Cottrell Family

Hayden's 6!!

2012-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!

Hayden's birthday was January 12th and he was one lucky boy to have so many people here to celebrate since they were in town for Clayton's baptism.

Anyone that has been around Hayden lately knows he is obsessed with Sonic!! He started loving Sonic after we checked out a Wii game at the library and would do any sort of jobs to earn Wii time. Hayden owns this games now thanks to someone called Santa ;) Wii is seriously the type of currency I can use with Hayden right now. If he isn't nice he knows that Wii time is on the line and shapes up real fast!

Hayden's favorite place to eat is Panda Express. He can eat their Orange Chicken everyday if he could. He was taken out to Panda Express not once, but twice that week by two sets of grandparents who love him and get a kick out of his craziness and spunk!! Its always fun to feel special and have something done just for you, and both my parents and Nate's have always done this for our kids and they love them for it!!

Hayden is my fun, energetic, hilarious boy who hides his own softy side. When you receive a hug from him its always a good one because he gives them when he really means it! He is my best helper with jobs and in the kitchen and stays until the work is done. He seldom complains, unless again Wii time is in question! He loved being showered with Sonic presents to have fun with and really enjoyed his cake! Happy Birthday H!!

Special Day

2012-02-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

Clayton Nathaniel Cottrell

Baptism Day

Saturday,

January 14th, 2012

What a special day it was for our family when Clay was baptized! Both of his Grandparents were there to celebrate along with family and friends that were able to be there on that day. Grandpa Cottrell gave a talk on Baptism after which Nate performed Clayton's baptism. Grandpa Ron gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and then Clayton's confirmation was also done by his Nathan.

Clay is such a bright and loving boy. He is very thoughtful and wants to do things right. He is very smart and has a good understanding of the gospel. I love his sweet spirit and kind nature to those around him as well as his fun goofy side!! Both Nathan and I are so proud of him and are grateful to be his parents. We look forward to ever stage of our children's lives and this is a big one for our Clayton. Clay turned 8 on December 19th and wanted to be baptized right away, but also wanted his family to be part of it, so he was happy when everyone could come in January and celebrate together. Clay helped put the program together for his own baptism and had picked "When I am Baptized" for the opening song and "I am a Child of God" for the closing.

Grandpa Ron & Grandma Mindy

We loved having Grandparents in town to share this day with us and I know Clay felt how proud they were of him and that they love him a lot.

Grandpa & Grandma Cottrell

I enjoyed putting together the refreshments for the baptism and was able to have a fun time with late night talks with my mom while we were preparing it all! We served: Cookies, poppy seed bread, chocolate cake pops, veggie tray with dip, pretzels, sweet pickles, strawberries, sliced apples, and pineapple

A Big thank you for friends, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins were who there that day as well. Clay also has many family members who would have loved to have come as well but couldn't since we live far away. He received many phone calls, gifts, and congratulations from family who love and care about him and are proud he decided to become a member of: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We had both sets of grandparents, Scott, Kristy & Shayna, Chris, Kacie, Jordan & Ever over after the baptism to have lunch together. We made French Dip sandwiches with au juice, chips, bevereages and the extras from the refreshments. So great to mingle, laugh, and enjoy the day together!

Christmas down South

2012-02-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

Smiles like these are constant when we go visit Gr &Gr Cottrell in Louisiana!! We left cold and chilly Illinois for a warm and sunny Christmas down south!

Kristy, Scott and Shayna were there with us as well and we all took a day to go see the big Mississippi and feed the birds. This was a HUGE HIT with the kids and we were all lucky not to get pooped on!!

Here come all the birds!!!! Cover your heads!!

The French Quarter!! I LOVE the Flea Market there. As you can tell you can find all sorts of things there! Justin was cautious about the alligator heads but eventually give them a 2 second touch and snatched his hand right back! I think he thought it was going to snap at him like a alligator game that we have back home does. We ate some yummy authentic Southern food in a indoor/outdoor cafe. Mine was Louisiana seafood gumbo...yes yummy

The French Quarter in Downtown New Orleans, is such a tourist attraction that you never know what you will find. Artist, dancers, jazz musicians, people selling goods, fortune tellers, kids tap dancing on smashed pop cans anything to get tips from spectators. Here is a guy that made his very own Transformer costume. His arms and legs had what looked like roller blade wheels on them and the big tires actually ran on a small battery and when he got on all fours he turned into his car and drove around the crowd!! He would them stand up and flip the front bumper back and transform into the robot. Clay and Hayden loved it!!

You can always see these funny guys striking a pose and keeping it for what seems like forever to me and then make jerky movements to spook people walking by. Its hilarious to watch!

Steve and Diana are always great hosts! I love making dinners together, playing games, enjoying time in the hot tub, and movie nights, they all are a must. The kids loved making homemade ornaments with Diana and they turned out so great. Christmas morning is pajama time, opening presents and lots of WOWS, AWESOME, and THAT'S SO COOL!

Thanks Gr & Gr Cottrell for such a great vacation and Christmas time spent with you!! We are all so lucky to be part of such a great family!!

Clayton turns 8!

2012-01-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Clayton!!

December 19th was Clayton's birthday. It was on a Monday and also happened to be on the same day that he had a school performance so we let him open presents before and then came back home for LEGO CAKE and ICE CREAM!!

Clay LOVES LEGOS right now and he is super good at them too. He doesn't need any help building some 100 + instruction models! Clay is a very good hearted person. He gets concerned when others are sad or upset and wants to try and help them. He does well in school and likes to make sure his work is perfect. He asks a lot of questions when he is trying to figure out a new concept and wants to understand it completely. He is a great big brother and a excellent helper to me at home. We love Clay and can't believe he is already 8!!

Clay was given a new set of scriptures for his birthday, A black quad with gold pages. After Clay opened his gift, Nate and I noticed Hayden, who rarely show much emotion, getting upset. When we comforted him and asked him what was making him sad he replied, "I want scriptures with gold pages too!" Such a good kid. We informed him that when he turns 8 he can get a new set of scriptures with gold pages if he liked too, which Hayden thought was a good idea. Happy Birthday to our first born Clay!!

December 2011 Family Photo

2012-01-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

Post Thanksgiving Fun

2011-12-05T14:45:00.001-08:00

Our family had a great Thanksgiving this year. I roasted the Turkey, made essential sides, and also had sister-in-laws who brought their so delicious dishes to devour up as well!! We had a great time with Nate's two sisters and their families, exactly what you should do on Thanksgiving.

After all the yum yummy food, our family went on a two night get away to the famous Wisconsin Dells! We stayed at the Kalahari Resort mainly for their indoor water park that I was really impressed with!! We had originally booked a "hut" room that was a 2 queen bed room, but as I checked in at the front desk they informed me that our family was selected to receive a complimentary room upgrade to their Royal King Suite! All I could say was SWEET!!

The king suite was two rooms that connected in the middle. One with a king bed and jacuzzi tub/bathroom, and the other one was two queen beds with a fireplace and their own bathroom as well! We even had to use a special card to get into the hall way for our room. Again SWEET!!

Going after Thanksgiving there weren't very many people at the resort which was so nice. We would go multiple times down the same slide without any wanting time. Justin absolutely loved the tubing rides! His repeated phrase was "I go again, again!!"

The wave pool, and lazy river were a lot of fun, but my boys had the most fun on the fast tub rides and the surf shop.

Hayden was unbelievable surfing!! He was a natural. You would think that he was almost going to wipe out, but then he would make a remarkable recovery and continued surfing!! At one point he was even surfing BACKWARDS!!!! and showing a little bum as you can see from his picture ;)

Nate did a great job at surfing as well. They had a lifeguard at the bottom showing you different maneuvers to make. One move was to grab your board, roll on your back and come back on top of your board after the roll. I tried this and it was a no go, but Nate make it look easy.

Clay had the most fun on the slides and would go on anyone of them!!

It was definitely a trip our family wants to make a tradition out of!!

Thankful Tree

2011-12-05T14:13:00.001-08:00

We have so many things our family is grateful for that we started to write them down and place them on our Thankful Tree during the month of November. Our tree started out pretty sad looking until we added our thankful tags and watched it grow!!

Every morning I would ask the boys what they were thankful for, then I would make our tags. Here are some of their responses..... Thankful for Grandparents: Grandpa Ron, Grandma Mindy, Grandpa & Grandma Cottrell

The weather, U.S.A, our House, School, Trees, Family, Animals, Cars, Phones to call family and friends, The Church, Mom and Dad, The whole World, Being Healthy, Lights, Scriptures, Work...Dad's job, Books, Good things to drink, Food, Warm Clothes, Friends, Toys, Treats, and Temples

We had fun making our thankful tree. For Thanksgiving we were able to have Nate's two sisters and their families over for the Big Turkey dinner. I roasted a turkey and made the potatoes and gravy and everyone else brought yummy sides like stuffing, green salad, rolls, corn, sparkling apple and grape juice, ice cream dessert, pie and other trimmings to feast on. It was a great time with everyone. We ate, flipped through Black Friday ads, ate some more and just chilled, exactly what you are supposed to do on a Thanksgiving Day!!

Fall Leaves

2011-11-21T13:28:00.001-08:00

Have you jumped into a pile of leaves lately?? It's the "it" thing to do right now!!!

Warning: It will cause extreme case of laughter!!

ABC'S

2011-11-21T12:53:00.001-08:00

Justin LOVES letters!! He is constantly naming off letters everywhere. I mean he is noticing stop signs and store names and even the letters spelling out the word seat belt while he sits in a grocery cart! He doesn't quite have the concept of whispering down yet so while we are at church trying to be quiet, you can hear Justin saying, "H..Y...M...N...S look mom letters, see H...Y...M...N...S" as he studies our church's hymn book. ;) I am always surprised he says M and N right beacuse those are tricky for kids.

I had made cards for Clay and Hayden when they were learning ABC's so I had Justin play a game with them with some other ABC cards I had bought at the dollar store. I started by mixing all the first cards and we found them one by one together and lined them up. Then I dumped the other card set out and told him to find matches. He would pick a card and say the name, find it, and place it below the matching letter. It was hilarious to watch, with each card he would talk to himself, "T, look Mom T....T....T...T Oh here it is T!!!"

I am trying to have him see how letter make words so after he spells S..T...O....P , I say that spells stop and he usually repeats me. Funny boy, I love it!!

FALL Season!

2011-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Fall is the best season, especially in Illinois with so many trees changing colors and the many different pumpkins patches and fun farms to go to! We recently visited Krueger Farm stand that is really close to our house, and then to Stade's Farm and enjoyed buying pumpkins and eating their famous Apple Cider Donuts!!

Oh, and swam in their corn pool!!!

Love those Apple Cider, sugar coated, so delicious, oh so yummmy donuts!!!

We already carved two big pumpkins at home so we bought small ones to take home and paint.

Justin took his painting seriously and made everything into a piece of art...including his face!!

Halloween Fun

2011-11-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!! We had great Halloween Fun this year! The boys had lots of fun dressing up and going to a Halloween Carnival, Trunk-or-Treat at our church, and Trick-or-treating with a big group of friends on Halloween night!

Justin was a PIRATE!! He was so cute, he wanted to keep his pirate hat and skull patch on and would say "Mom, look mom, ARRRRRR"

Hayden is Super Mario!! I had fun making his costume from dollar store material. His hat is a fleece cap that was folded up and sewn to have a brim on the front and white and red felt sewn on to make the"M." His gloves were clown gloves minus the extra clown material that we cut off. Pants were made out of two baby fleece blankets!! Red shirt was found on clearance at Target.

Here are super fun friends that went to the Halloween Carnival with us. Three beautiful princesses, a overly cute purple unicorn, and Justin's best buddy Thomas the Train!!

Clayton become Harry Potter!! Minus the glasses, Clay didn't want to were glasses with his costume but had fun making the lightning scar on his forehead! I found his black vest, Gryffindor red and gold colored tie, and the cloak at thrift stores all together totalling less that $5!!

We were treated to have another pirate with us at the Trunk or Treat!! Our cousin Pirate Jordan!! His new little sister Ever was the cutest little pink ballerina too!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Crafting Wednesday

2011-10-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wednesday has become a super fun craft day!! A group of crafty friends and I started getting together once a week on Wednesday to do a craft together. We take turns hosting and have a big potluck. We all bring our kids and they have a ball playing with all their friends. While they play, we craft, nibble on food, and have a great time together.
Here are some of the projects that we have done......so far ;)

Book Page Pumpkins

http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2011/09/book-page-pumpkin.html

Beaded Spiders

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-project-make-beaded-spider.html

Braided Ribbon/Chain necklacehttp://www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/jewelry-necklace

Halloween Jars

http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2011/09/guess-whos-cute-craft-is-on-front-cover.html

Wooden Turkeys

http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2010/11/creative-guest-2x4-turkey-by-craft.html

Fall Blocks

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/10/autumn-blocks.html

I have had a great time making these and even better time getting to know 6 other ladies. The host house gets turned upside down and your craft gets interrupted with one or more child's needs but we all have fun with it and the kiddos have a big play day together and everyone loves it! What's the next crafts on our list girls??

Halloween Treat!

2011-10-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a fun Visiting Teaching Treat that I gave out recently that was super easy and yummy too! I put together these bags that has a cute message and oh... so... yummy caramel popcorn.

Here is the recipe:

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 quarts popped popcorn

(I used regular popcorn kernels and a 5 quart pot and popped the popcorn over the stove, mainly because I don't own a popcorn machine. You can follow the instructions of the kernels pkg on how to pop them using the stove.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
Place in large baking dish (I used a big roasting pan which made stirring really easy) and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Tip: Once my popcorn was popped I put it in the oven while it preheating. It is easier for the caramel to get mixed evenly over the popcorn while it is still warm!

Copy & Print out this message in a fun Halloween style font and attach to bags filled with the popcorn goodness!

SINCE THIS IS THE TIME FOR GOBLINS AND BATS,

HALLOWEEN SPIRITS AND GHOSTS AND CATS.

WEIRD HAPPENINGS AND WITCHES BREW,

THESE ARE THE THINGS I WISH FOR YOU...

MAY THE ONLY GHOST THAT COMES YOUR WAY,

BE THE HOLY GHOST TO GUIDE YOUR WAY.

MAY THE ONLY SPIRITS YOU CHANCE TO MEET,

BE THE SPIRITS OF LOVE AND KINDNESS SWEET.

THESE ARE MY HALLOWEEN WISHES FOR YOU,

MAY GOD BLESS YOU IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.

IT'S NO TRICK, I JUST WANT TO SAY,

{ IT'S A TREAT TO KNOW YOU IN EVERY WAY!}

Throw in some cuties like these helping out in the kitchen and you have yourself one great morning!! Even if my floors ended up being soaking wet! *grin* Enjoy!

Love me some RUFFLES!

2011-10-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

I recently came acrossed this picture of a ruffle wreath and LOVED IT. So I tried making my own version of it using some left over corduroy fabric I had from making my kitchen curtains. And I ended up with this beauty!!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. I had fun making the flowers and was so happy that my mom sent me a burlap potato sack from home a couple of months ago and told me to see if I could make things out of it. I loved how the burlap accents the flowers and it originated in Idaho!!

I will now try my hand out on giving a tutorial on how I made it. Hopefully it is clear enough and you can make your own version for yourself!!

Step 1: Cut 2" wide long strips of your fabric of choice to cover your wreath.
Mine was a 12" wicker type wreath I bought at the dollar store. Apply hot glue to your fabric a little bit at a time, then wrap around wreath. Repeat until entire wreath is covered.

Step 2: Cut your fabric the width that you would like your ruffles to be.
I cut mine 4" wide and foot long. Then using a basting stitch on your sewing machine sew down the length of one side of your fabric with 1/2" allowance on the side. You do not need to backstitch on this. After you sewed down the one side then pick one string from your thread and pull to start making your ruffles appear. I used two different threads to sew with for two reasons. 1. I wanted a stronger thread on top that would not break as easily when I pulled on it to make the ruffles. 2. It makes it easier to see which thread you are pulling and then you can pull from both the top and bottom of the fabric.

Keep pulling the fabric till your ruffles look like this

Step 3: Hot glue your ruffle around your wreath.
Apply the hot glue to the fabric along the top and wrap overlaying your ruffles. Repeat making ruffle fabric pieces and gluing them to your wreath till she is all covered in beautiful, fluffy, ruffles!!

Step 4: Accessorize your wreath!

I twisted the bottom of a square piece of burlap and hand sewed it to keep the twisted look in place and hot glued it on. Then I placed three flowers and a bit of extra ribbon to put on top of that. I made two different kinds of flowers.

1. Fabric flowers

Using a t-shirt that I haven't worn in like forever, I used this tutorial to make the cream fabric flower.

http://emilys-little-world.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-make-t-shirt-fabric-flower.html

2. Ribbon Flowers

First cut a circle out of felt of the size you would like your flower to be.

Then make a knot at the end of your ribbon. This will be the center of your flower. Hot glue the knot and any extra ribbon on the end in the middle of the felt circle. Then twist the ribbon and hold while you place hot glue around the knot and then secure your twisted ribbon down on top of the hot glue. Twist ribbon, glue, and secure all the way around till you are at a point to cut the ribbon off, and glue down the end. I used a match to burn the end of the ribbon so I wouldn't have to worry about any fraying then I glued it down. And you now have a gorgeous ribbon flower to accessorize with!

Hopefully this tutorial was helpful!! I ended up putting my wreath over a mirror I have in my living room and I get to smile at it all day now!!

Louisiana Trip

2011-09-30T14:03:00.002-07:00

Our trip down to Louisiana started off pretty awesome with an early morning shopping at Target with Scottie Pippen! Yes, I was the crazy lady taking pictures of him while in my van before the doors opened to go shopping. I watched as Scottie sort of laughed at the guy who tried to open the doors to let himself in when it was so obvious by the people standing around, Pipen included, that the store was not open yet. It was a funny feeling seeing a celebrity type of person in a regular setting. I have been around many different stars while at concerts, baseball, basketball, football games, etc., but never at a random meeting like a Target store!! Did I get my boys an autograph? No. Did I go and talk to him? No. I wanted to, but just didn't quite know how to go about it. I was going to the store to buy snack and drinks for our long drive and he obviously went out early to not be bugged by random people. Right? Me, a regular lady with three kids in tow just didn't seem like it would be interesting. So I was torn by wanting to be around a star, and not pestering the guy. Oh well, it was still super cool shopping along side him walking the aisles of the "bulls eye" store and seeing him being really nice to everyone and going about his day.

The boys and I were at Target so early because we went with Nate to his work. He had to work a half of day and would be off at 11:30 so Target and breakfast is what we occupied ourselves with. After Nate got off we had lunch and then headed out on our drive. Because we were starting midday we stopped for the night and continued the next day. We were a bit worried about the weather for the week since Louisiana was being visited by Tropical Storm Irene and a possible hurricane! The whole weekend we arrived it rained over 20 inches!! Some parts were having bad flooding issues, but Steve/Diana's house was just fine. By Tuesday of the following week it had cleared up and the sun was shining. We arrived safe and sound at Gr and Gr Cottrell's house around 4 or so just the perfect time to jump in the warm pool! It was raining off and on and as long as there is no lighting it's a GO to swim!!

An hour into the fun and games this, no way in heck could your repeat, accident happened!

Clay was having a great time on the diving board and playing fighting games with Nate. And if anyone knows Clay he is relentless at trying to win at something. Some how he was a bit too crazy and didn't get far enough away from the diving board and hit one of his baby teeth on the side of the board as he was jumping into the pool. The tooth made a huge gash up his gums. It not only pushed upward but in as well making the bottom of his tooth the only visible part of it left.

We left the other two boys with Steve and Diana while Nate and I took Clay to the Emergency room. Like all emergency rooms we did our fair share of waiting. Unfortunately, this hospital didn't want to mess with Clay's tooth problem and thought it would be best for us to go the the Children's Hospital Emergency Room and see and pediatric orthodontist there. Since we were in Louisiana and not home we didn't even know there was an Children's Hospital around. The doctor asked if we had a GPS, we replied yes, which he was really relieved about. He said "Getting to this hospital is a bit of a crazy route and we wouldn't want you ending up somewhere like the projects or something" How reassuring Doc, thanks. Getting to the next hospital was crazy and the roads it was taking us on didn't even seem like a road at all, more like back alley ways!! All the while it was pouring rain buckets outside. Clay was handling things great with his bag of ice and some Tylenol we gave him. We prepped him for what might happen like a shot to make his mouth numb and he seemed a bit worried about it. After the dentist came from being on call we made our way through the winding hospital to a dentist wing on the fourth floor. She was really nice to Clay and couldn't believe how his tooth looked that she ended up taking before and after pictures of it to show her colleagues. After Clay was given a numbing shot in his mouth I asked him, "True or not true? You just got a shot in your mouth?" He hesitated and said "Not, true" "Then you have a good dentist huh because you just were given a shot in the mouth!" I replied. He was shocked. She extracted the tooth in a couple of different pieces all which were too small for Clay to keep for the Tooth Fairy so she gave him a little treasure chest instead to put under his pillow.

Here is Clay after the tooth was taken out and I asked him to tried to rub his lips together. It was hilarious the faces he was pulling because he had no control of his right side!! It was late and all of us were hungry since that last time we ate was at lunch time before we arrived at Steve/Diana's house. It was past 11 when we got back, and we retold the events of the past six hours and two separate emergency rooms. Clay was exhausted had a quick bite to eat then crashed in his bed.

So glad it all went OK and it is something to look back on and shake your head on how crazy it all was. All in all I think Clay ended up being happy to get some Tooth Fairy money a bit early. Although, the process of doing so was a bit extreme!!

10 Years!! Sept 7th

2011-09-30T14:03:00.001-07:00

Nate and I celebrated our 10 YEAR Aniversary on September 7th!! We were able to leave our boys with Nate's parents (many many thanks to them) and drive to Mississippi to check into the Beau Rivage resort on the Gulf of Mexico! We checked in on Tuesday and left that Friday afternoon. It felt like the perfect amount of time!

The Hotel was beautiful and the buffet was super yummy! We had a ocean view room from which we saw gorgeous sunsets on the Gulf. The hotel was a casino as well which we basically walked around once and thought how crazy people can get sitting in there all day long and losing track of time (casinos don't have clock up anywhere just so people will lose track of time) and money, but we didn't come for any casino gaming anyway. We spent over 5 hours or so shopping one day at an amazing outdoor shopping outlets called
The Gulfport Premium Outlets http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=83
Shopping with Nate can be enjoyable with no time limit and no kids, who knew, he he j/k :)

I made the best decision marring Nathaniel Stephen Cottrell! He is the rock that hold us together. We have three healthy, happy, enegetic boys that are our life and we love deeply. Nate and I work so well as a team at our families goals and just living life. He is my best friend. Life will always be busy and crazy with kids, stress, duties, and obligations, but Nate has always taught me to give it all that you have, care for the people around you, and be strong in what you believe. And I know for I fact that I believe in US!!

Super bright ehh Nate!!

Our whole time there was sunny and beautiful. We shopped well, relaxed well, and ate very well!!

The beach next to our hotel didn't have tons of people, probably because anyone wanting to swim would just go use the pools, hot tub, and lounge chairs at the hotel, but it was nice walking in the water and getting my feet all sandy. There was a long pier that we walked down that made us feel like we were surrounding by water on all sides. I stopped and laughed and said to Nate "I think it is so funny the things we don't have to be saying right now because our kids are not with us. Things like, 'don't climb that, you'll fall in, don't lean over so far, stop, that wood will give you splinters if you drag your hands along it'." I didn't have to worry one bit about Nate not being able to take care of himself or not be aware of dangers, he has that handled all by himself! A whole line of instructions, worry, and alertness was unnecessary right then and it was good to just enjoy us.

10 years has been wonderful and I look forward to so many more. As they say life has many twist and turns, bumps and bruises, but I have NATE with me and he has ME!

Louisiana Swimming fun!

2011-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Visiting Louisana is always a treat for everyone in our family! We really enjoy spending time with Nate's parents Steve and Diana and the boys are in heaven with being spoiled by grandparents, hours of swimming fun, creating new lego structures, and playing card games with Grandma. I always know my kids are in good hands with Steve and Diana!

Clayton has mastered his diving! Head down and tucked in, feet sometimes together, and jump straight into the blue aqua below. He has always loved diving for gold coins (dollar coins) in Grandpa and Grandma Cottrell's pool. This time he seemed to be super fast so Grandpa threw ten or more coins in a time and everyone would see how fast he could find them all on his own and he often came up with two or three at a time!! He loves this so much that we have to tell him to take a break just to catch his breath!

Hayden is a water bug!! He loves diving just as much as Clay, but he would stand ontop of the hot tub and find his coin at the bottom of the pool and then jump off to dive for it!

Justin was just pure crazy when it came to swimming!! He would do so many crazy jumps yelling "Superman" as he went. He wore floaties that held his little body above water great. Justin is fully aware that he is funny. He gets humor and wants to make everyone laugh. When he figures out he was the one everyone is laughing at he often will repeat and repeat his funny thing he did. We all get a kick out of it that he KNOWS he is funny and uses it!!

I loved hearing all what the boys did while we were gone for our anniversary. Steve said they had a morning routine of swimsuits on, breakfast, working out, maybe a bit of yard work and finish off with a dive in the pool for hours of pool time.!! I thought is was so funny Clay and Hayden were trying to get more muscles to wrestle Nate when we got back, love it! Again, it always is a huge treat to go to Louisiana and see Steve/Diana and it is hard to leave but we are so thankful to be a part of the family and spend time together.

First Day of School!!

2011-09-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have two kids in school this year!!! Both were really excited to meet their teachers and make new friends.

Clayton-2nd Grader

Clay is such a smart kid. He is thoughtful of others, is concerned if someone else isn't happy, goofy, thinks he knows more than his mom at times, wants to get tough to beat his dad in wrestling, a really good big brother, and is tender hearted. He needs no help with his homework and is good at getting it done first thing so he doesn't have to worry about it. The teacher has told me that Clay easily gets along with everyone in the class and she can sit him by anyone which is helpful to her. Clay has his own locker at school. It is by a wall right next to his classroom which he thinks is cool.

Hayden - Kindergartener

Hayden has the same teacher that Clay did in Kiindergarten. Mrs. Morrison. Hayden thinks that is cool and wants to show her he is smart like Clay too. Only I know he will be a bit more energetic and class clownish than Clay was. :) He loves going to school, but feels that it is boring sometimes. When I asked why, he said that the work is super easy and he gets it done fast. He didn't need any reasurring to get on the bus, even though he was the only one getting on at his stop and didn't know anyone else on the bus. He tends to give me a hug and say bye before the bus gets there so maybe he can do it without anyone looking which is fine with me, I still get my hug. Hayden has tons of confidence and doesn't worry much except when it comes to him having to try hard to beat a level of Super Mario, then he does it till he has it mastered. He is good to Justin before he leaves and likes riding the bus home with Clay.

Brookfield Zoo

2011-09-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

Before Sophie left us in Chicago we had to take her to the famous Brookfield Zoo!! A huge zoo with amazing animals pretty much sums it up. The day was beautiful, the dolphin show awesome and all of us in heaven. I just love zoos!!

Bears Wilderness, huge vulture, macaws, and fluorescent frogs.

Anyone else want to visit for a zoo trip? Super fun all day long!!

Summer RoAd TrIp- Nauvoo

2011-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

To continue on posting about our summer RoAd TrIp, I need to mention all the things we did in Nauvoo, Illinois! Driving back towards home was so much fun this time around because we had more to our group. The Abercrombie Clan was taking on the road with us. Oh, the games that we played on the walkie talkies together. The laughing so hard that you cry and need to use the bathroom scenario, the hilarious knock, knock jokes from all the kids even when the punch line was missed, comments on the scenery like, "Holy windmills Batman", or the try to guess the movie line trivia. It got really good when we tried to sing the theme songs to the movies as well.

The Abercrombies were traveling to Nauvoo because Joe's (Br-in-law) Mom owns a house there on Palmyra street and her and her husband Wilson were so nice to let us all stay and visit.

Joe had the days mapped out for us and a perfect plan. Visiting different stops all through out the day. We just wished the weather would have been on board for it as well. Not a cloud in sight for rain, or any bad winds, just lots and lots of heat!! HOT, HOT, HOT. It made us have a new appreciation for the pioneers who houses were not air conditioned like some of the renovated ones are now that we visited. Not only was it hot but very humid. So much so in fact that our oxen and horse carriage rides were cancelled due to the heat index. The kids, my 3 and the Abercrombie 5, only had a little time at the Pioneer Pastimes before they closed up shop. Which was for the best though because this is where the kids could dress up in pioneer clothes and play old time pioneer games, but with the heat the supervisors didn't want and kids getting heat stroke while playing in lots of clothes and running after big wagon rings.

Some of the great places we were able to go and enjoy were:

Brickyard * Brigham Young Home * Joseph and Hyrum Smith Memorial * Webb Brother's Blacksmith Shop * Lucy Mack Smith home * Joseph Smith home * Red Brick Store * Visitor's Center and of course the beautiful Nauvoo Temple

My boys loved seeing all the details of the Nauvoo Temple up close. Justin kept repeating, "Moon, stars, sun". It was great just being on the temple grounds and discussing with my children the importance of such buildings and what they mean to me personally. The hardship and trials that the early pioneers went through to make such magnificent temples is truly amazing to me. There is so much history in Nauvoo. It makes you want to research everything and get to know the stories and background of each building, landmark, and people who lived there. My beliefs are confirmed and my testimony stronger that there is purpose in all things and everything has its time and place here and under heaven. I am so glad I have the gospel and am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It keeps me grounded, it keeps me strong.

Nauvoo Temple

Here is our clan enjoying the Frontier County Fair that they put on every night before the Nauvoo Pageant begins. Cast members from the pageant that are dress in full pioneer attire, which made me even hotter just by looking at them, helped visitors: play 1840's games, dance, sack race, rag braiding, hand cart pull, log sawing and much more. So fun to watch the kids giggle and play.

The Nauvoo Pageant was amazing! They have over 150 volunteer cast members who tell the story of Nauvoo, how it came to be, and what it meant to those who lived there in the 1840's. The pageant also pays tribute to the Prophet Joseph Smith, commemorates the building of the original Nauvoo Temple, and celebrates universal themes of faith, family, and community. As the pageant's temple was being built, piece by piece, I loved the feeling that I had after it was completed and how the saints felt at that time. I was completely moved when towards the end of the pageant when the cast reenacted the time when the saints were driven out of the Nauvoo area and the temple prop was removed and the actual Nauvoo Temple was lite up on the hill for everyone, cast and audience, to gaze at. It was as if we were all saying goodbye to it as well in that moment in time.

Carthage Jail

Carthage Jail was the site of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum on June 27, 1844. Joseph and Hyrum, with two companions, were imprisoned here. A mob broke into the jail, shooting through the door, charging in and killed Hyrum and Joseph who was shot while falling out of the two story window. There is still a bullet lodged in the door today. Visiting the jail cell and the quarters in which the Prophet spent his lasts days is a very humbling experience. John Taylor, who was one of the two companions with the Prophet in jail said these words:

D&C 135:3

"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents: has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained to the four quarters of the earth, has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men: gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

There was so many activities and stops made that my camera did not capture. My boys absolutely love their cousins and have non stop fun with them. We walked creeks looking for arrowheads and treasures. Visited the Dickson Mounds Museum. Talked, laughed, and cried when we had to part. Can't wait for another adventure like this one!!

2011 Summer Fun- Ranch

2011-08-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

We had a family reunion at my Grandpa Delwyn's Ranch in Soda Springs, Idaho this past July. We started off the fun by going for a swim day at Lava Hot Springs. I have missed Lava so much. It's a great family place to go swim. Everyone had fun swimming, going down all the different slides and my brother-in-law Joe was crazy and would jump off the high platform which he had to sign a waiver to even go on!

We all got our gun on you could say!! I'm not even going to attempt to name all the different kinds of guns that were shot. Clay shot the target three times in a row, the kid's got aim.

There are a lot of toys to play on at the OK Ranch. (OK is my Grandpa Delwyn's brand he uses on his cattle and for his ranch) Let just say Clay was in Heaven!

Oh, how I enjoyed all the time with the horses. The trail rides were so refreshing and just plain peaceful riding on top of the different horses.

My cowboy Justin Ron. He was simply having a ball everyday!

Red bandanna attire???? Check!

Hayden was so funny. Really when is he not. He was given this hat by my Grandma Barbara and he would not take the thing off!! When I was getting he set in his tent to sleep, he wanted to wear the cowboy hat under the sleeping bag covers and it took my awhile to convince him it will be waiting for him in the corner of the tent.

My boys can't get enough of their Grandpa Ron!!

My sister Emily is a pro at braiding hair! It has been forever since I had my hair braided so tight. And the above is the result of taking the braid out. Poofy!

Justin was hilarious on the horse with me. I thought he wouldn't want to go faster than walking, but when I guided the horse into a trot, I heard tons of giggles so I went straight into a gallop. This horse's name is Ernie and he has a very smooth ride. He has what is called a 5th gait, which is collection of smooth footfall patterns that may be natural to some horses but others require training to acquire the technique. Ernie seems to just be gliding when you are riding him, perfect rhythm. When Justin could get his breath from laughing so hard he would say, "So fun, horsey"

My Grandpa knows how to have a bonfire. Just make it HUGE!! We enjoyed watching the blazing fire and then a collection of fireworks that we lite off.

Such a great week of fun!! And the food? Oh my goodness so so good!!

Summer Fun 2011 - Idaho

2011-08-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Let the RoAd TrIp begin!! 24 hour drive from Chicago to Idaho!!

The boys were the best travelers ever!! I had absouletly no, "I'm going to pull over right now!" moments at all. The funnest thing about the drive was that I was so sure the boys were going to be watching alot of movies and I had it all ready for them to take turns picking out the movie, and sharing, but they watched only 1 and 1/2 movies the whole first day! Which was a 13 and 1/2 hour day of driving!!! Why did they only watch 1 movie and asked to shut the other off half way thru do you ask? They wanted to listen to HARRY POTTER that's why!!! It was hilarious. Sophie and I were really into the CD's and Clay would stop and ask questions every now and then. The guy who does all the voices is AMAZING! Time fly by for us. Even Justin seemed to listen and was completly content in his seat the whole way. I would be so tired strapped down all day with my feet dangeling from a car seat but he was so good for me!

Another sweet ride my boys absoletly loved was my dad's 1954 Chevy!! Such a good looking truck he rebuilt. Perfect vehicle to take for a Sunday drive after church.

I love coming to my sister Emily's house in the summer. She can let the irrigating water out on her lawn and the kids go wild! Each time Hayden has been there for this he says he "so wants to surf the lawn".

Cutest pose ever Emily!!

For my Nephew Ryder, (Jessa and Trent's son) 2nd birthday, mom and dad took everyone to Tauphaus Park Zoo. This is a great zoo located right in Idaho Falls. Its a smaller zoo, but they had great animals like lions, tigers, and bears.....Oh My! The kids loved it and Jessa brought fun masks for everyone to have. Justin realized his mask matched the real zebra's when he saw them, priceless moment right there.

Thompson Grandkids:

Brooklyn, Landon, Eli, Clayton, Hayden, Calvin, Bailee, Justin, Quincy, Ryder, and Boston.

Clay thought he was the coolest kid ever driving the go cart. It would get all muddy zooming in and out of the mud, but especially on the right side because there was no mudflap on that side. More fun for the passenger then huh ;)

I will admit that thing is the bomb to drive!! Can't beat the classic fun of a Go Cart!

Justin, Bailee, Sophie, and Hayden taking out the 4 wheeler.

Back home there are a lot of animals my boys chase after and are mesmerized with. Horses, cows, dogs, cats, Brooklyn's bunny, Landon's snake, Emily's chickens ect. ect.

Justin fell in love with all the dogs. Emily's three dogs. Grandpa Ron's two and Jessa's two little doggies. Cutest thing ever!!

Summer Fun 2011-Chicago

2011-08-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

We have had so SOOO much summer fun this past July. It all started off with my sister Sophie coming to Chicago. The main reason for Sophie flying out was to be my right hand lady during our RoAd TrIp to IDAHO!! But before we started on that grand adventure, we had to make sure she had some fun while she was out here in Chicago

Every Friday evening and all day Saturday Nate is attending classes at The University of Chicago to complete his MBA, which he will graduate with this December. YEA!!! Because Nate does have classes to be at he was not able to come to Idaho with us. So before we left town and him we all went downtown on Saturday with him to spend the day in the city and to enjoy lunch together.

My sister Sophie's nickname is string bean or bean. She was given this name mainly because she was the littlest and youngest of our family and calling her little bean was just cute. So Bean, is standing next to the famous Chicago "Bean" at Millennium park :)

The boys love, love Crown Fountain!! Who wouldn't. A face that squirts at you, too fun.

Navy Pier.

Chicago Skyline

This was just a little squirt up water park but everyone sure had fun at it. Especially Justin, who usually likes watching Clay and Hayden get all wet, but this time he was soaked too!

Took Sophie to church with us the next day and had a early family movie night and then if was off the bed for everyone since we departed at 4am to start the big RoAd TrIp!!!

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, because we for sure did!! Two nights of fireworks back to back! I seriously LOVE fireworks! This is probably because when I was little I considered the fireworks part of a celebration toward my birthday, which is at the end of the month on the 27th, and was glad everyone was there having a good time enjoying the show too. Nate teased me while we watched them because he said I had a big smile on my face! We had fun enjoying some picnic time on our blanket and games that boys love: wrestling, freeze tag, and a bit of soccer while we waited for the show to start.

Every year we have a parade that is right by our house. We can walk out of our house 5 minutes before the start time and get great seats. Justin was funny to watch because once he picked up that first treat thrown to him, all his focus turned to that piece of candy and nothing else, not even more candy that was throw at his feet could change his focus! We came back home with an entire bowl full of candy!

We also were able to spend a whole afternoon with a lot of great friends, swimming, enjoying a delicious barbecue, and soaking up the sunny sunshine!!! Thanks again everyone for such a wonderful, fun filled day!!

Bye Bye 1st Grade!

2011-07-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

Bye Bye 1st Grade!!

Clayton had a great time at school this past year. His teacher was Mrs. Himmelspach, although she let all her students call her Mrs. H. At the end of the year he gave her a bucket filled with candy and a note that read,

"This is nothing to SNICKER (snickers pkg) at but, we think you ROCK (pop rocks). Thanks for going the EXTRA (extra gum pkg) mile in teaching me this year"

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Clay had a little student crush on his teacher and wishes she could teach him again sometime. ;) He did very well in all his subjects and was among a group of top readers that got to participate in Mrs Cashmore's advanced class on Mondays. I think Clayton secretly liked being with this group and always tried hard on all his homework and reading. His end of the year program was "Dive Into Reading" All the students in first grade had a sea creature assigned to them to study and create a display on what they learned. Clay was given the Octopus. I never knew Octopus's had three hearts and their blood was blue! They also are extremely smart, can change colors to match their surroundings and get out of most fish tanks quite easily.

Here are half of the first graders at Big Hollow. The other half performed on another day. They sang fun songs and the students were awarded certificates for reading so many books. I am really glad I told Clay to wear his red and dark blue striped shirt because it was easy to pick him out. Right smack dab in the middle! It reminded me of an, Where's Waldo Game only this time Where's Clay??

Each student made a sun visor that they wore and had painted all sorts of different sea creatures on them. I took a picture of their "Shark" pose that they did during a hilarious song which was sung with lots of excitement and shouts!!As I watched I couldn't help thinking how Clay will be in second grade this fall, and my ball of energy Hayden will be a kindergarten student!! As most say it seemed just like yesterday that Clay was the first addition to our family and he is now on his way being educated and growing up.

A Quick, but much Needed Trip!

2011-06-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

At the end of April and the beginning part of May I was able to take a short, but much needed trip back to Idaho. It was for a quick five day stay but it was the first time I have gone anywhere without my boys with me, especially an overnight stay anywhere. Going through an airport without any kids was such a breeze. I almost didn't know what to do with myself! I kept feeling like I needed to get some fruit snacks out or something and my hands seemed really restless. I had a trusty Kindle with me and by the time I reached Idaho for my travel day, I had finished a 400+ page novel!! WOW!! Only having to worry about just me, made red flag kid scenarios like: drinks with no lids, confined areas, breakable objects, head counts, and potty breaks such a breeze!! Who would have thought!! :) My boys were well taken care of though by my wonderful Mother-in-law or Mom #2 and they where indeed showered with love, treats and favorite eat out places. Thank you again Diana for you love and support, the boys loved your visit!! Top reason why for this quick no kid trip? These gals right here, especially the one in the middle.

My Sister's Jessa, Emily, and Sophie.

My Sister Emily was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had a bump on the top of her head that over three or so years slowly grew and became tender. During those years she had spoken her concern about the bump to various doctors and was given different "It's no big deal" conversations. It wasn't until she was seeing her daughter Quincy's doctor (who was helping with Quincy's cleft lip and palette) was she recommended to receive the needed MRI scans to get a her diagnosis. The waiting game of more doctor's appointments, tests, and results was unnerving for everyone in the family. I know without a doubt Emily's positive attitude and will power to get what needed to be done, well done; strengthened others around her and helped put life into perspective. While my family had gathered to together to give her a special priesthood blessing on a Sunday afternoon sometime before her surgery in Idaho, I was in Chicago giving a lesson to my Young Women about the blessings of the priesthood. Such a blessing that each one of my siblings (that is married) has a worthy priesthood holder within their home. And for Sophie who isn't in the married life yet, she has our Dad to go to at any time for that same blessing.

Emily had her surgery April 12, 2011. It went as well as anyone could have expected. There were alot of unanswered questions going in on the surgery which made things tense, but everything came back positive. The tumor was benign!! Yea!! Also the tumor was sitting on top of a main vein on Emily's brain and they couldn't tell exactly how fused it was to the tumor or if at all before the surgery. The main vein had actually rerouted itself and the surgeons were able to seal it off successfully and remove the tumor.

This is my very funny and always entertaining Brother-in-law Joe, Emily's Husband. He was so great and strong for her, although as you can see in this photo was in much need of a nap! Such a trooper. He kept family and friends updated through facebook. Here are some of his posts:

APRIL 9th ... An update on Emily. She has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. She will be admitted to the hospital in Salt Lake on Monday and the actual removal of the tumor will be on Tuesday. At this point we really don't know much. I will update her status regularly over the next week or so. -Joe

APRIL 12th ... Emily is out of surgery! Doing well. Tumor is benign. Skull has been reconstructed. She may need radiation, as a precaution. She lost 4 pints of blood. That's half of total blood in her body. Thank you for your prayers and faith! -Joe

APRIL 13th ... Update on Emily. She is still in the ICU. She remains very positive, very funny and extremely grateful. Due to the swelling of her brain she has lost the ability to move her right leg below her knee. Of all teh possible side effects, that is one that we can live with. I cannot accurately express my gratitude to each one of you, for your concern and prayers. Thank you-Joe

APRIL 16th...Update on Emily. She is home from the hospital!! Still no movement in her right leg. She is very optimistic and counting her blessings. Good news is she can't kick me for awhile.-Joe

Emily is a strong willed person always making others around her happy. She is a great mother to her five children and a great sister to me and others in our family. We are so happy how things are progressing with her and it seems like now we are having to nag her a bit about taking it easy and not to over do it. But again she is a capable strong willed person with a great work ethic, something we can thank our parents for, a attentive mother and teacher.

I really liked Emma Jean's (a nickname I believe I gave her) short hair cut. She cut it a couple of weeks before her surgery with the attitude, "Might as well have some fun with it" comment. I think she resembles an classic Aubrey Hepburn!! She rocks it! Emily continues to do well. She has more doctors visit to do down the road and possible radiation treatments. She is gaining more and more movement to her right leg and was given shock therapy to trigger signals back to her brain like "Hello, someone just shocked our foot!" seemed crazy to me but it is helping her. I know our Heavenly Father has truly watched over her and blessed her and her family for their faithfulness to turn to Him and become strengthened.

Also while I was back home, I was really flexible being without kids. I visited each of my siblings houses and spent time with them all which was very nice. My dad needed to move cattle while I was there. Riding horses is such a thrill each time I do it, but I always liked working with the horses in directing cattle about and getting a job done. Had a nice ride along side my Dad taking the horses across the river and enjoying the scenery.

I found a great after Easter sale on some filled eggs and was able to put on a post Easter Hunt with all the kids. I think I even succeeded in a great hunt for my dad too! He was chasing the kids around making it fun for everyone. Love that guy!

My funny Mr. Calvin-ator!!! Such a great kid. Loved it when I would ask him if he wanted something he would reply in a too cute voice "Yes, I do". I caught myself coping him at different times during the visit "Do you want to play cards Fay?" "Yes, I do!"

My spent my first night in Idaho at Jessa and Trent's house after a great family dinner with everyone in Idaho Falls. Jessa is currently going to school for interior design and is able to give her designs to a business man who brings her sketches to life. This is a picture of a game table she designed and the kitchen she is over and giving her pick of the granite top she wants placed on it. These items are being built in a new showroom that she is involved with. Fun things are happening there! I would totally buy her stuff!

Had so much fun with my nephew Ryder. I made sure we went to Artic Circle to get some fry sauce yummmmmmy and shakes. Ryder was hilarious when we let him watch himself eat ice cream on Jessa's iPhone!! He became mesmerized with it!

Max and Lacie's little boy Boston is just a cute big smiley boy!!! His giggles were cracking us all up! I was able to have a late night movie showing at Max and Lacie's house one night. We watched the latest Harry Potter film and I got some extra play time with miss Bailey!

I needed this trip. I needed time spent with the family. I was really glad I had the chance to spend time with my mom as well. She can always make any gathering a special one just by the effort she puts into them. It was funny to make Sophie laugh really hard and joke around with her. My dad even participated with his own little jokes at times. Genuine good stuff right there. My mom also drove me back to the airport in Salt Lake and we had a bit of time to browse a HUGE home decoration store together. Now all that needs to be down is to plan the next trip!! Thank you all for such a great time!

Dyeing Eggs

2011-05-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Coloring Easter Egss is always fun around here, even if it is just simple with the basic dyes and supplies to get creative with. A must when using anything that has the ability to spill is, using trays. No worries when a overflow happens or two eggs get put into one cup, its all OK. My boys were all into the fun experiments using rubber bands, stickers, crayons, double dunking, and lots of other techniques to get that PERFECT EGG they were looking for. The only problem I had for the day was keeping my kids from opening the still wet, not done yet dyed eggs. Who knew I would have to tell my boys to be patient before they could eat the hard boiled eggs all up.

2011-05-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

EASTER EGG HUNT

The egg hunts in our area were held April 16th for some reason and the day was raining and cold. Most of them were resecheduled for the next day, Sunday and we wouldn't be going then. But I found out last minute that Graylake was having their's at the the Lake County Fairgrounds where we could be sheltered some what with the various side open barns and the kids were all game for it so off we went. The hunts were started one after the other starting with the 3 and under group. I left Clayton and Hayden together in their line huddled under the blankets we brought, while I went to help Justin at his own hunt.

It was really cold and windy with rain every now and then, but my only real complaint is that the Easter egg hunt was advertised to start at 11:00 but the actual hunts started at 11:30, activities began at 11. My boys were patiently waiting in the cold while others came right at 11:30 and where told to go around to the other side of the area which actually gave them a better spot to get eggs, which didn't seem fair since they just arrived and didn't wait in line.

11 was when the sponsors and radio show started up. They did have a fun meet and greet with charaters like Scooby Doo, Mickey & Minnie, Elmo, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, The Easter Bunny and others. It was so fun to watch Justin see Mickey. He really loves Mickey!!!

Mr Easter Bunny!!

After Justin was done with his hunt I took him over to watch Clayton and Hayden go at it with theirs. There was a man with a speaker phone giving instructions to all the kids. I didn't hear all of it but I did make out something like "Lets be fair and think of everyone who is here so we all can have fun" Then the count down from 10 began. 10..............3..2...1...GO!!! I cheered for Clay and Hayden but something seemed odd after a few seconds. "Get them Clay!! There right there by your feet, grab them!! Hayden over there, there some more, go go go" That is what I was yelling to Clay and Hayden, me being confused that my boys are standing there just watching all the other kids get the eggs around them. When it was all done they came over by me looking slightly disappointed and sad like. "What happened, there were eggs all over the place and you didn't get them why?"

Clay looked at me and said "Mom, the guy said 10 egg, just get 10 eggs to be fair for everyone. We both got our 10 eggs, but alot of others didn't listen and got way more then 10. Its not fair, we listened, but they got way more than us and will probably get all the prizes too."

Insert melted heart!!! Such good boys I have!! Even when around such a huge temptation like scattered Easter Eggs for a kid they still listened and followed their instructions!! I told them that the Easter Bunny knows that they were good and listened and will remember that for their own Easter baskets.

There were alot of photographers everywhere and at random one came up and started snap shoting Justin all over the place. He didn't say a word, just pointed his camera at Justin and click, click, click. After what seemed like forever the man asked quick short questions like "What's his name? How old? What town? These his brothers? I anwered politely but could help asking my own questions: What paper are you from? Is this going to be posted anywhere? Do you have a website? All in all there was a short article in the Sun Times about the hunt and the picture above was displayed with the article and on their website. What can I say that Justin is a cutie huh!!

Long Grove Firehouse

2011-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

One of the last days of our (Melissa Patterson and I) preschool was a visit to the Long Grove Firehouse!! Firefighter Kate was super fun with all the boys. She showed them all her gear and they were stunned at how heavy everything was. They all laughed when she put on her oxygen mask, Hayden said she look kind of like an elephant!

The Ambulance and Fire Truck were a huge hit. Who wouldn't want to sit in a BIG shiny truck full of buttons and dials. The Fire truck was actually one of their big TANKERS. Since Long Grove is an historic town they do not have any fire hydrants and they truck out the water with the TANKER!

All the boys left thrilled with bags of popcorn, coloring pictures, sticker, and a very cool iron on decal for a shirt which Hayden made me do right when we got home. Its a good thing we had a solid red shirt laying around huh! Melissa and her family have since moved to Florida and we will sure miss all of them. Hayden and Ethan were the best of friends and we already have had long days wishing we could still go on an play day with them. Best of luck to them and hopefully we can get together again sometime.

Out of the norm Post...SIX FLAGS!!

2011-03-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

I was looking back on my blog the other day and I was shocked..SHOCKED that I had not posted a single time about any Six Flags trips last season. It's not like I didn't have pictures, I do and a lot of them, so why did I not post?? And then, I remembered I was going to make a big, long post that included some of our favorite pictures and the friends we went to Six Flags with. Nathan bought the boys and I season passes so we had something fun to go to all summer long and on Saturday's while he was at school. He is so good to us!!! Clayton and Hayden thought it was sooooo cool that they had their own ID cards with their pictures on it! Nate did get to use some free family and friends passes from our booklets we were given for the year so there were times that he was able to get some fun in with us, but other then that it was the boys and I soakin up all the FUN in the HOT HOT sun!!

So as I sit here looking out window as it snows at the end of March UGH... I decide to go out of the normal timeline and put together that big, long post hoping for some warmer weather to come our way and for the next Six Flags Season to start!!

** Click on the pictures that are small to see them bigger!

Concert before the Glow N dark Parade. Makell A

Ethan and Melissa P.

Jessa

Ryder

Glow N dark parade

Water boats!!

Pepe Le Pew Hayden

Scooby Doo, Anika and Celtin M.

Green Lantern

Batman

Cute Marley, Kelley A.

Bugs Bunny Sylvester

Simple Projects

2011-03-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few projects I worked on recently. Matching ties for my little men, and a simple skirt. I am currently the 1st counselor in our YW and we had a mother/daughter personal progress night where we helped the YW make a skirt for themselves. It was a great turn out with lots of inactive members and nonmember participating in the activity for the night! Our ward held an "Invitation Sunday" last week and we encouraged the girls to wear their new skirts that they worked on. We, (my good friend Carli aka YW Pres and I) promised the girls that we would make skirts too and wear them on that special Sunday. Invitation Sunday is a day our stake has each ward invite family, friends, and neighbors to come worship with us and see what The Church of Jesus Christ is all about. Our ward also held a potluck afterward which helped with our turn out I'm sure, I mean who doesn't love food!

The tie pattern is from a friend of Carli's which you can find here.Here is the Link that you can find the instructions for the skirt. It is for an Elastic Waist Skirt from Freshly Picked!!

I had my friends Liz and Carli come over to have a sewing day together. It was alot of fun. Us ladies trying to figure out what we are doing, kids running around playing, phone calls, a diaper change, few spills, and a kid picnic on the floor of my kitchen... thats my kind of get together!! We will definetly have to find more projects to do!

What Cute pies!!

2011 Kid's Expo

2011-03-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Check out this DRAGON FACE!! Seriously this has to be the coolest face painting I have ever seen. Hayden loved making the dragon open and close its mouth each time he said RAAAAHHHH!!! Hayden would go around moving his mouth up and down saying Chomp Chomp Chomp!! Too fun!

Our friend Miss Hayden Woodland was able to get a beautiful butterfly complete with sparkling glitter everywhere!

The Kid's Expo was super fun. Lego Spongebob was really funny for the kids to see. Even Justin said "Mom!! SPONGEBOB!" The Monkey and man in a cage is just such a funny costume I had to take a picture. I didn't quite capture how he was all hunched over and his silly walk though. We got our bags full of paperwork to go home and throw away. A few samples to try and we were also entertained by the Chicago Sky, Fly Kids who performed acrobat stunts. Clay and Hayden were mesmerized with all their back flips, front flips, daring jumps, trick jump rope skills , and pyramid towers. Seriously so cool to watch!

Justin was all about the animals at the petting zoo. He would touch them, then laugh, and try to pick them up. His favorite was the turtle at the reptile exhibit where he actually could hold him.

The kids were able to dig for gold at the wild west booth. Clay tried Rock Climbing, but said it was a little hard finding a good stepping places for his feet. The pedal with your arms train cars were also fun.

The Reptile exhibit was a hit!! Our group of friends and the kids stayed there for a while playing with all the turtles, seeing the huge Python, and Clay was frozen still with the lizard placed on him. So glad we were able to have a fun day with all kiddos and friends!!

The Many Faces of Hayden

2011-03-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hayden is such a character. Unlike Clay who likes his pictures taken and will hold still and try different poses for me, Hayden doesn't hold still and comes alive with being goofy, shy, crazy, silly, and laughable all at once.

He is such a smart kid and picks up on things really easily. He is able to do things fast which is good, but at the same time he becomes bored once he has completed his task at hand, like his workbook pages, and tries other things such as cutting confetti for me out of his paper. He is doing well on his sight words and will yell them out when he sees them while we are out running errands around town. He has such energy that wears me out at times but that's OK. He has a strong love for Super Mario Bros right now, and it has it's own super powers in getting Hayden to do certain things for me when no playing time is on the line! He is a stubborn one, but his weakness is being tickled and we can get a smile out of him everytime! We call him our little chef because he loves to help me in the kitchen. He is my go to helper with stirring and adding ingredients for meals and desserts.

Such a handsome little man he is. What can we say we love our HAYDEN ALEXANDER COTTRELL!!!!!

My $2 Craziness fixer

2011-02-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a way for some time now to make my own earring holder, wall thingy. I needed to hang my dangles up because having my two year old running around with them was driving me crazy. And I didn't need any of them to get lost, I mean there are only so many Clearance earrings out there people ;)

So during a dollar store trip I picked up a photo frame, and a microfiber cloth that has a mesh scrubbing side to it. Take the glass out and cut cloth to fit on the backside of your frame. I wish I had a nail gun on me, but that's the reason for improvising right. Using good ole thumb tacks I secured the cloth on to my frame pulling and tightened the cloth as I went.

And there, with a whole $2 smackers I found sanity again. For now.

Chicago Blizzard 2011 - Lake Shore Drive

2011-02-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

This is how crazy it was Downtown. I still can't believe some people tried to drive in this Blizzard!! They said over 1500 cars were stranded on Lake Shore drive and people had to leave their cars behind and walk to a warming station.

Chicago 2011 Blizzard!!!

2011-02-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

We had the most crazy BLIZZARD EVER!! This is our front door

The view from my front door. Notice how my neighbors car is almost completely covered and that there is no road right now, just pure snow everywhere!

This is the fence line on the left in our back yard.

Fence line on the right of our back yard.

The drifts are crazy!

Here is Nate starting on snowplowing our driveway.

The snow is higher than the snow blower!

Clear a path!!!

And then the winds pick up again.

Yeah Clayton go ahead take a seat.

We had some good helpers trying to help.

Shovel Justin...Shovel

That is just nuts!!

Our front door that I still need to shovel out three steps.

Doing a little snow dance Nate???

Snow on the roof too???

Wall decor with toilet paper???

2011-01-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

My friends and I had fun putting these beauties together last week. Who knew you could make such fun designs out of toilet paper!! I mean seriously, Nate thought these were made out of some type of metal!!

These are really easy to make. All you need is:

-a supply of toilet paper or paper towel rolls

-measuring tape/marking pencil

-scissors

-glue gun

-spray paint

Measure and cut your rolls 1 inch apart. Arrange 5 cut pieces together to make a flower. Hot glue pieces together one at a time. After you have made 12 or so flowers, play with them to make a design you like. Then hot glue your flowers in place. I placed random "leaves" in places on mine. Then spray paint with the color of your choice and find a wall to hang that puppy up on!

And since Valentines is coming up, I couldn't help putting together some hearts with glitter!

Thanks to Carli, and Melissa M for a way fun afternoon. Can't wait to see where you two have put yours up at! I am searching for more projects for us to do sometime soon!!

Cracks me up

2011-01-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

I can't help it this group seriously cracks me up!! Its their face expressions, quirky movements, all mixed with the blend of their voices!! HILARIOUS!!

Justin turns 2!!

2011-01-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Justin Ron!!! He was so funny when he saw his cake. He kept giggling and saying cake..Cake..CAKE!!

Watching him blow out his candles was hilarious. He tried to stay back and blow from afar at first and once the first one was blown out he was excited for the next one.

He sure did like his CAKE and ICE CREAM!!

Justin loved his present and has be quite the little bossy boy when his brother try to get on it without asking him first. He played long and hard with it so much so that he feel right to sleep at bedtime. Justin is such a sweet, happy boy and can make others happy along side him with his side smile smirk he gives. He is always the first to RUN to Nathan when he gets home and is willing to give tons of loves to everyone. He plays right along side his brothers and is a real talkative boy, some in english and some in Justin's own language. He recently has a love for pistachios and will bring them to me wherever I am in the house to shell them for him. He's such a cutie when he folds his arms with the family and babbles his own sweet prayer to himself. Happy Birthday to our Justin Ron!! We all love you!

Happy 5th Birthday

2011-01-19T17:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday To HAYDEN !! We had fun treating Hayden to some of his favorite foods. Panda Express for lunch with his Dad, Mcdonalds chicken nuggets for dinner, and his birthday cake. Coming back from vacation we decided to have a family night with a Wii tournaments. This is a cake that I made like super fast, and with none of the techniques or skills that my friend Melissa can pull off with her amazing cakes, but it is frosting over chocolate cake and we ate it. It served it's purpose well. Although Hayden wasn't a fan of the coconut even if it did look like grass.

Hayden is so much fun to have around during the day when Clay is gone at school. He is a really good helper, especially if I am cooking something. And, at times he is TOO much of a help if ya know what I mean!! He has tons of energy and is a smart kid. Too smart sometimes, like when I have a project ready for him to work on. He completes it faster than I had calculated it would take him to finish and then he starts in on that energy of his and I NEED to find another project or something for him to do. Hayden loves to watch America's Funniest Video's and is always asking Nate to throw a pie in his face, dunk him a pool, or pull some other funny joke on him. Naturally, Nate is ready to accommodate him on any of these request!

I think he thought the cake in the face is pretty funny!!

Christmas here, there, everywhere!!

2011-01-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

We had some much fun this Christmas!! We were here, we were there, I guess we were a bit of everywhere for this vacation! Our first stop was a flight out of Milwaukee Wisconsin to Phoenix, Arizona on December 18th, but not until that afternoon. And in an effort to not be packing tons of gifts there amongst all our other belongings, our family had special communications with Santa this year and he had agreed with mom and dad that he would bring presents the morning before we left (Dec 18th) but he would save our stocking treats for Christmas morning in Arizona! Super Mario Wii!! This is for our whole family, but Hayden has really wanted this for a long time.

What boy doesn't just love remote control stuff. Both Hayden and Clayton received remote cars and helicopters. Hayden's are Red..his favorite color and Clayton's are Blue. My family actually bought some remote helicopters while we were in Arizona and all the kids were able to play with them there. I felt really bad for Clayton though, because when we came back home and he wanted to play with his own helicopter, but we found out that the on switch was broken from the inside of the helicopter. But on a good note, we were able to take it back and get store credit which he used in buying a new spider man watch that he wears everyday now!!

Each one of my boys went to the dollar store to buy something they thought was special for each person in our family. Nate took the boys to get presents for me and I took them on a different time so we could make it all a fun surprise for everyone.

We just loved that warm sunshine in Arizona!! While we were there we were able to visit The Marks Family who live in Vail AZ. We get along so great with this family and I have missed them a lot since they moved. It was so good to see all of them and how much the kids have grown and how happy they are. I only wish I would have thought to take some pictures while we were there, but we were busy enjoying each others company.

He is Justin being a little organizer in the kitchen pantry. He literally sat there for over a half an hour sorting the water bottles and stacking them in piles.

The new house of The Thompson Arizona Retreat is beautiful!! They were able to get a great deal on it and the back yard is amazing! We mostly only used the hot tub, unless there was a dare involved, which landed Nate and Emily at different times having to dive in the ice cold water! Nate lost at rock, paper, and scissors with Clayton and Emily lost the bet with Joe at their miniature golf game. The icy water didn't seem to effect the kids at all. Especially for Clay, he was in and out of that water like a mad man!

We can't go to Arizona without visiting the race track to cheer for Grandpa Delwyn's race horses. Lucky 6 wasn't so lucky that day, but Grandpa has had winners other times. That usually how if goes huh. Ya win some...Ya loss some.

Here are most of the Thompson grandkids. Left to right: Bailee, Calvin, Hayden, Eli, Clayton, Landon, Brooklyn. Missing from the picture: Justin, Quincy, Ryder, and baby Boston.

These four were hilarious!! It was so fun to see them all together playing, then wrestling, then running, mixed with a few toy wars but all together they got along really well!

ZOO!!!! Need I say more! Zoo's are always fun!

Sophie Lyn and Brooklyn Paige

On our estate sale fun, Grandma Barbara bought a big box full of men's pjs and socks and t-shirts that according to the seller had never been used all for $6 bucks. Mom (Grandma Mindy) bought a few more supplies and with the finds in the box, some extra fabric, and my mom's genius brain we had the cutest Nativity Scene ever!!

Clayton, Hayden, and Eli were Wise Men. Landon-Joseph. Brooklyn-Mary. Bailee and Quincy-Angels. Calvin and Justin-Shepherds. Boston-Baby Jesus.

Nate read the story of Christ birth from the New Testament, followed be a Christmas story read by Dad (Grandpa Ron).
Christmas morning is always fun and exciting for everyone. Kids opening stockings and presents from Grandpa Ron and Grandma Mindy. Clayton, Hayden, Eli, and Landon all received Huge Nerf guns that were really fun. You could aim and hit with point on accuracy. They took them to the park and had a Nerf battle on grass. They would start at the top of the hill everyone at different sides and then charge at each other!

We also visited the Mesa Arizona Temple. The grounds are all decorated with lights and Nativity scenes. Inside the visitors center they had over 100 Nativity sets on displayed from all over the world.

Miniature Golf!!

Watching all the kids play was quite funny.

Quincy Jo and I fun picture opt together while we were all out playing tennis!! She is so sweet and fun.

Nathan had to go back home to take care of things at his work so after a week in Arizona with us he flew home while we drove back to Idaho with my parents. I was excited to see my parents new addition to their house which turned out beautiful!! They treated us in so many ways especially with the crab dinner Mom and Dad put on. It was uplifting to spend time with my sisters and bro,and when I say that I am meaning their spouses as well because Lacie, Joe, and Trent are my sister and bros too! I miss them a lot being away. Its hard feeling like I miss so much some times, but I am so thankful for the technology that we have now with computers, phones, and the ability to share pictures so we can stay connected and up to date with each other. Such a great trip we can't wait to plan the next one.

Oh, and Clay thought it was really funny that on the day we traveled back home, we started in Idaho, drove to Utah, had a layover in Denver CO, landed in Milwaukee, WI, and drove another hour to our home in Illinois. Yes, Clay it was a crazy, long day and we were in five different states all in one day!!

Holiday Preschool Party

2010-12-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

This is the teacher gift Clay ended up giving his teacher. He really liked all the crayons lined up in rows. He gave it to her yesterday. He was so excited to she if she liked it. He said she did.

We had alot of fun at our Holiday Party at Preschool today. Melissa brought supplies for super fun cupcakes.

We made Santa Faces and had fun playing Christmas bingo.

Clay was out of school early for Christmas break, so we held preschool later in the day so I could attend his class and he could participate at the preschool party.

These boys all love hanging out with each other!! It is really funny to hear them talk to each other sometimes!

Happy Holidays

2010-12-13T19:15:00.000-08:00

Justin has a goofy smile on his face in this picture, because he is concentrating on the M&M's I gave him so he would sit still. The gingerbread man he has is actually a candle holder. Minus any candle at the moment, but equipped with tasty M&M's. Using the timer option on my camera, placing it on top of my upturned ottoman, and balancing it on a writing desk of Clay's, I was able to get a good holiday picture for us to use. Nate was funny and kept telling me, "You just need one, just one good picture that's all." I really think he just wanted the photo opt to be over with!!

Tooth out!!

2010-11-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

Clay has lost his first tooth!! Ok, really it was lose enough that he wanted me to pull it for him. He first brought me these HUGE pliers and I laughed and asked him if he really wanted me to take his tooth out with them. His nervous, confused look was hilarious! I showed him the needle nose pliers and he agreed to use those ones instead. We wiggled it around a bit with me saying "Is that ok? How about this? Are you good?" After three tugs it was out and an amazed/surprised 'It actually happened' look was all over Clayton's face. Such a fun first for him and me to watch him be so excited! He was visited by the Tooth Fairy and received $5 for his very first tooth and also because is was very clean. The Tooth Fairy said all this in the note that she left with such fancy handwriting. She thanked Clayton for such a nice tooth and instructed him to keep brushing!

This all happened November 12th (a Friday night) and since then he has lost another one eating an apple at school (another bottom tooth), and now has one really lose on top!

HA HA HA...says Justin

2010-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Look what Justin thinks is sooooo FUNNY!! For almost an hour, this was the most hilarious game to Justin. He would pull down his pants and get a reaction from me and then try to "run" off!

Watching him waddling down the hall with his pants at his ankles, made me laugh so hard, which made him try to get away even faster!! What a hilarious kid, our J J !!

How was your Halloween fun??

2010-11-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun time this Halloween. We had a lot of fun things to go and do even though our family decided not to go trick or treating on Halloween this year because it just so happens to be on a Sunday, and that is when all the trick or treating fun here in Illinois is happening. The boys were really good about this and understood that there are a lot of fun things to go and do, and somethings that are more important that we should focus on. Clay even took it upon himself to tell our neighbors that we would not be visiting their houses on Halloween for trick or treating. Oh, great (insert sarcasm)!! I guess when he was asked "Why not?" He replied, "On Sundays we go to church, and church is VERY important to us. It's kind of like a family day thing." I find this out from one of my neighbors, who is really nice, and she thought it was all really cute, but probably thought we were a bit strange but that is OK, strange I guess can be good sometimes. We really didn't miss out on any fun for Halloween though. Here is some of what we did:

We went to a Halloween Carnival, where we played games to win treats and went on a hayride with friends and sat by the cutest Strawberry Shortcake (Hayden W), her pet turtle (Cole W) and their ever so fun mom, Carli W. Although, Justin was being harassed a little by a socially challenge photographer who took multiple pictures of him and didn't talk much. I couldn't even understand which newspaper he was actually working for. I might have to do some research on that one. There could be an overly cute lobster picture out there!! ;)

We attended a magic show at our library, where Hayden was picked to be a little witch volunteer. He had a cheesy smile on his face the whole time!! And there was one trick that magic man still has me stumped on!! Ask me about it sometime. It was crazy, and I was watching his hands the whole time...still confused!!

Our ward finally held a TRUNK OR TREAT!! YEA!! This made is possible for my boys to have taste of trick or treating for this year. Although, you could tell it was even better being there, and getting to play with all their friends. Such a pretty day for it as well and the kids were running around the church having freeze tag games.

My nephew Jordan along with his mom and dad came for the fun too!! Jordan and Hayden are so much fun to watch together. I really digged Jordan's multi-colored hair to complete his Clown look!!

So after all our fun activities our own BATMAN has just one question??

HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN FUN?????

Because I promised!!

2010-10-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

Two more pumpkins are carved because I promised Hayden we would. Again they are shrivelling up really fast so if any of you have tricks to keeping carved pumpkins fresh, let us know please!!!

I just want to EAT HIM

2010-10-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Is that not just the yummiest LOBSTER you have ever seen!! I know I could just gooble him right up!

I just love me some Felt, such useful stuff. I was stumped for a while for what to use for the eyes, till I found some good ole white socks to use, two black pom poms, and some batting.

Here is the back side of his glorious Lobster Tail!

Looking good Justin!!

Look out, it's SUPERMAN

2010-10-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Hayden loves Superman!! His hair has gotten just long enough to put a curl to it to complete his look!

Hayden's muscle shirt was fun and crazy to make. I kept getting mad at my zipper foot on my sewing machine. It kept bunching up the thread on the bottom. I checked my tension and that was ok so I tried again and more extra thread!! I finally found out that my thread had looped itself around the top of that little silver bar you need to guide thread up and around. It was looped a good five or six times all hidden like, so there was the extra tension problem I had, sneaky thing. Anyway I found a tutorial here for making the muscle shirt. Although I made adjustments for myself. The tutorial says to use NU FOAM to make the muscle shirt. Well, after finding that at JoAnns and seeing that it would cost $7.00 for about a 12x12 piece, I improvised. Found some flip flops of Clays that were too little and broken, so I cut them up and I had muscle material that cost me nothing. Doing the freezer paper trick to this shirt was just that TRICKY, because of all those great big muscles to get just right, but no mess ups and we have a unique Superman Shirt!! Look at him go!! I just crack up when I see his little legs, covered first in tight blue, almost too small, pj bottoms with too short, red, pj shorts on top!!

Pumpkins!

2010-10-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Carving Pumpkin Time!!!!

These two were carved a week ago, because no one in my house could wait to start carving into those big orange Pumpkins!!!

And now that they already have been thrown in the garbage because of the scrunched up skull face and sunken in bat body, Hayden informed me that we NEED to carve two more just to make our stairs Halloweenee enough !! Good thing I already told Clay and Hayden that we will not be carving them until next week, they (and me) will just have ot be patient!

Didier Farms Pumpkin patch!!

2010-10-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

I love, LOVE fall festivals, pumpkin patches, and the beautiful colors all around. So when Clay was out of school Monday for Columbus day, I gave an out of the blue call to some friends to see if they wanted to join us at Didier Farms. Melissa M. Carli W. and Shylo M. all came to enjoy an unusually hot fall day at the pumpkin farm. Me, and the kids always have a great time when we can get together with friends and enjoy the day. I thought the spray painted hay bale tractor was some fun scenery. Tractors will always remind me of home, even if it was a John Deere (Dad is loyal to the Red Case Tractors)

I had to say sorry to little miss Avery, my friend Melissa M. daughter, once Justin sat down and tried to push her aside. I mean look at him trying to stare her down, his hand even looks like its made into a fist. You can't tell he has two older brothers and trying to make his own mark with the group. Goodness, Gracious Mr. Justin.

Look at all those cute veggies!! I have to say that Melissa had the best smile in the whole group though!! Left to right: Hayden W. Melissa M. Clayton C. Avery M. Hayden C. *****Hayden, Lochan, Anika, Clayton, Celtin.

The kids thought the tepees were fun to hang out in.

Besides all the free things that we did: Tepee, bunnies, baby chicks, piglets, and pumpkins to see galore, Didier Farms had a lot of activities that required tickets to participate with. This kind of made the place seem like it was trying to nickel and dime people, but the admission and parking were absolutely free and even with telling the boys "No, we are not riding the dinky rides, or the camel (yes they did have an actual camel to ride), or buying the biggest pumpkin in the place", We still had a good time. OH, minus the fact that Clay did get lost for about 10 minutes. Shylo and I with our kids were looking at the camel, and then went on to the piglets. Apparently, Clay was having a lot of fun during our visit with an old camera of mine and while taking photos of the camel, he lost track of where we were at. After looking for us for a bit, a worker found him and took him to the country store and called my name over the intercom. They said he did really good giving his first and last name, my first and last, providing them with my phone number, which is my cell (that's all we go by) that was in my back pocket, but with all the noise around I didn't hear it and I must have not worn tight enough pants because I didn't feel the thing vibrate at all. Both Clay and I came up with the same conclusion for the day: Being lost is NO fun!! So besides that little hiccup, we bought three small pumpkins and a good carving tool, we made out of there spending $3 and all kids a counted for!!

Thanks to all my friends who came and we could have fun together!!!

Preschool outing

2010-10-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-12 my friend Melissa and I have preschool time for our preschool boys Hayden and Ethan. We have had a lot of fun already with a space day, celebrating seasons, nursery rhyme day, and a some bug fun on bug day. Since Clayton didn't have any school this last Tuesday we decided to visit an apple orchard/pumpkin farm and learn all about the letter A and have an science experiment with our apple seeds from some yummy apples. Five boys total, that always have a blast together. Blake, Ethan, Hayden, Justin, and Clayton. They really loved the MOON JUMP place. You could do some pretty high jumps there.

We had three leaders: Clay, Ethan, and Hayden to direct us through the corn maze, which for a while we did get a little turned around and were in there longer than we had planned, but still fun.

Who doesn't love a huge bin filled with corn to play in!!

It was a really fun preschool outing and each boy had a great time.

9 years

2010-10-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Sept 7th, Nate and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary!! We were able to spend it in Louisiana, which was great because Nate's parents took the kids for us so we could have an entire afternoon to ourselves. We went downtown New Orleans to walk around for awhile and have a nice lunch that ended up being at the Hard Rock Cafe. There were crews everywhere downtown putting up a huge stage and booths for the big kick off of the new football season and spotlighting the Super Bowl champs the New Orleans Saints. Too bad we didn't have tickets to the big game that week but they were completely sold out. After a great dinner of Salmon for me and a rack of ribs for Nate, we had a bit of time to shop before we got the rare chance to see a movie together. In a REAL theater, with great surround sound and stadium seating to die for. No wonder the place was called AMC PALACE!!

Before we left on our trip Nate found a watch that he really liked and was a steal of a deal, so we had that count for his anniversary gift. And then he suprised me with these two beauties for my gifts!

The best gift of all that Nate and I have gotten being married to each other are these three beauties!!!

Love you Nate!! Looking forward to many more years to come!!!

Louisiana Pets

2010-09-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

We found many Louisiana pets all my boys wanted to take home and keep. There was a lot of pleading going on with these cute baby pets, but in the end the boys thought it was best to leave them in Louisiana because it was their home and they might miss it. Little Baby lizard. He was so fun because he would crawl around everywhere. Clay said it tickled.

Baby turtle. Justin had fun with this little guy. We gave him stay in the blue bucket hotel, equipped with a king size rock, for a few days but then set him free.

Baby toad? frog? I don't quite know. I guess this one can't really be called a baby because technically he would be still swimming with a tail in the water as a little tadpoles as a baby.

I can't forget to talk about the awesome Cable Trolley Cars we took to go to the insectarium. Hayden was in heaven! He couldn't wait to get on this thing and was almost in a trance during the entire ride, watching the tracks, the people getting off and on and thought it was funny that this type of train had to stop on the Red lights just like cars do. Hayden said, "We have to wait our turn, huh Dad? But, if we were on a Train-train then everyone would see those black and white stick things go down and they would have to wait for us to go fast fast by them"!

Justin was quite content sitting with Nathan gazing outside his window at the passing cars.

Louisiana

2010-09-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, we have been back from Louisiana for a bit now and you all are on the edge of your seats trying to figure out just what we did down there. SO my apologies for taking so long!! ;) Louisiana's weather was just perfect for our visit. 90's with only a couple of days with high humidity, which is just fine when you have a pool you can dive into at anytime. And dive is just what the kids did, all day long. Seriously, my boys turn into water bugs whenever they touch H2O. Justin was loving getting in the hot tub, then jumping into Nate's arms in the pool and then getting out, running to the hot tub again to me and do the process all over again.

We taught the boys to dive head first and we were all impressed how quickly they picked up on it. The pro of the family would be Diana. She has a flawless dive in which I was able to capture in the picture above.

Justin was all about playing games. In the pool. Out of the pool. Throwing a ball to others in the pool. And teasing us by touching the water.... look at us.... get a reaction.... then giggle.

Clay is really good at diving down deep into the pool. There was no spot in the entire pool that he couldn't dive for Gold dollar coins that Steve was throwing.

Hayden is just too much fun to watch. His crazy dives and flips had us all dying of laughter. At one point we had the boys jump off the diving board trying to make the letters of the alphabet. Hilarious!! Clayton's side kinked neck for "P" was to die for and Hayden was quite proud that he needed no improvements on his letter "X"!!

Insectarium

2010-09-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

While in Louisiana, Nate's parents took us to the New Orleans Insectarium.The amount of bugs this place had was crazy. Seriously, what are all the adjectives you could come up with to describe a huge selection of insects? Gooey, gross, creepy, dangerous, unique, colorful, sneaky, useful, scary, etc. I thought the bugs that most of these adjectives applied to were the ones to be weary of.

Not only did they have lots of live bugs in cases to view them in their "natural" habitat, they had tons of dead bugs in display cases. Colorful would be the word to describe all these different kinds of insects and the variety was amazing.

I thought the butterflies were gorgeous with all the colors of the rainbow.

One of the funniest parts of the day was when Steve gave Clay and Hayden sample cookies to try. These cookies looked good, nicely browned and soft and smell delicious, there was just one problem, they had bugs in them. Crickets were used in place of the chocolate chips in this cookie's recipe. Clay was timid at first because he is smart and knew something wasn't too right about everyone being so anxious for him to eat a cookie. Hayden had no problem, popped that thing right in his mouth with no complaint. Clay did eat his as well and after being told it had crickets in it all he could say was "I knew it, I knew you were doing something". We took the boys over to the Tasters spot and pointed out the crickets bodies on the cookies. Hayden looked at them and said "Oh yeah, there is a bug" at which he started to scratch the bug off the cookie in his hand. Once the bugs body was off good enough for Hayden he popped another bug cookie right in his mouth!

Wall Art Decor

2010-08-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

I have had this project on my blog as one of my To Do items and now I can check that one off. My good friend Carli and I booked almost a whole day to get these puppies done...totally worth all the snacks, crayons, baby nap times, the word "NO" said to my boys over and over when they asked to paint, or any other obsticle we both handled so we could get our craft on while watching the five kids in total.
But how pretty did these turn out!!! PRETTY DARN PRETTY I say!!

They were a more challenging thing to hang, making sure all boards were even, and straight, but my skills prevailed ;)

I enjoyed making these, but I enjoyed the time spent with a good friend even more, and I think we did really good making these beauties for $16 and some change in total!!

First Grader

2010-08-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

FIRST GRADER COMING THROUGH!!! STEP ASIDE!!!

My Clayton ready for his first day of 1st Grade. And he was ready way to early. The kid actually woke up ten to 6:00 and asked if he could start getting dressed for school. He really needs to enjoy a little bit of morning sleeping or at least allow me to enjoy it and not to ask questions till later on. Back pack? CHECK. Lunch? CHECK. Overly excited smile on face ? CHECK CHECK!!

Neighborhood friends and bus pals!

The day seemed long with Clay not home and my Hayden missed his brother and kept asking "When's Clay coming home?" Clay had tons of fun all day long at school and even said he was the best student for the day. I asked how did he know that and he replied, "Because when we were all in line all the other kids were playing with the walls and pushing each other and my teacher said 'Look at Clayton, look how he is being good' I kept my hands to myself and didn't bug anyone"

For that I say "AWESOME" now for him to work on being that good everyday he goes to school ;)

Justin

2010-08-24T12:21:00.001-07:00

Justin Ron Cottrell

Hayden

2010-08-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hayden Alexander CottrellHayden is the hardest thing ever to take pictures of!! He turns all goofy and does a crazy chesser smile that I end up laughing to hard to hold my camera still. If he is not giving me his pirate face, then it is his tongue hanging out and him saying "BLAHHH"... such a character this one is. I love his big dark brown eyes and his own little smirks he gives often!

Clayton photos

2010-08-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

While Jessa was visiting us she wanted to get her son Ryder's one year pictures taken. I have a membership at JC Penney and took her there so we could get some of her son and my boys. Needless to say it didn't turn out like we wanted, AT ALL! I think the overly dyed blond and scary black underneath hair tech scared all the kids and placed everyone in weird position, that naturally any kid would want to get up from it. After being so frustrated with it all we decided to have our own photo shoot right in my kitchen when we got back home. Both Jessa and I had our cameras and were shooting away at Clayton, Hayden, Justin and Ryder. We pulled out different backgrounds (mostly my fabric, blankets, or towels) to make our own custom wall art, lined the floor with a fake base board, and used the natural light in my kitchen to make these pictures. I hope you like them.

Clayton Nathaniel Cottrell

Clayton thinks he is such a stud. Seriously what 6 year old tries to pose like this!! He cracks me up. He really liked it when Jessa said he looked like he was seventeen. I might be in trouble with this one!

Downtown with Jessa

2010-08-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

There is always something to do in Downtown CHICAGO!! We hit some good spots. Buckingham Fountain

The Adler Planetarium

Took the Chicago Water Taxi to China Town.

Enjoyed the abundance of Architect scenery along the Chicago River.

Pretended to be Astronauts

Cooled off at Crown Fountain

and took some pictures along the Chicago skyline. Such a fun filled day with Jessa lou and little Ryder!

Brookfield Zoo

2010-08-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE zoos!! Jessa and I, along with our crew of boys, arrived at the Brookfield Zoo at 10 AM and didn't leave until after 6PM and mainly because that was their closing time. We were one of the last out of the park!
I was able to get us all in for free by using 2 free tickets from my library, and 2 tickets given to me when I purchased over $15 worth of Coca-Cola products during a promotion at Meijer. How easy is that, by pop and get zoo tickets, NICE!! We also saved a bundle by packing our own lunches, snacks, and drinks. I love that we were able to bring food into the zoo, usually it's not allowed in most zoos, but having that option made us enjoy the day even more by not stressing over what small, totally overpriced food item we would have had to purchase and share.
The only sad part of the day is that we missed the penguins and other sea creatures in the "Living Coast" exhibit that had closed before we got the chance to go in. But Justin loved his new friends he found close by.

The animals here are just amazing!! The zoo has separate exhibits for many animals and you are able to get such a good look at all of them!! "The Great Bear Exhibit" was just that GREAT!

I love Elephants, Justin does too. He makes his own elephant trumpet sound and raised his arm like it's his trunk!! SO CUTE!

MY own little monkey!

The money we did spend on seeing the optional Dolphin Show was SO WORTH IT!! It cost only $4 for adults and $2 for kids. Each trick the dolphins did everyone in our group would say "WHOA AAAHHHH" We had a real treat seeing the dolphins swim right by us over, and over, again, in the underwater viewing location as well.

Another bargain steal I found were these disposable cameras I bought for $1 each in the "Big Tent Sale". We saw the same cameras at another store in the zoo and they wanted $15 for 1!!!! Both Clayton Hayden had such a good time with these that I went back and bought them another, so each boy went through 2 cameras each. I still need to get them developed and I can't wait to see what crazy, unfocused, random pictures they took. Clayton is really into taking pictures lately and has asked for a camera for his birthday, which isn't until December. Although, I have to say he has taken some good pictures of me and Jessa with my camera, so we will see.

The monkey exhibit was huge and the best I have seen.

Such a good spot for everyone to take a photo at.

Another fun thing that Jessa and I did while at the zoo was trying to find random objects that look like letters. We wanted letters that could spell out our last name, and our kids names too. I am sure there were plenty of people thinking we were crazy when we would stop and take a picture of the carousel animals, a park bench, or fence post, but it was so much fun. Even after we left I kept finding letter shapes in objects the whole drive home.These letters were found for my last name C O T T R E L L . I would like to print them out separately and put them in a nice frame with a white matte to bring out all the contrast in each photo.

I really like how J U S T I N 's turned out. They all need to be in a row, but you get the picture.

It was fun going there with Jessa and seeing Ryder and the other boys react to all the animals. Anyone else want to come visit so I have an excuse to go to the zoo again?? FUN FUN FUN

Jessa Lou to Chicago

2010-08-09T20:51:00.001-07:00

Jessa Lou came to Chicago for a whole 10 day visit!! And not only did she bring my adorable nephew Ryder she came bearing gifts from family members for my birthday!! And some gifts for my boys from their Grandma Mindy and Grandpa Ron.
I really enjoyed my birthday. Not so much of the actual day of it because it was filled running errands and going to an important mutual activity for the night, but that whole week. Nate gave me some extra fun money to go play with Jessa and surprised me with a dozen roses when he came home from work on that July 27th. My great taste in everything Mom supplied me with new shirts for the WEEK, with matching shoes and head bands. Jessa, Emily, and my Grandma Barbara with their thoughtful and very useful gifts. My great mother-in-law Diana sent me a new cookbook I can't wait to try "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" and a few days later had shipped a box filled with a blanket I had my eye on for sometime waiting for it to go on clearance, but she must know me to have sent the exact one I was wanting all along with "lunch" money that I was able to use with Jessa to get both Diana and I's favorite chicken chopped salad at Portillo's and a slice of chocolate cake.To be able to party with my sister all week was just a blast. We kept ourselves busy everyday that Jessa was here. Even on days where we didn't have something big scheduled like the Brookfield Zoo (more to come on that later) we filled our days visiting the Volo bog, having our own photo shoot, and the streets of Long Grove.

I made sure that Jessa had a taste of the Chocolate Covered Strawberries made daily at the Long Grove Confectionery store. yummmmy

It is always so good to be with family in person and have outings together. I miss them. I miss daily interactions with all my family, so when we can get together I savor every minute of it. A Big thanks to Trent Jessa's hubby for holding down the fort back home so Jessa could come. He must have missed her because he put in a new tub and did custom tile work for their master bathroom to surprise her with! To Cool Trent. Now you can come to Chicago yourself and do my bathrooms! he he he

Updates

2010-08-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

My Lil Sister is in town!!! Jessa and her son Ryder are staying with us for a whole 10 days, and I have the time jam packed with fun!! More on all our adventures to come but for now a few updates.

Justin is doing much better. The pediatrician at his last appointment said 6 more days of breathing treatments every six hours at first and then every eight hours toward the end on the week and he will be good to go!!! He has tons more energy and is back to my Justin again.

Last Friday Clayton was able to get his cast off!! He was a little nervous about the saw but the nurse showed him that it doesn't cut your skin at all by placing the saw right on her arm and turned it on. Clay thought that was pretty cool and had no problems after that, except for a few suprised faces when a cut went all the way through the cast.

Once the cast was completely off, I watched Clay's face as he tested out his arm and he had the look of complete alarm! He thought it would be exactly the same with no side effects of a cast and I had to explain to him how his arm would be weak and still tender at first but that it will become stronger the more he uses it. After the explanation he was still a bit worried and was glad they had a brace for him to put on for a while. The doctor was very happy with Clay's arm and the amount of strength he actually did have in it. Clay will wear the brace until he is more comfortable with no pain in the arm and he gains more strength and then he is good to go!

Justin's New Accessory

2010-07-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Justin's new accessory is a new nebulizer which will give him breathing treatments.

Justin was not sleeping very well that last couple of nights. Partly this was due to teething because his gums were all swollen and tender, he might be working on some tough molars. But also he had trouble settling down to sleep because he couldn't breathe very well. My initial thought to this was him being congested and needed to be a little more upright to get to sleep and not have such a plugged up nose. That was Saturday night. Sunday morning I could tell he was not himself. He seemed tired, crabby, and not eating to well. I had Nathan stay home with him from church since I had some meetings to attend to and then he was really fine the rest of the day playing around and laughing.

Justin's breathing became alot worse Sunday night. I could tell he was straining too hard and his normal high energy was way low. Justin's belly was moving in and out so much it was like he was tring to push it out and then suck it in hard and repeating the cycle and now he had a fever. I took him to his pediatrician Monday morning and she didn't like the way he was sounding. His oxygen level was low and he had alot of wheezing sounds in his lungs. He had two breathing treatments at the pediatricians office, after which the Dr was glad to see his oxygen levels had risen and the wheezing sounds had decreased. There is no infection in his lungs at this point or else we would be in the hospital getting x-rays and lots more treatment and medication so I am glad not to have to deal with that.

Right now Justin is receiving a breathing treatment with Albuterol every four hours. This does include waking him up throughout the night and making the poor guy put on the mask again and again. He is a really good sport with all of it. He hates the mask each time I put it on, but as we sit there he calms down and can actually laugh at his brothers playing on the floor around him. We will be continuing his treatments until our next appointment Wednesday afternoon. And then we shall see from there, but Justin has to be the cutest little ducky face I have seen around even with his alligator tears. Our little guy is getting extra lovins from everyone at home and I laughed at Hayden's prayer when he asked to "help Justin with his steamy breathy thing". Hope all will be well by Wednesday and Justin will be good to go.

Down Town with Transformers

2010-07-19T13:30:00.001-07:00

Going down town to the city of Chicago is all was an adventure but having TRANSFORMERS 3 being film as well is just too COOL!!! Here are a few of the shots the boys and I took while we were out touring the city and Nate was stuck attending his MBA classes for the day.

The movie had lots of explosions and fire going on everywhere. Most of Michigan Avenue was blocked off, you can even see how they made the pavement look all messed up.

Clay found their army gear and thought they looked pretty cool but probably heavy as he put it.

The use of the bridge was a big focal point for all the spectators to zoom in on and see all the props.

Something that was amazing for us to see was the base jumpers who jumped of the Trump Tower and parachuted down right in front of us and landed on platforms on the Chicago River. Some jumpers had cameras on top of their helmets probably to get lots of different views of the city. There also were two Helicopters hoovering all day over Michigan Ave.
This is Trump Tower behind the boys. It is beautiful and I want to go see inside sometime.

Here is a link to some really cool clip of explosions done that day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laygxZj9FzA&feature=player_embedded

And besides all the Transformer fun we went took our time enjoying the city, visiting the Family Fun center at Millennium Park, meet Nate during his lunch break, found lots of water fun to get wet with and toured the docks around Navy Pier.

Hayden had a ball in all the water. I felt bad Clay couldn't go and enjoy it as much since he still has his cast on and can't get it wet.

Nice pose H!

Clay had fun at taking pictures for part of the day, especially of himself on the giant "bean"

Saturdays are really long when Nate is gone to school all day and doesn't get home till after 6 PM so it was a real treat for all of us to spend as much of the day with him as we could enjoying the beautiful and crazy Chi-town together.

Clay really wanted this picture because he is in the "know" about Chicago Black hawks winning the Stanley Cup and he insisted on having a picture by this window display of the uniforms and probably a major fake of the actual Stanley Cup but still I will agree with Clay a cool picture.

Bobsledding in JULY

2010-07-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

Clayton has become a little bit wiser recently after trying something that to me is CRAZY!!
Here's His story:

Our family was getting our house, beds/bedding, and supplies ready for when we were going to be a host family to 3 boys and 1 older girl from, The Utah Valley Children's Choir, who are on a tour visiting 7 different states across the country giving their concert at Stake Centers. These kids were coming to stay from Saturday night until Monday morning. I had gone through some clothing of Hayden' and Justin's to see what is too little, what Justin can fit into soon, and what might need to go. Clayton got the cleaning bug and wanted to organize his action figure toys and display them all around his room. I told him I just cleared out a box and that we could cut a side open and cover the inside with paper making it a big scenery box to play with his superhero guys. He loved the idea and went upstairs to go get the box. That's is when I heard:

THUMP THUMP THUMP and a Big Bad BANG!!

Instead of just walking down the stairs, or even throwing the cardboard box down he decided to go ahead and get into the box and SLIDE DOWN the stairs!!

This is a picture of half of the stairs he had his wild ride on and his bobsled of choice. The other side of the picture is the big dent in my wall that the top of his head hit creating the BIG BAD BANG sound I heard from the basement. Once the box hit the last step Clayton's body flew forward hitting his head against the wall and he landed on his wrist. And this is how Clayton broke his Radius bone.I could tell Clay was in alot of pain especially when Justin tried to take his ice pack off his hand and really bumped it. I loaded the boys in the car and helped Clay keep his arm still with a pillow to rest on and took him to the immediate care. The doctors there confirmed my thoughts that he did indeed break a bone and put him in a temporary wrap and sling and we told to have Clayton's arm casted in 2 days.

Clayton had his wild ride on Thursday and we were able to get it casted on Saturday. He picked the color red for the cast. The doctor told me that the bones were not out of place at all but right at the break the bottom bone was sitting higher than the other so he formed the cast to apply pressure on the bottom bone to realign it again. The doctor told Clay "If your dad asks you, why is your cast crooked say, 'Crooked cast...straight arm'" The cast only has to be on for three weeks and Clayton should have any problems after that with his arm being able to function normally.

Clay is sad he can't go to the water park for awhile, and his already wants the cast off but knows that it will help him heal. I informed Clayton that he needed to wait for some snow and a hill and then I will provide all the cardboard boxes he could want to go sledding with the RIGHT WAY, with not wall at the end of his course!!

The First and probably not Last Cast of the Cottrell Boys!!

Local Fun!

2010-06-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

We have been able to go see some fun things by "Checking Out" passes to different museums and parks from our library. These are a few of our stops:

CUNEO MUSEUMS AND GARDENS

Construction on this beautiful mansion started in 1908, then stopped during WWI and was completed in 1918. There is alot of history here and houses the Cuneo family collection of fine antiques, paintings by world famous artists, tapestries, sculptures, silver, and porcelain.

The gardens were very colorful. They hold many receptions and weddings and summer concerts here as well.

Clayton thought the angel babies in the paintings on the ceiling were funny because they were chubby naked little babies with wings he said. They had alot of statues around the grounds.

Clayton also really liked the fine dishes and wanted a golden spoon to eat with. Don't we all!

Clay wanted me to take a picture of these flowers because they were his favorite and reminded him of peppermints.

THE LAKE COUNTY DISCOVERY MUSEUM

This is another museum we have been able to see thanks to our library who has passes we can "Check out" and go for free!

They have a whole children's department where there is lots of hands on fun.

I have mentioned before how much Hayden loves Paul Bunyan, so this was so fun for him!
The Museum had a special exhibit celebrating:

Golden Legacy: Original Art for 65 Years of Golden Books

These are two of my favorite pictures on display. I love all the Golden Books and seeing all the beautiful art and the books everywhere really made my memory go back in time to when I read each book, what room I was in, and flashes of reorganizing the old and now absent due to remodeling hall book closet we had growing up.

These were so amazing to look at. Each piece was hand carved and put together by a Charles Warner, who designed and constructed the folk art cathedrals which resembled ones he remembered from his childhood in Europe.

SPRAY PARK

This is a free spray park that the kids love to go to. Outside the spray park is a really nice slide and swing area and a outside stage area that kids can act out their own performances. We usually go with a group of friends, pack a lunch and get wet.

Fun in the Hot, Hot Sun!!

2010-06-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had so much visiting Gr & Gr Cottrell's house in Louisiana, and one of funniest things was playing in their pool for hours and hours. Clay really took to the water and was diving like crazy and swimming really well. He had alot of fun diving for money with Grandpa C. He would do a big jump off the diving board feet first, turn completely around in the water, retrieve the quarter and then swim up to the surface using his own mermaid like technique. he amazed us all at how long he could stay under water and how deep he could go.

Sitting on the side to get his breath before going at it again.
Justin is fueling up with pizza, watermelon, and cold drinks. Perfect outside pool food.

Justin enjoyed the water as well in his floatation device, but other than that he loved walking around the pool everywhere and watching his brothers jumping and diving like crazy.

These are some of Justin's funny faces he pulled every time he watched either Clay or Hayden jump in!! It was like he thought they were going to crash hard because he squinted, and reacted so big at each jump and laughed when he saw them come up out of the water.

Justin is saying Jump Again!! A diving board in so versatile! We played How far can you Jump games!

You would think the boys would tire after being thrown in so many times by their dad, but this was always the face that came up along with tons of giggles.

Fun, Fun, Fun in the Hot, Hot, Sun!!!!

Teasing Mr. Alligator, You can't catch me!

2010-06-15T19:02:00.001-07:00

Swamp Tour = Chance to feed Huge Gators right next to you...... a complete tour of the area with background spook stories from Captain Chris, our guide...... catch fish and see them jump at the top of the water ...... throw marshmallows at friendly crows that had a whole technique to not get eaten by the alligators when retrieving the marshmallow ...... hold a cute little Alli...... having it so hot that my M&Ms did in fact melt......see tons of smiles and hear "Whoa, that's so cool!" from our whole party!! Here comes the big one da da .......... da da ...... da da ......

Do you see the size of this thing? Yes, that stick is connected to Captain Chris who is just off our boat that he docked to be able to HAND FEED this beast!! There is no zoom on this thing he was SO close and SO big I couldn't even fit him all in a single picture.The boys were so excited to go, and were told to hurry and eat their treats Grandpa bought them (not a problem for Hayden who ate his before it was even completely purchased) before they melted. I thought I would be good with my candy coated M&Ms that I had to share with Justin. Umm not so much, especially in Hot Louisiana Heat. I'm lucky I didn't get them all over my pants or something.

Here is a mamma Raccoon of six babies called Rocky, who Captain Chris would put a marshmallow in his mouth and she would come and take it from him standing on two legs with both of her hands. This shack is made out of Cypress Trees that are naturally resistant to insects, decay, or shrinking. Cypress tree growth rings grow really close together, which makes the wood very dense. We were told Cypress tress were used all over the place back in the day and are still holding strong. Because it lasts so long and preserves it self even when it is submerged under water, it has been know to be called "Nature's Eternal Wood"

Here's our unbelievable hosts and guides for the down south country... Grandma and Grandpa Cottrell. We loved every minute of it! Thank You!

These are the hand held sticks equipped with a piece of chicken we were able to use to lure the alligators into jumping out of the water for us. Which they did with ease every time.

This is Justin getting mad at me after I had to take his hand away from squeezing our little Alli to hard. Captain Chris showed us the proper way of holding a alligator and well Justin was just not up to par. He went to Dad and who made Justin all better!

See good techniques. One hand under the belly held loosely, and the other around the tail held tighter. Good Job boys!! Captain Chris related the little Alli to a horse that has to get used to each rider who comes along, and can tell when a greeny is on top. Same goes with little Alli, they can tell if a crazy little Justin is trying to crush them, so holding her the same way each time is really important.

Just a Big Fake. But still cool enough, and real looking enough to go take our picture by.

We saw so many more neat things and Captain Chris was full of information and pictures to go along with his stories so he was legit. A couple of crazy pictures were: 1. A 25 foot alligator who had to be killed which our Captain was a little sad about. He thought they should have just caught him and put him in the zoo somewhere. 2. Picture of a Alligator dead with side of belly cut open and you could see and entire form and a human body which was said to be a very unlucky golfer. 3. A map showing the areas of land that was covered by water in Louisiana after Katrina and how high the water levels were.

I would be ready to go again at anytime, but next time I think I will get something like skittles to share with the boys instead of M&Ms. Whew that Louisiana can be a hot one!! Nothing that a good snowball treat can't fix, Right Gr& Gr Cottrell!!

Up and Over

2010-06-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Our Louisiana Trip for the Summer

This is our route to get us down south into the state of Louisiana, where Nate's parents recently moved to. We did the whole 15 hour drive in one shot getting there, but took two days on the way back stopping half way and relaxing at a hotel equipped with a pool for me and the kids, and a desk for Nate to study at for his final that next Saturday.

Our trip was traveling all day Sunday, enjoying every moment with Grandma and Grandpa Cottrell (especially their pool with diving board), and heading back Thursday with a Hotel night stay at the Pear Tree Inn in Missouri and arriving back safely home Friday night with time for Nate to do some additional studying.

Total miles traveled: 966 (each way)
States travelled though: Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana

Our destination was to Desterhan LA to Grandmas house!!

One of the neatest things on our trip down and back was the HUGE BRIDGE that we crossed to get over the great Mississippi River.

Heading up... getting closer...

The view from within the bridge.

How do they build things like this!

The car was oddly silently as the boys just stared outside while going through the bridge and once across both just screamed AWESOME... that was SO COOL!!

The boys were great travelers. We played trivia games, Animal guessing game, workbooks, drawing and of course we have a DVD player in the car and the Nintendo DS with the ever awesome Mario Bros and 40 other games thanks to my Dad and the game card he got for us.

I think I am done with the show Paul Bunyan for a while though, Hayden loves that Disney Movie that has short stories of Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Casey Jones. I think the boys watched that DVD over four times!

I was the designated crawler to the back seat to help kiddos with what ever they needed, and the conversation started between me and Nate. I sure he could attest to anyone that he is done playing the "What if" game of life with me right now. I think he had his fill when he replied "LF
(a nickname he has given me, short for Lacey Fay) just let me get done with school and then we will see what we can do about all you grand plans and wishful thinking"

I laughed at that and continued on crocheting and changed subjects to what he wanted to have for lunch. Men are always easier to deal with when food is in their belly! he he

Such a fun trip, which I will post more about soon!

Chicago Botanical Gardens!!

2010-06-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Being outdoors is always uplifting, but being surrounded by beautiful gardens and my family is that much better. The flowers are all bloomed in a variety of colors at the Botanical Gardens. Our plan for the day was to meet Nate for lunch, which doesn't happen too often just because his office building is about an hour and ten minute drive to get to, but it happens to be less then 5 minutes away from the Botanical Gardens. Nate was really busy at work preparing for some big meetings and for when he took some time off so Nate was coming just to lunch and then we would drop him back off at work, but he surprised me and got alot of his work done and took a half day so he could come with the family to the gardens. Awesome! The boys, and me were giddy!

Trying to get someone's attention. Did Justin not get the memo that every outing is a photo op?? He should be used to this by now.

These two are seriously best friends!

No peeps, you are not getting that perfect pic right now!!

There were alot of water fountains and little touch and play areas that the kids liked. Justin especially.

So many flowers!!

The boys found some big fish swimming about.