Counting the days!

Greetings family!

I am Alexis Cooper, D.J.'s wife. I will be entertaining you today with my attempt at updating the Cooper siblings. ;)

Here is one of our favorite pictures. It is at Sarah's wedding. Left to right: Emily, Jessica, Mom, Amanda, Sarah, Ali, Savy and Nicole.

This picture really says a lot about them. They have a blast when they are all together and everyone else has fun with them too!

First, I would like to make a big shout out to Nicole!!! Beloved oldest sister. So many of the pictures that I am going to put on here are taken by her. She took them this year when she came for a visit and they are so, so good. I cant' let a great thing go unused, now can I?

Here is a really cute picture of Mom and Dad.

They have been busy, working hard this year.

Mom just got home after being gone the majority of the year on her Elderhostel tours. She is the coordinator for the Dixie College Elderhostel. For all of you that do not know, it is a 7 to 10 day tour program that takes educational excursions to all five of Utah's National parks, plus the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and the Valley of Fire. She goes on several a month from February until November.

Whew!

She did have time in her busy schedule to go on the annual Veyo pool trip. It was a major blast! We swim, have lunch, swim some more. The kids LOVE it!

Now that she is home until February, she is concentrating on spending time with her family. We have lots of fun here. Watching Jazz games, baking cookies, playing with the little kids and just chit chatting.

This year she is going to sing in the Messiah for the 21st time. She is also teaching the conference talk lessons in relief society.

Dad just celebrated his 60th birthday in October. We had a great time together planning and celebrating at his surprise party. We think that we surprised him. :)

He grew another amazing, and artistic garden here at the house. It was fun watching the beans, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupe, peppers, corn, onions, tomatoes and sunflowers sprout up and get gigantic!

From his awesome garden he then made 125 pints of his special recipe salsa. When he would cook it, the yummy smell would fill the house and pull you right into the kitchen like a magic spell.

When he wasn't working, gardening or cooking you could try to find him on one of his numerous hikes. He can spot the most interesting things! Ask him about it when you see him.

Ali is 19 and is a sophomore at Dixie State College in St. George. She is an Ambassador for the college and helps recruit new students to Dixie. Her major is in education and plans on being an elementary school teacher.

She works at the East Elementary school as the 2nd grade reading tutor. That is really great because it is in her field and literally right across the street! Her college roommate is none other than Grandpa Pratt. They really have a good time together.

Ali is taking a full schedule at Dixie. She is even thinking about going to the University of Utah next year as an ambassador there. Anywhere that she would go would benefit from her attending that school. She is friendly and fun to everyone and a hard working, honest person.

I would totally call Ali a fitness guru...taking a class in yoga, going to Gold's Gym in St. George and giving us all advice on nutrition from her classes. Ali is a wealth of helpful information. We all look to her for our fitness questions.

Savannah, (or Savy) is 16. She is junior here at Kanab high school, and she is so busy!

Last year Savy was playing in a varsity basketball game and she tore her ACL. That then led to surgery and a whole lot of therapy . She went at the task with a smile on her face and rarely complained about any pain.

This year Sav went to Mexico on a school trip, when she came back she spoke to us in Spanish for a week. We also missed her when she went and spent almost a month in California visiting Nicole and her sweet family.

Savannah played middle blocker on the varsity volleyball team. She was honored as the teams MVP, had the most blocks and was named best offensive player.

In the Xpress concert Sav had a awesome solo. Xpress is the audition choir at the high school. Savy is an alto. They are a really fun singing group to watch.

With all of her activities, she fit in being on the Stake youth committee as well. She was also working at on of her two jobs!

I told you that she was busy!


Sarah is 23. She and Jim have been married for 2 fun filled years.

They went to San Fransisco for Giants games and Braves games. Enjoyed the beautiful Lake Tahoe at a family wedding, and spent a few months in Montana for Jim's work.

Sarah worked at Kanab Elementary School as a teachers aide. Her class was the kindergarten and the kids just really loved her. She was even a clown in the annual kindergarten circus. That is a devoted teachers aide...she does not like clowns.

She is also a basketball coach for the High school. The girls on her team really like her style of coaching. She is honest and fair, and teaches the girls the fun of competitive sport that they can relate to.

Sarah and Jim are really, really good at the game Rockband on the Playstation 3. I just thought that I would let everyone know that they are the couple to beat. Sarah is wicked awesome at the drums and Jim is not too shabby at the guitar. Looking for a challenge at the family reunion? there you go!

Amanda and Jason are expecting a new baby girl on March 29th! We are all really excited for the new sweetie pie addition in their family. Sadie loves to talk to people about how her mommy is going to have a baby. She is going to be a great big sister.

Sadie just turned 2 in October. Potty training is what she is working on now, and I think that she is almost there. She is so cute running to the potty.

She gets to spend all of the weekdays with her cousin Mia, because Amanda babysits her for Emily. They are quite the pair and really fill the house with silly giggles and funny words.

Jason has been venturing out on his own with his business. He contracts and builds homes in the Southern Utah area. Amanda and Jason's home was built by Jason and it is a shining example of his skills. A really comfortable and warm house.

They have been camping, growing their garden and hosting some really fun UFC fights. Jason is a dutch oven master, and made a wonderful dinner for Dad's 60th birthday party.

Emily, Doug and Mia have been having a great year.

Em was promoted at Stampin' Up. She is now the Performance Improvement Supervisor of Processes and Standards. Awesome! She is perfect for her job. Em has been working at Stampin' Up for over ten years now, and she has worked every aspect of the company from order entry to the warehouse supervisor. They are lucky to have her experience and happy attitude.

Doug is a field man for Thebeau Consulting engineering. He completes most of the compaction, percolation and soils test, as well as surveying. He has extensive training in AutoCAD, which he puts to good use drafting for TC Engineering.

The Thebeaus were the hosts of Dad's 60th birthday party. Their home was a really fun place to have it at. Emily was cool as the party planner. Not a detail was forgotten and the whole event was stress free and fun.

They made time to spend a week together in Moab. Hiking, eating at fun restaurants and visiting friends are the highlights of their annual family trip.

Mia is 3. She loves playing ponies, hiking with her Mom and Dad, eating yogurt, playing at the park and all things that have to do with princess's.

Playing with Sadie, dancing and singing are just a few of things that you could find her doing. When she goes to the park she is fearless and loves running with the wind in her hair. She is so much fun.


Jessica, Sam, Ivy and Sammy welcomed baby boy Gavin to the family on August 29th. He is as cute as can possibly be and the girls absolutely adore him.

They moved from Henderson NV to Cedar City UT just this last summer. Jess loves being at home with Ivy, Sammy and Gavin. Sam commutes from Cedar to Boulder city during the weekdays and is happily home with his family on the weekends.

The five of them have fun together going on family outings, visiting relatives or friends, hiking on Cedar mountain, camping all over southern Utah, having back yard bar-be-ques and going for scenic drives.

Ivy is going to be 10 in December. She is in 4th grade at Iron Springs Elementary in Cedar city. It is just right up the street from their new home! She loves her new school and friends. Her new school has a choir, and she gets up early just to be apart of it. She has also recently started taking gymnastics with her sister Sammy. They love it. Ivy is a great big sister.

Sammy is four. She is the best little girl to hang out with if you want to play dress up. She loves putting on the crown and the shoes. The dress and the jewelry. I think all last summer she tried to wear a dress. It is so cute.

She also love her new gymnastics class. Tumbling, running and jumping just come naturally to her. She is just like her mom like that!


D.J., Alexis and Kelly (that's us!) have been enjoying their time with the Cooper family. Being back in Kanab has been a great chance to spend quality time with all of our family members that we have only seen a couple times a year. We love watching Jazz games, watering the garden, and we even made home made pickles!

D.J. works for Kanab Country Auto, here in town. He is the parts manager, and is currently working on the annual inventory of the company. I think that he is learning so much with this new job. Things that he did not know about ATV's and toy haulers are now his expertise. It is fun to see his interests change.

If you are ever playing the board game Crainum, be sure to pick D.J. as your team mate. We have played it 4 times in the last couple of weeks and he has never lost. He is a surplus of information. He stomps the competition.

Kelly is 5 1/2 now. She has been going to Kanab Elementary School, and is in Kindergarten. Kelly loves to learn and actually enjoys getting up at 6:45 to get ready for school. Her hand writing has come a loooong way in just the few months that she has been in school. Her feisty toddler temper has gone away as well. School is her favorite thing right now.

One day a week Kelly goes to Girl Scouts. She is a Daisy. Her troop has written letters to soldiers in Iraq, recycled old newspapers and they made a giant food box to help a family in need. She loves helping people and being a girl scout has helped her do all that. We are so proud of her.

We are all really looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend. Everyday we talk about all of the fun stuff that we are going to do and all of the people that we hope to get a chance to reconnect with.

Hope that you have a safe journey to Pine Valley and we will see you soon!

That's all of the family that I needed to update. Woo hoo! I did it!