Justin Ron Cottrell

He is here!!

Justin was born Monday January 26, 2009 at 11:39 am. He weighed 8lbs 10 oz and was 21 inches long!!

He came really fast so his poor face was really bruised at first but is all gone with now. I had great help with my mom and we have been enjoying her company here so much that I am just getting to this post.

We are all doing great and having fun with this new addition to our family!!

Hayden's Three!!

Happy Birthday Hayden!!

It was Hayden's birthday January 12 and since we just arrived home from vacation and were in the mode of restocking empty shelves with groceries, cleaning and trying not to deliver a baby too soon, we had a party with just our little family.

The extent of our party was a bucket of Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes, tater babies and rolls from Jewel/Osco and cake and ice cream. When I asked Hayden "Are you excited to eat your cake soon?" He was already hoping in his seat and said "Chicken!! I want to eat Chicken!" He downed two drumsticks and a thigh all on his own and they were completely picked clean of any remaining meat. WOW I was impressed with the kid.
We have alot of fun on birthday's and a big thing with us is what kind of birthday cake are you going to have (and if I can make that character or not). Who doesn't like having a theme set for their big day!! This year Hayden picked Batman for his cake. He really liked Batman climbing up on the side!!To surprised Hayden we decorated the dinning room with blue streamers, a balloon tied to his chair, and his blue wrapped present. He came in the room and just said "WOW Mom for ME?"

Hayden's present was a remote control Thomas train track set. I got this on my 4:30am Black Friday trip this year such a bargain!! He loved it. I'm not loving the Thomas theme song being played continuously right now but hey he's happy.

Here are some other fun cakes we have done together!!

Spiderman Star Wars Red velvet 4th of July cake

Mickey Mouse Elmo

Disneyland/Arizona Christmas Blast!!

We are back!! And yes I made it through the airport with two kids, a car seat and stroller to maneuver, 1 three hour lay over and being 9 months pregnant. We were gone almost 3 weeks and Nathan was there for a full 2 weeks its was great!! I won't go into a day by day run down of all that we did because would just take too long! So here is a summary!

* Arrived in Arizona and stayed at the Thompson Retreat (the new house my dad and his brothers bought together)

* Hot wheel birthday party for Clayton. He is 5 years old!!

* Drove a quick 5 hours away to see Aunt Gail and family in Yorba Linda CA

Aunt Jessa with the boys by Gail's gorgeous tree!!

* Toured a huge 7 MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE being built by friends of my Aunt Gail. And saw some of the homes that unfortunately were completely burnt down by the recent California fires.

* 2 day adventure to Disney Land and California Adventure Theme Parks!! Hayden loved the parades and Clay was such a dare devil with all the rides he went on!

* Back to Arizona to Thompson Retreat

Aunt Sophie with Hayden

Swam at the house, huge card tournaments, festive dinners, Christmas, Movies

* Saw the annual Christmas light decorations at the Mesa Arizona Temple

*Watch Grandpa Delwyn's horse come in 2nd at Turf Paradise Race track

*Toured Model homes

* Arizona Zoo with the most gorgeous weather.

Whole Thompson Family in attendance!!! With two new babies on the way!!

I know I am missing tons of things that we did but the most important of all was being together with all the family. It was the best!

Thanks Mom and Dad for making such a fun trip possible for all of us! You both are so giving and thoughtful to those around you. You are our examples to follow!!

Finally!!

Since we are FINALLY headed to Arizona for some R & R, Christmas, and New Years ;), I wanted to make sure of a few things.


House cleaned. . . bags with gifts packed (and not to weigh over 50 lbs or suffer a fee). . . go to last minute doctor appointment and confess I am flying this late in my pregnancy he he he . . . get quilt done!!!


I FINALLY have checked all of those things off!!



I am a little bit put off on the fact that pretty much all airlines are now charging for any bags that you check. The fee for our flight is $15 per bag!! That is ridiculous!! Didn't I already pay tons of money for the plane ticket to begin with? I believe that should include the curtsy of 1 checked bag, I mean it is called traveling when we fly right? Any way


I told family and friends that I would post pictures of the baby room when I got done changing things. Most know that I wanted to turn it into a cowboy room equipped with a new wall paper border, baby fleece quilt and my first pieced block quilt.

Various shot of the Baby Room.


I loved the fabrics that I had found and even though it was a learn as you go. . .by my self. . .using old math skills. . .and finding out how much detail there is to binding I am really happy with how it all turned out. One problem I had was how to quilt the blanket. I didn't want to pay someone over $150 to quilt it for me and quilting it by hand trying to stretch over a prego belly wasn't a good option either, so I ended up machine quilting the blanket with my sewing machine. Again, I had to pull math metrics from the brain to make sure that when I used chalk to map out my design I had my numbers right!!

I ended up doing a diamond design for the middle, a single line for the inner border, and parallel lines for the outer border so when they connected on the corners they made a square.

I love how this fleece fabric matches so great with my quilt!! Even the bucking broncos in the tan block match that of the wall paper!!

Sugar Cookies!!

Even though we are going to be away for Christmas , and maybe because I am pregnant, but I felt the need to make SUGAR COOKIES!! One of those huge mess projects with many no don't touch that it's hot, or No, not the red food coloring, but in the end definitely worth it.

Hard at work!!

Moving the little table in the center of the kitchen always helps contain messes!

HMMM the tasty treats!!

What else did I gain when we finished . . . a scary kitchen , oh well, so worth it!

Early Christmas SUIT

Our family is going to be spending Christmas in Arizona this year. I know you are thinking Arizona? She's from Idaho. Right, but I do have Grandpa Delwyn, my dad and his brothers that farm together think Arizona is a great place to have a winter get away house and that is exactly what we are doing, having a winter get away!! We will be there for almost 3 weeks!! Going between Grandpa Delwyn's house, Dad's house, and probably my aunt Gail who lives in California for a drop in Disneyland adventure!! The boys are so excited!


Any who, since we won't be able to spend Christmas this year with Nathan's side of our family we had Christmas with them early. Nathan's parents are traveling back and forth from Louisiana and this was the only time we would be in the same state for a while. I have no doubt our boys didn't mind one bit to get to open things early ;)


The hit of the get together with the Cottrell's was Clayton's reaction to his new suit he was given by Gr & Gr Cottrell!! His eyes lit right up and he said "I have a tie!! I can look just like dad now!"

That next Sunday Clay woke up at 6:30 (Nathan is gone already at this time being the ward clerk and all) and strolled into my room holding is entire suit on it's NEW hanger and his nice church belt, totally only half awake saying "Can I put my suit on now Mom?" other comments that day were "I don't want it to get wet when we go outside so I have to wear my coat too Mom, not just my new suit jacket -K?" "Mom you have to iron my shirt, it had some wrinkles!" This was in a tone of pure desperation from Clayton which I only could laugh at.
All too eager to pose!!


Hayden was a little anxious with all the gifts, like any two year old is going to be. He kept opening anything with wrapping paper in site. I loves his new blue coat that looks just like Clayton's. They call them their marshmallow coats. I guess that is what you could call a fluffy down feather coat huh!


Thanks Diana and Steve for such a fun Christmas time with you. We will miss not being with you and can't wait till we see you both again.