Yes, I'm here...but not here, in Texas!

Four months later, I know, and much has happened in that time. Let's see, Kaylee turned one on February 22nd and we had fun celebrating that. For her birthday I put a new little outfit on her and we watched "Mulan," (this is a treat since she hardly watches TV or movies), she helped me make her birthday cake, and then later we had family over and let her devour her little chunk of it. Yes, my little girl is one.

Another bit of news for you. We are expecting baby #2. What fun, what fun, at least now that the second trimester has been rolling along nicely. Four months along and I feel happy never to have thrown up during the first trimester. Sorry, but I am not a pregnant belly picture taker. I can't do it. I get so self-conscious. I took three, I think, when I was pregnant with Kaylee, and those was only at the request of sibling missionaries and family (not three pictures total but three specifically of the pregnant belly...covered, mind you). Some people say pregnant women look beautiful. I think so, until that pregnant person is me. At this point there is nothing to show yet. I'm happy to wait a long time until the pregnancy clothes have to come. But we are excited for this other little one to come along and join our family.

What else...well, Jared was finally released as Elder's quorum president around the end of March, which, I was so sad about at the time since I loved going to Ward council meetings, discussing things and working with him at church, but later was a huge blessing because a few weeks later he suddenly became so busy with work and finishing the semester that some nights he never came to bed. He would be up all night reading, studying, finishing projects etc...That last month in March was rough for us. Then I realized what perfect timing the Lord has in our lives, not only for callings and certain chapters in our lives, but also for the time when we're released and those chapters are over.

We had originally planned on graduating and leaving Rexburg in April but felt that we needed to be where we were at one more semester, putting us at leaving around August or so. I took another class for fun and Jared had two more left so that was the plan. In early March Jared flew out to San Antonio, TX for an internship interview with USAA (insurance co.). We were told that we would know in a few weeks whether or not he got the internship. We heard nothing. We called and still heard nothing. So we decided he didn't get it...In the middle of May we got a call early morning from USAA apologizing for some type of a mix up and that they would like Jared to be there in Texas ready to start work on June 1st. Well! Ok then. We were flying out the next day for one week to be in Seattle with Jared's family...so that gave us six days when we got home to be packed, moved, and on our way to Texas. I've never done anything quite like that before. If we couldn't sell our apartment contract asap we were looking at losing a lot of money there, I had a schooling bill come up due to leaving during the semester so we were looking at losing money there too, we had to get our car fixed, go to the Dentist, figure out Dr.'s, insurance, I had to tell the Bishop to find a new R.S president immediately, we had to say goodbye to our friends, family, and home for the last four plus years....plus pack and move. We prayed, and we prayed hard those first few days. It's amazing, but everything worked out perfectly. Within a few days we got a call from a family who needed an apartment close to campus immediately. Great! My schooling bill was figured out and we lost no money there, and we fixed our car, and managed to get everything taken care of.

At first Jared and I worried so much about whether or not this was the right decision. He had just received another job offer to stay in Rexburg for another year or so. It would have been so easy to stay. We were comfortable and happy, yet we felt it was something we needed to do. I was very hesitant to call the Bishop and tell him I was leaving within the week and that he needed a new R.S president. I finally called. He said he had felt that it was coming and already knew who would replace me when that time came . When I heard that I knew it was our time to leave and close this chapter of our lives in Rexburg, at BYU-Idaho, just like it was when Jared was released a few months before. I realized again, that the moments in our lives are so carefully planned out and known before they even happen, if we are doing our part. So we said our goodbyes and closed that chapter, so grateful for our time there, leaving with no regrets.



And here we are! We made it. As you can see by Kaylee's red sweaty face, it is hot and humid in San Antonio. My mom came down to help us out and it was wonderful to have her with us for the first almost week. We went down the Riverwalk...Fabulous!! It's a river with a walk on both sides and restaurants all over, weddings going on, pigeon feedings, a theater, all sorts. It's fantastic.



This is us trying to help Kaylee feed the pigeons. She loved it. What an experience she had...even though she sweat like she never has before, along with all of us.


The pictures below are from our trip in Seattle, visiting Jared's family.


(Below): We took a tour of the Seattle underground...interesting history. I was worried about Kaylee because it was down in the ground and pretty dark. Thank goodness Uncle Bryan brought rootbeer candy otherwise we would have been done for. She just kept popping them in and that was that.



One night we ate dinner with the family by the beach. We had fish and chips. Hmmm! Reminded me of England. I loaded the chips with vinegar and it was perfect. That's a big thing in England. The fish and chips are wrapped in newspaper or some other type of white paper, with the smell of salt and vinegar oozing out. Oh so good.




What goodlooking boys!
..and a very happy mom

We celebrated Jared's 27th birthday out there. Mom Cook whipped up a German chocolate cake, my favorite, and we sure enjoyed it together.


That's it for today folks, for those of you who hung in there. If I posted more often my posts wouldn't be so long. I'll write soon and tell of life in San Antonio. Until then, enjoy the dry climate for me...I miss it so!
p.s Jason, I counted 150 eyelashes on my right eye, just so you know

(believe me?)

If you have not seen "Butterfly Circus" please follow the link below and watch it. It's about 20 minutes long. It's a beautiful reminder of the worth of souls, regardless of size, shape, or challenges. My teacher showed it to us in my Family Stress and Coping Class and it really touched me. I've watched it four times or so now. I hope you enjoy it as much I do.

www.thedailyinspired.com

Here is an update from the Cook home. We are happy and love love LOVE our bigger apartment. We are so grateful to have two bedrooms now and yet still be in the same ward (in our 90 apt. complex there are only two two-bedroom apts). Our time at this place we love so much is soon coming to an end......but not yet, and we're still glad to be here for this last little bit of time, which is at least until August or so. As you can see from above Kaylee really likes helping mommy cook. When I'm baking she often crawls over to my feet and kind of tugs on my legs or looks up at me with that inquisitive face, letting me know that she wants in on the good stuff. It's fun to have her help, regardless of the mess I have to clean up afterwards.
I had my 25th birthday last week. A quarter of a century, can you believe! Jared had one of my good friends get me out of the house and so we went and made some yummy bread at her place. She dropped me off and when I came home Jared had dinner cooking. I was so impressed. I love surprises and he pulled a good one. He baked chicken cordon bleu from scratch (I've told him that's his specialty now, that's how fantastic it tasted), with cheese sticks and home made steak fries. It was a neat surprise. I think the Cook birthday tradition is to eat dinner on the living room floor, or at least we've done that with the birthdays we've had since we got married. He started it last year when he made dinner for me and set the table on the floor and then I did it for his, he did it for mine . . . . I'm glad he started that tradition. Now I need some good ideas for his birthday (May 16th).

These are our good friends, Luke and Mary Alley. We lived below them before we switched apartments in December. We spend a lot of time together and always have a good laugh together. It's funny but Luke is Jared's 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency and Mary is my 1st counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I know those are rare circumstance but it has definitely been the right thing and we've grown to love them so much as we've served with them and played together.
I wanted you to know that I made this bagel from scratch. Isn't it beautiful...looks just like one from the store, don't you think! I'm really into making what things I can from scratch and I enjoy tackling new food projects. It was delicious and I don't think I'll buy bagels again from the store. It's cheaper and easy to make at home. I had fun making wheat bagels, white bagels, and cinnamon raisin bagels. Now I make a bunch, freeze them, and then when Jared wants one for lunch all he has to do is toast it. I think it's become a hobby to make things on my own...it gives me a sense of purpose and accomplishment to do things like this for my little family, especially when I see how much Jared loves something I took the time to make.....don't worry though, I definitely have my failures. A few weeks ago I made some pumpkin potato soup. Doesn't that sound good on a cold, snowy winter night? I thought so. It was disgusting, just uneatable. Kaylee liked it and it was really healthy so I kept giving it to her. I gave some to Jared and after one bite I knew there was no way he was going to eat more. Oh, I felt sad about that, taking all that time to make it only to have it taste so bad. Why did it taste so bad, you ask? I don't know, I just blame it on the recipe :->. Well to be funny I told Mary Alley about it and we decided to play a trick on her husband. Luke is quite the teaser himself so we thought this would be funny to pull on him. I gave her the soup and she was going to pretend that she made it that night for dinner and tell Luke how good it was before he ate any. Well when he took a bite she said his comment was "are you kidding me?" (or something to that effect). Of course she started laughing and gave up the joke. Oh what a good joke that was because if you had tasted that soup you'd be sorry if you had to take a bite of it.
This is Kaylee's little buddy Hyrum. I spend Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30 with one of my good friends Annie and her little boy (she's the one who showed me how to make the yummy homemade bread on my birthday). It's fun to have time to get out of the house and be with a friend who has a little one the same age as Kaylee. I've learned that being a mom is more fun and enjoyable if you find ways to get out of the house and get involved in different things, like being with friends who have kids the same age, taking walks, playgroups, teaching each other fun things that you've learned at home (like the bread..and I taught another friend how to make bagels...that was fun). I just can't be at home everyday all day without going anywhere. I go stir crazy. I have to get out and go someone at least once a day. I think it's good for Kaylee to get out and be around other people a lot too and I like taking her places with me so she can be around other little kids, grownups, whatever. I think it makes a big difference and it makes being a mom even more fun!

We didn't have a bathtub in our last apartment and so we thoroughly enjoy having one now. Kaylee really likes baths and so she gets them a lot. She has a good time and if she's ever grumpy for whatever reason, a bath seems to help most everytime (unless she's sick and then I thank heaven for baby ibuprofen).
Jared taught Kaylee how to flush the toilet. One night when we were on the couch we heard this little clunk clunk clunk and we started laughing because we realized that Kaylee was pulling on the toilet handle but couldn't pull it down the entire way to flush it. Jared ran in and taught her how and now she's mastered that little skill. Oh she gets so excited when she flushes the toilet. Her little hands wave in the air, her face lights up, and life is wonderful for her at that moment. One day mommy will potty train Kaylee and then won't that be something to celebrate...Let's hope she finds that just as exciting.

I thought this was adorable. I love cleaning, weird I know, but it relieves stress for me and I just enjoy it so Kaylee has seen me scrub all sorts of things. A few weeks ago she grabbed a towel on the floor and went around scrubbing the fridge, the cupboard, and then to the oven. It was so cute. I realized how aware she is of me and what she sees me do.




See, when I see this beautiful face look up at me it makes me happy. Little Kaylee we love you



I took this picture of my little sister Kimberly at Angie's wedding. Isn't it beautiful! I think it's the best picture of her I've ever seen. Ang got married on January 5th and everything turned out better than I ever thought it would. Two ladies in my mom's ward offered to decorate the chapel for the reception and oh wow, they transformed that place into something stunning. I was so impressed.
The picture above is of the Mckeen girls, the newly added brother-in-law Austin and our neighbors Becky and Audrey. We've been friends with them since we moved to Farmington twelve years ago.


Ok, you see these cakes...I made them. Yep, that's right. I expended a lot of time and energy but it was fun! I used to make and decorate cakes at Cold Stone and I had a ball. I would go back to doing that any day. Since I worked there I had always wanted to make Ang's cake so I was glad she let me. This is as close of a shot as I would take because there were definitely flaws but for a first try what can you expect? Now I know what I'd do differently next time, if there is a next time. The flowers are what made it look beautiful though. Thank you flower lady!
The pictures below are of the dinner we had the night before Ang and Austin got married.


And to end this long post here's a quote Brad sent me on his mission and one I have looked at often as a good reminder. Until I post next...have a beautiful day!

President Gordon B. Hinckley
"Rejoice in the privilege[s] which [are] yours. Your opportunities will not last forever. Too soon there will be only the memory of the great experience[s] you are now having. None of us will accomplish all we might wish to, but let us do the best we can."

I dedicate this entry to my favorite, one and only Aunt Debi. The only reason I'm posting anything is because she reminds me quite often that I need to update this blog. I love writing in my journal. It's one of my favorite things to do, but I do not feel the same about keeping an online journal. It's just not the same thing to me, plus it's so difficult for me to work out the writing and where the pictures go, it takes forever to download....what work! So I really have to have motivation in order to post anything on here. Thanks Aunt Debi for the motivation...for that reason this post is dedicated to you!

Where to begin.....well, we're moving! Actually, to state it correctly, we have moved. Yes, we moved out of our dear little #601 apartment a few days before Christmas. We loved it there...two years, what fun we had, but 495 square feet will only work so long with a little baby crawling around. The last two months it finally got to the point that I couldn't handle Kaylee in our room at night anymore and I wanted to train her to sleep through the night without waking up and needing mommy and food. We started moving her play pen out in the living room at night. I slept much better once we did that because I stopped waking up to her little whimpers here and there. If she ever woke up in the night I would go in and stroke her forehead and talk to her for a bit and then let her put herself back to sleep, but I never put her to sleep myself. In my parenting class I learned that it's important to help your kids learn to soothe themselves so they can learn to handle their emotions instead of expecting mom to come and make everything alright when the tears come. After two months of doing this many times it is now paying back. She no longer wakes up during the night and wants to be fed. I get a wonderful nights rest and if she does ever start to cry she quickly puts herself back to sleep. The work was worth it.

Going back to moving...I've never ever cleaned so hard in all my life. It took me three entire days to scrub every inch of that tiny place. I left it as clean and polished as I possibly could and by the time I was done I was spent with no energy left. I don't ever want to move again. Yikes! We're moving across the street (we don't move far do we!) into a two bedroom apartment and boy are we excited. We'll stay in the ward, which we're so grateful for. Jared and I are still enjoying our callings, which continue to keep us ever busy, especially when the semesters change, which happens every 13 weeks...new callings within the R.S and priesthood, re-arranging home and visiting teaching, meetings and more meeting, and visiting the new couples that move into the ward. We have about 80 couples in our ward and every thirteen weeks at least 1/3 if not 1/2 move out...crazy busy but what fun! (most of the time).

It's been wonderful to take a break from everything and spend Christmas with my family. We went sledding on Christmas Eve and Kaylee even went a couple of times. Then we came home and made gingerbread houses, then watched Muppet's Christmas Carol and then all of us kids fell asleep together in the room next to the living room. I had fun staying up a little later with mom and Jason, stuffing the stockings and laughing for another hour or so. That was probably one of my favorite parts.

Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee. We love her so much. She is sooo easy to love and take care of. She continues to a content, easy going, and happy little girl. She's not really a baby anymore, especially not now that she crawls everywhere and wishes she could walk. What a cutie pie.

Right now we're in St. George for the week. Angie's getting married a couple of days after we get home, on the day school starts up (thanks Ang), and then we are going back to Rexburg, moving into our bigger (;->) apartment (we couldn't move in until Jan 1st so we put our stuff in a storage area during the break), moving Ang and Austin's stuff into their apartment too while they're on their honeymoon (since they are missing school for that entire week), and get busy with school, Jared with work, and lots of church stuff to do with the new semester. WHew! But we are so happy! We love having purpose in our lives. We got married two years ago on the 28th and have found so much joy in the journey we've created together. There just isn't much more we could ask for in life.

Alright Aunt Debi...did that work for you?

the joy of an orange

Our little family