Grandparent's Day at TCA

Today was Grandparent's day at Coco's school. Since Grammy is recovering from her hip replacement and Namps is taking care of her, Memaw stepped up to the plate and came to have lunch with her at school. This was no small feat given that she had to rearrange her weekly beauty shop appointment and squeeze it in before heading to a doctor's appointment in Memphis. However, there was NO stopping her! There aren't enough words to describe the kind of woman Memaw is: kind, loving, dedicated, fearless, patient, funny...I could go on and on. She is a great-grandmother like no other and we are so incredibly blessed because of her. She is recovering from breast cancer and continues to amaze and encourage everyone. So, this particular grandparent's day is pretty special since just a month ago we were waiting on diagnosis & prognosis fearing the worst. Thank you God for not taking our Memaw home just yet.

Coco was so proud to have Memaw at her school.

Lunch consisted of PB & J, apples & and Oatmeal Pie.

Memaw LOVES this baby boy (and he her) like nobody's business!

Not even the carmel sauce dripping down his chin could keep him out of her lap!

Grammy's new hip

Grammy got a new hip! After several years of limping and doing the "hip flick", Grammy finally had to get a hip replacement. We are all nervous, scared but mostly hopeful that this will give her some relief and quality of life back. This picture is her in the hospital the day of the surgery. The drugs were good & strong. This photo even made it's way to the freckled frog's Facebook page!

August birthday celebrations

The birthday people! Namps turning 60!!!, Aunt Jaime turning 33 & Jasper turning 6

Our family has quite a few birthdays in August: Namps, Aunt Jaime, Uncle Drew, and Jasper coming in on Sept. 1st. Tradition holds that we have a family dinner at Grammy's to celebrate the "Apfel" birthdays and it gets a little more crowded each year; crowding in this case is a good thing! Since this is our family blog for our eyes only, I can confess that this year's celebration was a little tense. Times are not smooth in our family right now but we have faith to know that God will get us through it. But, in spite of all of the differences and drama going on right now, we were able to all get together and love on each other! Here are a few photos from the night:

Mommy & Sebastian

Jansen & Coco playing under the umbrella! (No, it wasn't raining.)

Jasper and his super cool new bike Grammy & Namps got him!

Cory, Shelby & Braxton

(Yes, her hair is purple.)

Sebastian, Jasper & Jansen

Look out girls, meet the brown-eyed lady killers!

PLAYtime!

It was just too pretty outside NOT to play today! This summer has been EXTREMELY hot. August 2010 must have had at least 20 days or more of reaching 100 degrees. That kind of heat trapped us indoors as much as cold weather does. So, today was the first day in a long time we got a break in the heat so my little "outside" babies couldn't wait any longer. Both of whom LOVE to play outside - all the time. Sebastian cries when it's time to come inside; Coco is so much a nature girl that she will rarely keep shoes on. We had a little fun jumping on the trampoline, swinging, watering the plants and writing with sidewalk chalk. At one point, the light was so perfect, I had to run inside to get the camera and take a few pics. It would be sinful to waste a Kodak moment like this!

Another first

Today was another first...Coco's first wasp sting.

The school called me to pick her up because they couldn't get her to calm down.

Man, I love our little Susan Lucci!!

But, I MUST give her credit for surviving a pretty rough sting.

From the looks of it, she got stung on the eyelid, swatted the wasp away

and then got stung on her hand.

First Day at TCA!

The first day was a flood of emotions: sad, nervous, excited and most of all proud. Coco started preschool today!! There was a huge lump in Mommy's throat & Daddy said "my day is ruined." I honestly couldn't imagine Coco going to the bathroom without me; I wouldn't know what she was eating for snack; what if she wondered were in the world I was? Well, we all survived her first full week of preschool and she loves it! She talks about playing with her friends, lining up, eating snack and even trips to the bathroom. Most of her playmates right now are boys; I ask everyday who she played with and she repeatedly rolls off a list of about 3 boys names. I asked Mrs. Joy how she was doing and she said, "Great!" I probed a little more about asking if she had seen any aggression in her. (Coco, when you read this one day, I will elaborate on why this question was so relevant. You are not afraid to defend yourself!) Mrs. Joy reported no aggression but did say that "we cry when we don't get our way. But, we're talking through that." I just smiled; this isn't a new thing and boy she sure can cry loud. Mrs. Joy was gracious and reaffirmed that preschool is all about learning social graces such as that and that Coco is going to be just fine. She's going to be more than fine - she's going to be the top of the class. We have high hopes for our "precious angel" and look forward to watching her grow!!

Daddy giving you a "bye" hug.

This is your sweet face when Mommy came to pick you up.

You were so excited!

4th of July

We had a fun & laid back 4th of July celebration this year. Our church put on its first ever fireworks show on the 3rd and we had a family cookout at our house on the 4th. Daddy was so excited to finally have a place in the country to be able to shoot fireworks! The long weekend was a lot of fun and mother nature cooperated too. It was unusually cool so being outside was wonderful.

Daddy & Uncle Dave getting ready to shoot!

Coco running from a stink bomb!

All the "cousins"

Coco, Namps & Jansen

Namps & Sebastian watching the fireworks at church.

Sebastian LOVED them!

Coco having a blast running around waiting on the fireworks to start.

She was very excited and actually watched the whole fireworks show!