Cooks Family of 5

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

St. Patty's Day

St. Patrick's Day

There kids were excited to see what they would find.

Did that tricky leprechaun play any tricks or leave any treats?

No leprechauns found in their trap, but he did leave some green M&M's trailing around their room.

He somehow managed to turn our milk green , which Ethen thought that was great.

Each found a green plate with chips, a drink, lucky charms cereal and a rainbow of water colors to paint with. We made green shamrock pancakes for breakfast and drank the green milk.

Dinner was even better. We had green eggs, deviled, ham, green mashed potatoes, salad, and green fruit. The kids had a fun time.

Ethen really wants to believe that there is a leprechaun, but he is pretty skeptical. He keeps asking if I'm the leprechaun, and he found some of the left over snacks and chips in the cupboard too. Now he's asking about the tooth fair and the Easter Bunny. He's pretty sure it's me even though the girls and I try to persuade him other wise. He's just too smart.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

" Be a good little Monkey"

It's all about that Monkey! Ethen is in love with Curious George. Around Halloween, he discovered the cute, fury monkey and 5 months later he still can't get enough. He will sit and watch it all day long. So it was no surprise when he said he wanted a Curious George birthday party. His last two birthdays where quite elaborate and a lot of work to put together. But I love spending time making my own decorations and games. It keeps me busy and allows me to have a creative outlet. But this year I decided to go simple. No big ta-due and kept it a family celebration.

I expected to find a lot of ideas on this theme, but it was not as popular as I thought it would have been. This theme was used mostly for first birthdays. Not quite the age group I was going for.

I loved the red and yellow color scheme and just went off that.

I printed off coloring pages for the kids to color and hung those up. Made a plain yellow, red, and brown birthday banner. We had a ton of red balloons that we later played a game with a popped them. The one pintrest decor idea that I really liked was the man with the yellow hat, using plates and cups.

Ethen is such a picky eater. I was not sure what we would have for his birthday dinner. But he has just started liking pizza recently. And we all love pizza . He also wanted cupcakes and ice cream too. I made these awesome monkey cupcakes that were so incredible easy to do. They look so cute. Chocolate chips and Nilla Wafers.

I have been looking for an excuse to try my hand at cake pops. They look really good and quite simple to achieve. Or so I thought. I had everything I needed, except for the stupid sticks. My pops became cake squares instead. The whole process is a little more time consuming than I like. And it really becomes quite messy and frustrating without the use of sticks. My kids loved them despite the novice look. They did taste good, but man it's too much sugar even for me and I have a sweet tooth.

Here is the whole ensemble.

It ended up just being the kids and I. Scott had to work a late shift at the hospital, but we did have a neighbor girl invite herself in to take part in our games, opening presents, and finishing off most of the desserts.

Ethen picked out his birthday present from Scott and I a few days prior. A Nerf gun with 10 Styrofoam bullets. Everyday was battle to not give into his fits about having the gun NOW. He promised he would wait. I got so tired of trying to explain he couldn't have the gun until his birthday.

And waiting all day before opening the package from nana and papa was hard too.

Curious George book, pillow and PJ's.

The pj's are way too cool. He wears them every night.

Some good friends gave Ethen a Geotrax train set that there boys had grown out of. Every time Ethen goes to their house to play this is what he loves to play with. He loves it. We have been playing with this for hours.

Happy birthday Ethen, your're finally four. Your growing up so fast and keeping me on my toes.

I love you way too much!

valentines day

So here I am again playing catch up. I take a lot of pictures on my ipad, but they never seem to make it to my blog. I really need to do better about getting things posted.

I went to pintrest and found so many fun ideas for valentines day. And like always, there is so much candy to be had. I tried to find some fun ideas that were treats, but yet not just chocolate and candy. But what is valentines day without chocolate? I ended up putting together little personal M&M bags and a "I have a Crush on you" drink. Scott loves Red velvet cake! I found these limited addition valentines, Red velvet Oreo cookie. They really were not that great. I think we will stick with the plain or mint. Each of the girls found a Littlest Petshop toy and a word search book. Since Ethen broke our last one, he got a new fishing game.

For Christmas, I was given this really cute scrapbook kit. It was a valentines theme and I couldn't wait to use it for the special occasion. I had fun putting it together with Ethen's help. He picked out the colors of paper and stamped the red hearts. We made a pretty good team. Our little treat bags turned out pretty good.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Sunbeam

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam!

No more nursery for this handsome devil. He is now in primary with the big kids. He has been very anxious to "get away from the babies" as he puts it. He is now a Sunbeam! His teacher is Sister Howell and she has her hands fulls with this new class of 5 or 6 very active and not too timid group.

I hope primary is everything he thinks it to be. And I pray for all the Primary leaders in this ward who get to teach, lead, play, and love him. They'll need it!

Nice Mator tattoo Ethen!

Snow Day

The kids went back to School on January 5th only to have School Canceled on the 6th, a 2 hour delay on the 7th, and canceled again on the 8th. And we may even have another cancellation tomorrow.

We were foretasted for 1-3 inches of snow. We ended up with about 4-5 inches. Because they don't get much snow here, they cancel school over the smallest little flurry. So the kids have had a great time being out in the snow and sledding down our neighbors hill the last few days. Which is just right of the tree in the first picture. Today the temperatures are frigid. We woke up to -6 degrees. I think our high is only 14 degrees, but yet my kids are still willing to go out and play in it.

I am not a fan of the cold, but I do like the snow. It just looks to pretty to me Seeing everything all blanketed in the

fluffy white stuff.

Here's to our new year, a cold blast of air and snow. Kids out of school enjoying the semi- winter break . . . . still.

Happy New Year

NOEL

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

We had a wonderful Christmas, like always, and the kids enjoyed a two week break off from school.

We were so blessed to receive numerous boxes from family back in Utah filled with presents for our family. Every year we are spoiled by great grandparents, grandparents, and others. We really miss being able to spend our Christmas with family, but all the awesome surprises they sent let us know they love and miss us just as much. They were more than generous this year. The kids got far more than they should have.

As every year, we don't dare put out any presents until the kids go to sleep Christmas Eve. Not a single present to be found until they get up in the morning to see if Santa came. We had so many gifts this year we had to pile them over to one side and under the new piano Santa brought. Yes Santa brought us a new Digital piano! He even brought a huge power wheel truck for Ethen.

Had to get at least one pictures before they started taring into presents. We video recorded our Christmas so that our families could watch our joyous encounter. Therefore, I didn't take any pictures of them actually opening their gifts and the great things they found. Wish I had taken a few more. But at least I snapped a few of them that morning.

Ethen was so excited when he saw this and the girls where just as excited. Later in the afternoon, Scott took the kids out to test drive the truck. Since we didn't have snow and the temperature was in the 50's it was a perfect opportunity to play with it. We found that it works better when there is more weight in the car. Which is great news for the girls because now they can ride with him. whereas before going out, we were not going to let them ride because we thought they were too heavy.

The kids spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys and trying on new clothes. I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing dinner for us. We enjoyed a wonderful early dinner of ham, potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, jello salad, spinach dip and veggies. We ate leftovers for a good 2 or 3 days. I was great.
Thank you to all of our wonderful families! You have out done yourselves in making our Christmas a joyous and wonderful day! WE love you!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Santa at the library

A few weeks before Christmas, the library had a family night to celebrate. The kids and I had a wonderful time. They read several stories and we sang lots of Christmas songs. Then we got a visit from Santa and the mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". While most of the families jumped in line to see Santa, we headed over to the craft table to make some fun things and then had refreshments. Each child had the chance to sit on Santa's lap and talk with him for a few minutes. Each child was also given a book and a candy cane. It was a nice evening to spend together. Ethen really enjoyed seeing Santa and telling him all the things we wanted for Christmas.