It looks like the cold left with Christmas this Arizona year :) It has been a beautiful 70-75 degree weather lately so Em has been enjoying this....

 She is loving her sand box. A day doesn't go by now where she pounds on the back door and begs to get out there.

 She doesn't let this guy out of her sight when he comes home. Love her cheese face.

We had fun last Tuesday because this handsome guy got to spend the night with us. Em loved having a buddy around, especially one who took her down the slide so much. 

 She is in this stroller more than her dollies are.

 She has been walking by herself a lot more lately. She has been now for about 3 weeks. BUT she still prefers crawling for longer distances. She is my content babe that is for sure. 

We like to stop by and visit dad at work, plus he gives her cool hats to wear :) 

January...you've been good to us. 

A very short recap of 2013

2013 was a good year. It had ups and downs as every year does, but I'd say it was filled with mostly "ups" for us. Mostly because we have our little sunshine Emery who has been so fun to watch grow up.

So here's a little recap on our fam.

We have been figuring out how to be parents (and in a year of parenting I think we have it down pat....hahaha. Oh I am funny)  We are doing our best and learning a lot. I feel like it has really strengthened mine and Courts relationship.

Court and I decided to start a little side business as well. We bought a franchise and now own a little cleaning company. We started the end of October and already have 5 buildings. It has been...good, hard, frustrating, rewarding and another experience that makes me want to pull my hair out but has again taught a lot and strengthened our relationship. We finally are able to crew out our buildings so Court won't have to clean as much. That will be wonderful because I have missed having him around. He goes to work, then goes to clean and now is training crews to clean. So me and Em haven't been able to see him as much. I am the 'Account Manager.' I basically have to go meet all the new buildings, am in charge of monthly evaluations, paper work and am the one customers call if they have issues. I clean sometimes too. It takes up more time than I thought it would and I am not going to lie it has been a little hard for me to get used to working with a baby to take care of.  I wouldn't mind so much if I could always take her with me to buildings and stuff, but I don't like needing baby sitters. Still, I know this was a good decision for our family, so maybe I can be more like my husband and not complain :)

We have had great family vacations and times together. Rocky Point in May, 4th of July, Em's Birthday, Tyler's homecoming in November and of course, Christmas just to name a few.

Court:
Busy as ever. Works so hard all the time. There are some days he is gone from 7:30AM to 10PM at night now with the cleaning.  Sundays aren't much better with his calling as executive secretary...7AM-4PM with that one. Yet, he doesn't complain. He has stayed positive and still finds time to relax and spend time with me and Em. He is the best dad. Emery adores him and doesn't let him put her down when he comes home. He is doing wonderful at his job with Vision Makers and has really become an asset to the company. He has become a great seller. I am so proud of him. He takes good care of our family and I feel very lucky. I hope he gets to go on a dirt biking trip to Baja in March. That guy deserves it.

Carly:

I was busy learning how to be a mom this year. Again, it is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love my Em so very much. I love playing with her and am soaking up all the uninterrupted one on one time we have.  I spent a lot of time exercising and trying to run more to get back in shape...to get pregnant again haha. Our cleaning company (Building Works) has kept me very busy.  I feel like we finally have the hang of it though. I have enjoyed lots of family time, craft time and friend time this year. Can't complain. 

Emmy: 

I  am excited to do a little update on Em since I don't do monthly posts any more. She has been so fun to watch. I love her quirky personality. She makes us laugh all the time. I can't believe how much she has learned in the last month. Here are some things she is doing right now. 

-Climbing onto every piece of furniture around.

-She has a little car/bike thing that she loves to ride all over the house. We call it her cupcake car because it has little plastic cupcakes(it's like a baking car???) that she loves to play with. It has a little compartment that she loves to stash things in as well. I have found a remote in it, popcorn pieces she picked up from dad and my phone. Little mischief. 

-She loves to be chased after

-She has become quite the talker. Her vocabulary now consists of 'hot' 'hi' 'uh-oh' 'ball' 'hat' 'mom' 'nigh-nigh' 'nak' (snack) 'duck' 'no' (I don't think she really knows what this means yet..or at least pretends not to ha.)

-Still likes to read and likes to play outside and dance. She loves to wave her arms like she is leading when the congregation is singing at church.

-knows where her head, belly, eyes, nose and mouth are. 

-Still NOT walking. Little stink. She actually took 3 steps by herself today which was so fun to see! But it's like she is thinking why fall when I walk...if I can crawl. We'll see. She has until 18 months so all in her own time. 

I could go on and on because everything she does is so exciting to me haha. We love our little peanut. 

Here's a video for your enjoyment. Can't get enough!

We are so grateful for our good year and can't wait to start another all together! Here's to 2014. Can't believe we'll become a family of four :) 

Announcement time

We have an announcement to start off our 2014 year. A very happy one. One that everyone already knows, but that I need to document none the less. Baby Zulauf number 2 is on the way!

10 week ultra sound

We are so excited for this little peanut to be here! Yes, this pregnancy was on purpose. We always said we wanted our first two close together :)

 I am feeling much more excited now that I haven't felt sick. I still get a little nauseous at night and when I wait too long to eat, but the last 3 days have been wonderful. I am not as tired and sick, the head aches have gone away and I have started running again and it is so nice! Getting done with the first trimester is always nice and always calms me down as well. 

So far everything looks good with baby. I can't wait for him or her to join our little family. I love how much I love Emery and I can't wait to love another little person that much. It is the best (and most nerve racking, scary-only sometimes) feeling in the world. 

I know it will be different. I know with having an almost two year old it won't be quite like it was with Em, but this babe will be just as awed over and loved as little Em was. 

Sometimes I get nervous though. I wonder how I'll be able to give these two babes the attention they need. I know days will come where I want to sit down on the floor and cry while the littles run my house. I worry about Court and how much he is working and will we all have time together. We will. 

I worry this little baby will give me a run for my money after having a first baby who was so content, slept wonderfully and rarely fussed. 

But, somehow I'll do it. Court and I will love it even when it's hard. And like I said before...I love knowing I'll get to love another as much as I love Em. A mother's love really is even stronger than I imagined. I also have so many inspiring examples of mothers. My own mom-who raised 6 children that were all born in 6  years time and was amazing. My mother in law-8 kids for her and just knows so much. My sister Lindsay who is such a sweet mama. My sister in laws who are all amazing moms and who all have more than one child, and I watch how they take care of them and just feel like I learn so much. Of course good friends. My wonderful grandma. These examples help me to feel better when doubting feelings come. I got this. And I do love being mom. It really is the best thing I have ever experienced in my life...and that helps too. Plus, I can't wait to see Em be a big sister! 

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.