Christmas and a whole New Year has begun..

It was really nice to get away for close to 3 weeks, lots of family, lots of fun times and lots of moving to and from.. but all worth it, mostly. Christmas is always kind of chaotic for us, so much to do and lots of family that live close together. Mine and Jer's parents live 40 minutes apart and we must have went back and forth at least 4 times not including my parents cabin as well.. depsite all the packing up and hauling, it was really nice to always be somewhere different, change of space and Elias was sure NEVER bored, always having different cousins and toys to play with.
Overall it was good times, my whole family was able to make it home for Christmas.. that was especially nice for me.. hanging out with my sister and brother's family that we don't see much. Jer's family was all around too, they all live so close together and it was especially fun on Christmas Eve.. we played games and the kids did the nativity.. Elias loved being a wise men.We also got to go to Montana to the cabin, man it is so beautiful in the winter, all the trees, mountains and snow.. awesome! The kids had some pretty fun times, sledding, quading and skating. Elias tried out his new skates for the first time (wish i had a pic), Jer said he looked pretty cute. I can't wait for him to start skating next week.. i know he will love it!
Here are some pics from the Cabin and Christmas morning.. (i wish i could figure out how to get the quality better with these mosiac collage)

As for Holidays its always especially nice to come Home after being gone so long, and just get back to a routine.. i love having routines, i like being spontaceous but i love having a schedule more. The kids are sleeping so much better now, and me for that matter. And well its nice to be home.
So glad we went.. and yikes only 3.5 more months until Jeremy is done school for good.. isn't that crazy. I mean seriously its making me nervous, really nervous so much to do and still unsure of our plans for the future..

And as for the New year.. I've never been much of a New Years Resolutions person, but decided i am really going to try to accomplish some of these goals, i know there's lots.

Health: get exercising, at least 2 times per week..i know kinda lame, but its something.
and get taking those vitamins everyday
Spiritual: Doing prayers and scriptures together every night (trying to improve from last year, so far so good)
Attend the temple MORE.. that should be a bit easier once we move back to Alberta.
Read most of the Ensign every month,  (inspired from my mother-in-law who has read the Ensign cover to cover for 17 years, impressive..i know!!!)
Family: Date night once a month with Jer (hopefully). Special outing with Elias and Daddy once a month. Less TV and more uninterrupted and creative playtime with Elias and Nixon.
Personal: Get photos and videos organized, Be consistent in writing in my online journal, Learn to sew, Read more books, and finally get my Blog photo book done.

I figure if i write them down like this, just maybe i might accomplish some of them.

Also for the New Year, i am using this similar family routine.. twicked to my own liking of course.. I love all the ideas of activities and i just love having everything written down, like the simple things- getting actually dressed in the morning, tidying up the kids rooms before bed and so on...
seriously i have ours printed out and I refer to it all the time.. I have deleted some things and added tons and for some reason it has made life so much nicer..
life just seems simpler. and better.

Our Christmas Card and Letter

So we are off to Alberta for christmas!!! yea i am so excited to be going home, can't wait to see all our family and spend lots of time doing, well nothing really.. but ain't that the best. I'm not officially leaving until Monday morning. Jeremy isn't done finals until Friday, so we are going early to give him some much needed study time. Here is the christmas card and letter that we sent out this year, well actually its our first christmas card ever and it turned out darn pretty cute so i think, it took some much needed tweaking in photoshop to get it to where i liked it..don't feel bad if you didn't receive one, its hard tracking down everyone's addresses and sending them in the mail, mostly just family and some close friends got them. But for everyone else, we hope you have the best christmas ever, and an awesome christmas holidays!!  Luv, The Coopers

Open W i d e!

Elias went to the Dentist for the 1st time last week, and guess who he got to see? Thats right, Daddy-soon to be "Dr".Cooper. He was pretty excited to go see dad, but since 2 students didnt show up to school and Jeremy had to work on their patients we ended up waiting an hour. By that time the excitement was over and it took some bribing to get Elias to even let Jer put anything near his mouth.. at first i had to get in the chair and have Elias sit on my lap, but eventually he did well and actually was happy in the end. It was also nice to see Jeremy in action, i have been wanting to get some pics of him for along time at the school, so it was fun to watch him working on patients and seeing what he does all day long while he's away from us.

Elias laughs his head off whenever he see this picture on the bottom right..he thinks he looks soo funny.

9 months..already

LOVE this photo, love..

Nixon's 9 mths. officially was on the 4th.

and what's he up to at 9mths, well quite a bit.

-he is crawling everywhere.. well more like dragging himself, its faster. He especially likes the kitchen, under the christmas tree and of course the book shelfs. I am soooo in trouble.

- His top two teeth are coming in (that will be 4 in total).. so he hasnt been the happiest thing these days, well who am i kidding still pretty happy. The nights have been a little rough for the past few days though, not much sleep here.

-He is pulling himself up, started this week.

-He now officially sits up in the shopping cart, well kind of (some leaning going on and the belt really tight), but i love not having to take his car seat with me, it takes up the whole darn cart...

-He loves his big brother and loves even more-destroying anything Elias is playing with... haha, Elias gets pretty mad sometimes its funny.

-This month checkup he was 94% for height, 67% for weight and 70% for head.

he LOVES getting into the books ever chance he can

okay so the best pic ever, haha love his face!

i love this kid soo much, his smile just lights you up

i am so very blessed.

buddies

all ready for church and looking so stinkin cute to boot!

man i love these boys. they are becoming such good brothers, laughing and playing together, i hope they will continue to be the best of buddies.

gymnastics

so last week Elias finshed up his gymnastics class, officially called Tumbleweeds at the U of S. He was joined by his two little friends, Ben and Lainey as well.

i can't even begin to tell you how much he loved this class... to be able to run around, dance, jump on everything, swing and be silly. how much more can a boy want?

the rings were by far his favorite 

lainey and elias racing