Merry Late Christmas!

Life has been crazy the past few weeks. Everything seems to be quieting down. Ben went back to work today. I am hoping that they will send them home due to the snow fall last night. As the sun is shinning my hopes are fading. He will probably go out and be home tomorrow. The good thing is that he only today and a back up day on Saturday. Which the very rarely call the backups out. So he will have another 6 days off.

Christmas was great. The kids had so much fun. Ben got sick with the flu on Christmas Eve which left me to build the kids toys. Luckily I had built Syd's doll house a few days before and only had Matt's train table and Scottie's Air Hockey Table left. Not a small chore. I was up until well after 1 am. I awoke at 4am because I heard little footsteps going down the stairs. Now I am all for getting up as early as you can, but not with a sick Ben and an exhausted me. I shouted "Get back into bed!" Around the corner came a tiny little Hi Mommy I think Santa came already. Sydney was the little footsteps. I told her that it was way to early to get up and if Santa hadn't come and she wasn't in bed he might pass our house. She agreed and went back to bed only to return every 15 minutes until I agreed to let her wake the boys at 6:45. It was cute because Santa did not leave the kids gifts near the tree. He was smart and put them in the toy room, next to the tree room. Poor Scottie ran down to the tree and with a disappointed look chocking back tears said "I guess Santa skipped us this year." My heart broke but at the same time I wanted to laugh. Sydney quickly spotted the gifts and yelled for the others. His sadness was quickly changed to screams of excitement. The best complement came from Ben who after

all was unwrapped looked at me and said Well done! Anyone who knows us knows that I Love love love having carnival Christmases. Ben not so much and every year I go way over board and Ben gets really upset. This year I put a lot of thought into what they got and down sized by about half. And they were even more happy then past Christmases when they each had 20 + gifts each from Santa. Yeah I did good this year. Everyone was happy! Can I tell you that I am thinking about next Christmas. My mom and dad will be here to celebrate with us!

Sorry for the over load of pics. We had a good day relaxing and enjoying each others company!

Other stuff... We have had so much snow. I don't care if I ever see snow again! This month we have gotten 28 inches the all time record for the amount of snowfall in one month is 31. Yeah we got a few inches last night and more is on its way tonight. I promised mom that I would stop being a chicken and get out there and take some pictures. I seriously do not go outside. I park in the garage and go in and out of the house from the garage. Snow is not fun to me. Its very scary. It makes it hard to drive and I just don't like it. I seriously do not know where we are going to keep shoveling the snow to. The mound just beside our driveway is about 5 foot tall.. And it only the beginning of winter! Hope you all have a very Happy New Year! Take Care and God bless in 2009!

Sick Kids

It has been a rough two days. Yesterday Sydney and Xander woke up with colds. Syd ended up staying home from school which broke her heart. She actually got herself dressed and ready for school and wanted me to take her at 1:30. UUGGHH sorry Syd you cannot go. By the end of the day Matthew started getting the cold. The to top it off Scottie started coming down with the flu. Of all places at the commissary. It was a rough night with Xander. Sydney woke up chipper and ready to get back to school. Scottie stayed home. We had to make a trip to the DMV to try once again to get the plates for my van since the temp expired. While there Matthew started to fall asleep in a chair. Now anyone who knows my kid knows that's not Matthew like. As this older gentleman is complementing the kids I look at Matt and see a HUGE yellow blob leaking out his eye. Just great. SO we know now what Veronica has planned tomorrow. Get Matt to the DR. By tonight I am pretty sure he has pink eye besides the cold. My poor Matt-Matt. TO top of our wonderful day Ben came home telling me that they want him to go and observe how things work in the missile silos tomorrow. SO now he will leave in the morning and come back sometime Thanksgiving afternoon. Just what I wanted. I would love to try to get the turkey and all the fixings ready while taking care of 3 sick kids. At least he will know what to expect next Saturday.
Matthew is obsessed with us getting him a cat. On the way to DMV this morning Xander is screaming. Not crying just a happy scream. This has Matt hot. He says "Xander you are FIRED!!! Stop screaming!" I said "Matthew he is a baby and that's what babies do." His reply to me was "Well I don't want a baby anymore, I would rather have a cat." He sat and pouted teh rest of the ride there. I just about died laughing! I am working on Ben, but I doubt the end result will be a cat. Sorry Matthew. Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy time with your loved ones....

The Christmas Rush

Well here we are again with Christmas fast approaching. As Sydney would say "Momma Christmas is not around the block, It's right down the street." Every year I get this anxiety and buy buy buy, Then we end up with way to many gifts for the kids. Ben gets mad, I get frustrated and that's Christmas. But the kids love the big WOW Christmas morning. This year I am really trying hard to focus on what they really want and need and bring the true meaning of Christmas back into our home. Yesterday we went to the mall. Ben took the kids around and I finished up Christmas shopping at Target. I felt so relieved that's its done. But then I get home and find myself searching the Internet for the deals. Why why why am I so weak at Christmas. I know the kids need nothing, Good Lord we have taken 6 truck loads of stuff to be donated and I still have boxes of toys and a full toy room. Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I think I set myself up for failure. Do you know how many toys they got last year that were NEVER played with? It was ridliciuos. I don't really know why I am writing this, but it feels good and helps me to stay FOCUSED! I do not want any of this years toys ending up at the Airmans Attic. Thats my goal. But teh Amazon deals should start next week. Incase you don't remember from last year. They discount tons of toys. Liek $35 My Little Pony toys down to $8 and free shipping when you spend $25. SO incase I don't post much next week, It's because I am trying to stay away from the computer. I would get so much done around here if I didn't have the internet.

The kids are doing well. Ben and I have decided that in Jan we are going to put the kids in different activities. Scottie, Sydney and Matt will join Karate, Sydney Ballet too, Scottie wants guitar lessons, and I think I will find a MOPS play group for Matt and Xander. With Bens weird hours I am going to try to keep the kids as busy as possible. I don't think the kids are going to do well once Ben starts his 40 hour alerts. I think I might not do well. I guess we will have to make the most out of Bens days off.

Today not to much is going on. Ben took the 3 oldest to church, I stayed behind with Xander. He was up a lot last night and very cranky this morning. Sydney is going to her friends Birthday Party after CCD. She is so excited. I am so excited for her. They have made lots of friends at school, but haven't really seen anyone in the neighborhood. (Everyone hides indoors in teh winter)The school they go to is on the other side of the base. We had originally accepted a house over there and we then given the bigger house that we are in now. I had already put the kids in school at Dakota Elementary. Now the house is in North Star zone. They didn't want to change schools again, I don't blame them. Its not that big of a deal, the school is only 1.3 miles away. The only problem I see is that they don't know the kids on this side of the base. Next year they will go to school at North Star. It will be so nice that the bus will pick them up at my doorstep. I always feel bad dropping them off when its like 8 degrees with a wind chill of negative something. Okay I have rambled on enough. I must get the gift wrapped and start chores. Have a great day! I leave you with Ben and the kids favorite past time. Watching TV..

New Pictures

Not to much going on in the Cooper house today. It was cloudy and and a cool 27 degrees today. Not to bad. We had some snow flurries. Boy were the kids praying for a dump of snow and for school to be closed tomorrow. Not going to happen. Sorry guys! I am sure they will get their fair share of snow days in this year.

So we started a new thing with the kids. Every night the must say 2 nice things about each sibling. So today was the second day of this. They seem to like it a lot. I am just trying to get them to not say stuff like I like your shirt and pants. No I want stuff about the other person.We will try again tomorrow.

I thought I would share some recent picture of the kids. Sydney adores the camera. She took this picture by herself. My Mattie... He love to get his picture taken, but only with a silly face. Scottie bear carved his first pumpkin this past Halloween. What a saving grace he was. SO I scooped 7 pumpkins, but only had to carve out 3 as Scottie was very eager to lend a hand to his Momma. My Big boy Xander turned 7 months old yesterday. Where has the time gone? Well I am off the kids need tucks in and good night kisses and I need to finish folding clothes.. Good Night

Minot

So here we are in Minot North Dakota. How did two native Southern Californiainas end up here in the freezing cold? Thank You to the powers to be of the Air Force. The people here are extremely friendly sometimes alittle scarry friendly. Its a nice change, Older folks actually enjoy watching children in the stores. Evertime we go somewhere at least one old couple will come up and tell us how much they have enjoyed the children. I am happy that this place is so family oriented. But the cold and snow stink! Today while talking to my mom and getting Matthew and Xander in the car at Traget, I look over just in time to see Mattie throwing a big piece of ice. As I am shouting NOOOOOOOOOO, Mom says so whats he throwing a rock? No Momma he's throwing ice in a crowded parking lot. My Mom says oh yeah I forgot you have snow and ice on the ground. Gees Mom thanks for reminding me that you guys are still in the 90's.. I miss home. I guess the saying is true, You can take the girl out of Cali, but you can never take the Cali out of the girl.. I really do like it here, I guess I should say I LOVE MY HOUSE.. I don't ever want to leave this house. Its the nicest and biggest house we have ever lived in. If you look closely my name is even on the name plate. In case you can't see it "LT AND MRS COOPER" Thought that was pretty funny all other bases we have been to just have the military member on the plate. Its the small things I tell ya.

The kids are absolutly loving it here. They love school. Mattie loves preschool. Well I am not to sure he loves the preschool or the bunny that wonders the class. That is all he talks about. Scottie loves 4th grade. He is learning a lot. We had parent teacher conferences last week. I got hios report card for the whole 11 days he was there to be graded on and the lowest % he got was an 83. I am so proud of him. See we don't do grades because the grading system here is much different then I am used to. Here an 83% is a C, Well where I come from thats a strong B. So I decided that as long as everything is above a 85% then I am good. Sydney didn't get graded because her teacher felt she wasn't there long enough to be graded, But assures me that she is doing great. My lil Xander. Today he turned 7 months old. Where has the time gone? He is trying real hard to crawl. I expect that to happen in teh next few weeks. Ben is doing good learning his new job. I still stop and think my husband is going to be launching Nukes. Blows my mind. He pulls his first alert in a few weeks. SO starts the 40 hour shifts. Hope thsi works out okay. Till next time...

Roni

Hello

We are back on blogger! We (I) will be updating as soon as possible! This picture was taken a month before we left California.. HI ANNIE