Merry Christmas!

I decided to post a family letter here...much easier than sending it with the cards.

Dear family and friends,
How are you? We are fine. (just kidding lol)
We had a wonderful year. Here's what we've been up to...

OLIVIA is doing great in gymnastics and school. She enjoys reading, singing, and piano as well. It is very frustrating for her to have a broken wrist since most of interest involve her arm. She is such a great helper at home. She is enjoying being in the 4-6 grade honor choir at school too. She is in 4th grade

GRANT is having a great year too. He does excellent in school and likes to read too. He is a green belt in karate and will be moving up soon. He did a basketball camp over the summer and had tons of fun. He also likes video games and riding bikes. Grant is in the 2-3 grade honor choir at school. I LOVE going to the concerts! :) He is in 2nd grade

ISAAC loves finally getting to go to school with Olivia and Grant as a mighty kindergartner. He is doing great and we are so proud of him. He is also a green belt in karate. He did great on his last belt test, so we are exited to see him move up. Isaac loves to play outside and ride bikes. He is a great helper.

SETH has reached the momentous 18 month age!!! He is so much fun. He loves to make as many messes as possible through out the day, but we wouldn't have it any other way. He loves music and dancing. He responds best to Mozart and the chipmunks (go figure) He can also sing back songs if you use a simple syllable instead of the words. He is a talker and great sleeper. :)

MISTI I love staying home and being a mama. I have been super busy with kids and church etc, but I LOVE IT!

RYAN just finished his masters!!! What will he do with all the extra time with no studying, homework, class and research??? :) He works hard, and plans wonderful vacations for us. Ryan has been into hiking and canyoneering this year. He is determined to climb half dome (in Yosemite) next year.

We were very blessed this year, and we are so thankful for it! We have enjoyed spending time together and with our families as well this year. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love,
the Hoopers

Master + Disaster

He did it! He's a Master!!! We are super proud of Ryan and so glad he is DONE (at least for a while :) Also, he just had his 5th patent issue...good times.

Here is Ryan at his graduation.

Materials Science and Engineering.

The boys in there ASU stuff. So proud of dad

So that was a HUGE day for Ryan. So why were Olivia and I not there???

?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

?

?

I was in the ER with Olivia. She fell off the monkey bars at school and broke her wrist. Poor girl. She was so brave, I know it was hurting, but she never complained, even during the x-rays. This happened the day before her gymnastics show, if you know Olivia, you'll know that is the saddest news ever to miss out on any bit of gymnastics. So sad.

When Olivia was released, we hurried over to ASU to try to catch the end of graduation, but when we got there, they were walking out.

Here we are all together. Olivia and I didn't have time to go change into our ASU stuff, so we'll have to fabricate the moment again, so I can get a picture the way I wanted it.

Thankfully Ryan's mom and dad came down to see the graduation. They took the big boys with them, so Ryan did have some fans to cheer for him there. Thanks Aunt Lori for rushing over and watching the kiddos for us so we could go to the hospital! Love ya, and we owe you big time!!!

According to Isaac...

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me....a cat stuck in a pear tree."

I love it! :)

Ryan

So here's what my hubby has been up to lately...
Besides preparing for his LAST final for his masters, and being a great dad etc. Ryan has really been into hiking and canyoneering. This week he climbed Weaver's needle. So cool, wish I could do it!


At the top

This is Weaver's Needle from far away. (I was watching twilight the other day, and they show that when she is leaving AZ...SO COOL) :)

They camped at the top of it. Her is its shadow early the next morning

I am totally telling my self that he isn't standing on the edge of a 600 ft drop off right there...yikes!

I just like this picture. :)

Thankful

Thanksgiving was wonderful. No surprise, we forgot our camera, so no pictures to show for it. Its always fun to hang out with family, and doesn't hurt that there were 28 PIES!!! either. :) So here are my thankful lists. A serious one, and the every-day-life-practical one :) neither can ever be complete because there is so much to be grateful for, but here's a taste...

MY FAMILY
Ryan- is the best. What can I say, I married UP in SO MANY WAYS!!!
Olivia- my best-est girlfriend and example. She is really as good and sweet as she appears...no put-ons with her.
Grant- my little gentleman. Always helps me, always smiles, always happy.
Isaac- Brave, concerned and faithful.
Seth- Sweet as sugar, pure joy with eyelashes!

THE GOSPEL
Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ
My testimony
The Scriptures
Prophets
My kids primary teachers

EXTENDED FAMILY
We are blessed with wonderful families and are grateful for everyone one of you!

GOOD HEALTH
'nuff said



also I am thankful for....
nap time
Big Sexy Hair products :)
the stevia plant which produces natural sweeteners so I can have treats and still fit in to my size 3s :)
car seats
karate
gymnastics
inspiration
music
dancing
Christmas decorations
Penne Rustica (from Macaroni Grill)
Lost and 24--DATE NIGHTS
shoes
money to buy shoes
scented candles
Good examples
Hawaiian tropics suntan oil
Bulwark exterminating--scorpions?--GONE!
the smell of rain and clean baby
brand new crayons
snuggly pj's
vacations
Celtic women Christmas CD (how can I get in that group--I love their singing)
hugs
Ryan's LONG socks that he lets me steal when my legs hurt
memories
coupons
bubble baths
traditions
FHE


I could go on and on, but its Seth's nap time (which I am thankful for!)

Larson Reunion '09

It was our turn to host the Larson Reunion. I learned (and re-learned) something important...I'm not a very good party planner--I'm a good helper, I'll bring whatever and help set up or clean up, but PLANNING...not so much. We procrastinated the whole year, and had lots of different ideas come and go. We ended up going really easy and having a pot luck at the park. Thankfully, lots came, and we had fun. Family is wonderful. And also what is wonderful is that in 9 years when I'm in charge again, Olivia will be just the right age to take over for her boring mom!!! Thanks for all the fun and help family, love ya!

Marshmallows/Dress up

These past few weeks have been extra busy, but we still got some fun in too. Since Ryan had the big boys at karate and Seth was sleeping, O and I played some dress up. I have some super fun dresses (thanks to my super seamstress mom) and O really had fun trying them on. She even talked me into putting a few of them on. Here's the picture O took of me...hee hee
I couldn't figure out how to work the timer on the camera to get a picture of us both all dressed up. This was us trying to get a shot of us all fancy. I love this picture because O was giggling so much. :)

The "Belle" shot

She put her wings on for this one. So fun--

This dress was "itchy" to her, but she still wanted a picture

She LOVED this one, thought it looked like something Arial would wear

On to the marshmallows--

We have a complicated schedule that involves jobs, seating arrangements in the car, and which kid gets to choose FHE treat. Mostly I let the kids pick whatever they want for FHE. If for some reason I can't do it, then they get to choose a lunch treat (nutty bars, oatmeal cream pies etc) since they almost never get those. Anyhoo, it was Isaac's week to choose, and he wanted marshmallows. I stole an idea from the YW days and had the kids make stuff with the marshmallows in hopes that they'd make more and eat less. Well, they ate a ton of them, but we had a great time. I'll definitely do this again sometime. Lots of happy togetherness. :)

(Half of our pics of this are on our other camera, I'll post those later--very creative)

Happy Birthday Hubby

This is SO LATE, but these last couple of weeks were beyond crazy for me, and this is my first chance to blog...

Happy Birthday (late) to my handsome husband!!! Also happy 11th anniversary of our engagement! (Awe) We celebrated with breakfast pizzas, filibertos, and chocolate cake. Lots of fun and LOTS OF CALORIES! I'm the luckiest gal ever to have such a super sweet husband. Here are some fun facts about Ryan

-He eats 2 peanut butter and jam sandwiches and an apple every work day for lunch. This has been going on since before we were married. He switched from honey to all fruit jam shortly after his dad got diabetes (less sugar). He also switched from a granola bar to an apple about 6 years ago. But the P.B. never has changed.

-Thru our whole married life, I've only made the sandwiches for his lunch 3 maybe four times. He likes to make them himself.

-If there's a mountain, he wants to climb it

-If there's a canyon he wants to canyoneer it. :)

-He can still do back flips

-He still sweeps me off my feet--literally

-He tells the kids stories about scientists and explorers on long drives

-He spoils me rotten! :)

-He'll hopefully have his masters in DECEMBER. wahoooooo!

Happy birthday husband, Love you!!!

Halloween

Halloween was busy, but really fun. We didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Halloween morning, but it was fun to spend the morning together. This year I let Olivia and Grant use the little knives that come in the pumpkin carving kits. (yikes, the kids are growing up!) I thought they did great. Olivia made x eyes a y nose and a sideways z for a mouth. Grant made a dinosaur. Isaac drew the face he wanted and then I helped him cut it out. Ryan's pumpkin is bobo fet (sp?) Seth and I shared and stayed traditional. Good times. --note to self- don't try to take family pictures with costumes and pumpkins right before the trunk or treat--not the most cooperative when all they want to do is get to the party lol

Joni and Chachi (sp?) from Happy Days. (I know, no one got it :)

The Thing

The Hulk (Should have fixed his muscles before the picture LOL)

My little ones :)

Moon Night (he's a marvel hero)

Olivia-the pediatrician fairy

You betcha I'm playing the Christmas music!

Fall Break

We had a great fall break. We decided to take the big kids to Disneyland. We only had time for one day there so we decided Seth would get to enjoy some one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa (thanks again mom and dad). It was so hard dropping off Seth. We really missed him, but I'm glad we got to have a day with the big kids.

We first went to the La Brea Tar pits. They were pretty cool. It was crazy (and stinky)seeing the methane gas bubbles come up. We LOVE museums so it was a fun afternoon there. Next we went to Hollywood just to see the sights a little. That was an interesting experience. We didn't realize they have all those characters there trying to take pictures with you for tips. We must have REALLY looked liked tourists because we could hardly walk a step and another character would be there. I'm sure they target families with little boys that get excited over all the super heroes and such. Oh well, it was fun, just really crowded. I wish we had more time to look at all the hand prints out side Grauman's Chinese theater. Seeing all the history there was awesome.
The next day was Disneyland. We were there the WHOLE DAY, 9am-9pm (one of the main reasons Seth didn't come) Our kiddos LOVE all the thrilling rides, so we ran from ride to ride all day long and loved it. Thankfully the lines weren't long at all. The only problem with Disneyland is once you go, you HAVE to go again, and soon. Can't wait for the next trip!

Trash Museum

(This picture has nothing to do with the post except that its of Isaac...I just think its a hilarious picture. Yes, he asked me to take it lol)


So much to do this week, but I have to write down before I forget...



The kiddos had played really good all day and consequently the house was a DISASTER. When it came time for clean ups, Isaac came to me and said "Hey mom, how about instead of us doing jobs we just turn our house into a TRASH MUSEUM!"



lol (is it bad that I did entertain the thought myself after that??? hee hee)

Isaac's wisdom

A couple of weeks ago...

Isaac: Hey mom, I had a great day at school today. Know why?
Me: Why?
Isaac: Because I had lots of SCRIPTURE POWER!

(I know, be still my heart!)

This morning during scriptures...(Isaac was the first reader and only about 2 minutes into it, and after telling him to be quiet a number of times and then telling him to stop messing up my bed)

Me: Isaac, you are almost done, you have two lines left to read
Isaac: But mom, my brain is telling me that I already have enough scripture power today, so we can be done.

(At least we learned in conference that its the consistency they'll remember right???)

More New York

So how much more could there be of our NY trip? SO MUCH MORE!! This is more for my journaling, but you're welcome to read too...

My absolute favorite part of our trip was the Broadway show. My SWEET husband splurged and got us amazing seats to Phantom. (Yes, yes, sure we wanted to see wicked, but we didn't realize those tickets have to purchased way in advance...and besides, we couldn't have gotten such great seats to that :) I gotta say, I know musicals aren't Ryan's favorite thing, but he's always been wonderful in that he knows that there's not much I love more than seeing a great musical, namely family, and church :) Anyway he is so supportive like that. He's been to more than his fair share of concerts, voice recitals, piano recitals etc and he goes with a great attitude and has thoughtful opinions about it afterwards. So anyway it was AWESOME! The man that played the phantom is the only guy in history to have been both the phantom and Jean Val Jean on Broadway. He stole the show. I seriously was brought to tears every time he sang. Well, basically I was crying the whole time. I loved it more than I can say. Only bummer was that I didn't get to sing anything there!!! (well, actually I'm not so sure about singing with the phantom--everyone sounded great 'til he started again and then it was like HOLY COW! that dude can SING!!!!!) Thanks sweetie for helping me check off a bucket list item. Although now I really need to go back and see more! ;-)

After our show. I loved seeing all the lights!

Ryan at times square

Me at the Majestic. My favorite seats, front row grand tier...NO TALL PEOPLE CAN SIT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!! (I know what you're thinking...stadium seats everyone can see...NOT TRUE! Tall people still sit in front of me ugh! Seriously, how dare they be so tall? J/K)

Outside the theatre. No, that wasn't our limo :( j/k lol

Halloween here we come

October starts this week. I think this is the first time EVER that I don't have any of the kids costumes done yet. Time to get busy! I love the fall--the holidays are right around the corner! Olivia thinks, and I am starting to agree that the holiday season actually starts Sept. 2. That is her "birthday eve" and it officially kicks off the holidays because we are celebrating so much between now and the New Year, so why not! I will hold off on the Christmas music until Nov. 1 and that's it. :)

What we've been up to

Olivia's birthday was lots of fun. I took her to build -a- bear during her lunch (she chose this instead of a friends birthday party) it was lots of fun. The boys weren't sure about all the girl stuff--not quite as exciting for them, but they loved eating the flowers off the cake, so its all good. :-)
We went to the first Steve Hooper reunion. We had lots of fun. Everyones schedules were so different that we were never all together at the same time, but we did get to see almost everyone. We ate tons of yummy food, had a treasure hunt, hay ride, and a marathon game of musical chairs (Seth's favorite...he danced the whole time lol) My sis-in-law takes much better pictures than me so when Ryan shows me how to get them off of face book to here I'll post those. Here's a few that we took. Good times

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Another year down, and now I have a 9 year old. How can this be??? Olivia was SO EXCITED for her birthday. We have a fun day planned. Can't wait to get to the rest of it. I'm on the upstairs computer (Seth sleeps in the office) so I can't get any cute pictures of her, but here are some fun facts about our little Livvi Lou...
- loves animals but especially arctic animals
- level 2 - 3 in gymnastics and loving it--currently working on handstands on the beam
- wants to be a pediatrician and mommy when she grows up
- favorite colors in this order: pink, purple, green, blue
- great student
- sings in the honor choir at school and the ward choir at church and with me all the time too!!!
- favorite foods are tacos and ice cream
- LOVES LOVES LOVES going to activity days. (Thank heavens for wonderful leaders for my kiddos!!!)
- creative and crafty
- really good cook already- Last Sunday she didn't stay for choir (too much candy from primary and her bishop buck to resist) anyway, when I came home she was putting a batch of cookies in the oven. I am LOVING all her help in the kitchen!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day Olivia, love you!

Dancing and trivia

Our little Seth is a dancer. When catchy music comes on he has to get up and bust a move. Too funny.

Trivia question: The song Seth is jammin' to is from the soundtrack of one of my top 10 most favorite movies EVER. Can anyone name it??? (besides my brother Eldon, its down right disgraceful if he doesn't know. ;-)

First Day of School

Too many projects going on. I can't seem to stay current on the ol' blog. Here's our first day of school...a little late

Isaac with his teacher Ms. Valentino. When the bell rang he went right to his line, grabbed his backpack, and started heading into the school ALONE. I was running and yelling after him thru all the students and parents. Thankfully I caught up to him in time and now he knows walk in with his class. At least he was ready to go. It would be so much harder if he wasn't happy about it.

The kiddos on the play ground. I snapped this right before I got a major eye roll from one of them. Nothing like a picture happy mama on the first day of school. lol

The backpack shot. They were so loaded down with all the school supplies. Thankfully it's only that heavy on the first day.

Super Seth. I figure its always good to document the kids if they are ever perfectly clean--it sure doesn't last!

Kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade

Thankfully they all had great days. So far we love school!!! It was crazy for me to have only Seth at home. I have started exercising in the morning while Seth naps. Who'd of thunk??? Its hard for me, but I know these kiddos love it, and so its ok.

confession...I planned on drowning my sorrows of my kids are getting too grown up too fast in a big fat butterfinger oreo blizzard while they were gone, but settled for some panda express since its hard to eat a blizzard with out Ryan...:)

New York part IV

A few of the sites we saw...
The Manhattan Temple. This was so awesome. It brakes my heart that we didn't have the time to go in...just another reason we'll have to go back. It was so cool to see it right there in the middle of everything. Beautiful!
The front stoop of the Cosby's house. (Yes, this is the actual place!)

The street where Rudy Huxtable learned to ride a two wheeler. Ah, memories...

Who ya gonna call? (GHOST BUSTERS!!!!!)

The church with the hidden treasure in it from "National Treasure" --no, WE didn't find any treasure...bummer!