Christmas 2010 is coming to an end

All of the festivities are done and Christmas 2010 is coming to an end.  There were many new memories and fun times. I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

http://tomandr oxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Back Tracking...

As I was typing up our Christmas greeting I realized I had forgotten to post about another exciting time for us...Tom graduated from NCO Academy...Congrats!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Cook's!  We won't have a white Christmas, but I am pretty sure we'll see some snow in March!  We have had very little snow, so far, maybe it's all ended up in North Dakota!  We have been enjoying the Christmas season, with parties, looking at Christmas lights, shopping, eating, wrapping gifts, attending our church's Christmas Eve service and we are looking forward to more fun tomorrow...opening gifts, spending time with friends for lunch and enjoying time with each other. 

Tonight we will read the Christmas story with Gregory and as he says he really liked the story about the baby at church tonight...we asked him, you mean the one about baby Jesus?  Yeah that one.

Earlier the boys opened one present each and so we got some pictures already of the fun and then we got a family picture too.  Merry Christmas...as we all remember what this holiday is all about...a baby born a long time ago in Bethlehem, who came to save each and every one of us....and for this special gift we are especially thankful for.  Thank you Jesus.

Joshua's 11 month's old

Hard to believe that this month Joshua will be turning a year old.  For this photo shoot Joshua was not feeling well...he ended up having the flu for nearly the whole week.  Glad to have a happier Joshua back, now that he is feeling better.  Oh and since we were at the ER recently I know Joshua is 20 lbs and 4 oz.

First photo is Joshua and the second one is Gregory...my how different they are becoming...cute, but different.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

On Saturday after Thanksgiving we kept to tradition and set up our Christmas tree.  Of course the boys had fun helping and as always everything seemed new since it hadn't been seen for a year!

I think the pictures speak more than words could share...so check out the rest of the pictures here...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Thanksgiving

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted about Thanksgiving yet!  So, here it is!  We went up to Winterpark, CO area and wow was it cold!  There was lots of snow at the nearby ski resorts and we had an adventure with Tom driving up the mountain, Joshua screaming most of the way up and then having negative temps while we were there.  There was lots to do at the camp we were at, but it was too cold to go anywhere with Joshua still being so little (and crawling).  So we spent most of our time eating (yummy food in the dining hall), driving around the camp (so beautiful and nice looking cabins) and relaxing in our room (we stayed in a lodge, rather than a cabin).

We still got to have our Thanksgiving meal (and I didn't have to cook)...after we got home I did make a meal on Saturday so we got to have some leftovers after that :-)

Joshua did much better on the way down the mountain especially since he was sleeping.  We even enjoyed a little "Black Friday" shopping just outside of Denver (at the Container Store).

We had a good "mini-vacation" for Thanksgiving this year.  More pictures here... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Boys, Boys, Boys

Here are just a couple new pics of Joshua and Gregory that I absolutely love! 

Gregory is becoming such a big boy!  Potty-trained and all!  We were FINALLY able to spike Gregory's hair--he's always concerned about people laughing at him...and of course he got lots of compliments, but still we have to convince him to do it again.

Not too sure what Joshua is thinking or wishing he could say to Gregory in the third photo!

On the last picture, Joshua had pulled the picture down from the bookcase...the picture is the only way we have a three generation photo with Tom's dad, as the picture is of Tom and Tom's dad (both when they were in basic training).

It's been awhile again...I am soooo looking forward to Thanksgiving

As usual it's been a while since I've posted and I can honestly say we haven't been bored!  Tom's been VERY busy with NCO Academy and his other class (through SAGU)...among other things (teaching Jr High Sunday School, teaching Jr High NOW service, planning other youth events, etc)...and I have been busy baking, cooking. chasing Joshua and Gregory, shopping, hosting a baby shower, attending another baby shower, attending MOPS, etc.

We have managed to fit in some fun too...Tom hung out with some of the other guy youth leaders to check out a thing called Extreme Challenge...where we are going to take our youth to for a New Year's Eve Party...we also stopped at one of our youth events, a Turkey Bowl, which was at the park behind our house...and then there was our youth pastor's son's 4th birthday party and I hosted a Gerber Party.  Whew!  And of course that's not even all!

All that to say...I am soooooooo looking forward to getting away for a couple of days for Thanksgiving...we are going to head up to Winterpark, CO to check out the YMCA of the Rockies (Snow Mtn Ranch), where we'll be having our Winter Retreat for our youth group in March.  So we will get to relax and enjoy it while we are checking out some specifics since Tom is organizing our youth winter retreat again this year.

To SEE more of our fun check out our pics here...

Joshua's 10 months old

I figured I better hurry up and get Joshua's 10 month photo and post up before he's 11 months old!  So here are the pics of Joshua and Gregory.  How crazy is this!  The same shirt!  I didn't know this until just now when I was pulling up the to pictures...so crazy!  The first picture is Joshua and the second one is Gregory.

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

Shutterfly!  Wow, I have a TON of photos here…so this year we are going to do a photocard and hopefully next week (Thanksgiving) we’ll get a great photo to put on our card.  If not, maybe we’ll do a photo montage of the year in pictures like this one. 

 Why Shutterfly you might be asking?  Well, I have had great success with them!  If this sounds like a commercial for Shutterfly, it is…simply that.  I found a great opportunity to get 50 free holiday cards and that’s what I’m gonna do…get my 50 cards for free.  You want to find out more about this?  Check it out here!

Here are a couple of my other favorite designs…not sure what we’re going to use yet, but here are some favs from the new 2010 designs…I especially like that they have some nice religious christmas cards.

 In case you aren’t familiar with Shutterfly let me share a little more about it….I’ve hosted a Shutterfly House Party and got great freebies from Shutterfly this way (ink pens and bags galore!)  I have also gotten quite a few other freebies from Shutterfly (a free 8 x 8 hardback book when we did our baby registry for Joshua before he was born and other photobooks). 

Here are some links to some of the great things they offer…

Photo Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery   

Christmas invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations

Desk calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

Photo albums to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books

Christmas ornaments to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/pewter-ornament 

So don't forget bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010 !

Meals and more

This week Tom has been working nights so we have been coming up with all kinds of stuff to keep us busy...everything from flu shots (ugh!), to running errands, shopping and playing at Lil' Biggs!  So we made it and tonight's the last night...

After much frustration I got this week's meals planned and it's turned out pretty great! 

It started with Sunday and I made Beef Macaroni Casserole AND Beef Stew.

Then on Monday I got stuff ready to make Chicken Enchiladas (took it all out of the freezer and mixed it up to put together on Tuesday).  And then I made something else yummy which I already forgot!

So on Tuesday I put together the Enchiladas and that's what we had for dinner.

On Wednesday I made Knephla Soup...YUM!  Tom loved it when my mom made it when they were down here last, so I figured it would be a good option to do again :-)

So here we are on Thursday and it's leftover night!  And there is soup and enchiladas to choose from :-)  Yummy the second time around too :-)

And for Friday night...not sure...I might get a babysitter and go out with some girls while Tom goes out with some guys...or I might just stay home and have pizza, but we'll see.

Looking forward to planning next week earlier than Sunday / Monday night when I get extremely frustrated.  So hopefully it will work again!

Tom's 34th Birth DAY

Yesterday we celebrated Tom's birthday...it was the "normal" birthday happenings at our house...gifts, balloons, birthday lunch and a party!  The highlights of the day were Tom being surprised with his gifts...it doesn't always work out to surprise him when we give each other wish lists for our birthdays and other holidays.  Happy  Birthday Sweetheart!  We love you!

He said he felt like it was his 10th birthday all over again :-)  Joshua and Gregory gave their dad a replica of the A-Team van (from the movie this year) and a Wii game with a Nerf gun included!  I got Tom some other things he wanted...the movie "Chicken Run", a nice dress shirt, a CD--Group1Crew's latest CD, Toby Mac's new book "City on Our Knees".

Then for lunch we went out to Red Robin so Tom could have his birthday burger :-)

After naps (for the boys), we finished cleaning up and decorating the downstairs bathroom (the seasonal one as I like to call it) :-)


Then we had a few families over from church to share cake and ice cream...it was as always fun hanging out with friends and getting to know each other more.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures!!!!!!  The only picture I have of the cake is from the morning after :-)  There was the "normal" birthday singing and a candle :-)  So just imagine it for yourself (make sure the song is off key in your imagining) :-)

Awesome Concert!

The other night (Thursday) we had the opportunity to go to the Make A Difference concert here in town.  I had made arrangements for one of our favorite babysitters(Thanks so much Kerrie!)  to watch the boys so we could go on a date :-)  This is the second one we've had in one month!  Woohoo!  The boys did great and love being with Kerrie and her kids.  And we had an awesome time at the concert.  There was so much to be thankful for especially that night...the tickets were FREE!  The seats were INCREDIBLE!  The music was FUN!  It was just a great time worshiping God and having good fun and making new memories with the artists who performed.  It was Toby Mac, Third Day and Michael W. Smith all whom I've seen before with very different memories...Toby when he was with DC Talk (whom I had seen twice when I was in high school); Third Day (whom we saw when we were in Germany) and Michael W. Smith (whom I had seen with DC Talk once when I was in high school).  This time we were with fellow youth leaders from our church and great friends!  It was so fun to be with Jake & Kathryn, especially since we sat next to them!  What a wonderful way to start Tom's birthday weekend.  More photos here...

One more beautiful day

Today we got to enjoy one more beautiful day...the weather here in Colorado has been exceptionally nice...so today after work Tom went out to enjoy a little baseball with Gregory before dinner.  I think we might have one more nice day and then it goes down hill from there...with our first snow probably coming next week.

Here are a couple of pics to enjoy...and then there's more at shutterfly as always.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend (Friday) I took the boys to the Colorado Pumpkin Patch.  We had a great time in the crazy 80 degree weather!  More pics at Shutterfly.

A little humor to end the blogging for today

I've been wanting to catch this on video for quite some time and I FINALLY got it.  So here's Gregory's performance debut!

http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z273/rmcook75/?action=view&current=041_NEW.mp4

Thinking back to Missouri

Yes, I am having to go way back with these posts since life has been so crazy!  We had a great time in Missouri.  I feel like I didn't devote much time sharing about this trip.  So I am re-visiting it :-)  Like I had said before we wished Betty (my mother-in-law) had been feeling better when we were there, but she didn't start feeling better when we were there.  Also, as I had said before Gregory loved being with his cousins and the cousins loved being with him and Joshua, too.

Ok, so I can't think of anything else to add to this...sorry!  Here's where the pics are at...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3777

Baking and Cooking

Let me work backwards for a little bit about my recent recipes I've tried...today I made applesauce.  I love homemade applesauce!  It is so delicious and fresh.  I am using the same recipe that I used last year (in my crockpot) but this year I am going to make LOTS more and can it.  This first batch won't make it into the jars :-)

Here are a few pics of the process...since it's not done yet there is no finished picture yet.

The second thing I made today was chicken stock...this is a first for me.  I got some rotisserie chickens for really cheap, so I got all the meat off the bones I could (and froze that) and then I froze the carcasses for when I had the rest of the ingredients and the time to make the stock.  So today was the day!  I got out my NEW LARGE stockpot that I got from my mother-in-law (THANKS AGAIN!) and put the bones, the water, the veggies and a little pepper in the pot and followed the rest of the directions while looking at two recipes and kind of combining them.


A couple of weeks back I made some carrot zucchini bread which has been wonderful!  Gregory loves it and I love the fact that there are veggies in the yummy bread!  (even though it hasn't been a problem to get Gregory to eat his veggies)

I also made some chocolate chocolate chip zucchini muffins...a few of them are making their way into the freezer.



 These last two recipes it's been so fun to use our veggies we've "harvested" from our garden.

Our gardening season is coming to an end even though the temps are still pretty warm here...there are only a few items still producing...tomatoes and zucchinis (hopefully).  Oh and there are a few carrots still in the garden.

Joshua is 9 months!

As you all know the time flies by with our babies...life with Joshua is no exception.

He now has 5 almost 6 teeth.
He is pulling himself up and taking steps, trying to walk around things.
He is still loving food (as you can see from the pics) :-)
He has been for the most part healthy (had his first ear infection this past month).

Here are the comparison pics and then there are many other adorable pics at our shutterfly page.  Joshua's pic is first and then Gregory's.

Catching up

Wow, it's so hard to catch up when you've been gone for what seems like so long...over the past two weeks we've gone through strep throat, an ear infection, the flu, more teeth coming in, potty training and even more if you can believe it!

So today it feels great to have energy (which is coming to a quick end) and the motivation to get stuff done!

I've made chicken stock, applesauce, taken picture of the boys and working on blogging (catching up).

So this is the beginning of a few updates...enjoy!

update (with no new photos - if you can believe this)

This morning I was up and couldn't sleep and then thoughts started running through my head and now I can hardly remember them!  This past week has been a busy one - because that's what helps me get through times when Tom is gone...I guess it just exhausts us all!

We went to the zoo (got to see the tigers fighting) and had a blast!  Gregory's highlight was getting to play in the TWO play areas and feeding his favorite, the giraffes.  I just enjoyed seeing all of God's awesome creations! 

I got to go to MOPS and hear an AWESOME speaker in Jill Savage (Hearts at Home).  I was so encouraged by everything that was said...a few tidbits I took away...
-Put a Bible in each bathroom to "draw closer to God" whenever you get a chance (and read a Proverb a day)--yes there will be little fingers under the door, but I need this time!
-I need to figure out more of what refuels me so that I am not found by my husband broken down by the side of the road. 
-My children cannot be first in my marriage, my marriage must be first or there WILL be bigger problems with my children when our marriage isn't working.
-Jesus DOES understand motherhood - people always wanting to touch him; betrayal; disappointment; tiredness.
-My children's behavior is not what defines me; God is who defines who I am.  Children will do foolish things, they will do childish things.

We also went to a place called 'Lil Biggs and Gregory had fun riding the carousel while I enjoyed some delicious pizza (and of course all this was cheap since I had coupons!)

Then today I pulled some carrots from the garden and shredded them along with some zucchini to make some muffins and bread...I'll let you know how it all turns out.  I am so happy at harvest time!

still here

So this week I am needing a little break from blogging, not because there's nothing going on but because there's been so much going on.  We've all be sick off and on for a little over a week and then Tom left for MD and took the laptop so it's not very convenient to be on the computer.  So everyone hang on and I'll be back next week (with more pics and stories).

Videos on Shutterfly!

I am now adding my videos on Shutterfly as opposed to putting them directly here...

So here's where you'll find them...near the top of the website.

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Jabbering

Here's a cute video of Joshua jabbering while eating some Cheerios.

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3910

Crawling

Here are a couple of videos of Joshua crawling...

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3907

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3909

Don't want to leave out Gregory and his cuteness!

Sometimes I feel like Gregory gets lost in the cuteness of Joshua, but Gregory isn't forgotten by any stretch of the imagination.  Tom frequently says that he loves the stage Gregory is in - he can explain so much and loves to talk...and wrestle with Daddy! 

Here are couple of recent quotes from Gregory...

"Mommy, I turned your bathroom light off for you...we don't want to waste electricity, right Mommy?"

And then there was this one the other day when we were walking through Sam's Club..."Mom, I just got a text to my phone number from Joshie."  Joshie is our youth pastor's son.

Gregory loves to watch TV, movies, play in the sand box, swing like a big boy, and is almost always willing to help with whatever we are doing (laundry, dishes, changing Joshua, etc.).

Joshua's 8 months old!

Wow, the time has been continuing to fly by as Joshua grows older.  It's hard to think that in 4 months he will be a year old.  This past month has been full of HUGE changes with Joshua...he is no longer the stationery, he is now completely mobile...watch out world here he comes!  So first order of business when we got home was to do more babyproofing!

We left for Missouri on 8/25, Joshua had 2 teeth, we came home and he now has 4 teeth!
As I said before, now he's crawling.  He no longer is content to sit still or be held...he wants down or he wants to go, go, go.  He is eating everything we feed him and sleeping pretty well.  He's pulling himself up on whatever he can find.  Joshua LOVES to be wherever Gregory is...and he loves to get into whatever Gregory has out and is playing with it.  Gregory is pretty good with sharing if he has something that is ok for Joshua to have, and is understanding that the small stuff has to be played with out of Joshua's reach.

So here are the comparison photos...Joshua's photo is first, so that means the second one is Gregory :-)

How does your garden grow?

After our trip to Missouri we had a bunch of produce to pick in our garden!  We had quite a few tomatoes, a couple of zucchini, some carrots, peas and whatever else is in the picture :-)

I was also super blessed to reach my goal with my Pampered Chef party, so I was able to get the Deep Dish Covered Baker that I wanted along with some other kitchen items.  Looking forward to trying some new meals soon!  I'll let you know how that goes :-)