Now that it's 2011....

Ooops. I guess we were having so much fun since July that I forgot to post on the blog...

I'm sure that anybody who bothers to read this is probably on fb too, and I've been OK about updating that, so hopefully you have survived. Anyways, too much has happened in the last 4 months or so for me to write about everything, so I'll hit some highlights, accented with pictures. Plus, all you need to know (since this is the perfect world of blogging, where nothing ever goes wrong) is that my life is perfect, my wife is beautiful, and my kid is wonderful. All we do is sing, dance and poop rainbows. Right? JK. About the rainbows.

(Oh and I just realized the pics are all out of order, but in a effort to just get something up on this blog so I am motivated to start again, I don't care.)

We went camping. A lot. Mason loves camping.

We went to Utah in August. I like that place.

Mason kept getting more awesome

Like I said...utah in august. with a jeep. 

 awesomeness of mason kept increasing

 apple picking in the fall 

continued increase of excellence by the kid

we discovered BYU's 2031 football star.

mexico for christmas

blend of Mexico and Mason's b.a.-ness

we put him in my tie for cute pictures

mexico. mason. done.

christmas at the beach

not sure where the coolness comes from...

1st christmas (new years) at grandma's

oh we sailed and kayaked a lot this summer too.

just one more pic of the dude

moab trip

beauty in Moab

Well as you can see we have been busy since July. Not that that's a sufficient excuse for not updating. There's a bunch of stuff that I don't have pictures for right now. Like another Utah trip for Thanksgiving. And of course, the best possible event of 2010...Kassidy and I were sealed, together with Mason, in the DC temple on October 9, 2010. It has been a good few months. 

MAY-JUNE 2010

The month that Mason was in the hospital was pretty tough on us. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep (although in hindsight, we slept ALOT compared to now!) and anytime we weren't at the hospital with Mason we felt terrible! However, we realized that we needed to keep our spirits up and found several ways to do so, including a spectacular Darius Rucker/Brad Paisley concert, and tons of movies. I had a new job, thanks to an old friend Jace Johnson, doing fundraising for Senator Hatch. My job is amazing and it is a ton of fun working with the people I do. Most days I would leave work and head straight to the hospital to spend a few hours with Kassidy and Mason before we would head home for the night. We were so excited for when we could bring him home and take him with us on all of our great adventures. Then, on June 15, a few days before his one month birthday, we BROUGHT HIM HOME!!!!!!!

Now that he is home, he gets to go to concerts with us (John Butler Trio/State Radio)

He gets to hang out with his cousins, River and NYA

And most of all he makes us all happier and makes our home a more heavenly place.

j

The HARDEST DAY EVER

MAY 20, 2010

Kassidy and I stayed in the hospital all day on the 19th, recovering from the early morning birth of Mason. We took turns holding him and trying to nap, and our Moms both paid us a visit so I could go stretch my legs. About mid-day we began to get worried, but I wrote it off to us being freaked-out first time parents. Mason wasn't eating much, and what he did eat came right back up soon after. Also, while I initially thought this rocked, he hadn't pooped either. The nurses started to visit with more frequency, and by the end of the day when he still hadn't pooped and his vomit was coming up yellow, we realized that there might be a problem. They took him back in for observation and we were informed that he had an intestinal obstruction that would likely require surgery. First thing the following morning, an intensive care team from Fairfax INOVA hospital showed up with all the gear they needed to transport Mason to their hospital for the emergency surgery.

We followed as soon as we were able to get Kassidy checked out of Reston Hospital and met our families over there. The doctors/surgeons explained to us that they had found a piece of Mason's bowel that had folded over itself and scar tissue had formed, making a solid knot that nothing could pass through. For the next 4-5 hours, they had him sedated while they cut out the piece of ruined intestine and sewed the two ends back together. Fortunately for Mason, they were able to do the circumcision while he was knocked out, providing a bright spot in an otherwise not-so-excellent day!

Finally the surgeon came to us with great news. The surgery had been successful and Mason would recover just fine. The only sucky part was that he would have to stay in the NICU there for a month while his lower intestine stretched and grew to match the size of the upper piece they had sewn it to. 

We rushed in to see Mason as soon as we were allowed to, and it was pretty tough seeing him like this. We were lucky to have been able to spend an entire day with him before he had to get the surgery, but it made it even harder to then know that we wouldn't be able to hold him or bring him home for a long time. How on earth Heavenly Father ever could let his son die is completely beyond my comprehension, but it must take someone completely perfect in all aspects to go through with that, because I was dying just seeing Mason hooked up to all that equipment, and I knew ultimately everything was going to be ok.

Well, to make a long story short, I got a job right after Mason went in to the hospital, and Kassidy was amazing and went and spent most of every single day with him, sitting there with him, helping change diapers and feed him when she was allowed to, talking to him, and reminding him that he had parents who loved him. As anybody who has had a child sick, or in the NICU knows, there is nothing harder than having to leave him when it's time to go home. Luckily, we were blessed to have friends and family there with us, as well as great nurses and doctors who were comforting in their knowledge and their love for our kid. 

Heavenly Father definitely has it in mind to teach Kassidy and I patience! Everything from Mason being born almost a week after he was due, to the month we had to wait until we could bring him home has in fact been a blessing in disguise, helping us to love one another and especially our baby more than we ever could have imagined.

j

THE BEST DAY EVER (Tied with getting married of course)

MAY 19, 2010.

Mason Dylan Cozzens was born! Kassidy struggled, fought, and clawed her way through the natural birth of our 10lb9oz baby boy throughout the day on the 18th and late into the night. Finally, about 10 minutes after midnight the boy popped out and the era of no sleep began.
I awoke in the wee hours of wednesday morning to the sight of my beautiful wife sitting contentedly next to me in bed with a notebook in hand, calmly writing down the time that each of her contractions started as well as the duration. Having lived through the pregnancy with her, I informed her that it probably wasn't contractions and she would take a huge poop later in the morning and they would go away. When I finally realized the baby was on its way,  I promptly scheduled several meetings and interviews for the coming day so I could leave Kassidy in her mother's capable hands to get through most of the day of pain and agony before heading to the hospital. When the timing was right and Kassidy couldn't stay home any longer, I rushed home and we headed out to Reston Hospital. We got there around 5 pm and went straight into the room to start having that baby. We were lucky to have 2 nurses who understood and fully supported Kassidy's desire to have the baby naturally (with no epidural and DEFINITELY no c-section). Kassidy wanted so badly to do it naturally that we had even skipped our final sonogram the week before so the doctor wouldn't know how big the baby was going to be and order a c-section!
During several of the most intensely agonizing hours of my life, I prayed pretty much constantly that Kassidy and the baby would be ok, and to thank Heavenly Father for putting me here on earth as a guy. I will leave out all the gory details and skip the the part where the baby came out, I cut the cord (spraying blood everywhere) and everybody finally left Kassidy, Mason and I alone to smile cheesily at each other and say how happy we were that he was finally here.

To be honest, he was kind of/really strange looking when he first came out, with a huge lumpy head and a really large fold on his brow.

 Fortunately everything smoothed out in the end, and as you will see in later posts, he is pretty good looking now, despite his dad's best efforts!

Well, we spent the rest of that night alternating between the euphoric bliss of simply looking at and holding our baby, and the inevitable fitfull dozing that came after staying up for 48 straight hours. We settled on a name late in the morning, and Mason Dylan Cozzens was officially here to make this world his playground.

j

Man this is gonna suck....

Ok everyone. We probably don't even have followers anymore since I haven't updated in forever. But we have a TON of news to let you in on, so I will probably just start on May 19 and work my way up to the present day. This would be a daunting task in and of itself, but it is made ever more difficult by the fact that I have to somehow present the activities of the last 2+ months in such a manner that all who read this will believe that we have the perfect life and that everything is smiles and sunshine. Time to get to work.......


J

He's HERE!!

Mason Dylan Cozzens - 10 lbs 9 oz. 22 inches long. Born 12:10 am May 19, 2010.

More to come later, but for now.......

j

Waiting......

I am not a patient person. And I am going CRAZY waiting for this baby boy to get here!! Kassidy and I keep hoping he will decide to come out soon, but he is letting the anticipation build...
So in the mean time, Kassidy and I found a new interest...FISHING!
We headed out on Saturday morning for a fun day of exploration in the sunshine. Without any specific destination in mind we packed up the fishing poles and gear and started driving. We soon came across a promising spot on Goose Creek. We blazed a trail off the main road and found ourselves in a peaceful, serene spot we never knew existed this close to home...

We unpacked the gear, tied up the lines and so began our first day of fishing.

Despite the spectacular sunshine, wonderful views, and friendly neighbors, the fishing aspect of the day was....well....less than satisfactory. We lost 3 hooks, several yards of line, and reeled in 0 fish. Kassidy did manage to catch a large piece of moss though. Weary, tanned, and happy we cast one last time, then called it a day and headed to taco bell.

Although we were outfished by the Mexican man next to us fishing with a simple line and worm, we thoroughly enjoyed the day and I'm sure many more of our summer adventures will include a least an hour or two of fishing.

So we continue to impatiently await our new arrival....updates (with pics) as soon as he gets here! Stay tuned for more....

Other stuff to catch up...

Ok also in our (online) absence, our baby boy has continued to grow (inside Kassidy's belly of course) and hopefully soon he will be ready to come chill with me! I am FREAKIN EXCITED! The whole pregnancy thing hasn't really seemed real for me until just recently. I know Kassidy has been ready for a long time, but I am just now realizing that we are gonna have a new little dude to love! Anyways, it has been tons of fun getting ready for him (except the whole barfing and pain stuff for kassidy). Luckily all I have had to deal with is mostly finding cool stuff for him. So here's what we've got so far.
Since we don't really have a lot of space for a crib right now, we decided to go with this moses basket and rocker. Hopefully it will work and he will like to sleep....like me.

Also, his first pair of Jordans!!!!!!!

and of course some good clothes.....

Well that's all I've got for you guys for now! Hopefully this baby will come soon so we can teach him how to enjoy life on this earth to the fullest! We're still working on names, so any last minute suggestions will get at least passing consideration....

j

March, or should we just call that month Puerto Rico?

March was ridiculously amazing. For our postponed honeymoon/thebarexamisovercelebration, we got to go to Puerto Rico for a week. Man that was amazing. While it was still cold and rainy here in VA and in Utah, Kassidy and I packed our bags and flew first class to San Juan. I thought I would be happy just spending the week flying around in those first class seats, but I needed a tan so we got off the plane. Kassidy and I had both been to Puerto Rico before, so we had some idea what to expect, but let me just say, 26" rims on our taxi to the hotel took our breath away.

Well we got to the Conrad hotel right on the water and so began the best week of our lives. I will probably just let the pictures tell this story....
THE VIEW FROM OUR ROOM...

OLD SAN JUAN...

FLIGHT TO CULEBRA

THE BEAUTIFUL PARADISE - CULEBRA

And that, was March. I'm sure some other stuff happened (like BYU's basketball excellence) but nothing else matters besides a beach like that!!

j