Cook Number Five!

I know this is old news to alot of you, but since I didn't tell my family until Christmas, I couldn't post it here. But, for those of you who don't know because you don't live here and therefore haven't seen my incredibly huge belly, I am pregnant with number five! We are very excited but nervous about starting over. I'm beginning to think I'm getting too old for this. But anyway, the baby is due May 31. Yeah for us!

New Word: Warminate

This is a word that Tayden used this morning as he jumped in my bed. He said he needed to "warminate". He says it means getting warm in Mom's bed! Now I understand why he comes in my bed EVERY night! He's just warminating.

Our Christmas Tree!

We went to Broadview again this year to cut down our Christmas tree. As usual, we had a great time. The kids love finding it, cutting it down, and then getting hot cider in the little hut afterwards. Here are a few pictures of the kids taking turns cutting it down and then the finished product.

Way too much time on my hands!

So, after reading this post, I was inspired! Here's our mixed up family.

First Snow

This is a little late, because we are now at our third snow, but it reminded me that I had pictures of the first one. But that's not so bad. Our first snow wasn't until the middle of November!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Well, the long awaited day has come and gone. I just wanted to share a couple of things said by my seven year old. He has been very involved with this election and glued himself to the TV last night waiting for the results. So I asked him what he thought about the candidates. Well this is what he said about Obama:

Tyler: Mom, did you know Obama is giving money to poor people?
Mom: Yes. (I was thinking he might think this is actually a good idea, but ...)
Tyler: And did you know that those people don't even work?!


Tyler: I heard that Obama is taking guns away from us, and giving them to the robbers. Why would he do that?

Also, before going to bed he said, "I don't understand why people are voting for him. He isn't the best president for our country!"

Needless to say, he was pretty disappointed when he woke up this morning to find out Obama had won.

Halloween 2008

We were very simple this year. But as I had more and more kids, that's the way it had to be!

Tayden's First Trip to the Dentist!

Now, does this look like a happy camper or what? We have a great dentist and all the kids love going. Crazy!!!

My Sweet Little Kaylee

Today, while I was doing the dishes, Kaylee came in and said, "I wanna be a mom when I grow up!"
Well, of course, I'm thrilled and think I must be such a great mother she wants to be like me, right?
But I say, "Why do you want to be a mother?" Shouldn't have asked.
She said, "Because moms don't have to do a lot of hard work."
Now, let me remind you, I was doing dishes when she said this.
So I said, "You don't think I do a lot of work?"
And she said, "I mean, you don't have to save anything."
Confused, I said, "What do you mean?"
She said, "You know, like firefighters and stuff gotta save people."

Well, I will give her that. I don't run into burning buildings to save people. And it's a good thing, because that really would be some hard work. Luckily I get to live the sweet and easy life of a mother!

New Look

After reading Jean's last post, I decided it was time for a makeover. How do you like my look?

Thanks, Alicia!

So this as usual is a little late, but my sister Alicia came to visit last week and we had a great time. Here are some pictures and even a page that I made.

We went to the millpond, one of our favorite places to play, and had a lot of fun feeding the ducks.


And here is Mollie showing us her belly!


This is the birthday cake Alicia made me that was to die for. Best birthday cake ever!


And the last night she was here we went to Spicer's orchard and picked raspberries (which I didn't get pictures of) and played at the playground there. The kids had a ball!






And since Tayden slept during the playground time he isn't really represented in this post, so here he is being silly!


Once again, thanks Alicia! We had a great time and would love for you and anyone else who wants to come and visit whenever. We LOVE company!

Here's my girls hair for Sunday!

My sister Rachel had a hair contest on her blog. We did these for church on Sunday. Karyna found her idea here. It's a little messy, but on a Sunday, well, she's lucky it's done at all!


And this one is Kaylee's. Pretty simple, but I really love this because it stays out of her face.


And just for the fun of it... this is what happens when I leave my camera within reach of little people.

FHE

Seth came up with a great idea for scripture reading. So, for FHE last night, this is what we made. The kids drew all the people and Seth made the map. I was there for support! Anyway, we are going to try and keep up with making the people as we read the Book of Mormon and use the map to give the kids an idea of what is happening and where.


This picture shows how Laban is still in Jerusalem with his head cut off! The brown thing below him is the tent they lived in while in the wilderness.


And this is Nephi and his family happily settled in the promised land. We had a shipped docked in the ocean, but that was Tayden's assignment and he wasn't willing to let us poke a hole through it to put on the board.


I know the pictures are hard to see, so it would be well worth your time to click on them for a close-up. I think they are pretty funny! The kids did a good job trying to show the different personalities. My favorite is Lamen and Lemuel with their angry faces!

"Bangs"

We've given Karyna a new nickname. This came about because she thought she could cut her own bangs. Guess what? She isn't quite ready for that.

This is what she is doing in the meantime.

Ahhh... The Joys of Potty Training... Again.... and Again... and Again!

So, we are at it again! Gotta tell ya, it's not going well. But I'm determined this time to not give... ummm, I mean, not let Tayden give up! This time has been a completely different experience than the other three. I've been thrown a curve ball. But, we will prevail in the end! I promise you that. I'm not going down without a fight!

Don't you love his little boxers! Not to mention the cute little innocent look on his face. This is the face that gets me every time and I just can't stay mad for long.

As a side note, I was wondering... What's worse? Laundry with the flu or laundry with potty training???? I don't know, it's a toss up. I'd rather avoid both.

First Day of School.... Finally

So, I finally have some school pictures. So far (3 days into the year) the kids are really enjoying their teachers. Kaylee LOVES Kindergarten! And Tayden is keeping me busy since I'm the only one left to play with.

It took us three days to get through "the first day of school". Karyna and Tyler started on Wednesday.

Second Grader!


Fourth Grader!

Then on Thursday Kaylee had her orientation with me.




Then on Friday Kaylee had her REAL first day.

Kindergartner!

And Tayden just doesn't like being left out.

And this is us getting to the bus stop that has moved from our front yard to the very end of the street. Yah, I'm not very happy about that. We've been pretty spoiled the last three years.

Letterboxing!

As most of you know, we are letterboxers! We've been doing it for 2 years now and really enjoy it. To learn more go here or here.
Well, we finally decided to tackle hand carving our stamps and planting a box. These are our new signature stamps. Karyna is the monkey, Tyler is the dog, Kaylee is the elephant, and Tayden is the fish. They all helped carve their own.

This is the one we will plant. Our plans are to put it at the library (hence the book) as soon as we can figure out the clues. It was so much fun to carve and easier than I thought it would be.

Our Summer!

I'm afraid this is getting to be a habit, but once again I'm going to do a mixed post with everything since I can't seem to keep up. Warning: This is long....

So, since we got home we've been rather busy. We love summer here and want to make the most of it! Here's what we've done since we got back from Utah:

1. Spent the day at the Beaton's neighborhood beach. (Jim Beaton was Seth's boss from AMI) We had a great time catching up with them. And then spent the next day at the Jensen's beach, one of our all time favorite places to be! Sorry no pictures :(

2. Grandpa Cook came for the weekend on a business trip. The kids love the attention they get from him when he comes.

3. Went to Great Harvest for a playgroup. The kids really enjoyed this.




4. Had a birthday party for Kaylee.




5. Had a couple girls from the BYU-Idaho Dance Alliance stay with us for two days of their tour. We got to see their performance and had a great time.


6. Then we had about a week to relax and get ready for Grandpa and Grandma Cook to come. We tried to keep them entertained, but as busy as we were, they still found time to help clean and restain our deck (a project we have been putting off for 3 years!) and give my front garden area a makeover!





7. Went to "Wicked" with Grandpa, Grandma, Karyna, Dad, and Mom. Awesome play! We loved every minute of it. I'm already trying to figure out when I can go again.


8. Spent the day at the Kensington Slash Park with the kids. We only meant to be there for a couple of hours, but we were having so much fun we stayed all day!








9. Went to the Detroit Zoo. We've been a couple times already, so this time we decided to see the things we don't normally see like the butterflies, birds, and reptiles. I still don't think we have seen everything yet. Guess we need to go back!











10. Last for this post, but certainly not last for the summer, we went to the first day of the PGA Championship. We took Tyler with us and as always, having a kid with you pays off. Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink each gave him the ball they were playing with the hole before. We were especially excited about Sergio's ball and were really rooting for him to win. Unfortunately, not this year. But we still had a great time! It was really lacking something though not having Tiger Woods there. I was really excited to see Phil Mickelson, but he didn't even look at Tyler, so Sergio is my new favorite! He just seems like a really cool guy.