Incriminating evidence

SOMEONE...wrote their name on the sheets. Who could it be??? I know I should be more upset by this, but it just cracks me up. All kids go through it. Why in the world if you are going to write on something you KNOW you shouldn't, do you write your name? Hee hee. I don't remember if I ever did this, but I remember my brother wrote his name on the wall in our front room, and he even spelled it wrong! Too funny. (sorry Eldon) When Ryan and I were first married, his parents gave us an old dresser. It had a huge M (for Morgan) carved into it. I asked Ryan if he ever did any thing like this, he said he did, but he wrote his little brother James name on it instead of his. I think James even got in trouble for it (sorry James). That's extra tricky. Anyway, the kids are growing up to know how to write their names, but thankfully not fast enough to know not to incriminate themselves. Good times :)
(p.s. sorry the picture is weird, I took this after I'd already tried to get the name off the sheets. It clearly didn't work very good, but it faded enough that I had to play with the contrast etc to get it to show up on camera.)

Have a wonderful Easter. I know He Lives!

Happy Easter

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. I LOVE when Easter is the same time as conference. What a great weekend it has been. We went to the Easter pageant--so amazing every year! We've colored Easter Eggs (only a dozen, because none of enjoy eating them) Had lots of candy, Olivia and I wore our matching skirts, and the boys wore their matching ties. And we are enjoying conference (as much as we can streaming it online....WHY ISN'T IT ON TV???)

I didn't get a picture of us last Sunday in our new Easter clothes (crazy, crazy morning) so we'll have to re-create it, so I have my "Easter picture" out by our tree before church. :)

This picture has nothing to do with anything, it just makes me smile to see a naked baby running around in a Bumble Bee mask. He wears this allllllll the itme. lol
Olivia took her BFF Alyson with us to the Easter Pageant. She's never seen it before and she LOVED it. I'm happy that Olivia wanted to share it with her friend.

We LOVE all the nice people that will take pictures with my kiddos. It means the world to them.

They even let both boys get a chance to hold the sword and wear the helmet.

We are enjoying our wonderful conference weekend. It comes with the requisite fruit salad, veggie tray, puzzles, NEW crayons, and this year TOO MUCH Easter candy too. Love, love LOVE family time. :)

In other news, we are happy to announce (ok, brag a teeny bit...) that Olivia won first place in the 4th grade ALP Math Olympiads. Math is an almost daily topic at our dinner table, Ryan is always quizzing the kids on either math or geography. We are glad she is doing well. As she is getting older and doing harder math stuff, I'm seriously getting worried. There have been several times where we had to wait 'til dad got home to make sure I told her the right way to do something, and there have been several times that we almost called one of our neighbors who used to be a teacher to help us out because neither of us could figure out how to do a problem in a way she'd understand. Thankfully she figures out most stuff on her own, because mom and dad are starting to worry that we won't be able to keep up!!!

This has been a big week for Livvy, she also passed off her floor routine in Gym and gets to start learning a new one! I'm really excited for her. She loves having a new challenge. :)

Chiricahua

Ryan and Grant went with Grandpa Hooper and Uncle Morgan to Chiricahua National Monument. Grant has been SO EXCITED for this. He even started running around the block to "get in shape for it" after he got his cast of (when mom let him get all sweaty again...lol) He had so much fun hanging out and hiking with the big guys. We are super proud of him. This was no little hike, it was 7.4 miles...not to shabby for a 7 year old!

Grandpa Hooper, Grant and Morgan
(These pictures are out of order) I'm told that near the end Grant was starting to slow a bit, when Morgan found some snow and started a snowball fight with Grant, and it perked him right back up. He was running to get to the next patch of snow. So glad my kiddos have great uncles!!! (and aunties too)

Ryan and Grantman

Grant at a cool balanced rock.

Grant and Ryan on the hike--I'm excited to go on this one myself...I think we'll let Seth get a little older first. :)

I'm so glad my kids have a fun daddy to take them to do special stuff with him. He is always planning field trips and day hikes for us. Good times

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!