The early days....

I sat down a few weeks ago and was skimming through some pictures of my adorable little people (and Keith too) and it took my breath away. I literally had forgotten how little they once were and I most certainly did not now realize just how big they've now become. I mean really, I have pictures of these little people hanging all over my house and I look at them everyday, but I haven't actually allowed myself to sit and reflect on how far we've come.
Some background knowledge here might be helpful.....




Caroline Grace Cooley entered our world after 39 weeks and 5 days of anxious anticipation on June 14, 2005 at exactly 5:10 p.m.. She was a pale shade of gray and as cone headed as ever, but we didn't notice a bit. We knew she was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. Our God was more amazing than we could ever explain and we were so lucky he sent her to us. I think that Caroline was only about 12 minutes old when I looked at Keith and said, "I'm never going to be able to go back to work," if only I had known then what I know now (hehehe). Caroline was the sun rise and the sun set in our world. Against my wishes I headed back to work on September 5, 2005 and I still remember trying to see through those tears on the way to school. For weeks after that I prayed for peace and strength to get me through this school year. My class was about as thrilled with me as I was to be there. I tried and I had some good days and I had a lot of tough ones but God had more in store for me. I'll spare all the boring details but, on December 9, 2005, exactly 14months to the day (that's important) that we found out I was pregnant with Caroline, I saw the + sign show up on the CVS brand early detection pregnancy test. I won't run the gamete of emotions all over again but I'm sure you can figure it out. I ran the next few weeks in a fog, this was not my plan. But in February when we realized that this was for real things began to take shape. Keith had changed jobs in November and we made the decision that I had been dreaming of since I was a little girl. I was going to stay at home and raise our children. My prayers were answered, just not in the way I had planned.

On August 14, 2005, 14months after our precious baby girl was born I lay in the same wing of the same hospital giving birth to our son, it was so surreal. At 3:36 p.m. Carter Michael Cooley was born weighing in at 9lbs 1oz. and looking as beautiful as his sister had just 14month before.
The next two years of our lives have been a whirlwind. We've juggled a baby boy who LOVES his Mommy and won't take any bottles or any pacifier on the market, weddings of two best friends, a cancer scare, a little princess with no hair, another new job, the list is endless. As I sit here the night before we celebrate Caroline's almost birthday at preschool I realize just how awesome my family is. I have the most wonderful husband and children and I love my life. I have not made time to sit down and reflect on these years in quite some time and being that this year our computer was attacked my some kind of crazy cyber virus and our digital camera just couldn't hang on after one collision with our kitchen floor I just couldn't resist giving this blog thing a shot. If nobody else ever reads it at least one day I'll have it to show my children!