B-days & B-rooms

Our sweet first born nephew Mackay is 2!! He is a handsome blue eyed toddler. He immediately looks like his crazy daddy, but has so much of his sweet momma in him when you really watch him. He is shy. Loves sweets. Adores his Pops. Watches you out of the corner of his eyes. Will say E and point at himself :). Loves to be outdoors. 

Eason & Brittany helping Mackay blow out his candle.

Our little sweet cheek Julian celebrated his first birthday in January. He is such a cute fella. He is curious and oh so smart. He loves balls, his momma, Nana, Granddad, and nature :). He began walking before his first birthday. I've seen this little guy fall, hit his face, jump back up and keep going like nothing happened. He is a tough cookie with the most adorable chuckle and smiles.

 Julian enjoying his carrot cupcake.

Ahhh, I can't believe how fast they are both growing - they are so fun to watch!

At the beginning of this year - Seth and I decided to host a shower (or at least I'd host along with Seth's sister and aunt) for our soon to be sister-in-law at our home. For this event we wanted to paint our guest bathroom. I went in desiring a grey/yellow themed bathroom. 

It didn't quite turn out that way, but in the end I LOVE my new bathroom :).

These were 'greys' that I was working with. All look brownish to me.

French Grey - looking brown to me.

I'd gotten a few paint samples and we didn't love any. Seth didn't want to continue 'spending money' on samples so he told me to buy a gallon of something. We did. It was the darker color in the above picture. I didn't like it. Seth basically told me to get over it (in a nice way). He wanted to piece the bathroom back together before repainting. After he lived with this color for a few weeks - he ended up disliking it as well (thankfully)! We decided to repaint before piecing it back together. We chose North Star - a blueish grey. Not what I had in mind, but we both have ended up liking it.

Seth is an extremely detailed guy.
 Meticulous. 
I can certainly agree that is one characteristic he inherited from his father.

We begin the preparations to paint in January.

Then we found this little issue.

There was a medicine cabinet here. There is one in both of our bathrooms and I wanted both of them gone. While we were paint prepping we took the cabinet down. Underneath we found this hole.

Seth wasn't happy in the least. He didn't find any humor in this situation.
After this - he found a lot of little detailed items that he 'wouldn't be able to live with', so we ended up taking everything out of the bathroom other than the tub.

Then we realized we were in school. An exam arose. Life got crazy. We had been looking into getting a dog. A dog became available.  I was told I would have an additional job added to my plate (that is WAY WAY more than I'm qualified for - but I'll handle it like a champ - hopefully).

We got stressed.
We may have argued a tad.
But we still like each other.

Aggie Girl.

She is so fun. Adds a new dimension to our lives. She's crazy. She may have peed in the house. We may have spanked her. We haven't kicked her out yet.

Aggie resting on Seth's jacket and next to his 15 pairs of shoes he likes to leave by the doors and in the hallways at all times :).

Doing some sanding.

Our first paint choice - Morning Fog. Didn't love it.

In the middle of all the bathroom renovating and schoolwork we did find time to enjoy ourselves. We attended a murder mystery dinner with some friends.

We won these nose glasses for having the worst murder mystery idea. Yikes. 

We also enjoyed an oyster roast with Seth's work in Georgetown. It was a great time and delicious oysters.

Seth and I with a few of his co-workers and board members.

Oysters - delicious.

I created some artwork for our bathroom.

Seth destroyed our house during the renovating. 

Most of the finished product. Please excuse the exposed TP.

Seth and I are BEYOND pleased with how our bathroom turned out. I got everything I wanted (other than the grey color) and we have so enjoyed it. Knowing our bums and the bums of our closest friends and family are the only bums that have been on this toilet is wonderfully refreshing :).

So excited to see the faces of my parentals and brother/sis-in-law/nephew and family this weekend. It's been so long! Hope you all enjoy your Easter!

He'll always be my favorite -
The Cook's :).

Cook Christmas

I love being married to this kid.

He's entertaining. Loving. Genuine. Detailed. Kind. Serious. Smart. Supportive. And he protects my Bird Feeder from Squirrels.

Now back to wrapping up Christmas.

We spent the first half of Christmas with my family and the latter half of Christmas with Seth's family.

Seth's parents.

Getting ready to open presents.

The soon to be newly wed Cooks.

I sure do love being a Cook. 

I love being able to make a smiley face out of the two O's.

I like that it is at the beginning of the Alpha.

I enjoy that I usually only have to say it once and never really have to spell it.

And I love how I can connect kitchen like puns at my leisure.

Karla will enjoy all these little things as well :).

Sweet Julian smiling big at his momma.

We enjoyed having a little kid around the Cook house this Christmas. He kept things entertaining and just has the sweetest grins.

 Julian w/ his Madre and Grandparents.

I think this photo is sweet.

The Cutsinger family.

Tacky Christmas Sweater.

I think one of the hardest things about being married is having to split time with family for holidays and just life. It's so tough to keep things fair. It's hard to make everyone happy - and Seth and I can stress ourselves out if anyone is unhappy about something. It's not easy to coordinate with my family, Seth's family, sibling's in-laws families, etc. We've done the best we can thus far and hope to continue that if we are able.

Now off that soap box.  My family has always had a traditional Southern New Year's Dinner. Seth and I have continued that tradition for our family. We usually don't have turkey - but Jay and Steph are awesome and provided us with some turkey for the meal. We made collards, black eyed peas, rice, cornbread, and hog-jowls. For dessert I made one of Seth's moms recipes - Chocolate Pecan Pie.

The fellas preparing the turkey that Jay brought.

Chocolate Pecan Pie.

It has a little breakage going on there, but it is still pretty and was delicious.

Seth is a pie kinda guy. 

He loves sweets.

I'm trying to avoid sweets.

Every so often I try to please my man. 

So, I made one of his favorite desserts (next to a fruit cobbler, of course).

At the first of the year Seth and I promised to STAY HOME. We have a lot we want to get done at our home. School was starting up. We were traveling WAY too much. It's been good - but we still never have enough time :).  For the first three weekends in January - we traveled one day each weekend - but hey at least we weren't gone for the whole weekend!

That sums up the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015.
2015 - be good to us!

And make sure we get back to this place for a visit!

The Cook's :).

Sineath Christmas.

Gosh - I'm sure you all have been just as FULL of life as Seth and I have.

We had a wonderful Christmas.

Enjoyed Family.

Had a HUGE, lovely, WIDE Christmas tree.

At a bonfire it blew up in flames and burned within mili-seconds.

Seth didn't like it.

He told me we would NEVER get a live Christmas tree at Thanksgiving again.

I told him - Yes we are.

He told me - No we aren't.

Then gave me you aren't going to win this one stare down.

And I said okay.

The weekend before Christmas we enjoyed seeing Seth's cousin get married. We went to a square dancing party the night before their wedding. Being as Seth and I have never square danced we were a little unsure of this adventure. We ended up having a WONDERFUL time. Seth even asked if we can try to find a square dancing crowd in Florence to get in with.

Only if there was more time in the day sweet Seth.

Seth's Parents and us at the Barn Dance

The Marsh kiddo's minus Woody.

 I really enjoy this picture of Granddad w/ sweet Julian.

What is it about our nephews? They both just ADORE their Granddad & Pops.

Mom opening her 'gag' gift.

My mom and dad are some of the HARDEST people to buy for.

Like Ever.

It's Ridiculous.

And there has been a time where ol Daddio took the gift idea Eason and I had for Mom.

It was mean. Rude.

We don't let him live it down.

Anywho - Mom and Dad always say 'Let me think about it' and then always come back with 'I don't really need anything. I have everything I need.'

Although, it didn't quite come to that with them this year (they actually told us a few items they could use) - Seth and I thought we'd play a trick on Victra.

We pretended to make a donation for her to an organization (I know that is awful sounding right - but we had to do it - don't judge).

We gave her a card letting her know we contributed to an organization in her name.

So, I gave her a few items and then gave her this goodie.

She opened it up.

Looked at it.

Looked at us.

Busted out laughing.

Showed it to Dad.

And was putting it back into the bag.

No thank you.

Just an awkward laugh/grin to reveal her dislike.

She then told me she would definitely start telling me things she wanted during holidays and birthdays if this is what my plan was to do. 

We laughed and proceeded to tell her it was a joke and we did no such thing.

Opening up a gift from Gam and Pops.

Gift from E and Uncle Seth.

Love my bro.

Even though Eason can be a turd.

He is a great brother.

He is always available for talking or texting.

Will always listen and provide his take on things.

Supportive like no other.

Not a great picture buddy at times.

He's my go to kid and I couldn't ask for a better little brother :).

Sineath kiddos and grandkiddo.

Henley & Mackay

Carsyn opening her gift.

Catherine and her gifts.

Eason and Aunt Macka.

I'm not sure where we got Macka from. I think we weren't able to properly say Martha for some reason, so Macka came about and we have stuck with that for all my days.

A gift from my cousin that my sis-in-law made :). 

Cook - est. 2010.

Goodness - 4.5 years with this stud. I'm still loving it.

Laughing at Seth.

My mom is an AWFUL picture taker. She will cut your head off in a second while taking a picture. I had her take a picture of Seth and I and darn it if she didn't cut my man's head off AGAIN. So, Seth took a picture of her like she takes a picture of us. Then he got one of us laughing at what he was doing. I enjoy the laughing one.

Seth doing a Victra with the camera.

The Sinclair kiddos.

Sweet Addy B and Victra.

That's about all I can do for now. I'll post pictures from our Greenwood Christmas and other happenings in the next blog.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend - Boy am I ecstatic that it is FRIDAY :).

Much love from us Cook's :).