Cooke Family Christmas Party

My husband's wonderful Aunt Kathy & his cousin Bill & Bill's wife, Maria, did a great job hosting the Cooke family party this year. It was Mexican food, which made for a nice break from the typical holiday food, ham & turkey!

Upper left picture is Kevin's nephew, Ethan, who wore these awesome glasses & lately had been handing out his autograph! We love that kid!


Upper right picture: Maria & Bill Jr. Bottom left picture: Bill Jr.'s father & mother, Bill & Kathy. Bottom right picture: cousin Garn & his wife Cristen



Upper right picture: Maria's cute parents. Upper left: Aunt Eloise's family.

Upper Left: Cousin Rodger's children. Bottom Left: Cousin Heather & her husband, Whitman.

Upper left: Nephew Seth & his brother, Aric. Upper Right: Aunt Kathy & Aunt Eloise.

Bottom Right: Luke

Left to Right: Brothers & sisters, Uncle Dallas, Aunt Kathy, Jerry, & Aunt Eloise

Top Picture: Kevin with his sister, Kristen.

Christmas with the Norths

We had a little annual (is annual being a little too presumptuous?) gift exchange/dinner get- together with Mandi's lovely little family. We ate Chinese food, at the Dragon Isle (one of Kevin's favorite places.) They gave us a lovely gift basket filled with delicious treats. A fantastic summer sausage from Ford's Locker & wonderful Brie, among other heavenly things. Marley got a cute little pair of Hello Kitty galoshes which she wanted to put on & tromp around the house!

Marley's New Apron

We received a lovely gift package in the mail from Karl, Chantae, & Charlie. One of them wasn't wrapped & was addressed to Marley from Charlie. Marley immediately grabbed it & tried to put it on. Then she said 'picture, picture' because she wanted to model it in front of the camera! This apron is SO adorable!! Thank you Charlie!

12 days of Christmas

Marley's Grandma Ruth & Papa Jerry decided to surprise us with the 12 Days of Christmas! Each day we got to open up a new present & Marley couldn't wait to do it! She would always ask 'present, present'. Some days I would have to tell her to wait until daddy got home. So she patiently waited, but was all over opening it as soon as he got home!! Thanks Grandma Ruth & Papa Jerry!


THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS



THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS




THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS




THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS



THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

We Will Miss You!

Today was full of heartache. I got a phone call this morning from my brother, Jonathan, that my wonderful Aunt Linda had passed away this morning due to complications from her cancer treatments. She was still so young & full of life. She was always easy to hang around & always able to make everyone around her laugh. She was such a wonderful person & I'm so grateful that I was able to see her twice this year when she came to visit & that she was able to meet Marley. My heartaches for her family & for her mother, my grandmother, & all of my Aunt Linda's siblings. We truly wish them our very dearest condolences & they are in our prayers.
The things I remember most about her are her love for the color purple, her optimistic attitude, her sense of humor, & just how fun she was to be around. I loved being able to visit her when I was younger & have absolutely the fondest of memories when visiting her at her home in Reno, NV, and I will always treasure them.
We love her so very much & are grateful to know that she is in a better place & that we have the opportunity to see her again! She will most definitely be missed! We love you Aunt Linda!

Happy Anniversary

I am happy to say that today is Kevin & I's 7th anniversary! On this day, seven years, ago, Kevin & I got married in the Manti temple but not without a few bumps along the way. We decided to ride to Manti together & meet everyone there. I'm not sure if it was nerves or just enjoying each other's company, but we missed the exit to Manti. After driving quite sometime, I wondered where we were. When we stopped to ask for directions, the gas station attendant said we were in Price!! We had some serious back-tracking to do! The closest thing to a shortcut we could take was through a icy mountain pass where there was zero cell service! All of our family wondered what had happened to us. Kevin's father, Jerry, about wore out the soles of his shoes pacing around waiting for us! But we made it--even if we were three hours late! The workers in Manti were more than willing to accommodate our tardiness (thank goodness!) & we were grateful that our family & friends waited around for us! It was wonderful experience to get married to my eternal companion in such a beautiful place with all of our wonderful family & friends. Even though the rest of the evening was a rush (we barely had time to make it to our wedding dinner before we were off to the reception center), it made that day extra memorable.
I'm so truly grateful & absolutely lucky to be married to my best friend & a fantastic person! I love you so very much my dear sweet husband!

Let's Decorate the Christmas Tree

We have had the box of Christmas decorations out since Thanksgiving, but have put off putting them up & I decided we better put it up now for Marley's sake.


For reasons unknown, she wanted to sit on the tree skirt.

Marley really enjoyed getting the ornaments out of the box & being able to hang them on the tree.

Marley found this Christmas lanyard for badges & begged me to put in on Barkley because she thought it was a leash. She walked him around the house with that on!

We have this children's manager set that Marley LOVES to play with. She's always carrying the baby Jesus around saying 'Jesus! Jesus!'

Marley has also really been into 'reading' all of the children's catalogs we have been getting. She will sit down & hold it & pretend she is reading out loud. Too cute!

Big Helper

Marley loves to help. When I'm cooking, she loves to add ingredients & 'mix it'. When I'm wiping something down, she likes me to give her a cleaning cloth to help 'clean it'. The other day, we got some diapers from Costco, which come in huge bags. I found her trying to 'carry it' to her bedroom. It was a bit difficult for her, but she managed to move it by dragging it behind her.

Let's Go Potty

Marley's little friend Charlie has started to potty train & Marley is always really interested in what's going on when we use the bathroom, so we thought we'd introduce her to a potty of her own. She LOVES her potty & is always asking to use her little toilet. In fact, sometimes she gets pretty upset if we don't let her use it. She doesn't, however, seem to get that the potty is actually for going to the bathroom in & not just something to play with. Once I let her sit on it for awhile, hoping that she would use it. I left the room for a minute & when I came back, I found that she had peed on the floor instead! Oh well, I'm sure it will happen when she is ready!

Cozy Cabin

We, along with Justin & Mandi, decided to take a last little trip to the Flaming Gorge cabin before it is closed for the winter season. Even though it was FREEZING cold, we stayed nice & warm thanks to Justin & Mandi's fire-starting skills! We went to the Lodge for Mandi's birthday dinner (yes, Mandi decided to share her birthday with us...good or bad thing? Not quite sure...) HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY MANDI!

The Marley & Sadie absolutely loved this little gold cart. It's too bad it doesn't work! We have tried to get it running, but to no avail!

I love Miss Kinley's adorable cheeks! They are so sweet & kissable!

This is Sadie's cold weather attire: heavy coat, hat, hood, mittens, shoes, and PLASTIC BAGS! It was really cold & Sadie only had shoes & she REALLY wanted to go outside in the snow, so plastic bags to the rescue!

Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at my Grandma Orie's house with my parents, siblings, my cousin Zach, & one of his friends. There are so many things to be thankful for, & I'm most thankful for my wonderful family, especially my awesome husband & lovely daughter. I know that I'm blessed beyond what I deserved & need to work on always having gratefulness in my heart!
I had intended to get a picture of all of use together, but, obviously, failed! So I got a few random photos of everyone, not anything too exciting. But it was good to get together & enjoy a gluttonous meal with each other.


Clockwise: my father, Doug; my cousin, Zach; Kevin; my brother, Seth.

Top: My mom, Orimi, my Grandma Orie, Zach.
Bottom: my Uncle David & Seth.

Horsing Around

One of Kevin's father's good friends, Dennis, makes these absolutely GORGEOUS horses out of wood. He's been making them for the past several years now, taking this particular horse around to showcase his handiwork at various shows. Gabriel is a replica of a horse that Kevin's father actually owns & Dennis was ready to retire him, so we were lucky enough to acquire this beautiful piece of art!

Marley, however, isn't too sure about this horse & cried when I tried to put her on it (even with me on it with her!) She is very concerned about it, and, on a daily basis, will ask me 'Horse? Horse?' & point downstairs where we keep it. Maybe one day she will get used to it enough to actually want to play with it!

Miss Charlie & Miss Marley

While we were in Phoenix, Chantae was kind enough to humor me (thank you Chantae) & go take pictures of Charlie & Marley in their cute pettiskirts at the Mesa Temple (I know I have sooo many pictures of Marley in this pettiskirt but I just loooove it so very much & one day she won't be able to wear it anymore!) And, of course, I have the hardest time picking out pictures, so I posted quite a few of them. I must admit that I can't take all the credit for these photos as I managed to get Chantae to let me have some of the really cute ones she took! The weather was so perfectly wonderful & the girls looked like little gems! In fact, we had a few people mistake them for twins! Mostly likely because they were wearing the same outfit, but still what compliment for Marley! Charlie must have left a wonderful impression of Marley because she still talks about Charlie, even though it's almost been a month since she's seen Charlie!

Per usual, it was very hard to get Marley to cooperate. She rarely looked at the camera, & if she did, it wasn't with a smile! I'm hoping that if I take enough pictures, that one day she'll learn to smile (or maybe because I'm taking so many pictures she'll resent me & never want to smile!)

Love this profile of Charlie. She's so beautiful!

One thing the girls did really well was lean in to give each other "hugs & kisses" which turned out so cute! It looks like they are sharing sweet little girl secrets!

I really like this one Chantae took.

I love the top middle on of Charlie...she has the most perfectly precious smile! SO CUTE! Chantae managed to get pictures of Charlie in a tree, but Marley wouldn't even think about sitting up there! She freaked out about it!

I love the one Chantae took of Marley sitting down & the one with the railing & Charlie at the top of the stairs.

These, again, are a Chantae special. Just love these!

I like the one of Marley sitting on the ground looking up & the one where she's holding the lamp post...I just wish she would crack a bit of a smile!

I don't know why, but I love Charlie's body movement in this one. The shoes she was wearing were insanely adorable!

As a way to "bribe" the girls to cooperate, I gave them Lifesaver mints. I tried to get them to look at me by asking me where there mints were. This technique got them to look at me, but with their mouths wide open. I wish I would've gotten a picture of both of them with their mouths open in the same picture!

I tried to get some action shots of Marley doing her twirl that she calls a "circle" but they didn't turn out as well as I would've liked (but when do they ever?)

The only time during this whole photo shoot I got Marley to smile was to let her play in the water.

It stinks because the one's where she is actually smiling, the light wasn't very accommodating & so my pictures didn't look as good as they could have.

I love the one that shows the back of Charlie & Marley's skirts! They just look so cute!

I ended up taking Marley's pettiskirt off because it was getting soaked from the water. Charlie's pettiskirt was too far behind in coming off!

Chantae tried to get them to pose together, but by this time, no amount of bribery or mints was working & they both started to turn for the worse! But I thought it was fun & I will forever be attempting to find that smile of Marley's!