Happy Halloween!

We had Sophia,

And two CIA (Candy Investigation Agents) at our house this year!

Charity was happy to have her agents protect her if anything scary happened this year!  She thought their job was to protect her.  Very cute! 

 Cousin Time!  Look at this crazy bunch!

 Can I tell you how proud I am of my boys staying sugar free through all their Halloween festivities this year?  They have amazing self control and willpower!  They are planning to "sell back" their candy to an orthodontist who donates it to service men.  They seriously did not eat one bite of candy this year!

Nigeria, kind of...

We have been so busy lately that unfortunately we didn't get to do as much with Africa as I had hoped. But Charity and Hunter read a whole bunch of wonderful picture books about Africa (I can always get to picture books if all else fails!), they did make African masks, 

and we went to our awesome closing day with our school group, where Charity learned to wear an African head wrap, known as a Gele in Nigeria, so cute!

We also got to see how a Djembe drum is played and this little cutie is showing us how it is done in her Gele!

Hunter's Special Day!

Hunter was baptized on Saturday!  

 A lot of kids were baptized in our stake that day, so it was a long meeting, but it was great!  Most of Hunter's girl cousins, Madelyn, Savannah, Maci, Regan, Brielle, and Makaylee, sang "I am a Child of God" as a special musical number.  Heidi was the pianist for the day and Maquel led the music.  Ladd baptized Hunter, with Grandpa Hoyal and Uncle Scott as witnesses.  Ladd blessed Hunter with the gift of the Holy Ghost with Grandpa Hoyal, Uncle Mike, Uncle Lee, Uncle Brett, Uncle Scott, Bro Walker, and Pres Sears in the circle.  The closing song was Hunter's favorite hymn, "I Stand All Amazed."

Hunter invited a lot of people and I am so glad most everyone we invited came!  All of our family and some of our closest friends were there.  Hunter felt loved! 

 Ladd was a little stressed that day as he was the Bishopric representative for our ward and doing a baptism, but it all worked out and I think it was a nice day for everyone getting baptized!

Afterwards, we had everyone over for cake and ice cream.  That will be the last time I have that many people in this house.  Our extended family has outgrown our house, and Saturday was a testimony to that fact!   Tanner described the party in his journal as "A WILD P-A-R-T-Y!" But, we all survived (except for Hunter's stuffed snake which somehow lost an eye that day).  

My mom made this LEGO cake.  The "M" is for Max.  He is the LEGO mascot mini figure or something.  It's what Hunter wanted, and my mom is so good about making cakes just like the kids want!

 The cupcakes had H's and 8's.  Very cute!

Here is the Cook side of the family-4 generations!  

I wanted to get a picture of everyone who came, but didn't have the energy to round everyone up! It was a great day for Hunter and we are so proud of Hunter for making the decision to get baptized and start along the covenant path.  May he always remember the love he felt from Heaven and Earth on this special day! 

Wild Animals!

We started off our study of Africa with a trip to San Diego's Safari Park.  Tanner blogged about it, so with his permission, I just copied and pasted!  Thanks Tanner!  Here is our trip from the eyes of Tanner...


Last Monday (October 6, 2014), Mom, Hunter, Charity, Grandma, and I (Dad was at work) drove to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. My family (that includes Grandma and I) weren't the only people that we knew that came, though. Our whole school group came too. We started off on a tram ride all around "Africa".  On our way to the tram, however, I (my family was already at the tram; I was with friends at this point!) saw bats and lions. After the tram ride my family and I kind of accidentally departed from the school group and explored on our own. We saw cute lemurs sleeping and eventually found the Bourgeouses eating lunch near the bat area. We (we as in my family and Grandma)  then went to the petting zoo and had lunch. I got a big bacon cheeseburger (without cheese! Wow!), although I don't know if it was real bacon in that cheeseburger.

     After lunch we (from now on we includes my family, grandma, and I)  saw the gorillas, the bird-show, the gorillas again, and then the Cheetah run! The Cheetah run was at 3:30 p.m. and was where you could see a real live cheetah, well, RUN! The cheetah was fast and even had a friend-a dog! The dog had been friends with the Cheetah since they were both little. Awwww, how cute! 

    Next we saw the tigers. Not to brag or anything, but we were LUCKY. The tigers were sleeping right next to the glass in the exhibit (right where we could see them!) when they could've been ANYWHERE in the whole exhibit. We were lucky again when we saw another tiger right in view on the other side of the exhibit. 

    The last thing we saw were the Californian Condors. In 1987 there were only 22 Condors left in the world, but because people have started to save them there are now over 200 Condors. After the Condors we left to….. Home sweet home. 

Pictures, anyone?

                                                    

Charity on the tram!

Hunter with an elephant

Me with an elephant!

Looking over "Africa"

Bats!

Oh-no! A lion!

Fun Friends sitting on a log!

Another log picture...

Crazy drummers...

African Princess Charity!

Balancing African pots on our heads! 

Cute baby Charity riding a turtle!

A Bald Eagle!

It is GREAT to be EIGHT!

Hunter turned 8 on Monday! He has been looking forward to this birthday for a long time!  Isn't he a handsome birthday boy?

We went out to lunch at Vince's Spaghetti with both Grandmas, Grandpa Cook, and Aunt Monica to celebrate!

This ice cream they brought for his birthday, he promptly handed over to dad as he was not about to let sugar pass these lips!

At night, we had cake and ice cream (all sugar free of course!) and sang to our favorite 8 year old.  It was a pretty relaxed day, but I think he had fun and felt special!

We are so proud of Hunter.  He is growing into such a caring, sensitive young man.  He puts others needs/wants ahead of his own and is always concerned about how others are feeling.  He LOVES his siblings and would do anything for both of them.  He is looking forward to getting baptized soon, loves to read the scriptures, prays often, can't get enough of LEGOS, and works hard at piano, baseball, and schoolwork!  We love our Hunter Bear!