Little pookie is 3 months

Yea, I call my baby Pookie ;) Ohhh he's the sweetest baby you've ever met I promise. I can't get enough of him. Neither can the kids or Jarid (and the dogs - they like his drool!) He's sweet, he's precious, he coos and laughs and smiles and just makes you happy by being around him :)

Princess party

Today we helped celebrate Abby's 3rd birthday - princess style! Her castle was decorated with plenty of pink, balloons & tulle. Complete with a cute cardboard cutout in front of her door! All the kids played outside in the castle or sand until two magical guests arrived. Cinderella & Rapunzel! The look on the girl's faces when they walked thru the door was prices less. They were stunned...and super excited!!

The princess sang songs, read a story & played games. Morgan kinda came back & forth between watching them & playing basketball outside. Ha. Before they left they made balloons for the kids (dog for Morgan, sword for Owen) which immediately popped when they took them in the heat. Boo.

Next was delicious cake and singing to the bday girl! Abby was in love with the princesses and I think she had a "magical" time at her party :)

The birthday girl when the princesses came to the door

M was super excited too!

Kelley and a sleeping Jax

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday nights live

We finally made it to one of Herndon's Friday night concerts. Perfect weather. Good friends. Awesome band. Fire flies. Good times.


































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Movie time!

We went the movies today for the first time. As in - Morgan, Owen & Peyton's first big screen ever! And...I took them by myself! We met with our play group friends for the $1 summer movies to watch Ice Age. We own this one but I figured it was a good movie to start with & if we had to leave halfway through it was only $2 (and that goes to charity.) But they lasted the entire movie! I couldn't believe it.

Owen was loving talking back it the movie and said "ewwww gwoss" (gross) a few (very loud) times and definitely danced to the music. Morgan cuddled next to me & asked why they had all the lights off several times - just like her mommy, likes a bright room. Ha. Peyton "watched" part of the movie then had a milkie snack and napped on mommy :)

I foresee us hitting the movies up again this summer!






















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Smile first

I love it how Morgan draws the smiley part of the face first. It makes me feel like she's just the happiest little girl :) Also, she wore this (tad but small) lion costume all day. Yes, even to the grocery store where Jarid informed me she growled at all the customers. Oh Morgan.

























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Father's Day wknd

Well Jarid's Father's Day technically started last weekend because I was (for once!) ahead of the game and ordered his edible present early. So...he got to open it a week early. Ha. I got him some popcorn from our favorite place in Dallas (Uptown Popcorn..yum!) and put a tag on it saying "You're the best POP around." Cute, right? He has enjoyed his Jalapeno Ranch and Hannah's Dallas blend yumminess. (Naturally I didn't get a pic of it because we dug right in but here's the tag I put on it. So cute. Got it here.

 

When Father's day wknd did finally roll around I was ready. Ha. Morgan insisted Jarid really (really!) wanted a dinosaur so that's what we got him. I put a tag on it that said "You're a Dino-mite Daddy." She also picked out a tumbler with the Batman "pow" on it so we wrote something about "Pow, Boom, POP!" on there, then a pair of shorts with "Roses are Red, These shorts are blue, Happy Father's Day Daddy, We love you!" and then a mason jar of Reese's pieces saying "Daddy we love you to pieces." We Cottrells aren't big gift givers so I wanted to make sure to add all the sweet notes so he knows how much we love & appreciate him (everyday, not just father's day!)

 

 

Saturday we went to his (and my!) favorite lunch spot at Rio Grande Cafe (the Uncle Julio's of NoVa) and sat on the patio in the awesome weather. We walked around Reston Town Center and let the kids play a bit since the streets were blocked off for Taste of Reston. We found a new yummy cupcake place and each picked one out (cookies n cream for me please.) We hit up a park after nap and took some pics with the kids.

 

Sunday we headed out to Leesylvania State Park with some friends. They have a small beach and seriously the kids couldn't have been happier. I couldn't believe how brave they all were with the water. Good thing or bad, I'm not sure! We all had a picnic - if you consider the kids taking a few bites of food in between playing that is - and got some sun before the storm blew in. Couldn't have asked for a better Sunday of beach, friends, and family :)

 

Peyton was in heaven