Halloween

As you might be able to tell from the "Funemories" post, our family is getting into an extremely dangerous tradition of coming up with creative costumes and activities for Halloween. Even this year, we remarked to each other how commercialized this holiday is and how dumb it really is that we go door to door asking people for candy and get all dressed up like people we really aren't.

Despite all that, though, this year was one to remember!

For Kayla, this is her first Fall season outside of the wintery north. She's really been missing the changing leaves (see post below) and the feeling of Fall. But one Fall-ish thing you can do no matter where you are is carve pumpkins. And since we're both used to being around the snow, what better way to pay homage to our home towns than a pumpkin snowman!!

This idea started when we went to the local store to buy pumkins. Last year, we went to a real pumkin patch to buy them cheap!! This year, they cost almost $4 a piece, and you just can buy one! So instead, we checked out the bin called "Pie Pumkins." They were smaller and cheaper. After some humming and hahing and trying to come up with how it could be fun to carve small pumpkins, we had the brilliant idea to buy three pumkins and make a snowman.

Here's Kayla gutting and carving the face on the pumkins!




Because every good artist-gone-pumkin-carver has to have some sort of inspiration, can you guess who Kayla chose to be the model for her pumkin head? That's right - her Pumpkin Head!


After our project got going, one good idea was followed only by another good idea! Pretty soon, there were toothpick, nails and hammers, and what good pumpkin would be complete without fire?!!

Here's our final product- a thing we call Jack Frost.







While we were still on our creativity high, we couldn't help but keep on keepin' on with our next project -- an idea too good to be true, too complicated to be understood, but too timly to pass up.

This year for Halloween, we went as.... drum roll...... The Cooks!!

It started with you ordinary box, custom fit to Kayla's belly. Wrap it up in some white paper and strap some old suspenders to the back, and pretty soon, you've got an oven!


Since there was no ward party or fun outing on Halloween, we decided to make an event for ourselves. In the end, we baked some cookies and wrapped them up individually. Then, we hopped in the car and drove around to the younger couples in our ward and knocked on their doors. Between stops, we would just laugh and laugh at ourselves and all the stupid things we were doing. It was a blast!!






Check out this fun video starring "Lovin' Oven Kayla." Keep in mind she is going to give birth the next day!

In the end, we decided that it was just too much to capture in a few seconds. I mean, if somebody remembered our last name was Cook, they probably forgot that we have "one in the oven." Or, if they thought it was cute we had a "Fresh Baked Cookie" for them, they probably didn't realize we were talking about our baby.

But all in all, it was a great memory. Maybe next year, we'll go it a little easy on the creativity. We obviously over did ourselves this year!

Funemories

What a fun memory!

This is my husband on the "Tree Tour" for the BYU-Idaho 2007 Oratorio. As you can see he is in deep thought while riding on the bus. Little did he know the girl a few seats behind him was going to be his wife...or did he? Maybe he is in such deep thought because he is so enraptured by me. This was the first time I ever met Brian. Wasn't he so cute? I landed in his ward months later and the rest is history! Our little meeting on this bus was just enough to get me to remember his name.



And what about this one? Shots from past Halloweens...


Here we are again in 2007. I dressed as the ugliest hillbilly I could. I had a huge crush on Brian and I knew he would be at this party. He dressed up as an Olive. Oliver the Olive to be exact. You can tell our personalities fit quite well. We weren't about to use a costume party as an excuse to get all dolled up for each other. This was quite a fun time for us though because my roommate was the one throwing the party and she had Brian and I decorate for it. She must have been on to us. Anyway, I made this card for him last Halloween when we were married.

Last Halloween was a hoot. Brian made the best nerd. We attended the Symphony which was a blast and then we had our friends over for a little party. I remember my jaw killing me that night. I remember Brian kept calling Suzi "Sooosan". I remember Brian's geeky voice and the Men's choir cracking up at him after the concert. I remember the way he counted to three very slowly at ever stop sign that night. I remember his paper clip neckalace and his odd fitting retainer. I remember the dozen pens and highlighters that he crammed in to his pocket. I remember laughing hysterically together in our apartment when it was just the two of us before we left. I remember his white socks. I remember getting to the Symphony in our nerd costumes just before the concert started and watching as Brian awkwardly made his way through the crowded concert hall, capturing everyone's attention, hearing laughter from the waiting audience, trying my best not to abandon him. I wish I had footage. It is fun to be married to Brian Cook let me tell you.

Our great friends Pamela and Jared. They made perfect robbers. We miss them.

We can't forget about our award-winning pumpkins...well okay we didn't get an actual award for them but we had a lot of fun! This year's pumpkins will be carved sometime this weekend.

As for this year's costume? You'll have to wait and see!

One final funemory...

My sweetheart friends from the married student ward in Rexburg! This is a picture of our old Relief Society Presidency. Bethany Sines is on the left, Cailin Bruce is on the bench next to Abby Fokken, and...well you know where I am. We had such a fun time together. Abby moved in to a cute little basement apartment and is expecting a little boy (child number two), Bethany is in Iowa living with parents just like me! And Cailin is now a momma. How fun!

Stay tuned for more funemories!

Pregnancy Update (not a birth announcement)

No pictures today. Just wanted to let those who have been wondering know that baby David flipped head-down. We are rearing to go and can't wait until those painful contractions start. I think baby and mommy are ready to get him out of there! Brian and I are really excited and boy do I feel fatigued and stretched. We can't wait until my Mom arrives! Another bonus of having a baby is that you get to have your mother take care of you again! Yay! Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a post or two in before baby comes.

Any words of advice before labor starts?

Witches, Brothers, a Shower, and a Fall

These are my brothers. They are so cool. Really. Oh, but don't forget one brother isn't in the picture. He is a great brother too. His name is Clint. But this is Tyrel and Parker and they are just the best. So fun. Really. Except Tyrel teases me a lot. But I might secretly kind of like that. Don't tell him.



Park was recently baptized and my husband and I flew out for the occasion. Of course we just had to have a baby shower while we were there. And we just had to enjoy the fall season since it was 97 degrees in Spring, TX last week. I'm happy to say that me and my big tummy did just fine. I tried to wear a slimming black sweater so the airport officials didn't think I was too pregnant to fly. It worked! The only crummy part is I didn't get to hold Bri's hand during the flight in to Utah and back home. We weren't able to fly together because he could only come for two days before he had to fly back for school. I stayed for a whole week.

Gentlemen please, you're simply too handsome for the camera.

While I'm showing off family pics I might as well add a few more--

A newly one-year-old pumpkin nephew-- A pretty little sister--

Adorable princess nieces--

Goofy blondes--

A neat dad--
And a sweetheart little brother--

And now...the WITCHES! WAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (imagine an evil witch laugh)

These witches are from Gardner's Village in Utah. Brian and I had a fun time checking this out while we were there. We have our classic witch-flying-in-sky-on-bike-routine, and don't forget about handcart witch...busy with today's chores.

Witches playing baseball...don't they have something better to do? Like cast spells and create potions? It was a relief to see that even witches need a break from everyday life. And don't forget to notice one of my favorites, "witchy poo".

The Baby Shower: given by Abby Salisbury. (I wish I had better pictures..boo. Oh well.) Please try and imagine the cookie display complete with peanut butter kiss cookies, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cookie bars, etc. etc. right down to good old fashioned pizelles. We celebrated the coming of our "cookie boy" which is funny if you remember that our last name is Cook. Abby is really creative. If you look closely, you might see the baby clothes display by my fireplace. I wish you could see the cookie set-up too, and the blue balloons. Here are a few pictures. First, the little boys pouting that they can't come inside because they are stinky boys and the party is only for smelly girls. Sorry boys. They wanted to play nintendo or legos or something. Clint took them for a hike up G mountain instead. My hubby went too. And here is a pic of a few baby shower guests. Two of my sisters are back there on the couch. I'm glad I got to see Amy, who drove down from Idaho for the festivities.

My Fall: I will never forget the sweet memories of my fall. Thank you, Mom and Dad for the pretty drive and the easy hikes. I was craving that! I got a good fill of cool weather and open spaces. Just what I needed. These are beautiful pictures of the day. I convinced M&D to check Rachel and Parker out of school so they could come too. We had a lot of fun collecting leaves. I wanted to bring some back to Spring with me.

It was such a beautiful day. Sigh. I can't wait until we are able to visit Utah again. We'll hopefully return for the Christmas season. In other news, our baby will be here next month. He's folded up a little funny in there right now. We are hoping he'll get that head down so we can have a good delivery. Otherwise, we may need a C-section which certainly is not the end of the world but is not necessarily desirable either. The doc says some babies go breech for good reasons too so whatever happens will be the best for the babe we think. One thing is for sure, no matter how he comes we'll be excited to meet our cookie boy.