The Hooper Family

Hello my siblings.  Please check my main website home page (www.robandjessihooper.com) for the 2008 Christmas names list.  We are doing family names this year with a $25 limit.  Have fun.

So here is the run down of the last two months with the Hooper Family….

September brought with it the start of Kindergarten for Craig.  He is liking school most days. (Although he has had some rough mornings trying to get him ready and through the door at school.  Once he is in the classroom he usually is good the rest of the day.)  Craig also met with the developmental pediatrician at the Clinic and she found some constipation issues which may be the cause of some of the remaining potty training struggles.  So we are treating that and things seem to be improving on that issue (yeah). 

We attended the Greek Festival and the State Fair with the sisters in September and had tons of good food at both like always.  At the fair Craig and Callie both went down the giant yellow slide and loved it.  I got to go on my first school field trip with Craig in September as well.  The kindergarten classes hosted a Teddy Bear picnic at the park by the school.  So much fun.  The kids all got to bring their favorite stuffed animal and a lunch from home that day and march to the park.  Very cute.  Of course Spider Bear went with Craig.  (See Aunt Jayne he is still loving the spider bear you got him at Build-A-Bear a couple visits ago.)  I also got my first introduction to helping with the PTA.  Craig and I helped with some fun runs on Friday mornings before school in September and October (until it started getting cold in the morning).  The kids and parents all get to come and run around a track at school and earn tickets for prize drawings to get kids excited about fitness.  Craig and I were in charge of passing out tickets as people completed their laps (one ticket per every two laps run) and then we got to draw the winning names.  We are going to pick back up in the spring when it warms up again in the mornings.  We had lots of fun and I even got Craig to start running laps the last couple of weeks. 

Of course we did the fun send Jeanne on her mission week in September as well.  We did the sister’s lunch out before she left.  It was nice to have all six of us together and just talk and eat yummy Cheesecake Factory.  That has not happened in a long time.  Then we all helped prepare Jayne’s fabulous menu of foods for the Farewell party on Sunday.  We listened to Jeanne talk in church (she did great) and then partied at Grandma Jody’s house we all Jeanne’s friends and family.  Tons of fun and we had fun getting to see all the people who came to support Sister Jeanne.  Lexie and Jayne got to help take Jeanne to the MTC and drop her off with Grandma and Grandpa while Craig had to go to school.  We did go to the circus with Aunt Jayne and Lexie that week and had lots of fun watching Callie’s clown (yes she called dibs on one of the clowns and wanted to bring him home).  We also liked watching one of the elephants poop while preforming the elephant show.  (Yes poop is in right now cuz it is cool when you are five and two.)   The baby elephant that could dance was also a hit.  We went to the zoo with Lexie too and she picked out some cute zoo outfits for all the kids to wear.  We did Chuck E Cheese with the kids too.  They also some swimming at Uncle Clint’s house during the family reunion.  Craig and Callie had lots of fun swimming and playing on the bounce house with all three of their cousins.  We love playing with Lexie, Kaitlyn, and Ben.   Overall we had lots of fun the week Jayne was here and the kids miss hanging out with Lexie and with Kaitlyn and Ben.  It was great to spent that much time with Jayne and Joanna’s families.

In October I got to start helping in Kindergarten every other Friday and am loving it.  I have to say Craig has the most awesome kindergarten teacher ever.  We love her.  She is so great with all the kids and a wonderful teacher.  Craig has been learning so much already and he is very proud to announce that he passed off his first set of sight words this month and now gets to move on the the next eight words.  He is very proud of this accomplishment. 

Grandma Gail came to visit us in October and the kids signed her up for a Chuck E Cheese adventure too.  We had lots of fun the weekend she was here and we all loved having her visit.  We have missed Grandma Gail and are glad she is feeling better.

We did tons of fun Halloween events this past week.  Craig dressed up as Knight Craig and Callie dressed up as Princess Auara (Sleeping Beauty for the princess challenged people out there).  Last Saturday we attended Boo at the Zoo with Grandma Jody, Uncle Jordan, Aunt Joanna, Uncle Brandon, Kaitlyn, and Ben.  It was lots of fun trick or treating at the zoo with the cousins and Callie especially loved walking around with her fellow princess Kaitlyn.  Craig was not doing so much walking at the zoo since two days before he sustained his first sports injury.  He sprained his knee pretty good playing Wii Fit on the Nintendo Wii.  He even had to get an x-ray done the next day at insta-care since he still could not walk on it the next day.  He is doing much better this week and was very proud of his knee bandage last week. 

After the zoo on Saturday we went downtown to the Monster Bash to support some of my coworkers.  We bought cookies and chips from their booth and did some more trick or treating.  After which we stopped by both Great Grandparent’s houses to show off the cute costumes and see how they were doing.

On Tuesday we had fun at the church trunk or treating party and the kids got to see all their friends from church in their costumes. 

On Thursday Craig had a costume parade at school followed by a Halloween party.  Then Callie and Craig had a Halloween party at daycare with Beth and Carmen (side note still loving daycare at Beth and Carmen’s- they have been great with the kids).  After that they got to come to Mommy’s office for trick or treating (since we are closed on Fridays we did the trick or treating for our kids on Thursday).

On Halloween we went trick or treating to Aunt Jacki’s office and then went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for some trick or treating with Grandma.  We stopped by Uncle Clint’s house to trick or treat on our way home cuz Craig thinks Uncle Clint is so cool because he lets Craig come swimming.  We went to a few of our neighbor’s houses then watched Ghost Hunters Live Halloween special on the Sci Fi channel since Aunt Jacki was kind enough to get both Craig and myself addicted to the show.  So cool when Grant got his jacket pulled three times in the dungeons.   

Asperger’s update:  We started using an AM and PM routine for Craig and Callie every day to help manage trying to get things done in the morning and at night without so many battles.  Seems to be helping plus it helps that they are earning money for their piggy banks for following the charts without to much argument.  Craig gets a quarter each time he does is right and Callie gets ten pennies when she does hers right. 

So that’s the happening here for now.  I added a few more pictures again to the other site so check that to see more cuteness.

Check the main site on the photo page.  New pics there.  Will post a real blog entry this weekend.  I promise.

So lots has happened since the last time I posted.  On Aug 18th Craig and I had a lovely visit with a psychologist at the Children’s with Special Health Care Needs Clinic.  He was a very nice man and we got some questions answered about Craig’s increasingly interesting problems.  Craig was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the appointment (just like I have been suspecting the problem was since about April).  What is Asperger’s Syndrome you may ask??  It is an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Follow this link for more information (this is one of the websites I like the best) http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/ .  Now we can continue trying to get the evaluation process started with Craig’s school district so that he can have a more successful transition into school.  We have met with Craig’s kindergarten teacher twice now and are excited to have her as Craig’s teacher.  She seems very informed and willing to work with us so that Craig can be successful in her class.  His kindergarten evaluation already shows that he is behind most of the children coming into his class this year so she is in the process of trying to get the school district to give her all the needed papers for a special ed referral so that we can get Craig the appropriate resources to deal with his Asperger’s Syndrome and help him catch back up.  She is have the same difficultly I did over the summer even getting the forms to start filling out from the district office but we are loving her willingness to work with us already.  If only that would begin to carry over the school district office. 

On August 19th we tackled the scary task of staring at our first non family member run daycare.  Craig did wonderfully and Callie has been having some slight transition issues.  (Who new?!?  I thought it was going to be the opposite given Craig’s problems with new things/situations.)  Craig already has a new four year old friend (a boy who likes Star Wars too).  They have been having all sorts of fun together.  There are several girls Callie’s age that love princess stuff too and they are all tackling potty training together.  Callie has fun after the first five minutes but has taken to crying for the first few minutes when we get there.  She has started doing this anytime I leave her so it is nothing personal about Beth and Carmen (our new daycare ladies).  They both tell me that she starts to have fun about five minutes into the day and is generally good for them.

Craig also had his birthday and tells me “You were right Mommy.  I am five years old now.”  I guess he did not believe me the first part of the day on his birthday or something.  He got some great presents and had a fabulous day.  Thanks to everyone that got him things.  Here is a pic of Craig and Rob doing Craig’s new “big kid size Lego’s” together.  Daddy is excited about the upgrade to the smaller size Lego’s now that Craig is getting a little older.  I am not sure which one is having more fun playing Lego’s each night. 

We also did a round with the stomach flu the last two weeks.  Callie had is for three days last week and Craig woke up this morning with it.  Hopefully he recovers more quickly then Callie because he starts his first official day of kindergarten on Wednesday. 

Rob is starting to make some good progress on the deck as well.  Yeah for Rob. 

So I am the proud new owner of pink kitty princess PJ pants and a pink and black tinker bell shirt thanks to the fashion styling of my two year old.  I know you are all out there just waiting for me to post a picture to confirm how fabulous I look at this very moment (yes, I had to wear them to bed tonight so as not to offend) but let me just say… never going to happen.  Callie took me shopping this morning for new clothes and we picked out some cute ones that I will be wearing in public as well as my favorite new pajamas.  Craig also went shopping with me later to get some ice-cream for the celebration and he had to get me so PJs as well (can’t be out done by the little sister) so now I have a pair of mickey mouse PJs as well.  I am set for a while in the sleepwear department.  Craig (with Daddy’s wallet and driving skills of course) took me out to a shrimp lunch.  Craig has been looking forward to that one for over a week now.  We went to Joe’s Crab Shack and had buckets full of shrimp.  Very yummy.  The kids loved it and Craig quite possibly ate more shrimp then both Rob and I did.  Callie, of course, opted for the chicken nuggets because she thinks shrimp are nasty.

Rob has been making progress (not as fast as he would like) on the new deck as well.  It should look good once he is done sometime in the hopefully near future.  It remains to be seen if we will get some BBQ time in on the new deck before it is too cold outside to do so but Rob remains optimistic that we can finish it this year.

So we made it through the hell that was July.  Always my favorite time of year.  This particular July not only was there lots of mandatory overtime for Jessi (usual work-a-holic schedule for Rob), but a  new system at work to enter things into (full of unplanned for bugs and problems–maybe I would be more patient for things like that if I was not married to Rob and know the lack of testing/forethought that was used here), a family emergency (glad Brandon’s recovery is progressing), and a nice little search for new daycare thrown in for good measure (yeah for Jeanne going to Texas, Dallas Mission in September).  I am not entirely sure why I am not completely crazy right now.

So we think we found our new daycare providers today.  They are two sisters that run an in-home daycare together about 6-7 minutes drive from our house.  Craig and Callie both liked them and we are going to see how it goes starting August 19th.  (I think my kids are close to causing Jeanne to have a breakdown since Callie has a monster-sized two-year-old attitude right now.  Thank you Jasmine for all the lessons Callie has learned.  I think the student has surpassed the teacher now so we can quit while we are behind.) 

The kids had some fun times with various swimming parties at Uncle Scott and Uncle Clint’s houses, lots of play time with Kaitlyn (Callie’s new favorite person in the universe) and Iron-man Ben Wochnick (can you hear the power in Craig’s voice while he says it ?!?), some short trips the park for my sanity (breaks for overtime done at my home office), some fun movies Craig and Callie worked hard to earn (both kids liked Space Chimps more the Wall-E go figure), and way more happy meals then I usually let them have in the eleven other months of the year.

I did manage to read Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer on August 3-4 and loved that.  Nice way to get back some of my sanity once July was over.   So that is basically the reader’s digest version of our July.  I will try to post more pics of the kids soon.   

We spent the afternoon with Kaitlyn and Ben so that Callie and Craig could help keep Kaitlyn busy and entertained.  Brandon (Jessi’s brother in law) go hurt pretty badly at work yesterday and got to be life flighted to Salt Lake for emergency surgery to repair bleeding in his brain.  Joanna (Jessi’s sister) is keeping the family/friends updated via her blog http://wochnickclan.blogspot.com/ (plus lots of phone calls of course).  She reports that Brandon is doing better today and when they brought him out of sedation he knew who he was and knew who she was so that is good news.  He is going to be at the hospital for an as of yet unknown amount of time so he can recover so Joanna and the kids are staying at my mom’s house to be closer to the hospital (and so we can all help with the kids while she is at the hospital with Brandon).  Craig and Callie took Kaitlyn and Ben to the park today and then out to dinner.  Tomorrow they invited Kaitlyn to come see Horton Hears a Who with them at the Dollar Theatre.  We have not seen that one yet and so figured why not it is only a dollar twenty-five per person and a good time for the kids.  Craig is starting to really like to go to movies in the theatre now so he is up for any movie we will agree too.  We make him earn the movie trips on his behavior chart so he has been good all week to get to Horton. 

Please keep Brandon, Joanna, and their kids in your thoughts/prayers for us as they try to figure out what is going to happen and what else will need to be done to help Brandon recover.

So I finally got around to reading Jeanne’s copy of The Host by Stephanie Meyer.  Got to say I am liking her books.  This one I liked better then the Twilight series (sorry Jasmine but I think I prefer parasites to leeches or dogs now). 

I read the book in about two and a half days and then I was mad when it was over.  I was PO-ed because I knew this was not a series book for her and I wanted it to be by the end.  The ending was predictable in the as happy as you can get in that situation ending but still I did love the characters.  Makes me want to be one of the “crazy people” since they are the only ones that survive when crazy things really do happen.  My favorite part was when Jared and Ian were “helping” Wanderer find Melanie again.  Loved picturing that series of events in my head….

Note to my Twilight loving sisters… I just looked on Stephanie Meyer’s website and her next book is going to be Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward’s perspective).  She has agreed to do the whole book because of fan reaction to the chapter on her website)..  Guess that means we have something to look forward to next year right?!?  http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

So our Stake Presidency decided that they wanted to do an emergency preparedness drill in our neighborhood.  So last Monday (6/16) we had a fake earthquake first thing in the morning.  The first two days there was no power, no water, no natural gas, no phones/Internet, and all stores/gas stations were closed.  (We were supposed to go to work like normal but try to live under emergency conditions the times we were at home.)  We could use the food out of our fridge/freezer the first day or two but after that most food would go bad from no power.  So after the first two days we had try to cook things using only things in our pantry/food storage.  On day three the water came back on but was contaminated for drinking purposes.  (We cheated on the no water rule when it came flushing the toilet with potty training kids.)  On the fourth day we got our power restored so we could cook using the oven and stove again.  We also got use of cell phones back on day four but not  land line phones/Internet.  Gas stations became open sometime around day three or four but gas prices were $7.25 and rising every day.  On day five the water was suitable for drinking again but still no stores open so cooking out of the pantry was still going on.  Natural gas was also restored on day five (I think).  On day five there were after stocks so the houses were not safe to sleep in.  We did not participate in this part because our backyard is tornup from deck construction and gardening and I am too paranoid to sleep with both kids in the front yard.  I promised the kids a camping trip sometime this summer so that they could sleep in the tent sometime soon.  On Sat/Sun the only things not back to normal were cell phones only for phone/Internet and no stores were open.  On Monday 6/23 everything was back to normal.  The kids seemed to have fun with the drill.  They thought it was great doing marshmallows over our grill outside and washing hands with our water storage bags.  They got to be outside a lot the first four days as well because it was hotter inside then outside.  We started taking family walks after dinner everyday last week and have decided that we are going to continue doing that everyday.  Overall it was an educational experience and we definitely found areas we need to work on in case we every go through a real emergency situation.  (The no power thing sucked to the most last week though.)  We did have some good tasting food using only our food storage so at least we know I can cook something in an emergency. 

Princess Callie on her birthday.  She loved her new presents.

Proud Graduate of the Bengal Paw Preschool.

And for anyone who is wondering- No I did not get the job I had applied for but I am okay with it.  At least I got a cute new pair of shoes out of it.