Sorry. Been a little busy. Here is Katie's 4th and other stuff.

Katie turned 4 on November 3.
You might say we are/were a little behind in celebrating.

Luckily our spunky, happy, silly, busy, carefree girl didn't seem to mind. She takes after her mom and likes to drag her birthday out as long as possible.

Thank you Mia for the GREAT 4 year old outfit! We love it!

My dad and mom with the kiddos. Thank you Momma for taking care of us for a whole week!

And thank you Daddy for letting Momma stay take care of us here in OK.

It's hard to see this photo...Katie is the small one in the turquoise dress. This is OC's homecoming. Katie helped crown the king and queen. Actually she carried some flowers and then somehow got the little boy holding the pillow with the crown to switch with her so she could hold the crown.

Luckily some OC students gave Katie her own kid crown and ring and earrings.

Collin thought she was a bit of a showoff, but look at her smiling face.

Jackson Matt

Jackson's arrival was at 8:39am on Monday, October 26. He weighed 7 pounds and 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. Go ahead...check the predictions and see who got closest. It was me! Yip! So I will take that steak dinner sometime soon, thank you Matt!
Surgery should have begun about 7:40am and we had to WAIT a whole hour!! Wow - I wonder what's it's like to not know what time or day you will have your baby - that must be weird.

Katie and Collin had to wait in the parking lot with Pops and Jarre. Mercy was not allowing any kiddos inside the hospital because of swine flu and other illnesses. This news really upset me on Sunday when the nurse called to tell me about the policy. Although I completely understand, I didn't like the fact that Collin and Katie wouldn't see Jackson until he came home.

Thanks Sada for the VERY cute shirts! I love them!

Thank you Catherine - who watched Katie most of the day Monday, so Matt and Pops and Jarre could come be with us in the hospital.

Thank you Stefanie - for picking up Collin from school and doing his homework with him. And THEN picking up both kids the next day and doing more homework and entertaining them.

Thank you Aunt Reese - for driving up from Texas to spend the nights with our kids so Matt could spend the nights with me in the hospital. And thank you for coming to hang out with me while I was in isolation in the hospital.

Thank you Dr. Hager for keeping our baby as safe as possible in my advanced maternal age. You are a great doctor and make surgery lots of fun, really!


Jackson and me - love, love, love him! He is adorable! What did we do before a Jackson was in our life?

On a side note: we have been home almost one week now. Jackson is 10 days old! My sweet Momma is here now to cook our dinner, mop my floors, do our laundry and drive me and the kiddos around wherever we need to go. Thank you, thank you Momma! This leaves me to just concentrate on feeding Jackson and sleeping.

Must go now...baby is calling.

Predictions

Last family photo of 4
And we now move into a zone defense.

PREDICTIONS

Matt - Boy 7 lb 10 oz, 21"
Alyssa - Boy 7 lb 9 oz, 20"
Collin - Girl 8 lb 15 oz, 21"
Katie - Boy 6 lb 7 oz, 18"
Pops - Girl 6 lb 15 oz, 19 1/2"
Jarre - Girl 7 lb 12 oz, 21"
Poppa - Boy 7 lb 11 oz, 21"
Grammy - Girl 7 lb 1 oz, 20"
Colt - Girl 7 lb 2 oz, 20 1/2"
Kristen - Boy 8 lb 1 oz, 20"
Serena - Girl 7 lb 2 oz, 17"
James - Boy 6 lb 5 oz, 16 1/2"

Rhynes and McCooks - you need to get your predictions in or you have NO chance of winning that steak dinner! And you won't be in the baby book. And thus the child number 3 "syndrome" has officially begun...but not by me!

Briefly allowing anybody...

Hello friends and family,
I'm awake at 4:30am on Sunday. The day before the BIG DAY! Because of my last minute surge of hormones and paranoia, I went "invitation only" on the blog. However, some of my older family members are not able to log on or don't have a google account or maybe never got an invitation, so I'm briefly allowing anybody to read/stalk. I mainly have the need to show off Baby McCook arriving in just a little over 24 hours! Yippie!

Pictures and predictions will be posted today - just at a more reasonable hour.

Now...to try to go back to sleep...

Happy Birthday Mack and Swirl

Can not, can not get a good picture of us with dogs! I wonder about those people that have professional portraits made with their dogs! How does that happen? Well, it does NOT happen at the McCook house.
Mack and Swirl - brother and sister - were Collin's Christmas present from Santa last year. They are part St. Bernard and part Louisiana Coutoula Leopard Dog (we hear they are anyway). We know they are part St. Bernard for sure.

For their first birthday, they received extra amounts of Pupcorn - their favorite doggie treat!

I should also say that even though Collin prayed to have a dog from June - December last year, Matt is the one who really takes care of them and plays with them. I am allergic to dogs and never thought we would be a pet family because of this (well and the fact that Matt hates cats).

And cousin Jenny - I promise I will post my most recent pregnant picture before next Monday just for you!

Fall Break

Last Fall Break we had a GREAT trip to New Mexico! This year not going anywhere because in 9 days we will have baby 3. So everyone got to pick something they really wanted to do here in town. Here are/were the plans...

Katie - wants to have family game night - this always involves her favorite game Hullabaloo - thank you Aunt Reese. When Chandler turns 4, I know what I'm getting him!

Collin - wants to stay in his jommies all day - we can totally do that for 3 days!

Mommy - wants to go to the movies - doesn't matter which one, just to see something on the big screen before new one arrives

Daddy - wants to play golf and/or go to bookstore

As of Saturday morning, we've done them all but the family game night. So you know what's happening at our house tonight: Hullabaloo!

Oooh...must go now. Sugary jumpstart (aka donuts) has arrived!

Sly Dog

Katie to Daddy: "You are holding my hand. You sly dog."

Where does she get this? Oh wait, it's from another movie that I might decide to ban from our house..."It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

Oh dear.