Merry Christmas

For Christmas this year we had big plans of visiting my family as well as Josh's family. But, the night before we were expecting to leave Josh got asked if he could stay in town to work on a big case. So, we ended up having Christmas at home. The kids were thrilled that Santa came to their house.


James opening presents on Christmas morning.


Carly with a few of her girly hair accessories.


Caleb showing off all of his loot.

Fun in the snow....

Josh built a snowman with the kids and they loved it. The snow was horrible for packing, so he had to use buckets and fill them with snow to build the base. About thirty minutes after they finished making the snowman it tipped over. It just so happens that our cat was by it when it fell, so we blamed it on our innocent cat. Hopefully our next snow will be better for making snowmen.

Fall

Fall at the Cook house is hunting season.


Here is one of the animals Josh got his year.


The boys were so proud of their Dad's buck. We had one, two and or three animals hanging in our garage at a time this fall. For Josh it was a successful hunting season. Josh cannot wait until his boys get a little older and are able join him on these exciting hunts.

Camping Trip

This past summer we went on a camping trip and the kids had a great time enjoying the outdoors.


The girls were squished in the back of the van.


:)


James all ready to go swimming.


Carly and Caleb getting ready to go swimming.


Poor Caleb got stuck wearing an infant life jacket. Good thing he is so skinny.


The fish the kids caught with their dad.

Cute Aunts

When my family was visiting......


Aunt Kirsten and Aunt Lynnette....


Took the kids for a walk.....


And had a great time.

Family

Some of my family came to visit us this summer. Below are a few pictures of the kids playing enjoying their company.


Uncle Brandon giving Caleb a ride on his shoulders.


Carly and Caleb hanging out with Brandon.


Caleb pretended to be a tiger most of the time my family was visiting us.


Aunt Lynnette and silly Carly.


James the hunter.


The boys relaxing with Uncle Brandon.


Uncle Brandon holding James.

Happy Belated Birthday James!!!!

I should have posted about James birthday a long time ago... but, better late than never.


Get your party hats on!!!


Blow out the candles.


Cute the cake.


The Birthday Boy. :)


Yummm.....


Present time.


Josh showing James how to operate one of his new toys.





We are so happy to have James in our family. He is a sweet, sensitive and stubborn little boy. He loves to play dinosaurs with his big brother and would spend the entire day outside if he could. Happy Belated Birthday James! We love you!

Reverence

We have been working with our kids to be reverent while the sacrament is being blessed and passed at church. Yesterday Caleb was folding his arms and sitting very still during the sacrament portion of the meeting. Josh leaned over and asked him, "Are you thinking about Jesus?" Caleb promptly replied, "No. I am thinking about bad guys!" Well, atleast he was being reverent. :)

New Mexico

This is a view outside our hotel room of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Josh had to come here for a Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Conference and we decided to come with him and make it a family vacation. There are a lot of brown buildings/houses here, Caleb nicknamed it "Brown Town."


Us visiting some ancient ruins.



There were some underground caves. Caleb does not like heights, so he kept watch while we took a look inside.

Carly inside the cave.

Coming out of the cave.

James by an altar.

The kids standing in front of an ancient church.

Goodbye!

Last week a missionary that finished serving his mission in our ward left to go home. Elder Sims was always fun to have over for dinner, without fail one of the kids would cry the ENTIRE time he was in our home. I don't know why, he seemed like a nice guy. I think it was just a funny coincidence. Goodbye Elder Sims....you will be missed.

My Big Girl

Carly is always trying to help me. This time she decided to wash dishes and then told me to take a picture. She is so sweet.

While Carly is helping me around the house the boys can usually be found in a corner somewhere with a big stash of toys playing "bad guys."

Boys and girls are so different!

Graduation

Carly recently graudated from kindergarten. She and her fellow classmates put on a really cute progam for all of the parents and then the teachers handed out diplomas to the students.



Carly posing with James after the program.

The graduate.

Caleb trying to get Carly to stop putting her arm around him. Wow, he is a tough guy.



Carly and her teacher Mrs. Michaels.

I am so proud of my little girl! She is growing up way too fast.

Cute kids!!!

Carly put the hat and bunny ears on James and I had to get a picture of it.



Caleb and Carly share a room. It is not uncommon for us to find them asleep in the same bed. They are more than siblings, they are good friends.

Race Day

There is a race here in Billings that is called the Montana Women's Run, it is the day before Mothers Day. It is just for women. So, I choose to run it with Carly. We ran/walked two miles togther and it was so neat to spend that one on one time with her. She was so nervous for the race, in fact, she stressed over it for a couple of weeks. Carly picked out our clothes for the race, we were matching. At the end of the race we were given a medal, as shown below and a flower. I think this is going to become a mother-daughter tradition. :)





Yaahoo!!!!