One of a kind!

My mom is not just an average sewer, she is what I would call a seamstress! She could make lots and lots of money if she wanted to making custom and handmade creations of all sorts and varieties. Luckily for me, she would rather share her talents spending hours on projects for my home and her grandchildren! My girls have loved many of Grammie's creations and Isabelle loves to go to the fabric store just so she can pick out some crazy fabric to have Grammie sew into something. (We were just at JoAnns last week where Belle purchased some Fancy Nancy fabric for a new slip...which is an entire different and much needed future post!) I do own a sewing machine but I am afraid that the natural sewing gene skipped right over me and landed from Tara to Alex! Both my sisters can and do sew things often and it was them who bought me my sewing machine trying to force the talent out of me. It's so silly that even when a button falls off Ben's suit coat Belle says, "We will have to ask Grammie to fix it!" As far as she is concerned, Grammie can sew ANYTHING! And I believe it just may be true!

When we were expecting baby Olivia I planned to buy a new crib bedding set since Grammie had graciously handmade Isabelle's set piecing together 8 different colorful fabrics that Ben actually designed on an Excel spreadsheet. It was a lot of work for her with many ruffles and bows and tucks and so I just assumed we would not go down that road again! Much to my surprise, when I mentioned to my mom that we should be looking for some fun crib bedding while we were out and about she quickly offered her services once again. And she also had a great idea...not only would she sew the baby a new crib set but she would make big sister Isabelle a matching duvet cover for her comforter and both girls adorable curtains for their new bedrooms!

Off to the fabric store we went yet again! My mom, Isabelle, Alee and I spent quite a while looking and looking and not finding exactly what we had in mind. We wanted something fun and grown-up for Isabelle but also soft and delicate for Olivia. Finally after looking down every aisle many times, we spotted one bolt we must have missed and instantly fell in love! It was the perfect combination with swirly vines and flowers mixed with words like believe, sing and play! We then called multiple stores and bought all the Heidi Grace designed fabric that we could find. It was more money than Ben could believe and yards and yards of fabric for Grammie to become overwhelmed by!

In just a few short weeks the rooms were complete! They turned out even cuter than we imagined and both girls love their handmade bedding! How fortunate to be blessed by so much hard work from Grammie and of course the sewing hasn't stopped there. She is constantly surrounded by stacks of fabrics and ideas of projects that everyone has for her! I guess when her children rallied and bought her a Serger it may have been slightly selfish!

April showers brings May flowers

Time has a way of flying by, but luckily I have remembered to grab the camera several times lately to catch some of these fun memories we call life! We have continued to keep our constant action lifestyle and have introduced Olivia to a few new Texas cities and long car rides!

We traveled to Dallas to bid Uncle Seth farewell as he left to serve a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Tahiti. Being the party planner that she is, Isabelle spent hours decorating the garage and turning it into an island paradise to celebrate Seth's departure. We sang and danced, played Wii, jumped on the trampoline, went mini-golfing, where Isabelle's first put ended in a hole-in-one and drove go-carts. It was a fun weekend spent with one of our favorite Uncles and we wish Seth much luck on his new adventure! (It's weird to think the next time he sees his nieces they will be 6 and 2 years old.)

We also traveled to Houston where Isabelle played "doctor" to Grandpa Elmo learning the correct way to give him his IV antibiotics and how to flush his port system. The real nurse even let Belle take his temperature, and Dr. Cosby was thrilled to wear her medical coat and took her job very serious. We were also able to celebrate Grammie's birthday with a Luau Texas-style! Isabelle once again decorated her heart out and we enjoyed the nice weather with a BBQ on the patio and lots and lots of bubble blowing!

Our days were also full with both girls getting well-checks and a total of 10 immunization shots between the two of them with fevers to follow, of course while Dad was out of town on business. We celebrated Mother's Day and joined Angelina Ballerina downtown at a Tea Party with the San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet where Isabelle was served real tea in a ceramic tea cup and asked for hers with sugar and lemon! (She then tasted it and decided she wasn't much of a "real" tea fan!) We made the short trek to New Braunfels and cheered Aunt Alee on as she competed and finished her first Biathlon with energy to spare and we had fun swimming with Uncle Gordon on his birthday here at home over Memorial Day.

All the while, little Olivia continues to grow, although at two months she was just a wee 10lbs. She smiles and giggles and loves to coo and talk. She has rolled over both directions and is working on becoming a good napper. (We are hopeful she will do better at this than her big sister did.) She still is very agreeable in her carseat and loves to bathe especially with Isabelle.

Life is good when it is busy, but I can't help wishing that time would slow down just a little bit and let me thoroughly enjoy my girls at the exact ages that they are. Although sometimes it is tough, it is good to be SO loved!

Blessings

On April 11, 2010 our sweet baby girl was blessed by her father and given the name of Olivia Cosby to be known by throughout her mortal life.


At just 6 weeks old, Olivia was dressed in the blessing gown her Great Grandma Joan had made many years ago and carried on a long tradition as both myself, my sisters and her sister Isabelle were blessed in as well. She was a fun mix of both old and new as she wore a whisper pink fabric flower on her head that her Great Aunt Gloria, affectionately referred to as Grammie Glo, had made! Olivia was fortunate to be surrounded in circle by her father, Grandpa Elmo, Grandpa Van, Uncle Nick, Uncle Gordon, Bishop Hubert, Chris Venegas, Aaron Haley and Joseph Dunn. She was quiet long enough for Ben to begin but quickly realized she was not in her mom's arms anymore and cried her tiny soft cry throughout the rest of the prayer. Her Grandpa Elmo had to find her NUK afterwards as she had spit it out mid-prayer! Big sister Isabelle followed the group up to the front of the chapel as well and sat on the first row so that she was front and center with the perfect view of the special moment!

We enjoyed lunch afterwards at home with all of our family members who had been able to travel to San Antonio for the celebration! We are so grateful that Olivia was born healthy and strong and are thrilled to have little Livi be a part of our family!

**On a side note, my sister Alex and I both showed up at church with the same outfit on! She drove over from Houston early that morning and we never spoke until I walked into the chapel and saw what she was wearing. We even both wore the exact pair of fabulous fuchsia high heels!!! I guess great minds and sisters think alike!

Seeing Double!

The day I learned that we were expecting a baby girl I was elated that Isabelle would have a sister. It was all the I wanted for her and I actually felt relieved that no matter what happens in life, I would have sisters to encourage one another. Yet, all throughout my pregnancy with Olivia I was very concerned that Isabelle would feel somehow less than, once the new baby arrived. I knew she would love her of course, but I feared she would be jealous of her taking mom and dad's time which she had enjoyed all by herself for the last 4 years. Even the last few nights before I delivered, I laid in bed and cried thinking about sweet little Jelly getting the "shove" very soon. Isabelle and I also fretted together over what Olivia would look like and I hoped and prayed that she would look just like her big sister and they would look like they belonged together. Isabelle even said out loud in her prayer one night...please let the baby look just like me and mom and not like dad! (I think she was worried she would be dark and hairy!) However, I stand all amazed after the first two months of little Livi's life just how blessed we are.

First, Olivia looks almost exactly like her big sister! I seriously sometimes look at her and think, is this actually Isabelle? Especially when Olivia happens to be wearing something that once belonged to her big sister. It is literally like seeing double. I am sure there will be plenty of differences between the two sisters, like Olivia is a good napper and Isabelle hated naps from day one. Or, that Olivia is still holding on to some of her dark baby hair and who knows if she will have quite the same light hair shade as Isabelle. Or even that at 2 months old, Olivia is a whole inch shorter and more than a pound lighter than big sister was! No matter what though, I think tiny Livi looks just like what Belle and I were dreaming about for 9 months!

Next, I couldn't have been more wrong about Isabelle feeling jealous or spiteful to her little sister. She is so absolutely in love with Olivia and spends all day taking care of her and making her smile. She tells her all day long just how sweet she is and how she is the cutest person in the entire family. Isabelle is so helpful and always wants to change her diaper, dress her, babysit her, hold her, etc. When Livi gives a shout, Belle rushes to her side and gives her her Nuk and calms her with a song or something. And Olivia shares the affection. She turns her head as fast as her tiny muscles can move when she hears Isabelle's voice in the room and her favorite time of the day is when she gets to sit in the big bathtub with her sister. She will sit in there for a half hour and let Belle soap her up and dump water all over her, all the while smiling and cooing. There has not been one sour moment yet between the two. Again, I am sure those days and feelings will come and go, but so far these two sisters are the best of friends.

In the words of Maya Angelou: I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people work at.

**In the first two pictures, Isabelle is on the left and Olivia is on the right!

Little Bunny Foo Foo, hoppin through the forest...

Every holiday is very exciting when you have small children, and Easter is no different. The girls and I were really looking forward to the Easter weekend and it was just as enjoyable as we hoped it would be. Aunt Tara flew over from Miami to meet sweet little Olivia and Grandpa and Grammie ventured over from Houston to visit all of us! We participated in a neighborhood egg hunt, colored eggs ourselves, and enjoyed a lunch prepared by our youngest Chef, Isabelle. She made Savory Nests with minimal help from mom just as she had previously that week in cooking class.

Isabelle went to bed Saturday night a bit nervous that a GIANT bunny was going to be hopping around our house while we were sleeping but the baskets he left made up for any of the this is actually weird thoughts! If you remember, Santa Clause told Belle in a letter that if she was obedient for the next few months, he would pass along a scooter for the Easter Bunny to bring. (We were surprised just days before Christmas when Isabelle told Santa a scooter was at the top of her list! We had never heard it mentioned before!) Thankfully both Belle was well behaved and Santa spread the news because a Radio Flyer scooter was waiting on Easter morning. Belle was also thrilled that the bunny did not forget tiny sister Livi and brought her some new Nuks and both girls a swimsuit!

Grammie filled dozens off plastic eggs and Grandpa covered our backyard in them early Easter morning. Belle was beyond excited for her very own egg hunt and raced around outside in her PJ's filling multiple buckets with colorful eggs. When you are the only hunter, you get a lot of loot!

How appropriate that General Conference fell on this special weekend and we were grateful for the reminder that Christ Lives and because of Him, we will all live again! Spring has officially sprung!

A 4 year old Bean!

Maybe it is because we have a new tiny baby girl in our home right now, but I have been nearly physically ill thinking about my little Isabelle turning another year older. I am sure she was my newborn baby just a day or two ago and now she is old enough to get dressed by herself, get herself a snack and climb in and out of her own car seat. What happened? I swear I took everyone's advice and never blinked?!

We began celebrating the big day almost 2 weeks early when Grandpa Elmo and Grammie came to visit and let her open an early present. It was gardening tools and she spent the first few hours of Saturday planting literally hundreds of flower seeds in her pjs in our back yard. Grammie supervised and just let Jelly plant seeds as she pleased all over the mulch under each of our trees. (We will now enjoy watching if and exactly what may actually grow!) The funny part of this story is that she insisted that her garden hoe was actually called a foo and foo'd all morning long. Jelly was especially lucky because when the dreaded time came and her grandparents had to return home, they left her with a stack of gifts all numbered with a countdown to March 23rd so that she would have a gift to open every day until then. It was a great idea and Isabelle ran downstairs every morning searching for the right numbered gift to celebrate with.

A few days later, Grandma and Grandpa Cosby headed south for a few days to enjoy the Spring weather and to meet little Olivia. Of course being just a few days from Isabelle's birthday, the celebration continued. Since Jelly LOVES downtown, we headed to the city and had fun at the Children's Magic Theatre watching If You Give Your Moose a Muffin. We have read the book so many times and Isabelle loved seeing the story come to life! (And baby sister, just three weeks old, slept through her first trip to the city!) More gifts were opened including a new dress for Sunday and one of Jelly's favorite activities, a puzzle!

Finally the calendar actually read March 23rd and the real birthday celebration began! Jelly ran straight from her bed to ours before 7:00am and exclaimed I'm already four! She was right too since she was born at 3:23am on that glorious day! She was thrilled when she came downstairs and found My Little Pony decorations, more gifts and a donut for a birthday breakfast! Her most exciting present was waiting for her on the back porch, thanks to her Dad working to put it together well past midnight the night before...a City Center Playhouse! It has a different 'business' on each side including a basketball hoop on the back.

Olivia and I tried to make the day full of fun playing and opening a gift here and there all day long. Again we made a trip downtown at Isabelle's request for a birthday lunch at Rain Forest Cafe on the Riverwalk. Ben was able to meet us there and we enjoyed a wild meal with singing and an ice cream sundae for dessert. Jelly was exhausted after a full day of fun and hit the pillow hard dreaming of her My Little Pony party with her friends the following day.

To finish off the several week long celebration, Isabelle had planned to meet some of her favorite friends at the park for a little birthday party with a My Little Pony treasure hunt! Unfortunately, we woke up to buckets of rain but thanks to lots of work by mom and dad and Jelly's sweet enthusiasm, we decided to continue on with the party and made some quick modifications to the plans. Isabelle was out of her mind to see all of her friends and was actually shocked that they had all brought her more gifts. She had so much fun playing with each of her guests and their ponies, breaking a Pinkie Pie pinata and eating snacks and cake! We managed to keep the party under the giant pavilion until the very end when we finally let the girls run out in the rain and when it was time to go home, we stripped the birthday girl down and put her straight in the bathtub to warm up! Despite the rain, her My Little Pony party exceeded her simple expectations.

Isabelle is such a sweet daughter and sister and all of the celebrating was worth every minute of her feeling special and loved. She tries so hard to do what is right and always keeps us laughing...and running. She is so smart and we are continually amazed at how quickly she learns and remembers everything. Little Olivia already adores her big sister and cranks her head around searching for the body that matches that animated voice! What a blessing our little Jelly Bean is!