Cole is 10 Months Old!

Cole is 10 months old now!  He is a very busy boy and hardly sits still.  So hard to believe only 2 more months until my little man turns one!  He is growing and changing every day.  It's so fun to interact with him now.  He definitely has a strong willed personality and it shows!  But that's okay...he keeps life interesting and I wouldn't have it any other way!  I love my Cole man!!!!

(The blanket this month looks kind of girly with the purple, but I wanted to use it b/c it was given to us when we had Braelyn)

Diaper Project Update

Well, we have certainly been caught up in the diaper making madness!  I posted some pictures a few weeks ago of the progress we were making: we had most of the fabric cut out and had started to do some of the stitching.  But now, we have over 200 diapers finished and in the basket ready for delivery.  I feel like we are worlds away from seeing a light at the end of a tunnel...but don't get me wrong, that's a good problem to have with this project.  I'm so glad we have a ton of them to make. 

I have estimated that there are another 350ish to be completed :o)

Just wanted to say thank you again to all who have helped with my project.  I am really excited to go and deliver these in December.

Again, if you are working on diapers for me please make sure you have them to me no later than December 1.

Vacation 2012

Cole had his very first vacation!  Last week we drove to Wilmington, NC to visit Matt's dad and step-mom for the week.  It's a 15 hour trip one way.  You may ask us if we were crazy thinking an almost 10 month old would ride in the car for 30+ hours in one week and be fine with it.  But actually, little man did wonderful!  He really only cried for the last 30 miles on the way there, and who could blame him, he was tired of sitting!

Since we were so busy on our trip to D.C. last month, we decided ahead of time this would be a relaxing vacation.  We stayed in a condo in Matt's dads neighborhood.  It was great to have our own space where Cole could move around and we could spread out our stuff and relax.  I am a huge germ-a-phobe, so staying at a hotel with a baby who is crawling would have seriously grossed me out!  (Plus the thought of having to give him a bath in a hotel shower would probably put me over the edge).

We spent most of the week taking long naps, going to the beach, walking on the boardwalk, eating good food, and visiting with family.  We love going to NC, and hopefully we can continue to make it an annual trip for Cole.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip (sorry if you already saw these on Facebook).

Cole and his cousins, Kennedy & Gabe

Mailbox on Wrightsville Beach 

The note we left in the mailbox

Love the dunes at the beach

Frozen Yogurt-- YUM

Fun with the Cousins

Get this sand off of my hands!!

Baby in the hole

Grandpa & Cole

This is how we barricaded Cole in the condo

Cole and the USS North Carolina Battleship

We are so excited to go back to NC next year!

Braelyn's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Braelyn's 2nd birthday.  It's so hard to believe that 2 years have come and gone without her.  This year felt different than the last two.  We have Cole here with us, and finally my life feels complete again.  I think about Braelyn every single day, and I know she is always with me.  But there is also something to be said about having a baby in your arms.  I hope that I can teach Cole about how special his sister is to us.  And I hope that some day he will be able to choose something special to do each year to celebrate her life.

We had a pretty low key day, but we definitely remembered her and celebrated her life.  We worked on the flannel diapers a bit, we went to church, we went out to the lake, and last we took Cole out for his first taste of ice cream for the birthday celebration.  It was a perfect day in my mind.

Lake Evergreen 10-7-12

Cole at Lake Evergreen

Eating Birthday Cake Batter Ice Cream from Cold Stone
First taste of ice cream!

Diaper Update

Oh my goodness!  You people are so amazing!!!  I can't even believe how much you all have contributed to my project of making flannel diapers for angel babies.  When I started this project I thought that if I managed to sew 10 sets of diapers and donate them I'd feel really good about helping 10 families.   Well, I underestimated big time on how many diapers we are going to donate.

The last I counted we had about 400 diapers total that we are going to be able to donate!  Did you read that???  400!!!!!  I can't even find the words to thank everyone that has participated.  I have had several people donate money, fabric, time to cut, and sewing abilities.  We still have a long way to go to actually finish all of them, but man-- I think by December 15 we are going to have a huge donation to drop off in Peoria at the Children's Hospital.

This has not been a project that comes naturally to me.  I had never sewn anything before in my entire life...but I learned and have been sewing away.  Actually, the funny part is that Matt is the one who read the instruction manual for my mom's sewing machine, got the thread and bobbin all ready and started sewing.  He's done way more than I have so far and all of his look great!!  It's so fun to see this side of Matt. :o)

I really can't wait to update you all once I have all of the diapers paired up and tied pretty with ribbon ready to be delivered.  If you are reading this and have contributed to my project, I want to apologize for not writing a thank you note to you personally yet.  I promise they are going to be on their way soon...  I have just been so busy trying to work on the diapers and also I wanted to have something done with your donations before I wrote to you.  So for now, please take this as my heartfelt thank you!  I couldn't be doing this without all of you!  You should feel so proud of yourselves for helping families in need of something good on a day that will forever be etched in their minds.

Here are some pictures so far of the process: