Feb. update

What a busy month we’ve had! Jason started out the month with a Middle School retreat. They stayed in town and did service projects in downtown Mobile. Bill and Suzanne were also here that weekend. I went to a women’s luncheon at church that Sunday with guest speaker Rosalie Hunt. She is a very inspirational speaker and has such a passion for spreading the Word of God. That night we went to a Super Bowl party at church. Thankfully Bill and Suzanne stayed at home with Gracie! Gracie went to the doctor the first of the month and had two ear infections. We ended up going back after the first antibiotic didn’t work and Gracie was put on a second one. She was such a trooper through it all. I took her back to the doctor early this week because she was still rubbing her ear a little, but the doctor said her ears looked great. Maybe its just teething =)

We were in Birmingham and Reform for about a week during the middle of the month. My Paw Paw went to the hospital on 2-8 and passed away on 2-11. I was so thankful Jason and I were able to get to Birmingham and then Pickens Co. Hospital to see him before he died. He was a wonderful man and lived a long great life. We are thankful he now has a new body, is pain free, and is with our Heavenly Father.

We celebrated my birthday a couple of days early and got to have dinner (just the two of us!!) at a tasty Mexican restaurant in B’ham. Bill and Suzanne were generous enough to give up their reservations for dinner to keep Gracie while we went out. After dinner we were unsuccessful in finding a TCBY close to the Cooks house, so we went to the grocery store and I bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and ate straight from the container! I figured it was my birthday, so surely calories didn’t count!!

The weather really warmed up this week in Mobile. Thursday the high was in the 80s! It’s been beautiful. Jason and I both started running this week. I’m really excited about running. I told myself if I could do it for a few weeks and be consistent with it then I could get a jogging stroller. I’m very excited about that! So, we’ll see in a couple of weeks how things are going. Yesterday we drove down to Dauphin Island for a few hours. It was a little chilly, but we still had a great time. Gracie still loves to eat the sand. She would scoop up a handful and eat it, cry for a second, and then do it all over again. She had a fun time chasing after birds and walking all over the beach. We drove the best route on the way home and found that it only takes about 30 minutes to get there! I didn’t realize how close we were to the coast! There aren’t many restaurants, so it’s best to pack a lunch if you plan to stay for the day. I think we’ll be making many more trips to Dauphin Island!

Gracie has really blossomed so much over the last month. She has new expressions all the time and is still laughing a lot too. She loves to be outside and is really enjoying all of her outside toys. She really enjoys just walking around outside and checking out the squirrels, cats, dogs, leaves and rocks.

Next weekend Jason and I are going to Destin for a marriage retreat. My parents are coming down to stay with Gracie. We’ll stop on the way in Pensacola for Jason to play golf with his youth minister from Dawson (Don Minton) and hopefully I’ll visit the spa once we get there. I know the retreat will be a great time for us and hopefully a great time to learn.

The last pictures are of Gracie’s new rug!! I’ve been looking forever for her room and finally found this one a month or so ago. I’m so excited to finally have something on her floor other than her foam alphabet puzzle pieces. She’s playing peek-a-boo in the last two pictures =)

Well, that’s our life right now. Thanks for keeping up with our family!

Christmas Pictures










The Birthday Party!!!

Gracie wasn't so sure about the hat at first!


Gracie tested out the icing for a bit before she got to the cake.
Gracie was kind enough to share with Mommy and Daddy!


Gracie had a blast with the cake!
Gracie has learned how to climb over and into things.
Oh, the life of a Youth Minister!









We had a wonderful Christmas in Birmingham. We got to spend time with most of our family (Julie and Ryan were in TX) and got to see a lot of friends too. Gracie has really enjoyed her wagon that she got for Christmas and loves her Little Mermaid riding toy.

Gracie is now a big one year old toddler! At her 12 month check up she weighed in at 19 lbs, 11 oz. and 29 ¾ in. tall. She still doesn’t have any teeth, but gums just about anything you give her. She loves to eat whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating. Her favorite foods right now are fresh strawberries and cheese! We are in the process of weaning her off the bottle, she’s down to one at night before bed. She’s off of formula (yippee!!!) and in the past couple of days she has started drinking milk in the morning too. She wouldn’t touch it for about two weeks, but now loves it. We recently turned her carseat around and she loves facing forward. She seems to really enjoy looking out the window! We had a wonderful birthday party for Gracie. We are so grateful for all of our family who came to Mobile to help celebrate with us. Gracie LOVED her cake and even shared with Mommy and Daddy! She enjoyed opening her presents more on her birthday than she did at Christmas and that was fun for us to watch. Gracie has started walking a lot by herself over the past few days. She gets very excited when she reaches her goal. She’s clapping all the time now and looks at us to clap with her. She hasn’t gotten the “roll em up” part in patty cake yet, but loves to play. Gracie loves to be outside and loves walking around the yard chasing squirrels.

Jason has had a very busy start to the new year. We concluded Family Ties (Disciple Now) this past Sunday and it was a big hit! The kids had a great time and learned a lot. Jason got a great speaker and band (Chris Brooks and David Walker) and the kids really seemed to enjoy them. We’ve heard only positive feedback from church members. Saturday night our house was rolled by some Sophomores and Juniors. It was really kind of pretty in the middle of the night and looked like a snow storm had come through Mobile! One of the students thought it would be funny to bang on our front door and ring the door bell over and over again. I’m just thankful Gracie didn’t wake up. We’re glad to be initiated into the group =) It was a great weekend.

Again, too much time has passed since my last post. Our lives have only gotten busier since the beginning of November it seems. We had a wonderful visit with my parents Iron Bowl Weekend. My parents had a dress up photo shoot with Gracie Saturday before the game (See picture above). Gracie got that beautiful coat and hat from her Fairy Godmother, Betty, but sadly I'm not sure she'll ever get to wear it in Mobile. Maybe one day it'll really get cold here. We had a great vacation in Birmingham the week of Thanksgiving. We got to spend time with all of the family, Julie and Ryan were there from TX, and Marland and Betsy were around as well. Gracie enjoyed her Thanksgiving lunch like the rest of us. She actually started smacking her lips as we walked through the kitchen one time before lunch. The first picture is of Gracie at Thanksgiving lunch with her beautiful silver spoon that matches Gran's pattern.

We all went to Charlotte, NC the week after Thanksgiving for the National Youth Workers Convention. We were able to drive up to Chapel Hill and attend Christmas at the Corner at UBC and loved it. It was very special seeing everyone, and we even got to see some friends who were also back in Chapel Hill for a visit. We stayed with RG and Carlita the night we were there and Gracie LOVED playing with Aspen, who is deaf and pretty much blind. We discovered that weekend in NC that Gracie could crawl up stairs. She did it like she had been doing it her whole life (all 11 months =)). Jason got to go hear some great speakers in Charlotte and also got some great cd's and books dealing with different aspects of Youth Ministry. We broke the trip up to NC by stopping of in SC to visit the Voelkert's. Gracie had a lot of fun watching and playing with Eric and Emma. On the way home she even got to jump on their trampoline and loved it.

Our Christmas tree did get put up, but not many ornaments or lights on the bottom. Gracie has done really well with the tree. She does like to pull at the branches a little and likes to try to put the lights in her mouth, but she gets bored with it fairly quickly. She's opened a few Christmas gifts that she's gotten from church members and really likes to eat the paper. With all of the Christmas hub bub we were out every night last week except one and Gracie was a champ through it all. Last Tuesday we were at the church for our Sunday School party and Gracie stayed awake until after 9 and was having a blast. She thrives off of being around other people. I think sometimes she gets bored when it's just us =) We got some funny gifts from the dirty santa games and some generic old wedding gifts as well. We ended our parties tonight with the college kids that have come home for break. We left early because Gracie was ready for bed. We're leaving Mobile tomorrow afternoon to head to Birmingham for Christmas. Jason was able to get Sunday off so we will be able to spend more time with family. It'll be a busy weekend for sure.

Every once in a while when Gracie wakes up she's got really bad hair...that was the case in the picture above. She was actually in a good mood, but when I clicked the camera she was kind of making a silly =) face. Nobody likes bad hair days. She's doing great. She's discovered how much more fun it is to eat food that she can feed herself than eating mushy baby food and that's been a little frustrating at times when she won't eat anything but Goldfish. She's still growing like a little weed, so I'm not worried. She's speed crawling and crusing all over the place. She's discovered over the past couple of days that she can cruise along a wall and even turn corners. She is standing on her own really well and has taken a step or two by herself. She really likes to walk around holding one of our hands. She is babbling all the time and is still discovering the range she has. She's still sleeping well and getting much better at naps. Still no teeth...maybe for her birthday she'll get all of them =) Gracie will be 1 on Jan. 11 and we are very excited. I can't believe it's almost been a year! Time flies when you're having fun. Merry Christmas and lots of love!

Sarah

Catch up

Crazy Uncle Marland








Happy Halloween!









Gracie and her pumpkin









Gracie, Holly & Sarah









New play space












The Newlyweds

Well, it's been another crazy couple of weeks. Gracie had a great time dressing up for halloween, but the trick-or-treaters came after she had gone to bed, so she didn't get to show off her costume. She had fun playing with the pumpkins and even reached into the candy pile once. Suzanne drove down on Halloween to drive back to Birmingham with me and Gracie on Wednesday. It was such a huge help having Suzanne with us and I don't think she minded having that time with Gracie =) Jason came to Birmingham on Thursday after work and Gracie was very excited to see him. I got to hang out with my sweet friends, Jamie and Hannah before the wedding festivities began and that was great fun. The Rehearsal Dinner was at the B&A Warehouse downtown and it was a blast. We didn't dance, but it was a lot of fun watching George and Theresa break it down to "Do you love me? (Now that I can dance)"! Marland and Betsy are great dancers as well and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. It was a lot of fun having a reunion of sorts at the dinner and wedding. We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while. We got to visit with our friends Beth and Jared Peterson (Anna Kate, Lee and sweet baby Paige too). The Peterson's live in North Carolina and we miss them dearly. We also got to spend some time with my old youth minister from Over the Mountain Community Church, Stacy Gravley. It was great seeing all of them. The wedding was at McElwain Baptist Church in Birmingham. Jason did a part of the ceremony and did an awesome job. I was very proud of him. Jody Baker, Betsy's Aunt, did the other part of the ceremony. Betsy and Marland are in Hawaii now and will return Sunday. They had a nursery during the ceremony, but my sweet friend Holly graciously came to play with Gracie during pictures and the ceremony. We were very grateful that Gracie had her very own personal assistant.

Before we left for Birmingham Gracie got a new car seat. She was very close to the cutoff for the length so we decided to go ahead and get the bigger one. She is doing so much better in the bigger seat. She doesn't fight me like she used to when I put her in the car =) She seems to enjoy sitting up a little higher and having more space to move her legs around. In just a couple of months she'll be old enough and big enough to face forward...I really think she'll like that. Gracie will be 10 months tomorrow. It's hard to believe she's that old already. We're having the 8th graders over tomorrow for lunch. We just have the 9th and 10th grades left after tomorrow. My parents will be here next weekend for a visit. We'll be up at the church a lot that Saturday because Jason is having an Iron Bowl Party for the youth. Should be a lot of fun. Well, I guess that's about all for now.

You're Fired!

Tonight Jason and I went to a Department Sunday School Halloween party! Jason, a.k.a. Donald Trump, had a really great wig and a great "You're Fired" face for the evening. One of the girls in our class told him he had too much hair. I was Pocahontas. I wore the headband in the not so traditional form and didn't have long dark braids, but most people still knew who I was. We had a very fun evening hanging out with friends. Everyone was dressed in great costumes (I was a little worried we'd be the only ones dressed). Gracie was the only baby that needed child care, so the nursery worker came to our house which was great. She keeps Gracie on Wednesday night and Sunday night and had been keeping her on Thursday mornings while I was at Bible study, so Gracie knows her well and she is very familiar with Gracie. She said Gracie was such a little angel tonight...maybe we should have left her halo on her. A very sweet and generous family from our church in NC gave Gracie a TON of clothes their kids had outgrown and in with the clothes was the cutest Halloween angel costume. I failed to notice that it was a 3-6 months outfit until earlier this week when I was trying it on her for a little photo shoot I wanted to do out in the yard with the pumpkin. Needless to say, the outfit didn't fit at all and we stayed in her room, but it had the cutest halo with it that fit perfectly! She's our little angel =)


We're off to Birmingham this week for Marland and Betsy's wedding. Gracie and I will go up on Wednesday (along with Suzanne who is coming here on Tuesday to drive us up) and Jason will come up Thursday after work. We are very excited about the wedding and all of the festivities surrounding it.

Gracie is doing great. She loves to peek around things and have you peek at her from behind a wall or door. She loves a form of peek-a-boo and laughs all the time. She's finally bathing in the big tub and splashes so much more than she ever did in the sink. She seems to get more comfortable in the water every day. She has also started playing with her Aubie a lot-smiling at him and eating his face. She still doesn't have any teeth yet, but we're sure they'll be here any day. I'm convinced all of her teeth are going to come at one time =) Her hair is growing in nicely and pretty thick since the big cut.

Well, even though we gain an hour tonight I'm still going to bed early because Gracie just can't understand me when I tell her she gets to sleep an extra hour in the morning. Bummer. I'm sure she'll be up with bells on at 5:30. Love to you all.

Sarah

busy, busy, busy

As I sit down to update the blog there are still six 11th grade guys left at our house watching the Auburn-Florida game. We had a fun evening with the group over...I guess they'll leave after the game =)
We've had a busy month and the next month will be about the same. We were in Birmingham for three straight weekends and loved seeing family and friends. Julie was in Birmingham for a long weekend and we got to spend some great time with her. Julie is almost 20 weeks pregnant and looks wonderful. They'll find out the sex of the baby at the end of this week! We can't wait!! We didn't get to see Ryan, but look forward to hanging out with them at Thanksgiving. Marland and Betsy are getting married Nov. 4. I've enjoyed going to parties for Betsy and we are really excited about the wedding. Jason will be giving the homily at the wedding. This weekend is our weekend to be at home. Jason had an event with the youth last night after the football games, "5th Quarter" and got home a little before 1 and the 11th grade class came over for dinner tonight. Over the next few months we'll have over the 8th, 9th and 10th grade classes for dinner or lunch. Next weekend is the Youth Fall Road Trip. We'll be going to Camp Baldwin for the weekend. Jason Black is coming to speak and I'm really excited about that because Holly will get to come with him! We have a free weekend (maybe) the following week and then we'll be back up to Birmingham for the wedding.

Gracie turned nine months this past Wednesday! She had her nine month appointment on Friday and got a great report. She weighs 17 lbs 12 ozs and is 28 inches long! She has one more inch to grow before she'll need a new car seat. We were so surprised that she was under 18 lbs! She's got the cutest little belly and I was sure she was close to 20! She got a flu shot and Jason and I got the flu mist. The nurse did a great job of squirting the second spray on my face...it was kind of humorous. Gracie only cried for a few minutes after her shot and thankfully that was the only shot she got this time. Gracie also got her first haircut! I cut her hair almost two weeks ago. The picture with Julie and the pumpkin are pre-haircut. I trimmed off the original long pieces. It's already growing back in nicely, but I sure do miss that little curl behind her ear. Gracie is finally crawling forward and is all over the place! She's pulling up on everything and looks like she is ready to take a step by herself any day.

Well, I guess that's about all of our news. I'll get Jason to add to it if I've forgotten something. Thanks to everyone for keeping up with us!

Sarah

True Colors

The past two weeks have been a fun adventure in the Cook household. We made a quick trip to Birmingham last weekend (Jason's first trip since we moved to Mobile) and really enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Gracie loved all of the attention (all four Grandparents two days in a row) and settled nicely back into things when we returned to Mobile. She is still a great traveler, just doesn't sleep the entire time anymore. Gracie is 8 months now. She has mastered the backwards scoot/crawl and is trying her hardest to stand on her own. She sits and just kind of bounces up and down, pushing from her feet. She thinks she knows how to walk already, so it makes sense that she wants to be able to stand up. No teeth yet, but the white spot that we saw two weeks ago is still visible, so any day now...I guess. Yesterday afternoon Gracie started playing with Jason's Duke hat, so I went and grabbed her Duke bear and camera and started a photo shoot. She's already a Dukie! Gracie went to her first football game last night and loved it, especially the halftime show. St. Paul played UMS-Wright: the Battle of Old Shell Road. Many of the youth go to both schools, so Jason was able to chat with some kids and even see a few parents. We left after halftime so we could get Gracie to bed. Jason is on-call this weekend, so we're staying in town, laying low. I'll be traveling to Birmingham next weekend for another quick trip to go to a shower for Betsy (Marland's fiance) and Jason and Gracie will stay here at home. That's about it for us.

And So It Begins...

Well, Papa Hayes and Grandmother came into Mobile this weekend and look what they brought - an Alabama cheerleeder outfit. Already trying to thwart this corruption is Gran who is planning on buying Gracie her very own Aubie! It's been a good couple of weeks here. My parents came last week and Sarah's this weekend. We went to the Original Oyster House yesterday for lunch. Unfortunately, the raw oysters didn't sit well with George (food poisoning is not fun). He was up most of the night and Gracie decided to join in the fun at about 3:00 a.m. when she woke up hungry. I managed to sleep walk through church.

I just finished a ten day freshman blitz with 4 college fairs in about 10 days. We'll be heading to the beach at the end of this month with the college students for a retreat (the first of its kind). Our youth retreat will be at the end of October. In between, we'll head to Tuscaloosa to watch the fightin' Blue Devils take on the Crimson Tide. Personally, I'll consider it a victory if Duke passes the 50 yard line. Things are getting busy...

Jason

She's getting so big!!

For the past few days Gracie has been using us as her personal jungle gym, but not getting very far. This morning she was grabbing at my arms and lunging a little so I put my arms out and she immediately grabbed my hands and pulled herself up to a standing position. She was a little wobbly, but standing! After she did it the first time that's all she wanted to do. All day she was pulling at my arms and shirt trying to stand up. After she gets up she looks at you and smiles really big as if to say "what's next?".

As if that wasn't enough for one day, Gracie decided to try a new sleeping position tonight. Gracie rolled over in her crib tonight for the first time!!! I went in to check on her and she was on her tummy!!!! I ran and got Jason and as we stood over her crib she moved and we both hit the floor =). She quickly settled and we left her to dream happy dreams! I put her on her tummy for a nap earlier this week because she was having a hard time napping and I thought that might help, but that was the first time she'd been on her tummy in her crib. We're going to lower the mattress this weekend, especially now that she's started pulling up! I'm such a nervous wreck!!!

Gracie is doing great. She's seven months old. She's eating great and sleeping great at night. She slept until 6:45 this morning (that's not the norm...yet). She is "talking" all the time and loves to laugh. She has been such a trooper this week with all of the youth and college functions with Jason. Tonight was our third night out in a row. University of Mobile had a progressive dinner and Spring Hill had soup and salad. We had a great time. Jason has one more college event tomorrow at University of South Alabama and hopefully he will be able to rest after that before everything starts over again on Sunday. Jason is still recovering from a bad case of poison ivy that he got almost two weeks ago (the yard looks great though!) and we're hoping that will clear up soon. We are still enjoying Mobile and hope to get to the beach again soon. That's about all for the Cook household, especially since I need to go check on Gracie again =)

Sarah

Cooks and Hatfields

Today, we drove over to Fort Morgan to see our good friends Rob and Laurie and their son, Alex. He was born three weeks after Gracie, but is a "tank" and already outweighs her by 3+ pounds. Sarah has already begun wedding plans for the two of them (I'm just hoping they make it through the "Terrible 2s" as friends).

We managed to get them still enough and looking in the same direction for just a few shots. There's one with Gracie in her "grab on to anything close" phase. So, we had to protect Alex a couple of times. Here's another one with the two of them looking at something that rattles (whatever works).

Gracie also had her first Ferry ride today. After we left the Hatfields, we took the Ft. Morgan ferry across Mobile Bay. She slept half the way, but we got her out of her carseat and she woke up to check out the waves. Here's a photo from that.