Cooper-Mania

Jeff and Lucy brought back a mask for Cooper from Mexico of some wrestling guy. Cooper even sleeps with it on his bed post.

Jude's 1st Birthday

Jeff and Lucy went on a cruise and we were able to have their 3 boys for 4 days with us. As it happened, we were also able to celebrate Jude's 1st birthday with him. They were such good boys. It was fun having them. Maggie, Cooper and Allie were all such GREAT helpers.

Sprained Ankles HURT!

My foot and ankle--this is looking pretty good.

I was coming down into a dark family room on Monday, January 3rd, and didn't see a toy an the landing. Well, my foot got it just right and I turned my foot both ways. I thought I broke it or tore ligaments with how much pain I was in. Allie was up 2 floors and couldn't hear me, so I crawled across the floor to the phone and called Chris crying. He came right home and took me to the doctor. The diagnosis--just sprained. Whew! I couldn't even put any weight on it for the first couple days. My family are soooo good to me. I have big ankles anyway or cankles, but now this one is a tree trunk! It is soo ugly!! Another funny part of the whole fiasco is, as I was coming down the stairs, I had a few M & M's in my hand and they went flying all over the family room. Allie found them all and ate them for me.

Birthday Pictures

I have ususally been pretty good about getting the kids' pictures taken around their birthdays. This year, Maggie's 10th birthday picture was taken a few months late. I promised her I would get them taken before the end of the year. I fulfilled my promise. December 31, 2010 the above picture was taken. Cooper's was taken only a few weeks late; on January 1, 2011 he had his 7 year old picture taken.

Reflections--Again

Cooper and Maggie made it to the second round of Reflections. Cooper received 1st place for his photograph and Maggie received participant for a play she wrote. She was a little disappointed, but was happy for Cooper. Allie was happy for both of them--whew! (Her pictures didn't go on to this level, so I was happy that she didn't get upset.)

Fun with the Meikles on Christmas Break

Allie the Alien

Drew, Allie, and Wakely on the moon. ( I can't get the picture turned.)

Kim, Wakely, Drew, Henry, Maggie, Cooper, Allie and I all ventured out on a snowy day to Salt Lake on the FrontRunner. I had great intentions of taking all sorts of pictures, but alas, I did not. We went to the Clarke Planetarium and watched a movie and learned all about the planets. The kids all played, we had lunch and headed back home. It was a fun day.

Christmas 2010

San Antonio, Texas Dec. 14-16

Cooper's Real Birthday

Morning birthday party of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and o.j., opening presents of Heelys, Kung Zhu hamster, desk and chair, sword/gun combo-- all making his morning enjoyable. He then gave a talk on Christ in Primary and ended the day at Aunt Jill and Uncle Kurt's house for a turkey dinner with a triple layer chocolate cake for him. We love our Coop!!!

Our Christmas Tree 2010

This year, our entryway Christmas tree was over 2 stories tall. Our entryway is a 2 story vault and it bent over when it touched the ceiling. We got it up in Park City again (thanks Brad and Jen.) We had fun finding our tree. It took us (me) about 3 days to finish our 3 trees. They sure were beautiful and everyone that saw it, thought it was quite the tree. I loved it--I think the rest of the family did too.

Birthday Sleepover Party

Cooper decided he wanted a cousin sleepover for a party this year, so he had Miles and Tyson stay over. We had pizza, watched Santa Clause I, II, and III. We went bowling today, had pizza yet again, and made a shark cake.

Cooper's 7th Birthday Party

Cooper enjoying his crab at Red Lobster...he also had some lobster.

A boy cousin sleepover, shark cake, bowling and pizza at Fat Cats, presents, dinner at Red Lobster with his family and grandparents all added up to Cooper's Birthday Extravaganza...and it still isn't his real birthday!

Gingerbread Houses and Birthday Party for Coop

Cooper had a Gingerbread House making party at school today. I was asked to help, so Allie was able to come with me. She even had the opportunity to make her own house. They had a lot of fun doing it, as all of the 1st graders did. There was candy and frosting all over the place. After the building of their houses, they sang Happy Birthday to Cooper while he stood in the middle of the room. He had this big grin on his face and would point to himself with the double thumbs whenever they said "Cooper." He is such a ham. His teacher even game him birthday "beatings."

A Night in Bethlehem

The only picture I took all evening. Our church at sunset.

I was in charge of our ward Christmas Party this year. (I was the activities chairman, but now I am without a calling.) It was a lot of work and turned out very well. We did a modified version of A Night in Bethlehem. We had the marketplace with 8 different stalls including: family pictures, Santa, meat market, vegetable market, game market, winery, dairy, and a bakery. There was something for everyone and it seemed all were happy. We concluded the evening with a live nativity story. It was fun and then ended on a spiritual note.

Merry Christmas from the Hislops

Our Three Cuties

Before the recital, I took this picture. We sure do love our children.

Three Years and Counting

Maggie has now taken piano for 3 years from Ruth and loves it! Whew!! For a few months, Mags was ready to quit, but I wouldn't let her and fought her on practicing. Now, she practices without even being asked and loves doing it. She did a fantastic job on her piece "Pachabel's Christmas." Maggie's teacher, Sally Standage, came to see her perform. Very proud of our Maggie.

Allie's 1st Singing Recital

Allie has a very pretty voice...or so her mom and dad think...and I asked Aunt Lucy, who has a beautiful voice, if she would take Allie as voice student. She did and had Allie perform at the piano recital. (Ruth and Lucy are best friends.) Allie sang "When Christmas Comes to Town" from the movie, Polar Express. Allie did a superb job.

Cooper's 1st Piano Recital

Ruth and Cooper
Cooper and his 1st Grade teacher, Tracy McBride

Cooper has been taking piano lessons since June and on December 1st he had his 1st Recital. Ruth James is such a fantastic person and teacher. Our children love her. Cooper's teacher, Tracy McBride, even came. Cooper's song was "Chipmunk's Christmas." He nailed it! Great Job Cooper!

P.S. Cooper wanted a tuxedo to wear for his performance, so I whipped up a red bow tie for him to wear to his Christmas Concert.

Santa Run

Chris decided he wanted to run the Santa Run in Ogden. There were 700 Santa's running in this race. It was quite the sight and I forgot to bring my camera to the race. Scott Rasmussen even ran it with him. Each runner was provided the above outfit to run in.