Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Sorry we could not be there with you today. Hopefully this will be good enough for now. Enjoy your day!

Happy Halloween!

Before going to Aundrea's on Halloween morning.

Holding hands!

Our little cow-girl

Stacie, Carson the Cow, Cora the Turkey and The Turkey Mama

Our tuckered-out little turkey

On Friday, we enjoyed cruising Stacie & Regan’s neighborhood. We ended up carrying the children and pulling the wagon. Carson was an adorable cow and Cora was a pretty tuckered-out turkey. Unfortunately, trick-or-treating happens around the same time that we usually go to bed-- so Cora slept through most of the festivities.

We have pictures of her in a cow costume and a turkey costume. The turkey was the real one. The cow was the backup- but once we knew that Carson was a cow, we had to get some pictures of them together. These will be great to show them when they are getting ready for the prom!Fun times!!!

A Beautiful Tribute

Cora with Cousin Tedra and Uncle Ted

Saturday was a beautiful day to join the town of Farmville, NC in the dedication of their veterans’ memorial. Cora’s great-uncle Ted was the featured speaker. We were all very moved by his words and the kind words spoken about Mr. Ichabod and Mrs. Annie Pearl Allen (Cora’s great grandparents) by Congressman Walter B. Jones. Among the many honored were Mr. Irving (Granddaddy Irv.), his brothers, Bill and Ted, and their nephew Ben Hobgood. We are so proud of all of them- and were so proud to be able to attend.

Aside from the ceremony, we had a great time visiting with family members who had never met Cora (and those who had too, of course). After the dedication, we ate lunch and fellowshipped at Uncle Butch’s house. We also visited with Kathy and Great Grandma MeMa. Kathy is so tenderhearted that she was moved to tears when she met her newest great niece. MeMa is Cora’s only living great grandparent. We were excited for her to meet them both. It was nice to see everyone. We are so blessed to have such great families.

We have lots of pictures of this special day.

Uncle Ted and Congressman Jones

Cora with Cousin Tedra and Grandma Jennie

Cousin Ben was great at making Cora smile


Cousin LeeAnn entertained us with beautiful music!


Having fun with Granddaddy Irv and Gabby (Great Aunt Betsy)

Our First Family Vacation

We thought this was such a festive backdrop for a family picture at the Mast. We could not pass it up.

Baby in a Backpack

Cora loves the "Baby in a Backpack". She thinks it tastes great! This picture turned out ok even though I took it myself.

Cora loved the Candy Barrel. Can you tell?

EVERYONE that goes to ASU has a picture in front of the sign. Usually it is taken by your parents when you move in as a freshman. We decided to go ahead and get Cora in the game a little early. It was so sunny and beautiful that you can hardly see our faces. But you get the idea.

What a happy girl.

This is where her hand is most of the time. We're afraid that she is going to be a lefty, no offense to anyone. In this picture, she is watching CNN. She loves tv-scary. We don't encourage her to watch at all- but if it's on and she can turn her neck to see it, she will. She is so focused!

Coy, Cora and I went to the mountains over the weekend. We had such a wonderful time! We stayed on top of Sugar Mountain at Misty and Daniel's condo. It was very cold and windy--which is perfect for me! It even snowed just after we left :( While we were there, we hit all of the Boone area hot spots. We walked around the ASU campus, of course (it is hardly recognizable now with all of the new buildings). We did a little shopping. We cruised King Street, with a stroller, no less. That is definately a first! We drove on the parkway and looked at all of the breathtaking sights. We vistied the Mast Store and showed Cora where her Mama worked for 3 years (she got to listen to a little bluegrass, which she loves!) We even did a little hiking. We tested out Coy's "baby in a backpack..." She was great. I think she loved the mountains. We are excited about being able to take her skiing in the next couple of years. It was an exciting weekend that went by entirely too fast.

Stay tuned for many pictures after this weekend. We will certainly have quite a few. We will be doing the Halloween thing on Friday -and on Saturday, Granddaddy Irv and his brothers will be honored at a new veterans memorial in Farmville. Cora will have a chance to meet lots of relatives for the first time. We can't wait!

So Many Babies!

Tannar says that he needs some boys to play with! He can't wait until his new baby cousin gets here.

How sweet!


It's so cute how they can't sit up yet. The look like Weebles.

On Sunday, we went into the 'ville to visit the families. At Uncle Mike and Aunt Joanie's house we at lunch and visited with the fam. At one point there were 7 children under 6. There were Jackson (5), Will (2), Carson (2), Tannar (6 mo.), Laurel Ann (3 mo.), Cora (3 mo.) and Morgan (less than a week old!). That's right, Cora is no longer the baby. We took lots of pictures of the three "babies" (without Morgan- I'm not sure she could have handled it).

This weekend we are off to the Boone. I am sure we'll take tons of pictures there. I hear it is beautiful right now. It always is. Every time I visit, I want to stay forever. I can't wait for Cora to experience the beauty and fresh air of the NC mountains. Coy has promised me that if we win the lottery that we can move there.

3 Months

Cradle Cap Be Gone!


Cora turned three months old on Saturday. She is growing so much. We just retired another pair of pajamas. These were size 6 months! She is getting a lot longer- before, she was mostly getting "thicker". Maybe she'll be tall like her grandmothers!
Our big excitement this week came last night when I decided to tackle the cradle cap... It almost won. I was given the advice to put vasaline in Cora's hair and comb out the flakes. No big deal, right? Wrong. I had to wash her hair 4 times and comb/rub her hair for about 2 hours. She was a trooper through all of the hair washings. And she slept right through the brushing part (she must take after me- I love to have my hair brushed. It puts me right to sleep too.) I finally got all of the vasaline out and am happy to report that we all lived through it- even the person who gave me the wonderful advice :) Before I realized how much of a challenge this was going to be, I snapped some cute pictures.
Other events this week include officially sucking her thumb and reaching for objects. She has tried to put her entire fist in her mouth for about 2 weeks. Now she has mastered the thumb. And it seemed like over night she learned that she could reach for things. Often anything that can go in her mouth, does.
I have also included her 3 month rocking chair picture and pictures of Cora in her doorway bouncer. Coy thinks it is the coolest thing ever. She seems to like it too.
The other pictures are random ones that we've taken lately. It's so easy to get her to smile now. She is so much fun!

12 Weeks Old Today

I can remember back to when it felt like FOREVER to get to that 12th week of pregnancy. And her first 12 weeks have just flown right by! It seems like moments ago that I was calling Coy to come home from Chapel Hill to take me to the hospital.

This week Grandma Mar Mar used one of her days off to babysit. I know they both had a wonderful time. It was also nice to come home to a meal that I didn't have to cook!

We had another first this week-- the first case of the sniffles. With a teacher as a mama, Cora does not have a chance. She started feeling yucky on Monday, I got it on Tuesday and Coy stayed out of work today (he NEVER misses work). We're waiting to see if the dogs get sick... Luckily, we're all starting to feel better.

In honor of Cora's 12th week, I thought I'd share a few pictures. Some are sort of silly but she might as well get used to it. Enjoy!

Check out my new Soothie holder and leg warmers! I hope the other kids don't make fun of me. :) My mama loves to dress me up!

Grandpa Lanni and Rhonda came by and took us out to Bullock's for lunch last Saturday. I gave them plenty of smiles to make it worth the miles!

We finally broke down and joined the Bumbo Club. It is so worth it. Cora loves it. And we do too.

We thought it would be funny to see what our sweetie would look like with hair... Interesting...