Easy goes it

For those of you not familiar with the in's and out's of Casa de Coop, I have included this picture of the banister.

"Why do I need to see this" You ask.

Ah, my young friend. Here is the answer to your question....







...its' because I did THIS to it!

Chigga-chigga black paint....

...do the happy dance...

..uh huh..



Happy dance is over now.

Deej is still working in Salt Lake City all week. Bah.

I know, I know. There are tough times out there for everyone. I should feel lucky that I get to see him on the weekends.




For the record: I am so grateful that D.J. has this job.
I miss him muchly.
I am a tad bit grumpy.
I am on facebook entirely too much killing time.


The previous two pictures are form D.J.'s work. He was on TV! It was only for a split second, but it was AWESOME! so awesome

Oh yeah, life is tough for the poor man...

Here is a picture of him having lunch at P.F. Changs.

Rough stuff.

At least he is having yummy grub...I am not jealous.
not at all



Here is my next project!! It is an Easter egg tree.

Yes, I know that you can just go to Willams and Sonoma and simply BUY one. I really feel like that is cheating.

I have a few skills. I think that I can attempt to pull it off.

Wish me luck!

The saga of the hoodie

Jess has this really cool hoodie.

There she is..... wearing it.

I am pretty sure that it is one of her favorite hoodies. If it were mine, then I would have the same opinion.

It is comfortable, cool, and stylish to boot.

Jess wore it to Kanab when she came here for Amanda's baby shower. It was chilly in Cedar city that day when she decided to put it on. When she got to Kanab, it was a little too warm for her to wear it.

Unfortunately, when she left to go back home she forgot all about her beloved hoodie. It was left here in Kanab at Casa de Coop.

Here is the story of it's week with us.

The first person to snatch up ol'e hoodie was Savy. It was in for a wild ride!

The life of a teenager is busy.

• Decorating for Junior Prom
• going to school
• driving around with multiple friends
• going to work
• working on the computer
• watching a scary movie
• laughing all day long.

It didn't know what hit it.

It felt dizzy and excited.


The next day D.J. spotted it. He was feeling a little cold, so he decided to put it right on.

It instantly reminded him of Jess, and he was happy.

Felling happy inspired him to play a beautiful song on his guitar. He practiced, and practiced all day long until he got it just right. When it was finally perfect he played it for me.

It brought tears to my eyes.

The hoodie was proud.

Kelly was running around the house and saw the hoodie hanging on the closet. Being a particularly curious child, she promptly put it on.

She loved how the hoodie made her feel like a big kid. Right away she started to dance around the room and sing.

Then, she got a brilliant idea....she would wear it to the city park!

She wore the hoodie on the swings, the slides, the monkey bars too. She ran the length of the park field a dozen times, giggling the whole time. The sun was bright and the wind was sweet.

The hoodie felt alive.


Early the next morning after her morning work out, Mama Coop was picking up around the house. She caught the hoodie out of the corner of her eye. It was relaxing on the couch in the morning sun.

She wondered what all the fuss was about concerning this hoodie, and decided to try it on. It fit perfectly and was just the right kind of warmth that she was looking for.

The hoodie was with her when she made the phone call to her daughter miles away. It could hear her delight in sharing and listening.

After she was done, she then went into the kitchen to make a batch of cookies for her little grand babies. It could feel the love that she had for her family.

The hoodie felt at home.


Ali was home for spring break . Being the fashion-ista that she is, she had it on right away. It totally matched her outfit. College kids are stylin'!

She then went and paid a visit to some of her old buddies. One of them needed help on a major life decision. Ali listened quietly and then considered her friends options. Her advice was just what her friend was looking for.

When she got home she zipped up the hoodie and cracked open her laptop. She was in for a long evening of writing... a ten page paper is due soon, it was time to bust it out.


After all of that, she still had time to help Savy with her hair and makeup for the Prom. Whew! She knows how to pack so much in a day.

The hoodie felt a sence of accomplishment.


I was the last one to wear Jess's hoodie. I really could not stop myself. It was such a popular item here at the house.

All of the times that I had spent hanging out with Jess..laughing, chill-laxing, making seven layer dip, talking about sponge Bob square pants, and just playing with the kiddos.

It really brought a smile to my face.

I then took off the hoodie and handed it to D.J. He is on his way to go up to Salt Lake to work for the week. On his way he is going to stop by Jess's house in Cedar city and give her the hoodie back.

The hoodie feels loved.

Hey..wanna know what DJ is doing?

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5900492

Here is a link to what he is doing up in SLC!

Love ya!

Amanda's baby shower

Soooooo.... Amanda's baby shower was a BLAST!

It was laid back, and light hearted. No stress for our Mommy-to-be. It was fun to do. I learned that keeping it simple can really be the best for everyone.

Here, you can check out the pictures and judge for your self. :)

Amanda is enjoying the last of the yummers fruit dip that Mama Coop made. I had never tried it before, it needs to be around more often!




This is the banner that I put together to go along with the streamers. It was super easy and kind of looks like a baby quilt up close.





The lovely ladies!

Amanda, Em, Savy, Grandma Coop, Aunt Lisa, Jess and Ali.

Crazy, I remember when Sav was the shortest person in a family group picture.


Melanie was being Super Gramma to her grandbaby Shaye. Holy cow, he is sooooo adorable. I wanted to just kiss his little cheekies. I did not. Now I wish that I did though.

Keonie came by and brought her new baby Kenya. She is a total dollie. She even had the sweetest little bracelet on. Ugh! Too, too special.


I made cupcakes.

They are supposed to be baby faces.

They were supposed to be about 50 % smileing..and 50% crying.
I could not do that many sad ones. It made me blue.




Then I saw these Onsie cookies online....

I could not stop myself from making them. I enjoy playing with icing a little too much.

Oh well, just as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.



Emily and Jess had time to sit and enjoy eachothers company.

This picture cracks me up!!!

I can just picture Jess saying "Shucks Em, you are the Swayziest!"

Swayziest= As cool as Patrick Swayze.


Kristy and Shaye are looking darling as ever!

She did an amazing job on this super cute-i-full patchwork baby blanket for Taylor. There was three different colors of fabric, and lots of puffy paint to draw with. Everyone then took a turn at the table and wrote a special message to Taylor.

It will look so great hanging in her room. Kristy made one for Sadie's baby shower too.




Kelly, Sadie and Shelby really had a fabulous time making their own square for Taylor. Kelly drew a picture of herself....so Taylor would know who she was.






Emily's square was straight out of a Stampin' up catalouge. I think that it was subliminal though....hard to get those images out of your head whe you see them all day long.

Hi Mia! She wants you to know that she is 3.







Just checkin' in with the guest of honor. Amanda and Sadie look so cuddely and sweet in this picture. Sadie is going to have fun hanging out with her Daddy when the new baby is here, Jason is tons of fun with her.





Hey?!

Where were D.J. and Papa Coop?
They were invited to the festivites weren't they?

Oh yes they were....here they are....watching basketball.

Menfolk.


Savy, Jess and Amanda in the "I part my bangs on the same side club".

No.

Really, I just noticed that they were on the same side and I could not resist saying that.







Ali wants to show us all that she is really good at eating grapes.

Papa Coop agree's with her..."yes Ali, you are talented."






But the REAL question is, can Ali eat fruit with dip on it and not get it on her face?????

The anwser is No.

She is ok with that, I swear.

(can you tell by the look on her face?)


Gramma Cooper and Emily.

Awwwww...this picture makes me smile.

Hey! Everyone is starting to pair up in all of my pictures...that is weird.




Like this cute one of Kelly and Shelby.

They really liked eachother. I went upstairs to spy on them when they were playing Barbies....it was the silliest thing to listen to. I am glad that Kelly has another family friend to play with.







She can't always harass Ali.

Even though she really tries to.







I was really excited to get the chance to hang out with Aunt Lisa this weekend at the shower. She is a GEM. I always have so much to talk to her about, and she always listens to me and I really feel like she cares.

That is way important to me. Love her.






Jess with Papa Coop. They look so happy to see eachother. That is because they are!

The day after the shower was Jess's birthday. I was glad to get a chance to hang out with her before her birthday... what I really wanted to do was to go to Cedar city and spend it with all of the Whites, but it was not to be. Maybe next year!!


We played ONE game.

Amanda does not like shower games too much. I don't really blame her. Sometimes being the center of attention is not so great.

So, we gathered up 11 pictures of her at different ages, and had everyone take a guess at what picture is what age. It was pretty much a silent game, except fot when we gave out the anwsers. It was cool with Amanda.

Kristy and Em are doing their best to kick booty at the game.


Savy won the Amanda game!!! Go Sav!

It was a fun shower..wish you could have been there Imaginary Reader buddy of mine.

Night night.

AH....the luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's day !!!!

Kelly and I have been having a real BLAST with all of our St. Patty's day festivities. Who would have thought that we could have so much fun with just some paper and a little bit of green food coloring??? (Well actually a drop of yellow and a drop of blue food coloring to be exact)

Here she is in her outfit of choice for the school day. She wanted to be sure not to run the risk of getting pinched by a classmate.

I made sure to tell her that she can not pinch anyone if she see's that they are not wearing green. Other kids might not know that it is not awesome to do that.

Kell really wanted to pose like this for the picture that I was taking. I kept telling her that it was just too silly. She informed me that she was trying to be an alien. I guess since she was dressed in a green shirt?

Who knows?


Kids, they are the funniest people.




When Kelly woke up she found out that she had been kissed by a leprechaun!!

Only she had smeared it all over her head while she slept. Doesn't she know that she has to keep totally still when she has slow drying glitter glue on her face?

Sheesh!


The leprechaun left Kell notes all over the place. I am glad that she is excited to read, or else she would be highly annoyed at the little man.

It looks like he tried to get into her jewelery box and steal her "gold" CTR ring.

Ha Ha! No ring for him...

Then she went to go potty and was surprised to find that the water was all green!

I know it is not a fun picture....but I thought it was hilarious!!!

Kelly felt like a detective. She kept telling me that she needed to get out her spy gear to find more clues. I love it.



When she made her way down stairs to see what he had done to the trap, she was in full "clue-finding-mode". You should have seen the look on her face when she read the note that her left her by the trap.

It was priceless!!!




Looking inside, she found out that he had fallen in. All of her trap gold was inside. He had knocked over one of her ladders too.

We decided that he probably had super jumping skills, since he made it up to the counter top without a ladder. (duh Mom) So, he must have just jumped out.


Finally she was left with a glass of green milk to have in her cereal. She did NOT like that idea at all. Her cereal is fruit loops, and I thought that it turned the milk green anyway.....

...I was wrong!!! It turns it red-ish, Kelly was not going to eat the ceral with green milk.

No way no how.

I can't really blame her. Can you?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Our Leprechaun trap

Today Kelly was not in school. It was teacher-do-your-work-without-kids-in-the-way day, or something along those lines.

I figured that since it was the day before St. Patricks day, we should make something to celebrate!!!

How about a Leprechaun trap???

We can do that...easy, peasy.

I told Kelly that Leprechauns are curious little men that love to cause green trouble on St. Patricks day. They could possibly...

• turn your milk green
• turn your potty water green
• leave green kiss marks on your face while you sleep
• leave little green footprints all over the place

She was all ears when I told her that we needed to try and catch one of our own. Then he had to tell us where the gold was hidden.

Excellent.

We went right outside to gather up some twigs to make a couple of little ladders. Natural materials make them feel at home. They let their guard down, making them easier to catch.

Here she is making the ladder, and gathering up her gold to use as bait.

You really don't see any leprechauns until you are in kindergarten. They LOVE the smell of school glue, that's what get's their tiny attention.



No self respecting leprechaun can resist a rainbow. Kelly was quick to suggest that we use pipe cleaners to make it really pop out at him.

I was really happy that she was so ready to help out and give creative ideas to trap our leprechaun. She knows that they are almost impossible to trap, and that they never fooled by the same trap twice.



The tiny leprechauns LOVE to break the rules. We made a warning sign that would be sure to lure him to our trap.

His big ego will be his down fall when he see's our giant version of his hat. We hope that it will be irresistible to him.




Then Kelly carefully placed the gold that she had found on the top of the hat. It is rigged to drop open as soon as some more weight is added by our little green friend.

She chose

• a gold coin
• a gold bangle bracelet
• and a gold business card holder

Perfect!



Her final touch was to put some gold glitter glue around the border of the trap.

We were sure that the more gold the BETTER!






Here it is!!!!

Kelly worked so hard on her leprechaun trap. I think that she did a fabulous job.

Who knows, maybe tomorrow we will catch a leprechaun and have a big old pot of gold to show for all of our efforts.

If we do not, then that will be alright. There is always next year!

Right?