Snow Time

Marshall gets to have to opportunity to play with libby in the Snow.  Its a bigger Job than I can handle so I gladly let them have that fun together.  She watched him shovel the snow and then put on her snow clothes and went out to have fun with her daddy.  She talks about that snowman still and its been about a week. 

I think she will love to go on a sled behind the 4-wheeler, with dad of course.  I am glad the snow finally showed up for Christmas.

Family Pictures

We took family pictures with the Hooper's.  The last time we had pictures was 2 months after we were married so it has been a while and there have been 4 new additions to the family.  So here is a peek at some of the pictures of our family.

this is our favorite picture!

Libby is a Silly Goose

We like to tell Libby that she is a silly goose.  Here are a few silly goose moments this week.

After being put to bed because I had bunco at my house.  She sat calling my name "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom" for 20 min after everyone left she decided on a new tactic.  "Mom, I have to talk to you!" So cute!

While dancing to no music but her own made up kind, and spinning in circles she would say
" I... (spin in a circle)... just want to  spin around (spin in a circle)... I... (spin in a circle)... am a princess...(spin in a circle)."  so funny to watch I wish I could have had my camera out to record it.


She comes running into the living room from her room and says
 " Mom wheres MY ipod?"
I said "isn't it mommy's ipod"
She looks at me pauses and says "Ohhh Yeah" and runs off

she really is getting very clever she loves to carry around her Dora Backpack and her suitcase.  she is my very big helper. 

Other great news for the week! 

I wish I had a picture of Marshall to show you how excited he was to be finished with school last night but...I am really great about taking pictures...oh well.  I am so Proud of him.  He has been working hard to finish his Bachelors degree in Psychology.  He has been going to school non-stop, no breaks for 2 years.  He is really looking forward to the Christmas break.  For the first time in a long time he will be taking work off, has no school to prep for and gets to play with Libby and me. 

He does have a plan to start his Masters Program in March.  We (me and Libby) are grateful for his hard work and determination to succeed in his career goals.

Congratulations Marshall!!!

Christmas Trees

First off Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Second, Sorry for the blurry pictures. Libby does not know that cameras are horrible on phones, and they don't work with moving children.



Well Christmas trees seems to be my theme of the day.



We put up our Christmas tree on the Saturday after thanksgiving. Marshall was coming up on finals and we knew that if we wanted it done before the 15th we had to do it over the break. We had hoped that Libby would love to participate in the setting up of the tree. I was wrong she wanted to watch...Marshall put up the big tree, Marshall put up the little tree, the movie Elf (our tree decorating tradition), and me putting up the household decorations.





The Little tree is downstairs in the main living room. It has all the ornaments that Marshall made growing up. It also has all the ornament's that Libby has made at the Hooper's house.

Libby and Brittany with the small tree

Marshall and Libby in the Jazz room with the Big tree



Family and the Christmas tree



Christmas Tree at Grandpa Stonehocker's House

We tried to get Libby to participate at our house and she did help a bit. But this week Marshall was pulling some long days at work and for school so Monday night we went to my parents. I get lonely some days for good conversations. When we got there we found out that they were putting up the Christmas tree. Lots of fun for Libby She wanted to help. She started out by singing "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells," and ran on a large circle for about 15 min. I don't know where she got the energy but she only knew the 2 words and so that's what she sang.

Libby found grandmas Christmas stash

sorry for the blurriness.
She asked grandpa for help it was cute.

She had 1 ornament all night a handmade one
of Haley's from when she was five. She placed and replaced that item
so many times it was funny. She would ask grandpa to "help papa" and
they would put it on the tree and 2 min later she would move it and ask for help.

Thanks to my family I got to get pictures of Libby putting up the tree.

I am glad that we got to help.

It this time of year I thought a good thing to leave you all with is a Christmas thought.

there are lots of stories at Christmas time of people giving service. Maybe this year we might create our own story about how our family gave service. Christ said in Matt 25:40 " in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.". Lets Remember that this season is in remembrance of the gift given to us... the Christ... Let us give back to him.

Merry Christmas

Christmas projects

This week I have devoted my time to not cleaning my house. I know that is sounds bad, but let me explain. I had all my Christmas shopping for the Hooper's done before thanksgiving, I had an Idea of what I was going to do for Libby, Marshall I still have no clue, and my parents are a mystery especially when their list is only like 6 items and there are 7 people buying for them. So instead of just thinking about what to get them I decided I didn't want to wait till the week of Christmas to finish Libby's bedspread I am glad I did. It took me an hour to put the frame up and attach the fabric then I have watched: the 6 hour pride and prejudice (my favorite), shrek, kung fu panda, backyardagains robots on a rampage, 6 1 hour recorded TV shows,and many 30 min nick jr shows in the morning. I only have 12 butterflies to stitch into the quilt. my pointer finger on my right hand hurts my back aches and I see butterflies everywhere. Every time she sees it she says they are beautiful and she loves butterflies. Those comments make it all worth it.

Libby the past few weeks had become the little talker. Marshall says that every Wednesday he comes home and realizes that she talks in more sentences than before. Yesterday while watching the backyardagains robot rampage one character does his evil laugh and she copied it and I about fell off the chair laughing. She is so polite saying thank you to everyone (I am glad that we have instilled good manners... if only I was part of the everyone group). she can repeat the alphabet when she says it with Marshall only not me. She wants to dance to every song that comes on and I wish that I had the energy to do it with her. She also has fun playing in her room. One morning I went to go get her out of bed when I opened the door this is what I saw

She smiled and said she wanted me to leave she was playing so I got my camera and took this picture. She really is getting to be very creative.

If you want to see Christmas pictures we have check out the adoption blog by clicking on the picture of our pass along card at the top of the page. We really would love to have the button on as many blogs as we can. this helps get our name and info out there and will help in my feeling productive and active in the slow moving process. Thanks to everyone for all your support. We Love you all.

Thanks Giving

We are always glad when thanksgiving comes around. The Food , the Family time, Being off work, Black Friday shopping. Our family has had a lot to be thankful for this year. Let me name Just a few. We have been blessed by Marshall's job and being able to provide for our family so that I don't have to work anymore. Libby has been healthy, Marshall will be finishing his bachelor's degree in 2 weeks. We have all our family around us. We are thankful for all the support and the kind words of confidence they have all given us. We are grateful that we are able to get started on the adoption process.

Projects

Play-do … so I am still pretty hesitant to pull out the play-do. It is a big undertaking but I tried. Here is Libby having a blast playing with the scissor that comes with the play-do.

Well after my canning experience last week I took on Fried chicken…its easy… but our house smelled like yams and fried chicken for several days, sorry Marshall but boy was it a great dinner thanks to Marshall's mom we have a great drenching mixture and I can make a chicken breast for all three of us go for 2 meals or more.

New bed. Well Libby will be getting a new bed at Christmas thanks to Bristy for the info. Deciding on a new bedspread was harder than I thought. I figured she would want a Dora set. NO Dora, No Princess, No woody, buzz. She did not want anything. So off to the fabric store we went to find some material to make one. At the store Again NO to everything. While I was walking down one of the isle she turns and says “mom look butterflies. I want butterflies” so I took it and ran. I have it all put together and waiting for the backing and to be quilted with butterflies in the blocks(next weeks project) but every time she sees it she says “look mom butterflies their beautiful” Yeah her big Christmas present is almost done and I am glad. Speaking of Christmas I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. All I have left is Marshall and Libby. The entire extended family is done. And I was under budget; I found the stuff I wanted on sale yeah!!!

Try, and if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again!

Libby was one of our "if at first you don't succeed try, try, again". She has been our little blessing. Some days I don't know if I always, have fun, but she says little things like "mom I love you!" and " Mom Your Beautiful" then your heart melts, except at bedtime when you know she just wants to play a bit longer.

Marshall is an avid Football player and watcher so here it to the second place team. They worked hard, played hard and had fun doing it I hope. Here is this years shirt.

Awwww now to my "if at first you don't succeed" . Well..... UMMM......You see......

My yams .......huuuuuhhhh......... So they exploded. The explosion was my fault. I did not put enough water in the bottom of the pressure cooker. When I realized that the water was gone I only had 30 min left to cook them. I opened up the cooker and thought "hum if i add more water I should still be able to finish this". So to my not thinking I added room temp water to the pot. It touched the jar and !!!BANG!!! glass everywhere and hours of hard work just at a stand still. Sooooooo needless to say, first time canning, ask for help don't just try. Next time I am going to get help. So if anyone knows what I can do to make the last 3 cans of yummy yams still usable, I could really use some advice.

2 years old! Wow!!!

Well most people on their kids birthday spotlight them so... I'm a bit late like almost 2 months. so here is just a bit about our Libby Rose.

She still is our petite little girl she is 23 lbs with her clothes on
She loves Hot Dogs (she would eat them for every meal if I would let her.)
She loves Dora
She has baby that goes with us into every store. yes it is naked I cant keep clothes on her babies. To the women who was criticizing me at the store... at least it is a girl baby and not a boy(Marshall's great come back).
She loves to sing "ashes ashes we all fall down"
She loves to hop around the house
She loves to feed daddy her fake donut on a plate every chance she gets
She loves Olivia, backyardagains, Mrs spiders sunny patch friends, and Dora, sometimes even go Diego go.
She loves going to nursery
She loves puzzles
She loves smoothies
She loves baskets(or things that hold other things)
She Loves her grandpa (both are her favorite)

So there is a bit about our little silly goose.

Smoothies

Marshall and Libby have a few special things that they do together. Things that mom either isn't allowed or does not want to participate in. Smoothie making is one of those special things. We came up with a way to get Libby to eat something other than peaches and apple sauce. The "Ninja" provided that. Libby loves to help and has to help when she sees the "Ninja". SO thanks for the gift mom it has been one of the best and most used.

Day of Creativity

This day was our adventuresome day. I decided no TV all day. Which really is a great thing. But with a toddler I decided today that some TV is not bad. Having a routine is Great. So we have been trying out some new activities. So here was our Wednesday:

-Got up and ate breakfast

-got dressed and ready to go grocery shopping

-Went shopping (uuuggg I know its my favorite kind of shopping but only when there is money galore in your purse to pay for all the wonderful items. Budgeting can be a bummer sometimes)

-played on the swings and slide at the new park in town. (it was a blast I really like it.)

-Decided that we should do the park first and shopping second next time(bribe with the free cookies from the bakery)

-home for lunch.

-Made Homemade Pizzas! (which Libby refused to eat a bite. poor Brittany had to eat both pizzas)

-*****NAP TIME YEAH*****

-Did my chores

-Libby woke up and we made Fruit loop and pasta necklaces (thanks for the idea Ash)

-went for a walk (to those who don't know this really is a big thing for me )

-went to visit and have dinner with grandma Stonehocker(my parents had leftover stew yummy, Libby did not eat it, to bad.)

-off to watch my fantastic hubby play flag football(I don't know if he won or not?? they had some touchdowns but so did the other team...oh well, not my job to keep score luckily I am just the athletic supporter. HEHEHE )

-then home for bed at 8.



Jut a little FYI... this is not a typical day at the Hooper household. We usually read books listen to music, color pictures and sit on the couch all day. Don't think I will be this creative and busy again for a long while.

So here are a few of the pictures I took of our adventuresome day.

Necklace Making

she did the majority by herself.

She also ate a ton of fruit loops.

she tried to share with me. I am not a big fruit Loop fan.

She cheese it all the time

All Done with the necklace.

Already to devouring the yummy treat.

Pizza Pie

I showed her how to make the crust a

circle and she did her own crust.

She scooped her own sauce onto the crust

She had fun putting cheese on both pizzas.

All Finished and boy it tasted good. I am sad she did not like it

I think it was too hot and then she just was not in the mood for

pizza after all. Marshall says pizza could be eaten once a week

you could still be in the mood for pizza.

HEE HAWS

My grandma Cindy Lou takes all of her grandchildren every fall to Hee Haws. This was our first year because Libby has been too little and susceptible to every bug. So we got to go as a family and have a fun date. Thanks Grandma.

Marshall and Libby Shooting the Corn Cannon.

any kind of animal is fun to look at

Libby loves to look at horses but this is as close as she will get to riding one

Don't worry Marshall had fun too.

Libby went with Brisa on the animal train ride she loved it

Peter Pan's " following the leader" comes to mind on this shot

she wanted to follow the big boys where ever they went it was cute.