boys

gotta love them

eating

 This is Kyle's face when I do not feed him fast enough

Driving

I love these two little boys and watching them learn and play together

Finger Painting

Once a week we have Family Night where we have a short spiritual lesson followed by an activity. This week I really wanted to get both my little boys involved in the activity so I whipped up some edible finger paints ( basically just non toxic) and we had a fun time finger painting.  Adam was pretty fun to watch because he doesn't like slimy or sticky textures on his hands. Kyle had a blast.

 His tray was his canvas 

 Daddy made a beautiful ocean picture

 mommy made a tree and flowers

 and Adam just tried not to make a mess!

daddy showed him how it was done, Adam looked so disgusted :)

Family

My baby brother Darren came home honorably from his two year mission to Paraguay for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. He came home a man that I am proud to call my brother. All my siblings were able to make it for the weekend and because we are rarely ALL in the same place together, we took family pictures

 My dad and brothers

 sisters, I love these girls!

 I think I have the best family ever!

yes we took family pictures in the middle of a snow storm, and we sure had a fun time with it (although it was a little chilly :)

I'm so happy to have you home Darren and so happy we were all able to be there!

Dads Birthday

Happy Birthday to my main man! I love you!

Adam was trying to get your Butterfinger. 

Other Gifts included Spot it and Pandemic as well as a new pillow and accessories to your Raspberry pi. Hope this year is wonderful. Happy 26th Birthday!

What we do when Daddy's gone

This last week Nathaniel was in Arizona all week long.  I missed him a lot but this time I did a lot better than when he was in Denver.  Adam Kyle and I had a lot of fun.  we went shopping, went out to lunch, visited family and played together a lot.

 Kyle discovered a funny new way to laugh.

 Mom bought some new clothes with her Christmas money

 Adam

 And Kyle both enjoyed walking around the mall with me.

Adam even tried out dressing himself a couple times, although his undershirt is on backwards and he was missing pants, I was pretty impressed.  He also tried to put Kyle's socks on him to help out :) We are happy to have Daddy back

Cookies!

I have been noticing that the more time I spend with Adam, and the less I ignore him (no matter the reason), the happier he is and easier he is to parent.  Nathaniel has noticed this too.  So last Sunday when we were looking for something sweet to eat we decided to involve Adam.  Adam has a play kitchen and a set of cookie cutters and felt cookie dough/ cookies.  What a great idea to make these cookies for real!

Adam helped Dad put all the ingredients in and he even held the mixer!

Here he is pushing his cookie cutters into the dough (great job at finding the recipe Dad! so tasty and no eggs to worry about!)

 And this is his reaction to tasting the frosting after he frosted a cookie.  I love this one.  He really was so happy to be spending time with Mom and Dad.  We will have to do things like this more often!

Crafty

When we went back to Nathaniel's home for Thanksgiving a surprise project was waiting for me.  With my sisters and Mother-in-law I sanded, painted, traced and cut paper, modge podged, accented and accessorized these three little letters.

Then Christmas morning I got these four letters.  I still don't think I am a very creative person but I am happy with how these turned out. I still have one more letter project, but it will have to wait until I am done with my classes.

Thanks mom for the projects! I really enjoyed spending time doing this with you all! I love having these decorating my home.

rollin' rollin' rollin'

Maybe I should have done something to change this but Kyle has never really spent much time on the floor.  It was just too risky.  When Adam was tiny, he practically lived on the floor but now because he is a very active two-year-old Kyle usually sits on the couch, or his swing, or his bumbo, or in the arms of an adult, far away from the stomps and jumps of his monkey brother. That being said, Kyle was able to roll from front to back almost as soon as I started tummy time with him ( supervised for just a couple minutes, he really didn't like tummy time).  I try to get him on the floor every once in a while and he seems to like it but it surprised me today when he rolled over from back to front.  And then rolled over a couple more times!  He was getting pretty tired by the time I took this video so he was whining a bit, but you get the point.  Way to go Kyle!

New Years Eve Ice Skating

While the Cooks were in town we had a lot of time to be with family, mostly in different homes because Adam and Kyle were both sick, but on Monday, New Years Eve, they were both feeling good enough that we decided to get out and go ice skating! we had a lot of fun and it was great to see Adam have a good time with his first time ice skating, we will have to go back soon :)

 Adam got good at keeping his feet out in front of him, holding onto two hands

 and with just one person pushing from behind

They got pretty fast!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. Ours was just wonderful and I also feel like we were very spoiled, especially me. I really couldn't ask for anything I didn't already have; my wonderful husband and my two amazing boys.  On top of that though, we also had Nathaniel's whole family come in from Utah and Idaho to spend Christmas day with us.  It was a blessing for me to be able to host Christmas morning celebrations at our house.  

 It was still dark when we started opening presents and almost noon by the time we finished. what a haul. This year more than any other year I felt the joy of giving and I enjoyed watching others as they opened their gifts, my boys especially. I didn't know how happy my boys could make me just for being happy themselves.

 Our stockings that I made filled with goodies (Santa thought we were good this year)

 Adam and Kyle were the first two down, sporting their PJ's they got on Christmas eve.

 Adam was a pro at unwrapping and by the end he was even good at taking things out of their fabric bags (cook tradition that we have continued, it is so nice not to have to deal with all the wrapping paper mess before and after). 

Kyle playing with his new keys. this kid will chew on anything and he is getting so good at putting anything in his hands to his mouth

Adam playing with a cool caterpillar toy from his Grandparents.  Adams big gift was a wooding kitchen, which when he uncovered it he promptly crawled in one door and out the other. 

with over a foot of snow on the ground we most definitely had our white Christmas this year it was too bad Adam was too sick to go play in it.  I especially enjoyed talking to my brother who is serving a mission in Paraguay. I can't wait for him to get home next month.  Happy Birthday Baby Jesus! 

Nativity

We enjoy the holidays, especially the traditions that center around the reason for the season, our Savior Jesus Christ. This year we celebrated advent (something I was introduced to on my mission where candles are lit and songs are sung each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas) and we also did the nativity play at Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's.  

 Nathaniel was a wise guy...er wise man

 Kyle made the perfect baby Jesus.  He was happy and content through the whole reading (great grandpa was reading from the scriptures)

And Adam made a pretty cute shepherd. (when he wasn't running around screaming and causing mischief of one sort or another)

Getting big

Kyle started eating rice cereal this last week.  He does a really good job too.  I love the funny faces he pulls at the beginning   He is getting so big. I know I am a month late on this but his four month stats are: Height 24in (16%) weight 13lbs 5 oz (18%) and 57 percentile for head size.  He has started rolling and sitting too.  Kyle is such a happy boy and I love the happy spirit he adds to our family.  He absolutely idolizes his older brother and can be entertained by him for hours (that is until Adam decides to  get to crazy and jump or sit on him).  for the most part they get along really well. Lately Kyle has started scooting in circles when he is on the floor and he thinks he is so hilarious.  We think he is pretty funny too.

this is after the first few bites, the first video wont load for some reason.

Kyle is quickly catching up to older brother, at least in size!

Adam is pretty cool with his shades.

Getting pretty

 Adam must have been very interested as I have been putting on makeup for various occasions because the other day daddy caught him putting on my make up. I was surprised that he did such a good job putting the mascara on, only a couple of splotches here and there.  He really does have very pretty eyelashes ;) I let him keep it on until his next bath.

Black Tie

We got all dressed up for Nathaniel's work Christmas Party.  My mom and dad watched the kiddos and we had a fun time.  Nathaniel actually was wearing a fedora most of the evening but I'm not sure where that picture went.  He was smoking hot :)

Christmas Project

For my birthday I received a sewing machine. For being woken up in the middle of the night while my husband was on call for work I got a gift certificate to Hobby Lobby. In years past my family has used dollar store stockings with puffy paint names.  Add these three facts together and you get motivation for a Christmas project that I started right after Thanksgiving.  Personalized stockings! 

 I started with tracing letters on cross-stitch material

 then actually cross stitching the names on

 After reading a lot of tutorials, I used an old stocking for a pattern, tried to get creative and went crazy sewing. the bulk of the work was yesterday morning.

 I am really happy with the way our stockings turned out. and I got extra material for any more kids we might have :)

next step, hanging them up on the wall and then stuffing them full of goodies :)

Christmas shopping

he said he was tired :)
now time for some rambling.  A few posts back I posted pictures of my two-year-old terror getting into things he should not have.  Since then his behavior has worsened on many accounts.  Shopping with him has turned into a nightmare as he asserts his independence.  He refuses to ride in the cart anymore and will not stick around when he is helping push it, as witnessed yesterday when I had to stop and go look for him no fewer than three times during what should have been a 10 minute trip to hobby lobby.  This last week we got the bright idea to try and potty train him. The first day he did great and I thought it was going to be so easy, then the independent streak stuck again, oy. Longest few days in his little life.  We are back to diapers for the time being.  I say all this only because it confuses me.  My little monkey is showing a side of him I am still not believing actually exists.  He is so sweet and such a patient older brother.  He is full of energy and loves to make people laugh.  The pace at which he is learning to talk and use words completely amazes me. He sings and dances and runs and plays and makes me so happy to be a mama.  This is what I want to think about when I think of Adam, not the tantrums or the misbehavior, because despite all that, my love for him just keeps growing and growing.  I love my crazy monkey like I never thought was possible and to me, he is perfect.