Merry Christmas!

I was planning on sending Christmas cards with this picture, but I realize that I just can't get everything done and that is one of the things I will have to let go. We just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we hope you are all doing well especially a Merry Christmas to Elder Cook in Argentina. We loved getting Christmas cards from everyone.

If you are following our blog I suppose you know how we are doing and what we have been up to this past year. As of recent Cloie and Kyler have both been sick with the flu and Kyler has had repeated ear infections. I have been called to serve in the primary as 2nd counselor. I am very excited for this. Mike had a birthday and so we celebrated by going bowling and out to dinner. That was fun. Busy busy and so I am very excited for Mike to have some time off for Christmas and to just enjoy each other and do some reflection.

Garage sale,Mike's embarrassed, and Christmas lights

Kyler started a garage sale in his room during nap time and Keagan and Samantha joined in by making signs. They had a great time playing and we thought that it was cute enough to share. I can't believe I paid twenty dollars for a book even pretending. Ha Ha. We love to go to garage sales.

I successfully embarrassed Mike yesterday by asking the Sales clerk at Home Depot if they had quilting clamps. He said "don't say quilting in the hardware store." He then asked the clerk if they had metal clamps. I guess Mike knew where they were he was just taking his time getting to them.

We have been enjoying the Christmas season and we like to drive around and see other people's lights. Every year we plan on getting some lights up ourselves and it hasn't happened the last two years. Mike told me that when he was a kid he thought that people who didn't put lights up were "retards" (strong word). I guess we fall into that category again.

Christmas Concert

Keagan had a concert this last week. This is the best video we were able to get. It is shaky but it's the best Mike could do with a restless two year old next to him. Check out the kid on the top row. He was being funny the whole time. Keagan said this is the song that would make me cry. Keagan is in the middle with a white shirt and tie. The blond girl to the left of him is Chloe the girl in our carpool. I think the next time we will get a babysitter for Kyler and Cloie because it was pretty tough. Cloie kept kicking the lady in front of us and Kyler kept yelling "I'm hungry!"

Thanksgiving

We had a fun thanksgiving. Mom and Dad and Kaylee arrived Wednesday night after braving the long drive. Once they drove into Phoenix they got so excited that they were almost here, and it is still a long drive to get to our house. For them it was even longer with the Thanksgiving traffic. They still get turned around trying to find the place and I understand. It has taken me a long time not to get lost out here. It isn't like Utah where the streets are numbered and the roads are in blocks.

Jeff and Darren arrived in the wee hours of the morning. Their drive was much faster, but they did experience some paparazzi cameras along the 60 (speeding camera's). I never can tell if they are all jokes or not, but I hope that they don't get a bunch of tickets.

I'm so glad everyone came and we had a great time. I think I missed an ingredient in my rolls because they weren't very good. Everyone still eat them though. (How nice) I made too many pies which shouldn't be a bad thing except that I keep eating the leftovers and that isn't so good for my figure. Everyone pitched in to make a wonderful meal. Kyler wanted to have his corn put on top of his potatoes just like Uncle Darren and that was cute. We eat about 12:30 and before we dug in we read a great long letter from Uncle Jason who is on a mission in Argentina. It was special, and for me, emotional. If you are reading this Elder Cook thanks and we miss you. We are thankful that you are serving a mission. Keagan also recited his poem. It rained a lot and the We have so much to be thankful for and even more for a wonderful weekend.
We caught some Black Friday sales, but nothing too exciting. Mom and Dad watched the kids while Jeff, Darren, Kaylee, Mike and I went out to do more shopping later that night. On Saturday Mom and Dad took us to the movie Bolt and then out to lunch and that was a blast. The movie is cute. I missed a little of it because Anika was too loud.
While at home the boys played some video games and we played some Scrabble and stayed up too late visiting and joking. Mom brought some hand-me-downs for Cloie from Aunt Mary and she loved trying them all on. She is such a girl. It rained a lot and the kids kept getting all muddy and we were scrounging for shoes because they had gotten them all wet.

Mom and Dad bought us a bunch of food for Christmas and they brought a load of bottled peaches from their peach tree and a box of apples. What a great Christmas gift. They have all gone home now and it is sad to see them leave. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family and hope that everyone had a great holiday too. We miss you all.

Thankful Prayer

For clothes, and books, and toys, and for my family

and when I was sad I thank Thee for helping me

I'm thankful for the cat that always comes into my yard

and with Thy help I know I can do things that are hard

I'm thankful for my pillow and the chance to go to school

I'm thankful for my teachers and my friends that are so cool

I kneel before Thee Lord tonight and express this simple prayer

for everything that Thou hast given me and to know that Thou art there

We spoke in church on the 23rd and Samantha and Keagan also spoke. They did such a good job. The topic of gratitude was a blessing to help us remember all of the things we have to be thankful for. Samantha read a story from the Friend magazine and Keagan recited this poem that we made up. Our memory card isn't very long so in the video he got cut off, but it got most of it. We drew pictures so that he could remember the parts of the poem and he didn't recite it word for word, but he gave me courage because if he can get up in front of all those people then so could I. A lot of people thought he was reading because they have made comments about how young he is to read so well. We then explain that it was just pictures.

To explain about the cat, we have had a neighbors cat that loves to come into our yard and the first week we called the owner and explained that the cat Cleo is always in our yard. The owner said that she is having a hard time keeping her in so if she is bothering us to scare her off somehow. Well, she keeps coming back and I thought at first it was wonderful that the kids had a pet to play with and we didn't have to feed or take care of it. I am allergic to cats, but as long as it stays outside I should be OK. I have heard that cats are good for keeping scorpions away too, which we have a problem with. Well, the kids love Cleo and I can't believe that she keeps putting up with them picking her up and bugging her. I have been wondering if I still like the situation though because I have had to pick up some of her droppings and she does try to come in the house occasionally. She waits by the door to sneak in. I guess we will see what happens.

We love Cousin Gavin

Gavin came over to play last week and I took these cute pictures of the boys. I was trying to get Cloie to join them, so I could show you how tall she is, but she didn't want to do pictures. Gavin pulled this huge weed/tree out of our yard. Thanks Gavin you are so strong!

A Dino-mite time

If you have been reading our blog you know that Kyler has been so excited for his party. He turned four on the 19th and he wanted to go to the movie theaters so we went to see Wall-e at the $2 theater with Helena, Gavin, and Brody. On Saturday we had a little friend party. I had some organized activities like pin the tail on the dinosaur, a dinosaur egg hunting, and making fossils in play dough. Mostly the kids wanted to do their own thing. I'm thinking four years old is a little young for a friend birthday party. Thanks to Mom and Dad Parker we received a new camera as an early Christmas present. I'm glad we were able to get some pictures.

Rodents of unusual size

Well we have a pack rat in the house and a gopher in the yard. The gopher is real and we hope that Mike took care of him on Saturday. He bought some poison and something to smoke it/them out. The pack rat I think, is really my two year old little girl. She has started stashing things under the couches and in laundry baskets. Sometimes they are important things like camera's and cell phones. It has been a little frustrating, but I think I know her spots now so I look there first when I'm missing something. The camera has been dropped one to many times and was shorting out on us. It would work sometimes and sometimes not. I have been trying to get a video of Anika and her almost crawl. I think it will not happen because she is pretty much crawling.

When I posted the other pictures I was in a hurry, so here are some more with smiles. We took advantage of Helena's cute set up in front of her house. The kids really did not want to get there picture taken they wanted to go play with Gavin's toys. One cute thing that happened while trick or treating....There was a skeleton head on a stick in someones yard and Kyler said, "I love you!" and gave it a kiss. My funny little Kyler.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween. I made Mike a chicken costume and he won best costume at work. I was dressed like a cow and everyone thought I was a pig. Samantha was a mouse, Keagan was Spiderman, Cloie was a "pincess"butterfly, and Anika was a pumpkin and she did not like it at all. Kyler was waiting for a year to be a pirate because that is what Keagan was last year he wanted to hold the coveted sword. We were invited to Chris and Helena's for pizza and trick-o-treating and it was a lot of fun. And now, how to monitor all that sugar? We hope everyone had a great and safe Halloween.

Laughing

We all love to make Anika Laugh. I know I already posted a video of Anika laughing, but she laughs alot and it is so fun.

Schnepf Farms on fall break

The kids had the week off of school and we wanted to do something fun. Mike took a half day off work Thursday and we went to Schnepf Farms. They have a Pumpkin and chili festival in October and lots of activities on the farm. We had so much fun, we hope we can make it a tradition. We played miniature golf, rode on rides, watched pig races and a dog show, petted farm animals and roasted marshmallows. My favorite was the off road bikes. they had ones for a single person and then a two pedal bike for four people.

Maybe We Should Build An Ark

My sweet little Cloie, oh my sweet little girl. NOT! This is the second time she has flooded the bathroom. Yesterday I fed the kids peanut butter and jelly and then told them to wash up in the bathroom while I was feeding the baby. They did and then we left to take Keagan to school. We were gone maybe 30 minutes and I came home to water flowing out of the bathroom sink. It had reached the Kitchen table and the refrigerator. She had plugged the sink and left the hot water running and shut the door. I quickly called Mike and in a panic I asked him how to switch the shop vac to suck up water (I just had to take off the filter.)as the kids began to splash in the puddles and I'm yelling for them to go upstairs. I put Kyler and Cloie down for a nap and Anika just had to cry. She wanted to be held and she could probably feel the stress in the air. I started vacuuming up the water. I was thinking "This is not working! The water is not going away." Then the shop vac started to sound different and I realized that it was full. I used every towel (OK not every towel just 19 of them) in the house and I emptied the shop vac twice and it has a 12 gallon bucket. Turns out that all of our sinks do not have those little holes at the top that are for draining in this situation. Our carpet is still drying. It soaked three feet into the living room all the way under the stairs closet and a little bit of the sitting room. I hope we don't have any rot or mildew problems. I was still cleaning up when Mike came home all stressed out an hour early. The whole time I was telling myself, "It could have been worse. It could have been worse." Mike thought it was worse. He thought that I was talking about the upstairs bathroom. Can you imagine!! Nate and Sarah had their basement flood with feet of water last February and I was thinking of them as I was cleaning up my inches of water. We can be thankful that most everything in the closet was in buckets or on a shelf and nothing important was damaged. Some of our 72 hour kit stuff was wet, but now we know that we need to put the oatmeal and hot chocolate packets in baggies in case we have a real natural disaster. So what do you think, should I build an ark? I can't believe I didn't hear the water running.

Conference weekend

Yesterday we attended a children's theater production of Cinderella at the Hale Center Theater. Helena and Gavin came with us and we all had a great time. The children's favorite character was probably the dog. We missed a little bit of conference, but Mike recorded it for us. Mike stayed home and watched Anika and enjoyed a little bit of peace and quiet and opportunity for reflection which is not typical of our conference enjoyment. He really had a great time too. Keagan came home and decided to create a musical play of Cars in his bedroom closet. Very cute!

Today we have been enjoying conference, playing conference Bingo, and practicing our primary parts for the upcoming program. It is so exciting to listen to the inspired words and renew our excitement for God's great work. I just feel Happy.

What should I be when I grow up?

Or should I say when the kids grow up? All I ever wanted to be is a mother when I grew up. I have been blessed with five beautiful kids and the learning and growing is never ending with this full time job. I have also been blessed to be able to stay at home. Sometimes I think about getting a part time job or doing something extra to bring in a little money and I always conclude with the same answer. I know that me being a full time mom is the best choice for our family at this time. Someday hopefully we will get, to pay for missions, college, weddings and it's likely that will mean that I will need to work while kids are in school since we don't play the lottery. I have thought of a few things that I might like to do when the kids grow up:
I have bachelors in Family and Human development and the original plan with that was to teach preschool or go on to get my masters in counseling. Either to be a family counselor or a middle school counselor. I have since decided that I don't want to be a preschool teacher. I did my practicum with a middle school counselor and my only concern is that I tend to want to fix things and I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to leave the worry about students at work. I would probably take it home too.
For a few years I have wanted to write a children's book and even though I have some ideas I am not sure how to go about it and illustrations would be a problem too. And then it is probably a flooded market and I couldn't count that as a money maker.
I really enjoyed working as a receptionist in Dr. Gray's office so I could do something like that. I don't like the idea of not being home when the kids are home so it would be hard finding an office that closed at 3:00
This is a funny one, but I love the store Target and I think it would be fun to work there, but not necessarily the holidays. I usually shop Wallmart but if I could, I would go to Target all the time. They even have carts that can hold three children.
I also have an interest in nutrition, but I think the chemistry part of it scares me and it means I would have to do a lot more schooling I think.
This is probably not a serious thought but when I was in the hospital with Anika I thought that I would love to be in the nursery with all of the little babies. When I was in first grade I wanted to be a nurse.
I love the theater and so being a theater major was a dream at one time. I'm not sure what I could do with it though.
So, What do you think I should be when I grow up?

Happy Birthday!

AND



We were taking these pictures so we could make birthday cards for our cousin Colton and our great Aunt Bean. Our printer is out of photo ink and so that didn't happen but we still wanted to put the shout out.

Happy Birthday! September 27th

Pig tails

We are famous for growing very little hair in the first few years of life. It is always a topic of conversation with friends and strangers, but especially with Cloie because she is so tall and has been the slowest to grow hair. Well we put pig tails in this week and granted the bows are to big and they fell out before lunch but, Cloie was very excited to do her hair and so was I. She is always begging me to put the barrettes in and it is hard to tell her that we can't there just isn't anything to keep them in.

Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow, PLEASE!

We planted our garden last weekend and we worked so hard on it. I hope it grows. We are a week or two late in planting and Mike was still sick, but I know we couldn't have done it without his strong muscles. There were so many weeds to clear. I just planned an Enrichment night on gardening in Arizona and I was so excited to try and get our garden going. The kids love putting the seeds in the ground and Anika loved getting her feet in the dirt so the kids berried her feet.

The saying fits; "She is growing like a weed." We went to the doctor this week for her check up and she is in the 90th percentile for height and 80th for her weight.