GABE IS WALKING!

Yes, you read that title correctly! My sweet little baby just turned 8 months 1 week ago (a week ago yesterday to be exact) and now the little bugger is walking!!!!! Although it's a little frankenstein-ish and he doesnt go very far before he gets too excited and waves his arms wildly in the air which of course causes him to lose balance and fall flat out on his tushy. But he does get up all on his own (he's been getting himself to a standing position without pulling up on anything for about a month).

I'm not sure i'm ready for this!

Here's some recent family pics you might enjoy...








As for the rest of the cotton clan... Greg is busier than ever with work (which is both good and bad!) My stamp company is doing very well and I'm entering wedding season as well as continuing to teach classes at a local scrapbook store (did someone forget to tell me how many hours there are in a day?) Jack finished his first year of preschool and will start a summer school/camp program on June 9th! He's growing up so fast! And he says the funniest things these days! I know i'm not good enough about posting on here, but i'll try to be better this summer. You know, it's not like i have much else going on. hehehe.

time flies

my oh my how time flies! Gabe turned 6 months last week (and had his 6 month check up, he's just under 21 pounds!). Jack has his first round of school pictures on thursday. Where does the time go?!

Things are busy as usual in the cotton house. In my attempts to multitask i sometimes let Jack entertain the baby so i can get something done. This is what happened the last time i did this. Mind you we were all in the same room. But i was working away while Jack was making gabe crack up. As long as i heard laughter and not crying, things were good. Until i turned and saw this... at least Gabe thinks it's funny for now!



This was actually a few weeks ago. Then last night I apparently had a lapse of judgement again. Jack asked if he could feed Gabe his dinner. I needed to start our own mac and cheese for dinner (greg was working) and throw a load of laundry in the wash and since this is all in the same room, again i think, this is an ok thing to do. I show Jack that gabe needs "small bites" which he did a good job of... when it actually went in his mouth!



Here's a cute picture of the boys together... i went to also take video but silly me forgot i cant turn the camera sideways when shooting video!





You'll just have to turn your head to the side to watch it. :)

Just a little update

Things are going well here in the Cotton household. Jack turns 3 on Tuesday! i can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday he was Gabe's age! Now he recognizes words even and can tell me which show he wants to watch in the DVR. He's just so smart and it amazes me everyday!

Gabe is growing up too fast too. The other day the little bugger started to try and crawl! He saw a toy he wanted across the room and by golly he was going to get it!

These pictures i also took the other day so i thought you'd all want to see!

I've recently been scolded a bit for not updating here more. I apologize! It's been a busy busy time in the Cotton household, so forgive how incredibly long this post might get!

Wow, so I havent had an update here since Christmas huh? Ok, every right to scold me! For the Holidays we traveled up to Indiana and it was a lot of fun. Mostly a lot of downtime (which I am currently craving since it's been SO busy!). The boys did very well in the car and for that i was very very thankful!

Once we got back to South Carolina, I decided (with a bit of a shove from Greg) to start my ow stamp company. It was something i had been wanting to do for sometime. However, Greg is kinda a do it now kinda guy so once he was on board, it was time to move! So the first weeks of January were ones busy with creating some designs, contacting some illustrators, and just getting the whole thing in motion. The second half of the month was a lot of website building and marketing. I guess i never realized what all goes into the start of a company! My January just FLEW by!

Also during Janurary... Jack went back to school and Gabe had his 4 month check up. Our little linebacker weighed in at 17 lbs 12 oz! Yes thats right, bigger than a butterball turkey, he was almost 18 pounds!

Here's some January Pics for ya...


I love this one. Doesnt it look like Gabe is telling Jack a secret?






Then February hits and Paper Makeup Stamps is open for business! I know only some family and friends read this blog and you arent paper crafters, but if you're interested in seeing the website, here it is. Paper Makeup Stamps.

My mom came in town February 4th and we drove up to Greensboro North Carolina to meet my dad at ACTF (American College Theatre Festival). I'm pretty sure most who read this know what i'm talking about, but for the 1 or 2 that dont, my dad travels around to all the regional festivals every year. Last year when the region i live in was at Clemson i taught a couple of makeup workshops and they asked if i would do it again this year in Greensboro). We got back this past Saturday and mom went home on Sunday.

So now life is leveling out a weeeeee bit. We're all still super busy but i guess thats the way we like it since we never seem to change anything about it! :)

I'll try to be better about updating more often! :)

I cant believe it's almost christmas already! We have had 1 busy month here! First i was fortunate enough to book 4 weddings this month! (and the last one was december 13th!) So i was very busy gearing up for those and getting them all done. One of them had 12 bridesmaids! That was a very busy day!

Jack has had lots of holiday "functions" as well. He has been very busy at school with planning his christmas party (which was this past thursday) and then the christmas show (which was friday). We also had his christmas party with our play group (i say our because it's as much for me as it is for him!) which was wednesday.

Baby Gabe is getting BIG! On Friday hey rolled over from back to tummy and was quite pleased with himself! He is now smiling all the time and loves it when anyone makes happy goofy faces at him. Greg can even get in in rolling laughter! Its very fun!
Gabe was also the Baby Jesus this december in the youth groups live nativity at our church. He might have been the biggest baby jesus ever!

Greg has also stayed pretty busy this month with work. Lucky for us, it's still nice here (the temps were in the 70s last week - though thats not very common).

Tomorrow morning we're making the drive to Indiana to spend christmas there. Pray for safe and HAPPY travels!

We hope everyone has a wonderful week leading up to christmas!!!!

Here's some photos for you!

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was quiet and uneventful which with a newborn and 2 year old in the house, is just like we like it! Greg did all of the cooking which of course was fabulous! I made a pumpkin pie which is completely gone today. It was a beautiful day outside. Greg took Jack out on the golf cart for a bit even! And other than that, we vegged around the house. Here are some pics i took during the day...





On tuesday of this week Jack had his "Feast" at school. His class was in charge of making the trailmix. They also had pizza, cookies, fruit and other goodies. Jack was so excited about it! Each class came dressed up. The 2 year old class were turkeys.
Here are some other pictures from the day including 2 videos... one they were singing the blessing. Jack at least using his praying hands... but he was too busy chewing up the fruit he already ate to sing!








and over the weekend Jack's friend Lauren (she's in the preschool shots as well) had a birthday party. To ME it was chilly, but the kids had a good time. :)




and just for fun, a video of gabe...

New Photos

I'm a slacker, i'll admit it. I have some new photos to post and Gabe had his 8 week check up so i have some stats for you!

First we had a visit from Auntie Muff (my dad's sister). She was visiting her daughter and family down in Georgia and passes right by on her way home. So we met her at chic fil a for lunch. Of course she came bearing gifts for the boys (which she totally didnt have to!) Jack LOVES his dinosaur and has even slept with it! Jack didnt stand still long enough at Chic-fil-a to get a picture with Muff. He was off to play in the jungle gym.

Jack still loves to hold his baby brother. He likes him to watch cartoons with him. I'm not sure Gabe is always so thrilled, but he does spend an awful lot of time looking at Jack trying to figure out what he's doing!

And Gabe had his 8 week check up a week ago (i know i should have posted this then!)
He was 14 lbs and 12 oz! Isnt that crazy! It's the 98% for weight but he's also 25 inches tall which is 97% for height so all around, he's just a big boy! My linebacker!

And in honor of my little linebacker... i took this photo of him this morning (at my mom's request, she said she needed a new photo) in his colts sleeper that my dad (of course) bought him! I love the picture because he's smiling! He's starting to babble quite a bit and will sometimes smile back at you if you smile at him. Other times he just looks at you like you're an idiot. :) like here....
haha.

And not to leave Jack out of the post! Yesterday at school they had their gingerbread man party. This month they have been studying the Gingerbread Man story (they do a different story each month). Jack likes to run around yelling "run run as fast as you can, you cant catch me i'm the gingerbread man!" Its very funny, until he runs into something.

Here's a picture of jack putting his part of the story on the board. The kids seemed pretty good at knowing their part of the story so this must have rehearsed for the mommies!

Tomorrow we have jack's little girlfriends birthday party. I'll be sure to take pictures and hopefully not take weeks to post them! :)