Chatting with the Cook's

Sledding on a 1/2" of snow

2012-01-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Today after we got back from picking Gregory up from preschool I felt like being outside a little bit. So we went up three flights of stairs to head back down and play in the 1/2" of snow. I wasn't sure if sledding was going to work, but we were going to try it. This was Gregory's first time sledding and he had a blast. I can only imagine how much more fun we'd have with more snow and bigger hills :-) Gregory shared his fun with his brother by letting him sit on his lap to go down the hill.

I'm calling them hills, but I am not even sure if they qualify for this name...bump might be more like it. The "hills" I am referring to are in front of our apartment (the slope from the sidewalk to the parking lot)--not too long, or too steep.

Without further adieu...below are three videos. Be sure to listen close to the second video...you'll hear Gregory screaming his favorite Toby Mac song...Get Back Up Again.

Joshua's 2nd Birthday

2012-01-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

So with Christmas past, we moved on to Joshua's 2nd Birthday. There is only one thing this boy is crazy about and it Choo-Choo's as he says so cute! So I had been planning a Thomas the Train birthday party and my family got the message so well without me sending out a mass email or telling more than my sister (hmmm....I'll leave it at that) :-) Before Christmas Joshua only had trains from Ikea (along with a few packs of tracks) a train book and a few Thomas bath toys (he hardly ever played with). Now after Christmas and his birthday, what doesn't he have?!? He has little Thomas', a Shake and Go Thomas, a motorized talking Thomas, a Thomas dvd, Thomas Megablocks, Thomas Slippers, Pajamas and a shirt and more! I found a cute idea online for a cake since I forgot we were in Europe, it's a holiday and no one makes short notice birthday cakes! Whenever I would ask Joshua what kind of cake he wanted he would always answer "blue", so that's what we did a blue and chocolate marble cake. Last year a friend of mine had the same "theme" for her son's birthday, so she shared their pinata with us and some other items. That was super nice since it's hard to find much over hear for parties sometimes.

We had a family from church over to celebrate with us. They are from Colorado Springs and their youngest daughter is in the nursery with Joshua at church and their oldest daughter is in Gregory's class at church. Kind of funny that the kids we know that are Joshua's age are girls - and Joshua isn't as picky as his brother as to who his friends are (yet). The kids had a fun time playing and we had a fun time visiting with Jon & Jen.

Now that I've typed all of this I realized, that I described the event pretty good, but didn't talk too much about Joshua, so I think I'll save that for another post.

Here's the cake and the birthday boy...and as always, more pics here...

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

I know Christmas is a distant memory already for some, but we are still celebrating and enjoying it (even though the decorations are put away). In fact we are still awaiting gifts in the mail :-) In fact today (January 2nd) we drove past the nativity by the chapel to check to see if Jesus was in the manger still. Gregory couldn't understand why I said that he might not be there because sometimes people are just naughty and they might steal him. He said he's just pretend he doesn't do anything, he can't even talk. I am so thankful that our "real" Jesus isn't like that, he does do "stuff" and does care about each of us.

So back to December 24th and 25th. I was dealing with a pretty bad kidney infection so I wasn't feeling too much in the "Christmas Spirit". Tom had to work on Christmas Eve and got home to late for us to go to the church service, so we enjoyed Faith Baptist's Christmas Eve service live online (our good friend Jan Horak is the Youth Pastor at this church and it's the one we went to when we lived up in Ramstein). This was really neat for us to still "feel" like we were apart of one. And then on Christmas morning I was feeling pretty bad again, so we decided to take it easy and relax at home. So we opened our stockings and gifts after eating some breakfast (cinnamon rolls). Then we had a pretty traditional Christmas dinner (Ham, but not too many extras since I was in so much pain). Later in the day we watched Faith Baptist's Christmas Day church service (since it was at 4 pm). The boys enjoyed watching Jan do the kid's part of the service since they know him. This was pretty neat to watch them listening to a friend share about Jesus and Christmas.

All in all the day was a pretty relaxed day and finally on Wednesday I was able to get back in to the doctor to get new medicine since the first round of medicine my bacteria was resistant to. Over a week later I am finally feeling better. We were worried for a bit that I might end up in the hospital (for those of you who remember, back in 2003 I was hospitalized because of kidney problems). So we are very thankful that things have seemed to clear up and I am healing fine.

For those of you who are wondering what were our gifts...for me there were clothes, Pampered Chef items, a book, a purse, chocolate and other items. For Tom, there were cds, books, clothes, dvds, tools and candy. For the boys...toys, some pajamas, books.

Silly boys

2011-12-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

Since I'm on such a roll, I figured I'd get one more blog typed up. Here are a couple of cute videos I wanted to share.

Bowling

2011-12-16T12:36:00.001-08:00

Last night we went out as a family bowling. This was Gregory's second time bowling and Joshua's first time. We all had a great time. As always, Tom did not "let" his son win. Gregory was content with his 2nd place finish and my 3rd place finish was with Joshua's help.

Ritter Chocolate Factory

2011-12-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

This past week we visited a local "tourist" attraction--the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory. Gregory LOVED it! It was a very interactive museum and there was FREE chocolate. We can't wait to have some visitors so we can take them there. Maybe next summer. Of course we picked up a "little" chocolate from the store there (as you can tell by the bag Joshua was carrying--it was little). :-) And some our family and friends were fortunate enough to get some for Christmas! Afterwards me and the boys went and enjoyed a yummy lunch at a new McDonald's (less than a month old). They had an awesome play area and if you follow this link you'll see a few pics from the play area. http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

So the weekend after Thanksgiving we got busy and got everything organized enough to bring in some new boxes. Christmas decorations!

We've been enjoying the lights, the tree, the nativities, the chocolate advent house, the advent nativity scene that I made at MOPS a week or so ago and the Christmas music!

The boys have been dancing to the new Toby Mac Christmas cd lots and we even made sugar cookies together. They were so yummy! I'll share a few dancing clips in a different post sometime.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving as with all the others we had much to be thankful for. It's always unfortunate how sometimes it takes struggles to remind us of how blessed we are. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the reminder.

I am thankful to have my husband home and with us (not deployed especially). Also, I have known quite a few people who have lost their spouse this past year. So it's wonderful to have him here with me.

I am thankful for my family (on both my side and Tom's side). Even though we are an ocean apart, we are only a phone call or skype video call away thanks to technology!

I am thankful for my boys. Even though they are more and more work every day that goes by, I love the hugs and kisses I get from them and the smiles the bring me.

I am thankful for our apartment. Even though it's smaller than where we were in Colorado, this is way better than some of the other places we've seen on base.

I am thankful for the few new friends we've been making here in Germany, thankful for the old friends here in Germany and thankful for the friends we've been able to keep in touch with even though we are so far apart from them.

I am so thankful to have TWO vehicles again! It's really chilly here in the mornings especially.

We had plenty of food on the table, fun crafts to make, even the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and we topped it off with a fun trip to IKEA at the end of the day.

Click here are a few pictures to see how we enjoyed the holiday... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Impact 2011 - Belgium Youth Retreat

2011-11-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

In my previous post I said we've been busy, busy, busy. One of the things in our lives that kept us a little extra busy was planning for and participating in Impact 2011. This was a retreat for youth put on my the International Baptist Churches in Europe. We attend one of those churches and attended a different one when we lived up in Ramstein. We've kept in touch with our friend Jan Horak, who is the youth pastor at Faith Baptist in Ramstein so this is how we got roped into helping...just kidding...we were invited to help and loved helping! Unfortunately, I was just getting over being sick with bronchitis and Tom was just getting sick when we were leaving. So the whole weekend Tom wasn't feeling real well, so he didn't have as much fun as he could have, had he been well. So Tom was in charge of the recreation time (games) and I was in charge of the food (for about 100 people). There were many challenges during the weekend, but we did our best and came out happy to have gotten to enjoy the time away in Belgium in spite of the challenges.

Some of the highlights of the weekend...
-Gregory got to pretend to be a teenager for the weekend :-)
-Joshua got to hang out with mom A LOT in the kitchen
-Joshua also got to help make 7 cakes and 6 pans of bars before we left for Belgium
-Gregory got to help peel 48 apples for some of the applesauce we made at home to take to Belgium
-Got to see an old friend from a retreat about 4 years ago...when we had the same speaker
-Got to make new friends - had wonderful people to help in the kitchen (about 6 adults)
-Got to stay in an OLD Chateau...it was so crazy and beautiful there!
-Like I said Tom was sick, but he enjoyed using a megaphone, especially since he was so hoarse.
-Most importantly 8 youth committed their lives to Jesus Christ!

To see more pictures, go to our shutterfly website and to see even more pictures, listen to some of the messages and read some of the youth comments go to these websites:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/IBC-Youth-Impact-Fall-Retreat/199974680079930
https://www.facebook.com/events/179351518814328/
http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

We've been busy...so let's catch up

2011-11-22T05:34:00.000-08:00

As always, we've been busy...busy unpacking, packing and unpacking. In the past three months we've taken four trips to Ramstein (2 hours away), one trip to Belgium and numerous trips to the grocery store :-)

We've gone to Ramstein to visit our good friend's Jan, Ginger and kids, celebrated Tom's birthday, visited my other good friend (Jean and her two boys), had another good friend take some pictures of us at a castle for our Christmas pictures (Thanks Anna!), stopped through on our way to Belgium, and most recently for Tom's medical appointments.

Of course there has been much unpacking of boxes going on in our house and last night we may have unpacked the last boxes (other than some large pictures).

The boys have had lots of fun playing, coloring, pretending and just being boys. Joshua loves coloring. Gregory loves legos. Joshua loves being in the kitchen helping with dishes and making cakes and brownies. Gregory loves dressing up like a doctor and says he wants to be a doctor like Uncle Bryan when he grows up.

Here are a few recent pics.

A cheap adventure day

2011-10-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

So today we set out on an adventure to find a pumpkin (to cook) and some apples (to eat). We found both and even more! We went to where there is a "self serve" wagon to buy fall items and there is also a self serve flower field when they are in season. So we picked out a pumpkin after wandering around the flowers that are in season. Here are a few pics from this part of our adventure.

And then we set out to find apples. We didn't know for sure where we were going, so we drove out to Robinson Barracks (about 1/2 hr away) and didn't find any "state/city" apple trees. It was a nice drive with all the fall colors. So we set out to come back home. We were just outside the gate to go back on base to head home when I looked over at the "park area" outside our base and noticed APPLE trees (and a few pear trees). We drive by them EVERY day multiple times a day! So we parked and hopped out and got a few apples, played at a fun "natural" playground and visited with an Oma (grandma) and her enkel (grandson).

On the way home Gregory asked me what does "spiele" mean? Very cute and even enunciated correctly. He has been learning so much German. I think the Oma was talking to Gregory and that's where he picked it up, but then also he was asking "how do I say I want to play outside after Joshua's nap?"

It was so funny to find APPLES right outside our base, now to find some more so we can make some applesauce! I can't wait!

Gregory starts Preschool

2011-09-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

An event as big as this deserves its own post...

Here are the pictures from the big day.

What we've been up to...

2011-09-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

We've been in Germany a little over a month and we've been in our apartment a little over two weeks. We are still at most two weeks away from getting the "rest of our stuff". I can't hardly wait! Not sure what I am most excited about...having OUR microwave, or OUR bed, or just a simple pair of scissors. Sometimes it's the little things that matter so much!

So what have we been up to? Well, Tom is the easiest one to start with...he's been working. Not a lot, but long hours when he is working and we've sure missed him whenever he's not with us during the day.

Joshua is the next easiest, he's been busy playing, getting into trouble and following his big brother around where ever he goes.

Gregory has been enjoying Germany lots, but still missing his best buddies in Colorado. There aren't too many days that go by when he doesn't mention something about someone in CO or he's flying his airplanes to Colorado or just remembering good times we've had when we were in CO. Gregory LOVES preschool. He's been learning about the letter "O" and he has a wonderful teacher that is helping him learn. We've also attended the same church for two weeks in a row and this has been a big deal for Gregory. He's enjoyed learning here as well. There's been new songs, new friends and crafts (his favorite). Today I loved to hear Gregory telling Joshua, "Goliath, you cannot defeat me!" And then yesterday Gregory was quizzing Tom about all kinds of bible facts like, is there a story about Moses when he was a baby?

And then there's me. I have been meeting new people trying to find new friends through MOPS, PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel), hanging out at the park, church and any where else I meet women.

This move has been a difficult transition for our family, but we have so much to be thankful for...most importantly, we are together as a family.

Here are some pics that have been bringing smiles to our faces, hope you enjoy them as well.

Germany Part II

2011-09-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

After leaving MO we headed to Atlanta, GA for our first leg of the trip. There we spent a night and then left Georgia for Germany. The flight from MO to GA was uneventful as was the flight from GA to Germany. We were so thankful the boys behaved and weren't too frustrated by being confined to their seats.

Of course there were little "issues" once we got here in Germany, but overall God has for sure been with us and helping us as we are adjusting. It's very different here in Stuttgart than when we were in Ramstein. Of course having TWO boys is one of the biggest differences.

We got our van pretty quickly after getting our licenses, so that's been nice. We've taken a road trip up to Ramstein already and got to hang out with some wonderful friends (Jan, Ginger and kiddos). It was nice to get to spend a couple of days with them. Such dear friends and wonderful to catch up with them.

We are in our apartment. It's way smaller than our house back in COS, but it's bigger than our last place at Ramstein. We are anxious to get the rest of our stuff so we can really make this feel like home.

The weather here has been great (warm and cooler days), so we've spent LOTS of time at the various parks all around. Gregory has found kids to play with most everywhere we've gone, although, he does realize they aren't his "friends". So that has been hard for him with being as social as he is. He misses his wonderful friends from Colorado for sure.

Another big thing for us since getting to Germany is Gregory has started preschool two days a week. He has gone two times so far and is loving every minute of it. The main reason for him going isn't for him to learn tons, but to learn to listen in a structured classroom setting AND to learn some while he's there. Kindergarten will be here before we all know it (a year from now!).

So there we have it, I'm closer to caught up! Next up will be to get some pics of our new place online, but for that we'll wait until all of our stuff is here..in a few weeks.

MO Visit

2011-09-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

After our goodbyes in Colorado we got to spend some time with Tom's family in Missouri. It was a great time! We spent lots of time with Tom's mom, Betty. Me and the boys enjoyed spending more time with her this time than any other visit, so that made it especially nice.

We got to spend time with Tom's sister and her family as well. So the cousins enjoyed more time together since we had seen them earlier in he summer. We were so thankful that we got to see all of our family before we left for Germany.

While with Betty, we took some time to get some pictures of the boys with their Grandma Betty. Joshua and Gregory both had no problem warming up to their grandma that they've only gotten to see a few times. As always, Gregory had lots of questions for grandma and Joshua was just thrilled to show off and eat crackers.

In preparation of leaving the USA

2011-09-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

As my faithful readers know (you are out there right?) we were preparing to move to Germany this summer. (Since I'm writing this from Germany--we made it, but here's a little blogging about what happened before we got here.)

Soon after our trip to ND it was time for us to leave Colorado, so we had a wonderful get together at It'z with so many of our friends we spend so much time with while in CO. It was one last time to hang out and have a good time together...especially for Gregory to have wonderful last memories of being with his friends. We had yummy food and played lots of games and took many pictures. Our goodbyes were not fun, they never are. We hope to keep in touch with those close to us, but we also know they are busy and we are busy too...so we'll do our best (at least with Christmas letters/cards).

As always, pictures at our shutterfly site.

ND Journey (from last month)

2011-08-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

One of our most recent adventures / vacations was to North Dakota (this was all before leaving CO for Germany). And boy was it an adventure. 22 hours one way straight through with a few stops (bathroom, gas and meals!). We didn't plan on doing this trip straight through, but that's how it ended up due to our lack of planning and being a little too optimistic. I couldn't believe that there would be no vacancy in towns like Dickinson and Bismarck...there wasn't. So we pressed through and made it to my parents by 730 am on Friday (after having left at 10 am on Thursday from Colorado Springs).

Our time in ND was so awesome. We got to see and visit with so many relatives. My sister planned an awesome family reunion for my dad's side of the family and then my sister-in-law and my sister planned an amazing 40th Anniversary celebration for my parents the same weekend. And on top of that it was my brother's 20th High School reunion so a lot of our friends from our youth group were in town as well. Talk about jamming it all in!

This all seems so long ago as I type this sitting in our hotel room in Germany...I cherish each and every memory as I look through the HUNDREDS of pictures. I don’t think I want to start listing all of the special memories or I might never finish this post. This was Joshua’s first time being in ND, Gregory’s first time being with all of the Vilhauer cousins, Tom’s first time riding in my parents Model A, my first time enjoying as many raspberries from my parents garden as I wanted — of course the high light was still being with all of my siblings (and their spouses and kiddos and my parents and so many others).

As I said already, there are hundreds of pictures, and there is no way I can pick just one...but if you want to wade through them, here’s the link http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Beth & Rob's visit

2011-07-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Once again I am behind in my blogging, but this time I feel it is justified with being so busy :-) So at the end of June we got to have Tom's sister, Beth and her family visit us for the first time in CO. Not only was this the first time for their visit it was also the first time any of Tom's family has been able to visit him since he had left home. I realize there are circumstances that prevent the others from traveling, so for those of you who haven't made it to see us, I do understand, but I also want Beth to hear how special this visit was to us. (So Betty & Lorrie, please don't be offended by this.)

While Beth and Rob and the kids were visiting we celebrated Beth's birthday, Mark's birthday, played with lots of water (balloons, squirt guns, slip n' slide, etc.), went to Focus on the Family and played, went to Garden of the God's, visited Petersen AFB (saw where Tom works and the amazing aircraft on base), and tried to go to a baseball game (but it was stormed too stormy out for us). The kids all had tons of fun playing with lots of toys and enjoyed each other for the most part :-)

As always, there were lots of pictures taken! You can see more here... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Incredible Day - Oh Happy Day

2011-07-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Even though we have been having a great and eventful weekend with family...I have to interrupt my posts and go out of chronological order for a moment. Please forgive me, but this is a biggie!

Tonight Gregory asked Jesus into his heart! We have talked about this various times and had conversations with him about this too, but tonight he seemed to get it more than in the past...so we are considering this "the day" Gregory asked Jesus into his heart and asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins. When we told him that God and the angels were having a big celebration since he asked Jesus into his heart, he said, really? They are? And I told him, yes, they are. So proud of Gregory and his decision. Now we have the even bigger job of helping him to understand this each and every day. We were talking afterwards about what it means to be a "follower of Jesus" and how now you need to tell others about Jesus and how he loves them too and Gregory replied by saying yeah and I can tell my friends that I asked Jesus into my heart! Gregory's friends...you know who you are and he loves you all so much. As I am typing this I am sad to think about leaving Colorado and the memories we have made here, but am so thrilled to say that in Colorado, Gregory asked Jesus into his heart. I could write so much more about this, but I will leave it at this...thanks to everyone who has helped teach Gregory about Jesus and how much He loves him.

Summertime fun

2011-06-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

It sure is summer around here...finding stuff to do with water is always a great idea :-) We've found some other things to do too. We celebrated Father's Day a week ago, have played t-ball in the backyard, chased some beautiful butterflies in our backyard, read lots of books, went to our very own dinosaur museum in Woodland Park and more!

Today Tom is doing day one of driving our van down to TX to ship it to Germany. So today I took the boys on a little journey into the mountains where Woodland Park is. We explored at the dinosaur museum there. Gregory has been loving dinosaurs since we saw them when we were in Arizona at the Natural History Museum. So today we enjoyed them again.

Next week we are looking forward to spending time with more family! Tom's sister, Beth and Rob and kids will be arriving on Wed night! Can't wait!

Oh and of course there's new pictures here... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Gregory - the explorer

2011-06-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Most of you will not notice this "little" change to the design of my blog, so I want to take this time to bring it to your attention...Gregory's title has changed from "entertainer" to "explorer". Gregory LOVES to explore...not sure if this is the right word to use to explain the changes going on in his little head, so I will use more to explain it. :-)

This week we were talking about science "stuff", so when I said we were going to the library Gregory asked if we could get some science books and movies. Of course I found some good ones and when we got back from our doctor appointment on Thursday it was too late for Gregory to take a nap, so while Joshua was napping we had fun. My sister would be so happy about this kind of fun! Developing Gregory's love of science. We did some simple experiments and talked about science. Gregory said, "I love science!" Another thing my sister would be thrilled to know :-) My sister is an aerospace engineer and any time she hears of someone leaning towards her love of science it makes her happy.

I am sure there will be more experiments to come with my boys and I am looking forward to the fun we can have with them too! Can't wait to make a volcano and see it erupt :-)

The more I keep Gregory busy the happier he is and the better I feel about the time I am spending with him, I am glad the dishes wait and the laundry waits for me. I know that time will not stand still for me either, so I need to make the most of the moments I have with my boys. Before I know it they will off running around with their friends, not hanging out with me in the kitchen cooking or experimenting :-)

As always, more pics at our shutterfly website... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Our trip to Arizona

2011-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

This past week we finally made it back down to Arizona. It was a hot time to be there, but we knew we had to get down there now knowing we couldn't put it off any longer with our upcoming move to Germany. We went down mainly to visit Tom's sister and her family and we get the bonus of seeing my aunt and uncle and three cousins when we head down there too.

Our trip started out a little crazy with spending THREE hours on the runway in Denver before our two hour flight to Phoenix. It gave us a little taste of what it will be like on our LONG flight over to Germany in a couple of months...we need to find some more toys to bring with us I think :-)

While in Arizona, we got the privilege of hanging out with our three great nieces and nephew...at their favorite place...the mall! Gregory got to go in a Lego store and a Disney store for the first time, so he was loving it too.

We went to the Arizona Natural History Museum as well and looked at dinosaur bones mostly and then enjoyed Night at the Museum 1 & 2. It was a fun time and it was great that Tom (our brother-in-law) was able to take some time off while we were there and it was nice that Lorrie (Tom's sister) was done with work since she works in a school.

Gregory and Tom got to watch our nephew Ian practice his karate and Gregory also enjoyed playing with Ian and his legos.

Joshua loved the attention from Casey and Samantha! Too bad the cats didn't love Joshua's attention :-)

We also spent some time swimming in the pool at our hotel, but most of our time was spent inside in the air conditioning since it was so hot and windy.

It had been 3 years since we had last been there so the kids had all changed so much. It was fun to hear about what's going on in their lives and to share with them what's going on in ours. We wish we had more time to spend with them, but we take what we can get. Due to safety concerns I don't have any "public" pictures of us with them at my sister-in-law's request...but I do have a few pictures which I can share from our adventure at our photo website here... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com

Like I said earlier we got to see some "extra" family while we were down in Phoenix...my aunt and uncle and cousins. These are the ones that I got to spend weekends with when growing up (when they lived in Minneapolis & Nashville) before I was married and before their kids had grown up much. We enjoyed dinner together and hanging out. Gregory will remember aunt Laurie reading lots of books to him and Joshua will be able to look back at the pictures to remember uncle Lyle being silly with him. Blake, Brady and Brennan were around too, so it was nice to catch up with these guys as well.

As always it's nice to get away, but it's also nice to get home too.

Changes coming - heading back to Germany!

2011-06-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

So most everyone who knows us by now knows that we have a move coming up in our future. In August we get the pleasure of moving back to Germany! We are pretty excited about this change and excited for where we'll get to go, what we'll get to experience and what God will be doing in and through us while there this time around. We know this time will be significantly different having two boys (where we left with one little guy back in Jan 2008). Gregory will start school there; Tom will be working with AFRICOM (Africa Command); Roxanne won't be working at all (I got to work for nearly 3 years when we were in Germany last time); and Joshua, well he'll be experiencing it all for the first time! We know there will be tough times (being so far from family will be the biggie), but we also know we will have fun adventures too! So the next couple of months will continue to be busy with appointments, traveling to see family before we leave and sorting through our accumulated belongings :-)

Please be praying for us during this transition and we'll keep in touch.

Gregory's 4th Birthday

2011-05-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

It's now been a couple of weeks since we started celebrating Gregory's 4th birthday. We started on his actual birthday, this was the first time Tom wasn't in town for the actual day. So me and the boys celebrated all week with birthday meals and birthday fun! He got presents on his birthday and the day of his birthday party, so he was definitely blessed! Since his birthday was on a Wednesday we took a special treat to share with his friends at church. Earlier in the day we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Both Gregory and Joshua had a fun time. Tom got home from San Antonio on Friday night and Saturday afternoon we had the birthday party. Here are some of the highlights from the party.
-the homemade pinata that I made of and was VERY proud of :-)
-having a few special teenagers come for the party...one of Gregory's favorite babysitters, the other one couldn't come.
-having friends from MOPS and from our "regular" church.
-having YUMMY homemade ice cream that I made earlier in the day.
-Gregory got to have some of his best buddies come for his birthday party.
-He also got some wonderful new toys! More Toy Story characters, a Toy Story play tent, Toy Story Yahtzee Jr., Sequence, a Buzz Lightyear wrist toy, a Star Wars Nerf gun, a Star Wars Light Saber, Cars race cars, a new game for his Smart Cycle, the Color Wonder Sound Studio, a Woody guitar, a Toy Story Hot Wheels track, a subscription to National Geographic for Little Kids, a chef hat and apron, an Etch-A-Sketch, sunglasses, a Cars marker kit, a Cars backpack filled with lots of fun stuff.

We have lots of pictures from another fun birthday! http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Here is one of the birthday boy!

Christ is still Risen!

2011-04-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Easter. It was so much fun to hear Gregory talk about what he was so excited about. He kept repeating it over and over and over again. "I am so excited about Easter 'cause we get to celebrate God and Jesus". He doesn't quite get the trinity concept yet :-) We try to focus on what Easter is all about and enjoy some of the other fun things too. I wanted to do the Resurrection eggs with him and to make Resurrection cookies, but that didn't happen this year. Maybe next year.

We had an Easter party at a friend's house on Friday and got to enjoy all the fun activities of Easter...dyeing eggs, decorating cupcakes (and eating them too!), watching a movie about the real meaning of Easter (a movie about Jesus as Gregory puts it), and an egg hunt outside too.

Then we went to church on Saturday night as a family since Tom and I both had other commitments (at church) on Sunday. We heard an interesting sermon from our wonderful pastor--it was from a different perpective--Paul (Saul) with the Easter story woven into it. If you want to hear it, check out our church's website. http://www.radiantchurch.org/

On Easter Sunday we woke up to SNOW! Crazy Colorado as we call it. We only got about a half inch and it had melted by the time church was done. Tom was doing the sound for our Jr High service and I was helping with greeting at church.

After church we enjoyed a wonderful meal with our friends, Jake & Kathryn, their twin boys (age 3), their 3 month old baby girl and many of their family. Jake and Kathryn are friends we have much in common with (Jake helps with youth at our church, Jake is military, Kathryn is a wonderful friend of mine). We have shared a few holidays and birthdays with these dear friends. We had an egg hunt after eating lunch together. The four boys had a great time finding lots of eggs...and Joshua even snuck some dessert when no one was looking :-)

We are so thankful that our Lord and Savior did not stay dead and in the tomb, but that He rose from the dead and is seated in heaven. Yes, we had fun with Easter silliness, but we are forever grateful for the "real" meaning of Easter. Thank you Jesus for what you did on the cross for all of our sins.

As always, there are new pictures :-) http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/ Stay tuned for more blog updates as this week we celebrate Gregory's 4th birthday!

Tourists in Denver

2011-04-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

Today we went enjoyed a "family day" and went up to Denver to the Aquarium for the first time and the Children's Museum for the second time. It was a wonderful time for all of us. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to go see the Cubs and the Rockies play, but it is way too cold for baseball today! We'll hold out for watching the Triple A Cubs team next month when they play the Sky Sox just down the street from our house :-)

As always there are new pictures (and a few videos on facebook) to go along with this fun day. Enjoy!

Joshua's First Haircut

2011-04-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we finally got Joshua's haircut for the first time. There are no more curls in the back :-( He still hasn't lost that baby look even with a fresh haircut...those chubby cheeks are still there too :-) We got his hair cut at the same place Gregory got his first haircut and in the same fire engine, too.

Celebrations

2011-04-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is a month of celebrations for our family...it's the only month with multiple things to celebrate, that's why I say that. So far we've celebrated my 36th birthday and our 9th anniversary of meeting each other (Tom & I). For my birthday we enjoyed HuHot Mongolian Grill for dinner and for our anniversary Tom and I went to the Melting Pot. Both of these were the first time we went and enjoyed them and hope to go back again some day!

Our next celebration will be Gregory's 4th Birthday! That will be on April 30th, so after that I will post about it.

Welcome Spring

2011-04-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying some spring weather and the boys are both loving being outdoors. Here are some of the cute pictures we took the other day...there are more at our shutterfly website.

Where did the past 5 weeks go?

2011-03-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

I just realized it's been nearly 5 weeks since I last blogged! And here I thought I was getting better. To be honest not too much has been happening or going on in our lives so that also added to the lack of blogging. Whenever I go to blog I look back to see what pictures we've taken to help jog my memory of what's been going on. There are a few pictures, but definitely fewer than most months. I'll get them up at shutterfly soon.

We've spent more time outside with the weather warming up.
We've flown a kite at the park.
We survived Tom being gone over a weekend (for our church's winter youth retreat).
I've tried a bunch of new recipes--most have turned out pretty good.
I hosted a Philly Cooking Creme House Party and it was by far my most successful one ever...with 11 moms and 13 kids at our house.
We've made it to all but one of the free breakfast Wednesdays with Chick-Fil-A :-)
I've gotten to enjoy MOPS twice in the past month and the boys have both enjoyed their classes too!

Joshua's gotten in a few more teeth and he continues to be our crazy dare devil...climbing and tumbling often.

Gregory's been having so much fun making new friends and spending time with old friends at the mall, at Chick-Fil-A, at our house, their house and at church.

Like I mentioned earlier, Tom was gone for our church's winter youth retreat that he organized. It was a great time for all and a great time spiritually for everyone as well. He's been busy with lots of school work, church stuff and work stuff like normal.

Here's what are we looking forward to..
-A double date on Sunday night with our friends Jake & Kathryn.
-Baseball season is coming soon!
-Next month's birthday celebrations.
-Jury duty for me!
-Easter!
-Gardening!
-More warm weather soon hopefully.
-Scrapbooking--want to get Joshua's first year done by July.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's day a little early. Tom started out the planning and then asked for my input. It was a ton of fun! We had one of our favorite babysitters come over and watch the boys while we went to Supper Solutions. This is a meal preparation business. We've done this once before and enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again. You go in and put together meals so they can be frozen and cooked/baked at a later time. All the cutting and clean-up is done for you, so this was nice. We came out with 10 meals for the future, had fun preparing them together and then we went out and enjoyed lunch together. Unfortunately this was the last time we'll get to do this since our local Supper Solutions is closing. I don't think there are any other businesses in town like this anymore. There used to be quite a few of them, but one by one they've been closing down. So for future meal preparations I am going to try the website onceamonth.com. The gal there does an amazing job with everything from shopping lists, labels, recipes and directions.

So we had a great time together this weekend away from the boys, with just the two of us. Tom said we need to do this more often...I agree. Thanks sweetie for the fun weekend and the flowers :-)

This weekend I also spent a lot of time in the kitchen when I made some yummy fudge for Tom, as well as chicken and dumplings and mini chocolate cheesecakes.

Another post this week? WOW!

2011-02-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

So, it's a very snowy day here in Colorado (the way most of us envision Colorado to be)...but it's VERY cold, like North Dakota cold :-) (below zero) so we brought the snow inside to play! Joshua and Gregory are both feeling better and for this I'm thankful, so I got a tub of snow to play with in the kitchen.

Fun times! We even made a little snowman :-) And ate some WHITE snow :-) More pics at shutterfly

What's up?

2011-02-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a tough one of cold, cold weather and sick kids. So with this combination the only getting out of the house we did was to get groceries and to go to the doctor. One random fact from this past week: Joshua had his first piece of corn on the cob (and he enjoyed it).

I also got a couple of cute pictures I wanted to share.

Also, I finally got around to putting the pics online from our trip to the zoo. We went with two of my friends from church with their kids. My friend Kathryn has twin boys who are 3 and she is expecting her third on Valentine's Day. My other friend is Dinah, she has the cute little girl (Ella) you see in the pictures. Joshua says Ella's name and it's so cute.

Walking on Sunshine...

2011-02-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

I had to come up with some way to incorporate Gregory into this post...so I am using one of his favorite songs...I'm walking on sunshine...whoa...I'm walking on sunshine...

So Joshua is now walking...and he's doing more and more of it each day...seems like yesterday he was born and now he's already walking and saying so many words (today's new one was banana bread) :-)

http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z273/rmcook75/?action=view&current=walking1.mp4

http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z273/rmcook75/?action=view&current=walking2.mp4

This last video is just a cute fun one of the boys playing.
http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z273/rmcook75/?action=view&current=car.mp4

Update on Joshua

2011-01-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

So last week we were supposed to have Joshua's 12 month check-up (yeah we are almost at 13 months now) and when we finally get to have his appt he will almost be 14 months old. But other things took priority over getting him to his appt. We spent that day in the ER. A picture frame fell off the wall and struck Joshua in the head and cut his head (only about a cm in length). So he ended up with a staple in his head. It was the first time I had ever called 911 and they responded pretty quickly and were very helpful. Joshua still has the staple and we are supposed to get it out tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. I am pretty sure it will be more painful than when he got it. They didn't even numb his head to put it in. He cried for a brief moment and then was done. All of this to say that there will be no 12 month stats to compare with Gregory at this time :-)

Bible Study

2011-01-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

So I try not too post too much about spiritual matters mostly because I don't want others to be critical of me or to judge me or my thoughts...but today I just got finished reading over my bible study lesson for tomorrow and I just have a burning desire to write about my thoughts and to get them down on "paper" for me to read later when I need encouragement...so you get to have a peak into my life here.

The bible study I am doing is on Becoming a Woman of Simplicity....something I definitely need in my life, but don't really want. I like busyness. It means less time for mind wandering negative thoughts. It means my boys aren't sitting in front of the tv all day if we are out and about. It also means I get more praise for what I am doing...finding bargains...when was the last time I was told "great job" for just spending time with God, my boys or a friend?

Spending time reading and thinking lately has been good for me...it changes my focus back on God...lately I've been struggling with having an angry attitude and it's hard to keep that whenever I am hearing praise music, reading God's Word or thinking about my bible study lesson questions.

Today I REALLY enjoyed reading from the Message bible...Matt 16:19-34 and James 4:7-10. I like that I could see how the verses applied to my life.

^7-10So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.

James 4:7-10 The Message (emphasis my own)

Welcome to 2011!

2011-01-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

So 2011 has been with us for nearly two weeks now and I have been thinking about "new year's resolutions" and how I never say them...but this year I do want things to be different. There are things I want to change and ways I want to grow, so I am not really writing down new year's resolutions, but more like life resolutions since I don't want them just to be for this year. And to help me be able to think on these things throughout the year this is the place I will "write" them down.

-Read more (one book a month seems to be too much for me right now, but if I even read one book this year it will be more than last year)
-Exercise more (now that I have a wii fit it makes this an easier and more enjoyable thing to do)
-Spend more time reading God's Word (right now I am reading the book of John in conjunction with what our church will be doing...reading the book of John through the next three weeks)
-Devote more time to growing spiritually (today was the second week that I made it to our ladies bible study at church, we are studying "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity" and we all know I need to learn more in this area
-Make the most of the moments I have with my boys (self explanatory)
-Make more of an effort to grow closer in my relationship with my wonderful husband (date nights are a priority, grow spiritually together, read together, dream together and love each other more)
-Work on our finances more (Save more, budget better and learn more about finances)

So there you have it...some of my thoughts for 2011...We'll see how it goes come December :-)

Happy 1st Birthday to Joshua!

2011-01-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

It's already been almost two weeks since we celebrated Joshua's 1st birthday. We had a fun party for him on 1/1/11! There was cake (made by grandma Judy),ice cream (made by grandpa Oscar), presents (lots of them!) and guests (three families from church). My sister gets the prize for the craziest present, my parents get the prize for the noisiest present and grandma Betty gets the prize for the most loved card...see the pictures below to highlight each of these!

Joshua hasn't started walking yet, but he has taken a few "first steps". His vocabulary grows more and more every day...here are a few of the things he says: go, go, go; dada; mama; all done (and he signs it too); moo. He also signs "more"...I didn't do too much with signing, but it is neat that he understands the two signs I did teach him. He eats anything we feed him and had no problem switching from formula to whole milk. Hopefully getting rid of the bottle will become easier in the future, as we've tried this change a little bit. Joshua loves being wherever his big brother is and is learning the art of tackling daddy with Gregory. Joshua is also learning from his big brother how to be an entertainer...he's a dancer, loves music, love peek-a-boo and playing the recorder and drums. When he is not fussy (which is become less), he is such a cutie! Happy birthday baby boy! P.S. 12 month stats will be next week after his doctor appointment.

Just when we thought Christmas and the holidays were done...

2011-01-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

After I posted that Christmas was coming to an end I remembered that my parents were coming down for Joshua's birthday! So that meant there was more Christmas to be had and more fun times. We survived the HORRIBLE blizzard that arrived the day my parents flew into Denver. Then my mom made and decorated Joshua's birthday cake. She has made so many birthday cakes (too many to count) and always does a wonderful job, so it was neat to have her here to make Joshua's first birthday cake. Friday night we hosted a New Year's Eve party for our church youth group at our house...so my parents joined in with the fun and helped with the cleaning too (thank you!). And then Saturday night we had a fun birthday party for Joshua...see the post specifically about that night. We turned around on Sunday and drove back up to Denver to see grandma and grandpa off to the erport (as Gregory calls it), not before having a Vilhauer family favorite for lunch...Wienerschnitzel chili dogs (from the Original Hamburger Stand in Denver). Of course the goodbyes were tough (as they always are), but it did help to think about seeing them again in July when we plan on driving up to ND to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary.

As always there are pictures to highlight our times together, so feel free to enjoy them... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Christmas 2010 is coming to an end

2010-12-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-12-24T20:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T07:32:00.001-08:00

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...

2010-12-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T20:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-10-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-01T15:41:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-01T15:40:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-10-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-09-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3910

Crawling

2010-09-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-09-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

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 :-)

First Baseball Game

2010-09-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

I am doing some catching up on blogging so get ready for a few posts...

We went to our first baseball game as a family of four back in August. It was to our local triple A team, the Sky Sox (a farm team for the Rockies). We all had a blast! We went with a group from church so Gregory had some great friends to dance around with and he really enjoyed keeping an eye on the mascot, the Fox. Joshua did great just sitting with mom and then falling asleep towards the end of the game. The weather was wonderful and the fellowship was as well!

More pics here...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Enjoying Missouri

2010-08-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

We are in Missouri for a few days and I am remembering how much I like this area. Today we spent a couple of hours at the park...there was a nice breeze and it was warm, but not too warm and the humidity wasn't too bad. We are all having such a great time hanging out with cousins (Gregory and Joshua) and me with my friend and sister-in-law and her husband. I just wish my mother-in-law was feeling better so we could enjoy more time with her too. Gregory keeps saying things like, "I just love being with my cousins" and then he was complimenting Aunt Beth on her yummy meatloaf she made for us for dinner. It is so cute to see him enjoying being here. And then it's also nice to have more hands to pass Joshua too as well. It's nice to see Mark (cousin) loving on Joshua and Makayla just loves her uncle Tommy. You can see it all over Gregory that he wants to be a big boy like his cousin Matthew. So much fun.

Photos to come later! More days to enjoy together too!

Salsa and LOTS of onions

2010-08-07T17:11:00.000-07:00

So on facebook I said that I have figured out how to cut a TON of onions without crying and burning your eyes...and then on TV I saw Alton Brown from Good Eats talking about what to do and he said that you can do what I do if you want to look goofy...and then went on to talk about other solutions...and his is to have a super sharp knife...that's just too dangerous for me, so I'll stick to looking goofy with my goggles!

And this was about 1/8 of the onions I sliced.

7 month comparison

2010-08-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

Now that I got the 6 month stats up I can put the 7 month photos up...I wasn't going to do that until I finished the 6 month stuff up.

Not too much has changed with Joshua...he is still refusing to even try to crawl. He still has his two bottom teeth...

Things that have changed...he definitely knows when mom has left the room and he doesn't like it one bit! He's tried quite a few other foods...frozen honeydew and bananas, babyfood bananas, squash, carrots, peas, green beans, peaches, pears, and applesauce. There isn't a one he doesn't like. Oh and he especially likes banana flavored puffs!

So here are the comparison photos...Joshua first and Gregory is second.

6 month stats

2010-08-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here's just a little comparison for those who are wondering...

Gregory at 6 months: weight 17 lbs 0 oz - 50 percentile
length 27 inches - 50 percentile
                                head 17 1/2 inches - 75 percentile

Joshua at 6 months: weight 17 lbs 10 oz
                             length 26 1/4 inches
                               head size 17 1/2 inches
(this was actually at 6 1/2 months)

It's interesting that they have the same size head -- big! And Joshua seems chubby, but he really doesn't weigh that much more than Gregory did...I guess that 3/4 of an inch really matters :-)

6 month comparison

2010-07-06T16:54:00.001-07:00

It's that time again...Joshua turned 6 months old last week and we finally got "good" pictures to use as his 6 month photo. So here it is...Gregory's 6 month photo is first (in Oct) and Joshua's is second. We have Joshua's 6 month check-up in mid-July. I am anxious to see how much he weighs (a lot I am sure) :-) He is doing really well with where he should be at activity-wise. He can sit up on his own for a little bit (sometimes longer than others--depends on how close Gregory is and how excited Joshua gets). He has two teeth on the bottom. We've started him on cereal, green beans and applesauce so far. He doesn't hate any of these as of now. He sleeps through the night on most nights. He has been in the nursery a few times and is doing better with this (I finally didn't get called back to come get him) :-) His composure is changing for the better...he seems to be more content most of the time (except when he needs or wants something)...which is different than his screaming for no reason.

Here are the comparison pics (Joshua first and then Gregory)...and the second photos are showing off Joshua's two teeth.

My Garden

2010-07-06T15:25:00.001-07:00

I LOVE to garden, not really sure why other than it's awesome to see the growth and to enjoy the harvest. So when a storm comes it really bums me out if it ruins it. BUT, we prayed and God spared our garden from this last storm! PTL!

Here is the beginnings of the garden... (April)

And here is what it looks like now... (July)

Randomness

2010-07-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a VERY random post of some recent things that really don't fit any where else...

First of all be sure to check our photos out as there are a ton of new ones!!!!!! http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

I have recently done a LOT of canning (Triple Berry Jam - 36 jars, Pepper Jelly - 12 jars, Pineapple Jelly - 3 jars). I hope to do some salsa soon too...when tomatoes are cheapest. Thanks to Craigslist I've been able to get some cheap jars.

There has been a fox that has been sited in our backyard for many months...we finally got pictures to prove it. Ever since this we haven't seen him around...I hope he finds a new home (closer to where he belongs--in the wild!).

I have also decided to make a pacifier holder for Joshua to keep it easily locatable as well as off of the ground / floor. I found some ideas online on how to make them and got one made yesterday. I am SURE to be making more in the near future...especially since my best friend recently told me of her pregnancy and then there are quite a few others I know too! Pretty exciting.

And lastly, food stuff...I've tried some new recipes too...yummy stuff! Last night we also has a FRESH salad from our garden! So happy that it is doing well especially after the hail storm we had the other night...only lost one small pear tomato. Looking forward to peas, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce and herbs! More on the garden in another post...Oh and some of the new recipes I've tried were...
Beef Macaroni Casserole
Chicken Fiesta Taco Rice

And then there were good ole' standbys like Baked Beans - yum!

Father's Day

2010-07-06T15:22:00.001-07:00

I am really behind in blogging, so I am trying to do some catching up today...

We had a wonderful Father's Day with daddy coming home the day before from his work trip that was the week before. The boys got Tom the first season of the Transformers cartoons from the mid '80s. They watched one of the episodes that day...it was cute to watch Tom and Gregory watch Transformers together.

Grandma Marriott

2010-07-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today I've been thinking of what all has been going on over the past month...one special event was my Grandma Marriott's funeral. This was my mom's mom. It was a tough time and a fun time all in the same week. We shared so many memories of times spent with Grandma and created even more memories as all of my siblings and parents were together for the first time in a couple of years. Unfortunately, not all the spouses and kids were able to join us. Grandma's death was not a surprise and it was nice to know she wasn't suffering anymore. We were plenty busy the whole time we were gone and I greatly enjoyed spending time with my cousins and aunts and uncles. It was to catch up with everyone. Here were some of the highlights...these are the happy times I am choosing to remember over the sad times...yes, we were there for a funeral and yes, it was tough (especially since now both my grandma and grandpa are gone on this side of the family). I do have many special memories of being with my grandma and about her as well, maybe sometime I'll devote a post to her, but not this time.
-BBQ at Lori and Eric's (cousins) townhouses that Uncle Cliff and Aunt Peggy have been helping fix up.
-Frisbee golf at a park with LOTS of memories.
-Touring Uncle Vern's museum...kids playing w/ old stuff and feeding chickens.
-Spending time at Kenny & Olivia's (cousins) with lots of relatives and reminiscing since this is where grandma and grandpa used to live.
-Hanging out at Aunt Joyce & Uncle Rich's house.
-Staying at Uncle Cliff and Aunt Peggy's house with all of my siblings. This was our third time of staying here...felt great to be "home" :-) What a wonderful place to stay!
-Seeing all of the old cars...check out our pictures and you'll see what I mean - my family collects old cars (like Model Ts and Model As)
-Eating at In & Out Burger.

So here is the link to the pictures...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/3507

And here are a few special pics from our time in California...

Feeding chickens and ducks just like we used to do when we were kids...fun times.

Five month comparison

2010-06-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

Joshua recently turned five months old but with everything that has been going on I haven't taken the time or made the time to do the comparison post because I knew it could wait. So here it is! I noticed that at two and three months Joshua and Gregory looked different and then at four months they were similar, but now they are looking quite different again.

So here are the photos...the first is Joshua, the second is Gregory.

Denver Children's Museum

2010-05-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day. Tom took the day off so we could enjoy a family day together. He's had quite a few days off this year but none of them have been just to relax and enjoy the day together and going up to Denver. So that's what we did today...we went up to the Denver Children's Museum. After having a ton of fun there the little boys were wiped out, so they got to enjoy a nap in the stroller while Tom and I enjoyed a stroll around the Container Store, or as Tom puts it...an organizer's dream store!

As always there's more pics here...shutterfly.

New Look

2010-05-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today I had the incredible privilege to have a makeover by a wonderful sister in Christ, Laura DeYoung. She is a friend of our youth pastor's wife and our church brought her from NYC for our youth girls' spa / beauty day. Laura graciously offered makeovers to any of the youth leaders that wanted one and I was excited to learn how to wear makeup since I was never really taught this. Well, not only did I get a makeover to my face, but I was surprised with a haircut offer as well. I love my new look!!!!!!!!!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was Mother's Day. Tom got cards for the boys to give to me and a giftcard to one of my favorite stores. Then the busy day started...church and then a Sunday afternoon BBQ with friends. It was nice not having to cook, and all the food was "oh so yummy"! The weather was beautiful so when we got home we spent a little more time outside. And of course I had to get some pictures of my adorable sons. Thanks Tom for helping make my Mother's Day special. Love you!

A Very Veggietale Birthday Party FINALLY

2010-05-08T22:09:00.001-07:00

Tonight we finally celebrated Gregory's third birthday party with our friends. It was such a fun time just hanging out and chatting while the kiddos ran around and had fun too.

Gregory LOVED his Larry that Aunt Raquel made him; in fact he was singing Toby Mac songs to Larry while dancing with him!

The cupcakes turned out very cute and the Bob pinata was very cute as well.

Of course there are more pics at our photo website.

Missing family

2010-05-03T15:23:00.001-07:00

Today I am missing family...my parents left today and last Friday my sister left. Wishing we didn't live so far from all of our families. Missouri, Minnesota, Washington, Arizona, North Dakota...all so far away!

Only a few in our family have even met Joshua...no one in Tom's family has...this is really hard on me. I know they'll meet him eventually and he won't remember this time of his life, but I just wish we could live closer to family. Maybe this is God's reminder for me that eternity is what matters, so make sure I get to see them all for the rest of eternity....Betty, Judy, Oscar, Kevin (and family), Raquel (and family), Kirk (and family), Beth (and family), Lorrie (and family)...I'm praying we will get to spend eternity with each of you.

HE Is Faithful

2010-05-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

This past month has been full of all kinds of adventures...we've celebrated two birthdays, Tom had knee surgery, I ended up in the hospital with blood clots in my lungs and then on the last day of April Gregory got strep throat for the first time.

We were incredibly blessed to have my sister come down to help us out while Tom and I were recovering from his surgery and my hospital stay. Gregory LOVED having his aunt 'Quel down here playing with him and helping take care of him. She got to learn all of Joshua's quirky preferences (hold me in your left arm, let me snuggle with a soft blanket or mickey, etc.). She even pulled all of the weeds in our backyard. It sure looks nice!

And then when my sister left my parents were here to help out, so the help continued. My dad helped Tom build my raised garden, so there will be posts about that later (once I get it planted after the chance of frost is gone).

We weren't able to have Gregory's birthday party with his friends because of him getting strep throat, so that is yet to come as well. That is not to say we didn't celebrate Gregory's birthday at all...we went to Red Robin for a yummy dinner and then Gregory opened up his gift from Aunt Raquel, Uncle Bryan, Jaden and Clay...more Trio blocks. He has LOVED playing with them just about every day since he got them.

Throughout this whole month I have been reminded that God is so faithful and will continue to be.

Psalms 117:2 For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

Four month comparison

2010-05-01T15:13:00.001-07:00

Here are the two comparison photos of the four month photos...the first is Gregory and the second is Joshua.

Cute pics

2010-04-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Just have to share the latest pics of Joshua, they are soooo cute!

More at our photo website...http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Three month comparison

2010-04-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

I forgot to do a three month comparison shot, so here it is...the first is Gregory and the second is Joshua at three months old, yeah I realize that Joshua is already four months old, but I'll wait until after his 4 month check up to do the post, so it will be after the 3rd of May. Don't worry there will be photos before then (mom!) :-) Well, lots has happened since I drafted this message and so there are more posts to get to...

New recipes

2010-04-10T09:31:00.001-07:00

I love it when I try a new recipe and it turns out soooo delicious. Here are a few of the one's I've tried recently...

Crock Pot Honey Glazed Ham (http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/)
Lasagna (with cream cheese instead of ricotta cheese) (can't remember where I got this one from)
Bread Machine Garlic Bread (Taste of Home)
French Cinnamon Muffins (Betty Crocker)
Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot Pie (Betty Crocker)
Blueberry Sizzle French Toast (from e-mealz.com)

I also have been trying out a couple of Meal Plan websites (www.relishrelish.com and www.e-mealz.com) I like the second one the best. It's from Dave Ramsey's (the financial guru) recommended websites.

Of course there are plenty more new recipes I am looking forward to trying out, so more to come on this too.

My 35th birthday

2010-04-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago we celebrated my 35th birthday. It was a wonderful day. I spent the morning with my friend, Ruth, and had brunch at her house, while Gregory played with their son, Joshua. It was a fun time just chillin' and hanging out. Afterwords we went home and ordered Chinese food for lunch. Yummy. Then I opened my gifts from Tom, Gregory and Joshua. They were all wonderful gifts! I got a Willow Tree figurine...my first one. It's a special one...me and my two boys...

The other gift I got was a wonderful cookbook! I follow this gal's blog too...http://www.5dollardinners.com/

With some of the money I got for my birthday I am going to do some gardening! I plan on planting some herbs outside and even a garden, so more to come on this later.

Thanks Tom for making my birthday special...I love you!

Easter

2010-04-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

After Tom's surgery was Easter...we had a pretty low-key celebration since he was recovery. Even with a low-key celebration I did still manage to get the kids out to Gregory's first Easter egg hunt (which was at a nursery) on Saturday. It was pretty windy and Joshua slept through it in my arms, while Gregory got the idea rather quickly on how to search for eggs.
Then Sunday after church, Gregory and Joshua got their Easter baskets.

Church was exciting with a very large crowd. We had a record breaking total of like 1959 people. I'm not sure how many were first timers, but it was over 100 for sure. Monday after Easter Sunday I went to the church and wrote postcards for all of the guests we had! It was fun. No, I didn't get a cramp in my hand from all the writing!

Tom's knee surgery

2010-04-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Adding to all of the excitement we face in our house (you know never a dull moment with a three month old and a nearly three year old)...Tom had knee surgery. He has had knee problems for years and the military has decided that now the only thing left to do was surgery. So on April 2nd, Tom had surgery. Gregory enjoyed some time with his friend Cooper and Joshua hung out with me at the hospital on the Air Force Academy for quite a few hours. Surgery went fine and recovery wasn't too bad. They only numbed Tom's leg and put him to sleep, without using general anesthesia. Recovery has been going pretty good and Tom's been enjoying his time off (he's off for two weeks to recover). We won't know how successful things are for quite some time, so we'll see how this all works out. Here are a few pics from after the "event".

Joshua's three months old

2010-04-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

A week and a half ago Joshua was three months old...life is so busy for us these days that I didn't get a chance yet to put up the pics from this "event". So here they are...
http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Joshua is jabbering lots, trying hard to roll over, playing with his feet and becoming more content these days.

Catching up

2010-04-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

So it's time to catch up again...like I said in a couple of posts ago...we had the privilege of having my sister's family. It was a blast...I was able to get baby announcements out FINALLY and get the thank you cards done for the gifts we got at our baby shower. We had blizzard weather when they were here and we had gorgeous spring weather too. We celebrated my birthday (a little early), with some yummy cake! It was a fun time for all of us.

We only took a couple of pictures because I knew Raquel would have way better pictures, so check her pics out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/raquel.jarabek/2010_03_30ColoradoSprings#

Youth Retreat & Blizzard

2010-03-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

This past month Tom coordinated our church youth group's winter retreat...it almost didn't happen...due to the crazy weather we've been having. Thankfully it was just delayed by a day and then they came back a day later since the students were out of school for Spring Break.

Tom organized the game time as usual and then also kept things running smoothly. He even filled in at the last minute for our youth pastor to lead the youth in a communion service. Another successful event for him...so proud of his organizational skills as well as the leader that he is to so many of our youth.

There are pictures at our shutterfly page...see the right side of this page for the link.

Disney on Ice

2010-03-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

This year we went to Disney on Ice for the second year in a row. Gregory LOVES anything Disney, so this was part of his birthday present and part of my birthday present (I love to watch ice skating). We missed out on going to opening night so we opted to go Saturday afternoon with my sister and her family. It was an event to remember! Not just because of the characters, or because my sister was with us, but more so because Tom and I got puked on by the girl behind us. I felt so bad for them and we got a chuckle out of getting spewed on, yeah it was gross, but stuff happens. Joshua slept through the entire show as well as all the excitement.

Here are a couple of photos from the show...more at http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Couponing

2010-03-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of Gregory learning how to sort coupons like his momma :-)

Trip to the zoo

2010-03-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had some wonderful weather (and it has continued with a couple of snow storms in between)...so we trekked out to the zoo. This was the first time I was there and not pregnant (we went twice when I was pregnant). Oh what a joy it was to be able to enjoy "hiking" around the zoo. Our zoo is up on the side of a mountain, so it's not a leisurely stroll. Joshua did wonderful in his stroller and Gregory loved to get to walk around all by himself. Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the day...there are more photos at http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Joshua's two months old already

2010-03-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, time does fly when you are busy with a newborn and an almost three year old...

This week Joshua turned 2 months old and we are looking forward to next month when Gregory turns THREE! I don't wonder where the time went...we've been busy (especially keeping up with Gregory).

The other day Joshua had his two month check up and vaccines. He did really well...just a little bit of screaming--he screams more for no reason than when he has reason...crazy. He weighed in at 12 lbs 3 oz which is the 50 - 75th percentile in case you are wondering.

Here's a two month shot of Joshua and a two month shot of Gregory...for a comparison.

Another month has passed

2010-02-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

Another month has passed and nothing too exciting to report. Joshua continues to get bigger and is now making noise (cooing sounds) and smiling. He is also calming down and not such a colicky baby. He's sleeping 6 or 7 hours most nights, which is awesome. Unfortunately Gregory is up once a night so I am still not getting a full nights sleep yet, but I am hoping it will come soon.

Gregory is always learning something new and giving us tons to laugh about. He's enjoying the Olympics lately and imitating the figure skaters with his cool tricks as he calls them!

He's also gotten into listening to music on our Ipod. He walked into church last night where a Veggietale movie was playing and he said, "Hey, I've got that song on my Ipod!" Pretty crazy to hear that.

Not too much going on for me, just taking care of my boys. Tom is always very busy with work, school and youth stuff with church. He's doing awesome in his classes and I'm so proud of him.

Pictures added

2010-01-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

I ran out of time last night and didn't get any pictures put online, so tonight I am...

It's hard to pick one or two favorites, so be sure to check our website for more http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/