HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSAY!

WHO IS READY FOR SNOWBOARDING / FIRE SEASON?

"My Boys", Luke and Issac, came over for another slumber party with Ian and Mallie! Ian had all of his snowboarding stuff out in preparation for his trip to Utah. Because we (luckily) haven't seen much snow this year, the snowboarding boots became Fireman Boots, and they loaded up in their very comfy Fire Truck Recliner, and Ian spun the two Firemen around until I was sick for them! I do love a good party with my favorite 4 year old and two year old!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Since we don't send out Christmas Cards, we decided to post our Family Christmas Picture for all to see! Obviously, picture time is a big ordeal at our house!
HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!

Picnic in Sunny Arizona ... in DECEMBER!!

70 degrees in AZ in December!

Whitney, Elliot, Stella, Lindsay, Keith and I had a picnic on Saturday in sunny Arizona.

We played a very competitive game of 500 with a frizbee and football. Obviously, my efforts could not be matched by my competetors!

When I finally reached 500, and it was my turn to throw the football, I found that my once good throwing arm could no longer throw the distanced I once measured in 6th grade. For some reason, no one thought it was fun to stand less than 10 feet in front of me, so they made me kick the football to them instead.

Have I ever mentioned the ribbon I won in Punt, Pass, and Kick in 8th grade? That's because there never was one.

MY BEAUTIFUL SISTERS!

I'm back in sunny Arizona to spend some time with my baby sisters Whitney and Lindsay. Being here in the sunshine makes me wonder if I should actually return to Michigan. I mean, seriously, Ian only has a year left. I'm sure he'd be fine without me for just one quick year!!! This picture was taken last March for Sisters Week in AZ when we all came to help little Lindsay after her 3rd Open Heart Surgery. Now that her 4th and last surgery has been a success, we just might have to think of other good reasons to get together.

I went with Lindsay to get an echocardiogram on Monday. The Tech performing the echo kept complementing Lindsay on the condition of her heart, telling her that from her perspective, it was hard to tell that there was ever any defect. She kept saying, "It's amazing!"
Yes, it's true - inside and out - my sister Lindsay is amazing!

4 GENERATIONS!

Great Grandma Jean

Grandma Diane

Holly Dee

Baby McKenzie

NEW BLOGGERS IN THE FAMILY

Miles and Tommy have started their own blog!
Rumors, Gossip and Innuendos!
Now we have a new link to click on - lets hope they update more than the rest of you slackers!!!
TomandMiles.blogspot.com

TURKEY DAY!

Miles and Tom are visiting us from Ohio to celebrate all we are thankful for. We are thankful that the big delicious meal is done and over with so we can get on to better thanksgiving day things...like NAP TIME!!!!

THE BROTHERS! and HOLLY & HOLLY

ETHAN IS 8!!!

A Utah visit to see The Monkey

Last the Best of All the Games!

My sister Lindsay is the baby of the family. She is the cutest, the funniest, and...the cutest! Because of her personality characteristics and placement in the family, she rightfully became the PRINCESS of the kingdom! This beautiful Princess Lindsay had her 4th and final Open Heart Surgery on Thursday. They finaly switched the major vessels in her heart to opposite sides, something they didn't know how to do 26 years ago when they performed her first surgery at 3 months old. Now she should be able to run, jump, play, clog, have babies, skip, dance, pretend like she's the lead in every musical, and everything else this little princess wants to do! Because she is so strong spirited and strong willed, she has had quick recoveries in the past. We are all praying for a healthy and speedy recovery for this LAST and final surgery. Keep my little Lindsay in your prayers!

My Shweetie Ran A Marathon!

A very sad day for Natalie!

I am so sad! My BEST FRIEND moved away...and he took his parents with him.
I will miss my MONKEY Corbin and his Mommy and Daddy, Tiffany and Coby. The boys, hard at work, loading the moving truck.

Believe it our not, we have already had our first SNOW of the season! It snowed about 2 inches in Lansing, and up to 8 inches by the end of the day in other parts of the state on October 12th.

They say we beat the First Snow Record by one day back in 1909! Sweet - we're in for a long winter...and I'm so excited!

I'm as excited as a kid who's ready to get a whipping for lying about eating all the fudgesicles.

UNKA!

We had a welcome visitor today!
My Uncle Steve, lovingly known as UNKA,
happened to be in our neighborhood and stopped in for a visit!
I decided I should use this occasion to actually fix a meal. So we had dinner, then took him on a quick city tour to see Ians Law School, the MSU campus, and all the run down houses in our hood! Quite enjoyable!
Note: We made sure he was a Tigers Fan before returning home to the State of Washington!

I have the best sisters in the whole world.
The other day, I was talking to my baby sister, Lindsay, and she happened to mention the book "The Five Love Languages". Being the great communicator I am, I cut her off and started telling her MY story about the book. I told her how it was recommended to me a couple of years ago by a wonderful friend, and that I new it was awesome book, but that I had never read it.

2 days later, I got the book in the mail from my baby sister! I LOVE YOU LINDSAY! You are the best! (I'm using words of affirmation).

Along with my other two, isn't she the best sister in the whole world!!!!!!

ANOTHER CAMPING TRIP

Every year, Ian and a small Cooley group like to go night fishing up north. So, we packed our bags, (and an electric blanket this time) and went camping and night fishing.

The Fall Season is so beautiful in Michigan, so we decided to take a few pictures of our beautiful selves in the beautiful surroundings.

As you might have noticed, the camera must have been broken, because the surroundings, and ourselves aren't so beautiful in this picture!

Maybe next year we will miraculously become a photogenic couple!

For a Good Time
1-800-click-Brittni

under LINKS on the left, you dirty perverts!

Does the Lord answer prayers? YES!

Today before conference, we had a special stake meeting where they desolved our ward and reset the stake boundaries. Which means two things:
1) Ian is no longer Elders Quarum President.
2) Natalie is no longer 1st councelor in the Relief Society/2nd Sunday teacher in the R.S.

LET US ALL SING PRAISES!!!!!

But... if I get called into the Primary of our new ward, I'm thinking this would be a perfect time to go inactive. (No offence to anyone who currently has a Primary calling and enjoys it).

And then I watched conference and decided that going inactive is not an option for me right now...or ever. Thank goodness for an every 6 month reminder that the Lord know us individually, and will love us unconditionally, even if we don't want to serve in the Primary, but I have to be willing too anyway.

Fine! Put me in with the CTR's, but I wont do the nursery!

NAT 'N' HONEY

Hi. My name is Natalie Service and I'm addicted to Cox Honey.

A big thank you to the Bangart Family for supplying me with my current bucket.

If you have my name for Christmas, then this is a BIG hint of what I want.

SWEET BABY GIRL!

Ian's baby sister, Holly, and her husband Jake, had a baby girl on September 12th.
They named her McKenzie.

It's never too late for Spring Cleaning!

How do you know when it's really time to clean your house?

Well besides the obvious answers like: When the trash start walking it's self out the door. Or, when the stuff in the sink not only looks something like Everest, but it also stinks like the gease trap at McDonalds.

Well, I'm happy to report that since my college days, I've not had a problem with afore mentioned sink and trash problems.

My new and obvious indication that I don't pay as much attention to my house as I should can be found in the window sills.

I should have known something was wrong when Ian announced the other day, "I think my housekeeper is broken."

Ummm, yes, he was referring to ME!

...and lest I forget...my new "BFF of the Week" is Coby!

" I don't know. Something AMAZING I guess!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!Tiffany has a way of telling a story that make me start laughing before she's even done telling it. She always entertaining, loveable, and funny. Tiffany is my running buddy. When we get back to the house after our daily runs, our husbands always ask which one we ran more; our LEGS or our MOUTHS! I personally think it's none of their business, they both sound like exersise to me! Given, one might help the hips more than the other, but that's neither here nor there!My BFF Tiffany is SOMETHING AMAZING I GUESS!

GONE FISHIN'

Besides playing soccer, snowboarding, running, reading, and laughing at his own jokes, Ian also enjoys FISHING! He is currently in between semesters and so decided to take a mini vacation up north, to the prettier parts of Michigan, to see what he could catch. His brother flew in from Utah to enjoy this fishing trip with him. Pictured are the salmon we caught during last years trip. I'm hoping he comes home with some big fish, and not just some big fish story!

THE VERY YELLOW KITCHEN!

I need to change the color in my kitchen from
"icey-minty-green"
to something else.
I thought I settled on "belguim waffle".
But it's not looking as "belguim" as I thought!
Instead, it's looking
VERY YELLOW!
Help me people!
What should I do?

GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN

We were inspired to take a day-trip to Grand Haven, one of our favorite places in Michigan. The water of Lake Michigan was perfect...even though we took our day-trip on a Sunday.

On our hour drive to the beach, we drove straight into a huge thunderstorm. By the time we got there, the beach was clear and free of people and the sky was turning a beautiful shade of blue as the remaining clouds disappeared! We felt like we had Lake Michigan to ourselves...for a little while, atleast!

It was very nice to relax and hang out with Ian. Who wouldn't want to hang out with him? He's such a cutie!

Stella is 2!

There is nothing
more precious
than a
2 year old Princess!

Homemade Jelly

Have you ever caught yourself telling little white lies? Just little ones? Well, I've learned that saying "YES" to something that I didn't really want to do is classified as a huge LIE! And it could eventually lead to Compound Lies. I know you know what I'm talking about!

The wonderful lady I share my garden plot with asked if I wanted to finish picking the rest of her currants to make jelly.

"Yes."

Why? Why did I say yes? That means work, time, and energy would be spent on something I didn't really want to do. So then she pressured me until every last currant was off the vine, then, as nice as she is, supplied me with all the tools I would need to make some jelly, clear down to the jars, then sent me on my way with 80 cups of sugar to make jelly!

Well, since I really didn't want to make jelly in the first place, I kinda forgot about the currants and soon they were spoiled, thus rendering them too rotten for jelly. Darn.

But then comes the real issue: When the nice lady corners me at church and asks how the jelly turned out...what am I supposed to say?

Maybe I should just tell her that my homemade jellly was delicious.

WHEN I GROW UP, I WANNA BE JUST LIKE YOU!

Jamie
&
Hallie
Jamie is my awesome friend from my NAU days! She now lives in Washington and I miss the long nights we used to spend together - scrapbooking! Jamies daughter, Hallie, was just a year old when we all moved away. I think I taught her one of her first words. "UP" Now she's all grown up!

"We're on a date, Mallie"

You might call it babysitting. We call it a date!
Friday night is "date night" so Ian and I took our best buddies, Luke and Isaac, on a date to give their mom and dad and new baby Audrey a break.

We loaded them up in the car and took them to our garden and made them weed it for .10 cents a row!

Oh, sorry! That was a bit of my childhood creeping up on me.

We really did take them to our garden where they did some "scoopers", "dumpers" and "digs" in the dirt while I did a bit of weeding. Then we threw some rocks in the river...and at the ducks. We figured out that ducks like bread better than rocks, so we found some bread to throw at the ducks instead. After a quick driveby of McDonalds for some nuggets, we ended up at a playground and played until the sun went night nights.

After strapping Isaac into his carseat (which is actually the drivers seat in a fire truck) he announced very energetically, "We're on a date, Mallie!" I LOVE DATE NIGHT!!!

KNEE HIGH BY THE 4TH OF JULY!

OUR SUMMER GARDEN