Ayla & Ava

Another week gone without much to report.

I can officially say that I have begun to feel the little human inside of me wiggling and kicking. That is pretty fun.

Today during the sacrament, Evan accidentally smacked Vera in the face with the bread tray. She started crying, so I carried her out to the foyer. And they didn't offer me (or the other lady on the couch) the water. It was kind of strange.. The boy brought it out and offered it to a guy on the other couch, then walked by us. I waved my hand at the boy and said "right here!" and he just kind of nodded at us and went back into the chapel. Huh? We thought maybe he would come back out... and then he didn't. So we were sad we missed it. I asked the bishopric about it after the meeting and that sister and I were still able to take it. Since it had already been blessed he just took us into a quiet office and offered it to us. So... if that ever happens to you... now you know that you can still take it.

I went to pick up Vera from nursery and the teacher handed me a little paper with the name AVA written in crayon at the top. She said, this is for Ava.... Me, handing it back to her: "Oh... Ava's not my kid." (There is a little girl named Ava in our ward). She looked at me very confused until I realized that she thought Vera's name was Ava. She was embarrassed to admit they were calling her Ava all day long. Haha. I'm sure Vera didn't care.

So... yep. I almost missed the sacrament and Vera's teacher called her the wrong name. Exciting week! ;)

So You Think You Have Snow?

Welcome to my neighborhood. We're more and more tempted to buy a snow blower with each new storm... poor Evan is breaking his back with his little shovel, trying to get the snow over these mountains. But chances are it will be a long time before we have another winter like this one... right?

January Cook Happenings

This week we FINALLY got a rental car. It's a sweet chrysler car (not sure the make) and it's super fancy. It's a push-button ignition and you shift gears with a dial (like a radio knob). It's cray-cray. It has heated seats, surround sound, cruise control, and I'm sure it gets at least 30 miles to the gallon. Also, front wheel drive and the doors automatically unlock when you approach with the key fob. So, that's been fun!

Clara has discovered the joys of peek-a-boo. She was laughing more than we've ever heard her laugh today. She is so much fun!

I made some seriously disgusting gummies this week that are loaded with absorbable vitamin C and iron. Heather is quickly learning that if I have to choose between delicious and nutritious, I choose nutritious. Luckily I don't have to choose between the two very often!  And I personally don't mind the gummies all that much. :D

I volunteered at the English Learning Center this week and will continue doing that every Thursday night for the rest of the semester. I really enjoy it! I'm helping with the beginner class. There are 15 students in the class and most of them are Spanish speakers. There are two ladies from Sudan and one lady from Vietnam. They are fun to work with!

Joshua and I saw Moana last night. It was so cute! We loved it. We're sticking to PG movies now that vidangel is out of service. Next one we want to see is Hidden Figures.

I enjoyed playing the piano for primary today! Hope everyone else had a holy and peaceful sabbath.

Much love,
the Cooks

BYU Vocal Point and Getting Sick

The title about sums it up. Let's see....this week...
Monday was a physical for me. I hadn't had one in like 7 years, so I thought it was time. My blood work all came back A-ok. That's the good news. The bad news is I do have a lump that needs to be diagnosed further. The doc didn't think it was a bad lump; but, nevertheless a mammogram is scheduled for Feb 13th.

Friday Dad and I played pickleball for our date night. We really do enjoy that sport.

Saturday I tried to do my body in by cross-country skiing around Mantua Reservoir. It was pretty fun, but toooo long. My legs were very tired of doing the motions. At one point, Julie and I skied right on the frozen ice.  There were quite a few ice fisherman on the reservoir, so we figured we'd be safe. Very fun.

That night we took Hunter to the Vocal Point concert. They are pretty darn good.


Now I've officially come down with a bad cold. I made it through playing the organ and leading the choir to sing today with lots of drugs in my system. I hope it goes away quickly, cuz Friday we are off on our cruise!! Yeah!! Fun pictures to come!

Have great weeks everybody! Love you all!

The Claytons

 Not much new this week. The kids were out of school for 3 more days and at this rate we may never have a summer break.

Beckham is cute and Chris is quite enjoying this binky dad brought at Thanksgiving. Although after today I am banning it from church as it is way too distracting to everyone around us. 

A few pics from this week.  Brielle has a new shower/bath obsession.  She LOVES them. She undresses herself and turns on the shower at least once a day and just hops on in.  Sometimes twice a day.  She is always clean that's for sure.   

That's all from us.  We're keeping our fingers crossed for a full week of school this week! 

Freezer Meals & Friends

This week was pretty uneventful...

We decided we're not going to go on a cruise this year, so you're off the hook for babysitting, mom & Jenny.

Yesterday Jenny and I got together to make a few freezer meals and then we gathered with a few friends from college (from the choir we were in) and sang together. We're going to start doing that every month. So fun!

Vera had a fever all day yesterday and was pretty miserable. Today she seems to be fine! So we're grateful for that. 

I dyed my hair brown. I like it... it's not much darker than my natural color. Evan didn't notice.

I'm going to start making freezer meals regularly (I've got to make good use of my ginormous freezer!) so if anyone has any suggestions, send them my way! Bonus if they're delicious AND nutritious, but if you have to choose... let's go with delicious ;)

Warning: If Jenny offers you a homemade "gummy" ... Just say no!

       This year has been a good one so far! We think we are all finally over being SICK, so we are grateful for that!

Josh started a new job with "Solar Partner" in Orem. They hired him to do SEO among other things. He is excited to have a job that will help him develop his marketing skills and also something that he is able to contribute to right away.  

He has been going to Orem Wednesday - Friday and staying with his dad. He works from Logan the other days. After he trains (most likely in February) he will be able to work in Logan and not have to commute. Joshua is also going to school part time with the BYU-Idaho online program. He is liking that so far.

Monte is moving back to Lopez Island because he can now also do his work from home. He decided to buy all of the carpet cleaning equipment and supplies from us and he'll resume that job as well. 

I've been enjoying my time with Clara, she is really growing. She is now standing up without holding on to anything. I’ve seen her stand on her own for about 15 seconds. Pretty impressive for a nine month old baby! It won’t be long until she’s walking! Her top two teeth just poked through and I've heard her grinding her teeth a bit *grimace*. Hopefully she doesn't keep that up too long. 

I also received a new calling as YW Camp Director! I think it will be fun. We are doing camp at a cabin this year, so that should make things easier, right? I also got a second calling yesterday which is Primary Pianist! So those are really new and different callings for me. I'm excited. I've been calling-less for 5 months now (except for visiting teaching of course). 

Oh yeah, and Josh was in a car accident and totaled the van. His back is really bothering him and he is being treated for whiplash by a chiropractor. We haven't settled with the other insurance company yet, but we are confident we will come out on top. The other driver was at fault. We are grateful no one was seriously injured.

Keepin' Busy

There's a never ending list of projects to work on at the DeLong house. Evan is currently framing the basement. We're hoping to have it done by the end of the month since he is borrowing tools from his coworkers.

Yesterday, I finally got around to hemming the curtains in our living room.

Ta da!

After a month or so, Vera is still having a hard time with the potty training. She does okay about 80% of the time...She would rather be in diapers, and there are lots of accidents. (Luckily, she got through nursery today without a problem) but there is no turning back now so hopefully we will get this figured out soon!

Ayla is full of attitude and when she's mad at you she will clench her fists, bare her teeth and GROWL at you.

Evan and I teach the 15-yr-olds in Sunday School and I am playing the piano in Relief Society. Our church is at 9:30 this year which is AWESOME, but ward choir is at 8:30. Not so awesome.

Baby #3 is tentatively scheduled to be delivered on June 30. He or she is the size of an avacado (4.5 inches from head to bum) We'll find out the gender on February 10th. 

That's it for now. Life is good!

Jason Webre Family Update

Hello,

We have had a lot going on over the past few weeks and Katie has documented it well on her blog. I'll just give you a recap of the past week here.

I (Jason) spent the week working on getting my passport renewed. There is a chance that Workfront will send me to Ecuador for an implementation! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also started getting sick Thursday evening and had to work from home on Friday. I'm hoping to be feeling better soon.

Katie, as always, stayed busy this week being a good mom. She also had some family in town on Friday, so she spent the afternoon with them at the curiosity museum, and then had dinner at her Aunts. We started watching the new Netflix show "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and she is not a big fan, but I am totally digging it.

Cooper and Bennett had their speech tested on Wednesday. They are both around the 12 percentile which is barely not low enough to qualify them for free preschool. Bummer. We will probably take them back in to be tested in 6 months.

Tessa didn't do anything too exciting this week. She has been sleeping in lately so Katie thinks she is going through a growth spurt. She is also pretty stinking cute most of the time, but can also throw some award winning tantrums.

Clayton Catch Up

We are all enduring record snow fall for WA. The standing record was set in 1956 and we are less than an inch away from breaking that record. School has been canceled for most of January. I think the kids have gone all of 4 days this month. They don't seem to mind one bit. Kaden and Taycee are actually out pushing snow off the tramp as we speak so it doesn't collapse under the weight of all the snow.
Chris is still working his cute little tooshy off. Between big projects at work, constantly trying to get his Trifecta business up and going and being an awesome husband/daddy he puts in LONG days. Good guy.
The girls all started gymnastics this month and Kaden started classes with an after school theatre club. They are all quite excited for their new ventures.
Addison brought home her first Kindergarten reading book this week. I was a little apprehensive about that, but she sat down with me and read the entire thing through the very first time all by herself. I might have cried a little. She is growing leaps and bounds this year and I am always amazed and so grateful. I believe that is the product of many Priesthood blessings coming to fruition.
Brielle is my little buddy and cracks me up with all of her "adult sayings" she talks way older than she actually is and we laugh a lot. It's easy to forget she is only 3. Yesterday Chris told her to tie her shoes and she said "Uh dad, I can't I'm only 3 remember?"
I'm a lipstick selling diaper changing fool. Haha really though, I am busy, too busy, and always have a to do list that is so long it's not attainable... but I seem to function best that way so I can't complain.
Bechkam is still everyone's favorite play thing. If we could just figure out how to make that tummy of his happy. Chris and I have been doing the Whole 30 diet this month (no grains, no diary, no sugar, no legumes)  and I was hoping it would help in case something I was eating was making his tummy upset. Unfortunately he has actually gotten worse since I started.....so apparently whole food eating isn't always the answer. ;)  His happy moments make up for all the tears, and I lose way too much of my day watching his sweet face while he sleeps.

We don't have any Utah plans this year, but we are planning to take the kids on a surprise trip to Disney Land in October. (29th- Nov 4th) if anyone wants to join us this is your official invite.

That's all from us.

Here's a few pics from my phone.

I always get the biggest smiles right after he eats. 

Our Sunday Selfie

So much snow. (This was actually before it snowed another foot or more)

Taycee love anything that has to do with makeup or getting "fancy"

Brielle loves writing her name and my name 

These are Hunters old church clothes (minus the hat and jeans)

January at Our House

So January at our house has brought lots of snow, two snow days (school cancelled) which is a first in like 12 years, and I (Mom) am back to work. Everyone has stayed pretty healthy this month so far (knock on wood). We're on the 2:00 church schedule with choir practice held at our house every Sunday morning at 10:30.  Mom and Dad have been able to play a little indoor pickleball, which is very fun. And Hunter is still getting all A's this trimester.  Grandma has a 1000-piece puzzle that I am trying to help a little with. It's a real challenge!! The pieces are crazy!  Dad bought a new bed for the toy room. It's a queen bed, so there's not much toy room left. But it's a nice comfortable bed, so you'll all have to come try it out (but not at once!) So there's the goings on for our house. Love you all!

Cook Christmas (plus a few extras)

We had a wonderful Christmas in Washington despite being sick. Clara is almost fully well now and Josh and I are getting well too. I've included a couple of pictures I found from November as well, since I hardly ever post on here. 

Mom and Grandma in the Bell Choir!

Visited my besties, Sara and Janae. Our girls are all just months apart!

I introduced this game to the Cooks. We all got some good laughs out of it. 

Going for a stroll the day after Thanksgiving.

Making yummy candy with two cute little helpers...well one little helper and one gamer. 

This is the welcome that Clara receives when we visit the DeLongs. <3

 Got to see the lights at temple square for a few minutes before going to see "Sister Act" with some of the Cooks at Hale Center Theater.

 We had so much fun staying with the Claytons for a day and a half. The North Pole breakfast was so fun! We're so glad that jimmy cooked extra food for us!

 Beautiful drive with clear roads.

"Watch Your Mouth"-yes it's as ridiculous as it looks. You have to say silly phrases with that piece in your mouth while others on your team guess what you are saying. 

Which temple is it?! Josh even made an angel moroni but it kinda blends into the basket behind...

I helped make these spring rolls that we dipped in peanut sauce. We used rice paper. It was amazing!!

Family picture out in the rain!