Christmas 2013

I have to say that this Christmas has chalked up to be one of my favorites. It was so fun with Emery this year and of course with all the other family.

Christmas Eve is my very favorite! Truthfully, I like it better than Christmas day. This Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We usually always would celebrate Christmas Eve with the extended Cook family but decided with growing families to have just my family and start our own traditions. This night did not disappoint. 

 We had a great dinner and every one had to make an hourderve. We had a competition on whose was best. 

 Lindsay and Andrew won (only by 2 points ) with their delicious stuffed mushrooms

 And I took second place with my Brie bites. Next time I am determined to win so look out Lindsay! 

 Court with the cute babes

 Next we had the babies open their Christmas Jammies. Em got a dolly wearing a matching night gown. She loves to find the nose on her new dolly. 

 Ansley with her new jams. 

 Em opening her gift from Ansley. Ever since her Birthday she has been good with gifts haha. 

 Grandma and Grandpa with their favorites.

Cutie Ansley

 Emery loves her Aunts and Uncles. They're always doing something fun with her. 

After we put the babies down for the night, we had a Cook 'Minute to Win-it!' We had the Team Santas and Team Rudolphs. This part of the night turned out really fun!

 Balancing candy canes on a little piece of thread, thats why it looks like they're floating. 

 Grandma Cook balancing as many ornaments on the yard stick as she can before it tips over. 

 Sisters

 This game was the most fun to watch. You had to put vasaline on the end of your nose and then you had the end of a string in your mouth with a felt ball, I mean Rudolphs red nose, on the other end and had to flip it up and try to get it to stick to the end of your nose. 

 Team Rudolph, who took it at the end with the snowman wrapping contest! 

Everyone, minus Lindsay

So Christmas Eve was a blast, but my absolute favorite part had to be the end of the night. We wanted to read the Christmas story of Christ's Birth out of the New Testament and then decided to go around and just say something we were thankful for or share anything special that has happened this year. It turned into quite a spiritual night and some wonderful and sweet experiences were shared.  It reminded me, not only how grateful I am for my dear savior and his love, but for all the many blessings I have in my life and my testimony of the Gospel. I am so grateful the night ended the way it did, this Christmas Eve will always be very close to me because of it. 

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Bringing Em down the stairs on Christmas day was probably more exciting for me and Court than it was for her. Mostly because she had quite the noticeable present waiting for her by the tree, and her reaction did not disappoint.

 Seriously, all she wanted to do was sit in that car. Before we opened any other presents or even went through stockings we had to take her outside and driver her around. Now every time we go in the garage she points at her car and demands a drive. I never pass it up really, it's pretty fun and gets me outside too :) 

Feeding her dolly with her new bottles. 

We had a wonderful Christmas morning together and then headed back over to my mom and dad's in the evening for the big Cook Christmas dinner (this is with all the extended family). It was loud and crazy, fun and delicious! Definitely a success! I always get a little sad when Christmas is over, but I m so thankful for this happy time of year and it was especially nice to have Court around so much. Can't wait until next year!

Hope every one had a Merry Christmas!!!

December time!

Oh how I love December. Christmas time is seriously my favorite time of the year. I love everything about it. It has been fun having Em be older this year and notice a little more of what's going on. She loved when we got out all the Christmas decorations and points to everything and loves to look at the pretty tree. It has been so fun.

 And she loved everything happening in these pictures haha

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Something else awesome happened this last weekend in December too. One of my very best friends, Leah graduated from Law School. I am so happy for her and it was so fun to watch her walk and be there for her on such a big day. Love you Leah! 

 Isn't she beautiful?

Plus, I got to see all these lovely ladies. I miss these girls so much so it was a blast being able to spend some time with them. 

I have loved this December so far and I'm sure more posts about this month will be popping up on the blog, so much fun stuff going on! 

November

Quite a bit happened in the month of November and I am due for a post.

The beginning of November started with the annual Lymphomathon. This is a new tradition we started last year and we will never miss. It's a 5k walk/run for Lymphoma Cancer at the Phoenix zoo and is always so fun. Lots of family goes and this year our friends Leah and Devan came with us too, making it even better :)

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A week before Thanksgiving we headed to Norco, a long with the rest of the Zulauf clan. Tyler was coming home from his mission and every one couldn't wait to see him. 

There were so many of us, but it was wonderful! I can't remember the last time every body was able to get together. 

I think that one of my favorite things about this trip was that Em got to be with so many cousins!!! She was always entertained and it was so fun to see her have fun with her cute, new buddies. I wish we got to see every one more. 

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Thanksgiving

We had to come back home for Thanksgiving due to work, but still had a good one. We ate with my Uncle Steve and Aunt Shauna's family and my Grandparents. I was a slacker and didn't get any pictures but just know it was a good time. 

Happy Halloween!

We had a very fun Halloween! There was much more action this year compared to last year, of course Em was only 5 days old last year. We went trick or treating with Faith and Shaun and Carol and Tyler and all our kids. It was so fun seeing how excited the kids were and seeing how cute they all looked in their costumes. Emery was a little perplexed by it all, but ended up enjoying it. We took her up to quite a few houses and one of the times we stayed behind in the car waiting for the group she threw a little tantrum when she saw every one go up to the door and she didn't get to go that time. She obviously figured out good things happened up there. She had her first pieces of candy (two suckers)and LOVED them. She tried to open every one she found after eating one. 

After trick-or-treating we went back to Shaun and Faiths to eat cookies and had fun visiting. The kids were in heaven running around playing and eating their candy. It has been fun seeing Emmy get bigger and follow her big boy cousins around. 

Here are some pictures from our Halloween night...

 Our cute, little strawberry

 Going through the goods

 We love our cousins

 ...and suckers

She was exhausted by the end of the night and slept in the next morning which was a treat for Mom, I'm liking Halloween better already :)

Date Night

This last Tuesday Court and I got to go see the Lion King with Faith and Shaun and Carol and Tyler. It was a blast! The play was fantastic and it was fun being with every one, as it always is with that group :) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for watching Em.

Emery's Birthday Bash!

Emery's party was last night. Yes, it gave me a little stress getting stuff ready. Yes, maybe I got a little to into it. BUT, yes it was a blast. And yes, it was all worth it. Here is our girls first birthday party. (There are lots of pictures so be ready)

 Wish I would've gotten a better picture of the dinner table, it looked better in real life.

 Our cute Birthday girl!

 Loved the balloons

 Love our little family

 Grandma, Em and Aunt Kristen

 Mom, sisters and Beautiful grandma

She figured out there was something good at the bottom of all those bags. 

Thank you every one for Em's fun presents! 

Faith, Oaks and Cruzer

 Andrew, Dad and Ansley babe

 Grandma and Grandpa

 Cutie Oaks

She had to test out the toys after opening of course

 Mom and Aunt T. 

 Em's cake. This was my favorite.

 She was so happy we put that little cake in front of her but didn't quite know what to do.

 Daddy had to giver her a little taste of frosting...

 And after that there was no stopping her :)

 Em, Aunt Lindsay and baby Ans

 Em and her friend Owen

All the kids had fun playing with the toys and balloons!

I am going to chalk-up Em's first Birthday as a success. We had so much fun visiting with everyone and celebrating our sweet Em. Thanks to all who came! Em is sure a lucky girl!