Sunday Ramblings

Before Church

Last Sunday Neil told Cole it was time to go to church. Cole knew right what to do. He went and picked up my scriptures and headed downstairs. Little future missionary right here. It was too cute.

After ChurchAfter church he was done with all the seriousness and ready to play. He found these old safety glasses that he thought were the funniest thing in the world. They definitely made me laugh. What a little nerd.

Now this video is a little scary. You may remember a video I posted about a yr ago where Cole stuck his hands in my heels and clomped around in them. Well I hate to say it but he's improved his skills. I don't know where his obsession with shoes comes from. Luckily he loves his dad's shoes as much as mine. That makes me feel a little better. And me being the smart person I am (especially now that I'm pregnant) took this video sideways. So just tilt your head. :)

Me and The Gang

I also went to a baby shower for a friend this past weekend and was able to see so many of my high school friends. It was so fun! It's hard to see this picture and a few of us are still missing but for those of you that were there I thought this would be fun for you to see. Don't ask me why I look like I'm hiding behind Emily.

And The Answer Is????

We're going on VACATION!! Wahoo! Gotcha didn't I? I guess everyone seems to think it's time for us to have another one. We definitely got the hint. :) Anyway, every year Neil's boss takes us on vacation for our Christmas present and this year we get to take 3 days and 2 nights and go white water rafting down Cataract Canyon. We start in Moab and end up in Lake Powell. And this isn't just any white water trip. Our guides will prepare all our food for us, set up camp, and just basically pamper us! We won't have to do a thing except enjoy every minute of it. And then we get to fly back on a private plane to Moab. I've always wanted to go white water rafting and if I know Neil's boss this trip is going to be awesome!!!!

But... there is one catch. I can't go. Cuz you all guessed it. (Well almost all of you) We're expecting!! And that really is what we're the most excited about, but if you had voted for the trip that would have been right too. So I'm 2.5 months along and due end of Sept. Wahoo!!! And Neil's Dad has graciously accepted to take my place on the river rafting trip. Thanks Ron.

What Do You Think?

Take our poll to the right.

One Little Boys Dream, One Big Mess

It can't get any better than this for a little boy. It's not often that you get to see a huge digger dig up your front yard. To Cole this was the coolest thing ever! A dream come true! He watched it for 2 days straight.

OK so let me back up a bit. This is what my house looks like on a normal day. Well a normal day in summer anyway.

This is what my house looks like today. Watch the movie for a better look. The yard has been totally destroyed! There goes my tulips I spent HOURS planting and all the top soil that took me days to move last year. Not to mention the grass, sprinkling system, porch railing, and plants.

And this is the reason. Apprently the genius who put in our sewer line headed the line back towards our house instead of towards the sewer. So we had to have our whole yard dug up so they could fix it. This is a video of me walking out my front door to a 12 ft. cliff. This video shows the destruction a little better than the first video. Although, despite all this I am feeling SO BLESSED because it is a miracle that we even found out about this. Luckily we found out before the warranty on our house was expired and now we don't have to pay for a thing!!! So the last few days have actually been quite entertaining and I'm just praying that everything gets put back together nicely and that by spring I'll have a decent looking yard again.

Here's one more picture of the destruction. It's been the talk of the neighborhood.

Sesame Street Personality Quiz

So I saw this on our friends blog and thought I'd give it a try. Cookie Monster has always been my fav and all through Jr. High and High School my nickname was actually Cookie. So I thought this was pretty fitting. And something that may surprise many of you is that I LOVE FOOD! Especially snacks. I used to go to mutual just to get the refreshments. Especially if I knew there was going to be donuts. So this may not fit me exactly, but it actually fits me better than you might think. Who are you?

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth. You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Meet Cambron

So I started taking my neighbors little boy for her every Friday while she's at work. It actually hasn't been too bad so far. Luckily he's a pretty good kid. And here is. Meet Cambron! A way smart 3 year old.

Last week I took them to the Bean Museum where they were able to see lots of animals and even touch a few like this lizard, and a snake and tortoise. The kids loved it!

This past Friday I took them to Jumping Jacks where they had an absoulte blast. Last time we went with Cole he was hesitant to go down the slides. This time he loved them all, including the really big one.

Here's Cambron going down the really big slide. The whole way up he kept telling himself "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it." It was so cute.

Cole got a huge kick out of the drinking fountain. The kids thought he was trying to be nice by pushing the button for them, but little did they know that as soon as they started drinking Cole would push the button on and off, on and off. This little boy kept smacking Cole's arm away. He was so annoyed! And me being the good Mom I am just sat there and laughed.

And here's a little girl that followed me around EVERYWHERE wanting me to take her picture. It was hilarious. The first time she asked me I ended up leaving before she came down the slide. So she actually went around until she found me and let me have it! It was the funniest thing. She loved getting her picture taken. I hope her Mom didn't see me.

Anyway, so far it been good and fun but we'll see how long I can keep this baby sitting thing up.

These Guys Crack Me Up!

Sorry this is a post of ramblings mainly about Cole. I keep telling myself that I'll write these things down and I never do and I always forget the cute little things Cole does.

Cole is becoming quite the character and lately has been trying to switch the roles and boss me around. Occasionally Cole will act out and have a hard time listening so I'll gently take his head between my hands, look him straight in the eye, and explain he needs to stop what he's doing or he'll have to take a time out. So the other night I was sitting at the computer and he comes and climbs into my lap, takes my head in between his hands, looks me straight in the eyes, and trying to act like me says "Mommy Listen!" ...... "Time Out!"

Yesterday I was charging our camera battery and Cole kept taking it in and out of the charger so I asked him nicely to stop and explained to him that the battery needed to stay in the charger. He wasn't minding me so as I began to get up he looked up at me and said "No Mommy.... You stay in chair."

Lately for some reason Cole has been putting up a fuss every time we say a prayer. I think he's always too anxious to eat. So the other day I tried explaining to him why we pray. I told him that Heavenly Father and Jesus gave us this food so we need to thank them for it. When I said that he immediately looked over at our calendar with a picture of Jesus on it and said "Thank You Jesus!" So now every time I ask Cole to fold his arms for the prayer he shouts out "Thank You Jesus!"

Many of you know that my husband frequently entertains me as he sleeps and I'm wide awake. Well here's another one. During Christmas break Neil turned over to me and says "To Grandmother's house we go!" He was definitely way too excited for Christmas. And he sure knows how to keep me laughing when I'm having a bad night.

Cole Pix and Wedding Blues

Here's a couple of pictures of Cole we had done for his 2 Year Birthday. He was so squirmy I'm surprised they were able to get some good ones.

Best Man Ruins Wedding

PARTY!!

This December was filled with so many good memories !

We took my mom to Forgotten Carols as a girls night out cuz she had never seen it before. And she added an insight to me that I had never thought of. And I had it on here but after my brother-in-law Travis gave me grief I decided I better not ruin it for anyone that hasn't seen the play. But if you have and don't know who Uncle John is supposed to be ASK ME! Cuz it's way cool. (My sister Carrie and sister-in-law Tiffany pictured above)

I was out shoveling a few weeks ago and Cole apparently got tired of waiting for me to get done so he went in the garage, pulled out a stroller and made a comfy seat for himself. I wondered where he had gone because he was being so quiet and I turned around and found him like this. He cracks me up!

The Christmas parties with family were so fun this year. We missed you Clint, Rachel, and boys!At the Emery party we even had a totally unexpected guest! No one had any idea that Santa would show up (really-no one). Cole liked to look and point at Santa but wasn't too kean on sitting on his lap. Everyone was WAY excited that he showed up.

It was almost too much excitement for some of us to handle.

Way too much excitement. Definitely over stimulated.

My sister Christy and her husband Jorge flew in from NJ which made the holidays special and entertaining to say the least. We went sledding at Mount Dale on Christmas Eve with most of the family. Cole even loved the sledding this year!

Christmas Eve was special. My sister dressed up her kids Savannah and
Rex as Mary and Joseph while their dad read the Christmas story. They were SOO Cute!

I found this cute little note when I went to change Cole's diaper. This is what happens when Cole is left unsupervised with my brother Matt too long.

Here's a picture just for you Jorge! Told ya Neil got a good one of ya.

Christmas morning! Cole was definitely excited but still wasn't too sure what was going on.

It probably took us over an hour to open presents as Cole made us open each toy and play with it before he would open another. Which was actually nice. This was his favorite present. He loves his Geo Trax train.


We spent Christmas night and most of the next day at Neil's parents house. I can't remember the last time I played video games for that long. Neil's brother Austin got RockBand for Christmas so we played all Christmas night and then Austin and I played most of the next day. I love that game! It is so addicting! Sadly I felt like I was accomplishing something. I played way too long. Whenever I would hear a song after that I would try to start playing it on the guitar.


New Years Eve was a BLAST! We had my Mom, Brett, Tiffany, Neil's long time friend Jeremy and his wife Sarah, and their daughter Clara all come over. We ate lots of yummy food and played Wii most of the night. I have to admit the boxing pictures are the best. Here's Neil and Jeremy.

Cole even tried to get in on the boxing fun.

Tiffany and Sarah

Brett and I finally found an excuse to beat each other up again after all these years. And apparently I haven't beaten anyone up in a while as I am still so sore! Sad I know!

My Mom even got in on all the action. Go Mom! She won this one too. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Cole's Big 2!

Cole turned 2 yesterday. I can't believe it! He's no longer my baby. My family came down last Sunday for a birthday party and Cole just basked in the attention. I wish I had a video of it.


And here's the cake I made for him. Cole absolutely LOVES cars so I thought this would be fun.

Then yesterday we celebrated his real birthday. Notice how well Cole sings Happy Birthday to himself. It's so cute every time he sees a candle he says "Happy to You!"

And Maga Cook was so nice and came down again! (Cole calls grandma and grandpa Maga and Paga.) And here's what she brought!

Cole was so excited. He LOVES the Chevron cars.

And Cole got another new car from Neil and I. He was so funny he kept getting out of the car to take another look at it and then would run and get back in. He couldn't believe he had his own car.

I also took Cole to see Santa yesterday at the mall. We stopped at their play tree house that Cole LOVED. Although, he was great at holding up the line as you can see in this picture. I was a little skeptical as to how he would react to Santa, but lately he points out anything Santa and loves to hear his voice on the radio. So I thought I'd try it out. Needless to say it did not go well. He ran up to Santa and half way there he stopped, looked up at Santa, and ran back to me. He cried the rest of the time. I couldn't even get a picture. I can't really blame the little guy. The Santa scared me a little too. He wasn't very jolly.

But at least he got a sucker out of the deal. What happened to handing out candy canes?

So my little boy is now 2 and on his way to growing up. Here are a few videos showing what he knows already.

Cole is great at counting to 10, and he's still working on the counting down part, but he's almost got it. He always says "BEEP" at the end cuz that's what the microwave does when it's done counting down.

Cole loves to sing and dance. His favorite song right now is Popcorn Popping. He gets a little camera shy so this isn't his best performance but cute nonetheless.

And he almost knows the whole alphabet. We're still working on F, K, M, N, but I think with practice he'll be there in no time.

Cole also knows some shapes and colors we're still working on those.
Next years goal. Being Potty Trained. Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

Elf Dance

I saw this on my brother-in-laws blog and thought it was too funny. You can do it too at http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Neil's B-Day at Salem Pond

Holy Cow I haven't updated this in awhile. Sorry Christy! I feel like I've been going every which direction since Thanksgiving. Cole and I were both sick so Thanksgiving in and of itself was quite uneventful except for the hours of planning I did for Black Friday. (which is really fun for any of you who haven't woke up at 4 to go shopping.) Anyway, so I've had better Thanksgivings but it was nice to have Neil home for a few days. And I know the music playing probably sounds like music our parents would listen to and it actually is. This is the Christmas music I grew up listening to and so it's not Christmas to me without Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams. I know I'm weird. I'm sure some of you will appreciate it though.

Anyway, Monday was Neil's 29th birthday!!! Wahoo!! Happy Birthday Hun! You're getting SO old!

So that night we went to Salem Pond to see the lights on the lake.

Cole absolutely loved it and it was so cool to see the reflection of the lights in the water.

Too bad pictures just don't do it justice.

And you can slightly see us in this picture. I think the refelction of the trees in the lake in this picture is so pretty! Too bad we're messing it up! Hehehe..

Another year gone by

Well it's been 6 years yesterday that my dad passed away. I still can't believe he's gone. The picture below taken after high school graduation is the last picture we ever had taken together. I think it's funny that I struggled to hold all the roses the same way. Anyway, I love you and miss you Dad. You taught me to love people, be happy, have fun, and work hard. I'm still working on all of those, but you were an incredible example to me and I'm still learning from you every day even though you're gone. Thanks for watching over me. Miss you like crazy.

Peanut



BODY FOUND

I guess death is just on my brain this week, but I don't know how many of you heard the story on the news of the body they found in Payson. They found it in a field right by our church. A guy was out walking his dogs and the dogs came across the body and went crazy! The guy quickly pulled his dogs away and took them home and went to my neighbors (Adam) who is a cop. He was barely able to speak but managed to tell him that he think he found a dead body. Adam thought he must be crazy but based on his reaction, was pretty sure he had seen what he thought he had seen because the guy was in obvious shock. Anyway, turns out that it was in fact a body and it was actually still bleeding. So he immediately called for back up and started looking for possible suspects. There were none, but they did find a knife. They investigated the scene as a homicide, but after the autopsy they determined it to be a suicide. Anyway, turns out that it was a guy in our ward. He wasn't active but he just lived 2 streets over from us. Our poor bishop had to identify him. Anyway, the whole thing really shook me up and my heart goes out to him and his family. Times are tough for so many families out there and as the holidays creep up it's only going to get harder. Just keep your eyes out for anyone that needs a little boost. Times are tough, but we can help each other and know that better times are coming. No one should feel alone.

Wow what a depressing post. I'll have to get Cole on here singing or something to lighten the mood.

Giddy-Up Horsey

Halloween this year was so much fun! Neil surprised me and took the day off work and decorated the house and made me breakfast and took me shopping and out to lunch and at night we took Cole Trick-or-Treating and had a blast with him! He was really into it this year and loved going door to door showing off his costume and getting candy. He was a horse and amazingly he liked wearing his costume.

The side and back views of Cole in this costume cracked me up time and time again. I don't know why I couldn't get over it. I found him so funny in this thing!

Again another side view of him. Hahaha...

We went trick-or-treating with Grandma Emery and then on the way to my mom's house Cole zonked out. We tried to wake him up once we got to my mom's but he was too far gone. Until I went and laid him on my Mom's bed. He quickly woke up and sat up and said "More Treats!" and jumped down off the bed. So we went trick-or-treating again with my mom.

Neil and I decided to dress up a bit too. Don't ask us what we are but we had fun with what we had.

After trick-or-treating we went to a haunted house with my brother Brett and his wife Tiffany. It wasn't the best haunted house, but we always have a good time with these two.

Doesn't he make a great Will Farrell?