...Brags

I just have to brag on my big brother. He was recently named Leavenworth's 2009 Officer of the Year. He is the very first officer to hold this distinction. This has been a busy year for my Stevie!... A few months ago he was also promoted to Sargent. Such an over achiever.

I should also brag on his wife, Danielle. She was recently promoted to Detective. It is so fun to hear them "talk shop." It is like I am on an episode of Dexter or something. Well, without the serial killer part.

Sorry for the crappy photo quality...
I took this photo from the body of an email.

...Gears Up For Another Ball Season

Cecilia is playing coach pitch again this summer. Yipee! I cannot wait for the season to begin...and of course there's the sunflower seed spitting - always an added bonus.

**UPDATE: All Games are at 6:30 pm**
The schedule is as follows:

• Sunday, May 17 [Perry @ Royal Valley]
• Thursday, May 21 [Meriden @ Perry]
• Sunday, May 24 [McLouth @ Perry]
• Thursday, May 28 [JCN @ Perry]
• Thursday, June 4 [JCN @ Perry]
• Sunday, June 7 [Perry @ Royal Valley]
• Thursday, June 11 [Perry @ Lecompton]

Cecilia has been working hard on her batting skills and is doing quite well. Now if we could just get her to RUN!

...Pedicures, Jayhawks, Branson, Oh My!

April is about to pass me by. Crap. I better start updating you people on what the Cottrell family has been doing. It was a semi sick free month - Mr. Finn's head cold from March rolled over into April. After 16 days of snot we finally decided to try antibiotics. He was much better the day after we started meds so I'm confident he did have a nasty bacterial bug up in there. I am a big advocate for letting a cold run its course and not throwing anti's at children when they might not need them. Our doctor is on the same page, which is great. Finnie's only had them twice and Cecilia's still an antibiotic virgin. Finn got better just in time to contract the April snotty nose. Daycare kids get 10 colds a year, blah, blah, blah...I know, I know.
Cecilia and I missed Jayden Weissenbach's 6th birthday party so we decided to take Jayden and her Mommy [Jenny - my BFF and Boss. Sweet combo, right?] to get pedicures! It was Jayden and Ceci's first time and the salon treated them like princesses...even got little white flowers on each big toe. We had a blast.


After the pedi's we hooked up the the rest of our family members for lunch and then headed to Allen Fieldhouse for the Women's NIT Championship game. It was almost a sellout game with 16,113 in attendance; a record for the lady Jayhawks and a Big 12 Women's record. They Hawks didn't bring in a win, but they put on a hell of a run in the last few minutes. The entire joint was on its feet jumping around. I believe I sweat off 3 lbs of water weight. Fun time!


Post game activities: Finn passes out and Cecilia gives Daddy a pedicure.


We also spent a weekend at my parents house in Branson. It was a whirlwind of activities as usual. My mother is a super planner and has our itinerary and menus set before we even arrive. She sends me emails weeks in advance reminding me of things I should be packing. [Now you know where I got my planning sickness from.] Friday was a rainy day so Cecilia dyed eggs while Finnie ate them. That night we had Dad's famous home made pizza. Cecilia got to help, kind of. Dad is a perfectionist and basically redid all of her work.

Saturday was beautiful so we took the kiddos down the street to Silver Dollar City. Finnie has been to SDC several times but this day he got to experience his very first amusement park ride. He loved it. Cecilia actually got in line for the Giant Swing, but ended up being about an inch too short. I was SO relieved. Now she keeps measuring herself and saying, "Big Swing?!" When she is tall enough I am going to make Wade ride it with her. I don't think I will be able to handle hearing her screams. Wade and Dad spent a good 20 minutes in the water gun section of the park pelting other kids with water. Cecilia and Finn got soaked. Cecilia plans to wear her swimsuit when we go back this summer. Good plan.

...FINALLY Wrote a New Post

I am a blog slacker. This I know. Because of this I have received quite a bit of hate mail during my blog hiatus so I thought I'd better get my act together. Actually, I am just too anal. I got behind in my posting due to the March Sickness and because I hate to do anything out of order my post ideas have gotten severely backed up - kind of like our bathroom sink (more on that later). Hum, let us see where I left off...oh, yes - In March Cecilia completed 8 week Beginner Tumbling class with Lawrence Parks & Recreation. She enjoyed every minute of it but wants to take Dance next. Wade and I think this is a sound idea as we're pretty sure she will be too tall to be gymnast. Here she is getting her certificate of completion.



Since I last wrote, Finnegan can now read on a 10 grade level and is zipping through books like crazy. Here he is reading Memories of a Geisha in his favorite reading spot - the kitchen floor.



During March we thoroughly enjoyed the Madness (when we were not cursing our sickness) and were very impressed by our young Jayhawks and Coach Self. Finn has become a true fanatic and screams "HAWK!" anytime he spots our beloved bird. As usual, the kids were decked out in crimson and blue and Jayhawk tattoos all month. Cecilia sure comes up with unique places for her tats.







The kids also enjoyed hanging out at Nana Marla and Papa Tim's ranch last month as Spring time equals calf time around there. I love these photos I snapped. Cecilia is a master at climbing Papa's fence and Finnie's looking up at her like, "How is she doing that? She is amazing." I love her shoes in that photo too.





We hung out with Amandewucs and Mitcholleton one afternoon at Mitchell and Nicolle's new house. That place is freaking bizarre, but it is SO Mitchell. We tried to get a photo with all four of our kids together, but Leyton wasn't having it. Check out Lucas. This dude has more hair than Wade and he is only like 6 months old.



So ends our March adventures. This post is getting quite longish, so I shall quit here and begin a new with our April news.

...Celebrated Sofie

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Girl!

...Celebrated Another KU Win

" Oklahoma who? Bring on Mizzou!"

(KU tutu courtesy of Cecilia)

...Finally Got the Tower Back Online

We have had crazy internet connection issues for a while now. Thank goodness for our Blackberry's. I cannot go 12 hours without checking Facebook. Our nice cable company sent someone out this morning and he fixed us up. Ah, it's nice to type on a keyboard again.
Not much has happend since my last post, but we did go to a super fun birthday party last weekend for our pal, Zeke. It was the largest kid party I've even been to - over 50 children. No lie. Thank goddness it was at a community building in Lawrence. The theme was Carnival and each kiddo was given tickets in exchange for a can food item (no gifts = sweet). They could use their tickets to play carnival games like Ring Toss, Go Fish, Cupcake Walk, Face Painting, Fortune Teller, etc. Brillant idea. The family did such a good job on the whole sha-bang.

... Made Progress on the Kitchen Remodel

I promise to post photos of our kitchen, but only when it it completely finished! I have vowed to finish it before April 1st. We moved back into our house on April 1, 2008 after living at Big Granny and Gramps house for two and a half months. Has it seriously taken us a year to put up the backslash, trim, lights and door? Yes, yes it has. Seems crazy because it only took Wade two and a half months to completely demo the entire room, put in new plumbing, electrical, insulation, drywall and flooring. Insane.

Here are some shots of my men hard at work yesterday afternoon:



Finn likes to eat leftover waffles while using the circular saw.



How freaking cute is this? I mean seriously? How cute?!

...Reminisced With Waffles

We admit it. We've been having withdraws. Waffle withdraws. Big Granny and Gramps have been in Texas since the end of December which means we haven't enjoyed waffles for lunch for the past four Sundays! The weekends are just not the same. *sigh*

Along with the delicious waffles, we miss hearing the local gossip from Gramps as well as the occasional, "God Dammit!" heard coming from his easy chair. So sad. We also miss Big Granny's cookie jar that magically has 5 cookies in it every Sunday; two for Finnie, two for Ceci and one for Gramps. *double sigh*

Yesterday we decided to do something about our craving. We needed a taste... just a little bit to help us through this though time. Something to ease the pain in our tummies... so we borrowed Big Granny's waffle maker and attempted to recreate the feeling we once had on Sunday afternoons. The first few attempts were flops [not enough batter], but finally...FINALLY we had success!...



We even spiced it up a bit by making blueberry waffles. Yum.



Finn's face when told he had to wait for his next waffle.



Cecilia gave our waffle and fried eggs a thumbs up...but admitted they weren't as good as Big Granny's.



We will not be whole until they return in April and we are once again together for Waffle Sunday.

...Called It

Check it, my Cecilia called it back on March 4, 2008. Look!



What an amazing day. Our IT guy set up the conference room screen and had CNN streaming live during the Oath of Office and Obama's speech. We all got chills, shed some tears and broke into applause after his oath and his speech.
Several of us at CREW had a "Broccoli Celebration" lunch at the Yacht Club. Because of my story about Cecilia, "broccoli" became our code word during the election if we wanted to talk politics. Our CEO put the kibosh on water cooler discussions on the topic. I am pretty sure it is because she was in favor of the other guy and was sore that her side was losing. We were banned from wearing any buttons, shirts, etc. during the election. We totally enjoyed getting to wear our shirts today - you cannot ban patriotism baby!