Jeff Cooper-Texaco Country Showdown Audition

This year for Father's Day I made Jeff try out for the Texaco Country Showdown.  Watch the video you won't be disappointed!

Happy Father's Day 2011

Jeff and his three little Angels.  They really are the best and he really is the best Daddy!  

On a side note Brielle was just starting to walk at this time.  That's right 17 months old and just starting to walk, little stinker.

Dallen's 4th Birthday

Dallen had his 4th birthday party at the park.  I was starting to get warmer so we planned to have it at the park, but as you can see it got a little chilly.  The kids still had a blast though.  He wanted a batman cake, and I never disappoint ;)

 We love to get cake face shots and Dallen always wins the best cake face category.  Someday I will have to do a collage of Dallen's Cake Face.

 They ended the party with a little basketball with their Aunt AD.  Isn't she the best!

The Proud Parents of a Preschool Graduate

On May 12th, 2011 Ashton graduated from Preschool. He loved school so much and he was definitely ready to go on to Kindergarten.He really enjoyed his teacher. Mrs. Thacker and Grandma Sharon do a great job! The kids just love them. During the graduation all the kids sang the songs that they had learned through out the year. It was adorable!
Here is the class. Some were more excited than others :)
I was so proud of my little man!
Jeff unfortunately couldn't get off work for this little occasion, but Grandma Nicole was there! She tried to get a picture of me with the kids, but well.....you can see what happened. Love the little stinkers anyway :)
Even though they look semi-naughty in the above picture they were actually really good and excited for their brother. They really loved the singing. Especially since they felt they already knew all the songs. Ashton is a pretty good teacher himself!
And what better way to celebrate graduation than to hang out at grandma's house for a while. It was a great day!

Oh Yeah....We Went There Again

We went to Disney Land in September 2010 and then Jeff's whole family planned to go in April 2011. Well we had just been there so of course we said there was no way we could go. Well....we went. The only person that knew we were coming was Katie. We came up on them from behind. Here there are a few just noticing us.
Finally Grandma saw us. It was the best! I'm glad we were able to surprise them, and I would like to say that is what we had planned the whole time, but it is not. We literally decided the day before we left that we just couldn't miss the whole family being at Disney Land. Except for poor Ron. Sorry about that Ron, (He thought he wasn't going to be the only one not there.)

It was a great time being there with all the cousins. I didn't take as many pictures this time because I wanted to enjoy it more without carrying the camera at all times.
6 months isn't that much time, but it was enough time for the boys to go on rides that they were not tall enough the first time and it took Brielle from a little baby to a little toddler. We wouldn't change a thing.

The Arches

The end of March last year we were really desperate for some out door fun. It had seriously been the longest coldest winter. So we headed off to Moab. We had never been there before and we love being outdoors hiking, so it was the perfect fit.This was the easy hike up to to view the most famous arch in the park. We didn't think the little ones would handle one hike that took more than an hour, so we stuck to the short ones.
Brielle was almost 14 months old and still not walking. Luckily she is a little tyke so she still fit into the baby carrier. It definitely made her easier to carry, and she loved it.

These two had a blast out on the trails. They were in need of some free roaming, and sunshine.
This was my favorite one. The hike was small and if you climbed up to the bottom of the arch on the left there was a sheer drop off that had an amazing view. It's called the Double Arch.

The Boys!
The girls!
On our way home, despite the colder rainy weather, we decided to go up to Dead Horse Point. It was breathtaking. I think the rain made it even more so.

We had a blast and I can't wait to go back!

We had a long cold winter this year, so as soon as it warmed up a little bit we headed outside to play. This was the end of March and we still had a lot of snow in front of our house.


It looks like Brielle is an old pro at walking, but don't let her fool you......she didn't start walking for 3 more months :) (Also these were her first pig tails!)

Brielle's First Birthday

Wow it is almost Christmas again and this little girl is almost 2! I have recently been reminded again the importance of keeping a journal and this blog is part of that for me so here I am again giving it a try. Here is Brielle's Birthday!

We started out the special day by taste testing our frosting! She loved it.
She even shared with Ashton!
Then we got all dressed in her special birthday outfit. I had a lot of fun making this for her! Everything except the skirt, we bought that. Brielle's cake face isn't quite as intense as Dallen's, but once she finally dug into her cake she got pretty messy :)

We try to get our kids balloons for their birthday, but we didn't know that Brielle would be terrified. When we brought the balloon out she started screaming in terror. You will be happy to know she is no longer afraid of balloons.



And here is a shot of her first cake. I have loved using the sillouette that I got for Christmas to make stencils for cake. I think it turned out beautiful! Hey I'm no cake decorator okay ;)

~Christmas 2010~

We were dreaming of a white Christmas...well we had one in Bluebell. This is Jeff's car totally buried the week of Christmas, but when we got to Panguitch there was no snow!

Even without the "White Christmas" Santa came to the Cooper house!

Brielle was so Happy and Fun for here FiRsT Christmas.

When you have Christmas with a big family you have to make sure everyone is ready so we had the kids wrangled down stairs for quite a while.....the anticipation was killing them ;)

My perfect little Autobots :)

Brielle got her first babydoll. It was love at first sight! She kept giving her kisses!

Dallen had to take a break from all the excitement to have some breakfast....he was the only one.

This picture makes me happy!

We had a wonderful visit with Grandma Shirley! But not long after this we stopped at the house before going to Grandma Cooper's house and I fell into a hole,

literally all the way up to my thigh. I was on the couch the rest of the time we were there with a swollen knee and a few scratches. Luckily there were no serious injuries, just some

pain and me feeling stupid for falling in a hole :)

On the way home the boys enjoyed some of their presents. Don't they look so grown up?

Clyde G. Killian: October 14, 1920- December 9, 2010

After a really hard few years and an extremely hard few months my Great Grandfather passed away on December 9, 2010. He was an amazing person. I am so grateful that I was able to visit him often in his last days and sorely regret not visiting him as much in the last 5 years. He always had great things to say about his family. He thought the best thing he ever did was start this family. He was very proud of all of us. He told me that dying was much harder than living, but he was so excited to see his "Honey". He was a true example of selfless service as he took care of her. I loved seeing them together.
It was so nice to have the whole family there to celebrate his life.

My Dad did a wonderful grave dedication and the Military honors are always so moving. I know he was there with all of us and will be looking after us the rest of our lives, looking forward to being with us again.

This was a difficult time for the kids (despite the smiles on their faces). Jeff and I had to explain death to them and Ashton is still worried about getting old. They always brought a smile to Grandpa's face...even when he was in horrible pain.

Here are my parents grandkids!
This is almost the whole Iorg family! My brother Tyson was not able to come due to work. It is bittersweet that we were able to get this picture. I am so glad we have it, but sad about the circumstances that led to it.