January: Visitors Ann and Lydia

We were lucky and had Aunt Ann and cousin Lydia visit for a few days. They were super easy visitors seeing how we just did our everyday activities with them (lots of walks and parks). But things are always much more fun with another friend along. And who could not love being in California in January especially with the beautiful weather that we had?!
Lydia is such a cute little girl. I loved watching both kids interact with her. I always love watching Zachary with little kids. He is always so kind and loving to them. And Jane and Lydia were so cute together with their matching blonde hair.      

Christmas Card 2013

 

Cooper’s 2013

This year we took advantage of good weather to make improvements on the front and back yard, but failed miserably in growing even ONE pumpkin for Halloween in our first garden. We were able to take trips to the cabin, Disneyland, East Coast Trip (Niagara Falls, Palmyra, NJ, and Baltimore), waterskiing, Utah for Thanksgiving, exploring our local museums and zoo.  We are excited for the addition of a baby girl in March 2014.

After 6 years with the Roebbelen building schools, Lee concluded his time by managing a new classroom building at Wells Middle School where he attended grades 6–8. He now works for a developer of retirement communities in California. He was also assigned to work with the 16-18 yr old boys at church. Lee loves to identify a new tool needed for the collection and an associated project that he can use for the excuse to obtain that tool. This year was a slide/play structure in the back yard that needed a new drill.  

Allie has kept up with running and gets out early each morning. Probably the best part of the year was staying injury free and just enjoying her love of running, which includes winning the 4^th of July race. She enjoys teaching Zac’s co-op preschool every few weeks. She is also proud of herself for riding the wakesurf behind the boat without a rope for a few minutes. She recently got called as Primary chorister and is happy to be back in front of kids, but wishing she had a little better singing voice.

Zachary ensures that every day is busy. This spring he quickly learned how to ride a two wheeler (thank you balance bike!) and we do bike rides almost daily to nearby parks. Over the summer he did a tumbling class and has mastered the summersault, swinging on the rope, and some trampoline “tricks”. He learned to ride the kneeboard solo this year and even entertained the boat with thumbs up or hand drag in the water. Zac has loved preschool again this year. It was amazing the progress he made over the summer in his writing, cutting, and comprehension. He is eager to learn and is always engaged in any activity we do. He continues to love cars, setting up construction zones with his cones, and directing “traffic” (aka anyone & anything near him). He is such a joy and brings excitement to those around him.

Jane has always had a love for books and that has now continued with reading The Friend magazine. Many days when we can’t find her, she can be found in Zac’s room reading a stack of books piled high. She is a little mommy to all her baby dolls and has the perfect bounce to help comfort them. She taught herself to peddle her tricycle and can keep up with Zac when he is on his Razor scooter. She loves to help Zac line up his cars, direct traffic, or dance to music in the living room. Jane also loves her church class and always lets us know that she wants to go to class or that they played with bubbles. Jane is also working to develop her vocal chords by singing songs with gusto in the car, house, walk, tub or swings. We love her sweet voice. She is fun and looks forward to being a big sister.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Wonderful 2014

leejnal.blogspot.com

With Love,    

Lee, Allie, Zachary, and Jane

 

December Randoms

Hanging out in Z's room. Jane is usually reading and Zac is usually playing cars.

Some mornings we just have to laugh at Jane's hair...it can get crazy!!

Jane's friend (also named Jane) came over to play. Jane just wanted to do her hair the whole time. Is she such a girl or what??

She needed to hold the Friend while swinging this day.

Story time at the library. I love how Z will now sit with all the other kids and interact with the stories and songs.

The kids loved having new Christmas music to run and dance to all month long.

Zac was pretty proud of this "shark snowman" that he came up with on his own.

I am not the best of luck this year for BYU. I have gone to two football games and a soccer game this year and we have come up short everytime. :( But I still enjoyed going to all the games.

For our 7 year anniversary we went into SF for the Fight Hunger Bowl Game. It was fun to be at AT&T park and see how the baseball field could turn into a football field. We had fun being up close! We were hoping for a better outcome, but we have fun with a night away from the kids. :)

 

We always like to take a trip into SF during the holiday season. We lucked out with a BEAUTIFUL clear day in SF. We went to a lookout, twin peaks, to enjoy the beauty of the city. The kids always enjoy finding all the bridges and seeing the water.  

We went to Golden Gate park and had a picnic. The kids enjoyed the playground there and also got to go on the carousal. The kids also had extra fun being with cousins, Kya and Evie. 

New Years Eve was fun. Jessica and Hal put on a murder mystery party for the family and a few family friends. We had fun dressing up and having a yummy dinner. The theme was "A Knights Tale." We thought the kids would just play with toys, but they wanted in on the action too. The picture above shows a Z wearing a crown and a vest that he had on all night. Sadly this is the only picture I have from the night. Jessica is putting tape around the murder suspect. The kids were in bed around 10. We were happy the kids were so tired by midnight because all the fireworks and noise was pretty crazy. I couldn't believe they slept through it all!

Lee was told just not to come into work for a few days because no one else was going to be there. Score. So we got some extra days with him. He was able to do some projects around the house and also spent some extra time with us. We were bummed that almost everyone at the Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's house had gotten real sick and couldn't hangout. We cleaned our house super good and were VERY glad that we did not catch anything that they had. 

Overall 2013 was a good year. And we are excited for 2014!!!