Temple lights

Its just not Christmas to me 'til we go see the temple lights. We love it every year! We also saw all the different countries' nativity displays and Luke II. We loved everything.

Polar Express Party

I gave the kids a Polar Express party this year. They were so excited for it. They were so sweet and cute and helpful getting ready for the party. (Great way to get the house cleaned up without complaints!!!) We had lots of junk food and served hot chocolate during the hot chocolate song. It was so much fun, and really easy for me (as I am a great party goer and not so great party planner).
All the kids came in their jammies, they looked so cute!

We covered the furniture and floor with blankets so we wouldn't have to stress about spills.

Good times!

Sleeping in

Since the weather has been cooler, and the sun doesn't rise so early, my kiddos are having a harder time waking up in the mornings (same for me too!) . I had told them all week that on Saturday we wouldn't wake them up and they could sleep in a little. They were really excited for this. I don't think they thought for even a second that this was a nice way for ME to get to sleep in. Anyway, my sweet little Grant comes into my room EARLY Saturday morning...

Grant: (loudly whispering) Mom....Mom?.....MOM!!!

Me: (jolting awake worried that I'm going to get puked on or something) what Grant?

Grant: Can you please tell dad not to wake me up because I want to sleep in?

Ryan and I giggled about that for about ten minutes and then gave up and got out of bed to start the day.

By the way, everyone that did get to sleep in was still up by 6:30. LOL

I guess I need to rethink my mom wants to sleep in strategy for next Saturday!

Gym show and choir concerts

Grant had his first grade concert this week, and Olivia had an honor choir concert and a gym show this week. Our much neglected video camera finally got some good use! The kiddos did great at their shows. I LOVE getting to watch and cheer them on.


Grant's show was 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, so the kids all got to wear their jammies.

Olivia after her show

Here is Olivia doing her bar routine at her gym show. This was my favorite routine at this show.

Christmas excitement

We put up our Christmas decorations the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was fun, and then long and hard, and then fun again. It took most of the day, but the kiddos were really good to help out. Its hard for me to find the balance between me wanting everything to go up in a really organized way, and the kids who want to dig through the boxes to find the things THEY are excited to put up. I think I did better this year and let the kids run the show a little more. I mean does it really matter if we hang stockings before putting out the calendars? The only thing I insisted was that they had to wait 'til I put the lights on the trees before they could hang ornaments. They were OK with this once I explained how we don't want to see the cord, just the pretty stuff. Anyway, I am very thankful to be a mom and have a sweet hubby, and wonderful little cuties to share the holidays with. They keep Christmas magical and exciting. They wanted to sleep down stairs in the living room that night with the Christmas trees as the night light. I loved that they wanted to do that. I remember getting to do that as a kid and it was so fun to just look at the beautiful Christmas tree. Good times!

Thanksgiving

Yeah me for FINALLY getting around to our Thanksgiving. We had a great time in Central with Ryan's family. We are extra THANKFUL this year that we didn't get the stomach bug that plagued the Hooper Thanksgiving festivities this year. We still had fun and the kids played so hard they were begging to go to bet at 7:15. That is a good day! We forgot to take pictures at our dinner, but here are Seth and one of his cutie cousin Sadie. They look so sweet, we had to get a photo session in! Notice Seth's shirt. More to come on that later...

Squash

Seth tried his first food this week (besides rice cereal). Here's his reaction to the first tastes of squash....not all that different than his Daddy's reaction to squash even now! lol

We are Thankful

I asked everyone (minus Seth) to say 10 things they were thankful for and no other coaching. It was hard to only name ten. This is what we came up with...

Isaac is thankful for:
Doing what mom says me to do, elephants, house, church, when we go to tithing, building temples, Carter feels better, our computer, Seth and phones

Grant is thankful for:
Family, food, house, computer, Uncle Morgan on his mission, Heavenly Father, earth, toys, glasses, school

Olivia is thankful for:
Family, animals, earth, books, plants, food, our house, Holidays, friends, the gospel, colors, the temple and school

Misti is thankful for:
Family, Being a Mom, my testimony, temples, the gospel, our country, our home, modern medicine, sweet husband and good health

Ryan is thankful for:
Family, food, good health, smart kids, house, almost done with grad school, temples, the gospel, good weather and loving wife

Lashes

I LOVE these lashes! What a sweet baby we have!! ;)

Catching up again

Where has November gone??? It's almost Thanksgiving! We've been busy but having fun too.
First of all we have a new nephew! Congrats Lori and Elliot. Their little Carter is so cute and sweet and tiny. I don't have a picture of him yet because he was in the hospital for a while, but there will be plenty to come. I was so shocked to see a tiny newborn again. I didn't realize how BIG my little guy is getting. That tiny stage just goes by too fast.

Last weekend my parents were in town for two of my nephews' football game. It was fun to hang out and shop and giggle. I took O, G, and I to my nephews' football game. It was so fun to cheer for the LOBOS again. I was teaching my kiddos the fight song on the way to the game so they would be able to sing along. They were so good at the game. I was a bit nervous to take them by myself (Ryan stayed home with Seth) but they had a great time.

I also took the kids to the first ever Boulder Creek Idol. Again the kids had a blast. They thought it was so funny seeing their teachers acting so crazy. At the end Santa came. Isaac ran so fast up there to see him. I think he made it in at fourth in the line (which was LONG). It was a super fun night, and a great fundraiser (much better than the $14 tub of cookie dough...are you kidding me!!!)

Lemonade/Hot Chocolate sale

Saturday was our community's garage sale. My kiddos took advantage of this and set up their first Lemonade and Hot Chocolate stand. They did a great job. They made signs for it the night before. Olivia took care of the money and serving the customers. Grantman held one of the signs up as people were driving or walking by to bring in the customers. Isaac wanted to sell toys instead, so he picked out a few and sat by them. It was a little hairy at first when people were only buying hot chocolate and not any toys from Isaac. But then thankfully he had a few customers as well and then he couldn't have been happier about the whole thing. People were so generous. The kids got three times the money in tips than from actual sales. They got pretty good at looking at people walking by with the sad puppy dog eyes. Grant would turn so that they could read his sign clear until they past us. It was so funny, they were excellent at getting the sympathy/cute sales. I'm excited for next year. We will expand and add cookies and brownies too. Good times.
Isaac consoling himself with hot chocolate since he hadn't made a sale yet. (yes those are his sandals and its November, We never stop wearing our summer shoes!)

Open and ready for business

Granters in charge of advertising

Olivia - customer service

Happy Halloween!!

We had a really fun Halloween this year. Olivia dressed up as Shawn Johnson (Olympic gold medalist on the beam), Grant was Captain America, Isaac was a robot, and Seth was the Pillsbury dough boy. I thought the kids looks so cute in their costumes. I love getting them ready for Halloween. So exciting.

Happy Birthday Husband!

I know its a day early, but before Halloween gets too crazy with parades and class parties and trick-or-treating, I just wanted to tell my awesome hubby happy birthday! Here are a few of my favorite pictures of him. (don't worry Ryan, I didn't post a single cowboy picture hee hee!!)
The hunky football player

Chunky baby!

One of the many castles on his mission

In Gibraltar

The Alhambra

You are THE BEST husband and daddy ever! Thanks for EVERYTHING. We love you!!

Grant the Missionary

Grant was reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and he came to the part of "a pipe he held tight in his teeth and the smoke encircled his head like a wreath." He was really upset by this. He asked me why Santa was smoking. I was really caught off guard by this and was trying to figure out how to answer that. Then before I could say anything he said maybe Santa hadn't heard about the Word of Wisdom yet. Then he asked me if on Christmas Eve we could leave a copy of the Book of Mormon with Santa's cookies so he could learn about our church and that Heavenly Father doesn't want us to smoke. (This is where my heart bursts with joy!!!) Now I can't wait for Christmas Eve because we have an extra special gift for Santa from my sweet Grant.

Rock Band at Eldon's

Last week we got to visit Eldon and Stefani a couple of times. It was too funny watching everyone rocking out at rock band. I had to take a few pittures.

Grantman plays it steel guitar style. He was really good at it.

What a sweet Uncle to help Olivia!

I had to get my dad rockin' out too, but as cool as rock band is, it's no match for when my dad or bros play and sing with a real guitar--one of my all time favorites!

If they counted points for dancing with the singing I think Olivia could have made it to expert. I LOVE the lost/deep concentration look on my hubby's face. He was a really good sport to put up with my giggling. Thanks Eld and Stef for all the fun!

On another note, Isaac is still keeping us on her toes...All morning he kept talking about Cameros (sp?)...

Isaac: Oh Mom, check out that awesome Camero!

Me: I don't see it.

Isaac: Its this one here.

Me: Oh that isn't a Camero, its a Toyota.

Isaac: WHAT!!! Where? Someone drives a toy-yoda! I've never seen a star wars car!

It took me a while to figure out that he instantly heard Yoda. That's Ryan's boy for sure!

Craftiness

Olivia and I have been busy this fall break. We made a bunch of bows--my new favorite thing to do right now! And Olivia made a pillow case for one of her goals for her Faith in God award. I think she did a great job. She picked out the fabrics all by herself. She thought the green made everything "pop". Then I helped her pin it, and then she did the sewing. I was surprised how well she did. I sat right by her the whole time for safety reasons, but she was handling the sewing machine really well. So fun, it will be hard when school starts up again next week. I guess we'll have to plan to do more over Christmas break!




My boys were being extra cuties the other night. They are growing up so fast and are my handsome little sweeties.

Fun Weekend

We had a fun time this last weekend. First it was Grant-man's field day at school. He did a great job. I wish I had the video camera for the hula-hoop, he was really good. We went with Ryan's Mom and Dad to the county fair. Our kiddos have never been to a fair before, so we were really excited. It rained all that morning, but by the time we went to the fair it was beautiful, and cool. We had a good time. I think the kids liked all the livestock as much as the rides. We even looked at all the birds. (Huge step for me since I think birds are way CREEPY, but the kids loved it.) It was nice to have a get a way for a couple days and enjoy great weather.

4 months old

I know this is late, oh well. Seth turned four months old and had his well baby visit. He is 15 lbs 9 oz, and 25 in long. He is getting so big! By the end of the day my arms ache. Ryan has started carrying him up and down the stairs for me when he can to spare my arms a little. He is such a sweet baby. His newest favorite toy is his toes. He is so fascinated by those little guys right now. He's still figuring out the rice cereal. It amuses him, but he doesn't each that much of it yet. Thankfully he is a real cuddle bug. I have to get my snuggle on him SOOOO MUCH because I know it doesn't last, but for now I can enjoy every squish!

Conference

I always LOVE conference weekend. That is one time when I feel like we really have the family togetherness going on. We usually have all sorts of goodies and snacks and activities to help us be good listeners. I think I colored more pictures than my kids! I totally didn't plan enough variety in the quiet activities this time though, By the Sunday afternoon session the grouchies were coming on strong. Our favorite treat this time was these pretzel hugs that I got off of Holly's blog. Thank You Holly! They are sooooo good!!! We had those finished by Sat. afternoon. I loved the talks and the music. One awesome thing was that there were quite a few references to 1 John Chapter 4 which was where Isaac's scripture from the primary program came from. He was so excited when he heard the reference. Another really cool thing was that my kids are getting old enough to actually pay attention and listen. So fun! Six more months and we can do it again!

Another thought from Isaac:
Isaac: Mom, you know whats so fun about conference?
Me: What?
Isaac: You let us bring food upstairs. Usually we have to just sneak it!

-Atleast he's honest about the sneaking right?

Faith and Giggles

Isaac: Mom, do you like the picture I'm coloring?
Misti: Yes. You are doing a great job!
Isaac: Do you think Jesus will like it?
Misti: Yep.
Isaac: Good, because when I get to go to the temple, I'm going to give it to him.
Isaac: Oh, I think he will like the ice cream picture too, but not as much!



The other day Grant was making Seth laugh so hard. By the time I got the camera out he was getting tired of it, but at least I caught a little of the fun. We are having so much fun with him.

Olivia's Baptism

My little girl is baptized! It was a WONDERFUL day. I knew the day would be happy, but I had no idea how joyful it would be for her or me. Olivia was so excited. She came running into my room that morning so excited that it was her baptism day. She had me fighting back the happy tears all day. Her baptism was so sweet. (THE MOST SWEETEST!!!) ;) I am so proud of her.
I love this picture. This smile was there all day long. Her little suit is the same one I wore when I was baptized.


In her white dress.

On Sunday she sang a solo with the ward choir. She did a beautiful job. They sang "Love is Spoken Here" (Olivia sang the first part, and the choir sang the second) Not to shabby for an eight-year-old to hold her part all on her own! (Grant can do it too!) I'll need to record that I guess!

Fondue FHE

At Mack and Valerie's reception they had a big chocolate fountain. I KNEW this would only result in a HUGE mess at their beautiful reception if we sampled it, so I made a deal with my kiddos. They don't touch or even go near the chocolate fountain that night, and I would make them their own chocolate fountain for FHE. Thankfully they took the deal. They have been excited for it ever since. It turned out to be really fun. They chose all the dipping items. I think the favorites were the rice crispy treats, and bananas.

Just getting started. I love how excited Grantman looks.

First BIG bites. LOL

Catching up

I had to put off a lot of things while we were busy getting ready for Olivia's baptism, but here's what we've been up to.

Olivia, Seth and I took a quick trip to Snowflake to go to Valerie's shower. It was a fun trip, and fun to see everyone. I made sure I brought my camera so I could take lots of pictures, and it stayed in the diaper bag the whole time. oops!

Labor day was fun. All the Hoopers went to Anthem and had a BBQ and then played at the water park there. We had so much fun. None of us wanted to leave, except for Seth, and what Seth says is the rule right now. Thankfully I do have pics of this since my Mom-in-law is great at remembering her camera.

This is almost all of the Hoopers. We are missing Olivia, Mysti, and Brooklynn. They must have gone for a walk.

Cousins having fun at the water park.

Olivia's birthday was fun. She was so excited to turn eight.

Grant and Isaac don't look quite as thrilled as Olivia

Grant and Isaac started a Karate class. This is beyond words cute. Pics to come (Hopefully...if someone else is in charge of my camera!) The boys LOVE it. They are having fun practicing their moves already.

We made another trip up to Snowflake for Mack and Valerie's wedding. It was so sweet. They are SO CUTE together! And wouldn't ya know it, I totally forgot the camera this time. AAhhhrrgg! Anyway, Congrats Mack and Val, we couldn't be happier for you.