The Cooley Clan: February 2009

February 23, 2009

Shelley's Wedding!

Speaches about the couple!

Cutting the cake! Chantel, Dan, Logan and Cheryl

After the wedding, we all gathered at my Aunt Jolyn Atwood's home in American Fork and had a nice little Open House. I was in charge of the table decorations and Laura Michaud Hilton (friend from Alaska) made the cake as well as Chantel's Wedding cake!

After the Wedding...how beautiful!

Shelly's immediate family... Top L-R: Charise Cooley, Stephen, Dad (Elder Stephen Nebeker), Chantel Wilkinson, Cheryl Sanger. Bottom L-R: Paul, Shelley, and Mom (Sister Charlotte Nebeker). My sister, Shauna Thums couldn't make it. My parents were set apart and were leaving in a few more days for Beira, Mozembique, Africa where they would serve an 18 month CES mission.

The NEBEKER'S...

Top L-R: Stephen (holding Taylor Sanger), Aleah Cooley being held by mother-Charise Cooley, Rich Cooley, Dad, Daniel Sanger, Cheryl Sanger, Reed Wilkinson, Logan Sanger being held by Chantel Wilkinson. Bottom L-R: Jacob Cooley, Qaiden Cooley, Rachael Cooley, Paul Sanger, Shelley Sanger, Mom, Payton Sanger, and Ashlyn Sanger.

The entire group that went to the Sealing inside the Temple.

~ SHELLEY NEBEKER & PAUL SCHNEIDER are officially wed... in the Salt Lake Temple!!!

CONGRATS SHELLEY on your upcoming Wedding to Paul Wayne Schneider! We are so happy for you. Yes, I am the official decorator of the table centerpieces...so, this is what I created today and there are 7 tables to do, plus more candles to put around my Aunt Jolyn's home. I am having fun though! I have to sew the pretty blue table-runners this week as well. Shelley got engaged February 14th and will be getting married March 6th in the Salt Lake Temple!!! FAST HUH? So, lots to do, but luckily we are almost done with the majority of things. The open house will be in American Fork on March 7th from 2-4 pm.

February 11, 2009

Homemade Sunday bags

A lady in our primary (Shauna Fowler) had bags made with the kids' names on them for her class last week, and so I called her to ask if I could use that idea for my kids as well. So, yesterday, Tuesday February 10th, I made these. It took less than 3 hours total and less than $2! I just had to buy the iron-on letters! They are by NO MEANS perfect...don't look too close. I made mistakes. Qaiden's was my experimental one and got better after that. Each child in my class is unique and so I decided to make them each different too! I hate sewing, but I didn't mind doing these that much because they were quick and easy!

February 6, 2009

Congrats Rachael!!!

Rachael made a dance video for her Schools Reflection Contest and was the only one in that category to move on to the District level. She won an Award of Merit at the the Davis School District "WOW" Award Ceremony (January 28th) and so we are VERY PROUD of her achievement! She had a lot of fun making the video. She danced to "It's Raining Men" by the Weather Girls and she was a Weather Reporter complete with a raincoat, umbrella, etc! It was so cute to watch her!

Fire Station Fun...

Qaiden's preschool got a tour of the Kaysville City Fire Department on Wednesday, January 28th complete with a tour of the fire trucks and ambulance. He had so much fun! They got to hear the horn blow and lights flash on the truck as well. What fun, huh?!

A January Winter Day

Qaiden in front of our first home

1583 W. 1290 N. Farmington, UT 84025

It had just snowed the night before and looked SOOOO beautiful (Monday, January 26th) I couldn't resist taking a picture of the front of our home! Sure it was sunny, but pretty cold...not like Alaska mind you, but cold nonetheless!

Funny Kid Moments!

December 20, 2011- We were all in the kitchen making gingerbread and I had just taken out the first batch of the gingerbread boy and girl. As I attempted to scrape up the girl on the spatula, she was too soft and started to fall apart as I quickly placed the mangled mess on the brown paper bag! Qaiden pointed to the messed up cookie and said, "Ladies first!" and "Mom killed her!" It was just so funny I changed from being really upset that I had ruined the cookie to laughing so hard at the random funny comment! I keep telling the boys, "Ladies first", and I guess it is sinking in!

November 2011- I like to recycle plastic containers and so I had just washed out one of them and placed the plastic lid on top the toaster (near the sink) to dry. Jacob went to put some bread in the toaster and while in there, the lid melted! Just a little while later as I was getting dinner prepared, Qaiden sat on the stove counter right next to the hot stove top. I told Q to get down off the counter but he was slow to obey. I had turned off the stove, but one of the burners was still hot and so as Q sat there, his coat was lying on the still hot burner and his inner part of the coat melted. I was a bit angry with him for not being obedient and was pretty frustrated. At this point, I turned to the boys and said, "Ok, and the winner for the 'NO-BRAINER' award goes to...drum roll please...QAIDEN!" I changed from being angry to laughing because of how funny my own comment seemed to me! ;) (Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself!)So, whenever we do something stupidly funny, we call it the NO-BRAINER award! It's become quite funny to see some of the silly things we do each day!

May 25, 2010- As the kids got ready for school this morning, I asked Rachael if she remembered to get a leotard for Gymnastics today after school. Qaiden overheard and said "...it's NOT Aleah-tard, it's a Rachael-tard! And I would wear a Qaiden-tard!" Ohhhh the silly things that kids come up with!

Jan 20, 2010- I was in the middle of winding the cord of our kirby vacuum cleaner while singing 'Ring around the rosies a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down'...and Aleah just standing there all the sudden dropped to her bottom without bending her knees (looked a little awkward). It was just one of those moments that made me laugh because it was so unexpected!

Who Is... Richard LeRoy Cooley II

With much pushing and proding from Charise and a little from her Mom, I am attempting to briefly answer the question "Who am I?". To begin, I was born to wonderful parents, Richard LeRoy Cooley and Leah Tryon on October 16, 1970 in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am the 2nd eldest of eight children... Nichale, myself, Rodney, Roger, Oralea, Tawnya, Andelaura and Gayla. I moved to Mesa, Arizona when I was about 3 years old and lived there till I was 9 years old. In the summer of 1980 my family moved to Carthage, Missouri where I spent the most important and influential part of my childhood. It was during my time in Carthage that I finished grade school, Junior High and High School. I graduated from Carthage High School in May 1989 and shortly after entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, January 1990. I served an honorable mission to Brasilia, Brazil. Shortly after my mission, I enlisted in the Air Force and was Active Duty for 9 years. My time on active duty in the Air Force was spent in San Antonio, TX (Lackland AFB) for basic training, then I went to Technical School in Dever, Colorado (Lowry AFB) after which I moved to Hill AFB in Clearfield, Utah. I was afterwards, stationed in South Korea (Osan AFB) and was there for 1 year. Then I cross-trained from Munitions (otherwise known as "Ammo") to Computer Maintenance and went to Buloxi, Mississippi (Keesler AFB). My time as an "Active Duty" enlisted member ended in Anchorage, Alaska (Elmendorf AFB), where I met and married my wonderful wife, Charise Alithea Nebeker. Her father worked as the Chief Auditor at Elmendorf AFB and was just around the corner from the Headquarters bldg. where I worked in what was called the RAOC - pronounced rock - (in the basement of that bldg.). We met in June, 1997 at the LDS Singles Branch at the Maplewood Chapel in Anchorage, AK and dated till she went back to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Charise came home for Christmas and we got engaged January 1, 1998 and got married that summer, July 18, 1998 in the Salt Lake City Temple! It was a VERY special day for me! We lived there in Anchorage till 2000 and then moved in to Charise's parents home (10411 High Bluff Dr., Eagle River, AK 99577) for 10 months to save money for school. Thanks to Charise's parents we were able to save a substantial amount for school, which eventually was used as a down-payment on our 1st home. We had just had our 1st baby, Jacob LeRoy, August 26th, 1999 and then we were blessed with a baby girl, Rachael Anne on March 9th, 2001. We moved to Logan, Utah, May 2001 so I could go to school at Utah State University to finally finish my degree in Electrical Engineering that I'd been trying to finish for quite some time and which was VERY difficult to do while working in the military and moving around a lot. I also transitioned from Active duty to the Air Force Reserves shortly after arriving in Logan. I got my Bachelor degree December 2003 and got a job working with the government on Hill AFB as an Electronics Engineer six months later in a three year internship. We moved closer to the base in May of 2004 soon after our third child was born; Qaiden John, April 6, 2004. I was fortunately to get commissioned as an Officer in the Reserves about a year after starting work at Hill AFB and just before going back to school to get my Masters of Engineering in Electrical Engineering. It only took me a year and a half. I am currently a Captain in the Reserves and work as an Individual Augmentee (IMA) in the 508th ASW, which is an Active Duty unit. Our 4th child, Aleah Reese was born on my wife's birthday, February 28, 2007, in Layton, Utah and we had our 5th child, Luke William on September 19, 2009 at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah as well. Life is going well for my family and we are grateful for ALL of our blessings!!!