My Baby Boy is 4

Noah's 4th birthday was this past Saturday.  It's so hard to believe that our youngest is 4 already. I remember when we found out we were going to have a boy after having two girls, I was so nervous!  I didn't know what to do with a boy.  But he has been so much fun.  He has quickly extinguished any fears we had of him being girly since all he has is sisters - he is definitely all boy! It has been amazing to me how he just picked up on all the things boys do and like without us pushing it on him.  When he was born we were trying to decide on the name. It was between Noah and a couple of others.  We decided to look at the meaning of each name we were considering.  At that point he was such a quiet, content baby, and the name Noah means calm and peaceful.  That's how we decided that it was the perfect name.  Boy has he proved us wrong!  But he really is a sweet and loving little boy and we love him so much. He brings so much fun and excitement to our family and I can't imagine not having him be part of our family. 

For his birthday he got a Speed Racer bike, an electric guitar (so he can jam with his dad), and a Spiderman costume.  I'm not sure which was his favorite - he loved them all.  We went to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda, and went to dinner at Red Robin.  It was really a fun day!

Blueberry Pickin'!

We have heard from several families that they enjoy going to a blueberry patch in the early summer to pick their own blueberries.  I have to admit that I don't buy and use very many blueberries, but I thought it sounded like a fun new family experience.  So we set out on Saturday morning to a place fairly close by to pick ourselves some blueberries.  It was really a lot of fun! We ended up filling two 1 gallon buckets.  After coming home and freezing and bagging them, I ended up with about 36 cups of yummy, fresh blueberries!  We made a blueberry cobbler for dessert on Sunday, and I have plans for making syrup, jam, and other tasty things! I'm thinking this might become a new Hooper Family tradition each summer!

A Summer Glitch

Last week we had a first in our family.  Actually it happened 2 weeks ago, but we didn't know it until last week.  Noah was playing on the couch a couple of Sundays ago, pretending it was a garbage truck.  He was sitting on the arm of the couch and fell off head first onto the tile floor. He broke the fall with his arms.  I was fixing dinner and didn't actually see all of this, but heard the cries that resulted.  We checked him out, and everything seemed fine.

  Over the course of that week he seemed fine, but would complain now and then that his arm hurt.  Finally by Saturday when it still was hurting we decided to have it x-rayed.  Sure enough, it was broken.  We took him to an Orthopedic doctor on Monday so that he could get it casted - he chose blue of course (not because of any collegiate affiliation). Luckily he only has to have it on for 3 weeks total, the week before we knew it was broken actually counts as a week of recovery.  So we have 1 week down, 2 to go.  It has been a real drag having to figure out what to do with 3 kids during the summer that doesn't involve water.  We are counting down the days!

   

Sammy's Dance Recital

Sammy had her dance recital a couple of weeks ago.  I think she was glad when it was all over. She hasn't been sure whether she likes being in ballet, so this year has been a challenge. The dance was to the song "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinderella. She really did well for her first recital.  Megan was a sweet sister and decided that she was going to buy Sammy some flowers with her own money.

End of the School Year

I'm a little behind on some of our events, but wanted to post pictures from the end of school. The girls did really well this year.  Megan earned the citizenship award for her team. It is an award that is given to one girl and one boy from each team of 120 kids.  We are so proud of her because it shows a lot about her character.  Sammy got an award for learning all 300 sight words that they were supposed to learn.  It was a lot of work, but she is becoming an excellent reader because of it. 

Sammy with her teacher, Mrs. Stamps

Sammy's Kindergarten program.  It was called Bugz.

Megan's last choir concert.  She is on the top, in the middle.

Megan is 12!

Yesterday was Megan's 12th birthday.  Other than the fact that my age tells me that it is indeed possible, I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 12 year old child. I have spent the last couple of days going through pictures of her and wondering where the years have gone.  She is such an amazing girl - she is everything I wished I was when I was her age.  She is friendly, confident, smart, pretty, talented, adventurous, fun, outgoing, and the list goes on.  I often grumble about dealing with her emotions and attitudes, but we truly are so lucky to have her in our family, and we love her so much!

Since I was going through all of her pictures, I thought I would post birthday pictures of Megan through the years.

Megan had a birthday party this past weekend with 2 of her 3 best friend from school.  I took them to the movies to see "Prince Caspian". Afterward we went to dinner at Pizza Hut.  We came back home and the girls went swimming for awhile.  Then we came back and did a chocolate fountain for dessert.  The party was a sleepover, so they went upstairs, and we didn't hear from them the rest of the night.  I truly think that parties get easier as kids get older!  This one was a piece of cake!! We celebrated her birthday quietly as a family yesterday.  Her main present that she wanted was a Rip Stik, so she was excited to get one.

In case you don't know what a Rip Stik is, I posted this video of Megan riding one.  It's a 2 wheeled skateboard, and Megan is really good at it. Mike tried riding it too, and after several tries, and one fall, finally got the hang of it.  I however will not be attempting it!

  

Gateway to the West

Last weekend we decided to take head out for another adventure to a city we had never been to before - St. Louis.  This time we went with 4 families that are friends of ours.  It is only a 5 hour drive, so we were able to be there for 2 days.  We split up and traded off going to the temple and watching each other kids.  We also visited a really fun children's museum called the Magic House.  The guys went to a Cardinals baseball game, while the girls went shopping.  We also got in a little swim time at the hotel, and did a big group lunch at a restaurant (there were 28 of us!).  The last thing we did before leaving was go down to see the Arch.  It was awesome to see something that we've only seen in books.  It was huge and very impressive.  The trip was a lot of fun and we really had a great time!