Birthday Fun

July is known as the Birthday Parade around the Cooper home. Both Hyrum and Madison's birthdays are in July. Since we were in Utah during a good part of July we had some fun birthday celebrations there.




Madison's birthday was a few days after we got back from Utah. We started the day out with a balloon party in Madison's room.


Our dear friends came over later that morning and brought a cake over to share in our celebration.


I took Madison out to the store to pick out what she wanted for her Birthday dessert since we had cake with her friends earlier that day. She picked out Jr. Fat Boys and her own colorful candles. She was so sweet and was worried about Hyrum not being able to blow out his own candles when he had his birthday (since he was stuck with the swine flu that day). So we sang to both of the kids and had a grand old time!

Hyrum was so excited about his candles that he blew them all out before we started singing! I guess he wanted some practice! :)

Madison enthusiastically singing "Happy Birthday"- with the Hoorahs and all!
(We have a tradition in our family to sing the Danish version of Happy Birthday as well.)


Hy singing his little heart out!

Madison so happy that it is her birthday!


The kids scored big time for their birthdays! Madison got a new Princess bike and Hyrum got a tee-ball set. The kids also got many many toys from grandparents. There are too many to list. But I think their favorite that they're playing with at the moment is the train tracks and all the trains!

Happy Birthday Madison and Hyrum!!

Utah Trip

FYI: We did not spend the whole trip in our pajamas. The only time I thought of taking pictures was either in the morning or night. Hence, that is why every single picture I have of our trip my kids are in their pajamas. Haha.

With that said, we were in Utah for the past two weeks having a lot of fun with our family. I was too busy cherishing the moments we had with our family to take pictures. Fortunately, other family members did and I will be receiving those pictures shortly.





My nephew Carter LOVES sprinklers and my kids loved to run in them. They got Carter to follow the crowd and do it with them. YAY!
Grandma was so fun to have all the grandkids on her lap to watch "Elmo" on the computer.
I think Grandma enjoyed it too! :)



We had a lot of popscicle parties. Due to the fact that half of the crew got sick with the swine flu. Did I mention, that was the only bad part of the trip. But we are lucky that the WHOLE family didn't catch it. Only cousin Carter, Hyrum, Hilary, and I got it... wham baam!


Papa put on a fun firework show for us all on the 24th of July- Pioneer Day. Hyrum liked the fact that there was a ladder to mess around with.

Mischievous boy! The kids all loved the firework show!Madison, Hilary, and Devon all waiting for the show to begin!

Carter and Hyrum are 2.5 months apart and had so much fun playing with each other. Hyrum and Madison LOVE Carter. They are all best friends! We had a blast!!


There are so many more events that took place during our visit... so I'll end this post with. TO BE CONTINUED...

4th of July

We had a fun filled family day on the 4th of July. We started our day off by having a nice lazy morning as we played around the house.And no, it is not cold outside, it is the complete opposite. But Hyrum loves to wear this beanie around the house.

We decided to go to the local parade. Madison was very happy about this news, as you can see!

We then came home and washed our car as a family. Our family loves to do this because it cools us off while we get something accomplished at the same time. It was a lot of fun!

Madison and Hyrum were good workers too!

We then took a really nice long nap. After a shopping trip we came home and watched Pinnochio. It is one of the kids favorite movies these days. Daddy hadn't seen that movie since he was a child, so we all sat down to watch it together.

The kids were lucky enough to eat their dinner in front of the movie that evening. So fun! You gotta love that ketchup face, Hyrum can not get enough of that ketchup! :)

We had our friends over to help us eat the homemade ice cream that Hyrum and Daddy made for us. After we headed out to see the fireworks. I forgot my camera so I took some pictures on Cory's work camera. I am still waiting for those pictures. I will post those once I get them.

When we got home we enjoyed our sparklers and our own little firework show.

The kids had a lot of fun...

And so did Daddy! He was entertaining us by singing and dancing with the sparklers. At one point he was dancing with sparklers in his shoes. It was so entertaining, I didn't get a picture of that one. We had a great day together as a family, making memories, and being grateful for the freedoms we have by living in the USA.

Current Events

I know this is an old picture (taken in the beginning of the year) but this is a lot of what we have been up to these days. Resting, resting, and more resting!
Our family has been living in a sick house this past week. We have been dealing with sore throats, runny noses, coughs, and pink eye. Sounds like fun huh? Fortunately I am the only one that has not gotten sick AS bad (knock on wood) but am dealing with headaches and lack of sleep. I am grateful for the strength I receive from being a mother and trying to take care of my cute little family. I know we will be up and running soon!

Let's Go To The Show...

Madison LOVES the movie Annie. She (and Hyrum) belt out "Tomorrow" all around the house. She always pretends that she is hiding from Miss Hanigan in the laundry baskets and being saved by Pun-Jab. Daddy knows how much she loves this movie and took the opportunity to surprise us with tickets to the Musical in Tampa.

Needless to say, Madison was very excited. She couldn't control herself when we got out of the car!Here is Madison waiting ever so patiently.

The theatre was in a beautiful part of Tampa. The water was right there, and they had some water fountains that the kids thought were amazing!

Hyrum getting geared up for the show. (It was a late one!)

Daddy and the kids. They were counting down the minutes!

Mommy and the kids.

Madison was thrilled about Annie the whole show. At first she was worried about all the little differences from the movie and the show. But she LOVED it. Hyrum got restless and had to go out the last 20 minutes of the show, but Daddy was a good sport and went out with him. By the end of the show when the audience was clapping, the orchestra was playing "Tomorrow" and Madi belted it! I just let her sing her little heart out because it was so loud in there anyways. It was SO cute. She was in heaven. We had such a fun night!

Apollo Beach

We woke up with beautiful weather on Saturday morning and decided to head to the beach!

I love my boys!


This is Madison's snowman she drew in the sand. She is an artist always at work!

Here is her happy face! :)
This is the dead sting ray we found on shore.

Hyrum was a little fish!

Madison deep in thought...

Madison and Daddy checking out the sea shells.

Madi making sandcastles...

We didn't want to leave, we all had such a good time!

A Hunting We Will Go...

The last time my parents came to visit they brought butterfly nets for the kids. They have been well used- but not necessarily for catching butterflies. Butterflies have been to tricky for the kids to catch. Madison and Hyrum go outside every day in search for anything they can catch in their nets!

Last Friday they caught a frog. Who nearly caught us. It jumped right onto us from the porch. As soon as Madi realized what it was she grabbed her net and caught it. She then surrounded it with her bike, the wagon, and everything else she could so that the "froggie" wouldn't get away. We did let the frog go back home that night after we showed Daddy our discovery.

Madison caught this lizard all on her own... with a cup. Smart girl.

Then one day we found a caterpillar. It looks like a nasty one. I wasn't quite sure of it so I caught it for them. I didn't want them touching it.
We named him Spike...
Hyrum and Madison make a great team. Hyrum spots the lizards (He has a good eye for them- he takes after his Uncle Devon.) And Madison catches them.
Very happy with her find.

Oh the joys of hunting critters!
(You gotta love her outfit too- put together all by herself.)