Christmas Day

The kids were very excited for Christmas. Packages started coming from family a week before.  They stayed in the boxes until Christmas eve and kids went to bed. We were surprised at how many gifts there were under the tree.  Our families are wonderful! Our kids were able to enjoy many  fun and needed gifts.  

  Our girls have asked for a doll house for the past couple of years. This year Santa was able to bring one. It's very colourful and very inviting. It's  pretty tall as well.  Should be pretty sturdy and last a few years. If Ethen doesn't get to it and try to climb on it.  The girls were very excited to receive it.  It will get  played with a lot. 

 Ponies, dolls, snow clothes, legos, trucks, and trains were some of the  gifts the kids got to open.

 It was a bit of a whirl wind after all the gifts were open. Toys and paper every where.  

 Ethen loves Thomas the train.  He's been carrying his engine around the house most of the day.

 The girls are ready to play with their doll house. I hope we have room for it somewhere in their bedroom.

 The kids really wanted to go out and play in the snow. Now that they all have their snow gear I'm more willing to let them go out. Although I think the only thing missing is snow boots for Ethen.  Getting all the kids into their snow clothes is quite the job. It took a while to get them into everything. So I told them if they go out they better stay out for a while. If they come back in and take things off they were done. I'm not putting them on again.

 Ethen had a great time being out with the girls. And he looks great in he new jacket. kept him nice and warm.

 Now that Elizabeth has snow pants she's enjoying being able to lay down and make snow angles without getting her jeans all  wet and cold.  I can't  get Jocelyn to keep a beanie on her head.   She is always taking them off.

We are due for some more snow tomorrow. Not sure what we will get, but hope we do get more snow. We would love to get enough to go sledding  in.

The night before Christmas

We were invited over to the Kirklands house for Christmas Eve. We had a really fun time spending the evening with another family from the ward and  joining in their families traditions.

 We came over for dinner. Their tradition is always to have spaghetti and bread sticks. It was pretty good. After dinner the kids ran around and played while we waited for Santa to come and visit.

 The kids were so excited that Santa was coming.  I was so surprised to find that Ethen was not  afraid  In fact he loves Santa and wanted to sit on his lap the whole time. When  it was time for the next child to take a  turn, he would try to  sit on his lap before the others.

 Santa talked to each child. Asked if they were good and what happen to them during the year. Here is Elizabeth showing Santa all the teeth she has lost this year.  Jocelyn asked Santa for a doll house and Elizabeth asked Santa for an Ipod. Umm. I don't think so.

 We took a few pictures of both  families with Santa. This is the only one that turned out all right. Got to love the huge Love Sack they have.  It's huge and takes up about half of the living room. The kids love it.

 After Santa left, the kids did some re-enacting. The Kirkland boys were so cute. The two older boys took off their shirts and climbed up on the entertainment center. Staci, their mom, handed us plastic baggies. Their dad  read about Samuel the Laminate up on the city wall foretelling about the birth of the Saviour. The boys copied what he said. Then we got to throw our baggies and cotton balls at them like the Nephites with their arrows, but none of our stuff could hit them. I wish I had taken a picture of that. It was really cute.

 Next,the kids dressed in Nativity costumes. Jocelyn was Mary, Elizabeth  was a Wiseman, and Ethen was suppose to be baby Jesus. But he didn't do a very good job of laying down and staying put. We read a short children's book while they acted out what was being read. They did  a really good job. They took their parts pretty seriously.

The kids were then able to open up one gift that night.  They picked their presents from Aunt Megan.  Their cousin Brighton coloured pictures on wash clothes for each of them. What a really cool idea. They are excited to use them in the bath.  Now lets just home the permanent marker is really permanent! One tradition that the Kirklands do that I really like and would like to copy is their "Frosty the Snowman gift".  They each get to open a new pair of PJ's when the first snow comes. It had snowed a few days ago, so they got to wear them for us that night.  Also hanging on the front door is a huge decorative metal key.  If you don't have a chimney, then Santa gets to use his magic and shrink the key to get into their house for the night. I might steal that idea too.

 Thanks you Kirklands for the wonderful Christmas Eve and all the fun!  

It wasn't too late when we left their house so we took a drive to see Christmas lights. Found an awesome Neighbourhood with some neat lights and decorations.    It began to snow the closer we drove to the lake, and  the snow flakes were huge.  We loved it.  Our Christmas Eve was a wonderful evening and kids were ready for Santa to come.

finally some snow

It it almost Christmas and we have not really had any snow yet. We had a few snow showers in November, but nothing stuck to the ground. The weather was forecast for 12 or more inches of snow for the weekend. And well, this is what we got.

 Before we went to bed, we had a little bit of powder on the ground. We were all very anxious to wake up to a good foot of snow or more. But  when morning came all we found was 3 inches and big snow bank from our parking lot.

 The snow bank made up for the lack of snow. The kids had fun climbing on the  little hill and trying to slide down.  It's been a little disappointing  but at least we have a few inches of snow for Christmas.

 Elizabeth was so exited to  play in the snow. She was out there for hours. I could hardly get her to come in to eat lunch or dinner.

We keep waiting for the "Big" storm to come and bring us a few feet of snow.  Hope  we get some more pretty soon.                                                                                                                                                 

Santa came to preschool

Santa came to Jocelyn's preschool today.  Parents were invited to come and see Santa deliver their gift.

I had to drop off a gift a week earlier for the big day.  Jocelyn and Elizabeth really love playing with the polly pocket size Disney princess  Santa brought Joce another princess, Snow White.  

 Both of our girls are not sure about the whole Santa thing. This Santa was okay, but after school  Joce was sure to let me know that he was not the real Santa.  I told her he was a helper because Santa is really busy to come and visit.

 The best part of our visit was that Scott was able to come too. Jocelyn was quite excited that her dad was finally able to come and see her preschool. It's great to have him back for two weeks.  The kids really miss him be able to come and see them perform or be involved in the things they are doing.

 After each student sat on Santa's lap and received their gift they got to open them. Jocelyn brought her gift to us to take home. Scott  took it and looked at it.  I forgot to take off the price tag from K-mart. Good thing she can't read yet. She was very exited to get another princess. And she will be even more excited when she gets the other she lots a few months ago at Christmas.   I couldn't pass up a buy get one 1/2 off. They were really cheap.

This was her last day  and now she's off for Christmas vacation. Now what to do with two kids home all day? Need to plan some activities. Merry Christmas Joce!

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Here we are another Christmas away from home. How we miss being back in Utah with all of our family.  But at least we will get some snow for Christmas being out here in Pennsylvania. This is the first year that we put up our tree right after Thanksgiving.  Although, our poor  fake tree may not make it another year with Ethen trying to climb the darn thing.  And only half the tree decorated, the top half where he can't reach.  So far only two broken glass decoration and ball ornaments  (plastic thank goodness). I have now put everything else away if I want it to make it to further Christmas'.  We  have made lots of paper crafts, watched a few moves on netflix., and attended our ward Christmas party. The kids did wonderful singing their primary song.  We hope to still drive the neighborhoods to see lights,  do some caroling, and snow sledding (when it finally snows!) on Christmas break.   We have received several packages from family and the kids can't wait to open them.   The best part will be having Scott around for a whole two weeks. He may get sick of us  and want to go back to school by then. (haha) 

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and lots of love this season. Happy new year wishes too!

Love,

Nichole, Scott, Liz, Joce, and Ethen

New Blog!

Welcome to my new blog Cooks family of 5.  I was trying to post a few pictures on my old blog when I found I could not  post any more pictures due to storage space. I have finally run out of room.  So instead of deleting those pictures I decided to start a new one. I hope to be a little more timely with getting picture on and more thorough  with stories and events.
So I will start with these pictures of Ethen. Taken about 4 weeks ago.  I have two very large containers of sugar and flower. I store them under my kitchen counter because this is the only place big enough for the barrels.  Ethen loves playing in the cupboards. It's a perfect place for him to hide away and play in.  He loves to get out the pots and pans and has not ever bothered with the sugar or flower containers until now. He has figures out how to open the top  and get right down into them. Of course when he gets too quite that's the cue to go and check on him. This is what I found in the kitchen.  About 5 cups worth of flour dumped all over the floor, Ethen rolling around in it,  and having a  great time. There was flour in my pots, in my pans, and he too was covered from head to toe. It looked like an indoor sandbox and just as fun as one too apparently. I had to get a few pictures before getting out the vacuum and getting him clean.   He's a cutie when he's clean!