Wow I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. I can't believe it has been over 2 months since I posted something. I guess I have gotten caught up in finishing each day that I hadn't realized how many of those days had past. Let's see what has been going on...

The first weekend in January a group of my sorority sisters and their families came to celebrate 2010 at our house. There were 9 kids all under the age of 4 staying here: Bennett Sanborn (3), Jenna (3), Ava Morris(now 3), Henry Phillips(2), Caroline Harkness(1 1/2), Noah Sanborn(1), Maddie Morris(1), Peyton (1), and Grace Phillips(now 4 mo.). We laughed about how much things had changed when every time you turned around there was a little one under foot. It is so amazing to me that we all still make the effort to get together even after all the years and changes in life.

Here's Jenna and her gal pal Bennett playing dress up as two little princesses!

Next we have Jenna, Bennett, and Ava who were having a blast playing with the little couch.

Then we have the only group shot we could semi-manage which shows Peyton, Bennett, Henry, Jenna, Ava, and the back of Caroline's head. They were watching cartoons and once they realized we were going to start taking pictures, chaos broke out.

Then came Peyton's first birthday. We invited our neighborhood gang and my folks for "cake & cocktails" to have fun spending time together and let the kids play. Yet another crazy time with a lot of kids running around. It was so much fun watching Peyton have her first taste of sugar and boy did she enjoy it. The video is hilarious and at one point you can watch her just bend down and take a huge bite out of the icing. By the point of this picture though she had had enough and was ready for her "triple b": bath, bottle, bed. You can almost see her saying, "I am done get this off of me!!!"

The next day Peyton had the best time playing with all of the balloons we had decorated with. She also got the biggest kick out of the punch balloons we had given the kids because she could hold the rubber band straps and run with them! This picture is hilarious as it shows not only her joy but the amount of static she created with them and her hair.

At the end of January we had a "huge" snow storm hit our area. I say huge because we don't get a lot of snow in this area and it doesn't last long. It started snowing on a Friday night, so we got Jenna bundled up and went outside to play in the snow, make snow angels, and have fun. By the morning we had 5-6 inches on the ground. Keep in mind what it looked like outside and this is what Jenna came down stairs wearing in the morning:

Apparently the freezing cold outside did not bother her at all since this is what she was determined to wear. However, she did not want to go outside at all that day. I guess she had enough of the cold and wet on Friday night. By Sunday we had convinced her to go outside to play with our neighborhood friends. A couple of the kids had inner tubes and we soon discovered that our backyard is AWESOME for sledding/tubing down. You have the first hill then you hit a ridge and get another hill down the back side of the house.

My favorite moment was when Josh decided he had had enough of watching the kids doing all of the tubing and he had to give it a shot. I think the kids were shocked and excited that he actually did it, since the other dads don't usually play with the kids. He takes off, then you see them chase after him, and then they all celebrate that he made it the whole way!

In mid-February, Grandpa Pete, Grandma Deb, and Great-Grandma Betty came down from NJ for a visit. Josh and Pete went down to Daytona, FL for the NASCAR races, while the girls all hung out in NC for the week. It was so special to get to spent the time with Deb and Gram. The girls loved having them around and it was special getting to watch the bond grow even more with everyone. Unfortunately snow brought the trip to an end as they had to head home a day early due to a "clipper" that was headed towards NJ and they needed to get home prior to the snow coming again.

Now we are in March and I am ready for sun and warmer weather. That will mean we get to play more outside with all of our friends. Playing outside in the fresh air results in sleepy girls which brings long naps...like the 3 hour one the girls took today which let me make this post!

Christmas 2009 in Ohio

Christmas tradition for us, is to drive back to Wilmington, Ohio to spend the holiday with my Dad's family. The trip should only take about 7 hours for us. On our drive this year we had one funny mishap. Josh was driving and having a very important work phone call while I was sitting in the back between Jenna and Peyton who were watching a movie on the drop-down tv. After awhile I look out the window and I was surprised to see an airstrip that had been built for a small town along our route. Then a little later I notice that there was a lot more commercial shopping places in the area than there had ever been. Finally I asked Josh if we were on I-77N...unfortunately we were not on that road but on I-85S. We had missed the turn off and had traveled almost and hour out of our way. Oh well, it made the trip longer, but it's a funny story!



This year there were 25 of us who stayed at my Nana's house...all sharing the 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house. While quarters were cramped, we managed to make it work. Christmas Eve the extended family all got together to spend time together and celebrate. Here we are all dressed up.




This year was our niece Kandice's first birthday. The night we arrived we all celebrated with her by eating Donato's pizza and having cake. She had fun with the icing once she got over the stickiness of it!

This is my Nana, Shirley, the matriarch of our family. It never ceases to amaze me that she keeps her cool the entire time our family comes and turns her house upside-down. She is also unbelievably generous to all of us. I claim to manage chaos with my kids, maybe I learned it from watching her.






Before bed on Christmas Eve, Aunt Sara took Daniel and Jenna outside to sprinkle the reindeer food they had each made at their preschools. Jenna's had pink sprinkles in it, while Daniel's had green sprinkles!





The older kids had just set out a plate of cookies and milk for Santa and were posing for pictures. The 2 babies were already asleep, but these four cousins were excited!!!








Then it was Christmas morning and here they are waiting for the green light to go down stairs. It is tradition to wait to make sure that everyone is awake and downstairs as a family before we go into the family room. There are numerous pictures in this same place showing different generations waiting here for the same thing! This group has it easy...I remember when I was little we had to wait for my great grandparents to drive over and eat breakfast before we could cross this line.



After 30 years of holding the little kids back in the kitchen so they didn't see the Christmas surprises, my brother rigged up a sheet to block the view. I think I heard someone say...Why didn't we think of this before!







Wow...look what is down here!!!









Peyton and her cousin Kandice both got Lion walkers from Santa. Here they are test riding them together!









Here is little Tinkerbell...I mean Jenna. One of Jenna's gifts was the new movie Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure along with a Tinkerbell dress-up outfit, which she wanted to wear around the house.











Little Peyton had the best time playing, but was a buster when it came to warming up to folks. Aunt Kitty was smart and held Peyton while giving her yogurt bites. After that they were buds!



We made it home safely on Saturday with no problems and were definitely glad to be sleeping in our beds. When I think back to the whole trips, I am grateful that my whole family still makes the effort to get together. I am thankful for traditions long established that are still practiced. I am thankful and grateful I am married to a man who puts up with all of this. I know it isn't relaxing for him at all, but he does it because he loves me and loves seeing our kids have fun. I am excited that our daughters get to play with all of their cousins and have fun, even when they don't get to be together that often. At the end of the day I feel very blessed for all that I have and for all of the loved ones in my live. Merry Christmas to all and here's to a great 2010!

The Cowley girls

I mentioned how Peyton was walking and she is!!! Every day her confidence grows and she walks more without falling. I finally went and picked my camera up from a friend's house this week and was able to capture the girls in action again.

Here is little Peyton strutting her stuff!

This week Jenna had a Gingerbread Open House at her school. My mom watched Peyton so that Jenna and I could go together. It was so nice getting to spend some one-on-one time with my little girl. Here's Jenna doing a craft project with her friend Sean who also lives in our neighborhood. Have I mentioned that Jenna LOVES to do craft projects!

After our craft project we got to decorate gingerbread men and other cookies followed by snack time. It was so much fun watching little Jenna be creative and introduce me to friends who were also there. She is growing up so fast!

Sisters gotta hug!

Jenna strikes a pose while pretending to be the mommy. Notice how she is wearing my watch.

And she's off...

It is official, Peyton is walking. On the eve of her turning 11 months old, Peyton decided she could do it on her own. She has been walking while holding onto things and keeping her hand on the side of the couch, but yesterday she did it freestyle. She was standing up with her hand on the banister post, dropped her hand, stood there for a second and took off. She made about 7 steps before plopping down with a HUGE GRIN on her face! Then later last night she took off taking 10 steps on her own. It looks like our prediction of Peyton running my Christmas might be accurate!

This morning I witnessed Jenna holding Peyton's little hands and helping her walk all through out the house. This is a vision I need to cherish/remember when they are teenagers and fighting!

A funny conversation happened with Jenna yesterday as we drove down to my folks house. Since Jenna hadn't napped I explained to her that if she napped the whole drive down she wouldn't have to go to bed early. Five minutes into the drive...

Jenna: Mom, look I am sleeping!
Janell: Jenna, if you are talking to me then you are not sleeping.
Jenna: No, mom, look (points to face). See I am sleeping! (Please note that her eye were open in addition to her talking.)

Then Jenna spent the rest of the drive talking and singing. So much for a few minutes of peace. I have now added a new position to my resume. I am now in Management. I manage chaos everyday in the Cowley household.

So I've been thinking...

Now when I hear these words from Josh my heart usually skips a beat as I am sure those words are followed by his latest and greatest idea. For me it has been a time of reflecting. I have thought a lot lately about blessings and joys, things we should be grateful for but sometime overlook and the hidden blessings in things.

A lot of this has been sparked by a dear friend from college's life which is like a movie. My friend, her husband and their son decided to adopt a child. They accepted the path that was planned for their lives and opened their hearts and family to whichever baby was brought to them. They received a call that a birth mother wanted to meet them, were selected, spent a week loving a little baby girl, prepared for her arrival on Mon 11/2...only to learn the Friday before that the birth mother decided to parent. My heart ached for them. I had a hard time trying to understand the pain, yet realizing that there was a blessing that the birth mom had decided to parent her child. I thought a lot about how I would be feeling...how would I cope? I looked at my little girls and felt more blessed than I ever had before for having them. Then I was reminded about a greater truth...God works in mysterious ways and there is a plan for your life.
I learned that while my friend was grieving her loss over baby girl Emma, there was another baby girl out there waiting to meet her new mommy. My friend and her family were selected again, the birth mother's rights have expired, and they brought home their new baby girl Margaret Grace last Tuesday. What a blessing! For those who know me well and that I look for the silver lining in things, I realize that Baby Emma needed their love while her birth mommy needed time to discover that she did love her baby and needed to be her mom. They nested for a baby girl, so the nursery was ready for this new little baby girl Grace to come home with them. My heart is so happy at this news!


I have also been thinking a lot about family and life. Sometimes things get so hectic. Hectic to the point where we almost lose sight of what is really important. We get bogged down in petty, silly things that we don't see what we have right in front of us...all that we have to be grateful for. So I want to say how blessed I feel. I have a great husband. Neither of us are perfect or always say the right thing, but no matter what I know that I have a partner for life. I have someone who loves me truly and whom I love in return. We have 2 amazing kids. While they wear me out and are making me age at a rapid rate, they are one of the greatest gifts in my life. I have so much to be thankful for and I am. I truly, truly am blessed.

That Sam-I-Am...

I do not like green eggs and ham. Try them, try them and you may. Try them and you may I say!

This morning Jenna and I had green eggs and ham for breakfast to be silly. Josh couldn't get over the color appearance and wouldn't eat them, Peyton also tried her first strawberry mini bagel. Exciting times here at the Cowley house!