Sweet Dreams...

Either she needs new reading material or I wore her out yesterday with my busy schedule. One minute she's playing with the leap pad and the next she's snoozing on it...just thought I'd share a rare quiet moment with Alli.

Birthday Boy

We celebrated Hyrum's 28th yesterday. He doesn't like being in the spotlight, getting gifts and a lot of attention but was a good sport and let his whole(S.D. crowd) family take him to lunch. I say "let" but we actually had to surprise him or he never would have gone for that. Later on in the evening when he got home from work the girls and I cooked his fav. dinner and upon Corynn's request made him a brownie sundae with one solitary candle so we could sing Happy Birthday. She wants things done properly! So this is what a 28 year old, lucky Dad of 2 and a half girls looks like! Happy Birthday!

Where did my baby go?

It's the emotional pregnant lady in me making this post. Who else would document their baby girl's first ponytail? She has enough hair now to do a pony, you know the go-to hair do when you're in a hurry. I finished her hair and stood back to take a look at her and almost cried. She looks so grown up all of a sudden! She's not a baby any more! We bought the girls a trundle bed and thought we'd slowly transition Allison out of the crib and into the trundle in Corynn's room. We haven't had one problem, and its now day 4 in her big girl bed! I thought we'd get some resistance but no, she could care less about her crib. This is all good I guess with the new baby fast approaching but I'm having a tougher time with it than she is. I told Hyrum we were losing our baby and he said, "Don't worry we're getting another one soon!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORYNN!

Corynn has been living it up the past two days. She chose a Pirate theme birthday and invited friends and cousins for yesterday's birthday bash. They played pin the patch on pirate Pete, went on a treasure hunt which turned out to be a treasure chest penata and had pirate cake and ice cream. Tonight Corynn's Grandparents and Aunt Miranda and Shea and Uncle Jared came over after church for more fun, food and gifts. She out grew her old bike long ago so she got a new bigger (almost too big) bike, did mom and dad think to get her a new bigger helmet??? No, we didn't, tomorrow maybe? I can't believe we have a 5 year old! She is growing up way too fast! She is such a good girl, she wants and tries to do everything right. We love her and are so proud of her!

Valentine's Day Fun

Just some pictures of the Valentine's day activities at the Cottrell house. Corynn made valentines for her Joy School party and was thrilled to come home with plenty of candy in return. Cousin Ben came over later on in the day and we attempted to make the traditional sugar cookies, however, I strayed from my mother's recipe (big mistake) and tried a new one and lets just say it didn't happen. Sooo we moved on to heart shaped brownies instead and I'd say it was a hit. I'd measure, they'd take turns dumping or throwing the ingredients in, and take turns stirring so needless to say I'm surprised we had anything to put in the tins especially after the taste test which they did several times and then they vanished but reappeared for the final product of their hard work!

Puddin'

Alli enjoying her first pudding snack pack. I very rarely buy these, obviously Alli is almost two and is just getting her first taste of plastic pudding, but I would have got her some sooner if I knew it was going to make her week! She discovered finger painting shortly after I took this photo. Tons of fun for under a buck, can't beat that!

Ever have one of these days?

I was looking through some old pictures and found this last zoo visit photo. I think I can relate to this poor fat animal. Its one of those days that if I had a horn or two, they'd have mud on it. I've got 9 more weeks left of this pregnancy and already feel big and awkward. Mad props to my mother she did it 7 times!