoli or tomato at sandwich places and she loves it. Her absolute favorite food is beans & rice. She's infamous for a refried bean moustache. We don't order her a kids meal at a Mexican restaurant, just a side of rice & beans. She'll eat all of hers and a good bit of ours. She's a short little thing but thankfully has started growing again. We were set to go to a pediatric endocrinologist to check out growth hormone issues because her height on the chart was heading so far south. By her 18 month well check she had grown a good bit and was back on the chart. Her weight is much higher on the charts so she looks like a little chub. Her head is so big (95%) that she has a hard time righting herself when she stumbles & falls. Poor baby has scratches & bruises on her head from falling over. She loves playing outside with the big kids. Well, she loves doing anything and everything they do. Recently, she's started asking to go to the potty from time to time. She doesn't do anything in the potty but she likes to wipe and flush the toilet. Momma's not ready for 2 on the train but it's pretty cute when she makes her requests.

Lincoln

This picture seems to sum up Lincoln at this age. We've been on the potty train for almost a year and most days he still has an accident. I'm about convinced that he'll be 25 and still poop in his pants. He is super duper stubborn about going to bed (especially at night) and it seems like he cries about everything. Can you tell what kind of day we had yesterday? It was a doozy! All that being said, he really is a sweet boy. I have to giggle because he can be so sweet to Lauramae one moment and the next he's running over her. He's surrounded by pink but he's 100% boy and then some. He's made such big strides in talking this year; it's a hoot to hear what he's thinking. Here recently our world is all "why" and "what is that?". He loves trains and cars and is SO thrilled with his train table from the Mitchells. For some reason, the sweet boy doesn't like to wear his boots on the right feet. The good thing is that he puts them on all by himself but they're rarely on correctly. He says he likes them that way. Funny, he also said that about poop in his pants (I yike it!). Thankfully that's changed in the past month or so. He's a good eater although he doesn't eat nearly as much as his sister. He'd rather get up and play. It's funny because he tells me, "Mommy, You're a good cooker" all the time. He tells Ken that, too, when he makes mac & cheese or chicken nuggets. Not so discriminating in his tastes. Little man is SO skinny although he's still 50-75% in height & weight so he can't be that small. I'm just not used to a bony back like his! He loves to do homeschool with us although that means he likes to scribble or put stickers all over his books from the dollar spot at Target. We'll start working more on ABC's & 123's this spring. Momma needed to get her bearings this fall. If he'd just be quiet, we were good!

Coralee

It seems like a good time to say a little bit about how & what the kids are doing. Coralee is in her 4th year of dance. Her recital in June was adorable. Their song was "Get Me to the Church on Time" and it was everyone's favorite. The girls were dressed as brides and it just couldn't have been any cuter. This is her first year without Mrs. Trish which is sad but she is enjoying Mrs. Jamie and learning new things. She's learned how to ride her bike without training wheels here in the last couple of months. It's funny how one day she just picked it up and started driving up and down the driveway. She's doing well in school. Math is her favorite subject. We've finally found a system that seems to work for reading. She amazes me with the words she'll read. Somehow the book we were using (which was super simple) just got on her last nerve and she refused to read out of it. She'd read books to me but not that reading book. I was still convinced that she needed to learn the phonics rules so we've changed to an online version of Explode the Code. She's loving Classical Conversations and has even attempted to teach Lincoln some memory work. It's funny to hear them talking about the 8 parts of speech as we drive down the road. Poor boy barely has counting by ones down but she wants to teach him skip counting by 2's, 3's, etc. She loves to draw and is anxious to get started on cursive in January. This year has been the end of her love of princesses.... except for her Christmas tree ornaments. I didn't know the princess stage was so short! She wanted to be a cat for Halloween although she was also Tinkerbell (to match sister). We bought a Sleeping Beauty costume for next year so hopefully princesses will be back in favor by then. She loves playing with her brother & sister. I don't know who enjoys playing trains more.... her or Lincoln. She wants to put on shows for us from time to time.... including a nice little presentation about her friend Riley at Thanksgiving. It was followed by a dance. She is really enjoying AWANA Sparks and the differences from Cubbies. We had our first hair cutting experience this year. Poor baby girl was trying to be helpful. Ken had told her she couldn't take her bath until she had the rubber bands out of her hair. Well, she got the scissors out and attempted to cut them out by herself. She cut a tiny slice out of her hair which thankfully is covered up. Can't believe we made it 6 years without that happening!

Merry Christmas from the Cottons

Here's the Christmas letter this year! I have the paper to print letters but just couldn't think of anything creative and wonderful to write. We're going simple and it's just an update on our family this go round.

The biggest change this year has been selling our house and moving. I've blogged plenty about that. Let's just say it's been an adventure. A year ago we started looking with the thought that we'd move in a year or so. In January, we looked at a house in Cedar Park that we thought would be perfect.... well except for all the remodeling we'd have to do and repairs that needed to be made. Our offer was rejected which was a huge blessing. We're loving life in the country. The kids can run and play outside which really is a change from subdivision life. Their Christmas present from Grandma & Grandpa was a playscape for the back yard. Before that, their favorite spot in the yard was a pile of rocks in the dry creek bed.

Speaking of the dry creek bed, we got an enormous amount of rain one day/night in September from Tropical Storm Hermine. Right as we were going to bed, Ken noticed that water was leaking into the house from the chimney and into the living room from outside. One bad thing about our new house is that it has some drainage issues. We knew that we needed to get some dirt away from the slab but never expected to have flooding like that. The rain was coming down so fast that the french drain in the front couldn't keep up. Some of the rocks for the landscaping kept the water from draining away from the house. Ken moved rocks & landscaping timbers and there was immediate relief. That kept the living room from getting more water. Still, we had a lot of water coming down the driveway and funneling into the front yard. Ken worked hard to make a dam. I assisted by holding the flashlight and moving some bricks to keep the dam in place. We were blessed that no more water came into the house and there was no damage. It was an exciting night, though. And, we saw that that creek bed was there for a reason and that water would run through it.

Going back a little bit, my sister & Jeff got married in April. I made my first non crib size quilt as a shower gift for them. It was a beautiful wedding. The girls wore matching dresses although Coralee was the only official flower girl. Lauramae wasn't walking at the time. The cutest thing from that was we had told Coralee to sprinkle flower petals on the sides of the aisle, not in the center. So, she got up to the front and turned around and threw petals on the other side. An Amelia Bedelia moment. Lincoln did surprisingly well and was adorable in his tux. I sang during the lighting of the unity candle. It seemed like that was THE moment when Lauramae & Lincoln were at their limit. I almost burst out laughing at them crawling all over Ken in the front row. Our evening began & ended with Coralee getting sick. Thankfully she missed her dress when we got there and everything came out easily (even red punch) from her after wedding issues. Lincoln had fun beating up on my Great Uncle Joe. I was a little mortified but he seemed to enjoy the rough housing.

Our niece & nephew came to visit with Grandma & Grandpa in July. The kids had fun as usual although Lincoln couldn't understand why he was left out from time to time. Poor little guy, he's used to all of Coralee's friends loving him as much as they love his sister. We took the bigger kids to a Round Rock Express game but honestly they were just as happy to stay at the house and play. Later in the month Keegan & Gyorgyi came to visit, too. It was a short visit but it was very nice to see them.

September was a busy month. There was that whole flood thing but that was all of two days' worth of rain. Ken's parents came up to stay with Oscar while we went to San Antonio for the kids' birthday weekend. Saturday we went to Sea World & Sunday NI had rented out Six Flags. There's no better way to do Six Flags. The kids had fun. Coralee is tall enough to ride the majority of the rides but she's still just as happy to ride the kiddie rides. While we were gone, Grandpa decided to mow along the driveway and on the outside of the fence. He got to talk to some of our neighbors we hadn't met. One offered to have their miniature horses come and graze in our front yard. I called later that week and by Sunday afternoon we had an electric fence installed and 3 miniature horses.... Rose, Buddy & Jacob (watch out, he nibbles). They're adorable and fun to have around. A few weeks ago, they got out of the electric fence and ran around like a bunch of silly boys (what their owner warned us they'd do). Ken got them back in the pen with my help and a couple of apples.

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year although it was a smaller group than usual. Our friends from church, the Davises, joined us. Their little girl Brooklynn is Lauramae's bff which means they like to give each other hugs and knock each other off their feet in the process. It's SO cute! Ken & Grandpa spent most of Thanksgiving day putting the playscape together. We did our normal Crazy Christmas Kickoff that weekend.

December has been busy with handbell performances and many other fun things like the Georgetown Christmas Stroll, Main Street Bethlehem, Breakfast with Santa at the fire station. We took a mini vacation earlier this week to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. The kids had a blast and when they have fun, we have fun. Lauramae had thrown up once before we left, Lincoln followed after he rode one of the slides at GWL and then Coralee had problems on the way back from getting Oscar from the Pearce's. Thankfully it's been a one time tummy trouble and Ken & have been spared. We'll leave on Monday to go back home for the week. Our anniversary is on Tuesday (14 years) so we'll be leaving the kids with Mom & Bubba and spending the night in a hotel. We're excited about being able to see everyone on Christmas Eve but we'll head home that afternoon to be here for Christmas day.

Blogging from my phone

Seems like we only take pictures with our phones now. I'm choosing not to ask how to add those pics to the computer. I'll just ask tech support instead. Maybe I'll blog more now that I can do it from the phone. Worst comes to worse, at least my typing should improve. Now if I can only figure out how to add a picture here.

Homeschooling

The good, the bad & the ugly.....

Every job has its good and bad days and homeschooling is no different. We had a rough morning today. There were some moments that I wanted to march her little hiney through the back fence, across the construction and register her for school. It was bad. I called Ken to tell him about how bad it had been. In the midst of her fit, Lincoln pooped in his underwear. It was a little more a Momma could handle at the moment. As I vented to him I had an "Aha" moment. My conclusion was that I can't avoid dealing with discipline. If she was in school, our fights would be about something else but they'd still be there. Imagine that I'd actually ask her to do something she didn't want to do!

The good.....
And it's SO good! It is so neat to be her teacher and see the light bulb come on. I'm sure I had those moments in the classroom but I don't remember them clearly. I just remember feeling rushed to go to the next subject. To see her progress and know you had something to do with it is incredible! It's amazing to see all that she's learned in the first 11 weeks of CC (one more to go in the semester).

The bad and ugly.....
Well, I already described that. It's pretty much the same every time things blowu up. She'd rather be playing with her siblings. Most of the time Lincoln will sit at the table with us. Generally we try to do school when Lauramae is taking her morning nap but she will even sit at the table and color/eat crayons with us.

I've also had some difficulty adjusting to our new schedule. I'm accustomed to being able to go run errands and basically do whatever I want to do. Our schedule is kind of crazy - Mondays are CC, Tuesdays are at home but we host small group here every other week so we're trying to do school as well as get laundry done, and clean the house. Wednesdays are craziest.... school in the AM, handbells at noon & Coralee has dance at 4:00. By Thursday, I'm ready to hang out in the jammies and sit on the couch eating bon bons.

The New to Us House

So, we've been in our new house about 4.5 months. I'd like to say how much I enjoy the peace & quiet but it isn't quiet. They're building a subdivision behind the house and the construction noise is awful right now. I keep telling people if the equipment just went forward instead of backward (beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.....) I'd be okay. Tumbling rocks into a dump truck isn't so bad. I know they'll be done sooner rather than later but I'm really ready for them to be done. This week they've started work at 5:45 which I must say gets on my last nerve. I'm surprised they haven't started yet this morning.

I love our new house.... the kitchen is absolutely gorgeous and nicer than we would have ever been able to do things. In my dream world, I'd have gas instead of electric and double ovens instead of a microwave & oven. But, I really can't complain. We'll live with all of that until something breaks. The floors are beautiful,too. Again, there are details that we would have never paid for. Oh wait, we'd probably think we needed to do it ourselves anyway.

We've done small cosmetic things in the house.... took down wallpaper/painted in the bathroom, replaced the light fixture over the table, painted our bedroom, & painted Coralee's room (which used to be Lauramae's room - yes, we've switched rooms in 4.5 months). The last two weeks, I've been working to get some decorating stuff done. 6 trips to Hobby Lobby (well make it 7 because there was a bonus trip for something else) in a week to get the perfect curtains for our bedroom at 40% off. I LOVE Hobby Lobby. It's not painful to go there that many times in a week. In fact, I may go today to get more fabric for Lauramae's curtains.

The living room was perfect when we got here. We've left Lincoln's room the original yellow and Lauramae's room the brown faux finish. Our next huge thing to do is our bathroom. There's only a shower and it's really small. We could do a bigger reno and take in part of my closet but that's bigger than I want to tackle. Plus, it doesn't go along with our long term plans for the room. So, there's some water damage/mold on the sheetrock in front of the shower. The plan is to replace the tile (floor to ceiling) and get a bigger door so it doesn't feel as much like a cave. I've watched enough Renovation Realities on DIY to say that the idea of this freaks me out! Still, we're too cheap to have someone else do it. In the end, it will be beautiful and much better than it is today. Ken wants to replace the cabinets in there, too. Only trouble with that is that we'll need to keep the same footprint. If we don't, we'll be replacing floor tile, too. The bathroom is super small so that wouldn't be too big of a deal but it looks really nice and we don't necessarily want to change it. Our thought had been to raise the bottom cabinets and use the granite that is already there but Ken talked to someone at work that says the granite breaks easily if you try to do that. Maybe that's something for the pros. We'd like to replace the tub/tile in the kids bathroom, too, but grownups get first dibs on the pretty stuff.

Long term, we'd like to build a guest house/garage behind the house and take in the garage as our bedroom/bathroom. Needless to say, it's going to be a while for that. A girl can dream, though!

I'm back!

Well, maybe! ;-) I've really enjoyed Facebook but in all reality, there are some things I think about that just can't fit in however many characters are in a status update! I was really surprised by how much I had on here. Makes me a little sad to see how much baby girl has grown in the last 5 months! Now off to make the blog pretty again; looks like my background is gone!

SOLD!!!!!

This weekend we got 2 offers on our house. We went with the first one since they were first….. it only seemed fair to us. Sunday we counter offered and they accepted. It all worked well for us – asking price, closing date June 29 (we’ll close on the other house June 30 – just in time for the tax credit deadline) and they want our fridge. Umm, well, you can have that for sure. We’ve worn off the water & ice buttons and it’s showing other areas of wear. Bummer, I have to get a new fridge.

To say that I don’t wait well would be an understatement. I hate waiting. I’ve noticed that when things don’t go my way, I tend to throw a fit just like I would have when I was 2. Life doesn’t fit my expectations and I throw myself on the floor, flail my arms and scream and cry. Thankfully I’ve learned a little self control as an adult but emotionally it’s what happens. We had to wait to get pregnant which was really hard for me. That was my biggest goal in life - to be a Mom. Yet God withheld that for 4 years. Over the past almost 2 months, I’ve told myself that this whole house buying/selling thing is small potatoes compared to that. I know that when I have my freak out toddler fits, that it’s okay to go to God with those raw emotions. It’s not like he’s surprised by them. He’s ultimately the only one that can calm me.

I love, love, love watching HGTV. Even before we got the grand idea to move, I loved to watch House Hunters, Designed to Sell, etc. I think it’s because I’m nosey or maybe it’s because we moved around so much during my childhood. I just enjoy seeing other people’s houses. I’ve watched those shows and thought, “Wow, why’d they think they could sell their house looking like that?” The shows make it appear that a little paint, elbow grease and some cash will make any home sell. In part, that’s true but I really think that it’s just another example of if you do xyz, you’ll be successful. The very idea puts you in charge and completely ignores God’s role and His plan. One verse that has seemed to come up over and over in this process has been Acts 17:26, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” I loved that verse when we were going through infertility because it reminded me that our wait wasn’t just about us. It was also about our children and what God had planned for them. Imagine that, it’s not just about me.

We had a realtors' tour come through the house a couple of weeks ago to give feedback. They suggested a lower price to get more search hits and 4 of the 10 suggested that we paint the half bath a more neutral color. In spite of the fact that they all rated the house as good or excellent, the comments made me feel even more insecure. I started thinking about all the things we could do to update the house. As I was painting the bathroom, I realized how meaningless all of this was (Ecclesiastes 1). There was no way I could do enough. The only thing that would work is to have the right person come to the house.

The thing that always hits me when we're in the middle of something difficult is how I don't know how or when it will end. I feel like I lack faith because I literally freak out. In my head, I think, I KNOW that this will end but I just hate it when things don't go according to my time frame. I'd like to say that I'll be a more patient person because of this experience but all it shows me is that I'll continue to struggle with it and God will continue to show me how faithful He is.

Okay, now that I've written a book, I can start packing boxes.... we aren't going to be using that china for a while. :-)

Lauramae is One!!!!!

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is one already. I made the mistake of looking at pictures from a year ago which of course brought me to tears. Those first few months are so tiring but there is still nothing as precious as a new baby. What a fun and crazy year this has been! Lauramae is still the easiest baby of my 3. She is happy 99.9% of the time. People ask us all the time if she's always that happy and the answer is.... yes. As is usual for our kids, she isn't walking yet. I think that's a blessing in a way. Coralee was 13.5 months, Lincoln was 14.5 months and who knows when this sweet girl will walk. Stinker still doesn't crawl; she just rolls around to get where she wants, sits up and pulls up. While she started off gaining really well, she is smaller than anyone else was at this age. We won't be turning her around in her carseat for a while. Poor baby (& Lincoln) have had a tummy bug for a couple of weeks and she's lost weight. We'll get the official weight in 11 days..... enough time to put some meat on her bones hopefully. She is definitely the baby of the family. While she's super duper happy, she is quick to let you know when she's been wronged by one of her siblings. She loves their attention and tolerates Coralee picking her and moving her all over the place (wonder why she doesn't walk?). Her newest tricks are waving (which she does when she's good and ready), saying "Momma", shaking her head "yes" and "no" and she's improving in her ability to drink out of a straw. Her toothy grin is the best! While I love the newborn stage, this is my next favorite age.... they're SO fun and always learning new things!

Here comes trouble!

Over the past few weeks, Lauramae has started moving more. She's rolling all over the place but she's added pulling up on things and starting to empty the diaper bag, laundry basket, etc. She's a mess!

Our house.... all ready to sell

I have painted pretty much every bit of trim in our house, removed wallpaper (torture) and cleaned out countless closets. The bigger kids have watched a bunch of TV which is honestly the only way I've gotten so much accomplisehd.

Bluebonnets

On our way back to Austin, we stopped to take bluebonnet pictures. They turned out okay considering Lincoln was more interested in running up the hill than taking pictures with his sisters.

Easter @ Mimi's

Easter Baskets

Lauramae's First Bunny Cake

I've been holding back on giving Lauramae cake so she can experience it for the first time on her birthday. Paw Paw put her on the table and she started scootching towards the cake. Stinker even got some icing. We did give her a good bit of M & Ms and she LOVED them.

Coralee's Class Easter Party

Coralee had a really fun party. They made a necklace, Gospel fuzzies glove and cupcakes. She was really sweet and shared her candy from the egg hunt with her brother and sister.

Lauramae's First Camping Trip

The last two times there have been AWANA campouts, Ken has taken the older kids by himself. The first of those times, I was super duper pregnant and went to San Antonio with friends to sew for the weekend. The next time, Lauramae wasn't sleeping through the night so I used it as a perfect time to go visit Chrissy in Houston. I have learned that I love camping.... hanging out with friends, eating yummy food but..... I hate sleeping while camping. Our kids are so young that it just doesn't go well. Lincoln flipped and flopped. Lauramae cried intermittently until she snuggled in bed with us. By the time we woke up in the morning, there were 5 of us in the sleeping bag. Don't guess we need a bigger tent just yet. We did a little hiking the next morning and then headed back home to do more work on the house.