What's On Our Happy List?

UNCLE RYAN

My girls love their Uncle Ryan! He is overseas most of the time so we generally only see him once or twice a year. Recently he was able to come and visit for 5 whole weeks. The girls were in heaven. He's great at spending time with them... doing fun things together and making them laugh. It's like one big party when he is here.

Before he left we gave him snapshots of some of the different activities that we did together in a frame to always remind him of his time spent here. Of course we had to add a happy list too....

Miniature golfing x3* The Zoo* Star Trek* Lagoon* Gelato Run* Children’s Museum*Carbonara* Mint Brownies* Angels and Demons* Sushi* Night at the Museum II* Scofield* UP* Breaking the Sabbath for Nair* 2:00 AM alarm wake up call* helping with our River Trip buckets and luggage*What A Girl Wants* I’m not EVEN cute yet!*CD of Euro hits* passport pictures* Nielson’s Frozen Custard* Staring at the stroller* Coconut bra* “I know toothpicks are not on the forefront of your mind right now but”…* Cabela’s* downloading music videos to our iPods* flank steak* “that’s grape!” *cleaning the MAV* buying a map of the world* earrings, belly dancing skirt and lamps from the country Jordan* offering to run to the store for skittles*laughing over the IL DIVO sign* Bourne Movies* watching Bubba dance* Family Reunion in Levan*

This song "The Boy Does Nothing" will always remind me of this latest visit with Uncle Ryan. Thanks for the memories Ry!

What's On My Happy List?

"A Father Indeed," What a touching video this is! It portrays the life of a humble, "ordinary" father who has loved and served his family in extraordinary ways.

Happy Father's Day to my dear dad, father in law and especially to my better half who is a committed husband and father who consistently demonstrates his love and devotion to me and the girls.

What's On My Happy List?

The BOYS came to town!

There are some absolute neccessities in my life. MY FAMILY, MY FAITH, FOOD, FRIENDS and listening to IL DIVO MUSIC. I'm afraid I couldn't exist happily without my top five. Since IL DIVO's music has such a huge impact in my life you can imagine how much attending their concert here in Salt Lake meant to me. It was a dream come true and one of THE most memorable nights of my life. Half the fun was realizing that I wasn't the only IL DIVO fan in Utah as I was surrounded by thousands of their adoring fans. In fact SALT LAKE CITY LOVES IL DIVO!!!! The crowd was amazing...and reacted wwaayyyy beyond my expectations. They gave the boys no less than seven standing ovations or maybe that was just me? LOL but needless to say I was thrilled to death and am certain I stood more than 7 times. The songs that garnered the most applause were...Somewhere...Bridge Over Troubled Water...Senza Catene..Notte di Luce...PQTME...Adagio...and My Way... The crowd went absolutely NUTSO over Adagio. That received the longest Standing O and I think the boys were even a little taken back by the crowd's response. After the last song, My Way, the crowd went wild again. Standing, screaming, cheers, stomping of the feet on the metal stands which produced a rumbling roar ...it was crazy! All done in an effort to get the boys to come back out for an encore. Because of my insider knowledge from being a forum diva I knew they were coming back out to sing two more songs but I kept yelling my little heart out anyway. The crowd was still standing when Sebastien came out for Amazing Grace (walking right past us mind you) and stayed standing until the end. You could just feel the love pouring from the fans...it truly was electrifying.


Some of other highlights for me...

* Sharing 7th row seats with my sister in the orchestra pit...beyond AMAZING. Worth every single darn penny that we spent for those tickets.

* Waving the little French, USA, Spain, and Swiss flags that I brought with me. Got me one of those infamous winky blinks from Urs and a smile and nod from Carlos.

* A little old lady was pulled close up to the stage by her middle aged son so that she could wave (very timidly) to Carlos. Carlos acknowledged her and the crowd cheered. So endearing!

*My outfit that I was wearing. It was very carefully thought out as it HAD to be IL DIVO'ish. (what ever that is lol) but I knew when I put the pieces together that it was "IT".

*Sebastien almost tripped coming down the steps the very first time. LOL

*Watching David sing Adagio. Unbelievable! He sang it with his whole heart and soul and you could feel his emotion. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Too bad that David is cut out of most of this video..but at least you get an idea

*There were some steps leading down into the orchestra pit where we were sitting. Carlos had his foot over the edge and acted as if he was going to walk down the steps to come join us. What a tease. We hooted!!

*Watching a lady sitting two rows ahead of us shaking her head in awe. And I know I did the same thing to my sister several times. There are moments in some of these songs that there are just no words to describe them. It makes you just want to burst into tears. Those moments are Heavenly!

*After Sebastien sang "SHE" you could tell he let out this big breath at the end as if he had given that song his all. What a sweetie!

*The new people I got to meet. Everyone was just so giddy and happy to be there. It was fabulous meeting people that love these guys as much as I do.

*The sign I brought and held up after Senze Catene...It said YOU HAVE STOLEN MY HEART SSSHHHH! DON'T TELL MY HUSBAND. ( Believe it or not Jaren even helped me come up with that. It was great fun trying to come up with a catchy slogan together. What a guy!) I didn't know if any of the guys were able to see it to read it but Lisa (from the forum) told me afterwards that Carlos saw it and was laughing. What a kick!

* The little girl up on stage by Sebastien at the end. AWWW!

*Carlos had some really good dance moves during LVSA. He had some ladies up dancing. One in particular was a riot to watch.

*Sebastien being literally an arm's length away when he came down the aisle singing Amazing Grace. OH MY!

*From our seats you had a perfect view of any of the guys that came down the run way and stopped just to the right of us. The time Urs did it, we could see into his eyes...we were that close. Whoa!

*The staging and seeing all the cool imagery of the backdrops. Awesome!

*A group of fans were waving a brazilian flag up in the rafters. Hoping they were from Brazil and not thinking one of the boys was from there. oops! That made me laugh.

*David's and Carlos' body language when they sing. They just put their whole selves into it!!! I LOVE that. I think I almost liked watching them sing more than I did Sebastien and Urs. Kinda strange for me since I've always been a Siren with Uber tendancies.

*David and Urs having to wait for the crowd to quiet down before they could announce the next song.

*Waiting outside at one of the ramps after the concert to see if we could catch a glimpse of the guys leaving in their escort. We barely missed Sebestain. We heard he rolled down his window and said goodnight ladies. *THUD*

*That moment in ETILAY when Seb sings the part..to my heart...different then what's on the CD. That melted MY heart. LOVE LOVE that song.

* Apparently my camera is too professional and would have been confiscated by security had they seen me taking pictures with it. Not wanting to cause a scene during the concert I felt it was best not to sneak it in. (although the guy was going to let me) Luckily we became fast friends with the couple behind us. The gentlemen was taking tons of photos and video and knowing of my plight (of no camera) he told me he would put a DVD together for me and my sister. Not only has he done that but he's taken the time to send seperate photo and video links to me. The generosity of strangers is amazing to me.

* There was a mob of people at the end during the last two numbers trying to get handshakes, autographs. Nothing like in Kelowna where they had time to shake eachother's hands. I think I even heard Seb mumble sorry because it was hard to get to everybody. I'll never forget a gentlemen who was one of the last ones to shake his hand, look up straight at him and say very boldly, "Thank You Sebestian." It was nice to see men there appreciating IL DIVO too....and even knowing their names.

* I got to shake Urs', David's hand and half shake Sebastiens (by that time he had roses in his hand.) Got an autograph from David. He practically knelt down to do it. So kind. WHHHAAAA!

This was a night never to forget. I can't wait to go to Vegas for their concert next month but I doubt it will top this experience.

What's On My Happy List?

T.P.
We woke up this morning to a beautiful white toilet paper mess! Actually my father in law was awakened in the wee hours, like 2:30 am by the door bell ringing....obviously the culprits signaling that their deed was done. Poor Grandpa, startled from a sound sleep, thought some drugged up Mexicans were on the porch ready to bang the door down and invade the house. He was only dressed in his G's, and not wanting to expose the outside world to that sight, he was in a pickle not quite sure what his plan of attack should be. lol Did he need to get the shot gun? OH MY GOODNESS! I DIED LAUGHING picturing all that. Hysterical.
In the family effort of cleaning up we counted 52 freak'in rolls of toilet paper!!! Toilet paper was seriously everywhere...and we just laughed. We all took one look at it and knew who was behind all this. CALUM! No one else could have pulled off a t.p. job quite like it. After the shenanigans that we played on the Young Men on the River Trip we knew we would still feel some repercussions from that once we got home....so the sight before us this morning was not a total surprize. Eventhough, we felt THEY got sufficient pay back by THROWING US IN THE RIVER! Unfortunately, Calum took the brunt of our trick when he got a chemical burn from the Nair that we put in the guy's sunscreen. OOPS! So post trip the girls gave him a huge apology along with delivering cookies, no less than 12 different gourmet kind, but obviously he still has it in for us. He better watch out though! You don't mess with the Cooper girls when it comes to stuff like this. We are already scheming....

What's On My Happy List?

Our Ward's Youth Conference
Kyleigh and I just returned last night from our Ward Youth Conference. We spent three days down in Moab running the Colorado River. I can't even begin to explain how much fun we had. What an absolute blast! We have so many memories and laughs from our time together as a ward that my Happy List from the trip is five pages long! I'll refrain from posting that since no one outside the 26 of us would find the humor in it like we do. Good times I tell ya. I love the Youth in our ward. They are a great group of Young Women and Young Men who press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.

The start of our river adventure...in our nice clean ward t-shirts.

YW Leaders.... Brookie, me and Eilene
The YM Leaders, Bishop and Paul (the man that sent me overboard)

Riding on the Princess Boat with Derek (a.k.a. Noah)....Kyleigh in the duckie with Julia by our ward's Barbie Princess of the Sea Boat...Lunch on the beach...

The moment of truth for the YM. What did you do to the sunscreen?

There's nothing like tent dwell'in...no boys allowed! (except for George Fletcher) BUT they came in anyway...

or bug watching....
Check out the spectacular red rock backdrop. The scenery the entire trip was stunning!
Our last night together around the campfire....

We stayed up way late and watched the moon come up....

Back where we started...this time pictured, a little dirtier & a little smellier, at the end of our adventure...We are now Official River Rats!!!!

What's On My Happy List?

Hannah's Birthday-

My Hannah turned 9 this weekend and to celebrate we had an "Island Princess" theme with a family luau out on the backyard deck. Good times!

Hannah with one of her favorite gifts...Chico the Orangutang

The fruit sorbets were delicious...the centerpiece was the cake...yes, there's a cake in there!

Hannah with her presents....

Checking out the Island Princess Karaoke Barbie

Island Princess movie

Hannah loves Webkinz..she got three...all Island/jungle inspired...parrot, monkey and a fish...

One of the very few things that Hannah requested was 3-D chalk to write on the sidewalk. I love how the simplest things can make kids so happy.

Emma in her pineapple dress cutting the spectacular "tiki" chocolate cake that she made for Hannah..

This was taken before the girls went miniature golfing with Uncle Ryan. Keeping with the theme of things I had wanted to do a water activity, like the slip and slide but the weather was not cooperating enough for that. After returning from golfing, we took her to Rumbi's Island Grill for dinner. It was a fun day! We love you Hannah! You are my sunshine...

What's On My Happy List?

The Last Day of School! Hallelujah!
Kyleigh and her friends walked over to Roxberry after school and then decided to walk home. That's a first! It's a pretty long walk home so they always ride the bus. Well, a rainstorm happened to hit (of course) and the kids had to run from tree to tree and even to unknown people's carports trying to stay dry. I can just picture it. hilarious. I got a call on my cell to come rescue them. I was rushing back from the store and found them under a tree still blocks away from home. They were drenched with their yearbooks tucked under their shirts. I doubt they'll ever forget this rainy last day of 7th grade. They were having a blast! Kyleigh weathered her first year of Junior High remarkably well. She was a 4.0 student all year. Whoot! I even received phone calls from two of her teachers this year saying what a great student she was and what a positive influence she was in class. I'm a proud mama!

Emma received an award for being in the top 10% nationally in the Iowa testing in the categories for Reading, Language, Science and Total Composite. She also received an award for High Honors in Academics and Citizenship in her 5th grade class. You Rock Emmsie!!!
I'm extremely proud of Hannah for her progress with her reading. Despite her Dyslexia she still gets good grades. She got an award for participating in the Fast Forward Reading Program and received a citizenship award in her 3rd grade class. Her teacher said Hannah is very thoughtful and patient and is one of the kindest girls she's ever taught. That's my Nana Bella!

What's On My Happy List?

Kyleigh got her braces off!
Say hello to a Carmel apple. Whoo hoo. She's been waiting for this day for almost two years, so you can imagine how excited she was. Here are before and after pics.

Here she is with our Orthodontist. By the time all four of our girls see him we will have forked out a small fortune. Good thing he's the best! Kyleigh still needs to get gingival sculpting done and get her retainer but boy to see the state of her mouth two years ago compared to now. Amazing.

More cake mak'in...One of our Young Women is having a birthday this week so Emma and I got the opportunity to decorate another cake. Of course cake bak'in means more cake stand mak'in. whoo hoo. The birthday girl is obsessed with Pokemon, video games and loves skittles. So I knew just what to put on her cake. I know nothing about Pokemon but I tried to make it as Pokemon'ish as I could. I even stuck a Pokemon trading card under the side of the cake for good measure. I hope she likes it as much as we had fun making it.