She's got the green thumb and she's good!

A big shout out to Deb for her fabulous gardening skills! Most of us who know Deb, know that she does a great job when it comes to gardening. All you have to do is drive by her home to see the evidence. The lawn and landscaping always look incredible. She has that natural talent to be able to grow things, transplant plants to spread the beauty, and just make the flower beds look good.

Well Deb has now been recognized by the community. The local Warren Garden Club gave her the club's Civic Beautification Award in the month of September. Way to go, Deb! You deserve it for all of your hard work.

We have a kicker!!!

So Baby Girl Cowley is letting it be known that she is here and she is growing strong. I have really noticed over the last week and a half her movements. Then earlier this week, I could finally feel her kicking from the outside with my hand on my belly. she goes in big spurts where it will be a LOT of movements in a small window of time. It never ceases to amaze me the miracle God designed in the growth of life!

The home projects that never seem to end!

So I am on week three now of being stuck in the house to be here for contractors. Some of the completed projects look awesome and I know it will all be worth it in the end. But for the moment let me just vent and say grrgghhh. I am tired of the disorder. I am tired of the workers. I am tired of the mess. Last night/this morning was the worse as yesterday they ripped up the carpet and vinyl flooring in the family/kitchen/sun room which caused this disgusting thick layer of debris to cover EVERYTHING. I didn't think to cover the counters in the kitchen and now I know I will I need to clean the entire house when they are done. Last night I had to clean the thick layer covering the kitchen counters and everything that had been left on then. Then this morning I spent a long time vacuuming the sub flooring and baseboards. Now this may seem like a crazy thing to do to some but just think about it. If I didn't clean it up to my standards the new floors would have been put right down over the filth. Plus my general contractor is going to repaint the baseboards and I didn't want paint going over filth.


Oh I forgot to mention that the guys who installed the irrigation system didn't bury one of the lines into the ground, so when the lawn guys aerated the lawn they broke the line. That meant another call to the irrigation guys to come out and repair it. Yesterday afternoon and this morning I have had to listen to constant pounding as numerous small nails (remnants of the vinyl floor backer boards) are being driven into the sub flooring. The pounding is loud enough that the window breaks keep chirping because they think glass is being broken!

So one last vent and then I will go back to my positive self. Did I mention the water damage that was discovered in the sun room and basement when they ripped up the vinyl flooring? Apparently water is coming in the corners and has ruined the baseboard in the sun room. In the basement apartment, the door frame was installed on an angle so that water runs to the right and sits when it rains. It has now started seeping into the door frame as well. Things could always be worse, but when you are dealing with it in the moment it stinks!

But I will be positive now...the guys installing the hard wood floors were delayed a day due to another project, so our contractor has time today to replace the sub flooring and baseboard prior to the new floors going in. We also found these issues before they got even worse AND we found them prior to selling this house when they would have been found in a home inspection. Not the kind of repair you want to do last minute to make sure a deal goes through. We also can hopefully get the builder to come correct the issue in the basement thus preventing things from getting worse and preventing there being time for mold to start growing.

So here's a run down of things we've done so far so I too can remember all of the chaos:
1) Alarm System Installed
2) Foyer, first floor hallway, and family room painted
3) Tile back splash installed in kitchen

4) Tile flooring installed in laundry room

5) Irrigation system installed in front yard

To be completed:

6) Hard wood flooring in kitchen, breakfast room, sun room, and family room

7) Tile flooring in Jenna's bathroom and upstairs guest room bathroom

It all feels real now.

So today I have been moving all of Jenna's baby furniture over to the new nursery in preparation of her big girl furniture arriving this afternoon. As I cleaned her room and reorganized things, my first revelation hit me: Jenna really is a big girl now. I've known this, but seeing the bed she has slept in since she was a baby and her glider gone out of her room made it official. She is no longer my baby. but my little girl.

My second reality came with setting up Baby girl Cowley's new room. She started fluttering last weekend, but really moved last night and today. So I can feel her now which makes things different. Setting up the crib in her new room and getting things into place for her made it even more real that we are really going to have our second baby and our lives will be even more changed forever. Now this might seem like an odd explanation, but even after you see the positive pregnancy test it takes some time for things to seem real...now they do.

Jenna's new baby doll

To help Jenna get ready for her new baby sister, we bought her a more realistic baby doll and a few bottles to feed her with. Jenna is in love with this baby doll. Every night, the doll has to go nite-nite in the doll crib in Jenna's room. In the morning, baby gets up with Jenna, comes down stairs with us and gets her bottle as Jenna gets her milk. It is way too cute to watch and just shows that Jenna will make a GREAT big sister!

Ready...set...party!!!

Jenna Shea is finally two, yet it is hard to believe it has been that long. Saturday we had a party for her and invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate. We decided to have everything in the back yard for more space. Luckily Hurricane Hanna didn't end up hitting us in Charlotte and we had clear skies. We borrowed a couple of picnic tables from my folks and some regular tables. Pair that with the pop-up tent Josh got from work & the bounce house we gave Jenna and the result was a great layout.




I need to share that the theme we used was Dora the Explorer since Jenna is really in to Dora and Diego these days. When she woke up from her nap I was working on making some balloon arrangements in the bonus room. I brought her into the room with me and when she saw the Dora balloon she ran up to it and yelled, "Dora, it my happy birthday!" It was too funny. I had about 5 of these arrangements that I put though out the yard to make it festive.

When everyone first arrived we just mingled in the back yard and let the kids play in the bounce house, play with the corn hole game we had set up, and with the various outdoor toys Jenna has. Then when the kids started to get restless with that I had each of them decorate a bag I had traced Dora on to. Once they we all done with decorating, we went on our exploring scavenger hunt using a picture map I had printed up. The kids had to match the picture on their map to the bag with the same photo and then they got a little treat. At the end of the hunt there was a Dora pinata hanging in the garage. Let me just say they have finally made it possible for little kids to enjoy pinatas too. This one had strings so that each child could pull one and eventually one string opened the trap door releasing the candy inside.

After the scavenger hunt, the kids just played with their treats while Josh grilled the hamburgers and hot dogs. They were all just having a blast with the bounce house, punch balloons, and bubbles. Jenna ran around nonstop with her shoes off, which we normally do not let her do, but they couldn't wear shoes in the bounce house. This picture shows Jenna sporting her sparkly "2" shirt I made. When she saw it, I told her that mommy made her a special shirt because she is a big girl now. She just kept saying "Thank you mommy!". It was such a fun & easy craft since I just laid all of the crystals where I wanted them on the shirt and then put an iron on them for 15 seconds.

You can see Uncle Clay in the background. He was such a big help with cooking the burgers and dogs.Jenna was so excited to see her Brianna Sue, Uncle Clay, and Aunt Nicole.

Next we did Jenna's cake which also had Dora on it. She was so excited when she saw it and blew on the side of the cake. That night when we were recapping the day, Jenn told me she blew cake. This of course translates to she got to blow out the candle on the birthday cake. The cake was really yummy. It was a marble cake with strawberry mousse and yummy frosting.

Here's a shot of the kids enjoying cake. Jenna was too busy shoving (I mean full-fisted shoving her cake in her mouth) to look at the camera. This girl loves her sweets since she doesn't get then all of the time. On the left side of the table: Kristen, Jake, Allison Yates with Ethan and Carly. In the back is Patrick Yates and Kristi Benner. On the right side:Jenna, Brianna, and Reese. Did I mention how great these picnic table were? A place to sit with a table to eat on. It was so helpful with the kids and nice for the adults too.

All in all it was a great day, mainly because Jenna had the best time playing with all of her friends. Her sweaty head with curls was evidence of how hard she played.

Labor (of love) Day

So I first need to say that I bought a new camera and I LOVE it. My old camera was never reliable as to whether or not it would take a picture when I wanted it to. So needless to say with a very active toddler I had numerous pictures of the back of her head. Now I can capture the moments, so I have been taking pictures like crazy.







Labor Day was fun and I call it Labor of love day since it was spent keeping Jenna entertained. In the morning we went over to the park at Blythe Landing with a few of our neighborhood friends. The kids got to play on the playground and let me tell you what a big girl Jenna is now. She took off running and headed straight for the big curly slide with her friend Kristen. Before I could even get to her she was sliding down the slide with a big smile and running to do it again! This threw me into a moment of panic since I didn't think she could do it....but she can. They also played with the Frisbees and balls we brought.


After over and hour of this we headed over to the beach volleyball courts and let the girls play in the sand. Josh came to the park and we mommies, Josh and little Jake attempted to play volleyball with a beach ball.

We headed home for lunch and nap time. Then it was play time again. We gave Jenna part of her birthday surprise early so she could play with it before there were more kids around for her party. what was it you might ask, well, we ordered a bounce house with slide from Little Tikes. It blows up in less than a minute and the kids LOVED it!!! Jenna, Jake, and Kristen played in it for over an hour and a half. I have it on film that Josh is okay with it going in the yard, which will probably be a good idea since the kids kept forgetting there was concrete at the bottom of the slide and got a few bumps along the way. We decided that it was worth every penny (fortunately it was on a big summer sale so we got it for a great price) and that the kids will have a blast next weekend at the party.

Let's go Tarheels!

This weekend we headed to Chapel Hill for our first Carolina football game and decided to take Jenna to the game. We met up with Lori Beth, Rob, and Bennett at their house and then headed to campus. We were excited about Jenna's first time on campus, her first football game, and just being back in a town that we love and have so many good memories from.

Lori Beth, Bennett, Jenna, and I set up shop at this picnic table to let the girls eat before we explored Tarheel town and while we waited for daddies to come back from parking the car.

Here's Jenna watching the band play for the football players as they walked across the campus to the stadium. We were far enough away that she wasn't scared and had the best time clapping and dancing to the music. Later during the game she really enjoyed the pregame show the band did.

Jenna had the greatest time running around in the grass in the quad on campus. She blew bubbles, climbed on a tree, and just ran. She was sooooo sweaty, because it was a hot afternoon. The quad on game day turns into Tarheel town with games, food, stuff for sale, and they broadcast a radio show. Josh laughed while watching her saying that he was the same way when he was a kid...always running around and getting sweaty.

Obviously feeling the "green effect" of Chapel Hill (folks tend to focus more on organic stuff and recycling in CH or as some would say there are more tree-huggers there), Jenna helped her daddy recycle his Coke bottle. It was only later we realized she didn't put it in the recycling but the regular trash. At least she didn't litter.

Here's our first family photo in ages. We had to take it in front of the big blow up Carolina T-shirt, because when Jenna first saw it she said "Look my tarheel" and grabbed her shirt. Obviously she now recognizes when things are the same.

When Josh was at UNC he spent numerous hours sitting on this same wall between classes hanging out with friends and just chilling. So Jenna and Daddy sat there together for a bit after we were done with Tarheel town.

Here's Jenna lounging in the Student Union. We went inside to use the restrooms and cool off a little before we headed to the stadium. We were impressed by the renovations that have happened there, because it is NICE on the inside. Jenna chilled on this couch and made new friends with two girls who were sitting on the seats across from her. Jenna made it a point to show them her new shoes, her shirt and let them know she knew how to cheer "Go Tarheels!" It was too cute to watch.

Here might be our future doctor. Jenna was mesmerized by Bennett's pretend doctor kit and was checking her daddy's heart beat. The girls had so much fun Sunday morning playing with all of Bennett's toys. From the kitchen to the doctor kit to the little people house. They played with it all. Thanks to Bennett for sharing!

Jenna picking apples from the apple tree in the Sanborns' yard. They call it their "Charlie Brown apple tree" because it gets so heavy from all of the apples that it just droops. The daddies took the little girls out to collect apples for us while the breakfast stuff was cleaned up. After we got home and put Jenna to bed I made my first batch of homemade applesauce.