Gavin!

Hola Amigo's.

Can you believe it??? I am in Cedar city right this very moment!

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! Finally.

I have been wanting to come up here and visit Jess and Sam for a month.

I was resorting to throwing things in anger, and hitting kitchen cabnets with rolls of foil, when I would hear that others had made the journey to visit my baby!

Look at the breathtaking cuteness that is my new nephew Gavin. Try to resist his flawlessness.

You can't. Can you? I knew it!

I am having serious problems letting his mother, father, or any other human being hold him. I want to cuddle his little baby sweetness constantly.

He does not cry, except when he is being changed...I don't blame him! Who likes that anyway? Kelly is 5 and she gives me tiny head aches just getting her ready everyday.

Gavin currently enjoys soft blankets, riding in cars, balling his small hands in tight little fists, and accepting my millions of kisses.

Now, being around super rad Gavin would normally give the average woman the strong urge to have like 10,000 babies.

Not I. No siree.

I have been fully ammune to the "new-baby-gotta-haves" , for years now. My baby factory is closed. :) Now, I can relax and enjoy my nieces and nephews.

It is a good thing.

Last night was Gramma Cooper's 80th birthday party! That is her pretty face on the left.

The event was held at Uncle Craig's super stylin' casa. There was lots of cousins, and thier kiddos.

It was outside, and Mother nature decided to make it RAIN...right when we all had our food, and we tucking in to chow down. Nice planning Earth. Sheesh.

Little does Mother nature know that all children enjoy the rain, and it only made the party more interesting and fun . Take that all powerfull, uncontrollable weather!

Score one for team Cooper!

Kelly and Sadie

The ultimate cuteness that is Sadie and Kelly is happening right now at this very moment.

Things like...

• singing made up songs
• running away from spooky critters
  
• talking about piggies
• standing too close to the television
• counting to three
• reading books
  
• screaming at monsters
  
• lining up "My Little Ponies"
  

How can I contain my excitement? How do I keep myself composed?

Well... a daily yoga session, a balanced diet of puffy Cheetos and Pepsi and... the usage of my sister Amanda's camera!!!!!!

I can not help myself!

When I am around any of my short people, ( that is my un-PC term for my nieces and nephews) I feel strongly compelled to make them smile and say cheese.

This picture right here on the left....I was trying soooo hard to get Sadie to look up at me. She preferred to examine her toes. When you are almost 2 years old, toes are a huge priority.

I am a patient woman, so I waited for her.

Kelly, on the other hand, is NOT patient.

The end result of my "Hi Sadie...look at me Sadie...Lexie loves you Sadie...Look at my crazy head Sadie...say cheese girls" turned into the picture on the right.

Sadie is looking at me, but Kel is making this creepy smile...you can almost tell that her bottom tooth is about to fall out can't you?

You gotta give Kelly props though.

She tried her hardest to stay still and encourage Sadie to look at me and smile...she just had to make the annoyed smile.

I deserved that.

Do you know what you deserve?

This awesome video that we made of Kelly and Sadie naming off all of the Pony names!!!

Kelly likes to pretend that she has a web show and that it is called "J. Kelly." I think there is a show on nickelodeon that is called "I Carly." Pretty sure that this is Kelly trying her best to copy that show. Not 100% on that one.

I know, it was super thoughtful of me to think of you, imaginary reader.

What can I say? I'm a giver. :)

The Challenge....

I am going to say that this post is REALLY a challenge. For me anyway.

My seeesta Nicole asked me to do this:

"You have to take pictures of all the following, just as they are - no straightening up or anything."

Sheesh. (if Sarah was not here with me, I would totally clean more!)

Here we go...

The Kitchen sink.
I was lucky that I had free time this morning, and cleaned up the cereal bowls. Then, I was super happy because it was going to be all clean and dish-less. Sparkle you sweet little coop sink.

No.

My search for a camera delayed my picture taking and ruined my perfect sink with D.J.'s lunch plate. Dang it!


The Toilet.

OK. I am not a fan of taking pictures of the toilet.

I do have a cool story about the casa de Coop toilet though.

There used to be this wooden seat there. I have looked at 15 year old pictures of that bathroom, and it was on there. But, really....how often do you change a toilet seat? Let me know if you have a clue.

Well, I can tell you that with a wooden toilet seat, you change it when it has a huge crack in it, especially when it gives your five year old kiddo bootie splinters. ( Just so you know.)

I went and bought a new seat and thought that it would be a cinch to stick it on.

Oh no.

It was a four hour ordeal...filled with hand cutting, toilet bowl cracking, mumbled swearing and hack saw usage. I was going to take pictures....but as you know, my camera ran away.

The Fridge.

Here is the lovely fridge. It is usually filled on the outside with pictures of whoever is getting married in the community..and cutie pie pictures of the family babies.

The letters on the fridge are another story. (Kelly and I are having an on-going battle)

Awesome-as-cheesecake-Sarah Barnes-sister-in-law-coolness... is in this picture to show you that these pictures are not fixed. In fact, she was the one that took most of them...just so people would not think that I was cheating and cleaning frantically room by room. ( because I sooo would)

Yea Sarah!

The Bedroom.

OK I added this picture to the challenge.

Not because I am a busybody know it all...or some other naughty Nancy name.

No, my brain was confused because I saw the perfection that was my sister Nicole's room and added it to my "take a picture" list in my head.

Does that make sense to you?

If not then go look at her room..here is the link http://madsennicole.blogspot.com/

The perfect pillows....the army regulation tight formation of the covers...I was amazed.

So I added it to my list of what you should take a picture of. Ha Ha!

What your kids are doing right now.

Well, as you now know, Sarah was with me when we were taking these pictures. We had just written down a list of what pictures we should take.

Then it got to the "what your kids are doing" part, and I blanked.

Sarah said "Kelly is playing the piano now, let's take a picture of that."

Brilliant!

So we did.

Here she is, slightly annoyed that we were interrupting her improvising.... Proceed Kelly.

Gosh!


What your Hubby is doing right now.

D.J. just happened to be home on his lunch break when we were on our quest.

Perfect right?

No.

He dislikes having his picture taken, especially when he is mid-chew in a bagel sandwich. Sorry sweet man. I promise not to take anymore pictures of you having lunch. (notice the salsa and chips for all you Coops out there....)

A small price to pay, in my opinion, for my blog-happiness. (did I just make up a new word???)

Your Laundry room.

Here it is. The casa de Coop laundry central.

It basically runs 24 hours a day when all of us are home. I try to keep it in order. That means keeping the dryer sheets and laundry soap filled and clutter free.

Nothing is worse than coming home after working days on end only to see that your laundry room a complete wreck.

You just want to wash your clothes man. I understand that.

Your Closet.

My closet is as small as some people's car trunks. I am not about to complain though. We have a dresser and stuff.

It is all D.J.'s stuff in there. Jam packed too!

Can you imagine me hanging up my gym shorts or my silly t-shirts???

Ha!

No. Not going to happen

Your favorite room.

My favorite room is my daughter Kelly's room.

It is fun and light, and it makes you smile when you walk in it.

We work hard to keep it clean and fun.

All of her toys are in cute labeled bins....

Her clothes are easy to get to .....in labeled bins.

Think what you want, I love her room. So what if her DVD's are alphabetized! I am not sorry for her stuffed animal organization either!

She just told me that she loves her room too; that is all that matters. ;)

Your favorite shoes.

Try not to laugh.

I LOVE my shoes.

My Mommy bought them for me, and I have worn them everyday since the day I got them.....like nine months ago.

I think that is why they are grey instead of black...like they were when I got them.

I wash them so much that maybe I am washing out the color.

Who cares? They are super comfy, and they make me look like a silly girl, and I love them.

Your dream vacation.

My dream vacation has always been, and will always be, Lake Powell.

My family has been going there for our summer trips for as long as I can remember.

I really hope that someday Deej and I can have a boat and take Kelly out to the lake to feel how great it is there.

It will happen. Perhaps you will be there with us having fun too! ( I hope so!)

Your Self portrait.

Here it is folks...Alexis in all her glory.

Looking pretty good huh?

I made this cartoon at illustmaker.abistation.com

I think it looks pretty much like me...let me know.

Here is DJ....I made this at http://www.sp-studio.de/help-e.htm

Pretty wicked eh?

Now you try doing it!

I think I will ask Shannon, Polly, Tiff and Shanna if they are up to the home challenge.

Plus, I LOVE looking at people's houses....is that weird?

Love ya!

P.S.
I just wanted to mention that my truely wickedly awesome sister Shannon let me use her sweet camera to take these pictures.

Not only did she let me borrow her camera, (because mine ran away) she also left her work to go and get me a cable that connects to the computer.

She dropped everything and rushed to my blogging aid. That is just magical I tell you. I love my Shannon!

Sooo, homecoming was last week.... and Kelly was asked to be on her own float!!!!

She is such a pillar of the community, that they wanted to honor her with a float and a key to the city. I know! I felt so excited!

Ummmmm...

Well, that is sort of true.

She DID get to ride on a float. It was the float that is a time honored tradition here in great old Kanab. The Kindergarten float. Class of 2021 peeps.

It was fun to go and watch them haul our five year old children on a giant semi truck. Also very scary, but I am a Nervous Nancy about stuff like that. ( thank you Amanda for that super fun name to call myself)

We all sat around in the formally-named "fish bowl" or front living room and waited for the excitement that is the homecoming parade. I was personally looking forward to seeing Savy ride on the fire truck. It is fun is fun to yell at family members when you are happy to see them even though you only saw them five minutes ago.


I live for this stuff people!

We decided that it would be fun to shout at Savy's homecoming date as he was riding in his special car. He was the "prince" and all you know.

So, we yelled out..."hey Savy's date!..and yea for Savy!" as loud as we could. We even took a picture of us laughing at how funny we thought that we were. I think I might have laughed to hard, because some lady gave me a dirty look.

Oh well, I gotta have fun where I can get it people.


I guess that teenage boys do not like being called out on picking the coolest chick for a date. they get all shy and stuff.

Sheesh, I was never a teenage boy. How was I supposed to know???

It was silly and embarrassing to the poor guy at the same time. I did apologize when he came to get her for the dance.

Anyway...back to Kelly and her float..she was dressed as a cheer leader..but had an old larriette uniform on.

Isn't that like a deal breaker in someone's rule book somewhere? I am sure it is.
Not in my book.

She had a blast...we all laughed...Savy looked so super cute that we wanted to lock her up for being to grown up...

Life is good here.

Wish you were here!

Shannon found the COOLEST thing

I was looking at my sister Shannon's blog and she had this cool thing that she did called a "Wordle".

Here is mine about Kelly....it is super cuteness wrapped in a swettie-pie sandwich.




Try it...I want to see what you make REALLY bad!

Here is the link http://wordle.net

Yea! I am 31....

The rumors are true...yesterday I turned 31 years old. Now I just feel exhausted.

I had a great day though. My Mom, my sister Shannon and I went to this cute little coffee shop and sat out side and sipped Mocha's and ate pumkin muffins under rainbow umbrellas.

Yes, we laughed at whoever was walking by us....it is a meanie thing to do, but it really makes your muffins taste better. Promise. I am pretty sure that when I walk by people sitting at outside tables, they are laughing at me as well. It is a circle.

Then I had an enjoyable evening with the fam here at casa de Coop.

I share my birthday with one of my favorite people!

Mama Coop!!! Isn't that the coolest? I love her to little tiny bits!

Last night I was asking her what time she was born at. She looked at the clock on the oven and then said "right about this time." It was 6:30.

So, I got curious and said "I am going to call my Mom and ask her what time I was born."

Then I did call her.

She said "oh, right about now, 6:30."

Pretty sweeeeeet! And creepy too.

I had a crazy morning!

Yesterday I woke up and was greeted warmly by a caped crusader. I am pretty positive that it was Batgirl. She might prefer being called Batwoman, but I was too shocked to ask.

I am not sure how she got in the house, but I am thinking that she might have used a special laser tool that was hidden in her utility belt. Just a theory though.

She made a request for waffles, and bacon...angry bacon.

You know who likes angry bacon?

Savy.

You don't think that Savy and the Batgirl are the same person do you?

No.

That would be too crazy. Besides, Savy would TOTALLY tell me if she had a secret identity, and that it was Batgirl, and that she solved crime in the streets of Kanab.

Right?

So, anyway Batgirl ate her breakfast and showed me some sweet Batmoves. I got up the nerve to ask her if I could take her picture.

At first she said no.

Then she contemplated the deliciousness that was the angry bacon and agreed to a couple of pictures. I took them as fast as I could. She even let me use her Batcamera, because I lost my camera.....again.

I asked her if she could possibly clean out the rain gutters here at casa de Coop.

She declined.

I guess rain gutter cleaning is not apart of the "saving the world" aspect of her super-hero-ness.

She DID let me take one last photo of her driving away in her Batmobile. Are you wondering why she drives it with the doors open???

I was too. I asked her why she does that.

She told me that she liked to live dangerously.

Wow, Batgirl. Wow.

I'm one of the 57. Are You?

My extremely bright, sweet, amazing daughter Elora sent me an email today. In it was the jumbled up words in the few sentences below.

It was pretty cool. I could actually read this with no problem at all, just as easily as I would read anything else.

Pretty interesting.

That's my Moe for ya, always finding clever things to show me.

See if you can read this as only 57 out of 100 can.


fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 57 plepoe out of 100 can.


I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pc lae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt !

I try not to be hastey.....

I have this AMAZING sister named Ali.

Many of you know her, obviously this zombie-man does.

She is currently expanding her mind at Dixie College. I am seriously jealous. My poor brain cells are constantly yearning for new information.

"Why are you writing about Ali?" You ask.

Well, I owe her a serious apology. What better way to this, than to write it on our silly blog.

It all started yesterday, when I sat down to catch up on my blog stalking. To my surprise and delight I saw that Ali had written a new entry about how wonderful her summer was.

I highly suggest that you enjoy her post about her summer as well. Here is the link. http://ali-at-dsc.blogspot.com/

Of course, because she is a college educated woman, I was completely entertained.

Then I saw the picture.....and my smile turned into a frown.

Here is the dreaded picture.

"What is so horrible about this awesome picture of all of these pretty ladies in a pool?" You ask.

This picture was taken when we all went to Veyo to go swimming. It is a family tradition, and my first time that I got to go with the family. We had a blast.

My problem with the picture is that I am CROPPED out of the picture!!!

I know!

What a meanie!

Cropping out her only sister-in-law.

So, I did what any wounded blog stalker would do.

I left a comment on her blog. Here it is......

Awww! It sounds like your summer was AWESOME!!! Could it be because of the amazing time that you spent with your sister in -law??? I just checked my magic 8 ball and it just said...."all signs point to yes." (I was cut out of the Veyo picture....but I understand, what if a small child accidentally got on your blog and saw me in a swim suit???? It could scar him for life!) Just kidding with you....love ya miss ya

That isn't that mean right?

Then I proceeded to text her and harass her by phone. I even told Savy all about it and she could not believe that Ali would ever do such a thing.

Just look at this face. Tell me that her face is not one that would ever even hurt so much as a fly. When I look at this picture, all I see is the inner peace of a 1000 year old Buddhist monk.

Mother Theresa also comes to mind.

This morning, I get a text from her that tells me this....

"...that was the picture that I took off the computer at home that someone else cropped."

OOOOOPs!

That "someone", that cropped Alexis out of the Veyo day pool picture.....was me.

I looked horrible standing next to all of my beautiful family.

So I took the picture and cut me right out of it.

Apparently, I then promptly forgot all about doing that until I harassed my sister.

Now I am apologizing.

Sorry Ali!!!!

Love you!!!

Have you heard the news??

I am running for President!!!!

Copy and paste the link on your browser to see the news story all about  it!

Vote for Alexis Cooper in November!

 http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=416c657869737c436f6f706572

Do you know these people???

I found these weird pictures in the furnace room here at casa de Coop.

Can you help me figure out who they are???

They seem familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on who they are exactly.

Some of them look like they need a wardrobe update.

A few of them just seem off to me. Do you know what I mean???

I just hope that whoever these pictures belong to,
goes right to a stylist and gets them all some serious help.

Please if you know any of these oddly dressed people,
send me a message in my comments.

Something has to be done for these poor, poor people!

Right?

THe person that gets them all right gets a free sno-cone.
-in December-
-wearing a bikini.