Christmas Traditions!

I absolutely love this time of year. I love the spirit that comes with Christmas and I want our family to have traditions that bring us closer together and help us remember the true meaning of Christmas...The Birth of Christ. Going to see the lights on Temple Square is one of my favorite traditions. The lights are so beautiful.

The boys always get so excited to see all the colors. This is the fifth picture I took of them. I could not get them to look at me at the same time.

The temple is always amazing, but put it together with the spirit of Christmas and being framed with Christmas lights, it is awesome to see. During Christmas time Temple Square is filled with all kinds of people with different beliefs even, but no one can deny the beauty of the Temple during Christmas. (or any time)

Here is our Christmas tree this year. Jeff seems never to be satisfied, but I think it is beautiful.

Ashton loved getting the tree. I don't think he knew quite what we were doing, but he loved "play hiking". He wanted to keep going and going......

and going and going. And he didn't want anyone to help him. He could do it by himself.

Dallen wanted to do everything himself, but we wouldn't let him too much because he was so slow. :)...It may have had something to do with how bundled up he was.

We are so excited for Christmas and a couple of new Traditions we are going to start.

Everybody needs a Vacation

For our 5th Anniversary we decided that we should go on a vacation just the two of us. We love theme parks and I love warm weather so we decided to go to Universal Orlando and Island of Adventure. (We couldn't bring ourselves to go to Disney without the boys.) We had a blast. I recommend all parents taking a vacation without your kiddos. You will miss them like crazy, but the freedom is nice. Oh and usually grandparents love their grandkids so they don't mind watching them. (Thanks Grandma Kathleen.) If we look a little tired it is because our flight didn't get in until 11:45 pm. This was at our condo and we still had 4 days to go.

We ate at a restaurant called "Bubba Gump's Shrimp". It was very yummy. There were signs and pictures all over the restaurant eluding to the fact that it is based on the movie "Forrest Gump", but it still took me until after I ordered "Jenny's Favorite Smoothie" before I got it. :) Being a Jennie I should have realized right off the bat. Nobody heard more lines from that movie than someone named Jennie.

On Saturday, our actual anniversary, we went to the Orlando Temple. I am so glad we went. It is nice to remember that LDS people and Temples are the same all over the world. The temple and the grounds were beautiful like always and everyone was so helpful and nice. It was a good experience.

After the temple we headed off to the beach even though Saturday was the coldest day we were there, only 65. It was still fun to go and the water wasn't cold. We were able to see the sunset there, and I got my shorts soaked. It was beautiful and, you know, it was the beach, but I still wish we could have gone swimming. Oh well, maybe next time.

I have a ton of pictures of the parks, but I decided on this one because it was our favorite ride. The is the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Everything was so pretty and so fun. I know it will be a long time again before Jeff and I get an alone vacation, so we will treasure these memories. It made me excited to take the kids in a few years.

5 Whole Years

Five years ago I married the love of my life Jeff Cooper. The past five years have brought us two of the cutest most amazing little boys. We have lived in one apartment, and two houses. Even though I loved St. George, we couldn't be happier where we are today. There have been ups and downs, but mostly ups. We work well together. I love him. This was the happiest day of our lives. (At the time)


We were married in the Manti LDS Temple on November 22, 2003, (the coldest day ever). You can't tell by looking at us but......
...you can tell by looking at these two Newly Wed love birds, that it was really cold. (Sally I couldn't resist this picture. I think it is so cute.)

Here are the troops that braved that cold winter day. Really it was all my fault. I didn't want to wait until Spring to get married and I said if I was getting married in the winter I wanted there to be snow on the ground. Well I got my wish and then some. I love the snow in the pictures though.

If you look closely you can tell how long 5 years really is. Jamie is standing next to me almost a foot shorter than me, she is now almost a foot taller than me. All of those handsome young men in the front

I love this picture because Jeff looks like such a baby. When Jeff and I were dating, (before I knew he could sing), I had mentioned that a man singing to his wife on there wedding day was the most romantic thing. Well my wish came true. I love it when Jeff sings to me. And yes he does sing to me all the time and will for...well...forever.


I think that this picture is typical of our marriage. Me laughing and having a good time, and Jeff with a scheming look on his face. Ha Ha. Really though we have a good time and we try not to fight as much as possible. I love Jeff so much and I always will. (Oh and he loves me too.)