"Sideway Stories From Wayside School"

Get your tickets NOW, for the Clinton Co. Youth Theatre's winter performance --
"Sideway Stories From Wayside School"! I was able to attend the parent's night tonight, and it was absolutely hilarious!!! I laughed SO hard that I had tears running down my face on several occasions! Talon doesn't come in until the 2nd half, but OH MY WORD, he does a GREAT job with his part!!! He is Mr. Pickle, the school counselor, and he is too funny! If you would like to attend this play, make sure to call and get your tickets right away. It begins this Thursday, 1/28 and runs until Saturday 1/30. Every evening it begins at 7:00 and there is a Saturday matinee at 2:00pm. Call 654-6307 to reserve your tickets! If you get the answering machine, leave your name and # and they will call you back.

What Have We Been Up To???

Lots has been going on around here, so I barely know where to begin! I'll try to catch you up a bit:

Talon has earned another role (Mr. Pickle) in the Clinton County Children's Civic Theater. The next play, "Sideways Stories from Wayside School" is full of silliness and fun. If you are interested in seeing this show, it will be next week --Jan. 28th-30th. Call 765-654-6307 to order your tickets. His role isn't a huge role, so that has saved us LOTS of miles since he hasn't had to be to every practice, thank goodness : ) However, that will all change next week when he has to be there, EVERY night from 5-9, ugh! Tickets are only $5 each, come out and bring the family to this fun, filled play! --We have also been focusing on several of the events Talon entered for State Competition: Basketball, Clown Acting, Radio Programing, One-Act Play, Etc. As you can tell, he has been a very busy boy! I would like to say a HUGE thank you to our friend and neighbor Marlene, for helping him with his Clown Act! You are such a dear and we are SO thankful you helped us find Reggie, the clown! : )

Keegan has been busy "reading up a storm" for the "Read to Learn" program going on at school. His goal is to read 100 minutes/week, that way he can have his name entered in a drawing for a prize and to get his name put on the wall at school. He is enjoying reading and having me read to him! Thanks SO much to Mrs. Rose Fry for getting this program going at FCA, it has been a GREAT addition to our school!!!! --He has also been heading to basketball practice with Jerry every week and is excited that he is going to get to be a part of the junior bball team! Daddy told him if he would practice hard, he would get him a jersey and he could play on the team, that sure brought a smile to his face : ) The other schools that we have been playing has their younger boys on their junior teams, so Jerry has decided to start a junior team.

Little Miss Kallee is busy as a bee too! She spends her mornings watching her favorite movies while her Mama enjoys sleeping in : ) Her and I run errands together and are enjoying our time together. I know I miss my little princess when she heads off to kindergarten next fall : ( She enjoys reading with Keegan and I and drawing pictures. My goodness she has more pictures than an art studio, HA! She draws all them time! She is getting better at it too, you can actually tell it is a person : ) We will start working on her letters and numbers before too long, she already knows her shapes and colors, so I guess I won't have to teach her those! She already knows 8 of her letters due to knowing on how to spell her name AND knowing how to log into her own Webkinz account, ha! I got tired of running into the computer to log her in so, I wrote her info down on a piece of paper and she can do it herself, lol!

Jerry is busy as ever, going to work every night takes him away from us, but we are SO thankful for his job!!! We are hoping and praying that God will give him a day-shift position, but until that time... He helps out by teaching 2, boy's gym classes at school and he coaches our boy's basketball team. When he's not doing all that, he is busy around here keeping things in order. He is our Rotarian president this year, so he is busy with meetings and community events as well. --He bought a "new" car today that was a great buy for our budget. We are thanking the Lord for this purchase. It isn't a new car by any means, but it runs over 40mph and has reverse, lol! His poor old truck was on its last leg, and would only go about 40 and has not been able to be put it in reverse for a LONG time. When Keegan saw the car for the first time, he asked "does it have reverse???", hee hee!

I stay busy "trying" to keep the house clean, the laundry done and running the kids here and there. I honestly don't know how working parents do all this with a full-time job, ugh! I've been trying to list a few things on ebay to prepare for re-decorating our bedroom. I've been itching to take down the wallpaper and re-paint. Before beginning a project like this, I buy things here and there (on SALE) and try to sell as many of my "old" decorations. Our bedroom has been the same for 10 yrs. so it is time for a change : ) I am going to do it in an Americana theme, I think, ha! My MIL made us a queen size quilt for Christmas a year ago, so that will work perfect for our bedding. I saved some of my favorite decorations from when my kitchen was in Americana, so I've got that part started too. I'm trying to decide if I want to paint all the walls red or navy or what??? I have a chair-rail around the middle that I'm gonna paint a cream color that will match all of our furniture. I know this project won't be done for quite sometime, but it is fun to dream : )

Well I'd better stop rambling, but thought since I couldn't do a post with pictures, I'd try to get you caught up on our lives.

December 2009

Well I can't hardly believe it is the end of the year, but it is : ( Where on earth did those 12 months go?!?!? Here is a look at our December so far, enjoy!


Keegan's 9th Birthday

Keegan's birthday is actually in November, but since we were gone to TN and then busy when we got home...we had it on the 4th of December. It wasn't anything fancy, but he did invite 10 of his friends --Dylan, Jeffery, Cody, Ethan, Kerri, Jaida, Nyree, Samuel, Connor & Drake. We had hot dogs, chips, veggies/dip and cake. He wanted a "sports theme" party, so I went to the dollar tree and bought the invites, plates and napkins. I made the cakes and they were super easy and turned out pretty neat. He was happy with them, so that is all that mattered. Papa came to town that week, so he was able to be here for the party too : ) Thanks so much to all his little friends that came and made this day special for him!

Step #1 & #2 --Bake cake of your choice in 2 rounds pans (approx. 9"), place one cake on round platter covered with foil.
Step #3 & #4 -- Frost bottom layer with white frosting and then place next layer on top of it.

Steps #5 & #6 -- Frost top layer and smooth out by using a butter knife and warm water on knife. Last add your "baseball" details to it with red gel.

Steps #1 & #2 --Bake cake of your choice in a the Pampered Chef Batter Bowl. Allow to cool and then lay on foil lined tray and cut in half.

Step #4 -- Place cut halves on their side, flat down on the tray

Step #5 --Cover with your favorite Chocolate icing from a can

Step #6 --Add the white "football" details to it with cake gelKeegan all smiles with his cakes!Chow time

Gift Time--This one was from Papa. He took the kids empty chip bags and put $$$ down in the bottom of one bag, rolled it up tight and stuck it in another bag, and repeated several times : )

Game Time--Playing "Upset the Birthday Basket" (presents, balloons, cake, etc.)Connor being silly while playing "Yucky Yummy"! He just opened the bowl with Dijon Mustard in it -- YUCKY!!

Drake not at all happy since he just opened the bowl with Baking Soda in it!

FCA Christmas Programs

Keegan in the FCA Christmas play! Poor guy, he gets SO nervous and scared, but he does a great job with his lines!

Talon saying his VERY, long lines--he did a great job too!

So proud of my boys, what a great job they did!

The kids LOVE it when Papa comes he plays games with them non-stop!

Christmas with Jerry's Family--

Keegan showing off his Webkinz tree ornament

Kallee loving her her Webkinz dog--she named him Fuzzy

Talon showing off his new hat and his NOT SO NEW, hand sign, teenagers!!!

Grandpa all smiles after I gave him his own personal Coconut Cream Pie, his favorite! I made all the guys their favorite pies this year for Christmas --Reed got a Lemonade pie, Tony got a Sugar Cream and Grandpa a Coconut Cream

Grandpa Hysel teasing Kallee like he does quite often : )

Grandma having fun watching the kids open their gifts

Christmas Here @ Home

Kallee opening her gifts first!

Daddy covering Kallee's eyes while her last gift is brought in, too big to wrap!

I think she likes it : ) The big dollhouse was given to us several years ago from some friends of ours and she thinks it is the best gift ever!

Kallee with all her gifts! With hand-me-down items, Ebay purchases and clearance racks, we were happy to have not spent much on her items at all : )

Keegan's turn to open his gifts!

More Ebay purchases--Lego's Star Wars game and a Chef Hat/Apron set! Keegan's our cook he loves to help in the kitchen!

Keegan with his pile of loot : ) I bought all of his stuff on sales racks throughout the year and on Ebay as well, yea!

Talon with all of his "goods"! Teens are so much harder to buy for than the younger ones, ugh! The stuff they want is SO much more expensive than others, ugh! He got more clothes than anything, still all good buys from the sales racks : )

I found this shirt on Ebay and knew Talon would love it for several reasons: first it is Abercrombie (like that matters to me), second because he plays the guitar and third because he is at that stage where he likes just about every girl, HA!

This gift was from Kallee to Talon. Her and I found it one day while shopping for only a $1 and since it said something about sisters on it... : ) "Who Needs Halloween, My Sister Scares Me Enough"

This gift was a joke to Jerry from me. He said when he was little he would write stuff on his Mom's grocery list that he wanted, hoping that she would buy it for him, so...he started one day writing one of those same wishes on our grocery list "Plastic Soliders". I was cleaning the boys room last week and found a bunch of plastic soldiers...he found it quite amusing, HA!

Kallee watching Daddy open the Chocolate Covered Cherries she bought for him!

Me opening my gifts from Jerry and the kids! I got several scrapbook items--paper, adhesive, stickers, markers, refill cartridge, etc. "PINK" Body Spray and Lotion from Victoria Secret, Bath & Body Works lotion, a Collingsworth Cd, Perfume, a new suit, etc.

Thanksgiving 2009

The Cooper Grandkids -- Back Row (l to r): Alysha, Lane, Blake, Talon and Courtney

Front Row (l to r): Ashlyn, Keegan & Kallee

Ok, ok, so I haven't updated my blog in ages, but...like everyone else in this world---I've been busy! : ) Here is a look at our trip we took to TN for Thanksgiving. We have started a Cooper family tradition of meeting in TN, every other year, to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once. Since that is the half-way point for our families to meet, it has worked out well. Jerry wasn't able to go, because he hadn't earned any vacation time yet : ( I wasn't going to go after he told me he couldn't go, but...I knew the kids were looking SO forward to going, that I couldn't let them down. We had a nice time, but just didn't seem right without him there!

This was taken looking down over our upper balcony.

Downstairs in the game room

Upstairs in the Living Room area

Kallee & Ashlyn

Courtney, Alysha & Talon

Opening Christmas presents

Craft Time

Pool Time -- the kids LOVED going down to the pool, it was a great time they could just run wild and scream as loud as they wanted : ) This was one of my kids favorite past-times while there!

Kallee getting cold in the pool and ready to get out

Keegan learning how to swim with his face in the water!