New Design

So after 2+ long, boring, post-less years my daughter was tortured by the lack of attention given to this dilapidated old family blog and decided to give it a magnificent, glorious face lift. How do you like it? She updated the self portraits, the ages, and the basic design on the blog. I am hoping to start posting more on here but I'm just not sure if that will work. My little boys are super busy and crazy in love with playing cars, swords, love the mama games... :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - July 4th Style

Monday Musings

I baked a cake for a friends baby shower.

I love baking but it is not really the time of the year to get too carried away. It was 112 degrees outside when I seriously thought about skipping out and heading down to pick up a Costco cake. I am glad I stuck with it though. It turned out pretty cute, I think :-)

Grandpa and Grandma Cookie arrived and promptly got to playing and teaching the young ones. So grateful that they had a safe trip and are here to visit. :-)

Too cute! We were at our Pool Day with our Homeschool group and Mini Chip was getting tired. He built his own bed and tried to take a nap :-)

VBS Wrap-up Night's singing made the boy's eyes open and make him appear awake, but that doesn't mean he had to act the part. But Daddy sure makes a great recliner to safely check out the noisy business from. 

Mini Chip is plain pooped from all the learning, playing, and sweltering temperatures.

The big kids (including Mr. Cookie) swimming with Grandpa Cookie. After swimming around for a bit, Grandpa informed us that he had never been in a pool before. WOW!! The girls sure had fun showing him how fun it was to get a little excercise in! :-)

Grandma Cookie receiving singing lessons from the littlest one.

Sometimes random pictures turn up on my camera... LOVE IT!!

Oreo hanging out with her best buddies at Pool Day>

Beef... It's what's for dinner

So, we bought a beef, cow, freezer meat... whatever you call it.

It always amazes me how much there is and how little there is. Decisions and me... :-) I tend to be able to see two or more sides to things. Sometimes this makes me look wishy-washy I think. Sometimes it makes me look compassionate. Sometimes it just doesn't matter.

Either way, what you see here is actually half of our beef.

We took Grandpa Cookie to see Mr. Cookie's jobsite. The kids can never stop themselves from playing dressup even there :-) Lol.

Our Favorite Mayor

This is Oreo Cookie. I would like to share with you the story of her life this past week.

Amy is the real Mayor of Junior Achievement's BizTown.

The story behind her running for mayor in the first place warms my heart and makes this Mama well up with tears.

Two weeks ago, as we were wrapping up our studies associated with attending JA BizTown, we looked over the citizens running for Mayor and DJ in the town. We discovered that there were 8 people running for DJ including our very own Butterscotch Cookie! Oh, the competition! So exciting!

However, there was not one citizen running to be the towns Mayor. This was upsetting news to Oreo. She was concerned that there could be no town without a leader. She seemed to be distracted most of the rest of that day. She approached her Dad and I late the same day and asked loads of questions, as her sweet self is prone to do, and then asked if it would be okay if she prepared a speech just in case no one else stepped up to run for Mayor. After all, if the town needed a Mayor, someone had to step up and do the job.

The next morning when we checked there were 4 others running for mayor. We went to church and afterwards Oreo told us that she had thought about it alot and was going to run for mayor anyway! So exciting!
The following day at BizTown she gave an awesome speech to her fellow citizens. She stood tall and spoke loudly and clearly. The other candidates did very well also. When the votes had been tallied, she had won! She was voted in by her peers and will make an excellent Mayor!
Due to an unforeseen and sad display of adult behavior, Amy was unable to perform her duties as Mayor that day due to absolutely no fault of her own. Many tears have been shed by her, this Mama, her dear friends, and their Mama's too. These people know who the REAL MAYOR of JA BizTown was that day. No one can change that. The life lessons, hard, sad, and real... will be with us always.

Amy is amazing to us as her parents. She is the most caring, sensitive girl we know. This has been a week so full of emotional ups and downs that it has left us exhausted. But God has got our backs! He has lifted us up, brushed us off, and prepared us for the next wonderful challenge this life has to offer. Go Oreo!!

Ice skating

We went ice skating with friends yesterday.

It was tons of fun.

Butterscotch Chip was really good at it and helped teach the younger kids. I don't know what we would have done without her! I have not done much like this since having Mini Chip.

We got to meet some friends of friends which was really great. We have heard lots about them and it was nice to finally put faces with the names.

(I didn't show them here because I don't have their permission.)

Mini Chip had to...

...curl his hair in preparation for the fun!

Lol!

Apparently he had been watching me curl Chocolate Chips hair :-)

Every once in a while it's fun to be reminded that even at 18 months, they are watching your every move and waiting for an opportunity to mimic it back for you :-)

Advent Time

As a child, I celebrated Advent with my mom and siblings. I can tell you that I have the memory of the candles in the wreath and a peaceful feeling and that the candles were pink and purple.

This year I have made our own Advent wreath. The candles are not colored the same as when I was a child but we are celebrating Advent just the same. We light a candle every Sunday of Advent and read specific verses from the Bible about the Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament fulfillment of that prophecy.

Also, each one of the kids have made an Advent calendar and together we are reading this book: Jotham's Journey.

It is a wonderful and fun book. We truly look forward to reading it each day. The story is very entertaining and exciting even while it teaches us things we did not know and reminds us of things we did know about this awesome time of celebrating Jesus birth.

Celebrating,

Mrs. Cookie

Umm, Where's October? Part 1

I'm pretty sure every year comes standard with one, but this year it seems to have disappeared!

So, I am going through my pictures to see if I can find it...

Turns out it was a very good month!

It started out fast... Nate's new Corvette...

SWEET!!!

It was fun to drive!

We traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico with some friends...

Played games, acted silly in the mirror...

and went to the Balloon Fiesta and saw the special shapes balloons take shape!

WOW!!!

It was SOOO good to be chilly too!

This balloon owner asked us if we wanted to climb into his basket... ummm, YUP!

You REALLY have to see this in real life...

the pictures do nothing for the massive size of these balloons!

Off to Killeen, Texas... VERY long drive.

 But TOTALLY worth it!

 We really do love traveling, especially when at the end is someone so amazing and wonderful!

 Spending some time with Dad.

One of the greatest things about homeschool...

 It doesn't matter where you are.

 We LOVE homeschool!

This boy LOVES his Daddy's watch!

 It fits him well... well someday! :-)

 Snack time.

 LOVE THE KISSES!!!!

 It is a great adventure God has led us to...

Sweet!

 Aren't they just so awesome!

 Little man so proud in his little boots and overalls.

Such a happy boy! He is just such a joy!

Drove back to Albuquerque, New Mexico...

 Starbucks sword fighting...

 We stayed with friends in Albuquerque. While we were there we were able to visited Old Town... very fun!

 Oreo and her best buddy.
This family is simply wonderful!

We learned that we REALLY love New Mexico food...

Sopapillas with honey and Green Chili...

Mmmm, MMmm, MMMmmm!

Even Miss Chocolate Chip loved the sopapillas with honey!

Back in the car for the trip back to Phoenix we were blessed to see...

 Snow capped mountains!

Breathtakingly beautiful!!

 SNOW CAPPED MOUNTAINS!!

 We had only heard about them and saw pictures in books.

I think I need to make this a two part finding October post...

See you in Part 2!

Hugs,

Mrs. Cookie