New Callings

Well, I guess I knew it was only a matter of time before I ended up back in cub scouts. It seems to be my calling in life. I've only ever been a Wolf Leader or Bear Leader but this time I've been called to be the Cub Master. Thats new. It will be fun. I'm excited. It will be strange not having one of my boys in there with me because they've both graduated out of Cub Scouts but I am looking foroward to getting to know the boys in our ward. Additionally, I have been called to be on the Relief Society Enrichment Committee. Busy busy! Vance also got a calling today. He is in the Young Men's Presidency and helping with the Priests. ALSO, (ya, there's more- it was a big day at church for the Hoopes) we are both saying the prayers in our ward conference next week AND we've been asked to speak in church in March. All four of us. Wow! They go crazy when new people move into the ward! We also attended choir practice today for the first time. We love our ward and our neighbors and our town. We are home.

The Olsons Came Up For A Visit!

Layton and Emily have had so much fun together this weekend. They've had a lot of catching up to do now that they live 150 miles apart. So what do they do? Watch a movie.
But we also played in the snow at Sunrise Ski Resort and that was a lot of fun. But the wind was very strong and blew the falling snow straight into our faces so we didn't stay long. JoJo was especially glad to leave since he was so miserable in his new snowboots. His Grandma Lockwood bought him his winter coat and he doesn't mind the coat, but he HATED the boots. He couldn't grip the ground and kept slipping and falling on his face. Poor boy!

Layton didn't plan very well and only wore a thin fabric hoodie so he ended up trading me jackets and was not a fan of the pink, but he was warm!

Josh didn't really need a board to go down on. Look at the size of his ski's!

Below: Josh, Layton, and Emily up at the top of the slope. Layton preferred to go down on his stomache with no board, like a penguin.

And then there's Monica. Vance's sister is very special. I mean, special to us. We took this group photo before we left. Vance was putting the dog in the car and I took the picture so it was a small group.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the pool and that will end our long weekend of fun. We love having visitors!

My baby boy is growing up

Layton turned 11 this week and it has made me think back on his life. He had such a rough beginning. I was so sick with the pregnancy and went into labor so early. (He was due in March) We did everything we could to keep him inside me longer but he wanted out! We were told he was in distress and may not survive. His chances were even less if we stayed in ShowLow to deliver him, as they were not equipped to handle a baby that premature - we needed to get down to Phoenix FAST! Problem: It was January and there was a blizzard outside. Problem: No helicopter was willing to fly us down there. Problem: It would take too long by ambulance.

I remember being very scared for my baby. In our little hospital room, we said a prayer that all would be well. Within minutes, my doctor was back in the room saying there was a pilot who owned a tiny plane who was willing to fly us down to Phoenix. It was a miracle. Layton Christopher Hoopes was born on January 11th at 8:49pm at St. Josephs Hospital by emergency C-section. He weighed 4 1/2 pounds but he was perfect!

Layton has been such a blessing in my life and in the lives of our family. He is so smart and so energetic and so full of life. He has an awesome imagination and a truly wonderful sense of humor. I LOVE spending time with him. I don't know what I'd do without my sweet Layton.

The Hoopes Coop

Moving here in the winter...was that a good or a bad idea?
I feel like maybe it was a good idea because it forces me to sit on my ideas and my plans for the house until I am sure of what I want to do (at least on the inside of the house). Its way too cold to work outside! Anyone who knows me, knows I am very impulsive and very determined when I get an idea in my head. I like to see progress so why waste time sitting on it? I'm a doer. It can be a good or a bad thing. I think it drives Vance nuts sometimes! But I also have decided it has been very frustrating to have sooo much time to sit on my ideas because I've discovered that if I have too much time, I come up with too many options, too many choices, and I can't make up my mind! I don't like that! I have had to learn to be patient. Right now, we have no master bathroom, its an empty room, which I love because I can design it how I want, but I want to do it NOW! I spend a lot of time sitting in there, planning out what I want. I have to stop doing that! Its driving me nuts that I can't just go out and buy everything RIGHT NOW!
Overall, moving here in the winter has probably been good for us. It has exposed us to what we can expect in the winters up here and will ultimately make us even more excited about the warmer months! I think life up here has been good for the Hoopes family.
It gets pretty cold up here and it's really hard to keep JoJo inside all day so sometimes we have to be "those people" who put their pets in sweaters. But it keeps him from shivering!

The above picture is Josh's newly repainted bedroom. We cut his initials out of wood and hung them on his wall. That's his signature the exact way he writes it. We still need to buy blinds for the window and install a ceiling fan but for the most part, his room is done. The picture below is what his room looked like before we bought the house.

Kevin and Vance used the Ranger to pull tree stumps out of the backyard. There are a lot of trees that are either in a bad spot or have died so we started removing them. Still have a lot to do back there. The yard was filled with flagstone pavers everywhere too, so we pulled them all up and threw them into the empty pond. That will help us fill it. There were also a lot of fences and pathways dividing up the yard so they took those down too, and now we have a more open yard. Next time Kevin comes up, he plans to bring a tractor so we can add fill dirt and level out the whole yard. I can't wait till Spring to plant a lawn!!!

This is the new and improved chicken coop Vance and Josh and Larry (Vance's dad) built

When we bought this house, we were excited it had a barn and stables and a chicken coop. We want to raise cows for butchering and chickens for fresh eggs. After that first big snow storm that hit the week we moved in, the chicken coop caved in under the weight of all the snow. Vance and Josh and Vance's dad built another coop out of steel instead of wood and it looks fabulous! Josh has been learning to weld this past year and did a really good job on the chicken coop. The nests will be inside the stable. There are three stalls so we're using one for chickens, one for a cow, and Josh wants to have a pig in the last one. We'll see...

Happy New Year!!!

This past year was a really long year of waiting! Waiting for Vance to finish all his clinicals, waiting for him to graduate, waiting for him to take his board exam, waiting for him to get job, waiting to find a place to live, waiting to move into our new house, we waited for a lot of things! And it seemed like time moved so slow! I am hopeful that this year will bring good things and lots of happiness. We are so blessed to be settled and starting our new life up here. We are blessed to have a house that has lots of projects, both big and small, to keep us busy! I love projects! We are so blessed that our boys love living here and love their new schools. We are so blessed to have family come up and visit us. Last week we had Carlie and Eliza, Kevin, Misty, Cooper, and Riley come up and stay with us. We went to the snow and played, we played lots of cards, we went for rides on the ranger, we played at the park, we did some tree and rock removal in the back yard, and we relaxed! It was lots of fun! On New Year's Eve, we went outside and had a big bonfire and ate apple cobbler and ice cream. Then we had our own little fireworks display and went to bed by 10:30. The kids made a fort in the family room with mattresses and blankets and since Eliza was the only girl, she picked the password to get into the fort. It was hilarious to listen as Layton and Cooper begged to come in by saying, "Girls Rule." Now that everyone has gone home, things are quiet here and I miss them! We restocked our firewood this morning and then Vance and his dad worked on building a chicken coop next to the stables. It's really looking good. When Josh came home from school, he took over the welding and did a great job! Layton and I stacked the firewood up by the house and did some raking. Tomorrow I think my project will be Josh's bedroom. It is still neon green so I'm going to paint it while he's at school. I'm excited to get started! Layton's room will probably be next! In between all my projects, I squeeze in laundry, dishes, mopping, cleaning, grocery shopping, mopping, bathing JoJo (he's ALWAYS muddy!), more mopping, and meal prep. I am such a lucky girl that I get to stay home and do all these things! This is the life!