Merry Christmas From the Cook Family - 2018

This year, we decided to include a year in review letter with our card. I don't think we'll take this same route next year, as I don't like how small the photos had to be, but we may include a typed letter WITH our card from now on. We'll see!

Anyway... Merry Christmas, friends!

The Cook family sends warm wishes for a fantastic holiday season to your families! Enjoy!

Josephine's First Year: Monthly Updates

I still can't believe it's been a year. How insane. Our final baby, the caboose to our little family, is one year old. She grew so quickly over her first year after starting out so slowly. We can't believe she blossomed into this 22 pound toddler from such a dainty little baby.

From her birth announcement photo taken at about 12 hours old to each of her monthly updates, watch Josephine grow!

Random fun fact: Josephine's birth announcement photo was taken in Wichita Falls, Texas, where we lived at the time of her birth. We moved when she was 2.5 weeks old, however, so months one through 10 photos were taken at our home in Panama City, Florida. We then moved to Hampton, Virginia, where months 11 and 12 were taken (11 in the TLF on base and 12 in our new home).

Josephine Turns 1!

On November 21st, our sweet little Josephine Jayne turned ONE! How the time passed so quickly, I will never have any idea. She has been the perfect addition to our family and is an absolute delight!

We had a "donut grow up" party for her (I'll share her donut smash pictures soon!), and we had a few friends and my mom (her Gammaw) over to celebrate with a little brunch party. She even got to wear her donut pajamas! It was a perfect morning, and our teenie weenie Josepheenie had a blast! This girl has more nicknames than anyone in the history of the world, I'm pretty certain.

Josephine's personality is developing rapidly, and she is a hoot! She makes us laugh constantly, and she adores her big sister. Annabelle loves her too, thank goodness. Josie loves being tickled and spun around and rough-housed. She is a total mama's girl, but her eyes light up when her daddy gets home from work anyway. She is still breastfeeding, but she also eats literally any other food you give her. She doesn't turn anything away yet, and it's great.

JoJo doesn't love bath time, mostly because she hates having water poured over her head to wash her hair. Playing in the bubbles with her big sister helps a bit, though. Our Joey Girl babbles all day, claps her hands when she's happy, asks for more in sign language, says mama and dada, points at what she wants, walks all over the place, and is just a happy, delightful little girl. Jo makes people smile everywhere we go, and she is seriously such a great baby. Hopefully she'll be just as great of a toddler!

Josephine Jayne, we can't believe you've been with us for more than a year already. We love you more than anything, and we are so happy you're a part of our family!

Have you ever had anything other than birthday cake at your birthday party? We did have a cake as well (because duh - it was her first birthday, after all!), but we really did enjoy the donuts being different.

Family Photos in Panama City, FL - 2018

For my birthday this year, all I asked for was a family photo session. We had been having an incredibly difficult year (as Dan was so busy with B Course, and I was adjusting to running the house with TWO kids in a new place where we didn't know many people - and no one else with kids). It was just plain rough.

But our kids were growing so quickly, and I wanted to capture them at their adorable ages AND have photos as proof that we made it through our toughest season yet! We will always have these to look back on, and I am so grateful.

I'm also glad I chose to have the photo session on base. We had these taken at the bay (because Annabelle was scared of the big, nice beach on base) at Tyndall Air Force Base a month before Hurricane Michael completely destroyed the entire area.

It was almost bedtime, so the girls weren't too happy, but we did get some great shots that I am so happy with. Josephine mostly wanted to eat sand, and we were all covered in it by the end of the session. But we are SO glad we had these photos taken, and we ordered a few in large canvases to hang in our living room.

Do you take family photos every year or for certain occasions? I love the idea of yearly family photos to track how the kiddos grow!

Our New Home (We Made it to Virginia!)

Way back in April, we found out we would be moving to Langley AFB in Hampton, VA upon Dan's graduation from F-22 Raptor B Course in August. We were thrilled! It was our number one choice, and I will say, now that we've been here for a couple months, we are SO happy.

There's a lot to do here with and without kids, unlike our last base, and we have been having fun checking out many of the fun things to do. Annabelle is settled into a new preschool that came highly recommended, and Josephine is settling into her new routine as a one year old (more to come on that soon!).

We bought our house, and it's been fun putting effort into decorating it this time around since we know we will be here for three years instead of just one! It feels like an eternity, and I am so glad! We have been married for 4.5 years and have moved across the country FOUR times already! We moved from Colorado to Ohio... Ohio to Texas... Texas to Florida... and now Florida to Virginia! We are SO ready to stay put and lay down some real roots here.