itscookingup

Back to Stewart Falls

2009-06-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

So we had so much fun the first time, we decided to take the kids back with some of there friends. Six kids and two adults, next time we need to have an adult per kids. But we had fun.

Just a side note, if anyone wants a really good workout, take Austin on this hike. The kid doesn't slow down he ran up and down the mountain both ways without stopping. Our legs were hurting by the time we were done.

Swimming Lessons

2009-06-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

So another year of swimming lessons. The kids are doing great. All three of them can swim on there own now.

Alex is the one next to the big guy.

Austin jumping in.

Tessa diving for the rings.

Steward Falls

2009-06-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we took the kids on a hike above Sundance. It is about 4 miles round trip. It was so fun. The scenery was so beautiful. The kids had a blast.

California part two

2009-06-28T12:21:00.001-07:00

One of the last days in California, Kristen and Thomas took us to a really cool Science Museum.

Here are the kids playing with air.

Playing virtual volleyball.

Alex and Austin playing virtual Hockey.

Alex and Gabriel playing on Dino poop.

Tessa making a Tornado.

All the kids climbing the rock wall.

Tessa and I are in a machine, that make you feel like you are in really high winds.

This was really cool, a life size pin cushion.

We went down to play at the beach at night. It was awesome.

Kristen and I posing.

Thanks again for a wonderful time.

California part one

2009-05-31T18:35:00.001-07:00

We had several reasons to go to Cali, one Ben's sister had a baby, family pics, beach, beach, family time, the big announcement and much more. We got to Kristen and Thomas's house around 9 at night. Then the next morning we back tracked to Golda's home to meet our new niece Bellalinia.

Here she is with Tessa, they look alot alike.

Grandma Eyda with all her granddaughters. Tessa, Bellalina, and Liz.

Then it was pool time. Golda and Mike have pool in their backyard. It was a blast.

Alex in the sun.

Alex and Tessa coming out of the hot tub, Austin, Gabe and Jacob, were still in there. If the kids had there way they would have stayed there the whole time.
Golda and her beautiful daughter.
Tessa and Liz.

Then we had a very good BBQ, then Mike announced that Golda has excepted his proposal, they will be married in March of 2010. Congrats, Mike and Golda.

Then it was time to get everyone dressed for family pics.

Do you know how hard it is to get all these kids to smile and look at one camera at a time. Pulling out hair frustrating.

Uncle Thomas doing his Fairy pose. Gotta Love him.

You have to laugh, between Thomas and Mike we were rolling the whole time.

Tessa's Kindergarden

2009-05-31T18:10:00.001-07:00

The Morning before we left for California, Tessa had her Kindergarden Graduation. For days Ben was trying to get me to not let her go, so we could just get on the road and go. It was so worth the Holiday traffic to be able to see her all dressed up and see her sing. She is a little sad about not being in Mrs. Sitakes' Class anymore, but she is ready for 1st grade. When she went in she couldn't read at all, now she is on a level E, I am so proud of her and she is proud of herself.

She was not to happy to sit next to a boy, she wanted to sit next her two best friends Harley and KiKi. She hate to be boy trapped.

Good job Tessa, we love you.

Spring Break with Cousins

2009-04-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

We went down to Aunt Heather's and Uncle Randy's house. The first couple of days the weather was actually kinda chilly, so we did some shopping. Can you believe, we didn't buy one thing at the outlets, crazy huh. I couldn't find anything cute for the kids or Ben and I. Maybe next time.

Thursday, we took the kids to the Red Rocks in St. George. This is a great place to take kids who love to climb. Alex and Austin found this crack between two huge boulders, it was so small that and average adult could not fit. But they made it through.

I love this shot of Heather and Courtney.
This is the shot of Austin and Alex between the rocks.Then later that day, we went to Santa Clara, where Heather had found a trail to find some petroglyphs.

All six of them.

I love this shot. Such a beautiful back ground. I would love to live down there.

On Friday, Heather talked Ben and I into going to Zions to hike Angels Landing, Ben had not been to Zions before, what better way to introduce Zions than this hike. We decided to take Alex with us and he did great.

A look down at part of the hike.Mom and Alex

Dad and Alex

Alex found this really cool hole to climb into.

After Angel's, we went back to Heather's, picked everyone up and we went back up to Zion's to take on the Emerald Pools hike. It is so funny, the first time I went down, I talked Heather into the first pool, the second time, we made it to the middle pool, and finally the third time I got Heather to go all the way to the upper pool. Heather has to admit, it was so worth it.

The second Emerald Pool = And finally the upper Emeral Pool.

Last but not least Heather and Randy hooked up some 4 wheelers, and a tractor and we headed out to the Cane Beds. We had a blast. We searched for clay pottery, and arrow heads, and rode the 4 wheelers. Then Randy brought over the tractor and let all the kids in the shovel part and gave them a ride.

Me trying to hide my belly, after Heather gave me a crazy fast ride. Fire Power.

We always have so much fun with Heather's family. We hate to leave and makes me wish more than anything that we lived closer to them. Thank you Heather and Randy for putting up with us, and feeding us your awesome food. Until next time.

Easter

2009-04-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

So for Easter, we kept it low key. We woke up Easter morning, and got a nice surprise from the Easter bunny. Then after church and some wonderful lessons on the true meaning of Easter, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Morrill's. They had set up a fun Easter egg hunt after we ate a very delicious dinner. Over all we had a wonderful, but quiet Easter.

We boiled 5, 18 packs of eggs and as a family we dyed them all.

Thanks again mom and Shirl. The kids had a blast.

Happy Birthday Suzy

2009-04-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

It was Suzy's b-day April 9th, so Tessa and I met her for lunch at IGGY"S sports and grill. Awesome place to eat by the way. So happy birthday again Suzy.
Suzy is one of the nicest people I know, she will do just about anything she can for you. I have known her for about 2 years now and she has become one of my very close friends. She has the best skin and teeth, and she look like she is 21 not 33. HA She can also eat what ever she wants and she is still skinny. She has the best kids, I love them like my own, so that says something about her as a mother. She gets out there and plays ball with them, takes them to the park, is very active in there lives, she is one of my role models. I am not very good at describing people traits, so if I missed something, please let me know or just tell Suzy yourself. She loves hear how wonderful she is. I love ya, Suzy.

I am trying........................

2009-03-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

I seriously suck at blogging, if I get out of the routine, then it is like pulling teeth to get back into the groove. Sorry Heather!!!!!!!

So what we have been up to:

Snow

Nice day, got out, went for a hike,

Snow

Can you tell I am being sarcastic. I HATE snow. These are the times where I would give almost anything to live where Heather lives. Or California, San Diego preferably. I will put up with snow for the Holidays, other than that HATE it.
But seriously what we have been up to, well in February Ben was able to coach Austin and his best friend Andrew in basketball. This is one sport I didn't have to persuade Ben to do, he loves basketball. He was a great coach, and it was fun to sit on the side and watch him with all the kids that were on his team. So on the first day of basketball Austin was so excited that he ran outside and immediately slipped on the ice and bounced his head on the cement a couple of times. He still wanted to go and they were running late to they still went. I got there about 10 minutes later and this is what I saw:

Poor guy, it has taken almost a month and finally it is gone, but now he has a bald spot, and doctor said that it may or may not grow back, I guess we will wait and see.

Then my friend Susy, told me about a flock of eagles that has shown up close to Spanish Fork, so a couple of Saturdays ago we went to see them.

If you want to see them they still might be there, so call me and I will give directions to see them. Susy's mom went to see them and their were about 20 of them sitting in the tree. We saw these 4 in the tree and then we drove a little further and saw another 3 in the air. Pretty cool to see. So this is all I can think of that a happened these last few months. But I will try to be better and blogging.

The Crazy Holiday's

2008-12-31T19:38:00.001-08:00

This year we got to have Ben's brother and his family at our house for Christmas. It was awesome for me because, it was kinda like having Kristen and the boys back with us. We had a blast with them. First we went to Tessa Christmas program at Park Elementary School. She is normally really shy, so I thought that she wouldn't do anything, but to my surprise she sang every song. I was so proud of her. Then when Kristen and Thomas came we went sledding and froze them solid. I forgot my camera that time so no pics.

Then we went ice skating at Seven peaks arena. I wish I had a camcorder with me. Ben's brother is a Marine, one of those tough guys that is not afraid of anything. Not so with this Marine, he is scared of the ice. We got him on the ice for about two seconds, and off he went.

Then off to see Santa. We got there at 1:15 and there was a sign saying Santa was out until 3:15, I guess Santa needs to eat sometime. So we walked around the mall for a while, when we get back the line to see Santa was crazy long, but finally we got to see him.

The lizard and the clone.

Christmas eve we went up to Temple Square, not so much fun for some of the kids, the California Cooks were so miserably cold we made the trip short, and decided to go to the festival of lights in Spanish fork, since we could be in a warm car and still see the lights.

While waiting to get into the festival of lights we started to take random pics of everyone.

Then time to get ready for Santa, but first we had the christmas story and eating scones. Then the kids to bed and present out.

Over all we had a wonderful holiday, we went some more sledding and tons of eating, "now I have to lose the 10 pounds that I gained in a week". We always have a blast with Thomas and Kristen, and their kids. We miss them.

Fun at Disneyland

2008-12-04T08:24:00.001-08:00

Ben's sister Golda works at Disneyland, so when ever we go to California she takes us. Who can complain about getting into Disney for free, and getting fast passes for every ride. But because we went after a major Holiday it was not packed so we didn't have to wait in lines and we even got to ride some of the rides twice in a row with out waiting. This is the Nemo ride. The kids had a blast going in a submarine and seeing all the under world life.Alex was one of the kids chosen to be a Jedi in training. Alex got to fight this guy, I don't remember what his name is. But Alex had a blast. He got a certificate showing is completed training.Then off the Its a small world. All of Disney was decked out for Christmas, and this place had every country and how they celebrate Christmas. Then Tessa got to meet her favorite princess, Aurora.Minnie mouse and TessaTessa and CinderellaThen afterwards Tessa had her face painted. Isn't she so cute.

Then we went on almost every ride they had. This is the Buzz lightyear ride.

We had so much fun, the day went by so fast. I know you can't see it very good but the Tree in the back ground reminded me of the tree in The Grinch, at the center of the Who town. It was so cool. We also for the first time we to the Tiki room, where all these animated birds put on a show for us. And right before the parade the made it snow, it started to come down then we realized that it was bubbles.

After Disney we left to come home. We had such a great time. We love California and all our family there. We miss them so much. So Thanks Kristen and Thomas for putting up with us for a whole week.

Another day at the beach

2008-12-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

One of the days we went to the San Onerfa Public beach. There was this cove that we could walk through, that was made out of the sand.

Thanksgiving in California

2008-12-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

We went to California for Thanksgiving this year. We had blast. Kristen cooked her first turkey, and it was so moist. The trick is to cook it in a roaster. We had a packed house, our family, Kristen's family, Aunt Golda and Mike, Isaiah and his girlfriend Mercedes, and some friends of Kristen's and Thomas, the Cox family. I completely forgot to take pics during the day, but we had so much food we didn't have to go shopping for several days.

This is Liz, Mercedes, and Isaiah.

Uncle Thomas and his daughter Liz.

Almost everyday we went to the beach, we thought that it would be cold so we didn't bring our swimming suits, so the kids played in the ocean in there clothes. It was so beautiful, we would go to the beach first thing in the morning and the kids would play in the ocean in their PJ's.

Austin and Tessa chasing the waves.

Tessa's dance program

2008-12-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

Tessa had her first dance recital. At first she struggled to learn the steps, then by the end she finally got it.

This was a trial run for about 10 weeks, since she did like it, we will put in a permanent class in January.

Twilight

2008-11-22T07:38:00.001-08:00

So three weeks ago, I ordered tickets for Twilight. I was kind of excited. So some friends and I went yesterday at 1:00 in the afternoon. I have to say the movie was a huge let down. I know probably everyone who went had already read the books. But if you had not read the books, the movie would never make any sense. There was so much that was left out. All of us that went, felt that it could have been done alot better. So when I came home I had to start reading it again, and I was right, "for me anyway". I like the book so much more.

8 Fun Things

2008-11-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

8 TV shows I love to watch....

1.My own worse enemy
2.Mentalist
3.Law and Order SUV
4.Criminal Minds
5.Life
6.Eleventh Hour
7.Ghost Whisperer
8.Numbers

8 favorite restaurant's I like.....

1.We just went to the Goodwood
2.Olive garden
3.Smokehouse
4.Wingers
5.Apollo Burger
6.Green Burrito
7.Outback
8.Taucano's "not sure on the spelling"

8 things I did yesterday.......

1.Worked out for 45 min. on the tread climber
2.Cleaned my house
3.Got ready for the day
4.Talked to Courtney for her birthday
5.Picked up kids from school
6.1 hour of homework
7.Finished a book
8.Took Tessa to dance class

8 things I am looking forward to......

1.California here we come again
2.Disneyland again
3.San Diego Zoo
4.The day after Thanksgiving sells "actually kind of scared for this, in California it gets pretty out of control"
5.Christmas
6.Losing 10 more pounds
7.Finishing all the projects that we have started
8.Going to Hawaii

8 things on my wish list.....

1.Winning the lottery
2.Being finacially awesome so Ben doesn't have to work
3.Living in a different State
4.Being able finish school
5.I wish I was more creative
6.I wish I didn't have to wait for My favorite authors next book to come out.
7.I wish I could go to Ireland SOMEDAY
8.I wish that I never had to do laundry

8 people I tag......

Suzi
Kristen
Kristel
Ben
Keri
Holly
Kristen Cook
Teresa

Cute Hair

2008-11-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine told me about this blog, that tells and shows how to do some awesome hairstyles for little girls. If your interested click this link http://www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com/. I have already tried a few on Tessa, and they turned out so cute. I wish I had thought to grab the camera before she took them out. Maybe next time.

Election

2008-11-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

So I am not sure how I feel about the new President, I guess I will reserve judgement for the coming months. However, my kids thought that it was awesome. Both the boys wanted to stay up to see who won. They had an election in theirs classes yesterday, and both the boys voted for McCain. When I went to pick them up Alex told me why he picked McCain, He said while he was voting another boy leaned over and said "you should vote for McCain, because Obama is just going to get shot if he is elected". I was so shocked, seriously this is a fourth grader. So then we had to sit down and talk about what was really going on, by the end of the talk Austin changed his mind and said that he wanted Obama, and Alex still wanted McCain. I thought that it was really cool that they were both interested in the election, so I let them stay up to see who would win.

Halloween

2008-11-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

Alex, the grim reaper, Tessa glamor witch, Austin venom.First we had Tessa's Parade. Her kindergarten is the only one in the morning. So it was really small. But Tessa was tripping all over her witch costume, so we had to switch to a different witch costume when we got home. She went from Glamore, Scary.

Tessa not to happy with her costume. She had just tripped.

Tessa's Kindergarten class.
Then and 1:30 we went to Austin's first grade Halloween Program. They sang alot of songs to us.Austin had a little solo part.

Then it was time for, the older kids to have their parade.

Austin and his cheesy smile. Very handsome though.

Almost all of Alex's make-up came off by the time is was is turn to come around.

Alex , Reed, and Matthew. Matthew was a witch doctor, " way cool by the way" and some stupid kids started to make fun of him, so he took of all his make-up. Sometime school sucks.

This is Alex's 4th grade teacher. She decided to be a "Very strict teacher for Halloween." I love this shot. I will make a copy for her, hope she likes it.

Austin, with is mask on, Alex with his mask on and Tessa in the scary witch costume. Every time we went to someones how that we knew, everyone asked where Tessa was, because no one recognized her.

Around 5:30 we went trick or treating with a bunch of people. There was 7 boys and 2 girls, and 6 adults. Ben ended up with the boys, because they ran from house to house. While Tessa and I slowly made our way from house to house. The boys finished first, but not before Austin told almost every house, : If you give me a quater, I'll show you a trick, Which the response was, what trick?, He said he could make the quarter disappear. We did not tell him to say this, he came up with it on his own. Then Austin went with one of his friends, and I took Alex and Tessa to another friends house, so that Ben and I could go out on a double date. We had a blast. I would totally recommend the Goodwood to anyone. Our evening ended at our house, with our guests not leaving until 2 a.m. But we had alot of fun.

pumpkin, PUMPKINS

2008-10-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Early this month Tessa and Austin got to go to pumpkin land and each received a pumpkin. Then a friend of mine called up and said she grew a lot pumpkins and for us to come and get some. Then the kids came home with free vouchers for more pumpkins. So we went to Macey's this morning and each got a pumpkin. Alex chose one that was almost 50 lbs. Austin chose one that was just a little bit smaller, then Tessa chose one that was just right for her. So by the time we were done we had a variety of big, bigger, and biggest pumpkins.

Dad helping us get the pumpkins ready.
All the kids getting ready to gut them. Austin was so funny he didn't want to get his hands dirty. So dad told him to pretend that he was spider man and he was digging in spider webs. Austin said, thanks dad, that makes it even worse. But he still did it. Ben on the other hand is extremely anal and spent most of the time making sure that each pumpkin was completely cleaned out. Thanks Dad. We have two that Austin and Tessa designed them selves, a cat, a witch, the batman symbol, an alien, a traditional pumpkin face , a pumpkin face with fangs, and a werewolf. I think that is it. We have a total of 9. Crazy, but a lot of fun.

We also went on the Haunted River in Provo. Not something that I would recommend, for the price. But the kids had some fun and got free candy. I think tonight we will go to the drive by haunted house. It is pretty cool, you sit in your car and listen to a radio station that is playing the Haunted Mansion from Disney and lights will light up according to the song.

New Family Pictures

2008-10-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends Suzy takes professional pictures. She is awesome.

Isn't she gorgeous. She is so photogenic. More pictures to come.

Ben's new Sticker

2008-10-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

So for weeks now, Ben has been trying to find the perfect sticker for the back of his Xterra. So finally he found the perfect one. Here it is.

If you don't know what it is, it's the Monster symbol. Pretty cool. What do you think?

Austin's Birthday

2008-10-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

Austin turned 7 yesterday. We started the day out with the traditional decorating of the house and the X. Because it was a school day, he had to go to school. He wasn't feeling very good, but I sent him anyway. I went to help out with his class, and he seemed worse. So the teacher said that she would do his birthday thing, then I could take him home. So I left and then came back and he was at lunch with the Principle, I asked if he wanted to go home, he said no way I get to eat with the big cheese, and he was feeling better. So after school , Ben and I picked everyone up and we headed to Boondocks.

Tessa, Lauchlan, Kyson, Drew, Austin, CJ, and Alex and Reed not pictured. Austin opening his presents. This is called Bakugan, Austin and his friends are obsessed with them. Every time we looked for them at the store, they were all gone. So we lucked out to find a pack of 6. So when we went to order his cake he chose a transformer cake, the gal that was helping us, asked Austin what he wanted it to say, he chose " Happy Birthday From Optimus Prime." Pretty cool. We ate pizza and cake then headed out doors. It was really cold so we went from outside to the inside pretty fast. Ben got the extra ticket, so he took the kids everywhere, and I got to sit back and make sure we didn't lose anyone.
So again from 3 p.m. to about 9 p.m. long party, but I think he had a blast. Until next year.

Decorating

2008-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

I got a little creative this Fall/Halloween. I put up some fall leaves and wreaths, and did a little inside. Then today I went to Joannes and got a couple fake pumpkins that you can carve and 4 real pumpkin's and made some pumpkin kids. I also hung up some ghosts. So Heather here are the pics you wanted. Love ya.

Bored Kids

2008-10-07T13:02:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to do a little touch painting, and the kids were going crazy with boredom. So I gave them a can of shaving cream and told them to go outside and have fun. The next time I check on them this is what I saw.

Alex helping Austin get completely cover in shaving cream.

Tessa getting even at Austin, for throwing it in her hair.

Alex didn't want it all over him. But it was OK to get it all over them. So because of my brilliant idea, not only do I have to clean up hate paint mess, I also had to clean this mess up. Word of advise, if you need the kids out of your hair while you are painting, get them a movie or playing a board game. Or do it when the kids are at school.

Football in the rain.

2008-10-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Alex had a football game. When we woke up in the morning it was raining pretty good. So I kept thinking that the game would be moved. So at 10:30am, I ran down to the field, just to see. To my complete surprise they were still playing. So I ran home, loaded up on chairs and umbrella's, got everyone redressed in warm clothes. I forgot the camera, so no pictures. Well we are placed third and if we won this game we will make it to the SUPER Bowl on 10/11/08. So we were one touchdown ahead, but missed the 2 points. The other team was about to make another touchdown, and Alex jumped and reached up and tipped the ball, so the other player didn't get the ball. All of the boys ran up to Alex and started to chant " GO Alex, GO Alex". Apparently, he won the game for them, by stopping the catch. He was beaming, when the game was over. I was so proud of him. So we won, and now we will have a full day of Football next Sat. I will bring my camera next time.

Update of My Life

2008-10-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in 3 weeks. I have been super busy with football games, soccer games, and dance recitals. When I have free time I am babysitting. My house is too quiet these days when all the kids are in school. I LOVE October and Halloween. I like to decorate my house. I am going to be posting some pictures of the games & dance recitals like I promised very soon. I might even take some pictures of my Halloween decorated house and post them. I also love Christmas time and my house looks like the North Pole exploded here.

What I wish I was doing this weekend???? Going down to visit my sister like my lucky brother and mom are doing. :-(

So I completely messed up

2008-09-11T13:09:00.001-07:00

So I messed up my blog pretty bad. So I had to delete it and I am going to start over, this sucks. Sorry.