sparkle brightly

Kara Joy's hand crochet dress

2011-09-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

I made this dress for my sweetie pie, Kara Joy. Kara Joy is six months in these photos. This is hand crochet. I used the Patons Grace yarn which is cotton. I am pleased with how well it turned out. I bought a pattern on etsy and than made some big changes to it. I designed the underskirt and ribbon to be inter-changeable with different colors which I haven't got around to doing yet. :)

I love the ribbon in the back.

Kara Joy is truly a joyful baby and brings lots of joy into our family. She is always smiling.

Jonathan Robert loves Kara Joy the most! Sweet siblings.

My sweet boy!
Here he's just a couple of weeks before his fifth birthday!

crochet pictures

2011-09-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

I came across an Etsy shop selling Russian crochet magazines. I fell in love with the style (Irish crochet) and copied all my favorite photos as a draft on my blog so I would always have them. Good thing I did because, once the magazine is sold the pictures are gone. I am really kicking myself for not buying any. The patterns are written in charts so I would be able to read it. This first photo I really wanted because I think this pattern of the shirt would make a cute skirt on a dress for Kara Joy. I guess I will have to learn Irish crochet and come up with my own version. Some of these really amaze me at the complexity of the pattern and the amount of time it takes to make one dress for a model.

Micah

2011-05-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post for a long time. I have a lot of updating and one update that is really hard for me but, I think belongs here on my blog as it has to do with two of my last posts. I need to get this hard one done before I can move onto happier and easier topics.

In December, my brother-in-law Micah died in a car accident. He was only 25. My heart still aches for him, for my sweet little sister and for the tragedy of it all. One of the things I keep saying about Micah, is that he was the most sincere person I've ever met. It sounds like not a huge thing, to be sincere, But I believe it is a God given gift to have a true sincerity that Micah had.

I have no regrets, I told him that I loved him and I was glad he was in my family and married my sister. I admired his faith and his ability to share his testimony. He was amazing with kids! He loved and upheld my sister as the most beautiful woman in the world. He helped her to become a better person and grow into a faithful daughter of God.

He brought an aspect of fun into my family and got us off our lazy butts to go outside and play a game of kickball, or a card game or some kind of activity as a family. We've lost a piece of our family. We are hurting. We miss him.

I am comforted at the thought that he is with Christ and is, I'm sure, continuing in the work of spreading His good word to others.

The news did a nice story on Micah a couple of days after his death I would like to share.

Here is the blog Micah's cousin, (who is like his brother) created for him. He with the help of his wife, also put together the wonderful picture video of Micah's life which includes fun little video clips of Micah. He also wrote Micah's obituary. Which are both on the home page of the, I love Micah Kaplan blog.

http://ilovemicahkaplan.blogspot.com/

These video's are hard for me to watch. It's been 4 months now and for this whole time, I'd open my blog to do another post, but than I'd see the previous two posts I've done and they have Micah's words and his video. I just couldn't post the birth of my baby or other happy news on here until I was ready to share the news of Micah.
I love and miss you Micah!!

Surprise, surprise!

2010-09-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

We are expecting our 4th baby!!!!
I am twenty weeks along and we are having a girl.
Her name is Kara Joy!!!
Kara is due February 9th of 2011.
I am so excited to again hold a newborn infant in my arms in just a few short months.

We also moved back to Utah.
We are in Midvale right next to all the shopping which is nice.
Jonathan really likes his new job. The company is great!
We are happier here even though I left behind my house in AZ.
The house is currently rented out, so that is really great for us. I just hope we will have good renters for the next few years before we sell it. :)

update on the free rent contest

2010-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Micah and Susie did not win the contest. Here is what Micah had to say about it.

I found out that we did not win the contest & I'm losing part of my job at my school. But God is so good! My wife and I were overwhelmed with the support that we received from everyone. How great it is when you can depend upon a God that never lets you down. Its amazing what strength and perfect Peace He can give you ...in times of uncertainty. We truly are so thankful and grateful to you all for your help and support.

Isn't he such a great guy?

Hoping for another miracle

2010-05-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

In 2007 My little sister Susie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the tender age of 21. It was absolutely devastating. Susie was a miracle and survived the cancer but was left with one barely functioning ovary. However, years later Susie is now struggling with the second horrible part of cancer, as if the first part wasn't bad enough. She now has to overcome "The Medical Bills".

We have a chance to help her achieve yet another miracle in her life. Susie and her husband have an opportunity to receive a years worth of free rent, but they need people to vote for them. This year of free rent would give her the second miracle in her life, to be free from her cancerous debt! She would also be able to finish nursing school, supplement her husbands teacher salary and thus, be able to pay for fertility treatments to bring them closer to their third miracle, a baby.

I love my Beautiful sister so much! I would appreciate any help in getting her the votes she needs to get this one year of free rent. The voting only take a few seconds. You do not need to register or anything annoying. Just a click.
Voting is open now until May 9th.
Be sure to watch their touching video and vote for Micah and Susie
Click on the link to get to the voting page.
http://www.trilliumresidential.com/free-rent-vote

Grace turns FIVE!

2010-02-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know it's been months since I've blogged. I think about blogging but can't think of anything interesting to put up.

Luckily, we've had a birthday! This is a big birthday for this little girl. Being 5 means that she can Finally start kindergarten in the fall. It also means she is bigger than her cousin Tommy who is larger in size and is like 6 months younger than her.
(I know he's a boy and boys are bigger but, Grace doesn't understand this fact. She's older and should be bigger and have seniority over him. Right?)

(Jonathan Robert, Grace, Tommy)

Sooo, My kids are totally spoiled! They each get two parties when it is birthday time. One for the Hoopes' side and one for the Steffler's. Grace wanted Tinkerbell/princess themed parties so I whipped up some cakes super fast to make these birthday dinners special for her.

Her first cake didn't turn out as planned but she still loved it. It was a chocolate cake with pudding mixed into it so it was very moist. The frosting was a yellow color so I thought,"Oh, I just have to make it banana flavor!" It was kinda yummy....but not delicious. In my excitement I added too much flavoring to the frosting.

Here's her Tinkerbell cake at the second party. I ran out of time and had to put the frosting on while the cake was still warm, so it was a little drippy. [sigh, these are imperfect cakes by an imperfect mom.] I shoved the tinker doll in this cake and quickly realized the doll was too tall. So I ripped the tree trunk legs off the doll and shoved it back in. Walla!!! Perfect fit!!
When we were all done, I was able to get the legs back in after lots of grunts and frustrations. Grace never knew the difference. She was a happy girl. This was a white cake with vanilla frosting.

Happy fifth birthday Grace. I hope you have good memories of turning five.

Adventures from the Bard

2010-01-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

My Awesome Father-in-law decided to take my family to the bard.
(which is church property and also is where my hubby proposed to me!)

The church used to keep up the land and sell oranges but, it wasn't making money so they stopped watering the trees. It's kinda sad to see hundreds upon hundreds of trees die.
They have it all locked off and for some reason they have some beautiful horses in it. It was so much fun to be in this huge area with horses just wandering around!

We picked as many oranges that we possible could before going crazy. We ended up filling our trunk with oranges and now are drinking lots and lots of fresh tart orange juice!

So, I love nature! I love to go for walks just to enjoy the scenery. Well... While at the bard, I took some pictures in the rows of trees thinking how cool is it to look though this tunnel of trees and see a tiny arch at the end of the row! It's like really far away. Totally cool right?

I mess around with my camera to try and get the best possible picture,
so I can enjoy this lovely site for time to come.

When I upload the pictures of these supposed beautiful scenic photos, all I can see is the million piles of horse poop!!!

Here they are, the big poopers, on the other side of the road from the trees. Just eating and pooping, of course. sigh.

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here is another drawing. I am very proud of myself because, this is by far, the best drawing I have done. I am excited to see if I can do better on my next one.

I drew this for my parents as a Christmas gift.

I am a little disappointed in this picture of my drawing because, I've fixed a few things after scanning this in the computer. I fixed his left temple and I fixed some of the lighting on his face (especially on his right cheek and nose).
I need to get my mom to scan the completed drawing for me. I really shouldn't post unfinished work on my blog to show off.

Squids will be Squids

2009-11-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

I hate the book Squids will be Squids. The first story in this tale goes something like this...

Fox says, "Lets play in the park!!!"
"Yeah!" said mouse and (some other animal I can't remember at the moment.)
But squid says, "No my legs are too tired."

Fox says, "Let go to the movies!!"
"Yeah!" says, mouse and (anonymous animal).
Squids says, "There's nothing good playing right now."

Fox says, "Lets go shopping!"
"Yeah!" says mouse and (stupid animal I can't remember).
Squid says, "No, shopping is boring, I'm going home."

"Yeah!" say's Fox, Mouse and (?animal?).
And the three go play in the park, watch a movie and finish the day shopping.

Moral of the story, Squids will be Squids....

I hate this story because, I'm the stupid Squid! Every time I read this dumb book to my kids I say to myself,
"Yep, I'm still a Squid."

I was invited to go camping with my family, I say
"No, I would have anxiety attacks about my kids getting hurt in the middle of nowhere."

I was invited to go to dollar day at Goodwill with all my siblings and I say,
"No, I don't have any money to spend."

I was invited to go to the Zoo and I say,
"No, I don't like going to the Zoo it's no fun at all."

Stupid Squid!

The book was quietly put in the recycling bin and pushed out to the curb.

Halloween Pictures

2009-11-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here's my kiddos for Halloween. We had fun!

Charity the evil witch, Grace the real fairy and Jonathan Robert the cowboy.
Our friend Cielo is a cheer leader full of spirit, Yes she is!

Is it ok that for one day a year, my daughter wants to be an ugly witch, with a cat as a companion?

Grace says she's a real fairy princess. "Real fairies grow flowers on their backs and only Princess' wear flower crowns."
Her fairy version comes from the book Wings.

"Put em there cowboy!"
I love his hat! Thanks Uncle Brian it's perfect for him.

There ya have it. Our Halloween costumes for 2009.

Charity turns 8!

2009-10-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

We've been a little busy this month with two parties and a baptism to plan for Charity. I'm so glad it all turned out!

Charity's baptism was so wonderful.

She was so excited for her baptism. She just glowed with happiness.

The spirit was strong the whole meeting.

I am so disappointed!!!!
We left in such a hurry to get to our house for the brunch we were holding afterwars, that we didn't take any pictures of Charity in her baptism dress!!!
Charity looked so beautiful!
I can't believe that I didn't think to get a picture of her in her dress!!!!
Ugh, Enough of my complaining,

Charity did do a great job singing. Our little family sang
"I know that my Savior loves me"
We practiced for weeks, and my little ones didn't sing. Grace knew the song so well. She said she was too scared to sing in front of everyone. Jonathan Robert sings the chorus so cutely! but, he didn't sing either. :(

Here's the link to the song. It's such a beautiful song.
We can hardly sing it without crying.
http://www.jollyjenn.com/IKnowThatwords.mp3

You can find this song in the 2010 sharing time outline.

Charity also, had some wonderful Twilight birthday parties!!
See what an awesome mom I am?
I make Twilight cupcakes with bite marks and everything!
Before the party, we listened to the Twilight sound track.
(I really know how to Rock out too!)
I'm so awesome!

Charity's parties were killer!

She got some great gifts by the family.

The second party was for my hubby's side of the family.
Well, our cake didn't turn out. I didn't even bother taking a picture.

Daddy had a great idea and took Charity to the store to buy red velvet cakes. Well, I guess red velvet is a very soft cake cause it fell apart, after my wonderful hubby layered it. It broke so badly I couldn't make it Twilight themed at all. It did taste good though. (I really mean it when I say he is wonderful.) No sarcasm intended.

Happy Eighth Birthday Charity!
I hope we made some great memories for you.

Pete and Repeat

2009-09-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law was published in the Glendale Community Collage magazine

The Traveler

with honorable mention in the non fiction category. I am so glad I get to share her story here on my blog! She has agreed to let me post it here and asked that, I let you know how she wishes she would have been a little more respectful/reverent towards our mother-in-law in this story. When she wrote this, she was rushed to submit it without getting to use a fine tooth comb over it. Her teacher wanted her to submit it, at the last minute, to get the experience of it. She never thought she'd get published or get Honorable mention.

This is our family in my Mother-In-Law's Hospice room about a week after she was admitted. She ended up staying in hospice an entire month before she died of colon cancer. She was a determined woman and held out as long as she could.

'Pete and Repeat' was her favorite Joke. My husband 'Jonathan' in the story thought it was appropriate that moment to share it as a family. I remember her laugh. Her joy was infectious.

We love Danica, and we're glad that she fell right into our puzzle like a charm.

Once you click on the link, On the top bar is a zoom button, click it.
You will need to zoom the page to 100% or 125% to be able to read it.

Her Story is Pete and Repeat on page 14.

Thanks Danica for capturing this special moment for us.

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/english/trav09/TravelerFinal2.pdf

Saving money with homemade laundry soap

2009-09-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Update: I have tried another version of the homemade laundry soap and like it much better. I now use a different bar of soap called Zote. It's big and pink. I like the smell better and I feel like my clothes are cleaner with it. Same recipe.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been looking for new ways to save money.
I found this recipe for
Homemade Laundry Soap
I love it. It is a mild soap which is great for all those with sensitive skin. This soap is easy to make and really cheap!!!! It is going to cost about 2 dollars to make the equivalent of 10 gallons of laundry soap! It smells nice at first but does not leave a scent on my clothes, they come out clean with no residue. I had lots of fun making this liquid version of homemade laundry soap. Next time, I will try a dry powder version.
I researched recipes online before I decided on this recipe my sister-in-law gave me, which is like most of the recipes online.

First, I got a Fels-Naptha bar of soap. They cost about one dollar per bar. You will need to find a store that sells them or order it online. It's worth the effort you spend to find this. Think of all the money you will be saving.

Grate the entire bar of Fels-Naptha on the fine side of your grater. The finer the soap shavings the better because you are going to dissolve it on the stove in some water.

Put the grated Fels-Naptha soap into a pot with 4 cups of water. Put on Medium heat, don't walk away!! Keep stirring with a whisk until dissolved.

Once that is done put one cup of Washing Soda into a 5 gallon bucket.

Add 1/2 cup of Borax to the five gallon bucket too. 20 Mule Team is the brand you want for this.

The Washing Soda and Borax comes in a large box for about five dollars each. You will only use one cup of Washing Soda and a half cup of Borax for this recipe.
So, Put the rest in your storage for the next time you make laundry soap.

Add warm water to the 5 gallon bucket filling it to about 1/3 full. Stir with a tall spoon, until your Borax and Washing Soda are dissolved.

Add, your dissolved Fels-Naptha soap into your 5 gallon bucket as well. Stir than add water to fill the 5 gallon bucket.
Soap will thicken to a gel when set.
Mine didn't turn out like a typical gel. It was more like water with clumps of gel in it.

My soap turned out to be something like this, except
mine is yellow not white.

After letting set over night, fill empty Laundry bottles half way with your
homemade laundry soap and half way with water.
Shake before each use.
Put about 1/4 cup in your washer with each load.

Experiment for what works best for your washer. You may want to up the amount of Borax to 1 cup or use baking soda instead of washing soda. What ever works best for your washer.
*You can also use 1 cup of white vinegar in your rinse cycle as a fabric softener.
** I fill my laundry bottle with the soap without adding the water than use the full 1/4 cup in the wash. I always wash super loads and have hard water. I felt like I needed more soap in my load.
I love that I no longer need to spend the big bucks on laundry detergent.

My next try, I am going to make this.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

4 Bars Laundry Soap (to yield 12 cups of soap shavings)
6 Cups Borax (this is roughly one box)
6 Cups Washing powders (this is roughly one box)

Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container and measure out two tablespoons for each load.

Pictures were copied from the internet.

Head Over Heels

2009-09-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have been talking about this blog

Head Over Heels

to a few people and so I am posting a link to their blog for ya.

I get one more shot of winning if I share them with ya and so I am being nice and will let you enter to become my competition.

They are having a give-a-way of these lovely boots.

In Black, Brown or Chestnut.

I want them! They'd be fun to dress up in for a date with my hubby.

Video -- Another Testiment of Christ

2009-09-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

He is a man with a body, as we are created in the image of our Father.

I know he loves us because He atoned for our sin and by doing so, suffered immeasurable pain.

I have felt His love encircling me.

The Book of Mormon is truly Another Testament of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I feel of His sweet Spirit strongly when I open the pages in the Book of Mormon.

Slideshow featuring all images from the Reflections project "Another Testament of Christ". All images by Mark Mabry - Music by Clyde Bawden and Jason Barey - Edited by Cameron Trejo

Unity

2009-09-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

I found this video on another blog and I wanted to share it as well.

Wheat Bread Recipe

2009-09-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is what my kitchen looked like when I walked into it for the first time this morning. I let out a little scream of shock. Cause, I cleaned it before bed and made my sink shine and everything!

Fifteen minutes later.... Much better.

Now, I can fix myself something to eat. I decide on...

My delicious home made wheat bread. I use my mother-in-laws old recipe. I know she's perfected it after this recipe was written. So this isn't her best one. Jonathan and I are playing around with it and changing things that we remember her doing when she made bread. It sure is yummy though.

To make 4 large loaves of bread, mix 1 T of Yeast and 1 1/2 C of warm water in a bowl and let sit forever until bubbly.
Than, in the boshe mix 1 C Salad Oil (aka vegetable oil), 1 T salt, 4 T honey, 4 C warm water, than add yeast and water mixture to it. Add 6 C whole wheat flour, 4-6 C white flour

Your dough should be soft and sticky but still manageable. **Jonathan and I are playing with how much wheat gluten to add to this recipe. Let rise once, punch down. Divide into greased bread pans, let rise again, bake in oven at 350 degree for 45 minutes. This recipe can easily be split in half. I love that this recipe is so food storage friendly.

mmmmm. Yummy breakfast. Now if I can muster the motivation to clean up MY mess that I left out from yesterday. Laundry....ugh.

A few pics from out trip to Utah

2009-09-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun. I thought Id share a couple of pictures with you of our day at Deer Creek Reservoir. During the middle of our day it rained and got cold. So we wore our sweaters while in our swimming gear.

This is a video of Jonathan Robert entertaining himself on the drive up to Utah. I love how his eyebrows get higher and higher. Charity is totally rocking out to "Jesus Freak" lol I love it. (wish I knew how to edit it so I could make it shorter.) :P

Optimus Prime cake

2009-09-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

He's three and wanted a Transformer cake. We had dinner at my mom's last night and celebrated his birthday. We will have another birthday party with the Hoopes' side this next weekend where we will give him [our] present to him, Hopefully! We're waiting for Softimus Prime which is a plush transformer that actually transforms from robot to truck! We ordered it from ebay and we don't know when it is expected to be here. Lame. I doubt it has even been mailed yet. I am going to make another Optimus Prime cake (same design) this weekend but here is my first attempt at it.

looking back

2009-09-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

My husband

This is my husband 4 days after his mother went to hospice, last year. Can you tell how sad he is? This picture breaks my heart. We were celebrating Charity's 7th birthday party at the pool, and he was trying to keep it together. Which meant he looked like this for most of the party.

However, Halfway though the party, a man at the pool started to talk with him. This man asked questions about our LDS faith for two whole hours and Jonathan relished in the discussion of the gospel. His knowledge and testimony of the gospel is down to earth and wonderful. To him the gospel is life, not some unknown mystical touchy feely stuff. The way he talks of his faith is so simple and makes perfect logic, as the right way to live. I was so grateful to that man for distracting my guy from his grief for 2 whole hours. Thank you stranger man, who took his kids to the pool at the right time to help another in need. That was a blessing to my hubby that day!

I believe the Lord whispered to that man to ask Jonathan his questions of the LDS faith. I also belive they both helped each other that day. Jonathan was able to help clarify some misunderstanding he had of our faith.

Ok, He does keep facial hair now. But, not as long as when this picture was taken. I like hair on my man! I think he is very good looking with a full beard.

Grace's thoughts on death at 4 and a half

2009-08-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Grace was doing something dangerous so I stop her from doing it, and explained why it was dangerous. I tell my children often that doing dangerous things might kill them or hurt their bodies. Our bodies are delicate and can't be replaced. They need to be careful.

Than she says afterwards,
"if I die I would go live with Jesus." I agreed with her, while thinking how cute her love for Jesus is. She often talks about Him and I know she loves Him.
Than she gets a sympathetic look on her face and says,
"but, if I die you would miss me."
I tell her honestly, "yeah that's the sad part about dieing, everyone will miss you and cry."
Than Grace starts to cry a little,
"Mom that thought makes me cry."

I totally agree. When I think about my death all I can think of, is how my family will feel. That very thought of 'my death' hurting my family is whats get me crying too.
Geesh Grace and I are so melancholy.

update on HP contest

2009-08-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the votes. Josh's video is no longer up. It was up for a week. I haven't heard if he made it to the finals yet.

HP contest please vote

2009-08-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so our very best friends from BYU got one of his video selected for the semi-finalist in an HP contest. I am so excited for him! Please go to this link and vote for him. You will need to click on view+vote to give his video a thumbs up. We want him in the finals!!!! His video is "Journal making but why?"

http://www.youtube.com/hp

Ok so his video is no longer on the these links so here it is with YouTube. Joshbo26 Rocks!

Rex, our baby?

2009-08-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

We think he is so cute. Rex cuddled up like a baby in Charity's arms when Aunt Susie came for a visit. Susie was petting him just right. Rabbits like to be gently pet on the head and jaw line.

He was in heaven with Aunt Susie caressing his face that he started....

sucking his paw!! He truly was! I had no idea that rabbits did that.

Warning!! Rabbits if pet just right may turn into suckling babies!

"Auto Bots, roll out!"

2009-08-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

Back when Jonathan Robert was a baby. I found this awesome toy. Slumblebee!!!! I saw it on a clearance shelf and immediately knew it was to be ours. I searched the rest of the toy area and it was the only one left of its kind and to top things off, it had no upc tag. I took it to the cash register and the workers in the store hadn't seen it before. They searched the toy aisles again and than brought a clearance stuff animal about the same size to price the already loved toy I was trying to buy. They charged me about 2 dollars and something for it. I was very Happy. I took it home as a trophy so proud of myself for finding such a buy and they only charged me a couple of dollars for it!!!! I gave it to my about one year old and he has loved this toy every since. Now that he is turning 3 next month he sleeps with it every night.
Jonathan Robert is obsessed with transformers now. He watches the movies and talks about them all the time. He recently out of the blue told me he wanted a transformer cake for his birthday. I laughed thinking he was so cute. It has now been weeks later and he is still talking about getting transformers for his birthday. He says he wants Optimus prime and bumblebee for his birthday. So cute!
So this morning I was surfing the web to see if I can buy Optimus Prime as a plush for Jonathan Robert and unfortunately I can't. The manufacturers stopped making them. People are charging about 40-60 dollars for this cute little toy on ebay that was originally sold for only 10 dollars. So I guess we are not getting that.
Oh well, Jonathan and I have found a Power Bots version of bumblebee we are going to get Jonathan Robert for his birthday. It is a real transformer but made for the little guys with out all the small complicated breakable parts. It is really cool!! And I know he will LOVE it. Jonathan Robert wants both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee but we can only get one cause they are 30 dollars toys. But I still would have liked to get the Softimus Prime toy. I think he is pretty cool.

Check out this video review of these awesome plush transformers!!

ramblings

2009-08-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

I feel really good. The way I can tell that I am feeling happy is my house is clean!!! I love feeling productive and on top of things. I think, I am feeling so good because I was called as a primary teacher this past Sunday. Primary is such a happy place and I've made some children friends there. One of my new friends is named Carra. I really love that name and think since the passing of my mother-in-law Kara. It has become even more special to me. I may want to name my next girl Karra or something like that. I'll have to find out what my husband thinks and who on the Hoopes side already, has it tagged for their next. I'm claiming keeps on it right now. Let it be known, I want to use that name, (if it fits on our next one). I do already have a Charity.

Kara means love as does Charity. It was always our little special thing to say that Charity was named after her Grandma Kara cause their names mean the same thing. Charity in Spanish is pronounced karr-e-da which kinda sounds like Kara.

I've never considered using the name Kara until I met this cute little girl in primary. It sounds so cute on a little girl and dignified on a woman too.

Let me know what you think?

July swim party

2009-07-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

This post is a little late. These are pictures from Susie's and Monica's birthday swimming party In early July.

Monica put together about a million rubber bands to make a rope for us to jump over. If ya look closely in the pictures you can see the line we were jumping over. Some people showed off and did tricks over the line while other could never reach it. Stupid Micah and Del who apparently can fly! We all had a blast!

Flying

I love the cartoon Effect on this photo!!

Del looks awesome in this next picture!

See.... He's flying or maybe he's just falling with style.

Ops totally missed that one. He's caught on the rubber band line.

Another MISS! Ahh what happened to flying?

I wonder who was doing a trick to get Dillon to make this face? I think it's cute.

These pictures I of get of Brian and Grace every family get-together are so sweet to me.
I luv ucle Bbrrian.

My Family ROCKS! They totally know how to have fun!

Another drawing

2009-07-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Posting my drawings helps me to see how much I need to improve. I decided to do another peasant woman from Van Gogh. I do like this drawing even if I did mess up. I'm kinda wanting to fix it but, I will force myself to start on a new project. I hope that by doing this, I will improve with each picture I complete, and not get stuck on the one drawing that I couldn't get perfect.

I also posted a copy of Van Gogh's sketch that I copied from.

What do you do?

2009-07-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

What do you do,
when you go to check on your kids at night,
and one is missing from their beds?

You check in the cupboards of course!!!!

This has happened before with Grace.
I freaked out!
That was before I knew my kids were in the habit of sleeping in cupboards.
When Grace did it the first time, she had the cupboard doors closed completely.
It took time to find her, and I was so freaked out, I was about ready to call the police.
Luckily, we found her before I could call.

(Sorry, she's not fully dressed. She does that too.)

And,

This is how I' ve been feeling the past couple of days....

Overwhelmed.

Who can do this trick?

2009-07-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Lets see who can do it the best?

Grace gives it a shot. But didn't get it.

Charity can almost do it here.

Just one more try she says. She, not very close is she? lol

Jonathan Robert shows the girls up.

I think I found the winner!!!

Just to be sure, he tries again...Yep he's the winner!

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I thought I would post pictures of the frog prince mask I made when Jonathan Robert was a baby. He was born in September and soon after wards, it got cold in Provo. Jonathan Robert would cry every time I took him outside. I quickly realized he didn't like the cold wind on his face. So I made him a mask out of wool. Wool is awesome! It is breathable and yet keeps you the warmest. He stopped crying after I made this. Amazingly, that baby would keep it on his face!

The mouth of the frog used to be the opening for his eyes. It has a rolled up tongue with a fly in it.

Now he thinks it's a great hat. Jonathan Robert loves hats.

He must be a prince.

A couple of sketches

2009-06-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a couple of simple drawings I've reproduced. These are sketches Van Gogh drew in 1885. I drew the woman when I was a teenager and just pulled it out of a storage box, where it has lived, since the day I drew it. I instantly fell in love with it, and found a great place to display it in my home. But, It needed another picture to go with it.

When I look at this drawing of the woman, I think of D&C 4:4 "For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrustest in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;"

So, I wanted to find a similar drawing of a man with a sickle reaping the fields. Well, I found a few on a great Van Gogh site and decided on this one, peasant with a sickle. Now that I am done drawing him, I don't like the results as much. It is a different kind of drawing than the woman picture. He is darker and there is more blending than the woman. Plus, I did mess up on his picture. I think I may eventually try to draw him again, and make him lighter and with rougher lines like the woman. Until than he gets to sit with the woman in my stairwell.

Here is the finished look in my stairwell. I have to add that it looks better in person!

looking forward to

2009-06-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ok so many of you know that I love movies. I put the trailers up for 3 movies that I am really looking forward to this year. Transformers comes out next week. I am already trying to figure out a date and babysitting plans so I can go see it. It looks really good. I don't like this particular trailer as much but it will do. I love a good action movie!

The movie I am the most EXCITED about is Harry Potter and the half blood prince!!!!! It will be released next month!!! Oh my, the things I look forward to. Is that bad that I am obsessed with movies and books?

Ok, and the other movie is New moon. I know people are really annoyed with twilight but this movie looks like it will be better and I am hoping that with this new producer that it will be a big hit. New Moon will be released in November. My girls really want to go see this one with my in the theaters. They want to see Harry Potter too but I don't know if I want kids with me while I see if for the first time. I don't want any distractions.
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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Release date July 17th!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/318364/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince.jhtml

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New Moon
In theaters November 20th.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/395235/trailer-premiere-new-moon.jhtml

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Transformers revenge of the fallen.
Released June 24th

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/343276/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen.jhtml

West Clear Creek

2009-06-01T09:20:00.001-07:00

And we're Off! Leaving our house to meet the family at...

Dick's Sporting goods at 8 am

but not everyone is there. We don't get out of there until just after 9 am.

While waiting we take some pictures.
This is the new Buddy!! He is the sweetest loving Calm Dog.

What a cute family.

Buddy Loves, LoVeS His Micah..... and Susie too, Just not as much as Micah

My little kids are scared of dogs but not this one.

He's so gentle. He doesn't jump on them or overly lick them either, which they appreciate.

We finally leave Dick's and
When driving for an hour to our destination I get this. Isn't this the sweetest sleeping baby face?

We have to drive on this dirt road for a few miles behind Micah who makes us eat his dirt. My van is filthy now. Thanks Micah

The beginning of the hike. Everyone is so excited they walk really fast. Jonathan kept saying things like "Holly hurry up." But I was enjoying the scenery.

It's only a mile but Grace is hitching a ride on her special Uncle Brian

When she is not riding him she just holds his hand. She loves him.

This looked much more beautiful in person but it was a beautiful hike. It feels so nice to be surrounded by nature.
(Jonathan calls me from ahead) doesn't he know I'm savoring the beauty.

We finally reach our destination!!! The Water Slide!

We totally monopolized it while we were there.
Notice how big my shorts are on me. It's exciting to see that. I really am losing weight!!!!

Jonathan Robert loved the slide. I had to be right there to catch him each time. the current is pretty strong.

he's climbing up the rock to have another turn

Grace's turn, with her special Brian again.
(sorry about my boobs, It's my only bathing suit)
note to self buy a new swim suit.

Jump in Charity!!

Isn't she so cute! Charity had a blast!! She gets silly when she is happy.

That's my girl! Can you feel how much fun we had by looking at her?

Or by looking at this?

Or this one?

This place is so fun even the adults had to have their turns.

Morgan taking care of Jonathan Robert for a while. Thanks Morgan. I was tired of having to stand against the current to catch him.

My nephew Denver He's really cool.

My nephew Dillon who is cool too. I can tell by the gang sign he throws up.

The water was cold so we would play on the slide for 10 minutes, than get out, Than play for 10, than get out. It gets kinda repetitive.

See totally repetitive. Or is this the same picture?

Monica gets a picture of me with my girl.

Hey what are those cool guys up to?

Monica and Morgan chillin' on a rock.

Monica took these photos. Actually, she took most the pictures while at the creek.

I am not a person who remembers to take my camera with me.

Than when I do, I feel dumb carrying it around and going click,click with it.

Or maybe I am just busy chasing Jonathan Robert around that I miss these cute moments.

At three, dark clouds blew in and gave us lightning and thunder.
So, we packed up and left a little early.

This is the scene in my van after 5 minutes. They were so tired after a full day of fun.

We made fun memories at West Clear Creek. When are we going again? We're ready for more.

2009-05-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

My sister Monica got a new phone and it has this really fun function where you can do a face warp and it will do different affect to your picture. Here is Charity as an alien. How fun is that?

snips of my life today

2009-05-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I are giving talks again this Sunday in our new ward. We were asked to talk on service. We received a phone call Tuesday night to give our talks this coming Sunday. Last time we had two weeks notice and it was nice because, I had a long time to ponder. However, I had two weeks to freak out and feel nervous. At least this time it is an easy topic and I only have 4 days to worry. I am going though stages of freaking out and stages of feeling the calming spirit helping me along as I prepare. It isn't as scary this time because I recently had just given a talk in our last ward. This is my third talk in sacrament meeting (as an adult) so it is still a BIG deal for me. I am sure I will do just fine.

I was so excited to find out that I have lost 3 pounds this month. It is nice to live in a house with stairs. I run up and down all day long. Also, I am not as hungry as I used to be so that really helps. I am eating smaller portions. I hope I can keep it up and get to a size 10. That would be awesome! I am a small 14.

Yesterday, I took Charity into the dentist for what I was sure was an abscessed (Sp?) tooth. It was, and he pulled it out. I was so upset before the appointed and ended up crying it out at the office in front of the dentist and two assistants. This is her fifth tooth to go abscessed!!! Her 8th tooth that has been pulled out of her little mouth!! It seems that if she has major work done on a tooth is dies. She also get cavities really easy. I just got all her work done and notice 2-3 months later, the tooth is abscessed and that she has tiny cavities on a couple of her teeth!!! Since the last time we been to the dentist, I have brushed/flossed her teeth and they are still rotting out of her mouth! My other kids have perfect teeth. We really don't have juice and candy that often. The dentists always tell me, I am doing a good job when they see my little kids but, when they see Charity I always get the lecture of how "Mom you need to make sure you brush her teeth and make sure you get in the back." ugh. I am so frazzled about her mouth. It is so expensive too.
(sorry to vent on my blog)

My two year old had his moments today. LoL! He got my big tub of spread margarine out of the fridge and dropped it. It splattered on my floor and all over the cabinets. He also, Dumped a little less than a half gallon of milk on top of the table which dripped off the table onto all the chairs and floor. It took me a long time to clean it up but, when I did my floors were nice and shiny from the butter!
Later today, He decided to help with laundry(he loves to help me). While scooping the powdered laundry soap, he flung it up and got it in his eye. I put him in the tub and rinsed his eye than decided to put him in the shower and told him to put his face in the water. His eye got really red even his face around his eye, and up onto his forehead was red. I called poison control just to be sure that I just had to worry about rinsing his eye. The lady just told me everything I already knew and was already doing. This happened right as we were needing to leave to pick up Charity from School. So we were pretty late picking her up.
It's all part of normal life for a two year old.... sigh.

Grace has been a calm angel. She is my easy child. I have to make sure she gets off of the computer or away from the TV and have some playtime/cuddle time with me. She keeps to herself most of the day. She is a delight right now when I get her talking. So sweet and funny. She is full of questions and discoveries. Things about bodies, why people like things they like, Christ, holidays, what gifts she can give people, why daddy works, lyrics to songs, when she thinks she will quit sucking her thumb....... She is fun and interesting to talk to. My four year old rocks!

As for my last post we have decided to buy our trees now and really baby them this summer. Than buy enough paint for the main living spaces in the house. Although I am now wondering if I really want to paint. Jonathan Robert wrote on my walls this week with pencil. I know it washes right off but still, I would have been sooo mad if I had just painted and he did that.

ps. Charity and Jonathan Robert Rock too!

Decision

2009-05-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

I am trying to decide what I want done more, the back yard or painting the inside of my house. It's a toss up. I have decided how to layout the backyard and what trees I am going to get, where to plant the garden and where to plant the grape vines and hopefully I can get blackberrys to grow here in az. I can't wait for the trees!!! I also have come to a decision for the colors I am using to paint with!!!! I was given advice to buy enough paint to do the whole house, buy my main color in the 5 gallon bucket and just paint one wall at a time. Other wise it is too big of a job and it will get overwhelming for me.
What would you do first and why?

I am wanting to buy this book. It was released last week and already is number 6 on the New York Times best sellers list. Aprilynne's father in law was my bishop when I was a teen and when I married my husband. He was a help as I repented and became truly converted to the gospel than later as I prepared for the temple. Sis. Pike was my relief society president in my last ward. I love the Pikes and of course, I want to buy the book their daughter in law wrote. Plus, The book looks like fun and Stephanie Meyer gave this book a really good review. I got to read the first 4 chapters on Barns and Noble website and now I want to finish the book.

Here is the Description from the Boarder's website: When a flower blooms in the middle of her back, Laurel discovers that she is a faerie and was placed with human parents as a child. As Laurel learns about her true background and the dangers that face the faerie realm, she struggles to find her place in both worlds.

Ok, so this sign just makes me laugh. It is scattered around the intersections in Laveen.
Do people really hire scoop service? Is there really a market for that kind of service? I would think that scoop service goes with yard up keep services.
It reads:

DOG POOP = GROSS
SCOOP SERVICE = CHEAP
CALL US = SMART
phone number
www.dreampetcompany.com

I have a plan and am ready for action.

2009-04-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

I decided, I am going to reward him for putting it in the potty. He seems eager for treats. I just need to get to the grocery store and buy him some candy.

Jonathan really liked the cold water idea and I have done it but, it didn't seem to help with him. Honestly, I didn't stick with it long enough to find out. I think I will do this if he poops in his pants again.

I also tried talking with him and that made me hopeful but than I guess that was too much attention so he just kept making messes.

I asked him "Why are you not peeing in the toilet?" and he gave me a mischievous smile and said "I don't know." Thinking he was funny.

I am positive that he just needs a little bribing with some candy. That seems to really work with my kids especially because, they hardly ever get candy.

Thanks for your advice guys.

Jonathan Robert made a bed in his fire truck.

Is this really what little boys do?

2009-04-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Robert has been potty training. Well I tried and tried before we moved into our new home, but he wouldn't budge. I would ask him if he wanted to go potty in the toilet and I would get a firm "No I don't want to." Bummed that he wouldn't do it. I gave up, saying he's not ready.

Well the very week we move into our new house and there are three new toilets in the house. He finally decides to go in the toilet. I stopped buying diapers and he does great. Weeks later............ He is peeing everywhere!!!!!!!! He is a smart boys and knows what he is doing. He pees in different places all over the house like he is marking the place. He stood on top on my kitchen counter and peed on it, He tried to pee on his sister's leg, He deliberately peed while walking up the stairs WHY!!!!!!!!??????? To see how many stairs he can pee on.....????
He told me he wanted to pee on his sisters stuffed unicorn!!! Good thing, I was right there to tell him no and send him to the toilet. At least I am making him clean up his OWN messes but, of course I have to clean it after I make him wipe some of it up. I do make him seat on the toilet though out the day to try and keep his bladder empty.

I don't understand why he is so curious about his pee.

Is this normal?

How would you guys handle this?

Memory failure

2009-04-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Aimee, My sister calls me a couple of times a week now. Which is so fun cause She normally is in school during the day, but she didn't sign up for classes this semester. So, she calls me in the middle of the day when we are both at home, board. I get all happy when I hear it is her voice on the phone calling me!! I love her phone calls!

Well during one phone conversation she asks me out of no where,

"Remember when you were pregnant with Charity, and I drew a face on your belly and it was soooo FUNNY?"

I reply saying "What! that never happened! I don't remember anything like that. I would remember something like that."

I would think that if someone drew a giant face on my Big pregnant belly, so they could laugh at me, enjoying it so much they get their husband and kids to laugh at me too. I would remember something like that..... right??? I would!

Aimee was adamant that this really did happen. Well a few days later she SENDS me proof that it really did happen. She indeed, did draw on me, laughed at me and EVEN TOOK pictures, all of which I don't remember, which now serves as further humiliation years later.

She says she has more photos of me like this. What!!?? Even looking at these picutres I totally don't remember this! Julie's lips are red. Aimee says because, she kissed the giant lips on my belly.

Water Fun

2009-04-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

The water park close to our home is tons of fun!!! The buckets that dump water are the main attraction! Even dad had to join in the fun. I hope to take my kids again this week cuz, it is free!

OK, so this isn't what it looks like... Well maybe it is.

Jonathan Robert decided to try and make it look like he was peeing too!!!!!

We were just rolling over laughing at his attempts. Can we say enema?

This cute little girl wanted to wear her rain boots with her swimming suit. Grace just looked so cute. Too bad this isn't a good picture.

School uniforms

2009-04-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Jonathan got my printer working!!! So was able to get my pictures uploaded. I will spend the next few days posting a few pictures.

For today... Here is Charity's first day of school at Riverbend prep. Isn't she lovely?

I think she is so cute in her uniform jumper dress. I love uniforms for school!!! She has a nice teacher Miss Miller. All of the cousins on the Hoopes side are Millers. So that is a fun coincidence for Charity to have her teacher with the same name. I am hoping for a better education at this charter school than at the over crowded public school.

ramblings

2009-04-17T14:39:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to blog for a few days, but I really don't have anything to blog about that is interesting. Charity had this week off of school for spring break. She was so excited to get a second spring break because of the timing of our move. Yeah for her! Except the school gave her a huge packet to have completed before she returns. It evens out to one page a day (including the week-end days) of homework that is two sided. And she also needs to read a book a day which we haven't done. ahhh. I wish I could get her a tutor. She would really benefit from one.

I took the kiddos to a water park this afternoon. It was pretty fun. This is the park that was right across the street from the first house we offered on. I am glad we didn't get that house now that I look back. This house/location is a better fit for our family. We will soon get a fun park across the street from our house. There is a huge lot of land fenced in for a park, maybe a school too.

The kids and I also went to Walmart to return their dumb blinds!! I stinking spent 70 dollars on blinds from there and not even a week after having them one totally breaks and another is too short for the window so it doesn't stay in the brackets very well. Don't buys the blinds from walmart even though they sell them the cheapist. They are cheap for a reason.

The kids and I are gonna go work in the back yard for a while pull'n some weeds. We got some cheap gloves from walmart. So, I guess we're gonna try them out.

Hope to find that cord to my printer soon but, I really think we're gonna need to buy a new one cause, I unpacked most of the boxes and haven't come across it yet.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today feels like a good day. In preparation to this day, I have read some scriptures with the kiddos to teach them about Jesus and why we celebrate Easter. Grace is at the age where she is ready to learn and can understand many more concepts than before. I think it is fun to hear her questions knowing that she is figuring it all out in her cute little head. I am so glad that we celebrate more than candy and a fictional Easter bunny. It is so fulfilling to teach them the true meaning and get to celebrate Christ's resurrection teaching them that because he was resurrected we and our loved ones who have passed will be restored to their bodies in a perfect state. What a thing to celebrate! Christ is Wonderful! We love Him.

The kids already had their Easter baskets this morning but I need to go cook us some yummy breakfast. I'm thinking soft boiled eggs with toast.....

I have pictures I want to blog about but can't until I get my printer all hooked up. I am missing the power cord to it! which is L-A-M-E.... Cuz, I have like a bazillion cords but, none seem to be the right one! ah! It'll turn up soon. I hope.

I love my new house!

2009-04-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

I love my house! It is finally starting to come together. Having a master bedroom with master bathroom ROCKS! We've always wanted our own bathroom. I will post pictures soon.

I'm moving today!!!

2009-04-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

I'm moving into my house today. Yeah!!! I am packing our last minute things and will be off to my new home.

I grow babies. What's your superpower?

2009-03-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

I love this quote. I found it blog hopping. I will totally have to use this line on my husband in the future. The God given ability, to grow and nurture a human child, physically and spiritually, is totally awe inspiring. Or what is more amazing, a woman can nurture and grow many children at once. We tend to play down our roles as mothers (women). Mothering is a worthy superpower that we should take pride in. When I fill out forms at doctor offices and such, for the occupation line, I always put in 'home maker'! It is my occupation! I am proud to have the privilege to stay home to nurture my children and to 'make a home' where they can grow and learn. This is one reason I am so anxious to move into my first home. I want to make a home for my family! I am ready to be a home maker in the literal since. So, as Sponge Bob would sing, "I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready!"

2009-03-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have had a busy week. My sisters came to visit from Texas for spring break. We had a blast. The first night all of us sister sat around the dinner table laughing until,..... someone (Aimee) while laughing, spit water at the rest us, and shot some of it, out of her nose too!! So than, we all got up from the table and laughed some more. I realized that I haven't really laughed for months. It was great to have my sisters around this week. They get me to open up and have fun. I'm too serious all the time.

I have been uber stressed over the house. Worrying that we won't make our closing date. We had to extend our closing date to the 27th instead of the 24th this is the second time that our closing date had to be extended. Talk about disappointing! There still is a chance that we can move in before the 27th. Boy am I praying for it! The waiting game is no fun at all!

This morning I had the privilege to attend a sealing in the Mesa Temple. Ah. So beautiful. I was strongly reminded of my sealing/wedding and the same spirit and feelings I had on that day. The spirit was so strong and sweet this morning. We get to go to the reception this evening. The wedding is Jonathan's cousin Johnny. He is a real fun loving guy. He is so great and he married a beautiful bride this morning, Kelly.

The flowers at the temple are in full bloom. I was soooo disappointed I didn't have my camera with me!!! I would have taken a hundred pictures of the flowers! I was so taken with their beauty in the morning light. I wish I had photos to post for you guys :(
I told Jonathan he has to take me to the temple for our next date so, I can take pictures of the spring flowers.

Jonathan's extended family is in town too. They came from Utah for the wedding. It has been really great to spend time with the Hoopes side of the family. I really love them so much! The Lord truly blessed me when I married into the Hoopes family!

Gotta run and get ready to go back to Mesa for the reception.

2009-03-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

We are still hanging in there. our closing date has been pushed back to the 24th of March. I am frustrated cuz now I have to wait longer. But, I guess it is OK, now I have two more weeks to be prepared for our most anticipated move. In the mean time, I have had tons of fun shopping for the best deals, on the much needed items for my house.

I found some really great deals on craigslist.
*I was able to get a 4 year old set of stainless steal appliances minus the fridge for 300. Glass top stove/oven, over the range microwave, dishwasher all for the 300. They are whirlpool gold.
*I was also able to get a beautiful whirlpool washer/dryer matching set, 2 years old, newer looking model, for 250.
*Also some twin bed sets for a good deal 40/50 each. (head/foot/frame/ mattress)
*Today, I got a 15 ft trampoline with the encloser for $10. That's right Ten Dollars. It is 4 years old but the owner stored it in the summer so it has stayed in almost perfect condition. We are having lots of fun on it today.

I know it is tacky to talk about money but I can't help it. I LOVE the bargain! I get so excited about the items I was able to get that I other wise wouldn't have been able to afford. All because, I bought it used and at a low price (even for being used). Each time I am able to buy something we need that we thought we couldn't afford I feel so blessed by the Lord.
20 days until closing!!!!

Pictures of my new house!

2009-02-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

This is me so happy cause I just toured my home.

Here it is! My new house! This is a lot of pictures and may be overkill for some. The pictures are not in order either. Sorry, I'm doing this late at night.

I am so excited for my new home! I can't wait to clean it and move in.

This is what I see when I walk out my front door. I love the front patio.

View looking from our kitchen to the left is the front room, to the right is the office/bathroom/laundry/garage. I have tile walkways!

pretty tile.

Great room and kitchen

Front room with sleeping baby Abby.
down stairs bathroom.

Laundry room downstairs.

Jonathan's office. Yes the wall is really dirty in this room.

Top of the stairs I have these nice cabinets. Does anyone know what I am supposed to do with these? It is not a desk.

view from from the front door. Nice tonsils Libby. LOL.

Looking down from loft.

Front room. I LOVE LOVE the veiw of this room!

reaching the top of the stairs. Hi Nathan! Here's the cabinets again.

Look at how roomy this master bathroom is. We all fit in it.

Ok the mirror is really dirty. sorry.

Master bedroom with two walk in closets with built in shelves as well.

Kid's bathroom.

Grace's room. This is actually a bigger room than Charity's. Yea for Grace!

This is the view from the loft. Isn't it great!
View of loft from the stairs.

Closet that is in the loft. I'm thinking the game/toy closet.

Jonathan Robert's walk in closet. I'll use this for extra storage.

Jonathan Robert's room. Hey who is that guy?!

Charity's room. Check out that cool window ledge! She is so excited to have her own room. She picked this one I believe just because of the window.
This is what I see when I look out my back door.

I've got cool people in my backyard.

Yet another picture but hey, I have a covered patio in my backyard.

Brenda and Dad

We are doing our inspection this afternoon. I am excited cause it is suppose to take like two hours. That is two hours I get to be in my home!! whoo hoo!

2009-02-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

We tried for the bigger house and we are in escrow for it!!! We will defiantly move in unless something terrible comes up in the inspection. Our closing date is March 11. This house is 2,634 sq ft. 5 beds 3 bath. There is two living rooms on the bottom floor and a loft on the second floor as well. I am so ecstatic that the bank accepted our offer, and in the same morning that we turned it in too! I really wasn't expecting them accept us because, there were other offers on the house. It is such a fabulous deal! I feel so blessed by the Lord. He really opened doors, windows and unlocked a tough lock for us to get this house. I will post pictures after my next visit to the house cause the pictures on mls are awful!

In the mean time here is one of the awful pictures with most of the kitchen and great room.
Aw! I have to show another bad picture so you can see the rest of the kitchen! Well, this picutre isn't so bad.

2009-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

We didn't get the house. :(
But no worries we are going out tomorrow and will look at lots of houses. Now if only I can get one that I don't feel like I'm settling for. I just want this to be a short process. I don't want to drag this out for months.

2009-02-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

Wahoo!!! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

I get to choose what it is. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. At this point, neither do I. It could be awesome, and it could be so lame it makes you cry.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

Okay, the first 5 to do this are the luckiest people in the world!!!! Hurry up!
Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!
Good luck!

(I copied this post from my friend's blog, Life in the slow lane)

2009-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

An update on the house.
We are still waiting. We should hear from them on Friday or on Monday. We found out today that there are other offers on the house. We are not worried. If it works out that's great. If not than we will try for another house that is bigger than this one. I will post again when we get word.

2009-02-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

This is the home we want. We have to wait and see if our offer is accepted. The bank won't even look at the offers until Monday, after it has been on the market all weekend. They gave it a low price for what it is worth. We offered on the list price and if there is competion for this home, than we will easily be outed.

It is 2,406 sqft 4 beds 3 bath. It is a mile away from Jonathan's sister and it is around the corner from the nice new school. While we were there, we had four neighbors come over to met us and we all had a really nice visit. We all liked each other and they are hoping we get the house. The family right across the street is LDS and has 5 kids. It was really fun getting to met them all. They all seemed very nice. Which would make us even sadder if we don't get the house. It seems to be the perfect house for the location, price, size and community. If you are reading this please say a little prayer that we will get this house. Oh and if we got it we would need to get an oven, microwave, fridge, washer,dryer, lights, blinds and we would need to paint.

2009-02-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Siblings are the best!

You can wake up in the morning and decide to make them into your very own fan club before you go off to school to be on TV.

Charity is having news channel 5 come to her class today, where they will get to help give AZ their 5 o'clock weather report.
-
She is so excited to be on TV tonight. It is only logical that she have a fan club, right?

I love my kids. They are the best.

Charity's fan club!

Oh my gosh! How cute!!!

2009-02-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well none of the houses in the last post are even a possibility for us now. Looking for a house is such a roller coaster! We are now looking at this house very seriously. We may make an offer on this, once our loan approval goes though. This is only 3 beds with 2.5 bath 1,949 sqft. But it has a loft and two living rooms on the first floor and also has a covered patio and a balcony. It has nice tile throughout the first floor and the house is already painted with my favorite colors and it feels so happy. The rooms are already painted and decorated perfectly for my kids. There is minimal repairs to do on the house.

Here is a view from the great room. See the closet? It is a Harry Potter closet and wraps around behind the stairs!

Here is the house Jonathan LOVES. Someone beat us to the punch and it is in contract. We will find out on Monday if their offer went though. If not, than we will probably try to get this one. I have not seen it but it sounds great. It is 4 beds 2.5 bath 2,157 sqft with the two living rooms on the first floor.

We don't know for sure on any of the houses that I post on here. Things are such a roller coaster that we may even decide not to buy in this neighborhood with all the nice homes. Thanks for all the comments on my blog.

2009-01-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I know that I haven't posted in a while. I haven't felt very well. But I thought I'd post and let you all know that we are looking for a house. I am so excited! It looks like it won't be long before we are neighbors with Jonathan's big sister Brenda in Laveen AZ! Like just around the corner or on the same street. We have a house that we are seriously considering putting an offer on. We would like to look at it again and look at a couple more houses in the neighborhood first. Here is the house we are considering... 4beds2bath

This house is on the same street as his sister but it is like 10 thousand more than we want to spend. 4beds2bath with 500 more sq feet than the first.

This house is on the same street as the first house we are considering. It has a 1,000sq feet on the one we might buy. But, this one looks like it may need lots of work and of course it is like 8,000 more than we want to spend. The size is tempting so we do want to make sure that we take a look at this one. 5 bed 3 bath

I will keep you guys posted as we make more decisions, and of couse I will post lots of pictures of the house we do end up getting.

2009-01-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

I have really been into these two cds lately and wanted to share them with you. I have Fisher "It's a beautiful life" and three songs of Feist for you to enjoy on a playlist. I love these two musicians sound.

2009-01-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day for me.

Jonathan and I gave talks in sacrament meeting today. I spoke on grace and he spoke on charity. I thought it was great for us since our girls are named Charity and Grace. We actually were given such a broad topic that we were able to choose these topics and it was still within the topic that we were assigned which was "teaching's of Jesus Christ". Well I am no judge for myself but, we did get lots of compliments. People were actually looking at me while I was speaking so, that is a good sign that I at least had their attention.

When we arrived to church early, the second counselor of the bishopric pulled our family aside into a room and gave me a calling. The 2nd counselor in the primary presidency! This is really huge for me! I was totally not expecting to get a leadership calling. I feel confidant even though I haven't served in the primary before. I am excited because Primary is AWESOME!
Anyways, I was sustained in sacrament meeting than went right into primary and was introduced to the children. After church, I was set apart and later after wards, I had a training meeting with the primary president. All the technicalities are taken care of and I am now ready to immerse myself in the work.

PS. Did you know that
-grace is a divine means of help or strength made possible though the atonement?
-It is an enabling power to help us in our time of need.
-We will grow grace for grace until we receive a fullness of HF's glory.
-Those who are doing good works can receive grace which will help them do even more good works than they otherwise would have been able to accomplish on their own.
-We are saved only though grace of Jesus Christ.
-If we are having trouble with a certain sin, than we can call upon HF and ask for the grace of the Lord to help us conquer the sin.
-HF has given grace as a gift to all mankind but, we must do somethings to receive it. We need to have faith, repent, keep the commandments, humble ourselves, and come unto Christ and realize that only though Him can we receive our deliverance.

2009-01-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the roses I got from Jonathan with you all.

2009-01-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

January is winter time. I know it really is winter here in Phoenix because, Jonathan sleeps at night with the bedroom windows open and he just about freezes me close to death every morning when it is so cold, frost has settled everywhere. I had to add another blanket to my side of the bed. It really is winter, But....

What is absolutly amazing to me is that the leaves have just started to fall. We can finally rake them up to play in. See our trees in the back yard. So It really is fall here in Phoenix too.

Here are some our leaves we are tromping though.

And what is truly amazing is that grass in growing in January the coldest time in AZ. This used to be just dirt and now real live beautiful grass is growing!! So it is official! It is spring as well.

So there you have it. January in Phoenix is Winter, Fall and spring rolled into one!!

2008-12-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Here we are Christmas Eve.
It seems almost impossible to get a family photo session going. This is my 5th attempt at getting our family pictures and finally I have photos to share. Charity was pouting for most of the pictures...sigh...a perfect family photo is not possible people, sorry, it just can't happen. The odds are against it. Cuz' during the photo session there is always someone who is crying, or has their eyes closed, or a grown man, I won't name names, making a silly face on purpose, or someone has their mouth open, and someone always seems to have ants in their pants, of course the inevitable, the someone who is NOT LOOKING AT THE CAMERA. lol, I know some of the photos are blurry or the color is funky. I might be able to fix some of that later. But, aren't my babies so cute with their gorgeous eyes!!!
Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Yummy!!!! This is absolutely amazing. This bite size fruit gummy taste like real grapes! It even has the crisp flavor of the skin in the beginning of eating it. I devoured like half the bag before deciding that chewing them made them disappear too fast! So, I started to suck on them and got a different eating experience. It swelled and felt like a real round grape minus the skin in my mouth. My brain had a hard time believing that this is candy in my mouth. Yum-a-licious! I don't even like gummy candy and this is like no other gummy that I have ever had. It was $2.50 at our local Asian store. I even thought of giving it as Christmas gifts this year. So, go get some and try it! They're that good. This is soooo good it should be on Opera's show of her favorite things of the year. Speaking of Opera, she has right now for the 18th and 19th a free download of Holiday Hits. It is a Free CD just go to her site and click on Holiday Hits. Download into your computer. Hurry or your'll miss out on your gift from Oprah. It has some really nice songs.

2008-12-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

My new favorite thing is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I have some of their Christmas songs on a temporary playlist that will play automatically for you to sample. I listen to them when I am wrapping presents and when I am in the car. I love them! I love there sound and their interpretation of Christmas music. They have some beautiful delicate songs and lots of fun ones with electric guitar. If they ever come to Phoenix, I so want to go to see, hear and experience their concert.

My other new favorite thing is my mother's Christmas poems. The Key and From Whence Came that Sound. They are on her blog, But I have The Key below. For the other visit her blog at www.deatthewell.blogspot.com
You might want to pause the music to read with the proper rhythm and so you get the full effect of the meanings in the poem.

The Key

Once upon a darkened night
all men slept unaware
that into their lives a glorious light
would this very eve appear

The sheep outside the city grazed
upon the thin sparse grass
as shepherds’ drowsy eyes far gazed
into starry skies of glass

When suddenly a sound was heard
and breath was held with joy
as angel voices spread the word
Of Mary’s little boy

Hark! The melody rang out
in tones of cheer sublime
Listen to the trumpets’ shout
echoing through all time

Nature paused and bowed her head
honoring Salvation’s birth
and cries of hope from all her dead
burst forth throughout the earth

Hosanna! sang each fettered heart
the chains of sin’s dark grasp
soon would fall and all step forth
the Key had come at last

His kingdom he has come to claim
Stem of Jesse’s rod
blessed be His holy name
Christ Jesus, Son of God

2008-12-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

My mother came across a funny video of some movie clips of Twilight re-enacted for Christmas. Since I am a Twilight fan, I really laughed and laughed at this. Her blog has the link... Enjoy and Merry Christmas!!

http://www.deatthewell.blogspot.com

Oh here is the link so you don't have to navigate your way though her posts to find it.

http://www.take180.com/s/ep5l7

2008-12-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

I love Stephanie Meyer books. I finished reading The Host last week and loved it. After I finished the last page I said, "That was fun" than I opened it to the first page again. I love to be completely wrapped up in a story. I love it when the charaters stay with you after you finish the book. The Cullans are a part of my life now after the Twilight series and now, I think of Melanie and Wanda to. I love fiction.

Synopsis
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

2008-12-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas Season is here! We got our Christmas tree up and some presents under it waiting for Christmas morning. My children are excited. I am excited to give our family home eveing lesson tonight. I want to share it with you. It is a story that I use each year in December. I get each item and we place them on the tree one by one as we talk about it's meaning of Christ. Enjoy. The website with this story is...

http://www.llerrah.com/truemeaningofchristmas.htm

Here is another version that someone has rewritten with more details of the symbols. It is too long for my young kids, but older kids would be able to handle it. I really like this version.

http://www.santahollywood.com/symbolsofchristmas.htm

I go to the websites and print the stories so I can have the pictures to go with it.

Just a week before Christmas I had a visitor. This is how it happened. I just finished the household chores for the night and was preparing to go to bed, when I heard a noise in the front of the house. I opened the door to the front room and to my surprise, Santa himself stepped out next to the fireplace. "What are you doing?" I started to ask. The words choked up in my throat and I saw he had tears in his eyes. His usual jolly manner was gone. Gone was the eager, boisterous soul we all know. He then answered me with a simple statement . . ."TEACH THE CHILDREN!" I was puzzled. What did he mean? He anticipated my question and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree. As I stood bewildered, Santa said, "Teach the children!Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that now-a-days Christmas has forgotten. "

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a FIR TREE and placed it before the mantle. "Teach the children that the pure green color of the stately fir tree remains green all year round, depicting the everlasting hope of mankind, all the needles point heavenward, making it a symbol of man's thoughts turning toward heaven."

He again reached into his bag and pulled out a brilliant STAR. "Teach the children that the star was the heavenly sign of promises long ago. God promised a Savior for the world, and the star was the sign of fulfillment of His promise."

He then reached into his bag and pulled out a CANDLE. "Teach the children that the candle symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world, and when we see this great light we are reminded of He who displaces the darkness." (we now use christmas lights.)

Once again he reached into his bag and removed a WREATH and placed it on the tree. "Teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the real nature of love. Real love never ceases. Love is one continuous round of affection."

He then pulled from his bag an ORNAMENT of himself. "Teach the children that I, Santa Claus, symbolize the generosity and good will we feel during the month of December."

He then brought out a HOLLY LEAF. "Teach the children that the holly plant represents immortality. It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior. The red holly berries represent the blood shed by Him.

Next he pulled from his bag a GIFT and said, "Teach the children that God so loved the world that he gave his begotten son." Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a CANDY CANE and hung it on the tree. "Teach the children that the candy cane represents the shepherds' crook. The crook on the staff helps to bring back strayed sheep to the flock. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brother's keeper."

He reached in again and pulled out an ANGEL. "Teach the children that it was the angels that heralded in the glorious news of the Savior's birth. The angels sang Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will toward men."

Suddenly I heard a soft twinkling sound, and from his bag he pulled out a BELL,. "Teach the children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it should ring mankind to the fold. The bell symbolizes guidance and return.

Santa looked back and was pleased. He looked back at me and I saw that the twinkle was back in his eyes. He said, "Remember, teach the children the true meaning of Christmas and do not put me in the center, for I am but a humble servant of the One that is, and I bow down to worship him, our LORD, our GOD."

2008-11-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

Today is our Five year anniversary!

November 28, 2003
Jonathan and Holly Hoopes

Mesa Arizona Temple

We were married the day after Thanksgiving on the 28th. We celebrate each year the day after Thanksgiving cause, that has the feeling of our anniversary. We also celebrate on the 28th of Nov which doesn't always lands on that day after Thanksgiving. We usally get to celebrate our anniversary twice a year. Not this year darn-it, the 28th landed on the day after again. So in our five years of marriage we had 3 children, 3 moves, 2 minivans, 2 cars, 1 baccalaureate degree, 9 jobs between the two of us, lots of trials and lots of fun!

2008-11-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

Jonathan's mother passed away on Nov. 19th. She had colon cancer that spread to her liver and lungs. She fought the cancer for two years before, passing away from complications caused by it. We had my mother-in-law's funeral on Monday Nov. 24th . It was such a beautiful service with beautiful music and talks. Each of her children spoke and even her husband shared with us. All of her siblings sang "Come thou Fount of every Blessing" They did a beautiful job. The spirit was strong at her funeral. We love her and miss her. She was a beautiful woman and a true follower of Christ.

2008-11-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

I just found lots of friends and neighbors blogs. Look on my profile to check some of them out. I couldn't get everyone's blogs followed, sorry if your blog is not listed. It wouldn't work or I don't know about your blog.

I was tagged by Mitzi! We just found each others blogs. Thanks Mitzi I needed something to write about!

8 TV shows
-Pushing Daisies
-Ugly Betty
-Heroes
-iCarly
-Spongbob Square Pants
-Samantha Who
-Lost
-Oprah

8 things I did yesterday
-dropped off and picked up Charity from school.
-went to the distribution center (I really,really miss, not having to drive 50 mins on complicated freeways to get to a store.)
- bought WOW expansion (if you don't know what this is, than I'm not telling.)
-picked up my daddy's prescription.
-Got Wendy's for lunch.
-emptied and loaded the dishwasher.
-made chicken noodle soup for dinner cause Charity is sick.
-ordered bare minerals makeup.

8 places I love to eat
-Cafe Rio in Provo!
-My father-in-laws Thanksgiving dinner, cause he makes the best turkeys ever.
-my mother's house, when the family is gathered.
-At Danelle's, I love here cooking too.
-At Monica's when she makes home made sushi and desserts or has pool parties.
-on the couch. the table chairs are too hard and uncomfortable.
-Susie's pool and barbecue area, lots of fun.
-basically, anywhere that I did not have to cook.

8 things I am looking forward to
-having health insurance in December
-Christmas
-buying our first house
-my hubby getting a car so I can have my van during the day
-being out of debt
-did I mention buying a house
-seeing Twilight the movie.
-my children being able to do a big list of chores

8 things on my wish list
-a nice house that has 4+ bedroom, 2 bath, at the very least 1600sq ft, big back yard with a cute playground and pretty garden, a nice sitting room, home library, office, playroom, media room, large kitchen.
-a maid service and yard service for my dream house.
-travel to visit siblings who are out of state!
-spending a weekend with Julielee and her kiddos, which includes meeting baby Samuel!
-a new wardrobe.
-a babysitter every weekend.
-more fun family outings.
- more energy.

8 people I tag
-Julielee
-Mom
-Monica
-Del
-Trista
-Amy R
-Tamara
-you! the one reading this.

2008-11-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

I know these pictures are late! Happy Halloween!

Charity the witch.

Grace the fairy princess with a butterfly painted on her face.

Jonathan Robert the dinosaur.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Well I thought I'd share our big owie this week with you guys. Ready? Here it is.............

This is what you'd call a fat lip.

Grace was running back to her room after sneaking out of bed and slipped on a plastic bag. She was in the kitchen and smashed her lip on the floor. Poor baby! It looked so bad!! Well I guess, Grace did end up getting caught sneaking out of bed! She was punished with lots of hugs, a Popsicle, a photography session and a later bed time that night.

2008-11-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

I just bought the soundtrack of twilight. I am listing to it right now! I am so excited for the movie to come out now that I am hearing the music. I am trying to imagine how the music corporates with the movie. It was only 13.88 at Walmart. I was expecting to spent 20-24 dollars but I was surprised to see it cheaper than I was expecting. It has 12 songs and even has Bella's Lullaby that Edward composed for her. (well not really....I guess Carter Burwell composed it.) But aw! it is so pretty and soft. The "never think" song is Edward (Rob Pattinson, the actor) singing and that one sounds really good! So go out and buy the soundtrack!

here is the website where you can listen to samples of some of the songs, but not my favorites. :(
http://www.twilightthesoundtrack.com/

2008-11-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

I heard the funniest joke last night. It's only funny knowing that a cute little two year old made it up all by himself, and he was laughing at it like it was the best thing in the world, and Yes it was one of the best things ever....Are you ready?

(Jonathan Robert) Knock Knock
(Mommy) Who's there?
(Jonathan Robert) Knock Knock
(Mommy) Who's there?
(Jonathan Robert) Knock Knock
(Mommy) Who's there?
(Jonathan Robert) Knock Knock
(Mommy) Who's there?
(Jonathan Robert) Knock Knock
(Mommy) Who's there?
Repeat about 20 times.

LOL, LOL my eyes are tearing up. He was just so darn cute!

(mom, here is my something that made me smile today. Thanks for you comment on my last post.)

2008-10-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Charity Deann

Oh my sweet first born! I love her like no one else. I look back to when Charity came into my life....I see that I have grown so much as a person and especially as a mother because of the trials I had gone though for my sweet Charity. I am so grateful for these trials.

I had Charity when I was eighteen years old. The day I found out that I was pregnant, I decided I was going to fully convert into the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was going to live in a way that I could be a good mom to this precious child, who shortly would enter my life.
Some of the trials I went though were, of course, having Charity when I was eighteen. I was at that time trying to fit in with Young Single Adult groups who were to me, people that were better than me because they didn't have children out of wedlock. It took me a long time to get over that. Once I did, I had to find Charity a father amongst, this group of LDS young adults. After I was married, we than had to go though a long process for Charity to be adopted by him. Some things for her adoption were hard for me to do, like contact the person that got me pregnant, spend lots of money and move to a new apartment.
I did all these hard things because, I love Charity and I wanted her to be happy with a good dad who loved her so much, that he would adopted and seal her to him. She would be his in every way but one. Even without the genetics Charity looks just her daddy and he feels no difference between her and our other children, she doesn't either.

Charity has taught me how to be kind, more patient, how to have fun and what being a responsible adult means. lol. Parents learn so much from there first born children. I am glad that Charity was my first born because she has such a strong spirit she was able to handle my shortcomings and mistakes as a parent.

Charity loves to be silly, so she can make herself laugh really hard! She loves to do active things like swimming and jump rope. She wants to be a good person and tries to choose the right even when, it is really hard for her. She thinks of others and likes to do nice things for people. She is especially good and caring of her siblings.....when she is not teasing them. sigh. Charity is really good at sharing! This is how she has made most of her friends. My favorite thing she says is "easy peasy rice and cheesy." She is fun and bright and I love her so much!

2008-10-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

2008-10-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Grace Suzanne

I have no words to describe my sweet, sweet Grace. She is so precious. She is so beautiful, this picture can't even capture it. It also, fails to capture it because, I haven't taken any cute pics of her lately. But, even than a camera can not display her radiant beauty. She brings such a great spirit into our family. Grace loves the color yellow. See her shirt? She loves yellow so much. She also, loves to sing. One of her favorite songs to sing is, I wanna hold your hand by the beetles. She sings it so beautifully. (smug, smug) because, of my amazing talents......um, I mean, despite my lack of singing abilities. (shame) I have this song on my playlist. If you would like to sing along with it.

Grace knows Jesus loves her, and others too. Tonight, she became sad and told me "Jesus dead, I can't see Him now." Her sadness was sincere. She was surprised to find out that He is alive, even though He died for her. I can see how that is confusing for a three year old. I told her He raised up after 3 days and He will come again to the earth where she can live with Him again. She felt happy after learning that.
I love the simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that my children came knowing who they were. They came to me with a love for Jesus already instilled in their hearts. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Grace, thanks for the reminder that we all lived with Christ before, where we could see Him. We all love Him even if we don't see Him now. I too yearn to be with Christ again.

2008-09-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Robert

I had Charity Deann before I married my husband. After six months of marriage we were pregnant with Grace. My husband wanted to name her (Grace Lynn) but I wouldn't have it. After much debate and a huge compromise, I got to name her Grace Suzanne after my middle name and it rhymed with Charity DEANN! Totally important to me at that time. The compromise was that he would get to name the next child since, I got to name two already. Nineteen months after Grace, Jonathan Robert was born. Well his daddy proudly filled out the birth certificate and gave him, his name and blessing. This name, Jonathan Robert, ended up being absolutely perfect for our son. We as parents wanted our children's names to have meaning as Charity and Grace have obvious meaning but, Jonathan Robert? Well, I just didn't get the meaning for it.... (besides that I knew both names, were family names, with great pioneer heritage). Last night, my husband told me again the meaning, but it had never clicked in my mind until now of what his name is. The rough translation my husband choose is God has given a shining light. I feel this is true of my son. He is a shining light to our family, even to his sisters. He is so special. We love his name and it flows together nicely. Jonathan Robert, Jonathan Robert....See how nicely it flows?

In regards to a previous post.....
For his birthday we found a Huffy tricycle on clearance for $17 and we were able to get him a cool Jeff Gordon race car. He had two birthday parties, one for each side of the family, and was totally spoiled with presents at both.

2008-09-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

I've come across this inspiring blog. A daily scoop http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com
I started at the beginning and am working up to the current post. I love her voice as she writes and her talent with words. She (Stephanie) has suffered a great loss and has had her testimony strengthened tenfold for it. She is sharing her testimony in the LDS faith with great detail and does an amazing job of it. She is also sharing her experience as she overcomes her grief. Amazing. I am truly touched by her blog. Beware you will need a box of tissues near by.

2008-09-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Life is going great! I am now trying to plan Jonathan Robert's birthday on Sunday. Hurray for Two year old's! They are so much fun!!
So, what do I WANT to get him? Hmm, he'll like anything I get him but, I am unsure what I want to get him. I like to get my kids some thing really cool or special. I will probably just get him some cool trucks. I saw some really awesome ones at his cousin's house yesterday. One truck was a monster with fangs that would clomp down while driving. The other would pop up on super cool hydralics when it started zooming. He loved that..................Gotta go change my almost two year old. Hurray for toddlers! I love him.....even if I have to clean poo.

2008-09-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

This is our (new to us) 2003 Grand Caravan! Isn't it pretty!? It has captain chairs, leather seats, Cd player and doors that open with a push of a button. Too bad I waited until night to take pictures of my new van.

Clean leather seats, calling, begging for you to come for a ride.

And, this is what it would look like if YOU were driving!

2008-09-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

I took these at Grandma's house just before I left for AZ. She has a gorgeous yard! I didn't want to miss out on my last chance, to take pictures of the beautiful flowers, that grow so well in Utah. I hope to find something pretty here in AZ to take pictures of.

2008-08-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Phoenix. Woot! We are almost unpacked and settled. Charity will start school on Tuesday. Life is great. I am happy being here. I can't wait to visit all of my wonderful family!!

He's so darling.

2008-08-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

My cute boy. This cute face makes us laugh!

Jonathan Robert loves baseball. He is watching little league while practicing his swing.

A pose for Mamma.

Well things got out of hand, like they often do with little boys, and someone got his bat taken away for hitting the TV with it. Guess he wanted to play the game on TV too.

Getting his lecture.

Feeling sad.

Getting loves.

All better.

Sorry about the mess in the back round of these pictures. We were in the process of moving.

2008-08-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

I watched Super Size Me and I really enjoyed it. I have been wanting to eat healthier and this just affirmed to me how important it is to eat home made foods. Fast Food is a fun one in a while treat, less than once a week! I recommend this documentary.

I have always thought that our country needs to radically change our medical and insurance systems. I didn't like Micheal Moore's views on our country but, his movie was interesting to watch. I kept wondering though out the movie what is the other side of all this. He only tells us a portion of a side that he wants, doesn't give all the facts and hints pretty big that our country is corrupt. What truly is socialized medicine? It can't all be good and I'm sure it doesn't come almost free as he would have us believe. I would like to look into this topic much more. Don't just take Micheal Moore view!

I'm packing, cleaning and packing some more. I may not post for awhile.

2008-08-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

I took these at one of Jonathan's Uncle's, house today. The last two flowers look good if the picture is magnified more. When I have a good photo edit program I will come back to these photos and crop them so I can see more details in them. The purple one is awesome! Just click on the photo so it will be blown up on your screen, than notice how the color wants to stretch off of the flower into it's surrounding space.

2008-08-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Hoopes family was so AWESOME today and threw Jonathan a graduation party. It was lots of fun! We were impressed that they would go out of their way to gather together, decorate, and cook delicious food that Jonathan loved. Thanks a million Hoopes family!!!! Grandma got us all these BYU Cougar shirts and a little football. How FUN!

These are some of the flower pictures that I took today from BYU and from Jonathan's Uncle's house.

This flower is now my desktop background! I love it!

I think taking closeup pictures of flowers is a new little hobby.

2008-08-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

I know, I know I am posting lots of pictures of Graduation but, I am so proud of my hunny husband. So this morning we had another long ceremony so he could walk and we do a little cheer for him. I am glad that I got a couple ok pictures of this special time in his/our life.

2008-08-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Graduation ceremony to begin.

silly face, Grace.
ooh scary.

Jonathan Robert gets a kiss
Guess he doesn't want koodies.

Jonathan has graduated!

2008-08-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Graduated from BYU with a baccalaureate in Media Music and a minor in Computer Science. Congratulations Jonathan. I am proud of you.

So these pictures are not in order but please notice the pink tassel! He was one of 4 guys with a pink tassel. It seemed that everyone had gold or white. I was able to semi photo shop some of these but for some reason my edited photos wouldn't load so these pictures are the strait out of camera pictures. Yes, I know I take bad pictures.

Also, click on the photo where he is kissing Grace cause that is a cute picture. I want to crop and blow it up for Grace to have.

We have another ceremony in the Early morning where he will walk and get a fake certificate thing. He is so happy to be done with school!!

2008-08-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

What is the invention you can't live without?

O.k., so this is really like a ton of inventions but they all share, electricity. I can't live without it! I need light, air conditioning, heater, hot water, stove, Microwave, refrigerator, car. Where would I be without electricity? I would be, I guess living in the 1600's or something. That life style of living off the land and working so hard so you and your family are clean and fed, doesn't appeal to me. but, when your born in your time period, than what chose do you have. Hmm, maybe there will be a time in the future, when we will have a chose of what time period of the world we would like to live in. We could have a total overpopulation and have a race to build the first working time machine so we could ship people off to other time periods. (dreaming now of what that would be like....dreaming....dreaming of people standing in line waiting to enter the time machines....dreaming.....dreaming of a man with a huge pack ready to go live with dinosaurs...dreaming......dreaming of a woman artist who want to be the Leonardo Da'Vinchi of that time....dreaming.......startles awake, back to blogging.)
Ah, I feel like a child when I suddenly have a weird daydream out of nowhere. Does anyone else have weird daydreams/dreams too? Post and tell me about it.

O.k. so more serious stuff now.
It's official!! Were moving! Jonathan is driving with the girls on the 25th or the 26th. He needs a week after graduation to get things taken care of first, so we elected to stay another week so he can take care of those things. I will fly down on the 28th with Jonathan Robert, after I have had a couple of days to clean the apartment. The day before I come, I will sell my van to the junk yard. Where gonna make it to Arizona yay.

I enjoyed this book. At first I was really put off by the little boy Charles Wallace. I liked his long name. I don't care how genius he was, a five year old is not that mature! Once I got over that, I liked the book. I was surprised to find out there was a war against evil. I had no idea of the story line before hand. I just knew that it was a good book. I like not reading the summary of books and just start reading the first page. I don't like to know anything before hand. I give this book 3 stars it was good, I enjoyed it but I didn't love it and it wasn't fantastic. I might encourage others to read it.

2008-08-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

I changed the template of my blog. I like green. What I really want to do is design my own template to make my blog awesome. I am trying to figure out how to do that. Hopefully soon, I will have a new beautiful personalized blog.

Our van went crazy yesterday. It dies when it is in low RPM's. Looks like we are going to have to figure out another way to get our family to AZ. We may buy a new van, rent one to get us there, or we may even fly our whole family. Who knows the outcome! I just have to laugh that we have yet another thing to overcome this month.

I read this book and enjoyed it. It was a fun adventure with a happy ending to make any mother cry. I think I would have LOVED it if I were a child reading this. 4 stars
Firedrake is a dragon who lived in a valley/cave with other dragons when humans come to their land and start building. Dragons are afraid of humans and need to keep themselves hidden from them. Firedrake decides to find the legendary Rim of Heaven which is said to be a wonderful refuge for dragons to live at. Along the way he meet many wonderful people/creatures who help him to find his way and help him against Nettlebrand a dragon like creature created specifically to hunt dragons.

Opening ceremony for the olympics

2008-08-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

This was the best show ever! I am so glad that we didn't miss it!
Amazing! Incredible! Magnificent!

This is 2 thousand drummers welcoming friends!

Amazing costumes!

This is a huge roll out TV screen!!

Thousands of performers and everyone only did one performance--no repeat performers

Only NBC has the program rights to the Olympics so I searched their web site to see if they will rebroadcast this event and I couldn't find anything about that. If anyone know if there is a rebroadcast please let me know. It was that amazing!

2008-08-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

I am packing up the closets today because, I realized that we have one week until graduation!! How exciting! Jonathan came home the other night and was counting the days until he is done with school. He got so excited about the thought of "just a few more days!", that he had a hard time falling asleep that night. Poor guy has been so weighted down with school work this past term. I am so proud of him!

I bought the kids a plastic bat and ball. Man my kids are really good at base ball.
*Charity can hit the ball almost every time I pitch it, even if my throw sucked! Amazing!
*Grace gets it about 1/4 of the time, she is 3 years old and never played before. She rocks!
*Jonathan Robert, the first time we played, he would swing after the ball had landed on the ground. Oh my goodness it was so funny! We were all laughing at him, I guess he didn't like that, so he turned around and bopped Charity on the head with the plastic bat. That made us roar! After a couple days he can actually hit some times, when I pitch right on.

Some mother hood moments this week.

1. Jonathan Robert threw about 9 eggs on my kitchen floor. They all broke!

2. Grace spilled a cup of milk on my carpet.....again!

3. Group effort, In their room the kids unpacked 5 of my boxes and crushed them. I have to use new boxes and repack those ones. They pulled all of the clothes and hangers out of the closet, ripped off the blankets, bedsheets and pillows than, took cake mix and a cup of water to sprinkled it all over everything!

4. I over heard Charity say "You evil brat!"

5. Jonathan Robert dropped a full jar of olives. It broke!

6. Grace took a ball point pen and scribbled all over her bed sheets.

7. Charity drew a happy face on Grace's back.

8. Someone threw an egg off the patio. I am on the third floor.

9. Jonathan Robert empied my expensive airesol can of hair spray.

10. Charity shaved her legs.

Arizona

2008-08-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

We're moving to Phoenix!! Jonathan got a job offer and we are taking it. We are thinking that we want to start Sept. 2 woo hew! We are still unsure when exactly we will move. We need to get though graduation first on the 14-15th. I want to wait for Jonathan to be home before I start packing up stuff. My plans may change if we want to leave that weekend. We are excited to come and see all of our family. Thanks for all your help!!

2008-08-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I finished Breaking Dawn! Oh my goodness! I don't feel it is appropriate for me to share anymore than that statement about the book to anyone who hasn't got to read it yet.

I went to BYU Bookstore release party. I got there just after 11 and I made in the first half of the line. Whew. They handed out stickers, large pins, candy and Jacob/Edward kisses. I elected to not get a kiss. They put a little spot of glitter on your cheekbone using a colors for each guy. They also had a young man preforming for us with his guitar and singing all of the recent love songs on the radio. He even sang Bleeding Love which is my Bella and Edward's love song! He did a good job. I even saw girls giving him their numbers lol. I got home before 1am and started reading a little bit before going to bed. I finally finished it today. I would love to hear others opinion on the book.

2008-08-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer woman was having a Zune giveaway and she wanted to know what is your all time favorite love song.
Well here are my favorites on my play list.

The first is Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra . This is mine and Jonathan's song because at the end of our first date we found ourselves dancing in a park. He started singing this song to me and it was so fitting that night. It has been our song ever since, and we danced to this at our reception. I feel so in love with him when I listen to this song. "Ever since that night we've been together" "It turned out so right"

The second love song is You are So Beautiful -- the original one. After giving birth to Grace I felt the baby blues pretty hard and Jonathan came home one day with flowers and danced with me to this song. He made me feel "so Beautiful to him" I cried the whole time we danced. He has done this with each baby.
Isn't he so great?

What are some of your favorite songs?

2008-08-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Breaking Dawn release is tonight!!!! I hope I don't stay up all night reading. Well, maybe I want to read it with no distractions and that means while my kids are sleeping. I probably will read it tonight until my eyelids won't stay open anymore.

My kiddos are doing great. Grace has yellow hair now. I bought Sun-In for her cause she really wants hair like Aunt Duda, blond and curly. She still looks darling, even if it is yellow instead of blond. Jonathan Robert got his head shaved and looks like a big boy like his daddy. I wouldn't let Charity get a hair cut because, I am thinking she would do good with long hair to put in a ponytail. I don't know if I will really let her hair get that long before going crazy.
I would take some fun pictures of them but my battery for my camera is dead and I can't find the cord to recharge it. It is like so lame! I have been wanting to take some pictures of my kids the past few days cause, they have been so cute.

2008-07-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

I loved this book!!! I started to read it today while I was watching my kids play outside than again during nap time and than I finished it this early evening while the kids ran around the house. It was an amazing book. An entertaining and thought provoking book. I am always spares with my descriptions of books because I don't want to give anything away. I defiantly don't want to do that for this book. I don't feel like I can tell you anything about it except just read it. This book is great for discussions. 5 stars