Christmas!

Christmas was awesome this year! Totally chill. We got up somewhere between 8:30 and 9 a.m. and opened presents as a family. AnDee of course scored big time. Im actually quite embarrassed by the amount of stuff she got but she was awesome all day long, no whining about anything. I scored big time too! Andrew got me a fancy new camera... now if I could just learn how to use it ;)
After we did our own family thing, Nana and Papa (Cowley) came and we exchanged gifts and then we spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa's (Naugle) Where we had breakfast.
Sadly we took down our Christmas tree on Christmas day. I couldn't stand the amount of room it was taking up and now we had all these toys and junk piled up everywhere! Isn't it funny how it SO fun to put Christmas decorations up but after you get them all put away its is a HUGE relief?
Anyway... we spent a lot of time outside on Christmas (since it apparently doesn't really snow in Utah anymore... not that it would have stopped us from being outside if it did) playing with AnDee's "cocky" AKA: helicopter. My beautiful curly haired little girl is completely obssesed with helicopters and airplanes. I heart her! Anyway... here are a few pics! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas this year!
Opening presents with Grandma

Flying the "cocky" with Uncle Sam

Flying the cocky with Dada

She was the retriever. Every time it would land she would take off running to get it. Who needs a dog. (sorry hunter?)

Yup. Totally stepped in something "cucky" (sometimes i have a hard time telling the difference between that and "cocky")

Swinging with Dad

Chillin in her underwear. (she has a thing with being nude. Im lucky to keep a onesie on her)

Fat

So a couple of days ago AnDee came to me and said "Mama fat!"
so I said "mama fat?"
AnDee: "uh huh!... Dada fat!
Me: "dada fat too?!"
AnDee: "uh huh! Yup! ... Betty fat!!"
Me: "Betty is fat too? ...Are you fat?"
AnDee: "nope!"

So there you have it folks... The whole family is fat, except for buggy. Sad thing is... I can't argue with her.

I just think she is the cutest!

We had to get all dressed up for Aunt Heathers wedding, so we talked Aunt Jo in to taking some pics. Thanks Jo!

Oh Christmas tree!

Every year we get a permit and go out and cut down our own Christmas tree. I LOVE this tradition! It is so much fun to go out and hike around in the snow. But this year we also bought an artificial tree because, lets just be honest, its easier to take care of and not as easily destroyed by AnDee. So we decided to still go out and cut down a tree but this year we gave it to a neighbor who has had an extremely hard year and otherwise probably wouldn't have a tree. It was a blast as usual, even though we spent a very significant amount of time being stuck or waiting for others who were stuck in the snow to get unstuck so we could get by. Its all part of the adventure. I love Christmas time and all that comes with it!

I love Andrews cheesiness in this one :)

apparently there was something on the camera lens? of course its exactly in the middle of the pictures.. oh well.

P.S. I LOVE my Christmas tree! It turned out perfect. Im hesitant to post pictures though because I know my cruddy camera will not do it justice.

Barca anyone???!!

Ok I know Im mostly just talking to myself on this one because Ill be lucky if even one of you knows what Im talking about (Sara, you would be the one Im talking about) here but I cant help it, I have to share my love and excitement!
Xavi.... Best player in the world? Don't get me wrong, I ADORE Messi and I have to hand it to Christiano (even though I hate him and and his perfect tan) but scoring goals doesn't mean you are THE best player in the world. Where would Messi be without this man?  Honestly. Xavi is THE ONLY MAN EVER to complete over 100 passes in one game! This means that those passes actually connected with the person they were meant for. Amazing?! More amazing than I can even explain and to top it off, he has done it 4 TIMES! I love this man. Truly, it is love.

I dont know if you watched the big match on monday but I sure did. And I may or may not have watched it again last night, and don't be surprised if you hear that I watch it again tonight. Yes, it was THAT good. Now for those of you who don't understand what I mean when I say "big match" let me explain. Barcelona FC and Real Madrid are considered to be the best teams in Spain. In my opinion they are easily the best teams in the world. The rivalry between these two teams is INSANE! A great majority of the men from these two teams also happen to play together on the Spain national team but that doesnt seem to stop them from trying to break each others legs. This was not a championship game or even a determining game at this point but more people watched this one game than watch the super bowl. That is what I mean by big. Football fans (by this I of course mean soccer) around the world gather at pubs, movie theaters, town squares, pretty much anywhere and everywhere, to watch this game. Not to mention that there is a bit of the past between the present manager of Real Madrid and the club of Barcelona, but we wont get into that.
Now, as you have probably figured out, I am a Barca fan. I literally dream about this team. That being said, I bet you can guess who ended up with the win. The experts were back and forth. Was it going to be Real or Barca with the win? Maybe a draw? HA! Draw nothing! My boy Xavi put in a goal in the first 10 minutes! This was HUGE for me (and him) because Xavi is not a goal scorer and therefor gets overlooked. Not in this match my friends! By the end of the first half we were up by two (thanks to a pretty little finish from Pedro) and I was sitting pretty comfortable but you never know what is going to happen when you have an entire half left. Then the real fun began. Real Madrid lost their heads and David Villa capitalized, two goals within 5 minutes of each other. We are up by 4! Game over! Oh but wait... here comes our little substitute Jeffren to put the icing on the cake and shove it up Christianos nose! Thats right 5-0!!!! Hahahaha! It still makes me giggle with complete giddiness. Again for those of you who don't understand, 5-0 in a soccer match is like.... 82-0 in a basketball game. Total humiliation. I loved every minute of it! Especially when Real started to pick fights because they felt so stupid. Ooops! Red Card for Sergio Ramos! BU-BYE!
Im sorry if you read this entire thing and didn't really care but I had to put this one in the records. Im just so darn happy!
P.S. I found this little beauty of a post and needed to share it as well. and yes, it is about the game so if you're bored of all the football talk, don't bother to read it.

As we said before, Barcelona's 5-0 domination of Real Madrid on Wednesday was a bit of madness. The combination of Jose Mourinho's worst ever defeat, Barca scoring with ease, 13 total bookings and Ronaldo and Ramos going around shoving people, the match begged us to ask that question we keep coming back to: What if it continued?

97' -- Bojan wins game of Rock, Paper, Scissors among Barca XI to decide who gets to score the team's 6th goal. Goalkeeper Victor Valdes calls dibs on the 7th.

101' -- Jose Mourinho realizes that his Special One power ring has been replaced with a common mood ring. It explodes.

108' -- Ronaldo regrets shoving Pep Guardiola earlier in the match. Wishes he spilled coffee on his outfit instead. 

115' -- Mesut Ozil forgets that Mesut Ozil is at the game. 

120' -- Sitting on the bench with one eye closed and his finger in his ear, David Villa scores his third goal. 

123' -- Rafa Benitez laughs at Mourinho's misfortune, painfully shooting milk out of his nose as he does so. But he doesn't care. He doesn't care.  

129' -- Back in the dressing room, Sergio Ramos shoves himself in the face just to see how it feels. He feels violated.

133' -- Xabi Alonso breaks out in a cold sweat, fearful that Nigel De Jong might show up at any time.

142' -- Lionel Messi only half-heartedly makes defenders look stupid as his mind drifts to the Shuttle Adventure Lego playset Pep promised him if Barca win. He decides he will fly it to the Lego moon and then walk really slow like he's actually there. He high-fives himself. 

145' -- Gerard Pique spontaneously starts to bleed.

148' -- Jose Mourinho declares that this has all been a dream and none of it is real. He insists that it is all just a figment of everyone's collective imagination. Victor Valdes physically removes him from the stadium. Pep Guardiola defecates gold. 

is it bad that my eyes are literally tearing up because of laughter? whoever wrote this is a genius!

So Andrew thought I was joking when I asked him if I could start putting up Christmas decorations on the day after Halloween. I wasn't. But he thought it was a little much a little too early so we agreed I would wait until Thanksgiving day (which is a Cowley tradition) That was an awfully long wait for me! I mean we are talking 3 weeks! So this is how I kept myself busy in the meantime...

Thats right boys and girls! Chantal did crafty things!
Last year I wanted a candy tree SO bad but I couldn't find decorations anywhere and so, I set to work making gingerbread men (the edible ones) and such. And much to my surprise (or maybe not so much) my extremely well trained and well behaved dogs ate the majority of them before we ever got to Christmas. I have to be honest, beating the crud outta my dogs for eating my Christmas ornaments kinda killed the Christmas spirit for me. So this year I went out looking at Christmas decorations and guess what?! There are candy ornaments and decorations EVERYWHERE!!! UGH!!! What can I say, Im a trend setter ;) (PS. you can totally thank me for bringing back tie dye) but since Im not willing to pay upward of 5 flipping bucks for one stinking ornament, I decided to get crafty, these are the result of that craftiness (If you are not impressed or cant tell what they are supposed to be, please feel free to keep your mouth shut about it cause I spent WAY to much time working on these things. I would probably cry if someone said something negative about them)

here are some close ups...
The FELT gingerbread men. Pretty sure my dogs wont eat these ones.

Thats right... its a gumdrop ball... thats all

 My giant peppermint candy! I heart styrofoam!

 These are my favorites, mostly because they took the most work and I spent a lot if time messing up and readjusting. Who doesn't love giant gumdrops?! This picture does not do them justice.

The all wise Chinee

So a week or so ago I got online and entered the info needed for the Chinee to tell me what gender this kid inside me is. They told me it was a boy... And they were right! We went today and saw the little fellow. I really didn't need the ultra sound to tell me either because if the all wise Chinee tell you something, you don't question it. Actually in reality I didn't need the chinese calendar to tell me either. At first I thought it was a girl but a week or two ago I had this moment where I just knew it was a boy. No doubt about it. So there we have it, we are going to be blessed with a baby boy in the spring! Speaking of blessings, we must be doing something right because we have been extremely taken care if lately. A few examples:
We just repainted our living room. We went to home depot and got our paint at the paint desk (where no one said anything about saving money)On our way to the check out a lady stopped us and asked if we had heard about the paint plan. Apparently if you check out at the service desk instead of the regular check out they will give you 10% off. Some how we ended up get more like 30% off! Blessing? Yes!
Example #2:
we also got a couple new chairs for the living room. Before we went to go get them we called to make sure they were still there. We were told there were three left so to come down and get them! When we got there, they actually only had one, that was out on the floor. They told us since it was their mistake they would give us the one on the floor (which was in perfect condition) for 20% off and if we would wait for a week to get the second one when the shipment came in they would give us 10% off. That saved us over $100. Blessing? Absolutely!
Example #3
we went to get a Christmas tree that was on sale. When we got to the check out line the checker on the next aisle over turned around and handed me a piece of paper saying "here, use this". It was a coupon that saved us an extra $20! Blessing? Most definitely!
Example #4
Andrew was leaving work a couple of days ago, frustrated by a situation that had been causing him problems for a very long time. As he was walking out the door a plant manager pulled him back in and offered him a promotion! Andrew is now a supervisor! Wahoo! Such a blessing on more than one level. He needed the change so badly!
Example #5
Our totally crazy and perfectly healthy little girl. Hands down the best thing that has ever happened to us! Now we get to add a brother! How lucky our we? Now we just need to find a way to show our gratitude and pay it forward.

Sugar? No. Honey Honey!

So for those of you that dont know. We have honey bees. We actually harvested the honey a couple months ago but Im just now getting around to blogging about it.
This is the very first day we got the bees and Andrew is getting ready to put them in the box. Notice his socks tucked in to his pants. So stylish.

Here are a few of the bees (and it really is a few in comparison) a month or so after we put them in their new home.

and here is a couple of shots of us bottling it.

I tried to upload some video of some of the process, but it didnt work and I dont have the patients to try again. Sorry?

Anyway, it kind of a fun process and its funny how comfortable you get with bees. At least with honey bees, I still dont trust the rest of them.

Our pumpkins and a black cat named Binx

Here is a pic (finally) of the finished painted pumpkins and as promised, my kid is dressed this time. Im sure I dont have to explain who's is who's. Its pretty easy to figure out.

Now for the cat... One night about a week or so before Halloween we were just pulling in to our drive way when all of the sudden AnDee starts yelling "Kitty! Kitty!" and pointing up. So, of course we look up to find an extremely black cat with extremely green eyes sitting on our roof. Yes, our roof. Right at the peak of the roof to be exact and to add to it, the moon which, just so happened to be full, was directly behind it. Spooky? yes. Well... the cat never left. It has adopted us and NOT the other way around. I dont feed it. It doesnt come in my house (gratefully) but what it does do is come running every time it hears us outside and lets my kid beat the crud out of it. I think this might be the best pet ever!We named it Zachary Binx because Im pretty sure that is may be THE cat that was in Hocus Pocus.

Spooooooky Halloween!

The most spooky part of this halloween was most definitely me in my ridiculous costume. No doubt about it. We went as the Flintstones because I was far too lazy to try to put lollipop kid costumes together. These where enough work for me. I didnt make mine but I did make AnDee and Andrews. I heart hot glue :)

Here is one of just the Bug. The picture is from my phone which equals poor quality but she is cute regardless.

Anyway... We didnt go trick or treating (which I was very sad about) but we did go to our ward trunk or treat (which was MADNESS!) AnDee seemed to enjoy it so I guess it was worth it?

Snow

So remember how it snowed a week or so ago? AnDee thought it was AMAZING! We walked outside and she practically screamed "WWWWWOOOOOWWW!!!" Im glad she likes it. That means the whole winter wont be spent in doors. Plus, much to my surprise, her bumble bee dress also doubles as a snow suit.

Pumpkin Time!

We decided to paint pumpkins this year in stead of carving. We figured a paintbrush would be a lot more safe in the hands of AnDee than a knife.
This is how it started....

And yes, she is still sporting the remains of a black eye.



Then she got a little more serious but was still being a girl about it....

Then she really started digging in....

And this is how it ended up...

You should have seen the bath tub. Not the most fun to clean up. Ill try to get some after pictures of every ones pumpkins (Andrews is a real gem) and this time Ill put some clothes on my kid before I start taking pictures.

Look VERY closely

Can you see it? Thats right... one Green eye and one BLUE eye!
Just one more reason why my kid is the coolest.

Decisions, decisions

what are you and/or your children being for halloween? I have the hardest time every year deciding this and now that I have a kid its even harder.
here are a few options I have thought of. Please give me your input.
The Flintstones.
AnDee of course as Pebbles
Me as Wilma
Andrew as Fred
Not my favorite idea but I do have a Wilma costume so....
The Lollipop kids
Seeing Andrew dressed up like a munchkin would put a smile on anyones face.
Willy Wonka and oompa loompas
AnDee as Wonka
Andrew and I as oompa loompas
genius? yes. Am I willing to figure out the costumes?? not so sure...
Ghosts
All three of us... complete with bed sheets.
The Lion, scarecrow and tin man
AnDee as the lion
Andrew and I could take our pick of the other two. again... not sure about the costumes...

Thoughts please?

P.S. We got back from Lake Powell earlier this weak. Ill post pics as soon as I can find the stinking cord to the camera.

Old Pics, Good Times

I was looking through our pictures from our trip to Africa and found a couple that made me giggle.
Zanzibar.....

Probably the closest thing to paradise that I have ever seen. The pictures dont do it justice by any means.

While on the island of Zanzibar we decided we were going to go swimming with dolphins. This isnt like the crap in Florida where they stick you in a pool with life jackets on and send a trainer and a dolphin out to entertain you for a couple hundred bucks (ok I actually have no idea how much it costs) This is... A few Africans who barely speak english take you out on a boat that they have a young kid sitting in the back of with a bucket constantly throwing large amounts of water out of the boat so that you dont sink. When they find a dolphin pod, they all but throw you in the water and scream at you to "look down, look down!" (Chantal + never even snorkeled before + crazy africans throwing her into the ocean = sufficiently scared outta her mind)

I will admit, aside from the fact that my husband was literally almost killed by another boat, it was absolutely amazing! Even if it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever been thrown in to. And all for about... $15. I heart Africa.

Before our journey started we were dropped off at a little shack on the beach, where they, oh so kindly, threw some very used and slightly scummy snorkel gear at us. Then a kid (who was apparently going to be our guide) threw the boat engine over his shoulder... yes the engine. They kept it in the shed. Im assuming to keep it from being stolen?... and told us to follow him. On our way down to the water we passed this sign.

and when we got on our extremely safe and apparently very well cared for boat to begin our EXCUSSION we found this painted on it... remember we are in Africa!!! 

This is the nice young man who spent his time shoveling out the water so we didnt die in the middle of the Indian Ocean...

So there it is... All it takes is a little trust in God, a boy with a bucket and some true bravery and you have got one enjoyable excussion!!!

Long weekends are a blessing and a curse

Oh long weekends! How I love them! An extra day with my wonderful husband is always greatly anticipated and a true blessing. Why a curse? Because they end, and when they end it makes it that much harder to go back to the norm. It was a good weekend regardless. We kicked it off on friday with a trip to the Splash Pad in Highland. If you haven't heard of this place and you have small kids and live in the area.... I highly recommend it. Buggy had a BLAST. Even though it was a little chilly and she was shivering. she is one tough cookie.

Saturday wasn't quite as fun. Both AnDee and I were sick and spent the entire night awake and miserable.(a possible result of the shivering at the Splash Pad?)
Yesterday we made a trip up the canyon with Dad and David. And even though they ditched us to go ride there bikes (motorcycles) and then had the audacity to ask us to drive for an extra hour to pick them up at the end of the trail, we made the best of it and tried our best to enjoy the mountains.... along with the other 3 million people that were up there that day. Buggy even got to play in the "wa-ee" (water) at the lake for a while. All in all... a good time. Now... its tuesday and Im back to cleaning and all that really enjoyable stuff. Lame

Liberation

I have been freed. My facebook account no longer exists! Can I just tell you how liberated I feel?! I have been wanting and threatening to do it for quite some time but as of yesterday, Im a free woman! If you have ever considered doing this... I highly recommend it. Its just one less thing to take up my time. now I can fill that time with...

Im so pathetic. But if Im being honest I really stink at this blogging thing. I have no idea how it all works. Like adding people and putting up cool backgrounds (Which I tried, unsuccessfully to do for about and hour yesterday) not to mention the fact that I have a crappy camera which equals crappy pictures. I dont even know blogging etiquette. I mean... is it ok to blog more that once a day? Can you comment on your own posts? Im so lost in this blogging world! HELP?

Good Morning!

This is what my daughters hair looks like every morning

The best part is... this is after a good nights sleep. you should see her on the mornings that she has had a rough night. No joke, she has dreads in the back.

Not much for words.

If Im being completely honest... Im not much of a writer. I had a blog once, it lasted a couple months and I gave up on it. The difference between then and now? I have a kid now... and I enjoy talking about her immensely.  So here I am, giving the blogging thing a go again. I am in high hopes that I will stick with this one but I make no promises. You may hear a little about Andrew and myself every once in a while. I hope it doesn't take away from the quality of reading too much ;)
Stay tuned for more blogging...