Remembering...

Tomorrow our baby turns 3. Three! And I cannot even believe it. He, on the other hand, is very excited. Who wouldn't be? Three is a great age. (Although I always said the day Hunter turned three he turned into a little devil). But seeing as how Coop already is a little devil, I figure it can only get better from here right?

It was a HOT Sunday afternoon in August. Dave's 10-year class reunion had been that weekend and everyone decided it'd be great to go to someone's house and have a barbeque. Since I'd been "nesting" and my house was spic-n-span, I got a stupid idea in my head and said, "Hey, come to our house!"

WOW... I can still see the look on Dave's face when those words came out of my mouth. Anyway, we had a great afternoon! People came, (most of them had their families with them), they hung out, and they brought all the food! But along with a big party comes an even bigger mess...and we were left cleaning up for a couple of hours afterwards. Dave & Hunter helped, which I was very grateful for!

So MUCH later than usual, I climbed into my bed and I was POOPED! I had scrubbed, vacuumed, cleaned bathrooms, rearranged furniture, and played the perfect hostess all day. All I wanted to do was sleep. But I couldn't. Because a teensy contraction turned into a very painful one. So what did I do? I got up and folded some laundry.

"Ali, are you okay?" Dave said, half asleep. "Yeah, I'm fine - just go back to sleep, honey. I'll wake you up if it gets worse." But I don't think he heard me because he was snoring about two seconds later.

Folding, folding, marching up and down the living room floor in the middle of the night. I couldn't decide if this was really it! It hurt. A LOT. But it had hurt with Hunter, too, and I got to the hospital with him and the contractions had completely stopped. It was embarassing, and I didn't want to do that again.

Finally I called the Dr.'s office. It was the late-night message service that I talked to. "I'll call the Dr. right now and he'll be calling you soon," the guy said. But I never got a call! So I took a shower and we called Ash so she could come stay with Hunter and we took off. Dave says, "We need to stop and get some gas." Huh?

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I am kicking a hole in our glove box. I don't think we can stop to get some gas. You're just gonna have to go!" It was the speediest trip to Yakima ever! But we made it, thank the Lord! We checked in at 2:10 AM and Cooper Chase Kleinow came into the world at 2:30 AM.

Dave looked at me and said, "I am SO proud of you". Gosh those were the best words I'd ever heard. And so now as I sit here remembering with a huge smile on my face I'm wondering, where have the past three years gone? How does this...

turn into this...

Okay, so now that I'm CRYING, I'll end with a few pictures of Coop that we've taken over the past few years. It is amazing how he's grown!

And finally.....

Thank you Jesus, for this adorable, fun-loving little blessing that came into our lives August 22, 2005. And a very Happy Birthday to you, Coop! We love you sooooo much!