What's on our Happy List? January/February

#1 LeapYear Baby

My cute nephew and niece are the proud parents of

a precious baby boy, little Cohen. This babe makes

me a GREAT AUNT for the fifth time.

#2 School Programs

Shakespeare
Here is Kyleigh and three of her friends after performing in the Shakespeare plays at school this week.Their class performed Hamlet, A Mid Summer's Night Dream, Macbeth and Taming of the Shrew. The Shakespeare unit s a huge deal to these sixth graders and they look forward to this all year with much anticipation. They've been practicing for weeks!!!! Kyleigh had parts in all four plays as she played the part of William Shakespeare. I'm amazed at her ability to memorize all that she had to in playing this particular part. She was amazing and well as all the other kids. They were so fun to watch, especially decked out in their Shakespearean costumes.


Hannah also had a big day this week. Here she is with Brie after her Second Grade Patriotic Program, part of President's Day festivities.

#3 American Idol
WE LOVE DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!



Okay, I admit it. I'm an American Idol junkie. I've been a huge fan since season two began back in 2003. Every year since has been fun to watch but we have extra reason to be excited about this year's show. Two of the top 24 contestants are LDS. But the best part is that the boy, David Archuleta, is from Murray, Utah!!! He is in our Stake, lives two blocks from us in a neighboring ward. He is the sweetest and cutest kid and HE CAN SING! I've had the privilege of hearing him sing a couple of times before, once at my brother's father in law's funeral about three years ago and just recently in our ward sacrament meeting. We love this kid and wish him the best of luck. We will be rout'in for him all the way to the finale. I can just picture the Delta Center being full with his supportive fans on finale night in May. What a dream! I'll be there for sure, with my "Go David" and my "I Love Simon Cowell" posters. (For those of you who can't stand the man, I have to love him, HE is the mastermind behind the creation of my beloved Il Divo. )

#4 Kyleigh and Emmas's birthday celebrations
Seeing Riverdance at Kingsbury Hall with Kyleigh and going to Ballet West's production of "Cinderella" with Emma at the Capitol Theatre.

#5 Valentines Day 2008

My beautiful flowers from Jaren and our simple quiet dinner sharing a burrito at Chipolte.

I love Valentines Day. And I love playing cupid. For years now, on the Eve of Valentines I heart-attack the girls faces with heart stickers as they sleep. ( Doing that without trying to wake them up can produce a serious fit of giggles.) Cupid leaves a baggy of Valentine goodies with a small gift. The girls are so excited when they wake up Valentines morning! It's also tradition to always make heart shaped french toast for breakfast. Great with Strawberry milk! My camera broke on the Disney trip, so I've been without one for a good month and a half. It's killing me! Therefore, no pic's of Valentines day this year.
Both Emma and Kyleigh got asked to be some one's Valentine this year. HELLO! And how old are we? Fortunately, at this point I don't worry to much about it because it's all innocent at this age. It cracks me up actually. Sad that there are no pics of what we got their Valentines nor what they got from them but to make up for that I'll share a little gift idea that Emma did last year for a little boy in her class, that she has been friends with since First Grade. Get a strawberry bottle of Crush and on a Valentine card write, "I SODA HAVE A CRUSH ON YOU!" Easy and simple Valentine idea.

#6 My almost (keyword) trip to Venice, Italy.... courtesy of my brother-in-law.

#7 Attending President Gordon B. Hinckley's viewing. We waited 4 1/2 hours to have the privilege of walking past his casket. I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything. I love him and will miss him dearly!

#8Daddy's promotion at work to that of Director of all Rehab Services at LDS Hospital. Way to go Jaren!

What's on our Happy List? December/January

#1 Cooper Family Picture

Ryan was here from the Middle East for the holidays, along with his new wife, Song, who flew in from Venice, where she is attending school. Since the whole family was together (which happens only about once a year now) we decided to get a family picture. Cooper's first in 17 years! The family has sorta changed quite a bit since then. This picture was taken at Wheeler Farm on Dec. 27, 2007. We were freezing our tushes off. No lie, it was so bitter cold that day! I'm surprized there aren't icicles hanging from our nostrils.

#2 Disneyland Trip 2008
The family celebrated New Year's Eve by seeing Cirque Du Soleil, "Mystere" in Las Vegas. We then headed to Cali. for our annual Disney trip.

There were 18 of us on this trip this year, with both sides

of my family taking part in the fun. (Obviously, not

all pictured) On this particular day, my poor sister was back

in the hotel sicker than a dog.

One of our favorite rides...Pirates of the Caribbean

One of the last pictures I got before my camera broke. Uug!

Luckily we realized our video camera has a photo option. Me

without a camera in Disney is like a fish out of water.

Our second day there Grandpa got approached from one of the "dream team" staff members. We were lucky enough to get reserved seating for Fantasmic and the holiday fireworks and snow. It was magical!

One of my favorite memories was seeing the castle lit up

with the holiday decorations.....

Cousin Allie and Kyleigh, with Uncle Braden and his

girlfriend, Liz, waiting in line (which we did a lot of this trip.)

We think we'll keep to our mid January time schedule,

as we've done in previous years, instead of going over the

holidays. We can say we've experienced the holiday

decorations at least once, but that was the first and last time!



Watching the Evil Queen appear in the window of Snow

White's castle every few seconds helped entertain Brie as

we waited and WAITED to ride the Peter Pan ride.

Cousin Allie's thoughts on how crowded the park

was. We believe the park reached its capacity

one of the days we were there. I wouldn't be

surprised if this particular day was THAT day.

I found this moment quite funny!

Waiting to ride Splash Mountain...

Waiting to ride Indiana Jones.....

On Thunder Mountain.....

Emma and Kyleigh on Screamer with Uncle Louis and

Grandpa.

Tomorrow Land.....

Dori and Louis

Hannah and Emma with Uncle Ryan

We found this little section of the park with hardly any people, pretty darn hard to find on this trip. I had to get on video Uncle Dave's and Jaren's thoughts on the crowded park. This pretty much sums up how we felt about this year's trip.

#3 Christmas Eve & Christmas




Our traditional Christmas Eve Seafood Feast at Grandma &

Grandpa Coopers.

We got a huge snowstorm Christmas Eve. We went ATV'in

around the neighborhood and in the church parking lot. What

a blast! It zonked Brie right out.

Emma taking Uncle Louis for a ride. I had a turn being a

passenger with her as well. She whipped and spun me

around the church parking lot like you wouldn't believe.

Knowing Emmsie, it was so surprising to me, first off,

that she even knew how to do that, and second, that she

was brave enough to do it. It was hilarious.

The girls after opening up their new pajamas and Christmas

book.....The Legend of the Candycane.

Christmas morning....

A new play kitchen and accessories for Brie....

Hannah can have her own Leapster again as Brie pretty

much took her old one and claimed it as her own this past year.

Emma's big surprise was her new guitar. She

has been wanting to learn how to play.

Why in the world we don't have a picture of Kyleigh with her new cell phone is beyond me. The thing has barely left her side since Christmas morning. I guess we were mostly video taping her so we could have her reaction recorded. It was priceless! That video, unfortunately is too huge to download.

Christmas Day at Grandma & Papa Bells with some of the cousins.

#4 Dance Recital December 2007

I've never seen Hannah dance so good nor

Emma smile so good during their numbers.

(Emmsie had a reason to be so happy as she

had a good friend from her school class

come to watch her dance. He even gave her

a special necklace with her initial on it after

the show.) So cute! Between her jazz, tap and ballet

numbers, Kyleigh danced a total of 10 times

as she had to perform in both shows.

It was a long and tiring day and a half, counting

all the rehearsal hours from the day before but

very rewarding for the girls.

#5 Sledding in December.....

Kyleigh trying out her snowboard...

Making snow angels....