Coats Family 2013 Blessings and Review

Every year since 2009 Casey & I sit down around the end of the year and write down all of our blessings from the past year. It is always so neat to see how God blessed, provided, and proved faithful again--year after year. We both feel just a little bit better after writing down all of the blessings we encountered in 365 days. Some things are more personal or confidential, so they might not make the blog list, but there are still many to share with everyone!!

2013 Blessings

All 4 of us are healthy and well!

Lauren was able to stay at home with the children for another year

  Casey was promoted to Campus Pastor at c|Life West Campus

Lauren graduated with her Masters of Science Counseling after 3 years of classes and internships

Lauren got a great internship at The Vale

Lauren was later offered a position on staff at The Vale upon graduation

Dayton turned 1 year old and had many friends and family come to celebrate him

Casey & Lauren went on a free (highly discounted) 5 day cruise to Mexico (sans kids)

Lauren got a grant to pay for part of her last semester

Our Community Group has grown closer and provided us with good friendships

Casey was able to go on a mission trip to Guatemala over spring break

God continued to stretch our finances with small things throughout the year like free meals, gifts of diapers, wipes, and formula, and gifts of money and gift cards from unexpected people.

Sawyer needed another ear surgery and her great-grandparents offered to pay for it

Casey & Lauren were able to attend Catalyst for a second year in a row

The new Momentum Service at the West Campus was started and is going well

Lauren is able to bring the kids to Momentum on Wednesday nights and lead a CG of 11^th & 12^th grade girls while a volunteer babysitter watches the kids up at the church

Dayton was dedicated at church on April 7^th

We found a babysitter we really trusted with a newborn and 2-year-old—Ashlee was able to watch the kids while Lauren worked in the summer

Sawyer was able to do a month of gymnastics in the summer with her friend Avery

Sawyer was able to do swim lessons for another consecutive summer

Lauren, Sawyer, & Dayton were able to have many playdates with their friends Kristin, Avery, & Ally in the early days of Dayton’s life. This helped keep Lauren sane. ;)

Casey & Lauren were able to do pre-marriage counseling with a couple for several weeks before Casey performed their wedding

So many people have contributed to babysitting our kids when we really needed it: Casey parents, Casey’s grandmother, Lauren’s mom, Lauren’s grandma, Ginni, & Natalie

Lauren’s best friend, Lauren Stevenson, was able to come down to stay with her for a week when Casey was away on a mission trip

So many people brought us meals in January after Dayton was first born

Lauren’s mom paid to have a housekeeper come to clean our house once a month in 2013--man am I going to miss that!!!

2 great friends took some pictures of us and our kiddos for free—Christie Harty & Ginni Rickerson!

c|Life d|Now had over 400 kids attend and many accepted Christ!

More kids than ever are attending Momentum & CGs and many have accepted Christ!

Sawyer had a super fun 2^nd Birthday Party and Elmo made an appearance. It was a great time for her & her friends.

Casey turned 30 and we had a great surprise dinner for him with good friends—so much fun!

Casey's parents, & grandparents as well as Lauren's parents & grandparents have babysat the kids many, many times so that we could be where we needed to be or have date nights!!

2013 was a very blessed year for us!

27. Really?!?!

My birthday has come and gone, but I want to put the pictures up, so I might as well blog about it. I turned 27 on April 2nd. I am married, have 2 kids, and am almost done with graduate school, so I felt pretty old this birthday. Not too old, but still old, haha. (It always helps that Casey is 3 years old than me though…so while I turned 27, he was already 30…that makes me feel a bit better;).

As always, we went to my Momma Sheila's & Pappa Donnie's in Mabank for my birthday party. I always get a neat cake that has to do with something big that happened that year (for example, the year I graduated from A&M it was all maroon and Aggied out…my first year teaching the cake looked like a classroom had exploded on it, with rulers and apples and abc's all over it. You get the point). So, anyway, this year my cake had my babies on it! It said "Happy 27th birthday Momma   From, Sawyer & Dayton" My own name was not on my birthday cake. Instead it was replaced with "Momma" and my children's names made it onto the cake. Haha. So typical of having kids - do other mothers agree with me?! Oh, and we celebrated the day before Easter so it was fitting to have bunny rabbits and Easter eggs. :)

We always take a picture of the 3 of us on my birthday!

4 generations of Tapp, Rowan, Horton, Coats women :)

Uncle Russell & Dayton :)

my Mom got a tripod and was a little obsessed with capturing a group picture :) It turned out well!!

All of those presents really for me?! Can we say only child & only grandchild? ;)

On my actual birthday I had 2 birthday meals! The first one was lunch with my mom & Casey & the kiddos. I didn't get a picture with my momma. :(

The second was dinner with the Rickersons at Zanata's! YUM. We Coats & Rickersons always celebrate each other's birthdays with dinner with the 4 of us. :) It's always a fun time!

Casey also took me out to a fancy date at Sissy's!! I had been wanting to try it for sometime and he surprised me! I loved it!!! The food was so good and the decor was super cute. Thank you, babe!

I also had a celebration with Casey's family! We go out to eat for everyone's birthday and it's always a lot of fun. This year for my birthday we went to Campisi's at the Harbor in Rockwall. We had yummy cookie cake afterward! Everyone came back to our house and the kids had a blast hanging out in the backyard playing.

Me & my girl!

No smiling from her, but still pretty :)

cute nephew Caleb!! 

 Steph & the twins, Luke & Sadie!

 I think these pictures are cute because Sawyer is being shy, but loves her cousins! It's written all over her face :)

Sawyer may be Caleb's biggest fan!! 

Aunt Stephanie & Dayton!

cutie after his bath:)

After posting all of the pictures and writing about it, I've decided that 27 was a pretty great birthday! Geeze, am I spoiled! Did I really have FIVE birthday parties/lunches/dinners?! Lots of family, lots of celebration, and 2 super sweet kiddos this year. Bring on 27!! :)

Our Blessings in 2012

Casey & I started an end-of-the-year tradition in 2009 where we think back on the year and write down all of our blessings from that year. I got the idea from Paul McDill's blog post because his family does something similar. You can read about our previous years' blessings here, here, and here! 

Now for 2012's blessings on The Coats Family :)

Got pregnant with our 2nd baby!

Casey and Lauren both got to attend Catalyst, Lauren for the first time

So many friends and family came to celebrate Sawyer’s 1st birthday!

Vacationed in New Orleans using credit card points/miles

Lauren was able to stay home with Sawyer for a 2nd year

Sawyer's tubes in March improved her health--no ear infections since! 

Lauren completed 13 hours of school, as well as her first of 3 internships

Casey & Lauren both got to go skiing on spring break in Colorado

Our CG (community group) grew and we were blessed with getting to know each other better!

Got a tax refund

No car trouble this year!

c|Life’s dnow had over 350 kids

c|Life’s youth camp had 219 kids

There were over 400 kids at See You At The Pole

We saw many students saved through these youth events

Started a student leadership team called “the 12” which we both enjoyed leading

Lauren made extra money by keeping twin boys Luke & Monte as well as another boy, Braden, that Sawyer loved playing with

Part-time job at Playschool at Mimosa Lane (and in the room with Sawyer)

Made a great, new friend--Charity--at Playschool 

Found loving homes for Lucy & Ella

Casey’s enjoys playing basketball with friends in the mornings

Received lots of free babysitting from grandparents living close by!

Celebrated with Paul and Jill on their adoption of Julia

G-Momma paid for Sawyer to take private swim lessons, and she loved it

Charlie & Ginni had Mathis, who is sure to be Dayton’s good friend!

Rachel and Jordan had Conrad (an answered prayer!)--another friend for Dayton!

Casey celebrated 5 years at c|Life

Financial blessings 

We celebrated our 5^th year of marriage!

Lauren got to participate in a 7 week Beth Moore bible study series with other women from c|Life

Lauren is still enjoying friendships made at pokeno each month

Generous gifts given to us at Dayton's baby shower thrown by awesome friends! 

Healthy baby Dayton was born!

As usual, God has blessed us abundantly and we are thankful!!! 

Happy 1st Birthday Sawyer!!!

Sawyer's 1st Birthday came and went in a blur. I am so glad friends and family took pictures for me so that I could go back and enjoy her party every time I look at them! Sawyer started the day off acting a little sick (if you don't remember, she had a horrible stomach virus the day before--which I prayed and prayed would go away before the party and it did!).  She took a really early nap (around 9:00) and slept until the party started at noon! She had a little bottle and then we got started! She was in a great mood and seemed to love all of the people at our house! (I had been preparing myself for a melt down so that my expectations weren't too high, but that didn't happen!! What a sweetie!)

We had 35 friends and family in our home to celebrate sweet Sawyer's 1st birthday and I am so happy to say that I have everyone in a picture - even if they are just in the background :) Some of the fellas tried to avoid cameras at all costs. :) This post is picture heavy…sorry about that, but I wanted to put as many pictures in as I could for my own records. :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Sawyer!!! :)

The Food
We served pasta salad, chicken sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, veggie shooters, fruit & fruit dip, chips & dip, chocolate-covered marshmallows, popcorn (flavors were watermelon, coconut, and banana) white cupcakes, and chocolate cake! 
It was super yummy!

The Presents
Sawyer received so much! We are truly blessed! She got a swing set, radio flyer wagon, turtle sand pit, new big girl car seat, many toys, lots of clothes, and other super cute stuffed animals, and odd and ends! We appreciate it all and have already had fun with a lot of it! :)

The cake

This is the area in which I should have lowered my expectations a little! I had envisioned her tearing into her  cake and it being so entertaining, but instead she ate it little piece by little piece and in between bites she just smiled at the crowd. :) She was super cute & sweet--and very clean. Haha! I guess I thought she would dig in, because only 2 days prior, she got really into her cupcake at Playschool. Maybe she got it all out of her system then? Haha. Really though, she is more social than anything and would rather watch the people watching her than eat cake. :) She clapped after we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and also several other times if someone else clapped or said "yay!". She's so funny. :)

The People

I think I got a picture of just about everyone…whether in the foreground or background. I'm sure when Sawyer is older she will love looking back to see who came to her 1st birthday!! Sawyer had 4 grandparents and 5 great-grandparents in attendance. She had 3 cousins and 3 other little friends attend (all ages 5 and under!). Overall there were 35 people who came to see her on her 1st birthday!! She is one very blessed little girl!

The details
Casey, Ginni, & I worked pretty hard on this party! I wanted the theme "April Showers Bring Sawyer Flowers" way back when I first started thinking of her party (My birthday is also in April and I've always thought it was a great time to be born! Haha)…and I thought flowers and umbrellas would be a cute theme. I'm sure we'll be doing Easter Egg Hunt parties in the future like I did as a kid. ;) I made a cute photo banner of Sawyer every month since she was born - 13 pictures in all - 0-12 months old. 
We had flower cake, flower cupcakes, and flower marshmallows. We had shovels and rakes as serving spoons. Straws were in a little watering can and little flower pots held the food labels. Each child received a cookie favor in the shape of a flower in a cute little flower pot! We had flowers all over the house and umbrellas with rain drops hung from the ceiling. I had so much fun with the details!!

Sweet Sawyer Grace,

I hope you know how much your daddy & I love you. It is certainly a crazy amount! I cannot imagine a sweeter baby than you. I hope your 2nd year of life is as fun and special as the first. 

I love you SOOO much. 

Love, Momma