Christmas Letter

I did send out a letter this year, but incase you didn't receive one, I am posting it here too.  I still have some random ones to mail for a few whose addresses I couldn't find and stuff, so you may still be getting one one day!

Well this year has flown by again, and it has been anything but boring!  We have added a new member to our family, moved, and spent some time in Canada for a wedding or two!  It’s hard to believe we are preparing for 2013 already!

Jeremy is still working as a financial advisor with MetLife, saving the world one financially well-advised family at a time.  He works hard, even when it’s tough.  He is also currently enjoying a break from callings.  He was released as scoutmaster a few months ago and enjoyed teaching Sunday School for the last two months before our move, and now he is calling-less!  He’s not complaining about the lack of camping trips around here, that’s for sure!  He is also a great dad and the kids insist that he put them to bed because he’s best at story telling.

I have been staying busy with all of the usual mom things.  Up until we moved I was enjoying regular play dates at the park, lots of swimming this summer, my calling as a young women advisor, and preparing for a move that was a long time coming.  We are thrilled to have moved into a new house where we have more room and our kids will be in better schools.  Now I just need to decorate!  Anyone offering help would not be turned away!    Our new ward is huge, and I have been called to be the CTR 4 teacher!

Brenna is 4, and as spunky as ever.  We sure love watching our sweet girl grow up.  This year she learned how to swim, and started and finished preschool!  She LOVED going to school and was sad she had to quit when we moved.  She is also sort of obsessed with babies, and wants to be the boss a lot so that she can do mommy things.  She is such a good big sister and can’t wait to start school next year.  She’s growing up way too fast!

Mason is 2, and is absolutely convinced that he’s turning 4 on his birthday.  He is all boy and gets more bumps and bruises than anyone else in the family (even me!).  He loves riding his bike, trains, trucks, and playing anything with a ball (he usually sleeps cuddling a ball instead of a stuffed animal).  He is finally potty trained, and is very smart.  He always surprises us with how quickly he catches on to the things that we are teaching Brenna.  He is the cutest 2-year-old boy in town (unless you have a 2-year-old boy in town… then it’s a tie), and is also quite emotional under all the tough manliness.

Owen is our newest addition, and has been a complete joy and blessing in our home.  Although his sleeping habits went from stellar to not so great, we still love him to bits.  He was born on March 1st despite all of our efforts to make him a leap baby.  He is now 9 months old, just got his first tooth and is very close to crawling.  He is happy, healthy, and he loves his mommy (but anyone willing to give him some attention is a good substitute!)  We are enjoying the last moments while he is not totally mobile.  He sure is cute and makes friends wherever we go!

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and reflect upon the great blessings of the past year and pray you will be given even greater blessings in the coming year! 

Love, the Cooks!

Pictures

Well, I took a little break from blogging because of a few things... I have been busy, as we all have with the holidays.  We also had no computer for a week or so.  And also my last post had some negative fallout that I wasn't expecting and I was sort of upset about how it all played out, so I took a little break!  (thank you for all the love though, I really did appreciate it, it has nothing to do with any of that!  Also if you're reading this and don't know what I'm talking about, it is gone, so you can't find out!  haha)  So, moving on, this is just an update, and it is a lot of pictures because I haven't taken many until the last week or two!  And we've been having some Christmas fun!

Yes, in AZ this is part of Christmas fun!  Crazy as it may be!  The kids LOVE having lunch outside in our new backyard!  (did I mention we moved!?  I guess not!  A little over a month ago we moved!  We have a large yard now and this little patio set!)  Aren't boys in underwear the cutest?  haha 

 Our gingerbread house turned out to be fairly sad looking, but the kids were in heaven!  That's what counts!

 And Owen is always close by helping out!

Haha this picture cracks me up, the kids were playing baby.  They've been playing it a lot lately, but then I look over and Mason (baby) has on a diaper!  haha Brenna was the baby sometimes too.. and I swear my kids wear clothes most of the time!

We saw a few Santas!  This was the first one at our old ward's Christmas party, and Owen did great, but he didn't really know what was going on.  I wish we got a picture a second or two after this as well because he was all smiles and excitement, until he looked at Mason and caught a glimpse of whose lap he was on... then he wasn't so happy!  It was cute though!

Second Santa at Grandma's Christmas party!  

Mason told all the Santas he wants a Spiderman truck.  What?  They don't make those, I've checked!

 Lastly, yesterday we took a trip to Flagstaff for some fun in the snow!  We weren't super prepared with clothes (for the kids, as you can see, I am well prepared.. bad mom) but the kids had fun.  Mason was the first to wuss out after his 4 layers had soked through and then it was sort of like dominos with the kids who were ill prepared.  But it was a lot of fun, and the kids LOVED seeing the snow!  Ahh the memories!  It was perfect snow weather!

 Oh yah, we were with cousins and Grandma too!  Here's my beautiful sister-in-law Sylvia with Owen!

 Everyone wanted a tun holding Owen!

 The reason for the trip was a ride on the Polar Express train!  It was cold out!

 Proof that I was there!

It was really neat, but probably a one time thing, or a once every 5 years thing.  haha it was a little out of control and stressful for the parents, but so exciting for the kids!  

In other news, Owen got his first two teeth and started crawling at about 9.5 months old!  Yay!  He's so grown up and getting around so fast now!  We love our cute kids!

Pose!

We got family photos done yesterday.  We went to the cheapest place to get a family holiday picture since we have a lot going on right now money-wise with buying a house and all.  We got a great deal, and a family photo we are happy with, so it all worked out!  They didn't get any great photos of the kids though, which is good because we didn't want to pay for them if they did!  So when we got home, since they were all lookin' so sharp, I tried to snap a few.  I am pretty happy with the results!  It's hard to go wrong with cute kids I guess! (since I absolutely couldn't pick one, you get a collage of each...lucky! ;)

I was frustrated especially with Brenna since she looked so sweet, but in all of the pictures there was like a goober grin for some reason.  Even when I got home I didn't get much better results.  So when daddy got home from work, (since he's been bragging about his A's in his highschool photo class) I sent him and Brenna outside for a little photoshoot.  They got some great results!  

The only thing I couldn't get was one of all three together... that wasn't gonna happen after all these pictures!  I'll have to try again next time they're all lookin' their best!  haha so maybe next year... or a Sunday.

It's been such a long time since I blogged!  I was going to organize this all into a few posts with their own subjects, but as soon as I sat down to do so, two of my kids woke up at the same time covered in their own vomit, and I am still dealing with that.  So I am just throwing this all together to get it out there.  

We have been really busy lately, and I haven't been taking as many pictures as I should!  With the weather cooling down, we are spending A LOT of time outside!  With our short sale finalizing (hopefully we close this Friday!!!!) things have been stressful and hectic! (Even though closing should be in 5 days, there's still a fairly good chance things could fall through... not fun!) And my parents came for a visit this past week and we have been really enjoying spending time with them!  Oh!  And Halloween happened, and that's always fun!  I am leaving Halloween mostly out of this post though!

The kids have been out in our backyard 90% of the time that we are home.  I love it!  We don't have a good yard for playing, but they find things to entertain themselves!  At our new house, there will be tons of room for play!  Owen sometimes gets in on the fun too, and it turns out, he loves swings!  (what kid doesn't!)

When Grandpa got here to visit, it just so happened that he and Mason were totally matching!  I thought this was really great, but neither of them seemed that impressed!  haha what a cute picture!

We went trick-or-treating out in Gilbert at my parent's place, and it was great!  Such a nice neighborhood, and we had a really great time, both getting and giving candy!  The kids like handing it out almost as much as getting it!  And what a cute and polite Rapunzel and Homeless man I had!  Always saying thank you!

I think it's funny that Mason looks like he's sleeping in this picture!

On Thursday My parents and I took the kids to the zoo!  I had to go to the library a couple of times to get our free passes (apparently you have to be aggressive and I was not impressed by the manners of one girl in-particular!) but it was so worth it!  It was a little bit too much walking for the kids by the end, but we had a good time and it definitely tuckered everybody out!

Oh I forgot to add a picture of the giant pelican that was right by them.  The kids were both really nervous to be sitting so close, but it was really neat!  My dad even touched it!

This next picture makes me laugh, but it's definitely one of those "had to be there" moments.  The kids were in the petting zoo with gramps and gran (like how I shortened those mom and dad?  haha) and I was out by the fence taking pictures with Owen.  This giant goat had made it's way our direction, but I hadn't thought to keep watching it!  Suddenly I felt the fence rattle, and Owen started screaming!  I looked down and saw this goat just staring at him with his head forced through the rail.  Owen does not like goats apparently!  I couldn't stop laughing though, he wouldn't stop crying until we moved him away, but the goat followed him and did the same thing again!  Too funny!

  Both kids loved this little goat!

We also went to a Suns game with my parents which I had a really good time at!  And the Suns won in the last seconds, which makes it extra exciting!  I even got a babysitter for the kids, which was a big deal for me!
Oh, I forgot the other main reason I haven't blogged!  My kids have been sick!  They don't get sick often, but it has been crazy lately!  Owen had what we are now calling extreme food poisoning I guess (I'm not sure I buy it, but oh well!) where he had diarrhea for two weeks straight, and for one of those there was blood in his poop too (sometimes quite a bit).  So we spent some time at the Dr., some time at the hospital, and lots of time worrying, but he finally got better!  Then later that same day, he threw up for the first time in his life!  What?  Seriously!  So I thought he had gagged on a banana piece, but then he did it again... and again.  Luckily not on the babysitter, so she lucked out on that one!  Then tonight we had my parents here for dinner and my mom wasn't feeling too hot.  Then out of nowhere Mason puked everywhere.  Then Brenna did, and then Mason did two more times.... and now Jeremy's in the bathroom thinking he is going to too.... yuck!  I do not enjoy cleaning up puke!  BUT at least I am not sick and so far don't feel sick!  And my mom is feeling better too.  And Owen is too.  So yay!  I took this picture because it was so cute, but we didn't realize he was sleeping because he was super sick!

Jeremy's sister was also here for the weekend and so we were able to spend Saturday evening with his family and it was really nice to see Nichole and visit with the family again!  Mason also threw up there...on his cousin..... but that was motion sickness because his Uncle Jared had spun them both on the tire swing for a long time really fast.  Poor Ava was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So if that's not enough stress/excitement/barf for you, then I don't know what is!  Good day to you all!  I need to go to bed since I will most likely be cleaning up more messes as the night goes on, in between baby feedings!