Snow Day!

20 Dec 2009

While we were in Utah for Christmas, Jared and the kids went sledding at Grandma and Grandpa James' house. They both had a lot of fun.

Everything was going just swimmingly until Tyler decided to start a snowball fight. However, Kevin was easy to defeat, so it was still a great day!

Riverwalk Boats

1 Dec 2009

Right after Thanksgiving we took the kids on a boat tour of the Riverwalk. They loved it.

Funny, Funny, Tyler

28 Nov 2009

Not to be outdone by his younger brother (see previous post), Tyler came up with some good quotes of his own today:

While we're driving on the freeway Tyler started yelling from the back seat, "Dad! Dad! Look at that cloud! It looks like a flying hamburger with a patch over it's eye! It really does! Do you see it?"

While holding up two ticket stubs from our boat ride on the riverwalk Jared said, "Hey Tyler, these can be our new scripture bookmarks." Tyler replied, "Are they scented?"

Happy Thanksgiving

26 Nov 2009

So our orders to Minot are on hold, but we are still thankful for many, many things. We are most thankful to have the fullness of the gospel and the influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives. We love the Lord and we know that he is sending us blessings even though we are so worried for our future. We go to church, read our scriptures, say our prayers and pay our tithing so we know that everything will be okay.

Tonight we were having family scripture study and after a verse or two of First Nephi Derek said that he wanted to take his turn reading. So he opened up his Bible and after a lot of effort to find a scripture that contained both a "3" and an "H" he quoted this to us in the most serious little three-year-old voice he could muster, "And it came to pass that Nehi and Mefi saw an angel, and Nehi and Joseph Sniff saw each other...and they killed each other and then...and then...and then they killed them and they were both all dead."

Halt!

20 Nov 2009

Well we got Jared's orders on Wednesday and we were super excited. We were finally going to be moving to our new house! However, on Thursday we got the news that there is a problem with Jared's dissertation. Now our orders are on hold again. He needs to meet with a group of his supervisors at the hospital and see what they can work out. We don't know when they will be able to meet or how long it will be before we can move - if we can move at all. Needless to say, we are really frustrated. Jared has been working as hard as he can to make everything right - but he still needs to do more. We ask that each of you please try to remember us in your prayers. We're fine - just discouraged. Thanks for reading my blog - I work hard on it and I really like to see your comments.

Love,
Suzie

Countdown to Joining Air Combat Command!

14 Nov 2009

[from Jared] Ralphie has a weird little scabby lesion behind his ear, so now he has to wear a lampshade around for the next week or two. He is NOT ok with his new accessory, and has been moping around the house. A depressed Bichon is probably the saddest thing imaginable.

We had always wanted to see the San Antonio Spurs play, and the boys and I had tickets to go to the AT&T center on Dec 4...and then we got orders to Minot. Tyler was bummed, so we ate corndogs, then went to the store and bought him a Tony Parker jersey (I pushed him to get a Duncan jersey, but Tyler liked the name 'Parker' better). Derek got a Dallas Cowboys mini football. He says that a football is his favorite kind of ball.

Suzie's been working non-stop to get the house boxed-up. She's got it all worked-out that if we arrange the move ourselves (DITY move), then we might make some money on the deal! At the very least, it give us a chance to get into our home before Christmas.

My new commander sounds very friendly and approachable. I'm excited to get to work, I've heard that Minot AFB is a very friendly, supportive base to be associated with.

Dissertation is coming along well, I defended my prospectus (proposal), and now I'm waiting for IRB approval. If all works out, I should be able to graduate this spring! Dr. Cooper!

Here's To Being Cute

4 Nov 2009

I found these cute pictures on Jared's camera phone yesterday. Enjoy.

Derek's favorite toy "Monkey" in his bed of peanuts at Texas Road House.
What in the world? How can she be so cute all at once?

She is saying, "You can't get this dart away from me! Hee hee hee."

Now she's saying, "No really. Don't take it. I'm serious."

Ralphie is Ready for the Circus

3 Nov 2009

Yay! The AF says that Jared will graduate from his intership on Nov 30th! I'm excited to finally move into the house that I bought 6 months ago. I'm not super excited to leave this beautiful weather for the frozen tundra of North Dakota but I'm excited to get on with our life.

Here is a cute video of Ralphie doing one of his favorite tricks. It took me weeks to teach it to him but now he's really good at it.

Halloween 2009!

31 Oct 2009

Today is a Spooooooooky Halloween ! I've been saving all my Halloween photos to share with you on this - my Spooooooooky Halloween post. The boys and I spent most of October decorating the house. We painted the little figures on the mantle, hung the creepy garland, made vampire cupcakes, and pumpkin cookies.

Here are the paper decorations that we made for our sidelight, the little Halloween figurines that we made out of Crayola Model Magic (that stuff is truly a wonder of modern technology) and the Frankenstein head that scared our dog silly every time someone opened the pantry door.

We also hung up skeletons in the dining room, put a big spider web in the living room and made cheesecloth ghosts. Tyler thought they were dumb until he realized that we were going to pop the balloon inside and that they would still stay standing up by themselves.

We got these costumes for the boys at Walmart. I know, I know, making your own costumes is a proud Cooper/James tradition, but come on! They were only $15 and they're so cute (I mean scary) and so easy. I just have to say that store bought costumes have really come a long way from the plastic bibs and ill fitting pajama costumes of my childhood.

Derek looking particularly ghoulish at the ward party.

Holly looking particularly busy (get it? busy bee?) atop Dad's shoulders at the ward party.

The kids on our front porch getting ready to go out trick-or-treating. Jared has been ducking under those "low flying" cobwebs for weeks now and he's probably glad that after tonight we can take them down.

This is a video that Jared took of the boys trick-or-treating. As he tells it, they would walk up to a door and while Tyler fumbled with his hood and searched for the doorbell, Derek would quickly lose patience and take matters into his own hands.

I stayed home to hand out candy and since our doorbell is broken (AGAIN!) I just left the door open so I could hear when the kids stepped on our screaming Halloween mat. Ralphie was SO EXCITED!! He stood there all night watching the kids go up and down the street. When they came to our door he'd put his paws up on the gate and lick their hands. He was such a good dog. He never even barked once. I think he really wanted to go out there and play with them.

When Tyler got back from trick-or-treating he showed me that he his tongue had mysteriously transformed into a piece of rainbow candy.

When Derek got back, he changed into his second costume - Ultimate Cage Fighter (who needs help opening his Whoppers.)

P.S. It turns out that Derek doesn't like Whoppers. But I do, so it all worked out well. Derek also doesn't like jawbreakers, Tootsie Rolls, bubble gum, bubble gum flavored Dum Dums, Now and Laters, or Laffy Taffy. He does eat regular sized peanut butter cups in one bite and loves Milk Duds. Weird.

Holly Ann Cooper - The Bumble Boogie Love Bug

22 Oct 2009

This post is dedicated to Holly. She is so adorable that I just can't stop taking pictures of her. Everywhere I go people are telling me how cute she is. Even some twenty-something, thugish, mexican gangsters stopped me in Walmart so that they could tickle her feet. Even better, she hammed it up the whole time with little giggles and smiles. What a flirt!

This is her posing at the Chick-Fil-A. Gotta love that indoor playground (notice that there are no boys in the picture.)

This is her showing off the panda bear she scored from a cute little girl at the Panda Express. I guess this mom bought each of her two daughters (ages 9 and 6) a panda bear toy. They liked the toys but the older girl gave hers to Holly because she thought she was so cute.

This is her thinking about coming to get my camera. Look at those eyes!!!

Here she is feverishly bumble-crawling across the kitchen to get me. I call it bumble-crawling because she lands on the right side with her knee and the left side with her foot and it makes her bum go up and down all bouncy and wonky like a bumble ball.

Here she is getting away with ripping up an entire box of tissues by pretending that she's just been sitting there playing with Legos the whole time. Earlier that morning she emptied a package of wipes to make a warm, wet nest for herself in her bed. She didn't make a sound and so I didn't check on her until she'd been sleeping in it for several hours.

Baby jokes are the best!

Mom, Holly Needs Some Toys!

20 Oct 2009

Holly was in the bathtub and Derek thought that she needed some toys. So he gave her some.

Look Dad, No Mullet!

15 Oct 2009

The kids' hair was getting really long. I kind of want them to have a style other than a military buzz cut but I don't know how to cut hair any other way. I kept hoping that if I just ignored it their hair would get better (somehow) but it only got worse. I finially broke down and took them to the "Buddy Cuts" down the street. Now they both look great. Whenever I cut their hair there are lots of tears, but when we go to the salon, they are just fine.

Birthday Money

14 Oct 2009

Last month my mom sent me $100 for my birthday and told me to get something just for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. There is this restaurant called the Chart House that is located at the top of the Tower of the Americas in downtown San Antonio. You ride an elevator up to the top and then the whole restaurant slowly spins around so that you can see the whole city while you eat. We got there right at sunset and the view was amazing. The food was really good too. I got some sort of salmon, sweet potato, jambalaya thing that sounded weird but is now on my short list of great tasting things to eat. We had a really great time. Thanks Mom!

This picture is fake. They take it at the bottom of the tower in front of a green screen and then put in the background.

Halloween Is Coming

10 Oct 2009

We spent the afternoon today making some Halloween decorations for our front porch. Tyler and I cut out the paper and taped the monsters together. Tyler added most of the spooky effects with a marker. I think that he did a really good job! Thanks Tyler.

Tyler and I tried to get Derek to help us with the project but he just wanted to do his own thing. He made this picture for Santa. He said, "I want to show it to Santa and he will love it and I made it. He will say 'Ho ho ho, thank you Derek'".

In other news, Tyler rode his bike from the mailbox to the neighbor's driveway (about 100 ft) twice today!!! Yay Tyler. It was more of coasting and less of riding but he didn't crash either time and he seemed way less scared the second time than the first. Derek tried out the big tricycle and hated it.

Fun at BYU

7 Oct 2009

After we went to the Bean Museum we walked down to the waterfall and duck pond on the hillside below the bell tower. The kids had tons of fun picking up all the meticulously placed landscaping rocks and trowing them in the pond. They also chased ducks and played on the waterfall - which is probably against the rules but whatever.

Tyler stopped all of us and made me set up the next two shots. It's kind of a comic strip of him barfing over the railing.
I thought it would be cute to get a sequence of the kids running down the hill. It was a good idea but Tyler went too fast for my camera to focus and so he's only in two of the pictures. Next time I'll tell them to run in slow motion.

These kids are the best! They are so cute.