Welcome Home Uncle Moragan!

We were so exited to go to the airport to help pick up Morgan (Ryan's youngest brother) from his Mission. We were going to do posters, but then we decided that we didn't want to have to haul them around everywhere so we did shirts instead.

Olivia--I love Uncle Morgan
Grant--My Uncle is Mad Morgan (from Willow hee hee)
Isaac--Vote for Uncle Morgan
Seth--Uncle Morgan is MVP

Not necessarily mission related, but they made him smile, and that was the whole idea. We were joking that we are going to have to think up more things to pray for since Uncle Morgan is back safe and sound after a great mission. We've had a few slip ups and continue blessing him in his missionary efforts, but hey, we're all supposed to be missionaries right? Lately Isaac has changed his to "please bless Uncle Morgan on his miss...(pause) to find a nice girl". LOL--we've got you covered Morg.
With all the excitement with him at the airport, we didn't get a single picture with Morgan, where is my brain???? Must be the same place my sanity is hiding. :)

Kids update

Isaac and Grant earned new Karate belts. They are now Green with a black stripe belts. Isaac also earned a Kata patch (for knowing the first half of his kata) and Grant earned two kata patches for knowing the whole kata. We are super proud of them. They are really having fun, and learning so much with their karate.

Its been a busy month of dr. visits for Olivia. She now has glasses to wear. She only uses them when she needs them (like to see the marker board at school) but she LOVES being able to see again. After she had them for a while I asked her how they were working out. She said they are wonderful because now at school she can look at the board and see what to do instead of having to just memorize everything the first time the teacher says it. (Maybe that's how she got so smart hee hee).

As for the broken arm... she'll get another x-ray in a little over a week, and hopefully it will be healed. Its been a long, hard, SAD six weeks. I'm proud of her though, she doesn't complain, I can just tell that she misses gymnastics SO MUCH.

A peek inside a Hooper FHE

It will be a sad sad day if the kids ever stop demanding "SunBEAM" for the opening song of FHE. I love that Seth is really participating now. Too much fun. :)

Please disregard the mess, we were still in the middle of our reconstruction when we took this video. Also, please disregard the the key someone started the song in...Ryan now will mostly wait for me to start songs, so its not so high, but the kiddos aren't quite there yet...

A little late but...

I don't get around to blogging as often as I should...
Thursday evening before the kids got out of school I was working on some primary stuff. I usually never go into our office after 7pm because Seth sleeps in there, but I really needed to print something, so I went in. To my horror, the ceiling was leaking water in several spots. I yelled for Ryan and we panicked for a minute or two and called the plumber. Now, 2.5 weeks later, we are almost done with all the restoration. It was such a pain to deal with the dryers and construction etc over Christmas. We replaced a big chunk of ceiling and the wall above the door, the pad under the carpet (not the carpet....bummer) thankfully Seth was fine as was all our stuff in the office, and they were able to repair the crack in our tub. Now all the workers are gone and just one last job for Ryan--replacing the drain. I can't wait to have our nice big shower back!!! We've definitely learned some lessons in patience and time management dealing with only the kids shower. :)
So that was Thursday. Friday, Olivia broke her arm, and Ryan graduated with his masters. Way too much excitement this year!
Anyhoo, amidst all the chaos we had a wonderful Christmas. Our dining room is still a maze to walk through since I haven't had a chance to put all the office stuff away yet. And we got to move out all the furniture and a Christmas tree and presents etc on Dec 23 for the carpet cleaners to come, but the kids were great sports and we had everything back in place (in the living room--dining room still a disaster) on Christmas eve.

The nativity by the Hoopers...Seth-Joseph, Isaac-lamb, Grant-Shepherd, Olivia-Mary, Mom-camera lady, Dad-narrator
Seth sat still holding his baby the whole time...just don't try to put a towel hat on his head. lol

All the gingerbread houses

Ryan and Grant's house...with chimney and gargoyle...lol

Isaac wanted to do his own this year.

Olivia would have liked to do her own, but with the broken arm, I had to help, but it was completely her design. Balcony and pool included. :)

Seeing the lights at the temple

For me, its just not Christmas 'til you go see the temple lights. They were beyond amazing, as always.

So, crazy but fun. Olivia is still waiting to try out her pretty pink roller blades. We loved having our "LAZY DAY" (this year it ended up being new year's day...only requirement is teeth brushed...heaven). We visited family, Ryan took the kids hiking a few times. I'm still sweeping up pixos and Legos. Good times. We are blessed. :)