Welcome Baby Koston

On Thursday, July 17Th at 3:44pm my cousin Chelsey and her Boyfriend Donovan welcomed their new baby boy to the world.

Weighing in at 8 pounds and measuring in at 20 inches long.

His proud daddy picked out the name Koston, but they're still unsure on a middle name.

Mom, Dad & Baby are all doing very well.

Let's Play Catch-up

What we'll be going over in this post...

• Our 4Th of July Festivities
• How our Anniversary was
• Potty Training update

~Every 4Th of July Darric and his buddies spend their entire day scheming and plotting their big moment. And when I say moment, I really mean hour or so. You see, it actually starts around the beginning of June when they take their secret drive down to the NH border to their favorite fireworks stand and purchase illegal explosives. At the beginning he use to only spend a couple hundred bucks, but every year his eyes seem to get a little bigger and the vehicle seems to get a little fuller. From the time they get back to their big night, it's all everyone talks about, and they pretty much put on a professional show that's way better than any other town in the entire state, and anyone who is nearby will admit that it's loud and crazy and pretty damn awesome.

I myself have a hard time getting all hyped up. I usually feel nauseous from anxiety until it's all over with. This year was no exception, especially when the cops showed up. Yeah! You see we made it through the whole fireworks, and let it be known that we are never the only ones shooting fireworks off, it's going on around the whole lake. After the big finale, Darric had a couple of odd ones that he was shooting off randomly. I was standing close by when I saw a vehicle coming down the road and then our camp owner came around the corner yelling to Darric to stop because the cops were here (this is where my mouth started feeling really dry and my heart starts pumping up into my throat and I'm on the urge of vomiting). Thanks to some stalling the guys seemed to get everything pretty cleaned up....And also thanks to some neighbors who decided they wanted to do some more fireworks, the cop took off. *Big sigh! Maybe next year, we may rethink if we want to keep doing this breakin the law, breakin the law stuff.

And while Darric is enjoying his 60 minutes of fame, I'm the one who has to take pictures while trying to keep my cool and keep an eye on Jordan. This is the first year he actually got to watch the big kabooms outside of the camper and although other mothers had their kids close by, I didn't take my eyes off Jordan as he covered his ears the whole time. But he did seem to enjoy his father's entertainment.

That's not enough for my darling husband though. He has to continue the big weekend with putting on a big pig roast and bean hole bean supper. After spending most of the night burning a fire to put the beans in, he gets up before the sun does to throw on a poor, helpless pig into a cast iron stove. (And no I don't eat it, I usually see the poor thing alive and I can't bring myself to it). Most enjoy the big feast and it's a nice gathering from all.

~After we've recuperated from our fourth festivities, we then prepare to celebrate our Anniversary. We were married on the seventh day in the seventh month. My ring, along with my wedding band has seven stones. Notice a pattern here. Seven is our lucky number and since this year was our seventh anniversary, it was kind of a special one for us. And while I never know what to get my husband, he sure knows how to spoil me. When I arrived at work I was greeted with flowers, not the normal dozen roses, try seven dozen roses...yeah, that's 84 roses! He's a crazy man and I think he just wanted to be the talk of the town. Well, I think he accomplished that, because it's still being talked about at work.

After work, Darric and Jordan picked me up and surprised me with my favorite meal from Olive Garden and we went and had a picnic at Indian Trail Park in Brewer where we had our wedding pictures taken on the day of our wedding. As we were setting up our little picnic, Darric snuck up beside me, got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him again as he placed a white ring box in my hand. Yeah, this is the part where I began to cry, and then I really cried when I opened the box. It was a 3 stone diamond, which he said stood for Past, Present & Future.

Then we ended the night....with ice cream of coarse, you thought I was going to say something else.

~While at our little Anniversary picnic in the park, Jordan exclaimed he had to go pee, well, we've found out that it's so much easier and pleasant to just have Jordan pee in the woods. He gets a kick out of it too, as expected. Hopefully this won't bite us in the butt down the road (no pun intended). But this does show that Jordan is peeing like a champ. And the biggest news, I haven't had to buy diapers/pull ups in forever!!! The bad news though, we have had to throw a couple pair of underwear away due to the fact that he still hasn't gotten the pooping part down. But we're trying to keep our heads high and thinking positive that he'll get it.

~Now, back to the grind of our everyday lives of working, eating, sleeping, toddler wrangling etc. etc. Till next time...Sammy OUT!

Seven Years Ago Today...

Seven years ago today....I awoke very, very early, after only getting a couple hours of sleep. I jumped in the shower, which would be the last time I would have a moment to myself for the rest of the day.

Seven years ago today....Me and my closest girlfriends spent the whole morning together, we laughed, shared stories, talked about boys, got all dolled up and cried a little.

Seven years ago today....The weather was warm, the sky was blue, the air was clear, the flowers were in full bloom, it couldn't have been more perfect.

Seven years ago today....I learned what it was like to have a hundred people looking at you. Smiling at you, very happy for you.

Seven years ago today....I saw my father cry for the very first time as he placed my hand into another man's, as he gave me away to that man.

Seven years ago today....I married my soul mate, I became a wife to a wonderful husband, I said my vows and I meant every word of them. I still hold those vows very close and dear to heart today, seven years later.

It has been seven years today. Darric and I have been through so much together. We've gone on a cruise, made it through a back surgery, helped each other through deaths in our families. And most importantly made a child together. Our road has had it's ups and downs, but we've rode them together, not knowing what we were doing, trying to love, support and forgive one We weathered it all, trusting that somehow we could do this together.

Every day we start new. Every day we choose to be here. Every day we greet our little boy that we made together and find another reason why we're here.

Happy Anniversary Darric, I love you! XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Happy 4th of July!

Sorry I haven't written all week (tee-hee-hee), but I'm about to venture out for my holiday weekend, of coarse, upta camp! But, I am looking forward to it!!! We've got a lot of enjoyable things planned. Stay tuned for pictures at the beginning of next week.
Before you head out for your holiday weekends though, please stop over and visit my fellow blogger, Joey at her 5 To Many blog to give her many wishes as her and her family are on baby watch and I'm thinking there could be a Yankee Doodle Baby.
Happy 4Th of July to you all!! Have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!