My friend, Amanda, is having her 3rd baby girl just one month before I have Mattie. I have a feeling Mattie and Bryce are going to be great friends:)! I got to go to Amanda’s baby shower for Bryce and it was so much fun watching her open all of the little girly things! Seeing as this is her 3rd girl, I’m sure I will be going to her for LOTS of advice!
*Here is a pic from the shower. You can’t see her cute and TINY bump in the pic, but Amanda is the one sitting to my left……
I got this message on Facebook the other day from my friend, Lisa Jones:
“Saw this on our bouncy seat....I'm with Miller!”
At first I thought she was referring to the 5 branches of the tree, until I saw the perfect 5-peak logo randomly at the bottom of the tree! You just never know where our little man might show up
!!!
Patrick played in the FCC 4 Ball Tournament this weekend. He looks forward to this tournament ALL.YEAR.LONG!!! It’s probably comparable to how much a kid waits for Christmas morning all year! They have the “boys only” Calcutta on Thursday night, play golf Friday, party at the club with spouses Friday night, play golf Saturday while moms/kids go to the pool, and the final round on Sunday. It really is a fun, fun weekend for the whole family! I wish I had gotten more pictures, but I didn’t so here are the few that I got:)…..
*Our friend, Keith Westmoreland, sponsored a hole for Miller:). THANK YOU, KEITH!!!!!
*The girls at dinner Friday night
…..
*Liza and McCoy at the pool on Saturday…..
Our friend, Claire Turner, put all of the race pictures together in a video. They are the same pictures that were on the blog, but for some reason when you put pictures to music it makes it so much better:). Thank you, Claire, for always going above and beyond for Miller!
I randomly took this video the other night. It was the night we took dinner over to the Feagans and Cole and I were sitting on the couch while everyone else was out on the patio. He was leaving on his vacation with Nana and Papa the next day and for some reason Patrick had me all worried that something could go wrong while he was gone. I mean, I know something can always go wrong, whether you’re on a road trip to Harrison or on your way to the grocery store. The possibility is always there, but Patrick is SO overprotective when it comes to Cole leaving us. It makes me laugh because it seems so out of character for him. You would think I would be the overprotective one, but I guess he is so protective that I just let him do all of the worrying;). Needless to say, the night before he left my nerves did get the best of me and I started getting kind of sad he was leaving us for 3 nights. He’s been gone for a week at a time before, so I don’t know why I was sad but I was. I started thinking, what is something really does happen when he’s gone??? I can’t stand to loose another baby! One of my big things after Miller passed away is hoping that he really knew how much we loved/love him. I KNOW he knew, but for some reason I can’t help but think about it. For that reason, I am ALWAYS telling Cole how much I love him. Seriously, ALL.THE.TIME!!! I bet he gets tired of saying “I love you too, Mommy”, but he always reciprocates:). I used to always say “I love you to the moon and back”, but in the last year or so we’ve changed to/added “I love you with ALL of my heart!”. I wanted to make sure that is something were to happen, heaven forbid, I would have a video of my sweet boy letting me know he knew how much I loved him. Am I crazy? Probably! But, is this video sweet? Yes:)! Love this guy, AND his little brother and soon to be little sister SO, SO much!!! They are what make my world go round:)!
*You can tell he is totally exhausted in this video, bless his heart……
Patrick had Guys Night Out at the Fayetteville Country Club tonight for the 4-Ball Calcutta. As you can imagine, it tends to be a crazy night so Patrick arranged transportation for him and the “Benton County” guys to and from the club so they didn’t have to drive themselves. One of Cole’s old teachers and her husband own Destiny Limousines and they have Miller Decals on all of their vehicles! How cool is that:)! I made Patrick pose by the back of the car when Dane came to pick him up! Thanks so much to Jody and Dane for all of your support (and for bringing my hubby home safe and sound! I can rest easy knowing he is in good hands;)!
We attempted swim lessons last week, only to FAIL them miserably:(! It was so bad! The instructor was fantastic, but her student was less than enthusiastic about being taught! Cole wanted NOTHING to do with it! We stuck it out all 3 days, but on the last day decided that we should probably wait a while before scheduling another series of lessons. We decided that our goal this week would be to get Cole in the water EVERY.SINGLE.DAY and just casually practice without him really feeling the pressure. Well, Monday night we went over to our friends house to swim and all of a sudden it was like a switch flipped and Cole was swimming!!! It started with they guys throwing their wedding bands in the pool for the kids to dive down and get (I know, an expensive game of ring toss, huh?). The other kids were all participating and I guess the COMPETITIVE side of Cole’s brain took over the FEARFUL side and he took off! Not only swimming, but diving to the bottom (in the shallow end, 3 ft deep) to get Patrick’s wedding band. It was the craziest think I have ever seen! Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s still no Michael Phelps, but we are definitely moving in the right direction. We need to master some skills and get comfortable in the deep end, but we are SO happy with the progress he has made! Thanks to all of you who commented on my Facebook post from Sunday night! I was so frustrated at that point and it felt good to know that Cole is not the only kid in the world who hates swim lessons;)!
Here are a couple of videos I took of him swimming tonight:
My friend, Kate, always does a painting for our new baby’s nursery. The finished product blows me away every time. I picked up Miss Mattie’s painting yesterday and once again, it is AMAZING!!! Thanks, Kate, for always stepping up to the plate! You are SO incredibly talented:)…..
In case you have forgotten how awesome Cole and Miller’s paintings are, here they are
…..
*I’ve never noticed until now that that little white balls have chevron zig zags on them! This was painted before Miller was even born! Love that:)!
*And while I’m bragging on her I thought I would go ahead and share the other 3 paintings she has done for me over the years…..
Cole took a vacation with Nana and Papa to Harrison a couple of weekends ago! Papa had bought a 2 night stay at a historic hotel in downtown Harrison, so he and Nana decided it would be fun to take Cole for a couple of nights. You may laugh at the thought of a “vacation” in Harrison, but I’m telling you these 3 had a BLAST!!! They left on Thursday morning and when they got to town they went to the river to throw rocks and look for elk. After that they went to the Mystic Caverns. I remember going to some cavern when I was little and thinking it was so cool! I’m not gonna lie, I was one of the scardy cats, but I did think it was neat;). Friday morning they went to Silver Dollar City in Branson to spend the day and then they came home on Saturday in time for Cole to make it to Kiera and Wells’ birthday parties. As you can tell, Cole has quite the social calendar. It’s hard for this momma to keep up! LOL!!!!
*Nana sent us a bunch of pictures along with narrative to go with them, so this blog post is courtesy of Nana:)…..
Leaving Rogers on a trip with Nana and Papa for a couple of days…..
Visiting the Phillips Ballpark in Harrison where Cole's daddy played baseball. When we got there we saw the Maland Family Pavilion…..
Papa and Cole pointing over the fence of the field that Patrick hit 3 home runs in one game. The opposing coach said Patrick had more home runs than he had teeth…..
Eating lunch at McDonald's in Harrison before heading to the Mystic Caverns…..
Having a little siesta on the road to the caverns……
Papa and Cole in the cave…..
Cole can't believe we are so far underground. He was so good on the tour. There were kids on the tour that got scared and started crying and screaming…..
Skipping rocks on the Buffalo River at Ponca. The water level is very very low, much too low for canoes…..
Outside the Low Gap Cafe about to have an OUTSTANDING dinner. We read about the owner/chef in the Rural Arkansas magazine, so we thought we'd give it a try…
Friday just arriving in Branson. Taking pictures at Papa's favorite overlook…..
Cole getting measured at Silver Dollar City to see how many of the rides he could ride. He could ride a whole lot more rides than he cared to ride…..
Nana and Cole on the roller coaster. Papa tried to ride, but his legs were too long. They couldn't get him locked in…..
This was Cole's reaction when they announced on the train that there were train robbers on the loose. He didn't want any part of the robbers……
Cole riding the carousel…..
Papa and Cole in the rope treehouse. Cole was jumping up and down making Papa bounce…
Papa being a good sport having to crawl out of the treehouse through the very narrow openings…..
Cole spraying people with the big water gun as they float past him….
Nana and Cole getting ready to ride the elephants. You can tell I had been absolutely drenched in that float ride earlier. There's not a picture of me at the water guns, but I got my revenge on the poor people that floated after us…..
Leaving Silver Dollar City after a fun day. Look at Cole how he was walking. I was just barely walking…..
Saturday morning on the way home. Cole showing us what a well rounded breakfast his grandparents fed him…..
Papa and I are ready for another trip with Cole when he's ready!
Thank you, Nana & Papa, for such a fun vacation! These pictures are evidence that Cole had a blast, and it certainly helped his momma and daddy out while his daddy recovered from sinus surgery! We love ya’ll!
Last night we went to Lindsey and Steven’s wedding reception. It was in Bella Vista at Blowing Springs Camp Grounds. I have never been out there, and it is beautiful! So peaceful with lots of shade, creeks and hiking trails. They had a great band playing, lots of food and beverages, and lots of friends. All there to celebrate their special day! We are so excited for them. For those of you that don’t know, Lindsey is the one that started the Prayers for Baby Miller Facebook page! Shortly after Miller was diagnosed she reached out to us through Facebook and said she had heard our story and wanted to know if we would care if she started a prayer page. As firm believers in prayer, we of course said “yes, please”! We had never even met Lindsey, but we had mutual family friends. In fact, we didn’t end up meeting in person until after Miller had already passed away. Still, we have only been able to hang out with her a few times. Even though we don’t see her in person very often, we are SO thankful for all she has done for Miller. She helped us raise awareness for Miller’s story in a way that nobody else could. The support we have been offered through his page has been unbelievable. Miller currently has 8,068 friends:). He’s a pretty popular little dude! Thank you, Lindsey, for all of your support, and CONGRATULATIONS on your wedding! I know you are so excited to start your new life together…..
Corinne Sophia was born on July 12th, 2011 at 1:27pm into the loving arms of her parents Emily and Ryan Moll at Mercy in Rogers, AR. Corinne immediately had medical complications and was helicoptered by the Angel One team to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. After several days of medical testing and amazing medical care Corinne was diagnosed with Zellweger’s Syndrome, a rare metabolic genetic disorder that affects normal brain development and leads to respiratory distress and in Corinne’s case heart failure. Corinne was back transported, again by the Angel One helicopter team, to Washington Regional Hospital in Fayetteville, AR so she could be loved by all of her friends, family, and big brother Evan. Corinne passed on August 10, 2011 at 9:16pm in the arms of her Parents.
Saturday afternoon we went to a poolside get together to celebrate what would have been Corinne’s 1st Birthday. Cole is VERY into birthdays these days, and wants to know exactly how old everyone is, so when we were pulling up to the party Cole asked me whose birthday it was and I told him it was Baby Corinne’s. Then he asked me how old she was turning and I had to explain to him that she would be 1 year old, but she wouldn’t be at the party because she went to Heaven when she was a tiny baby like Miller did. I reminded him about how we celebrated Miller’s birthday at Artex by planting a tree and releasing balloons to Heaven and he seemed to accept that. It’s so unfair for a 4 year old to have to process such deep information, but Evan and Cole have both been the sweetest, bravest, most understanding and compassionate Big Brothers that you could ever imagine.
Big Brothers
…..
Me with 2 of my favorite mommas. All 3 of us have Angel Babies in Heaven…..
Evan watching the balloons fly up to his baby sister in Heaven….
Piñata time…..
