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!! :)

Sawyer's TWO!

There is so much I want to say about Sawyer turning two, but I will try to be somewhat brief as this is already going to be one of my longest posts ever! First off, let me just say that these past 2 years have been 2 of the best years of my life. Being a momma has opened my eyes to a whole new love, and I can't explain the impact that Sawyer has made on mine and Casey's lives. She is such a ham and we love her to pieces. What I'd really love to do is go back and reminisce about when she was born, but because that would make this post way to lengthy I'll post this link of when I did that last year. :)

Sawyer has loved Elmo for about a year now so we threw her an Elmo 2nd Birthday Party! She loved it! We even had a guest appearance by none other than…ELMO! (Charlie dressed up in an Elmo costume for us…it's owned by the church and it's actually called "Delmo" for copyright purposes. So funny!).

Everything everywhere was decked out in Elmo, and to make it girly I threw in some pink, orange, and green to go with the resounding red! I love the way it turned out! Sawyer had LOTS of little friends at her 2nd birthday and I could tell she had a blast! It was extra fun to see her running around outside playing with other little boys and (mostly) girls her age (and a little older). The older girls, Lola and Aubrey weren't scared of Elmo, and I think it kept Sawyer from completely freaking out. Instead she smiled and gave him a hug high five. :)

After the party, she napped and then we went to dinner. Afterwards we went to my mom's house where Sawyer "released her fish" (Elmo's fish, Dorothy) tint my mom's pond where she kept saying "bye fishes!" Then we fed the ducks. I think she had a great day! :)

On her actual birthday (Sunday) we went to church, ate lunch, came home and took naps, played with her new toys from the party, and then went to dinner and the park! We made it a day about her :) She even blew out her own candles when we sang Happy Birthday to her at the restaurant. She loved it. And she LOVES cupcakes now. Sweet tooth like her momma. ;) After dinner we took her to her favorite park. 

Some Sawyer Stats…

She weighs 24 pounds (20th percentile), is 33.5" tall (45th percentile), and her head is 18.25" around (25th percentile). She's come a long way from her tiny 5 lbs 12 oz! She wears size 3 diaper, but is getting very good at potty training!! She goes on the potty every single day, multiple times a day. As soon as we get a good warm spell I'm going to strip her down and do some hard core potty training. I've heard this method is awesome and over in 3 days. I think she'll take to it very well because she likes the potty and she's already quite good at it.

Sawyer is spunky and funny! She is always on the go and rarely settles down. She loves to play outside, ride her tricycle, throw or kick a ball, slide or swing on her swing set, and play in her turtle sandbox! She also loves bubbles and loves playing with her new water table. Indoors Sawyer loves playing with dolls her babies and "cooking" at her kitchen. She also loves to color and play with stickers! She loves to dance anytime we play music and she especially loves to play with her daddy. :) She's a momma's girl, though. ;) Sawyer loves her "bubba" and still calls him either "bubba" or "Dayton." She has taken a special interest in him lately and has asked to hold him a few times, but that seriously lasts like 2 seconds. She loves to help and wants to throw his dirty diapers in the diaper genie for us…so we let her! ;) She will also put his paci in his mouth if he starts to cry or push him in the baby swing. :)

Sawyer is one of the chattiest kids I know! When we're at home she talks non-stop. She seriously talks all day long. It's insane. They say women have double the word count as men, but I think she has double the word count of most women! She is going to need to find a husband that doesn't mind listening to her non-stop. ;)

Sawyer is thoughtful and caring. Every time Dayton cries she seems concerned and finds him a toy, his pacifier, or gives him his blankie. Such a sweet big sister. She loves to give hugs and kisses and likes for people to be happy. If I hurt myself she will kiss my boo-boo like I do for her. The other day I said "ouch" and she came over and said "momma, wanna kiss it?" and she kissed my hand that I was rubbing. Haha!

Sawyer is becoming fiercely independent and one of her most commonly spoken phrases is "I wanna do it!"…she will either say this calmly or vehemently, depending on what it is. She is determined to put her shoes on by herself, and one day I let her go several hours with them on the wrong feet. She didn't seem mind, and I know she was so proud that she put them on by herself. It's as if all fear is lost when we enter the park! She doesn't want our help and she wants to go down the slides by herself. Seeing her become so independent makes me proud, but it also reminds me of how fast she is growing up and how quickly her childhood will be over. I remind myself often to cherish these days with her as a little girl. 

Here are some pictures of her party and as a big 2-year-old :) 

Check out her cute dress & bow by Donna Barnett & Ginni Rickerson :) 

 Elmo came!!!

giving Sawyer an Elmo doll :) 

I love the kids' faces when Elmo came out

 …and then he did pushups! Haha!!! That certainly gathered a crowd ;)

birthday girl just walking around…ha.

Lots of playing outside

I was so proud of how she opened all of her presents herself :)

The kitchen was an immediate success ;)

Everyone sure spoiled her!!!

We are so lucky to have so many friends and family that love our kiddos.

Sawyer has played non-stop with all of her toys & all of her clothes are adorable!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

 she dug right in and then talked about cupcakes for at least 2 weeks ;)

Can't forget the party guests!!

and some decorations… 

My poor sunburned boy was a real trooper! (his shirt was also by Donna Barnett!)

"Releasing" Elmo's fish after the party!

and then feeding ducks… 

The next day on her actual birthday…

Sawyer Grace, you are such a sweet, special girl. We love you oh so much and are so excited to watch you grow up! You have already taught us more in your short 2 years than we could ever have imagined. Happy 2nd birthday, sweet girl!