The pizza delivering dentist

Trace's preschool had Community Helpers week last month. They turned every room into a different community hotspot like a post office, doctor's office, dentist office, grocery store, barber/beauty shop etc...

The day he spent at the barber/beauty shop nearly sent Jimmy and my brother into heart failure when Trace came home with painted fingernails. They were at least painted orange, as they tried to go with the daddy's favorite team colors for the boys.

Sidenote: When his teacher asked him what sports his daddy watched on T.V. Trace replied, "the cheerleaders." ha! Upon further inquiry by Ms. Jennifer his next response was, he likes to watch the girls play. I quickly informed her (between chuckles) that my parents had just taken him to watch the UTC Women's basketball team play and they sat right in front of the cheerleaders.

Apparently, they left quite an impression!

Anyway, at the conclusion of the week, Ms. Summer sent home this paper...

Awww, I think Granddaddy got a little misty...

until we went to pick up a Domino's pizza later on that week and upon seeing the lit up domino sign donning the top of a delivery car, he then announced he would rather be a pizza delivery man.

I tried to find solace in all the money we'd save paying for college and dental school, but it was shortlived.

Nevertheless, all the "what am I gonna be when I grow up" talk reminded me that I needed to schedule his first cleaning with Michelle...

Granddaddy even came out of retirement for the day to do the honors!
My mom just happened to be there getting a crown, so it was truly a family affair.
No cavities, woo hoo!!
All twenty... clean as a whistle and bubble gum flavored.

He celebrated with a sugar free tooth shaped sucker.
Between the sucker, 3 stickers, a light up toothbrush and the treasure chest toy, Trace is thinking the dentist is a pretty cool place.

Then yesterday, in my mom's attic he found the scrub set my dad wore when my brother was born and paraded around her house in it for awhile.

Humm, we're back on track.
Maybe I'll see

James F.Cofer III D.D.S.

on a sign one day after all. Perhaps with a lit up domino on it. But that's OK.

This is how the pros do it...

Emily Laymon is an amazing child photographer... and one of my best friend's sisters. We call her "the baby whisperer" but she was also quite the four-year-old whisperer too. It must come from years as a NICU nurse at Erlanger. She always dabbled in photography but has recently started her own business in addition to her "day" job.

Check her out at estprints.com

She came to the house to do Keatyn's newborn pictures and was nice enough to allow me to post some on my blog. She spent about 3 hours with us capturing our family in our own setting and in Keatyn's nursery, which I loved!






Thank you so much Emily... you are truly talented!!

Every good and perfect gift is from above... James 1:17

I could kiss
those chunky cheeks,
those many chins,
that strawberry blonde head,
and those pouty lips
that turn into that smile...
all day long!


The bible verse in the title is on Trace's bedroom wall.

God is reminding me everyday just how true those words really are.

Sometimes I still can't believe he chose me to be their mom.
I am blessed~

Meet the Family

All of these pictures loaded backwards. And since I've adopted the old typing technique of "hunt and peck" due to the fact that I'm simultaneously nursing a newborn while I type this (sorry for the mental image I'm sure none of you wanted), the cut/paste step is just too complicated to do with one hand.

So... these pictures are in opposite chronological order of how they actually happened, but I'm sure you don't care.

After weeks of hibernation, Keatyn is finally meeting her family! Between sickness and scheduling conflicts, everyone is just now meeting my sweet girl. In the last 2 weeks she has met all of her aunts and uncles, several of her cousins, her great Frank, her Mimmie, and Flo. This is Flo...
my cousin's new shitzu. She is yummy! It's a wonder this precious pup survived these two.

We had the first official Sunday dinner back at my Nanny's (other than when we were re-doing her house last Spring) since my Papaw died 16 years ago. We were celebrating all of the February and March birthdays. I think it did Nanny good to have us all back there doing this in her yard...
I have SO many memories of growing up playing ball in the backyard. Papaw even had a real home plate put in the ground. He used to sit for hours on a stool and pitch baseballs to me, Andy, and my cousins. I can't tell you how many times we've climbed over that fence fishing balls out of the neighbors yard. It was very special to see the next generation continuing the tradition that was started by my mom, aunt and uncle so many years ago. I know Papaw would be proud!
I would love to tell you that he knocked that ball over the fence. But I have no idea.

Gettin a little Vitamin D with Daddy. She has stolen his heart and it is so precious!



Aunt Gail and Royce came over the other night and had my cousin Casey's baby, Cole. He just turned one and he is adorable!


On Saturday, we went and smuggled Great Frank out of the old folks home for a little playground and milkshake action. This picture was hilarious. Trace was behind him walking through Burger King to get to the playground, and well, you can imagine how fast a 92-year-old on a walker moves compared to a lively 4-year-old with a playground in sight. He couldn't get around him. Jimmy was behind Trace yelling, "Shoot the gap, son, shoot the gap."

He went for it...
I'm pleased to report no hips were broken or walkers overturned during the making of his breakaway.

Two weeks ago, Mimmie, and Jimmy's aunts Sheila and Sandi came for a visit. Mimmie couldn't wait to get her hands on her 7th great grandbaby...
or her 4th.


I hate that I don't have one single picture of Sheila, but it would have been a picture of her taking a picture. I don't think she ever put her camera down!

Keatyn still has many more to meet. We just keep going, and going, and going...

Pretty in Pink (and purple)

I love how Keatyn's nursery turned out. You know how some people can take something simple and create something beautiful and special out of it?

Well, I'm unfortunately not one of those people.

But, luckily my mother-in-law is.

I found a pink toile fabric online and Sylvia literally did the rest.

She made the bed skirt for the full size bed, all of the crib bedding, the roman shade for the window, and recovered my vanity stool for under her table. I can't wait to tell her one day that her Sisty did all of this to make her room special. I hope she teaches Keatyn how to do all of these things. She doesn't stand a chance learning anything from me, I'm incapable of sewing on a button.

When we found out Girby was a girl (hence the name "Girby" short for Girl Baby) I immediately thought, "Great, now we won't have to paint her nursery... it's already purple."

OK, actually my first thoughts were of buying prom dresses, big hair bows, planning a wedding, and countless shopping trips with my little girl. But shortly following those thoughts were, "Great, now we won't have to paint her nursery... it's already purple."

What I love the most is it's full of sentimental things.

The shadow box has the purple dress she came home from the hospital in, the same dress I came home in nearly 36 years ago. My plan is to get a picture from mom's of me in that dress and put it next to her picture on the shelf.View from the door...

All of the white furniture (except for the bed) was Jimmy's furniture growing up. When we first moved into the house, I painted it all white, distressed it, and changed the hardware and used it in my guest room. I never dreamed I would be using it one day in my baby girls room!
At my baby shower, Sisty showed me this cross stitched throw hanging above the glider that she had been working on. She finished it just days after she was born. Granddaddy told me she had at least 450 to 500 hours of work invested in that. She worked on it a little at a time, from the time she learned she was a girl. That is so special!
The glider was from a consignment shop and the lamp light post was Trace's, given to him by Penny and Lynda. The beautiful pillow with her initials on it was made by my friend Leslie's mom, Patty. She made it out of a table cloth used by her mother and handed down to her. She also made a purple pillow cover with her name on it. (See why I was SO stressed when Jimmy wanted to change her name!)

I bought these mirrors on the 30% off end cap at Target. I changed the ribbon to pink, and Ms. Jennifer, one of Trace's teachers at school, printed the vinyl letters for her initials.
Ms. Jennifer also did the bible verse above her bed (For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord... Jeremiah 29:11) and her name plates. She is starting her own business in vinyl lettering and crafts and is very talented!
This iron bed was Jimmy's grandmother's as a child. It has been every color in the rainbow. Jimmy's dad painted it white for us. I love the fact that when she's bigger, she will sleep on something that has been handed down through the generations. Hopefully, her little girl will sleep in that bed one day too.(The snoozing baby in the picture is not for effect, she just fell asleep while I was taking pictures and my mama taught me to never wake a sleeping baby.)
That beautiful purple blanket she's wrapped in was hand made by one of the Golden Girls, Bonnie. She actually made her two. I can't even imagine all of the hours she spent on those.

Things like that have so much meaning when you know how much time someone took making it for you, thinking about the baby that will use it, and hopefully saying a prayer or two for your little one in the process. It amazes me that these women spent their precious time working on things for my daughter. She is certainly a blessed little girl!

What a Weekend...

It's kinda sad when your preschooler has a better social life than you do. But, I'm not too proud to say... it's true.

I'm a little behind, but last weekend Trace had what would be considered in kiddie terms, the "Disneyworld" of boy's weekends.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother asked if he and Kadi could take him to the monster truck show at the Arena. We went to the circus there last year and spent the majority of our time in the bathroom, but even after that warning and my scary prediction of mixing 4-year-olds and EXTREMELY loud noises, he claimed they still wanted to go.

So Friday night they set off, armed with Papaw's headphones to damper the deafening sounds, I was sure would be the ruin of a perfectly good evening. Turns out, it took wax ear plugs, headphones, and the occasional old fashioned hand over the ears cover, but luckily everyone survived.

(And Andy said, much to Kadi's dismay, that they feed and hydrated him very infrequently to avoid the nasty public bathrooms we spent so much time in at the circus. His philosophy is, if he's ain't askin', don't offer... what goes in, must come out.)

Good call brother. I believe he's ready for fatherhood.
I hope my future nieces and nephews get those adorable dimples!
Can't you just hear the grunts and growls? Love this...
Four hours later they returned, all wearing smiles and Trace sporting his new "Gravedigger" T-shirt, which he insisted on sleeping in.
I knew he would either come in sound asleep on Uncle Andy's shoulder (it wasn't over until after 10:00) or bounding through the door talking 90 miles an hour. The latter prevailed. He was so wired he didn't collapse into the bed until 1 a.m. only to get a few hours of sleep before his next adventure...

So, Saturday morning my friend Leslie and her hubby Sean came to pick Trace up to go to the train exhibit with their son Jack. She knew we weren't really getting Keatyn out yet and knows Trace's love of trains. So with only a few hours of sleep and monster trucks on the brain, they headed to North Georgia to the Colonnade.


The train museum was somewhat of a bust they said (much more for the avid collector that preschool boys... I'm assuming they uttered the phrase, "Just look...no, no, no... don't touch" a few dozen times.) So after about 30 minutes, they moved on to the Aquarium.

I have been in the car with these two rascals before, and I'm telling you the conversations heard from the backseat beat any reality show on TV today... hilarious!
They went back to Leslie and Sean's for PB&J's and a little home spun music.

"Alright... Wheels on the Bus, from the top, on my count."
And then a little tackle football in the front yard.

Looks like Sean might need some head protection himself.
Nothing better than a big ol' sand pile, or mulch pile, or rock pile... actually, any pile will do. And when there's a neighborhood under construction, you're never short on piles!
And finishing the day off... feeding the ducks and throwing rocks in the pond (not at the ducks boys.)

I believe this was about the time when Trace's late night partying caught up with him.

After his confessional at home, I learned he ran out into the road on the way back to their house, wastefully threw whole pieces of bread into the water, and basically shut down all listening skills he's acquired over the last 4 years.

Well, the fun was nice while it lasted... time to go home :)
So after a day full of trains, sharks, drums, football, rock throwing, and sand piles, I'm really gonna have to step up my game. When I had Jack over last summer after Leslie's shoulder surgery, we played T-ball in the front yard and ate a sack full of Krystal's on a picnic table in the driveway. Woo-hoo!

Lame, I know.

It's a wonder Jack still speaks to us.

I can't thank Uncle Andy, Aunt Kadi, Leslie, Sean, and Jack enough for entertaining my boy, while I stayed home and did riveting things like wash 19 loads of laundry in Dreft, clean out my closet, and watch countless episodes of Say Yes to the Dress while nursing a newborn. Sounds like Disneyworld, doesn't it?

He is so blessed to have such wonderful people in his life to love and make memories with... we love you all!