Cooper Boy

Cooper's birthday was actually in June, but here is his (late) birthday update. My mom came for his birthday and we went to Monterrey Bay Aquarium. It was so cool, but Cooper was absolutely terrified! If we would approach the glass to look at anything he would start crying and say, "No, No!"

He's obsessed with trains and horses, and he got both for his birthday. I've never seen him play with something so much! He even had to sleep with his train! We went to Six Flags and they have a kiddy area called Thomas Town that is all about Thomas the Train. It took two people to get him off the Thomas train...one to loosen his grasp on the handle and one to pull him out...he was screaming bloody murder....he loves trains!

Cooper is still extremely feisty and strong willed, but he gives more hugs and kisses than anyone. He can make me want to pull all of my hair out and melt my heart all within 5 minutes. He loves kids he especially gets excited to see his friends Laker, Luke, and Brooke. He loves the movies, "Spirit", "Up", and "Thomas the Train". He loves to eat hot dogs and any sort of pasta, yogurt, watermelon, and bananas. He thinks everything is a finger food; he'll hold a utensil in one hand and shovel in the food with the other hand. He is starting to talk a lot more. If he wants something he chants, "I want that! I want that! I want that!" He loves to hide and say, "I see you Mom,!" He loves to ask, "Why, Mom" about any and everything. He and Yah yah (what he calls Rilynn) are best friends they play together all the time, if she is hurt he hugs and kisses her, they are pretty cute. We love him and feel so blessed to have him in our family! Happy late birthday Coop!

School's out for summer!

Paxton had his kindergarten graduation last week. They sang "Skita mereenk" and received diplomas, then they had cake and lemonade. I'm so sad he's going to be a first grader, :( but he is so excited!

The kids just had their last day of school Thursday. Evan is a little sad about the end of the year. Evan's teacher is retiring so he is going to miss her. He actually asked her for her phone number so that we can have over to visit. They both got great report cards and ended the school year on a very positive note.


We are hopefully moving this week. It has been a bit of a roller coaster getting this house. HOPEFULLY our last move (for a while) will be Wednesday night or maybe Thursday. Buying a house in California has been a much different experience than the two houses we bought in Boise. I thought building was stressfull, but I think this house was our most stressful yet! I will be thankful when it is finally over! I will post pics of the house soon. Cross your fingers that we will have a smooth transition!

Paxteroni

This is how most of my current pictures are of Paxton. He thinks it is hilarious to cross his eyes and stick out his tongue in every picture. Here is a better picture of him on his birthday. And yes the candles are in a tub of ice cream... this child is just like his dad...he does not like cake and this is what he wanted instead.
My little "Pac Man" is 6. He still has curly hair and all his cute little perfect teeth. He loves to cuddle, be tickled, and he loves to tease. He is so fun and says the funniest things. He had always been my mischievous one, but not as much any more...although he did get busted using his fork to fling food at other kids in the cafeteria the other day with his two friends. He is a really good student and his teacher raves about how bright and well behaved he is (with an exception of the food incident). He loves to be doing anything outdoors and believes it is never too cold to swim. He has done really good with the move(s) and has made a lot of friends...he has even become something of a ladies man and has a "girlfriend," Karsyn (she held his hand on the bus....uh oh). The thing he was most excited about for his birthday was to have his balloons on the floor when he woke up in the morning... he was picking out balloons 3 weeks before his birthday.
Paxton's current favorites are
color- red and blue
friend-Gavin
movie- Astro Boy
when he grows up he wants to be- army man, fireman, ninja,and jet pilot,
book- I Spy, Astro Boy
song- Kung Fu Fighting and I am a Child of God
food- watermelon
hero- Spiderman
TV show- Ben 10, Sponge Bob
Happy birthday Paxton! We love you!

Overdue photo shoot

We are still here

It has been forever since I've posted, but with good reason...we got a virus on our computer (from facebook)and it has been such a head ache. We are hoping it is taken care of, but I am still not sure...the hacker apparently had access to everything I've ever done on the computer... SCARY!!! I seriously can't believe there are people out there who have nothing better to do with their time than hack on to my computer...I mean really, I am not that interesting, nor do I have much money to steal, nor am I that hot that someone would want to stalk me (ha ha). AHH! So, I will hopefully be posting again soon, but not positive.
Any way here is our good news, we bought a house! It is in the subdivision we are already in, so no ward or school changes. It has a lake view and it is on the (corner of) the golf course. We are excited! Hopefully if this lame hacker stays off my computer I will be able to post some pictures.

My (not so) little Evan turned 9 in March (big sigh :0( ) and I owe that sweet kid a post. It was a big year for him... he got baptized, he moved 3 times, he rode on an airplane for the first time, and visited many new places, these were just a few of his highlights. The move has been the hardest on him, but I would say in the last 1-2 months he has finally settled in. He's got some really good friends now and loves his school. He is still a sweet heart, but has started to develop a "smart-alic" side to him. In his 3rd grade program he was Posiden. He had a really big speaking part and sang a song with just two other boys, he did soo good. Once he got the part down, he kept wanting to ad-lib...he was pretty sure he could say the parts better than the writer of the play.
Evan's current favorites are.....Color-black
His Best Friends- Alex and Jeremy
His favorite movie- How to Train a Dragon
When grows up he wants to be an inventor
His favorite book is "Star Wars the Clone Wars"
His favorite song is "Eye of the Tiger" and "Right Round"
His favorite food is-pizza, tacos (meat and cheese only), and ice cream
His favorite toy- Wii (his life line), and his star wars millennium falcon
His hero- Thomas Jefferson (he just did a big report on him and had to dress like him to give the report...so cute)
His favorite TV show- this one I've always done before, so wanted to do it again, but it was really hard for him to come up with one since we don't have TV, but he said at Grandma's he likes "Ben 10"
I was getting all sad he was NINE when my husband so kindly pointed out, "Well, just think... next year he'll be in the double digits!" Oh snap! That is old! He is such sweet guy. He is really helpful and we love him to death.

HAPPY ST. PAT'S!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from us all! Hope your day was as fun as ours! We had our traditional green breakfast for dinner (we've done this for 8 years), all green M&M's, cute new green shirts from Grandma Sharon (thank you Grandma Sharon!!!), this year we added rainbow cupcakes (I found in Family Fun), and some dang good shopping
I have to share my shopping from today. I don't know how I lived without CVS! I love it! This is what I got (there are two lip glosses you can't see very well)....
I paid $4.20 and saved $70.79 PLUS I got $6 off my next purchase...so I came out ahead! YEAH!

Our week

This Sunday we went on a little adventure after church. Jeff had heard about this bridge, but we weren't really sure where we were going. Turns out it wasn't very far and we can't wait to go back! It is the "worlds longest single span wood truss covered bridge." It was so cute and the river under it was beautiful! I was wising I had a really cool camera that I could play with the pictures from this place, but alas, I still have my crappy camera that is trying to die, but I still got some cute pictures.

Evan got his wolf the other night and was super excited to become a bear in boy scouts. This is Jeff and Evan doing their "wolf cheer."
The other night I was cutting Jeff's hair and Paxton said he wanted his all cut off *tear, sob, sigh* so here's the new Paxton-with no curls.
Apparently Cooper feels I'm not feeding him enough lately because he is helping himself to things! Those cinnamon rolls were ones I had made for young women's. Good thing they had burned a little, so I had to make something else anyway.









And here's one of Rilynn because we can't leave her out

Good week

THIS

PLUS THIS
= $19.04

That's some good shopping this week

New Year's letter

About the time I should be starting to work on a Christmas letter, we decided that we would be moving a week after Christmas. So, I decided to to write a New Year's letter.
This year started out with a trip to McCall's ice festival. On the last day we were there, Jeff kept getting phone calls from people he worked with saying they had just got laid off and wanted to say how much they had enjoyed working with him. He got so many calls we started feeling a little uncomfortable and come to find out, he lost his job as well. It wasn't long before we heard about a possible job opportunity in Sacramento. In March they flew us out to check it out, and we decided to take the leap.

At the end of March we went to the Oregon Coast with my family for a week before we all went our separate ways (us to CA and my brother's family was moving to OR) we had a blast. Jeff started his new job (a manager of a Chevron/Quiznos) in Auburn California in the middle of May. The kids and I waited until school was out and moved down in June. We LOVE it here! We've been to San Francisco twice, Santa Cruise, and of course Sacramento. It is beautiful, if only California wasn't so stinking expensive it would be perfect!
Evan is 8 and he started 3rd grade and is enjoying it. He is video game junkie. One of his favorite things right now is scouts. He misses his friends in Boise, but is making new ones and loves being closer to his cousins that live here.
Paxton is 5 and has started kindergarten. Kindergarten here is all day, and he loves every minute of it. He's starting to do a lot of reading and loves to tell me all about his day when he gets home. He took swimming lessons this summer, although he has always been a little fish, he is a much safer fish now.
Rilynn is now 3 and is a social butterfly, everyone is her best friend. She is girly, sweet, sassy, bossy, and tough all rolled into one little body. She started a little joy school just one day a week, but she wishes it were 5 days a week. I'm pretty sure she really one cares about the socializing part though.
Cooper is now a year and a half and is the biggest handful I've ever experienced. He climbs, breaks, dumps out, and destroys anything in sight. On the other hand is is my biggest cuddler I've ever had. He also has very cute dimples that save his life daily. He such a fun baby to have.
Jeff loves his new job. He's playing indoor soccer and basketball each once a week. He's such a fun dad and had alot of fun playing with the kids at the lake in our neighborhood this summer. He has made a lot of new friends and has many "man dates" with them. In August I was visiting Boise and Jeff called and told me he had booked a Mexican 6 night cruise for our 10 year anniversary and for my 30th birthday. We went in October and had an amazing time. Cabo San Lucas is beautiful and a cruise was such a relaxing yummy calorie filled way to spend our time. I can't wait to go on another.

I am staying busy with four kids, it's the best job I could ever hope for. I work in Evan's class once a week and as an art docent in Paxton's class. I am in the young women's presidency which has been so much fun. We miss our family and friends in Boise, but we are loving it here. I truly feel very blessed everyday.

I hope you all are doing well and this year brings you much happiness!