Farmer JC

 Jason has always loved animals and other critters. I don't think I knew that when we got married, but I realized that soon after. For example, our first Christmas together (one month after our wedding) he gave me 2 fish and 2 frogs. Live ones. Not toy ones. Luckily we had a little fish bowl we could use until we borrowed my parents big aquarium shortly after.

Well, those fish and frogs were the beginning of what I'm only assuming can be called a lifetime of pet ownership. No more easy, spontaneous, worry-free vacationing for us. (Fortunately we have awesome neighbors, so we can go on vacation here and there!)

In the 9 years we've been married, we've had quite the pet collection. (Fortunately not all at the same time.) We started with our fish and frogs. After they died we were pet free for a short time since we were renting an apartment where pets had to be approved. Jason just had to get pets, so we asked for permission and unfortunately it was approved because we were good tenants. I was thinking one small hamster, since that was what Jason was wanting... we ended up with 3 ferrets. Yes, I said 3. Crazy? Also a yes. Kit, Fran and Shells. They were actually a lot of fun though. Like permanent kittens. Everybody loves kittens! It's what they always turn into that nobody likes! Even though ferrets were a hoot and I honestly can say I enjoyed having them, they were a bit of work to keep their area clean. When Sam started crawling I decided it was best to not have large germ-bombs crawling across the same carpet as him. So we sold them. And since being pet-free doesn't last long, we got a bird. And named him Toby. Very pretty bird. But also very loud. We got tired of that fast. And sold him right before we moved to our first home in Springville.

Ahh, at last, again we were pet free! But now we were in our own home. And we didn't need to get any sort of approval. Jason could not contain his excitement for this new freedom. Oh, wait. I put a damper on many of his dreams.... including his dream of "let's get a dog RIGHT now!"

Then came his birthday. And a serious lack of birthday gift ideas. I got desperate, and that's how we ended up with Maggie.



We've had Maggie longer than we've had 3 of our 4 kids. She's part of the family I guess.

In the meantime we've had a couple of cats, Cowboy and Archie, too many bunnies to count, starting with Berdie and Benji. And now our latest collection due to Iceberg and Fergie. Here are a few of their offspring.






They are so fluffy! I always think of the cute little girl on Despicable Me, and how she says fluffy.

Now, living in a more rurally-type of area, I worry about small rodents again, so I insisted on getting kittens again. I fell in love with these two little sisters immediately. (Ok ok, maybe I'm not much better than Jason...)



This is Dixie (left) and Pixie (right) before Dixie went through a traumatic experience. She got lost while we were out of town, we found her hanging out with the strays across the street, so we trapped her in a raccoon trap and returned her to our yard. She now lives here again, but we've only been able to touch her shortly after trapping her. I'm determined to hold her again though. At least she is ok with her sister again and they still play together.
Here you can see them sitting together in the doorway of the dog house.



Sorry it's so far, Dixie only lets us get so close these days...
And any ideas of what to do with this lovely area? The blue tarp is covering our pizza oven, so we won't be using it as a dog run like it was before we came. (We're open to fabulous design ideas.)

Jason has been talking about getting chickens, goats, horses, pigs, cows... you name it, he's thought about it. Well, because my role in life is to keep him in check, you can about guess that I'm not as eager as he is to have a mini farm.

But....

Then our next door neighbors moved and didn't want to deal with moving their chickens and coop. So they gave them to us. So, yes, we now have chickens. We started with 7, but now we have 6. The next animal on the list is the reason we are down one chicken.





Speaking of our neighbors moving, now that their trailers are gone, check out our view of Utah Lake.




Which brings us to our final addition. Jason's boss was taking care of his father-in-law's horses, and needed a new place for them. Obviously Jason offered our back yard. So basically we are horse-sitting. And if the weather would lighten up we might actually try going on rides!

Meet Gracey and Smokey.

 So there you have it. That's our pet history and the story of why it may appear we are trying to be farmers. 17 animals are depending on us to take care of them.

Plus these 2 little monkeys:

 

Yes, I have my hands full. And my heart. :)

Little conversations

 A conversation from yesterday:

Me: Sam, did you make your bed?
Sam: Yes! You should take a picture of it and put it online.
Jason: Why should we put it online?
Sam: So people can look online at it when they want to see how to make a bed nice.

So, Sam, here it is... it's online. Now all can see how to make a bed just right.





The only word Livia has ever written is her name. She likes to practice writing letters on the white board, but has never really written a word before.
A conversation from today:

Liv: I'm writing words!
Me: Good job! What did you write?
Liv: What does S-I-N spell?

So this is her first non-name word.

Should we be worried?

Chop chop. Again?!

A few days ago Livia came home from playing at her friend's house. When I first saw her, I thought her hair looked funny, like maybe she had been wearing a hat that matted down her hair. About 15 minutes later, I looked closer and to my shock, it wasn't matted. It was gone! 

Apparently she hasn't learned to say no to others with scissors.

You may recall a similar instance a few years ago, when Sam cut her hair.

So, now I find myself wondering yet again, What do I do with her hair? 

The very short area in the front goes back too far to be "bangs" and I worry it will strongly resemble a mullet, which honestly, no child should have to endure. The friend cut off a few inches of her longest section, but that's just the back, she actually did surprisingly well and making it all relatively one length, which actually impressed me! Fortunately with her curly hair, the chops off the back are easily hidden.

Headbands will be her best friend for a long time I think.

Pinterest, I need you now.

Trick or Treat

I'm not a fan of carving pumpkins, but we've skipped out on it the last couple of years, so we carved pumpkins with our good friends, the Johnsons, so that we would be motivated to actually do it this year! Anything is more fun with friends. Especially friends like the Johnsons! 

Sam at his school costume parade.

Getting ready to go to the neighborhood Chili cook off and Trunk or Treat.

Max the Moo Cow

Annie the Hershey Kiss

Livi the Rainbow Butterfly

Sam the Black Bat

Yes, they were the same things last year. But that was their choice!!

On Saturday, Jason and I were invited to participate in a Murder Mystery Masquerade. It was a lot of fun! Jason's character was Mike Robes, a paranoid, but genius, bioterrorism researcher. My character was Roxie Rich, an outspoken, judgmental heiress. (Hence the feather boa. That just seems like something an heiress would wear.)

Sorry we didn't take a picture with our masks on. We'll have to get the pictures from the hostess. Our babysitter snapped this picture right before I piled my puffy dress into the driver seat and took her home. I almost didn't fit! Ha ha. (Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law Ashlee for letting me borrow her beautiful dress. I really felt pretty and fancy!)

Happy Halloween!

Pizza. Pizza. To the Max.

 Jason has been wanting a pizza oven for a long time. He bought a book on earth ovens and all. And studied it until he knew exactly how to make an outdoor oven. 

On Friday, we finally tasted the fruits (or pepperonis) of his labor. (I helped too with the mudding part. But he did about 90% of it.)

And if you're wondering.... Yes!! It was delicious!!

And because this little guy is such a heart-warmer, here he is at 8 months. :)

Did you think I died?

Let me start off with saying I have missed blogging. A mix between a lot going on, a few months of computer problems and just plain laziness got me out of the habit of posting. And it makes me sad. I love that my blog is my family's journal. And I'm hoping to get back into the habit of updating. :)

Since it has been basically a year and a half, I'll just give you a quick top ten of a few highlights in our little Cook world.

#10.  I swore I would never do this. But I did. I participated in Karaoke! But it came with a price. From Jason. :)  In June 2012 we went on a cruise with a couple of Jason's sisters and their husbands and my in-laws. One of his sisters really wanted to do karaoke. Jason told me he would pay me $300 if I did a song. We both laughed at that because we both know me. But then, I thought it would be nice to spend $300 on myself guilt-free. So I did it.

It was the most HUMILIATING five minutes of my life! But he paid up!

#9. This past summer my whole side of the family went to the farm where I grew up to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We took family pictures. Wow. That's hard. Kids do not make that task a pleasant activity! Especially 16 of them!

#8. In 2012 we went on several vacations. (We got lucky and all of them for one reason or another did not require a lot coming out of our checking account.) Those are the best vacations!

I realized as I was making the yearly Riskedahl Family Scrapbook pages that we ended up at each end of the country, not including Hawaii and Alaska. :) We went east to New York City, where I got to see my bestie Serena and her hubby. Then south, where we sailed from Florida to go on a cruise with some of Jason's family. We stayed central in Utah for the Cook Family Reunion. Next we went north as we visited my parents in North Dakota. And finally west when we flew to San Diego for a couple of days to celebrate our 8th anniversary.

#7. Not many people get the chance to move while they are pregnant. Well, I did. Twice. In one pregnancy! We had been wanting to sell our home in Springville for a while, but with the market it was not happening. So we decided to do the renting thing. So we moved out in August and into a rental home in Eagle Mountain when I was three months pregnant. We planned on staying there for almost a year and hoped to buy another home in the spring. Well, I guess we got anxious... and started looking in November. And found what we were looking for. Fortunately I didn't unpack half of our boxes yet! So five months after moving in, we moved out! This time I was 38 weeks pregnant. (That's 2 weeks before the due date!) At least I didn't have to do much lifting!

We moved to another neighborhood in the Ranches of Eagle Mountain. From the very beginning I felt like this is where we are supposed to be. I LOVE my neighbors. They are exactly what I prayed for! I feel like we have been here much longer than 8 1/2 months already. I feel so blessed. 

#6. That leads us to Jason. Jason (for some crazy reason) enjoys yard work. So much that he wants to do a lot of it. Often. Well, now we have 1.8 acres of yard work for him to do. This home was empty for more than a year and a half. Two summers of the lawn not being watered = a very unattractive lawn. AKA weed central. Wow. I can't even tell you how many weeds we have removed. Jason has done SO MUCH work this past summer. Look!

Before and after pictures:

 The gloom of the before and the sunniness of the after reminds me of those commercials for products that "make your life so much easier" just by using that product. Frustration and pain is replaced by smiles and satisfaction....

His latest project, an outdoor pizza oven.  Now if it would quit raining for a few days maybe we could actually enjoy it!!

He's almost done with it.

#5. As for me, I've been keeping busy. (4 kids will do that to you whether you like it or not.) One thing that has attracted my attention is doTERRA essential oils. 

Last year I mentioned to a friend of mine that it takes me a couple of hours every night to fall asleep. She told me I had to try Lavender oil. I admit I scoffed at the thought. After all, I'm not a hippie. But since she was my friend I said I'd try it. Well, I was right. It did nothing. And I thought about how right I was for about two hours as I laid awake in bed that night. At least it smelled good though. So when she called to ask if it helped, and I said it didn't, she was surprised. I told her my mind just doesn't shut down at night and I have accepted that. She then said that I needed Serenity, not Lavender. My non-hippie mind just gave a courteous smile, and because I can't say no, I said I would try it. HOLY MOLY!! I hadn't slept that good in YEARS!! I'm not kidding! I had no desire to think about all that I had going on that weekend. I just... went to sleep. I used it for a few nights, and now I rarely use it to help me sleep because I rarely have that much trouble sleeping. It's like it reset my sleeping skills. And I love it. 

I've decided to get into doTERRA and learn all I can about it because it helps people. It changes lives! I've heard so many amazing stories of people who have been cured and healed and all that fabulous stuff! And I love helping people! I want the whole world to know that there is a natural God-given way to help us be healthy in our bodies, our minds, our spirits, our entire being!

Sorry, I'm still amazed and excited about the awesomeness of these oils!!

#4. Sam. He prefers Ham these days. Please don't ask me why. I have no idea. As a child I tried more than once to change my name. It didn't fly with the adults in my life. So you want Ham? Ham it is. Even the principal at his school knows he is Ham. (His friend a few houses down, named Sam, mentioned that to him, Ham wasn't sent to the principal's office or anything.) Ham is an awesome student, a fabulous reader, a great friend and a wonderful brother. I'm so blessed to be the mother of Ham. :)

Because of moving so much, he has started school each year in a different school. Poor kid. Now he has all these t-shirts with schools he no longer attends...  Oddly enough, next year it will be the same thing since they are building a new school 1.5 miles away from our house. Which is much closer than the 5.5 miles we have to go to get to his current school. 

#3. This little freckle faced cutie just turned 5. Livia missed the school deadline by a few weeks, so she won't start kindergarten until next year. That's ok, she still seems so little. 

She's my little tomboy. But lately she's been into My Little Pony, which is pretty girly. But her favorite is Rainbow Dash, which is the tomboy of the group. ;)

But she can write her name like nobody's business. It's cute that the 'a' looks more like a 'Q' anyway.

I just wish she wouldn't feel the need to write it on everything.

#2. Annalee is our little sassy ray of sunshine. Beware when those clouds come in. But they leave as quickly as they come. It's actually quite amusing. She loves to make people laugh. She's really good at it too. She's my little performer. She'll walk up to anyone and smile at them til they smile at her. Just writing this makes me smile. :)

Annie also helped me discover my breaking point. She loves binkies and was sad to see hers go around last Christmas. Unfortunately for all of us, after we took it away, we moved. Then replaced her as the baby. Then kicked her out of the crib. The bad timing was mostly out of my control and she did not appreciate her world crashing down like that within the matter of a couple of months. She couldn't bear to see a binky in her baby brother's mouth. She just had to have it in hers. Being de-throned off the baby pedestal needs to be handled a little more delicately... and we fought the binky battle. We fought it long. We fought it hard.We fought it for 6 months. (SIX MONTHS PEOPLE!!) Lots of tears were shed, small child and adult alike. But we battled on. Until the moment we had traveled about 30 hours within two weeks. We were 4 hours from home still. The wailing and gnashing of teeth began again. And this my friend, is the moment I found my breaking point. 30 hours. That's all I had in me. My head dropped, my eyes closed in shame as I felt my defeat from one small child. I handed her one of Max's binkies. And the gray skies opened and the sun appeared and relief swept through the car. As did silence. And the binkie remains. In her mouth. And sometimes in Max's mouth. Her ideal situation involves her having three binkies. One in her mouth (sometimes two) and one in each hand. And Max can have one if there is a fourth one available. She swaps them around as if they are each a different flavor. (Maybe they are, who knows what she does with them.) And I have succumbed to the knowledge that her binkies will remain with her as long as one remains with Max. Oh, well. I don't want to confirm my breaking point time table.

#1.  Mr. Max, Max, Mr. Mighty Max. (as sung to Mr. Golden Sun) This little guy brings so much joy to my life. You want a smile? You get a smile. His squishy cheeks, his big blue eyes, his belly laugh. I just want to eat him up! 

My friend, Sabrina took his newborn pictures. I can't help but smile when I look at them.

 

He looks away smiling as if he's shy when people smile at him. He reminds me of Bashful.

Maybe that's who he should be for Halloween.

He warms my heart. Then makes it smile. :)

Summary: I am so blessed. I have four healthy beautiful children, a loving (and pretty dang hot) husband, a beautiful home, a big inviting yard, neighbors who help me feel like I belong, and a testimony that my Savior knows me and loves me. I see His love every day through the faces of my little family.