Thanksgiving #1 with the Cook Family

This year, we get to have Thanksgiving twice. We had a Cook Family Thanksgiving yesterday in West Jordan. It was fun. The kids always have so much fun with their cousins. We left Saturday evening to head out to Salt Lake. We stayed at Lisa and Wayne's house. Everyone stayed up way too late! But it was too fun visiting to get to bed any earlier.


Sunday is when we had our Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws house. Kristen and Terry came and brought their girls. I was so glad to see them, since we had not seen Crystal and Sadie for a couple of years. The only ones missing were Dan and Wendy and their four kids. Sometimes Oregon is too far away!

There are alot of pictures....and I didn't even put them all on here!

Cook Cousins

Grandpa Cook

Grandma Cook, Crystal and Sadie

Aunt Kristie

Sadie and Makayla

The Boys

Preston, Logan and Spencer

Dinner was great. Makayla's birthday is on the 29th of November and Lisa's is on the 23rd, so we celebrated their birthday's a little bit too.

Now we get to do it all over again with the Burdick Family on Thursday.

MVP

It seems like lately all of my blog posts have been about Spencer. This one is too. Last week the Football League held an awards night to wrap up the season. Each team votes on an MVP for their team. Spencer received the MVP for his team. Usually a lineman doesn't get the MVP, so he was especially surprised. The coach had told me about it a few weeks before, so his Grandpa Pete, Grandma Sherrie and Grandma Cook were all able to attend. He thought it was a little strange that all three of them just happened to show up at our house and decided to go with us to the awards night. But he didn't even suspect the reason why. When they announced his name he was completely surprised. I loved it.
Here are some pictures from that night:

Spence and Coach Hanks

Football Buddies

Spencer, Dylan, Caleb, Louis

Also worth mentioning, in fact more importantly, Spencer got ordained to be a Teacher in church Sunday. His Grandpa and Grandma Cook and Aunt Kristie were able to be here for that. Now Logan and Spencer will both be in the Teachers Quorum together until May when Logan becomes a Priest.

FOOTBALL

Football!! It is our life around here every fall. This year Logan started out on the UHS Sophomore team, but went to the JV team when the Sophomore team dwindled because of kids with bad grades.
Spencer played in the Vernal Youth Football League on the Raider's Team. Since Spencer is in 8th grade, this was our last season in Youth Football

Logan's season is still going on. Spencer's season ended Saturday. His team had a great season. They only lost one game all season until they got to the SUPERBOWL. What a game. Unfortunately, they lost to the Vikings 6 to 8. Those boys sure played hard.

Before the Superbowl the Raiders had a tailgate party, complete with the fire truck there. It was awesome. The did have a dummy of a viking hanging by his feet from the firetruck ladder, but someone from the league made them take it down. C'mon people...it was all in fun!
Even though they lost, Coach Hanks still got the Gatorade dumped on him. Hanks has been Spencer's coach for the past four years. There isn't a better coach out there. He doesn't just teach the kids football, he teaches them respect, sportsmanship, and to believe in themselves. I only wish he could go to the High School and coach there. He has done so much for Spencer. Thanks, John!!!





I am a little sad to see Spencer done with this team. He has met some good kids and become friends with alot of them. But next year will be exciting to see him play on the Freshman team.

Good job, Logan and Spencer.

Happy Birthday to Spencer!

Look at my little bald headed baby!! And to think he is 14 today. He had a tough time getting to this earth, but he has been such a blessing to us ever since.



Since Spencer is 14 here are 14 things you may or may not know about him:



14. He make us laugh every single day.

13. He will always look out for the "underdog" (The only time I ever got a call from a principal was because Spencer got in a fight defending one of his friends.)

12. He is one of the most "random" people I know. He says whatever happens to pop into his head. No matter how absurd it may be.

11. He will stand up for what he believes in and not back down easily.

10. He LOVES ketchup. We have a running joke about that in our family.

9. He loves football and has evolved into a good player. It didn't come easily for him but he has worked hard at it over the years.

8. He is a big teaser. It is tough to know when to take him seriously.

7. He is a 49'ers fan!

6. He likes to go hunting.....but not so much fishing.

5. He likes to play the Wii and Playstation waaaay too much.

4. He has decided he likes driving....and begs me to let him drive all of the time. (It's going to be a long year until he can get his learner's permit).

3. Most people would not know this about Spencer but he is tender hearted and can have alot of compassion. (He probably won't like me saying this).

2. He is not too old to still give his mom a giant bear hug, and have a wrestling match with his dad.

1. He is alot of fun to be around.

I am so glad that Spencer is my son.

Happy Birthday, Spencer!!

I just remembered I had a blog!

Okay...so I know I have neglected to blog all summer. And, yes, I have felt guilty about it. But apparently not guilty enough to actually do something about it. It has been a little stressful around here for the last few months, and so I will put the blame of not blogging on that. Enough said!

I don't even know if I can even catch everything up, so I am just going to post things randomly that have been going on all summer. My family had a reunion this summer. We had some pictures taken, so I am going to post those pictures. Our little family didn't get a family picture done because Logan was not there. He was river rafting at Zion's National Park with his scout group.

The whole family. I think we had everyone there put seven people, which I think are pretty good odds with a family this size.

My Mom and Dad. They are the best ever!!

The guys.....aren't they sooo cool?

Cris, Dean, Bill, Dad, Kelly, David

The gals.

Leisa, Susan, Natalie, Becky, Carol

The siblings.

Leisa, Susan, David, Becky, Carol

A few of the granddaughters.

Me and my girls.

Me and Dean

Maybe I will get ambitious and post some more things. We'll see.....

Manti Pageant

Yesterday we loaded up the kids and went to Manti for the Manti Pageant. I had not seen the Manti Pageant since I was in high school. Dean and the kids had never seen it.

Dean's parents and his sister Kristie and another sister, Lisa and her kids were going to meet us there. My in-laws had rented a house just blocks from the temple that we all stayed in. It was the cutest house. Very old and decorated so adorable. Surprisingly there were enough beds there for everyone. That was nice.

Our family arrived there first. It was nice for a little quiet time before all the rest arrived. We went to a Church that was serving turkey dinner to eat that night. It was just like going to a ward dinner! Since we were staying only about 6 blocks from the Pageant, we walked to it. We had gone earlier and put blankets on some chairs to save a spot for us. We had great seats.

Dean and his Dad

Aubrie, Baylie (twins!!) and Caitlin

The boys -- Logan, Preston and Spencer

(They even managed to get some girls' phone numbers before the pageant started! They are the reason my hair is turning grey!!)

Makayla, Keira, Lisa and Kristie

Of course we HAD to get pictures with Brigham Young

Judy and Kristie and Brigham

Brigham with Baylie, Keira, Makayla, Aubrie and Caitlin

Curtis and Brigham

Makayla and her Daddy

The Pageant was wonderful and was a lot different than I had remembered. It was late before we all got to bed that night.

This was the "Girls Room". Aunt Kristie and 5 girls all slept in here!!

We had to get up early and get back to Vernal so that Logan could go to Youth Conference our Stake. We are all tired and dragging today, but it was worth it. It was a fun (much needed) little get away!!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Last weekend we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in South Jordan. Spencer, Caitlin, Makayla and I went. Logan was helping staff the Timberline Camp for scouting and Dean was working. So, the three kids and I went to Duchesne on Thursday night and stayed overnight at Grandpa and Grandmas. Friday morning we got up early and rode out to Salt Lake with my parents. They had some things to do, so the kids and I went to visit their Grandpa and Grandma Cook and Aunt Kristie for a bit. (and even Preston for a few minutes). I forgot to bring my camera, but Caitlin brought hers. All the pictures here were taken by Caitlin!

Preston

Kristie

After that we went to David and Natalie's house for a BB-Q. The Dastrups and Aunt Susan met us there. They live right next to a park, so it was nice the kids could play there too. After that we got ready and went to the Open House. David and Natalie live just minutes from the Temple. It was beautiful. I love that the kids can get a chance to go through the Temple and get to see what it is like inside before it is dedicated. My twelve year old niece Stacia was so cute because she was in awe of everything.

We spent the night at David and Natalie's that night. They were so nice of them to have us all there. THANK YOU!! It is so nice to be able to just visit with family.....we don't do it nearly enough.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend:

David, Mom and Dad

Sydney, Caitlin, Makayla and Stacia

Caitlin

Spencer and Ike....everybody loves Ike!!

Makayla

Oquirrh Temple

David and Natalie

Spencer, Braden, Stacia, Caitlin, Sydney and Makayla

Braden, Caitlin, Stacia, Spencer, Bryson, Sydney, Makayla