Fun!

What a great weekend we had last week! We had our annual "Girls plus Bradlee" trip to Frankenmuth with Tony's mom and sister! The kids had a great time at Zehnder's Splash Village!

On Sunday, Emma's Daisy troop was given a private tour and archery range time at Bass Pro Shop in Auburn Hills. She wouldn't feed the fish (live bait!), but boy, did she love the archery! We may have a new hobby!!

This coming week is Spring Break, and just to prove you can have fun without going anywhere, Bradlee's having his tonsils and adenoids out on Monday, and in a surprising turn of events in the last month, I will be having my gall bladder out on Thursday! We like to keep our hospital in business! :) Prayers for speedy recoveries for both of us would be greatly appreciated!! ;)

Not-so-little-boy anymore...

We are loving this weather! The kids found the dress-up clothes at Nana and Beepee's house!

On Saturday, we went down to IKEA in Canton to pick out a twin-sized bed for Bradlee! He's grown quite a bit taller over the past few months and has not only outgrown the rocking chair we use to rock him in before bed, but also his toddler bed! The problem we've had is that his room is the smallest bedroom in our house, and has a built-in desk that cannot be removed. So we have ducts, windows, a curved ceiling and this built-in desk to work around this small room. My plan was to get him a beautiful wood captain's bed so we could eliminate the need for a dresser and use the under bed storage for his clothes. Well, after measuring it all out, the captain's bed would be the ONLY thing in that room. I was quite bummed. Then I remembered IKEA...they are famous for fitting a lot of furniture in a small space, right?! Well TA-DAAAAAA!!! I found one! We went on Saturday to pick it out and bring it home. Complete with a new headboard, mattress, 2 mattress covers (waterproof, of course!), comforter and cover, along with the bed frame with 2 drawers - all for a great deal!! We got it all in the van, which was even more impressive!!!

I spent most of Sunday putting everything together. It was easier than I thought it would be and fit in his room much better than I expected! We are able to leave his dresser in there along with everything else, except the rocking chair. I had a really hard time taking that rocking chair out of his room...and so did he! He cried when I put him to bed, saying he wanted to rock! So, I had to fight the tears and tell him that even though we can't rock anymore, the cool thing about being a big boy is that we can cuddle now, because Mommy and Daddy can fit in his bed!! :) It worked and we cuddled a little longer than normal to celebrate...

This afternoon when he came home from school, he ran upstairs and was overjoyed to see his new big boy bed was still there!! Here he is all ready for sweet dreams!

Uh oh...

Bradlee came down with a fever last Friday and was really complaining about his ear hurting. Off to the doctor he went and was diagnosed with a double ear infection. The doctor said he could not see either tube, so that explains it! He got ibuprofen on Friday for the fever and hasn't needed it since! What a strange case...

Anyway, Friday night I was doing the dishes. When I was finished, I turned around to dry my hands and saw Bradlee sprawled out on the floor, eyes closed, motionless (see picture below!)...my heart skipped a beat as I said, "Bradlee! Are you okay!?" He didn't move a muscle as he replied (in his best pirate voice), "I got poked by Captain Hook!!" :)

**Insert sigh of relief here!** :)

Sleep Test

Well, the results are in...Bradlee will be having his tonsils removed on April 2nd! What a great spring break he and Tony will have! :)

The sleep teat obviously had an impact on him...here he is doing a sleep test on Beepee! :)

I am so relieved that we have a solution to his illnesses now...I have had a feeling this is what it would come down to...just had to wait for the "professionals" to confirm it!

Lots going on!

One big post here...

I mentioned yesterday that Bradlee and I went to JoAnn's to get some fabric for his new nap time pillow at school...here's the finished product!!

Last Thursday night, we had our kick-off for the Relay for Life of Davison. This, as you know, is something the whole family is involved in, and this year is no exception! Our "theme" this year is "Fairy tales"...so naturally the kids had to dress the part!!

We had games to play, and Emma and Bradlee loved playing "Grow Rapunzel's Hair"!! Tony's head was covered in a plastic bag, then had shaving cream sprayed on it....the kids had to throw cheese balls (like cheetos!) and get them to stick to his head! It was GREAT! :)

Of course, we never forget our "Reasons to Relay"!!!

I believe I also mentioned that Bradlee was going to be having a sleep test tonight. Since I couldn't take Monday off, Tony went with him tonight. He had to be there tonight and is expected to be there until about 7am...Tony has been sending pictures of him getting ready, and they are so darn cute! :)

He's not so sure about this.....

He's had this thing about being "Super boy"....he's told me he has a "Super Boy Button" at school, at Snookie and Papa's (my grandparents') house, and in our basement...no idea what happens when he pushes it, but apparently it has worked tonight...according to Tony, this is "Bradlee becoming 'Super Boy'!"!!! :) (and a very tired one, at that!)

And Super Boy is READY TO SLEEP!!! :)

Relaxing Saturday...

It's been a rough week, here at the Coggins house. Emma's had strep throat and been out of school all week. Thursday morning she finally woke without a fever and has been on the up swing ever since! Today was the Daddy-Daughter Dance at school, and she was THRILLED to be able to go!! Don't they look great!?

While Emma and Tony went to the dance, Bradlee and I had some much need quality time together. We played at home...Bradlee was rockin' his harmonica, his magic wand/baton and Emma's Cinderella shoes! :)

We then went over to JoAnn's and he got to pick out some fabric to cover his pillow for school (nap time!). The current pillow cover tore on the sides and it "just wouldn't do", of course! He picked out a red fabric with Mickey Mouse heads on it!! :) While I got it washed and dried, he just played with his Leapster on his bean bag chair...

It's been quite the relaxing Saturday! Tomorrow night, Bradlee goes in for a sleep test. His ENT doctor wants it done, since at his last check-up, it was discovered that Bradlee has an enlarged uvula and "overgrown" tonsils. I wouldn't be surprised if a tonsillectomy is in his near future... I will let you know how that goes (and Tony's promised to take pictures!) when we hear!

The Wise Guys

The weekend after New Years was the Feast of Epiphany. For those of you who may not be "up" on your Catholic feasts, it's when we celebrate the Magi's visit to the baby Jesus. I had prepped Emma and Bradlee about this feast, telling them how we were going to hear this story at church the next day and they were pretty excited to hear about the, as we call them, "Three Wise Guys".


Well, fortunately and unfortunately, the kids slept until 10:15am on Sunday, which means there was no way to get to 11am mass...so we missed it. Tony had a DJ gig the night before, so we let him sleep and while the three of us ate our oatmeal I made for breakfast, I decided to tell them the story of the "Three Wise Guys"...Here's how they now tell the story:



A LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG time ago, there were three wise guys that lived in a desert. An angel came to them and told them that a new King, named Jesus, was born in a manger and they should take presents and go see him. The presents they took were gold, frankincense and myrrh and they got on their camels and started on their way to see Baby Jesus. They followed a really bright star to get there. One time, when they stopped at the watering hole, they almost left one of the wise guys there. That's because he kept asking, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" There were almost only two wise guys.


When they got to the manger where Baby Jesus and Momma Mary and Papa Joe were, Mary was SO excited and happy to see them. The animals had kept Baby Jesus awake a lot, so he slept the whole time the wise guys were there! So then it was time for the wise guys to go home, but an angel came to them again and told them that there was danger ahead, so they needed to go home a different way. The danger was that there was a really bad, mean king who heard about Jesus and knew people were calling him "King". He was really jealous, and didn't know that Jesus is the King of Heaven, so he told all the rest of the bad guys to kill all the babies in the whole world so he could still be king. Since there was no room in the inn, Baby Jesus had a really good hiding spot with the animals, and that's why he was safe.


So while the wise guys were going home, they started going the new way, and their GPS said, "Recalculating...recalculating...recalculating!" They got lost anyway, and so they stayed in the middle of the desert and started Wise Guys Pizza, which also happens to have a location in downtown Flint (2012 years later!).


The end.


Who says you have to go to church to have the Holy Spirit present!? These are my favorite "church" moments. Sometimes I get more out of times like this than I do when I go to the actual church, especially with all the new changes to the Mass. I love being able to pass my faith on to my children in my own unique way...and to watch them just grasp it with everything they have is even better.