Why I love being a NoDak....

Top 10 reasons my trip to North Dakota was Awesome:

10. I learned I could fit this much stuff in my trunk.

9. Caramel rolls for breakfast almost every morning.
Yes, yes... delish.

8. I'm always reminded of just how fabulous my little town of Tuttle is. There's no other place like it in the world. Welcome to the town grocery store:

7. Just look at that beautiful sunset.

6. I got to spend many hours driving with Serena to get there.
She's just so great. :)

5. That's where most of my extended family lives.
(My Aunts Donna and Jo and my cousins Lacey and Josh helped watch the kids while we were in the temple. And my Grandma Gietzen is just as sweet as can be.)

4. Spending time with Papa and Nana (aka my parents)

3. Getting to be with my parents and all my sisters and their whole families for a couple of days. Super awesome.

2. Being reminded how lucky I am to have 2 sweet adorable kids and 1 hubba-bubba smokin' hottie of a husband... ;)

1. Getting to be in the temple with Jason and the rest of my family as we did the temple work for my dear Grandma Riskedahl and all her siblings and their spouses. And to top it all off, I was there as I watched my father be sealed to his parents.
What a special day it was.... We did all that temple work as a family, my nephew Braden got baptized, my nephew Andrew (named after my late brother) was blessed and it was my mom's 57th birthday. She called it her best birthday EVER!

July 31, 2010 will be a hard day to top!

If you are interested in seeing all of the pictures from my trip check out my Facebook album, Nodak trip 2010.

one way my life improved

The hardest part of my day is deciding what to make for dinner.

A month or so ago my neighbor told me she was planning on making a monthly menu. At first I thought she was crazy... then I realized she was brilliant.

So I took her idea, tweaked it to make it my own (aka cheaper) and voila.... I now have a monthly menu.


I took my magnet board, spray glued on a neutral paper and printed off a calender on a piece of clear vellum. Then I made a magnet for each month of the year and the numbers 1-31. Now I can arrange the magnets for each new month.

Then I made a list of all the meals I make. (With some blank ones for those I didn't remember or the ones I haven't discovered yet.) I color coordinated them so I can easily pick out the different meals. (yellow=chicken, pink=beef, purple=crock pot, blue=everything else) These I keep on the back side of the board.


All I had to buy (since I already had almost everything I used) was the magnet strips. Which I got for 50% off at Roberts and Michaels. :)

Each week I sit down and figure out what I plan to eat that week, so I still only plan a week at a time instead of a month. (That would be crazy.) This way, I can show Jason the board and he can pick out a few meals he'd like to see that week.

And that's why my life has improved.

lil liv

Livia is little. Like for her age, she is at the smaller end.

And this kid has way too much personality jammed into this little body.

She cracks me up.


This would be her I'm-pretending-to-be-mad-at-you face:
She can only hold it for a few seconds, but she can do it repeatedly for quite a while.

What a kid.

Badger Creekin' It Up!

Warning: this will be long. (To see all photos check out my Facebook page.)

This past week we went up to Idaho for the Cook Family Bi-Annual Reunion. Four years ago we went to a place called Badger Creek. It is an outdoor learning camp type thing associated with BYU-I. Everyone had such fond memories from it, so we were fortunate enough to get to go again! (Thanks Mom and Dad and Travis and Ashlee!!)


Monday: We went up to Idaho Falls to spend a couple of days with Jason's brother, Troy and his wife Renee. On Monday night Livia was having very labored breathing and we were really worried, so we took her to the ER at about midnight. She had croup again, so they gave her a treatment and some steroids (she's pretty buff now) and sent us home after they held us hostage for an additional 45 minutes. (Why do ERs try to make your visit as horrible as possible? Like we go there if we don't have to....)

Tuesday: We went to Rigby Lake... and it blew us away. Literally. I haven't seen wind like that for a while! But we still had fun!

Wednesday: We arrived at lunchtime at Badger Creek. We picked our cabin and started in on the fun....

Climbing Tower/Zip Line: We climbed the wall in order to get to the top of the zip line.

Livia was a valuable member of the belay team for Renee.


Here I am just over the half-way mark. Let me tell you... I am not a rock climber! That was scary! I was shaking so bad by the time I got to the top that I didn't know if I would be able to climb over the top! But I did, and the zip line was a blast!

This is Jason hanging upside down from the zip line. I guess that's a no-no.


Thursday:

Power Pole: I can't seem to get the video to work of Jason climbing it. It's a scary long pole with handles that you climb, then stand on top of and jump. (I know it sounds crazy... it pretty much is!) I didn't end up doing it because right when I was about to get harnessed up another group came so we needed to leave. By the time we returned I was super tired, so I didn't feel up to it. Plus, it's scary.


Giant Swing: You get pulled up to an incredible height, and you let go of your rope and another rope swings you. It's just awesome.


Black Powder Rifles: I forgot my camera when we went up to the cabin for this, so sorry. But we made the balls and learned how to load and shoot Black Powder Rifles. One of the counselors made a large target with each circle labeled. I hit the outer circle (entitled Weak Sauce) but hey, at least I hit the target somewhere!

We ended the evening with a testimony meeting. It was so neat to hear each of the nieces and nephews over eight share their testimony. I am so lucky to have such a great in-law family!

Friday:

We ate breakfast then got everything cleaned up to prepare to go home. Here a few shots of our cabin.



We did a couple more activities Friday morning.

Spider Web: Everyone starts on one side. Without touching the ropes, each person must cross to the other side. You can only use each hole once. Since many of the holes are high and small, we needed to lift people across without touching the ropes. We got everyone across, and pretty much used every hole that a human, big or small, could fit through!
Here's Shelly.


Prison Wall: Without the use of ropes, we each needed to get up and over this wall. Jason was lifted up first and he pulled himself over. Then he helped pull up the rest. Only 2 adults were allowed to help at the top. I realized that as I was about to go up... with 2 women being the ones to pull me up. (Luckily Allyson and Renee are strong!) But it was still super awkward and honestly I'm sure it was hilarious for those watching. But we made it! To end it, Scott (who is super tall) jumped and Terrell and Jared each caught a hand and pulled him up.

Dirt: Sam's ultimate favorite.

All done and ready to get going....



The whole big group. This is everyone except for Taylor (who had to work.) This is 48 people... and we all survived!

Annie is the reason Sam survived! I wanted to pack her up and take her home. Sam loved her so much! She's just awesome! And we love her.
These were the three counselors who took such great care of us! They are all awesome! (Annie, Brent, Kyle)

This was Sam before we left the parking lot to leave. I think he enjoyed himself...

And someone snatched Daddy's hat....

Here is the giant swing:




This is my niece Rachel... she loves to sing! The counselors were doing a little performance and she asked them to sing the Daddy song... Here is the second half. What a ham!

camping top fives

5 reasons I may find it in my heart to camp again some day:

5. It allows the family to escape the craziness of city life.

4. It's the only time I get to eat foil dinners. Yum.

3. Jason worries about cooking the food... I don't.

2. Snacks, snacks, snacks. (S'mores make everything worth it.)

1. I don't have to fight with the kids... I just let them be dirty.

And now for the more realistic top 5... Why I won't go camping again any time soon.
(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I wasn't excited enough about life at this point to capture the memories.)
5. Jason sarcastically turns into a tree-hugger.

4. Rain... leads to mud.
3. Laundry doubles because of one night of "fun."
2. I have yet to sleep more than an hour in the entire night when sleeping in a tent with my children.
1. Mother Nature laughs in my face every time I try to spend time with her.

Well, Mother Nature.... you win.

happy belated 4th

Happy 4th from our little firecrackers!

family perception

Yesterday in Primary Sam created a family picture.

I don't know about you, but I think I did pretty good for myself.

I'm a little exploring-librarian-ish.... but to get a man THAT suave and debonair.... wow. Good job me! And then to produce a completely green Diego-look-alike.... the brilliance continues. :)

Well, to be completely honest, I think Sam has a good idea of what his dad is. Jason IS suave and debonair, he is tall and gorgeous, he is charismatic and charming. But he is also kind and gentle, he is loving and patient, he is smart and hardworking, he is fatherly and husbandly! HE IS THE MAN OF MY DREAMS.... and my dreams came true.

(I mean that literally, a dream I had over six years ago had a big part in our history.)

And then.... 6 years ago today.... I saw him again. And after I got over the embarrassment of why-did-he-never-call-me-again thoughts, and he got over the why-did-I-never-call-her-again thoughts, he asked me what I was doing at 5:30 and if I liked Cafe Rio because he wanted to take me there.
(aaaahhhh, and the heart starts to sigh.)

And he did. And it was the best first date I ever had! (And the only one where the guy joked about eloping..... but was it really a joke?)

Basically, what I am saying is that I am one lucky girl.

And Jason, thank you for finally 'calling me back' that day when I saw you at the MTC, because it changed my life... and made it so much better than I ever thought possible.

Happy First Date Anniversary, Jason. I love you.
You make my heart smile.

bunny prayers

Last Thursday we found an empty rabbit cage. A dog had ripped a few holes in it allowing Berdi and Benji to escape. We looked and looked. Then we helped Sam say a prayer. Within moments we went to the spot where the black one was hiding. (and it wasn't that close to the house either.) Then a short while later we found the other one.

It was a good opportunity to teach Sam about the importance of faith and prayer and that God will always answer our prayers. But I think I learned more from it than he did! Some day I hope to have the faith of a little child again!

For a more complete story, check out Sam's blog.

Sam's 4th birthday party

Sorry this is so late in coming! For a more complete post of his party, check out Sam's blog.

We started out the day giving him a few presents from us. Here Jason is trying to help him ride his new bike.
We invited several friends over for a superhero party. My mom helped me sew 20 little capes for party favors. (Thanks Mom!!) Here I am explaining to them that there are lots of bad guys in the back yard that they need to find and capture them. (They were 100 army guys that I had thrown all over. The green ones had some hardcore camouflage in that grass, so they really had to work for those!)



Even Livia had fun and kept her cape on all day.

Then they had to slay the dragon to get the treats inside.

Sam got lots of cool stuff from his friends! Thanks everyone!

To see all the pictures from the day check out my Facebook album.

Happy Birthday Sam!!