Oh a Hiking We Go!

We have been enjoying the nice weather lately and Saturday was no different. After working together as a family in picking up the house and preparing for Sunday we headed out to an outdoor museum to enjoy some hiking and a nice picnic lunch. The museum is called The Herd Museum and this was our first time to check it out. It is a nature preserve with lots of trails for you to walk on and enjoy wildlife and nature that is particular to the area. There is also a small exhibit with several animals around the world and in May we can go back to see the Butterfly House, which Madeline is very excited to see. The kids love to go hiking and you can tell by watching them that they are at home hiking through the woods, looking for flowers, watching for birds, and trying to find all the wildlife they can. They have a few exhibits inside, but the kids enjoyed being outside more than anything. After our trip to the museum we stopped off and enjoyed an ice cream treat.

I am a Cowgirl

On Monday March 8, Madeline had her Kindergarten school performance at school. This years theme was Texas. The program consisted of various Texas Songs, jokes, and poems. Madeline was so excited to dress up as a cowgirl and to get up on the stage and perform for her family. At the end Madeline had a special part of holding up a heart for one of the song "Deep in the Heart of Texas", it was fitting to see Madeline who has a big heart herself hold up a paper heart for the program. For a few days leading up to the program, Madeline would express her excitement my shouting exclaims of HEE HAW around the house. She was truly excited and proud and so was her family.

Faith in God Knot

After four months, Anthony accomplished his faith in god award for scouts. Anthony has diligently worked towards this goal on his own and as part of the goal we as a family have benefited from a family home evening lesson on Joseph Smith, a lesson on the importance of baptism, a story about the creation, and many discussions on the power of prayer, and the role of The Holy Ghost. It is neat to see Anthony's excitement about scouts and to see him eager to work towards all of his accomplishments. Anthony, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you; it is a joy to call you our son.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday again this, but a little late due to the arrival of the stomach bug in our house. This year made cat in the hat treats with the help of circle crackers, white frosting, and gummy life savers. While we enjoyed our treats we watched Green Eggs and Ham and then afterwards we all gathered around while I read a Dr. Seuss book. The kids really enjoyed the fun, especially the cat in the hat treat. Spencer really enjoyed the gummies and frosting but didn't care for having his assembled into a hat, a torn apart hat is his preference. Celebrating holidays, even the silly ones and not so well known ones are a special treat and our kids really enjoy having many reasons to celebrate throughout the year.

Blue and Gold Banquet

In February Anthony's pack had their Blue and Gold Banquet. This year it was held at the Stockyards and the whole family enjoyed some BBQ catered from a local company. Because of the number of boys and the awards that were handed out the meeting at times was kind of boring and long. However, the food was good, the skits were silly, and watching Anthony receive his wolf advancement was priceless. Overall we had a good time and though I am from Texas I haven't really been to the Stockyards so that was nice to see. Way to go Anthony for working so hard to get your wolf, you are doing awesome.

100th Day

For 100 day celebration, Madeline needed to bring a poster with 100 things glued on. After playing around with hearts for a while we came up with butterflies. So 100 hearts equal 50 butterflies. It is so fitting for Madeline and apparently quite popular at school. If anyone knows Madeline, they know that Madeline loves butterflies from her butterfly decorated room to a dresser drawer full of butterfly clothes. Madeline is our little butterfly who grows more beautiful every day.

Groundhog Day!

We are continuing with our tradition of celebrating the holidays this year, and we thought we would start with Groundhog day. First I made Groundhog cupcakes, while the kids ate their cupcakes I read a book about shadows and then we all painted our self portraits from inspiration found here.

International Pancake Day!

Feb. 16 was International Pancake Day and what better way to celebrate than to enjoy some homemade crepes. We added pie filling and whipped cream and all together you have a great dinner. I found my recipe here.

Snow Day!

Who knew that in Texas we would get 12 inches of snow in one day! We sure enjoyed the snow and the best part was that it started to melt away the next day.

Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year

Valentine's Day this year fell on Chinese New Year, so this year we combined the two for a fun celebration. I made heart confetti and tiger confetti and sprinkled them on the table. We whipped out the nice china and had spaghetti (in honor of Valentine's Day) and we used chop sticks (in honor of Chinese New Year) for our utencils. I made fortune cookies out of felt (in honor of Chinese New Year) and instead of writing good fortunes I wrote Valentine message on what qualities I love about them. It was sure a nice evening.

Talent Show

Our church had a talent show for the kids and Madeline and her dad sang "What a Wonderful World" and Madeline did the signing too. Madeline and her Dad sing "What a Wonderful World" every night before bed, it is there special thing they do together.

For Anthony's talent he played a solo on the Piano.

And the Gold Medal Goes To......?

Anthony was apart of his school's Battle of the Books team. To qualify for the team, Anthony read and study 15 books and then took a 30 question test (2 questions per book). From the try outs only 6 kids were selected for each team. The teams consisted of Primary which is 1st grade - 3rd grade and intermediate which is 4th & 5th grade. After try outs the teams practiced twice a week for a couple of months and then on competition day they gathered with the rest of the elementary schools and answered questions based on the 15 books, and Anthony's team came in first place.

Anthony was pretty excited and a report that I received from Daddy was that Anthony would jump up and down with excitement for every question his team answered correctly. After the competition the kids were treated to Pizza. Anthony is excited to try out for the team again next year, through this experience he was able to learn how hard work can pay off and when we set our mind to something and work hard great things come to pass. Way to go Anthony, we are proud of you!

Anthony's Baptism

Our Newest Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! From a Mother's perspective it was a real treat to see my husband baptize our son. When Anthony was asked how he felt about his baptism his response was "I felt bumped up" I believe that is his interpretation for feeling really excited. Congratulations Anthony!

After Anthony's baptism family gather at our house for dinner which consisted of homemade Spaghetti, salad, and homemade rolls; and desert (brownies and ice cream of course) and for entertainment we had the biggest nerf gun battle.

They Really Do Love Each Other!

National Pie Day!!

Make a Smilebox collage

Gummy Candy

Just shortly after the kids returned to school from Christmas break, the kids were given the day off for what was a so called "snow day." To be honest there was no snow on the road nor was their any ice, I think they were just freaked out because it only got into the teens that day. Well I needed something to do with the kids so Grant embraced the cold temperatures and went to the craft store to get some candy molds and also to get Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I found a recipe here to make your own gummy candy (similar to gummy bears) which the kids had more fun making the candy then eating it, and while we snacked on our yummy candy we watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The kids enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed the fact that everyone got along and did not get into each others' space. It was a great day!

Staring the Cooper Sibs

The other night Spencer and Madeline gave us an impromptu concert.

Pinewood Derby

In this picture Anthony's car is in the purple lane. He made a Luke Land Speeder from Star Wars.
Anthony is with his friend from his den meeting after their Championship race with the other Champions from all the dens.
Right after Anthony won first place amongst the Wolves in his den. For being his first Pinewood Derby he did a good job, as you can tell he was pretty excited. The pin that is on his shirt were handed out to all those that placed first, second, and third, and then everyone received a patch to add to their collection.

Milestone

Anthony is gearing up for his baptism on Feb 6. As part of the baptismal service the Stake Primary Presidency asks each family to write a letter about their child, here is ours:

Anthony’s greatest gift is his smile, in his smile you find happiness and pure joy. Anthony is a wonderful child who loves everything about star wars, mind-boggling games, science, and numbers. Anthony finds joy in music from singing songs in the car to playing the piano, his goal is to become a good piano player. Anthony has a great love for the gospel, His Savior Jesus Christ, and The Book of Mormon. Anthony set a goal to read The Book of Mormon cover to cover by himself before he was baptized, and he did!

Anthony has an uncanny ability to love all those whom he comes in contact with, and his love is unconditional. He is a great example of standing for what is right, and being a good example to his friends. Anthony has many strengths, one of which is his ability to obey with no questions asked; he just does what is asked of him with no complaints.

Anthony is a pillar of strength to his family. His strength can be found in his service that he gives; from singing to his sister in her hospital room, to playing with his little brother, to the notes of love and appreciation he writes to his mother and father. Anthony is one who loves to serve and truly understands when you serve others you are serving our Heavenly Father.

As his parents we are eternally grateful to our Heavenly Father who blessed us with this wonderful Child of God.

We are excited for his upcoming baptism all that is left is for me to make his baptismal towel and make he baptism day book.

Winter Wonderland

The kids wanted to go out and experience some of this winter wonderland, but living here in Texas we really don't keep a good stock of winter outer ware, but with our imagination we were able to keep the kids warm and protected. We used socks and grocery bags to create the perfect glove, two pairs of pants for each child and two jackets with their hoods for each child rounded out the rest of our winter outer ware. Madeline was able to stay outside for a couple of minutes before her cough got to the better of her and had to come in for a treatment. Spencer refused to move or do anything with the snow and so he stood in the middle of the backyard cold and miserable so he didn't last long. Anthony and Daddy enjoyed a good snowball fight and I came out to throw a few snow balls, only to discover that I am a really bad shot.

Something strange happened on Christmas Eve, it actually snowed and a pretty good snow storm at that. We actually had a decent amount of snow to play with and unlike some snow storms I have been in this one had a stop button and was done by evening. It was sure pretty to look at and the nice thing was by Christmas afternoon it was melted, that is how I like snow storms.