Birthday Twins (almost)

Casey's and my Momma Sheila's birthday is one day apart. So I call them birthday twins…but they aren't exactly. But we do celebrate them together! :)

No, no one turned 629…but they always have the same last digit! My Momma Sheila turned 69 while Casey turned 29! This is my mom's creative way of giving them candles… :) 

I put this picture in just because Casey looks so goofy. :) 

 Momma Sheila holding her little princess while opening presents…. 

Casey's turn in the hot seat!                              Smoking a money stick…haha!

He got 3 money rolls!                                                        Yay! A Keurig!

We have used it a ton already - love it! All sorts of different coffee flavors, tea, hot cider, etc. Very cool…I mean hot! ;)

 More baby lovin'

Our attempts at getting a family photo…! 

  

                                                                           

4 generations of women!

Happy Birthday Momma Sheila & Casey! 2 very important people in my life!

Go Casey, It's Your Birthday!

Best. Gift. Ever.

Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go

Go Casey, it's your birthday

We gonna party like its your birthday

We gonna eat some grub like its your birthday

And Lauren's gonna give it up cuz its your birthday

You can find him in the gym

Always hittin' rim

Schooled by the limbs

His skills are like a sin

The Taurus he is in

He'll be drivin' till the end

So come give him a hug, if you're into gettin' rubbed

You can find him in the steeple

Preachin' to the people

Or with his nose in a book

Wishin' he had a nook

Thinks he wasn't created equal

Gettin' his diploma from the crazy people

Always gettin' sick, even poison ivy on his $%&*

Sawyer's got you wrapped around her finger

But we don't want to linger… 

Happy 29th Birthday, Casey! To the true gangster in our lives!!

(Obviously some of you may not get all of the lines so I'll break it down for you just a little bit…
"you can find him in the gym" because he plays basketball with guys from church all the time (including Charlie)…they said "schooled by the limbs" referring to his really skinny legs;)… "The Taurus he is in" - obviously, if you know us well you know that we have an ugly Taurus that Casey will most likely drive til it bites the dust or when we win the lottery, whichever comes first;)… "thinks he wasn't created equal" because he is cocky - y'all know that! haha! "Gettin' his diploma from the crazy people" refers to the UT Austin liberals;)… "always gettin; sick, even poison ivy…" (excuse their crude, but funny humor;) a few months ago he got poison ivy everywhere…and I mean everywhere! But anyway, you get the point and you also see how this is the best gift ever! Haha!)

Saturday night we went out with Charlie & Ginni for Casey's birthday!
As you can see they made him an awesome rap (I think this will become a tradition because we've already started working on Charlie's! His birthday is in March)! We went to eat hibachi at Edohana's in Rockwall and then back to our house for some yummy cake! :)

 

 
Happy 29th Birthday Gangster Casey!!!

Sick Baby :(

Sawyer is sick and I hate it! It's just awful to watch your poor little baby hurt and not even be able to verbalize it. She has gone to the doctor 3 times in 3 weeks. I hope we don't have to make it a 4th time.

Basically, 2 weeks ago we took Sawyer in for an extremely runny/stuffy nose, cough, and pulling at her ears. She was diagnosed with an ear infection in her left ear. She was given an RSV test that came back negative, but he still prescribed nasal sprays for her allergies as well as antibiotic for her ears.

She took the antibiotic for 10 days and we still give her the nasal spray daily.

She seemed to get well after a week and we took her back in for her 9 month check up. She was on the up and up and he seemed pleased with her progress at that visit.

6 days later she started coughing again, but it was worse. She has coughed all night long for 2 nights. The first night she coughed and cried. Last night she slept well, but still coughed all night. The runny nose started back up yesterday and her cough was a lot worse this morning. She had fever yesterday and today and I decided to stay home with her today. We went to the doctor at 3pm and left at 4:30. While we were there they gave her another RSV test that came back negative. He dug deep into her ears and got huge chunks of wax out of it - this is what started her crying. It was obvious that it hurt really really bad. I have never seen her scream like that in her 9 months! It took her about 10 minutes to calm down from that afterward and that is just not typical for her. I hated it. After that they gave her a breathing treatment because she was wheezing and coughing so much. She didn't mind that at first. She almost seemed amused with the mask on her face, but after a little while you could see her getting agitated again and she screamed and started trying to jump off the table and out of my lap, etc. trying to get the mask off of her face. I am so worried that she is going to start hating the doctor's office! Today was an awful visit. Her doctor is so nice, but he had to be stern with holding her down and stuff and so did I. Not fun. :( I told Casey that next time she is sick he gets to go because I couldn't hardly take it! When it was all over I got in the car and called him crying.

Poor Sawyer. She throws a fit every time we try to give her medicine now. 3 times a day is too much for a little baby. Not to mention an additional time with the nasal sprays. She is so tired of it all! I don't blame her. :( I hate being the one to hold her down or force her mouth open. I wish she was old enough to realize it is all for her own well-being.

Anyway, the doctor said she may have another ear infection and that she is probably going to have to get tubes since this is her 3rd or 4th one in 9 months. :(  He also said she has bronchial…something. I can't remember the term. If she doesn't get better soon we are supposed to take her back to the doctor. He said she is at risk of getting pneumonia and that we should also watch for vomiting or high fever. Also, I am supposed to pay attention to the cough and make sure she doesn't get short of breath. Her wheezing hasn't been that bad, but if it gets worse I am supposed to do the breathing treatments multiple times in an hour.

I just hope she gets better quickly!! And that the weather stops changing so much! Everytime there's a drastic change she gets sick. I don't care if it's hot or cold as long as it's consistent!

Please pray for my sweet Sawyer Grace. I just want her to be healthy and happy.

Ginni's Birthday!

Ginni turned 28 on the 12th and we went to dinner to celebrate on the 13th (I will stop posting ages when we get into the 30's;)! We went to Oddfellows in the Bishop Arts Districtp and really liked it! It's not too expensive and has a pretty wide variety on food. Neat atmosphere, too. We only took 3 pictures, but I thought they were pretty cute so here ya go!

Ginni's present!

The Rickersons! 

The Coats! 

Happy Birthday, Ginni! We love you and love hanging out with y'all! :)

Happy New Year! (a little late)

Our very first family picture of 2012 (taken on January 1st)

It's gonna be a great year! :)

Our 4th Anniversary!

Casey & I celebrated 4 years of marriage on December 29, 2011!  4 years doesn't really feel like a long enough time to fit in everything that Casey & I have accomplished together and all the memories we have made since our wedding day! I mean, goodness, we have been to 3 foreign countries together, had fun on several vacations, gone on mission trips locally and abroad, I got a teaching job & quit that same job to stay home, we bought a house, bought 2 cars, I graduated from A&M, graduate school for both of us, Casey graduated from DTS, and we had a baby!! All of that feels like it could fit into 4 years decades, right?

Anyway, every year Casey and I do something special for our wedding anniversary. This year was quite a bit more low-key since we're on a stricter budget and have a baby at home, but it was still a lot of fun! We went to a bed and breakfast in Austin and stayed for one night. I actually bought the deal on living social a year ago so it was "free" to us (or felt that way). We got there at check in, took a nap (that's what you do when you go away and have a baby at home;), got ready for the night, went to a nice dinner at Maggiano's (we had a gift card!), and then went to a movie and saw War Horse (had another gift card!!). Dinner was nice because they knew it was our anniversary (because they asked if it was a special occasion when we made reservations) so different waiters and waitresses came by several times and told us 'happy anniversary' and after the meal they came out with a little dessert and candle. Very good experience and Casey & I love Maggiano's. The next day we slept in a little, and then had the homemade breakfast prepared for us by the b&b owner. Very good as well. After we got ready and checked out we went to eat lunch with Casey's college friend Lance and his wife Leslie and daughter Gracen! We ate at Mighty Fine Burgers which is owned and started by Rudy's BBQ. It was pretty good! After lunch Casey and I headed to Round Rock Outlet Malls and did a little shopping (it's kind of a tradition that goes along with our anniversary trips since we just got money or gift cards from Christmas:)

I took very few pictures on this trip, but no anniversary post is complete without at least a couple! So here they are! I vow to take more next year on our 5th anniversary :)

Ps… thinking of future anniversary trips reminds me that Casey eventually wants to go on a cruise and I have never really had the desire to go on one…  and I want to go on one even less now that a cruise ship has tumped over in the ocean. Seriously, crazy.

Anyway, back to the pictures…I should have asked someone to take a picture of us so my arm wouldn't be sticking out in all of the pictures of the two of us together… oh well. 

Oh!!! I almost forgot, this year we didn't get each other individual presents, but we got new bedding and lamps for our bedroom (since we got a king this summer we had still been using our queen stuff)! I love it (it's pretty and soft) and we have been having good some good night's sleep! :)

Pictures of our bedding:
yep, that's a lot of pillows!

 And…some pictures that are in our bedroom :)

My nightstand…

Casey's nightstand…  his girls:)

All that to say, we had a good anniversary and look forward to many, many more! :)

My Nine Month Old Sawyer Grace

Sawyer is 9 months old!!!! This was a pretty big milestone for her because as of yesterday (a day before her 9 month birthday) she started crawling! She really kind of started on December 30th, but it was so sparse and off and on I am counting it official as of January 13, 2012. :) I have two vidoes from today that I will post so you can watch. She looks pretty uncoordinated, but she is definitely moving across the room for stuff!

AT NINE MONTHS… 

• Sawyer sleeps like a rock star. She continues to amaze me with her sleeping habits. This past week she was sick and has 2 teeth coming in and she woke up a little earlier each morning than usual, but still slept at least 7 hours before waking up and even then she just needed to be fed a little or comforted and then right back to sleep! 
• She is crawling!!! She loves to go after certain things (the computer, my phone, the remote, etc.) so we put those things in front of her to get her motivated ;)
• Sawyer is grabbing anything and everything! I am having to really keep my eye on her especially now that she rolls and crawls to get wherever she wants! She will dive off of the couch for something if I let her. She knows no fear.
• She "rocks" in her little Sawyer-sized rocking chair and then jumps out for me when I hold out my hands and say jump! It is so cute! I must video this soon. 
• Sawyer eats all baby food (including the meats now), puffs, yogurt melts, baby cookies, and now I am starting to feed her real table food (ie. a mushy banana)
• Sawyer likes to feed herself finger foods and is really quick to put the food in her mouth as soon as I put it on her tray!
• She still takes around 4 or 5 8oz bottles a day.
• Sawyer has SIX teeth!! Holy Moly!!! She has the top 4 middle teeth and bottom 2 middle teeth. Goodness gracious the girl can bite.
• She is really wearing age appropriate clothes now! I just retired her 3 month onesies yesterday and 6 month onesies fit her well and 6-9 months in pretty much anything else. She still wears size 1 shoes (sometimes size 2 will stay on without falling off)
• She just started on size 2 diapers this week, but only because we ran out of size 1! We soon realized that size 2 were allowing too many leaks so we went and bought one more package of size 1. I think the 2's will work when we run out of the 1's we have.
• Sawyer still loves bathtime. She is obsessed with her bath squirt toys. Sometimes I think she makes a mess just so she can have a bath! :)
• Sawyer is starting to babble new sounds and words, but "bye-bye" is still her favorite!
• Sawyer got a jumperoo for Christmas and loves it to death! She jumps non-stop and squeals while she is in it. She's hilarious to watch!
• Sawyer is still as sweet as ever. Always giving people a smile and just generally happy. I love it!

Sawyer's Weight Progression:

8 months - 15 lbs 4 oz

9 months - 16 lbs 2 oz

Loving her in the overalls :)

And here are a couple of videos of her crawling!

Love you more and more sweet girl.

Our Blessings in 2011

Every year now Casey and I talk about and write down our blessings from that previous year. You can read 2009's HERE here and 2010's HERE & HERE. In years past we did this on our anniversary getaway, but since this year's anniversary was much shorter in length (just one night away instead of 3) we did it at dinner at our kitchen table on December 31st. We came up with so many blessings, easily!

Sawyer Grace Coats was born! :)

Nice people of Baylor hospital and their help in the NICU

Generous gifts given to us at 4 different baby showers for Sawyer

Laura Bond & Ginni Rickerson using their nice cameras and expertise to take free newborn pictures of Sawyer for us

Carroll Twins were born

Continued improvement of Beverly’s health

Getting to stay at home with Sawyer

Lauren had a great experience at Smith for my first 3 years of teaching and was congratulated upon staying at home and has kept up with my friendships made there (Tracey, Christie, & Jim)

Part time job at Mimosa Lane Playschool IN the baby room with Sawyer!

Being able to sub on Fridays (ie. Casey’s day off)

Sawyer’s helmet improving her head shape

Financial blessings

We sold my Mustang for almost as much as our new Escape

No car trouble this year!

Good health for both Casey & Lauren (minus Casey’s Poison Ivey experience:)

Good fellowship & learning with our community group

Answered prayer of Lauren & Ben’s remarriage in Colorado (November)

c|Life’s d|now had over 300 kids with many salvations!

c|Life’s youth camp had 256 kids with many salvations!

c|Life's high school mission trip with children in Robstown accepting Christ!

Casey has enjoyed playing basketball frequently with friends

Casey has enjoyed his new men’s group/book club with some men from church called “5 Guys No Lies”

Money was raised for the youth group through the Annual Micah Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament that Casey hosts each year

Lauren is still enjoying friendships made through pokeno each month

Christie Harty Photography doing Father’s Day pictures of Sawyer and of our family for no charge!

My mom bought us a king size bed in exchange for our queen! Great nights of sleep in 2011!

Taking sewing lessons from Natalie Swartz and my dad buying me a sewing/embroidery machine for Christmas

Answered prayer of Ben & Abby Lowery getting to bring Abe home from Ethiopia

Wow! Every time I read through that list I just feel so blessed! It is exciting to see answered prayer and other blessings that God gives us. Every year we are able to come up with 25+ reasons to be thankful and there are always things I leave off of the blog because it may be private to someone. God is good to us--What a great reminder for the new year.