Farewell, Rexburg

Quick update on the Cook life. It's been kind of crazy.

Ginger bread house competition (not that any of us are competitive...) was a success this year. We face-timed James' family to judge the 3 houses. Teams included: Aubrey and Josh (the real winners despite the judge's results), Skyler and Taylin, and Ben and Erin. Here are the houses and you can judge for yourself (clearly you'll choose mine and Josh's.) But I'll list them in order of 1st place on down to 3rd.

First place was Skyler and Taylin. It does look pretty awesome. 

Second place was Aubrey and Josh. Yeah! It was dedicated to Sam's first Christmas. (It says Sam's Place, for those who couldn't read it)

And third (but not least) place was Ben and Erin. Ben likes to incorporate a murder mystery theme into his ginger bread houses. (Note the shark to the right of the house....apparently there was a shark-nado...) But the butterflies on the roof make up for the blood scene, right? 

Caught in the action of ginger bread house building. We had a good time.

One of my Christmas gifts was a doorway pull up bar. Give me a month and then I'll challenge anyone to an arm wrestle. Bring it on.

I've got lots of improvement to make.

Erin took lots of good pictures from Christmas at the Cooks. We had such a good time this past week with her family.

 There's Macie Jo (6 months) eating Sammy Jo (2 months)

 Why is Sammy SO ADORABLE?!

Travis is such a sweet boy. Erin sent me this snap chat the day after we left Kathy and Rulan's. He went around the house stating that today was happy Sammy Day. So 12/28 is now deemed as such. Congrats Sammy, you officially have a holiday. Happy Sammy Day everyone! If you hug Travis make sure you don't hug him too tight or he'll say "You're squishing my heart. I only got one." He is sure to bring a smile to your face. 

It has definitely turned into a winter wonderland. Church was cancelled because there was so much snow. Josh spent all morning yesterday shoveling the neighborhood and then stopped at the neighbors and dug tunnels and sledded down the hill along with all the neighborhood boys.

Our truck is suddenly a foot taller.

 

 I stayed inside where it's warm and watched Skyler do headstands. She's cool.

Tonight is our last night in Rexburg. Tomorrow we will load the moving truck and make the trek south. We are sad to leave our home, but excited to start this new adventure. Farewell, Rexburg. To celebrate our last evening in Rexburg with Taylin and Skyler we went to some good ole BBQ cooking at The Hickory. Josh thought the ketchup was fermented. I thought it tasted good. We had a fun evening (away from cleaning the apartment and packing up the final odds and ends). Tomorrow is going to be a sad day. We leave our home of Rexburg. We will no longer have Taylin living with us. It has been such a JOY to have her around. We love her dearly and wish her the best in college. We leave Skyler who will fly back to Georgia on Wednesday. It has been SO FUN having her here. We offered our spare bedroom to her in Ogden because it's nice to have her around. But the peaches call. We couldn't convince her that the spuds are her buds. ;) Maybe next time.

You know it's real BBQ when they serve their drinks in mason jars.

 

We are so blessed. Shout out to my main man Josh. I love him dearly and deeply. He is definitely my better half and I am so happy (and lucky) to have him as my husband. The Cook life is the good life. 

Love, Aubrey

Stories, bruises, and memories

Merry Christmas! Well, Christmas Eve in our house. Ben and Erin arranged with Santa to come tonight because Ben worked on the recognized Christmas Eve. So today is actually Christmas Eve and the kids are so excited for Santa to come tonight.

Either way, I LOVE Christmas. I enjoy reading in Luke about the birth of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for his humble birth, exemplary life, and redeeming atonement. I love spending time with family. I love the spirit of giving. Christmastime is just a great time of year. And it's a bonus when it's a white Christmas. Like this morning. 

And it's still falling! :)

Josh took Skyler and Taylin skiing yesterday. Skyler snowboarded. They had a good time (mostly) and came home alive and in one piece. They have three things: stories (great ones!!!), bruises, and memories.

Well, happy HOLLA-days!

Love, Aubrey

Candy lovers

I went and visited with a good friend of mine, Carly. We worked together as hospice nurses. We have both changed careers to being full time mothers, which we both agree we absolutely LOVE. Her son Jackson is 9 months old and crawling all over the place. We decided we had better get a picture of him and Sam together so that when they go to school at BYU-Idaho and fall in love we have a picture of them when they first met. :)

I'm pretty sure Josh thought we entered heaven as we shopped in the bulk section at WinCo for candy to up our ginger bread house supplies. We kind of went candy-crazy.

Save some gummy worms for the next ginger bread house builders, Josh! ;)

I had fun shopping for candy and other holiday junk food, but I have a very short shopping fuse. I don't like crowds and it was beyond crowded there. Skyler's face sums up how I feel about shopping:

This one does it justice too:

Here's an update from back home (Georgia)...mostly updated through snap chat...

 Twins' shopping faces over Christmas break.

 I love those dimples, Shelby!

 Dribble dribble....shoot shoot...take that ball to the HOOP HOOP

 Anneka is a basketball star! :)

Brynna is as beautiful as ever! And she is in choir at school, which I think is AWESOME! 

Kathy and Rulan are in Washington for Christmas with James' family. So we took over their house for Christmas. Here's Grandpa before leaving to Washington:

Sammy is good at demanding attention. The second he looked away from her she'd squawk until he looked again.

I am going to miss this when we move. Living less than a mile away from the Rexburg temple has been such a beautiful blessing!

Go read The Christmas Story. It's a great way to focus our Christmas celebration around our Savior, as he is the reason we are here. He is the gift. 

Love, Aubrey

Sammy Jo

The many (adorable and practically irresistible) faces of Samantha Jo Cook:

And there's more....I'm just restraining myself...I may be extremely in love with this snuggle bug. :)

Love, Aubrey