The Nesting Crew! Tom, Sommer, Rick, Ricker, Amy Sue, Miriam, Brent, Heather, Amy, Eric, Dad and Aug 

As part of our "Nesting Project" we bribed our best friends with pizza and beer to help paint and turn the "master bedroom" into the boys bedroom... and the guest bedroom into our bedroom.




Amy was our master of design

Here is daddy working hard... mom took a nap- she's not allowed to paint

















Here is Amy Sue showing Aug his new digs

















A bunch of college grads not knowing how best to put the crib back together (don't worry, they get it eventually) 

Okay, so I have this obsession with getting things in order before Becket... even silly things, Like organizing the toys (yeah, right... and yet, I still did it). One day, I put all the balls into the cradle/toy chest... immediately Augie climbed in (which he had never done before) and emptied every single ball- didn't play with them really, just threw them out.

That'll teach me


 

Augie, Mao and I assleep on the couch... caught in our 3rd nap of the afternoon (PS- the black and white was more not wanting to show off my white legs than an artistic choice)














And just to give you an idea of how big a 5-weeks-left-to-go Becket is... Compare "Titanic" to the very slim Karate Kid
 

Rainy Day


This was one of those days I could have blown it... by blown it I mean missed out on something wonderful. It was rainy, Augie was grouchy, I took him outside to play in the rain as a last resort. I admit, there was a huge part of me that was begrudging having to do this for him... it really was more for myself and my low-whinning tollerance.


For over an hour he and I built up dams in puddles, walked upstream in little creeks, and threw muddy crud around. It was wonderful. It made me remember when I was little and would lay on the sidewalk launching "boats" into the stream around our house on days exactly like this one. We forget to find value in play when we get old, it's too messy and time consuming.


Tim talked about being alive this past Sunday. I thought that being alive on a rainy day was sleeping in, waching news commentary and reading books with hot tea.

I was wrong.

Being alive is playing in the mud with your one-year-old son and not caring how dirty either of you get. It is coming in from the cold and taking a hot bath together and not feeling like I missed out on a thing. Thank God for giving us a son that makes us have so much patience and a son who makes us pay attention and play.

Augie has a new talent. To our horror (not delight) he climbs or attempts to climb up every chair, table or couch in the house. He is silent and sneaky at this trick. The worst is the computer chair with roller wheels... uggg!

As an added temptation, one of his all time favorite play items is my purse. He loves to pull out all the credit cards and money. Here he is, caught in the act. (I had to take a picture before he got in trouble. If it weren't so scary it would be cute.

The tough Cook boys as the line up for...

Augie's First Road Race!




The July 4th Greeley Race for the Cure 5k




Daddy and Augie looked great (running below with our friend Megan)... pretty sure they took second in the unofficial "stroller division"!



Look closely for Jeff's redshirt in the first 2 pictures.
 

Here is baby Becket... only 7 weeks to go (no, we can't believe it either, but Jeff sure is excited) 

my new favorite picture

 

Dad doing his daddly duty in the most daddy way possible. Here is a naked, wed, dirty Augie who was playing in the batman sprinkler... and Jeff who has learned to do all child-rearing with out spilling his beer. Take note future dads... he can teach all his tricks. 

Augie thought about pulling his "my legs are stuck come get me up from the nap I am supposed to take" routine... but he got to tired to finish the job.