Life goes on...

So life goes on, even if I don't get around to blogging about it. Since our lives our absolutely fascinating over here at the Hooper house, I'll give ya'll a little update....lol (I really am trying to keep this up for a journal for our family, but yikes, I'm always behind.)
Beware--LONG POST...and I can't ever get the pictures to come up in the right order, so this will be a bit random. :)

For Ryan's graduation/anniversary gift, I sent him on an almost free trip to Guatemala. He's always wanted to go, he had the airline miles saved up, and his cousin was going too, so off he went. I'd have LOVED to see Tikal, but NOT LOVED the R.O.U.S.'s and other wildlife just running about NOT safely behind bars (like a zoo) (I'm deathly afraid of pretty much any animal if its loose) also I would have NOT LOVED the yucky hotel they stayed in. So this was a great "mancation" for Ryan. We missed him, but are super happy that he had a great time and got to check something of his bucket list.
Isaac is doing great. He is such a handsome young man, and keeps his mom and dad on track. We noticed that when he was reading his nose was less than an inch away from the page, so off to the eye doctor we went. Another Hooper in glasses. I think the Hooper family alone paid for the eye doc's vacation this year. (grumble, grumble) For anyone keeping track, that's 3 out of 4 so far...I'm just waiting for little Seth, I'm sure its coming)I was venting to Ryan the other night about the fact that our boys eyes are MUCH TO BEAUTIFUL to be hidden behind glasses. He (always the wiser one) pointed out that we'll keep them in glasses 'til after their missions and then get them fixed or get contacts, and THEN we'll let the little ladies see their pretty eyes. I like it! hee hee hee :)
p.s. Even glasses can't hide these beautiful baby blues...
-Also, I only referenced the glasses hiding the BOYS' eyes because Olivia doesn't have to wear hears all the time, but hers are gorgeous too. :)


Grantman got his cast off this week. The first thing he asked for after it was off was if he could run around and get all sweaty and dirty. I said you betcha!!! (Yes, the mean mom that I am, I made him stay relatively clean so his cast wouldn't get too stinky--glad I did too) Here he is jumping out of the swing at the parkSeth has been so much fun lately. He talks ALL THE TIME. He hears everything and touches his ears and says "what dat sound mama?" ."..is it a train?" He also notices airplanes and LOVES them too. Some of my favorites of his are..."uh-oh, mama my pants" (when his pants fall down--which is often) Popporn (popcorn) "pease pease cannies my hands" (what can I say, he loves candy) "crap crap" (quack quack ...hee hee) Last week he climbed out of his crib three times, so now we moved him into the big boy room and he sleeps on the crib mattress stacked on a bunch of food storage cans. It took a couple days, but now he loves his big boy bed. Only potty training left to go. (not ready yet though)

For my birthday/anniversary we took the kids to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. We had a great time. Seth did not disappoint with his reactions to seeing all those animals. Good times

Olivia has been very busy, but she's happy. Her arm is better. It has been frustrating for her to have to catch up a bit in gymnastics now, but I know she'll be stronger than ever in no time. School has been a bit crazy for her lately. She has been doing extra stuff for her regular class (because her teacher is making books for all the kids) besides her ALP stuff, so she hasn't had a lot of free time. Thankfully they are almost done and she'll have more time for stuff she wants to do. The other day I was sitting around looking at FB, and I look over and Olivia is reading a dictionary "for fun"...that's when you know your kid is getting smarter than you for sure! The next day I checked out a bunch of classics from the library to read...can't let her get ahead of me just yet!

My kiddos can't resist a candid photo... While we were at the zoo the kids were talking/debating on what the smartest animal was. Next came whitch was the dumbest animal. (Ryan and I were just laughing to ourselves listening to them) Then Olivia asks Ryan what the dumbest animal is. Before Ryan could say anything, Isaac chimed in that FRANKENSTEIN was the dumbest....DUH!
Gotta love it :)

We loved this zoo for the ages of our kiddos. It was cheap, totally paved, and small enough that the kids didn't complain about being tired. The animals are very close too. And most important for our kiddos, they have two polar bears--a favorite animal at our house. :)

As for me, its been busy, but its busy doing what I love, so I can't complain. Time is going by way too fast to not enjoy this sweet family of mine. For Valentines day Ryan really went overboard with flowers, a new dishwasher and a new garbage disposal. Well, I told him the dishwasher and disposal could count as Valentines...our house seems to be falling apart! I love my new dishwasher though!!! Thankfully we were only out of a working dishwasher (besides the one named Misti that lives here) for a couple weeks. If only I could get a bathroom washer...put the soap in, close the door, come back in a few hours and sparkling clean--I know, in my dreams.

11 years and counting

So I've fallen WAY behind with the blog, but I'll play catch up later...its my anniversary!!!

For your viewing enjoyment I included our engagement picture. Please, no comments on my light wash Levi's. I was against them from the start, but Ryan wanted light jeans, and I didn't know yet that I needed to be in charge of what we wear. :) hee hee...that's how much I love him...I'll even wear the light washes for my hubby. lol
Since its our 11th Anniversary, here are 11 random facts about Mr. & Mrs...
1. We both LOVE LOVE LOVE Penne Rustica from Macaroni Grill. We've never even tried anything else from their menu. Why mess with perfection?
2. We like to listen/sing to Handel's Messiah while driving in the car.
3. While we were dating, Ryan would teach me the Spanish to Shakira songs (back when she only sang in Spanish) I still know it, and I still have the paper saved that he wrote the lyrics on for me.
4. We like to make milkshakes after the kids are asleep. (shhhh, don't tell)
5. We both would love to go roller blading again, but are WAY too embarrassed to ever do it.
6. We are both annoyed when advertising says that something is "free", nothing is free, it might be "at no additional charge", RARELY is it free.
7. We are both always on time...Ryan in a normal way, me VERY obsessively, but still, we are never late.....(usually)
8. We LOVE to travel and vacation
9. We are readers. Ryan is slower, but more thorough, and when he finishes it he won't read it again (besides scriptures obviously) I am faster and if I like it, I will read the same book over and over.
10. We take turns equally stealing covers. If I steal them, Ryan can take some back and I'll never wake up. If he steals them, I just go get another blanket out of the closet and then tease him about it the next day.
11. We enjoy staying home. Even when we travel, as we pull into our garage we always say its fun to go, but its fun to be HOME.

I'm grateful everyday for my wonderful hubby, but he knows that...I tell him.

--love, wife

Matching ties

Wouldn't it be nice to have matching ties for all your boys including your husband?

Pack 238 has teamed up with www.thematchingtieguy.com to help our Cub Scouts raise funds!
We are selling ties in every size from newborn to adult! Now all your boys can have matching ties for church, for weddings, for Easter, for family photos or any special occasions.

Go online to view the entire selection of ties and decide what ties and sizes you want. Contact me if you'd like an order form or come to the LDS Church on Hawes Rd between Baseline & Guadalupe on March 10th from 4:30-5:30pm to order directly from the company. The Cub Scouts will deliver your order to your home.

Online these ties cost $14.99, but we are selling the exact same ties for $10! That's a $5 savings per tie! The best part is 1/2 of every tie sold goes directly to the Cub Scout Pack 238. You don't want to miss out on this special sale! Come support our Cub Scouts!

Girls day/broken arm update

Olivia has been planning a "girls day" for a very long time. It all started with the father/sons camp outs. In her opinion (and mine too) its not fair that the boys get an overnight camp out together and the girls maybe get a mother/daughter enrichment night every few years. So she planned a mother/daughter day for us. It was cancelled a few times (sickness, scheduling etc.) but we finally set a date, and it worked out. We had so much fun, the only problem is that it went too quickly. This is going to have to become an overnight thing too I think. :)

Red Lobster for lunch--Liv LOVES crab. :)

Washing her puppy at build a bear

When we returned home from girls day, the neighbor boy was out playing in the driveway with a bike ramp. I knew that was going to be trouble...My boys found out and ran outside to play too. They played for a half hour or so and then came in to ask me to watch them. I go out to watch. Isaac goes up and over, I cheer. Grant goes up and then turns to see if I'm watching and his front tire slips off the top and he falls off. I saw him catch himself. He jumped up and ran to me screaming. He calmed down pretty fast, so I had him lay on the couch for a while. I kept checking on him, and his arm didn't look right. So I loaded him up and off to the ER we went. It was much busier this time with Grant than it was with Olivia. He broke his arm same place and same way as Olivia, but just one of the bones (Livvy broke both)

Over the weekend I took care of TWO broken arm kiddos. Thankfully, I am now a pro at bathing, dressing/undressing etc. so I didn't hurt Grant near as much trying to help him as I did with Olivia when she first broke her arm. And now Olivia is completely fine, no pain, just needs help with a few things. On Monday I took both of them in to the orthopedic surgeon and they took off Olivia's cast on put one on Grant man. He is doing great (he thinks its kind of cool--when its not hurting).

P.S. No more CPS jokes.... :)

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...