Random Pictures from 2008...

Well, it is clearly too late to do a bunch of detailed posts for 2008, so I decided just to post a bunch of pictures from the year, and try to keep up with this after that. For the life of me I couldn't even figure out how to get these in the right order, so this isn't exactly chronological. I'm not the best at this...

Like father, like son...

With Maw and Paw (Alan's parents) at Easter.

My little Know-It-All telling another child how t-ball should be played.




Jacob showing off his new bat, glove and ball for t-ball.

Jacob playing soccer. Or just waiting to play soccer. The child in the middle is Kyler, Jacob's best friend. He and Jacob are like two peas in a pod.

See?

What did I tell you? Two peas in a pod.

Jacob and Kyler at Uncle John's Cider Farm in the fall.

Jacob eating popcorn cooked over the open fire while camping in our back yard. I desperately did not want to stay in the tent for the night, and shamefully kept trying to convince Jacob that it would be much nicer inside.

I kept looking longfully at the house from my viewpoint right by the fire. Doesn't it look inviting?

The dogs (one of them ours, one of them the neighbors') checking out our tent.

Alan helping Jacob roast hotdogs. (By the way, I ultimately convinced Jacob and he fell asleep with me in our bed while watching a movie. Score!)

Jacob on, what else, the first day of kindergarten, with his handmade sign. We did one for the last day of kindergarten, too, but I forgot to upload that picture and if I tried now it would be ridiculously out of order. Plus, that's 2009, so you'll need to wait another year for it.

He thought he was too cool for school.

But he indulged me and kept posing.

This is Alan and me at Christmastime in Memphis at my brother Jack's house. We have so few pictures of the two of us, because I usually take the pictures.

My sister-in-law, Tina (Jack's wife) and their youngest daughter, Anna.

Two of my sister Karla's kids, Kaitlyn and Michael.

Jacob investigating his Christmas booty as my brother, Jack, looks on.

My sister Karla and me, still at Jack's house.

My sister Karla and her baby Michael.

Karla stealing a kiss from Jacob as Anna looks on.

Anna, Jacob, Karla and Kaitlyn

This is one of my oldest and dearest friends, Deidre (as in our friendship is old, not her). She is so wonderful to try to make the trip from Searcy to see me whenever I am in Memphis. I am SO thankful for her.

Jacob with Deidre's daughter, Shelby. She kept trying to play house and calling him "Husband," and he did not like that at all. He is full force into the "girls, ewwwww" stage.

Hanging out with Maw.

Deidre's daughter, Shelby, posing as only she can. Too precious.

My nephew Michael. 'Nuff said.

Jacob, Kyler and Kyler's sister Jenna playing in the leaves.

They have so much fun together.

I think he was trying to make a leaf angel. Makes sense to me.

Chilling with Daddy on a lazy, cold Saturday afternoon.

Hanging out with Kyler, again. Rough life, to have your food served to you on a tray in front of the TV. I at least made them pull their own crusts off.

This is when Jacob was in the emergency room for breaking his arm by falling off the slide at school. SO pitiful. The bad thing is, we didn't have a coat that would fit over his cast, so we had to cut the sleeve off of a perfectly good jacket. No way he could go without one during the winters up here!

Another cold afternoon. Jacob got out a face painting kit he got from someone in my family the Christmas before, and of course he and Kyler picked the most complicated picture in the book. It took me over an hour to paint both of their faces. They are supposed to be snakes. Eh, I did my best.

This picture is from the front yard, facing our house. I just thought the sky looked cool.

Jacob helping Ashley (Alan's sister) put up her Christmas tree.

Getting an assist from Maw with the lights.

Helping Ashley put the beads on the Christmas tree.

He loves decorating the tree. Ashley had to go back and redo everything he "helped" her with!

The snow looks so pretty off our back deck.

Doesn't it look perfect for Christmastime? After that, as far as I'm concerned, bring on the heat!

Our Christmas tree.

Jacob bringing out Santa's cookies and milk.

Jacob in front of the tree, in his pjs, ready to try to go to sleep.

Jacob at Maw and Paw's house after Christmas.

Abby, Maw's dog, is a bit of a diva. She loves to dress up in different outfits and prance and pose.

See?

Maw and Jacob. He loves his Maw.

What did I tell you, out of order. Shelby and Jacob again.

Shelby and Jacob playing with a toy dog at my mother's house.

Jacob waking my nephew Michael to hug him goodbye before we head back up to the frozen tundra.

Jacob loving on Granny Honey.

Well, that's it for 2008. That's obviously not all we did, but hopefully that gives anyone who cares enough to forgive me for not posting anything sooner. I'll try to do better. I always have the best intentions...

This was NOT my idea...

Do you remember when you were little and had a loose tooth, and there was always somebody who would say, "Just come over here and let me put a string around that tooth, and we'll pull it out!" Well, that's what Alan has been telling Jacob for two weeks, and last night he did it.

Jacob didn't get upset until after it was all over, then he lost it! These were the best pictures I could get...

Pitiful, huh? I'll get some better ones over the next few days. He sure was happier this morning after the tooth fairy visited him!

Jacob's 5th Birthday--YES, from April of 2008

First, Jacob had a family party while Maw, Paw, Ashley and Matt were up visiting.

Then we had a slumber party with three of Jacob's closest friends.



Jacob had a serious shiner on his birthday, but for the life of me I can't remember how he got it...



The boys had a blast.




They finally fell asleep at about midnight (although, as you can see by the squinty eyes and "trying not to smile"faces, they weren't yet asleep in this picture).

Isn't she PRECIOUS???

Okay, so I'm horrible at updating this thing. I have a ton of pictures from this summer, and I fully intend to sit down one night and update this blog, telling about everything we have been doing, but until then, I just had to pop on here really quick and put up a couple of updated shots of my niece, Ava. I am so sad that we are in Michigan and she is all the way down in Florida! I get to see her in one month when I head to Memphis for my brother Brent's wedding. Yay!

Bringing back memories...

Sigh. My beautiful new baby niece (top) is making me very nostalgic about when Jacob (bottom) was that little. I know this is completely cliche, but don't they grow up fast?

Ava Isabella Cottrell

Introducing...

my brand new niece, born May 18th at 7:45 pm. She is the first child of my sister, Susan, and her husband BJ. I can not WAIT to get down to Florida to see her, which I will be doing in just a couple of weeks! Isn't she just beautiful???

Richard Gilmore Rogers (February 18, 1933-May 8, 2008)

Christmastime, 2007

As the few of you who actually read my blog likely know, my Daddy died on May 8th. It wasn't completely unexpected because he has had extensive heart troubles over the years, beginning with his first major heart attack in 1979. In the past several years he has been battling congestive heart failure. I don't really understand how that works, but I know he had congestive heart failure right before Jacob was born five years ago, and since then when his fluids got imbalanced he had to go back to the hospital to get them back in sync. Some of those visits were very scary. The last one was in October, and it was scary enough that I flew down to Memphis, even though I absolutely couldn't at the time. It was very worth it, and Daddy pulled out of that and ended up living over 6 more months, feeling quite well during most of that time. When he entered the hospital this time, it generally seemed like his other visits until he had two more heart "incidents", as the doctors called them. On the first incident, his defribrillater went off and stablized him, but it did not go off for the second incident. At that point, they put a big tube down his throat and were breathing for him. He coded two more times, but the doctors were able to save him. They then told us that it was likely his brain had suffered damage and that his heart was beyond repair. They said that all they could do was keep trying to save him when he codes until they couldn't. They asked us if we wanted them to continue trying to save him until we all got to Memphis. We all discussed it and decided there was no reason to make him keep going through that. None of us felt like we had left anything unsaid, so it seemed pointless and cruel to make his body endure that repeatedly while we traveled there. He died a couple of hours later.


I do not feel cheated. My Daddy led a wonderfully full and active life. He had a loving, healthy family, and he never passed up an opportunity to give us a hug or a kiss or to tell us that he loved or was proud of us. Much of the days leading up to his funeral were filled with more laughter than crying. But he will be so missed. He and my mother were married 51 years ago. He really wanted to make it to their 50th anniversary party, which he did, and oh how he enjoyed himself!


I will miss SO many things--hearing his beautiful tenor voice at church, singing his heart out; watching him sink hook shots and 3-pointers late into the summer evenings; his terrible puns (which live on in my brothers and sisters); his smell; the garden he lovingly planted each year; the little things I saw him do for my mother on a daily basis that showed me how much he loved her; his special steaks on the grill; the hugs and "I love yous" he doled out so liberally; and his hands--oh how I'll miss his big, strong age-marked, scuffed-up hands that would hold mine when we walked, and occasionally skipped. That was one of the few things we weren't satisfied with at the funeral--they put makeup on his hands to cover up what I'm sure the funeral home people saw as unsightly marks all over hands. But to us his hands were beautiful, and represented so much of what we loved about him. He was a loving, righteous, no-fuss, hard-headed, hard-working, God-fearing man. I know exactly where his spirit is now, and I hope that beautiful tenor voice is just filling up the streets of heaven.

To Deidre and Kimberly (even though Deidre probably rarely checks this, and Kimberly never does!): I cannot thank you enough for traveling to the funeral. I know with kids at home and busy husbands it was not easy to make the trip and I cannot tell you what your friendship and support means to me. I love you both from the bottom of my heart.

Below are some pictures from the trip home for the funeral. As I said, there was much laughter and fellowship.

My sister Karla and her son, Daniel.

My brother, Brent and my sister, Karla.

My niece, Kaitlyn, and me.

It was still Mother's Day weekend, so the entire family went out to eat together to honor Honey and the other mothers. One of Karla's dear friends, who couldn't be there, paid for the meal for all 20-something of us. We were so grateful.

Jacob sharing a milkshake with his cousin Matt.

Jacob being lovingly tortured by his cousin Ben, as only someone with a little brother knows how.

My poor, about to pop sister Susan and her husband, BJ. She gave birth 10 days later.