My Book

All my life I have wanted to write a book, and the past several years I have come closer to that goal by taking classes and such. Well, as of tonight, I have finally written one. It is a children's chapter book, for ages 9-12 roughly. It is about a young girl finding out her sister is getting married and how she deals with that change and it pulls at and strengthens her faith in the Lord.

Hopefully it actually reads as good as it feels to be done. Well, not completely done. This is my third draft and I finally feel good about it. Now I just need Tyson to read it, and maybe some other people if they are willing, and review it. Then, send queries off to see if I can get it published. Yahoo!

I already have lots of other ideas for other books too, so we will see how this love of story telling takes me...

Christmas with us Coopers

We have been watching a lot of 'Cake Boss' lately, and here is Josh's 4 tiered cake he made. He is so creative. I have no idea what Caleb is doing, but he instisted I take pictures of him and Matthew.

One of the many gifts that were brought to us. The Halls are so nice. It was so adorable to see Josh walk out to his friend Lincoln, meet him, take the gift, then just turn and walk back to the house. Neither of them said a word to each other. Hilarious. Isnt' this such a cute idea! Rice crispie treats, who would have thought?

Christmas morning:

A note from Santa, thanking the boys for the cookies and milk. :)

Tyson and I got each other the same present, hilarious. The little note is from Dating Divas, a really cute blog.

Aunt Hannah got all of hats, so fun! I love mine, and here is Matthew sporting it. I forgot to get a picture with all of us wearing them, but I will and post one later.

Christmas evening we went and spent with my family. I am SO glad they are here. Sadly, I forgot my camera and thus have no pictures from the fun filled evening eating very yummy foods and having my dad force us to watch an old video of Kenni and I modeling American girl clothes, haha, SO funny! Anyways, we are so thankful for both our families for being so awesome every day of our lives.

I wanted to take a picture of this ornament to remember Tyson's and my early memories.

Josh is very proud of his mad puzzle building skills.

Aunt Cassie was super cute and made these ornaments for the boys. I love them!

This Christmas was a really special one for me. It seems to get better and better every year. We had tons of people send us Christmas cards and come bring us candy, which is so nice. Probably not very good since Tyson and I are trying to get in shape and that really stopped me from that, but fat and happy, right? Haha.

Seriously though, everyone was so generous and kind. I loved it. I really want December to drag on forever, but at the same time, I get SO excited for Christmas. I love presents, I love surprises, I love giving and I love the magic of the season. So this month was full of it, full of parties and friends, happiness, TONS of sugar. It is really hard to get lost in all of it, and forget about Christ and His birth. That is the one thing I want to never forget and I really want my kids to focus on, not on Santa and getting the best gift.

I didn't do a great job with that, but at the same time, I felt like we gave a lot to others and we had the kids help with that, so maybe that sunk into them more than I realized. Josh said at one point, "You know what I want for Christmas? Nothing. Just Matthew."

That was pretty cute and funny. But anyways...

What was really neat about this Christmas is that we got to go to church that day. It was a little, okay, a lot insane with the boys. They hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, they only wanted to eat sugar. Caleb hadn't taken a nap and they were just so hyper from the whole day. So it was hard to hear any talks with the whining and complaining and fighting going on in our bench. I felt bad for everyone sitting next to us.

I did get a few things from the bishops talk/testimony. It was really neat. He talked about one Christmas for him that was really special. He said that one Christmas when he was very young, he was living with his grandma I think and there was no money for any presents. He thought for sure that couldn't be and early Christmas morning he woke early to check and see.

Sure enough, there wasn't anything. He said he was very disappointed and looked out the window and saw a very bright star. It was brighter than any star he had ever seen. He thought of the Savior and the reason for Christmas. How it was celebrating the Savior, not about presents. His attitude changed and he thought of his little brother and his grandparents, who didn't have anything for Christmas either. He said he was happy the entire day and tried to make Christmas special for his family. The bishop said that he thinks everyone has this type of Christmas sometime in their lives. Where they realize it is about so much more than they had realized before.

In between the crying and craziness from the little ones, his words really sunk into my heart. Have I had that kind of Christmas yet? Where I forgot about what was there for me and thought about others and my Savior?

I hate having Christmas end, so I decided right there that I would have it last all year long for me. I am going to really focus on making it an amazing Christ-like year for all those around me, by me serving others and focusing on the Savior.

In Elder Oaks talk from this past conference, he spoke of the Savior and if we really have a testimony of Him. I do, but I really want to make it much stronger by living as He has commanded us to. I don't know how I will do, since I am far from making it an hour without getting mad about something. But here is to making goals on being better and really living them. :)

I really wanted to blog about all this mostly because Tyson gave me a wonderful gift this year. He made a book of the first year of this blog. It was incredible and such a perfect gift. I felt like it was getting my first book published. It is something I will always treasure. It has been really neat reading through it because it reminded me of how I used to write so often. Not just put pictures on, but I really wrote about my thoughts of all sorts of things. It was so neat and I want to continue that more, really make these posts worth reading.

Thank you to all you readers who make these blogs so worth writing.

Yummness

I am LOVING white chocolate reese's right now. Wow. Way too much Christmas chocolate and sugar, but man I love it.

Christmas

Caleb after we talked to him about Santa, at 4 in the morning, walking up and down the hall whispering to himself: "Santa Claw, peasants, Santa Claw"

Caleb, another day, early in the morning, running up to Tyson: "Daddy, it Kiss-miss time, it peasant time, it singing time, la la la!" Then spinning in a circle. :)

Josh on Christmas Eve: "I am going to be really quiet tonight and when I hear Santa say "Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas," I am going to say "HOORAY!" "

Josh on Christmas: "This present is just what I wanted! I have wanted it for years and years, for fifty-nine YEARS!"

Talk about so cute. I love the magic of Christmas for little kids and it is so neat that my little boys are old enough that they are starting to really feel that magic.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Coopers!

November/Fall

LOVE Josh's cranky face.

Josh dressed up Matthew. :)

"Smile Caleb!" hehe works every time.

Making butter with Daddy on Thanksgiving.

The yummiest sweet potatoe cassarole in the universe! Found on http://www.howsweeteats.com/. Love that blog!

Seriously, this was the most beautiful Fall day and the pictures were turning out perfect. What a fun day.

Chubby sleepy stretches

Dress up time. He looks like that Halloween book, "the hat goes nod nod, the gloves go clap clap."

The boys love their Aunt Carmel

And of course the day is not complete without a trip to Chicago in the cupboards. :)

Josh's Birthday Bash

So I'm pretty sure I wrote a little about Josh's birthday parties earlier, but here are the pictures. His friend birthday party I think there was 14 kids all total. It was crazy, but a lot of fun. Thank you Carmel and Cassie!! Cassie did all the decorating and they both kept me sane. Little kids are SO much fun!

Pin the beak on the penguin.

The igloo tent was very popular.

Penguin cupcakes made with nilla wafers, gummi orange slices and sprinkles. :)

Josh's party with the family. Marshmallow igloos on top. They slightly resemble pom poms, but it was fun, hehe.

And of course, my little mountain man helping me with the cake. I look up and he has taken some liberties with the spoon I gave him to lick. Haha. I LOVE my little four year old guy!

Happy Birthday Josh! I'm so glad you have been with us now for so long, waking us up early every day, talking our ears off, making us laugh like crazy at your insane comments and being such a protective big brother. Not to mention an incredible helper and wanting to learn everything about everything. We learn so much from you! LOVE YOU! Love, Mama (and Daddy too)