Embrace the Chaos

Oh the things they say....

2012-01-19T19:13:00.001-08:00

1. Jameson to his friend Nolan's mom, Lacey: "Do you want to come to my house for dinner, tonight? I'll make you dinner?"
Lacey: "Yes, please. What are you making me?"
Jameson: "Do you like honey nut cheerios?"

2. Elizabeth to her dad, while watching Barbie and the Princess Charm School: "Dad, if you were at the prince school, you TOTALLY would not get picked by the princesses. Uncle Todd would TOTALLY get picked cause he's the smartest and tallest and handsomest."

3. So I picked Katharine up from school today with a car full of five kids younger than her. They see her standing outside the school gate so all start chanting as loud as they can, "Katharine, Katharine, Katharine....". She ran for the car, hunkered down low with a completely red face and begged me to make them stop. Then got home and told her dad how embarrassed she was.
Really? Already?

4. And Jacob's latest attempt to make everyone around him laugh (because he's our little clown... and by the way, turns 18 months tomorrow!)-
He grabs his feet and pulls them up to his face, smells his toes, then wrinkles his face and yells, "STINKY!"

Yep, my kids crack me up.

Elizabeth's gift

2012-01-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

After watching "A King is Born" today, Ellie was unhappy with Herod for wanting to kill the new Messiah but expressed her relief that the three Kings went to Bethlehem to worship Jesus anyway.

Elizabeth: "If I was there, I so TOTALLY would have gone to see Baby Jesus. I would take him stuff..... Mom, did Baby Jesus like chocolate?"

I'm still laughing, and still wondering where she gets these things!

so much to be grateful for

2011-12-27T21:49:00.000-08:00

1. a truly wonderful and merry Christmas

2. the gospel of Jesus Christ and its immeasurable blessings

3. crazy, sweet, funny, and adorably challenging children

4. an incredible spirit throughout the entire season

5. amazing family

6. dear friends

7. a beautiful new home

8. a husband/father whose goal is to make his family happy

9. good jobs

10. Christmas cards

11. kids' bedrooms that are cleaned, purged of old toys and junk, and organized

12. health

13. finally updating my blog!!!

Here are a few highlights:

Stegasauros Spikes

2011-04-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

I promised a big surprise and here it is. Brian decided that Jacob needed a hair cut so he shaved the poor baby's head. Fortunately, they were both happy with the results. I'm still adjusting.

The next day, Elizabeth's friend, Mattie, came to our house. She said, "Jacob got a haircut and he looks so cute." My little Jameson, who I think secretly has a crush on Mattie, came up to me and said, "Mommy, I get a haircut, too."

Now Jameson looks at himself in the mirror every day making sure he has "stegasauros spikes" on top of his head.

Birthday Week

2011-03-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

The Hopper Family's tradition of ever-changing traditions continued in 2011. As birthday parties have a tendency to wear me out (can't imagine why) and blast a huge hole in our budget, our children get a "friends" party every other year. The year of no party, they get to choose a family activity or outing for their birthday. This is the year of the boys' birthday parties (see how the gender split gives me a six month reprieve between parties!). The first birthday of the year is Katharine's. My little girl turned 7 on March 20. She absolutely loves "sea animals" and one of her goals is to be a marine biologist (as well as baker, author, and teacher.) She chose to go to the Aquarium. We were lucky enough to take the trip to San Francisco when so many of her cousins could join us. Here are just a few pictures from her day out:

On her actual birthday, we had cake (made by the birthday girl) at home and she opened presents. She's such an amazing, thoughtful, and fun little girl!

She really loved it when her class sang "Happy Birthday" to her while she got to wear the birthday hat. First Grade rocks!

March 20th was a milestone for little Jacob, too. He turned 8 months old!

Just four days later, our sweetJameson celebrated his 3rd birthday on March 24th. He is the funniest, craziest, most active and "all boy" little guy and we adore watching him grow. His "dinosaur" party was a blast and we are so grateful to the many family and friends who were able to join us for his special day, especially my sisters and their families who drove in bad weather to be here. Good thing they made it since Aunt Sara made the awesome dinosaur cake! Jameson's favorite part was the volcano. He shared it with his buddy (and cousin) Cooper and somehow, Grandma got several bites in as well.

The munchkins marched like dinosaurs... roared like dinosaurs... played like dinosaurs... dug for dinosaurs in the sand...

and fell into an exhausted sleep like dinosaurs.

** Stay tuned for a big surprise in our next post!

A Busy Day

2011-03-18T19:58:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth went on her very first field trip today with her cute preschool class. They went to the Library, then walked across the street to the Fire Station. My favorite part was when the kids helped the firefighter act out "stop, drop, and roll."

Katharine had a very special day, too. Grandma Jones arranged a wonderful birthday gift for her. Katharine got to go to a local bakery, The Cake Lady, and design and decorate her own birthday cake. She was so excited she was actually bouncing!

Jameson had a busy day, too!

Lucky Garden

2011-03-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Despite many childhood hours (and a few as an adult) searching clover patches, I've never found, or even seen, a Four Leaf Clover. On this St. Patrick's Day, I let our children ride bikes in the front yard while the baby and I sat on a blanket. Imagine my shock when I heard the childish shout, "I found a 4 leaf clover!" Even more surprises were in store when I followed several excited children to the small patch of clover growing in my front yard. We found LOTS of four leaf clovers. This must be a lucky year for the Hoppers!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!!

Meet Katharine Marie

2011-03-09T09:36:00.001-08:00

For some reason, my daughter walks around the house singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Or is she whistling it? I can't tell since her "s" sounds like "th."

So my husband, Brian, is pretty popular with the kids in our neighborhood. All the children think he's pretty cool. In fact, several of our friends' children have asked their dads to become policemen like Brian. I guess it's true that you're just not appreciated by your own because his coolness factor doesn't impress his own children.

Katharine asked him, "Dad, can you be a baker and not a policeman?" It should be noted that Cake Boss is her favorite TV show, with Ultimate Cake Off a close second. She called for me the other night after she was already in bed. I rushed in, thinking something was wrong. She said, "The new Cake Boss is on tonight at 9. Don't forget." After being reassured that it was set to record, she drifted peacefully off to sleep, all worries at bay.

This is my six year old (almost seven).

2011: the early months

2011-02-20T18:59:00.001-08:00

Time has completely flown by and there have been so many wonderful and new things to experience in the last few months. Here are my top 15:

1. Going to Grey Lodge Bird Refuge with the Gale's and the Fry kids.

(see the birds we startled into flying away)

(seriously? using sticks as rifles?!? boys!)

2. Mommy (Amanda) quit her job after more than 7 years at the DA's office. Woo hoo!!!

3. Katharine lost her first tooth and got her first visit from the Tooth Fairy!

4. Our First Blue Eyed Baby!!!!

5. Stitches for the Second Time (under his chin) 6. Eating Rice Cereal for the First Time
7. Family Bowling

8. Eating Vegetables

9. Daddy (Brian) switched to the graveyard shift and his days off are now Tues., Wed., and Thurs. Not so much fun for family outings.

10. Going to Old Sacramento with Grandma, Grandpa, the Fry's and (half of) the Watkins' on Free Museum Day

Why do little boys like climbing and jumping so much?

11. Sitting Up

This is the fat, happy baby we love!

12. Katharine read her primary talk all by herself without any help for the first time!

13. Jacob is mobile (sort of)

Jacob gets constantly pushes up on all fours, lunges forward, and falls. He hasn't quite mastered crawling but somehow manages to move all over the room.

This should be on the front of an exercise video!!

14. Elizabeth: "Mommy, I made a wish on the star."

Me: "Don't tell me what you wished for or it won't come true."

Elizabeth: (in a whisper) "I wished to be Ariel."

Good thing I already warned her that her wish might not come true, huh?

15. Jacob turned 7 months old today. Where does the time go?

Elizabeth-isms

2011-01-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

A few of my favorite recent quotes from my four year old philosopher:

1. Grandma, I have an idea. I've been thinking that when I wear my new princess pajamas, I should wear my princess underwear to match.

2. We watch the ball drop. The bal lis a timer and when it drops, we get to yell "Happy New Year" and jump up and down and then it's bedtime.

3. Daddy, when Jameson grows up, he's going to be a policeman and when Jacob grows up, he's going to be a policeman, too. (Brian)- Are you and Katharine going to be policemen, too, when you grow up? (Elizabeth)- No, we're going to be lawyers.

4. Mommy, pretend you didn't ask me to get the blanket for you. Here you go, Mommy. I got the blanket without even having to be asked.

5. Christmas is about giving. I like giving and I like people giving to me.

6. Wouldn't it be cool if we were all giants and couldn't fit in our car?

Here Comes Santa Claus ....

2010-12-07T21:55:00.001-08:00

St. Nick's Day is celebrated in the Hopper home. Brian has fond memories of the holiday from his few childhood years living in Germany so he started the tradition in our family before Katharine was even born. This year, both Katharine and Elizabeth remembered and asked us when they got to put their shoes by the fireplace. This is what they woke up to on the morning of December 6th:

Tree decorated with almost no help from the parents. These munchkins did an awesome job! They're modeling the Christmas pajamas that St. Nick brought them.

Welcome Winter!!

2010-12-06T12:54:00.001-08:00

Where has Fall gone? So many wonderful things have happened in the last few months that I've decided it would be way too much work to update my blog. So instead, I will do a quick recap and then move on.

1. Trick-or-Treating with four kids was awesome. Jacob slept the whole time, Elizabeth slept half the time, Jameson whined most of the time, Brian came down with strep throat and Katharine stayed out late with Mommy and we had a blast.

2. The whole family got strep throat, but Mommy got it the worse and was laid up for a full three days.

3. Katharine likes First Grade most of the time and has discovered the joys of jump roaping.

4. Elizabeth loves preschool all the time, especially the play room with dress-up clothes.

5. Jameson tells us every day that he has "school morrow" while wearing his backpack- usually with socks and underwear and nothing else.

6. We took a WONDERFUL trip to Utah for Thanksgiving and got to spend a week with the most amazing people in the world and playing in the snow.

7. Autumn decorations packed up and Christmas (all twelve totes) unpacked and displayed.

8. Mommy went back to work last week. I'm pretty sure it's harder on me than the kids, but they're not too happy either.

9. Christmas Tree up in the house and soon to be decorated.

10. We got to meet the adorable, beautiful, amazing TJ Watkins!

Saying Farewell

2010-10-23T12:17:00.001-07:00

We will always love you, sweet Dakota.

Thank you for enriching our family.

Dakota Marie Hopper

2000 - 2010

Fall 2010... so far

2010-10-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I love Autumn and all the wonderful things it brings. This has been a very busy Fall for the Hopper family so we're going to share a few of our favorite things.

1. Grandma and Grandpa Hopper came to visit!!

2. September 19th was a special day- We celebrated Brian's birthday with so many loved friends and family who joined us for Jacob's baby blessing.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

3. Our annual trip to Apple Hill with Grandma and Grandpa Jones and the Fry's. Mommy forgot to take pictures after the first stop. My sister took a bunch, as did my mom. Maybe they'll share with me??

4. Elizabeth celebrated her 4th birthday at BounceU and we had a BLAST!!!

5. Bishop's Pumpkin Farm!!!! My very favorite fall hotspot.

We've been five times... and counting!

Trust Brian to teach his kids to lay on the train tracks.

Sleepy Jameson

2010-09-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

Think he was ready for his nap??

Cracking Heads

2010-09-02T23:41:00.001-07:00

Our first child to have stitches was, of course, Jameson. He was injured while playing with his sisters in Grandma Jones' living room. Jameson's little forehead met the corner of Grandma's brick fireplace. He was such a little trooper, despite being covered in blood (only 15 small drops made it onto Grandma's white carpet), rushed to urgent care, waiting for two hours to be seen by the doctor, waiting another thirty minutes for the topical pain killer to work (it didn't), then being held down by three people (his bawling mom included in that number), getting a shot right in the middle of his forehead to actually numb the spot, then getting two stitches. It looks much better today.

He's actually quite proud of his war wound:

Elizabeth's First Day of Preschool

2010-08-31T13:54:00.001-07:00

She was such a big girl and so excited. She insisted on wearing her new backpack and taking pencils, erasers, and a notebook. She wanted to "learn my letters."

Empire Mines

2010-08-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

We drove up to Grass Valley to the Empire Mines on Saturday. It was great to get out of the heat and we absolutely loved walking through the gorgeous landscape of the mines.

The kids were fascinated by the frog pond and loved it when their dad caught a frog for them.

The kids loved ringing the (very large) dinner bell that was used to call in the miners.

Brian loved panning for gold!

Katharine caught her own tiny frog.

Elizabeth loved playing around all the beautiful plants.

Jameson kept reaching for the rocks. He threw them every chance he got. One of the funniest things to happen was when we first arrived. Jameson had fallen asleep on the drive so when he woke up and got out of the car, he looked up at the towering pine trees and said in a voice filled with awe, "Whoa, big."

Even Baby Jake had a great time. Not a peep out of him, probably because he spent most of the day in the Baby Bjorn with Mommy.

The First Day of First Grade

2010-08-17T09:34:00.001-07:00

Katharine got up and got ready for school so happily this morning, all because she got to meet her teacher on friday. Up until then, she did not want to go to first grade and wanted to stay in kindergarten or not go at all. Now that she met her teacher, saw her classroom and saw her very own desk, she was FINALLY excited for back-to-school. She said, "I guess Mrs. Harvey (kindergarten teacher) and Mrs. Carr (new 1st grade teacher) are the best teachers." I think it helped that Mrs. Carr told her she was friends with Mrs. Harvey.

He's here!!!!

2010-08-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Jacob Steven Hopper was born on July 20, 2010 at 5:19am. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz, and was 21 inches long; not bad considering he was more than three weeks early. We adore him!!

Grandma and Grandpa are awesome!

Jacob loved meeting aunts, uncles, cousins and friends!

Jacob's big sisters and big brother love him so much and are great little helpers. If only they were as nice to their parents as they are to him!

Amanda is finally feeling better and is mobile again. She is dreading Tuesday when Brian has to back to work after two weeks off. Good thing she has so much help running around the house!

My Little Barber

2010-07-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Jameson before he found scissors:

Jameson after he found scissors:

Jameson after I took him to the hairstylist:

I'm not showing the pictures of me crying.

Storytime

2010-07-02T22:32:00.001-07:00

I was working in Jameson's room this evening when Elizabeth came in and grabbed a book, saying she wanted to read it. She started to "read" out loud as she turned pages. I was only half listening to the normal "princess" story with all the usual suspects until I heard her say, "and then her Hamster prince came along." My ears perked up at that so I listened more closely. It was only after several more minutes that I realized she was not making up a story about royal rodents but the "hamster" prince was really just your average "handsome" prince in Elizabeth-ese.

Children and their delusions

2010-06-17T21:42:00.001-07:00

So I teach Katharine's primary class at church and last week we got on the topic of making poor choices. I said everyone makes mistakes and then we learn from them. A little girl in the class asked me if even I, the teacher, made mistakes. My sweet little Katharine said, "You do, Mom. Sometimes you make horrible choices."

I replied, "Yes, everyone makes mistakes, your parents and even your grandparents all make bad choices sometimes."

This was too much for my little girl. Katharine said, "Not my Grandma. She doesn't make mistakes."

Seriously! And I thought this was my one kid who understood reality. Boy does Grandma have them fooled. She's perfect and I'm apparently a total screw-up.

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-06-06T20:46:00.001-07:00

I can't believe my sweet little Katharine is going to be a first grader! We have been truly blessed this year with the most amazing kindergarten teacher ever, Mrs. Harvey. It has been a wonderful experience watching Katharine learn and grow. We could not be more proud of our beautiful six year old!

Elizabeth can't wait for her turn in kindergarten. She already loves Mrs. Harvey!

May 2010

2010-06-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

May was a wonderful month, especially since the heat has stayed away. I love being home with my children. We've had so much fun. Here are a few highlights:

celebrating birthdays (late),

riding plasma cars,

painting in the backyard (yes, my son painted everything, including himself, pink),

toddler time at the water park with great friends,

and picking cherries at my parent's house with the Gale's. Brian and I made cherry jelly, I made a cherry pie, orange-cherry scones, and froze the rest.

Memorial weekend was fun and busy! The best part of the weekend was taking our children to the Memorial Day tribute put on by a local church, including a Memorial Wall of fallen soldiers, a 9/11 memorial, and a display of military vehicles hosted by local military members. Jameson loved the big trucks and kept saying, "Wow, wow!" It was wonderful to teach our little ones about the sacrifice so many have made to promote our freedom. Thank you to all who have served our country so proudly.

Winter 2010

2010-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

The first (and only) time I updated this blog, nine months after starting it, I needed help from two sisters. Hopefully I'll get this right.

Katharine spent the entire evening writing and coloring a book for me and one for her kindergarten teacher. She loves to write stories and illustrate them. She tells me she is going to be an author, artist, teacher (1st grade) and veterinarian when she grows up. I believe her!

Elizabeth's new favorite thing to do is watch "The Lipsticks" on TV with her daddy. It only took a day for us to figure out that The Lipsticks are The Olympics! Her favorite, of course, is the figure skating but she likes the skiing a lot, too.

I went to work the other morning and Brian was still asleep, mainly because he hadn't gotten home from work until about 3am. I put a movie on for the younger two and took Katharine to school, hoping he could get some rest. He was woken up to Jameson sitting next to him in the bed, saying in a growl, "Die, die, die." My sweet little boy kept saying, "die, die" over and over. Apparently giving up on his dad's intelligence, Jameson grabbed Brian's hand and dragged him out to the living room where The Land Before Time, his favorite movie, had ended and he wanted his "Die"-nosaur movie started again. For those of you who don't know, Jameson is obsessed with dinosaurs, so not a serial killer threatening his father, just unable to say the whole word, dinosaur.

This really is just a trial run to see if I can blog on my own. Maybe I'll add more soon.

Hopper Family Math

2010-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

(Brian & Amanda, aka: Mom & Dad)

+

3

(Katharine, Elizabeth & Jameson)

1 new addition

(August 11, 2010)

Hopper; Party of 6 !!!

PS- Happy Birthday Aunt Stephanie!

a week in monterey

2009-05-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Jameson loved walking in the sand, but his favorite was eating it!

The girls love to pose for pictures

Daddy and Elizabeth

Sitting on a Cypress tree on Carmel beach

Amanda had a week-long training in Monterey. Brian and the kids played on the beach every day, went to the Aquarium, the children's museum and ate lots of seafood. Amanda got to play in the evenings. We had a great time but I don't think Elizabeth and Jameson really appreciated how cold it is when the wind picks up at high tide.