November 2011

Jensen turned ONE on October 19th! I can not believe my handsome man is such a big boy. He began walking at 10.5 months and hasn't slowed down since. He is my rambunctious child, he gets into everything. single. thing. He had such a wonderful party, themed Dr. Seuss! We had it at our house, and that is one thing we will NEVER do again... well, until we get a larger house. Nevertheless, everyone had a good time, and the birthday boy enjoyed playing with friends.

I am bound and detemined that I WILL be a blogger! I find so much joy in reading my friends' blogs, why not just do my own? If no one else reads it, I will one day enjoy going back and reminiscing on memories.

Halloween 2011

Raegan is almost three, can you believe it!? She is smarter than ever, smart-mouthed which causes problems sometimes. She is stubborn, hard-headed, and very hard to deal with, and right when I think I can't take it anymore, she magically becomes this wonderful, loving, sweet child. The mood swings kill me.

Joey is now a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness, and he's doing the job he loves and is called to do. What could be better?

Oh, yeah, that's right. I became a Scentsy consultant, and I LOVE it! I have been SO blessed by this little side job in the few short months I've been with them! In fact, I'll be on an all expense paid trip to the Domincan Republic this summer. How sweet is that?

Thanksgiving was wonderful for us, once again! It never fails that the Murphy crew really know how to throw a Thanksgiving. Joey's idea of Thanksgiving and mine are completely different. It's so interested how two families go about things completely different. My family has a HUGE Thanksgiving lunch in Natchitoches EVERY year, and I LOVE it and look forward to it every year. Joey's family celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday, which really worked out well for us! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a tradition that will continue. Our families work so well together during the holidays, and there are never any conflicts. I love that.

Oh how time FLIES...

Am I a horrible blogger or WHAT!? Ha! Time really has escaped me. I just realized that my next to last post was when I found out I was pregnant with Jensen, which was... oh... a whole YEAR ago! Oh my goodness!

Well, we are so completely blessed. Jensen Gage Cooksey arrived on October 19, 2010 at 11:49 a.m. perfectly healthy, weighing 6 lb 10 oz! He is now almost four months old, weighing a whopping 17 pounds! He's my little "tubbers." Having a boy has been an absolute JOY! He is 110% momma's boy. His little (tubby) face lights up when he sees me. He is perfect. Plain and simple.

Raegan has adjusted well to having a little brother. She calls him her "Bubba," and she loves to give him sugars and mess up his room ;) Raegan turned two this past Saturday! I can't believe how much she has grown! She is speaking in sentences! About a week ago, Joey and I put her to bed, and her being the daddy's girl that she is, stood at the security gate and yelled, "Doey (Joey), Doey!! Are you comin!? I wanna watch Dora with you!!!" It was precious and heartwrenching all at the same time. Needless to say, we let her watch Dora, and then we put her back to bed, at which point she decided to yell, "Doey! Doey! Help me, please" in the most pathetic little whimper. Can you say PRECIOUS!? She is speaking so well. She can now count in Spanish AND English, which makes me super proud. She knows most of her shapes, all colors, can recognize multiple numbers and letters, and knows most animals and the sounds they make.

I went back to work in January after being out for three months for maternity leave, and it is absolutely wonderful, but my days are completely packed with an insane amount of stuff to do! Ahh! We wake up at 4:30 a.m., and I don't get to settle down until about 7:00 p.m. when the kids go to bed. Then, of course, Jensen is up every three hours during the night. I am one tired momma, but I wouldn't change a thing..... ok, yes. I would like Jensen to sleep longer, but I'm trying to hold onto him being a baby instead of looking forward to him growing up. I learned that lesson with Rae.

Aside from work, the kids and I have gotten somewhat involved in church again. It's so sad to say that we'd gotten OUT of it in the first place, but it was very hard to break the cycle of just following my parents wherever they went. I needed to find a place for MY family. We're loving our church family, and we've recently gotten involved in Sunday School, which is a complete and total blessing! Our family New Year's resolution was to draw closer to Christ, and I already feel we are doing that.

I guess that's all for now!

Shame, Shame, Shame

Oh my goodness! With the summer came a lot of time-consuming things that OBVIOUSLY kept me from writing!

All in all, the summer was GREAT! We took a little mini-vacation to Arkansas to visit family and friends. We had a GREAT time! I was in school for a month. I started my classes at L.C. to get my Master's in Teaching... totally excited about that! Being pregnant and chasing around Raegan has really occupied my time!

School has begun, and I'm only 6-8 weeks away from meeting my favorite little BOY, Jensen Gage! We've been busy getting ready for him, as much as we can anyway! His nursery is PRECIOUS! Dr. Seuss!

Reading another friend's blog reminded me that I HAVE a blog... I suppose I should update from time to time, right?

Preggers #2!!

Wow, I am extremely blessed. We have managed in the FIRST MONTH of trying (again!) to get pregnant with Baby Cooksey #2! I have been somewhat in a state of shock for the past few days. God is good!

Friday, I took Roo to pick out her COACH purse for her sweet 16 birthday. We went to eat at Los Portales. While we were there, she asked me if I'd tested yet. She was the only person I told that we were trying again. I told her no because I didn't really feel pregnant. I was just exhausted. I had been worn out for like three days straight. I was going to bed at 7:00 and passing out from tiredness! Anyway, I really didn't FEEL pregnant. She asked me what I felt before I knew I was pregnant with Raegan... and my first thought was "well... I didn't FEEL pregnant with her either!" Then, I realized, maybe I should test. It was a few days too early to test because my cycle was due for a few more days, but I bought them anyway and tested Friday evening when I got home. POSITIVE! At first, it was VERY light, and I had to get Joey to look at it with me. He saw the line, too. Over the course of five minutes, it gradually got darker. I tested again yesterday morning and this morning, too. All positive!

We're very excited but VERY nervous. We have our hands will with our one-year old! Adding another infant to the family is going to be difficult but rewarding in the end. I'd considered all of this before we started trying... but reality set in when I saw the two lines on the test. I had better learn more patience NOW!

I'm due November 5. That seems so soon to me. When I was pregnant with Raegan, it felt like a million years away because the pregnancy was split between two years and sooooo many holidays had to pass before having here. With this pregnancy, I've realized that I'm going to have a family of FOUR before THANKSGIVING! Maybe even Halloween! It's very surreal to me...

Joey and I are pretty dang sure this one will be a girl, too. Though, we hoped for a boy, we're going to be extremely happy with another girl. I mean, we already know what to do with girls, ya know! We've decided on names either way. If it's a girl, her name will be Adleigh Kiah. If it's a boy, his name will be Jensen Gage.

Of course, this puts our plans on moving on a big HOLD. We want to have the baby and make sure we're financially capable of paying for a new house before we rush into it. Thus, we've decided to do some major changes in our house. We're going to paint the outside, refloor the wood floors and put ceramic tile in the kitchen, replace the windows, paint all the trim in our house, etc etc... and then, of course, we'll have to paint the new baby's room, which is currently serving as our study. We now have to find a new area to put a desk. In due time, I guess.

We've already told our parents and close friends; however, I'm waiting to tell the administartion and students at my school until I have my first doctor's appointment... I'll call for that tomorrow.

All-in-all... we're super excited and ready for this wonderful gift from God!!

Where has the time gone?

Well... Raegan is one. I can hardly believe it.

We celebrated her first birthday bash a few weekends ago. She was really in a "hold-me" mood; thus, she didn't play with the MANY friends that showed up. She didn't enjoy the smash cake as much as I thought she would, but I suppose that's a good thing. Having a toddler hyped up on sugar right when it's time for bed would NOT have been fun.

She's still not walking. She's been cruising for the past four months. She HAS, however, taken a few steps, but she doesn't seem to have any interest in furthering that amount. All in due time, I guess.

She has learned to clap. I'm assuming she's learned this at daycare. She recently got moved up to the one-year-old room. While at the pediatrician's office yesterday, we started singing "If you're happy and you know it..." and she clapped her hands! If I tell her to clap, she claps. She also dances to ALL songs. Raegan dancing consists of swaying her body from side-to-side, much like the "Twist." She loves music, and she loves to read. Her FAVORITE thing to do, however, is to throw things. She loves to come in her room after mommy has cleaned it up and tear everything out of its original, neat position and throw it or toss it somewhere else. By the end of the day, all of the books are off the bookshelf, along with every toy in reach. All small parts that go with specific toys are no longer by those toys. They have been tossed across the room. She has also learned to put the circle in the circle hole in her shape sorter. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes she doesn't, but she knows where it goes and tries to get it in.

She's still not speaking any real words. I know she understands "Mama," "Daddy," "Mimi," "Poppa," "dog," "clap," and "kitty" because she'll direct her attention to them if asked where they are. She also knows that the socks go on her feet because if she sees the socks and I pick her up, she'll immediately stick her foot out and point her toes to put the sock on.
Currently, she has a terrible ear infection. Her fever spiked up to 103.2 yesterday so we obviously took her to the pediatrician. He said that he's shocked it hasn't ruptured yet. She got a shot (what fun!) and is now on antibiotics. Last night was rough. I'm hoping tonite will be a little better now that the antibiotics have had time to set in and get to work.

My mom sent me a slideshow of Raegan's first year. It's amazing how much little one's grow in the first year! She's gone from completely dependent to wanting to do everything by herself. I can only imagine what this year has in store for us, but I'm not rushing it. I'm clinging to every little moment I have with her.

My grandma has had two strokes since Christmas. It's been very rough on our family because we're all so close to them. Reality is that we all die, but what I've really learned through this hard time is that the things we do right NOW affect the rest of our lifes. My Mamaw has struggled with her weight for as long as I can remember. She's always been the yo-yo dieter that never really sticks to any one thing and never exercises. In the end, she's always gone back to her unhealthy way of eating. I know that the things I do right now can make or break me when I get older. Of course, we're all going to die. It happens. But I want to live my life right now in a way that will prolong my life a little bit longer. Anyway, enough of that. The first stroke wasn't that bad. At least, we didn't see that it had too much of an affect on her, besides a slight slur in her speech. THIS stroke has been worse. I've gone to the hospital three times, and she doesn't seem to get any better at any visit. She's not speaking or responding. She's not attentive. All she wants to do is sleep. Perhaps it's the meds they have her on. I don't worry about her. I know that it's her time to see Jesus, and I'm excited for that; however, my Papaw and my dad are both going to be heartbroken once she moves on. I worry for them.

That's about all that's gone on in the recent past. Here's some pictures to keep you updated!!!

Enjoying her birthday cake

Raegan's First Birthday Cake

Raegan in her birthday tutu!

This is a poem I wrote when I was a freshman at L.C., I think.. For those that don't know, my dad is legally blind and this a reflection of growing up and the struggles and bittersweet moments I went through with him as a child, teenager, and adult. Now, he is one of my greatest friends and a huge inspiration to me because of his disability and his persistence to be perceived as normal. Anyway, hope you like it.

Crimson and jade, the sky is a shade of cerulean blue;
Chocolate is sienna. “Those pants are an intense alabaster.”

Flowers, picked to die, hung with the brilliant orange sun catcher, waiting to dry.
“Daddy, they’re the shade of a slippery salmon. Aren’t they beautiful?”

“If they were alive.”

The golden beams of sunlight shining in your distinctly perfect eyes,
Never giving heed to the way things have always been
“Catch me daddy, you can’t find me”
I can hide from you anywhere.

You gaze into my school photos,
You call me gorgeous.
Hints of smile grace my pink cheeks.

“Daddy, Daddy! Look at me!”
Your ravishing little child, eager for approval,
Innocent, staring, still, into your perfect eyes.

Dirty lies,
A flip of the bird
Hushed words spoken in secretive anger
I can hide anything from you, and you’ll never see through me.

Hand on my shoulder, “Up three steps”
Classified as your seeing-eye bitch.
“Damnit it Dad… your pants and socks don’t match – those are black”

You take me by the hand, “Sweetheart, you look beautiful.”
As if you really know.

Removal, isolation,
The hidden bitterness before brown chocolate becomes sweet,
Blue with sadness,
Red with anger towards existence
Why am I your child?

And then,
Sweet confessions, my now humble heart breaks;
Tears corrode my gentle spirit like rust on wet cookie sheets,
Stained with childhood’s innocence.
Cookies, once baked, sprinkled with sweet crimson, jade, and cerulean blue candy confections.Your seemingly perfect eyes never saw them,

They never will.

~20 Things about Me~

1. I am extremely impulsive: When I want something, I want it NOW.

2. I have been diagnosed as OCD: no cleaning up all the time (wouldn't that be nice?).. no putting things in neat rows... no. I count things. Great, isn't it? Count steps, stairs, etc... bleck.

3. I'm very moody. I'm up and down.

4. I am a kick-butt poker player: You wouldn't know that from looking at me, huh?

5. I have little patience: I seriously couldn't be a mom without my husband. Sometimes I just have to breathe. I thought I'd be a terrible teacher because of my lack of patience, but somehow I've kept my nerves calm.

6. I don't like a lot of kids: I'm NOT looking forward to birthday parties with a dozen seven-year-olds. Ick. I like MY kid. I like one or two kids. But give me more than that, and my lack of patience gets even worse.

7. I am a sugar-addict: My weakness is not cokes or potatoes or breads or meats.. my weakness is straight-up sugar. I love it... can't get enough of it.

8. I take a lot of pride in how I look...

9. Yet, I have terrible self-esteem issues.

10. I don't take medicine unless I absolutely HAVE to (prescribed).

11. I don't shower.... I bathe. Worry you for a second?

12. I have eczema, and it sucks. My daughter has it, too.

13. I have zero modesty.

14. I have to have chocolate in the morning.

15. I have a cyst on my toe.

16. I gained 80 pounds in my pregnancy, more than I've ever heard anyone else say they've gained.

17. I think Forrest Gump is one of the best movies of all time.

18. Christmas is my all-time favorite holiday. I wish it lasted for a few months.

19. My next child's name with either be: Adleigh Kaiya or Jensen Gage.

20. I love embarrassing my husband by cranking up the radio and dancing in my car while driving. It totally embarrasses him....