Day 13 of Advent

For Day 13 we made Christmas Kiss Centered brownies using Christmas Kisses from Hershey, you can find the recipe here. Let me just say they were divine. We kept a few for ourselves and then delivered the rest to the family that Grant Homes Teaches. Our children love to help cook and bake, especially Madeline and Spencer loves to taste any of our creations, so needless-to-say making treats was a big hit at our house.

Day 12 of Advent

Day 12 landed on Saturday and off we went to the Children's Museum in Fort Worth. They just finished a total remodel and so it was neat to see everything for the first time. We have a membership that allows us to see both Dallas and Fort Worth Children's Museum for free, and then after a few hours of play we went out for lunch. A fun family outing!

Day 11 Advent

Sleeping under the Christmas tree brought excitement and adventure for the kids, but first we all gathered around our really small tv and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version) and enjoy Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes.

Day 10 of Advent

Since we are living in Texas and are not fourtunate to have white fluffy stuff falling from the sky, we decided that we would use our snow cone machine and make snow cones, and since the stores do not sell snow cone flavoring in the winter time, we used a simple recipe found here.

Yummy!!

Day 9 of Advent

In our house it isn't Christmas without watching Charlie Brown Christmas.

One good movie + One bowl of Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn = One perfect evening.

Advent Time

On December first we started our family tradition of doing advent with a new advent calendar idea found here. I sat down a made a list of 25 things that I thought we would enjoy doing as a family as we counted down the days to Christmas. The kids really have enjoyed taking turns seeing what fun we will have as a family each day; and boy they do not forget and make sure that I don't forget as well.

Day 1: Play board game in front of the fire

Unfourtnately Madeline got sick and required a few days in the hospital so day 2-5 were spent as a family in the hospital eating dinner and playing in the playroom each night.

Day 6: Watch The First Presidency Devotional and have treats.

Day 7: Set up the Christmas Tree!

Day 8: Have smores and hot chocolate

Leaves are falling all Around

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Two Thumbs Up!

Spencer gives Grandma Thompson blackberry crumbly crust cobbler two thumbs up!

I love to See the Temple

Happy Home

Our Eternal goal of having a happy home, this is Madeline's rendition of our happy home.

Halloween 2009

Madeline

Every year at Madeline's school the Kindergarteners do a storybook parade for Halloween where they dress up as storybook characters and parade around the school.  This year I thought it would be neat for Madeline to dress up as the storybook character Madeline.  I was able to find a hat on e-bay and a dress pattern; and with a little sewing and a lot of luck I was able to accomplish the task of turning Madeline into "Madeline."  She was pretty excited, and she was a hit with the faculty at school.  

Madeline Goes to the Farm

Madeline was able to go on a field trip to a farm, or as I called it a "city" farm.  Madeline is terrified of animals, but she did remarkably well and enjoyed petting some of the animals.  For some of the animals she preferred to keep her distance.  Her favorite was to hold a baby duck.  

Rainboat Ragatta

Anthony participated in his first Rainboat Ragatta and had a lot of fun.  He won two races and lost two races.  His pack did the races during their campout.  He had a lot of fun and came home tired just how we like it!

On a Sunday Afternoon

Wiggle Groove

Spencer is dancing to the Wiggles.

Families Can Be Together Forever

We have sure been Busy

I can't believe a whole month has gone by since my last post.  Once school started things got crazy around here.  We have entered flu and cold season, and so far it has not been very nice to us. Madeline was admitted to the hospital the first of September due to an asthma attack gone wrong, luckily she only spent a few days in the hospital and made a nice recovery at home. I thought after that hospitalization we would be able to put illnesses behind us and begin to enjoy the cooler weather, WRONG!  Anthony after not having an asthma attack for two years decided 2009 was a good year to get one, and after that Madeline decided it was her turn, and then after Madeline getting over her second asthma attack Anthony decided it was a good time to get the flu.  Through this ping pong match of illnesses, Madeline's mysterious fever kept returning.  These fevers get really high and there are no obvious symptoms and after one dose of Motrin they go away and she is good to go.  We have been seeing an Infectious Disease doctor who thinks it might be fever of unknown origin, which is treatable with steriods until Madeline out grows it.  We have now been sick free and fever free in our house for own week and hopefully it will continue to stay that way and I can get caught up on some things around the house, like this blog.

The kids have made it through their first six weeks of school with flying colors.  Despite all of Madeline's absences she has managed to keep up with her school work and what is being taught in the classroom.  She is enjoying the fact that she can read and is picking up on it really well. It is fun to see her eyes light up and she realizes that she can read a book by herself.  She loves to say words or name objects and tell us what letter it starts out with.  Anthony is enjoying second grade and has topped out of the tests that the test on second grade students with, so his teacher is having set different and higher goals for Anthony.  He is becoming a sponge and absorbing all kinds of information and asking all kinds of questions (specifically math questions) and I have never been more grateful that their dad knows math a lot better than I do.  

When I am not nursing sick kids I have been plugging away at my sewing machine with halloween costumes and a huge goal of making all of our Christmas presents.  The material is bought, the patterns are ready and now I just need everyone to stay healthy so I can do my magic (or try at least).  Through all this we have been doing a major remodel of our living room.  We took down the decorative beams on our ceiling, and have re sheetrock the entire living room and now we are ready to texture the walls and paint the living room and entry way; we have hopes of finishing it all before Thanksgiving.

As a family we have been having fun celebrating wacky holidays, playing games together, enjoying the cooler weather, and dreaming of being able to camp here soon.  It has sure been busy in the Cooper household, but it has been fun!

Construction

As part of our living room makeover, we had to take down some old sheet rock in order to put up some new sheet rock.  With Madeline away at two doctor appointments the boys went to town at tearing out the wall.  After a few hours of demolition, the old wall was down and a new wall was up, and the best part was that Madeline wasn't around to breath all that dust and get an asthma attack.  I love how things come together!

Camping Out

It has been raining here for what seems like a month, so because of all the rain our camping trip was canceled.  Anthony really wanted to use his tent that he bought with his money so instead of camping at a campground in a swamp, we opted for setting up his tent in the living room.  The kids enjoyed playing in the tent and Mommy and Daddy enjoyed sleeping in the comfort of their bed.