Blah blah blah

Ohh how I hate how the winter drags! I think winter should last 1 month. December. We should get slammed with snow every December and then come January it should magically become spring again. That's how my ideal world would work anyway.

I never really dreaded winter until I had kids. I love to ski, sled, and ice skate but keeping kids entertained in a house for months at a time is horrible!!!!!! Not to mention a husband that works like crazy, has YMs, and HOA and some nights doesn't even get to see his kids. But it's not all bad I guess. We're getting really good at hide-in-seek. Cole is slowly learning that sitting on a bed or chair is not the best place to hide. My Mario Kart skills are coming back to me and Cole is actually getting pretty good too. He's at least able to finish the races now and doesn't always come in last place. And we never miss family night. In fact, almost every night is family night. The boys love to play games as a family. And Cole is also getting pretty good on his bike. I think we'll have to take the training wheels off this spring.

I decided to play softball this spring but come to find out games are on Tues. and Thurs. nights which doesn't work with Neil's schedule so then my sister-in-law convinced me to do a triathalon beginning of June. I insanely didn't turn her down. Now don't get me wrong this isn't an ironman triathalon or even an olympic triathlon. I have to swim 1/4 mile, bike 13.5 miles, and then run 3.1 miles so it's not anything too crazy, except for one thing. I CAN'T SWIM! Seriously. So hopefully I'll have enough time to practice that I won't drown! But if all else fails I'll just do my made up doggie paddle back stroke that my husband makes fun of me for. However, I do like the challenge of learning to be good at something I suck at. So here's to becoming a good swimmer!

The guys so happily supporting me while I train at the pool. They did have fun at the kid area although you wouldn't know it from this picture. :)


I've also decided to dedicate doing this triathalon to my dad. The triathalon is 15 days before what would have been his 64th birthday and ironically father's day too. My dad is the reason I am athletic today. He's the one that got me involved in sports and running and of course softball which was my life for so many years. He came to every game he could and it was hard for him when I started going out of town so much that he couldn't be there to watch my games. Even after high school softball and accelerated softball were over I played in a little rec. league with some friends for fun and I can still remember him pacing near the bleachers in the freezing cold in his brown leather coat trying to keep warm. It didn't matter the competition. He just loved to watch me play. He kept our family active and taught us to live life. He always had something new he was trying or doing. He was full of life and excitement and I miss him like crazy. I seriously can't believe it's been 8.5 yrs. since he passed.

Since Christmas is over I had some time to do some sewing I wanted. I found instructions for a car seat pattern and I had instructions on how to do a rag quilt from a Super Saturday years ago that I never did anything with. And I've been wanting to see if I could put the two together and here's what I came up with.




We also went to the Aquarium in Sandy. I think Korver loved it more than anyone! At least the fish exhibit. He didn't care too much for anything that didn't move.

Seeing the eels.

And we got to pet a sting ray too! That was actually pretty cool. I couldn't believe how soft and velvety it was.

And sorry for the lack of pictures. But thanks for letting me blab away and hopefully next month will be a little more exciting!

Oh What Fun!

Well this month has been packed to say the least. We had birthdays, snow, Christmas, and Neil and I experienced what it means to shop til you drop as we went Black Friday shopping. We started at 11:00 thanksgiving night and shopped all night and went to bed at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Now that was fun.

We had A LOT of fun in the snow this month.


We got almost 2 feet just a few days before Christmas which was awesome!


And what do you do with that much snow? Pack it down and make a slide out of it!



We also had fun making snowmen and mazes

And a HUGE snowball with Dad

I took my niece and nephew for a few days and took them sledding.

And of course we had to go again when Dad could come. Amazing camera job, I know.




It was also Cole's 4th birthday this month and he had his first birthday party. We did a pirate theme and played walk the plank, pin the patch on the pirate, and went on a treasure hunt. Here's a pic of Cole and his friends Cameron and Josh after the party was over. I forgot to take a picture of everyone..... of course.

And he wanted a "Cars" cake so wahlah.... I tried
We also celebrated Neil's birthday this month (he won't let me divulge his age, but he's getting old) and his brother Austin left for his mission.

And of course Christmas. All Cole wanted for Christmas was a train table. So Santa tried to disguise it by putting a blanket over it but we thought Cole would notice it right away since that was what he would be looking for. Boy were we wrong. To give him some credit we do normally have a table there. This is right as Cole comes down Christmas morning. Notice he even SITS on the table. Just watch the first part of the movie.



It was so heart breaking to see Cole disappointed thinking he didn't get the train table but he was still happy and up beat and ready to open presents. And the first one he opened was PJs! Lame! I'm surprised he didn't burst into tears. I told Cole all season that the only way he would get a train table was if it was a REALLY good boy. So notice what Cole says once he discovers the table. Parent bribery at its best.Again this movie is long so just watch the first part.



My family also did a short re-enactment of the manger scene and Cole got to be a shepherd.


And Korver has got the camera thing all figured out. Whenever you put the camera up to take a picture of him he says cheese and gives the cheesiest smile he could possibly give. I think it's so funny.



And we were so excited that my sister Christy and her hubby Jorge came to visit. They even made a trip down to our house along with some of my family and we had a early New Years Eve bash. We had so much fun with you and Jorge, Chris! We miss you!



And someday I'll grow up.... not sure when, but someday.


We also went bowling at Fat Cats with my fam

And I included this picture as this one of my big projects of the month. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with our huge wall so we hung the frames and vinyl and I also decided to get all "Martha Stewarty" and make my own bow and streamers for our Christmas tree. Although you can't see the tree very well in this picture. Especially the gold.

And YAY!!!! this month is OVER!!! As much fun as it was I'm beat!

October Overload

I apologize for the long post! I TRY to blog once a month so when I do I always feel like I'm cramming everything in. So I'll try and not be too wordy.

We were able to go out one last time on the boat with some of our best friends before they move to Washington. The weather was beautiful! Too cold to ski but it was a gorgeous night and we had fun hanging out on the boat and fishing.

The Wassoms. They were one of the first families we met down here. It was crazy because Neil and Brent served their mission together in London and so they already knew each other. I quickly became friends with Orendia and we've had so many good times with this family. Not to mention that Cole LOVES their two boys. We are going to miss you Wassoms!

The sunset that night on the lake was absolutely gorgeous!

Even if we didn't catch anything fishing.

And Neil and I with his brother and my sister and brother went biking up behind the Draper Temple. The ride was so pretty and fun once you got in the mountain deeper and the view of the temple from here was awesome.

Neil and his brother Austin.

See it is pretty deep in the mountain even if my family and I are retarded and can't figure out how to pose for a pic.

Neil and I also celebrated our 6th anniversary this month. I woke up to this cute yummy note from him. And Neil's not big into the big mushy stuff (and let's face it neither am I) but I love you more than anything babe! Happy Anniversary!

Cole went on a field trip to the big red barn with his preschool class that Korver and I got to go to too. Here's Cole's cute preschool class.

He got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, go on a wagon ride, and find his way through a maze.

They even had a cute miniature red barn that I took the boys picture at.

And what's October without caramel apples? YUM!

We went to a Halloween carnival where Cole got to meet a pirate on his boat, go on rides and play games. Although Cole was pretty scared of this boat and was off as quickly as he got on.


We also had our 2nd annual pumpkin carving party with a bunch of Neil's co-workers and their families.
And I was too enthralled with carving my pumpkin that I forgot to take pictures again! At least I got a picture of the mess. It's amazing how messy 20 people in one house can be.

And Cory is always willing to give me a good pose. Hard to believe he's a father of 4.

On Halloween poor Neil was pretty pooped from working so much lately that he crashed on the couch. So Cole took the liberty to dress him up all by himself.

Cole's Halloween party at preschool. He's at the very end.

Here we are right before trick-or-treating. I vow that next year I will have a better costume!


Cole is quite the ladies man. He already has 1 girlfriend but when he saw Ali all dressed up as a pumpkin princess he just couldn't resist her. I caught these two holding hands walking towards the playground. Taryn and Sadie are going to be heart broken!

Cole's Trick-or-Treating buddy Cameron.

Our pumpkins

And I celebrated my 27th birthday this month. Ahhhh!!! 30 is going to be here before I know it.

Neil was so sweet and made me think that my family wasn't coming down for my b-day. But they surprised me instead. And here is my newest nephew. Check out his hair! It naturally goes into a foe-hawk! It's awesome!

Look at this cool Halloween cake Neil made me. I wish he had more time cuz I'd make him do the boy's birthday cakes as sadly he would do a much better job than me.


And last of all I spent a late night with Korver in the ER this month. I was removing my nail polish and left the cap off the nail polish remover bottle (go me) and sure enough Korver came over thinking a yummy blue drink was just sitting there for him and started drinking it up. I couldn't tell how much he had drank because so much of it had spilled but I called poison control and they told me that if he had drank even an ounce it could be trouble. So they told me to go to the ER which I did and they monitored him for a few hours but luckily everything was ok. Whew! So there's my parenting moment for the month. :)

For Real?

Here's a recap of September for ya

I seriously can't belive this guy is 1 already! This past year went by crazy fast!

And he's already into a lot more trouble than his bigger brother ever was.

The little guy has started walking too thanks to all the help from his big brother.

For his birthday I made his cake. It was my first layered cake I'd ever made and also my first MM Fondant cake I'd ever made. Definitely room for improvement but I was still pleased.

Happy 1st Birthday Big Guy!!

We also got the chance to go on a trip to Zions and St. George with Neil's fam this month.

And one of these handsome guys just got his mission to Little Rock Arkansas! Congrats Austin! Still hard for me to believe he's already going on a mission. This guy was in elementary school when I met him! He leaves Dec. 15th.

We had planned to take Austin to Angel's Landing but it was closed for the day :( So we did a bunch of other random hikes. Still beautiful no matter where you were. And I love how the animals are not afraid of people!

Cole and Korver got to hang out with Neil's parents. Apparently it was a bit too much fun for Korver.

And I'm thinking I should have hung out with them too. I was super jealous Cole actually got to see a trantula. I've never seen one out in the wild! (I need to get out more apparently)








And thanks to Neil's parents we were able to leave the kids and go to "Crazy for You" at Tuacahn. Absoultely Love Tuacahn!

That's just mean Mom!

On the way home we took a needed break at Cove Fort. Cole thought it was pretty cool that you got to climb up to the top of the fort.

Other Happenings This Month

My brother Brett and his wife Tiffany had their first baby boy in September. Keaton Darl Cook. (Sorry your picture is so small Brett and Tiff. It's just the way it uploaded. I'm not trying to play favorites) :)


And Neil's sister Monica had her 4th baby. Little Ava Grace Lambert. She had quite the time getting here. The nurses at the hospital did less than their job and Monica ended up giving birth without any doctors or nurses in the room. She wasn't even in the pushing position and the baby came out on the bed. Her husband quickly rushed out to get the doctor and nurses and amazingly everything was o.k. Needless to say their hospital bill was cut dramatically.




AND we found out on our trip that Clint and Rachel (parents of the triplet boys) are expecting again!! Congrats!

And our tomatoes sure took their time getting here this year but they've come in with a bang . (I swear every year we have something weird grow in our garden.)