Big girl, about town...

Little miss loves to accessorize. She spent all morning walking around like this. She loves to look cute and loves it when you tell her! She happily posed for this picture. However she wouldn't let me take another one with her eyes open. She wanted to see!

Santa.

This picture makes me laugh. Nobody cried, which is good. Just their expressions make me laugh. I like this one even better...

Waiting to see santa, the kids were playing under a table covered in a white table cloth. I peeked under there and found them like this. Sol was patting her head and she was just chillin with her head on his lap. My mommy heart melted. This is the first time I've seen any spontaneous sibling love between them. Whoohoo!

Top 10 of 2011

Put this in our Christmas Card this year....

Cook’s Top 10 of 2011

10. Sol says “Goodbye” to diapers, and “Hello” to Superkids Preschool!

9. Ruby learns to crawl, walk, run, and most recently, to run away!

8. Dave gets a new job at Adobe where he’s traveling a lot but home more when he’s home. Plus frequent flier miles…bonus!

7. Megan now teaches piano to six budding talents and loves it more than ever!

6. The family went on a two week get-a-way to exotic Idaho where we played, swam, skied, fished, farmed, and relaxed.

5. Solomon discovers Spiderman (circa 1968, thanks Netflix) and hones his bad guy fighting skills.

4. Ruby discovers Elmo, candy (especially chocolate), dancing, high fives, and the sand box. She reports that in her 1.5 years, life has never been better!

3. Dave learns new coping skills with the loss of his beloved “Jane” (his mountain bike) and reports that life does exist off the mountain.

2. Megan learns new coping skills as her toddler turns into a boy and her baby turns into a toddler. She reports “chaos is the new cool!”

1. The best part of 2011…. We have each other, thick and thin, good and bad, and for that we are grateful. We’re grateful for the Savior and His eternal gift to us. And most of all we are grateful for YOU!

2011

Today I had one of those 30,000 foot view moments. I was writing "2011" on the back of an ornament that Sol made at preschool today. 2011. I put it on the tree and noticed another ornament that said 2010 and then 2008, Sol's 1st Christmas. I thought "next year I'll write 2012 on another ornament." Woah. I'm not ready for 2011 to be over! Its gone entirely too fast, as cliche as that is to say. Its contained some truly treasured memories. I'm kind of grasping on to 2011 with two hands. I can't tell you how many times I've thought "I want to write about this on my blog." or "I want to remember how great this was." or "I want to write these thoughts out for the world to read and make judgement on."

Alas. There are only 25 days left of golden little 2011 and I can't get anymore of it back. It goes on. All we have on this earth is time. And it keeps on a-tickin'. Its been a while since I've had one of these 30,000 foot view moments. And I'm grateful for it. But I'm going to miss 2011.

Okay, another rant. So for some reason I really like even numbered years. I decided when I was a kid that good things happen to me in even numbered years and odd numbered years were lame. I could go into detail about how I made this decision but I'll spare you. So I hadn't given much thought to 2011. Instead of setting goals for 2011 I set goals thinking, by 2012 I will...

Surprisingly I really like 2011. Its not because 2011 had many incredible memories, its because I started 2011 in a major funk. My health was in a funk, my mental state was in a funk, my emotional state was certainly funky, and I felt a long ways from healthy. After realizing and accepting my current state I made the decision that I wanted to by healthy. In every sense of the world. I figured by summer I'd be doing much better. However, that was not the case. It took me a few months to get healthy physically. Then I got to work on me. The inside. I say "got to" because it I seemed like stuff surfaced that had to be dealt with, and I didn't have a choice on the 'when' aspect. To make a long story short, in the last month things have finally clicked. I'm feeling strong. I feel "healthy." And I know I can get stronger. But I'm happy that I made the choice to be "healthy." I choose it still. I'm sad 2011 is over because it feels like I just showed up. And all that time I was working through stuff and over stuff is gone. And there were good little morsels in all those months of getting "healthy."

So I'm going to do my best to write down the best parts in the next 25 days while 2011 still exists... stay tuned...