The Cottos

The anticipation is killing me!

2011-03-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

Hey friends! I just wanted to give everyone an update on our life and our family. As most of you know we left Great Falls about 2 1/2 months ago. All of us came to Arizona for a little vacation. Josue left from here and went back to work in GF for a couple of weeks and then continued on to San Antonio for tech school to be a recruiter in the Air Force. He has been there ever since and we are still in AZ. In six days we will be flying to San Antonio to see Josue graduate from his tech school (this is what I can't wait for). Then we will come back to AZ for a few days before driving to our new house in Amarillo, TX (can't wait for this either). Although this has been challenging I think it has been a great learning experience for me and hopefully for my husband as well. I have really started to figure out who God wants me to be as a wife and a mother. He is teaching me to depend on Him and to love His word. He has knit my heart to not only my husband, but my kids (present a future), and to Amarillo. I can't wait to see what God wants to do with us there. I know there are probably more challenges to come with Josue having such a demanding job and with my interest in homeschooling, but my heart is leaping with joy to be there. God is good and I am so glad that He cares for me and wants to minister to me. He has just put something new in my heart for my family and how it should work and my role in the whole thing. What a blessing my children are and I look forward to the days to come. Proverbs 31:25 is ringing so true these days. I am desperate for a church family and I am very hopeful that we have already found one. There will be more to come.....

zuchini boats

2010-10-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

1 lb ground beef

1 Tbs minced garlic

1/2 of a small onion

2 tomatos

1 small can of corn

oregano

basil

salt and pepper

4 zuchinis

mozzarela cheese

brown the ground beef with onion and garlic. remove from heat add chopped tomato, corn, and spices. cut zuchini in half length wise and scoop out insides. crush the portion of the zuchini you removed and add to meat mixture. mix and place in shell of zuchini. place on foil lined pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. add cheese and bake for 10 more minutes. enjoy!

so this is something i kind of made up by combining a few different recipes, but seriously it is delicious. i didn't really measure stuff so i just guessed and the stuff without measurements is also kind of left up to your taste. i used parmesan cheese and put it on right away it got kind of hard though so i thought mozz might work better and adding at the end might be better. or my other genious thought was to combine it with the meat and everything so the cheese would be throughout. anyways that is my creation let me know if you make it and how it turns out. the whole cheese thing will have to be tested because with parm cheese the meat began to get yummy crunchy on top too so you might not want to put it throughout because then that probably would not happen. sorry just an afterthought. let me know what you think.

Sorry!

2010-06-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

So sorry this has been so confusing to me, but I thought I would give everyone who is wondering about our life an update. So when I thought they accepted Josue back into the AF I was clearly wrong. It is a much longer more in depth process than I thought. So he actually was not accepted yet his paperwork was held up for a long time and by the time the problem got fixed they were no longer accepting prior service members. We are now waiting until October to hear if they are going to start accepting them again and then there might be a whole other list of job availability and who knows where that will take us and if we will want to go there. Like I said before it is up to God and we are just trusting that he will work it all out. So that is the story sorry if I mislead anyone. For now we are very blessed to still be in Great Falls. The children are doing very well. Sam is crawling army style which is shocking because Eliana didn't start crawling until she was 10 1/2 months and Sam started when he was 7 months. Crazy but clearly a sign of opposite personalities. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and we will be talking soon whoever you are. Here is a couple fun pics.

Big News!!!

2010-04-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well for those of you that don't know, Josue had applied to get back into the air force. He found out yesterday that they accepted him back in and today found out that he would have a school date in about three weeks. Amazing! He is applying to be a recruiter and the job that was open in Great Falls has already been filled. We knew that could happen and we knew that God would work to make things happen according to how he wanted them to happen. It is extremely scary and so exciting at the same time to know that our life will be turned upside down within the next month or two. Where will we go? Where will we live? Will we have friends half as amazing as our friends in MT? It is hard to believe that anybody could be as cool as our current friends. I am looking forward to the adventure, but I will be so sad to leave the only place we have known as a married couple. This is where we started our life together and it makes me a little uneasy to imagine our life elsewhere. I am so glad that God is in control and we can trust him with all of these kind of insecurities. Well we will let you know where and when we are going.

Viewer descretion is advised!

2010-04-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

so the picture you are about to look at requires some explaining. oh and by the way i know this is my first blog in a very long time so sorry to come back with such sad news. anyway, Eliana was riding in the very back of the Swanson's pilot and when we arrived at our destination she decided she would climb over the back seat with the bigger kids. little did Rachel know the trauma that could be caused just by opening the back hatch. well i bet you can probably guess what happened next. yes my daughter fell out of the back of the vehicle right onto her head. i would estimate probably about four feet straight to asphalt. ouch! i picked her up and there was blood all over her face. so scary. i rushed inside to find something to clear away the blood so i could tell how bad it was. and of course freaked out the Mcadam kids. I kind of yelled at them to open the door, sorry. oops! it turns out that the cut was not that bad but as you can tell by the picture she had a goose egg about the size of a golf ball. she cried and cried and then we offered her a peep and all of a sudden everything was okay. the next day the swelling had gone down to about a fourth of the size and she is now doing just fine.

SAMUEL JOSUE COTTO

2009-12-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

In The Words of a 2 Year Old

2009-09-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

A list of funny things my adorable daughter has said in the last few months:

I'm going crazy
I'm crazy
I'm an animal
While driving by the river she asked her baby if she wanted to see and her baby responded "yes please"
she told me while looking at my belly that her baby brother was cute
she calls our new car fancy
she calls me mama cotto when asked what mommys name is
she told me right after she had a bm that it was a brown one

I am sure there are more I just can't recall any right now. Hopefully you get a good laugh from that, I know that I did. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Stressing Out!

2009-08-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. I am writing today to vent. My husband applied and interviewed for a job recently and we found out today he didn't get it. Very disappointed. If you don't know anything about the past few years of our life you wouldn't know that my husband has gone from job to job about every six months. We never really know what is next. This job he applied for was going to relieve some of that stress because it was going to be for at least four years. Last semester he was a full time student and didn't work because we lived with our friends and then I worked for a couple months to provide insurance. It's a whole different story now. I am pregnant our bills went up considerably with moving out of the Flemings and now things are getting a little uncomfortable for me. Anyways I am just kind of sad I was looking forward to things being a little bit easier for a while, but obviously God has a different plan for us. My heart just comes back to Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Thanks God for having a plan for our lives. Hopefully we will figure out what that is soon considering school for Josue starts in about two weeks and he will have to find a job before then. Please be praying for us that we will get all of this figured out here pretty quick. Thanks for listening to me ramble and be stressed out.

Ten on Tuesday!

2009-08-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

1. I am not doing so hot at blogging once a week, but I have gotten better.
2. I really want a thin mint blizzard (oh Josue, honey)!
3. I love nap time.
4. oh poop, I just realized that it's not TUESDAY!!!

Well I guess that is it for my ten considering it's not Tuesday, my brain is obviously not working very well lately. I keep paying my utilities late and forgetting to plan ahead. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it. For now I think I will just blame it on this little baby I have wiggling in my belly. Anyways I better go get my brain together for gen church tonight.

Cute nursing shawl for my son!!!!

2009-07-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am soooo excited! My good friend Christina and I have been sewing and I am really enjoying making things that cost 5 times more to buy. I (mostly Christina) made Ellie curtains and that is my first completed project. Now I am going to make a nursing shawl for our new baby. When Ellie was born I bought hers and without shipping it probably cost at least $35 dollars. OUCH! So I got smart and am using Christina's example to be busy at home. I feel so domestic it's great. Anyways I thought I would share the fabric with you, it's so cute. I will show you the finished project when I get it done.

Debra

IT'S A .........

2009-07-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

BOY!!!!!!
Well that's all you need to know for know. We don't have any names picked out yet. I did have my ultrasound this morning and the baby looked great and yes it is a boy. He is a very cute looking baby and we can't wait to meet him. Love you guys and we will keep you informed on names and maybe I will upload some pictures of the ultrasound.

Debra and baby boy

ELIANA, THE NEXT MICHEAL JACKSON???

2009-07-08T08:44:00.001-07:00

We were at the grocery store on Monday and she saw this magazine in the checkout line and this was her immediate reaction. It just cracked me up so I had to share it with you. Let me know if you think she will make the cut.

IT'S BEEN TOO LONG!!!

2009-07-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long time and I have a lot to say so keep your eyes open. I am going to attempt the impossible. Blogging once a week. We will start with our two most recent changes in our life. About 2 months ago we moved. Yes, again. As a result of our other biggest change we need more room. You guessed it, another baby. I am about 20 weeks pregnant and loving it despite being uncomfortable all the time. Anyways I will spare you more words and just add some pics. Love you guys and can't wait to tell you more. Have a great day!

A Big Owieeee!!!

2008-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

Not sure if I spelled that right but whatever. You know what I mean. Eliana got hurt. Really hurt. And I bet you are wondering how. Well, like any good daddy Josue was playing with his baby girl. Chasing her from here to there, oh and lots of tickling of course. Fun stuff like that. And then it happened. So Josue thinks it's fun to toss Ellie onto the couch and bed and she really enjoys it as well. But apparently her arm was not suppose to land first. She only cried for a few minutes and then went on playing as normal. The only problem was that when she would try to get up from the floor she would just cry and ask for help. I didn't really think it was much so I gave it a day since I was taking her for her well baby check up the next day anyways. The doctor checked it out and discovered that she couldn't straighten her arm all the way so she sent her to have x-rays taken. The doctor was pretty sure that she fractured her elbow but she was waiting for word back from some big wigs or something. We waited for a couple hours to hear that we had to come back and get a cast. It was very sad to think that my little girl was not going to be able to use her arm. Needless to say she is adjusting very well and it doesn't seem to really bother her. She is doing great and we are just beginning our fun vacation in very warm AZ so hopefully everything is going well with everyone else and hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Love you guys.

2008-12-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sooooo excited for this season. I love the parties, the food, the family and friends, the shopping, the giving, and just the overall feel of winter. I would have to say it is my favorite time of year. Another reason I am very excited is because this is the first Christmas that my daughter will actually have a clue what is going on. I can't wait to see her face when she opens all of her gifts. I am also thrilled that there is finally snow here in Great Falls. I didn't think it was ever going to come. I took some pictures of Ellie playing with her friend Sarah in the snow. Hope you enjoy. Oh how could I forget that I love the music. It is my favorite. If you could only feel what I feel right now. Elisha I am sure you feel it too. I want to know, WHO ELSE FEELS IT??? I want to know. Please Blog about your Chistmas season joy or if it's not so joyful I would love to hear about it as well. Send me a message and let me know when you do. Love you all. Have a great Christmas if I don't talk to you. And don't eat too much.

FRIENDS

2008-08-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

I love friends! They are great. Elisha I haven't talked to you in a while and I still can't help but know that you are one of the best friends I will ever have. I love you and miss you. Elisha is the friend that you hope you keep for a lifetime. Nicole Mcadam is another friend I have. She is such an encouragement to me all the time. When I am working out, parenting, serving, I just really enjoy being around her. Rachel Swanson is my funny friend. She is always making me laugh and smile. Katie is my thoughtful friend. She is always sharing some important advice or info with me. Christel is my lovable friend. Always giving me hugs and motherly advice. Well there are so many more to mention I just couldn't possibly do it and I don't have time. BABY IS AWAKE! Love you guys.

Lovin' Life!

2008-07-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Just thought I would write for a few minutes and tell everyone the good news. Well I guess it's good for some, but bad for others. Anyways, my husband and I have decided to stay in Great Falls for the time being. Finally we came to a decision. We decided that God has been working on us big time here in GF and we came to the conclusion that He is not done. Obviously He will never be done, but GFCC is a place where we have grown and we feel God wants to continue that work for however long it takes. In the mean time I am very excited to share the next year or years of my life with my amazing friends. I love you guys and hope that God uses you to help mold me into the woman that God created me to be.
Okay enough of the mushy stuff lets move on to the every day stuff. My daughter is pretty much walking, my house is not selling, I love to scrapbook (officially have made 3 complete pages), oh yeah girls sleep over on Friday night. Camp was awesome except for the fact that I was away from my favorite daughter for 4 whole days. My next adventure will be to Phoenix. My mom is having surgery to remove her gull bladder on Friday, be praying for her. Wow that is a lot. Now I will add a picture and call it a day. Love you guys, talk to you later.

The Mess I Call My Purse!!!!!!

2008-06-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

AAAAAhhhhhhhhh! What is all this stuff? I can't find my phone, my wallet, oh but there is a pair of pink shoes. This is what my sad purse has come to. A pile of stuff that has added up in the last week or two. I need to simplify wouldn't you say? Good news, I did, the mess is now gone and I can move on with my life.

2008-06-13T16:02:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox free ecard

MISSING MY ELISHA

2008-06-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago my dad came to visit and he just left today. SAD :{ I know. He actually wanted me to come back with him today but it was just too expensive unfortunately. So I am pretty sad not knowing when the next time I will see my family is and I was enjoying the house not being so quite and empty as I do when I have any company. Anyways the reason for the title of this blog is because I was looking at Elisha's blog and saw the picture of John in their kitchen. I see you still have similar deco and it just reminded me of great amazing fun times that we used to have together and I desperately miss you Elisha. I want to hang out all day in our pajamas and do nothing but talk or play games or watch a couple movies. I miss the old days where we were free to do what we wanted to when we wanted to. The moral of the story is life changes. We miss you and love you and hope to see you soon. We really miss John too and we will be coming to visit soon I promise so you will have to reserve a weekend for us when we let you know. Love you guys.
DEBRA

2008-06-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

So I know I don't do this very often and I want to start but here are my random thoughts for the day. I am just sitting here at my house hoping that my hard work of keeping my house extremely presentable will pay off with a buyer. Oh yeah if you didn't know my house has been on the market for about a month and I think we've only had like three people come to look at it. We are hoping and praying that the right person just happens to pass buy and loves what they see. It is hard to be patient but we are believing that God has a plan. Whether it is to sell our house or not we don't know. I guess we will find out. We are waiting on God for a lot of answers at this time in our lives. What Josue should study in college? Where should we live? There are some big things still happening. If you couldn't get it from what I just wrote the VA did decide to pay for my husbands school so that is a huge blessing that we will be taking full advantage of. Anyways if you think about us say a prayer that God would reveal his master plan for our lives. In the mean time (I have no clue if that's how you say in the mean time) I would love to know how God speaks to you. That is what we are waiting for and I think we have a picture of how it will happen but I want to open up my mind to new possibilities of how God speaks in your life. Let me know, love you guys.

DEB

2008-05-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!!!! So tomorrow is the big day. Well actually today is the day that marks one of the most important events in my life. My amazing daughter Eliana was born on this day one year ago. I couldn't have asked for a more special gift. Well I told you that I would show you the invitation so here it is. I printed them out and cut them out and then put them on yellow card stock with a little bit of a border. Thank you internet for allowing me to be creative. Sorry to everyone who couldn't be here. Elisha and Amber we miss you guys and love you. Hope to see you soon. I am so excited for this birthday party, they are so fun. The last party I remember having was my 12th birthday it was a sleep over and I got an electric razor. The first time I shaved my legs..... ahhhh if I only knew what a hassle it would become. I am looking forward to all the years ahead with my beautiful daughter all the parties, the learning, the shaving of legs, and so on and so forth. Well hope you enjoy this and if I didn't get an invitation to you here it is. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIANA!!!!!!

2008-04-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
WARNING I AM VERY TIRED SO IF THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE I'LL FIX IT TOMORROW AND THERE'S YOUR DISCLAIMER. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The wonderful things I was missing. I am sitting here with Katie looking at all of her creative stuff she has done on her computer. I just didn't know about all of these amazing pictures you can just find online and use to do whatever you want. As Courtney would put it I was going to explode if I didn't tell someone how excited I am about this. I never knew that fun amazing pictures were at the tip of my fingers. I am so excited I am going to make Eliana a birthday invitation and you all will be seeing on my blog so keep a look out. Love you guys and if anybody knows any other cool stuff that you've been keeping from me you better tell me. Like for example what's up with Amber moving and Elisha doesn't even know about it. Haha! Bye!

What to blog about???

2008-04-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

So I am a little confused about this whole blog thing. Obviously I have never done this before and as you can tell I am a little clueless. I think that somebody needs to comment to me and tell me something that they would like to know about me, my life, or whatever. Any takers out there??? Anyways while I'm waiting on that I will just give you an appetizer. As some of you may know my little family just went to AZ for a wedding where my hubby was the best man. He is the best man isn't he?? Just kiddin, anyways we had a lot of fun and also were amazed at the things people value. For example an extravagant wedding. It was amazing. It was held at a catholic church in downtown Phoenix and it a lot of stain glass and very high ceilings. It was like something you would see in a movie, just beautiful. Dinner was also a big treat, we had prime rib and salmon. YUMMY!!! We had a great time and met some fun people. We danced the night away with no baby. Sorry if this is boring I just don't know how this works like I said before. Well I guess that's about all I have for you right now but hopefully I will hear from someone and I can give you what you want. Love you all and miss you Elisha and Amber. Here's a picture of my hubby and I at the reception.

MOPS

2008-03-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

AHHH!!!! what a relief that our first meeting went well. we were so excited and honestly a bit overwhelmed in getting everything together. but it went well and God spoke to the hearts of His people. thank you to everyone who came and we hope you will make it back.

The day you were born.

2008-03-04T22:05:00.001-08:00

If only I could explain the feelings I have looking back at the pictures of the day you were born. My love spills over when I hold you in my arms. The most precious gift anyone could ever receive and you are all mine. I can't wait to see you grow and become the woman that God has called you to be. My daughter, someday my friend, and forever a child of God. I love you Eliana and although you can't read I pray that all of these things are evident as I care for you each amazing day of your life.

Love Mommy

Here goes nothing!!!!!!

2008-03-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

well here it is folks. i finally got off my butt and made a blog and actually posted something onto it. i am suspecting that if you are reading this then you know me so i won't go into all the details of who i am although if you don't know me you can read a little bit about me in my oh "about me" section, imagine that. if i haven't talked to you in a while (Elisha) you wouldn't know that my husband and i are kind of in the middle of some big decisions right now. we are waiting on word from the VA to see if they are going to pay for him to go to school or not and we are also trying to figure out if and when we will move back to AZ. i'm sure you probably know all of this already but the thing that throws all of this out of control is the fact that Josue's job in the guard is going away and he might have to pick a new job which would mean that he has to go to tech school again. this means he might be gone for three to four months and it is questionable whether he would be back in time to start the fall semester of school. on top of this we need to sell our house for him to go to school. crazy i know. i don't even know if this makes any sense to anyone else. oh well anyways i gotta go but please leave me your comments and love. love you all.