Has it really been almost 2 weeks?

So, it seems like it was just yesterday that I updated our blog.  Well, it wasn't.  Josh walked around the house last night taking pictures of our cookies we made so I would have something to put on this blog.  It's not really all that exciting, but he really enjoys cookies!!

We are excited to be going to Cornell.  Like the over planners that we are, we have already reserved our U-Haul, and planned the exact days we will be moving; packing Aug. 1, cleaning Aug.2, going to church Aug. 3, and driving away Aug. 4th.  I will wait at least another month or two before I plan the whole trip out and reserve any hotels we might need to stay in!  We are truly excited!

We did have an episode of mold two weekends ago.  We moved our books off the book shelf and found lots of fun mold!  It ruined some great books - probably between 300 and 400 dollars worth.  It was disgusting!  We are excited to move away from this problem.  They say it is just because of poor circulation through the house, which it is, but still. . . maybe better windows and doors would help slightly.  We got it cleaned up, and I make sure the house is ventilated well by turning up the heat and opening the windows - we don't pay for the heat, Wymount does.  Maybe if everyone had to do that they would see the cost benefit to updating certain things!  Anyway, we are excited to move.  I will save you from viewing any pictures of the mold we took.  Not really something one wants to look at much!

Josh is going to walk in April for his Master's degree, but we have to stay until August for him to actually finish it. Things are going well though, and all I can seem to say is that we are excited to move - If that has not become clear already. Enjoy the cookie pictures.  Maybe they will at least inspire someone else to make cookies too!! 

Valentine's

So I just thought I would share my Valentine's with you. Josh spent the last two months growing me my Valentine's flower. It was beautiful!! The fact that he thought about it two months ago is really the most impressive part, but the flower is impressive also, I loved it! 

Hope your Valentine's was just as good!

We also got to go to dinner on Tuesday to celebrate Valentine's day on a non crowded day.  That was also a lot of fun.  Josh made out with a lot of chocolate.  It's his favorite, so he is happy.  

The kids loved their candy and small gifts.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the Valentine's package for them.  They loved it!!

Cornell or Bust!!

Josh LOVES Cornell! He is so excited about it. He loved the school, the program, the people, the area and anything else he could think of!! They were really great to him and told him to expect their offer with full funding soon (either end of this week or beginning of next). He got to meet with Professors, and take a bunch of tours. I am excited because we have been looking at Cornell for about 3 years now, and I am just excited it is working out so well. I have jumped in with both feet (really should have only jumped in with one at this time) into the housing situation and what we want to do. We have made contact with a very thorough broker who has answered all of my 999,999 questions in only two days!! He is enthusiastic and great!

We are so excited to be moving on. Ok, I'm excited, and Josh will be once all his work at school is done. Until that time he just feels excited and overwhelmed with all he still has to do in the next five months.

Here are a few pictures of Cornell.



This video shows two girls playing the bells. The bells in the tower are each connected to one of the pieces of wood. The girls are playing Cornell's school song. The girl in the pink has been doing this for 2 years and the one in the black for 1. I guess it is just something they get hired to do while in school. They do it 2 or 3 times a day. I can't remember. Anyway, it's pretty cool.

Just plain cute!!

Brayden was able to enjoy some chocolate pudding on Saturday. I don't remember it being "lick the cup clean" good, but he sure thought it was!!

He thought he was so cute and funny! Which of course he is!! We think he is adorable! He also loves getting his picture taken.
The first picture is of him saying "cheese" but off to the side. The second one is of him saying "cheese" to the camera. It is by far one of the cutest things I have ever seen!!

FINALLY GOING TO VISIT CORNELL!!!

We finally got the word that Josh gets to go visit Cornell!!  We are very excited and can't wait for him to go and see what it is like there.  Hopefully this will help us decide where we are going to go for PhD school.   He will leave on the 7th of Feb. and come back on the 10th.  He will get to meet with faculty and tour the campus and the area.  It should be a great experience, and hopefully one that will help us to decide.  We are sooooooo excited he finally  gets to go!!!

Nothing really new

So, once again, time is flying past us.  Ok, not really flying, more like meandering.  Winter is ok, and I think it would actually be even more than ok, if no one in our family ever got sick!!  Brayden seems to spend 75% of the winter with some kind of ailment or other.  He was like that even last year as a new born.  Evan and Josh and myself have really only been sick once, so that at least has been nice.  Josh did get this funny side affect or what it was we don't know, but all his muscle's were really week and he could barely move around for about three days.  He couldn't even snap or open doors!  It was odd, but he is doing great now.  Still no new news from any of the other schools, so we are still waiting.  As I told my Dad last night. . . "we have a lot to do this year and a lot going on, but it all falls within the last six months of the year!  So, for the first six months we will just wait."  So, that is what we are doing.  We will try to make things fun at least, while we wait.  With these two cute kids of ours it would be hard to do otherwise.  

That's it for now from the COBBwebb!!  

This is what is interesting to a child.  

Evan LOVES taking pictures!!  More times than not they look something like this!!  Makes for some interesting pictures!

Welcome to 2008!!

Happy New Year!!

We had a wonderful Holiday Season.  The kids enjoyed many new gifts as well as visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  Evan got a new computer (really our old computer) and a camera.  Brayden got hokey pokey Elmo.  I recieved the rest of the Twilight books - New moon and Eclipse.  I read them within three days of Christmas.  I really enjoy them.  Josh got a new mouse for his computer as well as some speakers for his ipod. 

We also recieved some fabulous games.  We love playing games with each other as well as with our family members and neighbors. While at my parents house we were able to play a few games.  Ticket to ride Europe turned out to be a lot of fun - especially for Josh who won the first game.  Paije  came back on her second game to beat me by only three points!  It was a really good game.  I wasn't too sad that I had lost because I had been on a winning streak with the Starship of Catan card game.  That is a fun game also!

We also were able to count up our saved change from 2007 and go to Wal-Mart and buy a child's coat for their coat drive.  Evan got really attached to the coat we bought and wanted it to take home for himself.  We had to really talk about what service is and that sometimes we have to give up things we might really want to others who don't have anything.  I think he was ok in the end.  He doesn't still talk about it - which is a true sign of real impact.  Hopefully next year he can understand better.  

Since the New Year is now upon us we had our Family Home Evening on setting goals.  We have family goals, couple goals, and personal goals.  We also implemented a new reward system for Evan.  He gets a shiny white/clear rock for every good decision he makes and gets one taken away when he makes a bad decision.  He still has the option of time out if he chooses to throw a tantrum!  He can use the rocks that he earns for different things like - more computer time, a treat at the store, another movie, etc.  We really hope he gets the hang of it and eventually we will assign amounts to each item and things like a Zoo trip will be added for 20 rocks - or something like that.  As he gets older we will move into fake money, and then real money.  Our goal is to teach our children about finances and investments BEFORE they leave our home.  We'll see how it goes.

Well, 2008 should be a fun year!  We look forward to graduating with a Master's, deciding where to go for PhD school, hopefully buying a home, moving, starting PhD school, and electing a new President.  That, with any other misc. adventures that pop up, should provide for a very eventful year!  We hope all of you have a splendid year and achieve all the goals you have set for this coming year.  Happy New Year!!