My Christmas present

You may have heard me whine and complain about my camera before.  Yeah, I whined and complained.  So I finally ordered myself a new one.  It's my Christmas present to me.  I've been playing around with it and trying to figure it out.  Here's some shots I've taken: 

Trying to get all creative with the tree in our backyard

Isn't it gorgeous?

My cute little man, Zero

close ups of flowers!!  close up!

Yes, that's a hummingbird.  I'm thrilled I could even get this!

And my favorite subject!

Isn't it fun learning new things?

Christmas around the house

Welcome to our home at Christmas time.  Come on in!

Since we were without a tree this year, after getting rid of our difficult to put together tree after Christmas last year, we decided to get a real tree. There's nothing in the world like the smell of a fresh Christmas tree!
Silver and Gold just like the snowman sings on Rudolph.

Here's my Santa shelves.  I haven't added to the collection for a couple of years now, better do that!

Love this trio of Santas!

Some glittery stars and candles and wire trees sit on top of the newly painted armoire.

 The fireplace gets all decked out with a feather wreath and gold glittered reindeer, berry trees and fruit garland.  Love it!

 It's fun to look at

And of course the reason for the season.  The Nativity.

Thanks for stopping by.  Merry Christmas!

My love/hate relationship with christmas lights

Oh Christmas lights, how I love you.
But secretly I really hate you.

 You're so pretty and sparkly.
But you ruin my life!

You make everything twinkly and merry.
But you waste hours and hours of my time untangling you, stringing you on the house, replacing fuses, wracking my brain figuring out how to plug all of you in!!

You shine in the night like the star of Bethlehem.
But you taunt me with your sections of unlit lights and even after I buy new strands to replace you, you laugh as the new strand does the same thing!!!

You represent the Christmas Season.
But you're hoping maybe this time I'll finally fall off the ladder.

It's ok, I forgive you.
My house is lovely.
I love you Christmas lights.

Looky! A Before and After

I'm at it again.  Just can't leave well enough alone.  This time the fireplace was my victim.  If my house were not swimming in oak and the fireplace were the only piece of oak in the house, I would have left it.  It was pretty enough.  But it got lost in all the oakness.  It was crying for help.  It just wanted to be noticed, to stand out.  I hope I made it happy.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I used a miter box and a caulking gun for the first time.  I primed and painted and nailed and glued.  AND I did it without any help from the husband.  Power to the Girl!

Double Take

In case you don't know Isabelle very well, let me tell you, she's a crack up!  The moment she saw this costume online she knew this is what she wanted to be for Halloween.  We had our Trunk or Treat last night.  It was so funny to watch people look at her and then look at her again and then bust out laughing.

 She had alot of fun and was very original that's for sure!  It's a good thing babies heads aren't really that big!   Funny, funny girl.

Cook Halloween dance: year two

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Bird Watching

Since moving to this house we have noticed a large group of birds around our neighborhood.  They always fly in circling circles.  Sometimes very high in the air, and sometimes quite low.  It's always neat to see them flying around. 

 Isabelle and I have taken to watching them in the late afternoon and early evening as they fly around and settle into the neighbor's tree for the night.

   We got the binoculars out one day to get a closer look. (camera doesn't show close up image)

     And this is what we saw:

Or maybe that's what I imagined I saw. Ha.

10 or 110?

One minute she's a 10 year old princess

And the next she's a 110 year old woman!

They grow up so fast.

She's been waiting for this day

Today is the day this girl:

Has been waiting to go here:

So she can ride this:

and this:

and of course this:

She has been marking one day off at a time on her calendar for over a year.  Listening to the soundracks of the rides for months.  Waiting with much anticipation for this day, when her Grandma takes her to Disneyland for her 10th birthday.  She is the last grandchild to participate in this awesome tradition.  She was only days old when Grandma took Amanda, the first grandchild to start the whole Disneyland 10th birthday trip.  And I think she is the most excited!  Her first plane trip also.  Big Big Day for Isabelle!

her broken finger

See how the tip of the bone is sitting on top of the other bone?  Yeah, it's not supposed to be like that.  Emily broke her finger while playing kickball in weight training.  She jammed it while catching the ball.  It's totally fractured from the bone under it.

Luckily, there's no need for surgery.  As long as she wears her splint religiously for 4-6 weeks, the bones should grow back together.  This is the second finger she's broken in her young life.  The first was while giving Logan Indian Torture while trying to get him off of her or something stupid like that.

She has realllllly long fingers, so I'm sure it won't be the last broken finger we'll see on this girl.

Is it Fall yet?

This is my first attempt at linking up.  The Nester is having a Fall Mantle party.  So here is my fall mantle.

Very Simple.  Some acorns, little seeded ball things, candle sticks, pumpkins.  That's about it.  My fireplace hasn't gone through the transformation process yet, but very soon!

There's also a little more of Fall going on here:

Lots of texture with leaves, feathers, fruit, berries.

I love Fall!  Now if the weather would just catch on.

SWEET SIXTEEN

Today, sixteen years ago my little baby that almost came in the backseat of the car was born.  She was dark haired, dark eyed, dark complected and looked nothing like me. My little china doll.  And I loved her to pieces.  Still do.  And much to her credit, so do alot of others.

She was heart attacked last night by her friends.  So cute.  Her smile was a mile wide.  Wider than it usually is, if you can believe that!

Love that girl!

Help a Sista Out!

I'm giving a talk in church on Sunday on Blessings of the Temple.  I know how the Temple has blessed me and what blessings I've recieved by going to the Temple.  But what about you?  I promise not to use any names.  Could you share with me how the Temple has blessed your life?    It would just give my talk another dimension if I had other's experiences to share.  Pretty please??

Thank you.

Life is like a box a chocolates.....

You never know what you're gonna get.   In our case it's 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric.  We move into a new Ward and BAM!  Get to work Brother Cook!  I hope to see him now and then in between this and that.

The Man sure does look fine in a suit though!

The dangers of Softball

The picture is kind of blurry.  maybe you can't see it that well, but Emily has a FAT LIP.  She recieved this little beauty at church softball.  And it wasn't even during the game.  A girl threw it to her in the parking lot and it bounced off her glove.  She made an amazing catch during the game though.

  She fared better than a guy in our ward who took a hit to the face and fractured his cheekbone and had to have surgery.
 That's not even the danger I'm talking about here:  It's Boys.  Lots and lots of boys on the team and the other teams.  But what are you gonna do?   Can't really keep her locked up in a closet.  Or can I?