An apple with Dillon

Coee loves apples. You can literally just hand her a whole apple, and she will eat it until it is almost gone. I found her and Dillon having an apple snack on the couch on this day. She thinks that she is one of them. She an Trey have even started fighting "like brother and sister." It usually starts because he is trying to protect her ( a bit of a mother hen) and she doesn't like it. She even grabbed him by the nose with her sharp little finger nails once and gave him a bloody nose.

Trey and Dillon continue to love her with more passion and compassion than we ever expected. Dillon even recently told a friends mom "Life is not worth living without Coee."

Fun Day at Meme's

We went to Meme's house for a fun day last week. She invited all of her grandkids and told the "big boys" they could bring friends. We ended up with five nine year olds; Ethan, Baily, Dillon, Trey and Landon. We spent a large part of the day watching them riding the tube. We also put up a huge water slide, had corn dogs, snow cones and funnel cakes. It was a really fun day. (As we say over and over; poor kids. They don't get to do anything fun. :))

Tubing

They liked the rough waves.

Tristan and Coee having lunch.

Great Grandma's Girl

Coee's middle name is Catherine, after my maternal Grandmother ("Grandma"). There have been many many times that I have wished that Coee could have met Grandma, and Grandma could have met Coee. I know what she would have done. She would have sat and watched her with her hands over her mouth. She would have held her and rocked her, and loved her. She would have made those noises she made playing with Trey, Dillon and Ethan. She would have LAUGHED at her, because she is really funny.

Tonight, we went to a 50's Classic Diner event at church. The choir sang music from the 50's through the 80's. The Blues Brothers were there, as was Elvis. We had cheeseburgers and hot dogs and COKES in the old fashioned GLASS bottles. Coee decided she wanted the last of Dillon's so we let her turn it up for a "swig" - as Grandma termed it. Grandma always had glass bottled cokes in her refrigerator. There is no telling how many cokes she drank in her life time! When Coee turned that bottle up tonight, I so wished that Grandma could have been here to see her namesake do what she did so many times in her life. It brought a tear to my eye, and does again as I type.

We miss you Grandma!

Life's a Beach

We just returned from a little less than a week in Orlando, FL. We traveled there for a family reunion and had a great time. Coee met a lot of cousins that she hadn't met and Trey and Dillon were very happy to get to spend time with all of them. We were able to spend two days at a beach condo (Thanks Todd and Meghan!) so Coee has now swam in the ocean as well. She loved it and surprisingly didn't mind the sand. Here a few pictures from our trip:

Too cute in Mommy's hat.

Trey and "Little Cousin Ethan"

Checking the sand out for the first time.

Who are these boys and why are they growing up so fast?! I've resorted to methodically patting Dillon on the head several times a day in effort to curb the growth! :))

Cameron, Dillon, Morgan and Trey
"Morgan's Posse"

Day at The Zoo: More Pictures

Monkey see. Monkey do.

Meme & Tristan

Three Amigos.

The Hippos put on the best show of the day.
The four of them were very active and fun to watch!

Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo

We took advantage of the great spring weather and the kids being out of school for election day to head to St. Louis for an overnight in a hotel and then spend the day at the zoo. Meme, Ethan and Tristan joined us. We had a great day!!

Coee loved swimming in the hotel pool, although it was pretty cold. Then, there were lots of things for her to love at the zoo!!:

She loved being with her brothers and cousins.

She loved the monkeys. (all four pictured)

She especially loved the carousel. She just got this heavenly smile on her face and it stayed during the whole ride.

She loved petting the goats.

I believe her favorite was the splash park!!

First Camping Trip

Coee had her first camping experience this past weekend. We had planned on going up to the lake to celebrate my Dad's birthday with everyone and then come home, but we decided around noon to spend the night. We rushed around in a frenzy and packed everything for it and headed to the lake. It was great weather for her first camping outing and we had a great time!!

Coee's first morning of camping included Granddaddy Mike delivering breakfast-in-bed/tent: powdered donuts and bananas. What's not to like?!

On Saturday night, we had a huge gathering around an awesome campfire. My Uncle Will even brought his guitar and sang a long and varied list of requests. Coee LOVES music and LOVED "helping" Great Uncle Will play. He even let her hold a collection of pics!

This is Coee getting her first look at this thing called a tent. "We're sleeping in here?"

"I'm not so sure, but I'm just going to go with you on this...."