Grandma and Grandpa Hoopers

We drove to Ryan's mom and dad later on Christmas day. It was fun to see everyone. The kids were having a ball feeding the cows and climbing on the hay. Grandma Hooper has awesome costumes for the Nativity. My favorite picture is when one of the Angels (Shelby) discovered that baby Jesus was HER doll! So Olivia (Mary) shared.

Christmas morning

Christmas morining was super fun. Only a few times did we have to send the kids back to bed because it was too early...midnight, 2am, and 3am. A little after 5am we decided to let the kids stay awake. Here are the kids with some of their favorite toys.

Nativity

Our kids LOVE acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. This year we had two Josephs, (to avoid a fight) and Mary. The kids were really good, and I think they listened to the story pretty well.

Gingerbread House Competition

We started a friendly gingerbread house competition a few years back. The teams are boys against girls. You can decide the winner yourselves. The biggest mess made was a tie....it was a HUGE mess, but lots of fun!

The boys team: Innovative

The girls team: Traditional

We had so much fun, and it was a great way to kill time on Christmas eve, aka the longest day of the year. (according to the kids atleast)

Grant-man's big day

Here is Grant poppin' a righteous wheelie. He asked me to post this one for his Uncles and Grandpas.

Grant's kindergarten class sang a Christmas song at his school assembly. He is on the next to top row on the right end, in a maroon shirt with orange stripes on the sleeves. He was very proud of this song. Me too, and can you belive it...one of MY kids tall enough for the next to top row! Happy times!

Temple Lights

We went to see the Temple lights. Beautiful as always! We also went in the visitors center to see all the nativity displays. Our favorites were the oragami, the huge one from USA, and a white one that I don't remember where its from. If your in town, you'll have to check them out.

Gymnastics Show

Climbed straight to the top!
Coming back down
Getting ready for an awesome routine
More routine
Hand stand dismount

We went to Olivia's gymnastics show. It was so fun. I am so proud of her. It was hard to take pictures of most of the events because they go so quickly, but I got a few from her beam routine. I LOVE the picture of her doing her handstand before she dismounts!! Olympics here we come!!! J/K. :)

Christmas Questionnaire

My mom sent this to me. I thought I'd post it here and hopefully some of you will post your own!!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper!! One of my most favorite things to do at Christmas time is wrapping gifts. I make myself space the wrapping out over the whole month, or I would do it all in a night and then be sad that I didn't have anything else to wrap.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial...too many allergies.
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon after Thanksgiving as I can.
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime between the day after Christmas and the day after New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only a few sips of it, then I get sick of it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Too many awesome ones, although my first cabbage patch Shandi Marie, and my electronic keyboard stand out right now.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, but a few of them are headless thanks to alllll the help I have aranging them.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Ryan's dad
9. Easiest person(s) to buy for? Any kid
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? Can't think of a bad one yet...no pressure Ryan! lol
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Yikes! I need to get those sent out!!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August or September usually
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but I do recycle a good bow, or box. He he he (where did I get that from MOM!!!)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Depends on where we go at Christmas time...Spudnuts, egg rolls, lil' smokies...I could go on and on.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I love both.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, For Unto Us a Child is Born
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay home, and then travel to Grandpa and Grandmas
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep, and even some extra ones my kids created...Comed, Fixen, Blixten...etc.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? If something is annoying, you're not listening to enough Christmas music!! lol

Christmas over the years

Christmas time is here!!

The kids begged me to get the Christmas decorations out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The best part for them is allll the Christmas bears. I have to wait to get those out until after everything else is put up, or else there'd be some major kid/bear chaos!

Huge Swing

We went to Snowflake for Thanksgiving. It was really fun. The kids played outside all day. My nephew Kyle built a HUGE swing in their front yard. Seriously, it was the biggest swing I've ever seen. Thanksgiving morning we had to go and try it out. Olivia and Grant LOVED it, Isaac wasn't too sure about it. It was a great weekend, super fun to see family, and I loved not having to cook!!

Pickles and Ice Cream

I went shopping today and by the time I got home I was starving. I was very excited to tear into the big jar of pickles I purchased. While eating my pickle and unpacking the rest of the groceries I realized I bought some ice cream. I know this is sooooo stereotypical, but I couldn't resist. I'm sure I sound like a raving mad pregnant lady, but that is some dang good food! One of my favorite lunches EVER! For those of you like me that have never tried this, you'll have to be brave and give it a try.

Who does Isaac look like?

Who does Grant look like?

Who does Olivia look like???

No Christmas Ultrasound

I'm sad to report that because of my very shy baby, my ultrasound will not be at Christmas time. Now it will be sometime the first of January. I guess this gives something to be excited for after Christmas, but the waiting may kill me!! Bummer.

Surprise!

Ryan must have taken this picture while I was out. I was shocked when I was looking through our latest pics, and there was my Grant-man all scarey with his mask. Yikes!

One less tooth to brush...

Olivia lost another tooth! She is going to be rich if this keeps up.

2nd Grade Concert

We went to Olivia's concert. It was very cute. We all have her snappy Thanksgiving songs running through our heads. In one of the songs a bunch of kids said one thing they were thankful for. Olivia's was Butterflies.

Morgan

Ryan took this picture of Morgan at the Hooper reunion. Too awesome not to post. : ) Morgan is leaving in January for his mission. He's going to Brazil!

Soccer

Grant had his last soccer game of the season yesterday. He is very proud of his new trophy!

More Halloween

We had to take more pictures since baby Shelby came to visit...the toy on the floor was way too interesting to get a good shot of Isaac and Shelby. Oh well, still cute!

Happy Birthday

Halloween is Ryan's birthday. The kids had so much fun picking out allllll those candles! Elliot and Lorianne came over to have birthday cake with us. Their little one is Shelby.

Pumpkin carving!

We helped the kids carve pumpkins too, but they got all moldy and gross before we had a chance to get a picture of them. Ooops! One guess whose pumpkin this is????

Happy Halloween!!

We love Halloween! I think we started planning for it in August. Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat. The kiddos were so excited to dress up and trunk or treat.

Angel Olivia

I had so much fun making the skirt for this costume. She wanted it to be really puffy. (Is she my daughter or what!!) Olivia is always way too much fun to dress up!

Grant/Frodo

Grant wanted to be Frodo (from Lord of the Rings). Not many of the kids got who he was, but the adults loved it, and so did he!

Isaac the Ghost

Isaac changed his mind soooo many times on what he wanted to be for Halloween. He finally settled on a a happy ghost.

Our Kids

Our sweeties. This was their first day of school picture. Olivia is in 2nd grade, Grant is in kindergarten, and Isaac is in preschool.

Cousins

Isaac and his sweet little cousin Brooklynn. They were hanging out and sharing animal crackers while the moms and dads were getting pictures taken.

Lego Land!

We went to San Diego over fall break and we took the kids to Lego Land. We had so much fun. Our kids were so excited to go, and they had a great time.

One of our favorites at Lego Land: Darth and R2!

Olivia and mini New York