Welcome to the world, Molly Rose!

Molly Rose Cooke, my beautiful neice, was born tonight via c-section around 8:15(ish?) pm! She is BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT! She is 8 lbs even and both Mom and Baby are doing fine.

I was privileged enough to be there while Laura had the baby, and her and Andrew are so strong and brave. I was the photographer for the joyous occasion and got LOTS of new baby Molly pictures and enjoyed every minute of it... she's absolutely amazing! What little miracle! She has a full head of dark black hair, it was SO cute! I'm not sure, of course, what color her hair will be after they give her the first bath, it always looks different.

Anyway, I'm totally WIPED and heading to bed... but I figured I'd let you all know the good news! Please say a prayer for a speedy recovery for Mommy Laura and for a happy and safe time in the hospital for the whole family.

Welcome to the world Molly!! We love you so much!!!
Congratulations Andrew and Laura!

p.s. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can. I took all the photos with A&L's camera, so I don't have any of my own... but I'll get some up eventually! Or keep checking their blog- www.thethinkingmommysblog.blogspot.com for updates!

PICTURES OF OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!

Here it is! Our NEW HOUSE! We'll invite you all over for a housewarming party before ya know it... :) It's 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, located on a small quiet court back in a nice neighborhood. Sidewalks to walk the kiddos around in the stroller, a small (decent sized!) back yard for the kids to play as well as a screened in porch/patio. And best of all, of course, it's closer for Michael's commute.
Love you all, thanks again for your prayers. They are always greatly appreciated!!! Now without further ado...

I'll walk you through it... although the pictures aren't as great as seeing it in person!

Front of house...

View when you open front door- foyer, family room and dining room...

Family room/dining room... (that sliding door goes to patio, which you'll see...)

Standing in foyer looking to the right- the stairs that go downstairs and the eat in kitchen on far right...

Eat in kitchen (the door there goes out to the driveway, the side of the house)

Kitchen... opens up around left side...

Kitchen. All new granite countertops and stove/oven/microwave. Walk through to dining room...

Dining room- door out to patio...

Screened in patio (it's kinda large, so I took pictures starting at the right side then panning over to the left... here you can see the storage shed in the back yard...)

Looking out/center of patio

Far left of patio ...

off from right side of patio, little garden bench, storage shed... (I took several of the backyard as you walk through it...)

Stone landscaping at edge of grass. If you look up into trees you can see the benches/picnic tables and lanterns. Most of this wooded area is our land, so Josiah now can play "run around the trees" all he wants ;0)

When you leave the foyer and walk down the hallway to the LEFT you see the hall bathroom... (sorry this isn't a great picture, I forgot to turn on the back light!)

Master bedroom (big!) bigger than it seems here... and off to the back right corner of master bedroom is...

the master bath. (YAY!) pretty stained glass cabinets :)

standing in the foyer looking out the front door, beautiful stained glass!!!

Downstairs... forgot to take a picture of this but the light you see/small room on the right is another bathroom!

Coming off the bottom on the steps to the left, family room with fireplace...

family room extended... (room in back there on the right is really large laundry room, den and storage area on the left)

fireplace....

Den/office/extra bedroom... room to grow ;o)

storage room across from den...

left side of laundry room...

Right side of laundry room- door out the back right corner to the back yard.

laundry room extends to the back left with a workbench and more storage area.

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

That's right! I got a new van for Christmas, and a new house for my birthday... (We'll be settling right around then, late March) WHAT MORE COULD A GIRL ASK FOR!?

PRAISE GOD! We are so excited!!! A special THANK YOU to all of you who have prayed for us during this difficult time! It's exciting and scary and wonderful all at once, we can't believe it!!
I will be posting the pictures I have asap... stay tuned!

some recent pics...

Houses and Babies!

So we're waiting anxiously for our new neice to arrive. My stupid brother and sister in law are really good at keeping secrets and won't tell us her name yet!! (But... I have to admit, the surprise will be really really fun.) Just don't tell them that, because officially on the record, I am mad and want to know her name NOW ;o) Anyway, Laura is due TOMORROW and is still wandering around looking way too gorgeous for a 40 wk pregnant woman, it's really not fair. People have said to me when I'm pregnant, "I think you were meant to have a lot of kids, you look great pregnant" and I'm thinking, "oh yeah? Have you seen my sister??" ha ha ha. Anyway I'm so excited and happy for everyone and I can't wait to meet her! She asked me to be there to take lots of pictures of the labor/delivery, so I have tons of breastmilk pumped for Michael to take care of BOTH kids while I'm gone. It's kinda hilarious how nervous he is about this ... "Hmm... both kids... by myself..." ha ha. I keep reminding him it's really not that hard, he just won't get anything else done. And that most women go into labor over night so he'll just have a early morning bottle and probably not too much hassle. It'll be kinda exhilarating being away from both kids, something I just about NEVER do (okay well sometimes I sneak away when Michael gets home from work for half an hour... go to the grocery store by myself for a "sanity break"!) but I have a feeling I'll be busy at the hospital and not have much time to think about that. Regardless, I'm so excited!!! I told Michael I might see this newborn and want one for myself... watch out!! And he said, "I'm not worried, you're going to see the labor too" HA HA HA... funny guy. Lydia is getting too big too fast, it's a little sad :(

SO... on the other "home" front, we found a home we love. It's perfect... for now. And has a little room to grow, so we can make it work! Live Simply, I always say. Okay, well I don't always say that, but it's a great motto to live by and lots of other wise people have said it, like Mother Teresa or something, I love her. Back to the point, it's beautiful, and is a "rambler" but with a fully finished large basement. So what we like about that is that the main house is all on the first level so on a "bad FM day" I can just be all on one floor with the kids, no going up and down stairs unless necessary. There's 3 bedrooms (and FULL master bath with the large master bedroom- woohoo!) and another bathroom in the hall of course, then downstairs there's an extra room that could also be a bedroom if we wanted and another bathroom (half bath, but could easily be full, there's a drain in it already!) Large basement and laundry room with a workbench... you know, for my husband who does a lot of woodworking. ha ha ha. Anyway, it's really nice and also has a big beautiful screened in patio and a nice enough yard to run around and play catch or play in a sandbox. Anything more we can take a trip to the local park. It's in Catonsville and tucked back in a quiet court in what seems like a sweet neighborhood- lots of other little kid toys and playgrounds in backyards, like the neighbors right next to us. We are going to see it again tomorrow and probably going to make an offer on it. It's exciting :) I'll let you know how that goes... it's on the higher side of our price range, so we're hoping they'll take a lower offer. The sweet little old (excentric!) lady that owns the home was there when we came, and she was thrilled when I told her we had two little kids. I told her their ages and when I said "5 months" she melted into a puddle. So even though Lydia was sound asleep in the car, I brought her in for bonus points... *sneaky giggle* And I totally think it worked ;o)

Okay gotta go, Michael is appalled that I'm still blogging after 5 minutes... *gasp!* heaven forbid... when there is laundry to be folded... ;o)

Love to you all!! Thanks for the prayers for the house!! I'll post some pics if I can!

Fun to Come...

So things are kinda CRAZY around here to say the least...
Michael and I saw some houses yesterday- long story short, 3 were workable, 2 were our favorites, then we saw one is an area "littered with crime" according to the crime stats website, so just one is our top favorite, but we also are not sure because it has less space than the house we're in now... and we know we're going to need more space. Ironically enough, Michael found another house in the exact same neighborhood that looks like it has more living space and still a decent size yard, so we're going to try to see that one as well as 4 others tomorrow morning. Technically he has off for President's Day, but he's so busy at work right now that he's been working late, and from home, and will work tomorrow after we see the houses. I love the weekends when he's home... How can two tiny people take so much energy!? Yikes it's exhausting.

Anyway, tonight we are going to UB Night at the Aquarium! WOO HOO! We all get in cheap because Michael is UB Alum... we are going to make some dinner and get outta here...

I'm sure I'll have lots of cute pictures to share from the Aquarium soon. It'll be Lydia's first time and I bet that she'll love watching the fish swim around! Josiah saw them the first time at UB night when he was 7 or 8 months old and he LOVED to watch the yellow tang swimming around.

God bless you all, thanks for your prayers for us during this time- I'll try to keep updating you as I can!

Courtesy of Michael...ha ha ha!

Big Things from Little Lydia

Hello! Well, I'm finally starting to feel better from my cold, MUCH better actually, only lasted a couple days... that's the kind of cold that I don't mind! Josiah is starting to get a cough, poor little guy, hopefully it won't get any worse.

Lydia has been doing a lot these days! Babies grow the quickest, I think that's why she has the most updates.. more than all of us combined. She has started eating baby rice cereal, and loves it, for the most part. Unlike Josiah, she's not ready to give up Mommy any time soon- he pushed me away at 6 months! But Lydia is just having little bits here and there...but loving it! She had carrots mixed in with it last night and loved that, and peaches mixed in with it for lunch today and loved that too... just a little bit at a time though, so hopefully she won't get sick of nursing any time soon :) Speaking of nursing... Lydia is bonded to me like super-glue! She apparently will not let anyone hold her, other than me. Or at least not for long. She actually (contrary to what you might think) is not held by me all day long, but obviously has a very special place for me in her heart! She's been happily playing in her exer-saucer for about half an hour now... and *drumroll please*.... SHE ROLLED OVER!!!!!!!!!!!
She rolled over for the first time on Feb.4th, and she's been doing it like crazy ever since. She rolled from her tummy to back, and she can almost roll from her back to tummy now- once she does that they'll be no stopping her! Today she actually kept getting her knees up under her and was scooting herself forward a little bit- very scary. WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BABY!? haha. It's exciting watching her grow and learn all these things- but BOY does it happen fast!
Oh- and she loves lightswitches. ha ha ha! She can turn the lights off when I hold her up to one, it's pretty funny.

Well, Josiah is currently burying things in the couch and I think it's time for a potty break... so I gotta go...

House etc.

Well, for those of you who don't already know, we didn't get the house :(
We were slightly bummed, but I was also not surprised. We made a low offer on a GREAT gem, not surprised at all that there was a higher offer and they took it. So, we're still hunting.

For those of you asking/wondering, my retreat weekend was GREAT! I missed my boys terribly, but Lydia and I had some great "quiet" time with God! (Quiet is relative of course with a baby...)

I'll post more when this nasty head cold goes away!! I woke up with it on Sunday and EW it's not fun. Anyway I'll try to post and get some pictures up again soon.

Hope you're all in good HEALTH... take care- God bless!!

Watch and Wait. Love and Trust.

Tonight we met with our real estate agent and initialed a ba-zillion papers and he is submitting our contract and offer tomorrow. It all just felt very "official" ... as I told Michael, and he smiled and said, "It is!" I absolutely love this man, and how even when it can be the biggest decision ever and something that changes the course of our lives dramatically... he's just so open and doesn't worry or stress about a thing. He has so much going on right now, between work and home, anyone else would be flying off the handle or drinking too much- ha ha ha. But he's amazing, and I just LOVE his peaceful spirit, he keeps me sane... through not just this, everything! God put us together because we compliment eachother so well, I just love that.

So, if it goes anywhere I'll definitely let you all know! We're just trying to relax and trust that if this isn't the house- another one is out there that God has planned for us and He'll lead us to it. I am actually REMARKABLY at peace about this whole thing now, probably thanks to everyone's prayers! I really am just kinda, waiting to see how it all goes, and am filled with peace and calm. I also feel like it's probably too good to be true :o)

I took some pictures of the house tonight and they are probably hard to see since it was dark, but maybe I'll post a few tomorrow. I need to go to bed!!!
Goodnight!! Thank you for your prayers! Please continue!!! We are so blessed.

Surprise Day

Today was really fun because I got to take my beautiful sister in law out to lunch... and then stall with shopping... (always fun) and then bring her back to a surprise baby shower!!! Yes, the surprise was successful... of course until we pulled up to all the cars and my (incredibly smart) sister says, "is this a baby shower?" ... what are you supposed to say to that? ME: "Ummmm.... maybe?" LOL. Michael told me I did a terrible job hiding it. But HOW DO YOU HIDE a bunch of cars!? Anyway, I'm glad she had fun and got to spend some time with all these people rooting for her and get some adorable baby stuff too! It was fun.

You know, I always wanted a sister... I used to write letters to God, to Santa, and to my Mom, asking for one--just to make sure I had my bases covered. :) Then when I got a little brother (hello?? did they all miss the memo?? I said GIRRRRLLL...) I used to dress him up as a girl just for pretend-sister fun. It was pathetic. But now that I have Laura, I think I finally better go thank God for the sister I've always wanted! I love her so much!
I'm so obsessed with her little girl- my goddaughter Lucy and I'm so excited to meet her new baby girl! Not to mention I have my OWN baby girl- it's amazing!!! God is good, all the time.


No news on the house... yet. Just that Michael and I have done a lot of thinking and talking and running numbers and well... we're thinking if we get this house (which at this point is realistically highly unlikely)... it will DEFINITELY be a huge amazing miracle and a gift from God dropped into our laps- "Here ya go! Have a Happy Life." But hey, God is awesome like that... so who knows? We're going to make a way-too-low-and-probably-will-not-make-a-difference offer tomorrow or very soon. If we hear anything back (which I doubt...) i'll let you know. But for now we'll keep looking and just keep praying... God will show us what is right. (Which really FELT like this house... but I just don't know...) I keep praying for His guidance and an increase in faith and trust! All this house stuff is wearing my energy thin.

But,...
God is good. All the time.