Goodbye 2008

Today I feel like I have to blog, but I have a very bad headache, so this will be short--probably.

2008 - It's time to say goodbye to another year and look forward to what God has in store for us in the new year. So much has happened this past year and we have so much to be thankful for.

2009 - What will this year hold? We know of one major adjustment that we will deal with--Tom starting college! This weekend we'll be traveling down to Texas for New Student Orientation at SAGU. Not sure we're ready for the commitment this is going to take, but we're gonna give it a try. Tom will be starting with only two classes so hopefully this will give us an idea of how it will work.

I really don't care to do New Year's resolutions--that way I don't have to worry about breaking them :-)

So there are my last ramblings for 2008. Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry it's been a little while since I've blogged. It's been a very busy time for us (and for many of you too!). So I will be going back a little ways to share what we've been up to.

About a week and a half ago we went and drove around looking at Christmas lights and enjoyed the Drive-Thru Lights that a church here in the Springs had put up. Gregory really enjoyed looking at them too. There was also a live nativity and real sheep there too.

Then there was lots of shopping to do to prepare for Christmas since Gregory and I would be out of town for a little bit before Christmas.

Last Thursday, Gregory and I flew up to Minnesota to be with my family for a few days for an early Christmas. There was a houseful at my sister's when everyone had arrived. It was my parents, my grandma, my aunt and uncle (from Montana), my brother and his wife and two daughters, my sister and her husband and two boys and then Gregory and I. We had fun eating, playing and just relaxing. Of course there were presents and yummy homemade treats too. The highlight of the gifts were the marshmallow shooters--the guys all got these--but I tried Tom's out for him :-) Sorry there aren't any pictures--I was busy playing! My parents, grandma and aunt & uncle left on Sunday morning since my dad was singing in the Christmas Cantata back home at church. I got to enjoy a church service with Raquel & Bryan - we were reminded about the gifts that were brought to Jesus after His birth...and the pastor expounded on what those gifts could compare to today--gold (finances/money), frankincense (our worship) and myrrh (our trials and troubles). On Monday, we (Raquel's family and Gregory & I) me Kirk's family at the Minnesota Children's Museum where we spent all day. All of the kids (big and little) had a great time here. Clifford the Big Red Dog was there that day as well, so this was an extra special treat. Here are a couple of pics of the kids having fun! Of course there are tons more pictures at our picture website if you've got time. www.tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com

Gregory did great on all the flights, in the airports and with the minor delays. We are glad to be home and looking forward to celebrating Christmas as a family tomorrow since Tom will be off.

A Relaxing Day Shopping

Today Tom had the day off so we took off and went up to Denver to go to a few stores we don't have in our area. The Container Store was one of them...so much fun to see what they have!

Then we also went to the Park Meadows Mall...it was crazy busy but we still enjoyed our window shopping. We stopped at Wetzel Pretzel to get a snack in the afternoon and Tom and I were figuring out what to get and I was getting something for Gregory to eat and I learned a valuable lesson...make sure he's awake if you are getting him something to eat :-) He had fallen asleep in the stroller - yes, a very relaxing time for him today.

Playing in the Snow

The other day it was finally nice enough for Gregory to get outside and play. So I got him all bundled up (thankful that he can't say he has to go potty yet). Then out we went!




















We made a little snowman since that's all the snow we could get to stick together--it had a coating of ice on top of it.
After swinging and playing in the snow we got out the wagon to go for a walk while we waited for Tom to come home.

It's Christmas Time

You can sure tell it's Christmas time all around us...yeah there is snow every other day (or so it seems), but there is also Christmas music on the radio, lights on many houses and Christmas parties!

Yesterday Gregory and I went to a Christmas party for him and some of his friends. It was a fun time. It was our pastor's wife, our youth pastor's wife and me along with our kiddos. We ate yummy food, opened some gifts and sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus".

Gregory has been enjoying playing with his nativity and looking at our pretty Christmas tree too.


























We continue to get more and more snow, so there is hope that Gregory will get to go play out in it as well...but not today it is way too cold! Brrrrrrrrrr. But it sure is pretty to look at from inside.

Thanksgiving Pt 2

The other post was getting too long so here's a second part to Thanksgiving.

The turkey turned out wonderful and Tom got the pleasure of carving it.


Gregory got to enjoy his first Thanksgiving with "real" food. He enjoyed most of it and like the jellied cranberries most.


It's amazing what a wonderful meal can be prepared with a bunch of stuff from boxes and cans :-)
Before

After

As always you can go to our shutterfly page to see more pictures! http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

As Thanksgiving Day 2008 is winding down I'll reflect upon the day...wow, that just doesn't sound like me...so here are some thoughts about today...

Like many people we watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then let Gregory watch his first Christmas movie - The Star of Christmas (a Veggietale movie).

After Gregory's nap he got to open a special toy - his Little People nativity set. I am sure there will be quite a few years of enjoyment with this toy. He is just getting into playing with his Little People Airplane he has, so this is great timing.



Due to a last minute change of plans we had Thanksgiving at home this year, so last night I went out to get the turkey and then prayed this morning I'd get it thawed out. After over 5 hours in a cold water bath the turkey was finally unthawed enough to cook.

While the turkey was cooking we decorated our Christmas tree and set up some nativity scenes. Can you have too many reminders of what Christmas is really about? One of the nativity scenes is a carved wooden one from Garmisch, Germany. The other one is the Playmobil nativity set that we got while we were in Germany too. The Playmobil one has a billion pieces or so it seems, but it is so awesome and so many more real things (like the cats at the nativity).



Of course today was one of many memories and moments of reminiscing. Some of the things we remembered were the different places we were for Thanksgiving (with Bryan & Raquel before going to Germany, with our church family at the Thanksgiving Retreat, with Brian & Amanda--and the ham juice incident, etc.) And when were were taking out the ornaments there were even more memories. We opened many ornaments for the first time since we weren't able to decorate our Christmas tree last year (we were packing to move back to the USA). There were ornaments from London, a map of Germany, one which said Merry Christmas in French, one in German, and then there was one from when we were pregnant with Gregory and so many others. I know Christmas is a special time because Jesus was born, but it also is special because there are always so many wonderful memories wrapped up in this holiday.

I pray that you will create more memories this year as we will too. This year I am so thankful for memories and many of you are in them. Thank you.

not much

I know there are a couple of you out there wondering what's up with my lack of blogging. Actually I don't even know where the last couple of weeks have gone or what we even have done - obviously nothing too big to report here.

Since the past weekend both Tom and I haven't been feeling very well - colds and sinus problems. And then our weather has been pretty nice too, so we've been outside when we have felt like it.

Oh we did go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate our friend's son's birthday - that was a good time and I think Gregory enjoyed it even more this time than the first time (back in April for his first birthday).

Also I made some more applesauce in my crockpot. Peeling 17 apples by hand is hard work - I need to find a peeler that does it for me :-)

Oh and I never posted about Gregory's dr. appt...it all went well. He got three shots - threw up in the evening - I'm pretty sure this is a normal reaction and wasn't a surprise since it happened last time too. He is 23 lbs. 9 oz. and is 33 1/2 inches tall. The dr. said he is in the 25th percentile for weight, but not to be concerned and is in the 50-75th percentile in height. So he's taking after his daddy, tall and thin .

Challenging times

Lately I have been trying to come up with things for Gregory to do throughout a day. He's only allowed one movie a day because he'd watch them all day long if we'd let him. I think there are more stimulating things out there for him to do other than sit in front of the tv.

So I have been on a quest to find those things. Here's what I've come up with so far...do you have any other ideas?

• play in the leaves (and there are tons of them in our yard!)
• play in his sandbox (but it's getting to cold for this one much longer)
• play with playdough
• help me bake something
• coloring
• playing on the computer (at playhousedisney.com)

I am sure there are other things we do, but for right now, I can't think of them. One of these days we'll try finger painting, just not right now :-)

Yesterday I painted Gregory's hand, so we could make his handprint on paper for my mom. He thought that was pretty neat...to have paint on his hands and when we ask him where his handprint is he points to the papers that were on the fridge to dry.

Yesterday Gregory also go to play with playdough for the first time at home. This was a fun time and it shows that he is growing up.

Tomorrow is MOPS in the morning and then Gregory has his 18 month check up in the afternoon, so I'll post more tomorrow.

Gregory's half year birthday

Monday, was another milestone for Gregory. He's now 18 months old. He's learning more and more and growing bigger and bigger. In fact, he thinks he's so big that he thinks he should be able to type this up, so he's climbed up on my lap to help me. Crazy kid.

His favorite thing to do lately is watch movies. He loves Veggietales! He still likes Mickey Mouse and is adding to his favorites a few more...Dora, Diego, Wonderpets and Little Einsteins. And of course every sales add has at least one of these in it, so he loves to window shop :-)

On Nov 7th, Gregory has his 18 month check up, so we'll update you after that appt too. He is getting a couple of more teeth right now too - we still need to get him to a dentist for his first check-up. See the two open places in his mouth, that's where the two new teeth are coming in. So then all he will be missing on top are his molars. I'm sure the bottom teeth (in the same area as on top) are not too far behind in coming in either.



I haven't been doing monthly pictures of Gregory, so here's his 18 month photos. Very cute boy, don't you think? These pictures were taken in our backyard.

Acts of Kindness

When was the last time somebody did something nice for you, just because? Last week I had one of those experiences. It really felt like there was an angel right there in Wal-mart. When Gregory and I were in line to pay for our groceries a couple of ladies walked up to Gregory and asked if he could have a sucker. I said sure and took it for later (maybe). Then the lady went on to say that she had something for me too. The two ladies were from a local church and they were just out looking for people to bless. Amazing. She handed me a gift card for Wal-mart and said it was to help pay for the groceries we were buying. Wow! I thought how neat, it's probably like $5 which is nice, but I was surprised when it came up to $10 off my total. What a blessing from God. I had purposed when I went to the store that I was going to keep my total below a certain amount and this gift card helped do this.

So this reminded me to do something for someone I appreciate...so I picked the pastors of our church. I made blessing baskets for each of them. All eight of them! In the baskets I put four different kinds of breads (zucchini, banana, applesauce and pumpkin). They turned out really cute.

This was also an opportunity for Gregory to help me for the first time in the kitchen. He loves to stir, stir, stir :-)

Random Thoughts

I really don't know what to blog about today, but I do have some pretty awesome photos I want to share, so maybe I can come up with words to go along with the pictures...


Here is a photo from when Tom opened his birthday presents on his birthday...he's reading the card from Gregory. Gregory loved helping Tom open the presents. Christmas here I come - that was great practice!



While I was busy baking, Tom and Gregory were goofing off with the camera. I LOVE THIS PHOTO! Don't think it needs any explanation. :-)

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, so we played outside--there was swinging, playing in leaves and Gregory even tried to help rake a few too.

A busy weekend is past

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted...sorry. This past weekend was a busy one. It started with Friday morning we had MOPS. Our speaker spoke about "Joy". I know I sure could use some more in my life - but I also know that it's my choice to have more joy in my life, so I'm seeking God about this. Our craft was YUMMY caramel apples.



Then Friday night we celebrated Tom's birthday (a few days early). We had some friends of ours over along with their kiddos. It was a great time of visiting and just hanging out. On Tom's actual birthday (Wednesday) he'll get to open his cards and gifts from Gregory and I. So more to come about this event.



On Saturday we went to what was called a "Pumpkin Patch"...actually the pumpkins were in a bunch of big boxes. Crazy. There were other things to do there too. There were goats to pet, a hay bale maze to go through, slides to go down, tractors to sit on and a corn box to play in (like a sandbox) and of course we got a pumpkin to bring home.







As always there are more pictures on our shutterfly site... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Today I tried another new recipe. It was soooo delicious! Gregory even ate quite a bit of it. I hope Tom enjoys it tomorrow when he gets to eat the leftovers.

Here's a picture of my yummy supper.


And here's the recipe....this makes a ton of food...I will probably cut it in half next time. Says it makes 6 servings (at least).

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1" pieces ( I used one medium breast and one small one)
Salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons margarine
1 onion, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces ziti (2 1/2 cups) or elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream (I substituted this with half & half)
1 bunch broccoli (1 1/2 pounds) (I used a 16 oz. bag of frozen broccoli rinsed in water to unthaw it).
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (1/2 cup) ( I just used a half cup of the stuff in the parmesan cheese shaker)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Pat the chicken dry, then season with salt and pepper. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until it is lightly browned, but not fully cooked, about four minutes. Transfer chicken to a bowl. Add 1 more tablespoon of the butter, onion, red pepper flakes, oregano, & 1/2 teaspoon salt to the skillet. Cook until the onion is softened, about five minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Sprinkle the ziti evenly into the skillet. Pour the broth and cream over the ziti. Cover and bring to a boil, about five minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the broccoli and roasted red peppers. Cover and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta begins to soften and the broccoli turns bright green (approximately eight minutes). Stir in the chicken and any accumulated juice. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about three minutes longer. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, the Parmesan, and lemon juice (if using). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Rock Ledge Ranch

Today Tom and Pastor Scott (our youth pastor) went to go check out a possible winter retreat location--it was about two hours away. So Gregory and I went to a Harvest Festival at Rock Ledge Ranch. Gregory got to ride a pony for the first time, we watched a blacksmith make a nail and we watched some other people make apple cider. I got some great pictures too, so check them out...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Here are a couple of my favorites...

Gregory looking at the pony that he would eventually ride.

Gregory wandered around the "fake" pumpkin patch trying to roll all the pumpkins around.


Here's Gregory and I after his first pony ride


This is how picturesque the location of the ranch is.


We'll go get a pumpkin next weekend hopefully with Tom.

MOPS Blog

Here's what I have been up to. Check out my "other" blog. I've been busy getting this blog going and keeping it up. I create the powerpoint slides for each meeting and during the meetings me and Amber take all of the pictures along with trying to enjoy MOPS at the same time.

Here's the website for our church's MOPS blog.

http://radiantchurchmops.blogspot.com

Our Trip to Missouri

Yesterday we got back from a week in Missouri. That's why there hasn't been any blogging for a little while. We got to visit Tom's mom and his sister, Beth, and her family. It was a time of fun and work! The work part was Tom painting at his mom's house and Roxanne working on Betty's computer. Not sure whose job was more difficult! Unfortunately there was some sickness stuff too when we were gone. Gregory had a cold before we left and it lead to him throwing up frequently, Matthew and Beth were sick the day before we arrived and then Makayla and Mark got a little of it later when we were there and Betty wasn't feeling well either...I think everyone is feeling good now, so that's good. I also got to visit with my friend, Carla who lives in Springfield, so this was nice to catch up with her and see her new place where she is living.

While we were there we got to celebrate our brother-in-law, Rob's birthday as well as our niece, Makayla's first birthday. Beth made some VERY yummy food and a delicious Peanut Butter Pie. YUM! It was fun to watch Makayla open her presents and to see the cousins playing together. Matthew (who will be five in November) and Gregory got along great! Matthew loves attention and Gregory was very willing to laugh at his craziness. Mark is more timid but shared his toys with Gregory too. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so we have no pictures from our time together :-(

Here are a couple of pictures from our time with Betty...





Also on the way back we got a hotel with a swimming pool...it was a Super 8 hotel and it seemed more like a Holiday Inn Express or something so much nicer. Maybe it's because the hotel we got on the way to Missouri wasn't so nice. Anyways, our stay in Salina, KS was a very wonderful one. Gregory took a little while to enjoy the time in the swimming pool, even though this was like his third time in a pool. So I am hoping to start taking him more often to a pool so he can get more used to it and enjoy it more. Here's a photo of Tom and Gregory in the pool.

Garden Update

It's been a little while since I've given an garden update so here's a new one :-)

Our zucchini is doing awesome! I've made one chocolate zucchini cake so far and need to make some muffins and bread, maybe tomorrow, we'll see. I've also made a couple of side dishes with it too. I really like zucchini. I know it sometimes seems like it's the vegetable you can't get rid of, but I am glad we are getting quite a few from our plants. In fact, I've even shared some with our neighbor (along with some recipes). Below is a picture of Tom & Gregory with our HUGE zucchini from our garden!


The tomatoes are doing ok too...Gregory doesn't let us keep them around too long to come up with very many cherry or pear ones. He loves to eat the yellow and red ones fresh from the garden. Same with the peas...which are almost all done.

The carrots are getting bigger, I think we'll leave these in as long as we can because they are still too small for much.

We get a few pieces of lettuce whenever we need some and that is nice.

The pepper plants blossomed not too long ago again and now the peppers are looking pretty good, so I think we might get a couple of those finally too.

And lastly the cucumbers...I don't think we'll be getting any this year...the plants keep getting stepped on and just haven't grown very good here.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with what we're getting.

It's been too long

I know...It's been too long since I've blogged. It's so funny...I wish people were more consistent on their blogging, but then I hardly am. One of my dear friends who keeps up with me regularly gave me a gentle nudge that it had been a while. I hadn't realized how long it had been, so sorry about that. I'll try to do better :-)

I kind of do have an excuse for this past week at least...Gregory and I have both been sick with colds...so taking care of him and myself was about all I could handle.

The other things that have been consuming my time are a MOPS Steering meeting, church youth group stuff, and helping make spaghetti sauce.

Making spaghetti sauce was so much fun...a group of nine of us gals from MOPS got together to can spaghetti sauce, so we made it from scratch and then canned it. Wow, over 100 jars were made...I was only able to stay up until the 50 jar mark. It was WAY past Gregory's nap at that time...oh and Tom and I were going out on a date that night too. So there were 9 mom's and I think 9 kiddos too (Gregory was the youngest and the oldest was 4 I think)...so yeah crazy! Luckily they played outside most of the time and Gregory did pretty well despite all the love he was getting from the girls.

So I also just briefly mentioned Tom and I went out on a date too...we decided a while back, no matter how poor we get, we will always find money to get a babysitter every once in a while. So we had Lauren (from our youth group) come over and we were planning on going mini golfing in our mall after eating in the food court. Well, the mini golf place is no longer in business :-( So we ate in the food court and then just wandered around together - with no stroller :-) This was a nice time for us to just take time to be with one another. It was a nice time anyways.

So I don't have any pictures that go along with this post, but I can't resist sharing a couple of cute ones of Gregory.

Gregory loves to read books!


Here's just a cute picture from today...of course he wouldn't sit still for a perfect picture.

32nd Annual Balloon Classic

Last night (Saturday night) we went out to Memorial Park to enjoy the beautiful weather we're having. It was also the 32nd Annual Balloon Classic...in the morning the hot air balloons ascended and floated for a while, but we didn't make it out to see them in the morning. Instead we went out in the evening to see what is called the Balloon Glo...this was so beautiful to see. There were thousands of people who were out to see this and we even saw some people we knew there too! Here is one picture from the event...there are more at our shutterfly website.

I love my Craft Robo

This weekend Tom and I put together a couple of display boards for two ministries we are very involved in...MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) & AXIS (our church youth group). Below are pics of the finished products. They turned out VERY nice. I was able to use my Craft Robo to make a miniature circus tent and ferris wheel to go along with this year's MOPS theme...and we used it for cutting words out too.

So here are the pictures...

Yummy food

I love it when I try out a recipe and it turns out great, Tom likes it and I like it and it's especially wonderful when Gregory likes it too! Today was one of those lucky days :-) I made a teriyaki marinade and then sliced a pork loin thin and put it in the marinade. After a few hours I put it on our George Foreman grill for about 6 minutes and wow! Wonderful tasting meat. Hopefully it goes in the microwave well...Tom is taking it to eat tonight since he has to go to work here in a few hours (at 1245 am). Oh and another cool thing is I've never done anything with a pork loin before, so this was a first too. Now I know next time I see it on sale to grab it - it marinates well. So there's a crazy simple post today, but just had to share my joy with all of you out there reading my blog :-)

Another busy weekend

So we got to spend time with Tom's sister Lorrie yesterday (see previous post) and then today was a busy Sunday...I was in the nursery (yep, along with Gregory), then after church was a meeting for all children's workers (nursery workers included)...then Gregory fell asleep on the way home, so I thought I'd get a nap...but couldn't fall asleep, so I got up and got busy. I made some yummy peach cobbler (Paula Deen has some of the best recipes!) and then I made chicken clubhouse squares for our small group this evening.

Sorry no pictures of the peach cobbler...not very pretty and pretty much gone :-) Tom took half to work and I ate a quarter--so for you math whizzes--yep, only a quarter is left.

Here's a picture of the chicken clubhouse squares--recipe from one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks that I got when we were in Germany--Thanks Caren!

(not sure why I can't get this photo posted in the right directions)

Somewhat of a surprise visit

This weekend Tom's sister, Lorrie, tried to come and surprise Tom...she was here for a conference and we got to visit with her too.

Here are a couple of pictures from the visit. More to see at our shutterfly page http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

This picture was Tom and Lorrie reminiscing and Gregory looking for "dad" in each picture.