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!!!)