Fun in the SUN ARIZONA

I just spent 6 days in Arizona visiting with Melissa and Candice. I LOVE going to Arizona, the weather was about 75 degrees, beautiful huh? It's so wonderful to see family and loved ones.

I did get to visit the last remaining sibling of my father's family, Uncle Tom. He is 89 years old and so fun to visit with. He has a great sense of humor and loves to reminince about family history.

All the girl cousins who could got together for lunch. Here are some wonderful pictures from our lunch. The company was good, but the service was the WORST, finally the management came over and comp our lunch, ( that was the right thing to do!)

Unfortunately, since I got back I caught someone's cold. My nose DRIPPED non stop! I was so glad to be home so I could stuff kleenex in it .... sorry if this is too much for you.

more pictures of Christmas

Let me explain these pictures,

Nate, loved getting into my drawer of cups and lids, this seemed to be the best toy!

Joy's kids waiting in the hallway to see what "santa" brought, our tradition is that you have to count to 10 before you come into the room, they had just woken up.

Dad doing what he does best, telling stories to all.

we sure missed the Pimentels and the Biehns. we had fun, but it wasn't the same without you.

Christmas came to our HOUSE

We had a great time, laughed a lot, ate a lot and made memories, here are some pictures of this past month.

Happy New Year to you all!

Today is Carolee's Birthday

We missed you Melissa!

Yep, as you can see December is a busy month for Birthday's around here. Today Carolee turns 30! Boy I remember my 30th birthday, but when Carolee was born I was 27 years old and having my 4th child ! How time flies.

She was such a blessing coming at that time because I had just lost my mother two months previous to that time, and having a new baby brought so much joy back into my life. She was such a beautiful tiny little thing.

Did I ever tell you how we came up with Carolee's name?

Well, I always have felt it important to name children after someone dear in your life, Joy was named after my cousin, Melissa Jayne was named after me and my great great grandmother. Kristen Louise was named after my best friend and my sister. I wanted to name her Carolyn after my other sister, but SHE just had a baby and named her Cara Lyn so I didn't want two Carolyn's so we went with Carolee.... so there you have it. BUT there is more! each one of my children have two names, when Carolee got old enough to noticed she only had ONE name she felt bad! ( sorry Carolee) so she now always uses her maiden name as her middle name.

Whew, didin't mean to get off so much on names.

I love Carolee! She is beautiful, fun and smart! during her high school days she studied all the time, she was dedicated in always doing her best. She is a middle child and looked up to her big sisters but also loved loved loved her baby brother.

Carolee is the best wife to Jeff and the best mom to Brooklyn and Trenton. She is so patience with the children, I love watching her and love being in thier home!

Carolee has been through alot these past years but has faced her trials with faith and courage.

Carolee, I sure miss you, SO grateful you lived with Dad and I those past four years, it was GREAT

Happy Birthday Sissy

Happy Birthday to Kristen

Kristen is 33 years old today. boy it seems like yesterday when I was being woke up from general anaesthetic saying "it's a girl" . And what a beautiful delightful girl she has been.
My pregnancy with Kristen started out a bit rough, when I was just 4 months pregnant I learned that I had placenta previa, which met for the remainder of my Pregnancy I would be in bed! For a person as active as me that was NO fun, especially because I had a 2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. Life was challenging but you learn a lot of lessons I guess. But how blessed I was that I was able to safely deliver her and all was well. ( well I guess not all was well, I was in the hospital for 9 days because of all my bleeding! ) but we arrived safely home and she was a perfect angel. Literally she sleep her first 3 weeks of life, just long enough to get me back to normal to deal with three busy little girls.
Kristen has always been such a blessing in our family. Little Joy and Melissa loved her from the very beginning. Kristen was a bit shy and quiet, and very sensitive little thing.
From the beginning she had red hair , or I guess I should say "orange" hair, we didn't want her to feel different from the other girls but just extra special. I think she enjoyed the attention she got from everyone admiring her beautiful hair.
Kristen has been our peace maker in the family, always trying to help her siblings. We all love her so much. She is so fun to be with. She is a hard worker, and I know people feel comfortable around her.
She is a wonderful mom, loves her kids dearly, and is trying to raise her family living the teachings of the Gospel. Her children are all such sweet kids doing well in all that they are doing.
She married a sweet man who loves his family.
We love you so much Kristen, you have added so much to my life and I'm grateful for your birth and your life. Happy Birthday!
mom

Things to Look forward to

I just read the fun things that Taryn is looking forward to and I thought to myself I can do that too!
First of all it's nice to have a bit of cooler weather, I thought summer was going to last forever!

1. Getting my hair styled again by Candice
2.Getting our turn over with in cleaning the church building!
3. Going to State Farms's Christmas party at the Mission Inn , so beautiful
4. Getting my decorations all up and finished
5. Eating Christmas goodies.. yum
6. Having family and friends together
7. Finding out what Taryn and Ryan are having
8. More grandchildren
9. Seeing Trenton and Brooklyn again, they live way to far away!
10. Going to the podiatrist and getting my feet to stop hurting!

not very exciting list, but good things to look foward too!

Our Early Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. Since Melissa and family and Candice and Troy were in town we thought we'd take advantage of this special time and do our turkey day. We had a wonderful time. We always enjoy Todd and Kristen's home. At the end we had a contest of arm wrestling, and the little girls dancing for us, and the boys doing a rap dance and song. Such talent in the Bill Mccook family!

by the way, the fires have been so bad and we are so sad for all the families it has affected. Some of our stake members have been evacuated but don't know of any homes burned.

We sure missed Carolee ,Jeff, Brooklyn and Trenton, but we know they will be with us again.

Go Dr. Jeff!

Carolee will have to post about her snow laments

Hope you enjoy these pictures!