From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere!

Isabelle may look a whole lot like her mom but in one way particular she is very much her father's daughter. She and Ben share a similar sense of humor and most the time I am left scratching my head. They like to watch YouTube videos over and over together that they think are hilarious and although I give a valiant effort I am mostly just lost. They have inside jokes and laugh and laugh and Olivia and I just look at them like the nutsos that they are. Recently Ben and I were asked to fill out a parent questionnaire form about some of Belle's personality traits and quirks for school. They were deciding how "gifted" she was and we were asked all sorts of odd questions. One left us thinking for quite a while...Does she most often have unusual ideas or good ideas? I thought for sure she had unusual ideas where Ben seemed to think most of her wacky ideas were in fact good ideas...case in point.

One thing these two share is a love for anything Seussical. We own some of the books and Isabelle seeks them out from the school library weekly. They are fun silly stories and teach some of the best life lessons for all of us. I enjoy reading them...but only every once in a while. They are long and tongue twisters and Ben and Belle lay in bed and read them night after night and laugh and cry and carry on like two characters themselves. While they love If I Ran the Circus, I can read with my eyes shut, Oh the thinks you can think and so on, I love listening to them over the monitor laughing and giggling and sharing a true love of silly reading. Thank goodness Isabelle has her dad...or is it thank goodness Ben has Isabelle?!
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. -Dr. Seuss

The end is here!!

New Years Eve was nice and quiet at the Cosby home this year. We had debated lots of ideas and plans but after such a busy year and holiday season we thought nothing sounded better than a night at home, just the 4 of us.

Isabelle went into full party planning mode and wrote her own list for the store. The four of us headed to town and gathered all of her supplies: balloons, streamers, flowers, party hats, noise makers, a cake, guacamole, chips, ice cream, pizza bites, sprinkles, etc. By the time we got home it was nearly 3:00pm so rather than put the loot away, we began partying. The girls decorated while Ben found our favorite music on Pandora. For the next 5 hours we ate, sang, danced, chased, played games, hula hooped, screamed and partied until we were exhausted. We counted down to the New Year with the folks in England and watched online as fireworks exploded over Big Ben. We ran to the back yard and yelled Happy New Year while we made noise and cheered and then hit the pillow with heavy heads at 8:00pm. A perfect Cosby New Year party!

2011 was a great year for our little family and one that brought many changes.

Ben left his previous employer of nearly 8 years and began his newest Venture. Along with this change, he not only relocated his office but his family as well to The Woodlands, TX. Ben mastered the "going to bed ponytail" this year, coached soccer and basketball and completed Insanity 2x. He is officially insane!

Isabelle began Kindergarten at Creekside Forest Elementary School, and enjoyed soccer, basketball, ballet, gymnastics and swimming lessons all this year. She continued her love affair with books and now reads on her own, began writing quite alot, quit eating most foods and discovered the joy of the Internet.

Olivia went from a baby to a toddler this year. She celebrated her first birthday, began to walk, run, jump and climb and started singing her ABC's. She endured two rounds of general anesthesia and two surgeries, became obsessed with shoes and getting herself dressed up pretty and developed a strong affection for cupcakes and neenus. (Hershey Kisses)

As for myself, Amy, I am just trying to keep up and keep everything in everyone's worlds flowing and functioning best I know how. We are excited for 2012 and think this is going to be another fabulous year for the Cosby crew! Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Holidays

Mrs. Grimes didn't want us to totally relax over the holiday break from school, so she assigned some homework to help fill our days. Isabelle was given a blank gingerbread man and was suppose to make him a part of our festivities. Then she was assigned to create a journal complete with pictures and captions about all of the fun her and her new friend shared together. Jelly of course made her ginger-person a girl with long blonde hair and named her Sparkle Ginger Baby! Here are some of the highlights of their time well spent...

I'm dreaming of a White(fish) Christmas...

Isabelle and Olivia had never experienced a "White Christmas" before. For them, sunshine and tamales are the norm so when Grandpa Elmo invited us all up to his hideaway for the festive season we jumped on the chance to show them what the song White Christmas is really talking about.

We packed every warm thing we owned, which wasn't a lot, and counted down the days till we departed. One of the few times that having early risers worked to our advantage, we left for the airport at barely 5:30am and although we had a layover in Minnesota and sat on the plane an extra hour or two for delays, both girls were great travelers and 9 hours later we finally landed at Glacier Airport. For the people of Montana this has so far been an abnormal winter with not much snow fall, but for the Cosby girls it was a winter wonderland! After a quick stop at Walmart for snow gear, we spent the next 7 days sledding, having snowball fights, building a snowman, drinking hot cocoa, exploring the winter wilderness, doing puzzles, and most importantly spending time with family.

Grammie had cozy slippers and fleece Christmas jammies waiting for us and we needed them to stay warm. The girls were good sports in the bitter air and stayed outside for hours at a time...all bundled up of course. You know it is a good vacation when you keep the same jammies on for 48 hours without ever changing.


Grandpa had a special treat for us one day and we hiked up the mountain next to his house and picked out our own Christmas tree. Grandpa sawed it down and grammie had stuff gathered for us to make handmade ornaments. It was our own homemade tree with Neenu the Elf who magically appeared as the star on top.

On Christmas Eve Isabelle had planned a Nativity Play. She assigned us all parts and wrote our scripts, etc. We all found some costumes and remembered the true meaning for the season.


Christmas morning was magical like always as we enjoyed gifts from Santa Claus and loved watching the excitement of the children. Leo and Olivia didn't really get what the fuss was all about and didn't do that great at actually tearing off their wrapping paper, but they both loved the toys and books that were underneath. Isabelle on the other hand was the perfect age and was beyond thrilled for everything Santa had left. Silly Santa even stayed a while and finished the puzzle we had all been working on for days while he enjoyed his cookie.


The holidays wouldn't be traditional for Ben if he wasn't in the middle of closing a deal, so he spent time working and trying to stay in the loop while being very far away from said loop. Sadly (or luckily), he ran the battery to his blackberry totally out until it wouldn't even take a charge, so the last few days were spent almost work free! Fa la la la la la la la la!


We spent time baking different kinds of cookies, watching Barbie A Perfect Christmas over and over, visiting the Big Mountain ski slopes, admiring the decorated and lit-up downtown Whitefish, singing, dancing and just having a wonderful Christmas time. Being in Whitefish was truly a magical Christmas and one the girls will never forget. A week after our anticipated arrival, we made or way to the tiny airport at 4:30am and found ourselves back in balmy Houston just after lunch. Belle sobbed on the return and was too sad to leave everyone and everything, but once we found our car both girls literally shed their coats and hats and did a dance of joy to be back in the warm Texas sun. From 20 degrees to 70 degrees in a few hours!

We were surprised when we returned home as well to find that Santa had left even more gifts under our tree here in Houston. He must have known that we couldn't carry them all on the airplane, so we celebrated a little more opening presents and immediately playing outside with our new scooters and helmets.

We have had such a wonderful and special holiday season and we have so much to be grateful and thankful for. I think this past month has been the best December we have spent as a family to date and we are all a bit sad to see it come to an end.







Everyone is happy, standing round the tree,
singing songs of the season in ten-part harmony.
It's so good to be together,
the feeling is so strong,
I wish it could be Christmas all year long.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

December is such a magical time of year. Everything is covered in twinkling lights and everyone is filled with the spirit of the season. People are a little more thoughtful, friendly and patient and it is a time to share with others the love we have for each of them as well as the love of our Savior.

With children, the holidays are just that much more special. There is a real magic in the air and they believe anything and everything is possible. We began the month with one of our favorite parts of the Christmas season...holiday pajamas. Grandpa Van and Grandma Ruth came for a short visit and we had fun showing them our new stompin' grounds and kicking off the festive season with some early Christmas gifts. Grandma Ruth gave the girls the cutest "elf" jammies and both girls were thrilled to wear their snugly Christmas pjs many many nights over the last several weeks.

I spent countless hours working at Isabelle's school with the PTO in organizing a Cookies with Santa event on the first Saturday of the month. After many hours of work, the event went wonderful and not only did Santa Clause show up at the school on the Fire Truck driven by 5 firemen, but Mrs Clause and Mrs. Cosby did too! I was sent to pick up Santa and was talked into riding with him in the fire truck to make his grand entrance. Feeling a little bit exhausted and silly sitting in the big red truck, all the time and effort was worth it when we turned the corner to the school and the fire truck let out its siren and I could see Isabelle and Olivia from afar jumping up and down in excitement! We had a fun time visiting Santa (Olivia wasn't scared a bit), making reindeer food and eating cookies and hot cocoa with Belle's schoolmates.

Another highlight of the month was Isabelle's first viewing of The Nutcracker. The Houston Repertoire Ballet Company came north to do a few shows one weekend and so we surprised Belle with some spur of the moment tickets and some big girl time with her mom and Grammie. We went out for ice cream first where Grammie game her a real glass Nutcracker ornament of her own to remember the day and then we made our way to the theatre. Isabelle sat very still during the entire show and loved every minute of it. All of the magic and music was wonderful and when the final curtain fell, Belle vowed that she would be on stage performing herself NEXT Christmas in The Nutcracker. (Looks like we have some work to do this year in the ballet studio!!)

The month has also been full of shopping, writing letters to the North Pole, playing dress up ( like usual), croup, ice skating, climbing (Olivia!!!!), Rockband, Neenu the Elf and more. Typical Cosby girl type days sprinkled with moments of holiday magic.







The final events of the month before our official Christmas Break were at Isabelle's School and a Christmas Tea Party with her BFFs. We had fun at her class party making ornaments, opening gifts, eating cookies and being with friends. They even celebrated by wearing their favorite PJ's to school and watching/reading The Polar Express one day. Isabelle has been blessed this year with good friends and a dedicated teacher and she loves spending time learning with them.



I made a conscience effort this year to allow myself to "enjoy" the holidays fully. I shopped early, ordered Christmas cards before Thanksgiving, created gifts that were thoughtful but not too time consuming and just stayed one step ahead all month long. And it worked, almost completely stress free! We enjoyed a festive and fun December and all 4 of us did a holiday jig when that final school bell rang and we were finally free to do whatever we choose. Now, on to the main event...Christmas Day!

Fa la la la la la la la la...