still walking...

i know it's not the best thing, but i've been pretty pleased that i've been continuing walking even through the inclement weather. the last couple of days i've gone the weather actually hasn't been bad at all - one day i even got fairly warm. last night, however, it started snowing quite a bit. i was wondering if i was going to have the guts to go walking this morning. amazingly enough, i did. i got up just after 7 and got all dressed to go. i debated on going on one of my
shorter routes, but decided that i would wait and see how it actually was. i was surprised when i realized that i had passed both turn-offs before i knew it - i think i was working so hard at not falling. i ended up getting about 1000 more steps than i usually do on this same route because my steps were so small to ward off falling.

this is a picture i took with my phone to show in what conditions i was walking. thankfully it wasn't snowing, but it seemed like the plowed sidewalk was covered in a sheet of ice with a very thin layer of snow on top of that. it really wasn't very safe... i did stop walking to take this picture. i probably would have killed myself had i tried to keep walking. i'm not sure how easy it is to see, but this is the beginning of a long downward slope. a lot of my walk is either up or down - not a whole lot of flat ground. i must admit that made it a lot harder to keep from falling - i caught myself
from falling lots of times.

i'm really not sure how long i'll be able to safely keep up this walking in the mornings. i don't want to give it up because i know how good it is for me. it's been helping me feel so much better. the days that i don't go walking (very few, mostly weekends) i can really tell a difference in my body - and mentally as well. i think it's a very good thing for me to get out in the fresh air for some exercise.

well, there aren't very many pictures of me at all since i've been pregnant, so i had spencer take this one of me after i got back from my walk. it's really not very flattering, but this is an illustration of how ridiculous i'm willing to look to keep up the walking. hopefully it will be able to last quite a bit longer.

kirksville, mo, here we come (for now)!

well, since i'm sure there are so many who would like to hear our news, we'll finally share it. last friday spencer sent in his letter of intent to attend a.t. still university in kirksville, mo (he paid the non-refundable deposit on thursday). this school has seemed like a good option from the beginning. we were excited to hear about so many lds students and so many byu grads who end up in kirksville. one thing that i think is just wonderful is their student auxiliary association - basically a support system for wives and families. they even have date nights with babysitting provided!

we're still waiting to hear a final word from ok state in tulsa. spencer talked to the admissions secretary just today and heard that the next time they will go through names is during the second week of january. a lot of oklahoma has been covered in ice the past couple of weeks and i'm amazed to be able to say that i haven't been deterred from wanting to live there - even after hearing that our friends in tulsa were out of power for about a week!

osu is our first choice, but we're happy with a.t. still as well. we look forward to finding out for sure where we'll be, and we'll be sure to let everyone know. what's great is that we're at least heading somewhere.

merry christmas!

well, i finally pulled out our christmas tree. it's really the only christmas decoration we have. well, we do have a few other things, but there really isn't much space to put things out - especially because the little monkey likes to get his hands on anything and everything that gets put within his reach. he has really been enjoying the christmas tree with all the changing colors. i just wish he wasn't at the stage of walking right up to the camera every time he sees it come out. if i'm lucky i can get a couple of nice pictures without his face right up in the camera, but i'm having to be more sneaky...

here are the couple i got of benny and the christmas tree.

go cougs!

on saturday we had the great opportunity to attend our last home game for a while at lavell edwards stadium to watch our cougars play. it's been a great season for us. we've attended every home game this season. benny has attended every home game since he was born except for one - there was one game last year that i stayed home with him because of a fever he had. there were a couple of games this season where we left early - once because of inclement weather (it started snowing pretty badly as we were walking home) and once because it was the late tcu game and benny needed to get to bed. benny had a great time getting all decked out in his byu apparel. and it was so fun to see him really enjoy his time in the baby bjorn walking to the games with his dad.

saturday's game was a great one to end on because it was a sweet win over the utes. we were all thrilled to

see our cougars win it. it was fun to see benny too. it was such a different experience with him this year during the u game. last year he was only about 4 months old and he was screaming at the end of the game in my parents' family room because all of the cheering scared him. this year - at the stadium - he seemed to love all the cheering and got in a much better mood the happier all the cheering was. it's nice to see him love his cougars.

at the end of the game we had a great time rushing the field as a family. we were sitting in the south stands east of the goal post on the twelfth row. as the game ended spencer had benny in the baby bjorn and i followed with the diaper bag holding onto spencer's arm so we didn't get separated. as spencer was going over the bars, there was a middle-aged man who was helping people over who asked if spencer wanted him to hold benny. it was a very nice offer, but spencer was all set and geared up for rushing the field that he didn't miss a beat jumping down to the grass. i am glad to say that i was able to follow right over without falling at almost 7 months pregnant (about 30 weeks along). we ran to the middle of the field (it's a good thing i've been doing all this walking - i didn't even waddle!) and had a great time cheering with all those other cougar fans out there.
after we left we thought that we should have gotten a better picture of benny and his first time rushing the field, and it would have been nice to let him get down and walk on the grass, but we are really glad that we were able to share that experience as a family. it's one that i don't think we'll forget in a really long time.

GO COUGS!!!

counting steps

a few weeks ago i got the pedometer i ordered in the mail. it's a really nice one - it has a seven day memory, it counts aerobic steps (a certain number of steps in a minute or walking for so many minutes consecutively), it tells you how many calories you've lost (i don't know how accurate that really is), and you can enter your stride length and it will tell you the distance you've walked for the day. i got it because my sister bethany kept telling me that i needed to get a nice one and keep track (i have a cheap one that i got free from byu last year when i was working there and doing the "tour across america" wellness challenge. it was one of those that you can hear clicking with all of your steps. they're really not the most accurate. my sister eden and i were joking about how they are notorious for giving you many more steps than you've walked and also not counting any for a fair amount of time. this new omron pedometer, however, is amazing. it consists of some amazing technology that allows you to not necessarily clip it to your waist band, but you can put it in a pocket or your purse - and it supposedly stays pretty accurate. this has become somewhat of a family thing - both of my parents have this same pedometer, bethany and eden have one, and graydon has one (although i don't think he uses it very often).

if i am correct, the whole thing started when bethany started doing "the step diet." it's a diet that consists of finding out how many steps you get on an average day and gradually increasing your average for the week - i don't know all the details because i haven't ever read the book. i know there's also a section on what you eat, etc. bethany did really well while she was pregnant. she had a week where she was getting an average off 16,000 steps/day. i can't imagine getting that many - my high is just over 12,000, and that's only one day of that - not my average for a week. bethany is a believer in the step diet. she was really healthy throughout her whole pregnancy and gained the least amount of weight of all 5 of her pregnancies. her labor and delivery was also the easiest she's had. what i can't believe is that she, of her own free will and choice, went home from the hospital nov 1 (the day after grace was born).
i heard from my dad that she (bethany) was also feeling good enough to work on a dishwasher repair the night after she was home. when i talked to beth after she was home, she kept telling me i needed to get a pedometer and work for 10,000 steps/day. i agreed, but didn't rush to get one. at one point she even told spencer that he should get me a the pedometer and push me to get 10,000 steps/day. i finally pulled out my cheap one from byu and it took a little coaxing to work. it was barely counting any at all, but if you shook it, it slowly became more accurate.
this is a picture of a pedometer you can get from amazon for under $2. it's basically like the one that i had (although mine did have a few more buttons, and maybe more features). it counts steps basically by the bounce of your body. sometimes you can get lots of steps just from standing up from a chair. if you keep it on while you change your clothes, you can get lots more! i decided i should get pretty serious about counting my steps, so i wore the cheap one until the better one came.

my goal for a while was 10,000 steps/day. last week i decided that for right now, 8,000 would work better with where i am. it's definitely within reach, but it's a little stretch sometimes - i don't want it to be too easy, but i don't want to be discouraged by not reaching my goal day after day. for the last couple of weeks i've even been getting up in the morning to go for a walk (something spencer's been telling me would be good for me for quite a while). it's been really nice, and my loop around part of campus has gradually gotten bigger. the walk i've been doing pretty regularly now is just under two miles. it's a great way to start the day. last week while we were in draper i even got up to go for a walk along the trail behind my parents' house. that was really nice - and freezing! - and i was able to get about 2.5 miles those three days we were up there. i'm really looking forward to keeping this walking up - even through the snow. i think it will really help with the birth of our second baby boy - especially because the goal is to do a vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean). i was walking a lot every day before benny was born (i walked to and from church the day before and to work and up to the fourth floor on the stairs the day of) and i think it really helped - the little monkey was just feet first!

this is a whole lot of talk about steps, but i'm really excited about it, and i've been feeling great. my back and sciatic nerve have even been feeling so much better since i've been walking more regularly. let's just hope i keep it up until february!

a few pictures

benny loves wearing hats. and he loves shoes. we have this beanie around that i made three or four years ago that he loves putting on. i made a blue and white one in hopes he would look less like a girl; unfortunately, we can't find that one, so we're left with the purple one. i don't think benny minds. while playing, if benny sees a shoe or sandal, he usually brings that up to me wanting me to put it on. sometimes we end up with one bare foot and the other with something on, but sometimes we get one shoe and sock and one sandal. it's pretty cute. i was able to snag a picture with the beanie and one sandal on a little while ago. not the greatest picture, but i think our monkey is pretty cute.

e-tag

my sister-in-law courtnie "tagged" me a while back with questions i'm supposed to answer. this has happened before, and i must admit that i didn't follow through. i thought that this time i would (mostly because spencer's in erie, pa for an interview tomorrow and benny's in bed... there isn't much of anything going on right now).

1. best thing you cooked last week.
honestly, i've been horrible about menu planning lately. i really can't remember what i cooked. one thing i did make (maybe two weeks ago) was this lemon-basil pasta. it's really easy, and it turned out really well. some day i hope to have fresh basil growing, and i'm sure it will be much better!

2. if money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with whom?
i would definitely go somewhere with spencer. i've always wanted to go to ireland. i'm glad that spencer wants to travel as well, so it doesn't really matter where. i'm just excited at the prospect of discovering new places with him.

3. when was the last time you cried?
sunday night, actually. i am not a "cryer," but something happens when i'm pregnant. benny passed out for a second or two sunday evening and i was really worried that something might be wrong. thankfully, it turns out that he's just fine, but i will say that tears were shed.

4. 5 things you were doing this month 10 years ago.
10 years ago i was 14 - i was a freshman in high school. i was on the volleyball team, so i know there were practices going on. that's about all i can think of. i wasn't the best at journal-keeping, so i can't even go look it up.

5. 5 things on your to-do list today.
-get up early enough to be ready to get spencer to the airport on time.
-go to dominic and jen's to see jimmy (my new nephew, who is really cute). i'm really glad i finally got to see him.
-go grocery shopping (it had been way too long).
-remember to give benny orajel before his nap to see if that would help him sleep (it didn't).
-start cleaning the desk in our living room (i made some big progress!).

6. 5 favorite snacks.
-i am really enjoying honey wheat bagels with strawberry cream cheese lately (although, that's turning more into a meal...).
-oreos dipped in milk (i believe the packaging when it reads "milk's favorite cookie").
-in honor of halloween, candy corn (a seasonal snack, but a favorite all the same).
-a sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow) cut into strips and dipped in honey mustard salad dressing.
-red swedish fish (not really a snack, but they're really good).

7. 5 bad habits
-playing spider solitaire
-clicking my teeth back and forth
-grinding my teeth at night
-repeating myself when talking (mostly when i'm nervous)
-taking things too personally

8. 5 favorite foods
-raspberries (fresh raspberries in vanilla ice cream are wonderful!)
-fresh tomatoes (especially when it's warm off the vine and you can eat it like an apple over the sink)
-avacados (spread on toasted (or not) multi-grain bread with mrs. dash seasoning on top)
-coney's cheeseburgers
-red swedish fish

9. 5 places i've been
-mexico city, acapulco, and taxco all on the same trip.
-new york city
-catalina and ensanada (honeymoon cruise)
-los angeles
-beaver, ut (and not just passing through...)

10. 5 favorite memories
i'm really not sure how to give five "favorites," so how about the first five memories that pop into my head.
-spencer's and my wedding day. everything turned out so perfectly.
-finding out we were pregnant - both times - the first time we had gone to the temple and made the call after. both times we went to cold stone to celebrate!
-the day benny was born - and all the emotions we went through - and having to call work and tell them i wouldn't be coming back at 4p...
-the day spencer asked me to marry him.
-and, not necessarily a favorite, but a fun one... when spencer called for the first time after getting home from his mission and going over to see him.

there you have it. not sure how exciting it was for you, but pretty fun for me. i'm supposed to "tag" four others now, but how about if you're reading this and you have a blog, let's see what you've got. enjoy!

some cute pictures

just a hodge-podge of pictures.

this was out front watching the byu homecoming parade. benny had a fun time (loved his balloon!) and started waving to the floats.

he loves his hats!

halloween options

well, there's been some debate over what benny should be for halloween. last year i made him a monkey costume that i really like. at first i didn't think he'd fit into it again, but that's not a problem (it must have been HUGE last year!). however, for caitlin's wedding i made fuchsia bow ties for all the little boys that matched the little girls' dresses. as i was making them, spencer said that would be benny's halloween costume - just the bow tie - and he would be a chippendales dancer. i'm still not exactly sure how i feel about that. but, we took some pictures of each.

what do you think?

the monkey?

or the chippendales dancer?

always ready to call a touchdown!

i just thought this picture was really cute.

spencer's adventures

well, i don't have any pictures yet, so those will have to come later. i just wanted to take a little bit of time to explain what spencer has been up to.

last week spencer had the opportunity to go to kansas city, mo and des moines, ia for med school interviews. he flew out tuesday and got back thursday night. tuesday he stayed with a couple of single lds students attending kcumb (kansas city university of medicine and biosciences). he had a great time. they went out to dinner with some lds neighbors (a couple - both attending kcumb) and had a great time. spencer really enjoyed his time in kansas city. the school itself is in a sketchy area of town, but luckily the police station is right across the street.
the interview went well. spencer answered some tough questions for which he wasn't completely prepared; nevertheless, things went pretty smoothly. unfortunately, there was not an opportunity during the interview to show the family picture he had brought - including the ultrasound photo of the new baby!

wednesday, right after the interview, spencer drove the rental car to des moines where he stayed overnight with a nice couple that has one kid (can't remember if it's a boy or girl). he got there early enough that he was able to go on campus and get a little acquainted with it.
spencer said that des moines is a great place and he can definitely see us there. there seems to be a great support system amongst the lds students. the school also seems to have a great attitude toward married students - something we'll need!
spencer felt this interview went really well. he was able to tell the story of finding, miraculously, the place in redlands, ca that was offering the mcat when we were going to be there anyway to watch bethany and nate's kids (it's an amazing story of how it all worked out). and he had a chance to pull out our family picture.

after the des moines interview, spencer had to hurry back to kansas city to catch his flight back home. with a stop in denver, he was scheduled to get back around 10:30p. however, upon arriving in denver, his flight was delayed - he wouldn't get back until after midnight. luckily there was another southwest counter close by with an earlier flight home that had been delayed. spencer was able to get on that flight with no extra fees because of the delay. it worked out quite well (other than a very uncomfortable seat) and he got home at about 8:30 that night.

coming up, spencer has interviews in erie, pa (home of the one-ders) for lecom (lake erie college of osteopathic medicine) and one in kirksville, mo for a.t. still (also osteopathic medicine). he's looking forward to both of those interviews. fortunately we have a place for him to stay in each place. i visited with a bishop's wife yesterday in erie who was very nice and said to plan on him staying at their home. they have 7 children and plenty of space. it turns out her husband is a graduate of an osteopathic school in michigan and is in the middle of his orthopedic surgery residency. that's great because spencer has thought about orthopedic surgery.
in kirksvile, spencer will be staying with some friends of dallin and season's who are out there for medical school.
everything is working out so well. we're so excited for these opportunities, and we're so excited for the outcome.

our exciting news for today is that spencer got a call from oklahoma state requesting an interview. he will be flying out to tulsa in november. for now, spencer says that ok state is his number one choice. who knows what will happen, but it's exciting to look forward to our future.

and the baby is...

ANOTHER BOY!!!

we are so excited to have our two little boys in february.
benny will be so cute with his little brother.

this profile really looks just like the one we have of benny. it's pretty cute.

i just loved his little feet. a lot of the time he kept them crossed at his ankles. what a cute little boy already!

squeals of delight

i promise he wasn't getting hurt! benny loves balloons, and this is one my grandmother gave him for his first birthday that we blew up quite a while ago for him. it has now since gone the way of trash, but he loved walking around with it and playing it with it. and he absolutely loved it when i bounced it in his face!

happy first birthday, benny! (a little late...)

this is one of my favorites because you can see him dancing with his balloon. to me, it's priceless.

i love the smile on his face. he just looks so happy and that makes me happy.

a major accomplishment

well, i've done it. i have finally finished benny's quilt. i can't remember exactly when i started, but it's probably been somewhere around 6 months (maybe a couple more...). i'm so glad to finally have it done, and benny loves it!

this was actually quite a big project for me - and my first experience with machine quilting. i was able to do that all on my own and with my own machine - they were all straight lines. it was really fun to be able to do that. i wonder if i'll ever be able to go back to tying a quilt.

here are some pictures:

the full view.

more detail.

with the back (and the front edge folded over for the binding).

and benny so happy to have his blankie all done.
i was so glad to see him so happy!

haircut 2

and here we have haircut number 2!
i just think that benny is the cutest.

before - i just love these pictures.

this picture looks like the ultimate mullet (it really didn't look bad when dry). it's horrible, but it makes me laugh!

after

i think benny looks so grown up in this picture. it must be the haircut. and maybe the fact that he's over a year old now!

the aftermath in the highchair. my favorite are the few kix in the middle. i guess i didn't do the best job cleaning up after breakfast.

more catching up... benny's first haircut

whenever it's time to add some more to our blog, i look back at our pictures to see what hasn't been addressed yet. it was so obvious when i looked. benny had a haircut. actually, he's had two haircuts by now - technically it's three, but i think the first two are actually round 1 and round 2 of the "first" haircut. i really didn't want to cut it. i loved it. but i have to admit, it was getting out of control. i wanted to wait until his birthday, but five days before i caved. he was having a hard time seeing, so i decided to take some off the top. i don't think i'll ever give benny a crew-cut. i'll be keeping it shaggy.

round 1

here's the before picture.
i don't think there's anything more to say.

the first cut. and i love to see how happy benny is about it!

here we are with the finished cut (for the day).

i wish we had pictures of the rest of his head after round one of the haircut. really, it was a mullet. it was so aweful that i'm sad there isn't a record that we did that to our son (in all fairness, i guess i, faith, am the one to blame for whatever benny's hair looks like). i just wanted him to be able to see so i cut off the top. then, the day before his birthday i cut the sides and the back. i must admit that it looked much better!

round 2 - much better!

back up to benny's birthday

yes, benny did turn 1 on 17 july. we really can't believe that we've had our little monkey for so long. he is such a great little guy. it seems (and, in fact, it is true) that his birthday came and went without much ado. we're still working on getting to the store for his gifts - not that he really knows the difference anyway. and i really feel that all in all this can't be a bad thing - at least we're not setting anyone's expectations too high.

benny's uncle garrett left for the brazil mtc on 17 july. to celebrate, on the 16th all the cotterells gathered at a brazilian grill in salt lake. the food was delicious! that night my stomach started feeling a little unsettled, but it was nothing that worried me. we woke up at a good time to get ready for garrett's being set-apart and to get to the airport. my stomach was really giving me problems that morning, but i assumed it was because i was hungry. being pregnant, if i wait too long to eat i start feeling really sick - it was much more so during the first trimester.

too make what could be a long story shorter... it turns out that three adults and three children ended up with food poisoning from the brazilian restaurant (luckily benny was not one of the three kids). i've never had food poisoning in my life and i hope i never experience it again.

i ended up missing the setting-apart and the airport. i felt miserable the whole day and benny had no reason to realize it was his birthday. that night after we finally made it home spencer had some ice cream and shared with benny (benny has had ice cream before, so it wasn't a huge deal). i think for dinner that night it was cheerios. however, spencer did make this cute sign!











we just think our little guy is the cutest! and we're looking forward to celebrating his birthday soon!

birthday giggles

what a great birthday present from benny! during one of our breaks from harry potter spencer decided on a little entertainment for benny. this video was taken toward the tail end, so unfortunately they're not the fresh giggles from the beginning. no matter what, i love it!

the birthday

well, the birthday was great! i can't believe i'm 24 years old. it still feels like i'm 21. age is an interesting thing.

we had ordered harry potter 7 from amazon.com who guaranteed delivery on the 21st. it ended up coming in our mail at about 11a - not too bad!

when we got it in the mail.

waiting for us to read it. i was waiting for spencer to come back.

here we are with our new copy of harry potter and the deathly hallows! (i had just taken a shower before it came - hence the wet hair...)

you don't have to worry that benny got neglected that day - even if we had wanted to, he wouldn't have let us - he did not go down for a nap until 4:40p because he didn't act tired all day! he had a lot of fun playing with both mommy and daddy in the room. he even got a bath that day! we took a little time out when we both spent some time on the floor playing with benny. it was really fun!

benny was having a great time with daddy and the easter eggs.

well, again, the birthday was great as was harry potter. we spent most of time reading that day. we went to sonic for lunch (i read in the car out loud on the way there and back) and had average burgers. it was so hot we had to come back home to eat.

we kept reading and went out to dinner at tepanyaki - a japanese grill. that was fun! then we came back home and stayed up way too late reading. if you ask nicely we might tell you...

just so you know, we did go to all three hours of church on sunday and we didn't have to stay up nearly as late to finish the book. we were done about 9p on sunday, 22 july, and boy was it great! i have been thinking that the harry potter series is - in a way - similar to c.s. lewis' chronicles of narnia or j.r.r. tolkien's lord of the rings. it's amazing to look at the world created by j.k. rowling (pronounced rolling) and to see how complete it is. what amazes me the most is that all my questions were answered with book 7, but i'm sure we'll both read the series again (probably not as quickly as we did this last time). i look forward to reading these books to our kids.

hope you have a chance to read the harry potter series if you haven't already!