Mommy's Slaves -just kidding

This week I made a chore chart, and put these kids to work! So far, it works well and they're excited to do their jobs and get a sticker toward a prize! The jobs on the chart are get dressed (by themselves), jobs on their job wheel (below), Quick Clean- clean up as much as you can in one room while a song plays, and make bed.

These are the job wheels. Each day they have 2 jobs. They turn their wheel to the next pictures, which I will trade around between kids each week. Some of the jobs look hard, but I just want them to do a little, to learn how, and get used to doing chores! We'll see how long it lasts! Hopefully this will keep working well!

Today our church is having a Harvest Party! I made a Tweety Bird cake for the cake walk. Meadow chose this one from a cake decorating catalog. I'm glad she chose this instead of one of the wedding cakes! It didn't turn out too professional looking, but it was fun. I've really had the urge to decorate cakes lately, for some reason.

I had to include Ashlen here, who loudly screeched like a pterodactyl throughout the cake decorating process! She is growing up so fast! She sits up really well now, can feed herself cracker pieces, and is almost crawling. She slides herself all over! She's a sweety, but also can out-scream and out-cry anyone! She's SO LOUD, especially when I'm getting dinner ready and at night!

Little Musicians

Yesterday at church we had a wonderful, unexpected surprise! A lady asked if we needed a piano, and GAVE us this full size electric piano! She's had it stored in her garage for 5 years, and nobody has wanted it. This is something we have been really wanting for the kids, (and me!) and we have been looking into them, but they were way more than we could afford. Meadow is interested in learning music, and wants to play piano (pianyo, as she calls it) so I am excited to start teaching her! We are thankful for how God provides!! Today we got a pretty lamp to go on it! Meadow and Logan are playing a duet.

Today some sample pieces of the new platform for the church came in. (It's finally getting replaced after many years of good use!) Matthew brought them home to test them out before taking them to the church. Here's some future worship band members- Brennen on drums, Logan on guitar and lead vocals, (he was singing a very sweet song: "Jesus is in Hea-ven, Jesus is in Hea-ven...") and Meadow doing a mixture of sign language, singing, and dancing! It was lovely! Ashlen was joining in too with shrieks, AHHAAHHs, and cries. She's laying on the floor in the background. I don't quite know what part of the worship team she is!

Anyway, they determined the stage worked quite well!

Big Boy Brennen

Now that he's two, Brennen has been really trying to be a big boy. Yesterday when we were leaving, he climbed into the van and closed the door. I found him sitting in one of the older kids booster seats with the seat belt across him (not buckled) and a big, proud smile on his face! He tries to use the bathroom by himself too, and does pretty well...except for one gross little incident...but I'll spare you from the details. Also, every night he climbs into Logan or Meadow's bed, really wanting a "big boy bed", so we took the side off his crib. He's very happy about it, but is learning the difficult lesson of staying in bed!Here's the newest member of our family, Ovino, the albino plecostomus (a sucker fish that eats algae off the sides of the aquarium). Our tank was completely green, so he was very needed! In the background you can see one of Meadow's jellyfish. We got those at the same time. They float around in the current. She thinks they are real, but kind of knows they're not. Her eyes welled up with tears as she asked, "Are they just toys? Are they not real?" It was very sad! I couldn't tell her they weren't alive. I just said they were just like real ones, but they don't eat. Logan says, "They're just pretend."

New Fold Meeting

We will be starting a new Fold group next week at our house for families with young kids! Pastor Dave has asked Matthew to lead it. (Fold meetings are small group meetings that our church does that meet in homes.) We will meet early for dinner, then the kids will go next door to Krista and Stephanie's house! Our first meeting will be on Oct.22nd, a Thursday, which would also make it easier (than a Sunday) to get babysitters if parents prefer that. Matthew has started a blog "Family Fold" about it for people to check for information and updates. Here is the link, which is also in the sidebar: http://www.familyfold.blogspot.com/

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I just added a little more info to the family fold blog.

Big Boys

Today we celebrated Brennen and his grandpa John's birthdays! Their real birthdays are tomorrow. We had a yummy spaghetti dinner and applesauce cake. Brennen is a big 2 year old! He was excited about his birthday. Grandpa is a big 85..I mean 58 year old!

I gave him a lovely crab mug. The crab tradition started long ago. We gave Brennen, our incredible drummer boy, a set of bongos! I wish we could get video of him drumming. He does several rhythms, and keeps a pretty steady beat. He drums all day long, and really is amazing for his age! The kids all helped decorate these beautiful cupcakes.

Daddy Time

The boys love to help daddy with fire wood. Although, Logan prefers to give the instructions rather than do the work! Today I guess they weren't feeling very strong.

Ashlen is getting a building lesson during her first trip to the garage.

Dinner on a Cruise Ship

Tonight we were invited on board the Statendam to have dinner with our friend Raymond, who is a crew member, and friend of Matthew's dad. The kids were very excited, because they remembered going on a ship for lunch last summer. As we walked up to the ship, Brennen kept excitedly shouting, "Daddy! I see doot! (boat)"

Raymond enjoyed meeting Ashlen.

This is a rather rubbish photo, but I kind of like it anyway! At least it shows us eating dinner.

The kids had fun standing in this window that sticks out from the ship.

And Raymond took them all to get big strawberry ice cream cones!

Exploring the Ship

After dinner we went outside to explore the decks. The kids were really excited to go to the "area with the grass". The tropical zone... with Deer Mountain in the background!

Ashlen overlooking Ketchikan praying, "Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city_y yyy...When glory shines through hearts alive with praise for you, and love for you in this city_y yyy..."

(it's a song)

She likes cruising. And, of course, finding the pools is fun too!
As we were getting ready to disembark, Raymond bestowed many gifts upon the children, as usual!
Within seconds of snuggling with her new soft doggy, Ashlen fell sound asleep!

Happy 09/09/09

Fun Pics

Here's our picture from Splash Mountain at Disney World. This and Pirates of the Caribbean were the only "big kid" rides we went on. We waited 75 minutes in line for it! Meadow was very brave to go on this one, but when we went down the big water fall she hid! Christy is trying to hold her up. Afterward she said it was fun and wanted to go again! That's William and David in front, Christy and Meadow, Matthew making a silly face for the camera, and me. (We don't know the people in the back.)

This picture is from a "sketching" machine at Chuck E. Cheese's. We had fun with it. I thought this picture was cute! I just wish the rest of Logan's face was there. Meadow looks so beautiful!

Sweeties

Today Logan got to ride to school in daddy's big step van! Ashlen getting some quality brother time! They love their little sister! She loves them too!

School Kids!

Yesterday was Logan's first day of preschool! He was excited to go and wear his backpack. When we arrived he was a little shy about going in, but once he found the toys he was happy! There are 7 kids in his class. It's nice that his 2 buddies Kegan and Gavin are there too! Afterward, all he told us about his day was they went on a tour, and he did nothing! I think he had fun though, and is excited to go again! Today Meadow started Pre-Kindergarten. She loves school and was glad to go again. There are only 5 in her class. All we learned about her day was she "didn't learn letters."

Various Happenings

Ashlen loved her first bites of real food! Yummy runny oatmeal! Her arms shook with excitement and anticipation as I brought the spoon toward her mouth, then she grabbed it and shoved it in! Yup, another Cooke kid who loves to eat!
Then she decided she needed some vegetables. She had fun licking the grass and clover on a nice sunny day.

One evening we had a picnic dinner with my parents at the lake. It was buggy, but beautiful! The kids of course couldn't stay out of the water, and had a great time splashing around. Brennen ended up falling in, and cried and cried. Big sister Meadow rescued him and brought him to shore, where he immediately stopped crying, and went straight back in, only to fall again! Meadow rescued him a second time. After that he stayed out!

The other night our nice new neighbors bravely invited us all over for root beer floats! Anyone recognize their lovely house? Krista and Stephanie are renting our apartment now!

rest of our trip

Sorry all you blog checkers, It's been a while! We've been home nearly 2 weeks now, but here are a few more pics from our trip:

The seven grandkids

The grandparents, William, and David spent a day at the Kennedy Space Center. It just happened to be the day the space shuttle Endeavour was landing there after 16 days in space! They heard the very loud sonic boom as it came in, then on a tour to view the launch pad, they past it being towed in after landing!

The second Sunday there, everyone except for our family drove down to Naples to attend Pastor Kevin's church. William preached and introduced them to their ministry in Mexico. After that service, he and Katie spoke at a Hispanic church as well. We decided not to go because it was a three hour drive one way. That would have been hard on the kids, especially with Ashlen who screams on long drives! This next picture is not real good, (that's a spot on the lens covering Pastor Kevin's face) but it shows the whole group, who had lunch together, and then went to a nice beach. Jasen Wickert was also there visiting.

Our family attended a nice Assembly of God church nearby, then spent the day around the pool. It was really nice to have a whole day just as a family- something that rarely happens! toward the end of the trip the kids became much more brave in the water. Even Logan and Brennen, who wouldn't go in for a long time, were jumping in (with someone to catch them)!
We had a nice but long flight back, and Ashlen didn't scream this time! All the kids did very well. It was a wonderful trip!

Sea World!

We had a fun day at Sea World yesterday! Here are some pictures.The kids were trying to get a dolphin to come to them, so they could throw the ball.

Logan was really happy to see puffins! It seems kind of random, but he loves puffins!
We went to three shows- Shamu the killer whale, dolphins, and Clyde the sea lion. Ashlen loved them! She smiled and laughed through each of them! It was probably just the loud music and bright colors that she liked, but she was awfully cute! Here's Shamu posing for a picture. The shows are fun to watch! In the evening, to cool off, some of us went on the Atlantis water ride/roller coaster, which has a 50' plunge that completely soaks you at the bottom. By the time we got off, the weather had changed to a thunder storm! We got our ride just in time- after waiting over an hour in line, our boat was one of the last ones that went before they closed all rides. The storm was right above us and the thunder was so loud we thought a firework had gone off close by in the park! We cooled off alright!

All the electricity in the air has made Matthew's hair grow long! Black, and in braids too! How amazing!